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For many artists, the dream of having a successful mixtape will remain that, just a dream. Why? Because most artists, unfortunately, don’t understand how to promote and sell a mixtape online. Learning how to sell a mixtape is all about learning marketing and sales strategies as well as having a properly developed plan. Many rappers are trying to find free ways to promote music online, however, for your release to be successful you will need some initial capital to invest in your project. Let’s take a look at some of the factors you’ll need to consider in your budget before you start promoting the mixtape.
How to create a Mixtape CD
Assuming you are releasing an original mixtape AND have prepared a written action plan, the following should be considered when funding your project:
Beat leases and / or beat exclusive prices
Registration fees
Graphic design fees
CD duplication / replication costs
Music Videos
Miscellaneous advertising costs
Beat the leases, the exclusive rhythms
If you don’t create your own beats, you will need to allocate some money to buy leases or exclusive rights to the beats. Whether you buy beats online or offline is completely up to you.
Let’s use these numbers as an example:
You buy 10 leases online at $ 50 per lease with a distribution limit of 2,500 units.
Cost: $ 500
You buy 3 exclusive beats on sale for $ 250 per instrumental with unlimited distribution rights.
Cost: $ 750
Recording
Your recording fees vary depending on the sound engineer you choose as well as the location of the studio. If you’re a DIY musician and are able to record your own vocals, you’ll save big here. Otherwise, consider the following realistic numbers:
Registration rate: $ 50 / hour with a minimum reservation of 2 hours.
Let’s say it takes you and the engineer 3 hours to record and mix 1 song.
For a 13 song mixtape, your costs would be 39 hours x $ 50 / hour
Cost: $ 1950
Audio mastering
Let’s say you are using the audio mastering services of record manufacturers for your mixtape. Your cost for 13 songs would be $ 599.
Total registration cost: $ 2,549
Graphic design
Continuing our hypothetical scenario, we’ll assume that to get professionally prepared front and back cover to promote mixtape online. It will cost $ 200.
CD duplication / replication
For our purposes, we will use the CD duplication services of Discmakers, purchasing 500 copies of the completed mixtape for promotion. The total cost here will be around $ 480. These CDs will be used to sell at shows and other venues.
Musical clip
To help you with promoting mixtape online, we will create a promotional video clip to drive traffic from YouTube to music.
Cost: $ 500
Various advertising
You will want to minimize your miscellaneous advertising costs. For our purposes, we will prudently spend $ 1,200 on our various advertising efforts consisting of:
1 Flash Rotator banner on Datpiff
1 sponsored YouTube video
1 Google AdWords campaign
1 Facebook advertising campaign
Estimated total investment = $ 6,179
How to finance your mixtape
So we’ve estimated that you’ll need to invest a little over $ 6,000 in your mixtape. The goal of this project is to sell the mixtape in performances, shows and distribute the music through digital outlets for profit. Here are some ideas that can help you fund, promote, and sell your mixtape online.
Ask family, friends
While your pride may tell you otherwise, ask your family and friends to help fund and support your mixtape promotion efforts. Even if they only contributed $ 5, you’re $ 5 closer to your goal.
Crowdingfunding
Growing funding has become an increasingly popular means of obtaining monetary resources. Also known as crowdfunding, crowdfunding or hyperfunding, it describes the collective cooperation, care and trust of people who network and pool their resources, usually via the internet, to support the efforts launched. by other people or organizations.
Crowdfunding websites: Kickstarter, Crowd Tilt, AngelList, Crowd Funder, We Funder, Indie Go Go, Micro Ventures
Loans
Personal loans, bank loans, and small business loans can all be considered financing options for your mixtape. Make sure you understand the terms of your loan agreement and agree to repay your loan in full with interest if necessary. If your mixtape project is a non-profit, you may want to consider seeking a grant.
Resources: Small Business Administration, Grants
Presale
You can pre-sell your mixtape before its actual release. This often works well if a bonus offer is included with the pre-order (ie Merchandise, exclusive downloads, signed copies of the project, etc.).
Selling Singles
You can sell individual tracks as you record them, using the money from the former to pay for future recordings and / or other mixtape fees.
Resources: Tunecore, Cdbaby
Sponsorships / Support
If you’ve created enough buzz before your mixtape is released, you can ask sponsors to pay for some of your mixtape expenses. Acquiring referrals will require deep relationship building and networking, but if you can achieve this it will be a huge bonus for you.
Final thought
Promoting and selling a mixtape is similar to developing a new product for a business. It takes calculated effort and adequate funding to promote your mixtape to the masses. Hope this article has given you some helpful tips for promoting your mixtape online.
Good luck!
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Source by Isaac O Hughley
