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Music marketing is by and large difficult for most artists, that is something we need to realise. Marketing yourself, being confident to allow people to listen to your tracks and most importantly, handling criticism takes a bit of time to get used to. In the majority of cases though, marketing plans do fail. you may have a great sounding track, but if it is not marketed properly then it will just be white noise.

However all is not lost.

The main reasons why music marketing fails is that 1) there is always some money involved, and 2) we market our music.

They all sound a bit strange I know, but my plan is for you to get over these hurdles and to get your music out there without any hassle. I will take each of the above points in turn, but remember they are interlinked:

1) Money marketing. This is bad. The economics of this is so: you have to sell slot of tracks to get back the amount you spent on marketing, then you need to sell a few more to make any profit. The problems is, why are we spending so much money on music marketing, or, why are we spending any money on marketing at all?! The Internet has greatly reduced the cost of marketing by 100%. Yep, marketing should be free, then any tracks that you do sell is pure profit. There are so many music marketing strategies, some of which are simple ideas that are not being utilised.

Here are some fantastic free marketing strategies are not being used, at all. How about leaflet distribution, flyers, making a mailing list then advertising your new tracks on that (they already like your tracks because they have signed upto your mailing list). Applying to competitions will always bring in some much needed traffic as competitions generate 1) leads and interest from the host site, 2) your tracks will get viral marketed especially if it has become in the top 3. Viral marketing is just another way of spreading interest, all the people who voted for your tracks will recommend the great track that they heard, and you name spreads. 3) You can always advertise the fact that you got in first, second or third in X competition (always state how many other competitors were there as well- coming third out of four entries is nothing to promote really).

Surely the ultimate advertising strategy is…give away your MP3s for FREE! A simple technique that promotes your tracks. People then trust you, they love quality items, they assume then, “hmm, if this is free, and it’s good, what would his selling tracks be like?” Free stuff sells pay goods, fact. Give away alot of free stuff…MP3s being the main one, and then be patient.

Once you have finished your free marketing, start again. Just keep on promoting yourself by free processes. It gets your name banded around, people will see your Webpage link and click on it increasing your traffic. It might not too successful in the first few months or maybe even a year, but stick with it, gaining visitor confidence will ultimately prevail.

2) The above is great, but why would anyone buy any track from you in the first place? To most surfers you are faceless, they don’t see you on the music videos, so why should they buy anything from you?

Harsh words I know, I’m sorry, but it is true. That is the real reason why there are thousands of good groups and artists out there in Internet land marketing away, spending cash and showing nothing for it. They marketed first, wanting cash, and their visitors are literally saying “I don’t think so”. You then become the banner ad- looks really good, but never gets the click.

What you need to do is create content within your site. Simple as that. Without content you are just another site that the visitor has no real reason to come back to. Content also increases the chances of you being picked up by the search engines. Please note:Google, and the other big search engines have stated that their thousands of calculations per site includes content search. This is a fundamental statement, even if you are a music site giving away your MP3s.

If you have ever looked for MP3s within the search engines, there are about 6 million sites dedicated to the term MP3. Now, your one site has to be found by a visitor, the chances are very low. However, if your site has content focused keywords, such as “good guitar riffs”, “how to gig” etc, then you will be picked up much easily than a simple MP3 search. Within the various pages that you have created you put, “download free guitar MP3s” or something that suits your music, and you then advertise your MP3s through the “back door”. Content will also bring back the visitors, they love a site that they are interested in, they sign up to your news-letter, and then you email them with new updates, your new MP3s etc. Then you start to create your own little buzz, you create people willing to listen to your tracks.

A sideline to content is always relevant, up-to-date content. Offering tapes with your tracks on is music marketing suicide. I have seen these actually being offered on some websites. Offering a tape states that 1. You are not up-to-date hence your sounds won’t be, 2. You are offering poor quality, hence your tracks won’t shine, and 3. You have to pay out for the tape (postage and packaging etc). People on the Internet want things now, not tomorrow, offering MP3s, even short WAV files is giving the visitor what they want- immediate access to your tracks.

Relevant content is just as important as current content. If you have a rock website stick to rock related web pages. If I was into hip-hop I wouldn’t go onto your rock site and look at hip-hop related articles. Obvious I know, but scarily this has been done. It also has another effect. The search engines see topic specific sites as just that, topic specific. If you stray away from your chosen topic it will not look good for you with the engines. They will see that your relevance has reduced and so to will your page ranking.

Content is not that easy to accomplish. It comes with time, you need to tweak, track whether that has done any good to your traffic or click throughs. You could also just be writing alot of drivel. Content needs to be “Search Engine Focused”, you need to honestly persuade people to buy from you, you need to have a one to one style (like you are talking to a friend), and definitely not be boring. Nearly forgot, you need to assess who your audience is. Are they young, middle aged, technophobic? You writing style should cater for your audience. For example, a younger audience will like more colour, more tech information, a friendly banter, and up-to-date chart acts. Generally if you write as you would talk to a friend then you will be on safe lines.

Dominic Hough has made music for over 18 years. On his site http://www.make-your-own-dance-and-techno-songs.com he has proved that you can make, and market your own techno songs for free. His site also covers sampling, MP3s, loops and much more.

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These practice tips were written for fiddlers. I’ve used them in classical violin also. You will find they apply to any music learning goal you have set for yourself.

Learning new repertory raises your instrumental or singing ability. It makes you learn new combinations of notes. It takes focused effort and stretches your comfort zone.

Be sure you know what the piece sounds like. If you can “kind of” sing along or hum along with a recording, that’s a good start.

With any chart, whether standard music notation or fiddle tab, there is a first time you go through it. In music it’s called sight reading. It’s a skill that can be learned with practice.

In the folk music world, it is not a crucial skill. The point of having a chart is simply to help you get started easily.

Visual learners pick up a tune most quickly with a chart.

When I go through a tune the first time, I might miss a rhythmic figure, or a note here or there. Then, the second time through I’ll slow down on the tough part and figure it out.

Once you’ve played through the new chart a few times, you know where the traps and difficult spots are.

A trap is a place in the music where you were surprised by the choice of notes. You expected something else, based on what you were playing. You got blind-sided by the actual notes.

You can lock down a trap by a practice tip I call “the slow down technique.”

What you should not do is what most learners do until they get some coaching. You play along at a normal speed, hit the trap, and, oops! Back up and play it correctly, then keep going.

This is a good way to train your brain to fall into the trap.

Better is: simply slow the tempo as you get to the tricky part and play it accurately. Speed up to normal after you get past it. Repeat as needed. This way you are putting the trappy part into context. You are letting your brain connect the dots.

The other way–oops! and fix it, will work eventually. But it’s so inefficient. Instead, allow your brain the chance to learn a new pattern of notes. They’re not so difficult. They just go together funny. Slowing down enables you to play the part accurately. This is just crucial.

Truly difficult spots require you to do something with your hands, or voice, that is definitely awkward.

You need to focus like a laser on exactly what is the difficulty.

“Let’s see…I have to hold my 2nd finger down while I reach with my 3rd finger to the next string, while slurring with the down bow, then….”

Be very aware of exactly what problem the awkwardness is creating.

Some spots require several tough moves, one right after the other. Such a spot may require three or more seconds at first. Repetition builds speed naturally. You are creating and strengthening pathways in your brain.

Your goal should be, not so much getting faster, as getting easier and smoother.

Remember this universal musician’s rule. You are allowed to mark your part with a pencil.

Sometimes I’ll just draw a small wavy line above a trap or a difficult spot. It helps me to focus in my practice.

When you have isolated the most troublesome spots, play or sing each of them correctly three times in a row. This is the most basic practice technique of all. Make it your default habit and see your ability move ahead.

After spending some time with these techniques, you are ready for honest self-evaluation. Play through your new tune at a slow enough speed that you can play or sing all the hard parts accurately.

In other words, use a steady tempo that allows you to play with zero errors. Using a metronome, take note of the exact speed. Write that down on your chart as a benchmark.

Later, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the increase in speed with accuracy. This builds self-esteem and the habit of constantly getting better as a musician.

In tunes that have running sixteenths–notes that keep changing four to a beat–use four distinct rhythms to get mastery.

This running sixteenth note pattern is far more common in instrumental than vocal music. But, then, there’s Mozart.

Go through the passage with a swing feel. Taah-tu, taah-tu, etc.

The second rhythm is strathspey. Each pair of two notes is played quickly on the first note and longer on the second. This is just the opposite of swing rhythm. Tuh-daah, tuh-daah. etc.

The next two rhythms involve grouping four notes as one beat and a triplet beat. Tum, ta-da-da would be a beat followed by a triplet beat. Ta-da-da, tum is the triplet beat followed by the single note beat.

Just a little rhythm practice on a running sixteenth note section of music does wonders for cleaning it up.

Elan Chalford
Learn How to Play Fiddle
http://fiddleguru.com

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Looking for band members is never an easy task. You may first want to ask yourself what exactly you’re looking for - whether it is to join an existing band or find individual members to start your own band. Obviously, both have their differences and this should be answered first before you start your grueling search.

Join an existing band.
This is a great way for enthusiastic musicians to gain some playing experience right away, although it is sometimes harder to find these kinds of opportunities. These are established bands that are looking for single or multiple members for various reasons (their guitarist overdosed on cocaine, bass player got fired for drinking problems, etc). This might go without saying, but make sure you really do like the type of music a band plays before deciding to join their group! There are many musicians I know that play in a band where they don’t even like the music they play, all just to “gain experience” to get their foot in the door and hopefully move on to greener pastures. It can’t be stressed enough that if you don’t like the music you play, you’re going to do a half-assed job at it, so why bother?

Also, know your playing experience and limits. For example, if you’ve only started playing guitar learning all Green Day songs for a few months, don’t expect to join a thrash metal band that requires you to do sweep-picking, fast arpeggios, or any other insane guitar techniques. Make sure you choose a band where the technicality of the music they play is comfortable with your own skill level as a musician.

A huge advantage for joining an established band (maybe) is that most of the back-end stuff is already taken care of. This includes tasks such as finding an agent/manager to book your gigs, song development, contracts with music labels, etc. All you have to do is show up for rehearsals and play shows as scheduled.

A good resource to start finding these bands in need is going to your local rehearsal studios where most of them lurk. These are places where any musician can pay for a room to rehearse. Best of all, all the musicians you find there are often in your local area. Check out the bulletin boards where frequent bands post up classified ads that may go something like:

“Looking to join a band that rocks?! We are in need of a guitar player with lots of experience! Our influences include: Megadeth, In Flames, Black Sabbath, and many more! If interested, please contact Todd at xxxxxxxxxx.”

Or even better yet, post up your own classified ad on the bulletin board so bands can contact you instead. Local, independent music stores often have a bulletin board for classified ads as well. These are some of the best free ways to find band members in your area.

Disadvantages of joining an existing band.
First and foremost, you have to learn all their songs usually in a limited period of time. The band might have a show coming up and you have to be able to play all their songs flawlessly note-for-note. Needless to say, this might be stressful for some musicians (except if their music is very straight forward and easy with pure 3 note power chords).

Another disadvantage is often your own music creativity is limited. Most bands prefer their original tunes to be played and carried on without any radical change. For example, if you just joined a band and replaced their old guitarist, the way the former guitarist played a particular solo, is the way the band wants it to be played by you. Often you must follow the same note structure of a music piece composed by another musician.

Organizing your own band.
This is where you try to find individual musicians to start a new band, usually with similar music skills and backgrounds. Thinking of starting a band is the easy part, but the actual process of searching for the right people is harder than most people think. There are tons of musicians out there in the world but only a small percentage of those you may be compatible with. In addition, ask yourself: are you going to play in a band just for fun, or are you trying to make a living out of it? This will influence where you are going to start looking.

The internet is becoming a popular method for musicians to find other musicians. If you search “looking for musicians” in Google, you will easily find over 12,400,000 results - so how do you find what you’re looking for? Many ads posted in classifieds sections and on popular music forums will vaguely have descriptions such as this:

“Guitar player looking to form a band.”

Well, that’s just great.

Try refining your search to keywords such as the area you are in, what position you are looking for, etc. Example: “Looking for bass players in Toronto”. The first search result is an ad posted on www.craigslist.org, which by the way is an excellent place to get started. Try to only focus your attention on well-written ads that describe the musician, which includes how much playing experience he/she has, the types of music they are willing to play, and the intention of playing in a band. Or you may also want to post your own ad in music community forums and add a link to your audio/video samples that will likely interest more candidates. Audio/video samples that show off your best work are often the most influential factor of candidates contacting you back.

Be consistent with this. Chances are you won’t find someone right away on your first few posts, so try to refresh your ads on a weekly basis (but don’t spam!).

The internet is a large resource but don’t just rely solely on it. You may find you have better luck looking in local magazine’s classifieds ads section where it’s more direct. Also, because musicians have to pay to get their ads published in magazines, it shows that they are more serious about organizing a band.

Don’t limit yourself in a location.
If you are serious about starting a career as a musician, you don’t just search for bands or members only in your local area. Living in smaller towns and cities won’t give you very many options in choosing the right band or member for you. Expand yourself to larger urban cities where the potential to find band members is greater.

Finding band members is like finding a good job. Know exactly what you want before searching, always have a good portfolio ready, and be consistent in your pursue. Goodluck!

Kenny Auyoung

Webmaster @ http://www.getmeaband.com
Looking for a band? Search through our directory of musicians to find band members in your local area.

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