Today, more than ever, you have to think out of the box when dealing with music promotion. In fact, it’s beneficial to brainstorm crazy ideas and even execute them once in a while.
By doing this often you may occasionally hit upon something that you’re fans can really interact with.
Here’s one of these random ideas…
Getting your fans to sell your music for you.
Think about it.
After your release date is over and sales from the initial promotion have died down, why not keep purchases flowing by enabling your die-hard fans to be your personal sales team.
They already enjoy the product, like to speak about it, and most importantly they have direct influence over their friends, whose tastes they already know and can influence.
I’m thinking that with some creativity, a little thought, and an online affiliate program, this could be set up fairly painlessly.
Bloggers caught on to the idea quite a while ago, to sell their information products, and haven’t looked back. I think any semi-established aytpical artist out there should be trying out this method too.
An affiliate program basically allows people to refer potential customers to a particular product (in this case your music), via a special link which contains a tracking number. If the sale goes through, both you and the affiliate split the revenue in some way.
If you’re saying to yourself, “Why would I possibly want to lower my revenues further by allowing fans to take a cut of my sales?”
The answer is this.
These people aren’t taking away from your music revenue, because quite simply, this revenue was never guaranteed to you in the first place. What’s happening is that these people are reaching potential fans that you yourself couldn’t reach, and therefore couldn’t sell directly to.
Remember the percentage you give your affiliates needs to be worth it. It needs to motivate people by actually allowing them to make money, if the sale happens.
I’d recommend anywhere from 40 to 55 percent for digital and physical music products. This allows you to fully cover costs and still make money while sitting back and letting other people direct potential fans right to you.
So what kinds of affiliate programs could you set up? Here’s some ideas to get you started:
Monetary Affiliate:
This is a standard affiliate program where users can encourage friends (or strangers) to follow a personalized link where they can make a percentage of every complete sale.
Non-Monetary Affiliate:
As an alternative to sharing a portion of your revenues, you could offer your affiliates store credit in exchange for every complete sale. This would work well if you’re an act that constantly has new merchandise, with die-hard fans that love to buy your swag.
Points System:
A system can also be created where fans can amass points by referring people to the store. An atypical artist could easily turn this into a game, complete with score boards and perks for the people who reach certain point levels. Perks could include items like: free merch, exclusive songs, and concert tickets.
If done properly, affiliate programs can help you in three ways.
* Connect you with people you weren’t able to reach before
* Enable you to sell more product with the same amount of effort
* Further engage your ‘true fans’ by giving them direct access your success
Why not give it a try? You can test it on an upcoming album launch, for a limited period of time, and study the results.
Will you allow your fans to sell your music?
Mike Venti is a musician and creator of the Wayward Musician blog, which provides ideas and advice for atypical artists. This post was originally published on Wayward Musician on February 27, 2010. You can connect with Mike on Twitter and Facebook.
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ERH Entertainment / Blog
ERH Entertainment launches the Indie Artist Industry EBook
ERH Entertainment launched the Indie Artist Industry EBook to help independent artists.
ERH Entertainment has launched the Indie Artist Industry EBook as the road map to assist independent artists in acquiring a successful career in the music industry. This ebook is not made to offer empty hopes and dreams, but to guide the independent artists in the right direction. The ebook is only offered as a guide and packed with industry contacts and resources. However, the independent artist still has to have the necessary traits to succeed in this industry such as determination, drive and the willingness to sacrifice for the greater good of their musical career.
ERH Entertainment believes that guide is an important factor because many independent artists are not getting the proper guidance they need, which is one of the most important things. ERH Entertainment offers consultation, but not all artists are able to afford it, so the ebook was produced and launched, so all people would have an opportunity. The ebook will give the complete tutorial on becoming the business of an independent artist, which also includes, music industry contracts, music contacts, college and internet radio station lists and much more all for $49.95.
ERH Entertainment provides various services like web design, graphic design, talent development and social media development. EL Hudson as the CEO leads ERH Entertainment and works with artists and professionals around the world. With more than 20 years experience in business management, consulting, sales and promotions, Hudson offers ERH Entertainment as a professional and trustworthy entity in the entertainment industry. ERH Entertainment is dedicated to building a successful career for the serious independent artist.
Would you like more information about Indie Artist Industry ebook? Please visit http://erhentertainment.com/iaebookhomepp.
The Indie Artist Industry EBook is made to guide the independent artist to a successful career in the music industry. Get your .pdf download Today!!!!
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The Proper Way to Market Yourself Through Social Media
Here is some professional advice for those Indepentent Artist, Business Owners or Social Media Marketers. How to get people to become fans, listen to your music watch your videos or buy your product or service. Rule #1. Do not post your ads on someone's wall or spam their inbox that you don't talk to regularly. You're asking people to do you a favor that you don't even know and more importantly; they have no clue who you are. This is like me taking a sign and putting it in your yard selling my services without your permission. I really doubt if you would appreciate that. It's rude, and you invaded someone's personal space by doing so. Furthermore, would you just do favors for random people that walk up to you on the street, especially if it's like 10 times a day? That's usually a minimum of how many private message requests I get a day from people I didn't even know were on my friends list. Normally, I just mark the message as spam, delete it and unfriend the person, but I figure if I do that, you will never learn how to properly market yourself, product or service. So here is one way to properly market yourself through Facebook. ****Try to establish some type of repoire with the people in your list first before you start requesting favors from them.**** People will do things for friends, family or people they like before they do something for a stranger. Stop being arrogant thinking that you have the best talent, product or service because they're millions of other people out there who think the same way you do. If not, you will quickly lose your friends, and Facebook WILL eventually cancel your account for bad spamming practices. I hope this helps most of you in the future and good luck in your endeavors.
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Some of My Money Making Secrets are Revealed Right here, Right Now!
"If You Work For Someone Else, You're NOT a *Boss*" Tired of working for someone else? My secrets are finally being revealed!!! Start working from home like I do. It's going on four years of me being self-employed and there is no sign of me working for anyone else ever again. Many people have asked me how I do it. Some I have helped and some I haven't. The reason is it takes a certain type of person to be an Entrepreneur. Everyone says they want to be one but in reality, most can't do it. It takes a lot of discipline, sacrifice and more importantly, a lot of hard work to be an Entrepreneur!!! If I didn't see those abilities in someone, why would I even want to waste my time or resources helping them if it was going to amount to NOTHING. Then I realized, who am I make to these types of judgements. That's not who I am or want to be. When I finally decided to make this journey to be a full-fledged self-employed entrepreneur with no backup income at all from an employer...it was an extremely hard transition. Sometimes I wondered, what am I doing? I have endured the worse because I had to learn everything from scratch with no assistance from anyone. Now that I have lived and learned I am willing to pass some of this information on to those who are true believers in themselves and the ability to walk their own path and build their life of financial freedom. There is a link below that will send you to one of my websites that will offer a total of 10 programs that I have either personally followed or researched and know them to be true. I know what you're thinking right now..."How much is this going to cost me?" You're correct it is going to cost a "little" something. But answer this question, what thriving business is made with "NO" initial investment? If $7 is too much for you to invest in your future, then this is not for you and move on. However, if you are serious about your future to become self-employed, then click on the link below and start the first day of the rest of your financial independent life. :-) Feel Free to share this also!
http://goo.gl/KmL4K
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Get Your Fans To Sell Your Music For You.
Today, more than ever, you have to think out of the box when dealing with music promotion. In fact, it’s beneficial to brainstorm crazy ideas and even execute them once in a while.
By doing this often you may occasionally hit upon something that you’re fans can really interact with.
Here’s one of these random ideas…
Getting your fans to sell your music for you.
Think about it.
After your release date is over and sales from the initial promotion have died down, why not keep purchases flowing by enabling your die-hard fans to be your personal sales team.
They already enjoy the product, like to speak about it, and most importantly they have direct influence over their friends, whose tastes they already know and can influence.
I’m thinking that with some creativity, a little thought, and an online affiliate program, this could be set up fairly painlessly.
Bloggers caught on to the idea quite a while ago, to sell their information products, and haven’t looked back. I think any semi-established aytpical artist out there should be trying out this method too.
An affiliate program basically allows people to refer potential customers to a particular product (in this case your music), via a special link which contains a tracking number. If the sale goes through, both you and the affiliate split the revenue in some way.
If you’re saying to yourself, “Why would I possibly want to lower my revenues further by allowing fans to take a cut of my sales?”
The answer is this.
These people aren’t taking away from your music revenue, because quite simply, this revenue was never guaranteed to you in the first place. What’s happening is that these people are reaching potential fans that you yourself couldn’t reach, and therefore couldn’t sell directly to.
Remember the percentage you give your affiliates needs to be worth it. It needs to motivate people by actually allowing them to make money, if the sale happens.
I’d recommend anywhere from 40 to 55 percent for digital and physical music products. This allows you to fully cover costs and still make money while sitting back and letting other people direct potential fans right to you.
So what kinds of affiliate programs could you set up? Here’s some ideas to get you started:
Monetary Affiliate:
This is a standard affiliate program where users can encourage friends (or strangers) to follow a personalized link where they can make a percentage of every complete sale.
Non-Monetary Affiliate:
As an alternative to sharing a portion of your revenues, you could offer your affiliates store credit in exchange for every complete sale. This would work well if you’re an act that constantly has new merchandise, with die-hard fans that love to buy your swag.
Points System:
A system can also be created where fans can amass points by referring people to the store. An atypical artist could easily turn this into a game, complete with score boards and perks for the people who reach certain point levels. Perks could include items like: free merch, exclusive songs, and concert tickets.
If done properly, affiliate programs can help you in three ways.
* Connect you with people you weren’t able to reach before * Enable you to sell more product with the same amount of effort * Further engage your ‘true fans’ by giving them direct access your success
Why not give it a try? You can test it on an upcoming album launch, for a limited period of time, and study the results.
Will you allow your fans to sell your music?
Mike Venti is a musician and creator of the Wayward Musician blog, which provides ideas and advice for atypical artists. This post was originally published on Wayward Musician on February 27, 2010. You can connect with Mike on Twitter and Facebook.
Reply
Strategies To Keep Your Dreams Alive
1. Pursue what calls you. To have grit, you need to work towards goals you'll stick with, especially when times are tough. Without a passion for what you're doing, it will be too hard to resist the temptation to move on to something else. 2. Plan for a marathon, not a sprint. In fact, research on high achievers often shows their big breakthroughs happened, on average, ten years into their journey. 3. Acknowledge your progress. Celebrating milestones keeps you motivated to take more steps forward. 4. Adjust your definition of success. While the world often focuses on measures such as money and status, your definition of success might be measured by the impact you've made, the growth you've experienced or the fun you're having. Measure your success by the things that hold the most meaning for you. 5. Get down to business. With so many distractions vying for your attention, the ability to focus is harder than ever. But you can do it. Plans are important, but it's even more important to take consistent action towards your dreams. Practice the art of getting things done, especially in the face of challenges. Show some grit.
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It's Tough To Beat Up A Guy That Never Quits
BY: Author Allen Shadow
Babe Ruth mouthed that ungrammatical gem, and a slumping Nick Swisher of the New York Yankees just invoked it at a critical moment in his career.
Hang with me a moment, and you’ll see what this has to do with us music artists. Swisher made the last out in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series the other night. It was a frustrating moment, since a hit in that spot could’ve finished off the Angels and put the Bombers in the World Series.
With otherwise-clutch Swisher having only three hits in 29 at-bats this postseason, the temptation loomed to sit the right fielder for another player. But manager Joe Girardi kept him in the lineup for the next critical game, and his reasons are exemplary. Girardi had a number of citations but the best came from his own postseason experience as a Yankees catcher. Girardi didn’t have a hit in the Yanks’ 1996 World Series as they entered a pivotal Game 6. He came through with what was to become a legendary triple. That clutch hit helped put the game and the series in the team’s column and set the stage for a dynasty period: four World Series titles in a five-year period.
Like a baseball season, a music career is a real grind. Baseball players play 162 games each season and more in the postseason, if they get there. Each year, even the best teams have high times and low. They play loose and have fun in the successful stretches and get tight when they play poorly. For short periods, even the best player can look clueless at the plate, his mechanics all out of whack. Then, inexplicably, he gets a cheap hit, and his sweet swing returns along with his confidence.
Out of the mouth of the Babe.Likewise, artists at every level have similar swings, if you will. But, if you’ve had successes and you simply stay in the game, you can bet you’ll have more to build on.
Is this a pep talk? Yes. I give them to myself all the time.
# # #
Allen Shadow is a rock artist, songwriter and PR pro. For more, check out his blog.
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5 Social Websites Every Musician Should Master
The deluge of social networks and websites for musicians is starting to get out of control. With a lack of services to filter through these networks, the life of the working musician can quickly become filled with updating and not with practicing and improving.
Keep in mind that not all networks will apply to all types of music and all types of fans.
Work on building your presence on a few key networks. Once you have your presence established you can move on to the more niche oriented sites. Doing it all at once will only waste time and leave you exhausted.
The important thing to remember about social networks is to choose the ones that are right for you and your music.
With that in mind here are 5 social networks that every musician should consider using and mastering before branching on to other niche networks.
5) Myspace: Though a profile here is becoming increasingly irrelevant, Myspace still has a network of millions who can discover your music through the site. Tip: Keep your profile simple and clean. Excessive scrolling and long load times are a no-no. Think of Myspace as a way to capture new fans, those who just want a quick sample of what you’re about. If they find your music interesting and want to learn more, they can move on to your website or other networks.
4) Facebook: A Facebook Fan Page is great tool to communicate with fans and spread awareness through the Facebook community of 400 million users. Fan pages are an easy way to interact with fans and they provide you with visitor statistics and demographics of your followers. Events are also a fantastic tool to promote individual shows in certain areas. While not easily customizable, fan pages are still a great way to get information about your shows or events to spread virally to a large group of people.
3) YouTube: Have your own youtube channel dedicated to releasing your videos. Everything from interviews, music videos, live performances, clips in the studio and anything else you can think of should be uploaded here. Remember, the more unique the video the better chance of it being noticed and going viral. Tip: Keep your videos as short as possible. Use the statistical tools provided to see when people are getting tired of your previous videos and use this knowledge to improve future uploads.
2) Twitter: This is the easiest way for fans to communicate with you and vice versa. Use this as a tool for fun facts, setting up contests, pictures of you recording a song as it happens, or promoting new songs. Be careful not to constantly promote shows and music as this can drive people away. Instead, use the 12 to 1 rule, by promoting others over yourself the majority of the time. Keep your posts interesting and avoid the mundane. Let your personality shine through.
1) Your Website: This is the most important place on the web. Think of your website as the Hub where all fans should eventually end up. Use your site to socialize with fans, provide news and information, sell directly to your audience, collect email addresses, and build a community of like-minded people around your music.
Remember to take the time to build your networks.
You may want to have a very basic profile on many other popular networks, but only update a few key sites and build your fan base through those. Once you’ve established yourself on these networks expand and think of other social sites where your fans might hang out.
If you sing about boats, try to find a social network for boaters and sailors and establish a presence. Same goes if your music depicts a certain lifestyle or attitude. The goal here is not to spend your time adding friends and followers, it is to connect with fans and maintain relationships with the ones you have.
Which social networks do you use regularly?
Mike Venti is a musician and creator of the Wayward Musician blog, which provides ideas and advice for atypical artists. You can connect with Mike on Twitter and Facebook.
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Musicians: Think Like Business Owners
If you were starting a small retail business or an internet business, you would focus all of your attention on growing that business to the point you could sell it or to the point that it became a lifestyle business for you - affording you the income that you need to live the life you desire.
Launching a music business is no different in theory. What is different is that most artists assume there are gatekeepers who deem you worthy to progress to a higher elevation in your career. As with all businesses, yes it is true that there are strategic partnerships that can help grow your business, but there are no gatekeepers other than those within your own mind.
At The Artist Farm we have a running theory that the most successful artists are the ones who fully recognize their role as business owners. They run the show, literally - from artistic to business partnership decisions. As these strong personalities grow, so do their businesses. And as a business grows it begins to attract attention. Suddenly those “gatekeepers” that you imagined are all clamoring to be involved with this successful business.
The control and growth of your business rests in your hands. It’s ok to be in a position of growth or to feel the struggle - that is all part of growing a business. If you are committed to establishing a successful business then don’t look for the knight on a white horse to save you (i.e build the business for you). The knight is inside you ready to charge if once you find the right path. Read business books that have nothing to do with music to get some ideas. Here’s a start: http://www.100bestbiz.com/more-on-the-100-best/.
Thanks for reading.
Ben Coe, The Artist Farm
Join our new Advisor group for hands-on mentorship in growing your business: http://theartistfarm.com/services/
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Selling out a Show Everytime
A sold out show is a day that every artist looks forward to. Nothing’s better than a packed house where the energy emanates from the audience to the stage and back again.
Unfortunately, many artists don’t get to experience sold out shows that often, if at all. Perhaps, only at the occasional CD release show, or a coveted opening spot for a more established act.
Thankfully, there is an easy way for you to change this and begin playing sold out shows more often. It’s quite simple in fact. Read More
The key is to play in venues you can sell out.
The typical artist wants to play the best venue in town, regardless of their draw. The club where you have to play Tuesday nights for months, until the booker notices you and maybe bumps you up to a Thursday. It doesn’t matter that the venue has a 500 person capacity and you can only bring out 50 people.
A show is a show, right?
Wrong.
The atypical artist sees this situation and thinks differently.
Instead of spreading out the fans you do have in a cavernous room, start booking your own shows in smaller venues. Really small venues if you have to.
Do you have a city where you routinely draw 50 people? Then book a venue with a capacity of 40. If you can bring out 250 people, play a 200 capacity club.
The benefits to this are numerous.
1. Capacity Crowd
The gigs will feel bigger. Those 50 people who would have been spread out all over the cavernous club are now in a much smaller space, giving the overall show a “full” feeling, and a better vibe as a result.
2. An Experience
You’re providing a better concert experience for both the fans and yourself by creating a full house of audience members who are there solely to hear your music.
3. Building Buzz
Having the words “sold out” posted on your website, and the venue’s marquee, will help create buzz around you and your music. And, having a line up to get into a club never hurts your credibility.
Get started!
Start making a list of smaller venues you know that you can sell out. Contact the promoters of those venues and start developing a relationship with them. If you routinely pack their space, you will be invited back.
Keep in mind…
You don’t need to rely on promoters to book smaller shows. Take control. Rent out a venue and book your own shows. Many cities have smaller art spaces available, take a look around for any place you can transform into an atypical music venue.
Advertise your sold out shows to the world.
After the show has been sold out, don’t stop there. Start spreading the word. Announce the sold out dates on your social networking sites. Doing so will help build buzz and entice more people to come check you out, where you can hopefully covert them into fans.
Remember…
Routinely selling out your shows is as much up to you as it is your fans. By booking proper sized venues to showcase your music you can work towards the goal of making every gig a sold out show.
Have you played a sold out show? How was the experience any different from a regular gig?
Mike Venti is a musician and creator of the Wayward Musician blog, which provides ideas and advice for atypical artists. This post was originally published on Wayward Musician on February 27, 2010. You can connect with Mike on Twitter and Facebook.
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