Bero Records
Joined: 04/10/12
Posts: 1
Loc: San Antonio, Texas, USA
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How do I Get Music in Stores?
#1011713 - 04/10/12 05:07 PM
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I produced a Christmas album for a local band last year and sold a couple hundred of CDs.
This year, I want to try to get their album out there. Digitally, there are numerous sites
and distributors that will get the music on iTunes, Amazon, etc... but how would I go
about getting an album in a store such as Walmart, Target, FYE, etc? I really feel this
album has something to offer and the winter season is coming up very quickly. If anyone
has any ideas or experience in this, please feel free to share. Thanks!
-------------------- Robbie - Bero Records® www.berorecords.com
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Scramble
active member
Joined: 11/09/02
Posts: 1723
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Re: How do I Get Music in Stores?
[Re: Bero Records]
#1011756 - 04/10/12 09:37 PM
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Love it! A record company that asks forums for advice on how to get records into
stores!
Seriously... getting a record into Walmart? Sorry, but you haven't a
hope. Talk to some distributors and get a reality check. Do you at least have a six-figure
promotions budget? (Not that I expect you do, 'local band' and 'six-figure promotions
budget' don't really go together).
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narcoman
active member
Joined: 14/08/01
Posts: 8477
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Re: How do I Get Music in Stores?
[Re: Bero Records]
#1011772 - 04/10/12 10:58 PM
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submit a marketing plan to the distributors who connect with those stores. I rather
suspect with Walmart you'd be talking seven figures.
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Scramble
active member
Joined: 11/09/02
Posts: 1723
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Re: How do I Get Music in Stores?
[Re: narcoman]
#1017883 - 09/11/12 02:04 PM
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For all those fledgling record company owners who come here seeking advice, this is how
you make money from your own record company these days: Emporium Music
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The Red Bladder
Joined: 05/06/07
Posts: 2100
Loc: . ...
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Re: How do I Get Music in Stores?
[Re: Bero Records]
#1017895 - 09/11/12 02:35 PM
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Quote Bero Records:
how would I
go about getting an album in a store such as Walmart, Target, FYE, etc?
Well, let's see now. There are some 4,000+
Walmarts in the US and then there is Walmart on-line. Even if the buyers for the music
and DVD section could be persuaded to stack your stuff, but only want just ten CDs for
each store, that's 40,000 CDs that you would have to supply and ship out on
sale-or-return. Because it is sale-or-return, you would not be able to get credit for
that shipping, so with shipping costs, you need to find about $40,000. And you have to
pay for the return shipping if they don't sell.
But that is of course the
smallest of your costs, as you will sell just squat if you don't get airplay, video play
and marketing sorted. And Walmart will not be able to take your CD without those beans
all in a row. The agency fees for national airplay are going to be about $2.5m and the
video fees to MTV etc., are going to be somewhat higher.
The truth is, CDs on
the shelves of Walmart comes at the end of a long road of development that starts with
live gigs, selling CDs and DVDs at those gigs, getting an agent and a manager, putting
together some regional tours, getting signed with a major development label and then
slowly being able to go national.
If your band has a really strong local
following and gets some local radio play and press coverage, you could approach your local
stores and ask them if they could stock your CDs. Some are allowed to do this and some
cannot. Ask nicely if they will do a sale-or-return - but CD space will not be yours in
the pre-Christmas period. That's for the big boys only!
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Big Label Sound
Joined: 30/12/12
Posts: 3
Loc: Las Vegas, NV
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Re: How do I Get Music in Stores?
[Re: Bero Records]
#1026799 - 03/01/13 04:42 AM
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Quote Bero Records:
how would I
go about getting an album in a store such as Walmart
If you have a tangible product, you can setup an appointment and
meet at the Walmart corporate headquarters for possible inclusion in the store. But it
has to be a good product (better than what they already have or unique) at a very cheap
price. Even then it's a miracle if they decide to carry your product. They'll put it in
a few stores and if it sells, order more from you.
A tangible product, someone
can pick it up and compare it with other items right on the spot. So Walmart will buy
items from unknown companies if they think it will sell. They can't listen to music on
the spot.
NOW, when it comes to music, if you take every single song sold in
2012, 99.9% of the songs were already known by the customer. They knew the artist and the
song and bought it. For every unknown Indie song blindly purchased on the net, Taylor
swift sold 1,000 of her latest song.
So basically, if no one knows who you are,
no store is going to sell your CDs. How do enough people know who you are to end up in
Walmart? Get in the radio rotation in the entire U.S. and have your song hit. How do you
do this? You need about $1.5-$2 million (that's just payola for the radio stations alone)
or a major label record deal....
--------------------
John Rogers, Big Label Sound Studio
Mastering - Mastering Studios
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Frisonic
Joined: 27/01/10
Posts: 2103
Loc: London, United Kingdom
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Re: How do I Get Music in Stores?
[Re: The Red Bladder]
#1026860 - 03/01/13 01:59 PM
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Quote The Red Bladder:
...you
could approach your local stores and ask them if they could stock your CDs. Some are
allowed to do this and some cannot.
The usual excellent advice notwithstanding I was surprised by this because I
thought everything destined for Walmart's shelves was decided in Bentonville, Arkansas? My
wife had to take a meeting there once when she, a colleague who now works for Warren
Buffet and an ex EU competition commissioner were advising them on some antitrust issues
regarding their then European expansion plans - they were seeing the CEO and CFO and to
get there had flown down from Chicago in a chartered jet. All in all about as Wall St as
it gets. They were sat down on the same old school chairs, in the old school hall to wait
for their meeting as all the other hopefuls. They guys sitting next to them were selling
water melons! Conversely at another meeting where the CEO and CFO had come to London they
shared the same hotel room to save shareholder money. My understanding is that there is a
sort of flat hierarchy and a 'cent saved is a cent earned' ethos that runs deeply through
Walmart's culture and informs pretty much every business decision they make - thus the
'sale or return' policy and why they would make you pay for the shipping for the return if
it didn't sell. I did not know that some individual store managers had a degree of
autonomy.
--------------------
Strictly project and just for fun
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