Indie Music Marketer .com

A Great Trick to Boost Your Album Sales

Written by Josiah
Thursday, 05 July 2007
Do you think that some of your audience would like to get a copy of your CD, but they just don't feel like they want to pull out the ol' credit card and make it happen? In any musician's given audience, there is a certain percentage of listeners who like the music, but who are just not ready to buy it if they have to spend their own money. So how do you reach them? How do you turn more of your casual listeners into fans and customers? Well, here's a trick that webmasters have been using for awhile, but that may be ESPECIALLY suited to musicians and bands. This trick basically consists of having users complete sponsored offers (which pay you for referrals) in exchange for a free copy of the album. Here's how it works: Sign up for some affiliate networks like Linkshare, Commission Junction, Performics, etc. (do a simple Google search for their names). Once you setup an account, apply to the specific companies affiliate programs that you feel would be well-suited to (arts, entertainment, magazines, CD clubs, etc.) Lean especially toward those that have "free trial" periods. Get the special links for each and setup an "Offers" page on your site explaining the process and displaying the offers. Tell them which ones or how many offers they need to complete to get the free CD. Send a blast to all your fans, and put a link on your frontpage saying something like "Grab a FREE copy of our new album! Find out how..." with a link to the "Offers" page. Once the fans complete the offers, they send you a note and let you know, and you email them a link to download the album (or you ship them the physical CD if that's what the agreement was). This creates a win-win-win situation between your band, the fans, and the advertisers. You give away a CD and still get paid for it (sometimes more than if you'd actually sold a CD!), the fan gets a free CD, and the advertisers get a potential client to market to. Brilliant! You've probably seen sites that operate off of this premise, such as the popular FreeIpods.com, which gives away an iPod for signups who completed enough sponsored offers; or MyStuffFree.com, which sends you Paypal payments or Walmart giftcards for completing their offers and referring friends. So this method is in popular use all over the web right now, and you can use it to benefit your band too. Give it a try today!