Internet Promotions for Music






by Seth Manley


As any self-respecting music article-writer would do, I have researched this subject as thoroughly as I could before writing the initial sentence. I have to state that the endless blogs and articles about marketing your online alternative music all say quite similar things about general marketing. I will condense it as concisely as I can in the following 10 things: 1. Join a social media (Facebook . com, MySpace, Band-camp, Reverb-nation, Soundcloud, Twitter etc) 2. Setup an online site, 3. Update your site and profiles typically as it can be, four. write a good biography, five. write a great press-release (inc Digital Media Kit), 6. make online videos and distribute to Youtube, 7. offer tunes on free download services, eight. communicate with other bands and musicians and artists, nine. talk with your ' online fans', 10. don't upload useless posts or be too metal-headed talking to your potential general public.

Now, all this would seem common sense to the majority of people which maybe of hardly any help, however some simple marketing plans are lost on many musicians. You can quite easily do these things but still wind up lost inside dense, over-booming clouds of the internet static. Despite the many advancements in technology over the past ten years possibly even more, there exists still something to be said for following more common routes: i.e. playing live as much as possible, getting press coverage as well as radio stations airplay, in spite of the latter's evidently inevitable decline. Bands which may have combined doing this using the online promotional methods mentioned previously have often conducted very well- Arcade Fire becoming one prime case.

There are many other instances of acts whose main talents appear to lie in relentlessly efficient PR and whose songwriting ability is frequently, at best average, and also at worst, downright mediocre. Try surfing Myspace's 'My music Charts' and it seems quite astonishing that such sub-standard music will make it into any sytem. Depressing though this might seem, really the only acts who may have any type of permanence are those who can actually write decent music. It won't should be brilliant or even that original- just 'So so'. Nonetheless, longevity or fame might not be most of a problem for some- planet earth's going to end in any event by the Mayan calender in 2012- right?

The catch is that hardly any musicians have a huge talent for PR. They are in existence but have always been an important minority. Perhaps, with thanks to the opportunities offered by the Internet, this minority is growing in size. That which you now seem to have within our midst could be the 'Do-Everything all by-Yourself' modern online musician, who twitters, facebook blogs while twiddling knobs on a mixer, blogging 60 seconds or so, hammering out bass-lines and lyrics another, cutting and pasting links and vocal takes simultaneously. Is this this change really a fashion to happen? If it does however, i would question the standard of work that are the results. Like every other craft or skill, songwriting requires time, dedication and focus.

Can this research really go hand-in-hand with the type of thought-processes necessary for the effective use of online promotional techniques? Is one able to individually embody musician, management and Public relations department? It cannot be disputed that creativity running a business exists equally as it will in music. However it is a different type of creativity altogether. Precisely what is definitely an undiscovered genius with a couple of brilliant unheard tracks likely to do? Find an undiscovered PR expert who is a maven at social media SEM with Web optimization knowledge and form a partnership. Can't think of anything better for a modern musician.




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