Promoting your own music through playlists can be very effective - it is also quite fun. The trick is to create a top notch playlist featuring other (perhaps more established) artists/bands and then to whack a few of your own tunes in there. The other artists/bands featured in the playlist may be the primary draw, but your own songs will also be introduced to listeners. You don’t of course need to limit your playlist to music of a similar genre, you can be creative with the theme and name of your playlist.

There are many platforms to then share and spread them. If we are talking Spotify playlists then there is Sharemyplaylist.com, Spotify Playlists, Spotylist.com, Spotifyfriends.com to name just a few. Deezer, Lala and other on demand streaming services have their own communities built up around this. Beyond specific websites, playlist can be readily transferred over social networking mediums. Share the link with your friends and if it cuts the cream, your playlist should be passed around the social media bubble. To be honest, you can post the link to your playlist on pretty much any online medium, such as blogs, forums etc.

For extra exposure, why not enter your playlist in a competition? This, as artist/DJ Dr.Sounds (a.k.a Bodysurf) will no doubt tell you can be very effective. Dr Sounds entered his playlist in the Spread the joy competition and came second place, not only generating exposure for his own music but also winning a rather cool new smart phone. Nice work.

We are happy to feature playlists here on the blog, so if you have one you are particularly fond of, shoot it over to us and we will post it.

Did you know that quite a few of our partners offer widgets to help you sell and share your music? Well, they do! Today we though we would mention one of these widgets, created by 7Digital.

Summary: 7Digital offer an easy to use widget with 1 minute preview and buy functionality. Great if you want to give potential buyers a taster of your music while putting them within easy reach of that magic buy button.

Using it: To use this widget, just locate your single/album/EP on the 7Digital store and navigate to the very bottom of the page. You will then see a section named “Free Music Player” - click here and you will be taken to a page which provides you with an HTML code to embed on your MySpace/Blog/website.

Here is one we made earlier:

Name optimization has become more and more important in this digital age. Back in the days when the man in the record shop was responsible for finding you music, the phrase ”Err…It’s some kind of punkrock, eh, Tars… something” could well be enough for him to know what you where talking about. In the digital age ”Tars… something” will lead you nowhere. Since you don’t have the full and accurate name, no search engine can understand what the man in the record shop knows. For this reason, making your band/artist name and music easy to search for is key to a successful presence on the Internet.

A good first step is to make sure that the titles of your tracks and albums are easy to remember. Ideally, this should also be the same for your band or artist name  (so if you are starting a new band then this is something to think about). It is difficult to know for sure what will stick in the mind of a listener, it’s individual, after all. Name a band “Torsten” and I will remember it because of my late grandfather. Name the band “The Save” and I will forget it. I always forget to save. The key is to be creative and come up with something everyone will remember - something which sticks out.

Another thing you should think about is this how common the names you are using are. In search engines “Torsten” is pretty uncommon and might be a word which makes you come out near the top of the search results . “The Save”, on the other hand, may be bad as since it’s a name at least 36 artist use in combination with something else. Then there is the aspect of radio- or random party play. If you have a rather bizarre chorus line where the lyrics goes ”I love dogs while they sleep” or “Purple elephants are better than pink ones” over and over again then its silly to name the song something else. I am sure we have all heard a song somewhere which we really like but all we can remember is the chorus line - wouldn’t it be a shame if someone searched for this chorus line and then didn’t find it?

One can also be a little militant in how one names songs and albums, and play search engines at their own game. Naming your song “Madonna slept with U2 and Coldplay” or something like this will guarantee that you get lots of search hits from people searching for Madonna, U2 and Coldplay. Its a little cheeky, but hey, if people check out your music, its worth it, no?

If you name your song ”Michael Jackson sleeps With Madonna” you may hit the Jackpot.

- P.

Peoples Music Store offer a unique way for listeners to purchase and explore music, and because of this provides some great promotion opportunities for artists. Today we will have a look at a few of them.

Unlike other stores, everyone can become a shopkeeper on Peoples Music Store - it is truly democratic. As a label, promoter, manager or just plain old music enthusiast you can (free of charge) create and design your own storefront and stock music existing on the service. If you have distributed music with Record Union, your music will be available in the stockroom. When people buy music from your store, you earn points which you can use towards buying more music.

As an artist, the trick is to find storekeepers who would be interested in stocking and even promoting your music. This shouldn’t be too difficult, as the store search function enables you to sort stores by genre and the diversity of stores is impressive. Most members of the storekeeper community are also passionate about music and generally open to listening to and adding new music to their store. Once you have contacted the store owner and introduced yourself, they may even write a review of your music or list it as a featured release. Like with bloggers, podcasts etc. its all about building relationships.

If you run your own label, you have the opportunity to build your own storefront and attract buyers to check out artists you are releasing. Directing fans from individual artists to your store is a good tactic, because there is every chance they will check music from other artists you have in your stockroom.

The truly wonderful thing about Peoples Music Store is that one quickly notices that it has a strong community behind it and really is effective in introducing listeners to new music, while also providing music enthusiasts an output for their passion. Listeners flock to stores they trust to find new sounds, and the storekeepers are eager to list the best music within their genre which may just as well be from indie/unsigned artists.

If Peoples Music Store is new to you then you should have a closer look. Whether an artist or label, we think it is definitely a channel you should consider utilizing in your promotion campaign. Peoples Music Store also have a number of social networking tools to increase the viral effectiveness of your efforts.

The era of the mega hit is gone - niche is the new mainstream. Find your niche and rule it - or better, create one and own it. In this interesting discussion with Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR, Derek Sivers talks about an important feature of the online music environment vital to understand if one is to make headway marketing music online.

Performing live is one of the great joys of being a musician. However, it is important to think of a gig not just as a way of entertaining an audience for a little while and having fun, but as an opportunity to market yourself and reach out to new fans. Handing out a simple flyer is one important step for getting the most out of your live performances.

The Point
Promotion is all about developing relationships with listeners. During and after a successful live performance you are in a good position to move from a superficial and temporary relationship with potential fans, to a deeper long term one. This is up to you. Providing they can even remember your name, only a small percentage of the audience will take it upon themselves to find you online and listen more to your music. Make it easy for them. Hand out flyers.

What to communicate
A flyer can contain a single piece of information, or lots of information. It can be elaborately designed, or just a simple piece of paper with a bit of text on it. The key is that it gives the recipient more info about you and a way to access your music. Depending on your existing marketing strategy, here are a few things you might consider putting on your flyer:

•    Online locations: Your link to MySpace, Facebook, Imeem etc. or just your website
•    Where to access your music: Communicating that your music is available for free streaming on services such as Spotify or Deezer is a great way to increase the appreciation for your music. Before people buy your music, its best they can listen to it over and over and make it part of their music repertoire. Streaming services have the added bonus if sharability and peer recommendation.
•    Mailing list: “Keep updated! Sign up to our mailing list and receive a free track” is a good way to incentivize people to sign up to your mailing list. Once on your list, they are in the loop and you can further develop your relationship with them.

Tips

•    Maximize the effect of your flyers by thinking about when you hand them out. One method is to announce before the last song that flyers are being handed out, and getting some friends to hand them out in the crowd.
•    Alternatively, do it yourself. Straight after a gig, move around the crowd and hand out the flyers. This gives you the opportunity to converse with listeners, receive compliments and answer questions.
•    Be creative on what you put on your flyer. Hosting a merch give away or another kind of competition? Advertise in on your flyers and you may find more participants.

A few members of the Record Union team were recently discussing some of the gigs they had been to the last few weeks, and an important marketing point came up which will serve as the basis of today’s advice. The point is that if you are playing live in front of an audience, make sure they leave knowing who they saw!

Here is the story. There was an open mic at one of the local rock bars here in Stockholm and a band were playing who were seriously good. The crowd was engaged, the lead singer was doing all the right moves and they were quite honestly tearing the place apart. They played a great set, said their thanks and left the stage. However, at no point did they give their name. When they arrived, they said hello, began their opening song - when they closed they left with not so much as a hint at what they were called -let alone where people could find them online. Not only is this a real shame, but quite frankly, it is bad marketing. In desperation fellow gig goers were consulted, and yet again, a dead end - they didn’t know their name either.

So, please, if you are playing live do not make this mistake yourself - introduce the name of your band clearly, as many times as possible. Make it stick. A band who is good at this is Allout (pictured above) whose members include Record Union´s head designer. During gigs, Peter will scream variants of “Allout, Allout, we are Allout, dont forget it, Allout, no spaces, just Allout” before the opening song, in between songs, and even during songs - amusing the crowd but also providing a few memorable moments. People  wont forget their name in a hurry.

Furthermore, if you are getting a good vibes from the audience, why not drop some more information? A MySpace address, a quick note that people can find you on certain popular streaming services. If you are feeling ambitious, you can even print some cheap flyers to hand out at the end of the gig.

People love to talk about “this amazing band they say the other night” but how can they market you if they don´t know your name?

Today´s post will look at the lessons to be learned from the story of Making April, a band who are one of the major DIY promotion success stories. They managed on their own steam i.e. without a marketing department, to sell over 1000 singles a week on iTunes. So how on earth did they do it? Well, put simply: hard work, dedication and a plan. By approaching their task in a serious manner, setting goals and spreading their work load, the members were able to achieve what they thought they never could. To do it they exploited fully one thing the internet is superb for, reaching out to fans, and oh how they reached!

In an interview with Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity, they spilled the beans and filled us in how they managed this impressive feat. You can read the full details on Ariel Publicity, but here are some of the key factors which contributed to their online promotion success.

Planning and setting goals: Every morning three band members would meet up in what they called the “War Room” to plan their daily efforts and set targets for what they wanted to accomplish. This planning and coordination was key to their success.

A solid Social Networking Strategy: Making April used MySpace to engage with and develop potential listeners and fans. The way they did this was to scope out similar sounding bands to who already had large friends list, and then contact their friends and encourage them to check their own matterial and leave a comment on their profile.

Getting personal: To develop the relationship with their myspace contacts, Makin April contacted all those who left a comment on their MySpace profile and thanked them personally. Importantly, they left their instant messenger details in their signature. Their IM contacts grew exponentially. They would sit, literally all day long, chatting away to fans and giving them information about the band. At this point they would send their fans free samples of their music, which they could share with their friends, giving even more people the chance to check out their tunes.

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Continuing on our series of promotion articles, we would like to talk about writing a musician/band bio. Having a well written and professional musicians bio is vital. It is often the first contact that media have with your band, and it does a lot to form their impression about you. If you have an unstructured, badly written and unexciting band biography then this will significantly decrease your chances of being considered by blogs/magazines, fans, booking agents, radio, podcasts etc. Having an engaging, inspiring and well written bio which draws upon the unique “selling point” of your band will do the opposite.

The best bio´s are those which engage the reader quickly and make them genuinely curious about you. Don´t bore them down with a long introductory paragraph, keep it short, snappy and to the point. And yes, your band is unique, everyone is unique, but don’t make the mistake of saying that you don’t sound like ANY OTHER band, or that you can´t be defined by ANY genre set. This will leave the reader lost and may annoy rather the provoke curiosity. Better to grit your teeth and put in a few references so that the reader can place your music (more…)

We have received feedback recently from artists who would like us to post more articles about how to promote and market music as an independent/DIY musician. Not ones to ignore such feedback, we will put on our promotion hats and post a new promotion related article every Monday. Here is the first of the series!

The Mailing List

The importance of a well managed mailing list cannot be understated. Having a strong database of email addresses to fans is very important, and if you are not putting some effort into developing your mailing list it is fair to say you really should be.

A mailing list is your number one way to communicate with your fans about new releases, new videos, upcoming concerts and tours and other news. If used correctly, a mailing list can also help you nurture and solidify new relationships with fans. Asking for feedback on new songs, videos and photos, holding competitions, giveaways and generally engaging fans and making them feel more involved will do alot to strengthen your their ties do you.

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