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Self-Production
All our CDs are self-produced. This means that all the money necessary to the production of a CD has come from Baiki’s pocket. And producing a CD costs a bomb…
One can safely estimate a cost of €8,000 for the production of a CD and only 1,000 copies (studio, pressing and mechanical reproduction rights). In order not to exceed this minimum budget, you’ve got to watch out for every detail : limit the number of days in studio, create a cover with limited fancy stuff (no digipack!) and always find the best deals… And to this amount you must also allow a minimum of €2,000 for the promotion (posters, flyers, promo CDs, stickers, mailings, etc). And this is probably the cheapest promo ever !
So how do we find the cash ? We borrow. And then we refund slowly but surely. Each concert and each CD sold brings Baiki a little more out of its overdrawn account. No members of the group is paid. All the money goes to refunding Baiki’s debts.
So why offer free downloadable CDs ? Is this not suicidal ?
Free Downloadable CDs
The music industry is in a crisis. You keep hearing it. It’s true and it’s quite normal.
I remember the first days of the Compact Disc. It was expensive, but we were told that this wouldn’t last and that the costs would go down. And did they ? Quite the opposite…
The “Music Merchants” (those whose business it is to make money with music) favoured short-term strategies and get rich quickly.
If their turnover is now going down, it is not because of groups like Baiki or dedicated websites of downloadable music. Nor is it the result of people who download mp3 files.
If the purchase price of CDs was lower, more people would buy more CDs. And if the Music Merchants had had the foresight of offering a greater variety of choice, rather than aim for “what sells”, the public might not have needed to resort to the web to fulfil their aspiration to discover new material.
Today’s music merchants dedicate their earnings to fighting this phenomenon, but it’s too late. The music industry as it once existed is gradually crumbling and the worst is yet to come. Good. Let’s live with our times and look forward to a different horizon.
Baïki has decided to offer its music in free downloadable format for the following reasons :
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A few years from now, this concept will be widespread. We are convinced of this. And we have decided to be at the front of the train rather than in the last carriages.
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If our ambition was to become rich, we wouldn’t be composing music. Passion is the driving force and you can’t put a price on passion.
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We create music for the pleasure of our public, not for the sake of storing our CDs in boxes in a warehouse or let them gather dust in music shop racks.
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Baiki creates music for the pleasure of performing. Our priority is to perform at concerts. And if the free downloads allow us to be heard by more people who will want to turn up at concerts, all the better for all concerned. The more people will share our free music, the wider our audience will become. And when you have an audience, you have a concert.
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Baiki does not have a massive cash machine behind it to do its promotion. So we do our promotions ourselves.
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Since the development of the digital age, the home-studios have emerged in a great way. Hundreds of CDs are released every day. So to draw an audience to a small self-produced group like Baiki, we need to limit the obstacles, which would prevent our potential audience to discover us.
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The production of CDs has reached such a scale that many radio stations do not allow self-produced groups such as us to make direct contact with the radio producers and DJs. The selection criteria is that the groups should be represented by a label or a distributor. Since the radio is one of the best vehicles for music, there has been an emergence of independent web-radios who aim to fill this gap and broadcast independent musicians.
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Simultaneously, offering free downloads also cuts the strenuous and ungratifying task of begging radio producers to broadcast our music, and therefore allow us to bring our music directly to our audience. From manufacturer to consumer. From our instruments directly into your ears. No intermediary. We leave you judge of the merit of this philosophy…
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Our CDs are only distributed in France. What about the other countries ?
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When a CD is sold in a music shop, our share is roughly €1. So selling a couple hundred more or less won’t make that much difference to us.
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Since we started with free downloads, we have continued with the sales of CDs. Contradiction in terms ? Not necessarily ! During our concerts, we sell our CDs at €10. And when we will have balanced our bank account, we will sell them even cheaper. We prefer to sell 2 CDs at €10 each than 1 CD at €20. For most people purchasing our CDs is not an economical obstacle. However, once could argue that €8 would still be far more expensive than downloading our whole production free of charge on the web. So why do people still buy our CDs then ? For several reasons. Either for the object itself, or to support us or because our music appealed to them during the concert and they want it immediately or maybe simply because an MP3 will never replace a “good old CD”… So the more our music will be downloaded, the more it will be heard and the more people will buy our albums (either at a concert or in a music shop). And even if these sales only represent 1% of all the people who will have downloaded our music free of charge, we will still be better off with that 1% of several thousands of people than 100% of zilch. It’s good practice for all : for Baiki, for our public, our label and even our distributor.
So in a nutshell, this is our “manifest”. Since 15 July 2005 (date when we decided to go for free downloads), no less than 70,000 tracks have been downloaded from our site and these figures continue to climb rapidly… So don’t be shy… Give yourself a treat. If it pleases you, it pleases us. PS If our philosophy shocks you, surprises you, makes you want to vomit or simply fills you with joy, don’t hesitate to contact us. This is merely our opinion. We’re not God and we all make mistakes, so your comments and feedback could certainly help us change the way in which we evolve…
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