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

http://www.kurb.co.nz

http://www.myspace.com/kurbpromo

http://www.youtube.com/user/kurbpromo

http://www.twitter.com/mattnz

http://www.cd-dvd-duplication.co.nz
http://www.aucklandposters.info
http://www.kurbartistmanagement.info
http://www.newmusicmarketing.com

marketing and monetizing a music artists website

 Okay so we been doing this series on online promotion, in the last post in the series we talked about the importance of your website and how to set one up.

 

Today we’re going to be revisiting a lot of ideas we’ve discussed about promoting your website - and talking about how you can use your website to create value for fans that leads to income.

Now we're getting into the real nitty gritty and moving beyond the basics. So this time we're going to be going through website promotion and we're going to cap it off in the next part by continuing to discuss building email lists and building deeper engagement with fans by fostering interactions and ongoing relationships.

Lets look over the series:

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

 

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.

And of course tomorrow @ The Depot in Devonport I'll be be giving a presentation on all this stuff Check it out if you're in auckland.

 

So when I’ve talked about building your website and how important your “internet property” is, it’s about creating an online channel for you to present your content and develop profitable interactions, and retaining control of that environment and those interactions.

 

Blogs and websites are very similar in the way that they are used as a platform to deliver content, and can be both used to conduct highly valuable propositions such as building an email list of fans from which to monetize continued interactions. Though if you’re innovative and creative your website can be used to create opportunities to drive deeper fan interaction with content that can be managed for monetization.

I tend to explain website promotion in terms of two concepts: Sales and Marketing. First comes marketing, that’s about bringing people to your website. We discussed Social Media, and we also talked about creating digital content, writing and blogging – making a lot of words in particular - to increase your depth of presence, “owning more of the net” and improving search based results. In this way, you can say content IS promotion.

 

But as your building your content and “owning more of the net”, committing yourself to developing your website into a platform that creates income from your music becomes a long and cumulative process.

Once you’ve worked to bring traffic to your site, we have to examine the sales process, because “Please buy our CD” in big letters wont work.

 

 

When I talk about increasing “sales”, or “conversions”, we are optimising the content that visitors to your site experience in order to produce a desired outcome. That is, put in broad terms, when a visit to your website results in the desired action by the visitor, whether that’s downloading a free song, signing up to an email list or even . . . engaging in an interaction which leads to monetization!

How can optimize your website to encourage more “sales”?

Often we can start with basic tweaks - increasing the access, the value and the uniqueness of the proposition.

 

But this is where we start to discuss the power of building relationships with fans. It comes back to engagement, it comes back to branding. The reality is, unless you engage you’re not likely to even get people interested in downloading your music free. So what engages people?

Well music obviously. But the problem is we’re moving beyond the era in which they used to just play music at you on the radio until you liked it. The struggle is getting them to listen. Getting them to get that far.

What will make them give your music a chance?

Branding. Branding through content that carries powerful messages fans identify with.

The house music videos of Benny Benassi and Eric Prydz carry strong visual messages about sexuality. The Hip Hop music videos of P Diddy et al carry strong visual messages about the rewards of financial success, while Coldplay alludes heavily to personal struggles intepreted through monogamy. These examples abound. Bob Marleys music is depicted as spiritual and political, Radiohead's music is depicted as having intellectual and political undertones. 

Successful artists connect with their audience through strong brand associated messages.

Here again the importance of continuing to create content that enhances the brand value to the fans of what it is you represent. If you don’t carry strong messages in this way then you don’t really represent anything powerful or meaningful to people and so they fail to engage.

It’s not just about branding but also about being unique.

But it’s also about the proposition you’re presenting. It must carry value for your potential fan as well as being unique.

When I talk about the proposition that you are using your social networks and blogs and content to draw people to your site and draw people into, it’s not only a unique and valuable brand proposition such as:

 

“we UNIQUELY represent a brand powerfully associated with your identity”

 

but also a uniquely valuable proposition in order to capture the value in your brand as a relationship that can lead to profitable interactions such as:

”So sign up for mailing list so we can continue to have interactions based around uniquely valuable propositions that benefit you!”

So let me cut the marketing speak for one moment:  It means unless people think you’re cool, they don’t care about your free mp3’s. they don’t.

 

It’s up to you to give them something to care about.

You gotta create the greatest opportunity and encouragement to sell the interaction that will escalate the relationship with the casual visitor.

That’s why you’ve got to go back to Rapino’s statement and recognise the role your website plays in building your email list.

“ . . . and it’s all about the website. Collecting email addresses and maximizing revenue . . . ”

 
So here we see the value of the email list. We can grasp the simple email list as a way to foster deeper relationships with fans and then and only then arriving at a point at which you can actually start making some money.

So coming right up is our last post in the series before we accept we've well and truly moved beyond the basics into the business of building relationships and innovating to create new value from those interactions.

 

Sign up now! Kurb Online Music Management Clients are Getting $US250 Worth of Free Advertising

Yes that’s right.

When I say that Kurb is an outfit preparing artists for the future, I seriously mean it.

When I’m talking to potential clients I always emphasize that it’s not just the technology we have access to or our experience in digital and web 2.0 strategies.

It’s not even just deep awareness of opportunities that are becoming a reality due to the digital revolution.

It’s that me and my team – yes, that’s a team now as we welcome Altaf on board who will be our new specialist Myspace and Youtube promotions person, which means more time for me to work one on one with artists developing strategy and Altaf being the man who executes said strategies on Myspace and Youtube.

But as I was saying – I was stressing the point that we are the ones who are online day in day out ready to jump on top of the opportunites that are opening up everywhere in the digital economy.

Kurb is the digital early bird getting the juiciest worms online.

That’s why I’m really excited to be offering our clients a free $US250 facebook pay-per-click ad campaign.

I’ve touched on pay per click advertising before with google adsense (for content providers) and adwords (for advertisers) and how it is the most effective form of advertising due to the way it can be targeted and that you only ever pay when someone actually clicks through the ad to your website. That is you only pay when your ad has been effective in getting someone interested and you can see why this is the future of advertising.

100% of my marketing budget (which is fairly modest given that I am afterall, a marketing expert) I spend on PPC.

I also insist when working with clients that although ppc marketing, when you use your head a bit, can be extremely effective, you need a bit of sales nous.

Getting a hundred people to come to your website is only going to be effective if you understand how to convert that attention into value, which maybe as simple as selling them something, or maybe building a relationship thats a bit more complex.

The point is that all kurb clients are getting the opportunity for $250 worth of free advertising.

Did you know that could equate to up to 2500 targeted clicks through to your website? And don’t forget this is Facebook so you’ve got the middle class 18-35 market nailed. Gee what if that turns into 250 new fans? Not bad at all!!!

Of course further good news is that technical clouds we’ve endured attempting to launch our brand new artist community seem to be clearing, we’ve got Altaf on board taking care of Myspace and Youtube, The http://newmusicmarketing/ site should be launching in Beta next week SO . . .

If I were you I would get an email off to me at kurbpromo@gmail.com so we can start discussing your online strategy, pronto!

Packages that have just now reopened for the first time in 6 weeks start at

US$500 for a full 3 month online campaign

While we still have an ultra special starter pack deal for New Zealanders @

NZ$400 for a basic 3 month digital coaching consultation period


And of course for those are hearing what I'm saying and understanding how important it is for artists to get involved now with the kind of stuff I'm talking about - creating a dedicated online promotions and revenue strategy - we're launching a new artist community for resources and tools at http://newmusicmarketing.

It'll be free for an initial trial period, and then be $US37 p/month from that point though I may consider a special $NZ37 rate for kiwi muso's.
If you are one of my clients expect an update in your email soon giving you instructions on how to grab your $250 worth of free facebook advertising, and an update on how things are getting moving again with our expanded staff and new artist community.

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.

Online promotion: Branding your music and image to engage fans

Creating an attractive brand for your music is one of the most important marketing elements to help gain customers. A bland brand means no sales, and the wrong brand can be a disaster.

With a great brand that fits your music image perfectly, your music image can soar.

But what is a good brand? Is it a nice website? Is it the level of quality in your music? Is it just a catchy name?

It’s all that and more. It’s everything from the logo on your website (you do have a website, right?) to the design of your CD to the values your music conveys. Brand is the perceived value and quality of you as an entertainer.

When you’ve branded well, you’ve created a remarkable and distinct image. It’s memorable. It’s easy to recognize. People know exactly what they get if they're into you – before they even decide they are.

Your brand should capture:

• The emotion people feel when they think of your music


• What they achieve from being a fan of your music


• The overall impression that your music projects

How to find the right brand for you

Capturing all of these impressions can seem daunting at first, but there are few tricks that make finding your brand a little easier. By answering some questions, you can gain direction towards a perfect fit:

• What feeling do you want people to have when they think of your music?


• Fill in the blank: A consumer thinking of your music should say, “Wow, these guys seem really….”


• What type of personality do you have? (E.g. Fun, quiet, casual, dedicated, curious, whimsical, scientific, etc)


• What values do you want your music to project?

The more you learn about what impressions you want to convey, what your business represents and who you are, the closer you come to building your brand.

A few examples...

Jessie produces and records her own electronic pop. She wants people to feel comfortable with her, not overwhelmed. She believes in helping other people and giving away lots of content so more fans can find out about her and enjoy her music. Jessie is a very friendly person, and she likes having fun. Her friends think she has lots of pizzaz too. Jessie wants to convey that high energy and fun-loving attitude to fans.

Jessie’s brand is: Energized, helpful, friendly, and fun.

Here’s another example:

Martha is an mature, experienced folk singer/songwriter. She likes intimate performances where she can connect people with the deep spiritual energy of her songs and playing. She’s a kind, warm, caring woman, and she’s always mothering people. She wants to provide meaningful an honest music, traditional, nostalgic and comforting and she loves for people to feel right at home at her gigs.

Martha’s brand is: Warm, comforting, welcoming and caring.

It’s all about emotion

Notice that much of building a brand has everything to do with emotion and very little to do with actual marketing. A good brand makes people feel something. It resonates with consumers on a deeper level beyond what they want to buy and the price they’re going to pay.

Think about some big-name business brands, like Apple, Toyota, or Campbell’s. When you think of one of the large brand-name corporations, what kind of feeling do you get? What do you think they stand for? What emotions do they convey? Every brand tries to represent a certain lifestyle or personality to resonate with targeted consumers.

And it works.

Once you’ve figured out your business identity and image, you can start creating marketing materials like a logo, a business card, and a website… All properly branded so you can achieve maximum success.

 

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

http://www.kurb.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/kurbpromo
http://www.youtube.com/user/kurbpromo
http://www.twitter.com/mattnz

 http://www.cd-dvd-duplication.co.nz
http://www.aucklandposters.info
http://www.kurbartistmanagement.info
http://www.newmusicmarketing.com

 

Social Media and Your Music: Basics of Online Music Promotion part 4

Alright it’s time to get on with our “getting your head around the online promotion” series.

In the first three parts we looked at the basics and getting prepared. We talked about being ready to be patient and work steadily, we talked about getting your stuff ready, and we talked about the importance of words.

Part 1 is here:

http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/in-digital-we-trust-getting-your-head-around-the-internet-digital-music-marketing-and-online-promotion/

And part 2 is here

http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/are-you-ready-getting-your-head-around-the-internet-digital-music-marketing-and-online-promotion-part-2/

And part 3:

http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/getting-your-head-around-digital-music-promotion-part-3-not-so-much-“who’s-going-to-direct-our-video”-but-“who’s-going-to-write-our-blog”/

Today we’re really kicking this thing off.

So we've got all our digital cotent ready - it’s time to get to some uploadin and some profile makin’.

Now you know I ALWAYS say your website is most important but that’s going to need some proper attention in a whole other post coming up, because you must dedicate serious attention to your website as a place for doing business in the future, so you have to go about it sensibly.

But kicking off your social media promotions and building your network is easy and something you can and should get started with straight away.

Now there are many different types of social network sites so what I am identifying are all those sites where you can create an online profile for you or your music outside of your own website – on somebody else’s website.

The sites I’m talking about today – and yes I mean myspace, facebook, youtube, etc. are social sites where large numbers of people are coming everyday to interact with content and each other, so it makes sense that you should give yourself the best opportunity you can to make this new media phenomenon work for you!

In one way you can think of these websites as channels – entertainment channels that you can participate in, just like your website is your own little channel, but when I’m talking about using these sites for promotion I often suggest these sites as “doorways” which lead back to your website where you’re much better placed to create more valuable interactions based on the attention and connection you can create amongst your audience there.

So what you’re doing here by joining and participating in these social media sites is opening up these channels, opening up these doorways back to your website by giving people are little taste and then gently guiding them towards a positive outcome – at first that will just simply be listening to the song and hearing the story of the musicians behind it, but then you will advance to providing value to a point that you can get an email address or you can succeed in encouraging visitors to download a song so they are at least taking something away from the interaction they’ve had with you.

Okay so setting up your profiles should be pretty straightforward because you’ve got everything ready:

Your mp3, your jpg, your video, your bio, so y’all just go ahead and upload them!

Myspace – artist sign up in the top right corner of the music section

Facebook – register as an individual, or a persona, then create a “facebook page”.

Twitter – generating heat. Do as I say.

Now you see this is why I’m so excited about the artist community is because inside the community I can have a full and fully updated exhaustive list of all the social sites that are worth using and what to consider when doing so.

You see some sites are only worth doing – or particularly worth doing – if there’s a certain vibe on the site for the style of music you do.

But all the big main ones should be covered, and I will also have plenty resources going into what to consider at each stage of developing each profile in relation to what platform you’re using.

Here’s my latest list of all the ones you should sign up for even if its just to make sure you get dibs on your user name or personalised URL.

Video: Youtube

Social Networking: Myspace, Facebook, Bebo,

Microblogging/Micronetworking: Twitter

Social Music sites: Last.fm, Reverbnation, Soundclick.com, mp3.com

Social Bookmarking: Stumbleupon

Socially organised information: Wikipedia, Squidoo

Blogs: Wordpress, Blogger

So signing up for all these sites will probably take a night or two, what’s it supposed to do?

Well it’s like this. You know that you have a website or at least that you should. It will most likely take a lot of hard work to build your website up . . . let me be straight up with you – like a year or something!

So let me mention it now unless it's not obvious - make sure your profile links back to your site!

But jumping on a social network site is you going to where there are already people hanging out cruising round looking to check something out and they’re probably not going to come across your music otherwise unless you are where they are.

But it’s just like any party, and the social web 2.0 is one big party. If you just stand there, no ones going to talk to you.

So first it’s going to help if you look the part. You did upload all that stuff didn’t you? The songs, the bio, the video, the pictures? It doesn’t matter if your profile isn’t all fancy because you’re going to look like a half ass if you don’t have everything looking like you’ve at least made an effort.

I’m going to have to keep the intricacies of profile presentation and specific techniques that we would use when working with clients on social accounts under wraps but I will stress –

This is web 2.0. And a social network is just like any party or gig, you can’t just stand there, you’ve got to get involved, you’ve got to participate alongside those that you naturally affiliate with.

Facebook is a classic example because it's not as easy to engage as on myspace so you’re best just to jump into the groups, jump into the forums, find where your communities are gathering on these sites.

Are they gathering around the profile of a similar higher profile artist?

Get in there! But you don’t just walk up and say “I’m in a band!!! Check us out!!!”

Come on! At least try and be cool about it. You know how to be cool don’t you?

Don’t say “please check out our music.”

If you don’t know anything about profiting from interactions then you’ve got to realise that on social networks it’s not about you.

Honestly. You’ve been to the parties, you don’t want to be that guy going

“Yeah new album, new video, got a tour coming up, yeah working on (me), doing (me) it’s a really amazing time (for me, me, me)

Web 2.0 is about them. It’s about the user. Whether they want to participate in what you’ve got to offer is up to them.

And this is the whole thing, the whole chain you begin when you use social networks as a way to interact with new fans, in order to draw them in you’ve got to engage with them on their level. You’ve got to make it valuable for them – or why should they care?

A lot of bands give their music away free now, it’s a reality. Just it being free is not remarkable in itself.

But the social network is often still the beginning of the mission, to draw them in from first contact, to get them to buy in enough to want to visit the website, sign up for the email, download the free song – that is everything because that is the beginning of the relationship between an artist and a fan.

Notice how I described visiting your site as a “buy in”. That’s because in digital entertainment attention is now the new economy, the relationship is the sale.

We can talk about social networking until the cows come how and surely in the

http://newmusicmarketing.com forum we will.

But next in the series is your website and building the artist-fan relationship into revenue there so lets get on to that!


.

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.

What’s a Bloggasm? On blogging, creative thinking and marketing

Are you having another bloggasm, Matt?



Yes, that’s right.



Maybe it’s trouble adjusting to shifting the blog to: http://www.musicmarketingblog.info



But I will continue to post on both blogs for now.




Well what IS a bloggasm, anyway? Well it’s really a word I thought of, then I figured it could have a meaning. I guess a bloggasm is when you just start blogging uncontrollably.







Really? Can this be healthy?





Well in marketing as well as the performing arts we are most successful when we engage the audience, when we look for ways to make things more enjoyable and useful for those who choose to participate.

This is particularly true of blogging.



People who are the most successful at leveraging their blogs for marketing and revenue have adeptly attuned their blogs to their audiences to maximise income and exposure, but these are professional bloggers who have been building their blogs for sometimes as long as five years or more.

The tone of this blog recently has been very much about learning from top bloggers, top internet marketers and people who already make lots of money online about what they can teach musicians and other similarly creative artists about creating the kind of value online that leads to a full time income.

But the point I’m making by having a little bloggasm over here is that at for me, personally, my blog is not JUST about creating a voice for my brand, it’s not just about marketing.



Last week I was blogging quite vigourously, and getting some really great ideas going! But I also had a record week for visitors. I didn’t quite break the 1000 mark, but I did earn a sum total of $US5.06 from advertising on my blogs on one of the days over the last week, which was another record.



So for the first time I started to anticipate that my blog would begin to play a larger part in sales and marketing as it grew, and that where I the past I used my website and my myspace to generate most of my business, very soon it would be my blog bringing me the business where myspace has fallen off.



So I guess what I’m saying is that if like me, you’re committed to growing your income from the digital music business, when that happens it’s not going to be cool for to just post whatever you like, say whatever you like, or just start bloggasming out and doing multiple posts that lurch from subject to subject, and talking way too much about your own little crusades that your readers really couldn’t give a rat’s arse about. Like I do.



I probably won’t be able to post about rat’s arse’s or tag those posts under the subject: “rats arse” either.



So what can I say, but blog irresponsibly while your blog is young and you have the chance! haha

No, I mean find your voice. Find the voice in your writing that wants to blog every day.

Don’t be afraid to have ideas! Don’t be afraid to use your blog to ask questions to which you don’t know the answer, to seek opinions and to create an open ended discussion, don’t be afraid to have passion!

This is what is making blogging much more than just people writing a diary on the computer that everyone can see.





I figured it’s better that I experiment now, keep writing, keep ranting, keep the passion running high doing it the way I want while most crucially continuing to build up the amount of content on my blog. That way I can keep moving forward with innovative ideas, and draw people who are interested in those ideas toward me and the conversations happening here and basically bloggasm all I like.



Because when I do start to get thousands of weekly visitors and having a bloggasm and just blogging about whatever I feel like blogging about and being sloppy about it . . . will not keep growing my long term success.

Getting your head around digital music promotion part 3: not so much “who’s going to direct our video” but “who’s going to write our blog”

This is part THREE of a series on basic basics of online promotion


Part 1 is here:


http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/in-digital-we-trust-getting-your-head-around-the-internet-digital-music-marketing-and-online-promotion/


And part 2 is here

http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/are-you-ready-getting-your-head-around-the-internet-digital-music-marketing-and-online-promotion-part-2/


Just don’t forget my main blog has now shifted to http://musicmarketingblog.info


And that the http://newmusicmarketing.com artist community is launching soon!



Okay Are you ready to start your online promotion campaign?

You’ve got your

- mp3’s of your songs
- jpg of you looking like a musician
- .mov, .mp4 or .avi – a video of you come on, at least saying hi and introducing yourself



But I think there’s something missing here Matt! Why yes Matt I think you’re right.

THIS little band doesn’t have a Bio.



In fact it doesn’t have ANY copy at all!



(“copy” is a marketing type word for um uh words.)

This is why you have a pic of you. A video, and a song of course and you need words.



Because people don’t want to know about something that they don’t know about. Pretty simple. If it’s just some site with some weird pic and a bio that’s says “don’t know what to put here but we rock” it’s hardly going to be getting anyone drawn into the mystery and the majesty of the journey into meaning that is your music.

You need copy. You see there was a reason I left copy until part 3.

Because words are well the most important thing on the internet. They always have been and they still are. Because internet, as you probably know, is computers talking to one another through the phone. But this is the thing. Computers read. They can’t see.

Computers cant see how handsome I am in my pictures but they can read every time someone says “Matt Turner is a handsome man” on the internet.

Because all they know are words. And when your computer talks to everyone elses computer and says look at this picture, all the people on the other computers see the picture, but the computer only sees words that tell it to show the picture! It’s true!



And so when you ask your computer to find you the coolest picture, it looks for the words that tell it where the coolest picture is. And when you ask your computer who is the coolest online music promoter in New Zealand it will tell you that Mr. Matt is the most special because he writes

digital music marketing online

Online digital music marketing
online management marketing promotion

Artist promotion marketing and management
digital online promotion music marketing


on the computer all bloody day long so it must be him.

That’s the way computers think! And I don’t know if you’ve heard of a little website called www.google.com but as it turns out most people care what computers think.


So yeah. Kinda the whole not so much “who’s going to direct our video” but “who’s going to write our blog” is the biggest question.

As in, everyday. Yes! Everyday! I’m not joking!

But lets not get to ahead of ourselves. Your bio. There is a lot of information out there about writing bio’s so I’ll just make the one point that needs to be made.



Look, I don’t know who you are, I probably don’t care but I might want to know what you sound like, and I don’t mean half the silliest words in the dictionary, I mean like who. Everyone remembers The Who, even computers, you type in The Who into your computer, it’s gonna come up with The proper Who. No one knows who your band is. But maybe if you just put that you sound a bit like The Who, one day, somebody’s going to put “bands that sound a bit like The Who” into their computer and you’re going to have a fan.


Break out the Balloons!


Okay before we wrap part 3 which actually turned out to be basically a little mini post about words lets have a plug for kurb.



Obviously making words is not something I would pay someone else to do, because I’m good at it and I can do a good job myself. So usually with my priority clients I do the same thing I would with my own words – I just have a little peak every month or two and just think to myself how that sounds.



How it could sound better.

And also y’know if I REALLY wanted to get them on the email list or at least download one thing so there’s a chance they might remember me again the moment the click off the page I might think . . . hmmm what would be a really sweet way of getting them to put their email in the box or download the song???



Now that we’ve covered words which got it’s own post because I’m good at words, now we have to talk about the NEXT part in our “getting your head around digital promotion” series - about your website, myspace, and all the other profiles and presence you have to ccreate if you want to do this properly.

Are you ready? Getting your head around the internet, digital music marketing and online promotion part 2

This is part TWO of a series on basic basics of online promotion

Part 1 is here:

http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/in-digital-we-trust-getting-your-head-around-the-internet-digital-music-marketing-and-online-promotion/

because we’re gearing up for two big events:

The launch of kurbs new music marketing community @ http://newmusicmarketing.com/

And my very first presentation working with http://www.depotartspace.co.nz/ in devonport.

Jason there is going to be organising a seminar for local musicians covering

- album launch
- tour promotion
- digital strategies (thats me!)

So if you’re in Auckland in late July this should be an awesome opportunity to sponge up vital industry knowledge and hopefully I will get a biscuit.

Don’t forget we’re shifting to http://musicmarketingblog.info/ any day now!!!

Now last blog I talked about facing the reality of digital music promotion.

It is confusing and complex and it is the future. It is also a lot of work.

To me it’s honestly a lot less work because I don’t have to leave the house. You may have not have played as many demoralising gigs in your life to less than 12 people as I have though.

The http://newmusicmarketing.com forum that we’re launching soon is designed so that you can be informed and instructed on the most effective techniques in online promotion and internet marketing. You can begin your campaign by carrying out the tasks yourself at minimum cost and you can decide where you want to take your campaign on your own watch.

It’s hard to start working with an artist and tell them theyre 6 months away from seeing a cent online and you'll drop a grand in my pocket before you get there. But that’s reality, it’s better to get the artist or their manager or their mum or little sister in the forum, learning the basic and most importantly carrying out the tasks, carrying out the maintenance, getting on track.

Playing that gig might work. Sending in that demo, getting that interview, going for that grant, entering that competition – it might work! Might.

But building your website is the most solid promotion strategy you can engage in! The amount of people engaging online is not going to stop growing and the laws of almighty Google are not going to alter fundamentally. If they buy your actual real CD this week . . . theyre not going to want to buy it again next week and definately not on the other side of the world in Sweden, where they love that kind of thing that you do.

You have got to start thinking like it already 2010 and your website is your sovereign media territory where you control the environment. It is your channel and it is your community it is your retail outlet . . . it pays you money.

Myspace and Wordpress and Facebook have built these platforms so that they can generate massive profits from the attention artists and users are creating. People like me and you!

I read it the other day. Myspace has made $11-12 out of each person who has used it. Google has made an average of $66 out of each person who has used their service.

Now you listen to me, sunshine!

This is not about saying “using your myspace as your website is unprofessional” - this is the next level!

It’s about digital ownership of value created through access and attention. Now do you want to give all your money to myspace or do you want to start trying to figure how it is that myspace made $11 out of you when you never even paid for anything . . . and how you could learn to do something like that on your website?

But you gotta build a boat before you can sail it.

It’s like I’m going to tell you how to build your boat and I’ll have some guys around to help out, and after a few months we’ll see how you’re going to see if you’re ready to sail. And then when you’re sailing fine we’ll fit it out with a motor.

I’m not just going to hand you the motor, point at the sea and say, “go promote your content.”

Okay now lets take the elevator to the basement. Lets go back to the start.

Your first tasks are pretty basic. They don’t involve me.

If you’re not particularly skilled in music then you should be at least pretty young an eager, or exceptionally physically attractive or have some other comedic or theatric appeal. Or as we’ve seen more recently with The Gorillaz and Crazy Frog, maybe you’re just really good at cartoons or CGI.

Then you need to create digital content, because I cant help you at all until you do. You need to record your music so it can be converted to mp3, but not only that, almost equally important now, is that you must have an associated image, preferably a photo of you that can be converted into a .jpg, and you should be able to record 60 seconds of video for youtube at least introducing yourself to people who want to meet you.

I’m struggling with this too people, but we’ve got to understand we are living in the 21^st century and talking to the camera is not something that you should be making a big deal about. You maybe choose your favourite top, do a quick check in the mirror, you make sure the light is half decent, you push record, you be yourself. It’s not that hard.

Okay we’re ready to start your online promotion campaign!!!!

Tune in next time where we talk about starting an actual promotion campaign on the internet to make more people know about a musician and for the musician to start making money from it!!!!!