Derek Sivers of CD Baby Gives Advice to Indie Musicians

As most of you know, Derek Sivers is the Founder and President of CD Baby, one of the largest sellers of independent music on the web, a company that barely existed 10 years ago.  He has always been a champion for Indie artists, and because of that, not to mention his ability to build one of the most successful music companies today, I was curious as to what kind of marketing advice someone like Derek might give to Indie musicians and bands... so a few days ago I asked him, and here are his responses:

Question: What is the number one piece of advice you would give Indie musicians and bands trying to market and promote their music?

Response: Don't do what others are doing.  Flaunt your creativity.  Do something stupid and fun.  Your potential new fans will notice and appreciate it. This is an advantage you have over the corporate marketing people that will lose their jobs for taking too many risks. Do something different every week. Forcing yourself to take some promotional action every week will change your focus from, "What's the one thing I should be doing?" to "Let's see what happens if I.... (something crazy)." Also, it will keep you in the forefront of people's minds.  Since you never know what's going to get people's attention, the more things  you try, the better your chances. Look at the top sellers on CD Baby (http://cdbaby.com/topnow).  Visit their sites.  See what they're doing.  Learn from it, but do something different.

Question: What are your thoughts about giving away your music to promote your band?

Response: Don't forget that people like to pay! They're not paying for Rihanna or Fergie because they know all the money goes to the labels, but they love supporting independent musicians, doing it themselves. It makes them feel good to give you 15 bucks for an album, and tell their friends they were one of the first to buy it, long before you got famous. Don't deny them that pleasure. Give some freebies to make them love you, then make it easy for them to buy. We pay over $2 million a month to CD Baby artists for their CD and MP3 sales, and sales are up 35% over last year.  People are definitely buying independent music. Don't think that the decline in Eminem sales applies to you.

Great practical advice from a visionary and a leader in the music industry.  Thanks Derek!  You may also want to check out this recent CD Baby post by Derek, as it sheds light on some interesting sales trends from the almost 200,000 artists that sell their music on CD Baby.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Peace.

Comments

[Netvalar]

Well you sure do get the best information. Once again this week I have placed a link in this weeks list of Music related links. I most liked his response to giving away free music.

[Snap Music]

Hi Netvalar: Thanks for the note, and I agree with you... Musicians and bands need to decrease the amount of music they are giving away and focus instead on marketing, promotions, networking and the like.

take good care