How to sell records independently
How To Sell Music Online And Make Money As An Independent Artist | The KFS Factor
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in this video i'm going to explain how
to sell music online and make money as
an independent artist and if you're
thinking to yourself
but justin nobody buys music anymore
everyone just streams it
well i understand why you would think
that but you would be wrong because
last year in the united states alone two
billion dollars
worth of recorded music was sold that's
sold that does not include streaming
that's
paid downloads and physical purchases
worldwide last year
four and a half billion dollars worth of
physical
cds and vinyl were sold yes most music
is streamed these days and yes
streaming revenue of course makes up the
lion's share of all revenue
generated from recorded music but to say
that nobody buys music anymore
is simply factually incorrect people
still buy music
what's changed is why people buy music
so in this video i'm going to dispel the
myth that nobody buys music
i want to explain why people will buy
your music and i'm going to share some
resources to help you facilitate the
purchase
in other words how to actually sell your
music online how to collect payment how
to deliver the music and so on
so let's go ahead and get started
[Music]
all right when the recording industry
was at its absolute peak back in the
late 90s
revenue from sales of music in the us
alone was over 14 billion
now 20 years later revenue from music
sales in the u.s is down to just 2
billion
now this is obviously a really big drop
off but let's first talk about
why that is well back in the late 90s
you had to buy music
if you wanted to listen to anything
besides the radio we didn't have
smartphones a lot of people
still didn't have home computers and for
those that did internet speeds
were far too slow for streaming music to
even be a thing
even in the late 90s early 2000s when
napster came along
and people started illegally downloading
music for the first time it still took
forever to download so
you had to actually start downloading a
song before you went to bed at night
so it would be ready to listen to in the
morning streaming was still
years away at that point so back in the
late 90s when the recording industry was
at its pinnacle
so much revenue was being generated
because that's how people had to listen
to music
and most of the time you couldn't just
buy singles record labels would push
individual songs off an album
but if you wanted to actually be able to
listen to that song anytime you wanted
you had to go buy the cd
and your only option most of the time
was to buy the whole album for 15 or 20
dollars
so if there was one song that you wanted
to be able to listen to anytime you
wanted
it would cost you about 15 to 20
nowadays you already have the song in
your pocket before you've even
discovered it
just pull out your phone and stream
whatever you want all right so if nobody
has to pay for music anymore
everyone can just stream anything they
want why the heck
are billions of dollars being spent on
recorded music every year
don't people know they can just go
stream it well of course
right so we've already established that
people are still buying music
so we can dispel the myth that nobody
buys music we can throw that right out
the window
what's changed since the late 90s is not
that nobody buys music anymore
what's changed is the reason why people
buy music it used to be because you
had to now it's because people want to
i'm going to elaborate more on that in
just a moment
first in order to help you better
understand why people buy music and why
people will buy your music
i want to introduce you to a concept
that i call
the kfs factor now let me adjust this a
little so there's less of a glare
and maybe you can actually read it a bit
there we go
all right so what is the kfs factor all
right so the kfs factor
represents how people are going to
interact with your music it stands for
no fan superfan and these are three
distinct groups of people first you have
people that
know who you are then you have fans and
then you have your super fans
so each one of these groups is going to
interact with your music a little bit
differently so
people that just know who you are like
think about
somebody that i mean artists that you
know right so there's probably tons of
artists out there
that you're not necessarily a fan of but
you at least know that they exist
so maybe you know like you know top 40
hit
songs hot top 40 artists you have people
like taylor swift justin bieber
uh drake whoever like all of these
artists are people that are pretty
commonly known but just because somebody
knows who they are
doesn't mean that they're a fan of their
music or they're going to listen to
their music so right now most people
probably don't know who you are they
have no idea who you are so your first
step
into starting to build a fan base is
getting people to know who you are
so this is the first step right here you
have to get you know your music in front
of people so they know
of you they know that you exist they
know that your music exists and then of
those people
some will become fans of yours and then
some will become those super fans that
are going to
you know come out to all your shows buy
all your music buy all your merch etc so
your first step in creating awareness
and getting your music out to people is
getting
people to know you first and as you get
more people in this bucket more people
become aware of your music aware that
you exist
some of those people are inevitably
going to become fans and then some of
those people
will become super fans so your first
goal is to get as many people as
possible
to know who you are now people that are
at this stage
once they know who you are that's
fantastic but just because they know you
doesn't mean they necessarily
like you or that they like your music so
at this stage
people might stream your music they
might follow you on social media they
might even join your email list so
they might
alright so they might stream your music
they might follow you here
but what these people are not gonna do
is they're not
to buy your music they're not going to
buy your merch and they're probably not
going to come see you live
so people that know who you are might
stream your music they might follow you
they're not going to buy anything from
you
it's very very unlikely that they're at
a point right now where they're going to
buy anything from you
but if you get more people to know who
you are the more people you get to know
who you are the higher the likelihood it
is that some percentage of those people
are
going to become fans of yours so as more
people get to know you
you'll probably generate more fans as
well now as somebody becomes a fan of
yours
now they will stream your music for sure
so they
will stream your music they will follow
you on social media
they might even spend money
on music merch etc
they might come see you perform live and
then you have your super fans now your
super fans will of course stream your
music they will follow you
they will buy your music they will come
see you perform live they will buy your
merch as long as you give them a reason
to buy your music
they will do that we'll talk more about
that in just a second but you have to
first understand
the difference between these people
because when you say nobody's
nobody buys music anymore yeah these
people don't buy music they have no
reason to buy your music they're not
going to buy your music they will stream
it they might stream it
these people they will stream your music
these people will buy your music
like for example i know who taylor swift
is taylor swift is
very popular i'm sure you know who
taylor swift is as well taylor swift is
very popular
she's very very talented artist just not
my cup of tea not the style of music
that i listen to
she's very good at what she does just
not my
style of music so i'm not you know i
know who she is but i'm not gonna stream
her music i'm not gonna follow her i'm
not gonna see her live unless you know
maybe
my niece wants to go to a concert and
begs me to take her or something like
that but i'm not even gonna stream her
music so there's no
way i'm gonna buy her music cause i'm
just at this stage with taylor swift i
know who she is
not a fan nothing against taylor swift
just not a fan not my cup of tea
now a band that i am a fan of would be
nine inch nails so i
will spend money with nine inch nails i
definitely stream their music i'd
probably follow them on social media but
if i find out that they're playing down
the street at hollywood bowl
then yeah you better believe i'm gonna
get a ticket to go see that show
i'm not only am i gonna get a ticket i'm
probably gonna spend a little bit of
extra money to get a good ticket and
then once i go to the show there's a
pretty good chance
that i'm probably gonna buy a t-shirt at
least and you know what who knows i
might even buy a cd i might buy some
music if i get drunk enough i'm probably
have a few beers while i'm at the show
we'll just see they might just hand over
my credit card
but the difference here is i'm an actual
fan so i'm willing to spend money with
nine inch nails and if they give me a
reason to i might actually spend money
on
music alright so let's talk a little bit
more about that why people
are willing to spend money on music
alright so we've already established
that people
are still spending billions of dollars a
year buying music so why is that why
would somebody
buy music you know you may or may not
buy music but you have to be aware that
some people do
so the first thing you need to realize
is that you are not your fans just
because you don't spend money on music
doesn't mean that your fans don't spend
money on music or your potential future
fans once you
get those now there's a concept in
psychology called false consensus and
that's where we
mistakenly think that because we think
something that
that's calm that's how everybody thinks
right and that's just
not the way the world works if everybody
thought the same there would be
no political debates there would be no
reason for court systems there wouldn't
be
any law because everyone would just
agree that things are right and wrong
this is the way things are supposed to
be this is the way i think like
oh you uh who do what who are you going
to vote for oh the same person as you
obviously because we all think the same
thing that's not how the world works
so the first thing to realize is that
just because you don't necessarily spend
much money on music doesn't mean that
people out there
don't spend money on music they do so
let's talk about why that is why
do people spend money on music if they
could just
stream whatever music they want for free
or for their paid subscription to
spotify or whatever
well first of all like i said before
these people aren't going to spend money
with you
just because they know you they have to
be fans of yours so once somebody is a
fan of yours then they might be willing
to spend money with you but
they're not just going to buy your album
just because they're a fan and just
because it's available
you have to give them a reason to buy so
how do you do that
well one of the simplest things that you
can do is release exclusive content
that's only available
to people that purchase your music so if
let's say you release a new album
or you've got new music to stream if you
make some music available to stream and
then you have that music available to
buy
and when somebody spends money to buy
that music they also get
you know tracks x y and z bonus stuff
that's not available to stream
now you're giving them a reason to buy
or if you release your music on
vinyl that's vinyl is making a huge
resurgence
like i said earlier over 4 billion was
spent last year on physical
music and a big portion of that is vinyl
because it's becoming commonplace for a
lot of people to
now own record players again now you you
may or may not i
assure you that i know dozens of people
that have record players now so i can
assure you that it's happening
if you look at the stats vinyl sales
have been on a
rise for the past 10 15 years so again
just if you don't listen to vinyl just
be aware that your fans probably do and
that's a good way to get them to buy
because
you can't replicate that on spotify the
experience
of owning a vinyl album which a lot of
people use as a display piece they
display
their albums like in a portion of their
living room
people have an entertainment console
with their record player and all their
vinyl albums and their favorite ones
that they just recently purchased are
all displayed prominently so you can see
the cover
like this is the reality of this
subculture of people that are listening
to vinyl music that
it's more than just listening to the
music there's an audio quality that you
don't get elsewhere there's just
more to it than simply listening to
music so there's something else that
fans get
from vinyl that they don't get from
streaming so you now again you're giving
them a reason to buy
you might have an exclusive limited
edition version for your super fans
that's
maybe a different color maybe it's
autographed maybe you have additional
bonus tracks that you can't even
download
there's all kinds of additional value
that you can add to give your fans a
reason
to spend money with you and your super
fans are likely to do it because they
want that exclusivity they want that
something extra
that other people can't get because they
are a super fan
so another reason that people spend
money on music is if they go to a live
show they come see you perform live they
commemorate the experience
by purchasing a souvenir to take with
them sometimes it's
a t-shirt sometimes it's an album and a
lot of times the people
that are buying music it's not even for
them a lot of times people buy
boxed sets the people that are going to
spend the most money are probably going
to be purchasing gifts for other people
so if somebody's a fan of yours and like
a good friend of theirs
is a fan and they're having a birthday
they very well might spend a little bit
of extra money to buy them
something that they wouldn't buy for
themselves that they can't stream
to give as a gift okay so there's a lot
of reasons why people will spend money
with you but
it's not going to be people that just
know who you are it's going to be people
that are fans
or especially the super fans so you
might be thinking okay well i
don't even have that many people that
know who i am like why would i be
concerned about this stuff
well the fact of the matter is you
probably aren't right now but someday
you will be the goal is
to eventually have a fan base i would
think so
eventually this is something you might
get to right now if you don't have
enough people that
stream your music or follow you you're
not going to be worried about this stuff
yet you're not
probably going to be worried about
selling music just yet but it's
something that you need to keep in mind
because this is where your revenue is
going to come from streams don't pay
anything by the way just in case you
weren't aware of that when you see music
videos with rappers with like diamond
rings driving bugattis i promise you
that that's not coming from spotify
revenue
and understanding the distinction here
between somebody that knows who you are
and getting people to know you and
catering to fans and your super fans
this is important to keep in mind with
releases when you're releasing music as
well
because you hear nowadays that it's all
about uh it's a singles market it's all
about
the streams and catering to spotify's
algorithm and all that good stuff and
you have to release singles nobody
listens to album albums anymore which is
also incorrect but
it's all about streaming it's all about
the singles release music more
frequently etc etc etc
that depends on how many people you have
in these buckets right
so if you don't have any fans or super
fans then you probably need to focus on
releasing singles
if you have fans and especially if you
have the super fan people
you very well may want to focus on album
releases because
you have the people there that are going
to spend the money that when you release
that
deluxe you know deluxe box set special
edition
that's only available for in limited
quantities for a limited time
you know when people buy your music that
first week if you have the people that
if you have the customer base that's
going to spend money there then it makes
sense to do that
uh nine inch back to nine inch nails
again back before spotify even existed
they were one of the first bands
to give their music away for free and
still make a bunch of money
selling it there was an album that came
out called ghost one through four back
in like 2006 2007
something like that where nine inch
nails released their music for free
anybody could go download it and this
was back before you could just stream
music anyway so
people had you know they were giving
away for free it was pretty
revolutionary at the time
and still made a million dollars in
sales the first day that that album came
out
because while they gave it away for free
to people that knew the band and even to
their fans
their super fans were willing to spend a
lot of money on
something special that they couldn't get
elsewhere deluxe box sets the actual
physical album even
and you know whatever else it was that
they were selling and yes
that only really works when you have a
big enough fan base
if you still don't have these people and
you're only working on getting more
people to know you that's probably not
going to be applicable
to you but it still can be on a small
scale even if you only have
a few hundred or a few thousand people
that are fans of yours
they very well might be willing to spend
money and if they're looking forward to
an album release if they're looking
forward to you releasing new music
they might be willing to spend a little
bit of money on that okay so that's a
question that i get asked a lot of times
is should i focus on releasing singles
or should i focus releasing on out
releasing albums well if you do this
right if you release an album correctly
you're going to make a heck of a lot
more money than you would ever makes
with streams so in that circumstance
when you already have the fan base
it makes sense to release albums still
believe it or not it doesn't help you as
much with the spotify algorithm so you
have to take that into consideration
but it can help you make a heck of a lot
more money than you're going to generate
from spotify anyway
so something to think about if you have
the fan base you can still release
albums if you don't have a fan base and
you don't have that many people
that even know who you are yet then
there's no point in planning a big album
release because nobody's looking forward
to it the only way that an album release
works is if you have the fan base
that's awaiting that music if you don't
have the fan base
there's no point in really releasing an
album you're better off to release
singles from the album every six to
eight weeks and cater to spotify's
algorithm so that you can get more
people to know you and as you get more
people to know you
then when you have your next release you
can start to build a fan base here
by getting more people to know you by
releasing the singles and then you start
to build a fan base and then you do
start to have people that are looking
forward to your next release and then
you might consider
doing an album release next time all
right so hopefully all that makes sense
but the point here is that people do
still buy music these people don't buy
music when you say nobody buys music
yeah no these people that just know who
you are
or don't even know who you are they are
not going to spend any money with you
they're not going to buy your music
these people do buy music so
understanding the distinction between
people that know you and just stream
your music and your actual fans
yes there are people that will buy music
if you understand how to give them
additional value give them a reason to
spend money with you
they'll do it okay so people still spend
money with you just not these people
all right so hopefully all of that makes
sense if it doesn't just go back and
re-watch the video up to this point
so now at this point if you do already
have an existing fan base and you want
to start selling music with them stick
around because i'm going to
show you exactly how you can do that i'm
going to show you some tools to help you
facilitate that if you don't
have the fan base yet just focus on
getting those streams so that you can
build a fan base and then eventually
start selling music to them but now i'm
going to hop over to my computer
and show you some resources that you can
use to actually sell your music online
all right so this video is already
running a little bit longer than i
expected so i'm going to go through the
rest of this a little bit quickly
for those of you that haven't released
music yet or if you weren't aware of
this
when you use your just a distributor
like distro kids cd baby
tunecore gyrostream any of these
platforms
these are required to get your music on
spotify apple music amazon music all
those great streaming platforms
and they'll get you distributed
everywhere so most of these services
will get you on like 150 plus
streaming platforms for one flat fee
they also get you into itunes and amazon
music so you can still sell your music
there
by uploading your music through your
distributor and getting it on streaming
platforms
it is already available to purchase
online in places like itunes
and amazon music so you could just send
your fans there to download your music
that's you know
the first simplest easiest way to start
selling your music online
and if you'd like to learn a little bit
more about the differences between some
of these different distributors
i'm not going to get into them right now
but just go ahead and check out the
playlist that i created
in the video description and you can get
more details on those
but if you do want to sell your music
online and you don't want to have to pay
itunes a fee
you want to sell directly to your fans
you can use a service like gumroad
gumroad will allow you to create payment
pages accept payments
and deliver digital downloads of your
music without having to pay that fee to
itunes so if you want to sell directly
to your fans
gumroad's a great option for digital
downloads as well as for physical so if
you want to
sell physical stuff i recommend disc
makers because you can go over to their
site
you they let you press cds dvds
uh blu-ray vinyl uh they help you
with your packaging and whatnot you
basically just tell them the quantity
you want like what it is that you want
is it vinyl cds what
quantity where you live all that they
tell you how much it is you pay them and
they just send it to you and then you
can send it sell it to your fans
of course you still need to be able to
collect payment information and all that
stuff so again
if you want to like sell this out of
your house or apartment then
you can use gumroad to take payments and
you know get customer information
ship directly to your fans or if you
want someone to do it for you
amazon offers a service called amazon
fba this allows you to
send off all of your you know all of
your albums all your vinyl all your
merch
to amazon they store it in one of their
warehouses and then you'll just sell
through amazon's website and then amazon
handles everything for you they take the
payment they ship your music to your
fans
and uh they you know collect the payment
everything and they just send you a
cut your cut less their fees so it's 40
bucks a month plus selling fees so i
do recommend only using this if you you
know are doing a certain amount of
volume you don't want to
sell it yourself and you like to have
amazon help you but it you know it makes
your life
super super simple uh in terms of
selling your music online
especially with you know physical stuff
and if you don't want to send your fans
over to
an amazon page you want things to look a
little bit more professional
i would recommend shopify shopify lets
you create
you know nice looking custom fully
customized online stores so like online
merch stores
you can customize it however you want to
look and it integrates
with amazon fba so you can have a nice
looking professional custom looking
page that you build with shopify where
people where your fans can buy your
music
and then it'll still be fulfilled by
amazon so amazon still handles all the
payment processing and ships it to them
and everything so
that's a pretty pretty good combination
if you're doing some volume and then
last but not least if you want to sell
your music on vinyl
and you don't want to pay the cost of
getting it all pressed up front
you can use a service like q rates and q
rates
is basically a crowdfunding platform for
getting your albums pressed so i believe
the minimum is like a hundred so you
have to have 100 fans
that want to purchase your album in
order for it to work but essentially you
upload your music to cue rates
you create a campaign tell your fans
about it if they want to buy your music
on vinyl
then they purchase it and if you hit the
minimum
number required to get that pressed
curates handles everything else they
press it they ship it to your fans they
take the payment and then they send you
a check
so those are some resources that i would
recommend checking out if you want to
sell your music online
with your typical distributor distrokid
cd baby tunecore
whatever distributor you're using to get
your music on
spotify apple music streaming platforms
they will also get your music put on
itunes and amazon so people can
digitally download it
if you want to sell directly to your
fans whether it's digital or physical
i recommend checking out gumroad you
will of course need to get
cds or vinyl pressed if you want to
actually sell physical music
so disc makers is a good place to do
that if you want to have amazon handle
all the
legwork of you know taking payments and
shipping your music out to your fans for
you amazon fba
will help you with that and then you
have shopify if you want to customize
your own online merch store
integrates with amazon fba so amazon
will still
handle all the fulfillment and you can
have your own custom cool looking merch
store with shopify
and then of course cue rates if you want
to start selling vinyl but you don't
have the money
or you don't want to shell out the money
for getting a bunch of albums press and
vinyl in advance
and don't forget about why the kfs
factor is so important and understanding
where the majority of your listeners are
if nobody knows who you are you need to
focus on that
probably not a good time to start
selling your music but once you do have
a fan base
these resources that i just mentioned
are going to help you facilitate the
process of actually selling your music
to your fan base so hopefully you found
this video helpful if you have
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you