Get Big In Music Online

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} If there’s anything as ubiquitous as technology right now,it’s music. You’d think from the way music and tech are radically changing eachother these days, that the two had never previously met. But the truth is thatoccasionally throughout their centuries of development, the two have crossedpaths before with inevitably seismic results (the invention of the electricguitar, the synthesiser etc) but never has the impact of these two giants collidingtogether been as great as that of the last 10 years.   With the proliferation of music download sites (both legaland illegal), the accessibility of file formats such as MP3 and their companionhardware devices (technologies which everyone seems to have), music seems to behave become not so much a commodity we pay for as a resource like the air webreathe -   all around and something wecan’t do without.   It comes as no surprise then that the latest generation ofmusic makers have been keen to take advantage of this new techno-culturallandscape. I’m guessing that you could be one of these people and with thisarticle, I’d like to offer some of my knowledge in marketing and technology tohelp you do just that – take advantage of the opportunities represented bytechnology to push your musical work into the wider arena.   I must confess I’m certainly not one of the ‘cool kids’.Being 43, I think the time has passed for me to try out for membership in the latestbig band or to launch myself as the next record breaking global solo act. Ilove music but technology is a bigger passion for me these days. It’s theinterface between the two which captures my imagination and my experience intech (web and software development) puts me in a position to pass on a fewsuggestions.   So let’s get started. In this article, I’ll be making anumber of assumptions.   A) That you’re either in a band or you are a solo artist /songwriter b) you are young and therefore adept at using current computer andcommunications technology c) that some of the ideas I’ll describe to you willnot be entirely new to you but others will be concepts you’d never thought of.   With regard to all the ideas presented in this article, it’sessential that with each method, you include your email address, your websiteaddress (if you have one) or social networking site address. The whole idea behindthis article will be to get your identity and location in front of as manypeople as possible. You want to sell your music to the world so the world needsto know about you.   The first idea we’ll look at is based on web 2.0. I won’tdwell on this too long because everything that could be said about web 2.0 has beensaid before and chances are you’re probably already using as many of thetechniques for social networking as are available. For the sake of beingthorough however, social networking is worth mentioning albeit briefly.     The obvious ways of getting yourself known these days inmusic (or in any other field) would be to set up a descriptive account at sitessuch as MySpace, Facebook or Twitter. Other techniques could include writingsomething about yourself or your band (an article or profile) and placing it onone of the social book marking sites such as del.icio.us, Reddit, Digg andStumbleUpon.   If you had a bit of money to spend, you might even considerbuying some Google Ad Words (an expensive but effective means of gaining highrankings in web searches).   Other methods of self promotion might be:   Getting your current supporters, friends and fans (those you’ve met at your favourite social networking site perhaps) to contribute to online forums about topics related to you, your band or your music Getting each of your supporters to start their own blogs about your music Getting your current supporters to ‘spontaneously’ start conversations with people they meet at parties, colleges, clubs or work places about their blogs –which are about you (and of course offering to continue any discussion at the blog itself –complete with the web page address – incorporating the name and URL of your website). Getting your supporters to respond to other people’s blogs on related topics (while mentioning you) Getting one of your band members or supporters to create electronic promotions or “lenses” at Squidoo.com (go to the website for more details).   Another less conventional but intriguing idea may be to getfans and friends to write reviews of audio products at comparison websites andwith that, tie in the relevance of your music (perhaps along the lines of yoursound being the best way to test out the equipment). You could also supplyinformation about yourself to Wikipedia. As you know, this tool contains infoon just about everything – so why not you?   Next unusual idea: Get one of your band members or friendsto write an e-book. I’ve never seen a band or artist do this but it’s an idea thatdeserves to be tried out. You could publish the product as a free download fromshareware sites or at sites such as eBay. Within the book you could place linksto files containing songs or song extracts and the document could be a profileof everything you’ve done up to publication. Most e-books are in PDF format andthere are plenty of resources online to convert Microsoft Word documents to PDFand vice versa.   Another interesting idea might be to start a viral emailcampaign. One simple way to do this might be to start off by writing an articleabout yourself and then sending it to a number of people, inviting them toamend it or add to it in some way. Depending on what sort of publicity youwanted, you might want to manage the campaign in some way to ensure the facts ofthe article remained intact (or you might not mind a bit of “fiction” if itmade you look good and got people interested in your music).     As the article / story developed, it would be passed aroundin an ever increasing circle of people, each of them changing it before passingit on. You could perhaps provide an incentive to authors to contribute to it withsome kind of prize for the most interesting version. A more powerful method ofthis type of promotion might be to create a viral mobile phone text campaign.   There are lots of ways to exploit viral marketing techniquesand the above is only one of them.   Another way you could literally get yourself in front ofpeople unobtrusively might be to create a customised screensaver featuringimages of your band (and of course all your online / electronic addresses). Thescreensaver could then be given away as a free download or distributed at gigson CD. Users would gain interest from potential new fans by installing thescreensaver on their PC at work. Another place to get them displayed could beat local internet cafes. Maybe a deal involving reciprocal advertising might bean incentive. Similarly, you could print customised mouse mats and give thoseaway too.   Creating screensavers isn’t difficult. It’s something thatcan be done using a screensaver compiler program. One such product isScreensaver Factory. For more information, go to www.blumentals.net     One idea you may have thought of already is creating a freepromotional mobile phone ringtone featuring one of your songs. This is anotherway of generating awareness about your music. Similarly, you could create phonewallpaper images which users could swap with each other via texting.   How about some kind of phone app? These things aren’t overlydifficult to make and given the popularity of mobile phone softwareapplications, there’s a possibility of using this medium as a promotional toolas well.   Related to this is another intriguing idea: what about a 2Dweb based computer game featuring your band / yourself or your music? You couldeither get a computer geek friend or relative to make one or you could learnhow to make games yourself. This isn’t difficult – there is a plethora of bookson the subject of making small games in Java, JavaScript or Flash. Many ofthese small applications can run on mobile devices.   One popular method of promotion is to upload a video toYouTube. If you’ve done this already, I hope you did it professionally. If youhaven’t done it yet, please, please don’t just shoot something on your mobilephone and submit it.   Video has been a powerful tool in promoting music for over20 years but the critical factor is quality. I’ve seen so many ropey pieces ofwork put together by so called video directors that I’m disappointed at howeach amateurish attempt is a lost opportunity.   If you do this, be professional about it. Use the bestequipment you can afford and the best post production software. If you can’tafford to buy it, download a trial version. Videos which are professionallymade stand out by miles from the rubbish some people throw together. Theslicker the material, the more it actually achieves the whole objective of promotinga featured band or artist in the first place.   Continuing with new media and audio, have you made apromotional podcast yet? If not, it’s something to consider. Again, the productcould be made free to download from shareware sites or similar repositories orbroadcast from an internet radio station (you could even set one up of your ownand if there’s enough demand for it, maybe I’ll write a tutorial on how to do it– my email address is at ebizdynamix.com).   Well I hope one or two of the ideas listed above appeal toyou in some way or that at the very least, they gave you food for thought. Ifyou already have a blog or an account at a social networking site, read myarticle on some interesting ways of maintaining and perhaps improving youronline writing here:   http://www.ebizdynamix.com/MaintainYourBlog.html   I wish you all the best of luck in the future and hope your careerblossoms. I also hope you found some of the above information useful. Take carenow.

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