We all know the story. There was a lot of resistance in 2007 when the band Radiohead released their record "In Rainbows" on a pay-what-you-like download incentive, simply on the notion "...we believe that if your music is great, then people will pay for it." Selling around 30,000 copies within the first week alone and hitting #1 on iTunes made the album an instant success. We then witnessed a enormous flood of ticket and album sales, which eventually sold over 3 million copies. In no time they became an inspiration to many bands all over the world, who then chose to model their "pay-what-you-like" system with their own fans, seeking the same success.

Despite of where they were in their music career, musicians have followed this system and have experienced both unbelievable success and incredible failure. This model has also been heavily criticized for only working for bands that already have a huge fan-base like Radiohead, overlooking the countless stories of smaller artists having similar success. They may not have sold near as much as Radiohead, but selling thousands and sometimes tens of thousands is much greater than most other smaller bands can contend.

If you copy what they did, you'll make a lot of sales too, right? If you're following the same process, why wouldn't it produce the same results?

You may instead follow a different artist’s process, like Adam Singer, who used his album exclusively as a promotional instrument through Creative Commons. In just a few weeks he had over 5,000 downloads for his album, and it had also been shared innumerable times beyond that. Singer started being approached to write music for youtube videos, was talked about on several popular music blogs and internet radio sites, gathered tens of thousands of visitors to his website, and even had remixes start to pop up in cool viral videos. This all came about by releasing his music without cost under Creative Commons. He didn’t have a fan-base and he didn’t market his music to anyone, but oddly enough he quickly attracted more attention than the majority of music artists ever do.

Turning back to Radiohead. They put out their 2011 album under the previous "pay-what-you-like" download basis. The critics came down hard. They released it on vinyl. The skeptics reproached them. Their album continued to rock the charts with their vinyl being the #1 vinyl album of 2011 with no competition. The naysayers don’t catch on. But are you seeing what they overlooked?

They also released their entire back catalog of albums on a USB stick for $160, and it sold like hot cocoa on a cold winter day. Are you noticing anything here?

So what system should you implement?

Creative Commons? Pay-what-you-like? And what about USB? Or Vinyl? There’s one simple choice, "none of the above." It could be you should not focus so much at what systems these bands implemented, but at their mindset behind them. Radiohead's and Adam Singer's success weren't rooted in the number of fans they had or which method they used. They each used completely separate methods, and yet still had a large reaction to their albums. Radiohead and Adam Singer share a common and powerful mindset toward their music career that feed their success. The issue isn't what model can you replicate, but "What method is perfect for YOUR audience because it's what YOUR fans are looking for?"

Apple didn't ask the "experts" and critics their opinion of a ten inch iPad or a purely touchscreen mobile phone. They also didn’t ask them about sizing down MP3 players smaller than the size of a cigarrete pack or about an all-in-one machine. Napster didn’t ask the industry what they thought about digitally downloading or streaming music. Netflix created a new norm when they started the mail-order DVD rental craze. Whether a business or a band, they both tried NEW ways of doing things even though the "industry experts" said it would never be done. Then years later, the same critcs attempted to imitate their success, but missed the mindset that lead to their success in the first place.

Don't merely imitate what they did and expect to get the same outcome Don’t anticipate equivalent results because you sold your album as pay-what-you-like downloads, Creative Commons, Vinyl, or all on a USB. Rather, you must understand and copy their MINDSET, which fueled their success (and will fuel yours as well).

How to make your next album release rock:

You understand now that you need the correct mindset in order to make plans for a successful album release. So, let's lay it out for what to do now.

1) Nail your perfect desired fan-base. The better you are able to describe your target audience, the more painless it will be for you forecast a cd release system that actually works for them. The easiest way to do this is to imagine a fan, not just any fan, but that ONE ideal, favorite fan who absolutely loves you. Define them: Who are they? What are their scouting and purchasing tendencies? What types of things do they go nuts for? Go deep. Seriously deep.

2) Taking your description in the previous step, plan out your own special album release model that makes it simple for your fanbase to find, consume, and share with friends.

3) Now, go and do it.

Yes, it’s that easy. Radiohead understood perfectly who their ideal fans were that it was easy for them to use release models that their fans would go crazy over Even Adam Singer, without much of a fan base knew specifically who he wanted to target. Singer's fans were just like him, so he gave them only what he would have wanted...good music that was easy to discover, easy to purchase, easy to use, and easy to share,. These 2 artists and the few visionary companies we mentioned in this article, sought out ways their fan-base wanted to be involved and did it. Their competitors picked them apart until it was too late, and then they hurried to shamelessly copy their lead.

So the question continues. What method will engage YOUR fanbase in the most effective way out there?

About the Author: Draven Grey is an artist development specialist and accomplished professional musician who has been where you are. He coaches bands across the world in how to be as successful as their favorite bands. Sign up today for more awesome tips about the music business and a <free|FREE 6-Day> Booster Pack now at rockstarmindset.com.