The Art And Science Of Marketing Your Music

Creating great music for yourself is one thing. Creating it to share with others and grow a fan base that helps fund your music is quite another thing.

What if you don’t know anything about sales or marketing? How do you get your music out to more people and how to do you make money off of your music so you can continue to make albums and be creative, maybe even make a living? According to a recent study by www.edgeonline.com.au, only 25% of people call in a expert to pursue their dreams, 100% of those 25% have proven successful in their endeavors.

Here are some thoughts…

Via GotCredit Flickr

People Pay For The Value You Create

At the end of the day all income or money is generated by someone adding value to someone else’s life. Business and sales are simply the art of creating value in the lives of others. Whether it’s selling you a car that helps you get to work or selling you a great meal at a beautiful restaurant, each add value to your life. The music business is no different.
 
For years people have paid for music because it adds value to their lives. It makes them feel a certain way. Music is awesome! That’s why you’re reading this website right now.

The same is true for concerts. The live performance is a unique experience that adds value to people’s lives so they are willing to pay for it. Whether the actual product (CD, MP3 purchase) or the experience (live show, concert), both are ways an artist has created value and sold it to you. And you were happy to pay.

You Add Value With More Than Your Recordings

So the key with YOUR music is to not just think about creating great music, but creating something that is valuable to other people. This can be way more than just your actual recordings.

Some examples: live shows, online performances, behind the scenes videos, Q&A Skype sessions, lyric explanation videos, demos, live acoustic recordings, covers, collaborations, PDFs of your original notes and lyrics on paper, merchandise like t-shirts, mugs, wrist bands, etc.

These days, more than ever, fans want to be really connected to their favorite artists. The beauty of being an indie band or artist is that you can offer your fans way more access than ever before. Music is just the beginning, the foundation for a total experience that can add massive value to your fans.

Give Away Your Best Thing For Free

So what can you practically do to market your music to more people and eventually generate income from your passion? You’ll need to build a relationship with potential fans, one in which they are happy to offer you their email address in exchange for something.

You want their email address because you want to better interact with them directly and offer them more amazing stuff in the future. You’ll want to let them know when you’ll be playing a show in their area, or when your newest EP is out, or your latest music video, etc.

But to secure this relationship you’ll need to offer value to them first. You need to give away your best thing for free.

This could be your EP (like I did most recently), which is hard. It’s your baby. It’s the whole point of why you do what you do. But remember, it’s not the only way you create value in people’s lives. It is, however, the foundation for everything else you can do for your fans.

The idea here is simply create fan loyalty from Day 1. Why mess around and offer something lame. Give them your best stuff free, start a relationship, and then continue to show them other ways you can add value to their lives with either free stuff or paid stuff.

Some Tactics That Will Really Help

So a while back I came across a guy named Ben Sword who runs a website called Music Marketing Classroom. He’s a fellow musician and entrepreneur whose expertise is marketing for musicians. I literally watched all of his videos and was blown away by how much he gives away.

One video in particular called “The Napkin Plan” was a genius business model for the modern musician that can totally revolutionize the way you grow a fan base and market your stuff.

I asked him if I could hook you guys up with some of his free content so you can get training from someone who really knows what he’s talking about in this area. He has way more experience in music marketing than I do and I learned a ton from these videos.

Just for you guys, check out this link and start watching his stuff. It’s absolutely free and if you take notes and take action I’m sure you’ll see awesome results.