What is a good expectation for album sales locally?

[chaosMK]

My band is getting ready to put out our first full length CD. This is the first real album that a band I've been in has put out. I am pretty optimistic about the project and the ability of the band to support it and push it out.

I am curious what a reasonable expectation for album sales locally would be. I know every city/scene and band is different. How have you guys done in terms of record sales? What type of city and band are you in? Any tips?

[B-NoteCowboy]

Pretty easy to calulate. It's a matter of factoring in all the existing girlfriends and living parents of the band members and depending on the market, mixing in a very complicated formula to calculate the number of close friends proportionate to their disposable income.

The national average is usually 23 albums.

Or something like that.

[chaosMK]

From what I gather, the most popular bands in my scene sell about 10 copies a show. No one locally has made huge sales. How is it elsewhere?

[Robert TPB]

check out cdbaby.com. If I remember correctly it is really cheap to get your cd on sale there. One of my old reps had an 80's flavored metal band that didn't gig or sell much here in the US. In Europe though, they made about $2000 annually selling their disc through cdbaby.

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by B-NoteCowboy

Pretty easy to calulate. It's a matter of factoring in all the existing girlfriends and living parents of the band members and depending on the market, mixing in a very complicated formula to calculate the number of close friends proportionate to their disposable income.

The national average is usually 23 albums.

Or something like that.

That's exactly the number I came up with.

(Dig it: not one, but two consecutive hanging prepositions at the end of that sentence.)

[socalpyropunk]

in california and in the scene we are in its VERY tough to make lots of sales. I good show = 5-10 sales. There are soooo many bands here and everyone comes to see the one band they like and its very rare to sell lots of merch unless you are a very big band. We have a new album coming out soon and have probably 150 of them claimed already by people. We are also expecting to sell 20-50 a show in Europe according to the band we are touring with who has been there many times, don't know if thats true or not. Its a completely differen scene. Go to all your private owned record stores in the area and have them sell the CD for you on consignment, also selling on websites doesn't hurt. We have ours at a bunch of local shops and at interpunk.com

[chaosMK]

Ive continued researching this. It appears that in my scene (Albuquerque, NM... centralized and pretty active, just not great talent) the best a CD release show usually does is around 20 copies.

I just always thought the numbers would be bigger.

[Dkerwood]

Originally Posted by chaosMK

Ive continued researching this. It appears that in my scene (Albuquerque, NM... centralized and pretty active, just not great talent) the best a CD release show usually does is around 20 copies.

I just always thought the numbers would be bigger.

Here's the trick. Have a CD release show, charge $10 admission, and include a "free" CD at the door.

I know a band that did that after building up a bit of a following, and there were about 100-150 people in the audience... which translated into 100-150 CDs sold.

That same band, for their next CD, packaged it in a sleeve rather than a jewel case, and gave it away for free. They made more money from the door at their shows that way, because everyone knew their songs.

[in2dagrave]

I am in a band out of Youngstown, Ohio.ON an average we sell about 10-20 cds a show.It depends on the show.At an all ages show we usually sell more.At a bar venue we usually sell less.(people seem to save their money for beers).At a cd release party we sell alot more.We have a cd release party comming up next month and expect to sell between 200-300 based on other cd release party averages.