You know that one day you'll be on the road, the big tour, which will finally give you the real break to promote your music.
But, what's the etiquette for making it a survivable experience?
This article in the Guardian tells it better than I could! - read it here.
YouTube music marketing is very badly neglected despite it being obvious that video sharing is a very big element in the success of many major artists that have broken through in recent years.
Enough said!
Anything that gives you a few useful ideas for making your band have that kind of impact is worth a read - as is pretty much everything that I've found on the LiveUnsigned blog!
We try to tell artists over and over again that if you suck at songwriting, nothing you do to market you and your material is going to work.
Miles Copeland makes the basics pretty clear in this great bit of video on the Artists House site. He also talks about rock and indie bands fearing the outside writer - this is ridiculous. If you need help to make it, go and get it rather than let your shortcomings doom you to failure.
"Don't let the chorus be a mystery - make sure it comes in like a garlic milkshake" - Genius!
Everybody gets off on putting MySpace down and telling artists that they can now safely not bother with a profile there.
We, along with most music industry thinkers, don't agree. It comes down to the fact that MySpace music marketing reached something of a dead end with every band spamming every other band to add followers. That isn't the point though.
You have to have a presence on MySpace as it is the de facto place that people - fans and industry alike - look when they want to check out an artist. A lot of ways that people used to use it are now pointless, but an active, regularly updated, presence will still do you favours.
This article talks about how MySpace still dominates in music search results - look at that post here.
And this one from Hypebot elaborates on my thoughts by listing 6 reasons not to give up on the old girl yet - Read Hypebot's list of 6 here.
All artists ploughing the furrow of the DIY musician want and need to sell more CD's.
More simple tips from Dotted Music:
As an independent musician, you are the person responsible for marketing your CDs to your fans. This can take a lot of time and energy, but if you work smarter, you may be able to maximize your efforts so you don’t have to spend all your time trying to get those CDs sold.
I'm all for simple. And why should music promotion always have to be complicated?
Well, as this post states - it doesn't.
Getting more gigs, shows, events, etc. for your band is really just a matter of implementing a simple process, making it habitual, and then sticking to it. Below are some practical promotion tips that you can take with you to help you land more gigs, and spread the word about your music.
Photo by digitpedia
We looked at this the other day - see the post here on Posterous MIIM Daily - where we pointed you to a mammoth post on how to email your fans by Pet Marmoset. And, it's a cracker.
So, of course are our two posts on how to build a band mailing list.
But, today, there is another bunch of world class information on this very topic from PR and cyber guru, Ariel Hyatt.
Her piece looks at many aspects of how to send your email newsletter to fans including timing, tone and frequency. It's backed up by recent data that proves that email is still the best way to reach out to fans.
Boston based research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey has recently completed a study that all musicians should know about.
Here are the important highlights:
“Three-quarters of web users are likely to share content with friends and family, and nearly half do so at least once a week. But while much social networking content is built around such shared items, most people still prefer to use email to pass along items of interest.”
