Last September, seven days before the release of his debut album Patterns, Irish songwriter Daniel Anderson started to really worry that his new music would “fall silently into the ether with so many other brilliant independent releases.”
He’d hired a publicist, but up until that point had received “little indication that anything substantial was going to happen as a result of his work.”
So Anderson decided to take matters into his own hands — literally. He carried a small stack of vinyl records door-to-door, trying to bring his music to a wider (and random) public. So old-school it’s practically revolutionary!
And it worked (in a promotional sorta way).
Anderson says “as a result I performed on the biggest television show in the country (Ireland) on the day of the release, received blanket radio play and coverage in all the national news and media publications, sold out shows nationwide, and reached number 11 on the official album charts.”
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t JUST the door-to-door salesmanship that yielded these results, but also the fact that his unconventional marketing effort, along with his evident wit and charm, was captured on camera and quickly edited into a professional promo video that got shared all over the place online.
It’s an entertaining video with its own brand of indie music marketing tension and relief. Check it out above.
Besides the few vinyl copies you see Anderson peddling in the video, he moved 400 more 12″ vinyl units in the week of his release, and has since sold 1000 records (to say nothing of his download and streaming activity).
See what you can do on a tight budget with a smart promo campaign? Factor that in with how Anderson built his own studio, and then performed, recorded, and mixed his album entirely himself, and Patterns is the epitome of a DIY music release.
Check out the music on CD Baby today.
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