Hey, first I'm not looking to be spoon-fed anything, just looking for suggestions or people who have previously worked with music marketing. I'm trying to help a musician out who wants to start selling some albums (he literally has 0 sales) and he doesn't have a huge budget so was looking into many sites to submit his music and get heard, using social networking and he already has some stuff on YouTube but only like 4000 views. Are these really the best ways to get him out there for cheap? Also was thinking of giving copies of his album to heavy traffic music sites to give reviews, think that's something that would help? Thanks if you have any experience to share or suggestions.
Could it be that BenNash actually wanted to hear him? Sheesh you are asking for some free advice and you can't even be polite to other posters! Why should anyone bother? Ruth
I'm a musician as well!! I you should start building a list, just like with any other niche. I would give away a free song (or several) in exchange for an email address. Just build a squeeze page & go from there!
I don't see how I was impolite, I asked a question. I posted for music marketing not someone looking to hear it. You have 16 posts, nothing which is related to marketing music, and probably just looking for post counts. This isn't about squeezing and money, just trying to get people heard who aren't mainstream or don't have big money. You can do the same with searches as I did, online stations, submit sites, etc. But you did give me an idea for rev sharing for little artists.
If your advertising on youtube, the best way to do it is to get as many views as you can which will lead to subscribers. The more subscribers that you have, the more following you will get in the long run. You can purchase youtube views over at trafficboxer.com they have some great youtube marketing and even other social networking services there as well.
You could try to get his music on voting sites like: http://hypem.com/ http://www.thesixtyone.com/ http://www.ourstage.com/ And also review the album online at places like: http://www.metacritic.com/albums http://musicgrid.me/ http://www.music-critic.com/
I think this promotion should be same as other products promotion. Methods are same just different products.
Sign up and upload the music at the site in my signature. You even have the option to put an advert on his music and earn. Then you can link to it to earn more!
Here's a little guide I wrote a couple of months back on just this sort of thing: http://www.audiomelody.com/articles/how-to-get-music-bloggers-to-listen/
In that situation, I would focus on building a huge Twitter following, and use that to promote him. Good luck
Good read and nice site, thanks. I actually did submit his music to some blogs related to a niche of #occupy as that's one targeted audience so those points were good to know before I do it more. Will do, thanks again. I like the idea of your site, as even if he may not get sales from it he can still get some cash possibly from it. I hate Twitter not gonna lie haha but thank you. I don't have the patience for that in just trying to help him out. He's just a good guy, got screwed by someone before who did nothing, and just want to get him heard and hopefully some sales. I'm not really a "marketer", just build sites I wish existed or don't when I can and thought this would be a fun attempt to learn as music is huge and very hard for artists I'm assuming. You guys are giving me good quality answers and nice sites though, so thanks again. Will be interesting to see if it all helps and comes together for him. If anyone does want to hear some of his stuff though I shoot YouTube links in PM or something. Didn't mean to appear as a dick before when someone asked, just don't want to be spammy in anyway for him.
Given what the MPAA and RIAA is doing these days its actually pretty simple. I would spend a few days reading techdirt for starters. In fact, I would start here https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=midem I will try to find the time to explain things in detail but I am tad swamped today. I shut down my entire business to market infinite goods from now on. Start by understanding its completely insane to treat infinite goods as a scarcity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarcity Nigel
There are so many ways to be heard. You have MySpace, FaceBook, and Twitter which are great ways to reach a market... Then you have sites like SoundCloud, YouTube to be heard... You can also list on iTunes and Amazon. There's major band forums you can participate on. There's so many different ways... I still would focus strongly on promoting your sites and albums at gigs.
Thanks Nigel, I'll give it a read. Without reading immediately (except the title and briefly running through), he doesn't have a "label" per say and not in it to make money from what I gathered, just seems to want to get heard and sales would be an added bonus. I've considered a method that would let 5 million+ users be able to hear him but haven't run it across him yet as it would be free for those users to listen with no guarantee of money, but will see. PS: Sorry we got off on the wrong foot, I shouldn't have butted in on something that didn't involve me. I learned that quick, was kind of overwhelmed where to start actually because of it and did a few things scattered about. Then focused on smaller sites mainly in his "niche(s)". I can build him traffic to his site, and as for gigs funny I haven't even asked if he performs at all haha. This is his first album. And not "mine", but his. I am no musician =)
No sweat Kulik. It happens. This place is a hot mess. No label required. That is my entire point actually. I will send off a PM with what I am doing with my client who is a director in LA. I am marketing a short film that is totally stacked. This is a lot easier than you think but you have to have a few things in place first. Nothing to taxing though. N.