Music Marketing - Objectivity & Consistency

When you go online each day to begin the process of marketing your music, what is it you actually do? Do you know or do you just open your favorite browser and go where it takes you? Can you duplicate your efforts, daily, weekly, or monthly? Once you “make it” and no longer have time to do your daily online duties, can you turn them over to someone new and show them exactly what it is you have done to get where you are?

Online music marketing is a wonderful thing. It has literally brought the world into your bedroom, opened up markets that independent artists once only dreamed about, and it has made it possible for indie artists like yourself the ability to actually compete with “major label” marketing dollars. I am sure you have heard the stories of unknown artists rising from nowhere to sell hundreds of thousands of CDs, accept offers to join International tours, and suddenly become a top 40 artist on commercial radio all from online music marketing efforts. But do you know how they actually did it?

I can assure you that it was not by simply going on myspace and adding as many friends to their friend list as possible. That might have been a spark that ignited potential fans to learn more about the artist, but it was not the reason they “made it.” A few indie artists have been successful with creating hilarious videos that went viral on youtube, but again, most might have only received a “true” fan or two from this single effort alone.   

When you are looking in from the outside, music marketing on the internet seems easy, cheap, and fast. Indeed, it can be all these things. But it takes objectivity, planning, and consistency to really reach much further than your immediate family and friends. Almost every artist that has received “overnight success” status I have studied completely understood that “adding friends” here and there was not going to get them very far, very fast. They all started with this method of hit or miss friend getting, but what they where able to do, the hardest thing in the world for most indie artists to grasp, is objectionably look at there daily efforts, decide what was working and what was not, and search out what it was that the really successful artists where doing and try to duplicate it.

Marketing your music online is not as easy as it sounds. The only way to know what is working and what is not is by being able to know what it is you do daily, weekly, and monthly on a consistent basis. You see, it’s a repetitive action. Meaning, it can get boring to say the least. The worst part is if you are doing it the right way, consistently and objectionably, it’s just like having a “real” job. I don’t know about you, but every artist I know doesn’t want a real job. They want to be able to make a living by only doing music. Ahh, there it is. That is the key!

Music is a business. It is a job. You have to do some things you do not like to do. You have to objectionably be able to look at what you are doing and decide if it is just for fun or is it getting you further with your career. Fun things including jumping from one social network to the next seeing how many friends you got over night while you where asleep. “Job” items would including sitting on the same network interacting with fans, looking for similar artists to communicate with, and researching how the successful artists on a particular social network are getting so popular and then trying to duplicate their efforts. Another fun online task is checking your email to see if you got that “Payment Received” email from paypal letting you know that you sold some more merchandise. The “Job” part would be to research and try to find out where that customer came from, how they found your music, what they liked about the music or site that made them purchase, and so forth. These things take time, objectiveness, and consistency. Again, the “not so fun” stuff of online music marketing.

Successful online artists figured out that they had to have a plan and consistently work that plan to become successful. They found out that they had to know what it was they did everyday to know what was working and what was not. Successful artists had to learn to look at their efforts and objectively decide if they were doing it because it was fun or if they were performing a particular task because it was getting them further in their career.

You have to look at your efforts, determine how much actual work time you put into your online music marketing efforts verses “fun” time, and adjust your priorities to better align with what the successful artists are doing daily, weekly, or monthly to create their online buzz. It is really not as hard as it sounds. But it will take effort. Here are some questions to get you thinking and started in the right direction:

1. How much time do you spend on myspace looking for fans and really communicating with them about their interests instead of your music?

2. How much time do you spend on myspace looking for similar artists as yourself and listening to their music, reading their stories, and communicating your likes to them so you can build a network of similar artists within your genre of music?

3. Of those same artists, how many times have you spent the $.99 to download their single from iTunes to show your support and provide them with quality feedback of their music?

4. How much time so you spend on myspace looking up radio DJs and Program Directors to reach out and start friendships with that could eventually lead to a receptive ear when you are ready to release your single?

5. Of those same DJs and Program Directors, how many times have you learned about a live event, remote, or show they were hosting and actually got out to the event to meet them face to face to show your support for what it is they were doing in hopes of building your friendship bond stronger?

6. How much time do you spend listening to internet radio and interacting with the DJs through instant messages and email requesting music of other artists so you can build relationships with online internet radio DJs?

7. When was the last time you read a blog post within your genre of music and actually took the time to respond to the blogger so you could start to build a relationship with that person so when you were ready to release your music you would have a friend available to help spread the word?

8. How many times do you read an online magazine and send your comments to the author about their writing style, information, or resources offered in the article so you can start building friendships with journalists that may cover your music in the future?

A you can see, these questions ask nothing about what you are doing with your music. They are asking what you are doing with others music, lives, and offerings. These questions have been designed to make you understand that online music marketing really has nothing what so ever to do with you or your music. Online music marketing is about building friendships, repeatedly talking to the friends you gain, and objectionably watching to see if your efforts are working.

You need a plan. You need to follow that plan everyday, no matter how boring it gets, and watch for what you get out of working that plan. Everyday ask yourself; “Am I seeing a difference today that I did not see yesterday?” I guarantee that if you do just the items I have listed in my questions everyday for a week you will gain a ton of new friends, real friends, that will aide you in your pursuit to “making it.”

In my next article I will help you actually create an online marketing schedule that will sell you more CDs, gain you more fans, and help you get to the top!

Peace,
Jai
“Love the Music in Yourself, Not Yourself in the Music!”
©2009 Jai Hutcherson. All Rights Reserved.