If you’re a musician who has released your own album or is planning to release an album some time in the future then developing a strategy to successfully market your music Internet is absolutely essential.

The music business is changing rapidly and there is good news and there is bad news for the Independent performer.

The Bad News: The bad news is that the music industry is becoming more competitive than ever. Music retail chains are closing left right and center and major labels are signing less and less un found performers. This leaves less opportunities for performers to find a label to give out their music and for those few who are the lucky ones there are even less opportunities to sell it.

The Good News: The nice news is that the changing major label environment is opening  up new opportunities for the independent performers to carve out niche of their personal. While this can mean that there are less and less million dollar record deals out there, it also means that there are more and more ways to generate five, even six figures a year recording and releasing music on your own.

However, despite what you might have heard, marketing your music successfully Web is not as easy as creating a MySpace.com profile, throwing up several tunes and watching the sales roll in. No, instead you need to develop a smart strategy to successfully market your music Web. Music marketing is an art form in its own right but with a little research and a bit of hard work you might just be the next performer to stop their day job and to realize your dream of being a full time performer.

Marketing is a mythisized science, even within business circles. In artistic circles, marketing is again and again seen as a tool that Dick Dastardley and Mutley would use in the cartoon “Wacky Races”.  Many performers say that when a skill less musician becomes successful, it was all down to the question of marketing.

A long way from being a tool that a con artist would use, marketing really has substantially little to do with the skill or quality of a performer or artist. When marketing is done well, it points to a Venues not alternatively explored in the music market, which many times end up supplying less skill ed artists.

So the best way to make an alliance between skill and marketing is by losing the prejudice and undoing the myths about marketing. After all, in the music market, marketing acts in a positive way, as in any other kind of market (financial, commercial etc.).

Actually the adaptations are not all that difficult, if we understand that to work a performer or an artist, we need to have a company, which needs to be successful in the market, as a company. For your music company to be successful, it needs to generate profit.

Creating a new band is the same as launching a new commercial product onto the market, remarkably much in the same way as that product you buy in your Regional supermarket. The talent is there, for whoever wishes to admire and enjoy, but it is correctly packaged and  promote d to the right target public.

You need to learn the 1st musical notes (formally in a music school, or by studying sheet music) so that later on you might start to produce your own harmonious melodies. In the same way, you need to learn the “notes” of marketing before you might produce a “harmonious melody” in your music company. The “harmony” in your music company is gain ing satisfactory financial results which justify the uncommonly existence of the company.

Real World Marketing Marketing For Musicians

Are you a performer, singer, songwriter or artist thats wondering how you could make money with your Independent music before you even get a record deal? Well if you have, you’re reading the write article. In this series I am going to share with you a couple of ways you could make money with your music and your likewise going to learn several strategies to advocate you make even more money with your Independent music.

Let me start off by telling you that the optimum way to make money with your Indie music is by selling it directly to your audiences instead of trying to get distribution into the music stores or selling on iTunes (by the way, you will want to get distribution and sell on iTunes), I’m just saying selling direct to audiences is better and you get more money doing it this way (which is vital, right?).

So now you’re wondering, How do I sell straight to the fans? It’s not prefer you have your own store, right? Well, here is a hint, its staring you in the face right now…. that’s right, the Internet ! The Internet is the biggest way to make resources with your Indie music! Here are several reasons why the Internet is such a great vehicle to use to sell your Indie music.

1. You have a group of individuals who will instantly buy your compact disc  when released

2. You might have your compact discs selling with al the majority no endeavor on your part, just collect the resources and ship the compact disc.

3. You get more bang for your buck, advertising and marketing wise.

4. You might have other people sell your compact disc  for you and only pay them when they sell the compact disc s!

How great is that! Those are just several of the great things about selling your music Web using the Web. By the way, you do not even have to have a complete CD  yet in order to this. Of course it would be better if you did have a whole CD, but what Im, saying is that you can sell the singles as you complete them.

To find out what you need to get started selling your CD  On-line, check my other article titled What You Need to Make Money With Your Independent Music On-line. Till next time.

What’s everybody’s preferred radio station?

Answer — W.I.I.F.M.

What’s In It For Me? What do they get by being your fan? Your client? Your Media individuals are going to want to know why they should book you. listeners want to know why they should continue guide ing you and purchasing your discs. Your booking agents want to know why they should continue to find shows for your band. The optimum way to keep them hooked is to tell them What’s in it for them.

Virtually all people are inundated with massive amounts of information. In order to keep them tuned in to your message is to

1) remind them you exist and

2) to Keep it tell them what they are going to get.

The majority of people in this world are motivated by two things: Fear and Greed. Fear of losing something and the Greed of gaining something. The trick is to keep it short and sweet and above all easy. K.I.S.S. Keep It easy Stupid.

You’ll have a diverse message for your listeners. Possibly more entertaining, light hearted, fun. Your Agents are going to want to hear something professional, responsible, business- prefer. Your Media and Press contacts will want to hear a new twist, public relations, something everybody might use to reach the expansive st readership.

Here is another way to keep your reader interested: Use the word “You” instead of “I”.

For example: “I could really get many individuals to your venue if I could get booked there next month” doesn’t work as well as “Your fans will be on their feet and screaming for more when you book our popular performer now selling out rooms thru out the Midwest.”

Yet another idea would be, “I’llget a brand new DVD out in the mail tomorrow” may be vary d to “You’ll be receiving your free DVD as soon as you fax back your info.”

These may be just semantics but when you start using them, you’ll see an increase in your responses. This will establish momentum. When you start getting more calls, u will eventually get more shows. wonderful concert will bring in more audiences which will get you better band bookings from the agents. can you see it?

When you start finding better performances, two things will happen. You’ll be able to charge more on every concert and you’ll be getting so a lot of concert able to turn down work.

We have all been around the block once or twice in the absence of our Mommies here. Or as the saying goes “You can not Dazzle me with Brilliance nor Baffle me with Bull”. Cut to the chase. Give it to me straight. Please don’t think that I am really going to believe you are ready to take the music world by storm if you are playing pool halls and coffee shops. Keep it real. Base your articles and publicity material in the Real World. You and I are not going to fall for B.S. What makes you think anyone out there is any varying? Tell it prefer it is. Just add a little sizzle to the steak. Keep your marketing and press statements exhilarating and entertaining. we are in the business of fun.

Feel free to be a little wild and outlandish. It is okay. people will not mind. We’re in an industry where people are looking for an escape. Let them have it to take their minds off of things. It keeps us in business. Just keep it real. Take your picture with a donkey for promo. Just don’t be the donkey.

Commit to at least 6 months to any marketing campaign

Don’t think you’re going to hit a homerun every time. Build slowly and look to just get on base. A walk is as wonderful as a hit. You need to give yourself time to find out what works. Once you do, then do that over and over. Just be sure to try as a lot of varying marketing pieces as you might afford. Try postcards and Google Ad Words at the same time. See which one works better. Change your message to fit varying demographics and target markets. Use your creativity to get their attention. There has been a performer that sent me their promo. I had about 50 artists sending me stuff for this festival and I opened theirs’ 1st because it has been not prefer all the other packets I has been getting.

It was kind of lumpy. Inside was a Nerf Ball with the band’s name on it. Only it was really small and when you got it wet it got really big. all of us were whipping this thing around the office and throwing it at each others’ heads. One time all of us named the band after the promotional item all of us had in stock. It was a refrigerator magnet made of knotted ropes in the shape of the letter ‘Y’. So all of us called the band “Why Knot”. A bottle of aspirin inside and envelope could accent your chance headline that could something along the lines of, “Did that last band you hire give anybody a headache?”

Be sure to stay within the bounds of the law and there is no limit to what your fertile imagination could come up with to hook them. These ideas for booking performances and creating better paying music career are found in the breakthrough new book available at our Web site. Just look at the link below. There you will find a step by step formula for creating music gigs.

We’d love it if you check it out. Either way, I certainly hope you thought of ways you could find gigs that pay the most resources doing what you love – making music.

Guerilla Marketing is the use of unconventional marketing techniques intended to get maximum determinations from minimal source s, which let’s face it; most indie performers have minimal source s. Today, guerrilla marketing is a non-traditional, low-cost, and highly effective marketing endeavor, which when used properly might reap many rewards for the diligent user.

So what might you do to use guerrilla marketing to help further your music career? The 1st piece of advice I might give you is to think outside the box. Don’t do what anyone else is doing. Here area few suggestions to get you started:

• Use podcasts to broad cast your music, endorse ing to expose your music to many individuals who may have never heard it before. Ensure that you plug your website and where they may purchase your products.

• Why not go to your Local/Regional library and see If they’ll allow you to do a free concert there in ex vary for a percentage of your sales of product following your show. Libraries are in dire need of funds.

• Another easy and free way to get your name out there and seen is to write reviews on every product your own, have used, read or heard. Then post the reviews on places prefer amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Ensure to put a small two or three sentence bio at the end of each review that has the name of any CD  projects you’ve done. You can’t post your URL there; they’ll delete your bio. When you post your reviews, put your vanity email address inside your “real name.” While those web sites won’t allow you to post your URL, if your URL is part of your “real name,” they don’t say a word. Check out amazon.com and look for one of my reviews.

Do not use a real email address or you’ll end up with a lot of spam. Why’s this an necessary step? Because people will read your reviews and you get your name out there. Many consumers are Web savvy and If they’re interested in you, will check you out.

Go after your listeners with fervor and diligence, but think outside the box to get the solutions you desire and the exposure for your music that you need.

The secret to marketing music successfully On-line is to first get organized. Develop a music business plan that outlines how many much resources you need to generate in sales, how many albums you’ll need to sell to reach your goals and how much resources you could justify spend ing to market your music. Assuming you’re on a limited budget I’ve outlined a few easy strategies you could use to  encourage  your band or music On-line.

1. Optimize Your website : Virtually all artists receive dozens, even hundred of visitors every day to their website. But the reality is that the majority individuals do not buy albums following only one visit. Do whatever it takes to get individuals to sign up to your mailing list so that you may continue to communicate with them, capture familiarity and ultimate ly sell them your album at some point down the line.

2. MySpace Marketing: MySpace is excellent but it isn’t to be relied upon as your sole means of marketing your music successfully. Still, be sure to send out regular bulletins promoting special provides and gatherings. As much as you can, try to drive individuals back to your official web site where you may get them to sign up your mailing list.

3. Forum Marketing. Locate a number of active music forums that allow signature links. Create a signature that promotes your band. Go into these forums as ofttimes as possible and add worth to the discussions. The more people worth what you have to say, the more prefer ly they’re to click through to your band’s Web site.

Music marketing is an art form in its own right. These are just a few easy tips to marketing your music successfully on the Web. With a little bit of know how and a bit of hard work you should start to see an increase in album sales in no time.

If you’re a digital music fan, you could have problems organizing your music file collection. For me, I used to have hundreds of MP3 files lumped in one folder in my hard drive. might you imagine the pain I had to go through to find one specific tune to listen to?

Organizing your music files is an important skill to learn. Once your collection is nice ly sorted out, you will be able to find the songs you want immediately and easily. So  set aside some time and read through the following pointers I have come up with.

1. Start Subfolders – The single most vital tip for organizing your music files is to establish subfolders in your hard drive. Don’t ever leave your MP3 files in one immense folder called C:My Music. Start subfolders prefer C:My MusicClassical, C:My MusicPop and C:My MusicSoundtracks.

2. Ensure your ID3 Tags Are Correct - ID3 tags are used to seller important information about MP3 files. Things prefer the song title, artist, album are kept and will be displayed by your MP3 player. Take the time to properly edit these tags – a lot of MP3 files you download have the ID3 tag information all wrong. A nice software program for editing ID3 tags is TagScanner.

3. Invest in Good Music Management Software – There are a few amazing pieces of software out there for managing music files. Two good ones come to mind. The first is MediaMonkey and the second is MusicMatch Jukebox. Both programs offer amazing music management features prefer an integrated music player, CD  burning features and ID3 tag renaming.

4. Get Your Music Files from Legal Sources – If you have been downloading music using P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing programs prefer KaZaa, you’ll uncommonly prefer ly get music files which have strange names prefer 56_HeyjAck.mp3. My advice: Get your files from legal sources prefer Web music services iTunes or Napster and you’ll avoid this problem.

5. Establish Good Playlists – Many software music player (e.g. Winamp) will allow you to create playlists. For example, say you are in the mood for rock songs, you might point to your folder called C:Music Rock and create a playlist from that folder. Save the playlist after it’s created. When you next feel prefer listening to those songs, all you need to do is load that playlist instead of trawling through your hard drive and folders.

6. Get A Huge Hard Drive – I recognize that this sounds a little crazy – but running out of disk space could and will ruin your well-organized music collection. Ensure you’ve enough hard disk space to seller your music files. Say you’ve 10,000 music files that you absolutely must retain and listen to. It is a eminently bad idea to store, say, 8,000 files in Hard Drive A and 2,000 files in Hard Drive B. Very messy. It is better to seller them all in one hard disk. So get your hands on the biggest hard drive you could find.

I hope this post endorses you to organize your music collection a little better. I know it takes endeavor, but once your music collection is properly catalogued, listening to your music collection will be a much more pleasant experience. So do not hesitate – get organized now!

The highest quality goal of most performers who use MySpace.com is to attract a record label. Earning a contract to record an album may be a performer way into the music business. But what can you do to attract record labels? Creating a profile page and uploading music is a wonderful start, but by no means is it the end of your marketing endeavor s. Following you’ll find several ideas on attracting a record label and getting them to take notice of your talent.

Music Marketing Tip#1: Upload a Variety of songs

Just because you have to list the genre of music you perform does not mean you have to upload songs that only reflect that type of ! Show record labels and fans that you have other musical interests by uploading songs that are divergent from one another. This will demonstrate for you r range, ability to attract fans from other type of s, which stimulates your marketability, and prove to record labels you are worth investing in.

Music Marketing Tip#2: Fuel the Fan Fires

Record labels conduct searches on MySpace.com everyday looking for skill ed artists. One way to get them to prohibit on your profile page is by showing them you have a strong fan base. The more people who visit your web site, the more popular your page becomes there. Use the marketing tools available in order to capture fan interest.

Record labels want to sign those who are already experienced in working crowds during shows and who have a strong On-line presence because it makes promoting the music much easier. Having a strong fan base will make selling records and make promoting concert tours and other public appearances much easier.

Create a buzz on MySpace.com by attracting more audiences to your page. Join MySpace.com forums, list upcoming get togethers, and advertise your page on fliers, business cards, and other marketing materials as this will prompt audiences who have seen your live shows to visit and download your songs.

Music Marketing Tip#3: Contacting Record Labels

Locating information about record labels is simple because of the Internet. Instead of sending a copy of your latest compact disc  or a few of your tunes, you may send record labels the link to your MySpace profile page. Music executives will appreciate this much more than strange pieces of mail showing up at their offices. Sending a quick email with your contact information may be enough to get you noticed. Research record organizations to see which ones cater to your genre, and which ones accept email from musicians.

Music Marketing Tip#4: Selling Your Album on MySpace

If you release an album on your own, sell it in order to generate buzz and furthermore catch the attention of record labels. Being able to show record labels that you’re a professional musician who’s passionate about music will session you apart from the rest.

Attracting record labels will require you to remain diligent about marketing your music on MySpace. Uploading songs, using marketing tools such as blogs, video, and photos will endorse record labels get a better idea of what your sound. Use these marketing tools and others offer ed and go showcase your musical skill s.

It’s the dream of al the majority every adolescent to have their personal rock band, establish new sounds, reach success and everything else that all of this may bring. Screaming listeners, respect, autographs, tours, luxury hotels, glamour etc…

So,on one of those sunny days, all of us wake up from this sweet dream and, without the notion that all this time has passed by so immediately, we’re adults, living our “normal” lives, earning just enough bread to get by, doing what our parents always wanted us to do.

I know a doctor who still dreams of having a different life, a life that will excite him… once he confided in me that he’d gladly ex vary everything that he had built, if he may have the chance to go back to what he loved best, music (he has been a guitarist in a heavy metal band).

Where do all these dreams hide?

Now you have your own company, or that job, which in societys’ eyes is respectable, in a wonderful company, and you decide not to let the old flame die. You decide to have a bit of fun and return to “waging a bet” in the music industry.

For you to be started as a artist, or manager of a band, you’ll need abilities in business, purchasing, sales, market research, man management, delegation of tasks and be fashion conscious.

All these actions together make up marketing in the world of music.

For this project, just prefer in any other business, you will need to designate a quantity which you’re prepared to invest. Treat music prefer any other commercial adventure in your life. Never as a profitable hobby.

A Budget and Business Plan (with a target public defined) are important, just as in a “conventional company”. This way you will not fall into the trap of making emotional decisions, taking your attention away from your real objective.

Save your sentiments for your music.

Now testimonials have got a nice reputation, generally…well see for yourself, this is one persons view of this actual article:

Wow, I did not realise how simple it may be to implement this music marketing technique! R.G, Chicago.

What is the problem with this? Well for one, it is made up. I just done it. And two…who on earth is R.G?

Now this is what I automatically contemplate when I go through any website, be it musical or not. The problem comes in the fact that the majority testimonials are just too distant.

Sure people could put a Web address down and even a picture. It does actually endorse a huge amount. It makes you less distant, and now more reliable. Still, all of us are now in the 21st Century and our selling techniques ought to really keep up with the technology on offer.

The technology? That is Flash. Now I’ve said in the past that a Website should not be made out of Flash…with the main reason being the search engines will not select it up. But Flash is such a easy tool that it must be integrated into our Websites for us to stand a slightest opportunity of selling anything.

So what do all of us need to do?

first up is to actually embed Flash into our websites so that it’s easy to work, prefer ably free, looks wonderful, easy to performance up and more than anything…fool proof for the user.

Now I’ve searched high and low for a flash player that meets those demands (I couldn’t tell you how a lot of I’ve downloaded), and I’ve found one. Now I think that it is a traversty that this software hasn’t been shouted about.

You need a player- MP3 or Video (which may be found at this address: www.jeroenwijering.com. All you need to do is download either a movie player, or an MP3 player, upload the many players components to your web site, upload an MP3 or Flash movie file (FLV), then tell the wizard (which may be found at this address: http://www.jeroenwijering.com/extras/wizard.html) where everything is stored. It will automatically give you the code. You copy and then paste it in to the source section of your HTML where you want the player…and thats it.

Simple.

As a side note: You see we should do everything ourselves so that we are not reliant on any other service. Youtube has a habit of stopping videos overnight, their quality is poor and it looks like we are cheap. Sure use YouTube for traffic generation and generating leads, but I would not use it to sell on my website – it is not professional specifically if you’re selling DVDs or software. Doubts will go into customers minds about your products quality…and the sale will walk away. There are additionally dedicated movie websites that charge per month…but we want to decrease our money output. So what do we do?

So the best way is to be clever at the start and buy a Web hosting package that’s cheap yet plentiful. Just be careful about your monthly bandwidth. Virtually all hosting organizations now provide incredible bandwidth solutions/ month so you shouldn’t worry about that. I am with Superb Web Hosting who give me bandwidth of 750GB/ month…which is more than ample and at a normal hosting price. I do not need specific video hosting, poor quality free hosting and I do not need to pay anymore cash…bargain!

Anyway what do we actually do with our Flash players?

Ahh, I am glad that you asked. Now this is what your competition are not doing. You see you may record customers reactions to your music (especially at a concert ) and place these as testimonials.

Promote concert by recording previous concert s/ performances. Then question some of the goers before and following to see what they think? Promise them a free ticket, T-Shirt, compact disc  etc for their trouble. If you get some bad reviews (which can happen), edit them out.

If you are friendly with your testimonial makers, why not get them to do a short piece on your stuff? Only a handful (literally) of websites have done this. Completely novel- they have interviewed buyers of the product to see what they think. Now that “nobody testimonial” has become a someone. It does not matter now who they are. How commanding is that style of testimonial? It generates thousands of sales weekly for some website s.

You ought to be using the Flash players to performance your music (please no decrease d quality or 1 minute performance versions). Now I have stimulated my sales by well over 100  percent by doing this technique. Throughout my texts I have placed an MP3. So instead of having a bulk amount of MP3s in one place – where they may efficiently be forgotten, I have placed them throughout and leveraged the same  set of MP3s to a better advantage.

The Flash players ought to be used to interview your group or yourself. Because the Internet is so faceless, adding a “face” to your web site enhances your credibility ten-fold. If you’re the head of the company/ web site, have you on your sales pages stating what you’re actually selling- pointing out rewards to the customer, backing up your text.

If you do not prefer what you look prefer, the Flash players should be used to play your voice to endorse and direct people into making the proper decision.

Got a video or DVD? Flash player it at a reasonable size and quality to demonstrate what you have. Sales will increase with a demo of what you have.

Always remember though, that some people do not want to sit down and listen to you stating what you can be done. They want to see what can be done… that is the difference. If you performance the guitar…Flash player yourself playing a certain specific style on one page and another style on another page. Therefore if I want to know how to make Flamenco music I do not want to see loads of other styles before you get to mine. Don’t speak the specific style, just performance it (and make it sound cool, vibrant and listenable).

So as you may see, there are a immense amount of scope for Flash players and they ought to be right up there with your top music marketing strategies.

Here is could the most important music business tip you’ll ever receive:

Join up and subscribe to every indie music business and DIY band promotion email list, newsletter and source that you might get your hands on and read everything that you receive.

I mean it when I say that too much information is much better than not enough, if what you’ve joined up or subscribed to is not giving you the information that you need then you may just opt out and un-subscribe.

Most websites that offer these things have the integrity to do as you ask.

Read what you receive, make notes, ask yourself if it’s relavent for you and the place you’re living in, integrate the information into your knowledge base.

The only way to obtain this knowledge is by research, and the Internet is the best place to research anything.

Researching on the Web though will only give you general (but  still  wonderfully necessary ) independent music industry knowledge. The real power comes from knowing your Regional scene and developing into active in it.

Here are some ways that you could do this:

1. Establish reading the music magazines in your area. Regional street press is an invaluable tool in letting you know what is going on in the Regional industry. Generally these magazines have features/interviews with Regional bands, a concert  guide ( great for targeting where to play), industry news and so on.

2. Go and see some Local bands. Check out your competition (I mean that as a figure of speech the the majority vital thing about a Healthy indie music business is the community that builds from the music and the individuals who performance it), introduce yourself, get out there amongst it all and immerse yourself in the vibe. Get familiar with the places these artists performance at and know who to talk to when it’s your turn to performance there.

3. If the re are music associations where you live, join them. Anything that aids independent music on an association level seek it out and join up. If it costs resources to do that then do it (generally its not an expensive exercise). Joining these categories of associations instantly gives you a sense of community and solidarity. likewise the amount of information you’ll obtain about your Regional area will be huge.

4. If the se Local/Regional companies have web sites then bookmark them.

Need I say more on this topic. Most websites for offline companies provide more to Online users of their services. It pays to be an active Online user. One advantage that comes to mind is the fact that you’re able to participate in forums and messageboards which, in time will become authoritative DIY marketing tools for you.

You got to start somewhere and the best place to start is with your own Regional area. As you expand your knowledge base you’ll work out ways to further your career and hopefully a snowball effect will start.

Once it stars, HANG ON!