FREE Music Promotion Theory for Indie & Unsigned Artists – PART I

You probably already know (or you should know) that you need a music marketing strategy or a music marketing plan.

The problem is, you probably have no idea how to create one that actually works — one that isn’t a waste of time — the kind of music marketing strategy that increases your sales or increases your exposure to audiences around the globe.

The aim of this first installation in the music promotion & marketing series, is to discuss the NEW role that independent musicians have; being a business owner.

Promoting Your Music Career With Intensity…as if It Were Your Typical Day Job

Most indie/unsigned artists already have a day job in corporate America. A job where a limited amount of mistakes are tolerated, until some form of disciplinary action is taken… worse even termination.
Let’s setup a scenario where Joe works his 9 to 5.

He’s there on time at 9 and leaves at 5. If he’s on salary, he might not even leave until after 7pm because his job must be done in order to receive his compensation. Joe is an account manager — his job is to massage the egos of corporate clients, introduce them to the services the company offers and handle any questions the potential client may have. It’s a lot of phone work and a fair amount of reports that need to be collected.

But it’s all systematic, the instructions have already been laid out, and Joe’s been trained by Susan. Susan is his immediate boss, but Susan’s boss is Tom. Joe hardly ever sees Tom but when he does, the conversation is so lightweight, it’s as if Joe isn’t Tom’s subordinate at all. This is the basic chain of command in your typical office.

If Joe shows up late for work 4 times without a valid excuse, Susan will have to take action and Joe will be informed. If Joe prepares two reports incorrectly, Susan will know and will likely have to report these discrepencies to Tom. It goes like that and on and on.

These are all the advantages Joe has…

Now… there’s something that I left out. It’s the weight of responsibility.

It’s kind of weird because in one sense there is a certain amount of responsibility and functionality that must be met in order for Tom to keep his job. The advantage is that it’s laid out for him, he doesn’t have to figure it out by trial-and-error, plus he’s spent 2-4 years studying in this field in college – more than likely.

Let’s look at it from the music industry’s point of view… no one has ever pointed this out to you before. I really want you to understand just how serious this is. As an indie artist, you are essentially NOW an entrepreneur – whether you think you are or you aren’t.

You’ve got the role of Joe, Susan, and Tom and chances are you’ve spent 99% of your time working on music and 0-1% focusing on the business. Plus, there really is no college course that shows you how to actually get IN the music industry. They only show you what to do (if) you get in. And if you work a 9 to 5 right now, you’re not in a position to spend 40 hours a week on music. .

Even worse than that, there’s a LOT Of thinking involved. NOTHING is laid out for you. There is no Susan to train you for a week straight on how to market and promote yourself. And if you make a mistake, Susan won’t save you. You can show up late as many times as you want. There’s no Tom to make sure that Susan stays on you, to make sure the job gets done. You’ve got the role of Joe, Susan, and Tom.

Now if you add up these salaries together, you’re probably looking at over $100,000 (minimum) of responsibility and accountability on your shoulders. Wow! Now, tell me…

So what if you learned a few marketing techniques from a website or trade magazine… that doesn’t take away from the reality that someone’s opinion about marketing won’t do you a bit of good – without facing the REALITY of why it’s so hard for you in the first place.

And that’s just it.

The record labels have teams of people who are “good” at what they do. I don’t even like record labels marketing techniques all the time, but they have so many advantages that indie artists don’t consider and quite frankly… I’d be wasting my time writing this entire report if I didn’t convey this message as the most important message.

It’s that you are a business owner. You run a business. You are expecting to squeeze profits and success from a business… without having the proper training, without having the resources, with limited capability to do so. Here’s why… (on a deeper psychological level)

Because although this is your dream and your heart’s biggest desire… 100% of your survival is already taken care of by your day job (or school).

Which means, you don’t have any valid reason to work with the same “mojo” as you do on your day job. You don’t have those hot coals underneath you everytime you sit down at the piano or strap on your Telecaster. You definitely don’t have them underneath you when you’re on Myspace or YouTube or iTunes trying to promote your music.

You don’t have to show up at 9. You don’t have to work overtime. You don’t have to work consistently. You don’t have to put forth consistent effort to deliver results. You can get by with anything and everything because… you’re an entrepreneur and you’re in control of everything — and there’s NO ONE there to push you. Because until MONEY and FAME rolls in… you have NOTHING to lose.

Your mind knows – your bills are paid. And even if they aren’t – the only way they will be paid – is if you keep working your 9 to 5. But at the end of the day, this is one of your #1 concerns – but not really… because we can conclude that although you hate your day job… it’s what pays the bills and you are committed to keeping your job, keeping your phone on, and paying your rent, otherwise you won’t have a life and you definitely won’t pursue a music career.

If you’re in Joe’s shoes, you don’t even work the full 110%. You just work 99.9% enough to get the job done, get paid, avoid mistakes, correct any mistakes if made, and maintain the job so you can keep the job; all the while – you’re still gaining value and momentum each day you show up because you’re gaining more experience and learning new things. Even if you hate your job. But…

Susan… and Tom… now these are two people if they were to jump in the music industry, they might have a bit of advantage over you because they’re ALWAYS in the pressure cooker. They have direct one-to-one experience with combat. With statistics, with results, with higher expectations that… if anything goes wrong, it’s their job on the line. If (when) they carry this over to their music career, they’re going to have an increased level of success automatically in a short amount of time because of the way they go about it. The mindset is different.

Those hot coals won’t allow them to sit and wait. These are the people who have taken the time to write the rules, the rules that either deliver results or will be reworked until they do. Afterall, their rent won’t be paid without doing so.

Unsuccessful Music Promotion Strategies for Myspace, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter

As much time as you spend thinking and hoping that having your music available on these sites will help you, it probably hasn’t done much good. In fact, most artists don’t achieve much success no matter how many times they try or how many hours they spend logging in and out of these services. But that’s just it…

As a music artist, you’re probably great at arranging and being creative, but it’s nearly impossible to expect that you’ll know exactly how to promote yourself into superstardom, without having any from of real guidance.

Most musicians and other “music marketing” gurus focus on the tactics… the best way to get traffic through twitter, the best way to get traffic through Myspace, the best way to get your music on iTunes, the best way to get YouTube videos.

But this is actually a trap that delays your success more than it helps you, because it is creating a parking brake — you’re spending so much time trying to get traffic to a Myspace page that you forget what’s really important to your particular situation.

In the similar way a fighter learns the tactic of how to punch, the punch by itself accomplishes very little. Without a strategy of precise fighting combinations to defeat the opponent, the punch in isolation is just as useless as not knowing how to punch at all.

But this is how indie/unsigned artists (including almost everyone you know) try to promote their music. The switching from tactic to tactic – still gets mediocre results – still struggling to get sales – still waiting on a breakthrough.

But that’s not how you build a fan base or reach mainstream success. Besides, I want to talk to you, about something that’s far more important than Twitter and Myspace; something that can immediately change your career overnight.

Of all the things you might think you need… there’s one thing you need but probably haven’t heard before. That if you want this opportunity to become a popular music artist in today’s music industry, you must make a huge mental leap in the way you think about your music future.

It’s a mindset that determines how far and how far you go with your music career. If you ever cross over from being another “local artist” to being a music superstar – whether you get signed or not. .
I’m going to reveal this special mindset to you and explain it in detail in just a minute. Before we go any further, I want to set something straight…

You don’t need to send unsolicited music, you don’t need to beg for a record deal, you don’t need to post your music on CD Baby, you don’t need to use Pro-Tools, you don’t need to use Neuman mics, you don’t need to call an A&R at a record label.

You might as well have a clear understanding before you waste thousands of hours doing the wrong things (that get you nowhere) over and over again, while your true potential for success gets further and further away from you.

But in order to multiply your sales, get fans outside of your local area, and to avoid getting ignored and shelved… you’ve got to learn the right way to promote YOU… and YOUR music… on the same level as any other MAJOR LABEL ARTIST.

But notice that I said “opportunities you need…” to become a music superstar. Maybe you need an opportunity to get heard by a record label executive, or the opportunity to work with the right producer, or the opportunity to invest in a plane ticket for a meeting with the assistant A&R at Capitol Records.

If you want to claim your ticket to be the next rising music superstar in your genre, you must perfect the business and management of your music career. Trying to make a sale or gain new fans without understanding this, is just purely suicidal. I can’t say it any other way.

Why you’re being rejected… and can’t get your music heard by more people…

While digital music seems to have a greater ability for discovery and is seen as the wave of the future in music, a new study by Will Page, the chief economist of the MCPS-PRS Alliance, says that nearly 80% of all digital tracks for sale in 2008 didn’t sell a single copy.

At least they aren’t physical copies that are sitting in a warehouse somewhere. “

There are two things about that quote that 99% of artists don’t consider when they chase the dream of being successful in the music industry.

First, it’s the understanding that people don’t need music. They don’t need “your” music like they need gas or electric or even an iPhone. The music they do want, they want the singles by themselves, or they simply want it for free… only from artists they know, trust, and believe in.
Second, it’s really the hidden factor that the…

People don’t want CDs, they don’t buy CD Players, and they’d rather DOWNLOAD it for FREE!

Which means, if you are an indie artist selling CDs – you’ve got to make it WORTH the trouble of listening to a CD; because anybody who has a home computer can crank out a MP3… you’ve got an even bigger challenge to get your distributed to more people faster than all the other millions of artists who are screaming for attention.

Millions of indie and unsigned artists work themselves to death struggling to have any kind of success in the music industry, because they don’t understand this but yet everyday thousands and millions of artists try to obtain the same goal (make money, get signed, be famous) and they all go about it the wrong way.
As a result, only a very very tiny few ever get beyond the “local artist” trap and achieve anything even close to having 5,000 or 10,000 fans.
?
From 1998 to 2008, according to a report in the New York Times, the average share of Americans who listened to the radio at any given time shrank by 14 percent. Edison has found, moreover, that declines in listenership have been sharpest among teenagers and college graduates.

Even with radio listenership shrinking, it’s still a big advantage major labels and major artists have over unsigned artists. Even if you had a CD better than Britney Spears, and you have your song in iTunes and on Amazon it won’t make a bit of difference unless you can get it distributed to listeners who want your music and want to buy your music. Why does this hurt unsigned artists? Because you can’t get your music heard by enough people at one time to create buzz.

Since there are thousands of people with thousands of choices… The velocity at which your message/idea/song spreads to others is the most important factor that determines how wide of distribution you have – how many people get to hear your song will ultimately determine how popular you are.
But to complicate matters even further….

Since you have a limited number of songs (10 songs per CD) and a limited amount of time – you cannot afford to slowly accumulate your fan base on a 1:1 level. It is important for artists to understand LAUNCH sequences if you want to eliminate the barriers that stop you from growing your fan base.

But I also want to point out that, even without the support of Major Record Labels and radio, you can still be very creative with how you distribute your music and your message to as many people as possible at one time.

Important Facts about Music Promotion

The band Marillion reportedly raised $725,000 by pre-selling its Anoraknophobia double-CD album before it was ever recorded. Jill Sobule raised more than $80,000 from about 500 fans to record her California Years album, due out in 2009.

McFly have flown the nest of major label giant Universal after deciding to do things their way – starting their own label and releasing their fourth album for free.

It was a bold move considering they had become one of the UK pop scene’s biggest success stories during their time under Universal’s wing, scooping a host of industry awards( including a Brit for Best Pop Act in 2005) and enjoying 13 top ten singles, seven of which went to No1, and two charttopping albums.

Remember… after recognizing the hidden symptoms and uncovering all the filth that’s been rotting away at your marketing efforts, it’s up to you to cure the problem and take the next-steps necessary to improve your success in this music industry.