How to Find Design Inspiration
photo by derekb
In today’s music economy, you need to have a product line in order to create a sustainable business. This includes everything from your music to video, merch to swag to items seen as valuable.
One of the things I love about Audiolife is the ability to create an unlimited product stream, especially with merchandise like t-shirts and hoodies. One of the core principles we teach within the Label 2.0 training is to offer upsells to your fans at different points along the buying cycle. What we mean is that after someone buys your album, EP, whatever, you send them some follow up emails, engaging them into your brand and your culture. You can ask questions, have them follow or friend you on social networks and then offer complimentary products to the one they already purchased.
If you can get your fans to engage in your brand they will start to feel a part of your culture. When this happens you can now start sending them offers to add to your revenue stream. One of the best and most logical upsells is the t-shirt.
One of the biggest road blocks I hear from artists (and one that I see in merch booths) is the lack of t-shirt options, and terrible design, usually no more than a centered logo on a black tee.
When you have created culture with your fans, you need to embrace that and create a world that matches that culture and brand. Musicians do this through their music and their design. If you are design challenged (like me), here are some ideas to get creatives for your merch to start to add unlimited items into your Audiolife store.
Threadless – Here is a quick video I shot that shows you a way to find some great artists with some of the best designs in the world made specifically for t-shirts.
Using Threadless To Source Band Merch Ideas
oDesk, eLance, Scriptlance, Guru, etc – With these sites you can post projects and have freelancers bid on your work. You can look at their portfolio and choose someone that matches your style and ideas. Many of the artists come from overseas, so be sure to interview them diligently and be sure they have experience with band merch designs. Typically you can expect to spend less than $50 for about 10 unique designs.
Craigslist – For those that want to keep the work close to home, look no further than the online swap shop. Post jobs and give business to locals.
Colleges, art programs and trade schools – If you are fortunate enough to live close to some art students, take full advantage. Many need internship or portfolio credit to graduate and they are perfect for this type of work. Think of the perks you can offer from free CD’s to concert tickets and more. Many times they are happy with a shout-out on your blog and a link to their portfolio.
The goal with all of this is to start creating a product catalog. If you are only selling a $10 CD, that is all the revenue you can generate per fan. The more items you add to your catalog, the higher your per fan amount rises.
The next step is to integrate this into your email autoresponders and sales process.
What do you think? Have you looked at getting multiple designs done? What is really holding you back? How can Audiolife help you out? Let’s talk in the comments!
This post was written by Greg Rollett from Orlando, FL. Greg writes about music marketing daily and also has a music business and promotion training site, Label 2.0. Follow him on Twitter if you dare!
