Promotion of New Album in the Digital Age?

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Rolsen
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Promotion of New Album in the Digital Age?

Post by Rolsen » Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:45 am

I've seen and commented on many Tapeop posts regarding how worthless CDs are as a means to put your music into the hands and ears of others. While I don't entirely agree with that sentiment, I would ask those who have moved away from CDs how you go about the whole 'promo pack' thing for local print-weeklies, college radio, club booking agents, and even more regional or bigger magazines, etc. Do you just send an email with a link to your tunes, attach a pdf bio, 'one-sheet,' etc? As I'm not on the receiving end of band promotional material, I can only speculate what works, but I would think that a padded envelope in the mail with de-cellophaned CD and accompanying promo sheet would be given due attention over an email, wouldn't it? At live shows, how do you capitalize on the relatively short attention span of an audience who may not be motivated to look for your music on line the day after your show? I'm interested in hearing about others' strategies.

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Post by Gregg Juke » Wed Oct 05, 2011 12:14 pm

Me too Rolsen (I want to hear what other's ideas are). As for my perspective, from my vantage point in the music business-- CD's are still the standard, and will be for some time.

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Post by kslight » Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:14 pm

For promotional/review purposes many signed acts now do a splash page that is "secure" (individual logins) and tracked (number of logins, etc) with streaming capabilities.

As far as capitalizing on short attention spans... Sell download cards, or handout printed post cards to fans post show, or set out a clipboard and sign people up on an email list for updates. If they aren't motivated to at least take a post card or sign up on the email list, they probably aren't going to be paying fans.

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Post by chris harris » Wed Oct 05, 2011 9:19 pm

The magazines/newspapers/blogs/etc. honestly don't care about your "promo package"... It's just more clutter for the office. And, most of the bigger magazines/newspapers/blogs don't care about your music at all unless you're being represented by a good promotions company. Literally almost every single band you've heard of in print or online press is paying another company to promote them and get them that kind of press.

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Post by Tragabigzanda » Thu Oct 06, 2011 5:45 am

chris harris wrote:Literally almost every single band you've heard of in print or online press is paying another company to promote them and get them that kind of press.
Yes.

For a great, easy-to-digest yet very thorough primer on promo and distro stuff, you should pick up Mike King's "Music: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail." It breaks my heart to see indie artists approach the studio with such force, then approach the promotion with no clue.
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Post by dgrieser » Fri Oct 07, 2011 8:17 am

Alex,

Your post led me to www.artistshousemusic.org Great resource. Thanks!!

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Post by Rolsen » Fri Oct 07, 2011 8:36 pm

Thanks guys. I understand that a little 'ol band like mine is wasting our effort sending promo material to Spin, etc. We're a hometown band and will probably stay that way, but we have been written up in a couple of the local lefty/music/arts weeklies and have played on and been played by college radio. I kinda wanted to re-direct the discussion away from 'unless you're big time, fuggitaboutit' to the merits of non-professional bands using CDs or some other alternative when courting local venues, local press, local college radio, etc. If you have given up on CDs, what do you do to promote yourselves locally/regionally?

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Post by fossiltooth » Mon Oct 10, 2011 2:35 pm

Tragibigzanda wrote:
chris harris wrote:Literally almost every single band you've heard of in print or online press is paying another company to promote them and get them that kind of press.
Yes.

For a great, easy-to-digest yet very thorough primer on promo and distro stuff, you should pick up Mike King's "Music: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail." It breaks my heart to see indie artists approach the studio with such force, then approach the promotion with no clue.
This is super-duper true. I can vouch for these comments after seeing things from the inside of the music journalism world as well. If you're interested in music as more than a hobby, just consider promotions another step in the chain after pre-production, recording, mixing, and mastering.

Even with PR support, it's still a total gamble. But at least you'll actually be sitting that the roulette table. Otherwise, you're just peering through the window, all dressed up in your favorite tux, only thinking that your chips are in play.

(To be fair, maybe music as a profession is a little more like blackjack. Even at its worst, there will always be some skill and ingenuity involved.)

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Post by joelpatterson » Mon Oct 10, 2011 8:01 pm

Maybe it's even more like... more almost like something like darts. It's really all you, your aim, your stamina, your preparing, your concentration... but the odds of hitting the bullseye clear across on the other wall of the bar are just daunting, even on your best day.
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Post by Gregg Juke » Mon Oct 10, 2011 9:04 pm

I have found that it's more like one of those Bruce Willis movies, or Japanese films, or like when I spent my very brief stint in the infantry, and we had to do a live-fire exercise, crawling on our bellies over a dirt area the size of two football fields with live fire blasting over our heads, and explosions going off in pits all around us.

It's a game of "Last Man Standing."

GJ

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Post by joelpatterson » Tue Oct 11, 2011 7:05 am

I give you a hearty welcome, then: Hurrah! Hurrah!
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Post by Tragabigzanda » Tue Oct 11, 2011 7:38 am

It's funny, I don't really think that luck has much to do with it at all; it's more a question of practicality. Is your music good? Is your singer able to write lyrics and perform in a way that connects with the listener? Can you sustain a steady recording/touring schedule for at least a decade while happily supplementing your income with "regular" work?

I think Joel hit the nail on the head when he said it's about stamina; I would add to that realistic intentions. If your intent is to write a song that is so powerful that a major label is going to cut you a huge check, then your ideas about your career in music are not really grounded in reality. If, instead, your goals are more tangible, such as "We're going to move 1000 units of our debut ep, and we're going to do a west coast tour; we're also going to get a review of our ep in six different publications," well, now you're making sense.

Most artists and producers/engineers who do this for any serious length of time ultimately get to be part of some pretty cool recordings, and probably feel a similar sense of disappointment when those recordings don't make a blip on the national radar. So, you start learning about distro/promo stuff, and hopefully some publishing, as well. The gatekeepers who held the key to your music being pressed on a CD and shipped out to retail locations, with appropriate press and promo, are not really in the same position of power that they used to be in. It's up to you to learn about that stuff, and to understand that if you really want a viable career as a musician, you're going to have to take a tremendous amount of responsibility; that means putting down your instrument, and learning how to use Excel and a calendar to formulate and achieve goals.
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Post by Tragabigzanda » Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:22 pm

And just to bring it back to the OP:

CD's have their time and place, but it's more complicated than that. For whatever reason, a lot of the music supervisors on film & tv projects still like to work with CDs; local venues, less so. The point is, there's a rhyme and a reason to when you budget for either a hard copy or digital release, so your question is part of a larger question. Some things I've learned along the way:

-most press won't even cover your release if it's already out
-press lead times are fairly sizable, and require some good foresight
-a mention in your local record store's weekend flyer, or an end-cap placement in the store, is a complicated legal understanding between probably two to four parties

I could go on with this stuff. Point is, don't even bother dropping money on CDs or serious merch unless you've got a solid understanding of the distribution channels that will handle them.

Hope I don't sound arrogant. I just think it's changing so fast, that a lot of people aren't tuned in with the possibilities they have, provided they educate themselves. There's a real viable future for the "middle class musician," I think. But that idea we all had in the 90s, the one where we could write a gnarly little tune and it would get you a huge deal? That idea is dunzo.
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