Long gone are the days where the musicians would just make excellent music and be offered a record deal with megabucks advances and the label would take care of the rest. Not to say that it's impossible to do that now, but those days are galloping into the sunset.
I'm talking about artists today, the guys who are struggling to enable themselves to do the gigs and produce the music.
In recent years the amount of money music makers could earn have both been dwindling and excelling, of course it's dwindling for the smaller artists and excelling for the huge ones.
I will, inevitably, cover the aspects you've probably already though of, or heard about but I'll try to include some useful tips to enhance your success.
Merchandise
Yes, yes, peddling your wares to the gig goers!
This one isn't one to do straight off the bat for new artists. For success in selling your merch you'll need a minimum of three things:
- Money
- A well known name
- Great design
Money - In order to produce the merch you will need a bankroll from somewhere. Whatever you decide to sell - they cost a decent amount of money to produce and the margins are not huge - but they are a good seller. The old adage remains true - you have to spend money to make money.
A well known name - It's pointless trying to sell merch if nobody knows who you are. This is the reason that I don't advise you to do this approach straight off the bat. To successfully sell your gear you will need to seriously hone in your marketing (as covered in another post) and once the facebook likes and gig goers start rolling in then you can think about merchandise.
Great Design - Even if you're a big name and you have a cheaply made, horrible looking design - you're not going to sell anything! Well, maybe you will - but certainly not as much as if it were a great design! Usually bands will use their band logo so make sure this is up to scratch (for more info see our branding post on how to make sure you look great!)
If gigs pay poorly - do your own!
This is something I did in my early years when I was in a band, and something a band I managed also did in their early years.
If your local promoters are paying you peanuts for turning up and doing all the work - cut that middle man right out! I'm serious, the promoters only become relevant the higher up you go in the music scene. At a local level, the majority are only robbing you! A word of advice though - if you have a well known promoter who you know without question has great connections then don't burn that bridge! But most are just taking what should be yours.
You'll find that most venues will offer you a great rate to hire the venue out and if your lucky/a good negotiator, some MIGHT do it for free! They will always make money on the drink sales.
If you get 150 people to come to the gig for £5 entry, you stand to make £750 - and we're certain that money is better spent by you rather than in the promoters pocket!
Selling your own music
With aggregators now allowing you to put your music easily and quickly on iTunes, spotify and all the other big name sites, you'd be silly not to take advantage of them. It costs very little and is a very quick process.
Of course, to make any kind of decent money you'll need to have your name known and that's where most people fail. Marketing is something that will come up time and time again - make sure you do it properly and the rest will take care of itself. If you've made the best track in the history of humanity - it's useless unless people know about it.
Of course, Spotify et al will pay you peanuts per play and unless you're pulling tens of thousands of plays a month you won't really see anything from them but it most certainly helps to get your name out there and perhaps people will like your music enough to then buy it off iTunes
In your early days, selling music at gigs is a hotly debated topic and anyone you ask is likely to have a different opinion. Yes you may make a few hundred/thousand pounds per year by selling your CDs at gigs, but on the other hand you will severely loose out on the free advertising you could get. My advice has always been to just give out your music for free when your starting out to get those fans coming back for more - however, it's ultimately down to you what you do. A popular trade off is to give the CDs out for free in return for an email address, this is a very useful thing to have and it costs your fans nothing.
Of course, Spotify et al will pay you peanuts per play and unless you're pulling tens of thousands of plays a month you won't really see anything from them but it most certainly helps to get your name out there and perhaps people will like your music enough to then buy it off iTunes
In your early days, selling music at gigs is a hotly debated topic and anyone you ask is likely to have a different opinion. Yes you may make a few hundred/thousand pounds per year by selling your CDs at gigs, but on the other hand you will severely loose out on the free advertising you could get. My advice has always been to just give out your music for free when your starting out to get those fans coming back for more - however, it's ultimately down to you what you do. A popular trade off is to give the CDs out for free in return for an email address, this is a very useful thing to have and it costs your fans nothing.
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