How do I...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg_L
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Greg_L said:
Yeah okay, I'll get right on that. :laughings:
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Didn't figure you'd read past the first sentence when I made the post. But actually, for any performer with college-age listener appeal and good quality recordings this could be an interesting experiment, and probably not very hard to get implemented.
 
XLR said:
Find a local college professor who teaches marketing. Ask him to use your music promotion as a class project that will study methods and results of internet promotion. You give them pics, music files, bio material. The marketing class divides into groups, competing with each other by creating promo pages on the various sites - Myspace, Facebook... and measures their success by both the number of listens on the page, and the recordings you sell that were referred by that page. Of course, you'll have to make the sales method able to determine where the sales referral came from. Dunno if iTunes can, though they'd be the preferred sales method otherwise because they're universally trustable by the consumer. Online sale would be important in addition to physical CD sales, as customers can buy singles. You'd sell many more singles than full CDs.
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Excellent idea! I may give this a go. Thanks XLR
 
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Okay Seriously

Here is some advice I got from a local music promoter. His name is Eddie Mattingly and his company is Trinity Music Productions.


First: It must be an exceptional CD. It has to be so good that no one can deny its excellence. Not just the music but the whole package. If it looks like a home studio project everyone will think of it as a home studio project.

Second: A good bio of the artist and a good press release statement about the CD. Now, just like it takes a professional musician to produce a good song, it takes a professional to produce the bio and press release. These have to be brief and to the point. DJs and station managers are busy and don't have time to read a book. One page is enough.

Third: Send the CD (without the shrink wrap - again we don't want to waste their time), bio and press release to as many radio stations that play this kind of music as you can afford.

Fourth: After about a month, follow up with a phone call (preferably your publicist) asking if they got the package and what did they think about it. If they played it, thank them and ask if you could send future CDs to them. You don't want to waste your time and money sending CDs to radio stations that are not interested.

Fifth: This is a must. The artist must get out and play live. Always be playing somewhere new and building new fans. Word of mouth is free and effective. Plus, this is where the artist gets to sell CDs.
 
Here's one way to get on radio. Do a local performance - you record alone so get sidemen on guitar and bass, you play drums and do lead vox. It'd have to be something other than a bar or club, like a college campus outdoor concert, a fundraiser for a local organization, or a hired concert by a local presenter. The sponsoring organization sends out your CD's to all local radio as part of their event promo. You can make this easy for them to do by making all the promo packet materials and just having them do the printing and signing of the letter on their letterhead. Local stations may give you airplay to promote the event, where they would have otherwise tossed your CD into the round file. Those that have independent programming ability may play your music afterward also. This worked for me, and got me a couple years of frequent airplay on several local radio stations, and lots of resulting CD sales.
 
XLR said:
Didn't figure you'd read past the first sentence when I made the post. But actually, for any performer with college-age listener appeal and good quality recordings this could be an interesting experiment, and probably not very hard to get implemented.
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My music is not for college kids. There are no acoustic guitars, whiny vocals, or political themes and I don't wear fingernail polish or care about the war or poverty or the environment. I don't know who my potential audience is. Maybe nazis or assholes in general?
Manslick said:
Here is some advice I got from a local music promoter. His name is Eddie Mattingly and his company is Trinity Music Productions.


First: It must be an exceptional CD. It has to be so good that no one can deny its excellence. Not just the music but the whole package. If it looks like a home studio project everyone will think of it as a home studio project.
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No problem there.

Second: A good bio of the artist and a good press release statement about the CD. Now, just like it takes a professional musician to produce a good song, it takes a professional to produce the bio and press release. These have to be brief and to the point. DJs and station managers are busy and don't have time to read a book. One page is enough.
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No problem there.

Third: Send the CD (without the shrink wrap - again we don't want to waste their time), bio and press release to as many radio stations that play this kind of music as you can afford.
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My music is not radio friendly.

Fourth: After about a month, follow up with a phone call (preferably your publicist) asking if they got the package and what did they think about it. If they played it, thank them and ask if you could send future CDs to them. You don't want to waste your time and money sending CDs to radio stations that are not interested.
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Again, it's not radio friendly.

Fifth: This is a must. The artist must get out and play live. Always be playing somewhere new and building new fans. Word of mouth is free and effective. Plus, this is where the artist gets to sell CDs.
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I'm a one man band. I can't do everything at once.

XLR said:
Here's one way to get on radio. Do a local performance - you record alone so get sidemen on guitar and bass, you play drums and do lead vox. It'd have to be something other than a bar or club, like a college campus outdoor concert, a fundraiser for a local organization, or a hired concert by a local presenter. The sponsoring organization sends out your CD's to all local radio as part of their event promo. You can make this easy for them to do by making all the promo packet materials and just having them do the printing and signing of the letter on their letterhead. Local stations may give you airplay to promote the event, where they would have otherwise tossed your CD into the round file. Those that have independent programming ability may play your music afterward also. This worked for me, and got me a couple years of frequent airplay on several local radio stations, and lots of resulting CD sales.
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I guess you guys aren't familiar with me or my music. Fair enough. Fuck this shit. I'm not even gonna try. :laughings:
 
Doesn't matter to me what you do or don't do. My couple posts in this thread are for the most part not to you specifically but to the general subject, which is an interesting one.

And yes I do know what your music is like. You don't think punk bands play colleges?
 
XLR said:
Doesn't matter to me what you do or don't do. My couple posts in this thread are for the most part not to you specifically but to the general subject, which is an interesting one.

And yes I do know what your music is like. You don't think punk bands play colleges?
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Not anymore. It's not 1984. There are no more punk bands.
 
I was in a bar the other night and I asked the barky if I could put my CD on the juke box. She gave me the “are you crazy” look. But when I asked if she cared if I came in and played it live she said yes, meaning it'd be okay.

Your stuff lends itself to a three piece band. I don’t know if you sing and play simultaneously but if you do and got the right guys I really think you could make some waves.

I once said you’d be a hit at Sturgis.

Yeah I know all the hassles of bands and shit, but what you gonna do? Styles go around and come around.
 
It's always 1984, or whatever year, if the music's good enough.

Play straight punk, but call it alternative ___________ (pick an edgy term). Instant marketing success.
 
Manslick said:
I was in a bar the other night and I asked the barky if I could put my CD on the juke box. She gave me the “are you crazy” look. But when I asked if she cared if I came in and played it live she said yes, meaning it'd be okay.

Your stuff lends itself to a three piece band. I don’t know if you sing and play simultaneously but if you do and got the right guys I really think you could make some waves.

I once said you’d be a hit at Sturgis.

Yeah I know all the hassles of bands and shit, but what you gonna do? Styles go around and come around.
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I'm not in it for me or to make any waves. I don't even care if people like it. I'm just selling it for charity. They can buy it and throw it away for all I care. :D
 
fat_fleet said:
merch table?


yes it is.


again, yes it is.
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Pretty much every one of my songs is laced with morally questionable themes and outright profanity. If you know of a radio station in Houston, Tx that will play it, I'm all ears.
 
Greg_L said:
Pretty much every one of my songs is laced with morally questionable themes .
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Big deal. Plenty of that around already. And not every song you do has to be radio-able. Just one or two.

and outright profanity. If you know of a radio station in Houston, Tx that will play it, I'm all ears
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Make an edited version. I hear them all the time. Blanks not bleeps. It only makes the listener want to buy the unedited recording all the more.
 
Greg_L said:
How do I.....promote my album without using myspace or facebook because I fucking hate them?
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Have sex with a record company exec. :D

I know what you mean...Facebook IMO is turning into a bigger joke than MySpace. All they've done is refined the stupidity of online social networks.
Not to mention...it's all fucked up how they make you do their band/biz pages VS "profiles".

IMO...maybe the best way to use those sites is to just put up a single link on each of them that brings people back to your dedicated website.
All that friend/fan shit is tedious...and after while it becomes diluted and undefined...like trying to find someone in a Saturday afternoon mall crowd.
I don't get why people go to, and use other sites in order to promote their shit instead of funneling everyone back to THEIR site.

Anyway...if you find a better way...I'm all ears. :)
I think in the end, doing gigs and promoting yourself locally might be the better alternative...then once you have a solid local following, bring your real fans to whatever Internet location you choose...preferably your own site.
 
Yeah I'm totally over it. This will never work. I'm not gonna form a new band to play live. I'm not signing up for FB or myspace. I'm not gonna beg a radio station to play it when I know they won't. I don't know any college professors. I'm not changing any of the songs. I was just looking for simple promotion ideas that require me to do next to nothing. It's just gonna be the greatest album that no one will ever hear. :laughings:
 
Greg_L said:
It's just gonna be the greatest album that no one will ever hear. :laughings:
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put it one or two songs on piratebay and other torrent sites with a ramones album name attached to it. make them be smokin tracks and record a quick announcement where the rest of the record can be found.

the only down side with that is only one person would need to buy it before the rest of the world could get it free.
 
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