Making money with music through booking, licensing, and media opportunities can only happen if people know how to contact you. Follow this checklist so you don’t miss any money-making and publicity-generating opportunities. Read the post.
If some specific music promotion worked for you once, it will probably work again. But it won’t go beyond that — you won’t grow and you probably won’t be more successful. Read More.
For years, my biggest challenge was getting a reply to the multitude of emails I wrote. I’ve since perfected my sales pitch so that 100 percent of the emails I send get a response. Read More.
When emailing music bloggers, there are a lot of factors that go into whether or not your emails get read. These best practices can improve your chances of getting noticed and taken seriously. Read More.
Not so long ago, our band wrote, recorded, and released a song called, “Star Wars (A Film Like No Other).” When we released it on March 13, 2007, we had no idea it would become one of the most popular videos at StarWars.com, be licensed by AtomFilms, wind up being played on TV, and generate a potential license deal. Read more.
As a music publicist, I’ve worked with a lot of bands and musical acts. In more than a few cases, I’d say the artist’s interview skills could have used a tweak or two. Allow me to share some interview tips that will make you way better at giving interviews and help you get the most out of every one. Read more.
Most bands do a traditional media campaign (newspapers, magazines, radio), as well as a new media campaign (podcasts, music blogs, MP3s). Music publicity is not just compiling lists and following steps mechanically, it should be fun and is a chance to channel the same creativity you put into your music to build a buzz. Read more.
Once you’ve determined the purpose of your ad, the best budget, the target audience, and key performance indicators (KPIs – e.g. email list growth, ticket sales), you now need to actually put your online ad together and set it up. The following will help you to navigate this set-up process to ensure the money you spend is worthwhile. Read more.
Even though lots of indie artists are satisfied staying independent, many musicians I meet would like to get noticed by a label. Personally I don’t focus too much on “label obsessed” marketing, so you can use this same trick to reach journalists, radio stations, bloggers, and all manner of influential people who can help push your music forward. Read More.
Introduced as a micro-blogging platform in 2008, Twitter has become the standard for real-time communication between bands and their fans. In this post, we dive into this social media platform, which has enamored so many musicians and confused so many more. Twitter for music promotion can be highly effective, but you need to understand the nuances of the platform first. Read more.
Facebook, the biggest of the social networks, is arguably the most difficult for musicians to navigate and use effectively for music promotion. So let’s break it down and focus on the things you can do to optimize your Facebook band page and make the best use of this platform in your social media marketing. Read more.
Investing your time, talent, and emotional capital by sharing what you find compelling can help to not only build an audience for you and your own music, it can help you better define your brand. And these days, aside from the music itself, branding may be the most important element in determining who makes a living in music and who continues as an infrequently paid music hobbyist. Read more.
MTV Research released a report that explains how Millennials expect “zero distance” from the artists they like, an effect reportedly caused by social media. Millennials crave “constant access” to artists, want the artist to act like a friend, and expect an artist to be constantly accessible via social media. But don’t expect to sell your music to this group. Only 28% of the people surveyed had bought music within the past month. Read more.
An important aspect of digital PR is developing and maintaining relationships. From the smallest local music blog to the biggest global music review sites, most content and support comes from nurturing relationships, because people are willing to support the people they like. A key to effective relationship management includes creating new content while nurturing the relationships that are developing. This can be done by focusing on social monitoring, social media content strategy, and creating a VIP experience. Read more.
The new definition of artist development hinges on emerging artists consciously establishing a career plan and then implementing that plan over time in order to accomplish a series of ever more ambitious goals. To learn more and get practical advice, I spoke with Catherine “SupaCat” Enny, CEO and founder of Guerrilla Management. Catherine established her management credentials when a then-unknown band she produced and managed named Kyuss broke out on the strength of her production and business acumen. Read more.