 Selling
Your Music Online -
A Reality
Check
Article by David Nevue - August
2006
Back to Internet Music Promotion 101
I
am often asked how much money
a person
can really
make selling music online. I
hear both extremes, both from
artists who think they'll use
the Internet to make it rich,
and others who don't believe
anyone can make any money online
selling
music. The truth is somewhere
in between.
What
follows is a brief, edited excerpt
from the introductory chapter
of my book, How
to Promote Your Music Successfully
on the Internet.
Will
You Make Millions?
Let’s
get real for a moment. Promoting your music successfully on the Internet is hard
work. Don’t ever forget that. I’ve spent years doing this. The
Internet is not a shortcut to success -- it’s simply another tool, one that can
be very effective in the hands of someone who knows how to use it. Still, it’s
important to have realistic expectations before investing your time and money
marketing your music online. You’re going to face some very heated competition.
There are literally tens of thousands of musicians out there who already
have web pages on the Internet (as of this writing there are over 143,000
artists registered with CDBaby.com alone). How can you compete with all those artists?
They are just the tip of the iceberg. Once you embark upon your promotional journey,
you are, in a very real sense, competing with every other web page out there.
How can you possibly stand out in that crowd? Pretty daunting, isn’t it?
According
to the Neilsen Netratings web site, there are over 317 million people actively
using the Internet. A Georgia Tech survey of actual buyers
provided some very interesting statistics: 70% of all buyers searched for the
item they bought, 16% searched for a topic related to what they bought,
and 4% searched for the name of another product which led them to the final
product they purchased. Adding it up, 90% of all buyers used the Internet as a
modern-day, digital Yellow Pages. So the question is, what does this tell you
about selling your music on the Net?
Quite simply, it means that creating a web page
to sell your music is not enough. That’s something I discovered
very early on. Even if you submit your site to the search engines, you’re not
likely to see a significant traffic increase. Think about it. If 90% of the
buyers out there already know what they are looking for and are searching the
Internet for that particular item, how will they find you, someone whose
music they have likely never heard of? If they are not looking for you, they
won’t find you. So, what ARE they looking for? Therein lies the key.
Here’s the slap-in-the-face reality: In my
experience, the average musician sells between two and five CDs a year from
their web site. Sales that low do not justify the expense of putting your music
online. Can you do better than that? Yes, you can do much, much better, selling
not only CDs, but digital music downloads, ringtones and even sheet music. But
you’ll only find success if you have a quality product people care about and
market it properly. Let me be up front with you. To succeed on the Internet,
you must prepare yourself for the long haul and prepare to work hard. Success
on the Internet won’t come overnight. As
you read on, keep the following
questions in the back of your
mind. They hold the key to successful
online music promotion:
- What is unique about
my music?
- What
general style of music are
my fans most interested
in?
What other
artists do my fans compare
my music to?
and
most importantly...
-
Who is my target customer?
- What kind of information
is my *target* customer
searching for on the Internet?
- How can I use that information
to bring that target customer
to my web site?
To
answer the question I posed
at the beginning of this article,
no, you are not likely to make
millions on the Internet doing
just music. But you can bring
in a good, steady income. In
2005, I was able to generate
an average of about $6,000 per
month in total sales just from
the Internet (that doesn’t include
gigs and CD sales at gigs).
This
income comes not only from CD
sales, but sheet music sales
(of my own music),
book sales, partnerships, advertising
revenue, and other sources.
But every single thing I do
online is related to the music
business I love.
It's
Not Just About the Money...
There is
still the question of using the Internet to advance your music career, and
that’s something the Internet can help you do also. I’ve been able to generate
a lot of publicity for my music online, and as a result not only do I sell CDs,
but I often receive requests to have my music used in independent film and
media projects. I’ve negotiated three distribution deals overseas as a result
of someone finding my music online. One company is using my music on an
internationally distributed DVD series that raises funds for various charities.
NBC contacted me to inquire about using my music in a made for TV film. Photographers
are regularly asking permission to use my music for their web sites. Even the
Wall Street Journal took notice of my efforts, and included me on their “New
Media Power List” of people “being catapulted into positions of enormous
influence.” Finally, I’m playing a lot more gigs in a lot more places as a direct
result of marketing my music online and as you know, the more you play live,
the more doors get opened up for you. You, like me, can use the Internet to
create a huge amount of exposure for your music. The more exposure you
generate, the more likely you are to gain new fans, sell more music, get more
gigs, and of course, make those contacts you want to make within the music industry.
Getting
Signed...
I get e-mail almost every day from musicians
looking to be signed by a major record label. Perhaps you, too, have
aspirations of ‘making it big’ in the music business. But if there is one thing
I’ve learned over the years, it’s that record labels aren’t looking for
fly-by-night musicians to turn into stars (American Idol and a few other copycat TV
shows being the exception).
They are looking for musicians who are already doing the work. They are
looking for artists who have proven they can create a huge fan base, sell
thousands of CDs and sell out shows all on their own. What I’m saying,
in a roundabout way, is this: If you want to make it big and get signed to a
major label, the best way to do that is to forget about being signed to a major
label and do the work yourself. Get out there, play your music, build your fan
base, and sell your CDs and downloads. Your goal should not be to ‘get signed,’
but to bring yourself to a point to where you don’t need the backing of
a record label anymore. Once you’ve reached this point, and you have a
marketable name and product catalog, then you might find some A&R
people knocking on your door. Maybe.
My intent with these comments isn’t to discourage you, but to empower you.
You don’t need a major label deal to have a successful music career. If you are
seeking only fame, then yes, you need the backing of big money to help
you achieve that. But if you’re just wanting to do music full-time and be the
quintessential artist, that’s something you can do all on your own, and the
Internet can help you reach that goal. I'm living proof of that.
The
above a brief, edited excerpt
from the introductory chapter
How
to Promote Your Music Successfully
on the Internet.
-----
David Nevue
is the founder of The
Music Biz Academy
and Whisperings:
Solo Piano Radio. He is also a professional pianist,
recording artist, full-time Internet musician, and author of the book, "How to Promote Your Music Successfully on the Internet."
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