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Marketing Music Online
March 27, 2006
Overview
For the nine months that this experiment in web-based marketing for indie music has been ongoing I have learned three things. One: as an indie artist nearly everyone wants your money. Two: when people don't know who you are or what you sound like they aren't willing to pay money for your music. Three: people seem to be very busy so they often don't spend the time required to 'get to know you' while online. The result, if you are not careful, is that you will end up with oodles of money flowing out the door that does nothing to solve the second or third problems...in essence, a complete waste of your limited budget.
I'm still figuring this whole thing out and do not profess to be an expert, but I do know some areas in which I have spent money that I think was/is essential and other areas that were, at a minimum, questionable. This write-up assumes that you already have a recording to sell, mp3's to offer, or what have you, and thus does not focus on song writing skills, recording, mixing, mastering, or CD manufacturing which are all extremely important in creating a professional sounding and looking product. Also, at this stage, we have not done the most essential step in fixing problem #2 which is the tried and true tactic of mailing your CD out to qualified leads (reviewers and radio stations that are interested in your music.) I will write about how we did that and what went well, what went poorly, after we do it. Sometime this summer 2006.
Problem One: Everyone Wants My Money
It's true...since launching our website we have received enquires from just about every sort of music related business seeking to perform services...for a 'small fee.' Some are very expensive (e.g. radio promotion companies which can run over $2000) and some are very cheap (e.g. advertising on a website, or entering various competitions.) I am sure it would be wonderful to have a company marketing and promoting our music to radio stations and reviewers but, unfortunately, we are indie artists and the price tag is just too large to swallow. This means that we have to do this step ourselves (as mentioned in the opening paragraph we haven't done it yet.) The problem with the very cheap services are that they have a tendency to add up, breaking the bank for very little return.
So where should you put your hard earned dollars? I'd recommend that you setup a monthly marketing budget for online activities - whatever you think you can afford (it could be zero!) Once you have that in place, you then have to decide where to allocate it. The goal with spending this budget is to solve both problem TWO and problem THREE.
Solving Problem Two
When people don't know your music they won't pay for it. So how do you get them to 'know' you. The most essential element to this is the CD mailout in which you will, if all goes well, get reviews and radio airplay. The next most important element is to create a website that should perform three basic functions: provide an image for the band, allow visitors to the site to get to know you by listening to your music and reading your bio, and tell visitors where your music/CD is available should they be interested in buying.
An essential element is allowing users to listen to your music. We chose to use a flash based music player (which means the visitor must be on our site to listen to the track) and offer free downloads to those visitors that take the time to contact us, thus encouraging communication. You could offer free downloads to all visitors - it's really up to you - but if you do offer downloads make sure that you update the ID tag with your band name, song name, lyrics, and website address. This is extremely important as otherwise you will have wasted a tonne of effort for absolutely no return! If the visitor absolutely loves the song and decides to refer it onto numerous friends who also do the same, the world will be grooving to your track in no time but no one will know who you are!
Extremely important make sure your website address is prominent on EVERY piece of packaging included in your CD (the back tray, the insert, and the CD itself.) This should be YOUR website - do not point people to a 3rd party website like download.com, musicfreedom.com, garageband.com, etc. First of all, internet businesses have a way of changing or failing over time (especially music sites!) Second of all, if you are putting all this effort into marketing why would you want to promote someone else's website in the process? Get them to your site FIRST then you can always refer them on to wherever you desire allowing you the control to change relationships in the future.
So, part of your marketing budget will be spent on designing a website that ties to your band image and getting the tools needed to host a website (a flash music player & a hosting package.) It's all about accessibility - making your music and band accessible to visitors. By completing this step problem two will still exist BUT people at least will have the opportunity to get to know you if they choose to spend the time on your website with the utlimate goal of increasing your fanbase and/or selling your music.
Solving Problem Three
How do you get people to invest time in your website? If problem two is about accessibility, problem three is all about volume. Of all the people that visit your site only a fraction will take the time to do all the things that you offer on your website (read your bio and, most importantly, listen to your music.) You can increase the fraction that do take the time to listen by making it easy to do so and by driving visitors to the page that you consider the most important. Currently we are driving visitors to two places: to our music page and to CD Baby. But once you have made it as easy as possible such that the fraction of visitors that take the time to listen is as high as possible, what do you do then? Volume - increase the number of visitors!
This is where a lot of money and effort can be wasted!! Increasing the visitors to your site is both art and science. Science - ensuring your pages are search engine friendly (meta tags are essential with appropriate keywords and descriptions), submitting your website to search engines, and to free music directories/band lists. Art - figuring out cost-effective advertising techniques that send qualified visitors to your website.
One thing I have found to be very effective is to continually search the major search enginges for free band lists/directories and submitting our website to them. This includes Music Sites and simple Band Lists. If it's a free service and you retain control over your music, then there is no harm in so submitting. Each one you submit to increases the odds that a qualified visitor will end up at your website.
Conclusion
I could write an essay on solving problem three alone...and I will in the future. Watch for it. I can't write anymore today as my wrists are getting tired and my eyes strained from staring at this blasted computer screen for too long. The next installment will deal with music competitions (basically avoid them - waste of money,) more on meta tags, effective advertising (google adwords,) and other techniques to get people to your website. If you have any ideas or tips please email us so we can update this article!
Damo
Ours To Destroy