Archive for the ‘Promotion advice’ Category

What kind of music do YOU do?

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

It is easy to forget that even before an artists music has been able to describe itself, people must hear about it. This is Derek Sivers (founder of CD baby) talking about the importance of artists being able to talk about their music. Before your music is able to do the talking, you have to use words in order to invoke curisostiy about your art - and these words better be invocative, titilating and  well thought out. Bear this in mind when you are asked: “so, what kind of music do YOU do?”.

Band Ease?

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Today we would like to write about a new service which has got the Record Union team quite excited.  Introducing Bandize!  Managing a band can be notoriously difficult, and what Bandize aims to do is bring clarity and calm to such a complex and often time consuming venture by making the whole endeavour more organised, efficient and focused.  When they launch to the public, Bandize will boast a set of well thought out tools which will make most aspects of managing a band much easier and more transparent.

So what do Bandize offer? Well, a lot. You will be able to manage everything surrounding upcoming shows and tours online, including dates, locations, hotels and contact persons. Badize´s digital ledger will make the accounting side of things more transparent by helping you keep track of all your transactions, who is owed what and who needs paying.  On top of this you will be able to keep track of your inventory, synchronise your social networks, manage that ever expanding “to do” list and keep a tab on how album releases are fairing. For a more detailed explanation of their set of tools we recommend checking their website. One gets the feeling that Bandize could be one of those services that once you begin to use it, you will wonder how you ever coped without it.

We like Bandize because it is yet another example of how Internet based services can and are empowering artists and bands. Though Bandize will surely appeal to professional tour managers and high profile management agencies, it will most likely be bands and artists without large management teams who will profit the most from this service. Either way, it has the potential to become an essential weapon in the independent musician’s arsenal. This is a service to keep an eye on.

Drum roll please

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Greetings ladies, gentlemen, comrades and fellow humans. Just a quick post today to say that there is now a new “page” on the Record Union blog. This page is entitled “online promotion directory” and features a list of services which we think are useful for aspiring independent and unsigned artists which are looking to use the online environment to their advantage. We hope that this will help artists find out about new services which can help them expand their fan base and generate exposure for their music. It contains links to blogging services, podcasting services, tools to make your life easier, online marketing tools and links to online promotion advice. The directory will be updated whenever we find new service to add, and if you would like to recommend services to add to this directory, or think we have missed something out, please contact the Blog Team at dogblog@recordunion.com. We will also be writing more articles dealing with online promotion advice here on the Dog Blog, which you can find by clicking on the “promotion advice” categories section (on the right of your screen). Happy time!

Getting your music on blogs: a mini guide

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Music bloggers are the opinion formers of the digital age. They are individuals passionate about music who dedicate some of their time to writing reviews and articles about artists they like in order to reccomend them to their readership. Some, called MP3 boggers, focus on posting music for download and free circulation, while others are more journalistic. They are one of the great promotion channels available to aspiring indie musicians, as they are open to recieving music from anywhere. A good article written by a respected blogger has the potential to generate great exposure for you, and it has been proven that blog articles written about an album release can significantly increase the amount it is downloaded.This post should help you to understand how you can contact bloggers and hopfully to get an article posted about you.

Firstly: more on bloggers
•    Bloggers generally group around specific genres and sometimes affiliate themselves with certain scenes. So do your research! Take time to get to know which bloggers are keen on the kind of music you play.
•    Many blogs may want to post free samples of your music. So prepare a few promo tracks in MP3 format which you are happy to give away for free.

(more…)

The 20 things

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

If the online music industry had a holy book, Andrew Dubber´s free eBook “20 things you must know about music online” would be it – it is the absolute must read for any artist who wants to make headway in the sometimes treacherous and often bedazzling online music business. Actually, it is a holy book; it expounds 20 undying and immutable truths which should guide your online music strategy; though shall not, on pain of eternal damnation, question 20 things! Ok, perhaps this is going a tad to far . The truths are not immutable, because like reality the music industry is everchanging, but it does provide some pretty sound  guidelines. Containing sound insights crammed with useful tips and strategies it is a great resource to get potent advice and information about how to best utilize the possibilities now available to aspiring musicians in the advent of the web 2.0 (or 3.0?) era.

(more…)

Give your music away!

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

That’s right folks, just give it away! Don´t try and make money from music sales, make it available to everyone, for free! Or…don’t.

It is quite worrying when self proclaimed marketing gurus encourage musicians to not focus on trying to make money from their music itself (as this is a silly thing to do) but to solely focus on alternative revenue streams. This post is not criticising the wisdom of giving free samples away, this is the oldest trick in the book and a great way to introduce people to your music; but making things other than your music your primary revenue stream seems quite defeatist. The arguments for giving your music away free are understandable - putting a price on your music will drive potential fans away (since music is now free), people dont want to pay for music anymore (especially not yours), music is free like it should be! Get with it! - but these arguments are by no means conclusive.

The alternatives presented to not selling your actual music are to sell aspects of your music which cannot be “copied”, which is pretty much not to sell your music at all, but yourself. Get people to pay to be your fans and sell them stuff which non fans dont get, like behind the scenes pictures, interviews, limited edition merchandise, exclusive song releases etc. Fair enough, these revenue streams should be considered, but

(more…)