Re: making money off your music

[David Gans <david@trufun.com>]

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.  I make a reasonable amount of money 
playing music - not enough to pay my mortgage, but more than enough to 
make it worthwhile - and I am able to do so on my own terms for the most 
part.  I play music festivals (hippie jam-band festivals, for the most 
part), club gigs, farmers' markets, and house concerts.  I'm leaning 
toward more house concerts these days, because clubs are a lot less fun 
and these days less likely to be financially satisfying (as guarantees 
disappear and the venue wants a bigger share of the door, etc.).

I have CDs for sale on CDBaby, amazon.com, etc., but I hardly ever sell 
any through those channels.  The vast majority of my sales are, like most 
musicians' these days, at the gig: after the show you schmooze, sell CDs, 
and sign 'em.

I've also offered "bootleg" CDs of particularly satisfying shows via my 
blog, Facebook, etc.  These are properly mastered but not 
handsomely-produced - burned CDs with hand-written labels, offered at a 
bargain price (e.g. $10 for a two-disc set, plus postage).  I set that 
money aside for studio recordings, which I do a song at a time as the 
budget permits.




On Oct 8, 2010, at 7:48 AM, tEd ® KiLLiAn wrote:

> That is, unless you are the recipient of the triple bonus prize of 
>evolution and good fortune - finding yourself so talented and 
>artistically in-tune with a large (enough), ready and willing-to-pay 
>audience (or other patronage) that will buy absolutely anything you do, 
>and the thing that you most crave to do is exactly what they crave most 
>to have you do - a match made in heaven or hell (I don't know which).

David Gans - david@trufun.com or david@gdhour.com
Truth and Fun, Inc., 484 Lake Park Ave. #102, Oakland CA 94610-2730
Blog:  http://cloudsurfing.gdhour.com
Web site: http://www.dgans.com
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgans
Music: http://www.cdbaby.com/all/dgans