Sales Q1 2010

Kinda makes you want to run out and record and album, doesn’t it? =0)

Brian – The fact that you’ve written, recorded, released, promoted, and managed the sales of…your own albums speaks volumes. Okay, so you broke even….at least you didn’t die “in the hole”.

Keep up the great work. I know that it will pay off for you eventually.

WHATEVER YOU DO….DON’T QUIT MAKING THE FANTASTIC MUSIC THAT YOU DO!!!

Matt (One of your MANY fans!!!)

Hi Brian,

I still love Something Beautiful, though I also enjoy the great stuff you’ve put out recently. Most of all, I’m happy that this is a productive creative period for you. Can’t wait to hear the next album!

Maybe you could ride the coat tails of the Ocean Eyes guy somehow. Maybe have him as a guest singer/composer on a track on the new album? Or maybe have someone from Hot Chip sing with you? Just some ideas to blow your sales through the roof!

In any case, I’ll always look forward to the next CT album.

Best wishes,
Derek

Don’t worry, I have no plans to stop. Sales are nice, but that’s not why I make music. The cost of making a record is so low now compared to when I started that it’s no longer prohibitive in the least.

I promise not to reject any collaboration offers from Owl City or Hot Chip! I’m honestly not looking for that level of exposure though. But yeah, a collaboration with a bigger name would be a great way to grow my fanbase.

dude – how do you pay your bills and eat?

please keep making amazing with music, monochrome blow out my head !. xoxo.

Brian,

This was a most informative insight. I’m glad you’re in it for the music and not reliant on sales for living costs.
I’m yet to charge for any of the music I produce and am working on getting my first album together.
I’m doubtful that an eventual album would make much, if any, money.
However, like you say, if it was all about the money then this would probably be a bad career move.
It’s good that you were able to break even though.

Thanks for sharing and keep doing what you’re doing,
Kev G – Endo Meso

I pay the bills and eat by working on other peoples’ music:

http://www.resonancemastering.com

Kev, I think giving away your music for free makes a lot of sense, maybe even financial sense in the long run, while you’re just getting started. In fact, if you’re going to be touring, you might be best off giving away your music at least until you can support a tour. Since I don’t play live, and haven’t seen much interest in other sorts of merch, I just have the music to sell.

$13? Party at Pizza Hut! You can get a Pizza AND a drink.

As you know, there is no money in music sales anymore. Streaming is where it’s going and even Lady GaGa only made $167 off of 1 million streaming sales on Spotify. Looking at how much I make from streams that doesn’t surprise me a bit. LOL. Even live is tough. The Dreaming, the hardest working band I know on the live scene, is sleeping on peoples floors while they tour and are excited about $147 in tips after doing 10 shows. http://twitpic.com/18tkb6
and http://twitter.com/thedreamingband. When we opened for Chris, he really liked our tip jar (I got that idea from the Tour Smart book) so it’s great to see him using it. Shows you how rough live life is though!!

As Guitar Center knows, making money from other musicians (who are using money from their day jobs) seems to be the most common way to make money in the music industry these days. Hopefully someday a better economic model will emerge. Until then, like you said, at least making records is cheaper!

Monty

Back when I played live, I had a brandy snifter nearby for tips, and didn’t do much better than The Dreaming! Still, I usually sold a few CDs and I got paid $80-$150 for 2-3 hours. I’m glad I don’t do that anymore.

I’m glad you guys are champions of personal fulfillment. I’m jealous, actually. Wish I could sing and make music myself.

Given that, I really think that this problem of having a viable business model for musicians is important. It saddens me when I see my coworkers in their early twenties illegally downloading music from the internet. I don’t care about record companies, but I do care about artists. If we could live in a world where most artists self published and customers willingly paid for great music, that would be terrific.

Derek

I’m all for that! As a listener, I look forward to an all-streaming future, at long as audio quality doesn’t suffer too much. As an artist, I hope the pay gets better than $167 per million streams, but I want it to be cheap enough for the end user that illegal downloading isn’t worth the hassle.

I think you’re right Brian.
The value of music has nosedived in recent years.
Many illegal downloaders are happy to justify getting the music for free as the record companies having been ripping off the consumer for years. It feels like payback. Fair enough.
However… now there’s a whole new generation that’s not experienced the old model to whom free downloads are just the way it is.
I think giving the music away is probably the best strategy right now.
I also don’t play live. I’m a one man show and don’t have enough arms to bring it to the stage.
For me the other options would be merchandise and exclusive packages, much like the Trent Reznor model:
http://putmeonit.blogspot.com/2010/03/trent-reznor-interview-business-model.html

Trent’s ideas are an inspiration for all of us, but he’s lucky to have a pre-existing fanbase to market to. Still, I do want to think of some sort of upgrade or two beyond a simple CD or download. Something that won’t cost a fortune to make, in case nobody buys it!