Reaching a Niche market

James-F

I am working on an idea to produce items for a niche I think exists - small bands - you know the kind, just starting out, selling home burned, hand written CDs at the occasional pub gig.

The problem is that these unknowns are just that - unknown. How can I go about marketing my services to them? Facebook has been suggested, which I'm looking into, and am working on the website, maybe with some google ads, but are there any other options? I had kind of assumed that there would be forums where small bands gather to make some contacts, but I don't seem to be able to find any.

ColinFishwick

Yes social networking and interweb, maybe post a taster of there songs to buy on interweb. I dont think there is that much demand of cds though now

James-F

I did wonder about that, but I think the market I'm looking at would struggle to get onto iTunes/amazon etc

bloss0m

How about spotify?

James-F

Also tricky for small bands I think. However, bear in mind, I'm not talking about huge numbers here, I'm talking about the ability to order a small number (1-50) of reasonably professional looking CDs for selling in person at gigs. Being on things like spotify/itunes wouldn't stop them from doing this. Also, fans of people/bands/movies are often willing to pay for "unique" - to get something physical. For example, if the CDs were signed.

InsideInsurance

There tends to be a lot of forums dedicated to these kinds of people, Jock Rock used to be the one for the Alternative scene in Scotland - though its been 8+ years since I last went on it so don't know if it has changed its focus over the years.

I have to say that when I used to help with a couple of bands 10 years ago or such there was never any trouble getting short runs of CDs made and looking online there are a lot of people offering this service already (though maybe not marketing to bands). There were those printing them themselves back then and it was back when you had to put the label on the CD as sticker rather than the new ones you can print directly onto the disk itself but they tended to be because of a belief in economy but we used to pay less per unit for a run of anything over 50 CDs than the home kits cost.

James-F

Really? I've had a good look, and I didn't find any that offered single disc prints. Still, no harm in a little competition

InsideInsurance

Ok, the one that I looked at had a minimum run of 5 but even the street busker I walk past every day have more than that laid out and for sale.

Most the bands I used to deal with would get a run of 50 or so done which covered sending to radio stations, gigs, magazines and Virgin Megastore used to stock a few (shows we are talking a while ago).

James-F

Fair enough, I didn't spot that one. Still, as I say, competition is no reason to stop dead. There is a lot to be said for quality of customer service.

Perhaps a better idea would be to allow users to upload their albums and then have users buy them, with the discs produced "on demand"?

InsideInsurance

There is also the consideration that just because a service exists doesn't mean that your niche knows such a service exists.

Now ok, if you advertise some will decide to google instead of going directly to your site and therefore may lead to business for your competitors at your expense, but if no one is advertising for your niche the cost should be low and so the cost per acquisition remain acceptable.

How are you intending to make the disks and print the inserts etc?