By: Greg Beshers
The Beshers Rapport
Seeing as how the music industry is in a major state of flux right now, there are still many people who will gladly take the time and effort to put together a record and release it and think that’s it, they’ve done their part and expect some kind of return. What makes me scratch my head weekly is the expectations of people that decide to put out records and then sit back and do nothing else.
A lot of people think, myself included for many years, that you get a label or a distributor and you get in the store and because your content is good, then it will get discovered. But today that is quite the contrary. Anyone can get into the retail stores these days (iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody etc), but now getting in is just the beginning. You and everyone else who put out a record is in the store, so now it becomes about what can you do to set yourself apart.
Well that’s where marketing comes in. Well what exactly is “marketing” and how do you do it? Well first off, marketing is preparation and organization. These are two words that I almost never associate with musicians. This is not a flaw in them, just a fact of life. Let’s face it, people usually start playing music and join bands because it’s the closest thing to running off with the circus…or the circus freaks at the very least. They put a ton of effort into recording and playing but feel that once they get their record online it will sell itself. This is an unrealistic expectation even if you have a label behind you that is putting money out for advertising. You as a musician, still have to work at selling your music constantly. A label can only do so much these days. With diminishing returns on CD’s and the sheer amount of music that’s out there, it’s an uphill battle at every turn.
So back to preparation and organization…..What in the hell am I talking about? Well first off, you need to prepare for releasing your record. You need to pick a realistic date for it to go live online. We at IODA ask for a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks for this process. While we have a great turnaround for ingesting and delivering content to our partners, usually less than a week at the outside, we are at our partners’ mercy as to when they will actually publish it. Sometimes it is within a week, but sometimes it takes longer because our partners systems are backed up because, let’s face it, there’s a lot of content being delivered from everyone. It’s not a fault of anyone’s really, just the nature of the beast. So prepare ahead of time for the release of your record.
Organization is the next step. You need to be coordinating the release of your record with a record release show, if you’re having one, or any press you might be trying to get etc. You don’t want press to come out too early before your record is released or too late for that matter either. Too soon and no one will be able to buy your record while they’re reading about it, too late and a lot of blog’s won’t want to write about something that’s already been available for awhile. So while it’s somewhat of a tight time frame you have to work with, it’s not impossible. And don’t forget to put up Buylinks to your record on all of your band’s pages (Myspace, Facebook, band website etc.) These will enable anyone to click through to your album and buy it, just like that.
But back to marketing…again, there’s only so much a label or a distributor can do for a record. I cannot stress enough the fact that the musician’s themselves’ need to be working at promoting their own work. And they need all of their websites to be kept updated at all times. Being organized and prepared can be tough things for a musician, I know. So if you feel you can’t do it, go find someone to work with you who can be. Because in the long run, without the preparation and organization, you’re just another release sitting on a server, and no one wants to let their hard work and effort and money fly under the radar unnoticed.
Related Posts:
Tags: The Beshers Rapport
