How to Increase Music Sales
by
SaraBeth Swain.
Overall U.S. music purchases (albums, singles, digital tracks, and music videos) hit an all-time high in 2009 and according to the 2011 Nielsen SoundScan mid-year report U.S. album sales (CDs, digital albums, LPs, and other media) have seen an increase for the first time since 2004. Now before we all run to our social networking site of choice to proclaim that “Music is Back!” let’s look at some facts and ask some questions.
Michael Jackson’s sudden death in 2009 drove his catalog sales to over 8 million units. Couple the King of Pop’s sales with Taylor Swift’s sophomore release “Fearless” moving 3.2 million copies in the same year and all of a sudden U.S. music purchases skyrocket to over 1.5 billion in sales. Fast forward to 2011 – Adele’s “21” is on the precipice of crossing the 3 million sold mark and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” is in the number two spot with over 1.5 million albums sold. This is all great news for the music industry after a decade of steady decline in revenue and while record executives can breathe a temporary sigh of relief the truth is a few select artists simply cannot sustain a continuous growth in overall music sales.
So is the posed question of how to increase music sales irrelevant? No. However, we need to move beyond the Billboard Top 100 and record labels and chain stores (i.e. Best Buy, FYE) and into the future or perhaps the past. Remember that hip music store on the corner of such-and-such-a-street that you drove to on rainy Tuesday evenings when you felt broken-hearted and some dude wearing a Joy Division t-shirt and black-rimmed glasses would tell you that the antidote for your ill-fate was The Cure’s “Disintegration” or Mazzy Star’s “So That Tonight I Might See”? Go back to that store. The dude’s still there, though he may have upgraded to an Elliott Smith tee and traded in those black-rims for tortoise wayfarers. The statistics prove that there is hope for the record store – not the store you login to, but the one you used to drive to.
On the fourth anniversary of Record Store Day, this past April 16th, independent record stores saw a 39% increase in overall album sales. People still want to buy music – tangible music complete with cover art and liner notes. While the digital industry is an undeniable factor to the overall growth in music sales, CDs still reign king with 2 out of every 3 albums sold and Vinyl has seen a 41% increase in sales since 2010. Perhaps Americans are music traditionalists, perhaps we’re nostalgic, or perhaps we refuse to let go of the social experience of buying music. Nonetheless, if your favorite record store is still there – visit it, if not – drive the twenty miles into the city to find one still open, you’ll thank yourself and your favorite artists will thank you as well.
Now that we’ve established the first step of how to increase music sales let us move onto the second, a step that is out of the hands of the consumer and into the laps of the musicians: DIY. Do It Yourself. Say “heck” to the record labels, “heck” to the industry, and get out there and promote, promote, promote. Play live as often as you can and have CDs to sell or free samplers to pass out at your shows. Visit local colleges, coffee shops, and bars and distribute your music. You want your music to be heard. Once you play enough gigs and earn some dollars you’ll be able to lay down professional quality tracks in the studio. Those who like your music will purchase the full length when you’re ready to sell. Also, if you have the money and the resources press some LPs. As stated, LPs are making a comeback and this is especially true for local Pittsburgh artists. The scene digs Vinyl and they will buy it whether they have the equipment to spin it or not.
Lastly to all musicians, and this may seem obvious but it is imperative – sign up for every social media site possible: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, et cetera, and post your music via the Cloud, 8tracks, YouTube or any website that has the capability to reach a mass audience. Hundreds of musicians are being discovered yearly by using social media as their vehicle. Music traditionalists may critique this method claiming that the internet is only damaging the name of music by saturating the market with novelty acts such as Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black. But for every gimmicky musician there’s a musician producing quality, sustainable art. Let that be you. Social media is a way to be heard, make contacts (network, network, network!), and find your true audience. The times have already changed for some and if we can’t connect in the record stores let us connect through cyberspace.
As artists we want to uphold a certain amount of integrity to the craft and by doing so we often think that means refusing to let business into the art. But you don’t have to sell your soul to be a successful artist, you just have to be smart and outwit the capitalists. And as David Bowie once said, “I had to become a better businessman to become a better artist.”
Source: Nielsen SoundScan
Copyright 2011 by iMoveiLive Online Music Magazine. All rights reserved. This material may be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.