For a lot of musicians, selling self-produced CDs off the stage or at merch tables is the single most lucrative aspect of their business. On a good night the take from CD sales can equal or better a musician’s take from the door (or the club guarantee). And for artists who do a lot of touring, who play for new audiences in new venues all year round, those sales can really add up.

But here’s the thing. Very few musicians, as they sell those CDs, bother to find out who their buyers are. And without that information, they lose out on a great opportunity to build a sustainable and economically potent fanbase.

76fanclubs says: never sell a CD without getting the email address of the buyer. Because those buyers are your economic future. Damn, they’re your pension fund, your retirement plan, your freedom 55! If you can aggregate all those fans, if you can know them, nurture them, and monetize them year after year, your economy will mushroom.

But how? 76fanclubs of course.

Simply make sure you explain to each buyer that each CD purchase includes a year’s membership in your fanclub. (You can also sell annual memberships in your fanclub and give the CD itself away as a gift to new members.) But either way make sure you get the buyer’s email address and enter it into your 76fanclubs fanbase. Then keep feeding your fans music and love using 76fanclubs’simple scalable publishing tools, so that they in turn will keep feeding you.

The goal is to renew your fans year after year. So that instead of being a one-off CD sale, each fan purchase lays the groundwork for an ongoing economic relationship that could pay off 10 times over. And you can do it, because off-the-stage CD buyers are hardcore fans. They saw your show, they liked it enough to buy a CD, and they may even have purchased it from you personally! (Nothing builds fans devotion like actually meeting you.)

These are people who care about you and your music and who have proven they are willing to be a part of your economy. It’s up to you to ensure they don’t disappear forever. Don’t throw away your fans. Treat them as a renewable resource in your sustainable economy.