Your Live Show IS The Answer To Increasing Your CD Sales.
As you know, the music industry is going through a lot of
changes. Some reported in the media, others not. While you
are aware of what is happening with major labels with the
closing of A&M and Geffen Records, you may not be aware of
what’s happening with radio and video and what benefits it
has for you!
Well to put it frankly, the music industry doesn’t want you
to be aware of the following. Radio’s impact on consumers
over the last 40 years has been a known fact when it comes
to people buying records. What you may not know is that radio’s
impact in the last few years is diminishing. Radio has gone
from one of the most important factors in creating the consumer’s
awareness of a new artists or an album, to being one of the
least motivating factors. In a short few years, radio’s buzz
has dropped all the way down to 9%. What does that mean? According
to extensive research in all formats with the results combined
and averaged together, only 9% of people who have been buying
records (oops CDs) in the last year, have sited radio as to
where they became aware of the artists or the new release.
More research shows that the average record buyers needs to
hear the song somewhere between 12 to 20 times before buying
it!
If you are like me, I don’t think I can stomach hearing even
the songs I like, 20 times in a short period of time. Even
then, I’m burnt out on it and I’m not interested in buying
it. Well then video must be the key.
While video has shown an increase, only 20% of record consumers
stated that seeing the video a few times motivated them to
buy the CD. Ouch! That means those expensive $60,000 plus
videos are not the motivating factor in people buying records
of new artists. If you want to see what I am talking about,
look at MTV and VH-1’s response to this fact. Think about
this next time you are watching those channels. How come there
are all these new shows like Where Are They Now?, Loveline,
and even the continuing saga of The Real World (with reruns!)
if people really want to see more videos? They are showing
less videos!
So what’s the biggest motivating factor? THE WORD OF MOUTH.
Yes, those people you call your friends and co-workers have
more impact than anything else. Yes its true, to the tune
of 70% of people stated they heard about the group from someone
else or that person played them the music.
What was the biggest factor is creating the word of mouth?
Either an artist playing live or being aware of some direct
promotion the artist was doing to attract people to their
shows! Yeah. This is a tremendous for you as an independent
artist or label. Why isn’t this all over the media? You see
the growth of independent artists is not well reported in
the media because it breaks the status quo. We were always
taught radio was the most important then video and then when
everyone knew us then we play live.
Changes are at hand. The Wall Street Journal writing about
the success of smaller regional bands like Wide Spread Panic
selling hundreds of thousand of records in a focused marketing
effort. The sales growth of artist like Ani DiFranco. When’s
the last time you heard a commercial station playing that.
So what does this have to do with your live show? Everything.
More people are buying CDs during an artist’s show because
they are motivated, excited and convinced about your music.
It is imperative that you not only promote your music through
sample tapes to people you don’t know but also concentrate
on the visual aspect of your live show! People want to move
jump around or even if your music doesn’t lend to that, they
want to see you move and get into it!
Keep two quick thoughts in mind, as a former artist myself,
we all know the monitor sucks, the lights are bad, the vocals
get drowned and you have that guy in the band that went Guitar
Center too many times for all those attachments he plays with
during your show. Throw away your concerns about that. Its
time to play and move. Make people enjoy your music. Motivate
them. Don’t just stand there!
Second. Right after your done, jump off the front of the
stage and sell CDs! Have someone take care of the gear or
have half the band do it while the other have sells the CDs.
The window of opportunity for the best sales is 5-6 minutes
right after your done. After that people lose interest. Sell
as many as you can during that time! Fight about the problems
and who sucked at the show at home. Don’t hide backstage for
15-20 minutes bitching and then come out and expect to get
a lot of sales!
Learn the tricks of live performance and it will serve you
well. Tim Sweeney’s Guide To Successfully Playing Live. Get
one. No reading. Its on tape. Drive around in the car/van
with it. Have a band meeting and listen to it and then discuss
how to make the ideas your own.
Out of the 1,300 artists careers I have developed, all of
them have seen the live show as a major motivating factor
to their career growing and succeeding. Not to mention being
more profitable.
|
