OK, if you have not figured it out I am on a massive hunt for the best, real deal – no gimmick – it really works, promotional tools for artists, musicians, and labels. What I have been doing is digging through the tools I use every day while marketing my own clients and really looking at their track record to see exactly which are performing the best. So, today, I introduce music marketing tool number 2 on my top ten list….

Music submit gets your music in the hands of bloggers, press, online radio programmers and beyond. I really dig the company. Each artist I have worked through their program has got an immediate bump in website hits, social networking buzz, and a lot of interest from the music industry. The last artist I put through got 5 magazine interviews that lead to more than 10 live gigs, a broadcast spot on a music video show doing an acoustic set, and about 20 adds on internet radio within about 3 weeks time. So, I really have to put this up towards the top of my top ten music marketing sites that actually work!!!

Click on the banner above and check it out.  They offer a lot of packages and always have some sort of special going on. Listen, they have a $9.95 program available. This is cheap and it gives you the ability to try it before you go full on with a larger package… and their large package is still very cheap!

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”

Hey Folks,

I know I have talked about it a lot, but it is worth mentioning again for any new comers out there. Jango radio is by far the best music marketing tool available online today. I know it works because I use it with all my consulting clients as well as the clients I personally manage. I just released a single on a new Christian artist I am managing and the results were outstanding. After releasing his new single on Jango we got more traffic on his  website and music social networking sites in less than a two days then we had been getting with all other marketing strategies combined. We got a ton of new sign-ups to his email list and we sold some CDs and Merchandise as well.

If you have been reading this blog or following my music marketing articles over at the full site; www.IamMusicNetwork.com then you know I am totally about DIY (Do It Yourself) music marketing so you do not have to pay someone else and you are in full control knowing what is what, what is working, and learning what marketing is about along the way. I feel that Jango does just that. You see instant results from the songs you release, you see where fans are coming from, and you directly communicate with your fans.

Don’t get me wrong. Jango is not a pay for it, release it, and “BAM” it works. You have to work it like any other music marketing strategy. You have to seek out possible fans, make friends, talk to them, and invite them to your profile. Like I have said about every other music social networking site, you have to interact and treat the fans you meet as real friends and take an active part in their interests as you would an offline friend. But man, with the release of Jeremy’s new single; “The Narrow,” I can really see a difference in Jango and that there are a ton of new users creating their own stations that open up your possibilities of reaching more fans.

For those that do not know, Jango is a website that as a listener allows you create your own radio station that will play artists you like. The station throws in songs from time to time that fit within your stations format and then you hit “add” if you like the artist/song and want played on a regular basis on your station. As an independent artist or group, you place your music on Jango and then pick 5 or so artists you feel your music is closest to or that the fans of “big name” artists may like your music as well. Then, your song is played right after the “big name” song on a listener’s station. The really cool thing, unlike regular internet radio stations that only stream one playlist to anyone who is listening, Jango streams individual stations to each listener. This means your song can be played, and heard, a massive amount of times in a single day.

The cost:

250 Plays = $10
1000 Plays = $30
4000 Plays = $100

Folks, this is nothing compared to other music marketing costs. Jango claims that you will get about 40 – 80 new fans for every 1000 plays. I can tell you from real experience, if you really work it like you are supposed to, you can get about 30 – 50 new fans per day of play. I have not found anything else in online marketing that get 30 -50 fans a day period. The cool thing is that once your music is added to 50 stations you start to get free plays as well as the paid plays. Basically, you get put into regular rotation. But don’t get lazy or cheap. The pay to play option still gets your music in front of more fans faster!

I can tell you to do it, you can think it doesn’t work or this is just hype, but try it for yourself, $10 freakin’ dollars is nothing to see the results for yourself! Once you try it, it’s like crack, you will be hooked and you will see that it works better than anything you have tried. TRACK your results. Watch your website statistics, watch your friend count on myspace, watch your plays on reverbnation, and watch the ilike counter go up…. that will be your proof that it works!

Click Here to Check it Out for Yourself!

Next post I will discuss how to effectively “work” Jango to get the most out of your plays!

Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, NOT Yourself in the MUSIC!”

A successful music marketing campaign does not just happen because you throw enough money at it. You can’t go from one idea to the next, spending crazy money looking for the magic bullet that will catapult your career to the top of the charts. Money alone may get you a bit of exposure for your music, but if you do not plan to maximize that exposure it simply dies and you basically get nothing for the money you have spent. I have seen too many up-and-coming artists that have a bit of a budget run through their hard earned cash in less than three months and in the end have little more than a local buzz to show for it. I have also seen artists with almost no budget rise to the top of their city, then region, then state, and on to national success by planning to maximize what little money they did have by following a plan and tracking results to ensure any money spent was gaining something, anything actually, as an end result of their marketing effort and dollar spent.

It’s easy to run through a thousand dollars when marketing music. In fact, you can go online right now and find at least ten people or companies that will show you how to spend your thousand dollars in less than 30 seconds by filling out their form, trusting that they will do what they say, and using your credit card to send them the money to get started. Some of these people and companies are very legitimate and will indeed do as promised, others may not be so “honest,” but the reality is this; you can pay a person or company to do many, many different aspects of your music marketing for you if you do not understand or have the resources to do so yourself, but if there is no clearly defined plan of how each effort you or an outside service provider acts upon will work together, creating a complete music marketing campaign, you will never get the huge returns expected or promised.

Every strategy or action of music marketing should work in conjunction with one another to create a plan. There is no “magic secret” or “magic bullet” that will take you or your music over the top. Yes, there certain things you can do that will create more buzz than others, but what you do with that buzz is usually handled by a completely different aspect or strategy within your marketing campaign. As an example, let’s say you have enough money to throw at radio and you decide to buy into the marketing department of a radio station group that owns 15 radio stations in your desired region. Your “buy in” gets you top 20 rotation for 8 weeks. Once you pay the money do you sit back and enjoy the airplay? No! That is only one part of your marketing strategy. If you sit back and do nothing, after your 8 weeks are up you have nothing to show for the money spent except the ability to tell your friends and family that your music was in top 20 rotation on 15 radio stations. So what! How much did it cost you to get it? What did you get from your efforts? This is a great example of throwing money at music marketing and getting nothing from it!

In the example, throwing money at radio should have been only one part of an entire marketing strategy. The other parts would have included radio promo tour to support the airplay with retail appearances, live show performances, charity shows, meet and greets, street team promotions to get email addresses for your opt in list, a website with daily updates and news section, daily or weekly email blasts to fans for support and requests at the radio stations playing your music….. and the list goes on. All of this takes planning, not money. Sure, going out on tour takes money, but it first takes planning, research, and actions to get the tour booked… this would all be done before you spent a dime with radio. Why? Because you would want to have the promo tour booked and in place before you spent money so you would know, becasue you planned for it, that the money you spend “buying” into a radio station marketing department would give you results. Again, the only way you can KNOW, not THINK, you will get the desired results is to plan for them.

This is only one tiny example of money does not equal music marketing success. There are many, many music marketing service providers out there that claim to have what you need to succeed. And indeed, most do, if you utilize their product or service within your entire campaign. There are companies that guarantee every press reporter and blogger in your genre of music will know about you and your music if you just pay them $1000. The fact is there are many great companies out there that in fact do their job and get you exposure this way. I have used many of them for my artists. But this exposure does nothing if you do not plan to utilize the exposure once you get it.  The only way to do that is to plan for how you will take action once you get the exposure BEFORE you get the exposure in the first place.

Buying your way into marketing does not work. You will spend a lot of money and have nothing to show for it if you do not plan how you will use the positive results you get from spending money. Furthermore, if you do not plan to use your bought exposure in conjunction with all the other aspect of your marketing campaign you might as well spend your money on a new piece of equipment because you will get a lot more use from the new gear!
For specific tricks, techniques, and tips on building an entire music marketing campaign check out the music marketing section on the main site: www.IamMusicNetwork.com

Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”

Do you have a website? I am not talking about a Myspace.com profile or a Reverbnation Account. I am talking about a dedicated website with your own domain name, email, and the ability to host your own shopping cart. A place on the web that is yours to do with what you want, how you want, and where ever on the page you want. Social networking sites are great, but they are not a dedicated artist or musician website and they do not offer all the bells and whistles you need to properly promote your music to potential fans. Remember, social networking is just one of many tools you need to utilize within you music marketing campaign!

Having a dedicated website offers you many features and options but what may be the most important is the ability to track your marketing efforts. This includes page visits, how long a potential fans stays on your website, specific pages visited, where your visits are coming from, how your visitors found your website, what search terms where used in finding your site, and much, much more. Social Networking site do not offer these options.

In addition to tracking a dedicated website offers you the ability to host your own shopping cart allowing you to  sell your own music and merchandise. This is huge as you will not have to use an outside distributor and give away a portion of your earnings to do so. Hosting your own shopping cart has become pretty easy and there are many free options available that allow you to use Paypal.com as the means of collecting money.

Most artists and musicians shy away from building their own websites due to the massive learning curve involved with actually building a website. In the past, building a site meant you had to know some sort of programing language like html, java, or php. Today, you can build a complete website with all the bells and whistles including video hosting, audio juke boxes, interactive photo galleries, user forums, and much more without knowing any type of programing what-so-ever. There are many customizable template driven systems available for free including my favorite, Joomla. Joomla is a free open source “software” that easy to learn, has many developers building easy to install “plug-ins” that give you massive freedom to create as you want rather than being forced to make what is offered work, and best of all there are many communities available to help you through questions and road blocks. Check out www.joomla.org for more information. In the next few weeks I will be releasing a Joomla training course on the main site at www.IamMusicNetwork.com that will help you get up and running fast!

Basically, the point to this post, start thinking website, your own website, and take the steps to get one up and running so you can take advantage of all it offers. I suggest going to www.godaddy.com and doing a search for your name with their free domain search tool and if it is available grab it now.

Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”

Ya know what… I have to admit it, sometimes I get so wrapped up in delivering useful tips, tricks, and techniques that help you gain potential fans that I forget about the basics. I am talking about what goes on behind the scenes to make a music marketing campaign successful.

Case and point
I just started with a new client and have been emailing him requesting needed photos, videos, music, etc. to plan his campaign. As I started getting the files I noticed that none of them were formatted correctly, had any type of branding information, and basically were just everyday files that a “normal” internet user would be sending to friends and family. I stopped what I was doing, picked up the phone, and started a conversation that led me to this blog post:

“Hey ________, thanks for sending over the files, but I notice you didn’t put your logo on any of the pictures or a water mark on any of the video files so potential fans would know where to go to find out more about your music. What’s up with that?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know how when you go to different artist pages and look at the photo section of their website each photo has a logo usually at the bottom of the picture or if you watch a video on youtube by your favorite band at the bottom of the video or towards the end there will be something that appears and says go here to learn more?

“OK”

“That is what I am talking about. I don’t see any of that on the stuff you are sending me.”

“I didn’t know I was supposed to do that.”

AHHHHHH, the light bulb went off in my head!

This is a new artist that up until this point has used the internet for friends and family. He has never done music marketing online. He has never tracked his efforts or even has a clue about how to track his efforts. He is used to using the internet like the average person, not as a music marketing guru!

My Point….

This new client has opened my eyes to a reality that I have over looked for far too long. It’s like a new bass player coming to me and asking “How do I get fans to come to more of my shows?” I usually do not go into.. “well, you are new and right now you only know how to play two scales and really can’t keep time very well, so the first thing I would suggest is practicing about four hours a day and get good so when fans do come, they like what they hear.” Instead, I talk about email lists, merchandise/information booths, and street teams. But right there in my face is the most obvious thing the bass player could do… prepare.

Music marketing takes massive preparation. The final move is standing on every rooftop and screaming to all that will listen; “Check out my music, you will love it!” The actual behind the scenes stuff take the time, effort, creativity, and work. But often times we, and by we I mean all us marketing types, forget that the prep comes natuaral to us because we have been doing it for so long. I forget that you might just be starting out and don’t know the difference between a PO box at the post office and a PO box that allows package deliveries. I forget that you may not already have a standard watermark prepared to place on every video you create or a logo that has been preformatted so that all you have to do is copy and paste it to any photo you decide to use in marketing your music. I forget that the basics, what I take for granted because I have been doing them for so long, is what you really need!

You see, the basics, the little things that make all the difference in the world when it comes to reaching potential fans and getting them to do what you want them to do, are the fundamentals of music marketing. If you get the behind the scene basics to become natural the actual marketing of your music seems simple! Actually, if you cover the behind the scene stuff you can almost do no wrong when marketing because at least you are reaching potential fans and they know what to do next.

Conclusion:

Starting today, I have posted a new article on the main I am Music Network site featuring “Behind the Scenes” tips, tricks, and techniques. I will continue to do so until I feel the basics have been covered at length! So, what are you waiting for? Click on the following link and start learning the basics!

Multi-Media File Storage and Maintenance

Peace,
Jai
“love the MUSIC in yourself, NOT yourself in the MUSIC!”

I have been doing a lot of market research over the past few months preparing for my next book and have found some pretty interesting misconceptions about who indie artists and groups feel their number one competitor might be. I have talked with very successful indies as well as “start up” indies and can 100% tell you the biggest difference is how the successful artists or groups view their competition.

My research has shown that more than 75% of independent artists, musicians, and groups feel that other local artists and groups are their #1 competitors for these top five reasons given:

• There are only so many clubs or venues hiring live music for pay…
• There are only so many, genre specific, fans in the area that will actually buy music…
• The local, genre specific, radio station only plays so many songs from local artists…
• The local entertainment magazine only reserves so much space for local artist coverage…
• The local CD Retails only has so much self space reserved for local artist’s music…

Here is the problem with this reasoning….

All these answers are all based on local market acceptance and appeal. You have to ask yourself if you are trying to be a “local hero” or are you trying to gain national or international recognition? If you are only looking to gain local recognition than all these are very valid questions and should be at the forefront of your mind. You should find a way to make sure you are on top of all other artists in the local scene and insure you are getting all the attention. However, if you are like most artists or groups I talk to, you want to gain national attention that leads to international success in the music industry. Thinking local and competing local will not get you there. It won’t even get you 1% closer to your goals. In fact, it will drain your time, money, and energy resources to the point that you don’t have anything left to devote to national exposure.

Don’t get me wrong. I feel that a local following is imperative to gaining momentum needed to achieve national success. But getting your CD in local retailers, getting a spin from time to time on local radio, or concentrating all your efforts into selling your CD to every single potential fan in your local market is not good business. Think of it this way; if you have national exposure, are getting national magazines to review your cd, gaining national spins on radio, and creating a fan base from several outside markets, don’t you think your local market will see that press as well? They will, they do, and it makes them realize that you are not “just another local market artist or group!”

Marketing music works a bit of the opposite as you might think. You can get all the local press and coverage you would ever want, but you still have to put in the exact, if not more, effort to create the national exposure you desire from that local press. On the other hand, if you put your efforts into national press and acceptance, your local market will pick up the story and run it locally because it has the “local musician makes good” angle. Now think about this; how much easier would it be to get booked in your local venue if you have national press coverage or radio spins? Much, much, easier I assure you! And what about self space in retail? It will be a lot easier to walk into your mom and pop CD outlet and get your CD on the “top” placement if you can show them spins, reviews, or stories from national outlets.

Your competition is national artists, not local artists. Local artists should work together to help raise awareness to the market. The more national positive stories, reviews, spins, and buzz your market can establish the better. Why? Because it will make national press, radio, and professionals start to look at your local market to find out why so many artists and groups are getting the coverage. This is the basics of how markets like Atlanta, Indianapolis, Nashville, Houston, and others have grown their markets into power houses in their genre. They learned, quickly, that if they do not consider one another as competition, and actually help one another piggyback on any coverage they may get as individuals, that the local market would be able to get additional national coverage resulting in more direct coverage of their own efforts as individuals within the local market.

I will leave you will one more thing to consider; If you put your efforts into markets outside your local area and only get four or five new fans in each market you put effort into, how fast and large do you think you can grow your fan base? The second biggest mistake I found while researching my new book was that artists and groups that are new to music marketing strategies feel that gaining only a hand full of new fans in a market equals failure. This is absolutely wrong. There are hundreds of markets in the US alone. If you were to gain only five new fans in each market, and to make it easy lets say there are 300 markets available (realize a city is a market so this is a low, low figure), you would gain 1500 new fans. Now, if you are truly marketing your music and takin gthe steps to increase awareness of your project you could show those 1500 fans how to get their friends into your music as well. To make it easy, let’s say each of your 1500 fans have only two friends, 1500 x 3 (your established fans plus their two friends) = 4500 fans. Now, do it again, each of the new 3000 fans brought by your established fans brings in 2 friends = 6000 new fans. You are already up to 10,500 new fans. I think you get the point. A small handful of new fans in a new market, if marketed to and worked correctly, does not equal only a handful of new fans!

Keep an eye out for my new book; “Low or No Budget Music Marketing Strategies” It will be available online at www.IamMusicNetwork.com and on amazon.com. And, to keep with the title of the book, I will offer the book for $9.99 digital download or $14.99 paperback version. It should be ready in the next week or two!

Until next time…
Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”