In Store Tours Still Sell CD’s
From Coalition Of Independent Music Store’s head Don VanCleave:
"Both Pete Yorn and Alexi Murdoch launched aggressive, nationwide instore tours over the past few months. Pete had the RED machine behind him cranking out about 30 dates at indie retail. Each show was recorded and provided to that store for pre-order drivers. I am hearing that the numbers of units preordered at the stores is huge. Additionally, Pete generally sold out a venue each night of the tour also…"
"The Alexi Murdoch tour of stores was a different animal. Alex owns his label thru Razor and Tie and he did the tour at his own expense. In most cases he did not do a local date letting the instore be his only play in those markets…To date, he has played 22 instores including CIMS, AIMS and Newbury Comics. From what we hear, the stores were blown away by the response. For example:
- Waterloo Records sold 97 CDs at the instore. They have already sold 950 of Alexi’s EP that has been out a few years. Packed.
- Fingerprints sold 80 CDs at the instore to the 120 folks who came out.
- Vintage Vinyl went ahead and agreed to host Alexi over the 4th of July weekend, not exactly a retail scorcher. Rob sold 43 CDs and had Alexi over to the house for a BBQ and some World Cup.
…Both Pete Yorn and Alexi Murdoch got down to some 101 business and connected with the fans. That is the way you have to do it."
Excerpted from the weekly CIMS newsletter. See this week’s CIMS Top 200 indie retail chart here.
If an artist can get a retailer on board (which isn’t an open-and-shut case…not everybody has sold as well as Pete York) an in-store performance is a great way to reach people and sell CDs. The performance will certainly be promoted (by store, label and artist, and sometimes local radio and print) and it’s usually at a time of day that’s convenient for most people (right after they get out of work). Not everybody can or will go to a concert at night, so a free in-store offers a way to reach those people.