Why CDs Are Still a Necessity for Artists

The other day I was at an underground Hip-Hop show where one emcee was totally killin it on stage. His live performance was simply incredible. He closed it, however, by saying “you can find me on iTunes.” I cringed. While having your music available digitally is a great way to reach a worldwide audience, it seems many artists are forgetting about the audience that’s right in front of their faces.

In the scenario I just gave you the people at the show, which was at a small bar that looked packed with about 50-75 people in it, all dug the performance. Had the artist in question had a CD available at the merch table I have no doubt, based solely on his performance, he would have sold at least five copies. In retail this is called an impulse buy. It’s why they put candy and gossip magazines so close to the register. It’s there, therefore people buy it, almost unthinkingly. At a concert the merch table can act in much the same way, especially if CDs are priced at $5.

So this artist missed out on a potential $25. No big deal, right? In fact some may argue that with the cost to put the CD together it wouldn’t even be worth it, especially knowing that not every show will result in sales. While those things are true, the artist needs to, at least for a moment, stop being an artist and start remembering what it was like to be a fan. When you’re a fan of an artist, especially an underground artist you feel you discovered, you don’t keep their music all to yourself, you share it with all of your friends. That CD gets played during car rides and at parties, all the while with the person who bought it gushing about your live show. Because of this, many of said person’s friends are going to end up wanting to see you live. Yes, there’s a better than average chance all those friends will be burning copies of your CD rather than buying it, but at this stage in your career that can actually work in your favor as the more people who hear your music the more likely you are to draw them to shows and get them to pick up future albums, or other merch.

Let’s continue along this line and say the five people who picked up the CD shared it with five friends. That’s 25 people rockin out to your music, 20 of whom weren’t even at the show, but are now potential ticket buyers for your next performance. Would those same five people have gone home, remembered the correct spelling of your name, gone onto iTunes, found you among the litany of other similarly named artists, and then paid to download your work? Not likely, because with an impulse buy, the longer you find yourself being able to live without the product the less likely you are to make the purchase. Every minute that passes after your performance the crowd takes one step further away from purchasing your work. Do you really want to let them sober up and sleep on it before making their purchasing decision? Or worse, have them go onto iTunes and remember they wanted to buy something else? If you offer people nothing while they’re at your show don’t be surprised if you get nothing in return.

Yes, it costs money to put CDs together and there’s a chance you won’t recoup it all dollar for dollar, but the promotional impact of having something that people can buy when they’re fully motivated by your performance and then, in turn, share with their friends, is something that can only help you grow your fan base.

Online content is for the online community, and it’s a very important part of any artist’s business plan. You shouldn’t, however, forget about the living, breathing community you have right in front of you every time you perform. In a world of new technologies the basics for building a fan base still apply and always will.