Music Marketing – Where Do I Start?

Posted on 28 September 2009 by gregrollett

Music Marketing as Content Marketing

photo by Pocheco

Sometimes the hardest step is the first. When you are a baby and trying to stand up for the first time, it’s pretty tough. Starting school, not so easy. Promoting your music, also difficult to get off the ground running.

Why?

There are so many directions to be pulled in. There are too many things to get done. Too many things on the to-do list and none produce immediate results. Spend 4-5 hours everyday for 2 weeks designing your website only to throw in Google Analytics to see that no one is coming to to the site. We are all limited by time and being indie musicians this is even more true, between working a day/night job, creating music, playing live and spending time building fans. You want to make the most of your time.

If you haven’t checked out the Gen-Y Rock Star Tool Kit, I suggest picking that up (it’s free) as one place to start. Below is what I suggested to one band that really had nothing done in the marketing department, but had a physical CD that sounds kick ass (tip 1 – don’t wait till your garage is full of CD’s to think about getting rid of them).

Step 1 – Setup Shop Online

Step 2 – Create Content

  • EPK (use Sonicbids or Reverb, or self host it – check out how Ford does this)
  • Bio / About – Tell us about your band, use keywords and content that is intriguing but also tells people what you band/music is about.
  • Videos – Not music videos, but band videos from in the studio, at practice, live shows, behind the scenes and shots of you just talking.
  • Pics – Host them on Flickr, title, describe and tag them properly.

Step 3 – Market Your Ass Off

  • Start connecting with bloggers asap. Give them something to write about, build up your inbound links and think about delivering exclusive content for every interview, feature or guest post. Think of this as getting in the Source or Rolling Stone 2.0.
  • Get people to listen to your music by paying them. Use Grooveshark and Jango and test real songs, get feedback and see your fanbase demographics.
  • Start looking at stats and tracking your progress (Google Analytics, RockDex, BandMetrics, Su.pr, etc)
  • Play live, get emails, promote to them, ask them for sales, guest blog, shoot more videos, write more content, give your fans cool stuff, ask them to promote your stuff (affiliates), leverage other bands and networks (JV Partners), play live some more, be aggressive, advertise on networks that you can target your ass off (Facebook, Grooveshark, Jango, Google Content Network, etc), sell stuff other than music-  make it exclusive – make it good and repeat as much as possible.

Rock Star Tip – No one is going to work harder than you in the indie game. Those who hustle the hardest, win. This list is really just the starting ground, but if you only did the things in this post, and did them well, you can make a living as a musicians and content producer.

A Content Producer?

That’s right. Even Jay-Z said his music sales were the lowest income stream in his portfolio. But he uses that to leverage everything else he does. For you this can mean many things from live shows, to merch, to membership sites, to DVD’s to books, custom songwriting, acting, producing, advertising revenue, affiliate income or anything your imagination comes up with.

As a Gen-Y Rock Star, your job as a musician and a marketer is to produce content worth sharing and monetize it.

I hope this post is a start to get you in the right direction as quick as possible. The best advice is to do something. You can read books, blogs, take courses and everything else, but taking action will always prevail. You may make mistakes, but you are progressing. Just like that first step as a baby or your first day of school. Look at how you walk now and well, you are reading blogs, so school did a little bit of good!

What parts of the plan do you need help with? Let me know in the comments.

-Greg Rollett