Cutouts, Repackaging

It is usually hard for recording companies to judge the number of records they need to make when releasing a new product or creating more of the same product. If the demand is higher than anticipated, then many consumers will miss out on getting it. If the demand is lower than anticipated, then they will end up with too much inventory in their warehouses that remains unsold. If there is a decrease in demand on a product title, then the production of the product stops. All the additional inventory that remains unsold is then referred to as a cutout product. These are products which do not sell at normal retail prices in stores because there is no demand for them. So, as a way of getting consumers interested in these products again, distributors slash prices on the products and make them cheaper for their clients to purchase. These clients are known as the cutout merchants who specialize in purchasing large quantities of cutout products and then selling them to retail stores at cutout prices (which are low prices). Then those stores sell the products individually to consumers but at a discounted price. In the end, the distributors, cutout merchants and retailers all profit by purchasing in large quantities and then selling individually to consumers, which gives them a bargain on the retail price. The only unfortunate thing is that the musicians and artists of these products will not receive royalties from this type of business practice.

There are some record store businesses that prefer cutout sales because they make more money than selling at retail prices. If they are entirely a cutout company, they may purchase old master titles and then rerelease them to fans of those titles. This especially works if an artist has just died because there is much greater interest in their music at this time. Of course, their music products will still be at discounted prices for consumers.

Mail Order

If you have a mailing list made up of fans or if it is just a mailing list that you rented to use, you can send them mail-order catalogs which sell musical recordings of a particular genre or a variety of different genres. A lot of sales can be made this way. All you have to do is research your target consumer market and then generate a mailing list of people from this market who are interested in what you have to sell. Then you have to create good advertisements which are effective in showcasing to them what you have to sell. When using print advertisements, just remember to include all the information about how they can order your recording through the mail.

If the only thing you want to do is sell your recordings to music fans, then you just need to design a quality-looking form where they can order it by mail. Make sure you add all the additional costs onto the price such as the shipping and handling charges. You should also give your customers multiple shipping options with different fees for them. The handling charge covers the time it takes you to package the product and the cost of the materials that you’re using to mail it. Keep track of any sales tax that you are required to pay in your jurisdiction, just in case.

To make your package more interesting, hire a graphic designer and have them add graphics to your mailing package which illustrate the cover of your product beautifully. Any additional promotional elements you add to the mailing package will be a plus as well. Inside the package, make sure to put your business card in there along with a postage-paid envelope that is addressed to you. That way, it will be easier for consumers to contact you about their questions or interest in your products. This will ultimately lead to more sales in the end.

According to independent labels, mail-order advertisements are the most successful at generating sales when multiple titles are offered in it. But if you are just selling one title, try to include some free gift offering with it such as a free poster, decal, or shirt. If it’s a holiday like Christmas, try to send out your holiday advertisements a few months in advance. This allows you to save money by getting other independent labels to do some cooperative mailing with you.

Marketing in music publications targeting consumers and trade markets will help you sell more records and also enable you to broadcast tour dates and play music on the radio. It is very expensive for an independent label to advertise so they always try to be careful about not wasting their money. Some labels have more money to spend on advertising than others do. The best thing you can do is analyze the advertising costs and see how much potential they have to generate sales for you. Be realistic when determining how many sales you can actually get from your records. More importantly, determine how many sales you will need just to break even on the costs you paid to advertise your records. If it doesn’t look like you’ll at least break even, then don’t even bother with the advertisements. To truly figure this out, see how much exposure an advertisement would give you. Figure out the number of readers, listeners or viewers you will get based on whatever method of advertising you choose. For example, if don’t have a distributor that provides your products nationwide, then you certainly don’t want to pay a lot of money to a nationwide publication unless you are sure that mail-ordering will be an effective way to sell to them. Just remember that if you are unknown in the music world, then you’ll have a much tougher time selling to a nationwide market, even if your music is good. That is why spending your money on local advertising in regional magazines and small-time record stores may be the way to go. But regardless of where you advertise, it is always going to cost you money to get your product marketed so that consumers will know it exists.

Placing Ads

Before you place ads, you need to know what the advertising rates are in the magazines or newspapers that you want to advertise in. These costs will likely determine whether or not you choose to advertise with them. In addition, you should get a feel for what kind of subscribers are reading those magazines or newspapers and whether they’d be interested in what you’re selling. The best magazines to use are local music- or entertainment-related magazines that get sent out weekly.

Surprisingly, a lot of new records get sold in smaller magazines that have cheaper ad rates. The most important thing is to target your audience properly, even if you don’t have to pay a lot of money in ads. Remember that expensive ads are not always the best ads. There are plenty of people posting free classified advertisements who still generate sales because they have targeted music fans properly. Another effective method of advertising is to time the placement of the ad just right so that a review is generated for your record. If the release is going to be sent to a national radio station, you might get a bigger audience on there if you place a few advertisements in certain college trade publications because DJs and music directors tend to look at them. Then, if they like what they see, they may contact you about your record.

Branding the Music

You must have brand loyalty and brand equity if you are ever going to build your music brand. With brand equity, this represents how valuable consumers think your music products are in comparison to other music products of the same genre. However, brand equity represents the value of your artists, music group and label as well. As for brand loyalty, this is when you have fans of your music who are always interested in purchasing your products when they become available. These fans would never consider purchasing from your competition because they are loyal to your brand. Of course, you cannot just generate brand loyalty as quickly as you would want to. This is a process that takes a lot of time because you have to establish your music brand in the business first. Once more people have heard your music and it has been out there circulating around the world for a certain amount of time, then brand loyalty will start to be generated. After you have achieved that, selling records gets so much easier.

Every musician should have a goal to enhance their music brand. This is how you gain a following and earn credibility in the music industry. Furthermore, a brand separates you from your competition and establishes your reputation as a real musician who can stand on their own. Soon, your brand will have lots of fans that will recognize you and the music you give them. This will give you the opportunity to capitalize on merchandising things like hats and apparel that advertise your brand.

If you are just using your name to sell records without having a brand, you won’t be very successful. But if you are going to do a good job in associating your brand with the music you make, you must understand how your music and how you can associate it with your marketing. It doesn’t matter how you deliver your marketing to consumers just as long as you have a creative idea for making it attractive to them. The idea is to create an emotional response in them which will make them appreciate your brand and respect the music that it creates.

Adding Corporate Sponsorship Support

Corporate sponsorship is a form of advertisement where companies pay to be associated with an event or cause. Finding the right sponsors helps make the event, and in turn your business, successful (Garecht, 2016). Follow the steps to learn how to find corporate sponsors for your event.

1. Determine your audience—the people interested in your event. Once you have established your event, decide whether a large amount of people will be involved and whether professionals will attend.
2. Think about the businesses that would be interested in reaching your audience. For example, if you are holding a bike ride event you may decide to target businesses involved in sporting goods, sports drinks and tire shops along with downtown businesses (Hostinger, 2016).
3. Set sponsorship levels. If your event is small, keep the levels small; the larger your business and event the more money and donations you can ask for and the more you will need.
4. Make phone calls and send proposal letters telling potential sponsors the commitment levels and benefits. Use bullets and “skimmable” sentences, including all contact information.
5. Follow up with the businesses and keep sponsors and non-sponsors updated with current event information and developments. Remember to send invitations to the event and let them know if there is any sort of VIP booth or seating designated for them (Cirelli, 2016).
6. Give sponsors publicity throughout the event. Create a sponsor banner, make announcements thanking sponsors, put logos in your organization’s newsletter and event program, take out advertisements or mention businesses in a newspaper article and print logos on T-shirts.
7. Send thank you letters to sponsors after the event, letting them know you appreciate their support. List any charity donations and prizes funded in part by them and give a statement of where their logo was used, when their name was announced and any advertisements and articles where they appeared (Cirelli, 2016)

The key to getting your message across in an email campaign is to get people to actually look at the ad, so make it as blatant and eye-catching as possible. Always include contact information and a free catalog offer when doing any type of campaign. Even if you only have one release, you can make some sort of propaganda sheet to send to people who respond. You should also include information on how a reader can order your record through the mail, and if your band is touring, include the performance dates and venue information. If you’ve got a website that features an online catalog, always include the address in your ads. This is an easy way for people all over the world to get more information about you and your release. The newest and possibly the best new advertising medium for independent musicians is the Internet.

There’s been plenty of talk about how the Internet is revolutionizing the music industry, and guess what? It is true. The Internet, the international computer network, has become a great way for musicians to network and promote their music. There are dozens of online discussion groups that deal with issues facing independent labels and musicians, and all the big commercial online services (Yahoo!, MSN, etc.) have music forums. If you have access to a computer, get Internet access and make it work for you!