Are you an Amazon KDP seller with a passion for playing the piano?

In that case, you probably understand the importance of continuous skill development – both on the keys and on the platform.

In this blog post, we explore a crucial aspect of piano practice that not only enhances your playing ability but also elevates your offerings as an Amazon KDP seller – note reading tests and exercises.

Understanding note-reading tests and exercises

Before we explore how note-reading tests and exercises can be a lucrative niche for your Amazon KDP side gig, let’s observe their essence.

Note-reading tests and exercises are invaluable tools for pianists of all levels. From beginners to masterminds, key players can use them to strengthen sight-reading skills, improve musical memory, and deepen their understanding of music theory.

These are all essential components for becoming an unquestionable pro on the piano.

But how can these exercises also benefit your Amazon KDP gig as a seller?

• Better content creation – Mastering note-reading exercises empowers you to create high-quality instructional materials for aspiring pianists. You can produce comprehensive exercise books, sight-reading guides, and music theory workbooks tailored to your audience’s needs.
• Visibility – By showcasing your expertise in piano pedagogy and note-reading, you can establish yourself as a reliable author in the music education niche on Amazon KDP. This boosts the marketability of your products and attracts a wider audience of piano enthusiasts.
• Portfolio diversification – Adding note-reading exercises to your repertoire allows you to diversify your product offerings. You can cater to different skill levels and learning styles, offering a range of materials that appeal to a broader customer base.
• Popularity – Offering valuable resources for improving note-reading skills boosts customer satisfaction and encourages positive reviews. Satisfied customers are more likely to recommend your products to others, leading to increased popularity. This positively affects your rankings, and therefore, visibility and sales.

But to enter this niche and the music sheets category on Amazon KDP, you’ll need to craft a tactical sales strategy.

To do so, you’ll need all the data you can get your hands on.

Below, we offer key insights from Book Bolt on the piano note-reading tests and exercises market on Amazon KDP.

Market overview

As one of the most popular instruments in the world, the piano is a popular theme across low-content books like music sheets.

However, not all piano-related products on Amazon KDP are note-reading tests and exercises. In fact, the majority of listings that rank for “piano” provide sheet music for popular songs.

So what portion of music sheet products are tests and exercises?

According to Book Bolt, there are no bestsellers that rank for “piano tests” or “note-reading tests”. However, the tool displays 311 top-performing listings for the phrase “piano exercise”.

This result is even higher than that of the broad keyword “piano” in the music sheets category (253 products).

One of the explanations for this discrepancy is that Book Bolt considers both words from the phrase individually. For example, some of the displayed results include “exercise” in the title, but don’t contain “piano”.

Nonetheless, with more than 250 displayed listings in either case, we can conclude that piano note-reading exercises are popular among consumers.

This is further confirmed by the low average BSR in the piano exercise space (245,543), revealing the sales potential of this segment.

Do Amazon KDP shoppers actively browse for piano note-reading tests and exercises?

When determining the state of a market, it’s also necessary to examine the search volumes of niche keywords.

This data is key as it demonstrates how frequently buyers search for specific products, uncovering the demand in the market.

Here are the discoveries we made when analyzing the piano note-reading tests and exercises niche:

• 200 easy sight reading studies for piano – 10,468
• timed note reading tests book – 6,518
• timed note reading tests book – 6,409
• note reading for piano – 6,289
• timed note reading tests for piano – 3,320

Instantly, we can see that the word “exercise” doesn’t appear anywhere in the top searched-for phrases.

On the other hand, it becomes clear that more than 6,500 customers search for “timed note reading tests book” every month. Keywords featuring “test” appear several more times, suggesting that this wording dominates over “exercise”.

This is another discrepancy from our earlier findings. Above, we identified that there are no sellers that rank for “test”, while there are multiple that use “exercise” in their titles.

What this shows is that perhaps sellers rely on the main keyword “piano” for traffic. This data could also signal a gap in the market, opening money-making opportunities for new entrants.

Are piano note-reading tests and exercises profitable?

The best way to establish whether a niche is financially rewarding is to look at the lowest, highest, and average prices in the market.

This information will enable you to get an idea of the competitive rates and to predict royalties.

For bestsellers rankings for “piano exercise”, these marks are:

• Lowest Price – $3.99
• Highest Price – $39.99
• Average Price – $14.81

Based on your expected sales per month, you can forecast your returns and determine whether this space meets your expectations.

A sneak peek into the bestsellers

To avoid the guesswork, it’s also useful to analyze the successful listings in the niche and their sales volumes.

For example, one of the top performers in the piano note reading tests and exercises is “How to Read Music in 30 Days: Music Theory for Beginners – with exercises & online audio (Practical Musical Theory)”.

This listing sells for $16.18 (slightly above the market average of $14.20) and has a BSR of 7,948, which translates into 420 monthly sales. Using an Amazon KDP calculator, we found that the product generates per-sale royalties of $6.66.

Multiplied by the monthly sales volume of 420, we can conclude that this seller is earning $2,797 from a single item.

Compared to other low- and no-content book categories and niches on Amazon KDP, this is an exceptionally appealing return.

Several best practices help the author achieve such results. First, the price is very close to the average, positioning the listing competitively. Second, the seller utilizes high-traffic keywords, like “piano”, “exercises”, “music theory”, and “read music”. They also describe their ideal audience directly in the title (beginners).

All of these techniques empower the author to boost their product’s visibility, reach more customers, and multiply sales.

Another successful example is “Piano Note Reading Exercises: Music Skills in 10 Minutes a Day, Student Workbook, How To Read Music, Sign 4,000 Notes”.

This product is sold at $13.14 (again, close to the market average but slightly lower), has a BSR of 10,129, and lands 389 sales per month. With per-sale royalties of $5.11, the item generates monthly returns of $1,988.

While this author earns slightly less than the first, they still accumulate around $2,000 from a single listing.

In this case, the seller optimizes this low-content book for “piano note reading exercises” (the main keyword in the niche), “read music” (a phrase we saw in the previous example), and “music skills”.

Again, the audience is described in the title (student), along with other book characteristics, like the number of notes available.

By dissecting these two overachievers, we can extract several essential best practices:

• Price around the market average for competitive positioning and more interest.
• Use keywords that generate high search volumes in your titles.
• Mention your audience in the title and describe any important book specifics.

Wrapping up

Our dive into piano note reading tests and exercises proves that this niche is thriving in potential on Amazon KDP.

If you’re a low-content bookseller with a passion for piano, we’ve just unearthed a whole new exciting world of opportunity.

As you make the first steps in the music sheet category with piano note-reading tests and exercises, don’t forget to use Book Bolt. This powerful data weapon can help you make all the right choices and stay ahead of the curve.