Music marketing: do one small thing every week, one large thing every month

 

In a way, it might be advice for living the good life, if you extrapolate the following idea and apply it to just about anything you want to do. But this is a blog about being a performing songwriter and all that entails.

So, while I think about various ways I still have to explore the new country (Qatar) I am living in (after having just rejuvenated in an off-road experience with my jeep…see my pics on Facebook), and while the following might actually fall along the lines of Julia Cameron’s tip in The Artist’s Way to have an artist’s date with self (exploring the world around you) every week…which is sure to inspire new songs…here goes nothing on the marketing of music…

Do one small thing every week, one large thing every month. That’s a simple, easy idea and probably the very thing that sets apart businesses (and artists) that succeed from those that fail. It is the (ahem) unusual concept of regularly ‘doing’ or taking action in conjunction with mapping out such actions on a calendar. And I know, for me, when life gets to be a bit too much, this is an approach to business (and art) that I can often breathe into…and do.

This reminder and bit of advice comes from TopSpin which delivered a talk at the Los Angeles New Music Seminar…I summarize: Make a lot of art. Tailor your marketing plan to your art.  Make a 12-month calendar (I say: a 3-year calendar, with years 2 and 3 outlining your projections). Copycat and adapt strategies used by other artists/bands. Muse about your own character, music and art – and get creative with one intention: to connect with your fans and their friends.

It’s essentially the way to grow your fan base and sell them something besides a 99 cent download, a point the author stresses, which I found interesting. Of course, let’s not forget to ‘serve’ them and give them lots of goodies but not pester the hell out of them via emails or blogs.

Need some more practical advice on how to release your album? Here’s the best bit from the TopSpin blog and PowerPoint presentation:

People ask us all the time, “How should I be releasing my album? Should I be releasing 12 singles instead of 1 album? How can I get the fan base to build organically?” There isn’t a single answer to this line of questioning. First and foremost, your marketing plan needs to be an extension of your art, it needs to fit the image and brand of your band. What’s good for Miley Cyrus isn’t going to work the same for Danzig (I hope). But I do believe the above bit of advice, “Do Something Small Weekly and Something Big Monthly”, is universal: to put a simple plan together to make sure you have more fans tomorrow than you have yesterday, get out a calendar and start mapping out the next few months or even the year. Look at the next 4-8 weeks on the calendar and start writing down small things you could do each week to share art with your fan base.Share a work in progress. Make a short video. Write a blog post. Do a QA with fans via Twitter. Look at the next 12 months and start mapping out larger things you can do. Release a single. Release an album. Announce a tour. Premiere a music video. Drop a new line of merch. Release a holiday promotion. Do a collaboration with Lionel Ritchie or an EP tribute to Abe Vigoda. Do not email your fan base every time you do a small thing. Do Tweet, post to Facebook, and blog when you do a small thing. Do all of the above and email your fan base every time you do a large thing.”

Ask yourself: when it comes to music marketing, are you doing something small every week, something large every month? If so, keep a notebook or journal of all the things you did this year. You’ll be glad you did.

Also, it would be great to hear how this approach to marketing/business planning is working for you. If not, then it would be great to hear how things change once you do implement such a program.

And, hey, don’t forget to write some new songs, too!

Best wishes,

Lorelei Loveridge, Founder of PSUW

A working musician’s guide for setting goals in 2011

Dear PSUW,

Ariel of Ariel Publicity has come out with this new article on goal-setting for 2011, and I think it’s so good, I’m passing on to anyone who isn’t on her list:

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http://arielpublicity.com/2011/02/03/a-musicians-guide-to-setting-and-achieving-goals-for-2011/
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Good luck with this.

Here are a few added considerations…

GIVE YOURSELF TIME TO THINK AND REFLECT as you map out your goals. Most people balk at goal setting because it takes time – and it does. I like Ariel’s final comment, which is to go easy on you. It takes some reflection to figure out what might make a difference to your career. Most of us on the musical path in any professional sense are easily overwhelmed by the many pieces of the puzzle. Give yourself a night, a weekend, a week to put into writing your goals and action plans.

GET OTHERS TO HELP YOU. To get some free and friendly ‘objective’ feedback, pull in your bandmates and set your respective and/or coordinated goals together. Or get together with a group of artists and do the same.

I know one artist in Edmonton, AB, Canada who meets with a group of musical friends monthly, and they help one another with their efforts in marketing their music by simply talking about what they’re doing…in a context that is relaxed and fun.

REGULAR REVIEW OF GOALS IS A CRITICAL STEP THAT IS OFTEN FORGOTTEN. Plan to review your progress at the end of February or March…to see how you’re doing. And good luck! Sometimes all it takes is that one thing.

SEEK INSPIRATION. Go see other bands perform. Go be where other musicians are and where the music is. Support the very industry you are a part of…by actively joining an association, if there is one in your area. Get to know people. It is a people business. That’s how I actually landed a TV synchronization deal once…by being in the right place at the right time, familiar to the decision makers. That’s how a lot of stuff happens.

FINALLY, THERE’S SOMETHING NICE ABOUT MAKING YOUR PERSONAL HEALTH A PRIORITY…A LOT OF OTHER THINGS COME INTO FOCUS, TOO…bad habits, good habits, mental laziness, tricks of logic, the quality of your life and what you want that to be. Don’t dupe yourself. Live the way you want to live. And know what that is.

Best wishes,

Lorelei Loveridge, Founder/Rabble Rouser of PSUW

What to do in 2011…

Dear PSUW:

This is it. We’re here. In 2011. What does one do? Push on through with one’s goals, etc., right? Wrong.

I have intuited and read and given considerable to thought to what this year is going to be about. A lot of us in the business of writing about the music business are predicting more chaos in the industry, no fixes or few fixes, continued experimentation with social media…and to that end, I predict continued frustration with that, and some withdrawal in an attempt to organize and protect privacy.

My overall sense at this time is this: it’s good to take stock of what has happened and, sometimes, take a wider view. For me that means: look backwards, to the past. YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE THIS. Watch some of the greatest music movies of all time.

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TIME OUT’S LIST OF THE GREATEST MUSIC FILMS EVER

http://www.timeout.com/film/features/show-feature/3567/50-greatest-music-films-ever.html

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Sit back and relax a bit. Remind yourself that some of what’s happening has always been happening, and ingenuity is still a large part of this business. So is optimism. So is frustration. Bryan Adams did a show here in Doha, Qatar in December at the Intercontinental Hotel (imagine…in other parts of the world, he does arenas…here it’s to the expat community in the hotel’s backyard). Everyone’s adapting. Bryan’s interview in the local TimeOut magazine, I believe, had him reveal that this is a business that’s always been full of thieves and ripoffs. So, what else is new? We’re hurt because our fans are doing it? Hmmm. I’m a bit more ponderous about that this year.

Maybe it’s time to do the counter-intuitive. Sit back. Relax. Observe for awhile. And, if your living depends upon your action plans, then carry on. But inside…sit back and relax. Plug in some movies and get through this winter of our discontent by trying to feel good again, if you don’t feel good, and by inspiring yourself towards some newness.

I know that’s what I’m doing. Lining up gigs in Qatar, the UK and Canada. But also taking the long view of this. And learning piano, a new thing.

Best wishes,
Lorelei Loveridge, Founder and Rabble Rouser (PSUW)