Attention the Independent Artist
NOBODY CARES SHOW Jay and Dirty Bob Show
Ten cardboard boxes arrive in the mail containing a thousand shrink-wrapped CDs. You’re feeling pretty proud. All those precious hours writing, practicing, scrimping & saving, recording…
All for NOTHING!!!
… unless, of course, you can get other folks to take an interest in your music and actually LISTEN. But how?
Guest post by Bob Baker, www.TheBuzzFactor.com
A well written press release is the first step in getting some attention for your new album. Use this template to help you organize your information. Note that this template was written with bands and indie labels in mind as the writers and the media in mind as the readers. PR folks and radio pluggers will want to take a slightly different approach with their press releases, and one sheets for distributors and stores should also be slightly different.
YouTube has become the primary way that music fans find new music online. This is why it’s also important that your YouTube channel represents your music in an attractive and engaging way.
by unifiedmanufacturing.com
If you want to make a career out of your music, you should market yourself. And in order to market yourself well, you should treat your band as a brand. I know some artists turn red reading my first two sentences- for them, music should be from the heart and people should love their music for itself. And that it’s art and shouldn’t be sold like Avon products or vacuum cleaners. That’s fine and I completely understand their sentiments but selling your music doesn’t make it less of an art. It’s simply a must if you want a bigger audience. It’s simply a must if you want to keep doing what you’re doing. Unless, of course, you’re born with a silver spoon and you can make music while your daddy pays for everything.
Certainly, branding and promoting your band is not like selling Avon products or vacuum cleaners. Here is a list of things a band should have if you want to brand your band and make a career out of your craft.
Nothing can beat the instant widespread exposure that radio can offer, so it’s no wonder artists are always asking, “How do I get played on the radio?”
But what does “radio” even mean these days? With so many diversified outlets for music listening, the term “radio” is being defined more broadly now than ever before, including commercial terrestrial radio, college, indie, non-profit, and community stations, satellite and internet radio, and the kind of customizable, interactive listening experiences enabled by sites like Pandora.com.
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by Chris R @CDBaby.com
Not everything has to be a major productionSometimes less is more. Next time you want to create video content, don’t stress about complicated concert shoots with multiple cameras and capturing good audio. Don’t hire a director and spend $1000 on props. Instead, think small. Set up a camera wherever it’s convenient and try one of the following:
* Record a 45 second rant in your backyard about something that annoys you. Politics? Banjos? Noisy breathers?
* Do a mini-interview while driving to your next tour-date about the meaning behind your best song.
* Sit on the couch and talk about where and why you’ve gotten stuck writing that half-finished love ballad, and what your writer’s block says about the condition of modern man.
* Recommend your top-5 favorite new tunes by other artists, but include one that you actually hate. Say something about why you love each song, and make your fans guess which one is the bad egg.
* Highlight the best or worst moments from your last show. Maybe your fans have seen you play a hundred times, but they might never have heard YOUR take on the performance.
Obviously none of these are prescriptions. You can mix and match or come up with your own casual, silly, easy-to-film idea. Just make it short, entertaining, and a unique experience that fans won’t get by listening to your albums or attending your shows.
If you’ve posted any casual, day-in-the-life kinds of videos, please feel free to post a link in the comments section below!
(SEO = Search Engine Optimization)
I know, I’m as guilty as many of you. You’ve spent hours creating and editing a video. You’ve finally got it uploaded to YouTube, and the last thing you feel like doing is making sure you’ve chosen the perfect title and tags so your video is easy to find. But why put in all that work in the first place if nobody’s gonna view your video? I’ve outlined a few basic practices below that will allow you to optimize your YouTube videos so they get more views online. It doesn’t take much time and it will ensure you get better ranking in both YouTube and Google when people search on your keywords.
But, first: How does YouTube rank videos?
There are 5 important elements that YouTube uses to rank videos
While you don’t have much control over “number of views” or “rating” you do have control over title, description and tags. So that’s where you need to concentrate your optimizations.
Note: It’s also important to remember that your videos will be indexed by Google, Yahoo, and Bing as well as YouTube’s search engine. So there are many opportunities for a well-tagged video to be found online.
Your video title is probably the most important element that you have direct control over. While tags and yourdescription should NOT be neglected, you’re going to get the most SEO value out of optimizing your title.
When people search for a specific phrase in YouTube, the results include videos based on the tags that go along with the videos.
So, if you tag your video with “purple banana monster,” chances are you will come up first for that result (providing there are not a lot of other videos tagged with “purple banana monster”). So the trick with tags is to use unique keyword phrases that you think people would use to search for your video. Make sure to include your artist name and any misspellings of your band name. If your video is a music video you can try adding descriptive phrases like “mind-melting metal” or “Texas blues folk.” There’s no limit to tags, so add a bunch. Chances are, it will be hard to get a good ranking for one-word phrases like “blues” or “rock.”
Your description should explain exactly what is being shown in the video. Keep in mind only about 25-30 characters will be visible in your YouTube search results, so pack in all the good stuff at the beginning. Give people a good reason to check out your video. Try something attention-grabbing that also speaks to the content:
“You won’t believe this . . .”
“The weirdest music you’ve ever heard”
“Stop, Rock, and Roll!”
Note: It’s also of value to put a link in the first sentence or two if you are trying to drive traffic to your website or elsewhere.
Party promotion is a big part of the music business. Parties can become an alternate stream of income for artists. If done correctly, it can also be a good way to connect with fans and make new ones. The following is an excerpt from PartyPromoting.com. Make sure you check their site for more tips.
There are a few different key factors that are important when you are trying to tie-in with another promoter. You need to think about the person that you are looking to work with and what they can do for you. You have to learn to pick and choose people you work with wisely so that you are not finding yourself in a bad situation later on.
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