www.kurb.co.nz: Content IS Promotion: Internet Music Marketing presentation

Hey thanks to Jason @ Depot Artspace and all those who came along to hear my very first presentation on digital music marketing and stuff.

As it turns out I get more than a biscuit. But the important thing for me was really some points I can make – as I often do – that are relevant to artists and one of the most important things I’ve been talking about recently but had to quickly skim because my talk was damn near 2 hours! Definitely room for improvement there. But I did feel good that even though I went on way too long and had to skim some of most important stuff about engaging fans and monetizing fan relationships, most people stuck around even though I went on and on.

The fact is, that online music promotion is complicated. You can catch up with some of those posts in my 7 part series here:

Part 1 is here: In digital we trust - preparing for digital music marketing and promotion

And part 2 is here: Are you ready? Content you need for your digital online promotion campaign

And part 3: Google and the importance of words on the web: more “who’s going to write our blog copy” now then “who’s going to direct our video”

Part 4: Getting your head around using social media and web 2.0 to promote your music

Part 5: Setting up a music artists website

Part 6: Music Artist Website promotion: Marketing and Sales

Part 7: Music Artist Website Promotion: Engaging, EMail and Monetizing

And don’t forget: Our new artist community has launched @ http://www.newmusicmarketing.com - it’s still free to join in July and we’re starting to add new in depth content already.

So in a lot of ways for me this presentation was a bit like a gig – and though I don’t see myself packing out stadiums at $50 a head for presentation talks on online music marketing - like most gigs when you’re starting out, it was an opportunity to get experience engaging deeply and in person with an audience.

I knew it was an opportunity to develop my presentation skills. Now there’s a reason that this applies and that’s not just about developing my skills as a performer.

It’s about the growing power of audio and video to provide a platform to really connect with a large, focused digital audience.

That means although there was an opportunity to improve my performance – which is really important for musicians, more so than for marketers – it was the knowledge that there would be a lot of power in digitally distributing this performance.

I knew there would be audio taken at the event and that I would be able to get into doing some videos based on the presentation content aftwerwards, and syndicate those videos (if theyre decent!) out over multiple online channels thus multiplying the effectiveness of my efforts.

Also it raises some points about how you engage.

There was some mention that I didn’t really use my talk as a platform for Kurb. I’m not one to shy away from a marketing opportunity, but this was about creating positive engagement.

I could have talked up myself and what I do, but there really is no substitute for value. If people who engage with your material walk away thinking “Wow, that was really good!” Then most of the work is done.

And that’s what it’s about. By just focusing on being as good as I could be and giving value to the audience . . . they know who I am, they know what I do, so will those who hear the podcast and watch the videos. The rest will just follow.

A lot of top bloggers can come across as quite sanctimonious and holier-than-thou when they talk about engaging audiences using new media. It’s all very well for them to talk about high quality, high value when they’re doing 5 figures a week and you’re still working your crappy job.

But I made a fresh assertion during this presentation when I said that “content IS promotion” during this talk, because every piece of high quality content is an opportunity to engage with your audience and advance the relationship.

When I think about all the work I’ll be doing on my videos over the next few days, and waiting on the audio stuff from Jason, I know it’s hardly going to convert directly into big profits and opportunities. (well, it might)

But I do know that it’s going to create opportunities to engage my existing audience as well as drawing in new people from around the world who are interested in the way I do business with and for musicians. If more people are going to get more value from this content then it’s going to foster relationships that lead to profitable interactions.

I emphasised this in different ways in my talk, but I know, especially when I get a frantic email or call from a musician that though many people do connect with my blog, my bulletins etc. and that’s been great, video and audio content gives you so much scope for real engagement and real connection.

This is how I’m talking about engaging fans.

It is the 80’s again – without video you could be losing your edge in your ability to connect with people about what you’re doing.

I kept on thinking about radioheads New years webcast which I checked out in regards to these videos I’ll be working on.

I’ll admit I do tend to avoid listening to a lot of music and watching a lot of music video simply because I am very easily influenced. But given the massive buzz around Radiohead, I couldn’t help it!

And watching their webcast we could see the way that Radiohead make their music, as they performed it in their own rehersal/recording space, we could see them performing with passion, we could see that their drummer does look kinda weird, like drummers do, but he’s definitely into it. On the stroke of midnight they stood around in the pitch black freezing cold in a field outside the studio and did an acoustic version of one of their songs.

Their was some weird kinda arty stuff and short poems between each song.

So long story short, I was engaged. They got me, and here I am, responding positively to the free secondary content from radiohead I engaged with.

Radiohead perhaps had some deal for the webcasting of the video but really, there wasn’t big money in this webcast for them. It wasn’t about sales and marketing, it was about engaging fans with content, and letting the rest take care of itself.

I think for those who purchased “In rainbows” it would feel like a bonus, but the flip of that was that for those who didn’t purchase “In Rainbows” it was a step forward in building that relationship through engagement with content to a point where that could certainly happen under the right circumstances.

For those who did purchase John Reese’s “Traffic Secrets” they probably felt they already had received much value in the free videos they watched, paying for the full program was just a follow through.

I’m going to be putting up notes from my talk on my blog soon – both from my hand out and from my own extended notes . . .

Because we all know – more content – more words – more love from google – more opportunites to engage with content and foster relationships and interactions that lead to monetization.

Just like John Reese says: “Own more of the net!”

And Matt Turner says: “Content IS Promotion”

Kurb is an online promotion company specializing in digital music marketing and artist management.

Follow our blog at http://musicmarketingblog.info for cutting edge web promotion as we launch http://newmusicmarketing.com - the exclusive artist community putting artists in control of their online promotion and revenue management.

Within New Zealand we also provide low cost and hassle free CD DVD duplication and printing as well as poster design print and placement in Auckland.

kurbpromo@gmail.com