While working with new bands recently, I’ve encountered the same question over and over again: I want to get started on my music promotion, I don’t have a website but I want to get started making online sales.  I’m not a blogger but I want to spread the word, what do you reccomend?

The interesting part to this question is that each band or artist was involved in completely different scenarios.  Some bands were already performing and needed to setup immediate sites for email capture and promoting new shows.  Other artists were a “one man band” and wanted to take their music and test the waters.  With each I replied: Set your own pace according to your goals.

When discussing an online marketing campaign with each artist or band I asked them a few questions to gauge expectations and understand what they want to achieve.  It is very important to define before any WordPress installation begins, the numbers don’t lie.

What Kind of Racehorse is Your Blog?

I am a big fan of Zenyatta, a beautiful racehorse that is setting incredible records and she just recently won her  17th consecutive race here at my favorite track, Hollywood Park.  Zenyatta is known for keeping consistent with racing within her means.

For example, as the races get tougher with higher quality opponents, she still races at a pace comfortable to her.  No matter if the field is filled with quality sprinters, she loves to race from behind to maximize her greatest push and not burn out at the end.

How does this relate to your initial blogging campaign?  You must understand what kind of blog you either want or already have and guide it in the direction of the pace you want to achieve to win your race.  What kind of  time are you willing to dedicate to your writing and promotion?

Setting a schedule to pace your ideas over time will create the momentum to keep this project fresh and consistent.

Is Your Blog An Outlet for Expression or a Sales Strategy?

This is an important question to ask yourself when looking at your initial blogging campaign because they each yield different results.

My blog is my sales strategy in action, ultimately my outlet for expression with a purpose.  If your goal is to sell music, what kind of specific strategies do you want to test to get you higher conversions?  Are you marketing with a purpose?  Is each article designed to get viewers to your store or just to inflate your ego that you got new visitors?

I have been on both ends.  I was able to get increasing traffic on a monthly basis and felt this is all I needed with low conversions.  I had one blog where I was happy with 4% conversion rate because I was lazy and didn’t want to increase that percentage, I was happy with increasing visitors.

Ultimately, you want to make the most of your visitors and make them repeat their visits.  By taking that 4% as a lesson, I created a stronger email campaign and more articles based around what was selling.  That was the day I went from passive income to active income.

What Did I Do Today To Help My Promotion?

Be prepared to ask yourself after each task, how did it help my overall promotion or goals I want to achieve.

If your music site is your sales strategy, what specifically are you going to do to implement it?  Keeping this mindframe will create a purpose for your work.  I hate busy work, I want to create tasks that yield results not just time loss.  If you wrote an article, how did it help your cause?  Did you actively or passively  ask for mailing list sign up or push for downloading your new song?

The point of this activity is to get your brain started in creating plans that you can grade and make correlations to winners and losers.  Spend time where it is showing most promise.  Failure occurs and its up to you how you bounce back and tighten your operation.

Even if you haven’t started blogging yet, get to your nearest text editor or Google Docs and start writing down some ideas for articles you have in mind.  Get active and write down all topics for future use, don’t wait.

Hip Hop Distribution Homework

You don’t have to be a writer to be a blogger.  You just have to have enthusiasm about your work and promote it consistently.  Promotion sounds like an infomercial to many, half of the time it just involves connecting with readers and engaging in conversation with fans.  It’s easier than it sounds.

Answer some of these questions before our next session:

1. Do you have time to dedicate to writing and promoting your music throughout the week?
2. Do you have a mission statement, expressing your overall goals for your music operation? If so, what is it?
3. What kind of content do you have to offer? (music, articles, videos, pictures) How do you plan to use it towards your sales strategy?
4. Are you part of a band or solo artist?

These questions will get the ball rolling until we discuss more specific ways of promoting online.  I learned from my hit and miss tactics in the past, now I feel comfortable we will both benefit from a little planning and action in motion.

I no longer assume what an artist knows about online promotion.  It is to his/her benefit to understand the marketing aspect so that they can engage with their fans and maximize how they can help their online visibility.  If a fan asks how I can help, don’t just reply “buy my album” because of arrogance.  Share articles, ask them to invite a friend, offer free music, or just conversate on Twitter and build a relationship.  Invest in your marketing.

The music hustle is a cold beast.  The main reason I haven’t posted here in some time is due to redefining what I want out of this music journey.  I was formerly half of Fried Roots, and while I and fellow Fried Roots partner decided it was time to part ways, there was alot of  discovery to be proud of and lessons learned in that 3 year time period.

First lesson: No Regrets! Deciding to run an independent label out of Los Angeles was one of the best decisions I could’ve made.  I definitely came out of that experience with a sense of knowing what I wanted to accomplish, especially when times were rough and money was running low.

Second lesson: If You Haven’t Failed, You Aren’t Trying Hard Enough. This is one of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein that really has hit home more as a life lesson, than just a business experience.  Not taking the easy road and not just settling for safe choices created the gut check I needed.  Along the way, I discovered a passion for music marketing, helping other independent musicians, and the ultimate one: I  love creating music and promoting it.

Third lesson: Define What Roles You Want To Take Part In. Running a record label takes alot of manpower and defined roles to ease the stress on those creating music.  As blogging came into the picture, our marketing roles were tested.  Marketing takes time and effort and with a smaller operation, it can be demanding.  The roles I assumed came as I encountered them.

We went from musicians just wanting to promote music to having to adapt and learning about: web design, web maintenance, content creation, article promotion, social networking, accounting, planning and budgeting, defining music business plans and revising, and the list goes on.

After all was said and done I got to work on my passion: just creating music I love.  Small tasks and team development would have made life easier and business better.  Small budgets no longer are an excuse, its time to trade talent for talent and make the most of your dreams.

Fourth lesson: Learn and Don’t Repeat Your Mistakes. After all is said and done, there are many lessons learned from ambitious endeavours.  From taking on multiple roles, I now understand what to expect from services I will pay for or when I have people work for me.  For example, with an intern I can demand some of the same tasks to be completed that I laboured over, or if I had a web designer work on a site I can now make explicit demands to what I want accomplished.

The roles we assumed were expected and we were not naive to what we were getting into, the problem was cost cutting when money wasn’t abundant.  Do It Yourself has a greater meaning for me and this blog is here to aid all musicians looking to ease their efforts of marketing online, I laboured just like you.

After viewing online accomplishments, I am proud to say that numbers don’t lie and there is alot to be hopeful over such as

1. digital sales are increasing, with low distribution costs
2. monthly visitors to the site were rising due to good promotion
3. low entry cost to starting all over
4. planning specific tasks will ease the new projects
5. creativity is a habit, work efficiently and effectively
6. I will use this blog to help you and I understand where we can improve from a fresh project
7. I am more willing to learn than ever before
8. New enthusiasm: music is timeless and promotion is relentless

Thanks for listening and please feel free to drop your thoughts on your experiences, obstacles and life lessons you have encountered on your road to music promotion.

I am not looking to create another record label, because I think there is a more creative approach to what I want to accomplish and I believe many multi-tasking musicians out there can relate to that question of trying to figure out what is innovative and suited to what you want out of your music.

After all is said and done: Damn, I LOVE HIP HOP!!!

I was looking for inspiration for my mailing list strategy and chose to check out what the commercially cool kids were doing on Billboard’s Hot 100.  I randomly chose 10 artists from this weeks Hot 100 and wanted to ask some questions:

1. How hard is it to sign up to their mailing list?
2. Do they have a mailing list offer with any free music?
3. What are they offering to make me want to sign up?
4. What catch phrases are they using to invite you to sign up?

The real thing I also wanted to see is how these big labels  are now dealing with this new “socially conscious” movement of marketing and social networking.  By now they must have made adjustments and learned from some independent musicians’ success, right?

I was disappointed with a majority of the sites that I looked at.  There is a reliance on popularity and a somewhat arrogant attitude by not creating offers for fans.

Random Billboard Artist Experiment

A. Robin Thicke

1. I could not find a mailing list to sign up for
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There is a “Community” section that is used to capture emails, but doesn’t really peak interest into reasons to subscribe
4. no catch phrases and no mailing list

B. Usher

1. There is a mailing list sign up found at the top right of the page
2. There is NO free music offered
3. No offer clearly stated for the mailing list.  There is a Community section and Contest offered for a personalized Platinum record used for capturing emails as well
4. “Join Newsletter” is the catch phrase used

C. Timbaland

1. There is no visible mailing list on home page
2. There is NO free music offered
3. Not offering anything for signing up.  There is a “Community” section that encourages signing up, but community section looks boring
4. No catch phrase found for a mailing list

D. Trey Songz

1. There is a mailing list sign up section in the right sidebar, easy to find
2. There is NO free music offered for signing up
3. Not offering anything to encourage signing up, there is a “Community” section as well for catching emails
4. Catch phrase:  “Sign in, Join the Community, Upload Content”

E. Alicia Keys

1. Left hand side bar there is a mailing list sign up form
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There are no clear offers for signing up.  There is also a “Community” section to capture emails, featuring fans and social networking
4. Catch phrase: “Stay up to date with the latest from Alicia Keys. Get the Newsletter!”

F. Rihanna

1. Mailing list sign up found in the middle of the page
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There are no other offers seen, just another “Join” tab to get more emails.
4. Catch phrase: “Join The List”

G. Lady Antebellum

1. Join mailing list found on the top right corner, join by email or mobile, easy to find
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There are no other offers for signing up.  “Fans” and “Join the Community” are prominent.  Entice you by being able to post blogs, comment, rate and vote on stuff
4. There is no catch phrase for the mailing list.  The “Community” section offers some reasons to sign up, more along the lines of social networking. Joining the mailing list also gives options to join the street team and their community

H. Muse

1. Mailing list easy to find on left hand side of website
2. There is NO free music
3. No offers, more of a newsletter
4. Catch phrase: “Register for the mailing list: get the latest Muse news on albums, gigs, competitions and more”

I. Train

1. “Join Now” found at the top and another mailing list sign up is found in the right sidebar
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There are no other offers
4. Catch phrase: “Join the email list”

J. Miranda Lambert

1. Newsletter sign-up found on right sidebar.  Join fan club also found to emphasize community
2. There is NO free music offered
3. There are no other offers, but fan club promises perks.  You buy into her fan club by purchasing fan kits.  This gives you access to meet and greets, fans only merchandise and personalized “Fans of the Month” newsletters
4. Catch phrase: “Subscribe to Miranda’s free monthly newsletter”

Surprises?

Overall I was very surprised by Artists not offering some free music to get mailing list subscribers.  They don’t have to offer continuous free albums but they should reward a visitor with something they can listen to.

Your music is your best marketing asset.  Offering free music doesn’t always have to get a bad rap.  Free music that is downloaded and copied to a new fans music library is such a plus.

The branding begins as your name pops up on random play-list. Let your fan hear musical reminders and let your email strategy draw them back into new projects.

I got used to knowing many new music acts from just being on Twitter and letting their “Timeline” marketing happen, and I’m pretty sure your music can serve the same purpose in someone’s library, it just has to reach it first.

Most of these artists had “community” pages that allowed fans to chat with other fans, and keep alerted on the band’s news.  The community section seemed to replace traditional email marketing for most acts, which didn’t make sense to me.  What about fans that don’t want to chat with other fans but just want to receive music and news only?

The Catch phrases were not enticing at all and this is due to the fact there were no free offers. Internet marketers do it all the time with offering free PDF’s in hopes to get you to see value in exchange for your email.  Shouldn’t your music serve that similar purpose?  The recent mailing lists I signed up for offered some form of free music, almost as a test drive to get to know artists.  “Join my newsletter” is just not good enough.

I expected more of these mistakes from artists with limited budgets or ones that are on the independent grind.   By looking for inspiration I actually found the same problems left unsolved.

Some of the sign up forms seemed more like the record labels were only concerned with collecting demographics.  They were vague in regards to what you would receive with the mailing list but they were very direct to ask you for name, address, mobile, zip code, country, or favorite social network.

This was a test to grade initial impressions of mailing list sign up forms.  Some of these artists might have great autoressponder sequences to sell new subscribers, but what use is it if its not grabbing the attention of new readers.

As a musician, finding a mailing list service is key.  The next step is, how will you attract fans to sign up?

I’ve been really impressed to see independent artists being more creative than established acts in this area.  My attention is drawn towards value and quality, not so much on popularity.

What makes you sign up for someone’s mailing list?

Independent music is alive and strong. I came across an article from writer Alex Pham from the LA Times that discusses Youtube’s plans to share ad revenue with independent musicians. Youtube is trying to attract more users to the social networking aspect of their site, versus just letting visitors watch a video and run.

YouTube sets its sights on independent musicians

I am all for it. This relationship before was only for artists on big labels or those who had worked out special agreements with the site. Opening up this revenue stream creates an incentive for indie musicians to promote their profiles and try to earn some ad money on the side. Youtube understands the importance of the “DIY music” movement, as seen in the trend pic below.

I can see this as being an ok source of passive income coming in to your music operation. I really want to see how this plays out according to their ad model. How much traffic is needed to generate some modest earnings?

The great thing about this is you are already working on pushing your Youtube presence. No harm, no foul. The experiment begins. I sure hope it can generate more than Adsense daily earnings.

I’ve been using Google Trends recently for expanding my reach. I was intrigued by meeting influential music bloggers all over the globe. Ultimately, there is no lost cause here in research as long as you work towards your sites promotion. These were some of the initial tasks I wanted to accomplish in this test:

• Commenting on international blogs, increasing visibility
• Seeking out international blog reviews of my music
• Using Twitter and Facebook to build relationships with new friends

Why Use Google Trends?

Google Trends allows you to see the world’s interest in certain search terms tracked by Google over time. The nice thing you can see is georgraphic regions that showed increased search interest in your keyword. The accuracy of specific data may contain some inaccuracies due to data sampling issues and a variety of approximations, however, for our purposes the information will work.

In the image above I used the term “buy hip hop” as a general example to see any increasing or decreasing trends and also to find out what regions I could research to expand my music marketing efforts. I would recommend doing genre searches in relation to your music. What tags do you use to describe your style of music?

Regions Results

The image to your left shows some of the regions results where “buy hip hop” was being searched. You can see the different regions aside from the United States, such as South Africa, Canada,New Zealand, UK, and Australia.

Google trends is giving me an idea of some different places to reach out to globally where hip hop searches are flourishing. Now that I have a list of some countries to reach out to, I will do a Google search.

For instance, I will take UK as an example and search “Google UK” for their search engine listings. I will use the http://www.google.co.uk/ address to see search results that are UK specific and include world results.

I get a better chance to connect with bloggers in the UK by doing a variety of searches, such as “hip hop blogs” or “hip hop reviews”. I like to also refine the search and just select “pages from the UK” and resubmit

Positive Results

• I was introduced to new hip hop bloggers in the UK and exchanged information over Twitter
• I was able to ask what social networks are hot where they live
• I can create a network slowly that can increase my online presence globally, exchanging promotion
• I was able to find some blogs that review music from the UK and the US. Great for future free music initiatives and iTunes projects
• I wouldn’t have found some of these friends if I didn’t try this, they didn’t show up in my regions’ search results. Worth the effort

The list is slowly building. It ties in with a recent article I wrote called “The Blogging Fan is My Publicist”. The plan is to develop future marketing partnerships, exchanging promotion as a possibility. I want to work on creating different channels where my music and content can be sent out to a relevant audience.

I want to reach out to overseas fans. Hip Hop overload in the US is very prevalent. Put your music in front of fans that want to hear it, just do some research. Write down a couple of search terms and search Google search results for that specific region. Get creative with your own searches. Your music dies when your promotion stops.