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.

Record Union are very pleased to announce that we will be working with leading Finnish download store and music information service Meteli.net to support independent artists in Finland and elsewhere. We will continue to deliver content to Meteli.net via our agreement with 24/7 Entertainment, but we will now work closely with Meteli.net to actively promote this music via their service.

Meteli.net is not only a download store, but features information on artists,albums, music venues, cities, songs, a current news service, a 5-channel streaming radio as well as concert, festivals and club calendars for Finland. With our distribution platform, their retail store and promotion channels, we are looking forward to what we can accomplish together in the name of independent music.

You can read the press release here.

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.

Any aspiring independent artist should be looking to fine tune their online promotion strategy, and the Sound Advice area of Ariel Publicity enables you to do exactly this.

Ariel Publicity, specialising in “Cyber PR”, is a digital firm which connects artists to blogs, podcasts, Internet radio stations and social media sites. But on the “Sound advice” section of the Cyber PR website you will find a wealth of free resources which any self promoting independent artist or manager will find really useful.

Featuring articles such as “How to sell 1000 singles a week on itunes“, “Musician´s Twitter roadmap“ and “The new Facebook - A Musician´s guide“ it  provides great down to earth professional advice on how to make use of the new marketing channels the Internet provides. You can also sign up for the bi-weekly ezine, which will bring you new articles and links to your inbox. You can also view to the Ariel Publicity YouTube channel, where you will also find interviews and videos surrounding online promotion and marketing.

All in all, a highly reccomended resource for independent and unsigned artists.

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!

The BBC technology page wrote an interesting article recently entitled “the net helps music sing new songs”. It is a great article outlining the many ways which the internet is changing music, and how musicians are utilizing the internet to empower themselves.  Discussing the continuing role of major labels, the article points out that “Some would argue that with an international reach and incredibly low entry costs, that the internet itself is the newest “major” label”. This arguement is in fact quite strong, for the many of the key roles that a major record label performs (recording, distribution and marketing) the internet also performs, and with a greater volume of music. Technological developments within music recording and production, coupled with the international reach of the internet has made it easier for musicians to record and “release” their music globally. The internet can be seen as the new “major label” for it enables far more music than ever before to be shared on a global platform,  while simultaneously putting this music in a close proximity to listeners who can discover and enjoy it.

(more…)

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 term “unsigned” has historically been used by the music business as an almost derogatory remark to denote artists and bands who haven’t yet signed to a label, be the label independent or major. Almost as if to say that the band isn’t “good enough” to be offered a record deal or that since they haven’t signed a deal, they have not yet reached “success”. There are a number of things wrong with this.

Firstly, there are many great bands and artists without record deals playing superb music on local scenes and circuits around the world. Playing smaller and more intimate gigs, they are the lifeblood of local scenes and perform a important cultural role. Moreover, the internet has served to make a lot more music open to discover by a lot more people, and we realise there is a wealth of talent out there untapped by record labels. Being signed to a label is by no means a necessary measure of an artist’s talent or their capacity to create great music.

Secondly, there are a number significant benefits to the independence associated with being unsigned, and it is possible to enjoy a successful career in music without signing to a Record Label.

(more…)

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…)

Organisations like the “Montreal Indie Music Network” are the lifeblood of independent music.  They are a concert Promotions Company actively involved in spreading valuable information about gigs going on in their area. Not only involved in promoting concerts, they regularly post information about up and coming artists on their facebook group as well. Like most people dedicated to indie music, they appreciate that some of the best music out there comes from unknown indie bands, as opposed to the “heavily-hyped and advertised major-label megabands”.  As we all know, Independent music does not have the same capital for huge marketing, advertising and promotion schemes as the major record labels, which makes networks like these all the more important. Where would the independent scene be without them?

Beginning as a face book group the network is in the process of creating a website called “Indie Montreal”. We spoke to the creator of the network, Jon Weisz, about the role of his network in today’s music environment. He observes that “95% of pop music fans are too complacent: they listen to whatever Television tells them to listen to without questioning the music’s quality or relevance”. Indeed. Jon understands more than anyone that labels simply don´t have the resources to market most of the great music out there, and that questions of risk often force them invest resources in artists appealing to the “lowest common denominator” (for more on this, see this article). Imagination, that crucial artistic ingredient “doesn’t make money for these companies, who often put millions of dollars into promoting a single artist”. With this in mind, his network

“provides a resource for people who fall within the 5%, who understand that music’s appeal is not cultural and dictated, it’s personal and discovered. Although a lot of popular music is good, I find that the best music is almost always found in indie niches that are not heavily marketed or publicized”.

We at Record Union couldnt agree more! Keep up the good work guys!