Ariel Publicity

30: Create Amazing Music – Recorded and Live

Creating amazing songs/music and putting on a killer live show. That is the number one thing an artist needs to do.
- Emily White

31: Record and Release (LOTS OF) Music

No excuse exists with today’s technology to wait for a label, manager, sugar daddy, etc. Write Write Write! Record Record Record! Release Release Release! Plan to release 20-30 songs PER YEAR for the first 3-5 years without any lulls. If you cannot write enough material, find co-writers (Plenty of musicians will not do #1 or #2, but still have great creativity to share with the world). Buy the basic recording gear and learn how to use it (take classes or just experiment!!). Use CD Baby, Tunecore, etc. to release your songs digitally. DO NOT even consider physical retail to start. If you manufacture your CDs, keep them simple. Stick with inexpensive packaging (great artwork is a plus). Use the money you save to buy some more gear or do some marketing. Way too many artists tell me that they spent all their money just getting an album recorded and manufactured. Spend no more than 30-40% of your available cash making / manufacturing music. If you cannot afford to manufacture, then wait. It is far more important that you record, release and play shows
- Rob Gordon

32: Experiment In Public

Speaking of being on my toes, I try to push my comfort level in plain sight. Sometimes I’ll produce a song in a style I’ve never really attempted before and release it to my subscribers at http://matthewebel.net -sometimes it flies, sometimes it doesn’t. My first attempt at Trance, a song called “Night Train”, has become one of the most requested songs I play at live shows now. It’s the first one people have openly talked about pirating. For something I originally downplayed as “just an experiment”, it’s now one of my biggest hits. I experiment onstage as well, trying new arrangements or even lyrics. My fans love knowing that they’re part of something spontaneous, that they’ve got a hand in shaping the very future of my music. Happy fans are vocal fans.
- Matthew Ebel

33: Don’t Be Afraid of Cover Songs And Legally Record Them

Tap into the popularity of better-known artists. Are you known for an awesome rendition of a popular song in your live shows? Great. Record a video of you doing it and post it on YouTube. Better yet, buy a license to record your own version and sell it on iTunes. Then use the video to send people to iTunes to buy the download.
- Bob Baker

Singer/songwriter Steve Acho realized that fans who love a particular song will often collect other versions of the favorites. After getting the proper publishing licenses, he would record new arrangements of songs popular by various artists, and release them on iTunes via TuneCore. When a song-collecting fan enjoyed one of his tunes, they would often also buy his originals.
- Carla Lynne Hall

34: Record Purposeful Specific Music: Appeal to Niches

Record an album to be used by a particular type of person for a very specific purpose. Like Steven Halpern’s “Music for Healing” or Richard Lawrence’s “Music for Concentration” of Bradley Joseph’s “Music Cats Love While You Are Gone.”
- Bob Baker

35: Create Solidly Crafted, Well-Produced, Mastered Broadcast-Quality Songs

Well-produced music will attract more listeners and media makers. People want to be associated with quality. So even if you are ridiculously talented, if you didn’t spend the time or money have your album properly produced, mixed and mastered it will be stopped at the door. You have to be willing to go into debt or come up with a creative way to raise funds to have your music fine-tuned in post production. It’s a step that should not be overlooked.
- Derek Nicoletto

36: Make Instrumental Mixes

Make mixes of your album without the lead and background vocals and throw your instrumental tracks into the licensing ring. It doubles your available catalog and opens up opps for shows that do not use vocal music. If your w/vocal mixes are already copy written (if they’re not, seriously, I will beat you senseless when I see you on the street), you don’t need to register these instrumental mixes separately because the music on them has already been registered. An instrumental placement won’t get your voice out there in TV land, but it could pay for your next EP.
- Phil Putnam

37: Think About Fan Financed Recordings / Projects

As the fan base grows, so does their desire to see an artist succeed. Last year, Shane wanted to record and went out to the fans for support. See www.teamtrance.com. This effort raised just over $34,000 in just 60 days.
- Michele Samuel

Telling on Trixie also leveraged Social Media and their fan base to raise $50,000 and record an entire album that was 100% fan funded www.tellingontrixie.com/news
- Ariel Hyatt

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September 27, 2008

Billboard Staff

It wasn’t so long ago that a comprehensive promo plan meant working a record to radio and maybe buying ads in the local alternative paper when a band went on tour. This may sound quaint, or maybe, if your job depends on successfully promoting a band, it sounds blissfully simple.

Today the ways artists can promote their music have proliferated so rapidly that it can be hard to keep up with what’s new — what’s actually cutting through the clutter. It’s in this context that Billboard decided to geek out with 20 promotions and publicity experts across genres and mediums to create the ultimate multimedia metric: Our first Maximum Exposure list.

Ever wonder about eh relative value of a cover of Rolling Stone, a gig on “Oprah” or a song on “Gossip Girl”? Read on.

1: SYNCH PLACEMENT IN A TV AD FOR APPLE

Promo spots provide coveted showcase for music

Patrick Wimberly can’t stop giggling.

The reason for his uncontrollable mirth? The drummer for Brooklyn-based indie rock act Chairlift can’t quite process what he saw on a TV screen the day before. It was a 30-second commercial advertising Apple’s newly launched fourth-generation iPod Nano-with the Chairlift song “Bruises” playing in the background.

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This is the final segment of a 3 part series that was inspired by a mastermind program I am participating in with Ali Brown who is my mentor in the world of online marketing.

Here’s the recap:
There are three ways to increase your income:

1. Increase your number of clients (fans).

2. Increase the frequency of purchase, how often your fans buy from you. (and you’d better have more than just music to sell).

3. Increase the amount of money that you charge.

Increasing the amount of money you charge poses a problem if all you have to sell is music because music is now widely available for free, and people have proven that they are not willing to pay a premium for music.

However, fans will pay plenty of money for experiences, like a great concert or a chance to be a contribution to an artist, a special memento, or wonderful merchandise that really resonates with your fans.

I found two artists that exemplified this strategy – Jeff Krantz who created a BIG payday in one fell swoop and Phil Putnam who has been slowly increasing his bottom line over time.

Jeff Krantz & The $10,000 Song
http://jeffkrantzmusic.com

Just last night I was hanging out with past Cyber PR client who had a fabulous tale to tell. Jeff launched his singer-songwriter career in Second Life where he has managed to build a wonderful fan base.

Through networking online, he met a man who fell in love with his songwriting and became a fan. This man called up my artist and told him that he was having a big anniversary coming up and he wanted a special song written just for his wife. He asked if he would be up for writing and recording a custom song for her.

Realizing that this was a huge opportunity told his fan that he would present him with some options he began to THINK BIG. So he created 3 packages that this man could choose from with three separate prices (depending on how much he wanted to spend / how involved it would be silver, gold and platinum)

Here’s what Jeff wrote about how it worked:

As part of the Gold package that the client chose, I agreed to write  3 different songs (first verse and chorus) for the client to chose from. Once the client selected the song, Ispent 1 week writing 2 full lyrical options for the client to chose from. Once they had decided on the song, Jeff went into his studio and recorded the song, bringing in musicians to fill out the arrangement. He then sent it to a top studio to be mixed and mastered and 2 weeks later he sent the client the finished song (with the masters). “It took about 60 hours in total but it was so much fun and I made almost 10 grand for the effort!”

The point is because he leveraged just ONE relationship with just one fan he managed to make over $10,000 on ONE song.

Had he not been working on increasing his fanbase by networking online, he never would have had this opportunity present itself to him.

Phil Putnam – How To Slowly Increase Your Value
http://www.philputnam.com

Phil (full disclosure: Phil is a Cyber PR client) wrote back with what he did to increase his prices and overall bottom line.

Yes, I have taken a few steps to increase the amounts I can pull in.

1)  The lion’s share of my new price leverage has come from having a very successful music video on MTV/LOGO.  When you get wide exposure like that, people will pay more to hear/see you.

2)  Make longer albums: my latest record “Casualties” has 16 tracks on it, price point at $11.99 on iTunes rather than $9.99, and it sells better than any of my other records.

3)  Raise my concert ticket price/door charge $2-3.  Ex: from $10 to $12 advance/$15 at door.  I’ve seen an increase in my concert attendance since raising the price, and I also book higher quality venues.

In general, I find that being able to raise your price point is a result of two things:

1) Adjusting the perceived value of your work among your listeners.  We set the pace for how people perceive us.  If we say our show is worth $12 instead of $10, people will pay $12.  And then it becomes our job to give them a better show.

2) Working harder to make better music, give better shows, and build better contacts.  It’s simple business: you want better pay, do better work.  Raising price point isn’t a marketing trick.  You have to earn it.

What I like about what Phil did is he increased his momentum at the same time he increased his prices. I’m quite sure that the $2 – $3 he increased his prices by add up to be significant gains over the course of a year or two. Thanks Phil!

But again back to basic principle #1 which Phil leverages excellently: The amount of fans you have, the true fans who are connected and engaged will be the ones who can lead you to bigger opportunities down the line.

Those fans are the ones who will want to engage with you in an authentic way, and purchase whatever it is you are offering even if it costs a few dollars more or give you more than you ever expected because you provide deep value really says something.

I would love to hear how you have managed to add value and get more profit.

Please share

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