This type of promotion is really good, because it allows buyers outside the US ( i can speak for latin america...), who usually don't have access to music, discover it, and buy it online!
It's a Win-Win situation!

edit: plus, butch walker is The Man!!

To be perfectly honest, for $6 I'll take a chance on buying it. I've heard he's great and I'd like to give it a spin.

Totally going to buy this. I read that it was a double disc release? Any truth to that?

butch is getting enough name recognition i think as an underground artist that he can be successful embracing the DIY attitude. i think to actually sell physical albums, some kind of incentive needs to be given. like with the first one, if you buy a copy, you get an extra track or two. im thinking something along the lines of meet and greets at shows with the purchase of albums thru butch's site, or autographed items, things like that. i downloaded this one, but will be purchasing the DVD and the solo album for sure. excitement just needs to be built around the release of the albums.

i also think giving the live cd away for free is a great idea, and will hopefully let fans realize how fucking amazing butch is live, which gives the potential to draw more kids to shows.

Butch has always relied on word of mouth to sell his albums. While it's not necessarily a bad thing to have a record company pushing your album every way imaginable, this is rarely possible, and definitely not with the kind of control that Butch maintains.

I think the model he has implemented is great. I would have possibly not released the entire album for free, but a fair portion of it. Just enough to leave the listener wanting more. The purchase option of high quality files was terrific. I'm crazy about having the best sounding music possible, so that was a major selling point for me.

The only other thing I would probably do is sell a limited run of actual cd's. That way people have even more options, and since there is only a limited number of albums going to be made, it adds sort of a collector's aspect to it. For example, the "This Is Me..." live album has been on ebay for more than 50 bucks before. That speaks volumes for the demand of that cd.

As for promotion, there definitely could have been more. I try my hardest to promote Butch, and I've turned dozens of people onto him over the years, and I hope they have done the same. Unless you are his friend on Myspace, or an active member on here, or have somebody say "You've gotta hear this guy," chances are you aren't too familiar with Butch's work.

Originally Posted by ReturningSunday

Totally going to buy this. I read that it was a double disc release? Any truth to that?

Yes. There are 24 tracks, and it clocks in at 2 hours. The 320bit files sound heavenly.

Originally Posted by anamericangod

Butch has always relied on word of mouth to sell his albums. While it's not necessarily a bad thing to have a record company pushing your album every way possible, this is rarely possible, and definitely not with the kind of control that Butch maintains.

I think the model he has implemented is great. I would have possibly not released the entire album for free, but a fair portion of it. Just enough to leave the listener wanting more. The purchase option of high quality files was terrific. I'm crazy about having the best sounding music possible, so that was a major selling point for me.

The only other thing I would probably do is sell a limited run of actual cd's. That way people have even more options, and since there is only a limited number of albums going to be made, it adds sort of a collector's aspect to it. For example, the "This Is Me..." live album has been on ebay for more than 50 bucks before. That speaks volumes for the demand of that cd.

As for promotion, there definitely could have been more. I try my hardest to promote Butch, and I've turned dozens of people onto him over the years, and I hope they have done the same. Unless you are his friend on Myspace, or an active member on here, or have somebody say "You've gotta hear this guy," chances are you aren't too familiar with Butch's work.



Yes. There are 24 tracks, and it clocks in at 2 hours. The 320bit files sound heavenly.

Sweet, thanks man. I'll end up downloading it for now since I can't wait, but I will definitely pick it up as well.

some more thoughts on the subject...
giving away a live CD is a very good idea, because it gives a very good insight of the artist's sound from previous releases, it allows the potential buyer to purchase previous releases and keep an eye on the next ones...
It's a great move, congratulations to Butch!

Originally Posted by ReturningSunday

Totally going to buy this. I read that it was a double disc release? Any truth to that?

Yes. Two discs, 24 tracks total.

My best friend & I both purchased the $5.99 version. It's a small fee to pay for so many songs, and we feel good knowing that more money will go to Butch than if we had used, say, iTunes.

I need some time to think before I answer most of the questions in the OP...but I do have one suggestion, and that is to find a different distributor (or download method) for the next releases. Everybody I've spoken to regarding the Musicane box on FOE experienced trouble or confusion when attempting to acquire the album.

Originally Posted by Sadie13

I need some time to think before I answer most of the questions in the OP...but I do have one suggestion, and that is to find a different distributor (or download method) for the next releases. Everybody I've spoken to regarding the Musicane box on FOE experienced trouble or confusion when attempting to acquire the album.

true, i'm having trouble with that tool too...

The link that I was given after the first download fucked up worked like a charm. They should just give a link to the .ZIP file to begin with. It would make things much more simple.

Originally Posted by anamericangod

Butch has always relied on word of mouth to sell his albums. While it's not necessarily a bad thing to have a record company pushing your album every way imaginable, this is rarely possible, and definitely not with the kind of control that Butch maintains.

I think the model he has implemented is great. I would have possibly not released the entire album for free, but a fair portion of it. Just enough to leave the listener wanting more. The purchase option of high quality files was terrific. I'm crazy about having the best sounding music possible, so that was a major selling point for me.

The only other thing I would probably do is sell a limited run of actual cd's. That way people have even more options, and since there is only a limited number of albums going to be made, it adds sort of a collector's aspect to it. For example, the "This Is Me..." live album has been on ebay for more than 50 bucks before. That speaks volumes for the demand of that cd.

As for promotion, there definitely could have been more. I try my hardest to promote Butch, and I've turned dozens of people onto him over the years, and I hope they have done the same. Unless you are his friend on Myspace, or an active member on here, or have somebody say "You've gotta hear this guy," chances are you aren't too familiar with Butch's work.

Some good ideas here honestly, a lot of which are what I would have recommended. Out of the portion of the record released I would have chosen tracks that were a little diverse from each other and not necessarily the strongest tracks, that way it gives the listener a feel of the album as a whole, yet they are still intrigued to hear the other songs on the album. I also like the limited run of actual CD's idea and it is one that has started to appear lately, especially with Deep Elm releases.

Honestly, Butch Walker could rely on his DIY roots if he wanted to. It might be a little different, but I have heard countless stories of musicans who have been able to handle things themselves and even though the music is different, just look at what Dischord Records has been able to accomplish on their own.

the only issue I have with this is that I hate downloading music and much prefer having a physical copy on cd, and of course I'm willing to pay more for that

i'm trying to download it, but i'm not sure if it's working. Just got Letters from this guy and it's pretty great, we'll see how this goes.

I bought it. Butch never disappoints. What about the independent record stores though?