Let's Break It Down: How Many CDs Have You Sold?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robertt8
  • Start date Start date

How Of Your Own CDs Have You Sold?

  • Less Than 50

    Votes: 145 46.9%
  • Less Than 100

    Votes: 29 9.4%
  • Less Than 500

    Votes: 64 20.7%
  • Less Than 1000

    Votes: 22 7.1%
  • Less Than 5000

    Votes: 19 6.1%
  • 5000+

    Votes: 30 9.7%

  • Total voters
    309
How many CDs did you sell? we're at about 50 now over one year

Did you have a record company backing you? nope

Release it yourself? yea, our first album is called "The Cheeppee EP" so we did everything we could as cheaply as possible. We burned the album onto CD-R's, i had my friends mom print the cover and cd labels at her work with paper from work (i supplied the cd lables). We put them all together ourselves. Recorded it in my friends bedroom at his house on his computer. But honestly, i think it sounds pretty good after having only put $400 total, including some hardware, into this cd.

Any advertising? If so, what type? Did it work? T-shirts, online, word of mouth.

Where did you sell them (at shows, online)? I won't front, most of our friends are fans. We just can't work with everyone there, so we kick everyone out when we write and record. No distractions that way. So they all have to wait just like everyone else does. Anyways, we sold most of them to friends who want to help us become succssful. We pretty much call all of our friends and we all meet at the park once a month or so...and we'll take a cd player (there is power at the gazebo at the park), a couple beers later we'll litteraly perform our show at the park for our friends. It's a free concert, so they help us by buying cd's and t-shirts.

Did you get screwed ordering too many or too few? I've got a few left on the shelf. If you want one it's only $3 @ Sideshowmafia.com


...All that good stuff...

and that's only half the story :eek: :D
 
i haven't really been here in a while, but this was an interesting post i put up back when our first CD came out.

i'm not totally sure of the numbers as there is digital sales and physical CD sales, but we're probably around 8000 CDs...i'm guessing, but that includes our newest CD that just came out a few months ago.

how are all of you doing since then?
 
we're doing our cd release tonight!!

we only ordered a short run of 40 cds or so especially for tonight. Hopefully we'll sell them all then we'll do a larger pressing
 
well we sold about half of them the other night but since we've sold another 4 or 5 so it's time to reorder.. The show wasn't as packed as we had hoped but we still did ok. Now it's time to promote the hell outta this album
 
I think if your music is good enough and you market it well, playing live isn't required to sell some music. Sure, it's a huge part of marketting, but it's not absolutely needed. A producer has already asked me to be on his podcast talking about my music and putting tracks up for remix, but I'm waiting till I get more done and have a real website built. Time will tell.
 
My album is not going to be available for sale for another few days or so. Im guessing we will sell around 30 copies initially. We live in a very small town so having a big fan base is hard we have like 215 fans on Facebook. But we think our fan base will increase. we are playing a show in another town this saturday, around 500 people are going to be there. and then we are playing for around 600 middle schoolers the week after. This link may not yet work but try it: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/primate-house/id371829335
oh and if you have a facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prima...ages/Primate-House/309308855811?v=wall&ref=ts
 
My album is not going to be available for sale for another few days or so. Im guessing we will sell around 30 copies initially. We live in a very small town so having a big fan base is hard we have like 215 fans on Facebook. But we think our fan base will increase. we are playing a show in another town this saturday, around 500 people are going to be there. and then we are playing for around 600 middle schoolers the week after. This link may not yet work but try it: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/primate-house/id371829335
oh and if you have a facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prima...ages/Primate-House/309308855811?v=wall&ref=ts Everything was home recorded and we have no label backing us. we use youtube to advertise our music and about 220 people have friended us.
 
Interesting Thread... Here's a Tip toTry

Many of the artists on here might also consider
one trick that has worked for me.

If a patron buys a ticket to one of your shows,
they get a free CD if they can present the ticket
stub.

Mark W. Curran - Author
"Sell Your Music Online"
 
How many CDs did you sell?

My last CD was a compilation that I put together (a legal mixtape) and I only had 5 of my own songs on it. I replicated 5000 and 2000. I gave away over 1000, probably lost/broke a few hundred and sold roughly 5500.

Did you have a record company backing you?

No

Release it yourself?

Yes

Any advertising? If so, what type? Did it work?

All the artists on the CD, writers, performers and composers all plugged the cd online and directed people to a big concert I was doing (30,000 people there)

Where did you sell them (at shows, online)?

The bulk of them were sold at that one concert. After that the other 2000 were pressed but sales dwindled and we started giving them away.

Did you get screwed ordering too many or too few?

I think we estimated correctly considering the combined online fanship of all the artists exceeded 50,000 and the show expected 50,000 people. Since everyone was already fans of the genre we estimated 5% would buy, and we were correct. However, that estimate wasn't based on passive sales. We had a team of 25+ literally PUSHING the cd's on people (in a friendly way) and they were affordable. In addition, because I got mobbed for autographs (which I didn't expect) it made them seem more appealing.
 
Plain facts

Where you will sell most of your cds is when you promte it. There ain't no better way. Whether it's street corners or gigs that's the way. So if you play- it will pay.

I've sold more than a hundred. 99 per cent was at a gig.
 
Just opened up a new department for promotional printing. SOO you guys can now come to me to replicate your material and go sell them somewhere :D www.weprintflyers.com competitive pricing, and a small discount to homerecording.com members ;)
 
I sold less than 1,000 and i'm anticipated for the re-release... itunes search: REYONMYWAY
 
Our band is in the process of finishing up our CD
for self-release, and I was wondering how well
you people have done selling and promoting your
own CD's.

==============================
How many CDs did you sell?

Did you have a record company backing you?

Release it yourself?

Any advertising? If so, what type? Did it work?

Where did you sell them (at shows, online)?

Did you get screwed ordering too many or too few?

...All that good stuff...
==============================

It seems like there could be a lot we can learn from
all you people who have gone down this path in one
way or another.

sold 400 .......................no record company backing ..............yes released my self ........................... no major advertising facebook twitter myspace wordof mouth and some local stores ..........................not really screwed did about what i expected its a baby crawl syndrome ....good luck..... also available on website livewireentertainment.biz
 
Somebody is selling them cuz my mum picked one up from amazon.com, but I guess that's why I need to sign a contract in future instead of just trusting people.

As far as my home recordings of solo stuff, I only ever just give them away. The idea is that people feel special to have a personally made CD, so they like to play it when I'm not around for their friends because everybody likes to feel cool and insider-ish and say "yeah I know this guy", then more people want to hear stuff, then more people want to come check it out live. I never made money selling CDs because it seems just so easy for people to download stuff free anyway, so why bother? If you can get a room filled though, that's where you can get paid.
 
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