How to get Featured on a Popular Music Site!

New Media Pioneer: Martin Berrios Music Editor of Allhiphop.com discusses the key factors that independent artists needs to have in place when going after a major music site.

http://www.allhiphop.com

I was so excited to get the chance to interview Martin Music Editor of Allhiphop.com. Allhiphop.com comes up over and over in many of my conversations with urban artist as one of the top-notch sites for online exposure. I continuously let independent artists know that going after these big sites does require one thing to already be in a place a BUZZ!

In this interview Martin gives a sneak peak of how they go about choosing the artists to feature on their sites, the best way to approach them for a feature, and key factors they look for in artists they feature on their site.

Q: Can you just give us a little background on how you got started in the Music Industry?

A: In 1995 I took an internship at Warner Music Group and I never looked back. Since then I have held various sales, marketing, and A&R positions throughout BMG, Sony, and one of Universal’s distributed labels. Around 2003, I realized the music industry was rapidly shrinking due to the ever growing popularity of digital downloads.

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Case Study: How We Got Over 14,000 Downloads In 48 Hours

A few weeks ago I interviewed Moe Arora about a how to for artists to build a social media strategy. A few weeks later Moe Arora came up with this awesome idea to do a case study surrounding “breakng” a song online purely using social media outlets.

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Taking the Online Offline

A few years ago it seemed hard to convince most musicians that they needed to have an online presence. Getting online was an issue about discovery - expanding a band’s musical reach beyond their geoegraphical boundaries.

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Live music as accessible as water...next hyper growth market?

In today’s world of economic challenge, the entertainment pie is not going to get any bigger and it will most likely shrink. For one segment to grow, it has to take dollars away from other segments of the entertainment pie.

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3 Steps to Better Social Networking Results!

The last Urban Plug newsletter pointed out some of the best Urban Social Networking sites for Urban artists to be on.

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18 Things I'd Love to Pay Musicians For

Being a rather passionate consumer of music, I thought I would briefly share with you some of the things that I would eagerly pay money for as a fan.

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Creating a Social Media Strategy...That Works!

Now that you have a CD done, what’s my next step is always the lagging question. Most artists usually know I need to be online they make social networking sites, they start creating a website, but they aren’t receiving results. Good News is your probably doing some things right..but is your Social Media Strategy efficient and effective?

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The power of giving a damn! How much do you care?

Okay, my name is Heron Demarco. Artist/blah blah blah.

Anyway , I’m on myspace the other day and I bump into a guy  who I thought had some great music. Really great. So I send an email telling hm how great I thought his music was.  He writes me back…..”thanks for the add”.

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For the fans, by the fans...are fan driven private concerts the next big movement?

here are many entrepreneurs who are working on the next frontier of filtering great music to the world through technology.  The industry is currently awaiting the release of the ‘silver bullet’ technology that can dissect good from great music and the relativity of that music by user group and then geographic preference. While this is bound to be on the horizon there has to be a means that every world class musician can develop a sustainable business making great music by bonding with their true fans.  

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Heartbreak that 808

On Wednesday, Kanye West released his fourth album and there was a lot of hype around it. First of all, it is virtually impossible to Google a copy of the album cover unless it is from a reputable site; and second of all, the album did not leak out into the media before the release date. At this day in age this is a feat of technology! Has Kanye beats these odds, or does he truly have the respect he deserves in the music Industry?

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Considering Different Price Points for Your Music

I’ve read a swarm of arguments on the internet about why all music should be totally free. There have been an equal number of counter-arguments about why music needs a price tag.

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Focus on a Few

My proposition to you is to spend less time worrying about the number of friends or followers you have on social networks. Instead, focus on fewer but more valuable people.

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Too Much Control and the Imaginary Bottom Line

Ever since the days of the infamous Napster takedown, the RIAA and MPAA have been trying to use virtually every form of control possible to limit the availability of copyrighted materials over the internet. This limitation is a good thing. It is at the very cornerstone of what is meant for something to be copyrighted. But the means in which this limitation is being implemented —- through the use of lobbying to change laws that give the government and RIAA almost “godlike” authority —- is very costly and destructive.

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A Call For The (R)Evolution Of The Elephant

When animals in the wild don’t adapt quickly enough to their enviroment they either die or go extinct.  Let’s take the healthy adult elephants who believe it or not have no natural predators except their inability to adapt to change.  This complete ineptitude has dwindled them down to only 4 species faster than you can make a ivory necklace. There are the 3 mammal species and then there is the corporate elephant. For sake of conversation we will be discussing the demise of the corporate elephant that dominated the music industry for eons. Ok, maybe it was 50+ years but it still seemed like eons.

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