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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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.

Make Your Website Pay

Following on from a recent blog on establishing your bands website, it's now time  to get your music site rolling by understanding the machinations of your music website.


Let's say you are a great singer or you have a small band or even your own label. You have big ideas but only a tiny budget. Your father doesn't own a record company, like Sony BMG and your mother isn't a Hollywood actress like Nicole Kidman, so your network is confined to the local press writers and groupies.

Maybe you already have your own CD's and have made a few sales but you can't seem to find the time for promotion. The gigs you play bring in a little money but things don't seem to be getting anywhere. So how to progress?

One very realistic option is to exploit the potential of the internet with your band website. Of course, the internet has often been cited as the answer to everything, but in this case, it really can provide impressive results. And this is the key: it's a cheap and it's quick. It can even be free if your band is its embryonic phase.

The music industry is changing. We are in serious transition now. The discontent amongst music buyers has created a gap which the internet can adequately fill.

The internet music market is real. A survey by Georgia Tech found 41% of all internet users have purchased music from the web. Forrester predicted a market volume of $76 million USD for digital music downloads in 2003, rising to $541 million USD in 2005 and continuing to reach $2 billion USD in 2007.

The statistics suggest there is a genuine market for legal, modestly priced music.

The internet is a perfect platform for marketing your band website. Promotions, press releases and positioning are cheaper here than in the real world. Your audience is already here.

The internet's function as a communication medium gives you a direct line to your listeners, peers and even your critics. Email is the perfect mechanism for keeping in touch with fanclubs and sending newsletters and it's cheap.

That doesn't mean if you start a music website today and get busy selling music downloads online that you'll be able to give up the day job immediately! However, the internet can provide a lot of things you need to promote yourself as a musical artist.

This is what your music website will do for you:

1. Provide news to your fans when your latest CD is ready, read it here!

2. List gigs or concert dates (and any changes)

3. Sell your songs as music downloads to fans all over the world

4. Provide press information

5. Publish interviews, photos and biographies

6. Provide a communication center for dialogue with fans and other bands

7. Act as a "calling card" for getting new bookings or attracting the attention of major labels, getting contracts for incidental music etc.

A website can represent your music in multimedia, such as YouTube....much better than print or radio, and it is much cheaper than TV. And you can sell your songs as music downloads anywhere in the world!

mp3 downloads are emerging as a serious alternative to the CD. In an age where most modern kids burn their own CDs, it makes sense to adjust your strategy accordingly. Selling songs as moderately priced downloads means you have no production costs. You can even treat members of your band website with free mp3 downloads. It means you don't need a record deal and you are free to do what you want with your music. Package a CD cover along with the songs and your fans can burn the CDs themselves.

Buying mp3 downloads is potentially a more satisfying buying experience than traditional music shops. It provides instant satisfaction for consumers when they discover, download and play your songs immediately.

The internet is an amazingly flexible format. Theoretically, you could record a live show, encode and upload it later that evening so that the entire show would be available for sale the next day. Fans would love to have this as a reminder of a great concert. Better than a T-shirt!

Treat your music website seriously. Your music website is often the first port of call for people - fans, label managers and A&R to check you out. It makes good sense for you, as an unsigned artist to have one.