November 13, 2009 Simple Strategies for Marketing Your Band in the Next Generation Music Biz
Finding effective strategies for marketing your band is a priority. Most would agree with this, but only when you get time to think about it. The problem for many bands is actually finding the time to think, then think marketing then think ‘strategies’. It amazes me how many times I still come across bands who are still not using basic online tools to market themselves.
Just this week I was asked to attend a band rehearsal prior to some UK dates and was shocked to hear that having already completed their album there is still no basic online marketing strategy in place! Implementation of a marketing strategy so often becomes a real problem.
With this in mind it really is best for bands to quickly start putting together a small team of let’s call them ‘helpers’. In the current climate of Music DIY there is a need for a DIY team approach to succeed.
In the hope of saving you some time I am going to share with you some highlights from a post by Tom Williams highlighting some fast and free strategies you can use to market your band and I’m sure you will love the idea of fast and free.
Tom rightly points out that sending out friend’s requests on MySpace is not without merit, to some degree but realistically a wise use of your time? We don’t think so. As mentioned and I quote “If you insist on using this strategy, hire an unpaid intern or enlist a friend/sibling in high school to do it for you.” See, more ‘little helpers’ needed.
Start Your Own Blog- Twice a week write a paragraph (or more) about what you’ve been doing, what you’re thinking, what you like, what you don’t like, what you want to do, what influences you, share touring stories, ask questions, answer questions, post videos of yourself/band, share unreleased material, and engage with fans (potential and current). Make sure your blog is linked to your website and a place where your music can be purchased. Make sure every website you have (Myspace, Facebook, etc) links to your blog.
Build Relationships With Bloggers By Commenting On Their Blogs– Pick 10 or 20 music blogs that you enjoy and which write about music similar to the type you produce. Read them every day and at least once a week comment about something they post. These comments should be genuine and relevant to the post. Make sure you leave the URL for your website but do not promote yourself or music at all. These comments are about the blog, not about you. Their purpose is to make these bloggers aware that you exist and that you are an interesting person.
One thing to keep in mind is OFFLINE is as important as ONLINE! Anyway that will do for now, information overload is one of the other problems we all suffer from. Let’s break this down into ‘bite size’ and see what you can achieve.
You can get more help on Strategies for Marketing Your Band and video help with setting up your BLOG plus 5 Ways to Market you’re Blog Offline here when you got some more time!
Kevin J Ryan is a music biz veteran & entrepreneur. For more info and background on Kevin go here
Reader Comments (6)
I started DuBuL Da G Pruduktionz when I moved 2 utica ny, from irvington nj looking 4 new people 2 work with enjoy music very much been listening 2 it all my life got a different style when it comes 2 music.
Right on, this was almost a complete thought! Internet Marketing templates have really, really de-valued the conversation online and this is a perfect example of why.
You start off stating that bands have a hard time getting free time, then recommend a single step that involves 100's of hours of work to do effectively, then direct people towards your squeeze page "when they have more time" -- I mean, it's almost like a standup act and I dig it.
But as educational content goes, this was pretty useless stuff. Sometimes a "small taste" is worse than nothing at all.
I love a man with a view! I actually dont agree that it takes 100's of hours for a band to implement a Blog or maintain the content.
Think of the 100's of hours a band may dedicate to writing songs, rehearsals etc before they are even ready to go out and play live....if they dont dedicate some time to marketing themselves we both know what the outcome will be....
To be fair I appreciate this time allocation issue is not an easy one and hence the "little helpers" suggestion...obviously those who agree with you will not take the opportunity to use such online methods....and must decide for themselves.....
Thanks for commenting and I'll keep working on the stand up act!
KJR
Gotta love Justin's open posts comments.
I can agree the blogging for bands today can be a benefit. I think a lot of bands/musicians love the idea so they setup a blog and keep up with it for a month or 2 then let the blog go stale. If your going to blog then you need to make the commitment to do it.
Blogging though is only one piece of a very complex puzzle.
It is a lot of work if you are human but it is almost impossible if you are a genetically altered cat that escaped from Area 51 and you play guitar in a metal band. Think about it. Cats love to poop in sand and then cover it up. No one really understands why.