Think about this… Do you spend the day online looking for ways to market your music,  exploring how others are making it work, and the try the strategy to find it didn’t work like THEY said it does? And then, do you sit there and think to yourself, or worse, tell everyone you speak to – that it was BS and all a bunch of hype and crap?

Now ask yourself this… could it actually be that the music marketing strategy you are referring to – that worked great for the artist or group you read about, in their particular situation, with their particular fan base, and in their particular region – could have indeed worked but you didn’t get the entire story or strategy?

Following trends, or what you read online, that may work for one artist or musician is smart thinking…. If you think outside THEIR box. Music marketing is all about information and knowing your region, fans, and particulars. Just because you read or hear about one artist, or even ten, selling massive ringtones by using this service or that service does not mean you will get the same results if you simply sign up to the same ringtone service they mentioned.

Music marketing is about planning, information, and putting what you learned into a complete campaign. As in the example, a ringtone service is only a tiny portion of a complete campaign. Trend setters in the music industry know how to watch for tiny things that work for one or two artists, research their particular market, region, and fan base, and then string many factors they have seen work for others on a small scale, together to create a massive trend setting campaign.

Someone who sits at home reading stories on the internet and trying one after the other, with little or no planning, is a follower and doomed to fail no matter how many times they are willing to try half-baked ideas! Followers have no direction and do not know where they are headed or what the finish line even looks like. Followers, well, they follow…. while trend setters create.

The big difference between trend setters and followers….. A trend setter may only strike a few times a year…. but each of his or her campaigns yield massive returns. Followers, well, they work at this or that every day and simply spend money, time, and effort with very little return.

Point…. Stop following and start planing. Stop following and start learning. Stop following and start mapping out your career and find the easiest, cheapest, and fastest route to get you to YOUR finish line!

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

Click here to learn how to create your own music marketing campaign and become a trend setter!

Is it all a bunch of crap? I am talking about all the ideas, concepts, strategies, tips, tricks, and techniques you read about everyday while trying desperately to get your music into the hands of your fans… you know music marketing. The thing that you HAVE to do to make a living in this music industry. Again, is it all BS? I mean come on, isn’t marketing really a better way of selling out?

I have struggled with this question my entire career. It feels bad, at least to me, pushing my own stuff on people. I mean they are going to like it or they are not. What can I do to MAKE someone like what I have let alone take hard earned money out of their pocket and give it to me…. and give it to me for something I would freely give away just so my art can be upon the world.

Folks, that is what makes you a true artist. Someone who creates from the heart what your soul NEEDS to get out. Selling out is changing what your heart tells you so you can make a dime. Selling out is promoting a product with your music you know is wrong just to make a quarter. And selling out is being someone you are not while pimping your music just so you can make a dollar.

Being an artist is creating your art, sharing it with the world and hoping someone, event if it is only one person in the billions out their, enjoys it and gets something from it as you have when releasing it from your soul. Music marketing is NOT selling out. The only way that – that one person out there – can find your music that may heal their broken heart, motivate them to get out of bed to face the day, or enhance their time at the lake with friends is if they know you and your music exists.

It took me years to understand that. It took my brother – the one who pushes me hardest to promote and market myself – hour upon hour of telling me to put name on something, get a picture with so-in-so, or build a website (when the 90′s came around…LOL) so another musician or artist would be aware of who I was and how I may be able to help them reach their goal. Because I always thought – WRONGLY – my actions, ideas, or music would talk for itself.

AND IN FACT IT DOES…. but if you are standing in an empty parking lot at 3am screaming at the top of your voice… “I am here! I have great music!” No one will hear you. There is no one there. You are alone. You have no audience. No matter how loud you scream, your music can not speak for you because there is no one to hear what it is saying to them.

Music Marketing is not selling out as long as you do not sell out. Yes, there are “smoke and mirror” campaigns that are BS, there are strategies that take you down the wrong path from what your heart and soul are telling you to do or what is right or wrong, and there are for sure little applications online that will trick twitter, myspace, facebook, and others into gaining you tons of BS “friends.” And these type music marketing activities are for sure selling out.

But real music marketing, real communication, real emotions, real friendships built around your music with like minded fans….. that is only letting people know about you, making friends, and reach further than your music can do alone. I am not saying social networking is selling out. It is not. in fact the words alone… SOCIAL – NETWORKING… it’s being social and it’s about networking. It’s not lying, exaggerating, using “smoke and mirrors,” or being someone you are not……

Music marketing is not BS….. it is sharing your soul with the world and attracting like minded souls to what your heart has to say. Be true to you, no one else -  one fan at a time, over time, and in a way you can stand and be proud of…. that is music marketing that works, that lasts, and that you can wake up everyday and do over and over again without feeling dirty!

Just my 2 cents on what makes me get up everyday and be able to “put my name on an idea!”

“Love the MUSIC in YOURSELF, not YOURSELF in the MUSIC!”
Peace,
Jai

If you want to find out how you can make potential fans aware of your music check out:
The Ultimate Awareness Campaign for Marketing Your Music the RIGHT way!

Ya Know something…..

I have been in the music industry for over twenty years now. I have worked in recording studios, booked bands and artists on tours, done a million or so radio calls, set up distribution, managed some great groups and artists, and do a heck of a lot of music marketing consulting for indie labels and artists and it shouldn’t, but it does still amaze me at the one thing that always works in the industry…..

You have to actually take an active roll in the music industry to succeed.

That is all there is to it. You have to wake up everyday and decide what you are going to complete, and then actually complete the task. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering or record breaking – it just has to be a step towards your ultimate goal. I know, it just sounds too simple to work. But it does. It has. And it will continue to be the #1 best course of action, strategy, or marketing campaign ever created.

If you follow the blog or read my articles over at www.IamMusicNetwork.com you know that I lay out a ton of strategies and try to tie them all together into a campaign plan to move your music from your hands and into your potential fans hands. But if you look at each and every article or word I have written over the years you will see one thing over and over…. you have to take action to make it work.

I think we all make the same mistake. We are always looking for the magic bullet or secret weapon that will get us ahead of the pack. The one thing that will finally get us to the top of the charts, booked in the exclusive venues, or get our name on the lips of waiting fans. But as we search and search for that solution – that magic trick – we need to stop and actually look within our own mind. Is the problem really that you don’t know what to do next, or is the problem that you are not actually taking steps, consistently, that will lead to your success?

What have you done today to get your music in front of fans? Did you call someone to see if they gave you the “hook up” or did you actually take the time to reach out to potential fans in your social networks to build relationships? Did you send out your EPK to blogs and online radio stations hoping someone would email you back or did you actively seek out the owners of those blogs and radio stations and start relationships? How about this…. did you simply ask people to join your email/newsletter opt in list or did you send out an email today?

Setting up a great website, having a ton of videos on youtube, creating a dozen or so profiles across social networking sites, and signing up for a newsletter/email subscription service is only the first step towards getting your music in the hands of fans. We have all heard the sad story of “Build it and they will come.” or “Play it and they will hear it.” Meaning, if you simply build a website or create great music then surely fans will find you and buy your music. But this simply is not true. Just because you have a killer website, social networking profile circle, or a ton of videos does not mean anyone knows about you or your music. You can not “build (or play) it” and expect fans to come to you.

You have to get up every day and ask yourself – “where are my fans today and how am I going to reach them?”

But here is the secret – when you don’t find them today, you still have to wake up tomorrow and ask the same question! Then, you have to work again tomorrow at actually finding and reaching those fans. It’s not easy, I didn’t say the #1 easiest method of winning in the music industry – But this is the #1 secret to the music industry. You can not get discouraged and stop looking for fans. You can not expect your manager to find you fans. You can expect your record label is getting you fans. And by all means, you can not count on anyone but yourself to wake up every day and search for fans but yourself.

Are you going to hit road blocks….. everyday! Is it going to be tough to stay motivated…. everyday! Will you want to give up because you have been trying for six months or a year and are not much further along…. everyday! But you know what…. everyday, if you keep on the grind, you will get more fans, sell more music, and create your space within the music industry. It does work, it does pay off, and you can make your living. Don’t get me wrong, you still need luck, information, and acquired skills to hit “the big” time. But in order to acquire the skills you have to be honing your game, and luck – luck is being in the right place at the right time and having the skills in place to take advantage of the situation – how are you going to have any luck if you are not on your grind daily? How are you going to develop skills if you don’t work at them everyday – and sometimes fall flat on your face?  Information comes from doing it over and over to see what works and what doesn’t and by actually being in the game to network and meet more people that have the information.

There is only one fundamental truth to the music industry: You have to be in it to win it!

Counting on others to do for you is not being in the industry. Waiting on something to happen is not being in the industry. Watching fro the sidelines is not being in the industry. And most important – you don’t have to have money to make it in the industry if you are willing to work harder than anyone around you. We are in the internet age now, you can make a living right from your house, with your music and merchandise, if you actually work the industry – and that will fund the rest of what you need to do.

You know, really, there is no excuse to not making it in the industry except you didn’t try.

This has been a motivational minute by Jai. LOL!!

Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”
Buy my new book – The Music Business Bible – and learn EVERYTHING you need to know about the music industry to succeed!

Just a quick post for those who are following my series on “Creating A Music Marketing Campaign.” – And for those who are just finding out for the first time….

Part three of the series has been posted:

Creating A Music Marketing Campaign – Part 3

The series will walk you through planning, researching, and tracking a complete music marketing campaign to successful fet your music in the hands of fans!

Let me know what you think about it…
Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”

Ok, keeping with the building of your music marketing campaign I have posted the second article int he series “Creating Your Music Marketing Campaign” over at I am Music Network. This article dives deep into selecting a base region and how to keep track of all the research you will need to do to conquer any region you want.

Building A Music Marketing Campaign – Part 1

Building A Music Marketing Campaign – Part 2

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

First, I want to say sorry for letting so much time lapse between blog posts. It has gotten crazy busy around here and I let it slip. My bad, won’t happen again….until next time if I am being really honest about the situation.

Ok, I was talking to a client of mine today and we started going over what he needed to do before jumping into marketing strategies and spending money. I asked if he could send me his marketing plan/campaign so I could go over it and see if or where he might need my help. After I asked I got that long, silent, moment I almost always get when I ask this question…. it means he didn’t have one.

What was crazy is I had been talking to this guy for a few days and he was incredibly smart and knew a lot about the music marketing game. I mean he had strategy after strategy memorized, worked out, and knew what resources he would need to take action. But he didn’t have a master campaign or plan figured out. HUGE MISTAKE!

Jumping from one strategy to another simply hoping that by stringing them all together they would all work is not a music marketing plan. It’s not even a goal. It’s a hope, a very thin hope that the money spent will actually earn back some money.

Anyway….

I asked how he could have so much knowledge but not have a plan. He simply stated that he did not know who or where to begin.

So, because of this conversation I realized that there may be a lot of info out there giving specific strategies to the un-informed, but very little information about how to string it all together in to a comprehensive music marketing campaign. Light bulb moment….

Please visit I am Music Network – the parent site to this blog and check out the first article in the series on “Creating Music Marketing Campaigns!”

Hey, and stop being shy! Leave me a comment or two letting me know what you think. If I don’t hear from you I don’t know what it is you want to learn about.

As always…
Peace,
Jai
www.JaiHutcherson.com
“love the music in yourself, not yourself in the MUSIC!”
Create the Ultimate Awareness Campaign on the Internet for your MUSIC!

Hey Folks!

Man, I love this time of year. My family celebrates Christmas and my wife goes all out decorating the house, baking cookies, and spending all my money to try and single handedly save the economy as she hits all the shops and malls for presents. I am amazed every year how much she gets done and how well she sticks to her plans no matter how crazy things get…..

Of course that makes me think about “follow through.” I have gone, one time only, with my wife to the malls and shops to “be in the spirit” and help her pick out a few gifts for family and friends and I can tell you that if she did not have “follow through” and stick to her plan we would have never made it out of the mall alive! Me being like a kid in a candy store…. ok, we were in the candy store…. I wanted to go here and there as I saw shiny cool toys and gadgets that I wanted for myself, but my wife kept pointing to the clock, her list, and then telling me “we don’t have time for you to just stroll through the mall window shopping… we have to get in, get out, and stick to the plan!” “But, but, right now I’m here and everything is out and I have been thinking about looking at this stuff for a while now, this is a good time to just quickly look…” I said. “No, we have to keep with the plan or I will not get done what I need to do today to finish everything before Christmas!” she said.

Let me tell you this. When my wife says “NO!” It wakes me up. Usually she is the sweet, quiet type that just kinda goes along with the flow of life at her own pace. Actually, usually she is late to everything because she just moves to her own clock and really enjoys being chill. So, when she puts her foot down and says “NO” I have to wake up and listen….

What does this have to do with music marketing and awareness campaigns? A lot! You see, my wife gets all the shopping done, all the cooking completed, gifts wrapped, house decorated, and everything else that demands her time every year at Christmas because she has developed a plan and then sticks to that plan to a “T.” That one time of going to the mall with her showed me just how much she does stick to that plan and why….. My “five minutes here and there” just to check out a new toy or shinny object added up to making her more than two and a half hours off schedule. And trust me, once she is on a mission – the last thing you want to do is be the one to get her off schedule – she made me work with her the rest of the day to get back on schedule and by doing so I saw exactly what my “five minutes” really did for her day and plan!

Your music marketing activities, especially online awareness campaign work, require strict detail to a schedule. Getting off schedule even a day can throw the entire campaign out of wack until you get back on schedule. This is because each step you take is built upon the previous steps and you can not move forward until you complete each step of the plan. If you do not follow through, down to the minute, of what you are supposed to do you will start to hurt your over all online awareness campaign.

While you are online it is hard not to just take five minutes to look at this or that – you know the shinny things that grab our attention – and those five minutes add up quickly. While you are doing searched on your favorite search engine for radio stations or online magazines, a headline about your favorite commercial rtist might grab your attention, or when you visit a radio station site a picture might grab your attention and make you want to click on the picture to see or learn more…. This takes you off task and off schedule fast. It might not seem like much, but add this up over a three or four hour period of doing research and you have now only spent about half the time you dedicated to research actually researching music industry resources.

Staying focused and following through with your plan while surfing the net is hard work – maybe harder than anything else while marketing your music. You have email, forum announcements, new blog posting announcements, instant message pop ups, etc. that all are competing with your time and energy while doing your work. You have to learn the art of tuning distractions out, turning off announcements, and paying attention only to the task at hand. Your music marketing efforts have got to be the only thing that has your complete and total attention the entire time you are acting upon it. Not just for the time drain, but also for your focus, your commitment, and your follow through.

Constant research, sifting through websites for needed information, and going through lists of radio stations or press outlets to find the ones that are still in business is tedious. I have found that the only way I can do it over and over, day after day, is to set goals. I set a goal of 20 – 25 radio stations a day, 3 – 5 music magazines a day, and 3 – 5 event promoters a day. By doing this I have a goal to keep in mind which forces me to stick to the plan of the day. I then know I do not have time to get distracted by those “new and shinny” things that pop up looking to steal my time and effort.

Here are some tips for making the best of your time online while working your awareness campaign:

• 1. Shut down email programs for the entire time you are working. – Check your email before you start and then after you finish, but not during.
• 2. Turn off your instant message software while working.
• 3. Create goals for each day of work and do not allow yourself to stray away from that goal until you reach it.
• 4. As you find “shinny” things that grab your attention make a note so you can go back to them once you complete your online awareness activities.
• 5. Do not visit your social networking sites or favorite user forums while working.
• 6. Do not allow yourself to read the news, current events, or anything not directly related to your research while on industry websites – Keep note of sites that offer these things and do allocate time for this at a later date/time. It is iportant to stay on top of industry news, but not while working on awareness.
• 7. Turn off your phone while working.
• 8.  Close your office door or let anyone else around you know that you are working and need total focus so no interruptions.
• 9. Once you begin your online awareness activities limit your breaks to only one an hour and make that one break quick so you stay focused and on point.

Hopefully this will get you thinking and you can create a space and frame of mind to keep on point, stay focused, and follow through while acting upon your online awareness campaign! If you have some more ideas that may help other readers please leave a comment or two and I will post for everyone to see and appreciate! As always… keep busy, work smart not hard, and remember – the more effective effort you put into your music marketing efforts the more you get out of them…. Knowledge is power and the more you have the further you will go!

To jump start your music marketing efforts check out The Ultimate Online Awareness Campaign eBook available now!!!

Have a very merry Christmas and happy holidays!!!
Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”

The music industry screams for you to be different, forge your own path, take risks, and be creative in everything you do including marketing your music. And being different is a great thing – to a point. But being different does not mean you have to stay away from tried and true ideas, concepts, strategies, or means in which you market your music. Being different – or better yet – unique – means you find ways to set yourself apart from the crowd while utilizing proven systems of marketing. It does not mean you buck the entire system and “go it the hard way.” But a sad fact is that many, many independents feel that the only way they can have street cred or feel like they are truly independent is to take the hardest road they can find, or worse – try to reinvent the wheel – and somehow grind themselves up the road and hope to miraculously get the same results as the “sell outs” that are using the proven concepts, ideas, and strategies to market their music. CRAZY!

“But what does all this have to do with funneling fans to buy my music?”

For some reason, the music industry stays out of “traditional” marketing channels like it’s a plague. Now, don’t get me wrong, most of the successful artists and labels adopt “traditional” marketing techniques from day one – and they have the sales to prove it! These successful independents get that the easiest, and fastest way to get more fans is to understand marketing as a whole, instead of looking for a quick fix or one-off solution. They understand that marketing music is a process in which you have to first find your potential fans, then get them interested, get them to take a small step of action – not a giant step like buying your music or merchandise yet – then continue to build a relationship and trust, communicate some more, then get them to take a bigger desired action step – get them involved, and then get them to actually buy music and attend live shows. This is called “Funnel Marketing” in the world outside of the music industry. But it’s called the same thing by the successful independents that use it everyday to sell more and more music as well!

Funnel marketing is the backbone of any successful marketing campaign in the real world as well as in the music industry. The concept is simple. Think about a funnel, at the top is a huge area used to collect or attract anyone who may be interested in your music. As those people start down the funnel, through strategic marketing strategies put in place to funnel out people who may not really be into your music, they are asked to take small, actually tiny, steps of action like signing up for your weekly newsletter or participating in your user forum. As the hole in the funnel gets smaller and smaller, the fans that are still in the funnel are increasingly going to be life long fans that support your music. At the bottom of the funnel, where the fan comes out is your shopping cart where the fan can buy your music, buy merchandise, get tickets for live events, or anything else you may want them to purchase or do as an action item that only true fans will actually follow through with.

The key to funnel marketing is starting with a broad range of potential fans at the top of the funnel and directing those fans through strategies – funnel holes – by means of getting them to interact and take small action steps – so by the time they get to the tiny hole in the bottom of the funnel you know you have a dedicated, true fan, that will want to buy your music. You see, most independents try to sell their music way, way before it is time. What happens is that a potential fan is hit with sales pitches everywhere they turn. This automatically sends red flags up in a potential fans mind. They want to discover music, find a cool or groovy artist, or want to feel they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Simply buying a CD does none of this. But by using the funnel marketing technique you offer the potential fan the ability to discover your music, join your community, take action to become involved, communicate with you and other fans, help your movement through small action steps around their own network of friends, become more involved, and only after all that – buy your music. You are letting them test drive the music at their own pace, under their own direction and commitment of involvement, but in reality, through funnel marketing you are guiding them to exactly where you want them to end up – your shopping cart to buy your music. But you are not asking them to buy your music before they are ready! This is important. You are guiding them to the decision and by the time they get through the funnel they are ready with money in hand and can not get your music fast enough!

“Now, this sounds a lot like marketing! Oh NO!  – what gives?”

This is marketing, yes. But I am not saying you are not genuine in what you are doing. Meaning, you still have to be real. You still have to communicate. You still have to offer good music. And you still have to be a real artist, label, producer, agent, or manager. I am not saying stop being who you are or want to be and go put on a suit and tie and call yourself a marketing guru because you have now learned about the marketing funnel. Not at all – THAT IS CRAZY!

What I am saying is in your unique way, being as creative as you want to be, use the funnel marketing technique to gently guide your potential fans down the funnel towards your ultimate goal of selling more music – therefor allowing you to ability to make your living from the music you create or manage. I am saying once you learn that you are trying to sell your music too soon to potential fans you will start to sell more music all together. The music marketing funnel allows you to gently get fans to buy your music by weeding out the people that may not be 100% into your music as well as pull the potential fans that could be into your music if they were given a chance instead of bombarded with “BUY MY MUSIC NOW!” messages and lead to your shopping cart all while having the satisfaction of building a good relationship with you.

Click on the link to learn how to use the music marketing funnel to increase awareness, generate buzz, & drive CD sales!

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

I blog a lot about the importance of planning your music marketing and promotions campaign before spending one dime, exerting any energy, or thinking about any one strategy. The planning stage is the most important part of marketing independent music. It is when you determine the how, what, when, where, and how much it is going to cost to get your music in the hands of potential fans. Planning is what separates the “wanna be’s” from the successful artists, musicians, producers, and record labels. Really! I have seen many, many people that have plenty of money fail and waste their money trying idea after idea with no plan in place. I have also seen people with very little money, that follow a plan, become very successful!

The best tool I have found to plan your campaign is called mind mapping software. The tool I want to share with you today is called MindMeister and it is free to use, available as an online application, and really, really helps you look at the big picture as well as drill down to specifics. Let’s take a look at how to use MindMeister to effectively build your successful music marketing and promotions campaign…

(I am not going to go into detail about how to use MindMeister as they have great tutorial videos available on their website and I would only be duplicating their efforts. Check out the videos to get started on your mind map!)

I am currently working with a Christian Artist, Jeremy Ledgewood, and I will use the mind map I created when determining how I would market him to the world:

The first step to planning a total music marketing and promotions campaign is to look at the entire picture and forget about the details. Often times this is called the 30,000 foot view because it’s like being in an airplane and looking down at a city from the window. You can see that there is indeed a city below, that there are roads, and that the city is laid out in a grid. But you can not see individual road signs, cars, business names, etc. As you start to create your campaign you need to stay at the 30,000 view level and simply think about the big picture items of a music marketing and promotions campaign. Examples would be online marketing, offline marketing, publicity, radio, video, and live show/tour marketing. As you start to use the mindmeister software you need to put the artist or campaign name in the center and then add your big picture concepts to the main heading. Here is an example:

As you can see, I have Jeremey Ledgewood as the campaign title in the center and each of the big picture categories coming off as individual marketing and promotion campaigns.

The second step is to “brainstorm” ideas and specific strategies within each campaign category. This is still not the time to get too specific. Let’s take online as an example. This is a huge category in marketing independent music. What you need to do at this point is decide all the available strategies online marketing offers you – opt in email lists, social networking, awareness, etc. Here is what I did with Jeremey during this stage:

Again, I am still looking at the “big picture” or 30,000 foot view of the entire campaign. Let’s look at online marketing again. In this category I have awareness, opt-in email, and social networking. But I have not drilled down intoany type of specifics like what social networking sites I will use, what I will do in specific sites, how often I will work on social networking, etc. This is because I am simply trying to get a full, big picture, idea of what it is I will do to market Jeremy Ledgewood’s music. As you continue with this process you will get down to the finite detail of your entire campaign. Let’s go another step further….

Now you can see that under the online category > Social Networking, I have expanded out specific social networking sites used by potential fans to find new independent music. Again, I still have not gotten into specifics of each of these site. I have only listed them as a tool I will use in my online marketing campaign.

Your next step is to start drilling down each of the sub categories in each category. Here is an example:

Using our “Online” example and expanding upon it, you can see that now myspace, twitter, and ourstage have sub categories. Myspace is going to be used for the 13-21 year old demographic marketing and promotion efforts, uploading music vidoes, fan club communications, and outstage contest promotions. Again, each of these categories are the “big picture.” The actual steps and action items needed for a successful outcome have not been determined yet. Looking at the big picture as a whole allows you to see the entire campaign. It allows you to see where you can promote the ourstage contests across the entire campaign. When you look at only one peice of the puzzle or “strategy” you get lost in the details. Details slow your music marketing and promotion engine down to a crawl. Plus, if you look only at online > myspace for example, and don’t think about the other areas, you might miss that using myspace to promote the ourstage contests would be a great tie-in marketing strategy.

It is always best when creating your campaign to start at the 30,000 foot view and continue drilling that view down for the entire campaign as a whole until you are to the finite details. Meaning, even after you figure out each of the categories off the main headline, don’t get caught up and “run with the ball” to complete one of the categories – in our case an example would be online. If you only drill down online in our example you would totally miss that you need to place links to radio stations on your myspace page so potential fans can listen to your music or better, request your music at the radio stations you have rotation! Or you might miss that you need to place a link to sign-up for your opt-in email list on your myspace page as well. You see, you have to start very broad, then look at each category and only drill down to the next level as you consider all the other categories as well because they each work together to form your entire music marketing and promotions campaign.

I think you are starting to get the point. This blog post really was not intended to be a blue print for creating a music marketing and promotions campaign…. It was to hip you on a cool, free, tool to help you do the work. I will go deeper into detail over the next few weeks here on the blog and in articles at I am Music Network‘s main site. Go check out the software, start working on your campaign’s 30,000 foot view, and if you have a question or get stuck reach out and comment or ask your questions here on this blog posts comment section and I will try my best to keep you moving forward!

Click on this link for detailed instructions and action plans for creating successful music marketing campaigns and promotions!

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

In keeping with the “best tool” theme, I thought it might be a good time to discuss awareness strategies, particularly how you make potential fans “aware” of you and your music. Awareness only happens if you direct it to. Menaing, if you are posting pictures, videos, graphics, etc. to your website, social networking sites, or user forums that have nothing on them to associate who you are, what you want potential fans to do, or where to go to get additional information – you are not creating any awareness for you or your music. You are simply giving people something to look at that they may find cool or interesting or not. But if you brand your images, videos, and graphics with your name, logo, and web site you are creating awareness.

Big corporations understand awareness better than anyone. Think about the nike commercials on TV. It takes the entire commercial to figure out what the freakin thing is about. But then at the end you see the little nike logo in the bottom corner of your TV screen. They are not trying to sell anything with the commercial. They are simply trying to make you aware of the Nike brand. THey feel that when you are ready to buy another pair of shoes and think to yourself “what do I want to buy?” you will remember their brand because they made you aware of it over and over again.

Music Marketing works the same way. Think about this: how many times have you been online and run across something you though was cool enough to check out but didn’t have time to do so “right now?” IF you are like most people this happens almost on a daily basis. You think that you will go back and take a look later when you are ready. But what really happens? You either forget or you forget where you saw the thing you wanted to check out. So now, when you are ready, you can’t find it again….. unless…. you have seen it over and over again and remember the brand name, web address, logo, or some other “eye candy” that you can now recall and at minimum search for in google or yahoo.

Research has established that most fans need to see “awareness” at least 7 times before taking the next step of “clicking” to learn more. Awareness campaigns in music marketing are geared to do just that, present your brand, image, logo, video, or other attention grabbing visuals as many times as possible, in as many locations as possible, around the internet. Remember, music fans are finicky. They want to discover new music on their own. They do not like to be told what is good, what is bad, or what they should ask for as a Christmas present this year. They want to discover a hidden treasure and have the ability to share it with their friends so they have the power of saying they discovered the next big thing in music!

Awareness in music marketing is about putting your message in every location on the internet music fans gather to discover new music. But how you brand yourself and music is what will be remembered, not the music itself…. until they “discover” you. It is a hard concept to understand, but awareness is not about the music or even getting people to listen to your music, at first. Once a potential fan “discovers” your music, then you turn the page and go from awareness to marketing.

Awareness Tips:

- Always place your website address on all pictures and images
- Always place a water mark (your web address) on all videos you upload to youtube or other social networking sites
- Remember, awareness is about the brand, not the music. Do not over market or insist on “listening” to your music
- Awareness is a numbers game. Place your brand in as many spots as you can online

Social networking is about awareness. It is why it works so good. But it can also kill your chance of getting a potential fan if you are not regularly updating your social networking sites. Once a potental fan “remembers” your brand and does “click” to learn more, the last thing you want is for them to go to a social networking site that says your last visit was a month ago. Old news is just that. People will see that you don’t care enough to keep news fresh so why would they care to read about what you did a month ago. An awareness campaign is fresh, right now, and up to the minute. Remember, fans are finicky. Once you get them interested, you have to keep them engaged. This means fresh content, new blog posts, new pictures, new videos, and more.

Do not use up all your photos, videos, and blog posts during your awareness campaign. This is a huge mistake a lot of artists and labels make when first learning how to market their music. It is very important that when a fan finally “clicks” to learn more they see fresh content on the site they land on. They do not want to see the same pictures and videos they have already seen the 7 times it took to get them to actually “click.” If you put everything you have out on an awareness campaign what is the point in “clicking” to learn more?

Marketing your music, especially during the awareness phase, takes a massive amount of pictures, videos, and general content. The may be one of the biggest mistakes I see up-and-coming artists and labels make on a daily basis. One photo shoot does not produce enough content to sustain a true marketing campaign. One video shoot of a live show from three months ago will not last for an entire campaign either. You have to continuously update your media. Seriously!

Awareness Media Update Schedule:

- Photo – 20 – 35 usable pictures per week should be taken and prepared with brand and uploaded to social networking sites and website
- Video – At least two new videos – not just music videos, it can be of anything with the artist or group, recorded, branded, and uploaded per week
- flyers, graphics, banners – 2 per week
- Blog Posts – minimum one blog post per day – 80/15/5 rule – 80% about what is happening with artist/label – 15% personal about artist/label – 5% total off the wall non-music

Conslusion

Basically, an awareness campaign is about getting your name, brand, image, or video in front of as many potential fans as you can. It is about constantly updating that image to stay fresh and current. It is about being where the fans hang out and creating an image of always being there for the fan. The only way you can do this is by presenting yourself in as many locations as you can without “feeling” like you are marketing to people. Make your self available, do not push yourself or music upon anyone!

Click here for more FREE Music Marketing Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

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