Update Jan 16 2010: Check out my Q&A with a reader which elaborates on this post.
Have you heard of Joe Purdy? Me neither. He made a healthy six-figures last year from his music, bought a house & sold more than 650,000 tracks on iTunes. How?
A good friend of mine was over for dinner last night and we had a chat about his band’s marketing efforts for their upcoming album, and here are some of the ideas that came out of our discussion:
- Maintain a blog/podcast, Twitter account, Facebook group, Myspace presence and any other worthwhile social media tools out there (don’t neglect them!)
- Advertise all the above at shows, in interviews, on the band’s website…EVERYWHERE!
- Give away mp3′s of your music for free (from your website), and encourage people to share it with their friends using the above tools. Maybe even seed it on Bittorrent.
- Never spend a cent on traditional advertising. It costs way too much to cut through the noise these days and the ROI is small.
- Use social media to ‘rally the troops’, crowdsource & interact with your fans – keep them engaged!
- Make damn sure all your music is on iTunes & Amazon. Even though they may have a few mp3′s they got for free from you your true fans will buy your music.
- Have a consistent ‘branding’ from the myspace page to the live show
The bottom line is, these days people have too much choice, and to make matters worse there is too much noise in the world. This means people aren’t listening to you. They are however, listening to their friends and people they trust. The key is finding people who have the Otaku for your music and making it as easy as possible for them to do your marketing for you.
I almost forgot – above all else, make amazing music.
Great points! I hope they take heed to your recommendations
I agree with your post, musicians should be aware of social technologies. However, I don’t think they should neglect traditional advertising channels either. If a band were to release an album, it might be worth it to spend $500 to put an ad in the local entertainment rag. I bet you’d have a much better chance of getting a review as well. They should also go to venues where big bands in their genre are performing … entertain the people lining up outside … pass out free music.
But I agree – musicians should be prepared to give their music away for free. The song is a free promotional tool … you’ll earn your money through gigs, publishing, and licensing! You’d be surprised how hard it is to convince many musicians of this fact!
And yes, don’t make crappy music.
@theneocom – the problem with paying for ads is that any sort of ROI requires a HUGE, consistent investment. $500 here and there just won’t cut through the noise. I like your idea of passing out free music though!
By all means, put together a sampler of your music three or four songs to give out for free. Put all of your contact info on the disc/case.
USE TWITTER!!!!! Quick updates, post thoughts, behind the scenes snippets with links back to the website, etc. Set up a YouTube channel and post video clips of projects you’re working on, backstage, on-the-road antics.
Bands and artists have an amazing opportunity to really intimately interact with their fanbase like never before. Don’t squander it.