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Stone SoupBusiness Related Q & A:
Q. How large is the market for Jazz CDs?We checked the following sources for an answer to this question:
Q. How is this Jazz CD market split up?While we're sure they exist, we haven't as yet found any statistics providing a break down by genre for the jazz market on the Internet. So, if you know where to find this information, please send us an email to let us know.Just for fun and to make a very rough and very unscientific "guesstimate", we visited the www.jazzpromo.com's Canadian Artist page and used their listing of artists in the various jazz categories to come up with the following statistics:
Q. How much will it cost to record and manufacture my Indie CD?In talking to friends who have recorded and manufactured their Indie CDs, we found widely varying numbers which ranged from approximately $10,000 to $45,000. So, breaking costs into categories helps to get a better handle on where the money was spent:Note that the costs shown below are only recording, licensing and manufacturing costs. What is not shown is the cost of the most important component - the time and creative energy spent in the writing of the songs and arrangements. It should be noted that the time to write the music for a single CD can sometimes take many months or years.
Q. How much will it cost to promote my CD?This is an area where sky is the limit for major record labels promoting a major artist. In fact, according to the RIAA web site: "the most significant cost of a CD today is the marketing and promotion of that music". Of course, for an independent artist, this is an area where we just can't compete with the majors. On the other hand, the RIAA web site also states that since only 10% of record releases are profitable the ones that are must bear the costs of the failures. In other words, the successful 10% of the recording artists signed to a major record label must subsidize the other 90%. This is a cost the independent artist doesn't have. We only have to finance ourselves - not a small undertaking, but at least we are responsible only for our own success or failure.So, getting back to the question of how much it will cost to promote an Indie CD... the short answer: there is no short answer as it depends on the promotional methods chosen. We're just starting to explore this ourselves, so for now we'll just list them and as we discover the information, we'll post it here:
Stay tuned... Q. How much should I charge for my CD?Ideally, enough to pay for all the time spent on creating the music for the CD, costs of recording, artwork, manufacturing, promotion, and a reasonable profit.As well, one must charge a price which the market will bear. Knowing what other artists charge is a good guideline. Here are the results of a quick survey we did on February 4th 2002:
Q. How many CDs can I realistically expect to sell?Well, that depends on how good your CDs are and how succesfully you market your CDs. You may find the following article of interest: According to this article:... a straight-ahead, acoustic jazz album by a name artist distributed by a label with independent national distribution can expect sales in the 2,000-4,000 range. Many good albums by established artists sell less; very few sell more. Major-label jazz can sell better due to stronger distribution and more marketing. This well written article also contains good information on distribution, copyright, royalties, etc.. Q. Through what venues can an independent Jazz artist sell her/his CDs?
Q. What proportion of sales does she/he typically make through each of these venues?Q. What are the most effective ways of marketing my CD?
Q. How many fans does it take to support a jazz artist?This questions sounds a bit like a joke... something along the lines of: "How many jazz musicians does it take to screw in a light bulb?" ...Q. What about all this music piracy that we've been hearing and reading about? Should I be worried about it? |