Hey, Matt Bacon here, you may know me from my music industry education Instagram channel @bacons.bits. I wanted to take a moment to talk about sales with you guys to promote the upcoming sales course I’m running with my friends Curtis Dewar and Keith Chachkes!
Ultimately what I’ve found is that sales, especially in underground music, comes down to a few core details. These include making sure people understand the quality of your product, creating personal connections, and of course, reminding people that your product exists!
3. Proving You Have Quality A Product
So many people think that their bands are great. That’s like – part of why you’re in a band right? To make music that you think is great? Yeah, I thought so too. The thing is though, people don’t necessarily understand why your band is good. You have to explain it to them. You have to show them, you have to beat it into their skulls.
How do you do this? Well, you document the process so people can see the care you put into the album. You provide commentary on your record so people can understand why your music is cool. You add all sorts of bonus goodies, like a digital download with physical purchases. You showcase why your product is high quality with some video content. All this stuff is essential if you’re trying to make sales.
2. Personal Connections
People don’t seem to understand how much of a band's early days is just selling records to your friends and people you connect with randomly at shows or elsewhere. The whole point is to build up your personal connections -- because when you have good personal connections people are more likely to want to check out your record, hear how great it is and then buy it.
In the underground, selling 300 records is basically viewed as a significant success. 300 people is not that many people. Why aren’t more bands sending personal thank you messages to all these people? That all but ensures a follow-up sale. Why aren’t more bands directly reaching out to individuals in their scene BEFORE their album comes out just to make friends and start to build up some organic buzz? Stuff spreads by word of mouth STILL – so get the word going.
1. Reminding People Your Product Exists
This is the other big one. We’re all connected to so many people all the time it’s easy to forget exactly what they’re getting up too. A ton of people feel this way – they don’t know who is doing what in the scene and they need to be reminded time and time again. It's not that they don't care – they're just busy with too much going on.
So how do you remind people? You pin your sales link as a post on Facebook and Twitter. You make it your Twitter bio link. Then you post about it a lot. If you’re feeling fancy I’d even retarget people who have bought your records in the past or have engaged with your page since they already have awareness. This part is CRUCIAL.
So yeah… I hope this outlines some core selling tactics that will help you move the needle on your band. The best part is all of these tactics will work even after you’ve released your record -- though of course they work better if you start earlier.
If you want more stuff like this in your life then why not join our upcoming sales challenge that launches July 27th? Just email me, matt@dropoutmedia.net!
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