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Donny Goines reflects on his recognition that taking things to the next level will require a more conscious approach to expanding his fan base.
It's unfortunate that Goines' Hustle Harder column at BallerStatus.com doesn't have an RSS feed or a home page but he does have a MySpace blog and he's gone to the trouble of posting an index of all 58 columns to date.
My reading list grows ever longer.
Justin Boland advocates promoting others as part of a strategy to create a context and community for your work.
He's also been busy building DIY Hip Hop, a series of music industry faqs starting with:
How can I get more shows?
How can I make sure I get PAID for gigs?
Should I get a record deal?
What hip hop websites matter?
How do I break into the global hip hop market?
How do I get my music reviewed?
Does radio play still matter?
How do I get on soundscan/billboard charts?
Looks like I have some reading to do!
Randall Roberts considers the fate of the promo cd in a digital world. But, though mailing promo cds may seem wasteful and/or outdated, there are reasons that practice will continue.
Here's a particularly relevant comment about marketing from Forcefield PR's Daniel Gill:
"You have to shove it in somebody's face in order to get anyone to pay attention...That means sending the actual CDs to them in the mail. I could send you digital links until I'm blue in the face for some of my younger bands, but you're not going to listen to it. And I can be realistic about that."
"So I feel like if I at least send you the physical CD, somebody at some point has to open that envelope and look at the CD and decide what pile it goes into. If the artwork catches your eye, maybe you'll listen to it, or something about the band name is cool — or just that it came from me — maybe you'll actually listen to it."
And related comments from Motormouth Media owner Judy Miller Silverman who sees stronger responses from physical as opposed to digital outreach:
"When I send a note out to 1,000 people, saying I have a digital copy of a certain album available, I might get 20 responses. But when I send out a 300-piece mailing, I might be able to get 30 or 40 things secured. People are responding to the more tactile, physical sense of having it on their desk, seeing it, keeping it in their minds."
Though Roberts focuses on cds mailed to reviewers, if you've been to a music industry event and returned with a shopping bag filled with the little critters, you know the promo cd game isn't dead yet but is way too competitive for anybody's good.
That means passing out those CDR's labeled in purple marker may not be the best use of your time.
Note:
Because we live in an all-or-nothing binary consciousness world, some folks will tell you that promo cds are dead because their role has changed and is not as powerful as it once was.
But death is only one form of change.
Find out who responds to promo cds and why and, if that's what you want, get your promo cd to them. If not, don't.
AdRants has a guest post titled "Seven Tips For Publishers Joining Ad Networks" [via Miraflor] which has some good pointers mixed in with a couple that will be specific to the ad network to which you're applying for membership.
This post reminded me that I've gotten a couple of emails from new bloggers wondering how I got all these different advertisers for ProHipHop. Since the existence of ad networks isn't necessarily obvious to new web publishers and since ad networks aren't the only option, here are some places for new folks to start.
ProBlogger: Make Money Blogging is a quick intro to ad networks, affiliate programs and some related ways to make money as well as a subsection to a useful blog for those getting started.
The Rubicon Project is worth a look. I'm planning on checking it out more closely but it basically allows you to optimize your use of multiple ad networks.
If you want to deepen your game, start following blogs like Copyblogger and Dosh Dosh.
Feel free to drop questions or suggestions in the comments section and I'll update or do a followup post.
Justin Boland's dropping some useful posts for struggling DIY artists at Audible Hype:
Getting Ready for a Long Cold Winter
Music industry certified public accountant Alan Friedman discusses business structures for self-employed musicians.
Via Crate Kings.
Kim Ellis of KE Consulting [also at MySpace] shares what she's learned in her business dealings with the email blasters we've all come to know whether we want to or not:
Email Blasting Chaos! by Kim Ellis
To give you a little history for those that may not know, KE has been putting out "KEeping You In The Know" for 2 and 1/2 years, back when email marketing/promotions in our field of music wasn't as heightened as it is today. My newsletter was created to provide an additional resource to my clients who I handled PR for as well as an avenue to provide information on events, conferences, etc. that may be beneficial to you, the reader, for your networking needs. This email blast is not my primary source of income or my primary source of conducting business. With that said, I have reached out to the many e-blast/marketing companies that have developed over the past years to determine if there is an opportunity for me to do business with them relative to my PR clients. The responses have been anywhere from reasonable and reliable to unreasonable and questionable on its reliability.
I'd like to list a few things to consider when you are gearing up for your marketing & promotions game with those that do email marketing. As a consumer myself, it is important to ask questions.
1. Get references. If they've done business with others, surely they can give you references from companies that have done business with them.
2. Ask for a print out or email on proof that your promotional email was sent to the number of people they have advised are in their database. For example, with KE's list, there is an email that is sent at the end of my email campaign that is run confirming how many emails have been sent.
3. Do your homework and due diligence on how they send their email campaigns out. If they are sending their emails out under a gmail account (as an example) and there isn't any indication at the bottom of their blast on which provider they are using (i.e. Constant Contact, My Newsletter Builder, Mailer Mailer, etc.), question which program they use. This is extremely important because most email providers only allow a certain number of emails to be sent out daily before your email account is suspended or locked out.
4. Ask yourself, does this email marketing company invest in themselves by using a program for a fee that would constitute them charging you the fee they are asking?
Number 3 holds meaning close to me as I type this to you today. I am presently locked out of my gmail account, (which is VERY unproductive I might add) because I tried to "protect" my contact information in a response to someone blasting to a group of email addresses which they didn't use the BCC option. The number of bounces and emails caused Gmail to shut me down for 24 hours all because of this REPLY ALL to NOT add my two email addresses that were exposed but to use an alternate email of mine instead. Which leads me to my next and very valuable point.
If you are going to send an email out to your contact lists, PLEASE BCC your contacts. It's not hard to do, and in fact, if you need my help call me. It seems that either lists are being sold or contacts are being jeopardized these days which KE doesn't practice either. We all have to have more business sense and do better. Last, if someone asks to be REMOVED from your list, just do it without catching an attitude or taking anything personal. Just because they aren't interested in what you are sending, doesn't take away your self worth.
Sounds like great advice for everyone involved.
Big thanks to Kim Ellis for letting me reprint this mini-essay.
Corporate Takeover interviews Virginia street promoter Batman of DarkNightEnt.
Lots of great basic info on getting into promotions with more to come. You can drop your questions for the update in the post's comments section.
MarketingSherpa has a great little article on building online street teams focused on the experiences of Fanscape.
Free access until March 25th.
Though I closed ProHipHop's comments a while back, I do think comments are a big part of the blogging scene and a fair way to promote oneself with on topic responses to posts, though saying "nice blog" and then suggesting we check out your site isn't really an on topic comment.
But when you're getting covered in a blog post, that's a great opportunity to add a bit of extra information or just say hi. It lets people know you're paying attention and often provides an opportunity to build on the moment.
Over at the softly launching Ill Moves, I posted some hip hop dance links including one to Planet B-Boy which should be a cool documentary on the worldwide b-boy scene.
When somebody promoting the movie dropped the U.S. release dates in the comments, I thought, "cool, they're paying attention." But check the comment on the links post and consider how much stronger this comment would have been with a quick line or two like:
"Hey, thanks for the link. Just want you to know about the..."
Which then leads directly into the impersonal but on topic information that was dropped.
Though it may seem minor, such a touch let's the blogger know that you're not totally using them to your own advantage.
Here's what's probably happening on the other end. Some overworked publicist or somebody doing the work of a publicist is using Google and other such means to find links related to Planet B-Boy and then quickly cutting and pasting in the release dates in the comments.
That person probably has too much to do and is trying to be as efficient as possible at getting out the word while intending nothing negative at all. That person is also probably too busy to have considered long term blogger relationships but if s/he were, I'd suggest simply preparing a couple of lines like the above that can be quickly and easily altered as well as cut and pasted with the schedule.
In the old days, such a move would appear a bit perfunctory but nowadays, given the emergence of text messaging and other short and simple communication means, one can actually appear quite engaged with a simple line or two prefacing the impersonal information that you're trying to move.
So why not just try saying thanks for the coverage before making your publicity move. Some folks won't care. Some folks will. Either way, you're establishing an approach to publicity that acknowledges even limited relationship and builds for the long term.
And long term building that connects with others is what leads to success.
And, yes, I'm still working on that one but I'm improving!
ReadWriteWeb has 14 high points from Jason Fried's SXSW Interactive presentation "10 Things We've Learned at 37signals".
Clinton Sparks shares some good business advice along with some of his own unique experiences.
The short version:
1. Brand Yourself: Treat Your Name As If It's a Company
2. Originality: Strive to Be the "Best First You" Rather than the "Second Someone Else"
3. Create and Maintain Relationships: There is a Fine Line Between Being Persistent and Being Aggravating
4. No Need to Run Around Sayin You're the Sh*t, Let The Quality of Your Work Speak For Itself And People Will Say It For You
5. Set Realistic Goals for Yourself, Every Time you Achieve Them Set A New One
The next time your boss says, "Can't we just make it viral?", as if that was the cheap and easy solution, point him to this behind the scenes article about making a video go viral.
After reading this article I've decided to nuke certain commenters that are likely to be publicists posing as human beings. My apologies in advance to the innocent.
Update:
Dan Greenberg follows up his post with a number of comments and clarifications.
North Carolinian Terrence J, cohost of BET's 106 & Park, shares 5 Tips for Professional Hosts:
1. Read Up
2. Listen
3. Brand Yourself
4. Be A Trend Setter
5. Have Fun
Dave McClure guest posts at TechCrunch in an impressive offering titled Seven Steps to Graphing Your Facebook Strategy:
Here are seven major aspects of Facebook you can use to increase the visibility of your startup, business, product or service:
1. Set Up Your Graph: Profiles & Privacy
2. Make Connections: Networks, Groups & Events
3. The Need for Feed: Your [Shared] Social Activity Stream
4. Share Your Content: Share & People-Tag Your Stories & Media
5. App to the Future: The Facebook Platform, APIs, & Applications
6. Pay to Play: Ad Networks, Sponsored Stories, & Paid Distribution
7. Show Me The Bunny: Gifts, Points, & Virtual Currency
Among other accomplishments, Dave McClure is the organizer of the upcoming Graphing Social Patterns: The Business & Technology of Facebook conference and the Master of 500 Hats.
After an extended period of scepticism, I eventually embraced Seth's Blog but I found his recent post You can search this blog disturbingly off the mark.
Seth points out that it's "a shame" when sites neglect to offer a search function for a variety of reasons that he doesn't enumerate. Allowing visitors to find what they want immediately comes to mind.
Interestingly enough, Seth has buried his own search option "down at the bottom of the main page". Down at the bottom is where you put things that you don't need people to see unless they're highly motivated to dig deep.
Up near the top of all pages is where you put search if you want people to actually find and use the search option.
I can't really evaluate this source but if you're wondering how to make your YouTube videos look better, check it out.
Oh, and pass it along to the folks at Universal, whose YouTube tactics and/or strategy remain baffling on many levels.
Want to know what some leading hip hop bloggers have to say to publicists trying to get their attention? Then check out The 10 PR Commandments from Street Census with a contribution by yours truly.
Dex Digital breaks down podcasting basics on The Blueprint Vol. 1.
While you're checking that out, take a look at the groovy feed player that you can embed on your own site or MySpace-type page to offer streams of the Mixtape Show.
Or you can just listen to it right here!
Podcast Directory has a great guide to past episodes of Indie Night School including brief descriptions with who's on the podcast and who they work with:
INS is a music conference series that deals with all the many aspects of running a band professionally, independently, successfully, and ethically. The panels give people the chance to meet decision-makers who run the music industry, ask them down-to-earth questions, and receive straightforward answers. Each session seeks to explicate a different aspect of the music industry, such as how the A&R process works, how to find (or become) a band manager, how to get online and print publicity, and how to find legal representation.
The descriptions are nice because the iconocastic archives simply lists them. Be sure to check iconocastic for Hierocast, the Hieroglyphics Podcast, as well.
Julien Smith of in over your head has a newly published manifesto at Change This entitled Keep It Real:
Julien Smith confronts companies and marketers with a deceptively simple question: Are You Keeping It Real? And if you don’t know what he means, you probably aren’t. So, read up on how you can walk the walk in this new consumer-led century.
Stephan Spencer's MarketingProfs.com article, Marketing on MySpace, is worth a quick look, especially since it may go behind a firewall before long. It's billed as an adult introduction to a teen space, which is understandable, but marketers should remain aware of the fact that some older folks are on there too, though using self-reported age on MySpace is a seriously fuzzy enterprise.
Spencer includes some tips from Michael Boldin who states:
It's easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer numbers on MySpace—and important to try to focus on marketing to the "right" group for your product or service — otherwise you'll be spending a LOT of time on people who will never be interested in you.
However, guess who Boldin suggests to build up one's friends list?
On the other hand, when starting off, you need to get Friends. It's kind of a bragging right on MySpace. If you have too few friends, it'll be tough to get the good ones—the ones who will end up buying from you. So, before you go after those, get a few hundred "bad" friends—bands are the easiest. They'll give you a respectable number on your Friends list, and will leave comments on your page—giving a little realism boost to your profile—making the addition of friends of the "good" type that much easier.
I'm not sure what that means in terms of bands' bragging rights regarding numbers of friends but it does suggest the possibility of targeting bands that relate to the demographics of your current or hoped for user base. For bands that's easier than for other services/products but it does mean that if you can come up with data on the connection you'll have an additional tool to focus your MySpace efforts.
Julian at in over your head shares his excellent tips on How to succeed in 2007. They're of particular use to bloggers and to anyone trying to understand this new media thing.
Call me weird [you wouldn't be the first] but when I read about someone who's a rising young artist, newly signed to a label run by influential producers who work with famous names in hip hop and R&B, I want to know some things.
While an introductory press release that combines a couple of announcements including one mentioning a new artist may not go into a lot of details, I don't think it's too much to ask to tell me what Mr. I've Never Heard Of You Before But I Know You'll Be Famous Soon does with his outrageous abundance of take-the-game-over fresh young energy.
Is he a singer?
Is he a rapper?
Is he a dj?
Does he dance in a cage and make the crowd go wild at the mere twitch of his many prosthetic enhancements?
What?
Please tell me.
Don't make me fill in the blanks cause then it gets ugly. Really ugly.
You may have missed what PRWeb quietly announced on their website around the time of the launch of Billboard Publicity Wire. They've ended their free press release distribution service.
While that's unfortunate because it was really the best free press release service, their basic levels of paid service are budget friendly and well designed. This move, which follows their acquisition by Vocus and their recent deal with Business Wire, opens up the field for other free press release distribution services. It will be interesting to see who steps up.
I used the Billboard Publicity Wire services for my recent hip hop domain auction press release and found that what they're actually offering are PRWeb's paid service plus a listing on Billboard Publicity Wire which is hosted at PRWeb. My understanding is that there is no presence on Billboard's own websites and that any reference in the Billboard Publicity Wire service descriptions to appearing on Billboard's site refer to the Publicity Wire site.
Nevertheless, I think the BPW site does add value without extra expense and will become quite prominent in the future because it creates a specific spot for music related press releases.
One oddity is that the categories for the subsections and RSS feeds listed on the BPW press release submission form are different from the categories available via PR Web's submission form. This difference meant that my recent release did not turn up in one of the PR Web categories that I would have chosen at PRWeb. I'll check with them to see if they have any clarification on that point and get back to you but everything else looks pretty solid and straightforward.
Billboard and Vocus's PRWeb press release service, are partnering on a new music and entertainment press release distribution service called Billboard Publicity Wire:
Billboard Publicity Wire will use Vocus’ specialized team of PRWeb editors and proprietary SEO tools to help ensure that its customers' news receives maximum exposure. Press releases will be indexed by major search engines and published on myriad news and entertainment sites including Yahoo! News, Billboard.biz, eMediaWire and PRWeb...The service will also produce and distribute podcasts that can be attached to press releases with photos and electronic media kits.
Billboard Publicity Wire launches October 24th.
I recently received a request for information on other press release and news outlets besides Hip Hop Press. The following are a few worth knowing about. Feel free to add more in the comments.
The following press release services are free though some offer paid upgrades as well, in particular, PR Web has a variety of options with many worthwhile add-ons.
Music Industry News Network - also distributed via newsletter.
Manhunt has switched their service to a blog format but I can't find the submission page.
Be sure to submit releases to hip hop news sites as well. You may have to search for a submit news button but it's well worth it if they run your news.
SOHH currently has an online form.
Check the bottom of AllHipHop news articles for the current email for news tips.
These aren't the only outlets I'd recommend, just the more prominent ones.
Back in the early days of ProHipHop, I tried doing some more in-depth reports focusing on hip hop but got absolutely no response and ditched the idea. Though that kind of thing is not that easy to justify in an ad supported publication, I'd really love to see more folks digging in and sharing their analysis in public.
As far as I'm concerned, public data mining by independent operatives is long overdue.
On that note, various folks have interesting things to say and are starting to play with Soundscan data in public. For example, Henry Adaso at About Rap/Hip-Hop has been offering a roundup of the Weekly Top Rap Albums drawing on access to the actual Soundscan reports [from what I can tell].
And, yes, I'm trying to encourage him so maybe he'll do more. If such things interest you, let him know.
For those of you not in the habit of collecting arcane industry information, you may find the date on his headline a bit confusing. Basically, last week's Soundscan data will be published in the print editon of Billboard next week while we'll talk about it this week (or something like that). It's truly a 20th century artefact that I imagine will eventually disappear as Billboard plays catch-up on new technology [just kidding, kind of, but at least they're trying].
For more arcane insights, I've heard nice things about Wendy Day's article Interpreting Soundscan in the first issue of Platinum Entrepreneur that is now available as a free PDF download. What, me read it? I don't have time to read. I'm too busy watching Floyd Landis decimate the opposition in the Tour de France!
If you're a budding chart fiend without ready access to Soundcan figures, then you can learn quite a bit by following the info that Billboard posts for free in their Charts section.
I also hear good things about HITS Daily Double but don't really check for it because I'm not following that stuff so closely. Nevertheless, all the smart bloggers mention it sooner or later, so maybe I'll get a pass if I do too!
GameDaily Biz has a nice Media Coverage column entitled What Game Developers Hate About Videogame Reviewers that I think is quite relevant to folks trying to get their music and related material reviewed.
The author focuses on the complaints of game developers regarding game reviewers from the "enthusiast press", i.e. the proam space that's getting so big online across industry categories (though it's a bit more specific in the gaming scene). After outlining a complaint, the author then suggests briefly how both the enthusiast press could improve and what game developers could do to address the situation in a more positive way.
For example, in the section entitled Developers hate game reviewers because they don't understand games that are targeted for a specific audience, the author discusses How game developers can help:
Study a publication to see how they treat games targeted at your specific audience. If they generally treat them unfairly or with disdain, they really don't need a copy from PR. Other publications specifically aimed at your target audience would be far more likely to give the product a fair shot.
Though I know that pr folks and folks pushing their own music are often stuck in a situation where they've got to hustle to get anybody to pay attention to their project, blanketing the space with copies of CDs to high profile online reviewers can have a negative effect.
In my case, though I generally don't do reviews of music anymore, anyone familiar with my reviews at Hip Hop Logic as well as the writing I've done here, knows that I have always spoken out against guntalk and that guns are a button pushing issue for me. Therefore, sending me a CD that features guntalk is a sure way to get a bad review that may not even address the good things about your release, especially if I'm having a bad day.
On the other hand, even though I'm not a Christian or a Muslim, I'm oddly sympathetic to hip hop from folks who forefront that aspect of their identity. This might be a little harder to figure out from my reviews but, at Hip Hop Logic, I recall at least two reviews of Christian oriented acts that were quite positive and, more recently, I've been paying much more attention to Muslim oriented acts and have had positive things to say about such artists as well.
You'll notice that, in general, I don't criticize people for their religious beliefs, racial/ethnic backgrounds, gender, sexual preferences, geographic location and so forth. That means that if I was reviewing CDs, I would be a good person if your act didn't fit the predominant social paradigm (in the f*cked up nation of hip hop) but still rocked. And, since my tastes are rather odd and eclectic, I might even become your champion if I dig what I hear when I get around to listening to it.
Of course, figuring that out might take a lot of work. Hip Hop Logic is published via Blogger and they did not have categories as an option at the time (they still may not), so finding out what I've said about guns in my reviews may seem quite difficult. However, even in those cases where a blog or website doesn't identify reviews and has no search engine, one can use the Advanced Search tools at Google or Yahoo to search for results from a particular domain using relevant keywords.
So if you do a search on Google for guns in the domain netweed.com/hiphoplogic, you'll discover that I'm not into guntalk and, if I agree to write about your badassss gangsta CD plastered with guns and loaded with the countless dead that litter your path, you've been set up!
However, I'm going to try to do a better job here at ProHipHop of letting people know where I'm coming from when I ask for information, since I'm quite aware of this dynamic.
Figuring out who cares about what is time consuming, just as is building relationships with music reviewers. The artists and pr operatives that are in it for the long haul are the ones who stand to gain the most from building a proprietary database of which reviewers, websites and publications care about what. In fact, I'm not sure how profitable this could be, but a service that identifies those people and publications (on and offline), would be extremely useful at this point in time.
At the very least, it's important to recognize that choosing who to send review copies to based on their Google ranking, without taking some time to figure out what kinds of music those sites tend to appreciate, is a great way to get a high profile negative review that will pop up time and time again when your name is searched.
In writing about claims to being the first book about Dirty South hip hop, I'm reminded that I've meant to do some writing about hip hop press release cliches. I haven't because I immediately envison an essay. Instead I'm hoping a rough list of a few examples might get some useful discussion going.
Here are some hip hop press release cliches that I've noticed in my daily reading for Hip Hop Press. Some are widespread and some more unique to hip hop.
Claiming to be unique:
First
the first rapper to record an entire album while keeping his mouth filled with marbles
Only
the only rapper to record an entire album while keeping his mouth filled with marbles
ProHipHop advises: only claim "first" or "only" when you can actually verify such claims to a reasonable degree and if they are meaningful claims.
Claiming that people care:
Highly Anticipated
seriously, your mom's excitement doesn't really count and, if no one's ever heard of you, who else besides your moms is eagerly awaiting your climb to stardom?
ProHipHop notes: this phrase is so cliched and overused that I almost flinch no matter who's writing it, even when it's technically accurate.
Predicting future success:
Without a doubt
without a doubt mc new guy will take the industry by storm
Next up
mc new guy is next up to take the industry by storm
Change the game
the release of mc new guy's latest cd-r will take the industry by storm and undoubtedly change the game
Please add your most and/or least favorite cliches in the comments as well as related thoughts and I'll do something more elaborate with proper credit given.
Guest columnist Julien Smith shares his introductory tips for marketing music on MySpace.
I was wrong about MySpace. I was absolutely, unequivocally wrong, and I'm sorry. Like you, I thought MySpace was the biggest garbage dump to hit the internet. Just like you, I didn't embrace it. Damn, if only I had earlier.
The trick, you see, is seeing the big picture.
Imagine a guy hustling CDs on a street corner - guy doesn't sell a lot of CDs, right? But put the guy on the right corner, a really busy one, and teach him to sell, he can make hundreds in a day. Do yourself a favour, and put yourself on that corner. MySpace can help make it happen.
First: bands, if you don't have a MySpace page, you're dead in the water. Second: If your band sucks, no amount of MySpace traffic will save you. Work those turntables and spit till your jaw falls off. Then get back to me.
So, now you should have a page, you've got Tom and Black Tom (the original), and you've added Clyde and me because it's the right thing to do. "But wait," I might hear you say, "I don't even know you." Correct, you do not. And you don't know every single person that comes to your shows, but you love them, right? Same idea. Now start adding.
Do you have a computer at work? If so, be on MySpace during the day. If you can hire your little brother to be on for you, do that. Being on MySpace should be like running for President - you're always on, all the time. Groups, bands like yours, zip codes - add, add, add. I think people have had MySpace propaganda drilled into them enough, but just in case you haven't and are asking yourself why you should do this, I would like to remind you that every moment of your band's life is spent in competition with every rapper in the world (not to mention every other commercial you see on TV), except you do not have a marketing budget.
Thankfully, MySpace is the great equalizer, and you don't need to sell 500,000 CDs to make a decent living like Green Day; you need to sell 300 to break even on your CD printing. And every person that goes to your page is an immediate listener, and potential buyer, so impress them. Put up your best tracks, and if you're really smart, offer them for download. If you're good, people will start hearing about you, and people will talk. I found out about Bad News Brown this way.
MySpace Groups are your friends, because if there is one dedicated to underground hip hop with 15,000 members, there's probably one where you'll be able to fit in and get some fans. Participate, and add everyone, all the time.
How do you expand your network after that? My recommendation: go after podcasters (like me). Podcasters have MySpace groups, and they play music constantly on their shows. They can be hard up for good tracks that they are legally allowed to play. Be one of those people, because podcasters' influence sells records! And if you're going to send them anything, don't do it without listening to their show first; that's just rude. Recommend a track that works. (If you're looking for somewhere to start with that, try Indiefeed. They rock.)
So now you have a bunch of friends, it's time to comment. Commenting is an important part of MySpace hustling, because people seem to actually read them. This may amaze you (it amazed me), but traffic spikes don't lie. Also, keep in mind that 78 million users on any site have got to go somewhere.
By the way, are you aware of banner blindness? Studies show that people entirely ignore all that big, ugly, flashing junk on websites just as quick as they'll avoid the crazy guy yelling to himself on the streetcorner. So don't be that guy. Comment like a person, because you are one, and that's your strength.
This is the same concept with the 'design' of your page (in quotation marks because, let's face it, MySpace is not about looks). Every page you have control over should make your visitors do one thing. If you're trying to get their attention on five things, you won't get them on any. So make your visitors focus, and you're on your way.
Hey, do you have a way to sell your tracks online? It's something you might want to consider doing. The Podsafe Music Network lets you set up a page and sell your tracks for 99 cents each (most of which goes to you), so until MySpace figures that out, give it a shot. A lot of cats are turned off by buying CDs online, but they'll definitely pay for tracks if it's easy for them. I have a subscription to eMusic, for example, but haven't bought a CD yet this year. A lot of my listeners are the same.
One of the advantages of working both angles is you get the kids (who are broke but talk up a storm) to chit-chat about you to everyone, and the older cats to pay for the stuff they like. Eventually the kids get some cash and may do the same. The system has worked before - think Arctic Monkeys and movies like Stick It. Put in some elbow grease, Google for more tips, and I'll see you next time.
Further reading:
MySpace gives 'Stick It' a box-office boost
Adisa Banjoko has a nice piece on Bay Area hip hop's need to get its business right, if the Bay wants to take advantage of this moment in time. Actually, it's a series of points on doing business well and for the long haul, something that is difficult for hustlers to understand. And you know hip hop is full of hustlers.
Here's his first point:
1. You must learn to see what you are d oing beyond the hustle and turn what you are doing into a business. E-40 and Too Short’s success did not happen overnight. It was the result of many years of recording, doing shows, selling tapes outta the trunk, learning the in’s and out’s of distributio n, learning how to use the media to your advantage, etc. At some point, they made the actual transition from the hustle into the business. If you fail to do that, you can expect failure period.
Point 5 on marketing is pretty good too, especially sin ce he mentions me!:
5. Look at yourself, and your group. Are you marketable? Why should someone buy your music over the next rappers CD? If your only response is, “’Cause I’m hella raw”, that’s not enough. Do you know what a brand is? Do you know what your company’s position is? Do you know what messaging is? What does your press kit look like? What is the difference between public relations and advertising? Do you know what kind of habits build and destroy brands? In an oversaturated market you need very edge you can have. Do you visit sites like www.prohiphop.com ? Knowledge is the key. But there is no better branding than making good music, and conducting positive business.
The piece is also up at Davey D's house of knowledge but, unfortunately, what could have been a highly productive discussion got redirected by Kris Kringle cultists.
I'll say this about the issues between KRS-One and Adisa. Adisa's worked really hard to honor the peace and to keep his people cool while folks claiming to be KRS-One supporters keep trying to stir things up. Not a smart m ove in the long run unless these supposed supporters of KRS-One are actually undercover agitator brothers whose job it is to create disturbances. That's a well-established technique of the FBI so it raises some interesting questions about various individuals' actual agendas.
Think about it.
Bob Baker, author of the Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook, has announced the release of the ebook MySpace Music Marketing.
You can find out more about the MySpace Music Marketing ebook and also check out links to Bob's free music marketing material, including his Indie Music Promotion Blog.
Available from Amazon:
Bob Baker - Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook
& Guerrilla Music Marketing, Encore Edition: 201 More Self-promotion Ideas, Tips & Tactics for Do-it-yourself Artists
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