Maximising promotion on myspace.

[Dawdeeb]

Hey guys. It's pretty fair to assume that most people here who are musicians are represented on myspace.com. Now, I've been working on myspace for around three weeks now, I have about 1250 profile views and loads of listens and downloads and about 250 friends.

My method is to send a message to someone asking them to check out my music, if they like it I'll add them. I know that lots of bands just send random friends requests, I don't have a problem with this, I'm just not sure how effective this is. I've joind a few friend trains but then you just get people who might not even care about your music trying to add you.

So I'd really like to hear from people who have proven methods of maximising profile views and genuine interest in the music.

Thanks. Rohan.

[grn]

Promote your URL like you would your normal web site URL. Tell people at shows, link to it on your web site, etc. Friend request people in certain regions maybe with certain networking requirements.

[treymonfauntre]

spend the time you are going to waste on promoting yourself on myspace writing good songs and playing shows. myspace will be forgotten in a year.

[JoeBannon]

http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=194889

[Dawdeeb]

hmm, thats an interesting post, what makes you say that? So you play a lot of shows in Florida? And you don't use myspace? What online marketing do you use?

Even if Myspace is dead in a year you cant deny what it does for album sales and gettng people to go to gigs now. I did the constant gigging to half interested audiences thing, and sure I know how to set up an amp and play an awesome gig but still no one knows who the hell I am. I'm living in Dublin now, but I'm moving to Germany, gigging is so much better over there, and so is the general support for independant musicians.

As far as I'm concearned myspace and sites like that are the independant musicians best friend. Better than paying 1000's of dollars to a promoter to get your song played on some student radio stations that no one listen to (I do know what I'm talking about, I've made this mistake). It's free promotion!

Anyway, I'm keen to hear from anyone who has an opinion on this, or if anyone knows of some proven ways of successfuly promoting your music online.

Rohan. http://www.myspace.com/rohanforsale

[FALKEN]

it seems to be that a lot of bands with like 40,000 views have mostly strippers on their friend lists.

this has got to be the result of a friend adding bot.

and I think booking people fall for it.....

but I'm not sure.

but its the bands that have the most strippers on their friend lists that seem to have the most shows booked.

fuckin a.

[qb2k5]

Originally Posted by Dawdeeb

hmm, thats an interesting post, what makes you say that? So you play a lot of shows in Florida? And you don't use myspace? What online marketing do you use?

Even if Myspace is dead in a year you cant deny what it does for album sales and gettng people to go to gigs now. I did the constant gigging to half interested audiences thing, and sure I know how to set up an amp and play an awesome gig but still no one knows who the hell I am. I'm living in Dublin now, but I'm moving to Germany, gigging is so much better over there, and so is the general support for independant musicians.

As far as I'm concearned myspace and sites like that are the independant musicians best friend. Better than paying 1000's of dollars to a promoter to get your song played on some student radio stations that no one listen to (I do know what I'm talking about, I've made this mistake). It's free promotion!

Anyway, I'm keen to hear from anyone who has an opinion on this, or if anyone knows of some proven ways of successfuly promoting your music online.

Rohan. http://www.myspace.com/rohanforsale

Hey Rohan,

Wussup man, I checked out ya stuff and its pretty nice yo.

Hey I noticed tonight I seen you got alittle over 200+ plays. I was wondering what tactic do you use to get so many plays. With me, without heavy friend adding (meeting my demographics,etc) I can avg 80+ plays a day. But with heavy friend adding or myspace emailing I can easily get 150-250+ plays a day.

What tactics do you use? Thanks

[Dawdeeb]

hey, thanks for checking out my page. Yes, I don't believe in the whole friends bot thing. I don't see the point of having a million friends if none of them really care about your music. I want to use myspace to boost sales and the number of people at gigs.

The way I do it is I browse a demographic usually 18-25 year olds, male and female, and at the moment I'm doing germany as I'm going to be gigging there later in the year. I have a pre written up message which I copy and paste, but before you call me lazy, I make sure to check out the persons interests/music/photos so that I can personalise the message and make a small comment about something that is unique to their profile. And people really appreciate the personal touch, sure it still doesnt mean there definately gona like you music, but those you do will really like you for taking the time.

Now obviously it is important to keep your fans interest in you. I have done a few things to keep interest in me. One thing I did was I recorded 6 cover songs and released them 2 at a time over three weeks, thus getting people to visit my page regularly to hear the new songs. I send a message to everyone in my friends list (its time consuming, but I believe its worth it) telling them that the new songs are now available from my latest blog, oh and they are free of course. Another thing I did was to again send a message to every one of my friends promoting my newsletter, saying that if they sign up they will get another free song.

Youve got to think outside of the box, a lot of these marketing tricks seem corny, but people really dig it, they love to hear from you. Out of my 250 friends I'd say I've got about 50 that are really into my music and have signed up for my newsletter and always check out my new songs.

Also, make as much stuff free as you posibly can, you will be rewarded for your generosity.

Ok, those are my tips, I'm keen to hear from anyone with similar or different tactics.

Thanks. Rohan.

[qb2k5]

Hey man,

Thanks again for your reply. I used your tactic about personalizing each message so it would easily differate between an honest letter and spam. I notice lots of people hate spam. Heck I hate it also. Like you said, personalization is the key. If the person you are messaging has a picture of a car, talk about the car. got it!

So it seems like what you are saying its best to go for non-artist members, right? If so I agree. Because it seems that if you add a fellow artist with the same type of style, they want you to hear their stuff, and in the comment box they post a huuge hyperlink picture to their site. Its like every-man for themselves type of deal. So i will try that tactic.

I got one last question.

Could you pm a cacthy message I could use. I really don't know what to say except," Hey I checked out your page. I like the design and I think it is very nice.(I like that mustang on your page. Is that a v6). "

Could you give me a sample message I could work with.


Hey thanks for all your support and help and good luck with your career.

[LeeRosario]

the power is in numbers. get a team of people going. You need some shock value, too.


Cause lets face it, there are a million different bands on myspace and it's hard to catch people with a lasting first impression.

In fact, lots of people are quite fond of ignoring band requests entirely. So those are the people I obsess about reaching out to. Cause once you got the trend setters, then you got everyone else.

So be out there...spice things up a bit!

[JoeBannon]

Originally Posted by FALKEN

it seems to be that a lot of bands with like 40,000 views have mostly strippers on their friend lists.

I got Martina Warren lol.

[wargasms]

i disagree with some of the opinions here.

I say find more popular or any artist within your genre with a similar sound, and add their fans...

Its a whole world out there of people who would like your music, they only need a chance to hear it.

just add fans of similar artists, see who drops in and leaves positive comments.

Even if people dont listen at first, if they are really fans, they generally socialize with other fans of the artist, if they drop by and see you on others friends lists who like the same band or group, they might come and give you a listen

You have to increase your visibility within your target music community....

if people arent listening or hearing about you, you arent getting new fans.

I say im making 20-30 real true supporters a day through myspace, who are anticipating the album, and contacting me directly with questions, even asking me us to come to their cities to do shows.

We have gotten TONS of positive feedback in the last few days..

http://www.myspace.com/sleptonfam

And i started promoting my individual myspace page only a few days ago...i had about 7 friends last week, now i have close to 800..
http://www.myspace.com/wargasms

Also Focus on Local people just to get your name out there. Never know who might like your music, if they dont, they have the option to not add you or remove you from their friends list.

But myspace is invaluable, i think you are missing out big time if you arent utilizing this resource for your music.

[ariyus]

myspace really exposed my band to the world... i'm very delighted...

http://www.myspace.com/morggorm

[JoeBannon]

Originally Posted by wargasms

And i started promoting my individual myspace page only a few days ago...i had about 7 friends last week, now i have close to 800..

I started the day after you and up to 1900.

[mx_mx]

Im sorry, but who gives a f**k??? Nothing against you Joe, or anyone else in this thread, but can someone please explain to me the appeal of having thousands of myspace friends? Do they give you a warm and fuzzy feeling? Do they give you money? Seriously, I'm not getting the whole thing. I signed up with myspace so I could adevertise in the classifieds, I have 3 friends (one of them is Tom), and I couldn't care less.

[JoeBannon]

Originally Posted by mx_mx

Im sorry, but who gives a f**k??? Nothing against you Joe, or anyone else in this thread, but can someone please explain to me the appeal of having thousands of myspace friends? Do they give you a warm and fuzzy feeling? Do they give you money? Seriously, I'm not getting the whole thing. I signed up with myspace so I could adevertise in the classifieds, I have 3 friends (one of them is Tom), and I couldn't care less.

The way it's worked for me is getting people to local shows, that's all I've gotten from it. I have to say that it works better than any poster or flyer. Not to mention a lot less work, if any. My point to wargasms is that isn't really not hard to get friends on myspace. The site gets millions of visitors a day, if you can't get promotion off that, then there is something wrong.

[wargasms]

i dont see how people are missing the point...

myspace lets you reach more people, in more places you couldnt reach otherwise.

i dont use myspace for internet friends, i use myspace to promote. And its probably the most efficient promotional tool you will find anywhere.

do it or dont do it. I dont see the point of being anti-myspace promotion if you havent done it full blast to appreciate its incredible benefits.

i just know it works better promotional methods artists typically have to spend alot of money on, it can be targeted to the exact audience you want if youre smart about it... and its free.

[brandrum]

Originally Posted by treymonfauntre

spend the time you are going to waste on promoting yourself on myspace writing good songs and playing shows. myspace will be forgotten in a year.

dude...myspace is more popular than ever.

[FALKEN]

i got a question then for the people who are having sucess with it.

say you have a friend list of 1000 people (i've been on there about a year and have about 100) so lets say I go crazy adding other bands' friends or whatever....and I have 1000 people on my friend list and now I am on tour trying to let them know about the date....say I sent an event invitation....

how do you hit only the people on your list that are in the city you are playing??? how do you avoid sending spam to the 80% of the people on your list that are NOT in that city and could care less that you're playing some dive bar in a few days?

serious question..

[wargasms]

you cant really target the bulletins...but what you can do is go through "BROWSE".....click advanced...and click "search your friends"


then you can type in a zip code....and search for friends within say....50 miles of that zip code. Then you can manually send each of them an inbox message letting them know about your show in their area.


There is the bulletin option which hits all your friends. bulletins dont go in peoples inbox...they generally are for "spam" ...i havent seen a bulletin yet that served any targeted purpose other than a notification...


i get 100's of bulletins a day...many being the same one over and over...but i occassional do find something of interest in them..

I think everyone considers their bulleting folder to be the equivalent of their spam folder.

[FALKEN]

that sounds like a good compromise. do you know of a way to target event invitations?

[wargasms]

im not really sure, as i havent even had to send any event invitations yet..since ive been using it.

[JoeBannon]

Originally Posted by FALKEN

i got a question then for the people who are having sucess with it. say you have a friend list of 1000 people (i've been on there about a year and have about 100) so lets say I go crazy adding other bands' friends or whatever....and I have 1000 people on my friend list and now I am on tour trying to let them know about the date....say I sent an event invitation.... how do you hit only the people on your list that are in the city you are playing??? how do you avoid sending spam to the 80% of the people on your list that are NOT in that city and could care less that you're playing some dive bar in a few days? serious question..

It's not spam since THEY JOINED MySpace. No one forced them to. If they don't want event messages, then they should delete their account or remove you from their friends.

[FALKEN]

ok sure. but if they remove me then what is the point???

what I mean is if I were to send a message that says "playing NYC tomorrow night" and 90% of my list isn't in NYC...and I am doing this constantly, eventually I will lose my entire list....there's got to be a way around this.

[JoeBannon]

Originally Posted by FALKEN

ok sure. but if they remove me then what is the point???

what I mean is if I were to send a message that says "playing NYC tomorrow night" and 90% of my list isn't in NYC...and I am doing this constantly, eventually I will lose my entire list....there's got to be a way around this.

Create a profile for NYC fans ;-)