Brian Hartzog's Indie Music Goals

 

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My indie music goals

When I really think about it, all I want out of music for the next couple of years is to:

  1. Allow me to express myself musically on my own terms.

  2. Make enough money to buy the studio gear I want.

That's it. I'm not asking to quit my day job. Not yet, anyway. I'm not asking for fame or for a spot on MTV or commercial radio. I don't care if I ever get to meet my idols. All I really want is to take my studio up a couple of notches. Here's how...

My music plan

I've just released my second CD, One-Way Ticket. My goal is to sell enough One-Way Ticket CDs to buy the studio gear I need for my next CD.
You can think of this manifesto as my guiding philosophy and my music business plan…it is, in fact the driving force behind all my promotional activities related to One-Way Ticket. I really, really want to be able to record major-label (Grammy winning) quality sounds at my home studio. I want to prove that an independent artist that works really hard doesn't actually need a record label.

Overview

Essentially, my business plan is this. If I had $35,000, I could buy every studio item on my wish list. Given that I hope to profit $10 per CD after taxes and replication costs…and that it will probably cost me about $10,000 or $15,000 in recording and promotion costs to sell substantial numbers of CDs, I need to sell about 5,000 CDs.

Also, given that I want to be recording my next CD in 2 years at the latest, it means I need to sell 5,000 CDs in 2 years…which works out to 7 CDs/day. Yikes!!!


The following table summarizes the numbers in my music business plan.

Item Amount
Estimated price/CD $12
Estimated cost/CD (including replication and taxes) $2
Estimated profit per CD $10
Gross from the sale of 5,000 CDs @ $10 profit/CD $50,000
Estimate of all the studio gear I want $35,000
Estimated recording and promotion costs $15,000

Of course, this doesn't include tour money or any placement in film/tv (two avenues I am pursuing)…but those will require other "manifestos".

Studio gear

I made a list of the studio gear that I want-you can check it out here. I've prioritized the gear so that the gear I want most appears near the top of the list. I intend to update this list as I purchase the gear. Thank you for supporting my "gear lust". Remember-any CD you buy helps me improve my studio and, therefore, my music. Thanks for supporting the cause!

To hear what my music sounds like, make sure you check out my new CD, One-Way Ticket.