I self-produced my own CD at home almost 2 yrs ago and never really tried to market it outside of MySpace and Soundclick or took the time to explore other avenues.  Right now my carpal tunnel has flared up in my wrist so I’ve got the time now. Found a GREAT site to get my music heard recently, signed up a month ago and have gotten more plays and hits than the other two sites COMBINED FOR 2 YRS.  Got some email inquiries about merchandise, only offering downloads right now through Soundclick so I’m wondering if it would be worth it to join up w/CD Baby.  Being that my CD was a ‘studio band’ and we don’t play out live or as a group, my only way to get music out there is through the web.  I find a lot of people seem to like my music but when it comes to buying it....well let’s say it’s been real slow.  I know the economy is bad BUT....So I guess my question is has anyone out there sold any significant # of downloads or CDs through CD Baby? Thanks, ‘Bear’
www.numberonemusic.com/marcbeargrindle

www.numberonemusic.com/marcbeargrindle

There’s no magic to www.CDBaby.com . You still have to drive some traffic to your music there. What’s the plan to do that?

What’s driving traffic to this other site where you’re getting plays and hits and email inquiries? How did you get their attention?

If they’re going to the trouble to email you odds are they’re interested enough to buy.

www.discmakers.com bought CDBaby recently by the way.

Hi Gary, the site I’m on has a large listener database.  A friend on MySpace suggested it to me. Once a month you can send out a message that reaches 10000-20000 listeners of your genre(depending on what plan you sign up for)-they also host your music (up to 30 tunes), have an email sign-up for listeners in which you can send out 2 monthly emails to your fans, and they can also respond directly via email.  The first month is free, tho limited compared to full membership.  I’ve had over 5000 plays in a month (joined 10/6/09) w/over 2300 visits and it just seems to be growing so as the trial membership was ending I forked down $120 for a 1 yr gold membership.  Though you can’t sell merchandise directly from the site you can post links to your website, etc--I only have a Soundclick site w/downloads set up right now w/Paypal but I think i’ll send CD Baby the $55 along w/5 CDs and try it.
Not surprised discmakers bought them, seems like a good match

It will be interesting to see if your numbers stay up as you take the gold membership.

You’re on a site, there or CDBaby, with thousands of other acts. How people find you in the crowd is the trick. Live performance is an opportunity to advertise all the places they can hear and buy your product. If you’re not playing live you need other modes of communication to let people know you exist. Then you need to ask existing customers to tell their friends, and hope they don’t just burn and give away copies.

How did you get the fans on the other site?

You joined 10/06/09 and by 11/06/09 you’ve got 5,000 plays with 2,300 visits. How did those 2,300 find you among all the others on the site? If you knew how that worked you might be able to boost visits, and sales.

The more ‘stores’ you have to sell your product, the better. If they want downloads www.soundclick.com may be fine. Contacting you to ship a CD is good too. www.CDBaby.com sells downloads and CD’s too, I think. So, if you’re getting interest from consumers, sell it to them any way they want it.

Thanks so much for all your info Gary, quite helpful as always.  When I was on Myspace and Soundclick, getting fans were hit-and-miss, mostly other musicians/bands for the most part.  After taking the gold membership less than a week ago, the numbers actually have increased--also due to the fact I went from 3 songs max to 10 (I can still put 20 more songs on--when I get them done-lol)-I had one day 2 wks into it on a Friday when I got almost 1000 plays-was averaging about a hundred or more before that-after adding the other songs, 500 plays in a day app. ave this past wk.  And my mailing list encompasses the world-Europe, japan, All over.
How did they find me?  Well they’re definite dedicated music listeners from what I can see, and this site has MANY major acts, in fact Jack Johnson has 3 songs up on there under Pop/folk, Rascal Flatts, many more. Also you can send out an e-newsletter in the trial membership-goes out to 1000 listeners of your genre-so I’m sure this was a factor, several email responses directly from this--anyone interested in exposure should def. check this site out-click on my link above-the site info and faq are on the top!
I’m def. going CD Baby route, sending CDs out monday-as u said, the more places, the more exposure-also before was directing the buying link to my main page on Soundclick, it’s now directly linked to my music store there. And one thing I didn’t like--buyer can’t just buy single downloads w/o paying min. $5 soundclick credit-same for buying Mp3 album, $10 min. credit when price is $6.99 so either way Soundclick is forcing them to buy something else-not an easy way to do business but until I’m set up w/CDBaby & their dig distribution it’s all I got.  Again much obliged Gary--you da man! ‘Bear’

wow really awesome info...marc...what is that site!

hi Michael-the site is www.numberonemusic.com