would love your viewpoint on prepping cd's for the rally

[rdance]

hello forum friends!

as some of you know, i have been adding a live drummer to a whole catalog of songs i co-wrote a few years ago. have also been doing tv/film-friendly edits to them. in terms of genre, i notice the songs are falling into two basic categories, soul/funky, and alt. country/rock.

i want to put together a proper CD for the rally to give to potential clients (libraries, etc.), and the question is (with film/tv users in mind), should i keep the cd all one genre? i ask this because for last year's rally, i made a cd of all one genre (funk/soul) and now it looks like one library is going to sign all 13 songs.

part of me wants to stick with one genre with the hope that the whole thing will get signed like last year. but part of me wants to show variety and do half funky/soul and half alt. country/rock.

keep in mind, i am not making a 'demo' cd, but a finished product released on my label, so i can also do cd baby sales, etc. (not that i expect much to come from that).

would appreciate your thoughts...here is an example of each genre.

http://thecrawdaddy.bandcamp.com/track/ ... attainable

http://thecrawdaddy.bandcamp.com/track/ ... -dark-side

thanks for your input!

[kclements]

Why not do some of both? Have one CD a specific genre you would like to sell as a "package" and one to show variety?

For me, I just bring a couple of CDs to throw in the boxes and hand out cards with my soundcloud page listed for them to visit. That way, you can make unlimited Sets, each with their own URL, and feature them on your home page if you're a paid member. If someone wants to listen right then and there, I simply call up soundcloud and let them listen.

You could even go as far as have separate cards for each set, but that may be going overboard.

I used sound cloud last year instead of bringing a bunch if CDs with me, and it worked out very well. I even used it for a drive by critique, she just plugged her headphones into my iphone.

Cheers
kc

[Kolstad]

Yeah, why not arrange songs you want to pitch in sets at soundcloud, and bring a device that can be online so you could hook it up, when somebody wants to listen. That way you would be flexible to play the relevant set for whom ever it may concern, quicker.

Then it may be useful to bring CD's with those sets along with you, as well, in case they only have time to listen later. Just like your speciality and your branch out music, CD's and soundcloud is probably a both-and, not an either-or.

You have so much music and are so prolific, that you probably could follow up on both avenues.

From the marketing classes I've had, I learned that you need to use everything you've got, create a marketing mix on different mediaplatforms, and target the right things to the right people. You have to use push strategies to cut through the mix of voices offering things, but pull strategies in the next step, when you have caught their eye. As long as you follow that, you'll perform your best marketing, imo.

Here's a marketing theory from 2006 to use:

REAN is a marketing acronym that stands for;

R – Reach – the set of activities needed to raise prospects' attention for your brand, product or service
E – Engage – the gradual, typically multi-channel, often recursive set of activities needed to engage the prospects you just won
A – Activate – the activities needed for your prospects to take, eventually, the actions you wanted them to take
N – Nurture – the activities needed to nurture the customer relationship you just managed to create

More here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA_%28marketing%29

Imo, it's not so much about doing it "right", but to make sure you are doing some activities in all of the categories so that you are covering all the bases.

I would put physical CD's in the Nurture section, because you need to have some sort of relationship before anybody will take it from you. A streaming site I would put in the Reach section, because you don't neccesarily need a relationship before anybody would listen.

So even if CD's and soundcloud both are media for your music, they can do different things for your marketing. The theory says nothing about how to interpret and categorize your activities, though, but it can be helpful for checking if you really are doing "the full monty", so to speak, and for thinking about what you "do" with those things, and what you'd like them to do.

Point is that online music and CD's seems like the same thing, but marketing wise, the may perform very different tasks.

my2kroner

[mobster85]

This is a great topic Richard. For one who has not been to a Rally yet I have been wondering the same things. Thanks for putting this out there.

[kclements]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you Kolstad, but I tend to simplify when I can.

My first Rally, I brought 20 CDs with me and I took 19 home. Now, this was my fault, as I didn't have the confidence to approach people and hand them my CD. The next year, I made different CDs. But this time, I brought 10 along and returned with 6. Third and fourth (last year's) Rally, I brought 4 CDs and cards with my Soundcloud page listed.

I see the Rally as the perfect place to build relationships - and not necessarily stuff your CD in a bunch of peoples hands. I'm not saying there isn't a place or it's a bad idea to hand your CD off to someone. But I would recommend you do some research, figure out where you want to move next and target that library or producer... and keep it to 2 or 3. The rest of time focus on learning from the classes and most importantly build relationships - with the pubishers and library folks, but also your fellow Taxi members. 7 of the 9 libraries I currently write for have come from recommendations from fellow members.

Just my thoughts and opinion - keep it simple.

cheers
kc

[Kolstad]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you Kolstad, but I tend to simplify when I can.

It's cool, KC.
I'm a teacher, and I'm way too far down that slope.. so I post from the old saying "give the man an advice and he'll survive the next rally, but show the guy how the advice works, and he'll survive a lifetime of rally's"

I was just advocating a systematic approach, slippery as I am..

[HectorRContreras]

You have an excellent Website, dear Richard.

I agree with Kayle, both will be fine.

[rdance]

thanks everyone!

i appreciate the experiential advice and discussion.

i am learning just by reading the conversation among you all.

i recall bringing up a similar discussion last year in prepping for the rally. everyone has varied experiences and opinions on this topic, so...

EVERYONE ELSE FEEL FREE TO JOIN IN. we all want to have productive rally experience on the business side of things which, by the way, seems to take place over cocktails in that lobby lounge at the westin.

[Casey H]

Good discussion. I'm wondering if this thread would be better placed in the Road Rally section of the forum?

Other similar threads are up there.

Best of luck, Richard! See ya in November!

Casey

[VanderBoegh]

Not sure there's really a right or wrong way, Craw. I've done things a couple different ways now, and will probably proceed differently this time around. But here's my history:

2011 Road Rally - brought 100 copies of a freshly printed and pressed country CD I made. Wasn't sure what to expect. Ended up dropping some off in the piles and drop-boxes, handed a few out to other members, and went home with about 90 of the 100.

2013 Road Rally - brought 20 copies of a mix CD I put in little sleeves full of vocal songs. Ended up playing some of these for folks and used it for my one-on-one, but went home with about 15 of them.

2014 ASCAP Expo - brought 8 copies of a mix CD full of instrumental cues. Went home with every single one.

If my experience can be used as a guide, I'd say come prepared with something because you don't know when an opportunity might present itself. But it's probably much more effective to meet people and hang out and follow up later. Business cards are an absolute necessity. For you, Craw, I'd be tempted to just put the whole works on one CD with a "First Half: FUNK | Second Half: ALT-COUNTRY" set-up. Save yourself the money on printing, and save a little room in the suitcase too.

~~Matt