Making a successful CD

Someone asked me this week about recording a piano CD.  He wanted to know what I think makes people want to buy piano music.

This is an important question.  Anybody can record a CD and anybody can sell a few hundred CDs to friends and family.  But to sell outside that circle and at least cover the cost of production is another problem entirely, and one that few musicians overcome.  I am flattered that he asked my opinion, but on the other hand, I can’t say I know for sure.  I am like any other musician in that I am always anxious to see how people will react to my new projects.

In other words, there are no formulas and no easy answers.  However, when thinking about his question, some things did occur to me that I want to pass on.  I think that you need some if not all of these things if you want to have a chance of selling your music outside of your circle.

Listenability
I am not even sure “listenability” is a word, but it is my way of saying this: people need to genuinely enjoy listening to your music.  They need to want to listen to it over and over.  

A big part of being listenable is in the skill with which you play.  People get tense if they sense you are not very good.  They start looking for mistakes and problems.  Sometimes, it becomes a subconscious issue.  The absolute best way you can help your listeners relax is by convincing them that you know what you are doing and you are relaxed.  If they suspect you are tense, they will be uncomfortable.

Beyond that, a very listenable project is produced well.  The engineers are important.  The piano is important.  The way you mic the piano is important.  The effects you put on the sound during the mix process are very important.  If you were to ask my producer, he will tell you that I obsess over these details. For example, I obsess over whether the piano sounds too bright.  I don’t want it to be bright because I think an overly bright sound causes tension.  I can’t prove it and I might be wrong, but I am not putting out a project with an overly bright piano.

You know you have a listenable project if people tell you that they have it on repeat and play it constantly or it is always in the CD player in your car.  That is what you want to hear.

Emotional Impact
I get CDs from people all the time.  I usually listen to them too–once.  Probably 95% of them never get past that first listen.  The ones that do are ones that move me in some way.  Normally, the way they move me is emotionally.

A big trap that recording musicians fall in to is thinking that because they can execute music well, they can make a CD that people will want.  Here is the problem: the world is full of technically-gifted musicians.  It is crowded out there.  Playing music “correctly” is not nearly enough.

Successful CDs are CDs that rise above the execution of music and communicate to people on a deeper level.  If you don’t have a sense of how your music does that, don’t record until you do.   

Uniqueness
You cannot imagine how many pianists are recording CDs.  If you look at just my genre (traditional stylings of hymns), there are literally thousands of CDs you can choose from.  I am not saying that to drive you away from recording, but just to encourage you to be unique.  If you can’t say that there is anything about your music that is unique, think twice about recording it.

That is all I will say about uniqueness because that is a common theme I write about often.

Authenticity
I heard a piano album recently of someone playing African-American spirituals.  It really turned me off because the songs were played in a way that was not authentic.  By that, I mean that they were not played in a way that African-Americans would have performed them back when they were written.

To be honest, the attitude behind that drives me crazy.  Very often, we try to play different styles of music but we decide to do something to make them safe.  And when we do, we suck the life right out of them.  Our music ends up sounding sterile, predictable, and boring.  

Play music the way it was meant to be played.  If you think you need to “sanctify” music before you can play it, don’t play it at all.

And the concept of authenticity goes for you, the recording artist as well.  Be authentic.  Don’t use cliches to try to convince people you are something you aren’t.  

If you have these four things under control and if you have some kind of realistic marketing plan, I think you have a good shot of selling music.

Again, these are my opinions.  What are yours? What would make you buy a piano CD?