Music Marketing Ideas on the Cutting Edge – Sell Music Online

 

Sell Music Online

1) Give your music away, hell…if you are a new act, you are unknown anyway, so by giving your music away in either analog or digital ways you can help create a ‘Buzz’ and stand out from the other 75,000 other releases that came out last year. (That is a FACT, by the way). Then, pay attention to how your popularity grows, and as it does, give-a-way less and begin to sell your music at affordable prices for your fan base.

 

2) Every record is a new release…if people haven’t heard it. Remember to put ANY and ALL past recordings up at your website as MP3 downloads, and on sale at all your live shows. As your fan base grows your fans will want anything you ever did, and this will expand as you attract more fans over the months and years ahead.

 

3) If you lent out ‘promo’ copies to various gatekeepers in retail, radio, the print media, and at live venues, and one day you see them for sale in used record stores, don’t get angry about it…BUY THEM back, no matter if you initially gave them away for free….then on your website have a special USED CD sale.

 

4) Another tip from Chris Anderson’s book ‘The Long Tail’… reduce the price of your music, and then cut 50 percent off all your recordings. (Do this for analog AND digital product)

 

5) Don’t laugh!…come up with some kind of coupon sale. Think up a marketing idea where your fans have to enter a coupon or promotional code at your website to get a discount on one or more of your recordings.(You can do this for digital downloads or for CDs.) and/or for ticket discounts for upcoming shows.

 

6) Offer to “include” the sales tax in your CDs sales, maybe even “for a limited time only” or for loyal repeat customers…or offer free shipping and handling.

 

7) Remember this golden thought. “If you are not out there promoting your music, someone else is out there promoting their music”. There is a tremendous amount of competition out there. THINK….what can you do that no one else has done, or better yet…steal a creative idea from someone else…hell, every advertiser in the world does this, why not you?!

 

Offer a free CD for every 3 CDs bought. You can do this at your live sales booth when you do concerts, or on your website…or BOTH! This way your fans can help you get the word out in an inexpensive way, and all fans LOVE to help their favorite band or artist.

 

9) Arrange to record a special ‘LIVE’ CD and invite only the fans who signed your email list to attend. You could do this in multiple markets, close to your home base. Charge them $25 for the live recording experience, (feed them spaghetti and salad as part of the deal), THEN tell them if they buy a copy of the LIVE CD that night, in advance, you will autograph the CD and remind them that they can hear themselves applaud and whistle on the recording….everybody wants to FEEL SPECIAL.

 

10) Never forget WHO your fan is. Study your fans at live shows…what kind of clothing do they wear? Where did they buy it? Where do eat before or after your gig?

 

Learn their lifestyle habits…and then use YOUR IMAGINATION to think up a clever co-promotion with an appropriate local merchant, restaurant, or coffee shop.

 

11) Get a local record store to help you with a sale promotion…If a customer buys one, they get another one free. (This is different than the buy one-get 2 free idea listed earlier. You have to be understanding of the records store’s needs…they don’t want to be giving a lot of your product away, in fact they would only do this if they felt that your promotion idea would help THEM sell more of the other CDs they carry.)

 

12) When your catalogue of recordings grow to multiple CDs etc. offer your fans price/packages, i.e. 1 CD at a given price, 2 for a slightly discounted price, and 3 for a more generous discount price, and ALL your back catalogue for a super discounted price. You can do this for live concert sales, as well as offering the deal online at your website.

 

13) Invest in a CD duplicator, and at your gigs, offer fans a CD of ‘tonight’s concert’ for $15, and tell them it will be ready for them either within a few days of the concert by mail, or if you can afford a more elaborate duplicator, make it available to them RIGHT AWAY after the show. (And of course, YOU will be there to autograph that recording of the show you just performed.)

 

14) NEVER forget to have your email sign up list handy wherever you perform. AND have a place for them to write down not just their email address, but their birthday as well. The point is …. never forget that your fans appreciate being remembered, anyone does who has been a loyal customer, so email them a special song you wrote where you can drop in their name somewhere in the lyric, and send them a link to the song on their birthday….they will remember your kind gesture forever!

 

15) THIS IS AN EXERCISE!  DO IT! Go back over this list and wherever you see the word ‘fan’ or ‘customer’ substitute the phrase “tribal member”….that’s right…I have been using traditional words used in traditional marketing, but really…in the music world today, the niche, or part of the greater music community you have as your fans….they are really like tribal members. In fact think of it this way. Your fan base belongs to a unique group of individuals who not only like YOUR MUSIC, but music similar to your music. And if you DO STUDY your fans you will see they truly act like TRIBES, where the clothes they wear, the haircuts and body-wear they choose reflect a way of living….So, tap into that phrase “tribal member’. It is much more intimate, and will reveal many secrets to making your fans, LOYAL fans. DO IT!!

 

Chris Knab is available for private consultations on promoting and marketing independent music, and can be by email at: Chris@Knab.com. Visit Chris’s website at www.fourfrontmusic.com. 

Read more Music Articles for Musicians and Bands at: www.MyBandMate.com

  

 

 

Sell Music – 25 Things to Know About Distributors

Sell Music - Music Distributors

1)  Distributors will usually only work with labels that have been in business for at least 3 years and/or have at least 3 previous releases that have sold several thousand copies each. (Please remember that this information  concerns traditional distribution channels only, NOT online distribution which is an entirely different type of distribution.

 

2)  Distributors get records into retail stores, and record labels get customers into retail stores through promotion and marketing tactics.

 

3)  Make sure there is a market for your style of music. Prove it to distributors by showing them how many records you have sold through live sales, internet sales, and any other alternative methods.

 

4)  Be prepared to sign a written contract with your distributor because there are no ‘handshake deals’ anymore

 

5)  Distributors want ‘exclusive’ agreements with the labels they choose to work with. They usually want to represent you exclusively.

 

6)  You will sell your product to a label for close to 50% of the retail list price.

 

7)  When searching for a distributor find out what labels they represent, and talk to some of those labels to find out how well the distributor did getting records into retailers.

 

  Investigate the distributor’s financial status. Many label have closed down in recent years, and you cannot afford to get attached to a distributor that may not be able to pay its invoices.

 

9)  Find out if the distributor has a sales staff and how large it is. Then get to know the sales reps.

 

10)  What commitment will the distributor make to help get your records into stores.

 

11)  Is the distributor truly a national distributor, or only a regional distributor with ambitions to be an national distributor. Many large chain stores will only work with national distributors.

 

12)  Expect the distributor to request that you remove any product you have on consignment in stores so that they can be the one to service retailers.

 

13)  Make sure that your distributor has the ability to help you setup various retail promotions such as: coop advertising (where you must be prepared to pay the costs of media ads for select retailers), in-store artist appearances, in-store listening station programs, and furnishing POP’s (point of purchase posters and other graphics).

 

14)  Be aware that as a new label you will have to offer a distributor 100% on returns of your product.

 

15)  You must bear all the costs of any distribution and retail promotions.

 

16)  Be able to furnish the distributor with hundreds of ‘Distributor One Sheets’ (Attractively designed summary sheets describing your promotion and marketing commitments. Include barcodes, list price, picture of the album cover, and catalog numbers of your product too).

 

17)  Distributors may ask for hundreds of free promotional copies of your release to give to the buyers at the retail stores.

 

18)  Make sure all promotional copies have a hole punched in the barcode, and that they are not shrink-wrapped. This will prevent any unnecessary returns of your product.

 

19)  Don’t expect a distributor to pay your invoices in full or on time. You will always be owed something by the distributor because of the delay between orders sent, invoices received, time payment schedules (50-120 days per invoice) and whether or not your product has sold through, or returns are pending.

 

20)  Create a relationship that is a true partnership between your label and the distributor.

 

21)  Keep the distributor updated on any and all promotion and marketing plans and results, as they develop.

 

22)  Be well financed. Trying to work with distributors without a realistic budget to participate in promotional opportunities would be a big mistake.

 

23)  Your distributor will only be as good as your marketing plans to sell the record. Don’t expect them to do your work for you, remember all they do is get records into the stores.

 

24)  Read the trades, especially Billboard for weekly news on the health of the industry, and/or the status of your distributor.

 

25)  Work your product relentlessly on as many fronts as possible…commercial and non commercial airplay, internet airplay and sales campaigns, on and offline publicity ideas, and touring…eternally touring! .

—–

 

Christopher Knab is an independent music business consultant based in Seattle, Washington. email at: Chris@Knab.com  website: www.fourfrontmusic.com

Visit www.MyBandMate.com to Market and Promote Your Music for Free

 

Band Promotion With a Blog – Promote Your Music Using a Blog

As you well know, blogs have been all the rage for the last few years and rightly so. Blogs provide the reader with current news and content rather than some of the out of date and stale content that may appear on a lot of websites. If you are a musician or have your own band then starting a blog could help promote your music. Band Promotion is difficult enough and this is just one way to help in promoting your band.

 

Blogs also rank highly in the search engines for a number of reasons, most notably for their current and relevant content. There are, however, several key elements to creating a successful blog about your band or music as outlined below. You are competing with thousands of other bloggers within your subject area of music so you need to be different and follow each of the key steps as outlined.

Do your research! You must know what is already out there in terms of competition. You can do this by typing in your blog subject matter into the search engines and seeing what appears in terms of blogs. Also, search the many blog directories to see who is already writing about your topic of interest. Use the Google keyword search tool to see what people are searching for each month in relation to your topic. For example, you would be best suited to focus on a topic that people are searching for and attracts more than 50,000 searches a month. When it comes to music, you could write about band promotion which has over 70,000 searches for these keywords each month. Or maybe write about how to sell your music online or a related topic that people want information about.

Find Your Niche! As already mentioned there are thousands of blogs out there on the internet about music, bands etc. They key is writing about a niche topic and then you will be more likely to attract a targeted audience. To try and compete with an already established blog that has high page rankings, a strong viewer base, and lots of existing content is going to just get you frustrated. Focus on one key area of music or playing in a band and you will create your own loyal fan base who will crave informative articles.

Think about your blog title, domain name, description and content. Take your time in thinking about a catchy but relative domain name. It is very difficult to find the domain name you want as most one, two and three word top level domain names have already been registered. You can buy one of these top level domain names from the owner but often the requested purchase price is unrealistic and just too costly. Also, try to get a .com domain name.  Try to get the keywords in your domain name and blog title. This will help in the search engine rankings.

If you already have your own website then create a blog using your own domain name. Why? If you create a blog from your own band or music website then you will provide readers with the opportunity to explore and navigate to other pages on your website. This will also help in branding, brand exposure and providing one link for fans to find you.

If you don’t your own website and are not keen to start your own blog then try starting a blog on one of the top music network sites such as MySpace or My Band Mate. Both provide tools for musicians to promote their music in many ways for free and one is in the form of a blog. This way you will already have an established audience to read your blog. I would recommend doing this even if you do go ahead with your own independent blog. The more exposure for your band then the more band promotion you will achieve.

With your own independent blog it is important to develop keyword rich content with the keywords appearing in the title, description, first paragraph without going overboard. You will be penalised if you just “overload” your pages and articles with too many of the targeted keywords. You just don’t need to do it and Google is aware of all the tricks webmasters try to use when it comes to achieving high page rankings.

It’s all about the content! Readers will return to your blog if you provide them with informative and valuable content about the subject you are promoting. You are reading this article most likely because you want to start your own blog or are looking for ways to promote your music. As a result, if you gain some valuable information from this article then there is a good chance that you would return again to my blog to read other articles.

The content needs to be informative and relative. You will lose your reader just as quickly as you got them if you have nothing to offer. There is just too much competition out there so you must add top quality content. If you are not sure what to write about then read other blogs, not to copy their articles but to get ideas. There is nothing wrong with seeking out ideas and then writing your own article with a different twist or adding new material. If your readers like your blog they are likely to refer it to their friends which will increase your subscriber base.

Provide some incentive to get your reader to join your blog newsletter or RSS feed. One of the trends in recent times is to give away eBooks when someone signs up. You can create a 5 or 10 page eBook about your niche topic. It has to be catchy enough to get the reader to give up their name and email for it.

Promote your site via bookmarking. Some of the most popular sites include Digg, Technorati, Reddit, Jumptags, stumbleupon and many more but these are the top ones. You will be accused of spamming if you constantly promote and add your own content or site so get some of your friends to help you out with this. These sites will track your IP address and can permanently shut down your account so you will need to respect their terms of use. You can find that these “bookmarks” will give you some promotion on the first few pages of the search engines for your keywords.

Use RSS feeds. RSS feeds provide the reader with an option to receive updates when you add new content to your blog. Once again you will need to submit regular articles or news to your site and it needs to be worth reading to keep the reader subscribing to your blog.  I have subscribed to blogs, newsletters and sites before only to be bombarded with emails selling products. I quickly went to the “Unsubscribe” button at the bottom of the email.

Encourage readers to submit comments about the various blog entries to submit. Your readers are there because they have an interest in your topic so try to create a bond with them in making them feel a part of your blog. If they leave a comment be sure to respond otherwise you will find that they are less likely to write a comment again.

You will need to market your blog. This can be done by submitting your blog to the various blog directories or by writing articles and submitting them  to article directories with an active link back to your blog. Submit a free press release about your blog, get into related forums and include an active link. Be sure not to spam or just sell your blog as you will be expelled from the forum, be discrete in promoting your blog in these forums.

Form joint ventures with fellow bloggers or websites. Invite other bloggers to submit content to your site and in return you can submit content to their blogs and therefore cross promote. Most bloggers will follow up on a lead that will increase their exposure. As long as you are not in direct competition and only complement another blog then this can be a valuable option. You will also gain more content for your blog.

Make your blog stand out! Add other forms of media to the site. Add MP3s, videos, photos or even an audio interview. There are plenty of cheap ways to add this rich media content to your site. Make sure that they provide relative content that your readers are craving.

Fresh Content! I can’t state enough how much your blog needs to contain fresh, informative and related content. It will take some work to maintain a dynamic and successful blog so devote at least an hour a week to working on your blog. Improve the appearance, promote it, add new content or pursue partnerships.

You can make money from your blog by adding Google Adsense, affiliate links or generating income from advertising on your blog. You will only gain interest from advertisers if you generate a significant number of hits each day. If your goal is to promote your music or blog then don’t lose focus of this by distracting your readers. Good luck in promoting your music or band. 

 

 

Music Promotion – Expert Music Promotion Tips

Music Promotion Tips - Promote Your Music – Promote Your Band

 

Music Promotion in Forums

There are many music forums on the internet that attract a big following. Most forums don’t like spam so don’t try and go in and just submit a message of no benefit. Instead, use the author bio to add a link to your band’s website or even list your band under the “introduce your band” forum. Forums are a great way to network and you never know who is reading your posts!

 

Free Music Networks

Two of the best are Free Music Networks are MySpace and MyBandMate.com. Both have built sites that are specifically catered towards the music industry. Each site has the key features such as video, music samples, photos, post event or gig dates, internal mail system, forums, chat and more. Be sure to create a professional profile that showacases your best songs, photos and videos. These sites are a great way to connect with your fans and generate more interest.

 

Advertise

Advertise via Google Adwords. This option does cost money, however, if you set yourself a budget you can promote your band to a specific region of the world or to all countries. Simply set your daily budget, your cost per click that you are willing to pay, create your adwords with title and catchy text and then activate it to go live.

 

Music Promotion via Press Releases

There are a number of free press release services on the internet where you can write and distribute a press release for free. Many of these services also offer more features and exposure for a fee.

 

Social Bookmarking

Be sure to bookmark your website pages, articles or press releases to the popular sites such as Digg, Reddit, Technorati, Jumptags and Stumbleupon. This will not only provide an avenue for more people interested in your genre of music to sample your music but it will also spread news about you across the internet.

 

Go to Music Festivals to Promote Music

In order to promote yourself you will need to play for free or for a small amount of money. Find out what music festivals are on in your region or country and when. Then request an opportunity to play. Many festivals will have bands and musicians playing throughout the streets at the same time.

 

Play at Top Music Venues on Free Nights

Many of the most well known music venues will have a night where bands can play for free. Often you will be allocated a short amount of time on the stage so you will need to get your audiences attention right from the start. No warm-up songs, just hit them right from the start with one of your best songs. An example of a famous music venue is the ESPY in Australia which allows for unsigned artists to play on a Tuesday night for free. Music Agents and Band Promoters from My Band Mate have stated that they will regularly attend these nights to see if they can find any up and coming bands or potential musicians for future promotion.

 

Hand out free CD’s outside big concerts of similar music

Target a concert where the bands playing are in the same genre of music as you. For example it is a waste of time if you are in a rock band and handed out free CD’s outside of a Reggae concert. Reach your target audience! I recently attended a Powderfinger concert in Melbourne and as soon as I walked out the door I was greeted by a young guy who was handing out home made CD’s of his band. The next day I decided to play the CD and see what he was like. As a result in liking his music I contacted him regarding future promotion. You just never know what leads may arise from just one effort to promote your music.

 

Send demos to radio stations and agents

It is quite easy and cheap to make your own CD’s so it will require small outlay of money to send off twenty CD’s. The key point is to stand out from the rest of the demos these agents get every day. Have a funky CD design, personally deliver the CD, have someone represent you or better yet get someone on the inside to help you out. 30 seconds is about what you have to win over the person listening to your music. Once again hit them with your best song right from the start. No need to add all your songs as they don’t have the time to listen to much more. If they like what they hear they may sample a few other songs. Some agents and radio stations have days where artists like you can go in and audition. Basically, they are looking for the next big thing.

 

Create your own website

All bands should have a website. If not then you better have a profile on MySpace or My Band Mate where you can utilize all of their key features to promote your band. You should also use these sites even if you have your own site. Use them to link to your home website. What you do with your website will depend on your budget. You can easily get a website for only a few hundred dollars. In fact, GoDaddy will allow you to build a site using their templates and also gain a year of hosting for less than a hundred dollars. Definitely a start for someone on a small budget.

 

Squidoo page

I know, you may not have heard of Squidoo before. However, Squidoo allows you to build your own web page with all of their great and easy to use features to promote your band or music. Pages on Squidoo tend to receive high page rankings in the search engines.

 

A couple more great ways to promote your music include having your own newsletter which allows for your fans to stay up to date with new songs, CDs, gigs, band member changes and more. You can also start your own blog; try creating one for free at www.wordpress.com. One great marketing tool is to submit related music articles to “Article Directories” and have a bio and active link to your website at the bottom of the article. You can also take on gigs at various events outside of music clubs such as weddings, festivals, parties to give you more exposure to a wider audience.

 

These are some of the most successful ways that professional band promoters and internet marketers use to promote their music or the music of one of their clients. Good luck in Promoting Your Music!