You want the best you can get, someone who adds something to the music you’re creating.
That same approach should be applied to hiring music mgmt
By Matthew Downes (more articles from this author) 2011-11-25
Music Industry News Network http://www.musicdish.com/mag/index.php3?id=12966
You wouldn’t pick just anybody to play in your band. You want the best you can get, someone who adds something to the music you’re creating. You should approach hiring artist consultants or music management companies the same way.
Chances are, you already know what to look for in a bass player or a producer. But, do you know what to look for in a music management company? Obviously, you need someone you can trust both personally and professionally. But what else should you be looking for in music management companies?
Here are 5 important things to consider:
1. Tenacity and Reliability. You need an artist manager who knows how to follow through and is prepared to stick with you. Sometimes it takes a while before bands or artists become an “overnight success.” You need someone who won’t quit on you just because a label turns your demo down, someone who knows that you may hear a few “no’s” before you get that recording contract. Don’t be afraid to ask any prospective band management company to prove they have these qualities by giving references or interviewing them yourself!
2. Relevant Experience. What success has the band management company had managing others? At the end of the day, the music business is a business, and your artist manager needs to be able to deal with people and sell your product.
3. Entrepreneurial Experience. You may consider an artist consultant with limited experience with music, but be very careful about working with one who has limited experience in business. The ideal band manager will have experience as an entrepreneur within the music and entertainment industry.
4. Connections. What contacts does the band management company have in your genre of music? Do they work with similar genre artists? If a band manager doesn’t have connections in your genre, he/she isn’t much use to you. If, on the other hand, the band management company has established relations with the people who will ultimately decide whether to sign you, you want them representing you. Regardless, you need someone who has connections or has the skills to acquire them.
5. Natural Born Leader. Like musical skills, some business skills can be taught, but others you either have or you don’t. You need an artist manager who is good with people. This isn’t hard to spot. Are people drawn to him or her? Do people seem to naturally respect him and what they are saying? Do you respect him/her?
Some of the best college coaches and politicians are able to work a room and get everyone looking at them, talking to them, listening to them, agreeing with them, usually with tremendous odds against them. This is a skill that is often learned and not taught. You want a band manager or artist consultant who can tell you when things are good and tell you when things are bad, while keeping your professional interests in perspective. Your band manager stands right off the center of your music. They should help push you and your goals in the right direction at all times. This is the number one fundamental of a great music, artist or band manager.
Too many bands jump at the first offer they get from a band manager. Often, they are taken advantage of by band management companies who don’t know what they’re doing. Don’t let that happen to you. Take the time to look into any band management company before you sign on. Your success as an artist or band depends on building a team of qualified, hard-working and trusted people. Hiring a music manager or artist consultant is great step in the right direction.
and now we move on to….
Spotify’s Success through Deep Facebook Integration Points the Way for Brands Success in social media marketing is based on seamlessly integrating with Facebook user’s lives, not trying to subvert or divert attention towards a brand’s message
by: Mi2N 2011-11-21
Brands and social media agencies should draw inspiration from the incredible success that music streaming service, Spotify has seen since partnering with Facebook 6 weeks ago – notably more than 1.5 billion song shares and 4 million new users – according to integrated PR, search and social media agency, Punch Communications. Specifically, the partnership has reiterated that success in social media marketing is based on seamlessly integrating with Facebook user’s lives, not trying to subvert or divert attention towards a brand’s message.
As one of a number of updates revealed at the recent F8 conference, the social networking giant’s integration with Spotify is yet another indicator of Facebook’s shifting focus towards the facilitation of interactive and engaging social objects that tie in with every-day lifestyle-orientated elements to enhance it’s users’ overall experience.
With over 800 million users, Facebook has quickly become one of the most important spaces for brands to become a part of, with those brands focusing on the creation of engaging and unique content having seen the most success so far.
Pete Goold, Managing Director at Punch Communications, which specialises in online PR, commented: “The latest figures only further confirm the opportunities that are currently out there for developers and brands that are able to become an integral part of the Facebook day-to-day user journey – which is in marked contrast to the many attempts that have been made by marketers, often at significant cost, that encourage the user to modify their behaviour in order to accommodate a brand. The growth that Spotify has seen in such a short space of time should be more than enough to encourage other brands, developers and PR companies of the merits of flexibility, and will hopefully inspire accordingly.”
Spotify first launched in October 2008, securing more than 10 million users within its first two years and enabling users to stream music from a wide range of major labels including Universal, Sony and EMI.
Pete continued: “With the latest F8 announcements, Facebook presented developers and brands with a challenge to go out and create content that could become part of the everyday. Something which Spotify has done perfectly. In light of this, I would expect Spotify to see users and shares through social spaces continue to increase even further over the coming months.”
Indie Music Promotion Strategy: Email List + Google Traffic
An article about how musicians how apply 2 simple internet marketing techniques in order to promote themselves online By Adam Nicholson 2011-07-10
Indie music promotion strategies are the same as the music promotion techniques used by major
artists. The main difference, however, is that indie musicians do not have as much financial
resources at their disposal as the major record labels do.
As an indie artist, you may not get your music advertised to millions via the various forms of offline media, such as in a TV, radio or magazine. You might not even be able to afford to be able to create
your own CDs to sell at gigs. But the good news is that no-matter how limited your resources, you can still reach a large audience and make good money using indie music promotion strategies on the Internet.
Whether an indie musician or an artist with a major label behind you, the primary aim of the online music marketing techniques is the same: to develop a relationship with fans to help make sales. When you have developed a relationship with people, it is then much easier to make sales from them.
OK, so let’s look at how indie musicians can promote their music on the Internet by using search engine traffic and an email list.
The Email List
The email list is the best way to make sales of your music. The email list is so powerful because the people that have joined your email list have an interest in your music – otherwise they would not have signed up! It is especially important for indie musicians who do not have all the promotional resources in the world at their disposal. Even with a small list of subscribers, you can make good sales if you handle your email list correctly.
The email list should be used to develop a relationship with your fans. You should be encouraging discussions of music in general with them, asking their thoughts, giving them cool members-only gifts and special offers, and announcing general news in the music world that is likely to interest them. When you have developed a relationship with the readers of your email list and gained their trust, then they will be so much more likely to buy your music and merchandise when you promote this to them.
Many bands just use the email list as a way of sending out the monthly newsletter. A monthly newsletter is very important (and you should have one), but I think the contact with your fans should be more frequent than just the monthly newsletter. Nor does the communication need to always be promoting something. Just sending out general emails to discuss interesting topics is a great way to develop a rapport.
OK, great, “but how exactly do I build my email list if no-one knows about my band in the first place?!” I hear you ask. Fear not, we will get on to this. But it is important for you to first understand that you should have a means to capture the email addresses of your fans before you start an indie music marketing campaign.
So presuming you have your own website with an email opt-in box in the sidebar, we can now get down to business with getting people to your website. This will be done by using search engine traffic.
Search Engine Traffic
Having your website rank highly on Google for certain keywords can do wonders for your exposure. The good news for musicians is that it does not cost any money to get a high Google ranking and it can be relatively easy to achieve high rankings for certain keywords.
I am sure if you type in your band or musician name into Google, your website will already appear on the first page if you already have a http://www.yourbandname.com domain and/or social networking page.
This is great, people who already know that your band exists can now click through to your website and learn more. But what if people don’t know that you exist yet?
It can be very powerful to have your band website appear on the front page of Google for a wide range of search terms other than just your band name. You should try to get your website ranked highly for more generic terms such as the genre of your music, the geographical area of your band, the type of gigs you perform etc. This way people who are trying to find a new artist in a certain part of the world can find you with a generic search such as “New Jersey Punk Band’ or ‘Rock Music Gigs in Ontario’.
For certain keywords on the Internet, it can be very hard to rank for them. For example, it would be hard to rank highly on Google for terms related to the iPhone as many businesses are in competition for these terms. But music related keywords are much easier to rank for because they are not directly related to selling a certain product. Also, most musicians are not aware of the Internet-based indie music marketing techniques that can be used to help them to rank highly on Google.
Think of as many relevant keywords as possible that people could type into Google in order to help them stumble across your band. Then you can try to make your band website (or separate blog posts on your website) rank on the first page of Google for as many of these keywords as possible.
You may find it impossible to rank for very generic terms such as ‘indie band’ or ‘rock music’, but more specific terms such as ‘indie band Pittsburgh’ or ‘wedding band Cambridge’ or ‘singer-songwriter similar to Nelly Furtado’ will be more achievable.
In order to rank highly for a certain keyword term you need to have this keyword phrase appear a few times (or at least once) in the text of your website and you also need to have other websites on the Internet linking to your website using your keyword as the anchor text link.
The anchor text is the keyword you wish to rank for, and appears as a link that is highlighted in blue and underlined on a webpage. If many other web pages around the Internet link to your website with this keyword, then Google will rank your band or musician website highly for that term. The link to your website from another website on the Internet is known as a backlink. The more backlinks you have, the higher your website will rank.
Then as you get more and more traffic to your band website from Google, you will start to build you email list, develop a relationship with more fans, and make more sales.
