Selling Your CDs Online

By David Barber
Commotion Music Promotion, Inc.

For musical artists there are 3 basic ways to sell your CDs online.

(Note: this article does not directly address selling downloads)

1. Get your own credit card merchant account and sell directly. This is expensive and requires an online shopping cart, usually custom. You'll have to fulfill the orders yourself, too (shipping, packing, etc.). Credit card companies and banks charge a monthly fee and various per transaction fees, as well as substantial set up fees, all of which are negotiable and vary all over the place. If you aren't selling hundreds of CDs each month, it's probably not worth the cost and effort.
Some hidden advantages to this, are that you can also get the equipment to handle credit card transactions at your gigs and you can use that to sell your other merchandise as well.

2. Go through a distributor who will distribute to online sales outlets like CDNow.com and many others. They will also offer your CDs for sale on their own website. You can link directly to the distributor's online store to sell CDs from your website.
This is cheap to get going, and low hassle, as they handle the fulfillment and the tricky website stuff. A real distributor is also going to make sure your CDs are available in record stores in the regions where you are playing and probably promote your music as well.
However, most distributors will take a big cut, generally around 50%, so the CDs have to be marked way up or you will just get less.
Companies like CDBaby.com and CD Street.com fall into this category except that they don't do retail distribution. For that reason they may be cheaper than a retail distributor (But then you need that kind of distribution, too. Don't you?) Some of them will only allow you to sell your CDs. They don't want to deal with your other Merch. (You do have other merch don't you?)

3. You can sell directly through your website using a 3rd party company like PayPal.com to process the credit cards. This one gives you the biggest cut per sale. It's basically free to set up and they charge a very low per-transaction fee (2.9% plus 30 cents pre transaction as of the time this was written). You have to handle the fulfillment. But you can sell whatever you want online, to anyone with a credit card.

No matter which option(s) you choose, make sure you shop around and compare prices. Go with the approach/company that you feel the most comfortable with. There are always new companies and websites out there that may be offering some combination or hybrid of the above options. (Beware: Sometimes low prices also mean low service levels and constant problems, and online companies are notorious for suddenly going out of business - taking your stock with them into oblivion) As your band grows you may need to reevaluate your approach and make changes.

Turn Up The Vocals!

By David Barber
Commotion Music Promotion, Inc.

We've seen this one a million times and so have you. A local band puts out a CD where the bass, drums or guitar overpower the vocals to the point where one can barely hear them, much less understand the lyrics. A glance at the liner notes shows that someone spent a lot of time writing very deep meaningful poetry that nobody will ever hear. Many bands do this live as well. In a few genres that's the way it's "supposed" to sound.

Bah! Humbug!

People love vocals. We're not just talking about musicians here, we're talking about the general public. One thing that mainstream radio has taught us is that one catchy lyric can make a band (at least a one-hit wonder). And vocal harmonies are even better. Here's our theory as to why this is:

Anyone who can speak has tried to sing, even drummers. Most of us aren't that good at it, but we've all tried it and therefore, we all know how hard it is to sing well. But, not everyone has tried to play guitar, bass, drums, keyboards or horns. Even if they have and they appreciate the skills of a jazz sax player, they still like a catchy lyric. It's so obvious that everyone should already know this.

Therefore, when mixing down the tracks on your CD, don't let the guitar player or the drummer make the decisions. Their input is appreciated, but everyone naturally wants their own playing to be heard loud and clear above the rest. It's just human nature. Commonly we've heard stories from the mix-down where, after hours of going around and around and trying different mixes, the vocalist just gets tired and says "Whatever you want, let's just get it done." But, please, don't be bullied. Don't quit. Instead, tell them "My ears are tired, we'll have to finish this later." Then put the tracks away for a week or a month and come back with fresh ears. Or hire a skilled producer with a proven track record and let him make the decisions.

The same goes for live shows. When the sound guy says "Turn it down," believe him and do as you're told. He can't mix your band well if your amp is so loud that he's taken it out of the PA mix. Trust us, you don't know better than him and you probably don't know how it really sounds out in the room. Just because your monitor mix sucks, doesn't mean the house mix does. It doesn't matter if you are a punk or heavy metal act, let the sound guy crank it up. He knows how. The old blues and jazz guys who tour constantly around the country know this. They don't bring their own sound guy on the road, either, they use the house guy and trust him to mix it as good as the system will allow. They keep their amps turned low and sound really good, most of the time, because of that. Learn from the examples set by the elder generation of players. If it works for them, it'll work for you.

Naming Your Band

So, you have a new band, you've been jamming a little have some songs worked up, you're considering playing out or recording, but you're still struggling with what to name the band. We are continually amazed by the creative names that bands come up with. There never seems to be an end to them, however, sometimes a band comes up with something that just leaves us wondering,"What were those guys thinking?"

Here's a few things to consider when naming your band:

A great band name should be short and easy to remember. Common words that every child knows but aren't already associated with music are the best. Examples: Hole, Garbage, The Samples, More Than Medium, and Ocean.

We are a big proponent of naming the band after the leader. Examples: Nina Storey, Wendy Woo, The Jill Watkins Band. These band names have the added bonus that the lead singer can never be fired from the band (without them having to change the name, anyway) but any other band member could concievably be replaced.

Some common mistakes that bands make when naming themselves include:

• Not checking to make sure another band isn't already out there using it. A quick internet search should do the trick, there.
• Using unusual capitalization or punctuation, like: "nGOma" "The FaiL-YeRZ" "P-Nuckle" or "Yo, Flaco!" The reason that this is a problem is that most club owners aren't going to remember correctly and therefore, the signs will read "Ngoma" or "The Failures" or "Pinochle" instead of the correct spelling. These same club owners will have trouble with the advertising they run in the local papers/magazines and on their websites, where those kind of capitalization and punctuation issues can create havoc with a database.
• Names that are just too long: "Eddie Clendening & the Blue Ribbon Boys" is likely to be shortened down to "Eddie Clendening" or just "The Blue Ribbon Boys" when advertising space is at a premium.
• Names that are not easy to spell. If the band leader doesn't make sure to spell his name from the stage at every opportunity and with the booking manager, he's likely to see it posted as "Eddy Klendenning and the Blue Ribbon Boys." Fans trying to find the website will not likely remember if it was "Eddie" or "Eddy" and how many n's are there in "Clendening?" "The Blue Ribbon Boys," though, is a fine name. Our all time best example of a bad band name was the short lived "Scheherazade." Not only was it hard to spell, but nobody could pronounce it either.
• It's OK to make up a new word or use one that isn't well known, but make sure you are consistent with explaining the pronounciation or spelling. "Xiren" (pr. Seerin) and "Marcy Baruch" (pr. bah-ROOSH) struggle with this constantly. It really stinks when you hear a radio personality struggle with pronouncing your name on the air.
• Be wary of names that use uncommon words. "Potempkin Square" (named for a famous location in Moscow) quickly became known in the local scene as "Pumpkin Square" because it was much easier to remember, to spell and was way more amusing.

In the end, if a band is good enough, they can overcome a lousy band name. "The Fabulous Boogienauts" rose to the top of their local scene, but for the first six months nobody got "Boogienauts" spelled correctly.

If you're really stuck, try the old trick of naming the band after the street where you practice, live or like a lot: Examples: Ben Park Drive, Battery Park and Rose Hill Drive. Pet names work pretty good too. "Rosco" is a good example.

There are also ample online resources for naming your band. Just type "band names" into Google and you'll find a variety of sites from band name suggestions and automatic name generators to lists of cool names already taken and online registries to make sure nobody steals yours.

Related articles and podcasts can be found online at RockOnColorado.com