Tag Archive for: Taylor Swift

Design Explode Feature MEME

 

Have you ever heard of Bert Hinkler?

Design Bert Hinkler

 

Probably not.

 

He did something amazing. He even did that amazing thing faster and more efficiently than the first person who did it.

 

Bert was better, hands down, but he was second.

 

Therefore, you remember Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis, don’t you?

 

Design Charles Lindbergh 2

 This is because he was the first person to successfully fly a single-engine airplane solo non-stop across the Atlantic.

 

 

 

 

Want to hear something crazy?

 

You weren’t aware of the #2 person who succeeded in this incredible flight but you probably know the #3 person to ever do it; Amelia Earhart.

Design Amelia Earhart

 

 

How come you know the first, never heard of the second, but the third is also famous?

 

 

Answer: Because she was the first woman to do it.

 

The Law of Leadership.

 

Design The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing

 

 

This is the first law in an amazing book that has been out forever called The 22 Immutable Laws of MARKETING. (This link takes you to the Amazon “used book” page where there are tons of copies for freakin’ .98 cents! An IMPORTANT, quick education for less than $1…but I digress)

 

 

 

 

Here’s the question that I want you to ask yourself, “Am I trying to succeed as an artist by default or am I trying to succeed by design?”

 

To be clear, my definition of “success” is this: you make a living writing, recording, and performing music. Making a living doing all these or just one, but doing what you love means no day-gig.

 

Agreed?

 

Design Wonder What Happened Monkeys

 Too many of you are trying to become successful by default.

 

Huh?

 

Yeah, let me explain.

 

There are three kinds of people in this world.

  1. People who make things happen
  2. People who watch what happens
  3. People who wonder what happened

 

33% of People “make things happen” because they approach success by design.

 

They choose to learn so they KNOW what they’re doing. People who win by design make a choice to follow an educated path spending their precious time and resources in the most effective places.

 

More education = less naivete.

 

Design Waiting MEME 66%

 Which means 66% of people, the ones who “watch what happens” and “wonder what happened” live by default; the world happens to them.

 

 

 

Did you catch that? I’m going to repeat it, 66% of people live by default meaning the world happens to them.

 

Design Meteor MEME Artist For God's Sake

 

You’re an artist for God’s sake!

 

 

By D E F I N I T I O N, you, the artist, are supposed to happen to the world!

 

 

If you’re going to be an artist that happens to the world (because I don’t believe there are artists where the world happened to them. If there is, we don’t know about them, so did it happen?), you must build your career by design.

 

Building and living by design mean you cannot watch what happens and you cannot wonder what happened. You must know what’s going on!

 

Design Education Is The Key MEME

Education is the key.

 

 

 

 

 

You are the CEO of your little company. FYI, the biggest and best started out of garages like yours (Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, Madonna, Metallica, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, etc.)

 

If you say to yourself that you “suck at marketing” or you “suck at business” then you’re probably right which makes you a sucky CEO.

 

There’s nothing wrong with being a poor CEO but you won’t succeed, sorry.

 

Design CEO Suck At Marketing MEME

 

 

Whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, you’re in charge. If you suck at some mission critical part of your dream, you’d better address that now.

 

 

 

In The 22 Immutable Laws of MARKETING, the authors say that any CEO who isn’t in charge of his or her own marketing is living by default.

 

Design In Charge

 

 

To work by design YOU have to be in charge. You have to work with the outside companies you hire to ensure your brand is being conveyed correctly.

 

 

 

Are you waiting for someone to sign you?

 

You’re living by default, waiting for the world to happen to you.

 

Are you waiting to meet that one big relationship before you kick it into second gear and get serious?

 

Again, Living by default.

 

You have to GET IT GOING people. YOU are your only hope.

 

Yes, there are a couple artists who seem to have gotten lucky, but if this is your plan you’re living by default because these so-called “lucky” artists are exceptions to the rule (PLUS, I promise you don’t know the whole story so they’re not as lucky as you think.)

Design Lottery Ticket MEME

Winning the lottery is an exception to the rule…but, again, I digress.

 

 

 

 

This book is weighted completely on business brands with no mention of the music business whatsoever.

 

Try and see past that. The gems are in there.

 

I’ll connect a few dots for you.

 

Substitute “leading” for “First”

 

 

Design Harvard Logo

 

What is the leading institution in this country?

 

 

You probably thought Harvard.

 

Design William and Mary Logo

 

 

You would be right and they were also the first institution in this country founded in 1636. William and Mary College is the second oldest and they’re slightly more famous than Bert Hinkler.

 

 

 

Time Magazine vs. Newsweek, guess who was first?

 

Design Time Mag Collage

 

 

 

Yep, Time.

 

 

 

 

Advil vs. Nuprin and you’re right, Advil is the leader in the market with a 51% share and they were also first.

 

Design Advil Collage

 

Would it surprise you that twins often complain that the first of the two whom a person meets always remains their favorite even though that person gets to meet the other twin?

 

It’s better to be first than to be better.

 

Get it?

 

That’s the #1 Immutable Law of Marketing.

 

 

If you can’t be first like Xerox with copiers (people stand in front of a Ricoh copier and ask for a Xerox copy!), Keen-ex with facial tissue, or Gore-Tex, Jell-O, Fiberglass, Saran Wrap and Scotch Tape, then be first in a sub-category.

 

 

 

 

Like Amelia Earhart being the 1st woman.

 

Chrysler has just 10% of the auto market but owns 50% of the minivan market because they were first.

 

Yeah, yeah, I can hear some of you, “But Johnny, what does this have to do with me as an artist?”

 

Answer: Everything.

 

This is called the Law of Category

 

What is your artistic lane or category?

 

What are you doing differently that will make you identifiable?

 

Hello, these are design questions.

 

Design Taylor Swift Album cover

 

 

Taylor Swift was the first young country artist to lyrically speak to her peers.  This is partly why she is so huge. Nobody was communicating to the 9-14-year-olds in the country market at that time.

 

 

 

 

 

Kiss was the first rock group to make the make-up famous and provide a bombastic live show.

 

Motley Crüe was first in the market with the new 80’s glam metal sound, they added to what David Bowie had done with glam and made it harder edged.

 

Design Awareness Motley MEME

 By the way, when I say, “first in the market” I mean first in the market’s AWARENESS which is to say they were first in the mind.

 

 

 

 

There may have been other glam metal bands before Motley Crüe, but they were the first to get into your awareness so they win.

 

Marketing is a mental game, the products, to a degree, don’t matter.

 

Thus, “It’s better to be first than to be better”.

 

Organic The Beatles

 

 

 

Brian Epstein fashioned the Beatles into 4 neatly trimmed, clean faced, suit-wearing, bowing-after-every-song, safe boys you could bring home to mom.

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew Loog Oldham knew he couldn’t occupy the same lane with the Stones, so he fashioned them in a new category as the “anti-Beatles”. They were dangerous and scruffy looking.

 

Think about it, if marketing was objectively product based like we want to believe, there would be no sucky music.

 

No artists would be famous unless they were uber-talented.

 

But that has never been the case, has it?

 

Therefore, whoever markets better, wins.

 

 

 

Being first in the market is important only to the extent that it allows you to be first in the mind.

 

This is so important in the music industry that MANY really talented artists have been signed for the sole purpose of being shelved to keep them off the market so as not to compete with the label’s priority who is similar.

 

This is good info to know if you’re looking at a deal. Why are they signing you? You’d better know all the artists on the label roster because I promise you the courtship is exactly the same. It’s the outcome that changes.

 

Design MITS Altair 8800

 

 

The MITS Altair 8800 was the first personal computer, it came out in 1974 and the Apple II came out later in 1976.

 

 

 

But Apple had a better name and better marketing so they got into the mind first.

 

Design Apple II

 

 

 

Marketing is a battle of perception, not products so the MIND takes precedence over the marketplace.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s one thing to be an amazing artist but it’s another to be in the mind of the consumer.

 

Design The Law of the Mind MEME

This is called the Law of the Mind.

 

 

 

Everybody lives within their own perception. Their reality is their perception.

 

Think about this fact in terms of politics, religion, or your bandmates opinions on the best artists or equipment.

 

How about emotionally and sexaully abused people? Their perception is they don’t think they’re worth anything so that becomes their reality.

 

See?

 

So, reality doesn’t matter as much as perception BUT, in today’s music business, the perception had better be authenticity.

 

Design Perception is Reality

You’d better be REAL and GENUINE or the market will see right through it.

 

 

 

 

 

Hype won’t make perception a reality. Until your audience perceives you to be real, you’re a fantasy.

 

You’re the Altair 8800.

 

Design You're not in the mind MEME

You’re that amazingly talented friend of yours who didn’t get the record deal.

 

 

 

Falling into the (often inaccurate) assumption that you have more talent, therefore you deserve success is killing you.

 

The artist who wins will be the artist who infiltrates the consumer mind first, talented or not.

 

The artist who stands out will be the artist who is the most unique in the new music business.

 

Design Mind The Gap

 

 

 

Therefore, the artists who lack on a body of work simply won’t have authentic art.

 

 

 

The more work an artist does to “close the gap” between their taste and authenticity, the more authentic their art becomes.

 

Therefore, covers are so important.

 

Cut the crap, you won’t be misconstrued a cover artist, I promise.

 

Let’s be honest here, the reality is that, right now, you’re not seen by the market as any kind of artist, isn’t it?

 

Or at least you’re seen by too few people to make a living.

 

Until you put in this work, the artist is unique and the art is not.

 

It’s not about your music.

 

Rather, it’s about what people think about your music.

 

 

Design Car Logo Collage

If objectivity on the product were the determining factor in marketing, all products would perform equally throughout the globe.

 

 

 

In America, the top 3 Japanese auto imports are Honda, Toyota, and Nissan IN THAT ORDER.

 

If people purchased based on the objectivity of the product, like designs, functionality, styling, etc., this same ranking would exist in Japan, but it doesn’t because the Japanese think about these brands differently.

 

Japan’s top 3 selling auto brands are Toyota, Nissan, then Honda coming in third because the Japanese think of Honda as a motorcycle company, not a car company.

 

Design Harley Davidson LogoGet it?

 

Imagine how well Harley-Davidson cars would sell in America.

 

They wouldn’t.

 

In America, Campbell’s soup is #1 but in England, Heinz soup is #1.

 

The question is, exactly what are you doing to get yourself in the mind of the consumer?

 

I want you to win.

 

You’re only going to win by penetrating the mind of the consumer.

 

Get someone to do it for you if you don’t know how to do it.

 

If you can’t afford that, get an education and continue to learn. Understand how to permeate the consumer’s mind by design so you happen to the world.

 

If you’re not happening to the world, you’re not an artist.

 

I mean, maybe you are, but I haven’t heard of you.

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune

 

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youtube-feature-image

YouTube is the most valuable asset that you have right now as an artist, in fact, it’s your gateway to 1 BILLION people, a majority of whom use it for music purposes, and it’s free, but most of you are completely ignoring it.youtube-ignorance

 

 

 

Why?

 

For the love of God, WHY?!?!

 

Answer: Because it’s foreign and you’re lazy.

 

 

You think it’s not foreign because you experience it just about every day, but that doesn’t mean you know a damn thing about how to harness the real power of YouTube.

 

youtube-article-resized

 

 

 

 

I have a blog article and a 2-part episode on my podcast (episodes 14 and 16) about the steps you need to take to build a potentially viral YouTube channel.

 

 

 

 

 

Still, most of you would rather sit around and complain about not being able to find your audience or make a living with your music. You vent about this with your best artistically prideful voice and tell your friends what you’re willing and not willing to do as an artist to maintain your “integrity”.

 

Or at least to maintain the story of what integrity means to you that you keep telling yourself.

 

youtube-story-you-tell-yourself-meme

 

How can anyone of you deny the sheer numbers of artists famous or not, that broke on YouTube?

 

 

 

 

Make no mistake, when I say broke, I mean they now make a living creating music because they found their audience on YouTube.

 

In this article, I want to get into the most common conceptual mistake that just about all artists make when thinking about a YouTube strategy.

 

The secret is to remove your artist hat and put on a marketing hat.

 

youtube-think-differently-meme

 

I promise there is artistic satisfaction in a solid YouTube marketing strategy, but it’s not where you think it is.

 

 

 

Therefore, you can’t locate this strategy in the current story you’re telling yourself.

 

 

By the way, if your artistic “integrity” as you define it, is the very thing that is keeping you from expanding your audience, shouldn’t you rethink that?

 

 

youtube-artistic-integrity-meme

 

Most artists want to put up videos of either their original material or cover songs that mean something to them from artists they “respect”. This is where y’all think the artistic satisfaction comes from.

 

 

 

 

You put up videos of your original material but no one in the marketplace is aware of you as an artist, so you get zero views from new possible fans; just views from friends and family.

 

How did this help you “spread your gospel”?

 

How did this help you reach new people with your talent?

 

youtube-zero-traffic-meme

 

You put up videos of you covering your favorite iconic songs but again, the only views you get are from people who already know you because nobody is searching for the original version of the crusty song you had to cover to keep your current “artist integrity” story intact.

 

 

Both approaches are flawed and quite self-centered.

 

 

 

youtube-tied-down-zero-views

 

Neither of these tactics work because they don’t create traffic in any real way.

 

There is no new business happening.

 

 

 

 

 

When approaching YouTube, one must think like a marketer.

 

You need to expose your talents to as many new people as humanly possible if you’re going to expand your audience.

 

Makes sense, right?

 

So then, where can you find the new people?

 

How can you drive traffic to your video?

 

 

Answer:  Current cover songs.

 

youtube-cover-songs-over-face

 

Sometimes these newly released songs are beneficial to you because they drive traffic from well-known artist videos, and sometimes they’re beneficial because they’re not so well-known so there is little competition.

 

Provided the original video gets a ton of views, you’re going to get some too…unless you suck, but I digress.

 

 

 

Constantly check for the songs that have just dropped every Friday. Pick 2-4 songs to work up.

 

 

 

SPOILER ALERT:  This is where the cathartic artistic satisfaction comes from, putting your stamp on another artist’s original song.

 

 

youtube-billboard-hot-100-image

 

 

 

The more distant the original artist’s style is from yours the more compelling it will be.
Take artistic license and go as crazy as you want to be.

 

 

 

Imagine getting paid 1 million dollars to work up and put your artistic stamp on 10 songs that are completely out of your artistic lane.

 

 

I tell my artists, “You have to pick from the songs I offer you, but after that, I don’t care what you do with it; go nuts.”

 

youtube-traffic-night

 

 

Traffic will be generated to your version of that song because people will be searching for the original artists brand new video and stumble across yours.

 

 

 

If your version is compelling in the first 10-15 seconds, you’re going to start racking up completely organic views and lots of them.

 

 

Don’t worry about how many, just worry about being consistent. Some will do ok some will do amazing.

 

Know that it’s not about the quality of the video, it’s about a compelling performance.  Some of your covers will fare better than others because of competition and when they were posted in relation to the drop date.

 

 

youtube-early-memeThe key is to be as early as possible in the life cycle of the new single because there is little traffic at the beginning.

 

 

 

Also, sometimes, the smaller artists have less people trying to cover the song so again, less competition means more traffic to your video.

 

 

For example, go and check out Bailey James’ video channel. Her Taylor Swift covers are brilliant; she slays the vocal on these.

 

 

taylor-swift-blank-space

 

Most of Taylor’s original videos rack up somewhere between 600 million to over 1 billion views so there is no doubt about the traffic, but the trouble lies in the fact that every little girl and her mother are posting their version of the latest Taylor Swift single on YouTube.

 

 

 

Consequently, out of the 3 Taylor covers on Bailey’s channel, they only garnered between 4-5 thousand views each.

 

 

That’s probably more views than most of you have ever received, but, again, I digress.

 

 

YouTube little-big-town

 

 

On the other hand, she a did a cover of Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” that has racked up over 120,000 views largely because of low competition related to the controversy surrounding the song even before it was released.

 

 

 

 

Little Big Town’s original version has over 62 million views which is astounding but paltry (less than 10% of traffic) compared to anything from Swift. The difference to our views was more than 10x.

 

 

youtube-bailey-james-collage

 

Get it?

 

What is the goal here?

 

The goal is to get you, the compelling artist, in front of new people every day.

 

 

 

 

This is called marketing.

 

Every day people are searching for their favorite artist’s NEW videos. They’re aware of these new videos because their favorite artist’s record labels are spending millions of dollars to ensure that you got the message.

 

 

youtube-foot-traffic

This is real legitimate “digital foot traffic” that spills over into your channel.

 

 

 

After you begin to build an audience, you can pepper in an original video or two, but if you’re annotating your cover videos, the viewers will be able to download a full kick-ass recording of one of your originals for free on every view in exchange for their email address.

 

Why not get them the killer track, at the height of interest first, but save the original video for when you make a proper music video for YOUR ORIGINAL track?

 

youtube-bailey-james-channel

Now you have a channel filled with covers, other content that your community finds relevant and personal to THEM, and a couple killer videos of original music which will stick out like a sore thumb on the channel.

 

 

 

 

The packaging makes sense aesthetically, yes?

 

The traffic is real. To date, while we have paid YouTube to promo Bailey’s original music videos, we have well over 350k views that are completely organic.

 

 

Understand that YouTube makes money via advertising.

 

 

YouTube NASA JSC Electronic Imagery

 

 

So, they are constantly algorithmically scrubbing every video to search for the early stage popular videos. Once your video hits a certain amount of views within a certain time of posting you ring that first bell and they press a multiplier button that exposes your video to more people.

 

 

 

If the trend continues, another multiplier button is hit, and then another, and so on. They WANT you to go viral because it’s better for business.

 

Make sense?

 

A properly annotated cover video that offers free download and requests the viewer to subscribe at the end is money. Be advised that annotations don’t work on mobile devices so YouTube has just recently added an “End Card” feature which will incorporate the mobile devices.

 

 

As you build your subscribers up, more and more people are exposed to your new cover videos on the day you post, thus, increasing your chances of ringing that first bell.

 

 

youtube-karmin-justin-noah-collage

 

Many artists like Noah Guthrie, Karmin, and Justin Bieber have broken on YouTube. Not all of them became big huge stars but ALL OF THEM make their living creating and performing music.

 

 

 

If they were completely indie like you, and not rich, like you, this is the system they used.

 

You just need to understand the method behind the madness and put the work in.

 

The rest will happen organically if you’re compelling.

 

It takes time.youtube-real-artist-meme

 

Now about that story you’ve been telling yourself about how you’re going to get your audience, what was that again?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune

 

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Marketing Loved-feature-meme

The music market has gone through an 180° paradigm shift with regards to how to connect with an audience and break an artist but the music marketing loved-180-degreesindustry hasn’t figured out how to crack this new code, therefore record sales are abysmal.

 

 

Consequently, y’all are scared.

 

I’m not.

 

Do I have your attention?

 

loved-code

 

Too many of you, including the record labels, are trying to break artists (or yourselves) the old way. The way we used to do it for over 75 years.

 

 

This is understandable for you, the indie artist because you’re smart and you’re aware that marketing must happen (at least you’d better be), but you’re going to try and emulate the marketing methods that your favorite artists used to reach you.

 

It’s all you know, isn’t it?

 

I mean, I always learned quicker by watching something get done and then replicating the process. So, show me and I’ll execute, I get it.

 

 

Marketing

 

 

It’s also understandable that the labels are sticking to their old tactics because they have a rich, successful heritage but it’s extremely difficult for corporations to change their rudimentary methods of anything.

 

 

 

 

This is the nature of any corporate organization, by the way.

 

 

Marketing

 

Take Proctor & Gamble for instance. Their first product was Ivory soap. Ivory soap was the first product created to replace homemade soap. This was sometime in the EARLY 1800’s, more than 170 years ago.

 

 

 

Proctor & Gamble is a multi-BILLION-dollar conglomerate with many brands, 19 of them individually gross over $1 Billion dollars annually.

 

For almost 2 centuries, marketing was easy for P&G. As long as they advertised their products, they would sell. In fact, the more they advertised, the more they sold.Marketing

 

 

 

If you think about it, there were very few ad messages floating around back in the 1800’s and throughout most of the 1900’s. Some print ads, a few billboards, radio stations, and 3 TV channels towards the end of the advertising glory years.

 

 

 

No clutter really.

 

 

Marketing

 

Nowadays, we all see around 3,500 messages per day! PER DAY!

 

 

 

MASSIVE CLUTTER.

 

 

We’ve grown numb to them. It’s human nature. That means we just don’t see them that much anymore so we don’t pay attention.

 

 

Marketing

 

 

That’s bad for the advertiser.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When P&G hires a new marketing person, they expect that person to do exactly what the person before them did. P&G knows how to sell Ivory soap; they’ve been successfully doing it for well over 170 years.

 

 

Marketing

 

 

But when a newbie marketer is hired, even though they KNOW the old way isn’t working, they are smart enough to understand that they weren’t employed to dismantle the current distribution channels or question the sales heritage of such an amazing company.

 

 

 

 

Therefore, the corporation continues with little change to the processes decade after decade.

 

 

The illustration of the catch-22 is like a simple math equation.

 

Marketing

 

It used to be that companies like P&G spent (x) number of dollars and got a return of (y) on their sales. Now they spend (x) number of dollars and get a return of (y-1000) or (y-10,000) or whatever. Exponentially LESS of a return on the same advertising investment.

 

 

 

So, what do they do?

 

 

They spend more money to create more ads.

 

 

Marketing

 

 

Which creates more clutter.

 

 

 

Which makes us shut down even more.

 

Get it?

 

 

The catch-22 is the less it works, the more money they spend and the more money they spend the less it works!

 

 

MarketingHere’s another interesting statistic. Somewhere around 67% of all the advertising dollars spend in the USA every year come from the top 100 advertisers. You know them well: Coke, Pepsi, Budweiser, Chevrolet, Ford, McDonald’s, etc.

 

More than 80 of these companies have been doing business for longer than 30 years. That’s significant because 30 years was before the internet, before smartphones, before computers, and before cable TV.

 

So, they all find themselves in the same boat as P&G in that their messages are not getting through as well as they used to and they change their strategies very slowly over time.

 

 

Why does this matter to you?

 

 

Because the record labels are in that same boat too.

 

Marketing

 

That boat is clearly sinking.

 

This is undeniable.

 

 

We’re down to just 3 major labels.

 

Unit sales are down 90% and the price of a complete record (be it vinyl, CD, or download) has dropped by 62%.

 

It’s not about the money in the market place.

 

It’s not because consumers can get it for free, that’s a story too many artists and industry pros are telling themselves to relieve the pain of horrible sales.

 

That’s a cop out.

 

 

Marketing

 

If “free” mattered, the poorest people in this country wouldn’t spend 3 times the price of a gallon of gasoline to get something they could obtain for free by taking 20 more steps into the gas station bathroom and turning on the faucet.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, man, that’s how much y’all pay for cheap bottled water and you can get that for free.

 

 

Why do they pay?

 

Answer: Because they feel it’s worth it.

 

Why don’t consumers buy records anymore?

 

Answer: Because they don’t think it’s worth it.

 

Here’s a marketing FACT: When you’re presented with a purchase opportunity for a product that you are very familiar with, that you like or even love, but you don’t purchase, it’s because you don’t think it’s worth it.

 

Marketing

 

Somehow Taylor Swift managed to sell 8.6 million units of her last record and Adele has sold around 7.5 million, I believe.

 

 

Why are their fans buying?

 

Answer: Because they think it’s worth it.

 

 

I promise it’s not because they’re famous. That’s a cop out too. A story we all tell ourselves. Ask George Michael who had sold 50 million records before Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 was released how much being famous accounts for sales with zero marketing.

 

 

marketing

 

 

SO HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR FANS FEEL THAT YOUR MUSIC IS WORTH IT?

 

Answer: Precisely.

 

 

 

 

 

If you follow these old-school methods, you should expect the same results in your artistic endeavors. Complete crap.

 

 

Especially now when every wannabe artist can put his/her “masterpiece” up on the world’s refrigerator.

 

Marketing

Why are so many of you (who even acknowledge that you need marketing) still marketing the same way and expecting different results?

 

 

 

 

It used to be, for 70+ years, the first interaction a debut artist had with a consumer in the marketplace was the music.

 

 

 

Marketing

You heard the debut single on the radio. Then you heard it again and again and again. All this while you were waiting for the DJ to spin your jam.

 

If it was a hit, the song wove its way into the fabric of that time in your life.

 

 

Naturally, an artist finished the record first, released the single, and THEN began marketing the act/record. There was not much to do before the single was released and no real way to do it besides touring.

 

 

I constantly hear artists tell me, “I just have to get this recording finished and then I’ll worry about marketing, one step at a time, Johnny.”

 

Marketing

 

But now it’s different.

 

Therefore, if you don’t change and ADAPT to the new market, you’ll continue to endure the same agonizing results.

 

 

 

Consumers no longer need to suffer through the getting-to-know-you-process of a debut single on the radio because they have CHOICES via a smart phones and an aux cable.

 

 

Marketing

We ALL want to hear the same thing when we listen to music; we all want to hear our jam.

 

“Our jam” = something we know, something we’re already familiar with.

 

 

 

Today the radio spins a debut single from an artist the consumer is unaware of, but they change the channel searching through endless choices to find music they ARE aware of.

 

 

Therefore, THEY WILL FIND THEIR JAM.

 

Therefore, they won’t listen to new music from debut artists on the radio.

 

This is part of the reason the sales are down so much.

 

Here’s the real results of the market change to artists and labels who cannot or will not adapt.

 

 

Marketing

 

The top 10 grossing tours for 2016 have only 2 artists that are in their 20’s. (One was Justin Bieber who broke on YouTube, HELLO, but I digress.)

 

 

 

5 of the artists, in other words, HALF of the top grossing tours this year are from artists whose ages range from 67-72 years old.

 

 

2 of the artists were nearing their 40’s.

 

 

By point of comparison, the artists that toured in 1987 for example, were Bon Jovi (Slippery When Wet), Kiss (Crazy Nights), Madonna (True Blue and the Who’s That Girl soundtrack), Def Leppard (Hysteria), Michael Jackson (Bad), Metallica (Master of Puppets), Ozzy (No Rest For The Wicked), Aerosmith (Permanent Vacation), Iron Maiden (Somewhere in Time), and U2 (Joshua Tree).

 

 

Kiss, Ozzy, and Aerosmith were in their 30’s at the time. The rest were in their 20’s.

 

marketing

Today, radio works wonderfully if you’ve been making records for 30, 40, or 50 years.

 

 

 

 

Radio doesn’t work if you’re a brand-new artist to the market because you haven’t recorded “their jam” yet. Regardless of how good it is, they don’t know it and they’ve PROVEN that they’re not going to discover new music on the radio anymore, haven’t they?

 

 

marketing

Nowadays, the first interaction that a debut artist will have with a market will be the ARTIST.

 

 

 

 

 

Aside from a lucky TV show casting, YOU must connect on social media or YouTube and make friends FIRST.

 

marketing

 

 

Next, you provide content that is relevant and personal to THEM.

 

Then, if they like you, they’ll listen with an open heart and an open mind.

 

 

So, you market YOU and your talent NOW while you’re developing the project. If you do that right, you’ll have an audience when you release it.

 

 

Know that it takes TIME.

 

If you don’t have an audience before you release your project, shame on you.

 

 

Why the hell do so many artists NOT understand the power of YouTube?

 

 

 

marketing

 

 

 

I’ll tell you why because it means they must WORK MORE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

marketing

There are THRONGS of artists who have BROKEN in a BIG WAY on YouTube meaning they were exposed to tens of millions even hundreds of millions of people.

 

 

 

There are millions of music fans who are now aware of these artist’s talents.

 

 

marketing

These artists now tour relentlessly selling hard tickets to fans who pay to see THE ARTIST.

 

…and the artists make a living.

 

 

 

What more do you want, man?

 

These artists are deemed to be “lucky” by the have-nots because y’all are afraid to work and you tell yourself stories as to why they’ve “made it” in one form or another, but it’s not you.

 

Not yet anyway.

 

 

marketing

There is an overwhelming amount of noise and clutter that currently exists online in the music industry but practically NONE of the artists know how to market in the new music business.

 

 

 

 

 

That’s why I’m not scared. There is very little traffic and very little clutter for those who understand new marketing.

 

Everything you need is out there, baby, you just need to recognize it, learn it, execute it, and start your upward journey.

 

Go make some mistakes on the right path, you’ll be ok, I promise.

 

 

You don’t need anyone’s permission.marketing

 

Therefore, the only one standing in your way is you.

 

 

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune

 

 

If you found value in this article, please SHARE and COMMENT

 

 

Learn more on my top ten podcast The C.L.I.M.B.marketing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do you find your sound?

Find Your Sound Feature 1

It’s different for every artist, at least it should be. There has to be attention paid to what the artist is doing creatively so that the sound is what the artist is really, genuinely trying to do or you end up with a dancing chicken. That’s no fun.

 

There also has to be some thought put into the marketplace. This may sound non artistic but I beg to disagree. With some projects, subtle, intelligent changes can be made to cut through the clutter or expand the audience without stifling the art.

 

A bunch of you reading this article believe that to find your sound is whatever you happen to write about which makes it “organic”, more natural, etc.

 

That is true to a degree, however there has to be intentional curation, there has to be serious thought put into what this project is going to sound like, representation, the message, the image, the artistic “lane’. If there isn’t it comes out sounding haphazard and somewhat schizophrenic.

 

Find Your Sound Adele 21

 

 

Thematically, Adele’s 21 was all about her breakup. If she threw in a killer hit song about anything else, it wouldn’t have fit. That’s what I mean by schizophrenic.

 

 

 

 

Just because it’s a hit song doesn’t mean it’s a hit song for you. Here’s a great example.

 

One of my favorite songs last year was Kenny Chesney’s “American Kids”. GREAT song! (OK it really speaks to me and my upbringing in a faded little map dot called Delavan, Wisconsin. Love that map dot)Find Your Sound Kenny Chesney American Kids

 

This was a HUGE hit for Kenny. What you may not know is that “American Kids” was pitched to Lady Antebellum first and they passed on it; appropriately so.

 

What?

 

Find Your Sound Lady A

 

 

Yes, that song is killer, but it wasn’t for them. It didn’t fit their brand so it wouldn’t work right.

 

 

Here’s my point.

 

Finding your sound starts at “30,000 feet” where you begin to craft your artistic lane with the broad strokes first. You have to put some DEEP thought into this because it will become the blueprint that will give guidance to whichFind Your Sound BluePrint songs to pick if they’re outside cuts, which of your songs you should, record and which of your songs you should either let someone else record OR save for a future project.

 

How much thought?

 

 

Marrying a project that is genuinely consonant with the artist from the inside out with an artistic lane that is ideally empty or hopefully not very crowded is an art form.

 

Case Study #1: Bailey James

Find Your Sound Bailey James

 

When I first heard Bailey I was blown away by her voice. She was simply an astonishing little 11-year old girl with an incredibly mature voice. Her instrument is somewhat reminiscent of the great Patsy Cline in tone and her melodic sensibilities.

 

Right away, that’s exciting because I don’t really hear anyone in the country music marketplace that sounds like her; this makes her voice more “identifiable”.

 

What wouldn’t be distinguishable is if she sounded like or was trying to sound exactly like Carrie Underwood, or Miranda Lambert which is usually the case here with most wannabes in Nashville.

Find Your Sound Carrie and Miranda

 

So that’s a step in the right direction.

 

 

Next what is really unusual, is that (now) 13-year old Bailey James genuinely likes old school country like Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, etc.

 

 

 

I think that when your Bailey’s age you HAVE to love 5 Seconds of Summer and Taylor Swift (check!) but other than these two artists she drives her parents crazy listening to, well, “Crazy”.

Find Your Sound Patsy Cline

 

 

Here is unique value proposition #2. If we made a record that was reminiscent of old school country Patsy Cline the project would be in harmony with Bailey’s artistic soul.

 

I would be real. Which is to say it wouldn’t be contrived.

 

Get it?

 

This information began to get my creative juices flowing.

 

What if we made a record that was retro (ish) sounding? At the time there was nothing like this on the radio, (although very recently Maren Morris seems to be doing REALLY well with her very retro sound, salute! This helps my cause).

Find Your Sound What if

 

What if we made the melodies evocative of Patsy Cline which you don’t hear on country radio right now?

 

What if we supported these melodies with old school country chords and chord progressions which you don’t hear on the radio right now?

 

Find Your Sound Country Guitar Chords

 

What if we added a neat artistically harmonious twist? Let’s make the lyrics more like Taylor Swift’s early records.

 

 

There were many reasons for Taylor Swift’s success and one of the big ones is that she and Scott Borchetta created Find Your Sound Taylor Swift Fearlessan artistic lane that was previously non-existent.

 

There were exactly ZERO artists lyrically catering to 9-14 year olds.

 

All country music artists were adult themed lyrically.

 

Here’s the twist. Taylor grew up.

 

Taylor went from:

“She wears short skirts

 I wear T-shirts

She’s cheer captain

       And I’m in the bleachers”

To writing

“I’ve got a long list of ex-lovers,

        They’ll tell you I’m insane

        But I’ve got a blank space baby,

        And I’ll write your name.”

 

Find Your Sound Authenti City

 

 

So who’s speaking for the 9-14 year olds in country music now?

 

 

Keep in mind we haven’t written any songs yet for Bailey’s project.

 

This very thought process led to some serious conversations that I had with Bailey and her parents.

 

Find Your Sound Couple Music CollageIf we make a record like this, we’re going to have to commit to using the internet and touring to build a following as we probably wouldn’t be getting a lot of love from country radio, at least at first. If we wanted love from country radio we’d have to make a record like Kelsea Ballerini, which is fine, but why be derivative just to chase radio?

 

Country radio wouldn’t probably help us because she doesn’t sound like what they’re spinning right now and they don’t want to take chances. They’re losing listeners by the droves every single day.

 

Besides, radio is becoming increasingly less effective in breaking new artists so the money spent on radio promo wouldn’t really be well spent at this particular stage of the game.

Find Your Sound Guitar Music Collage

 

We all agreed that this was the kind of record we wanted to make and we began to get Bailey with the songwriters that were willing to do business our way.

 

I say “our way” because it takes guts and commitment to purposefully write something you know probably isn’t going straight to radio. Writers get paid on the back end, with performance royalties, so why would they want to mess with this?

 

I gathered some writer friends and we went to work. I told the writers that the imagery had to be specific, keep it in the schoolyard. If the lyrics were universal enough that Carrie or Miranda could sell it, they had to go back to the drawing board. I wanted the kids to look at Bailey and say, “She speaks for us. She is our voice.”

 

Melodically we wanted bigger melodies like Patsy Cline. Chord wise we wanted 1960’s country.

 

See what I’m doing here?

Find Your Sound 30,000 feet

 

I have an artist that lives and breathes old school country who is STOKED to make a record in that vein. I also have a vacuum in the market place.

 

Perfect.

 

Moreover, I told Bailey’s parents if we made a record like this Bailey would stick out like a sore thumb from all the Disney bubblegum pop music.

 

We all agreed this was a good thing to “stick out”.

 

Find Your Sound Blueprint Fingerprint

 

This initial understanding of a defined artistic lane was mission critical to picking the songs that made the EP. Bailey and the writers wrote a bunch, we picked 5 Bailey co-writes, 1 outside cut, and they were all melodically and lyrically dialed into the vision.

 

Are you picking up what I’m putting down?

 

 

 

I have some questions for you.

 

Have you defined your artistic lane?Find Your Sound Define

How much competition is there in your artistic lane?

What kind of thought have you given towards your sound?

 

To find your sound you have to build around your strengths as an artist.

 

Bailey’s strengths, artistically lay in her voice, her love for old school country, and her age which gives us an advantage in the marketplace. This all has to do with the making of her sound, at least a sound that has a chance of standing out in the current marketplace and being heard by someone.

 

So Bailey is a great example of a solo artist whose sound was put together a certain way from the very beginning.

 

But what if you’re a band and you’re songs are already written? Let’s take a look at Van Halen and see exactly what producer Ted Templeman did to create their sound.

Find Your Find Your Sound DLR

 

David Lee Roth is arguably one the very best front men ever to walk on stage (and in the interest of complete transparency I’ll tell you that he’s my favorite. AMAZING LIVE SHOW.)

 

However DLR would never win American Idol.

 

 

 

Ted was smart enough to know that the “live show” attraction of DLR wasn’t going to translate well onto tape. That’s a live thing. Eddie would though.

 

FREE VALUE BOMB: Btw, Templeman who was also a Sr. VP of Warner Brothers Records along with Mo Ostin Find Your Sound Free Value Bombwho was the Chairman, passed twice on Van Halen demos, it didn’t come across on their recordings. They LOVED Eddie and wanted to sign him alone, but didn’t like DLR (Templeman originally wanted to put Sammy Hagar with Eddie!) It wasn’t until they both saw Van Halen live opening for Dokken (whom they were there to see) that they got it and agreed to sign Van Halen.

 

 

Templeman wanted the record to be about the guitar. That’s what was so special. Think about it.

 

COMPARE: Here is a link to one of the earlier Van Halen demos. Let’s just dissect the first song “On Fire”. It’s all there but it’s scattered and a bit out of focus isn’t it? Structurally as well as moment-wise.

  • The harmonic guitar lickFind Your Sound Van_Halen_Demo
  • Occasional badass DLR vocal scream (notice the first high note DLR hits is a real weak sounding falsetto without the signature multi overtone growl that he easily performs later on in the chorus “I’m on FIYAAAAA!”
  • The chorus hook, the vocal arrangement on the pre chorus “I’m hangin’ ten now baby, as I ride your sonic waaaaave” (ascending scream behind wave).
  • The guitar lead

 

Now, listen to VH I album cut of “On Fire” very carefully. The differences can mostly be attributed to Templeman’s input crafting their sound. Finding moments and featuring them.

  • First of all a bunch of fat was cut from the track.
  • The guitar was panned all the way to the left with only the reverb return coming out of the right. (Definitely a Find Your Sound Van Halen Irevved up guitar sound that Templeman credits completely to Eddie)
  • Drums and bass were all the way to the right with DLR straight up the middle. (This abnormal mix strategy FEATURED the guitar.)
  • Bombastic beginning chord progression before the signature riff starts.
  • Notice, from the get go, the recording is loaded with all kinds of guitar licks filling up the vocal holes, featuring Eddie’s guitar prowess.
  • Notice Templeman LOVED the harmonic guitar lick and featured it making it a recurring guitar hook. VH did it on the demo, Templeman did it more.
  • The vocal melody was re-crafted subtly but it’s genius because it’s more powerful and memorable (more question/answer on the melody…do you hear it?)
  • The end of the guitar solo was changed a bit to give Eddie a “lily pad” to land on giving the lead, which was ascending and creating tension, resolution at the end.
  • All the falsetto voices from DLR are badass strong tone with signature growl that was intermittent on the demo. Many are doubled.

 

So to find YOUR sound you need to think like a record executive and create a lane with little or no competition. You also need to think like a producer and bring out the strengths of the act on the recording.

 

Sometimes you just need to write a BUNCH to hone in on your sound. The Beatles wrote at least 50-150 songs before they began to get it.

 

Find Your Sound Microphone

 

Last thing. Both the artists in these case studies are extremely talented. Both of them needed outside help to focus the talent and make it really shine for an audience.

 

 

Who’s helping you?

Stay

In

Tune.

 

If you found this article valuable, please SHARE and COMMENT on it. Thank you!

Organic Feature MEME

Watch this BBC Music Moguls documentary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyPJiey6vckOrganic Music Moguls Image

It’s one hour long and worth every second.

“Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd” – P.T. Barnum of Barnum & Bailey Circus

 

Let’s face it, the music business IS a circus whether you like it or not or whether you want to admit it or not.

 

Organic Elvis and Colonel Tom ParketElvis Presley was made into the King by Colonel Parker. It is very interesting that Parker had been a circus huckster with an affinity for luring bystanders into the tent.

Colonel Tom Parker understood showmanship and how to monetize talent.

 

 

Elvis had talent, and without Colonel Parker, we wouldn’t know who Elvis was.

Organic Saturday Evening Post Circus Barker

 

 

Too many artists think the image, artistic lane, and performances of their most beloved iconic artists happened organically, magically, as if the artists were always polished and ready to go just waiting for the audiences to catch on.

 

 

 

Nope. Every artist was developed artistically and in the marketplace.

What does “organic” mean to you exactly?

 

Organic NEMS

 

Brian Epstein owned a siding company. He was a music lover so he also owned a record store called North End Music Stores as a side business, which is how The Beatles came into his awareness.

 

First let’s discuss the Image. The Beatles’ image was not organic if your definition of “organic” means “to happen naturally without preconception or outside guidance”.

 

 

Brian insisted The Fab Four clean up a bit. Yes, they had unusually long hair for early 60’s society but Epstein wanted them trimmed evenly, clean cut, and styled.Organic Brian Epstein

 

When Epstein met the Beatles, they were scruffy, when he was through with the makeover, they were clean shaven.

 

Epstein added the touch of the famous black suits with the ties.

Organic The Beatles

He taught them to bow and thank the audience after completing every song. This gave the Beatles the cutesy, safe, socially acceptable image of 4 boys you could bring home to mom.

 

 

Which is exactly what Epstein wanted.

 

Moreover, The Beatles acquiesced.

 

Which is rare.

Usually artists piss and moan about doing something different or foreign. You’ve heard the conversations before, “I just want to be as organic as possible.”

Organic The Beatles Plane

 

Now let’s talk about how Beatlemania started. Did the Band cut a record, put a couple copies in a few records stores and watch the pandemonium ensue?

No.

 

Did a couple “tastemaker” girls pick up the 45 (this was how they used to sell singles for those of you who are unaware of what a 45 is), freak out and share it with 2 friends who then told 2 friends, who then told 2 friends, and so on, until they became a raging behemoth?

Not exactly.

 

Organic Puppeteer

 

Understanding that people respond to momentum, even if it was perceived momentum (after all, perception is reality), Brian manipulated their market force initially by gaming the British charts. He shrewdly knew that there were 11 record stores around his locality that reported to the chart company. Brian would send out fans/friends with his money to purchase records at these select stores on the day of release. This would get the record immediately charting which got the public and the industry’s ears perked up. This initial momentum behind every single to created a little launching pad, if you will.

 

Did this artificially create a #1?

No.

 

It did give them just enough credibility to get industry and radio people talking. This clever move also made it socially acceptable for consumers to like The Beatles because “everybody else was clearly liking them”.

 

There are the early adopters and then there are the people who think they’re the early adopters because the crowd is small enough to make them look cool and big enough that there was clearly a bandwagon to hop on to.

Organic Totally Natural

Was this organic?

Maybe.

 

My definition of organic is sometimes (usually) vastly different than an artist’s.

 

You see, I believe that all the gaming of the system, all the hustle, marketing, all the payola, and all the MONEY in the world won’t make a crappy or derivative record good.

 

On the contrary, a great, fresh, original, amazingly talented artist remains a “nobody”, doomed to reside in the basement of societal awareness without any of these marketing techniques.

Organic Banana Oatmeal

How are you feeling about the trajectory of your artist career right now?

 

Epstein had lightning in a bottle and he knew what to do with it. He knew how to bring it to society in such a manner that it would get its own legs and create momentum.

 

The Beatles were smart enough to get him and let him do it; having faith and following his instructions IMPLICITLY.

 

So it should come as no surprise that Andrew Loog Oldham, the original manager for the Rolling Stones, started out as Brian Epstein’s assistant.Organic Andrew Loog Oldham

 

Oldham was the executor of many of the techniques that helped to create The Beatles in the marketplace.

Oldham did EXACTLY the same thing with the Stones.

 

 

 

First he applied market awareness to the image of the band. Oldham couldn’t just recreate The Beatles and he knew that. He needed a new artistic lane. The Stones had to be different. He suggested that the Rolling Stones be the “anti-Beatles”.

 

Organic Rolling Stones Live

 

He wanted them scruffy instead of clean cut.

He wanted them wearing leather or hipster mod clothing as opposed to suits.

He wanted them to be dangerous as opposed to some “boys you could take home to mother”.

Was this organic?

I suppose it depends on how you look at it.

 

Talent + Market Awareness + Hustle + Marketing = Your Dream.

 

My favorite quote from this piece:

“When God gives you something special, he takes away from other places. If you look at any artist, they’ve all got something missing, and I’m the guy that replaces it.”Organic Unknowns Quote MEME

 

So what is your market awareness with regards to your artistic lane?

 

Scott Borchetta immediately knew there were no country artists that were writing and speaking for 9-14 year old kids when he saw Taylor Swift; they created a whole new lane.

No competition means it’s easy to dominate.

 

Get it?

 

How is your artistic lane different from what is already going on?

Do you have the balls to be different?Organic Fruit

 

What are you missing?

 

Are you aware of your “known unknowns”?

 

Are you aware there are “unknown unknowns” which will require you to have faith in someone else?

 

These are the questions a smart artist should be asking.

 

Maybe you need to rethink your definition of “organic”?

 

Stay

In

Tune.

 

If you liked this article, please don’t be afraid to SHARE it.

Sticky Music Marketing Feature

I’ve been reading the brilliant book Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. It breaks down why some ideas stick and some ideas die. For instance, why are Aesop’s fables still remembered after 2,500 years (“The Tortoise and the Hare”, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”, etc.)?Sticky Music Marketing Tortoise

 

Why are urban legends so “sticky” like the famous kidney harvester story which has a dude accepting a cocktail from a random hottie in a bar and waking up in a hotel bathroom in a tub full of ice, a phone within reach, and a note attached to it that reads “Don’t move, you are missing a kidney, dial 911”?

How do these ideas or stories survive over years, decades, and centuries?

 

Sticky Music Marketing Surgeon

 

 

Why are people so interested in retelling them?

 

Retelling is the old school term for SHARING.

How come nobody is interested in sharing your music?

Whoa, wait, what?

 

I’ll repeat the question, how is it that we ALL know a friend of a friend who witnessed the famed kidney harvester story and nobody wants to listen to, purchase, or tell people about your music?

 

Crazy, right?Sticky Music Marketing Urban Legends 2

 

That’s the rub.

 

I believe that if your music is marketed correctly, it will be heard, and it will matter. That’s what we all want, right? Money or no money, we want people to look at our art endeavors and experience the music as the soundtrack to their lives.

 

You want it to be your song they’re listening to the first time they have sex.

Sticky Music Marketing Making Out

 

 

You want it to be your song they’re listening to when that one crazy thing happens at the party that they’ll never forget for the rest of their lives.

 

That’s the code that needs to be cracked to find your success in today’s music business.

 

Mostly y’all haven’t really thought about this at all, have you?

 

At the very best, y’all have spent 5 minutes thinking about connecting with your future fans and your entire lifetime working on the music.

Sticky Music Marketing Scales 2

This disproportionate allocation of your creative time between music and marketing  is the reason behind your lack of response.

 

I will tell you that the same market shifting problems are at the core of the music industry’s sales slump.

 

You’re on your journey and your music is where your music is for right now. The quality, originality, and craftsmanship of your music is directly proportionate to how hard you’re willing to work at the recording and the creative process as well as your level of humility.

 

Sticky Music Marketing Most Successful Friends

 

I say humility because it’s no secret that my most successful friends and artists are always humbly asking questions (to anybody and everybody) while my least successful friends and artists are always telling people “how it is” and why they can’t get a leg up.

 

There’s a man who thinks he can and a man who thinks he can’t. Both men are right.

 

 

Which one are you?

 

Which one do you want to be?

 

These two questions could have completely different answers, huh?

 

Sticky Music Marketing Ask PermissionThe good news is that if you want to make a living being an artist today, you don’t need permission from anybody.

 

You don’t have to wait.

 

You don’t need to get “lucky” and meet the right people who will open all the doors for you and place in a room full of EZ buttons and unicorns.

 

No, you can get started right now…but, only if you really want it, of course.

 

It used to be you couldn’t put out a record without a major record label because it was WAY too cost prohibitive, now it’s super inexpensive.

 

Sticky Music Marketing Bon Jovi and Reznor

 

Jon Bon Jovi and Trent Reznor both figured out how to exchange their valuable time for studio access to create the recordings that broke them wide open and they did this without a record label when the cost of recording was 15 times what you’re facing.

 

Where there’s a will there’s a way (another sticky statement, right?)

 

If you can’t find a way, I assure you that the problem lies within your will. Either recognize and accept this notion to refocus your efforts or do yourself and the industry a favor and move on with your life.

 

Don’t be bitter about moving on if that’s your choice. It just means you didn’t really want it enough.

Sticky Music Marketing RADAR Screen

Your music is important but in today’s market it’s secondary when it comes to marketing. The first interaction a future fan will have with you as an artist will not be the music; it won’t be the single. Rather, the first interaction a future fan will have with you as an artist will be YOU.

 

If they like YOU, then they will listen to your music with an open heart and an open mind. At this point, the music better be good, man.

 

It better WORK.

 

If you’re sticky enough, they will respond and remember you.

 

But things have to be different. They have to be approached differently these days. This means they have to be thought about differently.

 

When you truly reexamine an approach things begin to change.

 

For instance, sometimes I will write more than 25 titles to a particular blog article. The first 15 are the obvious choices and the last 10 are when I really begin to rethink out of necessity. This is where the true creativity happens.

 

You have to approach your marketing this way.

 

Sticky Music Marketing Mr. BurnsFor the love of God, if your approach is to “let the label handle it” you might as well quit now. You’re going to fail with or without a label, man. It seriously won’t matter.

 

If the big wigs really knew what was going on in today’s market, we’d have a hell of a lot more platinum records than just Drake, Taylor Swift, and Adele.

 

You have to be your own business first. You have to.

 

If you think that you’re going record a demo, then get a deal, you’re wrong. They don’t care. Even if they LOVE your demo they don’t care.

It’s not in their business model to develop you as an artist.

 

What does that mean?

 

Would you be pissed off, hurt, distraught, and flabbergasted to find out that you cannot go to an IHOP and get your oil changed while you eat pancakes?Sticky Music Marketing Penzoil and Pancakes

 

No, of course not. It’s not in IHOP’s business model to change oil, they make pancakes.

 

Record labels can’t develop you because they no longer have the money.

 

They want to see that you have a growing business.

 

They want to see that your music has value in the market place not because you think it’s amazing, but because people are BUYING it. Period.

 

Record labels are looking to buy small businesses, not develop artists.

 

So the development is your job.

 

Artistically and in the marketplace.

 

Stop ignoring it.

 

You’re wasting valuable time.

 

If you need guidance, there are plenty of mentors out there to mold your creative endeavors as well as your marketing approach.

Sticky Music Marketing Targeting

Target your audience. Who will most likely dig what you are doing?

 

Clearly Metallica fans are NOT going to give a crap about your amazing jazz music.

 

So target intelligently.

 

Go find your audience on social media and say “Hello”.

 

Yes, say “HELLO”. Is that so freaking hard?

Sticky Music Marketing Hello

 

Follow them first. When they follow back say hello. Give them something in a gesture of gratitude.

 

They will appreciate it if you serve it up right.

 

Ask QUESTIONS. Be interested in THEM.

 

When they feel that you are interested in them, they will begin to ask questions about you.

 

They will begin to be interested because you are an amazing person.

Sticky Music Marketing Questions

 

Answer their questions.

 

While you’re doing this provide some social proof that other people are interested in your music. One piece of social proof is a healthy following. Another would be some good reviews on your music. Another would be some quick clips of a live performance or two. Maybe a few BTS (Behind The Scenes) shots of you recording?

 

Remember walking out on the playground in grade school and seeing a huge group of kids in a circle? Probably a fight, right?

 

What did you do?

 

You went over to check it out!

Sticky Music Marketing Crowd

 

“Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd” – P.T. Barnum

 

Everyone wants to be a rock star.

 

You’re living a life that most people will only read about in books.

 

Realize this but don’t be cocky or condescending.

 

You need them.

 

Then offer a killer deal on your music.

 

You’ll sell something.

 

Now you have a measurement.

 

If you can measure it, you can manage it.

 

Sticky Music Marketing Post It Note

 

Tweak the plan.

 

Improve awareness.

 

Make a better living.

 

You make your music to “stick”.

 

 

Now make your marketing just as sticky.

 

Stay

In

Tune.

 

 

 

 

David Bowie Feature Image

Sorry this post took a while. I was a little devastated. I’m unsure as to whether I knew about David Bowie and his battle with cancer and ignored it or simply didn’t know. Either way, I felt blindsided. This is a tremendous loss for the artistic community. He was super intelligent. A visionary. Mostly he was an artist right up until the end.David Bowie Interview

 

 

Watch this 2000 interview with David Bowie. Here he begins to predict the power of the internet to change the music industry in the future.

 

 

 

David Bowie Exhilarating Ying Yang

 

 

 

“I don’t think we’ve even seen the tip of the iceberg. I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society – both good and bad – is unimaginable. I think we’re actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying.”

 

“The monopolies do not have a monopoly:”

 

David Bowie No Monopoly

 

Pretty spot on, huh? Hard to imagine it was 16 years ago that he gave this interview.

 

I want to discuss the “exhilarating and terrifying” part of that quote.

 

 

We need to touch a little on the terrifying to truly find an accurate perspective of the exhilaration counterpart that accompanies it.

 

The terrifying has manifested itself in many ways, hasn’t it? Free tracks have temporarily devalued music but artists like Taylor Swift have proven that when you embrace the new methods you can still sell 8.6 million records. Which blows the whole “if they can get it for free they won’t buy it” argument right out of the water; now THAT’S exhilarating!David Bowie Wolfman Jack

 

If she can sell 8.6 million records when the ENTIRE industry can’t really crack 1 million in sales, YOU can certainly make a living. Oh, and she’s clearly doing something different than the rest of the industry.

 

It’s terrifying that our tried and true methodologies of curation have broken down. It used to be that a trusted DJ in a market would spin something that moved him and if it was good (which it usually was because of the hurdles an artist had to overcome to get their song to the DJ to begin with), the world would catch on. Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May” and Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” both broke in this fashion. They started abnormally in the Midwest and caught fire moving outwardly to the coasts. FYI, Pink Floyd’s single became viral in spite of a power play by The Syndicate (a group of 6 men that controlled radio in the 70’s) to keep Floyd OFF the air in an attempt to prove their power eclipsed their ability to get a song played.

 

It’s exhilarating that artists like Karmin, Noah, and Macklemore can find a huge audience without the corporate amen from the powers that be at terrestrial radio or major record labels.

David Bowie Karmin

 

 

It’s terrifying that records used to cost the 2016 equivalent of $29 and now they only cost $10.99.

 

It’s exhilarating that proper marketing can not only bring record sales back, but monetize the tremendous talents of artists in many brand new ways.

 

 

 

 

Unimaginable was what Bowie said, I believe.

David Bowie Unimaginable MEME

 

 

It’s terrifying that the record labels are so broke they no longer develop talent anymore. The methods artists used for 7 decades to get their music made and heard no longer apply. This is foreign and foreign creates feelings that range from the uncomfortable to downright scary.

 

 

It’s exhilarating that there is a new frontier with an embarrassment of artistic and monetary riches that waits for the pioneers that are willing to learn. It’s never been easier and this inexpensive to target, connect, and create relationships with your fans.

 

As David Bowie said in the interview, music is now a community experience.David Bowie Community

 

 

It used to be an artist would get distribution overseas and have no choice but to trust the suits that their music “wasn’t really selling”.

 

 

It used to be that an artist would sell 8 million records and never fully “recoup” the budget put forth by a record label because they could hide the money and screw the artist in perpetuity.

 

David Bowie Beggar

 

Now, we can track everything digitally. There is no reason for an artist to have to “trust” anyone. Now artists can “trust but verify”.

 

The monopolies no longer have a monopoly.

 

 

You don’t need a record label or radio to find your audience, you can find your own fans at your fingertips and it’s basically a free exercise.

 

You don’t need a record label or radio to create a buzz about your artistic efforts.

 

David Bowie Bailey JamesDaredevil artist Bailey James has at least 14 independently created social media accounts. They were created by fans. 12 on Instagram and 2 on Twitter last time I checked.

 

That’s buzz

 

She hasn’t even released her record yet.

 

It’s real, man.

 

About 6 months ago, Bailey posted a cover of Luke Bryan’s “Kick the Dust Up” on her YouTube channel. This song was chosen simply for the traffic value we felt it would bring and it didn’t disappoint. However, this cover was the first that created some real controversy. The reaction to the video was split down the middle with as many people hating it (whether it was Bailey’s performance of it or the song itself I’m still unsure) as loving it. Bailey’s father was systematically removing the negativity in an understandable paternal effort to protect his little girl (she was 12 years old).

 

I told both parents to keep it real and leave the negative comments up. I said this because there were people that were actually listening to our artist expecting a train wreck (due to the negative comments) that were blown away by her vocal prowess and therefore baffled at the negative commentary.

 

They commented as much.

David Bowie Bailey James YouTube 3

Now they’re fans and subscribers to Bailey’s channel.

 

Some of the best, deepest relationships in life are forged from adversity. If the adverse reactions were allowed to stay, I said, her fans would come to her defense.

 

What makes you believe something deeper than defending it? Psychologically, that has a subconscious positive effect on the defenders; a bond is created between the defenders and the defended.David Bowie Scary

 

Last week a little girl made the sorry mistake of posting an Instagram message calling Bailey James a “bitch”.

 

Papa bear let it ride.

 

Whoa. The fans SKEWERED that little girl who left the bitch comment so much I felt bad for her. She digressed and said it was some boy on the bus who posted the comment without her knowledge or approval so it wasn’t her fault.

David Bowie Bailey James Bitch

 

I think all those protectors will buy the record when it is released, don’t you?

 

They’re passionate now. Definitely more passionate than before the bitch comment.

 

All this is possible from a laptop or smartphone.

 

You can create your own demand.

 

You don’t need a record label to make a living making music, everything you need, including the education on how to do it, is right at your fingertips and instantly available for those who know to ask the right questions.

 

You don’t need a record label to monitor your money for you. In fact, collection agencies like ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC are all feeling the pain of maintaining their relevance in this new digital age.

 

 

 

You don’t need 1 million dollars to make your music and market it these days. You just need to want to do it enough to venture forth into the unknown and learn some new skills.

 

That’s what I did.

 

You need to be bold instead of whiney.

 

You need to be courageous instead of fearful.

 

You need to be curious instead of lazy.

 

Embrace the change.

I still don’t know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streetsDavid Bowie Young Americans
And every time I thought I’d got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I’ve never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I’m much too fast to take that test

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Don’t want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace timeDavid Bowie Hollywood Star

I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence and
So the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Don’t tell them to grow up and out of it
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Where’s your shame
You’ve left us up to our necks in it
Time may change me
But you can’t trace timeDavid Bowie Patch

Strange fascination, fascinating me
Changes are taking the pace
I’m going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Oh, look out you rock ‘n rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Pretty soon now you’re gonna get older
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can’t trace time

 

You were a true genius, Davie Bowie.

 

Thanks for the great music, man.

 

God Speed.

 

Now any artist can make true art without corporate intervention and bring it to the world without corporate intervention.

That is, if they really want to.

 

When you can have complete control over your art and your cash, why would you place your future in the hands of 2 different committees (record labels and radio) whose businesses are dying right before your eyes?

 

Why on Earth would you want to do it the old way?

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

Hope You Are Your Only Hope Feature

This is the absolutely most exciting time in the history of the music business. It’s unprecedented because you can create any kind of art you want and bring it to the world with the least amount of roadblocks. If you choose to, as an artist, you can create without a committee. Some of you areHope Exciting Time probably scoffing at that but most of you inadvertently create by committee because you’re too focused on emulating what is popular instead of finding your own voice.

 

What is popular these days whether it’s good or bad in your subjective opinion, was created by committee.

Finding your own voice is mission critical to true originality.

 

Finding your own voice is important to me mostly because, like you, I care mostly about ME.

 

Hope Relating

 

That is what will make you stand out from the crowd. Your own voice is truly interesting because somewhere in your own story, there are a couple threads, gestures, stories, experiences, downfalls, victories, struggles, and failures that I can relate to.

If I can relate to your reality, instead of a concocted image or alter-ego, our artist-consumer bond will strengthen.

 

 

That’s real.

 

The music business has always been about relationships and most of you are aware of this to point of it becoming a cliché. You think about these relationships in terms of business relationships. However, I would take it a step further and tell you that the music business is now all about relationships with your fans. Deep relationships at that or at least far deeper than a “follow” or a “like”.

 Hope Like Strength Equation 2

The music business used to be about B2C or business to consumer. Now it’s about P2P or people to people.

 

The artist that focuses on how to do that, how to make the fans feel as if they have a relationship with said artist, is the artist who cracks the Hope Code Laptopcode for success in the NEW music business, You will be the artist that fans will pay money to see live, to download your whole record, and to be a part of your tribe.

 

 

Today is so freaking exciting because YOU have the power. YOU have the strength, YOU have access to all the knowledge you choose to seek out, YOU have the ability, YOU have the talent and as long as YOU are willing to do something about it, there is hope.

 

Hope You Have the Power MEME

 

Hope that your music will become the soundtrack to a specific beehive of people.

 

Hope that your song will become my jam.

 

As long as YOU embrace the challenge of reaching the fans through marketing as seriously as you take the challenge of reaching them through your music, YOU will be successful. There is HOPE

 

YOU will live your dream.

 

Hope Dreams Come True

 

 

 

 

Or at least there is hope that you will live your dream.

 

 

 

 

 

I want you to read this excerpt from an amazing book I am reading called The Content Code by Mark W. Schaefer.

 

This is a marvelous, inspiring period of history when you can shed the traditional burdens of authority and build true influence on the webHope Content Code through your own merits. On the web, nobody cares where you went to college or how much money you have. The color of your skin or your body mass index don’t keep you from connecting to people on your own terms. Your ability to walk or run or even speak doesn’t matter because you can publish.

 

Yes, you can bring your work of art to a targeted audience of people who are predisposed to liking your style of music.

 

You can learn the psychological steps a consumer needs to take to internalize your music and make your song their jam.

 

You can find 1,000 Superfans that will pay $100 per year to experience you in all your glory.

Hope Superfan Meme

 

 

The music business will be better for it.

 

 

 

Gone are the days where a couple radio Program Directors decide what you will listen to, what you will like, and ultimately what music will become the soundtrack of your life. Now you get to choose.Hope No Board Of Directors

 

Gone are the days where a committee of corporate executives get to decide whether you’ll get a record deal and a shot an entertainment career. Now you get to choose.

 

 

Taylor Swift said “Today artists get record deals because they have fans, not the other way around.”

Hope Taylor Swift MEME

 

 

The internet holds the power of the radio times the whole world. The power to influence is more sophisticated but also more powerful and longer lasting.

 

It’s more sophisticated because the internet is decidedly NOT broadcasting which is how we are all used to being exposed to new music. The language has to change from what we know and what we’re used to. That will require innovation much like your music.

 

 

 

Playing an instrument well is extremely difficult.

 

Writing a really good song is extremely difficult because it requires simplicity and economy of words.Hope Guitar Lessons

 

Singing really well is astoundingly difficult and rare. This is why we are so impressed with musical talent. This is why we put rock stars on pedestals.

 

They make us feel.

They make us think.

They make our lives better.

Sometimes they make our lives tolerable.

 

So marketing in the NEW music business can be done well. It has been done well. One has to approach it like the burden they took on to learn to play guitar. I’ll bet most people spent MONEY on lessons, practiced for hours, spent MONEY on guitars, they spent MONEY on amplifiers, straps, guitar stands, cords, pedals, strings, and seasonal maintenance.

Why not marketing?

 

Hope Guitar Gear License Germanium

 

Why not approach marketing the same way one would approach learning a new instrument with all the costs and time involved in acquiring the necessary gear and attention to learning how to make it work correctly?

 

What would happen if a bunch of artists took on the challenge of reaching fans and treated it like the art form that it is?

 

What would happen if these forward thinking artists truly understood the difference between the art of connecting with someone through music and the art of connecting with someone through the internet?

Hope Code

 

What would happen if they spent the same amount of time and money learning to master music marketing as they did to master their instrument?

Connecting with fans is easy and sadly, most artists ignore that.

 

Deepening the relationship is more challenging.

 

Once an artist master the art of creating Superfans, they will own the world.

 

The internet is more powerful because one video can be seen by fans all over the globe as opposed to restricted to one market like a radio station or one country like MTV.

 

Never before has the music industry been more pregnant with opportunity for any artist who is smart enough to see the writing on the wall.

Hope the Unheard

 

Since most artists either can’t see it or choose to ignore it, the performers that do embrace the learning and master marketing will easily rise above the din of the abundant unheard.

 

I just giggled at that.

 

Separate yourself from the unheard.

 

There is hope for the artists who are smart enough, driven enough, and that really work towards getting their music heard.

 

This is the most exciting time in the music business but code you have to crack has changed, man.Hope Dreams flag

 

I say it’s exciting because you are the only one standing in your way; just you and your excuses.

 

You have access to all the tools, all the education, and all the methodologies you need to find your real voice in your music, create that music, and master the art of exposing your music to a targeted audience.

 

Hope Access

 

You are your only hope.

 

The artists that become aware will become successful.

 

The artists who choose to remain naïve will disappear amongst the unheard.

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

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Music Influence 2

In Nashville the tourist trap honkytonks are all located on Broadway between 1st and 5th streets. The North side of Broadway gets 40% more foot traffic than the south side.Music Nashville Lower Broadway 2

 

Location, Location, Location.

 

Here’s the deal, in this market example, the foot traffic is a reality regardless of what bars are there. Putting a business along that street will guarantee you a certain amount of customer traffic. Putting your business on the North side of Broadway will guarantee 40% more opportunities for commerce.

 

Online, when it comes to consumers and new music/artists, there is no “existing foot traffic”. At least none that will pay your bills in any real way.

 

Music Marketing Infographic

 

Platforms like iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, etc. promised exposure to new indie artists. They imply that you’re placing your music within a framework of “digital foot traffic” and through the popularity of said traffic, created by the already branded, famous artists, the indie artists will find an audience.

As if the traffic overflow would create some kind of magical cornucopia of consumers that are interested in spending their precious time exploring new artists.

 

POPPYCOCK! This is a lie. Don’t believe it.

 

They haven’t been able to make that happen as of today.

 

Consumers go to a digital distribution platform to find something they’re looking for, not to browse or “shop”. Consumers always went to record stores back in the day to find what they were looking for, not to shop; this behavior hasn’t changed.Music Online Shop icon

 

 

Here’s a factual observation to bring some persepectivve to this reality. When women go “shopping” it doesn’t always mean they’re going to purchase anything; they enjoy the thrill of the chase as much as the kill. When men “shop” we know exactly what we have to get, we find the store that has it, we do business with that store and then leave. IN AND OUT.

Music Shopping List MEME

Music consumers shop like men.

 

If I put a gun to your head could ANYONE tell me about 1 artist who “broke” on iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, Deezer, Slacker, etc.? Is there even one story about an artist who was NOBODY until they put their music up on one of these sites and then found throngs of loyal fans and started a career?

 

 

 

 

 

Music Marketing iconYOU will have to create the traffic.

The traffic will come from marketing that YOU do.

YOU will have to create the buzz.

YOU will have to influence the minds of these consumers into responding to and purchasing your music.

 

The big question I’m always asking myself (you should be asking yourself) is this: If radio isn’t going to expose the new music to the masses (because consumers have choices and will predictably change the channel to find familiar music), what has to happen for an artist to break?

 

What do I have to do to get ME to break?

 

Music Marketing BEFORE Meme

 

Consider this, in the-old-school-radio-breaks-your-single-world, the music, i.e. the single, was the first interaction consumers had with an artist.

 

Because music was the first experience a consumer had with a new artist, creating buzz and building a brand was initially about the music.

 

You were essentially forced to sit through an unfamiliar song on terrestrial radio while you waited to hear the DJ play ‘your jam” and if the new song was a hit song, you’d probably like it. Then you heard it 6 more times (however long that took was directly related to how much time you spent listening to the radio) and your buying decision was greatly influenced as the killer new song became more and more “familiar” to you. At some point, you were swayed enough that you would go and spend your hard earned money on that new artist’s record or CD.

 

Since artists hate to talk about commerce, I’ll serve up another way, it takes 7 listens (and however many spins in a marketplace that is required for a consumer to hear it 7 times) for your hit song to become someone else’s “jam”.

Music Old School MEME

 

Think about this, it’s a psychological phenomenon that most consumers will always change the channel until they find what they are familiar with. If consumers now have the capability to constantly change the channel, to an infinite amount of stations, until they find “their jam”, how will they be exposed to the new music?

The music is no longer the first interaction a consumer will have with an artist.

 

Whoa!

 

Does that make sense?

 

Music New Music Handcuff Image

 

Before, consumers were forced to suffer through the exposure process, now we don’t have to. We get instant gratification in playing music that is already familiar to us.

 

Your music is important, don’t get me wrong.

 

 

But your music is not going to be the first thing that turns heads and creates a buzz with consumers anymore.

 

They won’t listen to your new song on the radio when they can so easily find their jam.

 

How is it going to work?

 

Wrong Marketing YOU finger 2It’s you, my artist friends, it’s you.

 

YOU are now the first contact, the first interaction, the first connection consumers will experience, if they LIKE you, THEN they will hear your music.

 

You’d better be marketing accordingly, or you’ll experience the crappy sales numbers that all the big dogs are dealing with.

 

Music Drake Album Cover

 

 

 

I think there is only one record that has gone platinum this year, y’all.

 

The old marketing method doesn’t work anymore and the sales numbers prove it.

 

 

 

Here is some data to support my statement.

 

Let’s first look at the history of pricing.Music TP Comparison Meme

 

In 1978 Tom Petty’s Damn the Torpedoes was released and the price was $8.00 which, when put into an inflationary calculator, is worth $28.80 in 2015 dollars. Tom Petty’s new CD Hypnotic Eye (released in 2015) like everyone else’s CD’s can be purchased for $10.99

 

The price-per-widget has declined by 62%.

 

Let’s look at unit sales.

 

Industry Shania Twain UP

 

The bestselling country music record 10 years ago was Shania Twain’s Up! which sold 11 million copies. The bestselling country music record last year was Jason Aldean’s Old Boots, New Dirt which barely sold 1 million.

 

Unit sales are down 90% from 10 years ago.

 

 

 

So, price per CD is down 62% and STILL consumers are only purchasing 10% of what they used to purchase just 10 years ago.

Worthless Empty Pockets Image License Barabara Nixon

Photo: Barbara Nixon

 

Think about this devastating market reality a different way to drive home the incredible impact. What if your current boss told you he was cutting your pay by 62% AND cutting your hours by 90%?

This is a marketing failure.

 

 

 

You may be thinking that the economy is to blame; people are holding on to their money these days.

 

Music Gas to Water MemeI would counter with the fact that every day, the poorest people in this country walk into a gas station and pay more than 3 times the price of a gallon of gasoline for something they can obtain FOR FREE; bottled “purified” water, A.K.A. tap water.

 

 

Think about that. For a 1 liter bottle of the cheapest water you’re going to pay between $1.50 and $1.99.

 

There are 3.78 liters in a US Gallon. With the cheapest bottle that would equate to $5.55/gallon for bottled tap water that you can get for free.

 

It’s not the money.

Music 1 Million Sold MEMEA

Why then, if it’s not the money, are sales down?

 

Jason Aldean had just as much money to promote as Shania Twain.

 

With every single going into heavy rotation, Aldean had just as much exposure on the radio as Twain.

 

Aldean was the bestselling country music artist last year, people are paying to see his sold out arena shows. Heavy rotation on terrestrial radio means consumers are definitely familiar with Aldean’s music and ticket sales mean they definitely like him, so why then aren’t they buying his record?

 

Whenever you pass on purchasing a product you are familiar with and you actually like, it’s for only one reason.

You don’t think it’s worth it.

 

Music 555 per Gallon MEME

 

These days, the consumer buying decisions are being influenced by the artists themselves, not the artist’s music; at least not at first.

 

Now, you may say “They won’t buy the record because they can hear the music for free on YouTube, or get it through their Spotify/Pandora subscriptions, etc.

 

 

You may be right, but again, I give you the bottled water example.

 

 

 

 

The sales numbers show that artists who focus on relationship with their fans sell more records than artists who are old school and let the “music do the talking”. Fans don’t trust a relationship with the music or song like they used to.Music 7 Million MEME

 

Thus, Taylor Swift sells 7 million units with no Country radio support and Jason Aldean, the darling of Country radio, barely sells 1 million.

 

Any indie artist that manages to send a project to duplication has no problem selling the first 50 units.

 

Both of these artist examples sold CD’s because the buyers felt they had a relationship with them.

 

That’s the key. The music can deepen the relationship, but initially the music is essentially useless. The artist’s interactions, talent, and relationship with the fan is going to initiate the connection. Something compelling, clever, honest, truthful, and spiritual will be the catalyst.

 

If this concept makes sense to you, why on earth would you wait until the music is finished being recorded to begin to market it?

 

Let that one marinate inside your head for a second.

 

Music Traffic Marketing YOU DO MEME

 

If making connections is now the way to get people interested in listening to your music you shouldn’t be waiting for anything. The old school methodology of “waiting till the record is done to promote it” is obsolete if consumers aren’t going to hear the music first.

The old school way requires the music to be the catalyst for the sales, for the artist/fan relationship, so it would make sense to wait because you needed the music to do the marketing.

 

 

But if you’re not initially marketing with your first single, you have nothing to wait for.

 

Get it?

 

Radio will continue to lessen in its importance with marketing. That is to say that, in the future, radio will help to “spread the word” but it will no longer be “creating the buzz” and introducing you to the world.Music_Earl_Dibbles_Jr

 

Your proof lies in the sales figures from Taylor Swift, Earl Dibbles Jr., and every indie artist who ever released a shrink-wrapped duplicated project.

 

 

The question is, what are you going to do about it?

 

Stay

In

Tune.

 

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[ois skin=”Bottom Post”]

 

Music Marketing Reason Feature

The music industry is SUFFERING because consumers don’t need more ways to connect with artists and purchase products, they need more reasons. Creating reasons consumers want to buy is what music marketing is all about.Music Marketing Bkstg Logo

Why does the music industry keep creating new WAYS for fans to purchase music/merch/tickets, etc.?

You’ve heard of “Murphy’s Law”? Well, Murphy completely underestimated the problem here.

 

A new startup called Bkstg just raised $20 million to create a new social network geared towards artists and music sales. Of course, fans and artists alike will have to adopt the new app, new platform, care about the artist and artist’s product, and there’s your proverbial trouble.

If a cool, easy to use distribution platform was all that was needed to sell more music, indie artists and Music Marketing Barrel Moneymajor label artists alike would be in high cotton selling like crazy on iTunes, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Bandzoogle, Reverbnation, CD Baby, blah, blah, blah. The trouble is when you put your music on any digital distribution platform nobody cares unless you make them aware that you are there and then make them care about YOU.

 

Get it?

Consumers need a reason.

 

A good reason makes the purchase worth it.

 

Your music has to be worth it to the consumer not just you, so if you’re thinking “my music is amazing and that’s why they will buy” you are seriously delusional.

Music Marketing WHY Ksayer1 License

Photo: Ksayer1
License: http://bit.ly/1jxQJMa

 

 

 

Your delusions, in my point here, have nothing to do with your music (although that is often part of the problem…but I digress as that issue is not germane to this article).

 

 

 

If we all understand the difference between music distribution (which is where consumers go to Music Marketing Distribution Equalspurchase) and music marketing (which is why consumers will purchase) then it should be obvious to y’all that a new distribution method is a waste of time.

 

There are many BIG investors behind this new Bkstg platform that frankly, seems to be reinventing the wheel.

 

 

 

This is where I see opportunity for all you indie artists.

 

Focus on the “why” right now. Focus on music marketing and marketing yourself.Music Marketing Magnifying WHY

 

 

Ask yourself, “What reasons do consumers have to purchase my music?”

 

 

 

What are your gifts?

Can you sing?

Can you play?

Can you write?

Can you rap?

Can you dance?

Music Marketing Gifts ElfAre you funny?

Are you a big personality?

Share these gifts with the world on social media.

Let them get to know YOU.

 

 

If you own the “why” it really won’t matter what the “where” is because real fans will find a way to get it…just like drugs, or Christmas, or Black Friday, or Valentine’s Day, etc.Music Marketing Why Collage

 

In plain English, any and all distributors (of the consumer’s preference) will be utilized to purchase music from an artist people are genuinely interested in.

 

 

The biggest reasons consumers will purchase anything from an indie artist these days is a relationship with the artist. Period.

 

 

If you’re not thinking about this then you are an idiot.

This is what new music marketing is all about, people.

 

Music Marketing 1 MIllion. Morgan Williams License

Photo: Morgan Williams
License: http://bit.ly/1jxQJMa

 

 

Jason Aldean had lots of promotion, lots of radio spins, and barely sold 1 million units. This number along with almost all the other record sales scares the crap out of industry executives.

 

Aldean had the #1 selling country music record of 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

Taylor Swift had lots of promotion, lots of radio spins (albeit NO SPINS on country radio where all her previous releases were promoted) and a relationship with her fans via social media.

Music Marketing 7 Million Jana Zills License

Photo: Jana Zills
License: http://bit.ly/1jxQJMa

 

 

Taylor sold 7 million units.

Her fan’s reasons for purchasing the whole record vs a single were founded in the relationship they felt they had with Taylor.

 

 

So what are you doing with your music marketing?

What are you doing to create reasons for people to buy your music?

To expose people to your music?

 

Why do so many of you wait until you finish recording before you begin thinking about creating the relationships with your fans online?

Music Marketing Music Don't Talk MEME

This tactic suggests that the music will do the talking. The trouble is if consumers are not aware of you, if they are aware of you but are unfamiliar with you, or don’t like you, they won’t give the music a chance.

Get them interested in your talent, in you as an artist, and they will be curious to hear your music when you release it.

THEN the music will do the talking because the consumer will be open to receiving the communication you want to send. (At that point your music and recordings better be good!)

 

Get it?

Overlooking and under-funding the music marketing for your project is akin to choosing not to put oil in your car because you don’t have “the budget”.Music Marketing Junkyard

You wouldn’t be shocked when your engine freezes up without oil, why would you expect the world to purchase a product they aren’t aware of or familiar with?

 

Look, you’re not sure you know what you’re doing, I get it.

 

It’s foreign.

 

Get over it. FAST.

 

You must learn.

Music Marketing Bailey James MEMEWith Bailey James we have been marketing her on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook since January.

All this activity creating relationships with fans, getting them connected with her as an artist and her talent was consistently happening while we were still developing the project artistically.

 

As of now, we have created a decent fan base that now know her, are familiar with her (they regularly watch her YouTube videos), they interact with her on social media, and they adore her.

8 fan created Instagram accounts have been started so far.

Her EP is loosely scheduled for release mid-September.

 

Listen, YOU’RE the reason get it?

Music Marketing YOU MEME Gabe Austin License

Photo: Gabe Austin
License: http://bit.ly/1jxQJMa

 

Don’t make the mistake of thinking the music is the reason.

 

In today’s indie online market, you come before the music.

 

The more “reasons” you can give, aka the more of yourself that you put out there, the more fans you will get, the more music, merch, and tix you will sell.

 

Get to work now on creating more reasons.

 

Focus inventively on why a consumer will buy your music, not where, and you’ll be one step ahead of the whole damn industry.

 

Stay

In

Tune

Music Marketing Laser  Find Your Audience

Mistake Twitter

 

PS: If you haven’t already downloaded my free Music Marketing On Twitter book, please enjoy it on me. Go to GiftFromJohnny.com put  in your name and tell us where to send it. It’ll teach you how to get 1,000 new targeted followers every month for just 15 minutes per day.

 

 

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