Give it away, Give it away, Give it away, now.
Have you ever thought about losing your mind and GIVING your CD away? Eventually, that’s gonna be the price of a CD anyway… FREE.
John Perry Barlow of the Grateful Dead said, “the best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away.” …we couldn’t regulate [taping at] our shows, and you can’t online. The Internet doesn’t behave that way. But here’s the thing: if I give my song away to 20 people, and they give it to 20 people, pretty soon everybody knows us, and our value as creators is dramatically enhanced. That was the value proposition with the [Grateful] Dead.” (full article here)
It’s the ultimate act of faith—giving your work away, but, there are very wealthy companies (like Google) who have made gazillions of dollars by giving most of what they do away.
Check out this article by Music Think Tank about bands giving their CDs away. People I know are actually getting GOOD results from this.
I don’t know if I would do this without a solid plan. However, there are plenty of things that people WILL pay for… CDs are just moving down the list.
Question: If you HAD to give your CDs away (and you WILL eventually), how would your ministry sustain?
You also might like these posts:
Hi! Mickey Gamble & Kevin Ward here, creators of the 
Please enter your name and email below. We never give away, trade or sell your information. We don't like SPAM, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
Loading...
We have day jobs~
What do you mean Karen?
We’ve been giving CDs away for a while now and it actually has increased sales. We simply ask folks to drop by the table and pick up a CD as a momento of our evening with them. CDs are $15 but pay what you want -$10, $5 or nothing- but please come by and see us. Suddenly we had more people at the table and most paid something which covers the cost of the CDs. We are paying the bills with t-shirt sales, soundtrack sales and other merchandise that cannot be digitally reproduced.
Thanks for the report Dave… I know several people who are doing just as well with the “optional” pricetag. I think what you gain from at least “offering” this to your people FAR outweighs the risk of doing it.
What would you tell everyone on the fence to do?
Great advice Kevin. We’ve done several giveaways of our music digitally – though nothing physical yet – and it has increased visits to our website and sales online. I think people are majorly missing out when they don’t do more stuff like this.
Thanks for the comment Chris. I’ve heard it said that if you want the same results, keep doing the same thing… Just trying to make sure people try some different stuff.
Let us know if or when you do this. Mkay?
In answer to your question: If you HAD to give your CDs away (and you WILL eventually), how would your ministry sustain?
Right now having day jobs is the only way we could sustain what we do. Understanding that we are just getting our studio (mixing/mastering) up and running as we want it. It’s been a 15 yr. venture getting here (about 30 yrs in the biz). Also working with some great musicians that we have been with for quite a while now helps. Who are as sold out as we are to do this. We are blessed in the fact that we have a hugh old house that will support the studio and also have a very computer savy daughter that will do our web site for us when we are ready. I think you are totally right about giving things away. It is, as in all things, about building relationships first. If and when the people come to know you, who you are and what you stand for they are more likley to want to support you (i.e. pay for things) (G). So, for us right now we pay for everything we do. Looking forward to seeing what the future holds for us in this changing music industry.
I’ve come to learn that worth is not rendered by the price I put on it, but by the value someone else puts in it. Funny thing is that leason cost me alot to learn it.lol
Jerimy, I like that! We humans are often slow to learn. That you did learn it is awesome!
Karen, I see. send us a link to your “old house studio”.. those are the coolest…
Here is an idea.. if you don’t want to give eVERYbody a CD, why don’t you have a drawing for one at each concert?… then the people who don’t win you can give them something else…
I don’t think you realize all you have to offer your fans yet. I don’t think a LOT of people realize that the CD is just the start..
Jerimy. That’s brilliant. Can you give an example?…
I’m in the service industry. For years I struggled with what to charge for the services I rendered. I also wrapped myself worth around that fee. Was the price I set to high…to low… certainly I’m worth more than that???? Then I had a “moment.” It’s not about “a price” it’s about “Value.” If what you do improves the value of another life, then how can you put a price on that? I Hope that helps.
Nice. I like that Jerimy. Value over price. I think we can all use that.
Kevin,
I want to try this!!! I think I’m going to start by giving away one or two at each concert, and if that goes well, then I may jump into offering them to everyone!! We’ll have to see how it goes. But first, I have to talk the other guys into it lol!!!
I think that’s a pretty safe move… raffle a few away.. at worse, you have some new email addresses and maybe you can find something ELSE to give them later!
Thanks for the comment, Ross
My local group had some old CDs and even some cassettes that were a few years old. We began telling fans to come and take however many they wanted and to pay whatever they wanted. It generated some income out of old product we’d have likely carried for several more years.
You know, David, that’s a good point. I have a post coming that talks about the fact that most groups don’t have enough to offer their fans…
THANK YOU for the comment!