The top blogs are a joy to read and a great source of superb indie music that you would otherwise never get a hold of. There is no one set way to get your music to them because each site will do it differently. It’s a matter of surfing round and finding the blogs that fit with your genre and then contacting them to see if they’d be interested in hearing your stuff. One thing is certain though, there is a lot of cross pollination between the blogs as writers read each other’s entries. Getting as many people as possible blogging about your release is key to creating the internet ‘buzz’ that can lead to a successful indie release or attracting a good indie label. Giving them a couple of tracks to give away on the blogs as well is a strewd promotional tool because, like a radio station, it’ll give a whole new audience a chance to hear your tracks. Check out the blog roll on our blog for a list of our favoriate sites here and in the US.

Keeping a Blog yourself is also an excellent way of engaging with your fans and supporters. The most important thing is to keep it updated with interesting content otherwise people just won’t bother checking back!

Podcasts

Podcasts are a mixture of internet radio and a blog. A quick surf around the web and around the iTunes store will bring up thousands of podcasts ranging from instructions for fixing a computer to media shows. In a similar way to blogs, music podcasts are usually put together like a radio show by enthusiasts who just have a passion for music and want to share it. Unlike internet radio which is streamed (meaning you have to be online to listen) you can download podcasts to your MP3 player and once a link is set up in iTunes or another similar program all new episodes are automatically downloaded.

In a similar way to bloging the audience usually shares the tastes and passions of the podcaster – no matter now niche! Just like radio it is well worth building relationships with podcasters who actually have audiences who might be into your music. At least initially the more places and opportunities you can give the public to hear your songs – the better.

Check out the blog roll of our blog for a list of the blogs we love, many of these we are building relationships with, if you want us to consider sending out your releases to them then register with us.

SEND US YOUR MUSIC –>

It was also a way to build relationships with your fan base, regular blogs about day to day life made fans feel like they were part of the band, replying to mails and comments make the fans feel like they are part of a community that believe in the same music and support it by publicising it for you. The spoiler is that these days many artists’ Myspace sites are run by interns at the record label but still the illusion remains that you have a direct line to the star.

 The other coup was it gave you lists of people who might be interested in your music, online friends can see which bands other friends are friends with and knowing that their friends have similar musical tastes to them they then go and check out that band and probably sign up. Technology savvy artists began to use automated unofficial Myspace ‘bots’ that automatically went through other similar band’s friend lists sending out friend requests to all the users signed up to that band. Even though Myspace have gone to great lengths to stop this practice now it has in many ways invalidated a user’s friend count as an indication of how popular they actually are.

It remains to be seen if Facebook will replicate the completely indispensable quality that Myspace pages have attained within the music industry, especially in the US. There is definitely a school of thought that says it’s worth having a presence on as many online sites as you can. Other examples include Bebo.com and Imeem.com (which actually allows you to build play lists from all the music on the site and embed a player on other sites) and are well worth looking at but remember it’s a two way process. Social network marketing only works if you have the time and resources to put into it. Friends need to be made, messages need to be sent and replied to, blogs need to be updated and other people’s blogs need to be commented on, you have to be very proactive about getting yourself and your music out there. For some independent artists I’ve spoken to this amounts to anything up to several hours work a day but the payoff has been features on websites, press reviews, song placements in independent films, record contracts and of course sales of their records.

Blogs & Podcasts–>

How to take advantage of these new tools is still being explored within the industry and interestingly different things seem to work well for different artists. Just because one idea or gimmick worked for one band doesn’t mean it’ll work for another. However in the following pages we’ve gone through some of the things to explore.

Online Radio

There are simply thousands of online radio stations now ranging from the 15 year old in his bedroom to the huge multinationals. At the moment most users listen through their static computers but new technology like the iPhone with it’s 3G connection is now allowing people to listen to it on the move as well. One important thing to note is that few online radio stations currently report to or pay copyright royalties on the music they air but if all your after is promotional opportunities then this won’t matter to you.

As with all promotional work it’s essential to target where you’re sending your music to make sure it’s suitable. There is simply no point sending your beautifully crafted acoustic singer/songwriter piece to a Hip Hop station, you’re wasting your time and theirs! Research the stations and shows who play your genre of music and then try and target the DJs and producers of those shows.

It’s also worth really thinking about if the radio station has a bona fide audience or not. There are millions of radio stations available who literally no one listens to and so it’s again important to target your efforts to make sure they aren’t wasted. Websites like live365.com host hundreds of independent radio stations and rate them which can be a helpful guide to their audience size. You can send music to each station by a link on their page or live365 also offer a paid service where they make your music available to all their DJs.

MySpace & Facebook–>

One of the keys to good press release is finding a ‘hook’ for the story. There is nothing unique about a unknown band releasing a record but if there is some sort of back story to go with it it suddenly becomes more interesting to media outlets. For example an unusual album launch, unique recording venue/process or personal story behind the record can make it seem infinitely more newsworthy. Another great tip is to always keep press releases short and concise, standard industry practice when sending out music for promotional or review purposes is to include a ‘one sheet’ which usually contains all the relevant band and release info with a photo on one side of A4. If you can’t fit all the information onto that one sheet then it’s too much information!

The music press are also essential in your mission of introducing your music to a new audience. The larger national press are again very difficult to break if you haven’t already got an established relationship with them but that shouldn’t stop you from trying. More importantly local or regional press should always be a large part of any release plan because they are more likely to take an interest. Get creative and brain storm any papers of magazines you’ve seen that have a music section and might be read by the audience your aiming for. Try and make sure that any reviews or coverage you can get coincides with live gigs or tours so that people have an opportunity to hear you in the flesh.

Online Music Marketing –>

The touring circuit can be a hard one to crack and it’s surprising how many artists and bands seem to think that they can just walk straight onto it. It’s also surprising how many bands (thanks to the help of digital editing) record great albums but really REALLY suck live! Our advice is always to start recording your rehearsals and gigs on to CD or mini-disc and have a critical listening session afterwards, if it doesn’t sound as tight, punchy and ‘vibey’ as the album then go back and rehearse harder until it does. Legend has it that James Brown used to religiously listen back to all his concerts and then fine each musician for each mistake he heard, if he heard 3 mistakes in the same gig then the musician was out and replaced within 24hours! A little bit harsh maybe but you can’t argue with the fact that he always had a super tight band on the top of their game for every gig he played.

When your on a bill with 3 or 4 other bands the aim is always to be the stand out act of the night. If your out shone then it’s back to the drawing board, tweak the songs and improve the playing until you genuinely are the act that everyone leaves the gig talking about. A lot of artists and bands, maybe fuelled by the overnight success stories of shows like Pop Idol, don’t seem to realise that nearly every successful music career has been built on the foundation of tireless touring. When Pulp headlined Glastonbury in 1995 the media wrote huge stories about this overnight sensation, Jarvis Cocker ruefully retorted by describing himself as a 12 year long overnight success story. There are nearly always years worth of hard slog playing up and down the country and around Europe before a big enough fan base has been built up to push an artist into the mainstream.

There are several things to consider when booking up shows to promote your music, firstly – as always – you’ve got to target your efforts so you end up playing to people who will be into your music. Choose the venues and promoters you approach carefully to make sure that you’ll fit in with the vibe of the nights they put on. If you don’t know the local scene that well just go through the local gig listings, and check out the websites of some of the bands listed to get an idea of what venues book which genres. Then it’s a matter of making phone calls and visiting places to get the names and contact details of the promoters who book the bands and passing them your demo and biography with a pitch for a slot on the bill.

On a local level, the main concern that nearly all venues have is that you bring in the punters so they spend money on the door and at the bar. You can be the worst musician in the world but if you bring in 100 of your friends each time you can almost be guaranteed another booking. As a business savvy artist you need to really take a hold of this fact and use it to your advantage. When making your pitch make sure that you emphasize things like the size of your mailing list and how many fans usually turn up to your shows. When you get the booking, make sure you deliver by promoting it to your fans via email, your myspace page or by handing out the venue’s flyers.

Most venues usually have 3 or 4 bands on during a night and it’s this cross-pollination of fans that’s essential to building up your own fan base. Trying to get onto the bill of other bands and artists with a similar sound or vibe is essential because it gives you a chance to play to people who you know are into your musical sound. Playing such a gig is a great opportunity to expand your mailing list so make sure to announce from the stage where people can sign up and have friends or yourself work the room afterwards with clipboards and sign up sheets.

On a larger scale, the big touring bands often look for a local support act in each city that they visit to bring in the local crowds. Keeping an eye on the local gig listings and then contacting the relevant record labels can land you a killer opportunity.

When it comes to start doing your own tours you’ll need some support behind you. You’ll be counting on either the venues or a promoter to do all your local promotion for you and if you haven’t got a booking agent then you’ll be approaching and booking all the venues yourself which can be time consuming and frustrating. This is where the support, experience and contacts of a good manager can pay dividends. A good manager should be able to open doors to you that would otherwise have remained closed and help you find the breaks you need to progress up the live music circuit food chain into the decent larger venues. Finding a good manager can be difficult but they can be a huge asset and well worth their percentage cut. 

One last thing to mention is to always remember to push your merchandising when your onstage. As we said at the start, you’ll have no better opportunity to sell a record than after you’ve just wowed someone with an awesome live set. Make sure that your merch is prominently displayed – preferably near the exit so that everyone has to walk past it – and that it is sensibly priced. After the gig try and make sure you are around to meet fans, talk to them about the music and even sign stuff if they want you to. Anything you can do to build a relationship with fans will reap benefits. Someone is much more likely to go home and tell all their mates about this incredible band they heard play last night if they also have a story about how they met the lead guitarist afterwards, chatted away and ended getting their arm signed by him or something. 

Promoting in the mainstream–>

What we mean by fragmentation is that there used to be a just few main radio stations, TV shows and music magazines that the record labels could use to reach the majority of their audience with. These days the way people hear new music has fragmented into hundreds of music shows on a vast array of international TV channels, countless blogs, websites, internet radio stations, podcasts and social networking sites. People are picking up new music in a huge number of different ways and are forging loyalties to media outlets that cater to their specific niche taste.

This can be a huge opportunity for independent artists to reach audiences they would never have been able to reach before. It requires a change of mindset from the traditional way music is marketed which is something the major labels are still struggling with.

Marketing music used to be about shouting loudly about your new band’s release through bill boards, adverts, flyers and shows hoping that people would hear and buy the record. The problem is that with everybody shouting through all these new media channels (eg. online, radio etc) the audience has tuned out. What they want now is a quiet voice speaking directly to them and a relationship built up between them and the artist. We’ll come onto social networking sites and the revolution they’ve been later on but this focus on relationship building has now become gospel in the music industry. One of the most valuable things you can get from a fan is their contact information because that allows you to speak them directly about what’s going on with your new project or new tour. You can send them special offers on merchandise or even send them free demos or tracks from the studio. If you can make them feel valued and part of your ‘community’ then they are a lot more likely to buy the next album, go see the next gig and most importantly tell their friends about you.

Making your fans feel valued is probably the most important marketing tip we can give you. The other huge piece of advice we’d offer is to sit down and make a plan to target all your efforts at the audience your aiming for. There is a huge amount of honesty and creativity that needs to be put into this, ask yourself who is going to like your music and what is the best way to contact them. You may think that your music really appeals to bleeding edge teenage punk crowd but in reality is your core audience really more people in their early 30s with sensible jobs? Either way which magazines, blogs or shows do they read and go to? If your sound is like a folk band on acid then where in the country has a vibrant psychedelic folk scene and who are the promoters running the gigs and shows in that area? If you have a sound like another well known band then find all the online forums, sites and blogs who mention them and post up a bunch of comments saying “You think these guys are good, check us out!” The more targeted you can make your efforts the more likely you are to find a return for all your work. Mis-targeted marketing and promotion – telling people who would obviously have no interest in hearing about you – is simply a waste of time of your time and theirs.

Promoting Music by Playing Live –>

The second side involves finding ways to market your new release through the distribution channels. For example this used to involve things like trying to get your album prominently displayed, preferably near the checkout in a special display stand, to lobbying to be included on the in-store listening posts.

Physical Distribution

In the modern music industry the Internet has opened up a huge amount of different ways of distributing your music aside from the traditional retailer. Having said that it must be stated that a huge amount of music sales still happen on the high street and through independent music stores and none of these potential sales outlets should be neglected. Traditional distributors will do a distribution deal with you if you have a profile that they think will sell stock, for this they’ll normally they take 25% of the RRP. If you’re a new or low-profile artist though then it’ll probably be more fruitful to go store-to-store locally. Independent music stores are often especially willing to take a few copies on sale-or-return, especially if you are willing to do promotional work with them like signings or in store appearances. These local stores also deserve artist’s support because an indie music scene without them would be tragic.

Licensing Your Music

This leads up briefly onto licensing deals, these are becoming more and more popular as the industry prefers to take fewer risks. In this situation an artist or band will cover all the expenses of recording an album and then ‘license’ that recording to a record label (with a distribution arm) or independant distributor who will then distribute and market it. The label usually takes between 10-25% of the retail price once their marketing costs have been recouped which is significantly less than the 50-75% they can take with traditional deals.

The advantages for the artist is that they retain creative control and ownership of the recording and the label does what it does best which is just distribute and market the final product. The label also has to invest a lot less because the recording has already been made and therefore the artist can demand a lot more favourable terms to the deal with a higher royality percentage. For the label, they get a chance to earn some money off the record by selling it but without the risk of having to invest large amounts of money making it. There’s also not the normal huge risk of paying for the something to be made on the basis of a few demos, a band will often let a label hear the finished masters before the deal is signed and so the label knows exactly what they’re getting with no nasty surprises.

The challenge for unknown independant artists is to convince a label or distributor that they are worth investing marketing money into. A distributor will be able to get copies of the product into the shops but without press and marketing behind it then all those copies will simply be returned and you’ll be left with a big bill for the transport.

Digital Distribution

Physical sales (sales involving a physical product) though cost money because you obviously have to produce a physical product to sell and the usual minimum quantity to make this cost effective is 1000 units – which is expensive! However the music industry revolution is currently being fuelled by digital distribution that costs virtually nothing. There is a plethora of online digital music download sites now that offer to stock your mp3 in return for a percentage of the sale price.  The terms that these digital download sites offer can vary considerably and this is worth considering when thinking about where to direct your audience to. Some sites will offer you a much larger cut of the sale price than others and allow you to set your own price. Some sites are a fiddly nightmare to navigate and purchase from where as others are a breeze; some enforce DRM and device specific formats and others don’t. Some sites might also be willing to help with the second side of distribution and do promotional work for you, eg. Feature you in a newsletter or front-page ad to bring people’s attention to your release. All this is worth considering when deciding with whom to sign up with.

Taking iTunes as an example – they do not have the most favourable terms on royalties for independent artists. It’s a set fee that many have argued is comparatively small compared to other online retailers. It’s also almost impossible to get any promotional help from them or product placement in the site, anecdotal evidence says that you are unlikely to be featured on the front page or on the itunes podcast without either a major label behind you or a large amount of money to pay for the privilege. However on the plus side iTunes is fast becoming the first place people go when looking for a band they heard on the radio or read about online. The integration with the ubiquitous iPod and one-click buying systems means that it is easily one of the easiest to use sites in the online world and the most popular (though it will be interesting to see if Amazon’s new MP3 site will change that.) Even though other websites offer better terms the bottom line is that it is fast becoming the online equivalent of Virgin and HMV, big and impersonal but essential for selling your music to the average punter.

While iTunes offers a ‘one size fits all’ approach there are other smaller websites who have innovative pricing structures and ways of helping promote you and boost your profile amongst their user community. One of our favourites is amiestreet.com which not only has a vibrant community of indie music fans and musicians but also a genuinely innovative pricing structure that ends up giving the artist 70% of all profits. There is a genuine opportunity with these sorts of small social networking sites to promote your music in a way that large corporate sites just don’t allow so if you feel like you can successfully direct your audience to them then don’t be scared to make wide use of them.

There are loads more out there and some are listed in the links section. Getting your music into these online stores can seem daunting as many of them require you to be an offical label to submit songs to them. However help is at hand because there are ‘music store aggregators’ like tunecore, CDbaby and emubands who for a small fee will submit and get your songs listed onto all of the major online digital retailers.

If you don’t want to go with an established company you can always try selling your music direct from your own website. Easybe do some great cheap software that allows you to run your own online download shop with the minimum amount of programming knowledge. If your not interesting in every charting on any charts and feel like you’ll gain nothing from the other services that online stores offer then just do it yourself and keep 100% of the profit.

As we’ve already discussed here, being given a huge budget to record a great sounding record is no longer necessary. Digital technology has lowered the budgets required within reach of many independent artists. In fact many independent artists are now getting very creative when it comes to finding funding for recording their albums. The most straightforward method is just to take out a loan from either a bank or relative to fund the recording.  In essence that’s what a record deal used to be anyway, a loan from the label to record a product that the label would then receive all the money from sales until it’s loan had been repaid. There are obvious dangers in this as you are taking all the financial risk as opposed to the label and in the current climate of falling music sales it should not be entered into lightly but in a world where very decent sounding albums can be recorded for a few thousand pounds it’s not complete business madness to consider it if you have an established fanbase to market to.

Other models of funding pioneered by artists who we’ve heard of include schemes like pre-selling albums to fund the release. Artists have asked fans to pay a sum of money usually about twice the usual album price to fund the recording of the record, of which some demos are usually available as part of the marketing. There is a set release date and an assurance of either a product or the money back. Those early ‘investors’ receive a special limited edition copy on release as well as free tickets to a release show or similar. Not only does this make use of your loyal fan base but it can also help hype the final release. However, as we’ve said before, recorded music sales are falling so persuading people to part with cash before a record’s even been recorded can be very hard but the more you can make them feel uniquely involved in the project the more chance they’ll be willing to help with it.

Another scheme we’ve heard of is artists ‘micro financing’ projects by selling small amounts of shares in future album to fans and investors. They offer people a split of the profits from a release in return for an investment of a couple of hundred pounds or so. Not only does this make fans feel a part of your music and your creative work but it also offers them the prospect of getting their money back with the possibility of a return on the investment. Again paperwork always needs to be prepared stating the exact terms of the deal so that everybody is in no doubt what to expect from the other parties.

There are even dedicated websites that allow you to buy and sell shares in bands, sites like sellaband and slicethepie boast several artists who have gone on to record albums with the funds the websites have provided. Exposure on these sorts of sites can be very helpful in introducing your work to a larger audience and as part of a release marketing campaign. However a quick warning – always read the terms of signing up to these sites very carefully and find out what the implications are for ownership of the final recording if it gets made as some artists we know have found those terms unfavourable.

One of the biggest benefits of paying for the recording yourself is that you then legally you own it. This used to be one of the biggest complaints of the old record label model of doing things. An artist could spend a year of their lives making what they thought was the perfect record but once they’d finished – they didn’t own it! The label owned the copyright to the ‘sound recording’ because they paid for it and therefore had the sole right to exploit it for the duration of the copyright. In a worst-case scenario a label could then either stall releasing a record or even cancel it altogether if they didn’t feel it would recoup their investment or it didn’t fit in with their current vision for the company. They did of course stand to lose all the investment they put into making it but their logic was if they didn’t stand a chance of recouping then why spend the extra money on duplication, distribution and marketing? Owning the copyright to your own recordings is very valuable, it gives you complete control over how they are used and so should not be signed away lightly.

Music distribution –>

As an example, when trying to get secure a spot like the ‘featured artist’ on the Myspace homepage for a day (something that generates millions of hits) a new musician releasing their debut release can only try and cold call email the site and hope for the best. The chances of it getting through the junk filter and being positively received are virtually nill. However, fictional cool indie label “A” has Johnny who works in the online promo department and has the head of Myspace’s music departments direct phone number. He gives him a call, gives him some free tickets to a show with some beer vouchers and the featured artist slot is in the bag – 2 million people see your picture and story online the next day. Good labels should open doors for you like this that would have otherwise remained firmly closed.

The huge question to ask yourself when a label offers you a deal is “will this be worth it”? A good label should be bringing expert guidance, established contacts, established distribution channels, an established audience and financial muscle to the table and in return they will want a sometimes-sizable chunk of the profits from your work. If you record and distribute completely independently then you will see nearly 100% of the profits from your work but you may end up selling a fraction of what you could have done with a label’s team behind you.

There is no right answer to this; it is definitely a case by case basis so just be sure to examine all the options and of course get really good legal advice from a music industry lawyer who can help you understand if what they’re offering you is genuinely a good deal or not.

Finding finance –>

In a nutshell the most important thing still is to be awesomely good, we’re not just talking about ‘all my mates love my songs’ – we’re talking about having people walking out of your gigs with their jaws on the floor and their hearts racing muttering about how their lives have been changed by your astounding set! Be honest with yourself and if your not there then pull your finger out and start working harder. In a fairytale world a record company A&R guy will happen to walk into one of your gigs, love what he/she hears and offer you the perfect contract the next day. In reality it takes sweat and hard toil to get noticed by the right people and then patience and wisdom to wait for the right deal to come along.

The first step obviously is to record some kick ass demos, see the ‘recording the record’ section for some more tips on that. The next step we’d recommend is just to get them out there into the world anyway you possibly can. If you’ve recorded an EP then try and sell a couple of tracks through a website or itunes but give the rest away free. Try to encourage people to send them to their friends if they like them or post them on blog sites. Try and play as many shows (especially as part of a large bill where you get a chance to play to other band’s audiences) as possible and just try and generate a buzz about you and your music. You can try inviting A&R guys to shows but they are notorious for promising the world but then never turning up. In our experience, a lot of A&R guys now get a lot of their leads from online blogs and music websites, the logic being that if everybody else is talking about this great new unsigned artist or band then maybe they should also take a look because they could make some money off it.

The answer short is no secret formula for getting yourself noticed by a record label but there are some good tips to make signing you a more attractive proposition if they do come sniffing around. Most of these to be honest are simple business common sense. Bear in mind that any label at the moment is feeling the squeeze of falling sales and an unstable industry so think about what you can do to make signing you seem less risky. For example make sure that at every gig you do and on your website you have ways that people can sign up for a mailing list. In a similar vein, make sure you work on creating a strong presence on sites like Myspace and Facebook with lots of ‘friends’ signed up who love your music. The idea is to be able to show an interested label that you have an established loyal fan base all of whom are desperate to buy your album once it’s made, or to put it in cold business terms – you’ve already found the customers, you just need to make the product.

Strong sales of any previous releases, radio play and especially a busy gig diary can also help demonstrate that you’re an established artist who is capable of recouping their investment quickly. If a label is into your music AND you can make it look like a sure thing they’ll make money signing you then you at least have a chance of a deal being proposed. The big question really is – do you need a label at all?

Do you really need a label? –>