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| Jackie Blue: Continuing Adventures of Detroit’s Funk & Roll Band (Part 3) |
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jackieblue writes "
Detroit, 5 January 2004- “What We’ve Learned So Far”
Many of us have wanted to start our own bands, possibly since birth. It’s one version of “the dream.” It’s an amazing experience—the excitement of finding new musicians through the underground websites, papers, referrals from the strangest places, and that all important “first rehearsal.” Then there’s the part that can suck: Dealing with people who represent the filthy business side of this enterprise. Fortunately, there are some gems out there that are able to combine the best aspects of music and business. These folks are in it for the right reason (the music), and best of all, they are willing to help. Click "Read More" below.
When I last left off, our band Jackie Blue had just finished a year of playing shows throughout the Midwest in support of our second CD “Complexification: Part II” 2003 proved to us that success was no going to happen overnight—especially since we had no interest in signing a recording deal. But that’s fine with us since we all enjoy playing, working hard, and doing things our own way.
In 2004 we plan to release our third CD, and increase our touring through the contacts that we’ve made since the band formed in 2000. Here are the key business issues for us, what we’ve learned, and who we learned to trust:
1) Distribution and order fulfillment
2) Tracking of sales
3) Music venues
Distribution and Order Fulfillment
(This is a fancy way of saying, the manufacturing of the CD, taking of the order, processing of payment {cash, check, credit card, buffalo chips, etc.}, and shipping of the CD to our fans).
When we first started out in 2000, we didn’t have much money, so instead of buying 1500 units of our CD at one time, we discovered MP3.com’s “Just in time” manufacturing process: Upload music files and graphics to their website and they would manufacture any quantity of CDs and deliver them to your door in 10 business days. Cost for a batch of 10 was $6 per CD. Folks could buy the CD’s online through our website (www.JackieBlue.com) and we could order them to sell at our show. The per unit cost was 5 times as high as if we had bought the 1500 unit batch, but not tying up our limited cash was more important.
MP3.com handled our distribution and order fulfillment. We also had distribution online through Amazon.com and a small company called CDBaby.com. Of course, MP3.com is now gone, so we got a referral from Derek Sivers at CDBaby.com. He suggested using DiskMakers (www.DiskMakers.com). They now have a just in time manufacturing service with a better quality product than MP3 did.
Gem #1
And there’s one of our first business gems: Derek Sivers at CDBaby.com. As we were growing as a band, Derek and his crew have turned CDBaby.com from one of the hundreds of online CD retailers into the second largest music retailer in the world, with only Amazon.com leading in sales. Today there have been articles written about CDBaby by the likes of CNN and Esquire magazine. Better still, CDBaby is a true source of help for both lovers of music and musicians.
The folks there are always improving their service and website. Three examples:
1) To help serve their European customers, who pay much higher internet connection rates than we do in the U.S., they spent their time and money coding the fastest loading webpages you’ll find. No wasted time on downloading fancy graphics. It’s a very user-friendly website that loads very fast on even the slowest modems.
2) They founded a Yahoo group that addresses common issues for musicians (we didn’t know that they were common issues until we had heard from musicians around the world with the same problems). This online group started a unique North American based tour called TourBaby (www.TourBaby.com). 2004 will be its 3rd year and it keeps growing in scope. Having been exclusively arranged by people whose only communication channels were E-mail and an online bulletin board, it was a very rewarding experience to finally meet everyone face to face during the amazing tour.
3) They were one of the first company’s to ink a distribution deal with the legal music downloading businesses, including Apple iTunes and Rhapsody, for independent musicians. They handled all of the details of this new process and also created a musician friendly distribution contract.
Tracking of Sales
Before the web became a useful sales tool, my previous bands sold our CDs through large and small “bricks and mortar” stores—everyone from major chains to mom and pop shops. Although I still love going into small, unique stores, from the musician’s perspective, there’s a key difficulty in working with brick and mortar stores: Tracking of actual sales is nearly impossible. Many of these stores use some sort of middle person (wholesaler) who services many locations. In other industries this is an efficient system. Unfortunately, in the music industry, CD sales information as well as the actual CDs frequently get “lost.”
It’s also almost impossible to get the most important information: Who purchased your CD and when. Without this information, it becomes difficult to decide where to tour, since you have no idea if there’s an area of the country where folks are interested in your type of music. We love a good road trip, but it can become a very expensive “vacation” very quickly if you’re only playing to 10 people. Targeting your touring efforts at areas where you know people actually listen to your music is an important part of having fun and keeping your travel costs inline.
So how does our sales process work?
Online sales:
Step 1: A fan orders one of our CDs from CDBaby, Amazon, TowerRecords, etc.
Step 2: That site ships the CD to our fan.
Step 3: When they run low on stock, they let us know via E-mail and we order a new batch of CD’s from DiskMakers.
Step 4: DiskMakers then ships the CD’s directly to the retailer.
In person sales:
It is all about the music for us, so selling a CD to someone who just heard our band play is the most fun for everyone. We simply order a batch of CD’s from DiskMakers and bring them with us to our shows.
Since everything is done electronically with minimal shipping costs, we’re able to reduce our costs and pass on the savings to our fans. The retailers send us detailed information on every CD sold so that we know who are fan base is and where they are located. And everyone makes a reasonable living from this system.
Music venues
For many musicians, their goal is signing a big record deal or just recording their music and releasing it online. That’s fine, but for us, there’s nothing better than writing our own music and playing it in front of a live audience. You get the brutal, honest truth—if the song or your playing sucks, you’ll know about it right away. On the other hand, there are those magical nights where everything goes well, and the audience sings your lyrics back to you!
Booking shows in your own state, let alone throughout North America, is a difficult challenge. Especially for those of us still early in our music journey, a good booking agent is hard to find since they like to make money so that they can eat. If you’re only playing to a few hundred people, it’s tough to find someone that will give you the time of day. So, most of us do our own bookings directly with the venues.
The folks that book shows for venues are very busy. Each one has very specific business hours (1:07pm-2:41pm eastern time, on the third Monday of each month, during the correct planetary alignment). Also, they’re very skeptical of bands that they haven’t worked with. Having worked to setup the TourBaby concerts, I don’t blame them for their skepticism. Musicians in general haven’t done much to prove that we are reliable (showing up late, missing shows, not calling people back, broken equipment, the list goes on). On the other hand, there are many venue booking agents that could care less about music and simply see it as a way to bring in more people so that they can make money from beer and liquor sales. They “forget” to pay bands and generally don’t pay them what their worth. It’s a difficult situation all around.
The solution? For serious bands, just do exactly what you say you’re going to do. No exaggerations and show up on time. In other words: Act professionally. Within a few years, you’ll have built a good reputation and you’ll also know the venues to work with and those who you shouldn’t.
Gem #2
My second business gem is to actively participate in the many online communities that now exist. Each city and many states have them. For example, we’ve found that the online communities for Michigan can be very helpful. These include Michigan Bands (www.MichiganBands.com), Michigan Artists (www.MichiganArtists.com), and Midwest Bands (www.MidwestBands.com).
From the North American perspective, Just Plain Folks (www.jpfolks.com) and Tribe (www.Tribe.net) are great resources.
The key thing: As a musician, you must first give to the community and second not worry about receiving. In other words, be active and help people find shows to play and give out suggestions in areas that you have experience (good and bad).
Feedback, questions, suggestions, controversy and good jokes are always welcome.
Tom
Jackie Blue
Read Part 1: Jackie Blue - The Adventures of Detroit’s Funk & Roll Band
Read Part II: Jackie Blue - The Adventures of Detroit’s Funk & Roll Band Part II"
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| Jackie Blue: Continuing Adventures of Detroit’s Funk & Roll Band (Part 3) | Login/Create an Account | 4 comments | Search Discussion | | The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
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Re: Jackie Blue: Continuing Adventures of Detroit’s Funk & Roll Band (Part 3) (Score: 1)
by Mitch on Wednesday, January 07, 2004 @ 05:21:42 MST
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) http://www.michiganbands.com | | This is another excellent contribution from Jackie Blue. A prime example of sharing experience and know-how. |
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Re: Jackie Blue: Continuing Adventures of Detroit’s Funk & Roll Band (Part 3) (Score: 1)
by Joe_Hammer on Wednesday, January 07, 2004 @ 10:57:57 MST
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.bornhammers.com | | With regard to CD duplication I wanted to mention that anyone looking for a short run of CDs at a very good price should check out www.diskfaktory.com. They are a co-branded site with MusiciansFriend.com and they have amazing prices. We had 200 CDs made for a total of $400 ($2 per CD), not including shipping costs. That includes a 2 page booklet, back cover, printed CD face and shrink wrap. I couldn't find anyone else that could come close to that price. So we bought our CDs for $2 each and sell them for $10 - now that's a good margin!! |
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Average Score: 4
Votes: 4
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