The Reason Behind Duplication: Marketing Your CD

That's right, you're not done yet. I'm sure you've done all of the rehearsing, arranging, recording, engineering and finally the duplication process. You've officially passed through the first step of being able to get your CD completed. Your next step is to get it even further into the public so that you can start to make back what you need from all of your hard work. Before you begin to duplicate your CD, you should think about your next step. This will help you to determine how many CDs you will need as well as what types of things you can use them for.

Marketing and selling your CD is something that should become the priority at the end of the project. There are several portals and areas that will help musicians to find the right way to effectively sell their CDs and to allow them to become a main staple in their musician adventures. You will want to make sure that you get into as many portals as you can so that you can begin to get your name out into the public and make a return on the large investment you've made with your musicianship.

Many musicians consider their CD as the main promotional product. If you are performing, rehearsing or are out in public as a musician, you can use your CD as a way for people to remember you and to market yourself as a musician. No matter what musician activity you are doing, the CD should be available. This is one of the easiest ways to build a fan base, reputation and to make back your investment from the CD. If you don't have performances set up, find ways to get them set up so that people know you are out there.

Along these lines, you can also consider teaming up with other musicians or interested individuals in the area. Most have heard of street teams. These help you to build a reputation and to get your name out into the public. They can use your CD in order to help promote you. With other musicians, you can do this same thing. If they are performing, ask them to sell your CD and you can do the same thing with their music when the time comes. These types of connections are invaluable with the bulk of CDs that you now have.

Another way to get your CD sold is to look into online portals. Places like CD Baby or CD Bathtub offer small set up fees to help you promote your CD to the public. You can also move into more mainstream areas, such as Amazon or online CD marketplaces. These areas include download options as well and the ability to only send a small amount of CDs at one time so that they can start selling to those who are interested in your music. Make sure that you set aside 20-30 CDs to distribute to these areas so that you can begin to get your name around the Internet.

Another space to consider is the local areas that sell CDs. Many of the smaller stores will allow you to place your CD into their area for a small commission. You can typically find the places that are in your local area that will accept musical CDs from local artists. Depending on the store, you won't have to bring in a large quantity of CDs and you most likely won't have to pay money up front. If anything, this will help you to gain the reputation that you want.

If you want to move outside of the box a little more, than you can find other types of community functions which would help to promote your CD. There are several networking spaces and areas that can work as invitational areas to sell your CD. The more networks you have, the more opportunities you will have to get your CD into the right hands.

If you begin to process the ways that you want to sell your CD, it will make the duplication process easier, as you will be able to determine what type of run you will need to do with the CDs and will be able to set goals with what you desire to do with your CDs. When you look at the duplication process this way, the option for duplication is one that is based around your capabilities of promoting yourself as a musician.