Self Promotion Ebook
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
0 e K m t 3 U o o 6 c , . 5 N Z e 1 e t R t 3 o 2 u n 9 5 o e 0 t 1 R 2 u R 1 o T r ) , Table of Contents l 0 l ( a 4 w 4 n r + o : C F Advantages of Digital Distribution 3 , | h t 3 u Self Promotion 5 8 r 5 d 4 e 0 Image 7 R 2 , d 9 n Research 8 0 E 2 t 1 s ) Your Website 10 e 0 ( W 4 3 Video Content 11 4 + : Bloggers: Uber Fans 12 T Old Media 13 Specialist Media 14 Social Networks 15 Retail Site Promotion 16 Sprout Builder: Epic Widget Guide 17 2 0 e K m t 3 U o o 6 c , . 5 N Z e 1 e t R t 3 o 2 u n 9 5 o e 0 t 1 R 2 u R Advantages of Digital Distribution 1 o T r ) , l 0 l ( a 4 w 4 n r You already know the advantages that the internet has to offer musicians, + o : C F you wouldn’t be reading this site if you weren’t interested in exploiting , | h t 3 u them. If you’re still unconvinced, digital distribution, how do I love thee? 8 r 5 d 4 e Let me count the ways: 0 R 2 , d 9 n 0 E 2 Your music reaches a bigger audience than ever before, more people than t 1 s ) e 0 have ever been into Tower Records, HMV and Virgin Megastores combined ( W 4 3 have access to your music without either of you leaving home. 4 + : T More than this, digital distribution costs nothing when compared to physi- cal – you don’t need to press CD’s or LP’s, you don’t need to package them, warehouse them, ship them, you don’t need to take returns or manage stock, you can just put one copy of a track up with a digital dis- tributor and have infinite copies of your music literally anywhere there’s a phone line. Of course, there are many more ways for people to copy your music with- out paying for it on the web, but since the cost of getting your music out there is so much less, and a greater proportion of the profits goes to the artist having cut out so much of the bulky record company structure, you’ll probably end up making more money anyhow. The truth is that the internet is inescapable as a medium for music; you just can’t afford to ignore it. Even if you think the internet lays your music too open to piracy, and stick with just releasing CD’s or vinyl, chances are some one of your dedicated fans will encode their copy and put it up on a torrent site anyway, so you might as well give people the option of buy- ing it legally online. There are a few online music distribution companies out there, each pro- fessing it’s service and it’s model to be the cheapest and the best: what you need to do is figure out which of them is going to be the best for you. How many tracks can you reasonably expect to sell? What can you afford to outlay? Figure those things out and then decide which deal is best for you. 3 0 e K m t 3 U o o 6 c , . 5 N Z e 1 e t R t 3 o 2 u n 9 5 o e 0 t 1 R 2 u R The basic models of distributor are: 1 o T r ) , l 0 l ( a 4 w Subscription – Keep your royalties, but pay a maintenance or subscrip- 4 n r + o : tion fee to keep your music online. Good if you’re going to be selling a lot C F , | h of tracks. t 3 u 8 r 5 d 4 e 0 R 2 Percentage – Don’t pay any fees, but pay for the service with a percent- , d 9 n 0 age of the royalties from sales (this is the model we use at RouteNote). E 2 t 1 s ) Good if you don’t want to risk losing any money, or your sales aren’t likely e 0 ( W to be massive just yet. 4 3 4 + : T Upload fee – A flat fee for uploading your music, and then keep your roy- alties. Again, good if you’re hoping to sell a lot of tracks, but there’s no incentive for the distributor to promote your music, as they’ve already made their money, and can’t profit further from helping you out. Managed – The next best thing to being signed to a record label, some digital distribution companies will take labels and larger bands on, and for a larger cut of the royalties from sales, will make more of an effort to pro- mote their music, or offer other benefits to their partners. It’s up to you to decide whether their efforts are likely to be worth the cut. Controlling your own output means that you don’t have to go with the same partner for multiple releases, you can pick and choose different partners for different releases. If you find that the music distribution deal you’re on with one company is working better for one release than an- other, you can change partners for the one that’s losing out. Also consider that digital music sales increase your presence in the mar- ketplace, and a record label will look at the level of your sales of both physical and digital music, and of your live gig audiences when they’re looking at signing you (if that’s what you’re after). 4 0 e K m t 3 U o o 6 c , . 5 N Z e 1 e t R t 3 o 2 u n 9 5 o e 0 t 1 R 2 u R Perversely, focussing on digital music sales can make the physical prod- 1 o T r ) , ucts you release more desireable. Think about Radiohead: In Rainbows. l 0 l ( a They put it out basically free over the net, and sold lush, limited edition 4 w 4 n r vinyl and cd box sets, which sold 100,000 copies, and is currently trading + o : C for about $200 on ebay. F , | h t 3 u 8 r Vinyl sales have actually picked up all over since music went digital: vinyl 5 d 4 e sales across the US went up 80% to 6 million units in 2007, because the 0 R 2 , d real fans want a piece of their favourite band… a lovely artefact to hold 9 n 0 E 2 and stroke and show off. Make the most of it! If your digital sales are t 1 s ) good, that means there’s an opportunity to make a premium on really well e 0 ( W produced physical material. If you can give your fans something special, 4 3 4 that also has a premium because of its scarcity, then they’ll happily pay + : you for it. T Self Promotion The web has made it far easier to promote and profit from music. So much so that it’s now possible for bands to succeed in a big way without having the big finances and professional experience of a record label be- hind them. This is great news for bands starting up in the music business, but it doesn’t mean that success is going to happen by itself, overnight. The reasons that record labels have lost ground over the last few years are many: most important was their unwillingness to embrace digital as the future of music retail, but the fact that online media also made it eas- ier for musicians to look after the business of running their career for themselves. Not having people from a label looking after promotion, gig booking, logis- tics, merchandising and the many other things that go together to make a band successful does mean that you don’t have to pay for that work, but it does mean that you’ve got to do it yourself. Don’t be put off – the rewards are there, and they’re greater and closer than ever before. It’s just that to get to them you’ve got to be creative, dedicated, willing and most of all, more smart and cunning than the love- child of Machiavelli and a fox with a master’s in cunning from Oxford uni- versity of Cunning. 5 0 e K m t 3 U o o 6 c , . 5 N Z e 1 e t R t 3 o 2 u n 9 5 o e 0 t 1 R 2 u R General 1 o T r ) , l 0 l ( a 4 w Two words you should think hard about. Music. Business. If you’re just 4 n r + o : having fun playing jam nights and amazing your friends with your mad C F , | h guitar skillz then that’s cool, and we’d love to help you put out a release if t 3 u 8 r 5 d you record anything you’re happy with, but to take music forward as a ca- 4 e 0 R 2 reer you have got to accept that it needs to be a business. , d 9 n 0 E 2 t 1 s ) First of all, get your music right.