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Should Gigging Bands Give Away Their CD’s?

Posted on March 15, 2008
Filed Under Digital Music, Multimedia, SXSW 2008 |

Something that’s been in my mind these last few days at the South by South West (SXSW) Festival is why are bands, who are spending thousands of dollars in getting to an industry event such as SXSW, penny pinching a few dollars so that the top few percent of the crowd take away a shiny piece of plastic. I think the bands would have a far better chance of turning watchers into fans if at the end of the gig they gave away a CD of their music for free!

Not necessarily their main or current album, but at the very minimum a sampler of 4 or 5 tracks that the audience could take away, load up on their computer and MP3 players, and generally enthuse about this wicked band they saw at Austin that loved their music so much they wanted everyone in the crowd to take it home.”

The general path now is try and grasp a few sales of $10 after a gig - from a quick eyeballing of crowds here in Austin, I reckon that a good gig gathers two or three CD sales. And then I look at the audience and can see twenty or thirty really enthusiastic people who’ve been dancing, singing and having a great time…. You’ve already done the hard part - you’ve made them want to hear more! This is now the very tiny window where you have to make them a fan for life, to make them talk about you, to make them follow you and be prepared to spend the next few years buying albums merchandise, posters and to follow you for the rest of your musical career.

And you want to put up a barrier of $10?

Give them the CD. Give them every opportunity to love your band. And they will reward your investment. Spin it another way. Would you pay $10 to get a dedicated fan? Exactly.

Comments

2 Responses to “Should Gigging Bands Give Away Their CD’s?”

Steve Litchfield on March 15th, 2008 7:54

Even more persuasively, it’s less than that. The CD itself costs $1 to make. So it’s paying $1 for a fan, not $10, effectively.

At Shed Music, we often give away demo CDs to all attendees. 8-)

Steve
http://shedmusicuk.com/
Ewan Spence on March 15th, 2008 15:38

Steve, quite right, but let me retcon the $10 to say you’ll probably give away more than you sell, so the bottom line will be a touch higher. Remember, the greatest problem in Web 2.0 for a band is not distribution, or sales, it’s obscurity.