The Big Problem with the Internet & How It Affects Your CD Sales
by John Dawes:: (www.musichosting.net)

Stop for a moment and think about all the times you’ve sold a CD to a fan.
You’ve sold more CDs at your live shows than online, right? Has a fan ever asked
to listen to your CD before buying it? Most likely not! They must know that your
CD is nothing like your live show! So what is causing fans to buy more of your
CDs at live shows than online? Therein lays the Big Problem of the Internet and
how it affects your CD sales.

Essentially the problem boils down to this; you're selling an intangible
product. Yes, your CD itself is a physical product but focus on why fans buy it;
they want a relationship or some small connection to you because of something
you did, said or exposed in a new light while performing live.

Every CD is a Potential Relationship
With tangible products, like cars and how-to books, online shoppers already know
what they are looking for. They have a need they want fulfilled so when they get
online to make a purchase they search for the best price and fastest delivery.
An independent artist’s music CD typically does not fall into this situation.
This means that as an independent artist, you have to rely on the connections
you make with fans during your live performances to sell CDS, since
“traditional” Internet promotion is not effective – i.e. search engine
placement, banner ads, download services like iTunes, artist directories, P2P,
etc.

How to get around the Big Problem of the Internet
Just now, you may be thinking should artists bother with the Internet? Yes!
Absolutely! However, don’t rely on it to generate traffic or interest by just
“being there.” Use it to enhance the relationships you create offline while
promoting and performing live shows. This is where the Internet becomes a very
powerful relationship tool. It’s just a matter of adjusting what you’re already
doing when sending email messages and using search engines to do some
exploration before playing live

Although the approaches commonly used to generate traffic for solution-based or
information products do not work well for intangible products like music CDs, a
very effective method is to use the Internet to extend your current offline or
newly built relationships with fans and industry professionals. All you really
need to be effective are the following: a reliable email service and a music
artist web site under your own domain name (www.yourbandname.com), and access to
any search engine for research, such as Google. Some very practical books on how
to get all this going are The Complete Guide to Internet Promotion for
Musicians, Artists & Songwriters and Using Email Effectively as an Artist or
Songwriter. I strongly recommend you pick up your own copies. Also, if you
already have an artist web site or need to build one, see Is Your Web Site
Limiting Your CD Sales?

You Already Have the Skills You Need to Succeed
Once you are armed with these three things, it takes just a little extra busy
work before and after live shows. In your spare time you can use the Internet to
discover where potential fans live, shop and play in your home market to you
determine the best areas to promote and play live shows, get reviews, place your
CDs for sale, etc. This is a much more manageable situation than trying to learn
how to get a high ranking in search engines, uploading all your song files to
every artist directory and pay-per-download service you can find, etc. You
control every aspect of your exposure!

There is a workshop coming up in San Francisco, on November 6th, called How to
Use the Internet to Get New Fans for Your Next Gig, designed for Artists that
already know how to send email and use search engines. Whether or not you have
an artist web site, this workshop will be of benefit. It covers how to get fans
to respond to your live show email announcements, whether or not they come to
your performances, and how to set up a properly built music web site that
engages both fans and industry professionals. Artists will also learn how to use
the Internet to find fans that will come to live shows and buy CDs, instead of
relying on it to generate interest.

However, if you can't make it, I strongly recommend you pick up a copy of The
Complete Guide to Internet Promotion for Musicians, Artists & Songwriters and
Using Email Effectively as an Artist or Songwriter at our web site or call
toll-free (951) 303-9506. Also, if you add any third book in our online catalog,
we'll drop another audio book in with your purchase called Is Your Web Site
Limiting Your CD Sales?

John Dawes, Timsweeney.com