How To Add Value To Your Band’s CDs

FFans want music, it’s true; but fans also want mementos. They want something special, and that special something is what they’re prepared to pay for. With your band’s CD, every extra bit of value you can add to it makes it more likely to get bought rather than downloaded somewhere online for free – which of course, is what makes you money! The following ideas are designed to help you come up with some creative ways to add value to your band’s CDs:

• Give your CD cool cover art. Make your album cover and liner notes so cool and amazing that they can’t not buy it! This doesn’t mean your CD has to look tacky or gimmicky – unless that’s your style – it just means that the imagery and print quality should both be really good. They say never judge a book by its cover but that’s precisely what we all do, and the same applies to albums get yours noticed, make it look so cool that they want to have it in their hot little hands to show off to all their friends.
• Individualize or personalize the albums – this can be done in multiple ways, it just depends how much time, money and effort you want to spend on them. Some ideas include numbering the albums by hand to show just how limited a run, and therefore how valuable the CD is, autograph or draw pictures or write jokes or whatever takes your fancy on each album – make them all so different that the die-hard fans will have to buy more than one copy just because of this.
• Give something extra with the CD, whether that be a special download code for hidden tracks or remixes, stickers, buttons or other small tokens, to full on prize packs or gift packs with tshirts, your CD, stickers and some kind of limited edition or novelty item like a keychain lanyard, or tour-specific item for example.


Image credit: CuteDrop on Facebook

• Do something really interesting with your CD packaging, such as offering it packaged in a digipak with a foldout poster to put on the wall, or get your actual CD stamped with an interesting image or in a certain color. Get creative with it.
• Make your own zine, featuring beautiful high quality printed photos of your band, a bio and some anecdotes or interviews with band members and such and package your disc on the front, attaching it like it’s a giveaway with a music magazine and sell it for a slightly higher price – people love unusual, limited edition or creative items and packaging, it makes things more special.
• Don’t use a CD at all – instead have a DVD with your regular CD tracks and creative content like an interactive game or video clips of your band, or sell the whole thing on a small custom USB stick. Get creative, thinking outside the box and adding a little value to your CD is a great way to up your CD sales and make your fans happy.

This is a guest post by Pandie Suicide of Mixonic, a CD duplication service based in San Francisco. Click to like Mixonic on Facebook.