Stand out!

Hey Heroes!

Do you ever get the feeling that you're drowning in a sea of competition? I mean, there are millions of bands all over the US, all looking for recognition from the same finite grouping of reviewers, and magazines, and websites........right?

What do you do to make yourself stand out? In what way do you ensure that your band isn't just another white t-shirt an ocean of white t-shirts? How do you plan to avoid the feeding frenzy and make yourself stand alone?

I'm pretty sure just following the established way of doing things isn't going to do it. I talked with a guy the other day who told me the way an Indie tour should be set up and carried out. The unfortunate thing is that this same guy was also telling me how he just didn't want to do it anymore because it doesn't work. Hmmm......imagine that.

So, what are you willing to do to stamp your tag on the world? Are you just going to do the spray and pray tactic of finding fans, or are you going to really nail down who your ideal fan is and target market, directly to them? Do you even know who your ideal fan is?

Why should you care? In music, isn't the idea to sell your music to whoever likes it? Yep, but I bet if you took a long hard look, you'd find that the biggest portion of your followers fit into an age/gender demographic, at the very least. You could even go further and pick out lifestyle characteristics, favorite haunts, favorite foods, movies..........get the picture?

It's time to get smart about it. Think of it as a race. Think of it as a game. Think of it however you need to think about it to make sure that you stay motivated and THINKING when it's time to market your music. Oh, and don't think you're too good to market your music. That bullshit about "build it and they will come" is just that, bullshit. They won't come unless they know about it, and a little bulletin on your Myspace page isn't going to cut it. Hell, the old flier on the light pole trick does a better job.

Figure out who your ideal fan is, find out where they are, and make yourself interesting to them, but don't hound them! Converse with them, get to know them, make friends with them.

It doesn't have to take that much time either.....................................

It's a matter of Auditude

Here's an interesting file sharing idea. Auditude has developed a plan that would decriminalize file sharing by turning each file into an advertisement for the publisher. Now granted, I'm not familiar with all the fine print of this thing, but it appears that both MTV and MySpace think it has some merit, as they have both signed on.

Now, as I looked over the blog that I've linked below, I got to thinking about how something like this might work.

How would the artist have to innovate to still be able to make money under a business plan such as this? Even with the ad embedded in the file, the song is now totally free. Would it then mean that you'd go with a lesser quality file and then offer an "ad free" higher quality file for a download fee? Would it be advertising for your CD, a medium I see fading fast? Would it throw the artist into having to rely on merch and live performance monies to survive? Would it lead to an over saturation of music availability making it that much harder for people to find you?

It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out, and it certainly demands more looking into.


Read more here, http://government.zdnet.com/?p=4160

What do THEY know anyway?

I found this to be pretty interesting. It appears that music fans just don't really care what the critics have to say anymore.

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories_old/070808critics

What does this mean for us? Well, it means that nothing has really changed. I believe that most Indies have always held the belief that our music speaks for itself, we don't really need the approval of music critics or reviewers to help move people to listen to us. Leave the pandering to the Major Label acts, we have a better tactic.

As "small time" acts, we have the opportunity to connect with the people who love our music in a way that Major Label artists can't. One on one. As is mentioned in the article above, a grassroots approach can be just what the doctor ordered. Though, with the ability to market via social networking sites, such as Myspace and Facebook, it has become not only easier to build fanbases, but also harder to stand out from the crowd. We need to innovate new and better ways to be noticed, and heard. What will you do to stand apart?