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www.mymusicsuccess.com Get more fans, more music sales and more exposure! Looking for the most successful and cost effective ways to market your music on the internet? In this book we reveal all the secrets music publicists want to keep to themselves! 101 Ways To Market Your Music On The Web is the #1 book for independent artists, bands and labels seeking to market and promote their music via the web at little or no cost. Written by MyMusicSuccess Co-Founder Simon Adams, he shares his 25 years of music industry experience as an artist, producer, publicist and promoter to help independent musicians around the world harness the power of internet music promotion. “The most comprehensive and practical book ever compiled on digital music marketing!” Save over 95% of your promotion budget! Why pay an expensive PR company to do the work you and your band can do yourself? Buy this book instead to start saving money and getting your own results! In the 101 Ways To Market Your Music On The Web book we reveal how to Raise your band’s website rank in the search engines by getting guaranteed press coverage on the most popular music news sites, forums, blogs & social media Get your tracks licensed into the lucrative advertising, film & TV sync markets Use online tools to build a solid loyal fanbase that supports your career and grows your digital street team organically Get more gigs and discover the radio stations that want to play your tracks Sell more music downloads and gain new …

As a musician, bands have it easier than a solo artist in terms of cost to make a CD. Other than that, there are little or no differences. For bands/artists who wish to start the process of making, distributing, and getting radio airplay by themselves, believe it or not, you are starting your own record label. Even if your goal is to land a major recording contract, you will still need to gather more attention for your music by cutting, distributing and promoting your own music. You’ll have a much better chance at getting a great record deal with a major label if you are successful on your own first. You may even find out that initially you can even be more financially successful on your own than if you had a record deal.

In my book, The Indie Guide to Music, Marketing and Money, I discuss how MC Hammer started out by himself. He knew the bottom line and how much he made working his record in dance clubs. When a record company approached and wanted to sign him, he initially said no. Face it, if we were offered a deal like that or any deal, most of us would be rendered speechless and simply nod our heads to say “yes.” After all, that’s the musician’s dream, right? Why did he say no? Because he knew and understood his business model. MC knew how much he made on his own, and he knew he could make a lot more money on his own than they initially offered. Eventually the record label had to meet him on his terms. They offered him a much better deal in the end.

So, how do you do what MC Hammer did? Marketing, Marketing, Marketing – and it’s not all dependent on having your own label or producing your own music. In my book, “The Ultimate Guide to Music Success” there’s a chapter of do’s and don’ts for those of you who aren’t interested in creating your own record label and promoting a CD yourself. It will show you the correct ways to send a demo and get heard by the A&R staff of major-labels. It also includes a truck load of fresh contacts, email addresses, phone numbers and web sites to help you on this journey.

If you are one of the lucky few and have a lot of contacts and a lot of extra money, your path will be much easier, but still not guaranteed. If you are like the rest of us, you have a limited budget, fewer contacts, and even less time to spare. What do you do?

First you need to spend some money no matter how limited your funds are. There’s no way around that. You must also spend some time to start your business up and make your CD (a budget guide is also available in my book).

It’s the same with contacts. You have to put yourself out there and network. You need to spend a lot of very early mornings and very late nights initially surfing the internet for information on how to find and meet the people you need to help you on your path. You will also need to attend various functions and music gatherings where the music makers meet. Remember – it’s a see and be seen world. Join your local version of the BAMM or WAMI association. These are local clubs where musicians meet on a regular basis. Many important local musicians will be members and might be there to network with. Most every major city will have some sort of club like this.

The next step is marketing. Collect all of the write-ups on yourself and your band and put them into a folder. Then based on those, you’ll need to write a one-sheet up and pass it out to the people you meet at the parties. (A one-sheet is a one page marketing tool that emphasis the important aspects of your band/act.) If writing is not your gig, find someone who writes professional one-sheets or bios on a regular basis.

Once you have those marketing tools in hand, start making appointments to audition for local clubs. Take every gig that is offered to you initially, whether you are paid for it or not, and make sure to get the most press out of that gig. If you do get paying gigs when you first start out, great! Make sure you have a contract in your hands that is signed by the person who will be paying you. In case there is a dispute, and they do arise, you have a contract spelling out whether or not you were going to be paid and how much. Although it would be nice if everyone could work on faith and trust, make sure you get your contracts written, signed and in place.

Before you sign any contracts, make sure you get a reputable entertainment attorney to look it over. NEVER sign a contract before you have followed that step. You could lose the shirt off your back and much more!

What’s next? Work it baby! Work it! This is not the time to be shy and bashful about your career. You have to grab onto every single opportunity and use it to your advantage. Unabashed marketing is what you need to do…so go for it! Just do it! No is just a word in the dictionary. It may hurt for a minute, but it’s the people that can take the “no” 50 thousand times that will get the prize in the end.

Something I recommend is to take a few courses at your local community college on Business Management and Accounting. This will help you immensely when it comes to watching your money and the bottom line. Whether you’re producing your own label and watching every penny or whether you’ve signed with a major label, you still need good accounting skills or a good accountant you can trust. With or without an accountant, it’s just good business to look at your books daily. Oprah is notorious for this and look where she is! No-one will care about your money or your success like you do.

While it’s important to properly design, prepare, and optimize your web site for the search engines, search engine placement is only the very beginning of your music marketing plan. The first audience you need to target is your existing fan base. As I will demonstrate shortly, your fans are going to play a big part in how you lay the groundwork for future marketing strategies.

If you’re just starting out in the music business and feel like “I don’t have a fan base,” think again. You have family, friends, co-workers, classmates, former classmates, church members and neighbors all around you. If you sit down and start writing down the names of every person you’ve ever known in your life, you’ll be very surprised how quickly that list grows without much effort. Don’t underestimate the power of your friends, family, and immediate circle of acquaintances. You’ve heard of the fabled ’six degrees of separation.’ Well, you really only need two of those six degrees to start building a pretty large mailing list.

The Internet is a fantastic tool for finding old friends and acquaintances. One of the first things I recommend you do when building a mailing list is pull out your old high school and college yearbooks. Remember Fred? Sue? Or Tom? I’ll bet you forgot about all those old chums of yours! Go through the class pictures and write down the names of anyone you think would be interested in your music career. Now you just need to find them!

There are a large number of resources on the Internet you can use to research old school pals. Most everyone knows about Classmates.com, which charges a fee to join, but there are other resources, many of which offer free registration.

Make Contact – Newsletter

Whether you are a performing musician or not, mailing out a printed newsletter to your fans twice a year is one more way to drive fans to your web site. Your newsletter is your key to getting inside the home of each of your fans on a semi-regular basis. While many suggest e-mail is a good, inexpensive substitute for postal mail, in reality, you should consider using both methods.

E-mail is too easy to discard and people change e-mail addresses all the time. Not only that, but not everyone has a permanent e-mail address or Internet access, and for those fans, your newsletter may be your only means of keeping in touch. For the fans that do have Internet access, your newsletter is a great way to stir up curiosity about your web site.

Your newsletter should include much of the same information as your web site: band photos, a performance schedule, product reviews, news, articles, contests, song lyrics, merchandise info and, of course, contact and booking information. Newsletters have several benefits:

• A newsletter keeps your act fresh in the minds of your fans.

• A newsletter keeps your mailing list up-to-date. If you include the phrase “Return Service
Requested” on your newsletter just below the return address, the post office will return
undeliverable mail to you with the correct new address so you can update your mailing list.

• A newsletter is a great source of information for those fans of yours who do not have Internet
access.

Information and news about your web site should be a main topic of your newsletter. The objective of your newsletter, much like live performance, is to drive your fans to your web site where you can sell them your product.

So, in your newsletter use some of the same methods to promote your web site that you do when performing. Announce contests, offer coupons, give away free stuff, whatever you can think of. The more your fans visit your web site, the more opportunities you will have to sell them your merchandise.

Setting up a page on Facebook, MySpace or any number of other social networking sites can allow your album to be heard and seen by millions. Learn more in this free video series. Expert: Frederick Burchell Bio: Frederick “Ricky B.” Burchell is a rapper/producer. He has had a number one for seven weeks on the Christian Rap Charts and toured the world. Filmmaker: ricky burchell

Learn how to market your album on the internet in this free video series that will show you how to be a successful independent music writer. Expert: Frederick Burchell Bio: Frederick “Ricky B.” Burchell is a rapper/producer. He has had a number one for seven weeks on the Christian Rap Charts and toured the world. Filmmaker: ricky burchell

At the very core, the principles of running a business and marketing a band to the point of making actual money are not that different. Just so happens that this business is music.

Remember that old saying that goes something like “build it and they will come”. It’s an old saying because in today’s world it should read “build it, MARKET IT… and they will come”. If you do not believe me then think about how many talented people you have come across that made incredible music in their basement, music that never made it out of their house. It’s like they’re waiting for somebody to ring the doorbell and say “I was just passing through the neighborhood with a briefcase full of money and wanted to see if you have a great song available”. You know it’s not going to happen. However, there are things you can do to get your music/band marketed and we will be discussing this in the following article.

Let us first establish what we’re looking to do. We need to market the band while at the same time making some money or at least not losing much on the marketing costs, all this while making sure that our efforts will be rewarded if things are done right.

Let’s look first at traditional marketing methods. Here we have things like t-shirts, buttons, stickers and any other solid tangible good that represents the band or artist. Obviously CDs enter the picture and so do DVDs. With the arrival of services such as Zazzle and others, you can sell your stuff without ever seeing it or stocking it. You simply create your design online and when somebody orders it they will print the design onto the shirt and ship it out. The quality is really good, but as with anything that helps make your life a bit easier, it will cut into your profits.

These items earn back money while promoting your music/band. After all, some dude dressed with your t-shirt is like having a walking billboard. Try to remember these simple rules as you design your products:

1.    Very easy to read, clear and big logos work. If you’re a fan of warped letters and squiggly lines you should try to stay away from that. Nor should the public have to use a magnifying glass to read the name of your band. It doesn’t mean that your design has to be stale or boring, but stay away from stuff that you need to spend time and effort to make out.  If you’ve ever seen a shirt for a death metal band you’ll know what I’m talking about. You want people to be able to read your name fast and easy. Same goes for logos. McDonalds is famous for it’s yellow arches. Mercedes, Nike and Adidas are well known for their logos. You may notice that their logos are based on simple forms/graphics.
2.    Be sure to put your contact info on just about anything. The more contact details, the better. Your telephone number is good and so is an e-mail address. Some things, like t-shirts for example, do not lend themselves easily to this end, but there’s no reason why the website address can’t be present on everything.
3.    Get people to give you their e-mail address in any way shape or form so that you can start to build your own e-mail list.

Now let’s look at some non-traditional methods. We have here some ideas for non-traditional promotion that will give you the most bang for your buck.

1.    Club cards, more commonly known as postcards are great but before you run out and do these yourself try and see if you can get a sponsorship to pay for the cards. Here’s how it works: Find a business that is somehow tied into the scene you’re trying to reach. If, for example, you’re a rock band, a tattoo parlor or a store that sells punk clothing store might do the trick. Five thousand cards will cost you about 200 bucks. Pitch the idea as five thousand cards distributed as promo at your show for $200, with your band on one side and their business on the other. Don’t say stuff like you’re offering the back of the card, because in all reality the card has NO back. It has two faces. They get 5 thousand cards printed and distributed to people that are in their market and you get your card FREE! Works great for everybody.
2.    If you find other active bands or artists releasing albums then work together and print small footers on each other’s posters.  Your poster will have a small footer with gigs/releases of 5 other bands let’s say… Each of those artists will in turn feature a small note of your release/gig on their own poster. You will reach about five times more people without any extra expense.
3.    Getting sponsorships may be a bit hard at first until you are better known in your market. Most sponsors look for artists with a following. If you have started to build a fan base then you can try to approach companies for a sponsorship. Offer space on all your marketing materials as well as promotion for the sponsor at your gig.

I hope this has given you some new ideas about how to promote your band. Stay positive and keep working at it.