"Healing" Music: Profitable?
Nick
of "New
Age" by the cartload.
<< Personally, I would think this field is well supplied
I don't doubt that there's lots of stuff already out there, but this
is true of any musical genre. I think we all know the supply of
recorded music far outweighs the demand, which is why more than 90% of
releases (pop music included) lose money. I was wondering what the
potential is for a "successful" recording in the relaxation/meditative
genre. Is 20k units a reasonable goal? 40k? More? Since any
self-produced CD is a high-risk venture, I'd like to have a fair idea
of the risk vs. reward before I dive in.
<< There are some C.D's out on Rainforest music,this stuff usually
sells for
$3. Its okay for background music in doctors,dentists etc. If you have
a
look in KMart or other shops similar there are truck loads. Not very
profitable I would say.
These recordings tend to be very generic and are not promoted outside
of K-Mart (or wherever). I would be interested to know what kinds of
sales a "Rainforest"-type CD actually makes. Maybe they're quite
profitable for K-Mart -- who knows? My sense is that someone who is
interested in the relaxation/meditative genre and is exposed to
unique, high-quality recordings of this type by individual artists
(e.g., Steven Halpern) would not be opposed to paying a more typical
CD price ($12 to $16).
<< you can sell anything to anybody.
I agree you can sell just about anything to *someone,* but I don't
know about *anybody.* There are a lot of failed dot-coms that spent
untold millions trying to sell pet supplies, furniture, groceries, and
just about everything else. I know, I worked for one. I feel I could
have *some* sales of whatever I produce, but I want to do so
*profitably.* In other words, if I spent three months making a
recording and another three months promoting it, sold 2,000 copies and
ended up grossing $10k, I would not consider that a good return on my
time and energy. If 2k is a typical sales figure for a successful
recording in the genre, this would be good to know beforehand.
Thanks for your feedback.
-- Nick
The Number 23
music market, peppered with cold disheartening facts and opinions.
Regardless of what I say, it is better for musicians to ignore my advice and
make a go of it anyway, as that's the only way quality music is released in
the market.
DJ Sasha's new CD "Airdrawndagger" sold only 38,000 copies worldwide
(source: Mixer magazine), and he's one of the most known DJ's on planet
earth. This total was after extensive marketing, positive editorial reviews,
and a highly visible genre of music.
So, if you take meditative new-age music, a much smaller niche market, I'd
expect a quality recording that receives a lot of positive editorial reviews
to sell approximately 10% of that amount at best, or approximately 4,000
units. Again, that's only if it receives lots of good press (the keys being
'lots' and 'good'). On average, the general buying public (i.e., people who
don't read music newsgroups such as this) can't tell the difference between
a unique, high-quality recording and an average one. Part of this is because
everyone's definition of 'good' is subjective, so a musician calling any
music good does not sway the buying public in any way.
Another problem of meditative music is it is tailored to a much older
crowd - much older than 25 years old. Unfortunately, this segment of the
buying public purchases very few CD's, compared to the 13-18 and 18-25
crowd. That's why most (if not all) pop music caters to the younger market.
If you had a press release of your music, what would be your angle that
would make someone buy your music as opposed to someone else's (or just no
purchase at all)? With competition from free MP3's (both legal and illegal),
it's an even tougher sell. As I mentioned before, calling the music good
does not help in any way. There would need to be another angle.
One free way to see how well the buying public might take to your music is
to offer a few MP3 versions of your songs for free on a music hosting
service (like www.SoundClick.com or www.mp3.com). Ideally, you would pay a
few bucks to the service to enable tracking. Then, based on the number of
downloads, that would represent the ceiling of how many albums you would
actually sell if you produced one. Market your free songs to everyone via
the same methods you would use if you had an album, and track the results.
-Brian
"Nick" <nick...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1d97fb30.03020...@posting.google.com...
Bill Binkelman
music, go over to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newagemusic-biz/
Read the archives and then consider joining - or join period. It's a good
group - respectful and very much a community-minded affair. The majority of
the people in this group (currently, 66 members) are independent new
age/ambient artists. There are one or two reviewers (like me) and one or two
radio personalities (like me). But most are musicians. The group discusses
business aspects, such as profitability issues, on a regular basis (along
with other issues). In fact, a thread is just winding down where one artist
asked questions like "do you turn a profit" "how much of the process do you
do yourself" etc etc etc.
I suggest any and all new age and similar genre artists who are reading this
post to join this group. Granted, I'm biased since I founded it, but this is
the perfect venue for asking or discussing "business-related"
questions/matters in the new age/ambient field.
Bill
Bill Binkelman
WIND and WIRE
http://www.windandwire.com
----------
In article <1d97fb30.03020...@posting.google.com>,
stefan petersilge
>DJ Sasha's new CD "Airdrawndagger" sold only 38,000 copies worldwide
>...
>So, if you take meditative new-age music, a much smaller niche market, I'd
>expect a quality recording that receives a lot of positive editorial reviews
>to sell approximately 10% of that amount at best...
Hi Nick,
I think you highly underestimate the market share of new-age music,
especially relaxation music or healing music (music for certain
purposes). I have worked for EMI and know that they jealously look at
the figures of some best selling albums in that scene. The sales
figures can not be compared to newcomer pop artists, only to
compilations. The whole esoteric market is huge.
>Another problem of meditative music is it is tailored to a much older
>crowd - much older than 25 years old. Unfortunately, this segment of the
>buying public purchases very few CD's, compared to the 13-18 and 18-25
>crowd. That's why most (if not all) pop music caters to the younger market.
The marketing experts in the major companies call those older
potential customers the "sleepers". They have the biggest consume
power but are not reached by contemporary pop productions. Relaxation
music is targeted straight to this generation, and it works.
This is also due to one important point that has still not be adressed
in this thread: production costs. The manufacturing cost of a complete
CD (incl. booklet) is below 50 cents. If the production costs, the
royaltee fees and the licence fees for the publishing rights can be
kept low - ideal at zero - the margins are huge and the risk is
minimal. (This is not possible in pop business, where those costs eat
up a big part of the margins).
And how can those costs be kept low? The philosophy is: the music does
not matter, only the package does (incl. the marketing).
Unfortunately there are musicians that give their music away for free
- just to be on a CD - and voila: we have another "music for
relaxation" in the super market.
Another practise is to buy free archive music. You pay an amount once
(that is far below the average production cost of a pop album) and you
have the right to use tons of music for whatever you want without
additional costs.
Another practise is, yes, to steel, its so easy...
But I have to say: fortunately there are still companies around that
have not lost their ideals and their ethic ways. They are struggeling
hard against competition but they believe in the idea, that quality
pays in the end...
Greetings
Stefan (sangit om)
--
Stefan Petersilge
SANGIT OM MUSIC PRODUCTION
listen to my music at www.mp3.com/sangitom
my homepage: www.sangitom.de