We’re just browsing: My attempt to sell music on Facebook

This thing is called an experiment for a reason. I’m trying things out, and sometimes they’re not going to work. One thing I’ve learned so far: sometimes other people know what they’re talking about.

Recently I’ve noticed a number of articles and blog posts suggesting that attempting to sell a product through Facebook is generally a waste of time. That people are in a browsing mindset when they’re scrolling- they’re window shopping as opposed to actual shopping. It’s a good place for businesses to increase awareness of their “brand”, and develop a rapport with their customers, but when folks go to Facebook, they leave their wallets at home. Bah! I said. Fiddlesticks! What do you so-called “experts” know about anything? I’m going to post an attractive, easy-to-use music store, and my loyal, trusting friends are going to have a quick listen, then click “buy”. I’ll be rich! Then I can buy my own experts!

But it didn’t happen that way, did it? Now, plenty of people bought the first track, and I thank them warmly, but they didn’t buy it from the guy standing on their doorstep; they jumped in the car and drove to the store downtown where they’ve been shopping for years. (I’m talking about iTunes. The car thing was a metaphor.)

Not only is Facebook more a place for watching people pour buckets of iced water on their heads than purchasing quality jazz recordings, when people do buy something, that want it from a source that’s convenient and trustworthy. Say you’re stepping into your favourite sushi restaurant, and I roll up in my two-tone 1987 Yugo (which for the sake of this story, we assume I own), and offer you the same delicious raw fish from the trunk. And first you need to spend five minutes filling out paperwork, and giving me (a frankly suspicious looking character) all your personal and banking details. Now I’m not suggesting for a moment that iTunes is a reputable Japanese restaurant, or that Bandcamp is a tall, ruggedly handsome Australian fellow driving a brown Yugo, (that was another metaphor), but you catch my drift.

 So the result of this revelation is that, while I’ll continue to post the Bandcamp music store (‘cos it’s actually very good), I’ll focus more on sending folks to iTunes, Amazon, and something called GooglePlay. I make slightly less money from them, but you can’t fight the big guys.

 Do you download music exclusively from one source? A combination? Have you had success selling on Facebook? Want to buy some sushi?