Ariel Publicity

Hello,

Since Spotify’s US launch and the F8 announcements a few weeks ago, a major sea change is underfoot.  I have been following some of the most important and lively conversations about the meaning of all of this for independent musicians everywhere.

I don’t have much to say about it all (yet) but my knee jerk reaction is to revert back to the basics. As things get more and more complicated and as artists are being included on platforms that will yield them smaller fiduciary returns, it is more necessary than ever to remember and practice core marketing principals and basic networking.

On that note, I’m continuing the Music Marketing Experts FAQs where my favorite gods and goddesses of online marketing and Social Media promotion share with me the questions they get asked the most by musicians and in this case industry hopefuls.

Music Marketers FAQ – How do I get a job in the music industry?

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I asked 5 of my favorite gods and goddesses of online marketing and Social Media promotion to share with me the top questions they get asked the most by musicians.  Then I sent them around for all of us to answer.

I’m going to kick off this installment with a question Bobby Owsinski often gets asked.

Here’s the first one:  It’s obvious and so simple!

Why does social networking take so much time?

Bobby Owsinski

Even if you narrow your time spent to just Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, using those networks effectively can take up all of your time and leave nothing left for music. Add a newsletter, blog and website and it’s a recipe for burning your brain to a crisp. The secret is efficiency and the best way to do that is to keep to a schedule and keep things short. If you know that you’re going to post on Facebook every day at noon and on your blog every Thursday at 9:30, and tweet three times a day at 9AM, 1PM and 4PM, it becomes part of your daily life and you’ll always have time to get it done or schedule it in advance (you can use a tool like Tweetdeck). You’ll get better fan response too and they’ll begin to rely on the schedule as well. By keeping every post, video, etc short and to the point, you won’t burn out, you’ll have more variety, and your fans will love it because it will be a quick and easy read.

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Now that you know what to do to prepare before you get on the road, you need to know what to do while you’re there! Here’s what our experts have to say:

WHILE YOU ARE THERE

Go With The Flow
Don’t bother jotting down the bands you want to see because chances are, you will not make it to most of them. You’ll be on your way to see the band you “must see,” and you will absolutely run into someone you know on the street, then one thing leads to another, and you missed the show.
- Lou Plaia

Stay Portable
Unless your artist image is “musical Sherpa,” then you don’t want to be tied down to a huge backpack or bag full of crap. You’d be better off having a second-run CD batch made in thin, lightweight packaging OR have some download cards made. Nothing sucks more than hauling 40 pounds of round plastic with you. If it’s too late to make your CD’s in flat packaging (cardboard sleeves, paper envelopes, Tyvek, etc.), don’t lug around a bunch of jewel cases. You’ll be better off in the long run if you can just pick up and move to the next party, function, session, etc.
- Matthew Ebel

Make Free Time
Scheduling meetings is great, but you never know who you are going to run into on sixth street, so leave some holes in your schedule. Some of my best meetings at SXSW have been by chance.
- Rick Goetz

Try Not To Judge A Man By His Business Card
The music business is like that board game perfection. Every few months all the pieces pop up and people land in different positions and in different companies. Do your best to meet people of quality rather than just the people you think have something you need. You never know where people end up and having been nowhere important and somewhere important several different times in my career – trust me when I say I appreciate the people who gave me the time a day when I didn’t have a flashy business card or a lot going on.
- Rick Goetz

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