Sacrilicious Marketing

If you are a new or up and coming artist and want to be signed with a big or larger label there a few things you need to be able to prove.

• Fan base
• Album or Song Sales
• People Attend Your Concerts / Appearances

Madonna Don't Tell Me Cover

Social media is a simple, effective and efficient way to do this. Learning to use Twitter, MySpace and Facebook appropriately to drive sales to your iTunes store, register fans on your site and Facebook Fan Page and get people to your events is critical. The slideshow I am sharing is a brief overview of how to you can start to get a handle on your own online reputation, fan base and song sales. Becoming an active participant in your own marketing is one of the best ways you can get noticed. The fact is, no matter how good the music is, it will not sell itself. Consider that Madonna (ewww, I’m grossed out I have to say the name here and will be washing myself with a fire hose and bleach Silkwood style later to make sure bubble gum pop washes off when mentioned) earned her fortune on tenacity and business/marketing sense, certainly not on her voice or even her music (there isn’t a soul alive that can convince me “Holiday” or “La Isla Bonita” are musically impressive). But nobody can deny Madonna is one hell of a marketer and performer. She knew how to re-invent herself with each new album which only fueled the media’s interest in her personal life, career and albums. She knew how to change with the times and keep herself and music current and most importantly, she never really changed genres. So, she could keep her old fans and build new ones in the younger market with the same kind of music!

Many musicians in their later life consider a genre change because they have grown up and have a new appreciation of blues or country or punk or rap or some other musical styling. Now, here’s the rub, most mistakenly market to their existing fan base. Oy vey. Sometimes I just want to shake an artist and say “just because you grew up and want to play new more experimental music, does not mean your fan base that may not have matured wants to hear it!” You need to stay within your genre but keep pace with current music trends WITHIN THAT GENRE if you want to re-market your existing fan base and build new ones. Much of your fan base like your music THE WAY IT WAS and will be alienated if you as a Ska band start playing acoustic blues. The only way you can do this successfully is to step into the genre and market to the Blues market with your whole heart, let your existing fans “taste” the music but DO NOT push it on them (example: do a cover song of a popular tune in your new style – people like it when they know the lyrics and hear a familiar tune played in a new way. Ahem, Daughtry’s Poker Face = BRILLIANT) – they are less likely to be accepting of it than the new genre fans. A few good ways to ingratiate yourself with the new audience are:

• Team up with another artist popular in that genre and do a duet with them for the album
• Cover one of your better known songs in your new style
• Tour with other popular artists in the genre

But for heaven’s sake, don’t make the mistake of expecting all your hard core rock fans to appreciate your new music or want to buy your Blues album!

And yes, I will cover this issue in greater detail sometime down the road as it is a marketing pet peev of mine musicians often make. There ARE ways to move amongst genres – Kid Rock and Dolly Parton have often done it to bolster their careers, but it is important to know the pitfalls of doing it the wrong way.

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