Dear Bob,

I really enjoy your eMails. I wanted to share something with you.

Along the lines of the DIY approach you described here’s another tactic indie artists might consider. I’ve been doing it for all of our artists and although it’s hard to quantify the result, at least I know my CDs are getting into the hands of music fans. Starbucks has two stores in my community with great CD racks unfortunately populated primarily with corporate, major label product. If Starbucks is going to come into our community and sell us over-priced coffee drinks under the guise of being a community resource, I believe some of their CD rack should be dedicated to local music. Hear Music used to be the company that sold all the music nobody knew about, right? Well, I take 4-5 ‘promo’ CDs, apply a "Complimentary" sticker, add the info on a local show if there is one, and stealthily place those CDs in the Starbucks CD rack. I’ve even stuck around sometimes and watch people discover complimentary CDs on the rack, watch them ask the staff person about it (who is usually as surprised as the customer), and walk out with a free CD. I’ve had people show up at our shows who mentioned they got our CD at Starbucks – for free. There are a few of us beginning to do this in NYC and around the region, we do it when we go on the road, and I encourage more people to do it. It’s one part protest against the corporate entity that builds into our communities but ignores local artists/music, and another part pure grass roots marketing.

Jeff Eyrich

www.BePopRecords.com
www.DavesTrueStory.com
www.KellyFlint.com
www.Lipbone.com