PROMOTION / MARKETING - discuss

thomasross20

So I'm really hoping to get this album out by year-end. In the meantime I'd like to build some sort of profile, get the marketing going. 

CDBaby send me millions of e-mails - I don't have time to read them all though some seem relevant. 

I'd rather not join a million social networking sites. 

To me it seems I need to get an ad in some popular places.... guitar mag, some rock website or something... 

This thing will never sell if nobody knows about it. 

spark240

Taxi..?

thomasross20

I don't get it

ellangus

I can do ads! I'm a graphic designer - perhaps I could help.  PM me if you're interested.

spark240

Google Taxi for musicians....

thomasross20

Thanks guys..

I'm dead serious about this. How many people do this in their lifetime? At least I'm making a proper go of it.

Cirrus

Join a million social network sites at least to make sure you have a presence no matter what avenue people arrive at your brand from. That's a given, you have to do it if you want to make a proper go of it.

Other than that, think about how you're going to get your brand some exposure, how you're going to connect with your target demographic and work out what your end goal even is.

For people to hear your music for the first time they've either got to hear it at a gig, hear you on the radio or hear it used on some other medium - tv, film, game soundtrack etc. Are you going to gig? Need to get in touch with promoters and engage with your music scene. Are you going to be on the radio? You'll need to either get in touch with radio stations yourself (usually fails) or find a promotion company/ pusher who has a proven track record in getting airplay. Want to be in a soundtrack? You need to get in touch with a publishing company or make contacts yourself in the various industries.

In general, promo costs money and the good promo companies better know how to spend it that you will, though of course they also need to make a living off you.

How will people know about your brand? Apart from hearing your music they will need to see you in reviews - both mags and independent bloggers, and you'll want them to come across you in every day life. So that means adverts, adverts everywhere! Facebook IS used by a lot of people and their sponsored posts are a relatively cheap way of reaching people.

All this of course assuming you actually do want to make a proper go of it! And needless to say, your music needs to be good because otherwise it won't matter who hears you, they won't become fans who are prepared to spend money on you.

thomasross20

Good post. 

I wont be gigging the material - I was aiming for mp3 sales (CDBaby as intermediary).

As for promotion I was thinking:

- website

- facebook

- soundcloud

- youtube

- other social networking

- possible airplay through internet radio

- possible mention in a magazine

- the last two may be difficult!

I have a 4 soundbyte demo from the album (instrumental guitar so a limited market). Plan to tweak this and add more from the other tracks. 

There are 12 tracks and 6 are fully complete. I will be finishing bass (I think) & drums on the rest. Here are the demo tracks:

https://soundcloud.com/thomasross20

littlegreenman

Be prepared to have at least one track as a free download or a youtube thing. People like free stuff, and if they like it may come back for more and pay for it.

I bought @drew_fx's album for real cash money after hearing TNBD on a freeby, and t-shirts and shizz, so that can work.

Being original and good helps too. Friend of mine who does piano and strings type stuff has been commissioned to do a load of game music without a lot of promotion.

Luck of the draw at the end of the day mostly.

thomasross20

Yep, luck - agreed!

Just looking at website creation now...

Hardest part seems to be coming up with a name that hasn't been taken!!!

Nerine

Do people like free stuff?

If you value it at zero, how can you expect anyone else to value it at anything more than that.

That's half the problem with the industry.

thomasross20

Agreed. 

I don't value it as zero!

Seems there's a big difference between wordpress .com and .org! 

.org is more hands on and you can add plugins and advertise. 

.com is restrictive but a lot of the hassle is taken out and hosting is easy. 

Think I'll stick with .com for now...!

thomasross20

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK!!!

Copyrighting my tunes will be a definite.... but trademarking my brand name.... what do you think? 

https://www.gov.uk/how-to-register-a-trade-mark/register-a-trade-mark

£170 to get it trademarked. Seems a lot of money. Who does this? Essential?

I haven't checked the costs of copyright yet. 

Do PRS play a role in all this sort of thing? There is somebody yuo can register with who will give you a "cut" every time your song is played on radio etc... Yep, it's them:

https://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx

And http://www.soundexchange.com/ for digital royalties.

https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/services/price_list

Here's a good comparison of digital distributors:

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/05/29/digital-distribution-company-review

CDBaby seems the best bet for me.

Deijavoo

Distrokid and Bandcamp suited me. Might be worth a look.

Deijavoo

littlegreenman said:

I bought @drew_fx's album for real cash money after hearing TNBD on a freeby, and t-shirts and shizz, so that can work.

Snap.

mike257

To successfully market something, you need to understand who is your target audience to consume it and how to reach them. Look at other artists in the same sphere, what does their public profile look like? What media to they receive coverage in? How do they engage with people through social media? Who are they working with to achieve this? Also look at how you consume music - where do you go to find it, or where does it find you?

Whilst it's good to take it seriously and have a plan, I don't personally see adverts in mags/websites translating into album sales, especially in this day and age. How many people pay attention to adverts (as opposed to actual site content), particularly for someone they aren't going to have heard of and won't be familiar or recognisable, and chase that up to listen and buy? Ads within websites are generally perceived as a hindrance at best, hence the popularity of ad blocking plugins for browsers etc.

If you're really serious about putting it out there, finding a PR professional with knowledge and a track record in your musical area and at the very least having some sort of initial consultation with them would be time and money well spent. The expense of advertising etc is only really worthwhile as part of an organised and well thought out and well rounded promotional plan with a clear objective. Also, if a publication or website receives something from a PR person who is a known entity with whom they have a relationship, it's about 63 million times more likely to be listened to that something that comes unsolicited directly from an artist. Even the best assembled set of websites and social profiles will just make you another one of the millions of musicians and artists who exist online - you need to find a way to bring people to them and to stand out in your field.

mike257

To add to that - not having any live shows planned makes you a harder sell for sure. Publicity and promotion needs to be ongoing but needs to have a purpose. You generally see bands in the press when they've either got a new release coming up or a set of tour dates. There's always a purpose and the next move is always being planned ahead. Your promotional push needs to start with a tangible product that has a firm release date but to sustain any momentum once an album release has passed, you really need to have something to say aside from "the album is still out". That might be the hardest bit, especially in a niche market. Ticket sales support album sales and vice versa, and promotional campaigns are designed to exploit that.

thomasross20

Great posts. It's going to be a hard sell. Not "touring" so I thought about regularly updating a youtube channel instead. Will see... 

Thanks!

DulcetJones

Mike257 covered it pretty well.  I've been online marketing my "spooky" music without a live act for a couple of years and it's hard to get people to even listen to a track let alone buy it.   Facebook ads have been my best bet so far, they aren't as expensive and they allow you target Countries, States/Provinces or just certain cities(at least they did last year, they tend to be always tinkering with it), and you can target people with specific interests.  I was able to zero in on areas where halloween is more popular and on FB people who had expressed an interest in halloween.  This got me lots of traffic and the second year showed more sales but not enough to quit my day job.  This year I don't have a new album, just one single so far so I'm not going big on it.  You might want to look at RouteNote.com, they will put your music on iTunes and whatever subscription services you want for free.  They do the same thing as Tunecore but there is a free version and no annual fee.  When I had a live act(solo guitar, classical, flamenco etc...) my biggest sales vehicle was off the stage at live events.  And having public gigs allowed me to put my name out there a lot more. 

PolarityMan

DulcetJones said:

Mike257 covered it pretty well.  I've been online marketing my "spooky" music without a live act for a couple of years and it's hard to get people to even listen to a track let alone buy it.   Facebook ads have been my best bet so far, they aren't as expensive and they allow you target Countries, States/Provinces or just certain cities(at least they did last year, they tend to be always tinkering with it), and you can target people with specific interests.  I was able to zero in on areas where halloween is more popular and on FB people who had expressed an interest in halloween.  This got me lots of traffic and the second year showed more sales but not enough to quit my day job.  This year I don't have a new album, just one single so far so I'm not going big on it.  You might want to look at RouteNote.com, they will put your music on iTunes and whatever subscription services you want for free.  They do the same thing as Tunecore but there is a free version and no annual fee.  When I had a live act(solo guitar, classical, flamenco etc...) my biggest sales vehicle was off the stage at live events.  And having public gigs allowed me to put my name out there a lot more. 

Interested in your experience with facebook ads, did you make back enough sales to cover the cost of the ads?

DulcetJones

PolarityMan said:

Interested in your experience with facebook ads, did you make back enough sales to cover the cost of the ads?

No, first year was dismal.  I had loads of hits at my landing page and got very low response, it was for my first album in that genre.  I put out another album the following year and spent a little less on FB ads and got pretty good results, but lost on the total of both years.  This year I've been swamped with family issues and overloaded work schedule and only managed to get a single out that I'm not going to advertise on FB, or anywhere.  I have accumulated some contacts at halloween/horror blogs that are keen on pushing anything new I put out so I'm going with that, and the hope that I can get a third album ready for next year.  Another avenue for exposure is the online mag/fanzine crowd.  There are a few who actually charge for doing reviews but if you dig around in the genre your music is in you might find some that are willing to give it a go.