Direct-to-Fan stores (often built through Topspin, Nimbit, or Bandbox) only work if you have a good strategy behind it. You need to be intentional about what products you are going to offer in your album bundles. Just because you list an item as $65 doesn’t mean it’s a good package.
Scott Cohen, co-founder of The Orchard and manager of The Raveonettes, recently wrote up his thoughts on what bands should offer their fans. He makes three great points that are essential to understand before you start selling to your fans:
1) You have 3 fan groups you need to point your strategy towards: Core, Casual, and New Fans
“All three groups want something different. New fans just want a track or two. Casual fans want a track or the album. And the core fans want as much as we could release. It’s significant to note that no one group is more important than the other—we should be able to succeed with each type of fan and strive to feed their comfort zone of music consumption.”
2) Most of your fans will buy singles, unless you specifically market them something better
“Looking at the total fan base, when given the choice between a $7.99 album and a 99-cent track download, 75% chose the track. This is a combination of casual fans and new fans. However, when given the choice between a $3.99 EP and the track, fewer than half chose the track. By providing different pricing and format options, we were able to increase our sales from the casual fans who want more than a track and less than an album. And there weren’t any marketing costs associated with the releases.”
3) You still need to offer CDs and Vinyl, but get creative with Digital
“According to Nielsen SoundScan, about 80% of 2009 album sales in the United States were physical, so there’s still a need to sell CDs and vinyl. Digital, however, is more complex because consumers have the opportunity to unbundle the album and even to download it for free if they want”
To read Scott’s full article, please click here.
If you’d like to see some current examples of bands that I think are doing this well, email me and I’d be happy to share.
