Hey Long,
I see we're neighbors (Providence/Boston).....
Your ???? is 2 things money and strategy. I'm not sure how big you wanna be or how much capital you have readily available, so I'm gonna just throw some stuff out.
Radio Radio Radio
Radio Advertisement will reach more people than any of the other means listed. More importantly its a targeted audience within your community. Remember that all of us are fans of music and thats what makes us start getting involved. Advertising with them will also help you develop a relationship (as you are now their client) for future projects you may work on. This relationship works especially well with the stations that do mix shows or local talent sets. You would be making yourself more appealing for your customers as they all want to be heard.
Now for the cost. Radio can be an expensive way to advertise depending on time of day and their listener statistics. However, you have some other options to minimize cost.
(1) Another local business, a club (for example) love to advertise on the radio. Get with the club owner and offer your services. If they hold open mic nights or Radio DJ nights, tell them hey we'll be willing to give away a free recording session as prizes to your customers. This promotion may help you either split some of the cost or not eat any cost and have the studio name dropped within the ad.
(2) Business's often run an all day promotions, where the station broadcasts live from their location. Again, a perfect opportunity to run a promotion for your services. These type of promotions are filled with prize giveaways and are broadcast throughout the day to get listeners to come to the business. Use this to your advantage. Start by calling the program director and speaking with him about getting involved with these activities. Nobody, is gonna shoot down recording services for the bubble. This works especially well with music stores that run campaigns. If you have a local music store I suggest you get with the owner and discuss the idea. Remember they want new business always and I'll bet you'll find many of them will be open to the idea.
Most important thing I can tell you is this:
"Radio is not in the music business. Radio is in the advertisement business and uses music to attract listeners for their advertisers. Radio pays to play musc they don't get paid for playing music"
Understand ^^^ this concept and use it to your advantage
Record and Music Stores
Anutha key place to promote your work. Your flyers and marketing material should be posted throughout different stores within your area. When someone reads a flyer they often look at it and throw it away. However if they flyer or poster has in big letters as the attention getter your studio name, you have just successfully put that into someone's brain. 2 days later their in the car and hear the radio advertisement. They may not remember how or where but they've heard the name b4. This is what you want to achieve. Flyers and posters help you do this. Placing them in these area's will not only help you with the people interested in recording, but even with just fans of music. Like you said word of mouth is a key way. Almost everyone knows of someone that sings, either around the house or just to tunes they hear on the radio. These type of things can be passed on to those people who may have never really thought of recording professionally.
These are the people you want to target for consistency. The truth is you may have 3 or 4 bands your recording, but once their album is finished you may not see them again for months, years, or never. So, a good way to stay busy is consistently targeting those people who just wanna try it out and think that it might be fun to actually be in a recording studio.
I gotta get goin right this sec.... but I'll finish it up lata
The Womb
