[Harp-L] Give CDs away at your performances?

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I got a message from Derik Sivers, who used to run CDBaby.com, the online CD retailer, the other day, and here's what he said:

>If you are a performing musician that sells CDs at your shows, please consider trying this experiment to boost both CD sales and attendance:
>
>Everyone must have a CD, even if free.
>http://sivers.org/livecd

I've been a CDBaby artist for about 15 years, and I remember when Derik threw a bash a few years ago in NYC for CDBaby members where he told us to ALWAYS make sure we got money for our CDs.  So what Derik suggested in his message is a big change.  But Derik's never done me wrong, so I tried his suggestion today at a 2-hour solo performance at a farmer's market in Weston, CT.  Here's what happened: 

I brought 50 CDs to the gig.  I repeated over and over to the crowd, starting with my hellos, that I wanted 50 people to go home with CDs, whether they paid for them or not.  Ultimately I sold or gave away 36 CDs at prices ranging from $0 to $20 for total revenue of $156, almost exactly $4.33 per unit.  (About $15 of that revenue was actually food--farmer's market, remember?  When I finished performing, three farmers came over to me, one by one, and gave me apples, pears, and coffee beans.  I was very moved, the food is quite good, and it's as good as money to me.) 

For this size crowd--about 100 people--normally I'd have sold about 15 CDs at $10 each.  So the total take was similar, my cost was about $20 higher (about $1 per CD), and over 20 people--1/5 of the crowd--went home with my music who otherwise wouldn't have. And I don't think anyone at that gig will forget me soon.  The goodwill I generated today was substantial.  A lot of people were smiling in that crowd.  The people who ran the market loved it, too.  

One interesting thing:  many people seemed to feel obligated to pay, and not to take a CD unless they did, no matter how often I told them it was perfectly okay to take a CD home for free.  Go figure.

For me this experiment was a success.  I'll certainly try it again.  I'd MUCH rather end up printing a couple thousand more CDs to sell at an average price of $4 apiece than sit on boxes of CDs at home that a lot of people won't buy at $10 apiece.

If you're selling your CDs at your gigs, I suggest you give it a try.  Tell the audience that everyone is going home with a CD, ask them to pay whatever they want to pay for it (I told my audience I would accept anything from $0 to $1 Million), and see what happens.  And whether it works or not, please post the results here so we can all learn from your experience.

Thanks and regards, Richard Hunter


author, "Jazz Harp"
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
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