If you plan on selling your music yourself, you will enjoy a few benefits and face a few hurdles, too! The first benefit is, you keep all the money after you subtract the cost of making the product. Nowadays, you'll make more money per CD if you sell the music yourself than if a record company sells it for you and gives you a cut. The only difference is the volume of sales you can achieve with a company backing versus selling it yourself. In either case, before you sell your music, you have to get it ready for duplication.

Duplication

The simplest way to duplicate your music is to burn it at home on a CD burner. The CD burner can be either a standalone system or part of your computer. Blank CDs continue to plummet in price, so the cost of making CDs at home is an attractive option. You can even produce professional-looking, computer-printed labels for both the front of the CD, and insert materials for the jewel case. Considering the price of good-quality printers these days, you can yield some impressive results at home with a relatively small investment.

For those who want to leave the duplication to the professionals, you'll find many options. Usually, these duplication companies deal in large runs, say of 500 or more CDs at a time. While you can order fewer, the difference in price between 100 and 500 is small enough that most people opt for more. You submit either a burned CD or mastered DAT and the company takes care of the rest. You can either supply the art or pay to have it designed for you. Professionally made CDs look better than homemade ones because the duplication company uses better printers and it inks the CD labels onto the case rather than applying inexpensive adhesive labels. It also shrink-wraps the CDs in plastic. There are literally hundreds of places that duplicate and package CDs. You can find them by searching the Internet and local music magazines and papers.

Selling at Gigs

Now that you have a CD ready to sell, either from home or a duplication house, the most logical place to start selling it is at your gigs. You can generate a lot of sales and buzz at live shows. Having CDs for sale, especially if you tour around, is essential for promoting yourself, not to mention for making extra money. Most bands that sell CDs at gigs don't charge record-store prices, and this can be an attractive reason for an audience member to buy the CD.

Selling Online

This is a relatively new concept for musicians. You can start off by selling your CDs on your Web site (if you have one), but keep in mind that many people are leery of sending cash or checks to a stranger (you). Lately Web sites are popping up to handle CD sales for people just like you. Sites like www.cdbaby.com not only take orders for you, they set up a Web page with sound samples and handle secure credit card ordering. Web sites such as these charge you a few dollars of each sale for the cost of hosting and shipping your CDs. You get a weekly check for the money you make. It's a great way to be seen and heard, because these sites are popular on the Web.

Barcodes

If you plan to sell your CD online or through stores you'll need a barcode. CD manufacturing houses typically provide barcodes, but you can also get them yourself by registering for one (through a CD duplication facility). Whenever your CD is purchased, the barcode is read by “soundscan,” which is a service that tracks record sales. If you're interested in having real sales data to show a record company, get all of your CDs equipped with barcodes.