Selling your recorded music at gigs USB instead of CDs, cassette, downloads etc?

JCA2550

As we all know successfully selling LPs and EPs as CDs at gigs, or by post has dropped off dramatically in recent years. I think I recently saw a thread about selling merch and putting music onto USB sticks was mentioned?

Has anyone had success with this and if so, would you care to share some pointers and experiences?

Cheers,

C

pt22

No way am I plugging some foreign USB stick into my computer. This is a bad idea.

RiftAmps

pt22 said:

No way am I plugging some foreign USB stick into my computer. This is a bad idea.

Exactly this.

TeleMaster

Everything is stored online or locally. People don't use USB sticks anymore. Many Macbooks don't even have USB A ports these days.

You'd be better off handing flyer or cards out with a QR code that links to your soundcloud or Spotify or whatever. 

roundthebend

If you want to get the payment on the day, rather than rely on people to remember to buy afterwards you could sell vouchers to redeem your stuff. Using something like Shopify that ought to be fairly workable. You could even have a tablet that people can use to enter their email address so the download link can be sent to them, with a card machine attached to process payments.

oaf

Would this work?

https://get.bandcamp.help/hc/en-us/articles/360007902593-Track-album-code-tutorial

Stratavarious

We have QR codes on back of our biz cards.   Def. avoid USB.  The band camp method looks cool though.  Been toying with getting a card reader.. 

ToneControl

I like to buy CDs at smaller gigs, to give the artist some direct cash

I went to a Sarah McQuaid gig, and bought a USB stick containing all her albums, videos, etc. the USB had a wooden casing with a design crafted into it, I think using one of those heat-etching gadgets.

She does it mostly online though

WYNIR0

pt22 said:

No way am I plugging some foreign USB stick into my computer. This is a bad idea.

This!

fretmeister

ToneControl said:

I like to buy CDs at smaller gigs, to give the artist some direct cash

I went to a Sarah McQuaid gig, and bought a USB stick containing all her albums, videos, etc. the USB had a wooden casing with a design crafted into it, I think using one of those heat-etching gadgets.

She does it mostly online though

That sounds like a nice product but surely a loss leader?

JCA2550

fretmeister said:

ToneControl said:

I like to buy CDs at smaller gigs, to give the artist some direct cash

I went to a Sarah McQuaid gig, and bought a USB stick containing all her albums, videos, etc. the USB had a wooden casing with a design crafted into it, I think using one of those heat-etching gadgets.

She does it mostly online though

That sounds like a nice product but surely a loss leader?

This is exactly what I was considering. From a quick bit of Googling personalised USB sticks with a logo, wood effect, Card-shaped, novelty or otherwise come in at about £3 to £5 each.

ToneControl

JCA2550 said:

fretmeister said:

ToneControl said:

I like to buy CDs at smaller gigs, to give the artist some direct cash

I went to a Sarah McQuaid gig, and bought a USB stick containing all her albums, videos, etc. the USB had a wooden casing with a design crafted into it, I think using one of those heat-etching gadgets.

She does it mostly online though

That sounds like a nice product but surely a loss leader?

This is exactly what I was considering. From a quick bit of Googling personalised USB sticks with a logo, wood effect, Card-shaped, novelty or otherwise come in at about £3 to £5 each.

it was full of loads of albums, sold for £50 or £60 I think

PolarityMan

When I looked into it a few years ago it was basically not cost effective.