I just received my 3rd report from Tunecore and I have to say, I suck. I've got a disc, I played everything, I recorded everything, I pressed 500 CD's and that was the end of it. I sent out a batch of initial discs to about 30 publications, friends, websites, and have had minimal press. The only thing I've done nothing about is marketing, and it shows. I'm taking orders here for a few ideas to get noticed.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Long Live Marketing
I just received my 3rd report from Tunecore and I have to say, I suck. I've got a disc, I played everything, I recorded everything, I pressed 500 CD's and that was the end of it. I sent out a batch of initial discs to about 30 publications, friends, websites, and have had minimal press. The only thing I've done nothing about is marketing, and it shows. I'm taking orders here for a few ideas to get noticed.
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5 comments:
Tattoo your album name on your butt and walk around downtown Chicago in nothing but chaps.
L.
Some things off the top of my head, since you asked:
1) Play out. Play out again. Etc.
2) Send out more discs to more people.
3) Get connected to other singer-songwriters via MySpace. Listen to their music. Leave them comments. Invite them to listen to your music. Etc.
4) Take some of the few hundred discs you have sitting around and hand them out to friends, people you meet on the airplane, people you meet on MySpace, etc.
5) Make a list of every person you know in the music business in any form (Isaac, Brandon, Blair, Barri Klutznick, Goldie, Anastasia, Peter's brother, Paul Reg, etc.) and make sure you've sent them a disc and a personal note. Ask them if they know anyone else who might like your music. Follow up.
6) Interact with other people in the iTunes store. Make a playlist (iMix) with songs you love by other artists, plus a few of your own songs.
7) Next time invite other musicians to play on your disc, especially folks who already have a following of some kind, thereby gaining some access their audience(s).
8) Send a disc/personal note to musicians you've met (Josh Rouse, etc.), asking them to take a listen and thanking them for being an inspiration, or whatever.
9) Go to singer-songwriter nights around Chicago. Meet other people in the community. Give them a disc. Take their disc, listen to it, and send them a card/e-mail with your thoughts.
I remember you told me you just wanted to finish a disc, all the way through, and you didn't care if anyone heard it/bought it. You've accomplished that. Now, maybe you have a new goal, to get it heard, to get noticed. If that's your new goal, be honest about it. Write it down. Say it out loud. And apply the same energy and talent to that goal that you used to make your disc. I think it's a good disc, and I think it's worth making an effort behind, fwiw.
I think Scott's last paragraph sums the whole thing up. Show your enthusiasm for your work, 'cause if you don't, no one else will. And, next time, use that adorable picture of Otto smiling on the CD cover, that will surely capture some attention! You've got some good songs on it!!
Mom - you're so rock n' roll.
I think your brother is right about what you need to do. I am in the same pit with my book. I need to make a goal of marketing it and getting it out to people. Whoever they are.
By the way, I'm back from Las Vegas. I'll see you at work tomorrow, I hope, I hope! :)
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