TubeNet

This is an interesting topic that I suspect will only generate speculation. It would be nice if the the artists that sell the most CDs would tell us how how many CD they have sold, but I doubt they will. I wouldn't. (Well, if I had a CD, even a badly selling CD, I might be so stunned that I would tell you how many sold: probably 6.)

Amazon.com lists Pat Sheridan's CD, Blazing Brass, as 268,743 in sales in the music category. Icky Thump by The White Stripes (who?) is first. Blazing Brass is the only Sheridan CD that is listed as available on Amazon.com.

Øystein Baadsvik's Tuba Carnival is ranked 100,232.

Alan Baer's Coast to Coast is 34,422 (wow!).

How does this translate into worldwide CD sales. I don't know, 10's of thousands?

Mark,are the numbers you're giving the # of cd's sold or the ranking?I'd be pretty surprised if blazing brass sold that many,though I certainly own it and all Pat's others as well.I've always assumed tuba solo cd's to be labors of love and not really for profit,though profit is always welcome

MikeMason wrote:Mark,are the numbers you're giving the # of cd's sold or the ranking?

Those are sales rankings.

MikeMason wrote:I've always assumed tuba solo cd's to be labors of love and not really for profit,though profit is always welcome

I suspect that Sheridan and Baadsvik have actually made a pretty good chunk of change when you total up all of their CD sales.

I don't know about tuba solo CD sales numbers but about 10 years ago I saw the head of a MAJOR record company give a talk. He gave some specific numbers about classical orchestral CD sales. I remember he said an average "Big Five" orchestra CD would sell approximately 3,000-4,000 CDs. At that time his label had a Gershwin CD recorded by a major orchestra that he said was a "huge success" for a classical CD - and that CD had sold around 18,000 copies. Remember that 10 years ago CDs were still the main format for recorded music. Today CD sales in general are lower.

I can't imagine that tuba/euphonium CD sales numbers would be higher than major orchestras (I'm sure there could be exceptions).

I have heard from members of a couple different high profile brass quintets that most of their CD sales are made at their concerts and not through Amazon or other retailers. This might also be the case for solo CDs as well.

So am I wrong, or is it even worth making these CD's? Would it be more profitable to just have one master and burn some CD-R's to people who order them?

Ralph

Lots of bits to comment on here, but the main thing with CD sales is what the artist and record label (if appropriate) expects to sell. Obviously picking repertoire is very important or to have a sort of ground breaking theme (orchestra or new works composed for the artist seem to do quite well).

There are some people that use CDs for calling cards and not for direct sales, there are some that use them for repertoire guides for conductors, and some that use them for sales alone. Some can use them for all three purposes.

I also think the sales numbers are difficult to determine because there are lots of promos for conductors and agents and concert series so it is not just an easy calculation. Also, some people I think would be thrilled to have 500 copies of thier CDs in circulation, others want 5,000 as their goal...depends on their level of activity.


I also think it is totally worth it to do projects "right," but I think the risk of doing the CDR route is that, yes it accomplishes a similar end result but lacks the comfortable features. Sort of like with cars, a Yugo gets you from point A to point B, but if you have a BMW, Accura, etc, the ride and view is a lot nicer...my concept with artwork and package design. I know recently witht the current 2 CDs it cost a good bit more to have more than 4 pages in a booklet for program notes....I said we want the audience to learn about the music and the artists and we don't want to skimp there, so we used 12 pages to cover it well.

In the end, selling these discs REALLY just funds future projects (Dr. Bowman told me so) versus money in the artists' pockets. So this is VERY important to remember about buying CDs is that while you get a small piece of history, you are also contributing in a way to the future of the instrument. I know I personally have a list of 8 future recording projects, but I make a point to get a certain number of sales on each disc before the next project gets rolling...so buy the new recordings if you want to see more.



I hope that helps becuase I know many people are interested in doing a CD, but good to know all the details and that doing it "right" investing in a great project that positively represents you.