After decades of ruling the music industry as the must-have format, CDs have nearly gone the way of the dodo. The vast majority of music lovers prefer to listen to the tunes and full-lengths they adore on streaming platforms and it’s important to get your song on Spotify and Apple Music. While sales of plastic discs have dropped precipitously ever since the internet entered every home, they’re not entirely gone!
CDs, like vinyl, have largely become a collector’s item. They’re not necessary anymore for people to hear the music, so the only ones who are buying them are doing so because they want to pay a premium to hold the collection in their hand, and they like to support the acts they love. You should keep this in mind as you get ready to roll out a new full-length, because providing extra reasons for someone to click “purchase” in your online store will require some work and some thought–but it’s certainly not impossible.
In This Article:
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Ask Your Fans!
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Add An Exclusive Song
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Different Covers
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Sell Them Everywhere
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Sign Them
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Bundle Them
Ask Your Fans!
If you have a new album out and it’s available on CD, nobody will know unless you tell them! Don’t assume your fan base will immediately understand that the full-length they’ve been waiting to stream or buy on iTunes is also available on a shiny silver disc! That language should be worked into any Band-related PR announcements you share, either with the press or on social media.
Also, remember that when it comes to revealing something as exciting and major as a new album, one announcement won’t do. You need to craft a social media strategy that involves many mentions and reminders. You can include several across your social channels that focus solely on asking your fan base to consider buying your latest on CD, perhaps with fun pictures or videos. There’s a lot that you can do here, even if you’re sticking solely with trying to push the CD alone.
Is your new album pressed and ready to sell? That means it’s way past the time to start conversations about music promotion for your band!
Add An Exclusive Song
This is not a new idea, but it’s one that’s worked for decades, so why not consider adopting it for your next effort? You can release different versions of your new album, encouraging your fans to listen on streaming services and buy the CD for varying reasons. If you like, why not add a tune or two to the physical edition of your set? Make it known to your followers that they can only hear those exclusive cuts if they purchase the disc. It’s not much more effort, and it might be enough to convince some to pick up a copy.
Different Covers
If you already have a large and devoted fan base (with those terms being up to interpretation), you might want to consider getting your CD printed with different booklets and covers. There are so many possibilities when it comes to this idea, and you’re only limited by your creativity and your budget.
If you’re in a band, why not have original band photo art selected for the cover, with each focusing on one member, and then another with everyone in on the snap? Maybe it makes sense to do something with designs and art to differentiate the images. The idea here is to turn a regular purchase into a collectible. Super fans won’t just purchase one copy, but several, or perhaps all of them. This is common practice in the K-pop genre, and it’s worked so well in that field, so why not try it out?
Sell Them Everywhere
Your CD should be available to purchase everywhere you sell your band merch, to make it easy for fans and to ensure that wherever people are interacting with you, your band, your art or CDs in general, they have a chance of grabbing a copy of your latest. This means your website, local record shops (if there are any left), Amazon and your concerts. Make it easy for everyone to know where they can get them and that they’re available and you may see sales rise.
Ready to promote your new album to radio, blogs and magazines? Give The Planetary Group a call today! (323) 952-5050
Sign Them
If you don’t have the money in your CD-printing budget to have different covers made or perhaps you don’t have enough extra songs lying around to include some on a special deluxe edition only available on physical format albums, you can still do something to make CDs more collectible. Sign them! Put your autograph–or have everyone in the band do so–and turn a regular purchase into something a little more special. You can use this tactic to entice people to purchase early on, when you have too many sitting around, or perhaps to up the price by an extra buck or two.
Bundle Them
Here’s another trick to borrow from superstars who have experts helping them make more money from merch. You will definitely have your CD for sale in your web store, but some won’t want to purchase only the music. Try bundling it with other items, such as a t-shirt, sweatshirt, concert ticket or something else people seem to really want.
Bundles are so enticing because they usually provide some sort of deal to fans. So, if a CD in your store is $10 and a t-shirt is $15, don’t sell them together for $25. Instead, why not offer them for, say, $22? It’s only a small savings, but it increases your total revenue. Just make sure that if you go this route, you don’t discount everything too much, otherwise you’ll lose money.
Need help selling your new CD? You need the best online music promotion services, and that’s what we do best.
