Hey everyone

So this is just meant to be more of a discussion, not necessarily serious advice or anything, but here's my question.

You just made the album of your career. You have never been more proud of anything you've worked on, you've put your heart and soul into it, you created something that not only showcases you as a musician, but has plenty of potential as a marketable product.  The album, is done, you have it set up for distribution independently through, lets say CDbaby or something (and digitally through all the usuals, iTunes, Amazon, etc). Pressed copies are in hand. You are ready to start getting the word out about your album and you have exactly $1000.00 to spend. What do you spend it on?

I'm sure there will be a lot of different ideas and answers and opinions on something like this. Some will say to put it all towards touring. Some might say advertise on Google, Facebook, whatever. Some might say spend it on a nice video. Some might say a mix of many different things.

What do you think is a good way to spend that $1000.00 after the album is 100% complete and available for music listeners to listen to / purchase?

David

A thousand bucks won't get you far. I'd say invest in a professional promo package (pics, bio, etc...) that you can use to apply for some grants if you qualify. Up here in Canada if you have an album you can apply for grants to do a video, promotions and manufacturing/distro type stuff. You would use the promo package to apply and you can also send it out to labels and stuff. Use them sparingly. I'm not sure how many packages you'd get for a $1000 these days but if my memory isn't too fuzzy you might 20 or so out of it after you pay for the photo shoot and all the other stuff involved. 

You CAN do much of that stuff yourself but if you want to be taken seriously they expect it to be done by an established company who specializes in this kind of thing.

I may be a little fuzzy on these details because I've never done this directly myself but worked at a place that did and was involved in a band years ago that had it done a couple times. We were involved with a pretty well known indie label back then so everything had to be done by the book. Cheers.

Thanks for the response.

Grants would be lovely :-) I luckily have a professional photographer and copywriter on hand that can help with the press kit stuff, so really the spending would go towards getting that information around. There are so many companies out there offering to spread your information out to the right ears, but it's hard figuring out which ones are the right ones, especially for someone like me who is not a touring "band."

If you have photos together already that should cut the cost down significantly but you'll still want to get the promo pack put together professionally. Some places might give you a hard time about not using their photographer but if you push them or hunt around you can get it done.

The promo pack is imperative for grants and stuff because it shows you are serious. Same thing with labels. One thing to be aware of if you intend on marketing yourself to labels on your own... well don't. You can make make up a name and pretend that you are a separate manager/agent but that gets a little sticky if you get busted. Again the promo pack can help you get an agent as a go between between you and the labels.

Again I'll say my knowledge on this is kind of second hand and likely sketchy and I personally don't like all the fake bullpoop we have to go through for the labels to look at our stuff but that is unfortunately the nature of the beast. Seriously with that amount of cash the promo packs are the way to go, find a decent agent (research the hell out of anyone you are considering because there are lot of losers and sheisters out there).

Also you might want to set aside some cash for a website or if you already have one to develop it a little further.

Good luck, dude. It's a jungle out there. 

BTW a professional video that is acceptable for airplay on MTV and the like is a minimum of $10,000. Trust me on that one... I used to work for a company that did that stuff. They would however help you get a grant but you did need to have the professional promo packs, a full release and some kind of label affiliation. Cheers.

Yea I wish the video option was doable. Would love to have some videos for the album I'm making. But I know cheap looks cheap haha. Thanks for your input. If anyone else has any thoughts, would love to hear them.

Okay... one last thing because I don't want to leave you feeling that those are the only routes in. These days if you have access to a buddy with a nice video camera, some editing skills and some creativity you can certainly attempt the online viral video route. In this scenario you'll really want to stand out. This is not going to make the industry drop to their knees for you but it can build your fanbase and if it REALLY takes off then someone high up might take notice. Odds are against that but hey, you never know.

The point is do the self promotion stuff as well but the industry guys expect certain protocols to be followed. As I said I personally think it's bollocks but I ain't running the companies and I sure as hell ain't some megastar... likely because I detest the game so much I may have held my career back with my staunch attitude.

Well here's a question to you and anyone else... Are there any PAID ENTRANCE sites you recommend paying for? For example ReverbNation has it's paid offerings that offer more promotional tools and whatnot. Things like that. On the side from making music for albums I also have scored films and am considering paying for IMDBpro soon since my profile is slowly but surely starting to gain some credits.

Sorry... was on the phone. I myself am still trying to sort it all all out in the new way of doing things but I do keep seeing CDbaby being bandied about. I don't have much cash to toss at such things at the moment so I'm just gonna keep learning how to self produce and get some more material together while researching how to actually put it all out. I'm actually pretty interested in what Amazon can do because I like them as a company and I'm not really looking to make a fortune anyway. Just want to get the tunes out there and make a bit of scratch on the side, yanno?

I couldn't imagine having to be in the spotlight in these times. They want more than just your art now. They want a hunk of your flesh and spirit and I have very little to spare at this point. I'll probably end up one of those artists who gets all his recognition posthumously if at all.

Best of luck to you though and don't let the frackers get the best of you. Stay in control of your music and more importantly yourself. Cheers.

Oh yea I have 6 albums distributed through CDbaby. They're all niche type albums though, where as the thing I'm going to be releasing soon is something I take much more seriously. But I have no complaints with CDbaby. They distribute me to iTunes, Amazon and all the other big names and don't take too much off the top.