Here are two big lessons from this video that you can use when creating a press kit...
Instead of making your press kit all about your, with press clippings, your life's history, your astrological chart, or other assorted stuff that has no meaning for the recipient, customize each package to show exactly what you're doing to do for the person receiving it.
Are you going to bring a ton of people to his club?
Are you going to sell a lot of records for his label?
Are you going to make the guests at the party dance and have a good time?
Whatever it is, focus on it, then back it up with proof of how you've done it before.
Throw in something people will remember and want to show to their friends. Here's a great example from Armed Forces Entertainment...
If you get creative enough with what you include in your press kit, it could very well end up on the recipient's desk. And who will he think of every time he looks at it?
Share your press kit tips below...
A couple of weeks ago, I posted my thoughts on exclusivity and how it will help you to sell more music (or anything else).
Looks like Zappos is getting in on things. Just got this in my email box...
Signed up and got this...
If you've ever ordered from Zappos, you'll know that everybody gets free overnight shipping, so this is a nice way to put a positive spin on something that is already happening and make customers feel even better about their experiences with the company.
You can do the same thing.
But sometimes he's wrong... Like the time when he tried to handle his own distribution of the "Crystal Ball" box set in the late 1990s and failed miserably, even after he had 50,000 pre-orders.
Sometimes he's right though... Like when he packaged his album "Musicology" with tickets for his live show and sold over 632,000 copies in just five weeks.
Sure, it was sneaky, and SoundScan changed the rules of how it calculated album sales, but you can't argue that he got a lot of albums out there ...
But is he right about the Internet and the future of music sales?
"The Internet’s like MTV," Prince said in an interview with The Mirror. "At one time, MTV was hip, and suddenly it became outdated."
Thoughts?
Why? For one, the "reach" of other outlets if better will get you in places you couldn't have done on your own. You'll also have an "endorsement" though and that helps a lot when it comes to the increasing positive perception of what you're doing. In short, social proof sells things.
Just got an email from a band I interviewed on Music Business Radio, Computer vs. Banjo. They don't tour, yet have done very well with music licensing. They've licensed songs to MTV's "The Hills", "The Real World", "Road Rules", "Parental Control", and "Sex with Mom and Dad." You've also heard their music on "Weeds", "Keeping Up With The Kardashians", "Living With Lohan", and the film "The Sharp End."
And they've gotten some great press...
Wired said, "Everything from guitars, drum machines and banjos to dobros, synths and mandolins are thrown into the musical blender. The result is a series of tasty digifolk jams from a band who doesn’t need a weatherman to tell it which way the zeitgeist is blowing."
NPR said, "The computer tends to win the battle on the group’s self-titled debut, but countless computerized samples of more traditional instruments give the record an eclectic, genre-bending sound."
How does this happen?
They're just released a second album and here's what they're doing to get the word out. This may seem like a ballsy move, and I'm sure it will scare plenty of short-term thinkers, but remember what I said about how the value of your content increases when it's consumed in places other than your own.
Everybody these days had a "free download" available, but going beyond that and giving people access to the raw tracks makes that 10x more powerful, since they'll be able to use what you've got in coming up with their own music.
Doing this goes way beyond simply generating interest for your music though...
If something happens to the new music that is created, who gets part of the copyright and licensing fees?
Smart move. It's like having all your music creation, licensing, and promotion outsourced.
At the very least, they'll get enough "new" material to release another album.
Here's the email they sent out. Since they're letting you borrow their music, I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you swiped this too...
Greetings from Computer vs. Banjo! We are very excited to announce the release of our second full album. This time around we are doing things a bit differently and we wanted to kick it all off by reaching out to those of you who supported the release of our first record. Here is the scoop:
After a widely acclaimed 2008 debut album, Computer vs. Banjo is back with their sophomore release Riverboat Swing. Embracing the current music climate and culture of FREE, all tracks AND multi-track versions of each song, will be made available for free download at the band’s web site. These multi-track files are intended for djs, artists, songwriters, engineers, Garage Band hobbyists, etc… to remix and restructure however they see fit. The band encourages everyone to send their creations to band(at)computervsbanjo(dot)com and they will be posting submissions on their blog in order to share the results of this open source music making experiment.
So download it, share it, re-mix it.... www.computervsbanjo.com
Post your thoughts on the concept and ways to improve or customize it below...
For more information on Computer vs. Banjo, check out computervsbanjo.com or their interview on Music Business Radio.
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