Our album should be out by early March. I am curious what a reasonable expectation for CD sales would be- assuming it is supported and promoted pretty well (and that it comes out half decent). Has anyone had experience with this?

Don't expect to make much. A reasonable goal would be to make back enough to cover all your costs and break even, honestly. As long as you're not permanantly in debt after putting out a cd I think you've done well.

If you press 1000 and sell 100, that's pretty damn good.

The Bellmont recently pressed 1000 copies of a cd. We've sold maybe 10 copies and have given away about 400.
Such is the nature of the beast.

If you really want to make back your money on a release, you have to be VERY proactive and try to get ALL of your friends to buy a copy.

For your first cd you shouldn't expect to make any money (at least your first-probably second or third too). It's just a promo; getting your name and sound into people's hands.

We only did 500 of our cd. buy our cd now on cdbaby. We have given very few away (maybe 30-40? mostly to the media. We sold a bunch at discount though). And we broke even a while back, with a decent amount still left. The idea was that we could always reprint if the demand was there. We aren't going to make any useful money...it's like $5 here, $5 there.

Honestly, by the time you sell them all I think most any band would just rather put out a new cd. I don't know how you all feel about your previous recordings, but I feel we could do better (songwriting, performing and recording) and I decided that about a month after the damn thing was out. I'm not saying I'm ready to disown it or anything; we were and are happy with it. But it's not like cds nowadays really have to go out of print: it'll be on iTunes forever. I'm already looking forward to the next thing.

I know Socyermom, when they started, would get huge quantities of cds, to the extent where Leonard has a garage full of them, even the ones that sold much better than ours (ones that sold more than our whole print run). Ours will be gone someday, and I'm actually glad I don't have it hanging over my head.

We make most of our money off Merch (especially t-shirts) and even shows. The cd is all about getting a presence in people's homes, and not charting or whatever...not yet at least!

We had our best sales at work... coworkers toatally are willing to pay for the shit.

I gotta tell ya, we have sold a hell of a lot of RAMS CDs.... online, in the record shops, but mostly at shows. The reason for this, I believe, is that we don't, no, REFUSE to charge fifteen FUCKING dollars for a local CD. We sell 'em for five. Who charges more than $10 for a cd? Are you high? I see CDs from bands Big Mud Tractor played with back in the early 90s still languishing on record store shelves for $12. So I guess a good place to start if you are looking for a numerical goal is to figure out, in part, whether you want to try to make money or just get your name out.

Our first release is pretty much sold out, and it's a put together piece of not-so-greatness. We sold 17 out of 20, gave away two and have one left looking for a home.

It was just a short run thing for me to see if it might be worth blowing loads on a huge release. So far we keep getting asked for an album of songs we haven't recorded yet.

It's definitely not the where the money's at for sure.

How's everyone doing on ROTBV2 sales? I can't move them that well for some reason. I've sold maybe like, five if that. And its such a goddamn good album!

We sell RGTH cds for 10$ usually. It was $5 for the first 100 or so, or for a special occasion or to another band, a hot girl, etc. Socyermom sells them for $5 to $8 bucks in person and 10$ online. If we really wanted to dump them we'd sell them for 5$. Since we are broken even, we really only care about getting them into the hands of people who want them or people who can help us, so we are in no hurry to trash them. I see bands selling dollar cds or cd-rs for $15 and I think they are just crazy. Just crazy.

Yeah, we haven't moved many ROTBv2 either. I just think there are too damn many. A lot of bands just handed all their copies out. If every band member each keeps a copy and every band hands out 10, that's 400+ right there. Add in whatever got moved during the release, say each band sells 5 and maybe 5 bands just dump theirs or way undercharge... that's it man. Anyone who wants one probably has one, or can cherry-pick the tracks they like off Myspace or something (we only put up edits of ours for that exact reason). The entire local audience for those genres who are willing to spend money is maybe... how many people? 1000? Maybe 20 percent of our regualr audience is people in other bands who of course have it already. Also, they haven't gotten much promotion. Did anyone send them to any magazines or press or try to get anything going after that release? Of course, we never expected to even break even on that, so we don't mind.

I am not so hung up on making money off of the release, just more curious about what to expect and how to gauge the effectiveness of what we do to promote the album.

From what I gather, selling around 100 CD's in the first month or two (maybe 2-3 shows supporting it), for $10 each would be a pretty big success in this scene.

even GREAT local bands I've seen only sell 10 cd's or so at shows after the initial cd release show. Like Levi said, a first release is just to get your name out there.

Shine Cherries are into our 4th hundred--about 100 or so have been promos I've mailed all over the place. 90% of our sales have been overseas, a smattering off the Little Kiss site, and the rest at shows here in town. We've sold maybe 10 copies at Natural Sound.Almost a tear into the life of the record we are changing our marketing strategy away from the Americana market and concentrating more on the indie scene(psych/folk stuff), and that seems to be paying off!
Now we've gone and pressed 500 7"s, they will sell much slower(though,again, better overseas).

I never put a # on how many to sell. If we sold some at shows that would go to gas or beer or food. 90% we sent out for reviews or to college radio stations or to record labels. Where would you rather have your CD, on the floor of some kid’s car or on the self at a radio station? Think long term investment….

i'd say if you're selling 10 or more per local show you're doing pretty good.

100 in 2-3 shows like you said would be really good.

We, too, did our first recording primarily to get exposure rather than make $$. So far, we've given away about 60 "official" copies and sent another 10 or so out for reviews. Any others will be sold for the reasonable price of $5 each at our upcoming shows. If we sell about 20 copies, we'll break even (gig money paid some of our recording bill), and any further sales will be pure profit. Of course, at $5 a pop, we're probaly talking about gas money.

quote:

Originally posted by Winterlock:
We had our best sales at work... coworkers toatally are willing to pay for the shit.

Ah ha, there's your untapped resource ladies and gentlemen!

--Third Hour
www.myspace.com/3rdhour

quote:

Originally posted by RacerX:
Of course, at $5 a pop, we're probaly talking about gas money.

yessir, $5 will buy quite a bit of Taco Bell.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Ah, phooey.

Also a pint of Canadian Mist!

A miniature of Glenilivet 12 year! Two 40s of King Cobra!

My wife's valentines day gift w/card ... $5

I'll settle for an Old E, the extra fortified kind.