One of the Brobdingnagian Bards’ early CDs, Songs of the Muse is going into it’s second pressing. When I saw Christopher Knab’s article “Your CD Cover is Your Best Ad For Your Music”, I decided this was the perfect inspiration I needed to update the CD graphics.

I’ve been a fan of Christopher Knab for about as long as I’ve been a fan of Bob Baker. He is without a doubt one of the top Top 10 music marketers in my book.

Well, whenever I create graphics, I find too often that I forget a bunch of stuff. So this article serves as a great checklist. But when I read Seth Godin’s Best-Selling book, Free Prize Inside, I realized that it was NOT a complete list!

In fact, the music industry in general has greatly missed out on an amazing opportunity to better sell CDs.

The idea I got came from the backs of books. Go grab a best-seller and turn it over. On the back, you will find the secret…

What did you find? You might’ve seen testimonials, a brief description of the book, or maybe even an exerpt.

You see, one of the problems I found with Songs of the Muse is that since we call our music “Celtic music.” It wasn’t till much later that I realized that in the Celtic music tradition, “songs” have lyrics and “tunes” are instrumentals. This album is all instrumental. So it was poorly named for the “Celtic music” world.

But if we use the back cover correctly, it doesn’t matter!

The new back cover now lists songs titles along with a brief description of the ideal person who will enjoy this CD. It includes testimonials. And anyone who reads it will have all doubt removed as to if this is a vocal or instrumental CD.

Use Christopher Knab’s checklist for a better CD graphics. Then think outside the box. What can you add to the cover that will make this CD sell better than ever?

Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000’s of musicians make money with their musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine and the Texas Musicians’ Texas Music Biz Tips. Now you can get personal advice by visiting http://www.bardscrier.com for FREE “how-to” music marketing assistance.

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A couple months ago, I wrote The Rogues to ask them directly what it is that makes them so successful at selling CDs, and why they are one of the top 10 bands on CDstreet selling CDs. Sharon Wothke wrote back:

“As head sales person for the band, I think that I would be the one to talk to. The Rogues are definitely unique in what they do, and if you will indulge me, very good at what they do.

As a sales person, I know that the way the guys play their music definitely is the biggest factor in their sales quotient. When the music, which can be described as infectious, is smoking hot, and everyone is having a good time, the sales are usually pretty good. Most people who come to a Renaissance Festival, where the band still does the lion’s share of their gigs, do not come
expecting to buy a CD with bagpipe music on it. The Rogues have converted many people to this form of music. So in other words, they create a unique atmosphere which is conducive to sales.

If the guys are doing their job (making great music), it makes my job a lot easier. I just have to be available and approachable to people and looking like a I am a part of the show for people to feel comfortable in coming up to me. We started from the very beginning employing the use of a roaming basket. It is very effective and other groups have successfully copied our approach.

Our sellers walk around holding up the product so people can see them. Our sellers try to blend in with the show and not be pushy, just visible. I personally enjoy interacting with the crowd, spoofing off of what is being said on the stage and telling jokes to make the audience laugh. And I will talk and be nice to everyone, even if they don’t buy a CD simply because I enjoy people and I am trying to be an ambassador for the band. They may not buy today, but chances are they will think about it and buy a CD at another time.”

Straight from the Master’s mouth. What does it take?
1. Great music
2. Great live performance
3. Roaming sales people with baskets of CDs
4. Sellers hold up product DURING the show
5. Sellers blend in an interact with the show

The Rogues use CDBaby to sell their CDs. Why? See for yourself?

Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000’s of musicians make money with their musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine and the Texas Musicians’ Texas Music Biz Tips. Now you can get personal advice by visiting http://www.bardscrier.com for FREE “how-to” music marketing assistance.

No time to visit the site? Subscribe to the BardsCrier.com distributed weekly for Free. Just email subscribe@bardscrier.com

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I read somewhere not too long ago that someone was lamenting that artists are putting out too many albums without spending enough time promoting them. Well, I hate to say it, but my group, the Brobdingnagian Bards, is guilty of such a crime.

You see, when I started The Bards a couple years ago, I knew that bands needed a product. So we recorded our first album, Marked By Great Size, bought a CD burner, and started producing the CDs ourselves to sell at gigs.

Six months later, we released our second album, Gullible’s Travels. By this time, we’d only had a few decent reviews of our first album, but we’d sold a couple hundred CDs after playing at numerous Renaissance Festivals. Now, our second album was underway.

We recorded it, and got a whopping one review for the album. But with extensive gigging we sold a couple hundred copies of this album.

Six months later, we completed our third album, Songs of the Muse. By this time, we starting to wonder if we were stretching ourselves too thin. Andrew was duping all the CDs while I was getting them printed. And his burner wasn’t quite fast enough to keep up with the demand for CDs. But it was about this time that we got started on mp3.com, and we got introduced to DAM CDs, a much easier way to produce CDs when you have several, but can’t afford to mass produce any.

All of a sudden, the reason for our recording CD after CD made sense. We could get paid for people listening to our music, and the more music you have the more money you made. Talk to Ernesto Cortazar and 303infinity if you disagree.

Now, we could order CD one-offs from MP3.com, sell them at gigs for $10-15, and make a nice profit while our music climbed the charts. But did I promote “Songs of the Muse”?

Well, we started recording for our next albums (yes, plural) at the beginning of 2001. We’ve done some minor promotion of our album, and quite honestly, SOM is the best of our albums, and now our first mass-produced CD. So yes, we should do more promotion for it, and we are. But no, we are still not spending all of our extra income promoting this or another album why? Why are we recording more albums.

Well first, Songs of the Muse was recorded to meet a very specific market. It’s an all instrumental album, and was designed to get us wedding gigs, which it does quite nicely.

But the other reason we don’t is because we are meeting our goals…making a living.

While some are after a record deal or becoming the next pop star, we are on a journey. Yes, I’d like to be a pop star. Sure, I wouldn’t mind having a record deal. But our music is still evolving. We have a long way to go before I feel we are ready for that record deal or super-stardom. The first step is making a living.

That’s what living the dream is all about. You have to take care of the basics first. In my case, it involves getting out of debt, building a regular income, building a following, and one day earning enough from the music to quit my day job so I can become a full-time musician. Does it matter that our first few albums may never be heard? No. It doesn’t. Those first albums will be Collector’s Editions once we get there.

Once those goals are met, then I can work on my dreams of super-stardom. Yes, I am working on those steps now. I’m not gonna find a publicist to promote us unless we are guaranteed a decent return on our money. But I will continue to get our music to local publications, slowly but surely. And one day, you’re gonna read a message from me saying, “I am now living the dream!”

Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000’s of musicians make money with their musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine and the Texas Musicians’ Texas Music Biz Tips. Now you can get personal advice by visiting http://www.bardscrier.com for FREE “how-to” music marketing assistance.

No time to visit the site? Subscribe to the BardsCrier.com distributed weekly for Free. Just email subscribe@bardscrier.com

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