Archive for May, 2015

Does promotion often feel like pulling teeth?

Has it been hard for you to get people to share your music?

If so, continue reading. We’re about to clear things up for you.

The truth is, paying for promotion and getting your music on bigger outlets can do wonders for your career. HOWEVER, your core fan base is actually your most effective form of promotion.

If you can get all of your fans to share your music, their friends will catch on, and then their friends will catch on. Before you know it, you’ll have an army of people listening and sharing your music.

Here are eight ways to get people to share your song:

1. Ask them. This might seem obvious, but it’s so obvious that a lot of artists overlook it. In the marketing world, we call this a “call to action.” Sometimes you have to give people a little nudge and let them know what you need them to do. So for instance, if you post your new video and someone likes it, send them a personal message and thank them for listening and ask for them to share. Simple right?

2. Send an email to your mailing list. Maintaining a weekly or monthly newsletter is an awesome way to keep fans in tune with you. You can send an email out to hundreds or even thousands of people at once (but make sure you have their consent). Send an email out to your mailing list that informs them of your new release and politely ask them to share it if they like it. This also works with my next point…

3. Give them an incentive. When you see a commercial on TV, you’ll usually see an incentive to buy. For instance, “purchase this now and receive a free ____” or “log on within the next 10 minutes and get 10% off.” People love incentives. They make them take action. So when it comes to getting people to share your music, you can tell them that if they share it with a certain hashtag (so that you can keep track), they’ll get a free sticker, or discounted merch, or a ticket to your next show, etc. Get creative.

4. Set up a “pay with a tweet” campaign. This is an amazing tool that a lot of artists are still unaware of. However, I’ve seen it done, and it really works. With a “pay with a tweet” campaign, when you send out your song, in order for the person to download it and listen they have to click a button that shares the song first in order to receive the download link. Need help setting this up? Contact us here.

5. Have a contest. Having an interactive contest is a great way to get your fans involved and taking action. Something as simple as having people share your cover art with a certain hashtag and whoever gets the most likes or has the most shares gets a prize, preferably some sort of merch. People love merch.

6. Work the crowd at your concerts. When you’re on stage you have power. We do this at our events and we know it’ll work for you. When you’re on stage, tell everyone to take our their phones and tweet something (usually it’s a specific hashtag). By doing this, you’ll gain more fan interaction and you can personally reach out to everyone that shared the hashtag and get them to share your song too.

7. Reach out individually. You’ll notice that there will be certain people that always reach out to you, like your posts, like your pics, etc. These people are often your best candidates for helping you with promotion. Reach out to them personally in a private message and thank them for their support. Let them know that you need their help. I bet you can get them to share your song! Notice that we didn’t ask you to ask a random person. Only ask those that are already in tune with you; it’s much more effective.

8. Send them a text. Mobile marketing is awesome because you get right to the source – their phone. People always have their phones handy. So, if you have their number, shoot them a text and let them know you need their help. Ask them to share your song or video. The most they can say is NO, but if you have their number that means you know them so they might be more receptive.

Things to remember:

1. The easier you make it for people to share, the better. If they can click one button to share, you’re more likely to get better results.

2. People love to get free stuff. Give it to them (but grab their emails and contact info in the process).

Do you need help with your promo strategy? Contact us here.

You know that you make great music, you love writing and recording, and you really want people to hear your music because you know they’ll love it. Does this sound anything like you?

The fact is, this is the reality for many artists.

You don’t know how many times I’ve heard an artist say, “I make good music, but no one supports me.” Meanwhile, they are surrounded by all the wrong people, and they don’t know the first thing about networking and really getting out of their circle and comfort zone. But I understand; most artists and “creatives” are non-social introverts that enjoy creating music and locking themselves in the studio. That’s all good and well on the creative side, but what happens when the music is done being recorded? Once you have a product, you have to get it out there.

The truth is, when you start to take your career seriously, your circle will begin to change. If you want to reach new people, you have to go out there and meet new people. Promoting online is great, but it will only take you so far. You need to make real connections with your fans. The days when artists were magically discovered and put on are long gone. Even celebs are now realizing that they had better start building more personal relationships with their fans. Take J Cole for instance; he actually made house deliveries of his last album. Meanwhile, indie artists are having a hard time grasping this concept.

Wendy Day once said, “Look at a map, make a circle around a 5 mile radius of your city. Make it a point to go to these places.”

If you’re lucky enough to live in (or near) an active musical city, then it should be no problem finding events and like-minded people to mingle with.

If you don’t happen to live in a highly active area, you can also use this to your benefit. As a matter of fact, that means you’ll have less ground to cover, and may be able to make a bigger impact since you’re in a less crowded place.

You have to look for opportunities everywhere! A closed mouth won’t get fed.

So how do you avoid that awkward, “Hey can you check out my music?” convo?

First you have to remember this fact, if there’s one thing that you take from this article, let it be this:

PEOPLE WANT TO DISCOVER YOU ON THEIR OWN.

You just have to get your music where they can see it.

Also, making a genuine connection is better than getting one listen to your song.

It doesn’t matter how many times you send someone a message or email and ask them to check out your music, it’s when they find you on their friends’ playlists or see your video posted to their favorite blog that they’ll actually give you the time of day. Timing is everything. People do not want you to throw your music in their face, so you’ll have to find another game plan. The one that works best is to be yourself and make genuine connections. Be interested in others. Get to know them and let them discover you on their own. When people like YOU, for who you are, and they follow you on social media and you have genuine conversations with them, when you put up a status with your new music video, they’ll be happy to check it out. Why? Because they are already a fan of YOU, so of course they’ll check out your music.

“So you mean you want me to talk to strangers?” YES. It’s not weird. It’s expected, and can be lots of fun.

When you perform at an event, get there early and talk to people. Also, stay after your performance and continue to mingle and ask for opinions and get as much contact info as possible.

If you’re just out at a random event in your town, make sure to ask who handles promotion and booking for the venue. Maybe even do a quick Google search to see if you can find the name.

Support other artists in your area. Go to their shows. Talk to them. See about doing a collaboration.

If you’re on a college campus, put posters up all around campus. Find out who coordinates events, go talk to them, and find out who handles booking artists. Go to the college radio station and talk to everyone there. Find out how to get your music played. Go to a ton of school events, toss your single off to the DJ. Show your face, meet new people, and stay in contact with them.

We live in such a digital world that we rely so much on social media and Google that we shy away from making genuine human interactions. But the artists that can grasp both the digital world and make connections in person, are the ones winning.

Still having trouble? Feel free to contact me directly at Brianna@exclusivepublic.com

Selling custom merchandise can actually help fund your music career. Everything from t-shirts and hoodies to pins and bags, and everything in between, fans love buying merch.

Here are five ways to sell more merchandise:

1. Set up a merch table at all of your shows. Having a merch table set up right by the stage is a great way to sell merch at your shows. Make sure that you always have someone watching over it when you perform, and make sure that you’re at your merch table after your performance. Also be sure that it’s noticeable; adding some lighting and a display of your products always helps. Make sure to have your pricing big and bold so that people can see it while they browse, and be sure to collect contact info as you make sales. Suggestion: Give people 10% off if they like your fan page on the spot before they purchase.

2. Sell merch on your website. The quickest way to sell merch aside from at your shows is to put a link to your STORE directly on your website. That way, you can just promote the link to your website and the sales will go directly to you. You can even add discount codes for your mailing list or people that attend your shows. I suggest using a plugin called woocommerce (for WordPress users) to sell directly from your website. Or, for an easier option, use bigcartel.com. Link it directly to your website, so when people click on your store, they go directly to your bigcartel page.

3. Send an email to your mailing list. The whole point of having a mailing list is to keep people updated on everything that has to do with you. You should send out an email to your list that lets them know you have merch available (include photos). You can even give them a special discount just for being on your mailing list.

4. Promote your store on social media. Get a cool graphic made that promotes your merch. Post it to Instagram and Facebook. Send out one tweet everyday that lets everyone know that there’s merch available on your website or digital store.

5. Sell merch bundles. You know what’s better than buying a custom t-shirt? Buying a custom t-shirt that comes with your latest album and a sticker. When you pair your music with your merch and offer it at a special price, it entices people to purchase. That way you’re not just making money from your merch, but you’re actually selling your music as well (double winning!).

Do you need merch designed? Contact our design team.

Have you ever released a song, or mixtape, or album that just didn’t get as many listens and downloads as you wanted?

Does promotion often feel like running your nails on a chalkboard?

We come across great artists all the time; the problem is that most of the time they are hidden in all the clutter. But why is this? Why do artists that make great music get overlooked?

No matter how great your music is, your promotion will always fail unless you avoid these 10 common mistakes:

1. You have bad graphics and visuals. A lot of promotion is visual. If something looks appealing, people tend to gravitate towards it. If your album cover looks like it was just thrown together with low quality graphics, it will actually prevent people from clicking on it, which means they won’t even give your music a chance.

2. Your live show needs work. Performing is a huge part of promotion. Unfortunately, most artists fall short in this area. Putting on a great live show will surely make people excited to see another one! Most artists make a ton of money touring and, honestly, if your live show isn’t that great, you’re really hurting your promotion. Be sure to rehearse as much as possible and maybe even hire an artist development coach to help you.

3. Your social media names are all different. When you search your name on google, what comes up? If your social media name looks anything like @Ibe_chilllin345, good luck getting people to find you. The more “searchable” you are, the easier it will be to find you. If your name is Lyrical Monster, then your social media names should be @LyricalMonster all across the board. You get the point.

4. You spam. Let us make this clear since many artists fail to understand the meaning behind this. Any time you send someone a link to your music, or tag someone that you don’t know in your Facebook status, or comment on someones status with a link to your music link, or send a random person a message with a link to your new music video, you are SPAMMING. We know that you’re just trying to get your music out there, but shoving your music in random people’s faces isn’t the way to do so. Imagine that you’re walking down the street, and all of a sudden someone pops out right in front of you. You’ll either get scared and back up, or you’ll get pissed and tell the person to watch where they’re going. Or imagine you’re having a conversation with your long time friend, and someone rudely interrupts you and starts trying to sell you something. That’s exactly how you look when you send a random person a link to your music. You might think it’s promotion, but is your promotion really effective if it makes people want to block you? I don’t think so. It’s called social media because you’re supposed to be social, and quite frankly, blindly sending someone a link to your song isn’t very social. Plus, so many artists spam nowadays that people completely overlook it, so stop doing it right now. You’re wasting your precious time. Instead, you should remember that people want to discover you themselves. Therefore, all you have to do is get your music in places that they look for it. Pretty simple right?

5. You over-hyped a previous release and now no one wants to listen to your new stuff. Have you ever heard of the boy who cried wolf? The boy in the forest would yell, and tell everyone that there were wolves. They would run to save him, only to find out that he was playing a prank on them. Until one day, he really needed their help and they didn’t come to save him because they thought he was pranking them again. Well, when you promote your song like it’s the best thing since pizza, and then people listen to it and it’s really not that great. When you finally release that amazing song that you’ve been waiting for, it’s going to be harder to get people to listen. This is why you should never put out music that you haven’t gotten feedback on (behind the scenes). AND you should never over-hype your music by using words like “hit song” or “best song out.” Let the people be the judge.

6. You’re only promoting online and aren’t making a real connection with your fans OR you’re only promoting in person and aren’t reaching the online audience. The best promotion happens when you make a true connection with your fans. An email or a tweet isn’t nearly as effective as an in-person connection. Both online and street promotion are necessary when trying to build a following. If you’re hiding behind a computer screen or are always in the studio, you might make some progress. However, eventually you’re going to have to get out there and meet people. Also, if you’re one of those artists that meets new people but doesn’t do the whole “social media thing,” you’re actually missing out on a huge (global) audience. I suggest going out to events in your city (and surrounding areas). Bring business cards and merchandise and start chatting it up! You can also build your online fan base in person, just make sure you get everyone’s contact info.

7. You didn’t promote long enough for people to catch on. Wendy Day once told me, “Promotion can take 12 weeks before you even start to break the surface.” However, many artists get tired of promoting their own records after only one month. That could be because they aren’t fully utilizing all of their options for exposure. Or, maybe they got tired of their song? However, by not taking the time needed to really get some traction on your record, you’ll fall into the never ending circle of releasing song after song after song without much results. Try putting together an effective promo strategy before you release your music.

8. You’re promoting the wrong song. This is pretty self explanatory, but very common among indie artists. The key to this is to record a ton of music before you decide to release your next single, and be sure to get as much feedback on your records as you can (before you release them) so that you can let the people decide what song will get the best results.

9. You don’t know your audience. Is your music for everyone? NOPE. Just like you wouldn’t promote a country record on a heavy metal station, you have to aim your promotion at people who would be more receptive to enjoying it. Most artists don’t have a clue on who they are trying to reach. They don’t even put any thought into it. It’s like shooting a gun with your eyes closed and expecting to hit the target. It’s not likely to happen. Therefore, you need to know what and who you’re aiming at.

10. You don’t ask for help. The fact is, a closed mouth doesn’t get fed. Sometimes you have to give people a little nudge in order to get them to do what you want them to do. If you want people to retweet your song, ask them. If you want them to hit the share button, personally ask them to share it! If you want them to re-post your album cover on Instagram, give them an incentive and ask them to do it. You shouldn’t be the only person promoting your music, your fans are your street team!

Are you looking for promotion for your music? We can help you put together a strategy that will get RESULTS. Contact us for more info.

We like to say, “The music industry has changed, therefore your strategy must change with it.” Nowadays, the gateways have opened up and artists have access to tools that only labels had access to in the past. Add social media into the equation, and there are so many more ways for artists to get recognition without the power of a record label behind them. This can be a great thing. However, it also creates much more competition when it comes to getting your music heard.

Although artists now have access to the tools needed to succeed, record labels still have the advantage because they not only have the connections in place already, but they also have the money to be able to afford it all. Indie artists can get a decent amount of success on their own without huge budgets. But, in order to really take it there, sometimes being backed by a label is the better choice.

BUT, with all of the competition out there, it makes it much harder to get a record deal, let alone one that you would actually want. So what makes a label sign an artist?

We’ve created a checklist of things that labels consider when looking to sign new talent. To get creative with it, we’ve made each bullet worth a certain amount of points.

Take out a piece of paper, and see how you add up:

• A catalog of professionally recorded, mixed, and mastered music – 5
• Quality music videos – 5
• Professional photos – 5
• Consistent content on all social networks – 5
• A professionally written bio – 5
• A website (www.artistname.com) – 5
• A mailing list – 5
• Professional visuals and album artwork – 5
• A team – 5
• Sells merchandise – 10
• Books shows – 5
• Books paid shows – 10
• Sells out shows – 15
• Has 10k+ fans – 10
• A publicist – 10
• Has distribution – 5
• Has sponsors – 10
• Has toured – 10
• Has radio play – 10
• Has blog/press attention – 10

TOTAL = 150

What’s your score?

If you scored between 100 and 150, congratulations! You are taking control of your music career.

If you scored less than 100, it’s time to step it up a few notches!

Here at Exclusive Public, we’re focused on making sure that you’re set up for success. If you’re looking to start seeing more results with your music career, contact us at admin@exclusivepublic.com or through our contact form to see how we can help get your music heard.