Music Promotion Megatips: Budget Distribution

Looking for a way to sell your CD's without major or indie promotion? If that's the case then you must handle the whole process by yourself. This includes creating music, making album covers and burning CD's!

Doin' Your Own Thang

With the increase in bootlegging in the music industry, many artists are now taking it upon themselves to distribute their own CD's. If you want to be apart of the group, your going to need to know 2 things, one, it's not easy work, and two, you have to vision your goal ahead of time.

The Process

So you have all of your music files but haven't put them on CD yet? That's the first thing you must do! It doesn't matter if you've recorded your files on a computer recording program or just simply composed them on 4 or 8 track, you're going to have to burn them to CD. Know that once you get the first CD burned, you'll be able to make copies which will make the time go by faster. Once you've burned your first CD and made a couple of copies, make your album cover. If you aren't a Photoshop or graphics expert, it doesn't matter! Simply create your cover how you want it, that's if you even want a cover! When I sold my first CD at the age of 16, I just burned CD-R's and put my CD's in a clear slim jewel case. Go about it as you want, but know that the visual album covers will bring many more customers your way. If you want to make cheap copies of your album cover to put in the cases, try going to a copy supply company that prints in bulk. An alternative method would be to send your sound files to a CD distribution company and pay $200 or so dollars for them to print up CD, album covers and plastic packaging, that's if you have the funds!

Budget Distribution

Now that you have all of your product "sacked up", you're going to need to get it out there to the masses. Start by finding local record shops or even stores that can place your CD's on display. Sometimes liquor stores will sell your CD's for you if you offer to give them money off the CD. Do your research, find everywhere and anywhere that has CD's on display in your town. If you know others from other cities and states send them CD's and requests that they do the same thing as far as getting your music out to people. Also with the rise of companies such as Zazzle, CafePress and LuLu, you have the chance to upload your sound files and they handle the rest as far as shipping and creating your CD's for a price. Another great outlet are the flee markets; there is a steady stream of people all day so you're sure to sell CD's!