Marketing, Music

Case Study In Music Marketing: The Aury Moore Band (Part II)

12 Comments

In Part I of this series, I focused on the successful Kickstarter ($20K+) campaign held last fall by the female-fronted indie Seattle band, the Aury Moore Band. Their recently released CD, Here I Am was produced this spring by Stevie (full disclosure). I’m not affiliated myself in any way with band, although I’ve shared some marketing tips with her over the years, and I appreciate what Aury has done to market her CD. In this post, I will detail Aury’s June 2013 CD release party for Here I Am, including the budget and key promotional elements.

Budget

I received several requests for more detailed cost information after writing a blog post about my own (much smaller) CD release party in April. I think Aury’s party is a better lesson on how to make money on a CD release party, so I asked her if she would be willing to share her numbers. She was most gracious, so here they are:

aury_poster3Costs: Approximately $1300

  • Venue: $0
  • Merchandise: $200 (most was left over from the Kickstarter campaign)
  • Raffle Items: $100
  • Posters, Flyers and VIP Passes:$260
  • Pre-printed Tickets: $40
  • 1000 CDs (jewel case, 4-page color folder/traycard): $1500 (roughly 400 were given out the night of the party, and an additional 200 mailed out to Kickstarter backers)

Revenue: Approximately $10,000

  • Pre-sold Tickets: $4000 (online ticket fees were paid by purchasers)
  • Tickets Sold At Door: $4000 (some attendees were “comped”)
  • Extra Raffle Tickets: $200 (went to charity)
  • Merchandise: $700

(I assume Aury has some kind of revenue-sharing deal with her bandmates, but I didn’t ask about that.) So how did Aury end up netting around $8K at her CD release party?

Continue Reading

Live, Marketing, Music

Did I Move You? How To Throw A CD Release Party

5 Comments

I did something important this weekend. It was important because I’m dying. Not anytime  soon, mind you, but someday I won’t be here. So, because I could – because it mattered to me – this weekend I did a few things I enjoyed doing a lot. Things on my bucket list. These were all things I’ve never done before, and I did them with people I love and respect. I

  • entertained 50 people (pictures here),
  • performed original music I had created with my life partner, Stevie,
  • opened for Amanda Palmer (@amandapalmer, yes that Amanda Palmer), and
  • kicked off the launch of the first ever Solveig & Stevie CD, Superwoman (available soon via iTune and all your favorite channels and services).

Oh, and I moved people. That is really the most important part of what I did this weekend. I made something beautiful and magical for people I love and for complete strangers alike. How do I know this? Because people haven’t stopped telling me since last Saturday. That is why I make music: to move people. I don’t need to be a star. I don’t need to be famous. I’m old (relatively), and I have three kids.  I think regularly about how best to live the rest of my life, and what kind of meaningful memories I want to leave behind when I am gone. I’ve done my time in corporate meeting rooms. I want to make people feel. I want to touch people and make them think about their own creativity. If I did that for even a few people last weekend, that makes me happy.

Yes indeed. What a night! Could the long term good vibes of the church be blessing our communion ! I’m not the least bit religious but last night was the best feeling I’ve had in a group of strangers since the sixties. – Tim Rounds

Continue Reading