Along with some really solid arguments about why compact discs are less and less relevant, Mark Cuban coins the phrase “concertpodding.” Bring a laptop to your merch table, and let folks hook it up to their own MP3 players for $5 to download your album, or even a copy of that night’s show. Scared about bringing your laptop to a gig? Buy a cheap refurb from the folks at TechRestore, or pick up something on eBay that’s already been banged around. You break even on the investment after about 100 downloads.
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my band actually tried this and ran into a plethora of problems. heres what we ran into.
– time. it took about 2-3 minutes to get the music onto someones mp3 player, after we had everything hooked up right. with 10 people wanting mp3’s it took a half hour…people started getting uninterested. not to mention the driver issues we had with some people who brought their rio’s out of the bottom of the closet.
– no interest. alot of people wouldnt bring their ipod or mp3 player to the show, they said that they didnt want to lose it or get it damaged in the pit…what can i say to that…? not much.
– cd’s. people kept asking us for cd’s. no one came to us and asked, can i download your music?
just some things to watch out for, we still use the mp3’s as a secondary selling point, but cd’s are definetly our main staple for music.
thanks for all the great info joe. take care.
Jason
Some thanks you get for being an early adopter, huh!
I think CDs will still be one of the prime movers at merch tables for a while yet. But as MP3 players get less expensive (and more expendable), and if someone can come up with an elegant application that handles the tech for you, this idea could go places.
Thanks for contributing!
Joe, how can these MP3 sales be reported to SoundScan, and would those sales carry the same weight as CD sales in the eyes of the industry folk (A&R, etc.)?
Just curious. Thanks.