Re: CD SALES DECLINING?

[Travis Hartnett <travishartnett@gmail.com>]

I think it depends on what you define as your "pool of potential
buyers are who aren't doing so".  Personally, the only way someone's
going to know that I have a CD to buy is if they see me playing
somewhere, and all my performance venues cater to people with
disposable income--coffee shops, restaurants, art galleries, wine
bars.  They've already come in to the place to spend money on
something they don't need, they're just maybe choosing to spend it on
something other than my music.

The last time I played somewhere that I thought "NO ONE here has money
to buy a CD" was a soup kitchen in a church basement.  It's
extraordinarily rare that I encounter someone in the US who has zero
disposable income--they're just choosing to spend it on cigarettes,
alcohol, food prepared by someone else for them, three space soft rack
cases, a college fund for their children, etc.  These are
descretionary spending choices which I won't argue with except to
point out that they are choices one has made and not immutable
conditions of survival.

TravisH

On 1/8/06, Kris Hartung <khartung@cableone.net> wrote:
>
> I'm not sure about anyone else, but most of my potential buyers/listeners
> here locally fall into three categories, which sheds light very clearly 
>and
> pragmatically on the CD sales issue here and for me and them: 1) They 
>play
> music for a living and can't afford to buy CDs, 2) they have families and
> can't afford or justify spending money on CDs, and 3) they like my music 
>and
> enjoy watching me perform, but avant-garde music is not on the top of 
>their
> list of the type of music they typically buy.
>