Marketing — October 1, 2009 6:00 — 0 Comments

5 Methods to Making More Money With Your Music

If you can learn how to make your band profitable then you can become unstoppable. If your band only puts you further in debt then you’re on the track to being broke, burned out and having few options. I strongly recommend that you make wise business decisions. Don’t get seduced by the idea of some outside force coming in and making your operation profitable. Take matters into your own hands. If you succeed then you’ll have a lot more people who want to give you a break.

Here are 5 cost effective ways to help make your band more profitable:

1) Take Credit Cards at Shows - I don’t know about you, but I don’t carry around a lot of cash, so half the time when I go to a show I’ll forget to stop at an ATM and I’m lucky if I have enough cash on me to get in the door. I know I’m not the only one. So don’t limit yourself by not giving knuckleheads like me the opportunity to buy your music. Take credit cards. You can do this through CD Baby. Here’s how: https://members.cdbaby.com/SellMusicAndMore/CreditCardSales.aspx

2) Get Merch – Without Paying Up-front – Need merch but don’t have the money to invest? Don’t use that as an excuse. You can go through companies like Spreadshirt.comand Zazzle who will make shirts for you as they’re ordered. They get a good commission out of the deal, but as they say – “some of something is better than all of nothing.” There’s no excuse for not having merch these days – except for laziness. So get off yer butt and get some merch together.

3) Get Digital Distribution – If you’ve got music that’s been recorded and released then there’s no excuse not to have that music available for digital download through all of the major distributors. You can sign up through CD Baby and sell your music on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody and many more.

4) Monetize Your Website - Your website should make it easy for people to spend money. Have a new CD? People should learn about it and be able to purchase it right from the home page of your site. You should also use Google Analytics or a similar setup so you can keep track of your traffic statistics. If you want to drive traffic to your site then it helps to know how much traffic your getting, where it’s coming from and when you’re doing something that’s working. Need help? I happen to know a great web designer…. ScottJamesWebDesign.com.

5) Get some publicity – Once you’re operation is primed to take in some green then you’ll be able to take advantage of some exposure. One way you can get some of that exposure is by launching a publicity campaign through musicsubmit.com. Very cost effective and if you’re ready for it then you should get some good results. Also, if you’ve got a video to promote then you may be interested in a video submission service that I’ve got in the works (This will blast your video all over the internet and result in traffic and enhanced search engine rankings for your website) . Send me an email for more information . Just let me know that you’re an Independent Rockstar reader and I’ll give you a great pre-launch deal.

Remember, your band is a business. If you run your band as though you have to make it work yourselves and you will never get your big break, then ironically you’ll actually be much closer to getting a break. So use these tools and make some profit. Win the game because not only are you damn good – but you’re also a little bit smarter than the average band.