Mega Music Talent

Archive for the ‘Music Industry’ Category

In actuality the principles of marketing a band and getting to the point of making actual money from shows don’t really differ that much from running a business. Just so happens that this business is music.

You probably heard the old saying that goes something like “build it and they will come”. Maybe can tell it’s an old saying because in today’s world it should read “build it, MARKET IT… and they will come”. Don’t believe me? I’m sure you know very talented people you have come across that made incredible music in their basement that never made it out of their house. It is like they’re waiting for somebody to come to their house and say “I was just passing through the neighborhood with a briefcase full of money and wanted to see if you have a great song available”. It is not going to happen, but there are things you can do to get your music marketed and we will be discussing this in the following article.

Let’s first establish what we are looking to do. What we need to do is promote the band while at the same time making some money or at least not losing too much on the marketing costs, all this while making sure that our efforts will be rewarded if done right.

Traditional Marketing

Here we have buttons, t-shirts, stickers and any other solid tangible goods that represents the band/artist. Obviously CDs enter the picture and so do DVDs. With Zazzle and other similar services you can sell your merchandise without ever seeing it or stocking it. You simply create your design online and when it sells they will print your design onto the shirt and ship it out. The quality is very good, but as with anything that helps make your life a bit easier, it takes from your profits.

These things will earn you back money while promoting your music/band. After all, some dude dressed with your t-shirt is like having a walking billboard. Here are some rules to keep in mind:

1.       Easy to read, clear and relatively big logo. If you ‘re into twisted letters and squiggly lines you would do well to stay away from that. It doesn’t mean that your design has to be bland and boring, but stay away from stuff that you need to spend time and effort to discern.  If you’ve ever seen a shirt for a black metal band you’ll know what I mean. You want the masses to be able to read your name fast and easy. Same goes for logos. McDonalds has the yellow arches. Nike, Adidas and Mercedes are well known for their logos. Note the logos are based on simple forms/graphics.

2.       Make sure to put your contact info on everything. The more contact details the better. A phone nr is really great and so is an e-mail address. I know some things, like t-shirts for example, do not lend themselves easily to this end, but there’s no reason why the webpage cannot be present on absolutely everything.

3.       Entice people to give you their e-mail address in any way shape or form possible so that you can start to build your e-mail list.

Non-Traditional

Here are some ideas for non-traditional marketing that will give you the most bang for your buck.

1.       Clubcards or postcards. Now, before you run out and do these yourself try to find a sponsorship to pay for them. Here’s how it works: Find a business that is somehow tied into the scene you’re trying to reach. If, for example, you’re a band/artist, a tattoo parlor or a fashionable clothing shop might do the trick. You can get five thousand cards made for about 200 bucks. Pitch the idea as five thousand cards distributed as promo at your show for two hundred, with your band on one side and their business on the other. Don’t say stuff like you’re offering the back of the card, because in all reality the card has NO back, it has two faces. They get five thousand cards printed and distributed to people that are in their market and you get your card FREE! Works out for everybody.

2.       If you know other active bands or artists putting out albums then work together and place little footers on each other’s posters.  Your poster will feature a small footer with releases /gigs of five other artists let’s say… Each of those artists will in turn feature a small footer of your release/gig on their poster. You reach 5 times more people on average without any extra expense.

3.       Sometimes sponsorships may be a bit hard to come by until you get a footing in your market. Sponsors look for bands/artists with a following. However, if you’ve started to build a following then you can definitely try to approach companies for a sponsorship. Offer space on all your promotional materials as well as advertising for the sponsor at your gigs.

Good luck and I hope this article has given you some ideas about how to market your band.

With lots of experience from producing to playing alternative rock music and managing artists, Stan Oldman has always been thoroughly involved in the music business. The current nyc band he manages is RED i CLAN. http://www.rediclan.com

Article Source: http://bb-articles.com

Most groups often feel that getting signed by or being offered a recording contract is the ultimate goal of their musical career. In some cases this can be true but frequently it can be the start of a whole new bunch of issues that no artist could ever foresee or want.

These days a recording contract is nothing more than a a large sum of money to be recouped by the recording company through sales of your product. If it doesn’t sell to expectation you still have to pay the money back somehow. Music companies are a business and they are there to make money not lose it. It is no different than going to a bank and getting a loan to market your music your self, except the recording companies have the methods to make the product sell, get airplay and distribute the product throughout the country or even the world. Recording companies loan you the money to make the music and get their money back by distributing it. Typically artists make a small fraction on CDs- most of the money comes through merchandise and tours.

If you can get a recording company to get behind your music, that’s good. But beware of recording companies who try to influence and change your sound, often to the point of rewriting your songs and even changing members of your band or, worse still forcing you to record songs made by other peoples.

Here are some horror stories that can happen to musicians who get signed and think they are on their way to fill stadiums around the world.

Getting shelved!

A band gets signed, gets some money advanced for recording. The songs are recorded and completed but the record company ‘shelves’ your act and you never sees the light of day but you can’t take your product anywhere else because you are already signed. Often you can’t even play live gigs without giving a % of your performance fee to the record company. This happened to Billy Joel who waited his five year contract out playing in piano bars.

The song gets changed.

Often you will be all ready to record your songs and the record company will bring in a co-writer or producer who alters your compositions beyond all recognition to “fit in with label’s style.” You started to make a hard rock album and you end up with a rap album with all your instruments removed and samples replacing them. You thought you were Metallica only to end up like Jack Johnson. Then you have to go and promote something you really hate and your product is no longer recognizable.

Where did all the money go?

Beware the big advance of money, to make and promote your music. If it doesn’t sell you will have to pay the money back, with interest, just like the banks. How do you pay it back? Live gigs, touring, radio shows, shopping centers for the next ten years. How do all those artists who make millions of dollars end up bankrupt? All the bills they didn’t know they had to pay. They had so much fun, they never watched where the money was going. Read the fine print so you don’t end up like MC Hammer.

Where did my band go?

Quite often musical differences between band members and record companies are solved by the company getting rid of and replacing any member of the band who doesn’t agree with them. They are always trying to get work for their own players and artists who have already been signed. Quite often you will find all your guitar player’s work re-recorded by the studio guy or producer to fit in with the label’s sound or smooth over tensions within the band.

I thought I was a musician not a pop star.

Increasingly recording companies are trying to “cross media” any act in anyway they can. They will market you anyway they can, and they will get you to do things to increase your and their exposure any way they can. You may end up on dog food commercial, on big brother or, god forbid, on Australian Idol. Many recording companies are just offshoots of the big media groups who control TV, radio, music, and the print media, and they will market you anyway they see fit to re-coup their investment in you. Most musicians have a short shelf life so companies want to maximize their profit now before the public listens to the next big thing. (We’ve all heard of the sophomore slump!)

Remember that the music business is 95% business and 5% music. Try to go independent if you can, promote yourself on the web at sites like Axebay and build your own presence in the world. The more successful you are in the beginning the more bargaining power you have with the recording companies. If you do get an offer, get a good lawyer. You don’t want to waste five years in piano bars.

Author Bio: Matt Kepnes is a guitar worshiper who lives and breathes guitars. Check out his website at Axebay. There you can find a lot of information on used guitars and guitar tuners.

Most people are familiar with the adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” which warns us that what lies within may not be properly represented simply by what you see on the surface or facade. When you’re marketing your CD product quite the opposite holds true as the CD packaging needs to encourage and convince consumers of the value and worth of the disc inside.

Competition is fierce in today’s marketplace with a blizzard of marketing and advertising messages vying for our attention, along with retail shelves and e-store pages lined with products to wade through. Now more than ever it’s important to make an excellent first impression, because a few seconds worth of cursory review may be the only chance your product is going to get. With that being the case, your CD packaging decisions need to be properly thought through.

There are a large number of packaging styles to choose from which include off-the-shelf products as well as custom printed or custom manufactured items. You need to pick a style that will be well suited for the type of distribution or environment your product will encounter. Is it a retail product that will be sitting on a shelf surrounded by competing products or perhaps it’s an item that will be purchased on-line and shipped by postal mail or courier? Is it a disc that will be primarily distributed from hand-to-hand through an organization or will it be included within other materials such as in a seminar kit?

The type of package requires careful consideration because you need to determine what level of safety and security the disc will require to survive its environment and what amount of graphics and visual appeal will be required to properly ‘dress up’ the package to entice the consumer to purchase it. A good way to gain some insight is to look at what type of CD packaging the leaders in your industry are using and to evaluate what types of societal trends are in play, such as a shift to environmentally-friendly products and manufacturing methods.

After you’ve picked the style of packaging you will need to consider graphic design (assuming it is applicable to your needs). With the affordability of powerful home computers and ready access to commercial grade graphic design software, an entire generation of do-it-yourself amateur designers has been born. More than any other factor, amateurish design provides the largest impediment for a product trying to make the all-important ‘good first impression’ in a highly competitive marketplace. Again, an excellent benchmark is to look at the most successful of your competitors and evaluate the style and professionalism of their graphic design. Ideally, your product needs to look as good ? or better ? than theirs.

The final stage of your decision making process will be whom to choose to produce your CD packaging materials. A popular packaging style and impressive graphics will quickly be negated if the quality of printing, assembly and finishing is sub-standard. Do your homework on any potential vendors, always get written quotations from at least three different companies and request samples of work that will be similar in scope to your own. Here’s one final piece of advice: Plan ahead and don’t rush, because there’s another popular old adage that says, “Haste makes waste.”

Author Bio: Precision Disc Manufacturing Corp. provides factory-direct CD replication, DVD replication, CD duplication, and DVD duplication services, including top quality print and packaging solutions. For more information on cd packaging visit http://www.predisc.com.

Everyday, new bands come out wanting to make it big in an industry that is so highly competitive and full of talent. Live performances of music bands are one of the most popular displays of how good a band is. This is also a chance for their fans to see their favorite bands live and for all other reason, a promotion that can either make or break their career. Existing bands, new and aspiring has to promote their gigs to make it big in the music industry. A successful gig can give that desired break .

Every gig is an opportunity to showcase your band and an opportunity to breakthrough the music industry. Follow through is the key not the lack of information.

If you are playing in the same venue for an extended period, it is preferred that the cycle of your audience would be every 3 weeks at least to ensure that different people are watching you every time you perform. Promote only upcoming gigs and not recent ones to give fans the impression that they can only watch you on those days and that your current gigs are already sold out. This will give you a chance to spread out your audience. Promote every show like it’s the only show. If you do not promote, nobody will come, if nobody will come, no one will want you to play again.

Bands get noticed for their unique style of presenting themselves. Some may sport weird hairdos or wear self-expressing wardrobes to get noticed. The point of it all is expression. That is what gets the eye of people no matter how weird it may seem.

Conservative bands normally fail to make it big because they lack character. They don’t have anything different from the usual bands that have made big strides. But while that is a given fact, it would be wise to consider it to support your band music’s success. It is bound to become a step towards fame and fortune.

One is, if the band should come back together, would everything be the same? Can everyone co-exist in the same way that they were planning to get back on top?

There are things to consider and that is the fact of being sincere and aiming to make good music together. If and when all egos are defeated and everyone is open to starting anew then there is a chance to pick up where you left off. But one thing you can be sure off, the opportunity lost is already there and the chance to shine has already passed.

Normally, there are people who would become egotistic. They feel that they can perform even on their own. If that is the case, they do not need to be in the band. They can go solo.

This is something we often see in bands which break up when they are on the verge of fame and success. We have seen great bands disband due to selfish desires. It should not be surprising if you see this happening if the band members do not complement and get along.

The author Jon Caldwell is a professional content manager. Much of his articles can be found at http://bandgigsdaily.com

Article Source: http://megamusictalent.com