How to Make and Sell CD's For Your Music

Let's talk about how you can make and sell CD's for your music albums. I cover why you'd even want to make CD's, who i've used to manufacture them, the files you need to deliver and how I sell them online.
I've made two albums into CDs so far, one with Atomic Disc and one with Disc Makers. They both do great work but I prefer Atomic Disc.
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#MusicMarketing #SellCDs #SellMusic #Spotify #SpotifyMarketing #SpotifyPromotion #MusicPromotion
0:00 Intro
0:40 Why sell CD's?
2:36 Atomic Disc vs Disc Makers
4:29 Ordering CD's through Atomic Disc
6:28 Files & assets you need
10:53 Selling the CDs
13:54 Funnel upsells
The following are Amazon / Sweetwater Affiliate links for various products I personally use. If you purchase anything from these links I get a small commission for referring you to the product, which helps my channel for no additional cost to you :)
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[@foofy14]

Shoutout people who still buy physicals and actually support artists

[@crossingworlds1799]

a lot of metalheads and punks do, go to show and buy some cassettes or whatever, even T-shirts

[@TomBedlammusic]

People tell me on a daily basis that nobody buys CDs anymore - be it while im busking or gigging or what have you. Ive sold over 2000 this summer alone. It's still one of my big money makers. I don't even have music available to buy online really haha

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Yeah also everyone talks about how popular vinyl has become, but its actually tied with CD's for sales in the USA. Something around 40+ million copies per year. Definitely not what it used to be but thats still a LOT of people to sell to.

[@kendixon4303]

@@AndrewSouthworth so hey...Ive got an original childrens CD been thinking about selling it on Tic Tik or someplace....is it possible?...can I home shopper type sell it on Tic Tok..or someplace? its got a very artsy cool cover...some pretty fun songs.. CDs only any hope?

[@readkauppinen1814]

there is 100% still a market for them, im an 18 year old in 2023 and have a very decent cd collection, and vinyl collection as well…they’re still very relevant u just have to look

[@WillRichYT]

Love it. Physical is still huge even some artists that are in the music NFT space are also promising physical CD copies.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Yeah honestly i'd think people who are into NFT's are prime customers for physical products. At the moment NFTs are pretty much only collectors items and signed CD's can also be collectors items - both have the potential to be resold and increase / decrease in value.

[@Page9theband]

For anyone signing their CD’s, discmakers does have an option for matte finish. I’ve used it on 2 different albums and I don’t believe it even cost anything extra!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks for mentioning this, I just checked and it costs a little bit more but totally worth it.

[@676bun]

for $200 you can buy a 5 cd burner (makes 5 disc's in 2 minutes) and design a jewl insert/ label with home computer. Your costs is penny's aside from the cd burner.

[@Hebronmusic]

Great stuff, as always. This is super useful!!

[@tomcbeatz]

When I first got serious about my music (6 years ago). I printed up some cd's to hand out. However, when I tried to give them away for free, I was getting turned down. Not because they didn't want it but because they didn't have anything to play it on. It flipped my whole perspective on the reality of the digital era that we now live in. I had to reassess my entire format and approach to my music as a business.

[@956hungryhowie]

Epic stuff dude! I’d really love to see your ad set up. We have a lot of old eps and matching shirts to move!

[@areo400]

Lovely insight, thank you very much. I'd love to have my own vinyl somewhere in the near future so if you ever release a vinyl please do a similar video about your process and thoughts :)

[@Denots208]

I know a few people who aren't into digital stuff, use a simple phone and would much rather listen to CDs. We still sell a few CDs at live shows but haven't sold one online for years. I would also like to have some vinyl done for sure. I mostly stream from Spotify or KZbin yet, I still listen to CDs sometimes in my truck because it has the 5 disk changer and no blue-tooth. I also buy CDs once in a while from touring bands that I'm into. I like the idea of the online vault of free content with the qr code, anything to help these sell. Great video Andrew!

[@LieRenTheHunter]

I Used To Make Beat Music But now I'm working on a band so now I'm going to release My Beat Album thanks

[@DJOmnimaga]

For CDs or other kind of disc formats I prefer jacket cases or DVD clamshells, because jewel cases always end up delivered with cracks.

[@bobbyborg]

Andrew, Thought I recognized your name from your comment on my music business channel. Keep up the good work! Looks like you are on a roll!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks Bobby! Would love to do an interview with you on the channel some time.

[@bobbyborg]

@@AndrewSouthworth What is your most comfortable/passionate/fun topic you like to speak about? Let me know and I can have you zoom in!

[@ChrisLT]

Great info, thank you!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks! Glad it helped.

[@TheStonersCommittee]

This was amazing

[@richvysion6130]

Are you able to speak about selling Usb drives as opposed to CDs? Thanks for the info!

[@BarryGrueter]

Very cool thanks for sharing

[@HowardCharlesUK]

Selling an album on CD does seem like a better way to make money than Spotify. However, I don't even have anything that can play a CD on anymore...

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I never play CD's myself either. I've had my car since 2013 and the only CD's i've ever played in it are my 2 albums haha. I also have an external USB CD/DVD player that comes out once every couple years. Despite that it seems plenty of people still do listen to CD's, and some probably just like collecting CD's and/or supporting artists they like. I don't understand why Wal-Mart still has massive physical DVD / Blu-Ray sections when everything can be rented or purchased or streamed online for cheaper and easier, but its obviously selling well enough.

[@robertquant1122]

Brooo ima cd 💿 seller myself u know Big Lots and Targets sell boom boxes 📦 with CD players right

[@robertquant1122]

Hey Andrew sorry to bust ur bubble but CDs 💿 will always be better than streaming streaming is for lazyyyyy people that rely everything on their phones and don’t like to own music or movies Physical media is really important because there’s people that still buy dvds and blue rays

[@pop-luv-it]

Xbox can play cds and a LOT of people have Xbox’s and i think PlayStation also can

[@kaseybusler]

Not even a car?

[@ElthoroHD2003]

hey man, just a question what do you think is best? when marketing your song on instagram etc, should the link be to the youtube music video , so you can grab the consumers attention quick or a link tree to the consumers streaming platform so the consumer can choose?

[@SoulOfTruth]

This video is crazy I just talked about this to my producer

[@jacobsart218]

I'm also interested. Very interested in making a band. Just me and a friend of mine. We're not going to go on a tour or anything but we're going to have a badass time. Thanks for your information, I really appreciate it!

[@raybrown2811]

Good stuff

[@HeadbangersKitchen]

Here is what I am interested in Andrew. I would love to find a service in the USA that prints, stocks and ships the CDs for artists. Shipping from India is a nightmare and I stopped making physical media simply because I don't have the bandwith to pack and ship them myself. So I'd love to find a way to do that which doesn't involve me having to pack and ship cds.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

So I THINK Kunaki does print-on-demand CD's. I find their website and pricing model a bit confusing but I haven't looked into it much yet. It sounds like for $1 manufacturing and $4.30 they'll print and ship a CD to anyone in the USA. On paper this is actually cheaper than what i'm doing here, but I have to imagine there is another fee. Even if there is another fee it probably makes WAY more sense for you than shipping from India. Only downside is you can't personalize your orders, sign them, package other items with them etc. You could always still upsell people for other items but explain your orders ship separately. Or charge a premium for personalization.

[@asiadae]

Artglider does it.

[@yfvs1lva298]

this is acc so sick

[@drvnlp6269]

Thanks for all the valuable content. Is there any reason I shouldn't use a simple PayPal cart on my website other than missing out on all the up-sell options?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

You can totally do that. It just won't look as nice or be able to do the upsell stuff. Its better than nothing for sure, but upsells do make a big difference.

[@kaysha]

Just like the good old days

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Yeah man!

[@kaysha]

@@AndrewSouthworth I wish I was an indie artist when I sold 100000 cds. But Sony took 94% of the real money 😂😂😂

[@worksofein6449]

Super interesting, I would love to see the assembled product. Can you put a photo on your Instagram or community tab with the QR code hidden? Did you get them laser printed or glass mastered? I wonder if there is going to be an upswing in CD interest because its the old school format from the gen-z perspective e.g. its like their version of vinyl. On that note, given the relatively high cost and long time lines for vinyl production, I wonder if CD looks appealing again because it's so fast and relatively inexpensive. (In b4 environmentalists condemn CDs as bad for the planet along with vinyl and NFT's) I don't even have a cd player in my laptop anymore and I move so much for work that having extra stuff to carry is not an option. So I sold my physical media and went fully digital years ago. But people keep asking me for physical media so some folks must still love it. I did a limited 50 unit CD run a few years ago and sold them all within a month. Not bad for a no body metal band with 12 listeners. Total run cost about £300 for digipak like your double think album. £100 of the cost was getting nice photos and art work done. We recorded and mixed it ourselves so that didn't cost anything extra. I put little pin badges in with each order and they were super popular too.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Yeah maybe i'll put some tape over the parts I want to hide and take some better pics to post on my community. I have a USB external CD / DVD player for my computer, it literally sits in a box in my closet until the rare instance I need it. Personally I only listen to music via streaming, but I still bought Rishoo's CD in 2014 because it gave you early access to the album and Tool's most recent album because I love them (but never played the actual CD, just streamed it haha). I think a lot of CD loving folks are probably similar to gamers that collect physical boxes. I buy all my games digital, but people love showing off their collections. Same for movie collections. However i've always been a fan of physical books compared to e-books so I have a massive book collection in my basement - despite digital copies often being cheaper and much more efficient.

[@worksofein6449]

@@AndrewSouthworth Thats cool, I can totally understand the appeal of having a physical artifact. I went from hard "physical only" to "digital only" once I started moving alot. Having to pack and unpack hundreds of cd's, books, dvd's etc was too much. I totes get what you mean about books though. I have an e-reader but I love having a physical book, especially if it's something really visual.

[@AlexHeart01]

I think there might be a print on demand way to do this on Amazon. I would absolutely love to know more about it.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Kunaki has print on demand CD's, i'm sure some other people do as well.

[@asiadae]

Artglider does it.

[@karlosmartos4646]

I think CDs are great, but only for older demographics. People from 18-30 most often dont even have any playback device anymore for CDs. I think most often they are still used in cars, but those who have spotify will just use that because they habe every song then, not just an album on a CD. If you have a really strong fanbase it can be worth, especially if you sell some bonus stuff with your CD (maybe an exclusive song only on CD (at least for a limited time?)), but if youre a smaller artist i think growing a good and big fanbase first should be your target. Good video though on the insights how this works !

[@robertquant1122]

Target and Japan always offer bonus tracks on their CDs 💿

[@kadenisrice]

how exactly do you ship the cds though? i made some CDS just cause and i made the mistake of shipping them through fedex and that was SO expensive... im new to the whole physical copy world i didn't think people actually wanted to buy CDs of my music haha thank u for the help

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I actually have another video where I go over the shipping. If you search my channel for shipping it will come up. I think since then I figured out a new way to do it using USPS first class mail, non machineable surcharge. Makes the cost only $1.50 instead of $3.75 to shop.

[@rez2576]

Does anyone know how to select audiences interest on Facebook ads? I tried to select "spotify" as audience interests but I didn't have that option anymore. I watched one of Andrews old vids. please get back to me. thanks!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Make sure you're adding audience interests in detailed targeting specifically. Spotify is still in there, although sometimes it takes 5 seconds to pop up for some reason.

[@anthonybriscoe8061]

have you looked in to tunepipe

[@NavCom209]

Very cool .. I'm just creating songs on my home studio, everyone who hear them they love em....okaaaa! Did you copyright your songs ..I wanna know All avenues to putting out my brand.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks! At least in the US anything you create and have proof of creation (like project files and dates on those files) is instantly protected and copyrighted. Filing it with the copyright office is just a formality that provides additional damages in the case you have to legally enforce your copyright.

[@wk477]

I have a question ❓ can I make a CD with my voice from the other songs and sell the CD?

[@iamjohnlennon]

You can not because that would be illegal because the other music would be copyrighted. You can make a personal copy but you can not sell it.

[@zaafirahfatimah]

Is it possible to order less than 15 CDs... I was hoping on gifting them to some friends and family who helped out?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

You might be able to find someone to do it but it will cost a LOT per CD likely. Ordering 100 isn’t too much more than ordering 50, ordering 15 would probably be almost the same price as getting 50.

[@zaafirahfatimah]

@@AndrewSouthworth oh ok Thank you!

[@s.m.1249]

Thanks for the video… but I don’t understand your pronunciation of where you say you selling? A learning page? A leaning page? @ 11:07 And what is “drive card”? Like an ecommerce? This s it for musicians? Can’t find Thanks

[@UrbanoDAO]

Are they buried CD’s or replicated CD’s?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Duplicated officially, they don't start doing replication until you get to 500 CD's or more.

[@___________________1]

I would prefer to sell my music as physical

[@kpopbutlofi]

Now let’s contact apple to bring back the cd player…

[@robertquant1122]

Ima cd 💿 seller myself better sound quality u support the artist and u own the music 🎶 Streaming anc USBS are garbage 🤮🤮🤢🤕🤮🤮

[@kpopbutlofi]

@@robertquant1122 yeh yeah yeah when cd arrived, vinyl people said the same about cd. Rap fans say that rap was better before but hey... if you want to keep digging go for it

[@Lennyjr2]

CDs were made better when he first came out with him. They might sound better now because they was all in a plastic jewel case track listing on all that way I like them. I wish they go back make them that way. I hate cardboard because they ripped too easy and you cannot buy a new one only thing I wish they would do with cd put cd text on them. If they’re not gonna put the truck at least put that on there I can record it on minidisc I rather get rid of all my CDs and buy pre-recorded of them because they do not scratch or skip. That is the best technology they ever ever come out with or I wish they would come out with everything on sacd not the one that plays and that only I want one to play in every machine . I’m sorry this is so long but like I said, I do not like to wait and make it CDs anymore. Some of them the still put jewel case put track list in Jewel case and some cd text that makes no sense at all, that you put all of them

[@daymaresinfairview]

Hey Andrew, how have you been? I hope you've been doing well. I've been patiently waiting for a response back from you as to where you would like me to send the work I did for your song Sunrise and still haven't recieved a reply back from you. Please message me back in the comments as soon as you get this and let me know so I can send you the mix to see if you'd be interested in having me feature on your song. Also, I apologize if I may be overstepping in any way but I would like to ask a small favor of you. Please at least listen to the mix before saying no or ignoring my request to collaborate on your song. If you don't like what you hear after listening to it I would greatly appreciate it if you would kindly say that you're not interested and I will respect your decision to decline on this matter and welcome you to reach out to me anytime if you do decide to change your mind. Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon. Stay safe and take care. :) ~ Mark

[@50zezima]

I recommend no one buys any cds from any of these companies unless you actually are making a decent profit and have people that will buy your music cds. They will be a total cost of $130+ for a batch of cds. Which is absurd for an independent artist with a reach of maybe 1000 total listeners. There's no way I'd be able to sell the cds and also don't have an extra $130 to throw away anyways. Sucks because I was considering doing this but I'd probably be better off just buying cds and burning my music, with a cheap custom printed photograph of my artwork and then pasting it on a blank CD case. In fact that's probably what I'm gonna do because the steep pricing.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

It depends. $130 is a lot to some but nothing to others. Also it only takes selling 10-20 of them to make a profit and then the other units remaining are already paid for. Of course if you can’t sell any and can’t afford it, don’t get them.

[@UrbanoDAO]

44.1 Mhz not Khz

[@AndrewSouthworth]

No its 44.1 kHz, not MHz. 44.1 MHZ would be 44.1 million samples per second, the actual sample rate is 44.1 thousand samples per second.

[@UrbanoDAO]

@@AndrewSouthworth My bad

[@everyonexist]

sogoood thanks

[@ghostrickalucard488]

If you are a musical artist and you happen to be a bit more "edgy," shall we say you absolutely absolutely have to sell or at least offer physical copies. Because you have no guarantee that streaming services like Spotify and Amazon won't censor you music. Even if you label your music as explcit, these streaming services could still go in and censor you music. Again, not an endorsement to make the most profanity riddled music you could possibly make. Just a heads up that these streaming services could do this to you as they have done with artist like DMX.

[@daymaresinfairview]

Hey Andrew, I know you'd probably tried to send me your email in the comments to receive the mix I've been trying to send you and youtube marked it as spam and deleted your comment explaining why I never received a response from you. Anyway, I was able to find your contact information and sent the mix to your raytheon address which was listed. Please listen to the mix when you have time and let me know if you'd be interested in having me feature on your song Sunrise. Thanks. As always stay safe and take care. :) ~ Mark

[@saintcasemusic]

Much love ! Would like to become a client for a campaign. Check Email and DM when you can thanks!