Ciao a tutti,
Over the next few weeks I will be pushing a series of posts under the title “Push Your Music”. These posts will focus on organising your network, music and image and pushing it into different media streams and avenues to maximise your exposure.
These series of posts will cover the following.
The Set Up
Blogs
Magazines & Print Media
Radio & Online Radio
The Set Up
Before you begin to start shooting out emails left right and center to Online blogs and sending press kits to journalists you MUST have the following.
Short, Succinct and to the point press kit.
Comprehensive excel contact list of journalists, magazines & radios.
Press Kit
The internet has made us accustomed to only pursuing information that captures our attention from the get go. Make sure your press kit is short and sweet, nobody important who gets bombarded with emails/letters will want to read a thesis on your music.
I’m not going to write again on what’s already been written so here’s a link to a previous post on writing a press kit.
My only criticism of it is that it may be too detailed. So only take aspects of what you think is most important and relevant for your music.
Contact List
Alright, this is something i’m keen on writing and explaining to you about. You need to organise and collect as many points of contact as possible!
This means setting up a contact list on excel.
There are three main aspects of the contact list we must have.
Online Blogs.
Magazines and print media.
Radio.
Organising this information is key to spreading out your press kit efficiently and at most affect. Remember this, why should these media outlets review, play or plug your music? What makes you any different and how do you support their current media stream of information. This is what the notes and name are for. Each message you send out to these people should be addressed individually and open up with a unique statement as to why your music, show, album etc. fits into their journalism or radio station.
Another factor to consider when compiling this list is who is your audience and who is theirs? If your audience matches up with theirs you may definitely have someone willing to write about your music. But sometimes you may also want to look into some new avenues that may not necessarily align with your intended audience as it may bring a whole new realm of listeners to your music.
The two places online I was able to source a large amount of blogs from was Hype Machine.
Their use of tags make it very easy to navigate through hundreds of music blogs and find what you’re really after.
http://hypem.com/blogs
The other is something a bit more untraditional but something very undiscovered.
These are facebook interest lists.
To read all about them and how I use it in consuming and seeking out new music media read this article I wrote earlier on this year.
Thank for reading, Look forward to following this up with an entry on online blogs and how they fit into this setup I have shown for you.
Author Biography
Nicholas Di Lorenzo.
Having worked throughout Australia and mainly Melbourne with bands, in studio and many different artists I have come to learn the different approaches musicians take on their journey.
I try to implement as much of these into my own thinking and analyses of the music industry and how independent and signed musicians fit into the system.
I have created the Amplage newsletter solely to voice my thoughts and ideas.
www.facebook.com/NickDiLorenzoMusic
Performance:
Last 4 years throughout Australia.
Rock
Jazz
Big Bands
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Music Industry at RMIT Melbourne University.
Occupation:
Freelance Studio Engineer and producer
Session Drummer
Barista
Currently in the progress of writing an EP with Ben Calleja for release next year.