Say “Bye” To The “Buy”

We’ve all seen the ads, spam comments from random accounts, and posts that look oh so tempting to check out or even try. Increase your followers!, Gain more followers! Blah! Blah! Blah!…but of course it comes with a cost…literally. Now, we can’t discredit the supply/demand business savvy that is being used here. These fly by night business pages/companies are aware that people are now desperate to get their follower numbers up. With this in mind, they’ve set up a way to manipulate the social media numbers to create the illusion of a large following. It’s smart, in a way, because when one person sees that an artist has a large number of followers on their page, they tend to check it out to see what the hype is all about. However, at the end of the day, the numbers just don’t add up.

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5 Steps To Get Your Followers To Listen To Your Music

If you have a Twitter account and work in the music industry, the likelihood is that you’ve been the victim of Twitter spam, where an artists/band invades your mentions with a copy and pasted message in the hopes that you’ll check out their new song/video/project. This promotional method is usually ineffective and time-consuming. This guide will show you five simple steps you can take to get your Twitter followers to listen to your music.

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8 Ways To Keep Up With and Discover New Music Releases

Have you ever felt like you were no longer in the loop when it comes to new music? “Have you heard Beyonce’s new song?!” “Did you get tickets for that gig?” “It went to number 1!”. None of us like to feel left out when it comes to the hottest new songs, the latest summer smash, or that killer album everybody’s talking about.

Here are a number of methods to stay up to date with the best music and most anticipated releases.  

1. Social media
Following your favourite artists and bands on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook will ensure that you are constantly in the know about what’s out and what’s coming next. Artists promote themselves and their music this way as it’s the easiest outlet to connect with their fans.  

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5 Social Media Secrets for Indie Musicians

Today, social media is the cornerstone of your music career. It’s what lets you stay in touch with your fans and easily notify them with exciting news. With all the social media guides out there, you’d think no one remembers one of the key behavioral aspects to being human - socializing. I know, it’s hard to find a balance between social and promotional - afterall, you still need to sell your show or record. Here’s 10 secrets to help you find that social media balance.

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Hip-Hop and Social Media. Promotion vs Spam

This blogpost discusses social media spam and online music promotion through platforms such as Twitter and how to avoid being ignored online.

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Finding Your Online Voice

When you are just getting started online – whether it’s a blog or you’ve just taken over a Facebook fanpage, or you have to do a video or put out a podcast, I won’t lie, it’s going to feel weird and it’s going to feel like everyone will judge you. You’ll feel awkward, you might sweat, you’ll start to find excuses for not doing the thing you have to do and before you know it, you’ve probably hit the whisky and passed out on the couch. I’m here to tell you that EVERYONE feels like this the first time. The trick is to work at it and have fun with it and most of all, don’t beat yourself up over it.

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And the award goes to…….

Celebrating the small wins

All artists want to be recognized for their craft/art. And recognition can come in many forms. The main forms of recognition, that artists often go after, generally falls under the categories of awards, high sales, popular media exposure, and other opportunities/offers within the entertainment industry. However, some artists will not get these on large scales.  If you find yourself in the latter scenario then don’t hesitate to celebrate the small wins/recognitions. Since the world isn’t making a big deal about it….YOU should make a big deal about it. Get people involved and get them to care about what you’ve accomplished. Hey you worked hard to earn it….why not brag about it?!?!

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Marketing music on Twitter: Some Do’s and Don’ts

Simply joining Twitter and relentlessly tweeting links to your work is not the best way forward; music marketing on Twitter, if it’s just a series of uninteresting 140 character updates from someone without an established profile or follow-list can be viewed as spam and you will not get any followers. A feed that constantly churns the same link over and over can lead to accounts being banned. It’s better for the account owner to make sure that links in their profile lead to their personal website (tracked with analytics), and to establish a “Twitter presence”, i.e. tweets over a series of weeks or months that show them to be worth following, and interesting in their own right.

The explosion of social networking over the last half-decade has given musicians of all genres a new, and indeed global showcase for their talents. Perhaps the major success story in this field is the micro-blogging site, Twitter, where a performing artist can reach beyond their direct friend and contact list, and into the consciousness of record companies, agents, and even established stars who might, even in some small way, mentor and support them.

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"Are you engaged?" from BRASH! A Music Marketing Blog

Getting involved with your following

When I speak of being engaged, in a Marketing perspective it doesn’t mean to “Put a ring on it”. As we all know, you can be engaged with people by becoming involved whether its in a business aspect or a relationship.  As an artist, you should want to have engaging conversations with your fans, interested media outlets, and industry professionals.  This will help you to expand your brand and exposure in the industry.

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How To Take Your Twitter Promotion To The Next Level - Free Ebook

Hi guys, just a short post for you today. I wanted to share with you a free guide I’ve just written on promoting your music with Twitter. In fact it’s not just about promoting your music with Twitter, it’s about how to take your Twitter promotion to a whole new level, and get in front of a load of fans of your genre pretty much on tap!

You can skip to the bottom of this post if want to download this free ebook now (Click the blue button) and don’t want to read the background info.

From what I’ve seen, Twitter is one of the best forms of online promotion you can do as a musician. It’s easy for new musicians to get in front of potential fans relatively fast (Faster and easier then say building up your Facebook fan page), but it also does a great job of driving fans to any new material you may put out there.

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Why you need to be on Google Plus now

The music blogs lately have been wallowing in pessimism about the new social network from Google. The general line of thought seems to be that Google + is yet another added burden along with Twitter, Facebook, that old website called Myspace, etc. However, Google Plus has several features that no other website or social network offers.

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2000 Things to Generate 20,000 Fans – Twitter Treasure Hunt

Author David Meerman Scott made a honest and realistic quote, “if you want 20,000 fans you must do 2000 different things that each generate 10 fans.” This was my favorite quote from 2010 and I am going to take this on as a challenge for 2011 for an ambitious project to give you 2000 different things you can do to generate 20,000 fans.

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How Do YOU Fit Into Culture? or... Content Marketing: Finding Your Niche

How Do You Fit Into Culture? Not your band. Not your music. YOU. The individual behind the music. You are unique. You have individual tastes, interests, passions, and hobbies. Now… think for a moment. If you were to talk about a diverse subject matter on your blog (rather than just your music), and in your videos, in your photos, and in your tweets… you can attract an entirely new audience, which you never thought you could have access to.

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Transcript - Ian Rogers from Topspin Discusses Social Networking and Commerce Solutions on The Music Biz Weekly Podcast

Welcome to transcript of episode seven of The Music Biz Weekly, a weekly podcast co-hosted by Michael Brandvold and Brian Thompson. Each week Michael and Brian will discuss the latest events in the music business and music marketing events and techniques.

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