Those Who Can, Do. Those Who Can and Want People to Pay Some Effing Attention, Teach.

Today I'm covering a Method of Promotion that I would consider 'Outside the Box'. I've talked before about how Youtube can be such a powerful tool when it comes to promoting your music, and by and large this is assumed to mean performances and music videos. But that really isn't all that Youtube is good for...

If you've got the skills to pay the proverbial bills, it's a very good idea to offer a helping hand to musicians who may be looking to pick up some of the knowledge you've already attained. Magazines such as Computer Music are famous for getting artists to record tutorial videos, which drive traffic from Youtube. Rusko's Dubstep tutorial is one of my favourites (he's just such a likable dude), and as you can see the numerous links posted to this video and searches for "Dubstep tutorial" have taken this video to approaching 150,000 views. Can't argue with that.

"But I can't make Dubstep!". Well that's okay. The chances are if you've made music and you're looking to promote it, you have some skills in the world of music (If not, maybe try showcasing them anyway and it could turn into a comedy sensation). If your skills are in production, great, show people how to program a beat, or good EQ settings for guitars, anything you think people might search Youtube, or indeed Google for. If your skills lay in playing music, that's fine too, offer tutorials in how to play a popular song on piano, guitar, bass, or even drums. Be confident in your ability, and willing to throw it on out there for people's benefit.

There are three main reasons for offering tutorial style videos on Youtube. The first, quite obviously, is the ability to include links. Link in your description and it will drive traffic to wherever you want, Myspace, your own website, even Twitter. Another reason is simply getting your name out there, make sure you let everyone know who you are, and if they hear your name again they're more likely to start paying attention to your tunes. Thirdly, Youtube now offers financial incentives to those with accounts, and if you have enough followers you can apply for the right to earn money from the videos you chuck online, and every bit of cash you can make from music helps, as I'm sure you already know.

Let Your Fans Do The Work

Yes, you heard. It's tough to gain followers in this cut-throat world of music, so we'd all be very stupid not to utilise the support we have. We ALL have support, if you don't have 20,000 followers on Twitter or Facebook, don't make the mistake of thinking nobody cares enough to help you out, even if it's friends and family, our methods will help you getting people to spread the word on your behalf.

1. Social Networking - It has to be said that spending all of your time trying to promote yourself on Facebook or Twitter is absolutely useless. Don't obsess, and please don't spam people, or bombard them with suggestions, status updates and links every minute, nobody's going to care. However, in moderation, and used constructively, social networking sites can be useful. Ask your friends, family and fans to invite their friends to a Facebook page, maybe this can be mutual, if they have something they'd like to promote, repay the favour, this helps both of you get your name out, and usually builds your reputation locally. Once you have people as fans, though, use them wisely, don't lose their interest.

2. Who do I know? - Sometimes it can be easy to overlook what your friends and families actually do, as jobs or hobbies, and how this can help you. Maybe you have a friend who works in the media, or even attends a university with a good music scene. Think it through, how can your contacts help? Ask them to pass on a demo or put up a poster somewhere useful. It will surprise you how far this could get you.

3. Merch - Get some Merchandise made! It all helps spread your name. It doesn't have to be T-Shirts. Badges, pens and posters can all be good, cheap ways of getting your band name in peoples houses and offices. Sell them for a small price at gigs, or give them away. I'm not implying that somebody will see your name on a badge and instantly buy your CD, or look you up online, but the more times they hear it, the more likely they are to pay some damn attention!

4. Demos - If you haven't already recorded demos (and recorded them WELL thankyou very much), do so, and don't think they're just for all those important people at the radio stations and record labels. Give them to your friends, give two to a friend and encourage them to recommend it to someone. Not only is it a nice gesture, especially if they're going to help you with promotion, it increases the chances that somebody is going to listen to your music. Get on it.

How to Get Gigs

The vast majority of Musicians will at some stage want to take their tunes to an audience and play it live. It's both fun, and a brilliant way to build your fanbase. The challenge is getting your foot in the door with venues and promoters. So here's a guide to help you through this tough process.

1. Press Kits - You can find articles about press kits and press releases elsewhere on this site if you want to go into more detai. Basically, you need to provide a well labelled (both the CD and the file) demo, along with a well written biography which showcases your achievements (being played on the radio, other gigs you've played, reviews of your music). Think of it as a sort of CV or Resume, don't babble on about what you like to do at the weekend, get to the point, and try and make people pay attention. Impress them, but be truthful, and keep it relatively short, they don't want your life story!

2. Network - Networking is a point I drill home all the time, it's not always something that appeals to creative types, but talking to people and trying to figure out how they can help you will benefit you no end. Make yourself do it. You can network at gigs, or by talking to friends who are musical, or even better involved in the industry, or you can do this online. If online is the route you take, send emails, make sure they're personal and you know who you're talking to. Venues and promoters will have some sort of website or social networking page, usually with contact details, find some local gig listings and trace back who is responsible for them, you're a few emails away from needing to send out your press kit.

3. Don't Demand Cash - If you're just starting gigging anyway, make sure you don't request any money, just be grateful for the chance to showcase your music and meet people. The money will come, and there are plenty of ways to monetise live performances which don't leave the venue or promoter out of pocket (check out our other articles for ideas).

4. Put on a Good Show - This doesn't mean just playing your tunes well (though that really does help), involve the audience perhaps, or showcase something unusual that you've experimented with. I know a guy who does a lot of live-looping, it impresses people, and they remember him. Being memorable is vital to staying in your local gig circuit, and will help you to build a fanbase.

5. Do it Yourself! - Can't find a gig? No music scene where you are? Make it happen. The chances are there are tons of likeminded people wherever you are. Send emails to local venues, or even pubs and clubs, and try and make something happen. Not only will this give you a chance to play your music, it will build relationships too, and we all know how important that is.

So there we go, some tips to help you get gigging. For tips on what else to do once you have the gigs, such as selling merchandise and CDs, take a look at our other articles.

Blogging for Musicians

Blogging is a phenomenon that many musicians have embraced since the internet began to boom. So much so that musical award ceremonies have started running "best blog" categories. So what's the fuss about? Why have so many musicians taken to it, and is it something you should be embracing?

Personally, I think blogs are a fantastic opportunity for us music types, and not just because I'm writing a blog post now! A blog is a way to communicate with friends, fans and contacts in the industry, including a blog on your website, or even replacing your website with a blog is a way of turning a static, brochure style site into a living, breathing online representation of yourself, and your work.

How to approach your blog.

Successful blogs, musical or otherwise, always manage to strike a chord with their readership. Base your posts on what type of band/artist you are, if you're a band who deals with political and sociological issues, write about current events, give your opinion, stir things up a little. If you're an electronica artist, post about your studio, your gear and your techniques. Of course, talking about other musicians can help you too, and linking to their sites or blogs - build a few alliances and you'll be well away. Talking about relevant subjects that don't revolve about how good your latest track is or when it will be released or how people can buy it can not only keep your fans interested in what you're saying, but can even drive traffic from google, or, if you get people talking, provide some word-of-mouth marketing.

Post regularly but not too often, a couple of posts a week is enough to keep people satisfied without overloading them.

Communicate! Blogs, like everything else you do online, should be another way of communicating with people. Industry professionals, fans, even friends. Make sure you encourage people to participate, and respond to all the comments and emails you get, people will think a lot of you.

Be constructive with your blogs, and you'll reap the rewards.

Twitter Tips for Musicians

Twitter can be phenomenal tool for promoting music if used correctly. But it's a confusing place, what with all those retweets and tags and trends flying all over the place. How do you get the most out of your twitter from a musical point of view?

Follow relevant people - Finding people on Twitter who are relevant to what you want to achieve can help you build relationships. If you're an electronica act, follow electronica artists and labels, you never know when a conversation can spark up.

Utilise your relationships - Talk to people you've already built relationships with elsewhere, friends, contacts, bloggers, people you already know will be ready and willing to engage on Twitter.

Be real - Don't pretend to be something you're not on Twitter, talk about your interests and other aspects of your life, it may press someone's buttons!

Avoid overkill - You probably don't need to be told, but if you tweet every three minutes, and tell people every time you put the kettle on, your followers are going to stop paying attention, they might even stop following you. Base how often you tweet roughly on somebody who you enjoy reading on Twitter.

"Join the Conversation" - Tagline it may be, but it's particularly appropriate for Twitter, the rules you'd apply to a social situation are just as relevant on Twitter. Contribute, start conversations, ask opinions, give your opinions. Also make sure you listen to others, and be a part of what they talk about. This will gain you followers, but more importantly it will ensure that you stick in peoples' minds, they'll be much more likely to pay attention when you tweet.

Don't worry too much - Twitter should just be another tool in your arsenal, fretting over how many followers you have won't make them magically appear, just drop in now and then, join in, and get on with more interesting aspects of your career in music (you can tweet about these later).

I'm sure you'll be tweeting like pros in no time.

Know Your Niche

One of the most important lessons you'll learn in your quest to get your music heard is to find out exactly who enjoys it. It sounds a bit too obvious to be writing an article about eh?

Well I'm sure you've all got an idea of what kind of music you make, you know your influences, and you probably have some idea of the kind of people whose iPods you're looking to creep onto. However I'd also wager that you haven't researched this as much as you could've. Us musicians can get quite a warped view of our own music. I make electronica, and once made a track I thought sounded like it had a Massive Attack feel to it, only to be told it sounded like The Knife, something I hadn't considered. There's nothing wrong with this, but a second opinion on who your music sounds like can really help you work out who you're aiming it at.

Being compared to specific artists isn't particularly helpful though, what are you going to do, spam their fansites? What really will help you is to get involved with communities. It's one thing knowing that there's a good alternative scene in your city, hell, you could even find the email addresses of those involved and try to get in touch with them, but they're probably not going to listen. The best way to get involved is to actually get out there and meet people, go to gigs or clubs which are relevant to your music, talk to people, meet people who will either be able to help you musically, or even just recommend your E.P to their friends, or buy it themselves. Not just any old people, relevant people, your niche.

The same applies online, post on relevant forums, talk to people from relevant bands, try to start conversations on Twitter or Facebook. No, DON'T spam, nobody will pay attention as I'm sure you know by now. Contribute, give something to your Niche, and you'll get something back. Build real relationships with these people, and soon you'll have plenty of contacts who are interested, and willing to do you favours.

Music Consumption Habits

When you boil it down, all Music Promotion really consists of is trying to make somebody give your tunes a chance. Obviously you have this beautiful blog to help you with your promotion methods, but amidst all the techniques we talk about, there's something we haven't really covered yet - listening habits.

The inspiration for this blog post came when I decided to listen to a band for the first time. I first heard of the band in question just before christmas, I was working in a record store at the time, and saw their C.D. - that was the extent of my interest, and I thought nothing of them, until a few months down the line, I heard one of their songs on the radio, I was doing something else at the time (eating or preparing food probably) and didn't pay a lot of attention (maybe there was pesto in the fridge, and it made me all the more excited about my sandwich) but I managed to catch the name of the band, draw a link, and somewhere in my subconscious keep this information stored. Next thing that happened? I heard that Johnny Marr had gone and seen this particular band on tour. Now, this part of the sequence was a recommendation, and though my theory as to the acceptance of new music is in its fledgling stages, I've worked out that this section is key. I can draw a direct link through my music collection based on recommendation, when I was 14, I started listening to Radiohead, I heard Thom Yorke talk about David Byrne and started listening to Talking Heads, I also heard him talking about Aphex Twin, through Aphex Twin I heard about Warp Records, Boards of Canada followed, Clark and Autechre took me to a music festival where I heard Modeselektor...and well, you get the picture. Shall I complete the sequence? I heard the band in question again yesterday, on a sporting montage sequence of all things, but this time, I had heard enough hype about the band, and in a roundabout way been recommended the band, so I payed attention. The song was really good, and somewhere in my head they've been added to a list of good music, and funnily enough that list is tied directly to my iTunes, and more unfortunately, my bank account.

The point I'm trying to make here is that for me, music has to prove itself before I even listen to it, and I'm sure it's the same for others. It's not intentional, nor is it a way to pigeonhole myself, and make sure I'm only getting one type of music on my iPod, but when you consider the shear volume of music available to us, I think it's only fair that something has to stand out. I'm sure there are exceptions, and people who are very active in their search for new music may listen to things and develop an opinion the first time they've heard of it, but what percentage of fans are going to come looking for you? Not many is the answer.

So how can we work around this theory of having to prove yourself? Or even use it to our advantage? Well you need to start with quality of course, nobody is going to recommend something they don't like. But if your tunes are up to scratch, perseverance is key. Having targeted an audience, you need to find them in more ways than one, 'cos one wont be enough. I think people need to hear about you three times to give you a chance. So, if you can get yourself in three blogs somebody may read, or somebody they know becomes a fan on facebook and you get in two blogs they read, or you get on a radio station they listen to and two blogs...Well you get it, people will very rarely hear about something once and think it's worthy of their attention, make sure they hear about you a few times. This doesn't have to be tough either, you don't exactly have to get on television - just persevere on Facebook (but don't be a pest), if it takes three invitations to three separate gigs of yours for them to press the play button, then so be it, don't spam, don't ask people to listen every three seconds, just persevere and be patient.

Make sense?

Good.

Giving it Away? Get it right!

The value of music is something that's been debated a huge amount in recent times, and if the music industry is to get out of this rut, that's no bad thing. Sure, the internet has allowed people to steal music in huge quantities, and in this post I have promised myself not to rant about the positives and negatives of that, so I wont. Another thing the industry has given us is the ability to give our music away for free, as a way of building hype, building reputation, and building a fan-base. Great.

And it is great. Before the internet we couldn't have dreamt of finishing a track, and being able to distribute it to fans all over the globe simultaneously, at the click of a few buttons, and letting people have your music for free is an effective way of persuading people your tunes could just be worth the listen. Easy? Well it sure sounds it, but trust me, there's an art to giving your tracks away. I've devised some ground rules.

1. Collect email addresses. I cannot stress this enough, I've said it before, and I will say it again. Every opportunity you have to take the email address of somebody that might be interested in your music now, or in the future, take it. Plus, in the instance of a track giveaway via your site, it makes it feel legitimate. Check my previous articles for info on why a Mailing List is so damn important.

2. Keep it bitesize! If I see somebody giving away a whole album for free via their myspace, or a link on sendspace, I feel like it's something they've made in their room over the course of a week, on a terrible computer, with terrible speakers, and terrible software. I think it's gonna be terrible, if you hadn't already gathered. This could just be prejudice by me, granted. For somebody who runs a record label I should probably be more forgiving of this kinda thing. But I'm really not, and I'm sure that the connotations of a free album from an artist you've never heard of are the same for most people. Give away a track, maybe two, in the run up to an album or an E.P release, and it will make fans feel like they're getting something exclusive, and build some hype for when the release does come. Sorted.

3. Try and include some artwork. An image for peoples iPods wont go amiss, and it'll make sure they remember who you are. Again, it can make it feel more official and professional too. It's the little things, guys...

4. Get it featured! Your giveaway doesn't have to be exclusive to your own websites and social networking. Get Blogs to feature it too. They're often keen to have the content, and find some new music, and indeed draw people to their site. Using a company to spread the word for you, such as Method Promotion can get your music to hundreds of blogs at once, and even if only 20% were to feature it, you can still reach thousands of readers.

That's it folks. If you have any more tips and ideas, stick them in the comments, hell I may even come back and edit the post if they're good enough.

UK Music call for shakeup of small venue gig laws

UK music have today called for a new cabinet committee for the music industry. Awesome - as I've said many times, the industry is changing, and the acceptance of that, and the desire to support an industry that makes is worth £5billion a year to our economy, is crucial.

However, it's one specific aspect of Feargal Sharkey's new proposals that I want to focus on. Licenses for small venues to put on gigs. He's described the necessity for pubs, and smaller clubs and venues to have a license to put gigs on as "a huge bureaucratic burden to place on those pubs and artists". I agree.

To say music needs a live scene is stating the bloomin' obvious. However, perhaps the need for this grass roots level, places where people can play to 50 people in a pub, is something that's not been debated enough. Obviously our focus here is on the promotion of music, and I'd love to be writing an article right now on how finding small gigs to go and meet new people and play your music to is a great way of building fans and even contacts. But I'm not writing that article, because I know how hard it can be. I live near Norwich in the United Kingdom. We have a few venues here, the UEA, Waterfront, and Arts Centre being the main ones. They're fantastic, but I know from experience that they aren't cheap or easy to book, and that for unsigned bands it's almost impossible to get a gig there. I'd love to say there were more venues smothered around my city that made a live scene for small and unsigned artists possible, but yet again, I can't.

"That first step is what is part of the process of what ends up with people being able to stand on a stage at Wembley in front of ninety thousand people." Sharkey goes on. This summarises it nicely for me. I think we need to make it easy for the owners of pubs, clubs, even places that could double up as a venue, if music is to continue to breed talent from a garage band level. Playing to small crowds can be great publicity, a great moneymaker and indeed just great fun! Anything that can make this more common surely can't be a bad thing?