Independent musicians with loyal fanbases are leaving significant revenue on the table by treating physical products as afterthoughts. Vinyl, CDs, and cassettes aren't nostalgia plays—they're strategic revenue channels when approached with the same rigor labels apply to streaming campaigns.

Thom Skarzynski is the founder of Happiness Marketing, a physical-first music strategy consultancy. Tom has twenty years of industry experience, including roles at Epic Records, Spotify, and Atlantic Music Group. He helped deliver campaigns like the one supporting the Twenty One Pilots' album Clancy, which sold 143,000 units in its first week (streaming alone would have generated ~28K). The following year, Thome helped their album Breach sell nearly 170,000 physical units out of 200,000 total first-week sales.

In this conversation, Thom breaks down the economics of physical products at an independent scale, how to forecast demand, manage manufacturing risk, price strategically, and design packaging that fans actually want to own. He explains why direct-to-consumer isn't just a transactional layer but an operating system for fandom, and why shipping generic packages with no personal touch leaves both money and loyalty on the table.

Find Thom and his work at happiness.llc.

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Resources

The Unstarving Musician's Guide to Getting Paid Gigs, by Robonzo

Dreamhost – See the latest deals from Dreamhost, save money and support the UM in the process.

More Resources for musicians

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