Yes, you can combine being true to music and selling yourself without selling out.

The normal blogg guy is up to his ears in pay outs and other Record Union business, that’s why me, Peter, is writing this one.
As an artist, designer, marketeer and salesman in general, I thought I could encourage all of you to sell yourself in a creative way. If you don’t sell your music and yourself no one will listen to you. Selling yourself and selling out is not the same thing.

Record Union is a first step. Selling your music through Record Union is done on your own terms, no one will tell you how to act and which channel you should do promotion. No one will tell you what record to but on your record, when to have your release date. All of this you will have to figure out yourself. The problem is, you are not that very good at it. Record companies are professionals in these matters, they have the valuable contacts with media. This is where your creativity comes in. You need to find ways to get to media and get to the people you want to listen to your music. Your own ways. The web is filled with promotion tricks but most of them are already done and if someone comes up with a good way to sell their music they really don’t want to share it on the web do you?

You need to sell yourself to be able to play your music. Make those uncomfortable phone calls. Make it your job to reach out. Unless you are the shit. But let’s face it, we are not the shit. We need to make ourselves and it’s hard work to do so.

Think of your band as a company. You need to build your brand, you need to get customers, you need to get the right customers, you need media and internet space to broaden your customer base. You need to tell the world that you are the shit, humble yet sincere. In your own way. From your heart. Not someone else’s.

P.

There are many great places you can turn if you want advice and tips on how to promote your music on the Internet. In today’s post we thought we would list a few and tell you a little about them.

Know the music biz
An online community and resource centre for independent artists and musicians. The goal of this website is to make available the information for artists need to build a sustainable career in a changing music industry. It has a wealth of articles written by individuals who really know their stuff. Highly recommended.

Ariel Publicity
Description: The “sound advice” area of Ariel Publicity provides some great advice articles to help motivate and guide your online promotion strategy. Ariel Publicity is a “Cyber PR” company who really have their finger on the pulse. We highly recommend signing up to the bi-weekly “sound advice” bulletin.

Buzz Factor
Description:The buzz factor offers music marketing and promotion tips for songwriters, musicians and bands. Bob Baker, acclaimed author of the “Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook” among other titles, writes it.

Today we post an  article we recently submitted to Music Nomad, a great directory of resources for independent and unsigned artists. It concerns how to submit your music to Podcasts!

Podcasts are yet another example of the great new online channels available to musicians to promote their music and develop their fan base. For those living under a rock, a Podcast is an internet audio show delivered to listeners, who can listen online or download it to their PC, mobile phone or MP3 player. Listeners can also subscribe to particular shows and receive new shows as they are made available. One can consider Podcasts the internet’s answer to traditional radio, except better in many ways. Better because they are more accessible to independents, far less costly, they are global, exist for every genre and always after new music! To get your music played on podcasts, you will first need to make your tracks available for podcasters to find, and then contact them and let them know you are interested in getting your music played on their show. This mini-guide should hopefully give you some idea of how to do this.

First things first, get your tracks ready for listing!
Almost all podcasts require music to be submitted in MP3 format, so convert your music files to MP3 if necessary. Most podcasts will not use a bit rate in excess of 128kbps, so you can be comfortable using this bit rate. Recording quality is important, so make sure you submit the best recording that you can get your hands on.
Then a good idea would be to add ID3 tags. These are little bits of information (or metadata) about a track that you can attach to an MP3 file. This is not compulsory, but enables you to package your MP3 in a more attractive way. There are numerous ways which you can add ID3 tags, but the easiest way is to edit them in Widows Media Player or iTunes. Right click on the name of your track, and chose the “advanced tag editor” (“Get Info” in iTunes). You will now be able to add information to your MP3, such as the track name, artist name, cover art etc. In the “notes” field you also have the chance of added your MySpace, email address etc.

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