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!”