My band is relatively new. We’ve been together about a year and a half or so. That being said, we have a small but loyal fan base that is growing rapidly. I would like to attribuite this to:
1. Good songs.
2. Strong internet presence
3. Interactions with fans
Our songs are catchy, melodic and unique. That is the first selling point for any band. None of our songs sound the same, and while they are stylistically similar there are noticable differences. So if you are a band starting out, try and write songs that aren’t all power chords, basic drum beats and boring melodies.
Our internet presence is mostly my doing. We started out with myspace (naively of course). Now we have accounts at :
Official Website – Our home base as far as the internet goes. Everything links back to our home page. We have a blog, our bio, music, photos and contact information there. We use a wordpress installation.
Bandcamp – The site we host music on. We give all our music away for free if a fan gives us their email address. Never give something away for free without getting something back. A lot of bands just think because they give their music away for free fans will come flocking. Nope. They might download it and listen to it, then forget it later. If you have their email, you can remind them about yourselves later.
Facebook – One of our biggest assets besides our personal site and bandcamp. Let’s be honest here, who doesn’t use facebook? Our target age is between 16 and 25 and I would bet a substantial amount of money that a lot of those folks use facebook. It’s just a matter of spreading the word. It’s the easiest way to advertise a show and interact with fans.
Twitter – Twitter is slowly becoming a great way to find new fans. It’s a lot of work managing multiple accounts but we are able to get more exposure every week.
Google Analytics I use this mainly to track who goes to the website, and how we are doing in seach engines.
FriendFeed – We use FriendFeed to create an RSS feed of all of our activities on the web. Fans can use a rss reader to subscribe and see what we are up to.
We alslo use Youtube, Flickr, and last.fm and those are all pretty self-explanatory.
So this is all great stuff to use, but here is the key. You ACTUALLY HAVE TO TALK TO PEOPLE. Don’t sit back and think having all these things will automatically get you more exposure, fans and fame. That will never ever happen. You have to interact and sell yourselves in order to become successful. In a class I took, my professor said “don’t be afraid to be bolden brash”. Sell and promote yourself! Don’t be afraid to brag about something awesome your band has done. If you haven’t done anything awesome yet, create something awesome and tell people about it! Get in people’s faces and let them know who you are and why they should care. But don’t be rude or condescending. Always be polite and professional. Would you like it if you met your favorite band and they were dicks to you?
One more thing. If you can’t do graphic design, there is no better time to learn than now. The internet is a vast resource for this. I do most of our band’s stuff right now and gotten great results. If you have no ounce of artistry in you (but you should if you are a musician) you could outsource the work. Find a graphic artist on elance or something similar. The point here is to make yourself look professional visually as well.
Dare I say it? Yes, I will – I’d love to print this and hit some other musicians upside the head with it.
1. A business plan is so, so, SO important. Running around with no goal or direction gets you nowhere . . quickly! Also of note is the importance of manageable, realistic goals. “Getting signed” is too vast a statement. Increase in show attendance, plays/downloads, merch sales are all good examples. Remember to state how much of an increase you want to achieve. Set a number.
2. Fans are like your teeth – ignore them and they’ll go away. Hence, they won’t be there when you need them.
3. As far as being (or NOT being) a graphic artist – try bartering to get flyers/banners made. Maybe you’re not an accomplished graphic artist but perhaps you have another marketable skill to trade. And remember to let ppl know somewhere on your site who did the work for you. That little extra effort will be much apprieciated.
~Leemo
Blazin’ Bands
Some good tips. I’m a big proponent or Wordpress based sites for bands. So many useful features for engaging fans and for getting feedback.
Google analytics is a must. A lot of people seem to miss how important it is to know your traffic statistics and learn how to interpret them. It’s free. it’s very usefull. Everyone should have Google Analytics, or an equivalent, such as clicky.me (which has some cool features that GA doesn’t).
The great thing about playing in a band at this point in time is that there are so many creative and fun ways to reach people. The important thing though is to understand the overall principles of business and marketing. It’s not so much about knowing that it’s a good thing to use twitter, or facebook or artistdata as it is about knowing how to use those tools in a way that will sell you more music and get more people to your shows. I highly, highly recommend reading some books about marketing and branding that were written by non-musicians. A lot of these books are actually really enjoyable to read.
A few recommendations:
Startup Guide to Guerilla Marketing
by Jay and Jeannie Levinson
22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
Jack Trout and Al Reiss
22 Immutable Laws of Branding
Al and Laura Reiss