| If you are releasing your record you should have contact information to at
least 600 fans. You should have gotten names at gigs with sales invoices and guest
registers. If you successfully launched a pre-release and sold 1000, you will have
the fan base to hold a successful release party. A good, inexpensive, place to hold
it is on an "off-night" at one of the clubs you have played at. You would
send out postcards and arrange for promotional items (flyers, etc.) to let your public
know that you are having the party. Your Promotional campaign will begin with the
release party. |
|
| The promotion that will really sell records in volume will be
your airplay promotion. The airplay promotion however will take time. Usually
we need to find one secondary-market radio station that will give your release test
airplay for a 30 day period. If requests and sales come from this test airplay,
other stations can be convinced to also play the release. |
| You are trying to cover an area that spreads 150 miles.
The promotion that will cause initial record sales will be your gigs. Now is the
time to "step up" your gigs and to get coverage over your entire sales
area. It is my experience that bands that gig will sell records at retail.
Bands that don't gig or don't gig enough, or don't gig over a large enough area, will have
a much tougher time getting initial retail sales. |
| Many groups have asked me if they should sell their release
at gigs, or if they should try to get the customers to go to the record stores and buy
it. I feel strongly that they should sell it at the gig. For every copy you
sell at the gig, your release is exposed to the purchaser's friends, who in turn can want
the record. So we see an INCREASE at retail when groups sell their product at the
gig. |
| Although it's important to perform in all areas of the region
that you have established, it will be important to gig around the area that has the radio
station that initially agrees to test play your record. It is also important to mail
out notices for these gigs and to let fans know you are on the radio. |
| In addition to these activities, you will want to make sure
that you have an Internet site up and running. This could be through your
"member space" from your online provider or could be purchased web space with a
purchased Internet address (yourband.com). It costs approximately $230.00 to set
yourself up for a year with full address and web space. We use hway.com for our pages. You should then put your Internet
address on all of your promotional material, in ads, etc. On the site you can
announce your release, tell where it can be purchased, post band news and upcoming gig
list and even post pictures of previous gigs or band pictures, bios, etc. The Internet
promotion should be an ongoing promotion that actually starts BEFORE you release.
If, however, you haven't established a site, NOW's the time. |
Related
Postings: Ask Tom Gelardi - 4/20/99 REQ Atricle at http://recordingeq.com/EQ/reg0499/gelardi01.htm |
