Ten Tips To Greater Sales on GospelReggae.com: PART 2 (Touring)
Dec. 12, 2009 - Greetings Gospel Reggae artist, are you looking for a way to sell more albums? Then please read this e-mail. Continued from my correspondence yesterday, here is my second tip on how to get to better sales on gospelreggae.com...
2. HIT THE ROAD JACK (Touring). The most important thing that you can do to promote your music is to perform live and do it as often as possible. The difference between selling 1,000 CDs and 10,000 (or even 100,000) is a busy tour schedule. This is why my band does about 200 shows per album in about 25 countries.
It is crucial, vital, essential, imperative and EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you perform and do it as often as possible. Why? Shows equal souls (the real reason why we do this). And shows also equal sales (what provides for us so that we can afford to continue to do this).
I have always said that the best selling store in the world for my band is the merchandise table at our shows. On any given night our table will move more of my group's CDs than any other store on earth. A slow night could mean $500 in sales and a good night could get you 10 times that or even more! Since not everyone brings money to the concert, I always announce from stage that my CDs and downloads are also available on GospelReggae.com. This boosts our online sales and equates to royalties when you return home.
Can't afford to launch a worldwide tour yet? Then start off small by calling every church in your denomination and asking them if they will allow you to sing a song or two in their Sunday service. Bring CDs and set up a merchandise table. Use a reference letter from your pastor to seal the deal and collect more references everywhere you go. At every performance opportunity make sure to ask the pastors and staff for leads for other churches and pastors that may be open to receiving your ministry. Sometimes if you don't knock, the door simply won't open for you.
Don't try and pawn this job off on a "So called" booking agent that has no real world experience in booking artists. Chances are you are best off as your own agent. This way you are the only one to blame when you have no shows. You are the only one that can accurately represent yourself and if you don't work then you won't eat. How's that for motivation? I booked myself for the first 18 years of Christafari and am still involved on the day to day matters of our bookings.
I know what you're going to say next. You think that you "Can't do tours or too many concerts because you work a 9-5". Then save up for a few months and quit right before your busy tour season. Start off by making booking calls during your lunch breaks or early in the morning before work and follow them up with e-mails in the evening. In a few months you should be able to save up enough money and have enough shows lined up to go full-time into the ministry. I bet you could make the same amount of money doing four church visits a month (with love offerings and CD sales) as you do at your 9-5 job. Crunch the numbers and you may be surprised.
And remember that every show is an audition for another gig. There is always at least one person in the audience that wants you to play somewhere. You just have to find them.
"What does this have to do with websales?" You ask. I can always tell when a gospel reggae artist is touring because their orders increase on our website. Everywhere they go there is a wake of follow-up sales at our webstore. So if you want to increase your sales then you must tour more.
While I am writing this letter Monty G, Mr. Lynx and the Lion of Judah crew are touring 6 states in the USA and Toronto in promotion of Monty's new album "World Domination" and Lynx's "Seeds You Sow." Both albums have just released. That's what I look for when I sign an artist to Lion of Zion--someone who is already out there reaching the masses through tours and selling well on their own.
It's a lot easier to make a good independent seller move greater numbers with the boost of international distribution than it is to get a great artist who never tours to do poor numbers. I have signed a few artists to my label throughout the years that never even left their island once in promotion of their album. The end result was dismal sales and shelves full of boxes of CDs that I can't even give away because there is no demand. Please don't let this happen to you. Be proactive and let's see your sales increase.
Blessings in Christ,
Mark Mohr
http://www.Gospelreggae.com
