I talked with a musician friend today that I have known for many years and respect very much. He told me that he has worked on many independent projects and the artists who are recording and reproducing their own CD's are saying that by the time they are finished with the project it often costs them around ten thousand dollars.
I've spoken with people who publish their own books and they spend that kind of money too.
I'm familiar with the costs of doing things that way. The good news is that we don't have to do it that way anymore.
For a writer, when the book is completed it is usually already in a Word file that can easily be converted into a PDF file, ready for downloading.
The same holds for musicians and video artists. Their files are already in a digital format that can easily be converted for digital download.
Now comes the really good part. Instead of spending thousands of dollars to reproduce physical books or CD's we can make those files available for sale via digital downloading.
The writer and musician can spend $75 to $100 to get the file set up and then get 60% of the sale price - and they set the sale price. Then they can get on their next project with thousands of dollars still in their pockets. If they have been held back because they didn't have thousands of dollars to start with, they now have their project out in front of the world so that people can listen or read a sample and then decide to buy if they like what they see and hear.
A musician could put up ten projects for a fraction of what the old way would have cost them, and then watch which songs are selling. A writer can get several books out there and see which ones sell. Then if they still really want a contract with a label or publisher they've got a track record and some leverage. Chances are, they will decide that they don't really need that contract - the best bargaining position of all to be in.
This is not pie in the sky - we have this technology now and we want creative people everywhere to know about it. Now someone in Europe, Africa, Asia or anywhere in the Americas or anywhere else can get their work out where people can see and hear it.
If your've got projects that could be sold as digital downloads and you can't decide to move on this now, please let me know why. I'd really like to know. My friend says that people just don't realize that they can do this without waiting for the giant download companies to let them in.
We're ready. Are you ready?
Take a look at the posts below and lets get started!