I just finished up a one hour music marketing consulting cal with Beth Schafer (http://bethschafer.com) and wanted to share one of our topics with you that I feel every indie artist, musician, label, or producer needs to understand a bit better while trying to marketing their music to fans….

First, Beth is an extremely talented artist that has been on the grind for quite a while. She has a solid fan base, great website, and a good start on social networking. Beth called to discuss specifics about how to transform her fan base into an active machine that helps gain new fans, buys more music, and takes the action needed to further her career – like radio requests, live show requests, and beyond. After talking to her for a bit I found that she has been doing all the right things – but just needed a little help in communicating with fans….

Here are the specifics on one topic out of about 12 or 13 we cover in our hour conversation that I felt could help a lot of you on your quest for the “silver bullet” of music marketing strategies…

Jango Radio
As I have discussed here in this blog, as well as in my music marketing books and on I am MUSIC network, I am a huge fan of Jango Radio and all they offer to artists, musicians, labels, and producers. But like anything, you have to take action and then follow through with that action to really see the benefit of the service. Beth told me that she was getting fans and a few comments, but really didn’t feel that she was getting all she could from the service… After looking at her page and discussing what steps she took in the process of aquiring fans on jango it hit me that she was making the same mistakes I find so often from other independents while marketing their music.

Jango tells you on your profile how many fans you have and how many people hit the button to say I like this artist. What you need to realize is that a “like” is a single action taken by someone who hears your song on Jango. When your song is played they have to do one of three things…

1. Hit the little “x” to close the window
2. Hit “I like”
3. Hit “I don’t like”

No matter what, they only have to take a single action, picking which button to hit to get rid of the pop up anytime an independent artist’s music is played.

On the other hand, a “fan” on Jango means that a person had to actually take several action steps to become your fan. They had to first select “I Like” on the pop up, and then they had to take another action of hitting the button to view the artist’s profile, and finally they had to hit the button “Become a fan.” That is three additional steps a listener went through to actually get to your music. In marketing independent music this is huge! Getting people to take action is sometimes the hardest thing you can accomplish. But what next….

Your journey to gaining a loyal fan must not stop with that listener taking three steps. You can not be satisfied with it, no matter how it makes you feel in the moment. These “fans” are golden. You already know they are motivated to take action for the sake of learning more about you and your music. If you simply walk away now you are leaving money on the table… literally! Your first step has got to be to send each person that becomes a fan of your music a thank you note through Jango. Do not use a copy and pasted message. Make each message unique, personal, and address your fan by name. In your note you want to get that listener to take another action. You want to draw them closer in to your circle of loyal fans. With all the myspace.com pages on the internet now a days it is most likely that your new fan has his or her own myspace page…. so, in your note ask them if they have a myspace page. If they do, they will more than happy to give you the address – remember, everyone in the world likes to think they are important and craves attention… it is why there are so many myspace.com profiles!

What you are doing is telling that fan that you are interested in getting to know them better, learning about who they are, and connecting with them outside of Jango and your music. This is making a personal connection. Again… GOLDEN while marketing your music.

Once you get the fan’s myspace.com profile name go to it, actually take the time to learn about your fan, and then send them a friend request… but do not send a generic request. First you want to remind them you have already connected on Jango. Then you want to let them know you checked out there page… how you do this is by mentioning something that you connected with while on their profile. Here is an example….

“Hey Loves Rabbits… This is (Artist Name), we connected on Jango and I just went to your profile here and saw that sunburn you got last week… you look miserable! Let’s connect here on myspace.

Peace,
Your Name”

Realize, There is nothing in this friend request that talks about you, your music, or why that fan HAS to check you out because you are the next big thing… rather, the entire message is about them, where they met you, there profile, and something in their life you found on their profile. Selling your music has nothing to do with you! LOL…. Maybe you missed that…

SELLING YOUR MUSIC HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR YOU!

If you want to gain fans, create demand, and sell your music – you have to realize fans buy music because of what they want or need, not because you tell them anything or talk about you. Again, people crave attention – if you only talk about you – you are stealing all the attention!

When you connect with your Jango fan outside of Jango you are establishing an action oriented relationship. That fan first had to take several steps in Jango, then they had to take the action of accepting your friend request, then… since you took the time to go to their profile and learn about them, they will take another action of actually going to your profile and learning more about your music and possibly you. That is a lot of steps – and steps equal action – action equals buzz, buzz equals demand, demand equals sales of your music and the path to you making your living off your music! Marketing music is a chain reaction.

If you take these steps, with each new fan, you will fast see the huge benefit of taking the time to get to know your fans on a personal level.

This is only one subject Beth and I discussed to further her career in the music industry. If you want to learn more about what I can do to help you kick start your career in 2010 off with a bang drop me an email or give me a call… 972-510-5244.

Music Marketing Consultation packages starting as low as $50 per week!

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