5 Tips from Music Marketing Experts foran Indie Release

5 Tips from Music Marketing Experts for an Indie Release

As some of you know, we recently mastered our second Solveig& Stevie CD, Fire and Other Playthings. Before we release it, of course, I am writing up my promotional plan. In the midst of my best practices research process, it occurred to me, wait…

What about consulting the collective brainpower surrounding me in the virtual online cocktail party that is the Internet of All Things, those brilliant music industry people (some of whom I am now honored to call Friend and many of whom I have met In Real Life over the past several years)?

Then came another Lightbulb Moment: I should compile these tips into a blog post to share with you, my faithful readers!

All of these folks are people I have interacted with on social media or in person in some way or another, so they are real people with real experience in music marketing. Many have written entire books (or at least ebooks) on the subject, which I have downloaded or purchased and read.

The links below are not affiliate links, they’ll just take you to the author’s website or blog. All I ask is that if you do visit my friends, please let them know I sent you.

Don’t forget to read all the way to the end – there are some real gems here. Some are a bit more, ahem, detailed than others. Some are practical lists, and some more philosophical. I didn’t want you to miss anything, so I edited just a bit for obvious redundancies. There are some recurring themes.

So with no further ado, in no particular order, except as they came in to me, here they are:

1.  Put more time into building the fan base.

The only thing I’d make sure to have in place is a buzz before the release. You work on the buzz months before the release, release a few teaser vids and coordinate with huge bloggers. I’d put more time into building the fan base and release the project on my site (short run) then out to CD Baby/iTunes etc.  I guess it’s all depends on the end goal. My main concern is covering the cost and profiting. Which is why I would release it on my own site first.

2.   Bandcamp can embed to your website with player.

Check out Bandcamp. Beautiful interface, “name your price,” they only take 15%. Someone paid $200 for my album. Bandcamp can embed to your website with player.

3.  Create a Facebook Event for the CD release.

Two bits of wisdom… first might seem so obvious, but I still encounter it all too often.

• Be sure you submit all your release meta data to Grace Note. This can be done within iTunes, select Submit CD Track Names. Once this is done be sure to insert one of your CDs into iTunes import the tracks and verify that all the data looks correct. You don’t want your CD to come back in iTunes as Untitled by Unknown Artist.
• A fun tip for creating an event around your release is to create a Facebook Event for the CD release. This will give you a single point of focus to share. Think of it as a old school release party, but everyone can attend since it happens online. Be sure to post updates, photos and videos in the Event leading up to the release. Once the CD is available remember to go back to the Event and the various buy links of might have available.

4.  Identify a potential problem and explain how your music is the solution.

Most consumers don’t buy products – they buy solutions. More so, they buy solutions from trusted sources. Drop the hard sales pitch and redundant self-promotion. Identify a potential problem and explain how your music is the solution. Summed up, “Solutions not Sales” & “Interactions not Transactions.”

Instead of this:  “We’ve done this, we’ve done that, our music kicks so much ass you would be stupid not to buy the CD for only $4.95,” your solutions pitch could focus on the therapeutic benefits of your music, quoting studies that have shown music increases a positive state of mind. From there you can point out how much more productive and/or happy they might be if they were in that positive state of mind. Or, what about educational benefits? Do the lyrics in your Norwegian Black Metal song raise awareness of lost Pagan cultures? If so, explain how many of those pagan beliefs are mainstays of our modern way of life. The names of the days of the week come to mind, as well as do many holidays.

5.  First: create your masterpiece and nothing less.

You can market until you are blue in the face – hire the best PR or radio promotion company in the world but unless you have what people want you have nothing. First: create your masterpiece and nothing less. Make it the music you want to hear. News of great music travels fast. Second: Make your brand match your record’s message visually. It should be uniquely distinct, conceptual, clearly identify what the music sounds like and exceptionally visually appealing. Your brand is your music at “first glance.”