Hitting the music-biz streets this week was an update from the online music community WaTunes (the same company that will get your music in iTunes for FREE). They have unveiled a new “digital marketplace” which enables artists to sell their music for their fans to buy – all in an organized and convenient manner. If you’re looking to confidently roam with the class of music culture then this storefront will help you discover new music in exciting ways!
There are several features from WaTunes that allow browsing and discovery of artists to be efficient and easy on the mind – two of these feature are the idea of “next generational social platform†and the multi-faceted Marketplace feature. The “next generational social platform†concept basically encompasses the up-and-coming ways of how people interact with obtaining the music they listen to and want. WaTunes gives the interested customer easy access to view and preview the music or track before they purchase it which creates a firm ground to assure the fan’s satisfaction. Part of the platform concept on the site offers a wide-ranged search engine and a genre-bank that allows users to browse according to their desired classification of music.
As you can see from the image above, the Homepage of WaTunes provides samples of various profiles from different artists. When you click on one of the samples it directs you to a more detailed and enlarged profile of the artist. If you were navigate around and fidget with the site you might come across the profile for Kanye West which is shown here below:
Kayne’s not-so-ego-centric profile page on WaTunes
Also notice, there is the “Marketplace†feature in the top-right corner that will direct you further into the artist’s selection of music you can purchase whether you want track singles or whole albums. Also, “Similar Artists†and “Staff Pick’s†are available in the Marketplace so that users can become introduced to new artist that are within the similar range so that discovering artists is an easy process.
Kanye’s marketplace on WaTunes
So, if you are looking to purchase music from artists, both mainstream and indie, you enjoy listening to and want new ways of understanding how to keep up with the music industry these days, you should check out WaTunes because it will provide you with insight on how you can stay up-to-date with and give you access to the tunes you want to always have by your side.
Site note from Greg: Kevin and the crew at WaTunes are always looking to improve the indie artist experience. From allowing you to control the customer data from transactions on the site to direct contact with your fans via Skype, they have some innovative solutions to working with artists. If you have any ideas or questions for them, feel free to send a messgage to Kevin on Twitter and tell him I sent ya! @kevin_rivers
A few weeks ago I sparked the conversation on Internet Music Marketing, or how musicians need to start thinking like the Internet Marketing crowd in order to really capture data and sell their music online. What sparked was a really cool conversation on promoting other people’s stuff via affiliate marketing. This is by no means the official guide, but a way to make some money by promoting offers to your fans via your mailing list or your blogs, Twitter accounts, etc.
This post will feature 2 networks and I aim to continue to work with music companies to get their affiliate info. The overall data will be inside Label 2.0 (sorry, need to give preference to those that put food on my table). We will be looking into iTunes and Amazon and how you can use their expansive network and product catalog to make some extra change.
iTunes Affiliate Program
Sign up to becom an iTunes affilaite here. It is super easy and done through LinkShare (affiliate link), a reputable affiliate marketing company that is known for paying its affiliates on time and tracking your stats pretty aggressively. The notion of the iTunes affiliate program is that you can link to albums, singles, movies, ringtones and really anything else in their marketplace and make 5% on all transaction. This means if you sell an album for $9.99 you will generate about 50 cents. Not exactly retirement money, but get creative and grow your audience, and the residuals can add up. Signing up for the iTunes program may take a few days for approval.
Amazon was one of the pioneers in online affiliate marketing and is essentially how they grew to the size they are. With their affiliate program, you can link to digital singles and albums, physical CD’s, books to guitars and musical instruments along with the millions of other products they offer. Amazon pays commissions directly and has a tiered commission structure, meaning the more you sell the higher your commission. You start at 4% and can easily work your way to 6% and higher by gaining a few sales. Again, this may not be the money to retire on, but in the following idea session part of the blog post, you may be able to get gas money for your next road trip.
How to Use These Affiliate Programs for Your Music
Now that you are signed up to the top 2 networks you need to start putting the links in your content, in a very usable and trustworthy way. In this tutorial we are going to use Amazon as they offer a wider range of products and the ideas can be structured for all of them.
Campaign Ideas
The first step is to generate an idea of what you want to promote. Some things off the top of the mind include:
Your gear – Talk about the guitars you use, why you use it, the sound it gives you, etc. At the end of the post say something like, if you want to try it out, here’s a link to grab one yourself.
Bands of a bill – This is the easiest and most efficient. When you have an upcoming show, do quick reviews on the bands you are playing with. Maybe a few sentences on why you are excited to play with them, some pics and maybe a YouTube video. Tell your fans that if they want to check out their music and start learning the lyrics before the show, grab a digital download here and thus link to their album on Amazon. This will get your fans excited about the show if the other bands are cool too and helps promote the other acts and they may return the favor.
Bands of a bill on Twitter - Fire out a Tweet or two saying something to the tune of: “Can’t wait to rock with XYZ Band this Friday – Insert Affiliate Link”
Sidebar links – If your band has a blog (Music Marketing 101) use the sidebar as a place to promote stuff you believe in, from music to gear to great books you read on a road trip. Your fans are interested in the stuff you do and these links can get a good amount of attention. The best part is that if they click on a link to buy something and end up buying something else during that visit, you get credit for that sale as well!
Emails – You always want to provide value when sending emails to your fans. One really cool thing we have done with some of our roster of bands is send emails telling fans to check out another really cool band. Something to the tune of,
“Hey guys – On our recent road trip we couldn’t stop listening to XYZ and we just had to share their music with you. Hopefully we can share a bill with them soon and the show will be super bad ass. Affiliate link.”
Getting Links and Banners
Now, let’s grab these links and banners from Amazon. After you login, you want to go to the links and banners page. From there I would click on the Product Links Tab to start searching for specific products to sell.
The next step is to choose a category, maybe music, DVD’s, books, music instruments or whatever else you are looking for. Then pick the keyword, from product name, to band name, album title or a general category. I do suggest having a product in mind before performing the search. Also remember that if the band is indie, they may not have their album within Amazon’s catalog yet.
Once you hit search it will look for the product. From this screen you need to hit “Get Link.” It is here that you get the code that you need to insert on your site, on Twitter or other places.
This next screen will tell you how to get the links, with either a text only, image only or text and image. You can add your own graphics and change things from here as long as you keep the link intact.
And below is a live affiliate product link for Caveman Theory’s album – The Stone Quarter. I do recommend their music for hip-hop heads, so please feel free to pick up the CD from the link below and you will buy me a beer or 3 when Amazon cuts me a check.
Amazon also has Mp3 widgets, that you can get to on the widget tab at the top. From here you can add whole albums, add select songs and make a “mixtape” to share with your fans or have singles that you think will be valuable to your fans. These will link back to Amazon and you will make commission on the sales.
Then you place the widget on your site, in your sidebar or within a post and get something like this:
Again, that is a live affiaite widget, where you can preview the artist’s music and then allow them to click and buy. The tracks are 30 second clips.
Closing Thoughts
This is powerful stuff and creates a new stream of income for your band and music. I do warn of abuse as when you stuff salesy stuff to your fans, they will start to ignore the ads and eventually ignore you. The goal is to provide value around what you are already offering and doing. Sprinkle links in blog posts you would have written anyway. We always advise against writing posts specifically for promoting affiliate links. It doesn’t come out naturally and your fans can call your bullshit.
This is not to say don’t monetize. Monetize the hell out of your music. Just do it in a way that you would want to be presented. You have something precious in your fans. Treat them like royalty and they will reward you.
Another frequently asked question we get all the time is “what networks do I need to be on?” or “should I only get on iTunes?” and “I can’t manage more than Myspace or Facebook, what do I need to blog for?”
I always reply, all of them.
Then they look at me like they have the time to create pages on the gazillion music sites and other niche networks on the web. How do they have time to upload their music to the countless services and digital download companies that may never result in one sale, one download or one page view.
I received an email last week from Sony’s motion picture department asking me for the full-quality version of one of my piano recordings they are considering using for one of their upcoming films.
The production company working on the film found my recording on iTunes. That’s right, iTunes. No agents, no radio play, no label executives pushing to get exposure for their artists – just iTunes.
Do you know what that means? It means that there are music supervisors for big films that are typing little searches into the iTunes Music Store and trying to find new music for new movies. It means that a DIY musician’s best case scenario can come true. I’m talking about the scenario that begins with that musician putting their music on iTunes and ends with a licensing contract from Sony and their music exposed to, potentially, millions of movie goers across the world.
Ok, So How Can I Do That For My Music
By Marketing the crap out of your music for starters. By being in the right place in the right, and having what someone is looking for and being able to be found. In Label 2.0 we go indepth about how to be found, brainstorming on everything from bands you sound like to what your music sounds like to producers and fans to building a band description that is killer.
What I NEED you to do right now is open up a Word Document, a Google Doc, a Text File and take 20 minutes and brainstorm the crap out of the following:
Who and what is my band? Describe everything from the members to the lyrics to the influences to the sounds and instruments. I remember one guy from a tv show, needed a song that was crafted by a Gibson Guitar – as Gibson was a sponsor.
Who do I/we sound like? Break it down, go major and go indie. People search based on music they want it to sound like, just at a cheaper rate.
What keywords describe your band, your music, your songs, your song titles, your live show, your attitude, your skillset, your local scene and everything else you can think of. Then find ways to get them into your pages, your descriptions and tags.
Distribute This Information in Your Marketing
Now that you have everything nicely written out, copy and paste it in all of your networks. It should be a painless process.
Send all the traffic from all these 3rd party sites back to your site or blog (Step 1 from the last post on Music Marketing 101)
Use aggregators and only upload once (TubeMogul for videos, Artists Data for live shows, Reverb, TuneCore or WaTunes for Digital Dist)
Set up Google Alerts or RSS Feeds for new music services and signup as they go live. Get your music and your contact info on there.
Repeat, over and over again and find better keywords, more laser targeted descriptions and keep connecting with people. Your music will be seen, if you hustle and then hustle again.
I’d love to hear what you guys think of this stuff and how it fits into your own music. What are you trying to be found for, known for, who are you trying to reach? Leave your feedback in the comments.
