NoiseWiki

I'm just going to be blunt with this one.
For those of you who actually manage to sell your sounds/merch, where do you find most of your customers coming from?

Facebook?
email?
discogs?
shows?
here?
I
Where do you advertise?
How do you get the word out that you have a new tape or CD, and what do you find to be the most effective way of doing so?
Do you find that having a label and/or distro a bigger draw than if you were Independent i.e. only selling things you made?
How reasonable is it to expect wholesalers to take interest in your work?I

Personally, I know I'm never going to make a living off of this: that's a given for 99.999% of us.
However, even obscure, mediocre projects have put out at least a few pieces of physical media that have been exchanged for real life currency, yet I can't ever seem to sell much of anything I make.I

Maybe if there is some novelty behind it e.g. oddball format, extra goodies, etc. I can sell out of it, but in practice it's a total crap shoot whether that appeals to people or not.
Splits tend to sell a little better depending on who the other artist is, though this doesn't bode well for solo output.

I've tried putting my stuff up on literally every noise forum I've come across, in addition to reddit and 4chan topics; I've mailed free copies with wholesale proposal letters to a handful of labels & distros catering to multiple genres; the only things I haven't done, that I can think of, are emailing people directly (which I find to be a little presumptuous and rude) or biting the bullet on Facebook.

I'm not in desperate need of the money, I just wish there was more interest in my work, especially when I take the time to materialize it into something tangible.
Between this apparent lack of interest in physical media and the difficulty I had making my most recent physical releases, I feel like I'm better off doing nothing but net releases from this day forward. Certainly seems to be heading that way.

I've really been trying to put out stuff that I myself would buy if I saw/heard it, had I not been the one making it. That's the same reason why the last thing I put out was a CD and not a tape: nowadays I hardly bother with tapes because most of the music I listen to now is files I burned on to CD-Rs so I could listen to them in my car. Removing any possible inconvenience from the point of procurement to listening appears to be the optimal course of action and I myself can't really argue with that.

TL;DR How do you sell your stuff?

EDIT: To clarify, this isn't a call out for people to give me "pity buys." While I'm disappointed with my own sales, beyond that I'm genuinely curious to hear from people who tend to sell out of their stuff quickly: what's your secret?

Well as far as selling merch my best path has been at shows but that of course it out of the question for the time being.

Otherwise personally I had to do alot of trading to unload copies of releases I put out on my label. Unfortunately there weren't too many large distros that would sell CDrs or tapes and even fewer now than then.

Sorta funny story..

I put out a release for this european act.. at first they were trying to insist a number of copies twice as much as I would normally do but I refused. Usually I send almost half of those to the artist. Anyway after making the copies I asked where he wanted me to send his copies and he was like oh I don't want copies. That motherfucker was just trying to brag about having a release with so many copies of it. Later I noticed he was selling copies on a different label or his own label.. meanwhile my copies did not sell at all from what I recall.

Anyway.. I dunno man.. you prolly gonna have to use facebook to do promotion and or instagram.

At some point I want to resume some of the group trade projects I was doing.

I just started doing a small label so I definitely hear you. In the past, I've sold almost the entirety of my self-releases at shows, both my own and others...but that's obviously on hold. In the back of my mind i still hope to sell the bulk of my label stuff in person, it is very hard to conceive of a future where the underground scenes of various types do not congregate in person...
I generally loathe social media and am not on it personally, but I did an instagram for my label because there's actually quite a bit of noise on there. I've sold a few through people seeing my blatant on there and subsequently checking out the bandcamp. You might wanna consider biting the bullet and doing an instagram. I'm old as fuck so this label is really my biggest endeavor in the digital age- but i've found some of it similar to doing stuff in person: one person sees it, likes it, maybe tells someone else, that slowly adds up to people checking out your stuff.
I definitely feel your frustration, ha. I started my label because i saw sooo many people making shitty noise and selling out instantly of their poorly dubbed micro-editions...i was like "me and my friends are way better than this crap!" and of course now i'm learning that having good stuff to sell isn't enough. You have to build up enough so that people automatically check out whatever you release just based on the fact that it's you. I guess besides maybe doing an instagram, my advice would be just to stick it out and slowly but surely spread the word. As noisewiki said above, sometimes you think "man, is 25 copies gonna be enough?" then when you still have half of them after months you realize that especially with noise, most of this stuff doesn't exactly fall into the wrong hands- every single thing you sell is generally to someone who knows whats up and that is a harder thing to foster than just being popular or whatever. and FWIW i think your stuff is great!

Pre plague...at shows
Now...probably facebook. Bandcamp PayPal and such seem a requirement.
Instagram and YouTube.
Maybe have a schedule...a video every other week. Social media posts every other day or 3 times a week. Promote people projects and artists you like and network with them.

In retrospect for myself I would have sent demos out to labels. Send demos to labels!

I would have tried to make releases shorter.
Traditional album length of 30 minutes or so for tape/use and 10 -15 minutes for 'eps'....those all seem like good lengths for releases...I don't tend to follow my own advice. Rambling.......

Aaaand...Quality counts.

Send 'promos' to noise related review blogs zines podcasts or radio shows?
Maybe start your own review show or blog


Some notorious creepy guy I wont mention sent out 100 or so free very well packaged and specifically designed cdrs...I think he did that twice.??
There was lots of hype bullshit with that guy cause of who he is.but with someone like you I dont think that would be an issue....any how that seemed to work for him. Helps build your mailing list and you probably get more than a few trades in return and offers for releases and splits.
$500 or so investment plus time to 'build your brand' if you have the cash probably isnt a bad idea.
Network and trade


Send demos to labels and then its up to them sell them(((mostly....you will want artist copies of course!

How many copies is a good amount and how much should the ...tapes... Cost?

25 is a good number. If you can afford the monetary and storage and time cost...sure 100 tapes would be great.

Price FREE $3 to $10 depending on quality. More if the pacaking is extra ordinary.
Tape packed in animal skull is gonna cost more than just a tape in a regular plastic case.


Just some things off the top of my head...

imo, it is less about self promotion, more about drive and right time / place... zeitgeist stuff

do it for your species being haha

Start a bandcamp page, generate free codes, distribute.
Free copies to labels / traded is important.

For the record, I have a Facebook now:
https://m.facebook.com/chris.reierson.7
Still getting used to it peek

Suggestion: give up.

I don't know if my input really counts here. I seldom release anything, and I've always been one to avoid promoting things too much. I take the probably-delusional stance that I should be able to sell my material on its own merits, without essentially begging people for their attention. If they're not interested, they're not interested. If they are, there's usually a Bandcamp link for every physical release.

By all means, spend your money on large, professional runs and lavish packaging. But don't get stuck on the idea that your release warrants anyone's attention for your doing so, or even that doing so will get anyone's attention. People's brains are so clogged with informational clutter and "noise", it's pointless to worry about tying to get noticed for something as trivial as "self expression" in an age where everyone's an "artist" and "creative type" and "has something to say". This is why I take the stance that, if what I do has any merit, it will eventually find an audience without much effort on my part promoting myself or specific releases. And if it never does, that's alright with me.

People will find your stuff eventually. Maybe after you're dead.

I tend to just tell my friends when I put something new out, everything I release has only been digital so far. Mostly I just post things to YouTube and Bandlab, which both have their own social media element to them so I just tag stuff appropriately and wait for people looking for that stuff to find it (and of course the small community of individuals who already like my stuff will get it in their feed). I try to do compilations and splits because I think they're fun (I tend to do a lot of one offs so I rarely have album material but always have cool random tracks) and because it allows you to introduce yourself to fans of other artists. Same reason I try to get stuff on labels, just because then people who listen to that label will listen to it. I also put stuff up about new works on my own social media. Occasionally I'll post some new Bandcamp record on Reddit on subs where they'd probably like it, but it usually gets lost in the shuffle anyway.

Rubby wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 5:26 pm i think your stuff is great!

either chris is a savant, or they are deranged lol

put it in a box, FAP