magic download Archives - How to do Magic Tricks

Coin Box Magic – Free Download

The Largest Video Course on

Okito Coin Box Magic.

This FREE video download is nearly four hours long and is packed with sleights, routines, tips, tricks, and ideas using a variety of coin boxes. It covers the use of many of your favorite coin boxes and some you may not have ever seen before.

It is shot in full HD in a studio environment which will give you the feeling of having your own personal instructor teaching you everything you will ever need to know about the material contained in it. When you are finished you will have a wealth of knowledge that will not just allow you to recreate any one of the routines but you will have enough to begin making all your own original routines too.

There are over sixty Hi-Def video entries ranging from full routines to individual sleights all of which are designed to be performed standing with little or no space needed.

You will learn; steals, productions, vanishes, box switches, and the list the goes on; most of which are new never before seen concepts

There are many sleights in this that you can use in your favorite coin magic; sleights that have never been taught anywhere else before this release. Moves that do not just apply to the coin box but can apply to many coin plots out there.

Want to learn this? Simply fill in your details below and we will email you the video link and access password right away:

Free or Cost Price Magic Tricks – Ebooks and Downloads – Good?

by Merchant of Magic Leave a Comment

What price should magic ebooks and downloads sell for?

Magician Justin Miller has announced that he is dropping the price of his instant download magic tricks to almost cost price. Most of his back catalog of magic trick downloads are dropping down to £2.

Taking the example of Lewis C. K who recently released a comedy video online at $5, Justin hopes to gain a wider audience for his magic and aims to reduce download online piracy of his work.

The Merchant of Magic has a great deal of respect for Justin Miller and his work in magic. We think he is brave to be trying this business model out. Will this business model work for selling magic tricks?

Magic Tricks Prices Vs Piracy.

There are many different opinions on copyright and piracy, and both sides have strong and weak points in their arguments. However, we would say that dropping the price of a product won’t do much to discourage it. People that are comfortable using torrent sites to download for free will continue to do so. Their first port of call will always be their torrent search program. If someone doesn’t believe they should pay for another person’s work, then I’m not sure charging less will persuade them to change that behavior.

From our own experience, magic Ebooks and downloads that we sell for a couple of pounds get pirated just as often as more expensive products.

If a low price was a defense against piracy, than Apple and Amazon would have already tackled it by selling music downloads for under £1. Music piracy doesn’t seem to have been reduced by their low pricing.

A low price point on magic ebooks may also make sharing feel more ‘acceptable’ as the value of the work becomes low and the perceived unethical nature of the act of sharing for free is reduced.

A low price point leads to more sales?

Another argument for free or low price magic trick downloads and magic ebooks is that it will lead to more sales. This does seem to be the case for magic trick downloads that start off with a high price tag and then drop to almost cost price. However, the increase in sales tends to be short lived. It seems to be seen as a ‘sale’ and and opportunity to buy the magic downloads at a bargain price. Once the initial publicity of the price drop has faded, sales tend to level off to a normal level, but the lower price means that the creator of the magic trick doesn’t get a significant income stream from the product over time. This can lead to:

Chasing the release hype.

When products have a low margin, their return often comes from the first few weeks of their release, as publicity and marketing for the product is taking place. Once that drops off, the income from the product fades. A constant stream of new magic tricks need to be released to continue a stream income stream to support the efforts of the artist/creator. This can lead to rushed, or half thought out projects going to market and being over hyped. Quality is far more important than quantity for a magic creator over the long term. A low price model focuses on quantity of sales rather than building up a catalog of quality work at a price that reflects the products value and the effort required to produce it.

Marketing, Magicians reputation and brand awareness.

Free and low price downloads and magic ebooks models work on sales volume. There is little or no margin for promotion and a low incentive for others to invest in adverting and marketing for each new release.

Creators that have already created a name for themselves through releasing premium products with standard profit margins have the advantage of customer awareness. They already have a reputation to bring in a level of sales needed for a near cost price model. Very talented magicians become noticed by the efforts of publishers to promote the magicians brand. Justin Miller became a household name in magic through his talents and awesome magic tricks, but also through the efforts of publishers such as Ellusionist and Paul Harris Presents, endorsing his work and investing in promotion, distribution and marketing. The publishers put a spotlight on his talents and introduced them to a huge magic audience.

Will a cost price model discourage publishers and marketers from helping new talented magicians get noticed? Does it work for well know (through the traditional business model) artists such as the Grateful dead or Lewis C.K, but leave up and coming creators products on their own in an ocean of other free or low price products? Word of mouth does work very well, but some mouths can shout louder than others.

Building up a customer list.

Another popular argument is that giving away your work will bring in a large mailing list that can be offered additional products and services. This may work very well, but magic is a super small market, and may not have the volume of customers needed to make a list like this a viable model. Groupon is a fine example: Groupon is essentially a mailing list. They ran into problems because of the demographic of the list. They built a list of people that want something for free or at low cost. That was their main target audience. Many retailers that used Groupon found that customers responded to the ‘offer’ but didn’t tend to convert to other premium services the retailers offered them. Building a list based on attracting customers looking for bargains could have limited use. The members of the list want cheap or free magic and special offers. The list may not be as effective for future products that don’t match that price point.

Future Products.

Devaluing a back catalog is one thing, but what happens with new releases? Would they be advertised at a normal price and instantly reduced to cost?

New release! Should be £30 but only £2

How would a creator/artist convince customers that their future releases are worth anything more than cost price? Over time, the low price becomes associated with the brand and is expected. Higher price work would need a very good justification to warrant it’s ticket value.

We wish Justin Miller every success with his new pricing system. It will be interesting to see how it works out over the long term. Although we have concerns for him, and are not convinced that devaluing his back catalog is a wise move, we respect his intentions and his courage to give it a go.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below:

Interview With Bill Dekel – Co Creator of Airwriter

by Merchant of Magic Leave a Comment

Dominic Reyes – How did you develop Air Writer?

Bill Dekel – I started working on the Air Writer idea based on an effect in one of my previous books (MindCraft: Psionics), called Mene, Mene, Dekel (a.k.a. MMD). I first came up with MMD after some hours of thinking about how I could name a number that someone had written in the air. I published MMD, and it was very received, however, I felt that something was lacking; I wanted it to work with letters AND words.

Dominic Reyes – That must have been very frustrating, like a missing piece in a jigsaw, how did you solve it?

Bill Dekel – It was! I spent the next few weeks losing sleep trying to come up with a way to make MMD work with letters. I thought out half a dozen ideas, but threw each of them out; none of them were simple or clean enough. Then Timon Krause, one of the reviewers of MindCraft: Psionics that I had been collaborating with, contacted me with an idea he’d had that was directly based on MMD. I read his idea and instantly knew that it would work. I adapted it and, working with Timon, Air Writer was born.

Dominic Reyes – In what situations do you think it excels and in which do you think require more careful handling?

Bill Dekel – It works extremely well with a list of any sort. Some common applications I anticipated include names, star signs, and playing cards, among many others. As Timon noted, it can be used with virtually any list your spectator can come up with as well. The benefit of having a collection of known words is that it allows you to have a spectator write only one or two letters in the air.

Dominic Reyes – Does it always work for you?

Bill Dekel – I’m generally quite careful about words, and try to keep them short. They’re a bit risky, but I have used it with success now many, many times, it almost always succeeds, you feel like you’re really reading minds. It’s a bit of “risk and reward”. The greater the risk the more reward. There’s something quite powerful about telling someone what they are thinking of with absolutely nothing other than you and them.

Dominic Reyes – What do you think of the current state of mentalism?

Bill Dekel – I feel that we as mentalists are all standing on the shoulders of giants, and as such we can only go farther with every passing year, in terms of performance and techniques. I believe, be it sooner or later, that we will eventually reach a point where we will truly be able to read minds.

Dominic Reyes – How have you reacted to the reaction you have received from mentalists about Air Writer?

Bill Dekel – Quite happily, actually, as to the best of my knowledge, the reactions I’ve read about Air Writer have been entirely positive. Air Writer is an entirely new principle, and I’ve been glad that everyone reading Air Writer have appreciated that. Like most things worth learning, it’s a skill that requires practice to perfect, and that seems to have been universally recognized by the mentalists who own Air Writer.

Dominic Reyes – Tell us about your first ever performance.

Bill Dekel – It’s hard to pinpoint my very first performance in Mentalism because I started out performed magic for friends and family. That said, I think the first mind reading effect that I ever performed was at school, when I used my Mind Power deck. I fanned the deck with the faces towards my spectator. I then asked my spectator to think of one of the cards. I then told him what card he was thinking , but pointed out that it was merely an illusion. I then showed him the faces of all of the cards to show that his card had never been in the deck. I then said, “And the reason why the card was never in the deck was because this entire time it’s been in my back pocket…” as I reached around and removed their thought of card from my pocket.

Dominic Reyes – Who are your influences and why?

Bill Dekel – Around the top of the list are probably Derren Brown, Banachek, Joshua Quinn, Marc Oberon and David Copperfield. Derren Brown because he comes up with some absolutely brilliant ideas and then uses his well developed skills to make them a reality. I admire Banachek primarily because of the guts he has to perform the kind of psychological forces that he has come up with. Joshua Quinn because his work in the manipulation of words and equivoque has inspired some of my greatest effects. I always like watching Oberon perform because he makes magic, be it with cards or keys, tangible, bright, and charming, flowing seamlessly from one trick to the next. Last but not least I love David Copperfield because of his brilliant showmanship. His powerful acting abilities that enable him to make the impossible real, no matter how larger the scale, and to relate it to every one of his spectators in a personable, way, often linking it with a story.

Dominic Reyes – Where do you plan to go from here?

Bill Dekel – As I think that mentalism will only get closer to the real thing, I want to be one of those on the edge of reality, pushing forwards to create a reality for both me and my spectators.

Dominic Reyes – Thanks for taking the time for this short interview Bill. Good luck with your magic and congratulations on a great bit of mentalism!

AIRWRITER IS AVAILABLE NOW HERE