Is your album a starting line or a finish line?

September 13th, 2008

People often asked, “How much does the average artist on CD Baby sell?”

Others would take the numbers on the “about” page and divide them: $85 million paid out to 250,000 available albums = $340 earnings per album. Now we know how much the “average” album sells!

Problem is: the numbers are right but the answer is wrong because it groups together two completely different types of approaches to an album release, giving an inaccurate average for your type.

For some artists, releasing an album is like the starting line in a race. The gun goes off! They work it! They spend hours a day pushing, promoting, selling, striving. For the next few months, they never stop. Reaching new people by any means necessary, whether playing live for strangers in strange venues many times a week, or joining new communities online.

For those types, I’d say the average income (through my one little store) was $5000. (And 50 of them earned over $100,000 each.)

But for many artists, releasing an album is like the finish line in a race. They’ve always wanted to make a record. They did it. It’s done. They give some for free to friends and family, and glow in the compliments. They might do a record release concert and make a website, but in terms of effort spent, they’re done. (Sometimes from satisfaction, but sometimes from entitlement: “Now that my brilliant album is done the world will recognize my genius!”)

For those types, I’d say the average income was $20.

The people who would ask about the average were usually artists trying to predict how well they would sell on CD Baby.

Because 50% of all sales on CD Baby were returning customers just browsing for new music, it was possible to sell a few albums without doing anything at all.

But the important thing is it’s up to you which kind of approach you want to take.

Is your album a starting line or a finish line?

http://flickr.com/photos/siansburys/2743541259/

© 2008 Derek Sivers

Viewing 176 Comments

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    Wow,

    this is the question. I did release my first "official" album this year, had a release party and a website... I'm planning to record an EP this fall, just to keep putting stuff out and "stay in the race".

    Yet I didn't consistently promote the first album.

    Anyways, it's feels good and necessary to keep regarding things as being possible - and to act in that spirit, of course ;)

    That's what I love your blog for the most.

    Thanks & Cheers,
    Vanja
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    This may be your most important post ever.

    Our society is so hooked on numbers (the game, the poll, the salary) that they make us feel better even when they have absolutely no context or meaning.

    I hope this will be a wake up call for many artists.

    Fran
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    Very interesting post. As a home studio owner/operator I see bands of all kinds, and it's interesting to see if they have the starting line and finish line approach.

    My band sold about $150 per album, less than average, but we were really pushing our own web store.

    A huge percentage of our CD Baby sales (around 80%) were not promoted at all. Now that I run a recording studio, I recommend CD Baby to all of my clients because of my experience with these CD Baby shoppers just looking for new music.
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    Spot on Derek. Most musicians I come across have no plans whatsoever for their CD release and how they'll use it to propel their career. For them it's the end goal.

    Well done for sharing these insights.

    - Kavit
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    I got a big kick outta your math breakdown -- have you read Taleb's book The Black Swan? It really messed my head up and forced me to rethink the assumptions and heuristics I've been using since I was taught probability.

    I'm curious -- is there a published list of your top 50 sellers? I'm obviously asking because I'd be making them into a research project, so I'd understand if that's proprietary info.

    I'll go check @ the CD Baby site, if you've already posted it there, ignore this and forgive my ign'ance.
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    Very Great Advice... its make me step back to think about what type of artist I am.

    I don't perform any of my material live, so I have mostly a finish line approach once I've decided on the pieces to be included on an album.

    Yet, I've recently realized how my further discovery can be helped when I sit down and really work on new ways to expose the existing songs and recordings to people.
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    good questions!
    speaking of starting lines,
    how's new web project coming?
    could really use it right now....
    managing my team is kicking me in behind!
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    >how’s new web project coming?


    Still setting things up, now. I was away for most of August, and just got back. I'll email you soon. Thanks!
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    I love this question! Anyone that finishes an album, a well crafted piece of work, deserves credit for finishing something. But that doesn't entitle one to make a living from it. It seems we earn the title of "working artist" when we use the tools of our art to get paid. As satisfying as it is to complete your disc, if we want to make a living solely as a musician, I don't think we can look at albums as anything but a starting line.
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    The rub in promotion is that it takes time and money. Time is most under-rated by most people. I think of the series "Rome" and Cicero is about to be executed. He is given a moment to contemplate and he looks to the sky, taking in all of its sweetness from the clouds and powder blue expanse. You don't need be near death to understand the value of time. Every minute is an opportunity in its self to squeeze the most out it. Which would be better, pitching people, pasting fliers, calling radio stations etc. or gradually building colossus of some musical construction? Tampering with the delicate lines of counterpoint or cold calling people, imploring that they purchase you wares?

    Of course it is critical to take the CD much further after it is finished, sharing it is a monstrous piece of joy that no one should ever miss. So how about accumulating a lot of projects first and promoting them all at once? Then every dollar spent works on not one but maybe 15 CDs. Any energy that comes from media exposes a group of creations rather than just one. This will allow you to be very extravagant and overdo the promotion phase because so much is getting done due to this efficiency. What do you think?
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    I think it also has a lot to do with your demographics. I've been recording for years and though our sales on CD Baby are not very huge, I think that it has to do more with the fact that people in our audience over the age of 45 are still not buying a ton of music online. At every live show, I hand out a form and ask them where they buy music and/or if they buy any online. They are overwhelmingly NOT buying online yet. If they do, the name they are more familiar with is Amazon and iTunes. They don't remember or even know how to look in their spam boxes either....... Thank goodness for LIVE shows!!!
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    releasing my latest, my fourth ever but my first as a solo artist, I definitely had the above conversation with myself. I decided that the album would be an additional experience for the fan who decided to take a listen. So far I've had my best live sales at an outdoor show that happened at a park picnic pavilion. I didn't know anybody there but I made a lot of friends! And nothing I've ever done sounds like my new one.
    love your guts everybody!
    AEB
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    Good article, great insight! I did find myself thinking that it would be interesting to know what the median sales per CD is, i.e., where is the top of the bell curve?

    My album on CD Baby is digital distribution only and I've not done a lot of promotion. CD Baby and the 20 digital vendors it has distributed my music to have not produced much as of yet.

    Maybe this is a confirmation of the need for getting the word out, but I wonder if CD Baby folks are still more interested in physical CDs than MP3s?

    I can say that most of my sales have been directly from my web site, which is due to online promotion at music forums I frequent.
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    For us the completion of an album is always a starting line. For our last release in April, we created a special website just for the album based on Mikhel Raud's ebook (which I would not recommend at this time) and linked it and our CD Baby/iTunes from everywhere - MySpace, Facebook, our main website, etc. We actively promote on MySpace, in our newsletter, and in person by handing out free professional sample CDs and fliers. We play about 4 - 5 live shows a month. But we've only sold three copies of our physical CD through CD Baby, as well as a smattering of digital distribution through iTunes. All three of those physical CD customers were people we knew personally or otherwise already knew about the band. We did sell one copy of our previous album to a complete stranger from the UK, which was cool. Maybe we just suck and no one will give us the hard truth?

    On the other hand we typically sell an average of 1-2 CDs per show, even if there are only a couple of people who have never seen us before. The quality of the recordings are totally pro, and we spent upwards of $10k on the full production. There are people who record an album on the cheap as the finish line and sell more copies online to their friends than we sell period. There are seemingly two logical conclusions to draw from this - either we suck at music and are not making a product that most people would want to buy. Or we suck at marketing and despite actively promoting are failing to reach/convert new people. Or a combination of both.

    I'm sure we will put out a few more CDs, but eventually the "starting line" album may become the "finish line" album if we can't sort it out.
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    Ouch! The truth hurts. My goal was to put out a finished product. I didn't have a dream beyond that horizon. Now I've released 2 CD's and am working on the 3rd while also learning how to build a fan-base.
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    My band just opened up for Jill Sobule at an extravagant, elegant house party in a beautiful, refurbished mansion on a hill over looking the NYC skyline.. We were paid well, treated like kings and appreciated. The future of the music business is patronage. The guy who hosted the party invested directly in the new Jill Sobule album and was given a private concert in exchange. These direct relationships with fans and artists will sidestep all the industry bs and create sustainable careers in niche markets that are cultivated carefully. Less and less artists will be all things to all people, but be something essential to smaller markets with more defined tastes..
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    Thanks for as always a great post and replying on my blog. As Steven wrote, the truth hurts, for my band it was the finish line but we all learnd a lesson, and you realy have to think about it and discuss it in the band.
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    A very thought-provoking question, Derek. I chose to release a CD for the purpose of sharing my compositions with whomever might enjoy them. I also considered the CD release as a way to "test the waters" from the creative side; and, to determine if the CD might actually generate enough sales revenue for reinvestment purposes. From what I've found, budget plays a key part in that "line" you've referenced.
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    This is so true. Even the Rolling Stones, the biggest rock band of all time, spends a year or two touring after each album release, endlessly promoting their work, because they know that's the only way to reach the most people and sell the most copies.

    Releasing an album, publishing a book, starting a blog. These are all starting points. If you stop there, you're doomed to failure.
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    One small comment on the people that worried that their music "sucked" because of small sales. The music is what it is and if you think it is premiere then it is just that. There is an enormous mass of music being made on the earth today and people are being bombarded with it around the clock, on the radio, at the store, TV, the computer and a million other places. Everyday there are more than 200,000 cds produced. Just look at the enormous daily offering at cdbaby. So try to move merchandise but leave the judgment to your ears and not your inventory sheet.
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    I too believe it all matters what you put into it. I mean I had a very talented hip hop group I managed, and I gave them a lot of word of mouth publicity and all of a sudden people loved their music. Their motivation though was making an album, they didn't care about sales, shows or anything and I had to let them go. Talent means nothing in record sales, it just sets how long your success will last. Success is different per person, per genre, per etc. It all matters on your situation. With the group, last I heard they are still happy recording songs and working a day job, and I'm trying to break the day job curse so I can call music a career. That is my finish line, and I've already passed checkpoints getting a music and entertainment business degree. Now its all a matter of finding mentors and talent to work with. Great post silvers! One of the most important I've read in a long time, and I read industry blogs daily.
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    Good point. Good pep talk for the next album. But I'm confused, and tired! Am I supposed to be practicing and gigging my ass off to achieve musical nirvana, or chatting and promoting myself tirelessly? 'Cause I can't do both, and while I love the first, the second activity exhausts me. I'm going back to bed...
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    Yet another brilliant point that Derek makes! Once any artist releases an album, it is a great starting point and accomplishment. Those who want to sell cd's & downloads must attack many avenues of promotion. Just performing live may not do the trick anymore for most songwriters.