Barenaked Ladies’ Creative Marketing Delivers Sales

Knowing their newest release, Barenaked Ladies are Me, was coming out on their own Desperation Records, Barenaked Ladies and Nettwerk Music put a lot of thought into how to best get the album in the hands and ears of their listeners. In a world of MP3 players and computers, it would seem simply releasing CDs was not the best answer.

According to this week's soundscan report the album was #17 in the US and #7 in Canada. Not bad for a new release on an artist-run independent label – but what these reports don't show is the creative and multiple formats used to make these sales. Individual digital track sales, digital album purchased directly from the BNL website, Nettwerk website, and Myspace, the combined sales of the standard album and the Deluxe Edition, USB drives and sales resulting from the re-mixing contest the band is holding are just a few of the different mediums the band is using to distribute the album. Barenaked Ladies Are Me can even be purchased on vinyl if that is your preferred way to listen to music.

Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk Music Group and manager of Barenaked Ladies lays out what he sees as the future of selling music. "Nettwerk and BNL are trying to get people to see beyond the physical number. Generating revenue, especially in the artist-run model, is about selling music in various mediums, selling concert tickets, licensing music to TV, ring tones, packed USB drives, etc. That is how success is measured, not by the physical album sales."

Barenaked Ladies is not the first band to forge out on their own label and with the changing face of the music industry they certainly won't be last. The internet allows artists who want to control the marketing of their music to create a website with a storefront. An artist-run label also has the potential to make as much as five dollars an album. Forward thinking artists and bands who are tuned into the technology will achieve potential sales by these non-traditional means.

McBride says of Nettwerk Music, "The artist-run model is the future. If we can break bands using this model, the industry will be forever changed. We are making a music company, not a record label."