Promoting your work
Think professional
- Be professional!
Just imagine this scenario! Your self promotion has worked and a newspaper/radio show calls you!
Again, this probably all seems obvious, but if you’re lucky enough to get an interview with the local press/radio then make sure you turn up on time! If you don’t have a record deal then you are your own manager and it’s important to behave like a professional. If you give the impression that you can’t be bothered and don’t take your career seriously, then nor will anyone else.
ALWAYS:
Return emails, phone calls, promptly!
For advice about constructing press releases PLEASE CLICK HERE
Arrive on time
Psychologically, this will give you a lift too as being professional means you’re in control and will reinforce your self belief. The confidence you project is an extremely attractive characteristic.
"Be careful what you say to people on the way up, because you don’t know who’ll you meet on the way down!"
The Business of Making Music
Making music can feel like a bottomless pit of spending money. There’s money for instruments, rehearsals, photography etc and that’s before you’ve even done a gig or made a recording! There’s no avoiding the fact that when you’re starting out , making music can be an expensive business, but there are ways to reduce the costs.
If you’ve got a band and a batch of songs, there are some questions you probably need to ask yourself before you start recording.
What are your priorities?
If funds are limited , is it more important to you to have one or two songs really well recorded and produced or do you want a ‘demo’ style of more tracks.
Are you hoping for radio airplay or to sell your recordings or do you want as many songs as possible roughly demo’d?
Expense and cutting costs.
Studio time is expensive , so if funds are limited , it’s probably better to spend money recording two or three tracks really well (you can always sell the finished product as an E.P).
Join Forces
Another idea is to approach other bands and suggest you collaborate and produce a compilation CD. This is extremely useful not only for reducing costs but it also means you’ll all benefit by getting heard by each others audience thus increasing your fan base.
Create an ‘angle’ to market this compilation. Will it be a showcase album for local artists or would you prefer to include bands of a similar genre to you?
Go and see as many local bands as possible. If you like them, approach them with your idea.
Remember, by all means cut costs but NEVER cut corners when it comes to quality.
More than a demo
With a good quality product you can be selling your music and raising the profile of your band. If you’re hoping for a record deal , don’t just wait for a record company to pick you up. Be pro-active. Remember that you are far more likely to attract record company attention if there is already a ‘buzz’ about your music and you have fans playing your music and raving about how great you are! Word of mouth counts for so much in this industry.
With this in mind, when you record your music, it might be helpful not to think in terms of just ‘making a demo’.
Take a professional approach and produce the best quality product you can afford. This is usually a professionally recorded and mastered CD with a good quality inner sleeve which details the tracks, musicians, some information about the band and your website, address and contact telephone number. It’s also useful to include the length of each track too especially if you are hoping for radio airplay.
If you are hoping to sell your product it may be better to produce a high quality 3 track E.P than a 10 track poorly recorded album which you had to rush to finish because your money ran out on day three in the studio!
Share gigs.
How about hiring a venue and splitting the costs with a couple of other bands?
Swap skills.
So the guitarist in your friend’s band is a great artist/photographer? That’s good news. Maybe you can swap a photo shoot in return for writing them a great review, press release, backing vocals on their next recording etc? Everyone is likely to have skills outside of music. The trick is to utilise these skills and help each other out whilst saving money. You’re all on the same road so why not make the journey together?
Create a Street Team and an e-team.
A Street Team can be an important way of promoting a band. It’s a group of people who are fans of a group/band/artist who want to help promote the music they love by requesting songs on the radio, distributing online banners and posting fliers for shows.
An eTeam is a group of fans who work together to help spread the word about a band online. This means talking about you on message boards, chat forums and via email etc. but a word of warning…EVERYONE hates spam, so don’t encourage your street team to spam on your behalf. It’s unlikely to win you any fans!
Don’t just be taker!
Show your gratitude and thank your hard working street team with tickets to shows, personal emails, signed photo’s etc. Give them ‘exclusive’ offers such as the chance to buy your album at a reduced rate. Make sure they know their efforts are appreciated.
To see examples of other artists street teams visit GOOGLE and search for "street teams" and music.
Reaching new ears.
Have you thought about running a competition and making the prize your great music?
If you can spare a few copies of your album or E.P this is often an effective method of reaching people who otherwise wouldn’t have heard your music. You can run the competition via your website or contact your local press to see if they’d run it for you?
Keep it simple. Try something like: The first 10 people to email/write to us will win a copy of the CD.
If you can’t afford to give away copies of your album, how about tickets to one of your gigs , signed photo’s, or maybe you could put 'winners' on the guest list of your next show and invite them backstage to meet the band? If they enjoy the music, chances are they’ll buy an album at the show and invite their friends along next time!
Respond politely to EVERY entrant and ask if they’d like to be included on your email list and be informed of gigs, updates etc. If they don’t respond, DON’T hassle them again. They’re aware of you now and are unlikely to respond positively to unwanted emails.
Make sure you send out prizes promptly after the closing date and if possible, provide a list of winners so people can see it’s not just a scam for collecting email addresses!
Local Networking
Whether you've had 100 or a 1000 CD's produced in a run, try to set some aside to catch new ears.
If your local library lends CD's as well as books offer to donate a copy of your CD. It's a good way of reaching new ears.
People can try out your music and if they like it then with virtually no effort, you've got yourself onto their CD racks and into their (and probably their friends too), ears.
Music Reviews
There are plenty of publications that will review your music. Visit GOOGLE and search for "independent music reviews" and just see how many show up. Visit the sites that look interesting and email the editorial dept asking if they'd be happy for you to send a CD for them to consider for review. Once you've got a couple of reviews, put them up on your website!
If you'd like to share your marketing success stories with RAMPANT visitors, send them to MARKETING IDEAS
PREVIOUS PAGE
Just imagine this scenario! Your self promotion has worked and a newspaper/radio show calls you!
Again, this probably all seems obvious, but if you’re lucky enough to get an interview with the local press/radio then make sure you turn up on time! If you don’t have a record deal then you are your own manager and it’s important to behave like a professional. If you give the impression that you can’t be bothered and don’t take your career seriously, then nor will anyone else.
ALWAYS:
Return emails, phone calls, promptly!
For advice about constructing press releases PLEASE CLICK HERE
Arrive on time
Psychologically, this will give you a lift too as being professional means you’re in control and will reinforce your self belief. The confidence you project is an extremely attractive characteristic.
"Be careful what you say to people on the way up, because you don’t know who’ll you meet on the way down!"
The Business of Making Music
Making music can feel like a bottomless pit of spending money. There’s money for instruments, rehearsals, photography etc and that’s before you’ve even done a gig or made a recording! There’s no avoiding the fact that when you’re starting out , making music can be an expensive business, but there are ways to reduce the costs.
If you’ve got a band and a batch of songs, there are some questions you probably need to ask yourself before you start recording.
What are your priorities?
If funds are limited , is it more important to you to have one or two songs really well recorded and produced or do you want a ‘demo’ style of more tracks.
Are you hoping for radio airplay or to sell your recordings or do you want as many songs as possible roughly demo’d?
Expense and cutting costs.
Studio time is expensive , so if funds are limited , it’s probably better to spend money recording two or three tracks really well (you can always sell the finished product as an E.P).
Join Forces
Another idea is to approach other bands and suggest you collaborate and produce a compilation CD. This is extremely useful not only for reducing costs but it also means you’ll all benefit by getting heard by each others audience thus increasing your fan base.
Create an ‘angle’ to market this compilation. Will it be a showcase album for local artists or would you prefer to include bands of a similar genre to you?
Go and see as many local bands as possible. If you like them, approach them with your idea.
Remember, by all means cut costs but NEVER cut corners when it comes to quality.
More than a demo
With a good quality product you can be selling your music and raising the profile of your band. If you’re hoping for a record deal , don’t just wait for a record company to pick you up. Be pro-active. Remember that you are far more likely to attract record company attention if there is already a ‘buzz’ about your music and you have fans playing your music and raving about how great you are! Word of mouth counts for so much in this industry.
With this in mind, when you record your music, it might be helpful not to think in terms of just ‘making a demo’.
Take a professional approach and produce the best quality product you can afford. This is usually a professionally recorded and mastered CD with a good quality inner sleeve which details the tracks, musicians, some information about the band and your website, address and contact telephone number. It’s also useful to include the length of each track too especially if you are hoping for radio airplay.
If you are hoping to sell your product it may be better to produce a high quality 3 track E.P than a 10 track poorly recorded album which you had to rush to finish because your money ran out on day three in the studio!
Share gigs.
How about hiring a venue and splitting the costs with a couple of other bands?
Swap skills.
So the guitarist in your friend’s band is a great artist/photographer? That’s good news. Maybe you can swap a photo shoot in return for writing them a great review, press release, backing vocals on their next recording etc? Everyone is likely to have skills outside of music. The trick is to utilise these skills and help each other out whilst saving money. You’re all on the same road so why not make the journey together?
Create a Street Team and an e-team.
A Street Team can be an important way of promoting a band. It’s a group of people who are fans of a group/band/artist who want to help promote the music they love by requesting songs on the radio, distributing online banners and posting fliers for shows.
An eTeam is a group of fans who work together to help spread the word about a band online. This means talking about you on message boards, chat forums and via email etc. but a word of warning…EVERYONE hates spam, so don’t encourage your street team to spam on your behalf. It’s unlikely to win you any fans!
Don’t just be taker!
Show your gratitude and thank your hard working street team with tickets to shows, personal emails, signed photo’s etc. Give them ‘exclusive’ offers such as the chance to buy your album at a reduced rate. Make sure they know their efforts are appreciated.
To see examples of other artists street teams visit GOOGLE and search for "street teams" and music.
Reaching new ears.
Have you thought about running a competition and making the prize your great music?
If you can spare a few copies of your album or E.P this is often an effective method of reaching people who otherwise wouldn’t have heard your music. You can run the competition via your website or contact your local press to see if they’d run it for you?
Keep it simple. Try something like: The first 10 people to email/write to us will win a copy of the CD.
If you can’t afford to give away copies of your album, how about tickets to one of your gigs , signed photo’s, or maybe you could put 'winners' on the guest list of your next show and invite them backstage to meet the band? If they enjoy the music, chances are they’ll buy an album at the show and invite their friends along next time!
Respond politely to EVERY entrant and ask if they’d like to be included on your email list and be informed of gigs, updates etc. If they don’t respond, DON’T hassle them again. They’re aware of you now and are unlikely to respond positively to unwanted emails.
Make sure you send out prizes promptly after the closing date and if possible, provide a list of winners so people can see it’s not just a scam for collecting email addresses!
Local Networking
Whether you've had 100 or a 1000 CD's produced in a run, try to set some aside to catch new ears.
If your local library lends CD's as well as books offer to donate a copy of your CD. It's a good way of reaching new ears.
People can try out your music and if they like it then with virtually no effort, you've got yourself onto their CD racks and into their (and probably their friends too), ears.
Music Reviews
There are plenty of publications that will review your music. Visit GOOGLE and search for "independent music reviews" and just see how many show up. Visit the sites that look interesting and email the editorial dept asking if they'd be happy for you to send a CD for them to consider for review. Once you've got a couple of reviews, put them up on your website!
| An extremely useful resource is THE INDIE
BIBLE which is described as: "The Independent Recording Artist's Number One Resource" The Indie Bible SHOWS you where to get your music REVIEWED and your songs PLAYED on the radio. The contacts listed are music reviewers and radio personalities from around the world that will listen to your music, and if they like it, will present it to their readers and listeners. The Indie Bible shows you where to promote your music, regardless of your musical style, and will save you MONTHS of valuable time! |
If you'd like to share your marketing success stories with RAMPANT visitors, send them to MARKETING IDEAS
PREVIOUS PAGE