Throwing stars! Brilliant! But don’t sell them at the venue. Bartenders frown on arming the drunks. In all seriousness, I think the more unusual the merch the better. I wanna try band branded bandaids.

I love the insight from this post…I have been mulling number ten for the longest. I have some ideas and hopefully they come to life this year.

Cool. Let us know how it goes.

Those band-branded bandaids should come packaged with the throwing stars.

Don’t forget local businesses that will partner with you and many times even pay you to play the shows you already have scheduled and getting paid by the venue to play. There is a section in the 800 CDs Movie. http://www.800cdsthemovie.com

Good tip on selling, but taking returns. Thanks!

Hey Mark, we actually do have an affiliate program. Check out: https://www.cdbaby.biz/Default.aspx

Nice! And very entrepreneurial!

Hey, kinda new here and from europe, but love Cdbaby already.

In your mail I read something about youtube, but on this site I can’t find anything about it. We have a lot of video’s we’ve made of our songs on youtube (also covers we are now clearing on limelight). Can you explain to me how or when it will be possible to collect streaming income from you tube?

Tnx a lot for your aswer and services,

Greetz,

Purple People Eaters

It should be known that Spotify is NOT paying independent artists – only major labels, as far as I understand.

Free or low paying concerts at Car dealerships, Gas stations can draw a crwd, you can use the time for a rrehersal too.

I’ve tried consignment 3 times, and it’s been disastrous. I have yet to see a penny and my CDs are long gone. You REALLY need to stay on top of the store owners for this to work, and if you hate the idea of having to ask for your money a dozen times or simply don’t have the time to follow-up on a very regular basis….. don’t do consignment. My advice, only consider consignment in a store/location that YOU personally frequent.

One way we have always made more money and played way more shows than other bands is good old fashioned guerrilla marketing. When my bassist and I first started our band, we spent an entire day walking up and down as many streets as we could, going into any business we thought could use a band. Keep in mind, I said WE thought they could use a band! We walked into some pretty off the wall places, a pool hall, chinese restaurants, a beauty salon, an insurance office. We asked them point blank if they had considered hiring a band to help with marketing. Sure, we got a lot of no’s and blank stares, but we got a surprising amount of yes’s as well. A lot of business owners thought that it might help out a bit to have some musical entertainment at their next offfice party or to liven up the diners’ experience. After that day, we had every weekend booked for several months!

Another tip: If you run into a bar or club owner that’s hesitant to bring in your band, ask them what they typically pay a band to play for a night. Whatever they say, offer to play for $50 dollars less. Most businesses will not turn down a good discount. If you do well, they will be eager to bring you back.

Get a google ads account and put ads on your youtube videos and web sites.
Then If you paid for a facebook ad and the landing page was a page with a google ad it would pay for itself. Plus you would get paid for fans just visiting your site. The ads can also be related so your fans may actually be interested in the products advertised on your page, everyones a winner

Ummm. Well, hmmm. Let me put it this way: Can you wait about 10 days to find out? Haha. We have a big announcement, but until then it’s a secret. Although now it’s not a secret that there is a secret. Shhhh!

Spotify definitely pays indie artists. We get a big check from them every month, and then we turn around and put that into the accounts of all the CD Baby artists whose music was streamed through Spotify.

Cool. Thanks for sharing those ideas!

sorry, you may get a big check from spotify, but your artists are not. spotify has increasingly come under fire from musicians for their miniscule royalty rate, and many musicians are pulling out of spotify altogether, because you are essentially giving them your music for free.
i just checked my accounts page. spotify pays .001 for each play. so, you’d need 1,000 plays to make a dollar. to me, that’s playing for free. so to make $30 bucks, you’d need 30,0000 plays. anyone out there getting 30,0000 plays per day, month,year?

Can existing cdbaby artists be involved in this program?? Or do we have to create a seperate account as a cdbaby user/listener?

I teach guitar,play in regional working bands and sell my self financed cds on the net,at shows and in various stores….Doing what I can to make it happen and you can too!

It’s a separate account. But artists are more than welcome to join.

jango airplay

Curious if anyone has tried that service that will put you songs on jukeboxes?
It may have worked on the older ones, but now I see you have to search for songs and they are no longer listed on the front of the units.

How many T-shirts, or posters can one fan have? When it comes to merchandising, Kiss was the kings of merchandising. I recently caught on TV an interview with Gene Simmons. In it he showed a tour of a wing of his house in which he had on display in display cases which covered the walls of this one room merchandise which Kiss had created to promote themselves. Included was a casket which was signed by each member of the band. My point, when it comes to merchandising, think outside the box.

Chris R, CD Baby

You simply are gorgeous ! Hm; What will I do without you and others like you! For those of you who give freely your abundant knowledge and expertise, may your pockets be always for of your wishes come true

Awww. Thanks, M!

Awww. Thanks, M!

DOES THE AFFILIATE PROGRAM WORK IN CANADA?

Yes. Love sees no borders. (As long as you can take payment through PayPal!)

I would also like to encourage musicians to step up their game in trying to get paid gigs. Often times venues does pay (or pay what they should) because artists are uncomfortable with being assertive and setting a booking fee. May 2012 a year where you are shamelessly direct with your communication. Ask to be paid what you’re worth and be respectful while doing it. HOW TO NEGOTIATE WITH A VENUE THAT SAYS THEY CAN’T PAY YOU

Check out this site for some other options: http://www.quora.com/Crowdfunding/What-crowdfunding-sites-are-available-for-Canadian-business

Great way for artists to make money, the old school way. Selling CDs. Fans buy them here. Check out the video.
http://youtu.be/09L3K3ZjJTw

Exposure this June to 250,000 music lovers will not only put a decent amount of income in your pocket, but grow your fan base exponentially.
Btw, there is a $250 discount for making a $175 deposit commitment* by Feb. 5th, for your own booth to greet your fans.
Plus, $10 off the cost of your booth PER referral who also commits* to having a booth. (Limit 5)
Plus, the biggest artists/ celebrities will be included on the billboard downtown advertising All Music Festival, to the approx. 250,000 music fans attending.

Send an email to AllMusicFestival@yahoo.com for an application, FAQs and contract.
Thanks!

Sage Keffer
Music Row Music Group

*Deposit commitment/ commits, is defined as a first deposit by Feb 5th and fulfilled agreement. See FAQs for details.