Marketing Your Music part 1
Greetings from Los Angeles. Over the last 15+ years I have spent a great amount of time marketing artists from the Record Company side as well as the Artist Management side. The goals of my posts are simple: help you position yourself, your band, etc. for success. It is up to you to make the best music possible. So lets dive in shall we?
MYSPACE
I’m sure you have heard it a million times: build a MySpace page. Yes, you should have a presence on MySpace, but more importantly, you should have your own website. The web is fickle, remember Friendster? MySpace is going through some changes at the moment and if you haven’t heard, Facebook just took over as the #1 Social Networking Platform. It is great to have tons of friends and plays, but if those “friends” don’t support you by coming to your shows, buying merchandise, CDs, etc what are they good for then?
I’m not trying to bash MySpace, it is definitely a viable tool for artists, but don’t think that just because you put up a page, used an autobot to get a bunch of “friends” and “plays” that you’re on your way to success. Focus on quality and not quantity. Super serve those fans from the get go. They will tell a friend, who will tell a friend, etc. Get the picture? You can do everything in the world to get noticed, but it won’t mean a thing if you don’t establish an emotional connection with your fans. At the end of the day it’s all about your music.
So practice, practice, practice …
Great post. I believe Facebook eclipsed Myspace in unique visits last December and quality over quantity is what is driving most people to “make the switch.” I’ve heard over and over “I use Myspace to discover music and Facebook to connect with friends.” As an artist, I use both to promote music and connect with fans, but there is a much greater ROIM (return on internet marketing) at Facebook.
Lastly, you said “Super serve” your fans. Great advice. Reminds me of what my friend and innovative manager, Marty Winsch, advised me to do: “give your fans a reason to love you!”