Marketing Music

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guysmy

guysmy

cpaburnout 4 lyfe
Jul 10, 2006
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i'm working on a record and putting quite a bit of money into it. i have cheap demos up on myspace that are lame compared to the musical product in the works now.

obviously selling music is challenging right now. i may even give away downloads and encourage people to circulate the music and try to fund the recording through promo items like posters and t-shirts.

a few questions...

1) where do you hear about new music besides word of mouth?
2) what makes you BUY music instead of seeking it out for free (streaming websites, myspace etc.)?
 


1) Mostly the radio.
2) Since most albums suck for the most part, there is nothing that drives me to actually buy an album when there is only one or two good songs on it. It would have to be a great album.
 
What kind of music? You can create a lot of buzz through mp3 blogs and related forums. If its electronic then you're in for a lot of great free marketing opportunities. If it is electronic music, hit me up in PM and I can get you started!
 
Ryan said:
What kind of music? You can create a lot of buzz through mp3 blogs and related forums. If its electronic then you're in for a lot of great free marketing opportunities. If it is electronic music, hit me up in PM and I can get you started!
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it's indie pop/rock. some songs use several layers of synths but it is still far from electronic.
 
guysmy said:
1) where do you hear about new music besides word of mouth?
2) what makes you BUY music instead of seeking it out for free (streaming websites, myspace etc.)?
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1. Radio or from movie sound tracks
2. A GOOD album, not just 1 song then filler crap
 
guysmy said:
it's indie pop/rock. some songs use several layers of synths but it is still far from electronic.
Click to expand...

For that style I'd definitely hit blogs, just send all of them a couple sample tracks and ask them to link back to your Myspace. Myspace is huge for music, probably even better than a real website because most people are already familiar with it and know how to work it. It's also easy to just pay Indians to add friends for you.

Post up a track here if you want, I wouldn't mind checking it out.
 
Sorry to hijack, but I figured no need to start another thread about it. I am going to be working with a guy that wants me to help him get his rap/hip hop lable off the ground.

He has been in the game for a while and has a lot of contacts and has a guy backing him with some major cake.

He wants me to help him drive traffic to the site so people can buy the downloads for his main artist. I just wanted to get some input on what you guys think about a good strategy.

I was thinking with the way the music buying is right now, he might just want to spend the money on a feature from a semi major artist and set up an artist page on his label's website and monetize it. Most new artists/labels are not thinking about the money a fan base can bring in by a properly monetized website.

I say spend $5-8k on a good feature get it viral on the net and sell downloads but also have some good demo targeted shit on the page.

Your thoughts...
 
allcelldeals said:
I say spend $5-8k on a good feature get it viral on the net and sell downloads but also have some good demo targeted shit on the page.
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I wouldn't monetize the site at all, just focus on his music career and forget about spamming it up with aff links and shit. You said he has "major cake," tell him to drop about 80k for Lil Wayne and that shit will get on the radio guaranteed, I hate that gay singing shit he does but any song with him on it will be popular as fuck so there's no reason not to.
 
I just got off the phone with him and they are working on Keisha Cole. I wouldn't spam the site all up, just a few good ads from some pepper jam shit maybe some adsense for the mp3 download page.

They are setting up more like an indie distribution company with a new twist. The artist that he is working with has a decent following for an indie artist. We already did a soundtrack a couple years ago with some majors (PAPOOSE, LIL FLIP, KEAK DA SNEAK, CRIME MOB) and it worked out ok but some of biz partners fucked shit up so he is starting over. I did a joint with Gravey (plays Biggie in the new movie) still layin around too. So we got some connects and what not. But just trying to think outside the box a lil for the site.

Also, I wonder what Red Virus could to for the site as well. Got to hit him up.
 
This is goingto sound old school, but are you up to live gigs at the moment?
If you can get a decent live following, it's amazing how quickly word of mouth will spread, especially if you're giving away copies of a couple of tracks for free at a gig.
i.e. burn a shitload of $0.10 CDs, photocopy some nicely designed B&W artwork onto paper sleeves, and just throw them at the crowd or have someone had them to everyone that comes through the door.

If your music is good, people will share it with friends.
If your live shows are good, people will tell their friends, and in turn that gets more people to hand the music out to.

It's how The Cat Empire got known, even though they're one of the worst ska bands I've ever heard.
 
Lol, good luck with that, you'll need it.

Youtube is your friend, upload videos as replies to like popular songs. Set up a newsletter for the fans, start trying to get some gigs going. You won't get anywhere with the major labels now submitting demos (not that anyone ever did), you gotta hope that an A&R guy happens to see your band live.

This is an absolutely terrible time for it though, the music industry started plummetting long before the rest of the world, and it's still dropping fast fast fast.

Link me up? You've got me curious.
 
I find a lot of good new music on internet radio stations like Pandora and LastFM. Not sure how you can get on those sites, but look into it.

Also, see what it takes to get on iTunes and eMusic.com (eMusic has lots of indie stuff).

It's also gonna be a lot of networking. Do you play out any gigs? That's gonna be key. Hard to get a following if you never play out. Try contacting local venues, open mikes, etc. Play out as much as you can. Get a manager if you can't get gigs on your own.

Also, try and connect with a producer. It may be tough, but i'm sure there are some good social media sites for musicians. plus you can network through myspace.

An most importantly, make good music. If your music blows, all the other stuff doesn't matter...
 
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