|
Selling Your Record On Your Own
by
Kristin Thomson and Jenny
Toomey
Simple Machines Records
This paper is an excerpt from Simple Machines' fine
publication, An Introductory Guide
to Putting Out Records, Cassettes and CDs.
More info about the Guide can be
found at the bottom of this paper.
So you've released your own record, cassette or CD. What now?
Its not so hard to put out your own
release. All it takes is a little money, a dose of
ingenuity, and a lot of perseverance, and you have yourself a bunch of records,
cassettes or CDs. Now that you have your jewels, what are you going to do
with them? We have learned, often the hard way, that selling them (and actually
getting your money back) is the most difficult part. Basically there are
four methods of selling records, which you could pursue
simultaneously.
Distributors
Distributors act as middle agents between little labels and
stores all over
the country. Most of the existing American "independent" record
distributors
are corrupt and make a lot of their money from stepping on tiny
labels, or go
out of business and take your money with them (like Rough Trade
who went
under owing money to almost every little label mentioned in the
back of the
packet). However, there are a few trustworthy distributors,
which we've
listed in the back. We sell our 7" records to distributors for
$1.75-$2.00,
and 12" for $4.50 -$5.25, and CDs for $6.40-$7.00, but the prices
may be
higher or lower depending on your costs in manufacturing. Most
distributors
will buy 10 to 100 records from you at this reduced cost, and
then (should)
pay you back within 30 or 60 days.
Retail
Local alternative record stores will probably take local
releases. Although they may buy conservative amounts, it's much easier to talk local
stores into cash on delivery deals, so at least you'll have some cash in your
hand.
Selling at Shows
Sell them at shows. We know - you want to be dancing up in the
front row, but shows are one of the best opportunities to sell records, zines or
anything. Especially effective if the band you put out is playing and they
announce from stage that you have records for sale.
Mail Order
Mailorder Ordering records through the mail can be fun! In
fact there are a bunch of healthy mailorder distributors in the US, including K,
Ajax, Parasol, Vinyl Ink and Skullduggery. They're not as big as
distributors, but they may be interested in carrying your stuff on their catalog.
But you should consider offering your records through the mail yourself,
because that's the most direct and sure-fire way to sell your records.
Place an ad in a couple of fanzines and accept mail orders. Choose wisely,
though, because ads are expensive - sometimes $75 to $200 for a 1/4 page! Think
about who will be reading that zine, and the likelihood of them buying your
records before signing that check. For inexpensive publicity, you can
also send promo copies of your records to major fanzines, which will probably
review it. Make sure they print your address and the mailorder price
correctly, so that review readers can contact you about purchasing your record. If
you advertise in a few fanzines and put catalogs in the records that
you sell to store and get a few reviews, you're sure to get some mail. Make
sure your prices absorb the costs of postage and packaging incurred by
you. We've cut down on packaging costs by re-using boxes and packages that
have been sent to us or our friends, and we spend a lot of time cutting up
cardboard boxes otherwise destined for the trash into 7" squares. You can
also get mailing materials from local / college radio stations or record
stores, which usually get a ton of promo records every week, all neatly
packaged in nifty boxes. The radio stations end up throwing out these boxes, so
they're usually more than happy to give them away.
Notes:
This paper is an excerpt from Simple
Machines Records'
publication An
Introductory Mechanics Guide to Putting Out Records, Cassettes
and CDs. Its
widely regarded by the Indie community as one of the most
valuable info sources around, and it receives a big huge thumbs
up from Outer Sound.
You can find more info from the Guide in other Outer Sound
University papers.
However, to get a real learnin',
we recommend that you check out the whole thing. You can do this
in one of two ways:
- Outer Sound has posted a handy text-only version of the
guide which you can
easily print up. Follow the link and hit print!
- Of course, a text-only version is pretty boring. To enjoy the
wonders of Simple Machines' desktop publishing skills, you can
get
the print version by sending a check for $4 (what a bargain!) to:
Simple Machines / P.O. Box 10290 / Arlington, VA 22210-1290
Besides putting out great info for the indie community, Simple
Machines also happens to put out quite a few great records by bands like Tsunami, Sea
Saw, The Raymond Brake and Danielle Howle. Take a look at their
Outer Sound Web page for more info!
Top Of Page
|
