Alternative Income Stream For Musicians (And Others)
What happens when you put out music that distribution companies
won't touch, radio won't play, and only a small percentage of
the population is interested in?
The movie industry has the same problems. The major distributors
won't touch a lot of movies because they don't think there's
enough money in it for them. Remember, the mainstream movie
business literally runs as much on popcorn-sales as
ticket-sales. Big, violent action movies bring in audiences that
eat $7 boxes of popcorn and $4 cups of soft drinks.
But thanks for new technology, distribution (and return on
investment) is getting a lot easier.
One alternative is Spiritual Cinema Circle, which is a DVD
subscription service where subscribers get new movies
automatically sent to them every month.
And here is where it gets exciting...
Subscribers are encouraged to share the movies with friends and
family, in order to broaden the worldwide Spiritual Cinema
community. So one DVD can be seen by potentially dozens of
people.
This is how buzz is developed.
You could do the same thing with your music. It's like a record
pool that bypasses the DJ and goes straight to the consumer.
Imagine having thousands of people who are interested in a
certain type of music, eagerly awaiting the next compilation of
mp3 files in their mailbox each month.
And because people who like a certain type of music usually know
other people who like that same type of music, imagine the
promotion you could get by encouraging them to pass along your
files to their friends.
But wait... Shouldn't you want to get paid for your music?
Of course. And if you're able to play live, can come up with
good merchandising, and other streams of income, you'll be fine.
Just because you're a musician doesn't mean you have to make a
living off selling recorded music. If selling shirts of your
band enables you to make that music, does it really matter where
the money comes from?