I’ve been running into an interesting conversation lately regarding marketing of independent artist’s music. This mostly comes from my love for local music, and a bunch of really random serendipitous meetings I’ve had recently. One on the plane last night with a sound engineer and classical guitarist who loves his music, but never really thought about how he could get it to the masses. I’ll start this quick and dirty lesson with a few fast tips to get you moving:
1) Join MySpace, start an artist page, and start talking to people about your music. This gives you a place to engage people online, talking about your music, creating a conversation channel.
2) Look into a music aggregation service which can get your stuff into the iTunes Music Store. The preferred favorite is CDBaby. I’m told, from a couple of my friends I recently referred there, that they have fantastic service (and you keep 91% of the profit!). This gets you an online buying channel.
3) Think about ways to drive back through these two channels at every single one of your live events (or even to just your friends). Use simple business cards or postcards and hand them out in the crowd. Make sure these cards tell people to join the conversation about your music at myspace.com, and to purchase your music online through the iTunes Music Store.
Make sure everyone there understands those two things before they leave: 1) where they can talk more about your music with other fans AND 2) where they can buy your music quickly and easily.
There are over 45 million members on MySpace, and the entire network was generated by giving independent artists a connection to people who may enjoy their type of music. What if you could find just 1000 (out of 45 million!) people to enjoy your music on MySpace? What if they told a few of their friends?
I love this! What a fantastic way to turn your passion into a side venture.
Enjoy 
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