Ariel Publicity

Playing covers, Playing Sessions & Playing Live

Rick Goetz, is a kindred spirit who has just launched a brand new consulting firm for artists called http://musiciancoaching.com Rick, like me, has spent his entire adult life in the music business and he is DEAD ON when he says: It is essential that you spend your time building your own business rather than asking for help from corporations based on your talent alone.

But how do you build your own business and what specifically works? I got Rick to share a few of his best peals of wisdom I asked him to tell me three things that actually can help an artist begin to build revenue: Playing covers, being a hired gun and working harder on your live show and live show promotion.

Selling $.99 singles isn’t the answer. In fact, I would go so far as to say that in today’s marketplace your single is little more than a business card and your album is just a resume. Both are extraordinarily important but both are just a loss leader for your business. Recorded music is now simply a means of promoting your live show and your songwriting and producing skills. For my $.02 the biggest challenge of being in the music business is staying in the music business without starving.

We can all point to an artist who made it big on a single and blew up over night but what about the majority of musicians out there who have been making a living? From what I have seen and experienced the challenge for the working musician just starting out is finding ways of sustaining himself while building his fan base. Complicating matters even more is that usually means finding a gig that has the flexibility that musicians require, the paycheck that covers their basic needs and if at all possible provides something that will help move their dream career forward at the same time. It’s hard as hell…but this is what I’ve seen work.

1. Covers

It’s easier to fill a room playing songs that people already know. I realize many of you are likely wincing at the notion but remember The Beatles started off as a cover band. Do I really have to drop any other names? It’s a great way to keep your chops up and it really does help to gel a band. Further, it gives the members some more time in with each other with more likelihood of playing successful shows earlier in their career. It also levels the playing field when it comes to the writing process in a group dynamic, which can be challenging at times. If you feel like you are selling out, then sell out only until your own work hits its stride. If you want to make a living selling your own songs to people remember this is just a means to make enough money to put towards that dream while improving your showmanship and range of flexibility on your instrument. Once, when playing a wedding gig, I felt pretty dirty when the cry went up for the Macarena and I delivered as requested but the cash I was paid to play weddings kept my band’s rehearsal space paid for that month.

2. Hired Gun

You want to be as great at your instrument as possible so don’t treat your main band like you would your significant other, cheat like a motherf***ker. Play with anyone and everyone who will have you (provided you are able to carve out enough time to give your main project the time and respect it deserves). You want to play music for a living the trick is to start playing as much as possible with as many people as possible. Be it live or studio just get out there and play. Do it for free at first (if you have to) but get that experience and get as many people to see and hear you play. Every performance and every recording is another trail of breadcrumbs that leads people back to you. Write songs with anyone and everyone you know whose writing you respect. Songwriting is a skill that can be developed just like learning guitar. If you are a vocalist consider voiceovers and do background vocals on as many albums as possible even if it means swallowing your pride and playing second fiddle to someone with less talent than you. I will warn anyone considering this route to be wary, as session cats can become very jaded and cold which ultimately does effect your playing. I don’t know how to advise you against this except to always have a goal for yourself beyond the next paid gig. Being a hired gun is a means to get your music where you want it on as close to your terms as you are able to in the present.

3. Live Shows

Hopefully you have enough people coming down to see you live and if this is not the case and you are not getting repeat customers at your gigs you should re-evaluate your show. Look at everything from stage show to songwriting to delivery and ask a cynical friend who has seen you what needs improving. The cynical need no prompting to offer up the awful truth. Be as communicative as you possibly can be with the venue owners where you play even if it is on amateur night. The simple act of introducing yourself and asking how you can help promote your own show with put you in better favor with whoever books the room. Make sure you have some means of collecting email addresses from those who show up and make sure your name is visible on stage (get a banner and hang it up behind you) and you can’t make a banner make sure to say your band name at least a few times during the set.

If you like what Rick has to say I highly suggest that you spend some time on the phone with him…. You will be one step closer to reaching your dreams with a great new team member to help you along.

http://musiciancoaching.com

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Corey Denis is a woman I admire deeply. She and I have an interesting history. She worked at What Are Records? the label I started out at. But she arrived after I had already left, so we never actually had the pleasure of working together during the time. Corey is nothing short of a genius at marketing bands and artists.

She is brilliant because she thinks about both sides of the fence from the both the artists and the fans perspective.

I’m thrilled that she was willing to be interviewed for this piece. Enjoy her responses.

1. Why is it important that artists participate in social media?

At the very least, learning how to participate in social media will give artists a chance to take advantage of new online tools, which may actually enhance their current projects. Singles, videos and tourdates can be released via new outlets, fans (new and old) will have a new method of communication with artists, and artists will have a new set of tools by which to market their craft. In the face of both an unstable music economy and the evolution of the new music economy

2. Name 10 sites you think all artists should have a presence on?

- myspace
- twitter
- facebook
- youtube
- flickr
- ning (network)
- imeem
- blogger (so you can comment on other blogs)
- vimeo
- qik

3. Do you think it’s important for artists to be on as many sites as possible all over the Internet, or should they be selective and only sign up to the ones that they are actively using?

It can’t hurt to have a profile on as many sites as possible, but if you don’t sign in or know how to use the networks, or understand how to integrate all the sites together, then the profile will not automatically generate any exposure for you other than the top tier of popular artists who sell millions of records per month. An artist could viably create 50 profiles and optimize search-ability online, but it’s crucial to consider what a person will find once they get to the profile. I advise artists to start with 3 networks and to use & manage them correctly and actively, or hire someone who can do it – then increase to 5, 10 and so on.

4. What would your recommendations be for the busy artist that only has 30 minutes a week to dedicate to social media?

Set aside a small budget to hire someone to help, and treat them like an additional band member. If you only have 30 minutes to spare then the concept of “your time is money” should make sense to you – and if you want to sell music online and are not Britney Spears, it’s worth your time & money to bring on this additional band member to increase your visibility, discoverability and sales online.

5. How can an artist save time by using widgets, and which ones would you recommend?

Widgets are time savers if you know how to create and use them. They enable fans to spread information more easily. The only task at hand is to copy-paste-embed on a website or as a blogpost. Think of a widget as a mini web page that can be embedded on a larger web page, or somewhere in a social network. I am a fan of the Sprout widget but since most social networks and services offer widgets i recommend simply finding one that you like best and then putting it up on your website, myspace page and facebook page. Then email your fans with the embed code and invite them to spread the word.

6. What’s the best way for an artist to get blogged about?

There are no guarantees. However, I advise indie publicists and artists who are brave enough to do their own publicity to develop a relationship with bloggers by reading their blogs, learning more about their taste and then you can write to them individually to let them know why you think they might be interested in your music. In addition, start your own blog, build a blogroll, and link to your favorite blogs.

7. Do you think artists should focus on getting played on Internet radio? Or has the scare with the RIAA stopped most Internet radio programmers in their tracks?

Internet radio is very important if you want to be heard online. Terrestrial and online radio stations have to pay for the right to use your copyrighted art on their stations. The focus of the RIAA is not to stop the existence of Internet radio, but to hold “interactive” internet radio as well as large venture funded internet radio stations accountable for higher rates. In other words, the RIAA and Sound Exchange are claiming to fight for the rights of artists and get artists paid for large amounts of airplay.

Unfortunately there are largernternet radio channels with over 20 million listeners who are actually squeezing out the smaller webcasters by claiming that they (the large stations) are also small. There are two (or more) sides to this now-famous issue and their arguments (and lawsuits) are not ending anytime soon. I highly recommend to all artists that they push for airplay online the same way you might have pushed for airplay on terrestrial radio 10 years ago. I support webcasters and strongly advise all artists to treat webcasters like they are KROQ. Know which stations are playing what genres, know the DJs, and send them music appropriately. get airplay! Then promote those stations on your website and fanlists/ emails. Support their cause to stay alive and share the love. (note: in the music industry radio play and promotion is commonly referred to as “love”)

8. When consulting with a band or an artist, what do you do for them that helps them sell more music online? How do you quantify your results? How can they?

When i consult with bands, labels and artists, I strategize digital presence. Simply creating a facebook or myspace page or a twitter account does not sell music. But learning to use these tools can greatly increase exposure and eventually sell music. In addition there are creative ways to utilize each network to target fans and potential fans. Usually none of this can be quantified financially until at least 3 months after the onset of a campaign. However, there are many numbers revealing exposure such as how many followers, fans or streams an artist accrues over a three-month period. With full engagement, I have yet to see an artist flounder when they know how to utilize the tools.

I teach artists and labels how to use these tools and help them devise creative ways to increase exposure with various tricks inside the tools. Whether it’s using a hash tag or starting a funny group on facebook, these strategies increase visibility and therefore the discoverability of your music online increases. There are ways to flood google so that you are always at the top of your own search results without ever buying an adword. I call this Music Discovery Optimization. Increasing visibility and discoverability of quality music will only increase an artist’s chance at selling music new and old.

9. Can you name five bands who are doing it right online?

Lil’ Wayne, Dr. Steel, Ben Kweller, Birdmonster,

10. Finally, if I was an artist and I had $500 of promotional money to spend, what would you advise me to do?

See #4 – if you have $500 and don’t know what to do with it, hire someone who has command of the new music climate online and can execute quickly to increase your visibility online and teach you how to twitter. If that’s not an option or you just don’t want to bring anyone into the fold, spend it on an email newsletter service if you aren’ t already emailing your fans with news.

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Most Internet marketers make money online, most musician marketers don’t.

The Backstory – The Big Seminar

My journey into the world of Internet marketing, began when I attended an Internet marketing conference and saw one of the keynote speakers. Armand is a bubbly and enthusiastic man who makes a fortune in the world of internet marketing, and he not only markets things that help him make money, he teaches people how to do it themselves.

Armand is also a musician and his alter ego is Micheal Lee Austin. When I saw him speak, he walked us through how he took took himself to the top of the Billboard charts using his own online marketing strategy. He sold thousands of CD’s using his own techniques. I was so intrigued I wanted to learn how he did it, so I signed up to study with him via a series of online courses and they came with a ticket to his “Big seminar” in Atlanta.

The big seminar completely shifted my reality. I went to Atlanta not knowing what to expect, I came home with my world rocked. At lunch on the first day, I struck sat next to an unassuming man, and we struck up a non-memorable conversation. Two guys approached him and began slapping him on the back and congratulated him on breaking the $1M mark so far that year, (and there were still many months left in that year.) I was amazed. How was this marketer making millions while most of my clients were making what seemed like less every year?

The answer is effectively applying marketing strategies. In this new age of blasting messages out on Myspace and Facebook, we have completely taken our energy away from traditional marketing.

Our focus has been diluted with a new online service that seem to crop up everyday to help musicians with everything from cross-posting show dates, to tuning your guitar with your cell phone. Many of these developments, are wonderful, but all of them take time and energy to learn and implement, and they take us away from focusing on traditional Internet marketing.

Selling Music is Not Like Selling A Diet Product

The act of selling music is not at all like selling goods or services which is where Internet Marketers have a leg up on musicians. You are ostensibly selling a feeling. People connect to music in a very different way than they connect to any old product, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t take the same basic principles and apply them. Here are the ones that I highly suggest.

What’s In The Internet Marketers Arsenal

1. EMAIL LIST MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:

Internet Marketer’s Strategy: Build a mailing list and communicate regularly adding value.

Goal: Get your list to interact with you and trust you, track how effective you are being by looking at open rates.

Product: e-mail list manager. You need an email list manager that measures results. There are many available I suggest Reverb Nation’s free system or BandLetter.

www.ReverbNation.com
www.BandLetter.com

2. AN EFFECTIVE WEBSITE W. A SQUEEZE PAGE

Internet Marketer’s Strategy: A website that captures leads by making an offer that people want – a free ebook, MP3, a special report, a video, etc.

Wth this system, a potential fan will sign up to your mailing list because he sees value in the offer (it is called a squeeze page because the email address is “squeezed” out of the fan).

I know what you are thinking! It is very easy to unsubscribe once signed up and so it’s not a ploy at all. You are providing a quality offer and you are askig for their email address in exchange for it.

Goal: Get as many people onto your list as possible.

Product: A website that has a backend that stores email addresses and instantly delivers visitors the requested offer (An MP3 is what I would suggest to all musicians).

I suggest talking to your webs designer to implement this. aweber and 1 Shopping Cart are two systems that can be integrated into your site to deliver these results.

www.aweber.com
www.1ShoppigCart.com

Internet Marketer’s Strategy: A system and plan that offers multiple products potential fans in many price categories

Internet Marketers know that these are the three main ways to increase income.

1. Increase your customer (fan) base.
2. Increase the average transaction amount that you get from each customer (fan.)
3. Increase the amount of times and frequency by which they purchase from you.

Goal: Earn more money! The thinking here is: it takes ten times more effort to make a totally new fan than it does to keep offering fans that already love you multiple items over time.

Product: There are plenty of mind mapping products and fancy software programs for planning out your strategy but good old pen and paper and a few brain storming sessions should get you off o the right path.

Final Goal: long-term success.

Strategy: An overall marketing plan laid out with goals, vision, and measurable results.

Product: A line of offerings to sell to your fans: not only CDs and MP3s but also private gigs, merch and special events.

I would love to hear some of your strategies and what products and ideas are working for you.

If you are thinking like an Internet marketer I want to know about it!

Please post what you do that gets you results!

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Are you too lazy to blog? Are you sick of everyone telling you that without an updated blog you are not a band? Does blogging feel like a huge, annoying, and daunting task that is evocative of being a kid again being assigned homework?

Well, fear not. I’ve got a great and easy blogging solution!

http://www.flickr.com

They say a picture says a thousand words, and it’s true.

This issue of Sound Advice will walk you through yet another handy dandy Web 2.0 site that is on my top 10 list of sites to join. I am In Love with Flickr! It’s one of the most user-friendly Web 2.0 sites and it’s owned by Yahoo so millions of potential new fans are waiting for you to discover them and make friends. Flickr works in many ways just like MySpace or Facebook. You create a profile, upload your main image, join groups, and make friends, and you can also direct message people and leave comments on any photo you like.

Photos Tell A Complete Story of YOU!

Flickr is a great way to show yourself as multi-dimensional. You can post photos of things other than your band activities (such as vacations, kids, your home, and hobbies) to show your fans you are a well-rounded individual. And if you go to conferences, this is a great way to get people to link back to you and pay attention to you (remember – the most interesting thing for people is THEMSELVES).

Create A VIP Photo-Sharing Experience For Your Fans Your photos can be marked private so only approved fans and friends can see certain photos. Flickr lets you choose which sets to share. I suggest creating a VIP area of fun / special photos that only your registered fans / friends / street team can have access to as an added bonus to link to you.

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http://www.15secondpitch.com

Branding yourself both online and offline will really set up this coming year to be a break through one for your musical career.

To do this you must start with the most fundamental aspect of you as an artist: Your Pitch!

Two things happened recently to inspire this article.

Scenario #1: I was out at the Mercury Lounge seeing music and between bands I was standing at the bar talking to some friends and someone handed me a show flyer. I was taken with him immediately, I always appreciate anyone who is self –promoting because its not easy to do and it’s especially not easy to do at a crowded bar on a Wednesday night in downtown Manhattan. So, I looked down at the flyer and my heart sank. It said the following:

Name of artist (name is not mentioned to protect the innocent)
Venue (which was the Mercury, where I was)
Date & showtime

There I was, a perfectly primed potential fan, a customer, standing at a bar, out at a live music show, and he lost me forever. Why?

Because not one sentence was included about what genre of music this artist played much less what his music sounded like, who he was compared to (sound alike). In other words what I could expect by coming out to his show. In short I had no idea what this artist sounded like.

That was an opportunity totally LOST. Unbeknown to him he also handed his flyer to one of the most successful entertainment attorneys I know who was in the middle of signing 6 artists to record deals, an A&R executive and one of the best booking agents in the business.

We all looked down at the flyers in our hands, shrugged and carried on with the conversation we were having. He had totally BLOWN it.

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I just completed the 5-day World’s Greatest Marketing Seminar in California and it was an amazing amount of information condensed into 5 jam-packed days of fantastic information. While I was on my way back to New York I had an hour long conversation with Derek Sivers about marketing for Independent Musicians…

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