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QuoteHey everyone!
A quick bit of background: My name is Sam Russell. I released a baroque record 2 years ago and a originals heavy metal record last year. The heavy metal record is on Spotify here: https://spoti.fi/2HwpC36
After selling the record to friends.. I have made about 3 sales to strangers. Which frustrated me because the reviews I got were pretty great.
After trying two different "music mentoring" programs I felt like giving up with the whole thing. But a friend told me about having success here... so here I am.
Excited to be here. I got MMM4 a two days ago and I'm about halfway through building my first site.
My online presence is a bit of a mess. I have my record up on Spotify and all the other streaming sites - streams are not very high. It's on all the download services. I uploaded it using TubeCore and sent it to every service.
I have a YouTube channel with two of the songs from the album.
I have a blog and a main website. A shopify store (which sells close to nothing - 5 sales in several months, I lose money on Shopify fees).
I'm currently building the MMM4 style website on a sub-domain (http://music.samrussell.co.uk) to test it out.
My current plan is this:
1. Build out MMM4 site on sub-domain.
2. Test the website with free traffic. See if the traffic converts
3. Test with paid ads
4. Migrate it to main domain
I'm wondering what I should do about:
1. Streaming. Should I pull the record from all streaming sites, and release a single there instead?
2. iTunes and paid download sites. Should I pull the record from there or leave it?
3. Is my plan good, or flawed? Should I put a temporary re-direct on my websites pointing to my sub-domain?
thanks!
Sam
4:03 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
Hey Sam,
Welcome and thanks for sharing your story. It's not an uncommon one unfortunately.
To answer your questions...
1. I am always a bit reluctant to tell people to undo things they have already done and instead suggest that they change what they do going forward. That said, for me, it really boils sown to a rather obvious equation, when you think about it... Why should someone buy your music if they already own it? Answer: They shouldn't. That, coupled with the fact that most indies don't generate much money at all from streaming (and when they do it's usually from just one or two songs) leaves me feeling that having a few songs available for streaming, but holding the remainder of the album back for purchase, is a better approach.
2. For the paid sites I would leave it, but I would undercut them by offering your music a little bit cheaper, or offering bonuses when ordered from your own site.
3. That all sounds pretty good. However, I would probably test with paid traffic. It's faster and more reliable, but of course more risky. You'll be fine wherever you put the site, at least for now. If you're happy with the results you can move it to the home page later.
Let me know if I can help with anything else.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
Hey John,
1. You're totally right. I instructed Tunecore to pull everything down. I'll submit one-two singles to Tunecore later.
2. Aaah - I already told Tunecore to pull them down. I was making about 1 iTunes sale a month (Between $0.50 and $5 in value)... so I shouldn't be missing too much
3. Ok - testing with facebook ads, got them setup and running this morning.
12:30 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
Sam Russell said
Hey John,1. You're totally right. I instructed Tunecore to pull everything down. I'll submit one-two singles to Tunecore later.
Sounds good. Yeah, I think having a presence on those platforms is important. You just don't want to kill the incentive to purchase. But unless something has changed, I believe you would have needed to pull it all down and resubmit a collection of tracks after the fact. So I don't think you caused yourself any unnecessary trouble.
2. Aaah - I already told Tunecore to pull them down. I was making about 1 iTunes sale a month (Between $0.50 and $5 in value)... so I shouldn't be missing too much
I don't personally think this matters either. You might take the same approach. Add the "singles" but pull back the album.
3. Ok - testing with facebook ads, got them setup and running this morning.
Sounds good. Good luck!
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
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