JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Your CD could be a million seller(something to think about)

When a major artist on a major label sells 1,000,000 CD in North America,population about 300,000,000,that means he/she sold a CD to one person out of every 300.Not a great ratio but a million seller is considered successful.If you live in a small town of 10,000 and sell 34 CDs in that town, you are ahead of the ratio of the million seller.When you consider the amount of promotion the major artist gets compared to what you get,you are ahead of the game.If you perform before 300 people and sell just one CD,you are on par with the big stars.If you could get heard by 300,000,000 people, you too could sell 1,000,000.

Just some thoughts to encourage you today when you struggle to sell 500 or 1000 CDs. Chin up,you are doing something worth while, though you may never get rich from it.

Everett

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The more often you taste the bitterness of defeat, the sweeter final victory will be.

COOL!

Put like that, it does make you think if you got the same promotion and airplay as the knowns, or upcomings being promoted, you may just be doing the same things if your numbers of sellings locally are the same ratio!

So I guess the thing is, it always comes down to other people, (business), to be working for you as they work for them. Exposure at least gives the masses the choice to buy or not. That exposure beyond our control is very hard and rare to get. The suits have to see money it for them.

Is that right, for the most part?

John Daubert

Everett,

The concept is a positive one, but a little misleading. Sure, if it's a 300 to 1 sales ratio, that assumes that EVERY SINGLE PERSON in North America heard and is aware of that music and THEN 1 out of 300 chose to buy it. But that's not reality. In reality, likely 5-10 million people heard it and 1 million liked it enough to buy it.

I am all for breaking things down and your message is a positive one, but you need to base it on statistical reality.

Brian

I'd add one more consideration. When Toby Urban sells a CD, he (or whoever wrote the songs) gets a rather small percentage of that $15 to $20 the CD sold for in the store. Everybody and their illegitimate child in The Biz is getting a cut.

When I sell my CD at a concert for $12, the profit (after studio and copying costs) is all mine. If I sell it at Soundclick or CDbaby, those vendors get a cut, but it's small. My profit is still big.

All by comparison, of course. But it does mean I don't have to sell a million CDs to make as much as Toby Urban makes off selling a million CDs. I like my way better.

Joe
www.soundclick.com/bands/7/joewrabek_music.htm

Though the 300 to 1 ratio is certainly an extreme overestimate, 5 to 10 million is probably as big of an underestimate considering the draw that Award shows alone contribute to big stars getting their music heard. I would bet in reality it falls somewhere between those two figures. It’s probably closer to 50 to 1, and in some case 75 to 1 depending on how well it’s been marketed.


David

Brian's right... and something to remember is that, when you're performing in a club, the audience is a much more "targeted for interest in music" audience, so selling 1 out of 300 under that scenario is not a good sign of success vis-a-vis the total population:CD buyers rule of thumb you quoted for platinum CD success.

On another note, assuming the artist is not a current superstar upon which millions of promotional dollars have been heaped, for a mid-level calibre star, or especially an up-and-comer, CD sales in excess of 80K are considered decent by a label... as far as keeping interest for further projects.

I realize that every person in North America will not hear any particular song,no matter how much it is promoted.Nor will every person
in your home town hear your song(unless you have a very friendly DJ that will play you to death).But regardless,if you can sell a CD to one out of every 300 people,you can have a 1,000,000 in North America.So get at it LOL.

This is meant to give encouragement to indie artist that struggle to sell their first pressing.There is nothing wrong with your music,just not enough exposure.

Everett