With all the self-promotion tools available to DIY artists, the bottom-line goal with all of them is simple: get your music noticed. Get your act on the radar with as many people as possible, both consumers and industry professionals. The question is how to do it–and despite what anyone might tell you, there’s no single formula to get it done.
Photo: Jenny Rollo.
Let’s cut to the chase: as a DIY musician, you want to make money from your music. That doesn’t just mean paid gigs; it also means music sales. If you’ve recorded anything (which you should, if you’re serious), you want to sell records. (Unless, of course, you’re some richy-rich heir doing this as a hobby.)
Despite what digital technology and illegal downloading have done to record sales overall, it is still possible for you to make at least some money by selling your music, even if you’ve given lots of it away on the front end to build name recognition. I know of at least one guy who draws in thousands of dollars a month in digital downloads, just from instrumental piano music. It’s not easy, but it can be done.
There’s something rather intangible that we look for in musicians, that thing that gives them their “star quality.” Sometimes we call it the “X-Factor” (which is the name of Simon Cowell’s new talent show); I sometimes refer to it as the “oomph” (which is what I’ve named my other blog). But whether or not you think you possess this intangible quality, there are things you can do to stand out from the throng of mediocrity. For lack of a better term, I’m calling this the “WOW” Factor.
A lot of what is said in the category of “artist development” these days (especially in diy music circles) really boils down to classifying music as a product, and looking for creative ways to market that product. It’s unfortunate, but it is a reality of the world we live in, and something we all have to deal with. But today, I’d like to veer away from that discussion a little bit and talk about you as an artist, and your music as an art form–and about becoming yourself as a musical artist.
Let’s face it–unless your target audience is the age 55-80 crowd, if you are an indie musician who is NOT utilizing Internet social networking to promote your music and increase your fan base, you are cutting yourself off at the knees. Our culture has experienced a major shift in recent years, largely because we’ve become so inundated by mass media messages that we have become numb to it at best, and hostile to it at worst. To put it plainly: mass media is fading out, and social networking is in. If you want to reach your audience, you have to go where they are–and like I said, unless you’re aimed directly at an older generation, your audience IS on social media.
These days, one key way for indie artists to get exposure is to generate Internet buzz–to get your name and music in multiple places here on the Interwebs. And one way to do that is for music bloggers and other reviewers to review your record and write about it on the web. The trick, of course, is to get the bloggers’ attention so he/she will review your work. As many of you already know, I write a music blog myself (besides this one) called The Oomph Music Blog, and it wasn’t long after I started writing it before my email started getting flooded with submissions and press releases. Obviously, I do not write about everything I receive. If you’re trying to get your music out to the blogosphere, I thought it would be helpful to lend a blogger’s perspective, and give a little advice as to how to go about it.
Despite that fact that modern technology has made it easier for independent musicians to self-record, there is still a fierce amount of competition out there, and a pressure to release the best product you possibly can. When it comes to doing a recording, I phrase the musician’s dilemma this way: do you “just do it”, or do it “right?” In other words, where do you find the balance between getting your music out there to people, and holding off until you’ve raised enough money for a high-budget recording?
In this changing musical landscape, never has there been a more critical time for musical artists to make a direct connection with their audience. This is especially true for DIY artists, but you also see bigger name acts moving this direction as well. This is one reason why social networks like Facebook and Twitter are becoming so much a part of the marketing strategy for bands.
Here’s something for you to think about:
Musicians who keep their options open, have more options.
One thing I’ve noticed in musicians and artists who are just getting started is that they tend to be a bit narrow-minded about what it is they think they want to do. I recognize this trait, because as a young musician I was the worst. I had a mindset about who I thought I was, and what I wanted to be, and anything that didn’t easily fit into that narrow stream of thought was immediately filtered out. As a result, I robbed myself of a lot of musical opportunities and experiences that might have been very beneficial to me.
For independent, DIY musicians, networking is a huge chunk of the business end of your music career. It’s a part of self-promotion, part of getting the word out there about who you are. Plus, in our changing culture, nowadays most things we need to get done are going to get done through our relationships–the people we know, the people with whom we’ve developed a connection. With the music biz, especially, it’s always been a “who you know” rather than “what you know” kind of industry. So I don’t think anyone with any sense would dispute the need for networking in this business. You need to get connected to all kinds of people–not just to your fans, but to other artists, to venues, to agents, to photographers, to recording engineers, to radio people, and many others.
