How do you market your music? Do you rely on digital sales? Sell Cd's Tapes? Diy or pro press? T-shirts with download codes? Vinly? Posters. In the digital age the music is important to make fans, but you are not selling the music per say anymore you are selling yourself. Product endorsements would be great!

i usually just hussle cds on the corner, end up giving alot away, we sell cds at shows too, havnt made one digital sale, i think most kids only by famous people music, oh yea ill split the sales 50 50 on dead bird if we sell any on my store

Shit I can't even get heads to download shit for free, then again I can't even finish a beat tape these days. Definitely harder to sell music, but there are a lot of cool ways to do it it seems. I think people who like music still really dig picking up some sort of hard copy whether its cd, vinyl or even tape.

emcees pretty much have to tour to make money now, not enuff people buying albums to just make music and rake in the cash...they tour nearly all the time ( a lot in europe with bigger market ) and get by selling merchandise at the shows and getting paid to fill up the venues (so you need a name to really make money doing this). but at least then you have people physically there to sell the music and shirts etc to them - there are so many ways for people to say "eh, fuck it" if it doesn't involve just handing over cash on the spot and getting the product.

producers can get by just making music to some extent but you gotta HUSTLE hard and get album placements and make your money that way off of other artists fanbases and grind with the cash trickling back...but you pretty much need a management company to make that happen on a big scale like making tons of money. either way tho even as a producer you gotta GET OUT THERE and meet people and network, the internet is important but if you don't have the real life connections to make the business moves then it's just a futile endeavor

I think you can make money selling digital copies of your music but you need a big following, and a significant internet presence (like beyond a personal blog that maybe 100 people view). I think the way to go as an independent is to start small and make limited HIGH QUALITY presses of your projects (I don't want no fucking CD R bullshit and neither does a fan for their money). Focus on touring, or as a producer focus on working with artists that are touring/grinding. Then slowly build up your exposure and increase your touring, more cities further away...if you build a larger following on the next release you get more units etc etc

Its a hard hard fucking grind tho and you better want it like you never wanted anything cuz it's a bunch of wolves competing for a few scraps

^^ when I just read this I said out loud to myself- "that was a really good breakdown of this shit..".So yea,thought I'd post it-That was a really good breakdown of this shit,lol.Pretty much all that needs to be said. While touring SOUNDS like mad fun--It can get crazy monotonous performing the same songs over and over,getting to the point where at times you feel like you're acting,faking the emotion that originally went into creating the songs in the first place. Kind of a shitty feeling.As is being away from your loved ones so much. Like I said before-if most non major label artists didn't have to tour constantly to sustain a suitable standard of living and keep music as their career-they wouldn't do it.

When it comes to making money off production-who you happen to know,where you live,and straight up luck are huge factors. There's so many cats making dope beats nowadays--a lot of that being because of the advancements in technology and the ease of putting some respectable shit together on computers. While talent is obviously a big factor-there are litterally thousands and thousands of beat makers at this point with just as much heat as your favorite producers that will never make a dime.It's unfortunate, but true.

in the concert i made on january i gave away my cds for free.
but i have to add that i have also a job, so this is not a real economic difficulty to do that...
saying this, i don't disagree with the selling music, it dipends on us.

Yeah I don't see myself ever bein able to not work.. Can't stand the idea of touring till everybody is sick to death of me if i ever got to the point where I could do that..

I just work the minimum number of hours required to pay rent/buy food.. Sometimes I think about dealin to support my music habit.. get me a gold plated SP n such but then there are alot of risks associated...

From 2002 to 2007 I was constantly on the road with my old group, and we went cross country 3-4 times and to Europe twice... Only made enough money for gas, food, alcohol(the big one)and pressing more cds. but it was alot of fun.

8 Bit's the Fucking SHIT

I bet ya'll had a blast touring ya'lls stage show came off as a bunch of drunken madness (in a really fun not trainwreck type way)

one more thought on the thread...obviously you need to be more entrepreneurial about it in today's game. thread starter hinted at that - but to make money you gotta make money off of other stuff related to your music at first then hopefully if you get big enuff just off the music - always sounds easy in theory, right?

but a.D. really hit the nail on the head when he said who you know and WHERE you are...where you are will def control who you know. if you are really serious bout making money off music and you live relatively in the middle of nowhere I would say it's almost necessary to move to a major hub where you can actually make the real life connections needed with the scene in that place and also if it's a big enough city the artists that come thru on their tours....

Peace

Good points guys. To touch on the other side of things, do you support other artists? Like Captain Crunk said...do you buy "famous people" or diy local CD's? Do you go to local shows? Buy tapes, CD's?

I think shows are where small artists need to build their support - especially hometown.

Unfortunately my hometown doesn't have an experiemental beats scene.. its either rap + dj battles or dance clubs.. nothing deep on the hiphop side, nothing deep on the techno side, nothing deep in the art-music/etc side

Of course homie...I thought you were asking bout how to try to make money...you gotta make it to dish it out lol but yea I'd say that if you are trying to be an artist but you don't support music or other artists you are pretty much a fucking douchebag.



Word, sounds like you need to move if you wanna expand your music...

Am doing

one month till i leave this hole..

The music is probably more my fault than the place, but I think I'll certainly be more motivated if I can actually go to shows/etc

www.bandcamp.com

Nuff said.