Album release strategy for 2015?

[spirit]

Last time I released an album (genre: space music) it was a few years back (six in fact!). Back then I went the usual route of an independent CD pressing, some limited CD distribution, plus CD Baby. I did some basic announcement stuff, a little social media, website etc. I didn't bother with YouTube until I realized that other people had put my tracks on Youtube and added their own visuals. I didn't complain since they weren't trying to rip me off and they linked back to my site in the captions. Eventually I Youtubed them myself.

I think I should be able to do better now but am unsure of the best route.

I'm tempted not to do any CD run. Or maybe a limited run via CD baby directly rather than an independent pressing myself.

Or perhaps no CD at all and just release the album track by track? That way I could do a decent Youtube visual and other media one-by-one rather than waiting another few months to complete all the associated media?

Do people still care about albums or do they buy track by track? Is having a physical CD available still important? Or is it more important to get tracks to relevant web radio streaming sites and genre-relevant websites?

Advice & opinions most appreciated!

[ntom]

Well I can assure you that the only reason you should print a physical CD is if you want to collect one yourself. If you think your music isn't worth at the very least $150 just to get a physical copy of your CD, then it's probably not worth it.
I printed 50 CDs several years ago....only 10 have been shipped and most of those were given away free.

As for the rest of distribution, taking my advice is...probably not a good idea, considering I have been doing this for 5+ years now and have only a couple fans.
I used CD Baby for my first publication and while I like how easy they made it, I was a little miffed (but understandably, this was not really under their control) that when they distributed my music to Amazon and iTunes the pricing was weird and not at all how I set it. If I remember correctly it was cheaper to buy each individual track separately than it was to buy the album and it just sucks that I don't have control over that.

However, in the past year I realized that I think my music is more successful if I just let my limited fans decide how much they want to pay (if any). I like Bandcamp, it let's me set this up and it's just one simple place to drop a new track in and call it good. I can share my bandcamp link across the web, and I can promote my music via Youtube, Facebook, and (kind of) Soundcloud.
But...I'm not successful so take this advice as you will.

[robotmonkey]

I'm sure there are still people who like physical CD's. But CD does make sense only if it is very well done with great design and luxurious packaging.

Personally I just can not bother with CD's except in very very rare cases. These days I just find them to be more annoyance. I do not have much space to store them. Also I do not have any devices whose main function is to listen to CD's. 98% of my music consumption is done on a computers and the rest in MP3 player or car stereo that is perfectly capable of reading MP3 or taking its input from MP3 player. So every CD would end up being ripped to high-quality digital file anyway. The only rare cases where I would even consider buying a CD these days is when some of my very favorite artist that I really want to support releases music only on CD. There's about 5 or 6 such artists.

So for everything else I look (in preferable order):
artists' own website
bandcamp, 7digital or cdbaby or any other digital distribution service that does not make you jump through hoops to buy music.
amazon (but it does often have some pretty idiotic regional restrictions for digital music)

Music also has to be high bitrate, DRM free. Also any distributor that wants to annoy me beyond simple registration to buy music, for example, by forcing me to install additional cr@pware (thinking of iTunes here) will be ignored. That said, I still think that iTunes release is a must for artists.

So if the music is not available on any of those services or I get stopped by idiotic "not available in your region" message then I pretty much will ignore a release or just get it through other more user friendly means.

Youtube is a great source for discovering new music. I often listen to suggested videos and discover some great unknown artists. Sometime I also stream full albums from Youtube. Soundcloud and Bandcamp are other places that I check for new unknown music.

So this is pretty much what defines my personal music buying and listening preferences. But I'm pretty sure that these are the avenues every artist has to consider these days.

[spirit]

Very interesting perspectives, thanks!

I'm leaning toward forgetting about a CD. But are "albums" still relevant? Is there any point these days releasing a batch of songs together? Is the only advantage that people may decide to buy all the tracks rather than just a single?

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Is there any point these days releasing a batch of songs together?

is your album just a "batch of songs", or is it an 'album' ?

is there a thread, a concept, a story.....a journey ?

in a world of shuffle and playlists, there needs to be a compelling reason for people to start at the beginning, and listen to the end.

are all the tracks strong ??

[spirit]

There is a common element to them, but then perhaps it makes just as much sense to release a track every few weeks as a "journey" rather than all altogether? I'm not trying to increase profits or anything like that because the amounts are insignificant. I'm just interested in how people decide to buy these days.

In the old model, groups released singles in the hope of a big hit which would then sell tickets at concerts. Lots of people at concerts then led to album sales. Obviously that model (for many musicians) is now ancient history.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

There is a common element to them, but then perhaps it makes just as much sense to release a track every few weeks as a "journey" rather than all altogether? I'm not trying to increase profits or anything like that because the amounts are insignificant. I'm just interested in how people decide to buy these days.

In the old model, groups released singles in the hope of a big hit which would then sell tickets at concerts. Lots of people at concerts then led to album sales. Obviously that model (for many musicians) is now ancient history.

i think that many people are used to 'a la carte' these days. the advantage to the consumer is that they don't have to pay for that which they don't like. the problem is that sometimes the tracks that don't immediately stand out, and need a little time to grow on the listener, are likely not to sell. the thematic element would help in this regard

if you can build a solid fan-base first, then these people are likely to buy 'on faith'

as both a consumer, and a musician, i appreciate having both options. i'd rather not force people to buy more than they would like, and would be appreciative of anyone that bought in for the lot

[Touch The Universe]

Creating a solid base should be a priority in my opinion. You want a lot of people to know who you are first period. You can release some free tracks and get them on as many websites as possible. Then maybe upload them to torrent sites have them on p2p programs etc. If people like the music they may want more , do a google search and find your website to buy something. Bad side to this though is the p2p torrent savy folks might buy your music then upload it to the same place they discovered you. Just a thought though, and maybe a bad one for some people.

[spirit]

I've joined Bandcamp and wll upload my old catalog there for start. The terms look good and I do like the philosophy of the site, but sometimes I wonder whether these are more just musicians talking to musicians than the general public.