Music Marketing [dot] com

5 Free Music Business Reports

I've got five free music business reports for you. No catch, but know they're only free today and tomorrow.

These are short, to-the-point documents that will give you action steps you can take immediately. You will be able to read them instantly via Amazon's free Cloud Reader, your Kindle, your iPad, or your mobile phone (both Android or iPhone).

Get them now, because they're only free today and tomorrow.

1. Top 10 Ways for Musicians and Songwriters to Make Performances Unforgettable

2. How Musicians, Bands, and Songwriters Can Get More People to Your Gigs

3. Top 10 Ways for Musicians and Songwriters to Improve Their Images

4. Top 10 Ways for Musicians and Songwriters Fit Music Promotion into Their Lives

5. Time to Quit Your Band?

Enjoy!

Musician Meetup - March 5th (Nashville and 19 Other Cities)

This Tuesday, March 5th, Rick Barker (Taylor Swift's former manager) is doing a big music business networking event in Nashville. I'll be there and I want you there too, as my guest.

The problem is, not everybody can make it to Nashville. :(

I don't want you to miss out, so here's what I'm doing...

On March 5th, I've organized Worldwide Musician Meetup Day. This will happen in several cities around the world including Atlanta, Philadephia, Indianapolis, Chicago, London, and more.

Get the details here.

If you can make it to Nashville next week, great. If not, you can still connect with some great musicians and other music business people...live and in-person.

Is your city on the list? CHECK HERE NOW.

Is your city missing? Don't miss out! Pick a venue and make it happen! It could be a coffeeshop, a bar, or a private house. 

NOTE TO ORGANIZERS: Just do it! I have a suggested meeting template on the site. Your event doesn't have to be perfect. Remember, "perfect is the enemy of good." If you have any questions, contact me via Twitter.

If you've read my book, Six-Figure Musician, you know how important relationships and connections are to music business success. They're the biggest success "shortcut" you can have and this is your opportunity to make a bunch of them in a single night.

SIGN UP FOR WORLDWIDE MUSICIAN MEETUP DAY - IT'S FREE!

Win One of 12 Free Passes to the Virtual Music Conference ($47 value)

The Virtual Music Conference is three days of live, high-level music industry networking, education, live artist showcases, business development, and more!

Everything takes place ONLINE, so you can attend from anywhere in the world.

It starts tomorrow and goes through Thursday. 

During this event, you will be able to:

• Network with all of the other attendees, speakers, artists and exhibitors
• Participate in open and moderated chats of all kinds
• Watch 40+ presentations by industry experts worldwide on all aspects of building a career as an indie artist or working musician, and participate in Q&As with the presenters

The cost to attend is normally $47, but I'd love for you to attend free, as my guest.

I have 12 passes to give away.  Here is how to get one:

1. Visit my Facebook page and leave a short comment asking your most pressing music business question.

2. I'll randomly pick 12 people and contact you via Facebook with details on how to receive your pass.

3. Whether you win or not, I'll answer your most pressing music business question on an upcoming episode of the Music Marketing [dot] com Podcast.

Again, the Virtual Music Conference starts tomorrow and I'm giving these 12 passes away today, so ask me your question now.

Below is a video with more information on what you'll get access to. Good luck!

Seth MacFarlane's Oscar Jokes - A Music Business Lesson

A month ago, user SGarv04 commented on a YouTube Oscar promo featuring Seth MacFarlane that, "He's either going to screw up badly or going to say jokes that are a little too over the edge. Calling it right now."

And call it he did. People who watched the Oscars are either pissed off or thrilled about Seth MacFarlane's performance.

Good. That's exactly what should happen.

Hosting the Oscars is a big deal and there are millions of people watching, and afterward, critiquing everything about it.

"The speeches were too long."

"The dresses were too short."

"The host was offensive."

People involved know this is going to happen. Because of this, it would be a great opportunity to play it safe -- keep the speeches short, wear something conservative, don't tell any jokes...

But playing it safe isn't how you get on the Oscars.

If you want to go big, you have to take chances. And why not do it for the biggest audience possible? You may never get that kind of opportunity again.

Too many artists (musicians, actors, etc) want to know things are safe before jumping in. Like kids, they dip their toes in the water to see that it's not too warm or too cold. They don't want any waves.

Things are never safe though. Plus, "no waves" is boring. You can't surf on still waters.

And for a performer, if you do something cool with nobody watching, it might as well have never happened.

It's never safe. Once you embrace that, it's much easier to take chances with your art and create something that affects people. In the end, that's all that really matters.

Pickup Lines (and Relationship Advice) for Musicians

As a musician, you have a lot of things to juggle, both when it comes to creating music and dealing with the business side of things. In the midst of it all, it can be easy to forget about the most important aspect of your career -- your fans.

Notice the happy couple to the right. That's the kind of relationship that should exist between you and your fans.

Like a married couple, sometimes you and your fans are going to piss each other off. Maybe you release a lame album, for example. Or maybe you release a great album, but your fans don't buy it.

These kinds of things happen in relationships. At the end of the day though, if you've built your relationships with fans upon a good foundation, you'll be able to work through any problems and continue to move your career forward.

The connection you have to fans is more important than anything else you’re doing in the music business, including the music itself. Without fans, you have no career.

Most musicians go for the equivalent of "pickup lines" when it comes to their relationships with fans. They get caught up in "instant gratification" techniques that add numbers to their Facebook friend count, Twitter followers, or even sales figures, but little to do with building (and maintaining) the type of connection and rapport that, when done right, are more than just a passing fancy.

Long term strategy is how the music business game is won. If you want to be around 20 years from now, "superfans" who will buy everything you release (and more of it) are the way to go.

This is done through relationship building. 

Here are a few ways you can build "superfan" relationships:

Reply to Messages – Fans of your music know you’re busy, so they don’t always expect you to reply to “fan mail” or other messages they send. Because of this, a reply is extra powerful when it comes to showing them how much they are valued.

For online fan communication, I recommend Twitter. Messages are limited to 140 characters, so communication can be short, without seeming like you're blowing anybody off.

Bonus with Purchase – If you’re selling music and other merchandise directly, include a bonus with every purchase. A small gift, such as a “Sampler Album” or a voucher that can be exchanged for show tickets, won’t cost much and will provide a high return on investment, since it will help you to sell more in the future. You'll also build trust and rapport with fans in a big way, since you're overdelivering on your end of the exchange.

Charity – In May 2010, a massive flood hit Nashville, causing about $1.6 Billion in damage and displacing thousands of people. Shortly thereafter, there were benefit conferences by acts like Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift, and Carrie Underwood. Doing this not only raised a lot of money to help relief efforts, but also showed these artists valued the people in the city that had helped to put them on the map.

There are opportunities like this happening all the time. Show people that you’ll help take care of them in a time of need and they’ll take care of you.

Adjust Approach Based on Feedback – Fans, like all people, want to be heard. If they make suggestions, listen. You don't have to change everything you're doing based on fan feedback, but if you're hearing the same thing over and over again, a change may be worth considering.

Be Available – After your shows, stick around to sign albums and other merchandise, take photos, and show your appreciation to the people who came to see you. This changes the dynamics of a performance from "one-to-many" to a much more personable "one-to-one" and is the absolute best way to solidify relationships with new fans as well as set yourself apart from 99% of the other acts you're competing with.

Exclusive Releases / Products – Everybody wants to feel special. Create exclusive music releases and products for people who join your mailing list or purchase music and other merchandise from you.

Loyalty Rewards – Recognize your best customers by giving away free tickets to shows, creating exclusive music releases, and performing exclusive sets, such as “meet and greet” acoustic performances or "members only" soundchecks before shows.

Never neglect the partnership between you and your fans. Take good care of them and you will always have a career in the music business, regardless of trends in music or changes in technology.

The Secret to Street Promotion (and Music Business Longevity)

Not counting my work as a musician, my first "music business" job, other than record retail, was street promotion. I would literally go out into the street and try to get people to shows, promote new albums, and otherwise make money for the companies who hired me.

Like my job at record retail, this was a great experience, because it put me face-to-face with music buyers. I had to get their attention, get them open to having a conversation with me, and hopefully, get them excited about what I was promoting and to take action (buy an album, see a show) within a few seconds.

As a street promoter, one of the biggest issues I faced was when I was distributing flyers (known as handbills or leaflets in some parts of the world). Like a lot of traditional advertising options, such as billboards and print ads, there is often limited space when flyering.

Depending on where you are, flyering isn't always legal. Even if it is, it's often looked down upon. Because of this, a person promoting music (or anything) in this way has a couple of problems.

1. Somebody won't like your flyer and will tear it down.

2. Somebody won't like your flyer and will put something else over it.

The solution to either is make it so your flyer is "bulletproof" and can neither be easily taken down nor covered up.

Baby oil.

Depending on the type of flyer you're using and the surface you're attaching it to, spraying baby oil around the area will make it so it's not easy to stick anything on that service and/or it's not easy to remove your flyer. 

Is it nasty? Hell yes, it's nasty. But like a kid in the lunch room at school who licks the cookies his mother packed from him so nobody else will take them, it keeps people from messing with your stuff.

Forget the flyers for a minute. This technique still works and, if flyering is part of your music marketing strategy, by all means try it, but the "baby oil" concept is much bigger and will protect all areas of your music business.

Even though the music business is a "creative" business, there are a surprising number of copycats. And who can blame them? It's much easier to do succeed with something that already has momentum than start from scratch.

Then there is the "commodity" problem -- the fact that high-quality music can be copied and downloaded for free (or close to free), so the income stream that was once there no longer exists.

Fortunately for you, I have the solution -- "baby oil."

Not "baby oil" as in the slick stuff from Johnson & Johnson, but something that keeps others (and technology) from knocking you off or knocking you down.

The "live experience" is a good area to build upon, because a live experience is so personal that it can never be copied.

The feeling and experience a person gets when attending a live show is 100% unique. Even if you copy the "essence" of a live performance, such as an audio or video recording does, the experiences of audience members, which not only include what happens during performances, but also before and after them, are impossible to replicate.

You have more "live experiences" to offer then just performing, too, so the options to work this into your music business, even if you don't like to perform, are plenty. You can make great money allowing your fans to be part of the creative process (rehearsal sessions, studio sessions, etc) and other events once thought off limits or worthless to fans.

Don't think you're at the level to do this yet? You're wrong. The time to start is now. 

Every business needs "baby oil." What is yours?

LISTEN UP!! This is Important!

If you've been waiting to book a gig, fire your drummer, record your new songs, upload a video diary, or anything else that is going to help you get closer to your music business goals, you need to do it now.

Seriously, do it now. As in, you need to take action and make something happen today.

Worried about screwing up? So is everybody. When you take action on something that matters, the stakes are high. Of course you're worried about screwing up.

Don't think too much. That will only muddy things up. You know what you need to do, so stop resisting, trust yourself, and do it.

Sometimes you'll make a mistake -- that's exactly what should happen. Never making mistakes means you're not taking enough chances.

Failure is how you get better, so embrace it. Can you think of any "mistake" you've made that has been that bad?

Get clear on your music business goals, get clear on what you need to do to make them happen, and then do it. And if you're not scared, at least a little, you're not thinking big enough.

When you know what you need to do and follow through, it feels good. When you're scared and do it anyway, it feels great.

Trust your ability to handle whatever comes up. And when it comes to your music business career (or anything else in life), do the next right thing now.

Do You Have Anything In Common With This Dog?

This is Samba. He's about 10 years old.

Samba is scared of wood floors. He prefers carpet.

We all know that wood floors aren't anything to be scared of, but he doesn't know that. Even if you've got a treat for him, he's not going to walk on wood to get it.

Sounds crazy, doesn't it?

Chances are though, you have your own version of this in your music business -- an "invisible border" that keeps you in your safety zone, even though there is nothing to fear.

Here are three of the big ones:

Fear of Rejection

The desire to be part of a group is part of our biology and goes back to a time when humans needed a tribal situation simply to survive. Today, thousands of years later, we still fear that not fitting into a certain mold (or getting certain reactions from others) means we will not be accepted.

Fear of being rejected manifests itself in different ways, such as comparing our skills to the skills of others. Many times, fear of rejection is paralyzing—rather than risk failure, we choose to do nothing.

But there is no “wrong” in the music business. Just because a song doesn’t connect with everybody doesn’t mean it won’t connect with somebody.

Fear of Missing Out

It’s amazing to think you can make more money by catering to a small, targeted group of people than you can by trying to do something that is pleasing to everybody.

How can less be more? Thinking this is impossible is "fear of missing out" in action.

While "less is more" seems counterintuitive to many people, it's very real. By isolating some people, it makes you more attractive to others. A great music business example of this is Insane Clown Posse. Police hate them, parents hate them, and the church hates them, but these things make them even more attractive to their fan base.

Does a teenager want to listen to the same music as his parents? No.

When you try to please everybody, you’ll please nobody.

Fear of Making Wrong Decisions

Many musicians (maybe you're one of them) see “creative” and “business” as two different things. They put themselves into the creative category and leave the business side of things to others.

This mindset can be a hindrance when a musician needs to make a business-related decision.

When it comes to negotiating deals, ensuring you’re not getting ripped off, and making good decisions on how to reinvest money into your career, you need to tap into a natural business sense you might have (but not know it) or cultivate a business sense. This will automatically happen when you treat your music like a business.

The first step in this process is thinking about money—getting paid for gigs, making sure bills are paid on time, and having a dedicated bank account. Start with small things like these and work yourself up to the bigger business decisions.

Like stepping on a wood floor, being rejected, missing an opportunity, and making a wrong decision are much less detrimental than the fear associated with them. Whether you fall down, you're embarassed, you miss a chance, or do something a way other than what you should have, you live. Being paralyzed with fear and not doing anything leads to the oppposite result.

Take chances.

How I Got Started in The Music Business (and More)

Aaron Bethune of PlayItLoudMusic came through Nashville last week. We sat down together in a hotel lobby and he interviewed me for his podcast, Above the Noise.

An un-edited recording of the interview is below. In this interview, I talk about:

• How I got started in the music business
• Why I'm not a musician anymore
• How Music Business Radio started
• What scares the bejesus out of me (and most musicians)
• Canada vs. US music business
• The death of music conferences
• How to break through the noise with your music
• The birth of my new book, Six-Figure Musician (and why it's free)
• What musicians can learn from junk mail
• Dirty marketing secrets to sell more music
• The danger of good marketing
• Why marketing and advertising only go so far
• My $100,000 book guarantee
• Where $100,000 (or more) in the music business comes from
• How to get more people to your gigs
• How to get more people on your mailing list
• Defining your fanbase
• Rich musicians vs. famous musicians
• Justin Bieber
• Embracing the slow burn
• Crazy, new age "woo woo" stuff
• Is talent enough?
• Why musicians die young
• The hungry ghost
• Half-ass music performances
• Being upstaged by Freddie Mercury
• Old women who dig Rick Springfield
• Licensing your music to radio and podcasts 

I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me via Twitter.

 

Music Marketing Lessons from a "Racist" Super Bowl Ad

Can you go too far when marketing stereotypes?

Here's an example of an ad that ran in the latest Super Bowl, that some people, including many media critics, are saying does just that...

Other people, including Jamaica's minister of tourism and entertainment, Wykeham McNeill, think it's great.

"I urge persons all across the globe to do exactly what the commercial portrays, which is to tap into your inner Jamaican and get happy," he said.

On a music related note, McNeill also commented on musician Jimmy Cliff's background music calling it, "a tribute to the popularity of reggae music worldwide" and commending Cliff for being "a true Jamaican ambassador through his outstanding music." 

To answer my initial question, yes, you can go too far when playing up stereotypes in your marketing. Whether that's happening in this ad, I'll let you decide.

My point in using it as an example is that no matter what you do, somebody is going to be pissed. And sometimes it's not even the people who are actually affected by your actions.

This type of criticism can be confusing. If you're not clear on why you're doing something before you do it, it can throw you off and make you question yourself.

When that happens, it slows everything down.

I think criticism can be a very positive thing. For example, if write a "bad" song, criticism can point you in the right direction to make it better.

You're an artist though... And, if you're reading this, you're hopefully working at a level where your inner critic has helped you to filter the "bad" songs before they're ever released.

This is the positive aspect of an inner critic and why you should work to develop yours. A positive inner critic works as a filter. This helps to make sure, once you do release something, that you're ready to go balls out with it, moving through the criticism of others with ease.

Why wouldn't you move through the criticism of others with ease? Sure, criticism can hurt at times. I didn't say EASY though -- I said ease.

If your project has gotten to the point where you're releasing it to the public, you should have already gone through (and resolved) any major problems yourself.

I encourage you to embrace your inner critic and use it as a filter to make your best work possible. If you are able to control it, it will help you to deal with the criticism of others that automatically comes whenever something is publicly accessible.