Online Music Marketing

The Online Music Marketing Blog Has Moved

Kat — Sun, 21 May 2006 19:11:53 +0000

I’m consolidating all my blogs in one place. You can find all my music marketing tips and info at my personal blog:

Here’s my feedburner feed:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheSecretLifeOfKat

Be sure to update your info. I don’t want you to miss out on all the fun!

Music Marketing Quick Tip

Kat — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 01:29:37 +0000

Have someone who isn't familiar with your web site or you music check out your site, with you watching. It can be profoundly helpful to watch someone else try to accomplish various tasks on your site. You may be perfectly familiar with your site, but how easy is it for new visitors to do things like, listen to your music, navigate to all the pages, buy your music or sign up for your mailing list.

If they have any problems, you can probably assume that others have had the same problem. Make sure your site is simple to use first and cool second. Nobody will buy your music just because your site looks cool.

Setting Up An Indie Music Web Site, Pt.3 – Newsletters

clearbluewebdesign — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 03:26:44 +0000

You Have A Newsletter…..Right?
Apart from actually having a web site, having a email newsletter campaign is the most important step you can take in promoting yourself online. It’s one thing to draw people to your web site and it’s quote another to be able to contact them immediately when you have a cd release or a big show coming up. It’s a great way to develop new friendships, revive old ones and help your fans take action on your behalf.

Write Your Newsletter Monthly
A newsletter campaign is only good if you actually write newsletters and send them. I’ve seen so many artists who have a newsletter sign up on their home page and then only send out a newsletter once every blue moon.

If you’re actively pursuing your music career, you should have plenty of things to write about every month that your fans will be interested in. Set low goals. Just plan to write one or two paragraphs. Highlight a great gig. Let them know about upcoming gigs. Share a personal tidbit – maybe the background on a popular song that you wrote. Let them get to know you and give them an opportunity to listen, buy and promote your music. Make sure that every email gives them a reason to visit your site and includes a link to buy your cd.

Your newsletter doesn’t need to be a work of art, it just needs to exist.

Give Them A Reason To Subscribe
Music fans are in a bit of a bind when it comes to newsletters. They want to subscribe and get inside info, but they’re pretty protective about their email addresses. Have a newsletter list is profoundly important to your online success and can be a powerful tool in your online marketing arsenal, so give them a reason to subscribe.

Make sure you have a signup box on every page of your web site and a sign up sheet at every live show. Make it a street team (we’ll talk more about street teams in a later article) and give it a name. Send stickers or give away a free song or an autographed photo or something else that will push people past their fear of relinquishing their email address. Make it a deal that they just can’t pass up.

Tomorrow we’ll talk tech about newsletters, different online options, free options and things to avoid.

Til tomorrow,

-Kat

Setting Up An Indie Music Web Site, Pt.2 – Add Your Music

clearbluewebdesign — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:26:06 +0000

Don’t Make This Mistake
It’s truly amazing how many times I’ve run across a recommendation for a musician in a blog and when I’ve visited that musicians web site, there was no music to be found.

There were pictures and journals and newsletter signup boxes and just about everything BUT the actual music. Now, I don’t know if this was an oversight or they just thought everyone knew what their music sounded like, but whatever the reason….it was a poor decision.

Ways To Add Music
When you set up your website, the FIRST thing you should do is put your music on there. There are several ways you can do this:

Upload MP3 files
Encode to Windows Media, Real Player, or Quicktime format
Create a flash player on your site

MP3 Format
Posting MP3 files is very easy and you can be sure that 100% of your visitors will be able to play your songs. However, the downside to uploading MP3 files is that, unless you want to give your music away for free, you should only post brief clips of your songs in MP3 format since they can easily be downloaded by your site visitors.

Window Media, Real Player and Quicktime
Windows Media, Real Player and Quicktime formats may protect your songs, but in order to reach the widest possible audience, you’ll have to encode each song in each format.

Flash
While any of these solutions is better than none at all, the Flash solution stands head and shoulders above the rest. Why? Because it’s easier for your visitors. That’s the goal isn’t it? To make it as easy as possible to listen to and buy your music?

Flash is installed on over 97% of computers, so you can pretty much guarantee that anyone who is net saavy enough to be searching for music on the web, will be able to listen. Now, setting up a Flash player on your site doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. You don’t even need to own Flash or hire a Flash developer to set one up for you. Wimpy Player is a great Flash program that you can plug right in to your existing web site. Once it’s installed, you can add songs at anytime just by uploading them to the specified folder.

I hope you’ve found today’s post to be informative. Please comment with any questions you might have.

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss newsletters, what they can do for you and how to set one up.

Til tomorrow,
Kat

Technorati Tags: Music Marketing

Setting Up An Indie Music Web Site, Pt.1 – Web Overview

clearbluewebdesign — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:33:44 +0000

Setting Up Your Web Site

So you want a web site? The internet can be a daunting place for the uninitiated. There are so many ways to create a website, so many people asking for your hard earned money. How do you sift through it all and find the best solution? Reading this blog is a good place to start. Seriously, do some Google searches, find some forums and ask other artists how they manage their website and then list your possible solutions and decide which is best for you.

There are three ways to go about creating a website:

Do it yourself by learning HTML or Frontpage or Dreamweaver.
Use an online DIY service.
Hire a professional web designer/developer.

Do It Yourself

It seems that many musicians choose the do it yourself route – often because they don’t have the funds to hire a professional. PLEASE don’t make this mistake. I have been developing web sites for four years now and I feel that I still have a lot much to learn. There are many variables that go into creating an effective website. It’s not just the content. It’s not just the design. It’s not just making the site work on all the browsers and platforms. The web is a constantly changing animal and it can consume your time and creativity trying to stay on top of everything. HTML,XHTML, CSS, CGI, FTP, PHP, MySQL. You will get a headache trying to learn and keep up with all the acronyms. Even if you rely on Frontpage or Dreamweaver or some other WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) program, it will frustrate the living daylights out of you if you don’t know HTML.

My recommendation is that you should only try to create your site yourself IF you enjoy it. If there are other things you’d rather be doing – like writing and recording music – then do those things and leave the code up to a professional.

All-In-One Solution

"But I’m Broke!!!" Never fear, Kat Jacobs is here and I’ve got some great, low cost solutions for you. My first recommendation is for a company calledHostbaby.com. They are a branch of CDbaby.com – which I imagine you’ve heard of – if not, we’ll cover that later in this lesson. Hostbaby .com is an incredible service for musicians that includes email, hosting, design templates and a content management system. They’ll help you with your entire web setup. From domain name registration to your site launch, they’ve got a knowledgeable and helpful staff that will answer any questions you may have. The best part is that it only costs $20 per month. That’s just a bit more than most reputable hosting plans. They offer an excellent variety ofpredesigned template and some great content management features. I think Hostbaby .com or one of the other all-in-one solutions is ideal for musicians on a budget or those just starting out. It will give you a feel for the online world without committing thousands of dollars. Once your fanbase grows you’ll need to move on to a more robust system, but Hostbaby covers the basics well – and at a great price.

Hire A Web Design Firm

Finally, the last solution for creating a web site is to hire a professional. A professionally designed website can cost anywhere from $800 to $5000 and up. Get recommendations from other musicians, look through portfolios and interview several different designers before selecting your design firm.

Essential Elements of Any Musician’s Web Site

No matter what route you take to create your web site, make sure that your site includes all these features. Over the next few days I will discuss what they are and why no musician’s web site should be without them. Here they are:

Music player – preferably Flash based
Newsletter manager
Photo Gallery
Blog/Journal system
A Content Management System – so that you can update your site
An excellent web statistics program

That’s it for today. Ask questions, suggest other solutions or just comment on how wise I am and what great ideas I have….

Till tomorrow,

-kat

Online Music Marketing Basics

clearbluewebdesign — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 12:59:56 +0000

Register Your Domain Name
So, let's start with the basics. First, you need a website. A real website with your own domain name – www.yourbandname.com. Just go to Dotster.com or another registrar and sign up for your own domain. It only costs about $15 a year.

Make It Interactive
Now in order for your website to be effective you can't just treat it like it's an online flyer or brochure. A musician's website should be VERY interactive. At the least, set up a blog (journal) with weekly updates and a few song links. Most importantly, give them a way to sign up for your newsletter. If you don't have a newsletter, drop everything you're doing and set one up today. There is no better way to stay in touch with your fans than through an email newsletter campaign.

Keep It Simple
If you can't afford a designer and you're creating your own site, PLEASE just keep it simple. Trying to make it flashy will just distract your visitors from the real reason they're there: your music.

Network – Myspace, PureVolume and others
Once your site is up, the second thing you want to do is set up accounts at Myspace.com and Purevolume.com. These two sites alone can generate some great exposure for your music. Set up your profile and start networking.

Make Friends
Finally, make sure that you exchange links with some of your other artist friends. Get them to recommend you to their fans and do the same for them (but be honest, of course). It's a wonderful way to target a specific genre.

That's it for today's tip. Tomorrow we'll discuss some different websites and programs that will help you implement today's tips. Don't miss it!

-kat

Online Music Marketing

clearbluewebdesign — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 12:58:53 +0000

I’ve always loved music and had a passion to share great songs with others. When I was in jr high, that meant endlessly playing songs over the phone for my friends. When I was in college, that meant working for the college radio station. In the business world, that meant working for a major label and the two biggest Christian Radio stations in the country.I had some incredible jobs that were more fun than I should have been paid for.

So now, I’m a stay-at-home-mom. I think I’ve been to one concert in the last four years. I spend my days in the sandbox and at the park. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but at the same time I’ve been looking for a way to incorporate all my deepest passions into a viable business model and I think I’ve finally found it.

For the past 4 years I’ve run my own web development firm. My clients have been ridiculously diverse. Here are a few examples:

* Used car lot
* member of the NY Metropolitan Opera,
* multimillion dollar non profit helping the people of Iraq
* Business coaching consultant
* appraisal company
* college financial aid database
* indie musician in China.

I learned an incredible amount about the world of web development and design by having such a varied clientele, but as my business grew I realized that I wanted to be an expert in one area rather than a jack of all trades.

So, what does that have to do with music, you ask?

I am SOOO excited to tell you. I’m going to focus my business on music marketing on the internet for indie artists. It’s the perfect combination of my interests and experience.

In the coming weeks and months I will be highlighting internet music marketing tips, showcasing some excellent indie artists and working on my business site.

I hope you’ll check back often and join in the discussion.

See you tomorrow!

-Kat