Music Marketing [dot] com

Using Craigslist to Find New Band Members

Saw this as part of a documentary series about how people use Craigslist and thought it would be a good introduction to a discussion on the topic of how to find good people to work with.

Check it out...

Post your thoughts on the subject of finding new band members below...  What's the best way to find a new person for your music business team?

Want to Be a YouTube Celebrity?

If so, watch these guys, because they have it down. Brilliant use of the medium.

Too bad Simon Cowell didn't get the joke...

The Upcoming Generation of Music Consumers Likes Variety

So many great things about this video... One is how open people were to bringing different types of music together. Chic, Blondie, and The Clash on the same bill? You'd never see that today.

You'll hear on it iPods though... As we're no longer tied town to entire albums or very segmented radio formats, people are being exposed to more types of music than ever before.  That will be good not only for our culture, but also musicians who make different types of music.

Welcome to the VIP...

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.

More thoughts on the subject of exclusivity...

Prince sez, "The Internet’s completely over!”

Prince is a smart guy and a great performer.  He's had a long career, so he must be doing something right.

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?

How to Get Other Musicians to Promote Your Music (and Send You Big Licensing Checks)

Your content is more valuable coming from somebody else than it is from you.  For example, your song being played on a radio station is worth more to you than the same song on your own site and a good review is worth more in Rolling Stone than it would be on your blog.

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.

iPhone 4 and Music Promotion

People can't seem to get enough of iPhone 4.  Even before it was out, Apple fans were going crazy talking about it.

The short film below is a great example of a creative person not only taking advantage of the iPhone's video technology, but also the hype surrounding it.

You really should have done something similar with a music video for your band.  Next time...

Thoughts? Post them below...

Exclusivity and What the "Gay Softball League" Knows About Selling More Music

A couple of big ideas here... Do either one of these things with your music business and you will make money, but do both of them and you'll make 10x the money.

We're all creatures of habit and we like a good deal on things.  We like to know what we're getting into.

An example...

Normally, if I need shoes, I order them from Zappos.  Unfortunately, Zappos doesn't have Vibram Five Fingers, so I had to find another place that did.  And I'm way too lazy to actually get in the car and go to a shoe store...

Ended up going with REI.  $85 for the shoes and $10 to ship them.

But they gave me the option of becoming a "member" and getting free shipping.  Cost of a membership is $20 for life.

I know of REI.  I had bike tune-up there once.  Bought a water bottle there a few years ago.  I'm not exactly membership material though...

Still, I took the membership.  At $20, my order was $10 more than it would have been otherwise, so that's a good deal for REI's bottom line, since a "membership" costs them nothing.  That alone is a great reason to add something like this to your music business.  A deal like this goes way beyond an additional few bucks on a one-time sale though.

When you're a "member" of something, you're more likely to use it, even if the price is the same as the next place, it's a little farther to get there, or the service isn't as good.  And once the habit is built, it's very hard to break it.

But it goes way beyond this...

The concept of "membership" is extremely powerful because everybody likes feeling like an "insider" and getting something other people aren't getting.  We love the feeling of exclusivity and letting other people, especially those that aren't on the inside, know we're one of the chosen ones.  It doesn't matter if it's letting a friend use your Costco membership or getting them a guest pass to the country club you belong to, the feeling is the same.

You don't have to have the equivalent of an American Express Centurion Card to take advantage of the same psychology with your music business.  Right now, using "exclusive content" such as acoustic versions of your songs, rehearsal tapes, or a video of your last time in the recording studio to start giving benefits to fans for being "members" of your organization.  You can give discounts of shows and merch, free drink vouchers, guest passes, VIP seating, and any number of things that won't cost you much, but have a huge perceived value and will increase loyalty and "usage" of your products and services big time.

Even something like a simple email, like this one I just got from REI (click on it for a full-size version), builds relationships in a big way and encourages people to continue to use them.

This email is great, since it basically says, "Hey, you're on the inside now and you're one of us."  But also note how a lot of the exclusive stuff, such as the ability to connect with people that love the outdoors, photos, videos, reviews, and opinions, isn't even provided by REI.  Another idea for you to take and use in your music business...

If nothing else, you should have an exclusive community where fans can upload photos of shows, videos, cover versions of your songs, and other content.  It's easy and it builds connection, not only between you and the fans, but between the fans themselves.

And that's the final thought for the day...

Nobody really cares about your music.  People listen to what you have because of the way it makes them feel and how it connects them to other people.

Fans of Justin Bieber aren't just into him because of his music; they like him because all their friends like him also.  It has nothing to do with him and everything to do with them connecting to people that get them.

And it works the same way "outsider" relationships...

"YOU DON'T GET IT, DAD!!  JUSTIN BIEBER IS THE BEST SINGER EVER!!!"

Is a crazy relationship between a tween girl and her father really about Justin Bieber?  No.  This is just the outward expression of it.

It's the same feeling of class-consciousness that hold the gay softball league, the church, the swingers club, and the vegan meetup together.  We're different than you, only we get that, and the difference is how we're connecting. 

When you can associate yourself with this class-consciousness, you're in.  You''ll sell a lot of stuff, get a lot of people to your shows, and have a great career.

So what are you doing to create something "exclusive" for your fans and help foster the relationships between them?  Post comments below...