Monday, July 29, 2013

Free Email List For Independent Musicians

Prior to commencing this entry, I would like to extend a heartfelt "Thank you" to the recent influx of free subscribers and my loyal followers for your support. I suspect that your support means more to me than you know.
No doubt, you and our other independent musicians have been dreaming of a huge and free email list? The kind of list that, just like any other business, with one click of the "send" button generates hordes of fans mobilize to come to see your shows, or play your new track at ReverbNation If not, then shame on you. You are overlooking one of the most powerful tools at your disposal....and it's free! Just look at the 'Free Easy Subscription' form to the top right of this blog. It's as easy as pie, free, right in the readers face, yet unobtrusive and as it says, 'Free Easy Subscription.'
A well maintained and growing email list is a mighty tool. Why? Because it provides a quick and easy way to keep in front of your adoring fans, and it is absolutely FREE. In this digital age, independent musicians can honestly boast about being part of the music business
The sad thing is that most independent musicians drop the ball on building this marketing powerhouse. So, in an effort to stop this business atrocity, I have decided to give you four simple and effective tactics to build that list. If I can do it, so can you.
1. Migidy Mic Check...
Your standing on stage, maybe the beach balls are floating atop the crowd, or the mosh pit has attracted the police, or maybe the fans are singing so loud you can't hear your own music through the stage monitors. Whatever your situation, the fact of the matter is that you have human beings sitting right in front of you, hanging off of your every word, wanting to become your fans!
Do you realize the power of this moment? Right now your audience is focused on you and your music. As hard as it may be to believe, at this very moment, more than anything else, they want more of you. How do you give them what they want? Speak up and offer to get connected.
Tell your audience in your own genuine words that your email list is the way you stay connected to your fans. It is how you pass on latest news and how you notify of your upcoming gigs.
Simple, free and effective. Do not let one gig pass without asking your music fans to get connected.
2. Give it away now...
Ok, you know the value of seizing the moment while you're at the microphone, now lets make signing up a little more enticing.
Do you like free stuff? Who doesn't? We are suckers for trinkets and giveaways. Now just imagine if you were to offer your music fans an opportunity to get something more valuable than a mere trinket. What if you offered them the opportunity to win one of your T-shirts or autographed CDs, or [wait for it...] Both! Oh my, the pandemonium, the crowd goes nuts.
How would this work? Simply hold a contest where the entry form is a piece of paper that asks for your fan's first name and email address. It's that simple. You exchange the chance to win one music CD (your cost under $2) and a T-shirt (your cost around $5) in exchange for the email address of the members of your audience. If the cost of giving away a few pieces of much merch bothers you, just think of the value of only one new fan dragging a friend to your next show, shelling out two covers charges, selling a t-shirt to the friend and both of them telling others at work about their experience... Lets move on.
3. Something Of Value
Ask yourself what the real business objective of the contest mentioned above is? Let me tell you plainly, the objective is to mutually exchange something of value. You offer something of value to your fans in exchange for something of value to you. A surprisingly high value item to your fans is a simple old-fashioned newsletter. You know, the thing with silly facts and stories about you? Offer this gem in exchange for something of value to you - your fan's email address. This is an easy sell because you need their email address to send the newsletter right? It is a natural win-win situation so use it.
4. Point of Sale
Now we're at the end of the show and people are flocking to your merch table. Your latest self-titled music CD is flying off the shelf. Your fans are even picking up that illegible sticker that was designed by your crazy cousin Fred. Are you going to just let them walk away without offering them the chance to stay connected to the band that they just laid down their hard earned cash to buy a recording of?
You have a perfect opportunity while you are counting out their change to "ask them" to sign your concert connection and stay connected to the band. What's the worse they can do, say no?
There you go four tactics you can use tonight to pack fans into your mighty email list. That should get you going. Remember it is the simple and effective tactics performed flawlessly over and over that make you successful. Don't miss a beat and watch that email list grow.
*If you would like me to join your list, simply fill in my email collector (below). I don't spam and would recommend avoiding this very impulsive mistake. Like any other business, building your list does take time.

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Monday, July 15, 2013

Music Sharing And Independent Musicians

Social media sites are one of the best ways to get your new single and album out to the public. It is a given that you will grow and reach a broader fan base if you use these social medias effectively. You've been using social media sites like MySpace, Reverbnation, and Google Play  but why have you not been discovered? Well, here's the problem: 1) these sites are not working for you;instead, you are working for them 2) you are being overshadowed by irrelevant content and famous artists who are getting all of the exposure. Please let me explain...
When you go on MySpace you are just another indie artist uploading music. Commercial artists get all of the spotlight because they have an established fan base given that they are constantly on the radio. When you become a part of MySpace you are just a groupie among celebrities! Now, Reverbnation will distribute your music on iTunes, Spotify and the rest, but of course that service is not free. It does not make sense for a struggling artist to spend money that he or she does not have, but some of us really want to get our music out so we'll pay for anything that might give us a shot. Should you waste your money? I would say no since there are no guarantees that paying will make you a superstar. Your talent should speak for itself, and if it doesn't, then you should use your the money you have to polish your craft. So your last option is (to the untrained analysist) YouTube; that is, in case you envy to be the next Justin Beiber....(or not) but those chances are slim since your fans are more likely to land on a donkey video when they search for your music. So think about it! Are these networks working for you? No!
You should promote your music online to get discovered, but how do you do it? You have to use sites that focus on undiscovered talent instead of the talent that has already been established. If you have to pay for any services, then that site is probably not the right site for you. The free services that a site offers will give you a good idea of what they are about and what they can actually do for your career.
Struggling artists need help getting their music out to the public, so having various social medias work for you all at once is a golden opportunity. Increasing your network is the key to giving you a significant online presence which will ultimately give you more exposure in the industry. A lot of people use social media to promote their work, but few people know how to do it effectively.
At the end of the day, you need all of the help that you can get to grow your career. It's great to put your music on all available networks, but you also have to use networks that want to help you get discovered. For an upcoming artist trying to make a name in the music industry, if you don't have a record label supporting you, the best option is using free networks which will not put a dent in your pocket!

For music fans, all you have to do to show your support for a particular independent musician, 'sharing' to one of the sites at the end of the blog can be as beneficial as an album download.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Sell Your Independent Music Online

There are a number of different approaches you can take to selling your music online as downloads on the internet. These can supplement the income of a musician. Apart from the obvious choices, there are other, potentially more attractive ideas being developed and evolved on the web.
The first traditional approach is to sign-up to a single website service who sell a artists music on their behalf and take a commission for each sale. They often hold the earnings for a period of time till they have reached a certain sales figure, before making payments.
One advantage is that they normally don't ask for any sign-up fees or monthly fees, so if the artist doesn't sell any music, they haven't lost any money. If they are smaller websites they may give you more promotion than the big boys.
The disadvantages are that the amount one can earn per track is a lot less than the retail price charged, because the service takes a percentage, the prices are often, but not always, charged at a fixed rate set by the web service. Also an artist won't get the money straight away and will invariably have to wait for sales to reach a certain figure before they get paid.
A more recent approach in the last few years is to use a digital distributor, who for a fee will place an artist's music in a number of large well known digital stores. This has the advantage of stocking music in all these stores in one fell swoop, placing music in all these services. The distributor will then collect all the money and from each service and make one single payment to the artist, normally each quarter.
The disadvantage is the artist has to wait many months after having paid, to get music on these services without any guarantees that they will sell anything. Also there is definitely no control over the price an artist's track is sold at, as this is totally dictated by the web services. Also again they have to wait for payments to be made, holding up cash flow whilst they wait. Again after commission the amount they earn is considerable less than via the diy method. iTunes is does have the advantage of hype and artist cling to the hope that if they're on there they will somehow sell music, many artists can't understand why once they're on a big music download service, they're not automatically selling loads of music.
With these big sites they are competing for attention with millions of other artists, the chances of casual browsers discovering and then buying their music is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It's only the known of artists with some promotional clout and a lot of backing from a label, who will get exposure and the vicious circle continues, even smaller independents have recently campaigned for equal exposure on these services, so as a totally independent artist the exposure is even worse and the odds stacked against them.
What invariable happens is the independent musician has to promote their own music or merchandise and send fans and customers to his or her page on these services, whilst the service gives the artist no exposure, unless by the sheer volume of sales the independent bands selling mp3s can buck the trend and rise in the charts, so listeners become aware of them.
Many artists have used PayPal to
sell their own music CD's for this very same reason and been happy with the independence it brings and extra earnings it generates and the direct customer contact. The issue with selling digital music is it requires some quite sophisticated technology to deliver the music to the customer after the payment is made. This means delivering an instant download link once the payment is completed, which will expire, so people can't share the link, it means providing a dedicated fast download speed to the customer and also providing the customer with a password so they can download the file again if they loose it. For these reasons it's far most cost effective and convenient to use a specialist service.
Also the services often provide a music player so people can preview the music and also a mp3 music widget which can be placed anywhere to promote music with a link directly back to the artists sales page.
The only disadvantage I can think of is that if the artist's don't sell enough they won't cover the monthly fee, but with a 30 day free trial, there's no risk. If you're an independent musician, band or artist who's serious about selling your music online you've got nothing to lose from giving it a go.