If you can't sell 100 cds, you suck! I don't mean your music sucks. I don't mean your band sucks. I mean that you as a human being are a miserable disgrace. You've let everyone who has ever helped you down when you don't put the work into actually selling your music.

I want to make it clear right now that this article is for people who have intentions / ambitions of “making it”. I know more than one band of older guys making killer tunes that make music just as a hobby. This article is intended for people who want to make music more than a hobby.

Think about all the people that have helped you along the way. More than likely someone has tolerated your incredibly loud noise. Someone has pitched in for the PA system. Someone has helped you carry equipment to gigs. Someone has helped on the website. Someone has probably recorded your music and put in extra hours without charging.

All of these people didn't donate their time so that you would have more time to play Halo. These people donated their time to you and your band because they thought it was a worthy cause. So when you don't get out there and sell your music, you stay exactly where you are right now. You are letting everyone who ever helped you down. When a person gives up their day to help you haul equipment you have a responsibility to work twice as hard on making better music and aggressively selling it to more people. When you get help and take it for granted, you have essentially enslaved anyone who has ever helped you.

Get Aggressive Selling Your Music

Unless you are an orphaned only child raised by wolves, you probably have have friends and family. Guess what! These are the people you HAVE to sell to. Some band people seam to think that they shouldn't charge their friends or family for their music. Well, in my experience, these are the easiest people to get to buy your music. It's WAY harder after that!

You need to remember that 50 $10 cds is $500. This will pay half of the cd replication bill. This could pay for a day at a killer drum room for your next recording. $500 goes a long way for guitar strngs, bass strings, drum heads, and drum sticks. $500 is a new power amp or a pretty good monitor. You see what I'm getting at here. If you can sell to your family and friends, you can benefit your band greatly. If all the members in the band can do this, your band can do some serious upgrades!

If you can't sell 50 cds to your friends or family, you should really consider getting more friends. After you have sold 50 cds to your friends and family, it's time for you (not the rest of your band...just you) to go out and sell 50 cds to strangers. It's time to make friends.

It's Time To Make Friends

I have this little theory that the only people that will ever buy your album is friends or friends of friends or friends of friends of friends (if you are REALLY good). So, the best way to increase your chances of “making it” if that's your ambition is to make new friends.

The Old Free Beer Trick

Of course, you may not feel comfortable going up to a group of strangers and demand they empty their wallets on your new cd. However, you may feel comfortable giving them a coupon for a free pitcher of beer on the night of your next show. (You'll need to arrange this one with the bar, obviously). It's easy to get a group of people to follow free beer. The only thing better would be free girls, but I don't know if concubines are exactly legal.

More than likely a bar will gladly let you give away a limited amount of these coupons as long as you pick up the cost of the beer and a little more. I'd like to think that most bar owners understand that the best alcohol customers is someone who has already been drinking alcohol. Couple that with the fact that these total strangers would not be at the show if they weren't sucked in by free beer in the first place. A $1.50 pitcher of beer could very easily bring you $20 at the door and bring the bar another $100 (depending on the caliber of drinking that this crowd will be doing).

Assuming you can hand out 200 free pitcher of beer coupons, it's easy to see that you've made at least 200 new friends. It's actually possible that you have made 1,000 new friends. You now have 1,000 people who like you.

Not only do these people like you, but they owe you a favor. They'll pay the cover to get into the show and if they like your music, they'll gladly buy a cd. If they like the cd, they'll gladly tell their friends and come to the next show. They may even buy a tshirt.

Back To Music Selling Being Your Responsibility

So as I said, it's your responsibility to your friends who come out to every show to bring in new strangers. Your buddies want to see new chicks at the shows. Hell, you want to see new chicks at the bars. The only way to do this is go out and talk to strangers. The rest will take care of itself.