You could describe Derek Sivers as the typical accidental millionaire. In 1998 as a musician, he figured out an easy way to sell his music CDs online. Soon after, his musician friends asked if he could do the same for them. The online music sales phenomenon CDBaby was born.
Sivers has a way of not only doing things differently, but seeing things differently than just about everyone else. This 2 minute video message shares his thoughts on the importance of understanding what what is ‘Obvious to you’ is ‘Amazing to others. It is a video outtake from his book “Anything You Want”.
This video has a powerful message for communicators and marketers who have to find the ‘Amazing’, in the products, services or brands that they have to make shine. I have always thought of it like, it can be difficult to describe what a house looks like from the outside, if you have only looked at it from the inside.
I find that having connections and knowing a lot of people in important positions
gets results. I have had four cd on Amazon and have not made any money. I can not find a way for people to just take a look at a new artist. I do not do rap . I do Jazz and Gospel.
I have now spent time and money but I do not know the right way to get people to see my artist and listen
Posted by roger carter | September 3, 2011, 11:56 pmHi Roger,
Creating great music is one thing, marketing it is another challenge. CD Baby and Amazon are essentially distribution logistics companies, not music labels.
Here’s a link to a PDF with some extremely good tips for social media marketing ‘Musician’s roadmap to Facebook and Twitter’
http://members.cdbaby.com/campaigns/ArielGuide.pdf
I’d be interested in hearing your music, do you have a link?
Posted by jomar | September 5, 2011, 8:55 amIt’s difficult to monetize CDs without a distribution chain, a great deal of marketing savvy and a promotional budget, but it’s easy to sell CDs at gigs.It’s helpful to know if the people that respond to your music are the same people who buy CDs-perhaps your fans would prefer another format? You’ll note that Derek Sivers got out of the CD business pretty early; in fact, CDBaby does not manufacture CDs, it was acquired by Discmakers, the leading independent CD manufacturer.There will continue to be a market for CDs for some time yet, but it will eventually be a niche, like vinyl.
Posted by mojobone | September 5, 2011, 1:12 pmGreat to see you here Mojo,
Some good points about the CDBaby business. Yes, it is a bit hard to sell iTunes/MP3 downloads at gigs. We don’t even have a dedicated CD player in the house anymore, but do used the DVD player through the stereo system.
Posted by jomar | September 5, 2011, 2:15 pm