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It's Halloween in the US. Most countries have it in some form or another-- kids (and some adults) dress up and eat lots of candy.
It's a good time to think about what scares you. Not kids in mummy costumes, but what really scares you... Things like speaking in public, jumping out of an airplane, or quitting your job to pursue a career in the music industry.
Fear of the unknown is always worse than the situation actually is.
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As you may know, Wal-Mart is the #1 music retailer in the US. Garth Brooks knows this also and did an exclusive deal with them.
During the first year of his relationship, he sold 20 million records.
Garth's limited edition, 5-DVD set, "Garth
Brooks: The Entertainer," will be released on Wednesday. With only one
million copies available, fans can purchase it beginning at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning (11/1)
exclusively at all 24-hour Wal-Mart locations.
While you might not be able to sell 20,000,000 records in a year, an exclusive deal with one music retailer may work for you also. Sending everybody to one place would mean that you only have to keep one place stocked with product...and this is a huge time-saver. But if you've only got so many fans, you can focus them in like a laser beam by getting them to go to once place, rather than spread them out over several places. This will get the attention of clerks in the store, which will help with word-of-mouth and awareness.
This technique will also help with any "chart" which the store keeps. For example, if you've for 1000 fans you know will buy your album, wouldn't you rather send them to CD Baby and become a top seller than spread those sales over 100 or more stores and not make a blip on the radar?
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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- EMI Music Chairman and Chief
Executive Alain Levy Friday told an audience at the London Business
School that the CD is dead, saying music companies will no longer be
able to sell CDs without offering "value-added" material."The CD as it
is right now is dead," Levy said, adding that 60% of consumers put CDs
into home computers in order to transfer material to digital music
players.
But there remains a place for physical media, Levy
said. "You're not going to offer your mother-in-law iTunes downloads
for Christmas," he said. "But we have to be much more innovative in the
way we sell physical content." Record companies will need to make CDs
more attractive to the consumer, he said.
"By the beginning of
next year, none of our content will come without any additional
material," Levy said. CD sales accounted for more than 70% of total
music sales in the first half of 2006, while digital music sales were
around 11% of the total, according to music industry trade body the
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. CD sales were
worth $6.45 billion and digital sales $945 million, the IFPI said.
Levy
said EMI is continuing to hold talks with Google Inc. (GOOG) on an
advertising-revenue sharing partnership with the community video Web
site YouTube, which the Internet search giant acquired in October for
$1.6 billion in stock. EMI's rivals, Warner Music Group Corp. (WMG),
Sony BMG - a joint venture between Sony Corp. (SNE) and Bertelsmann AG
- and Universal Media have all signed content deals with YouTube. "The
terms they were offering weren't acceptable," Levy said, adding that
EMI continues to be concerned about copyright issues.
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Was at the gym today and informed that October is National Pasta Month. That works just fine for me, because I love pasta.
As my marketing mind never quits, even when on the treadmill, I got to thinking how bands and musicians could use something like this...
Obviously, if you've got a song about pasta, that's great. But there are hundreds and hundreds of these "holidays" for you to take advantage off. And if you don't find one you like, who says you can't make up your own?
National Support Indie Music Week, anyone?
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A new movie is out, about the Dixie Chicks and what happened to them after Natalie Maines made a comment about George W. Bush. NBC is refusing to air an ad for it.
According to Variety, “NBC’s commercial clearance department said in writing that it ‘cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush.’”
What?! Isn't the freedom to do that what we're supposedly fighting for?!
Oh, wait a minute... I think it was weaspons of mass destruction. Or was it that Saddam is evil? Or maybe Bin Laden is over there...
Whatever the reason, this is going to be interesting...
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by Anne Freeman
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Title: What Every Musician Should Know About Self-Promotion: The 29 Key Principles of Independent Music Marketing
Author: Bob Baker, The Buzz Factor
Genre: Self-help
Format: CD
Website: www.bob-baker.com
For Bob Baker, founder of The Buzz Factor, marketing is his profession and his passion, and marketing for Indie bands is his specialty. Bob has authored numerous books on various aspects of running your Indie band or label as you should: as a business.
Recognizing that not everyone has the time or inclination to read through his various business books, Bob has issued a new instruction CD, "What Every Musician Should Know About Self-Promotion: The 29 Key Principles of Independent Music Marketing," as a listen-to-when-you're-driving-or-walking-or-doing-any-mindless-chore primer for busy Indie artists and start-up labels who need a solid overview and introduction to Indie Marketing.
This 68-minute CD is perfect to those new to marketing, as it features a broad array of topics that you must familiarize yourself with when planning your business strategies, whether they are for the release of new product, booking gigs, marketing to fans and niche markets, and more. Some of the 29 topics reviewed in this CD include:
* Killer media exposure tactics most acts never use
* The biggest mistakes bands make when promoting themselves
* Internet marketing strategies you need to be using now
* How to get the most bang from your live shows
* Clever ways to boost CD and merchandise sales
* How to make the most progress in the least amount of time
* The most effective ways to reach your best fans
What I especially like about this CD is that there is not fluff, just some basic facts and principals that are time-tested, but that many Indie artists and labels fail to use to their demise.
"What Every Musician Should Know About Self-Promotion" lays the groundwork for planning your marketing campaigns. Bob speaks clearly, sticks to the topic at hand, and is encouraging. The CD also provides a jumping-off place for you to delve more deeply in any of the subjects introduced in the CD by following-up with books and articles available through Bob Baker.
At $11.95, it's hard to justify passing on "What Every Musician Should Know About Self-Promotion," especially if you've never studied marketing. Take a listen to some samples on Bob Baker's site, http://www.bob-baker.com/buzz/secret.html. And if you want to have half a chance at succeeding in your Indie music career, marketing is a must!
Provided by the MusicDish Network. Copyright © MusicDish LLC 2006 - Republished with Permission
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By the way, before we move on, I'd like to mention one simple strategy I've seen some solo artists employ on myspace that helps to inform surfers that they are, in fact, an artist: they add the word "music" behind their name. Example: www.myspace.com/kellybrockmusic. It's simple. It works. Do it.
OK, back to your music player. I want you to answer these questions about your music player:
Your Music Player
What does you music sound like?
Crummy sounding demos and recordings sound crummy on the myspace player. Period. You gain nothing by advertising to potential fans, venue owners, bookers, and industry folks that you have crummy sounding demos. I've been on terrific sites only to be disappointed the moment the music began, and not because the songs were bad, but because the sound was terrible: muddy vocals, little or awkward mixes, and the like. You must treat your myspace site as a professional marketing vehicle because your site is a professional marketing vehicle. Make your demos/recordings clear and ensure your vocals are upfront.
Did you post your lyrics?
People like to read lyrics that's one reason why they still buy CDs or search the Internet for lyric sites. Fans love to know the words to your songs so they can sing along. If you're a songwriter pitching your songs, then lyrics are a must. Don't make folks look for your lyrics elswhere or try to write them down or memorize them post them on the lyric page of your music player. Make it easy for people to understand your songs and like your music. And don't forget to include the following on your lyric sheet:
* Authors/composers of the song
* Your publishing company (if you are an unsigned artist/songwriter, then you are your publishing company)
* Your performing arts organization affiliation if you have one, such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC
* A copyright notice! You can simply type "Copyright 2006". Don't neglect to add this important information.
I would also suggest that you include your business mailing address and contact information, along with your band website, on the lyric sheet so that if someone copies and saves/prints out your lyric sheet, your contact information is readily available. Make it easy for people to find you.
Do you permit rating and comments?
Use your player to gain valuable information about how fans perceive you and your music. Don't be afraid to let people rate and post comments about your songs. If the ratings are poor and the comments are negative, figure out why and use that information to improve your songwriting, instrumentation or recording. You can always delete negative comments, but at least you've received input about your music to help you improve what craft. In addition, comments give you an opportunity to contact the commenter, thank them for their comments - even if they are negative - and turn the "friend" into a fan. The same goes for song rating.
Have you enabled the Add feature to your songs?
When I land on an artist's site and hear a great song, I may want to feature that artist on my myspace site for The Aspiring Songwriter. I regularly feature myspace artists who are friends on my site and play their song to promote them. I cannot tell you how many band and artist site I visit that don't enable the add feature on their music player!
Ask youself this question: "What am I on myspace for?" The whole point here is to get people to add your song to their site so that everyone who visits their site hears your song (and the play is counted on your music player song counter). If your fan's visitor likes your song and clicks on the the "visit" option of your fan's music player, they will be directed onto your site where, hopefully, they will ask to join your site because they like your music so much, and you have a potential new fan because he or she was sent from your other fan's site. And, that new friend/fan may add your song to their site. Comprende?
The music player add function is viral networking at its simplest! You will rarely hear me scold, but this is such a no-brainer that I am confounded when I run across artists and some really good artists who don't enable their player's add function. I'll assume it was a momentary lapse in good judgment and I'll be sure to revisit your site sometime if I remember you after you've had the chance to make the necessary adjustments. Enabling the add function does NOT enable fans to download your song; it only permits them to stream your song from their site much like web radio. Do it.
Do you enable the downloads?
If you want to enable free song downloads, let me run this idea by you: Do you want potentials fans to download your song from your myspace site and your have no way to obtain precious contact information from that downloader (e-mail, address, etc)? I wouldn't.
If you want to offer free downloads, I would argue that you get those myspace friends to visit your official fan site to download a song, and require the the downloader give up on e-mail address at the very least to benefit from your largess. Your purpose is to build your fanbase, and if you don't have their direct contact information, such as an e-mail and/or a mailing address, then you've squandered the chance to obtain that information by enabling downloads on your myspace site. There may be others who disagree with me on this point, but I'd rather have the contact information as an exchange for a download.
If you don't have a home page or download service that enables you to obtain the downloader's contact information, then at the very least post an offer on your myspace site indicating that you will e-mail your myspace friends a free MP3 of the song in question IF they send you their e-mail address. Don't give away your goods and get absolutely nothing back for it!
Do you employ the song graphics option?
Again, a no-brainer. Let your fans see your song while they're hearing your song. Don't waste another opportunity to more effectively market your music. Fans want to see and hear. Get that graphic or photo up on that player, a different one for each song!! Yes, I'm scolding again, but there really is no excuse for not marketing your music properly, especially when the marketing mechanism is free.
Should you use the song rotation option?
Whether you push one song by making it the default song when someone lands on your myspace site or let the songs rotate depends upon your overall marketing plan. If you're pushing a song as a single, then default to that song playing when your site is opened. Build up the interest and the play numbers for the song. Tie a featured song with a free download on another site (for which they must give your contact info), build your fan base and create some press about how many friends turned into fans by signing up to get their download. Make myspace work for you. If you're not pushing a song as a single or as a free download, or you are a label that is promoting a variety of artists, then letting the songs rotate makes sense.
MySpace Band Feature: The Amino Acids
Let's take a look at a site that's working the myspace player the way it should be, one of my myspace favs, The Amino Acids, at www.myspace.com/theaminoacids . The Amino Acids, a surf-punk band from outer space, has a great myspace site. They've done just about everything right, but for this discussion I want to mention their music player.
Visitors can rate and comment on each of their four songs as well as add them to their sites, promoting The Amino Acids. They don't have lyric pages because the Amino Acids are primarily an instro band, so in this case lyrics are a moot point. You cannot download their songs from the myspace player, but they provide their fans several options to migrate from their myspace site to download songs elsewhere, where the band can garner more information from the fan. And, each song is presented with a great graphic.
Just about everything on The Amino Acids' myspace site drives home their primary artistic sensibility, and they make good use of the strengths of myspace. The Amino Acids also give their fans plenty of opportunities to leave their myspace site to places where they can obtain fan information. Stop by the Amino Acids' myspace site: It's worth a visit. For a hoot, watch their live video when you visit. These guys slay me! Congrats to The Amino Acids for a job well done.
Provided by the MusicDish Network. Copyright © MusicDish LLC 2006 - Republished with Permission
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Tom Jackson is doing a free teleconference on Thursday and the topic will be "5 Critical Mistakes Artists and Bands Make in Connecting Onstage with Their Audience."
Topics will include:
DATE: Thursday, October 26th, 2006
TIME: at 4:00pm PST / 6:00pm CST / 7:00pm EST according to www.time.gov
LENGTH: Approximately 60 minutes
CALL: 641-297-7200 Access code 464303#
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At a time when independent artists in the music industry have more power and control over their careers than ever before, "What is INDIE?" tries to determine just what it really means to be "indie." The film features interviews with indie music experts including Derek Sivers (Founder of CD Baby), Panos Panay (Founder of Sonicbids) and Suzanne Glass (Founder of Indie-Music.com), as well as with 20 artists including Ember Swift and Paul Cargnello.
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