 From DIY musician, the CD Baby blog, pretty regularly, again, going back to just constantly learning and staying abreast on music tactics, marketing, et cetera, et cetera. Red about, I believe, was Ty K and Shannon Curtis, how they've hit the Billboard chart. I was reading, what did they do to do it? How did they think about it? And I remember with Shannon, it was something like, it only took our 250 album sales to hit some part of Nielsen charts or something like that. And then for Ty, he set out to do 1,000. Or I don't remember if he said, I can't remember the exact number that he set out for, but the results for him, how he hit the Billboard chart, I was like, oh, well, if that's what they did in order to do that, me analyzing my fan base and analyzing what I was going to go for, I was like, I think I could do that. At least let me try. And so, convince my engineer, convince my producer, convince my wife, let's try it. And that's what even put into my mind that it could be a thing. By that point, it was November-ish, mid-November. And I set it for March. So I had about three, I had this project for like three months. And I decided to drop, the reason why I chose March was because my mom's birthday is on March 21st. And so when it dropped, it would be on my mom's birthday as a way to symbolically be like for her, for my aunt, et cetera. So the first song that I dropped from the project was 515. And that's also when I started the pre-order campaign. And just even taking an additional setback, how was I going to hit the Billboard chart? Really, the thing that I learned from those two articles, as well as just understanding how Billboard works, is that if you, basically your first week sales is your first week sales, plus everything that you've sold before the day of your release. And so the more that you've sold before the album drops, the more that gets added onto your first week sales. And so I was like, okay, well, if I have two months to get where I need to go and not only communicate this to my fan base, but also see if I can meet other people and build new fans and also tell them about what it is that I've been doing, which I did, right? Like I was going to Berkeley, I was talking to people in Portland, and I'm connected with people that I know. And I'm like, hey, ask your friends, convince them, et cetera. And there were some folks men really out there recruiting their friends and being like, hey, my homie, this dope artist, my brother, et cetera, like, you know, I remember my sister, she was like every single day, like on social media at her job, you know, on the subway, like just really pitching, being like, hey, help support this independent artist because his message is dope. I will say that I think what helped for me, you know, one, the fact that the fan base already existed, two, I thoroughly believe in the product that I put out, like, you know, if you hear the lyrics, you definitely feel like you know who I am. And I really try to bring that level of authenticity and just the experiences and perspective that I have into my music in a way where folks can really resonate with that. You know, I've had people, even before airplane mode, I've had people say, wow, your music really helps me, you know, get through my day. I've shared this with my cousin who's contemplating suicide, like all these different things. So I was already like invested in the music and the product itself. And I'm very much like, yo, once you hear the product, like, you'll like it. I mean, just like taste and see that it's good. And then the rest will follow. So already had invested and they were invested. Exactly. Right. And so it wasn't like I was trying to, you know, sell chicken nuggets and call it gourmet food. So I feel like the product really has to like stand on itself regardless. And yeah, in addition to, I mean, like, I did do advertising, but not not crazy. I mean, something like this, to ask people in 2019 to spend money on an album, it's not for the casual like observer. So these were hard albums? I didn't even, I didn't even, I didn't even print out, nah, like dreams, nah, like digital. Well, so, I mean, digital CDs is like the hardest of CDs in the U S these days. That's hard. There are some people that probably would, they probably thought they considered themselves my like fan. Maybe they still do. Who knows? I'm not gonna judge them. But they were like, no, I don't, I don't want to buy the CD. And for me, I was like, you know, it's less about the CD, right? Because you could still, you know, stream it, Apple Music, whatever, whatever. It was about the goal, and what the goal entailed. And for, you know, my, my fans, my supporters, they understood that. And they were like, yeah, I'm willing to help you hit this goal. I want this artist to hit this goal. Now I'm buying this so that I can listen to the music. And I think when it comes to somebody that's like either a casual listener or like doesn't know you at all, like, if you're a stranger, I'm like, yo, you know, the guy on Times Square, like trying to front off the CD, like, no, no one wants that. And like, if anything, they'll just stream it when it comes out. So just even getting people something to activate around and to rally around. Exactly. Another thing that really helped. So that's why advertising, even though I did it, it did not help to sell the albums. It just helped create an awareness. If anything, especially due to the targeting, it was really just for my fans that already are aware of me so that they can, and then they're, you know, just their circles, just to keep them in that mindset that like this is something that's taking place. These advertising, these advertisements wasn't for like creating new fans to buy my album. Like that just doesn't even make sense. Like if it was an awareness campaign, it would be more like, you know, my music video dropped, like just listen to that, right? Just be aware because people are going to stream whatever. And then if they're really curious, then they'll see like, oh, there's a campaign going on. And I would share on a daily basis, you know, hey, Sean, thank you for buying my, you know, pre-ordering my album, you know, and I'd call you out and every single time, right? And just create that proof that yo, like people are actually out here doing this, you've been following and you haven't done it yet. Why haven't you done it yet? And so that definitely happened. That definitely helps. And then another really big thing that helped, two more things. One was just like the, the, the, the re-followings, repostings, my mind's everywhere yo, it's after work. But I had a, I had a pre-release album, pre-album release. Much like the pre-says. Yeah, yeah, pre-album release party. In order to enter, you can either buy a ticket or you could pre-order the album. And so there were some folks, there were actually some folks that I met that were my fans that I've never met before and came to the party pre-ordered in order to get to the party and, and, you know, introduced themselves to me and was like, yo, like, I love your music. I'm so happy for you. That blew my mind. But there, you know, there were examples of those. And then also like, you know, my fans and supporters coming through and then bringing their friends and their fans and their fan to do the same thing. And I've made it so that pre-ordering the album was cheaper than buying the ticket. So it was kind of, it was just additional incentive, you know, to be like, yeah, but I want to see what this is about, right? Yeah, I got to make things make sense. Yeah.