| When you are releasing a record, the marketing though record stores comes
first, then you go for airplay and promotions. They may be done pretty much
together, but putting your product into retail outlets should proceed other actives by a
slight amount. The reason is that the listening public and the radio stations want
to know that if your product is played, someone can go out and buy it. |
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| You will be putting the product into stores on consignment.
This means that if the product is sold by the stores, they will pay you the
agreed-upon wholesale price. If they don't sell the product the stores will return
the unsold copies at the end of the consignment period (usually 6 months). You will
consign product at about 50% of the retail selling price. You will also need to
provide promotional copies and copies for in-store airplay and customer preview before
purchase. |
| All though the sales cycle, it is important that the release
has good PR and image. |
| It will be important for you to initially provide
"coverage of retail" This could mean about 2 copies into 15 stores. Start
off small and with an amount that will probably sell quickly. If you overstock
initially, the record can look "failed" even if you are selling records.
If you put in two copies, they sell and you put in four copies and they sell, it looks
like a successful record. If you put 25 copies in the store and sell six, it looks
like a failed record. |
| After the record starts to sell it is possible to arrange an
autograph party for the group at a key retail store. The group autographs copies of
the records that customers purchase. This is a promotional activity that needs to be
done after the record is selling. You wouldn't want to arrange an autograph party
and have two people show up; this is stupid and makes you look stupid. |
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NEXT WEEK
LEARN THE INITAL PROMOTION YOU WILL NEED |
