How to sell your music at shows (and leave with emails)

• Scan one of your own cards with your phone camera and check that the music plays.
• Walk through the email step yourself, so you know exactly what a fan sees.
• Decide whether downloads are on. Fans keep the files only when they are.
• Decide the price of a card, or decide to give them away.
• Write the email you will send the day after, so you are not writing it at midnight.
• Charge your phone. A flat battery is the easiest way for a demo to fail.

• Your cards, where people can see them.
• A sign that says what the card is in a few words, and the price if you are selling it.
• Your own way to take payment. Slappcard does not take payment from fans.
• Your own card loaded on your phone, so people can see what happens before they scan.
• A note on your phone for the date of the show and a rough head count, so you can compare shows later.
• The line you will say. The routine below has one.

1. Hand over the card.
2. Say: "Scan this with your camera. It opens the music."
3. The fan lands on a page whose default headline is "Enter email to listen". They enter a first name and an email, both required, and may tick "Send me news from {artist}". The box starts unticked and never blocks the unlock.
4. They play the music, and download it if you turned downloads on.
5. Thank them.

Keep it short. Do not explain the dashboard, the list or the print run; the fan needs one instruction. In a dim room, hold the card up to the light or use the phone's flashlight so the camera can read it.

Be honest about the friction too: some people will not enter an email. Your dashboard shows scans and unlocks, so you can see roughly where people stopped. A fan who has unlocked stays unlocked on that browser for 90 days, so they can come back to the music without typing again.

Most hesitation is about the email. Four true things you can say:

• "The news box is optional. You can leave it unticked and the music still unlocks."
• "It goes to me, through Slappcard. It is not sold, and no other artist gets it."
• "There is no account to make. You enter an email and it plays."
• "No app. Your camera is all you need."

If they still say no, that is fine. Give them the card anyway; they may scan it later at home.

You have three options.

• Sell the card at the table. You take payment yourself, and the card is a keepsake that also carries the music.
• Bundle it with other merch or a ticket. The card rides along with something people are already buying, so there is no extra decision at the table.
• Hand it out free. There is no payment step, so the line moves faster, and every unlock can add to your list.

We have no reliable data on what artists charge or how many scans become sales, so we quote none. Try one way for a few shows and read your own dashboard. Whichever you pick, put it on the sign, so you are not explaining the price to every person.

Plays, downloads and scans show up on your artist dashboard. Comparing scans with unlocks shows roughly how many people stopped at the email step. Weekly or monthly analytics PDFs in your inbox: no login required.

Plays are counted, not tied to a named fan, so you can see how much was played but not who played it. To learn what works, change one thing at a time, such as the price, the line you say or where the cards sit, and compare shows. One night is a small sample, so do not read much into it.

Use the same card at every show. Every card in a pack carries one shared link per design, so a reprint never breaks cards already out, and fans from every show land on the same page. A scan does not say which show it came from, so note the date of each show and compare your dashboard numbers before and after.

• Send your welcome email to the fans who ticked the news box. They are the ones you can export.
• Say who you are and where they met you.
• Give them one thing to do, such as a link to your next show.
• Include a way to opt out.

Keep it to three lines: a thank-you, a link to the music, and your next show.

• It does not put your music on Spotify or any other streaming service. Slappcard does not distribute to them.
• It does not take payment from fans.
• It is not locked to the person you hand it to. The link is printed on every card, so anyone holding or photographing a card can open it.
• It ships to the US and Canada only.

Open the sample cards and go through one as a fan: the scan, the email step and the player. The artists on them are fictitious demos.

• Cards, counted.
• A sign with your price, or a plan to give them away.
• Your own way to take payment.
• Your card loaded on your phone.
• The line you will say.
• The day-after email, written.

Still choosing a service? Read how to choose download cards. Ready to order? The pricing page lists the pack sizes.