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Online Marketing for an Indie Band?
nometa asks: "I'm working with an indie band, and despite excellent reviews, a great album (produced by Sylvia Massey of Tool fame), and excited responses by crowds whenever we play, it seems near-impossible to get past the 'gate-keepers' of the music industry. Majors (and several indies, sadly) don't see a pretty boy band, push for fluffy singles over good songs, and generally act like they still have clue about what people want. We've had great success, however, on our websites selling CDs and pulling in new fans, and would like to push online music marketing further. Do any Slashdot readers have suggestions for pushing our music out further online?" We all know the problem with today's music industry, this is not the place for that horse-pill. Instead let's focus on how an independent music group can go out there and make it on their own, and do so using existing technology (including the Internet), to its best potential. So what suggestions do you have for young, aspiring bands who want to make their music, and not sell their soul in the process?
Make your music FREE (for personal use)! If you signed, you wouldn't get much for your music anyway, sheer .1 cents on each CD. All of your money will come from merchandising and shows. Tour, tell people to dl your MP3s (they will) and spread them to their friends. Make sure you post when you'll be in an area on your websit.
You'll make it. This is the OTHER thing the labels are afraid of...
Take a couple tracks and make them into mp3's.
Include the song title and then put something like "indie: like Tool" or "produced by Tool's producer" etc.. in parenthesis in the title. Then release the songs out on a bunch of gnutella and opennap winmx networks.
I've seen people do this with good success. The band Sheavy, for example, mentioned "Black Sabbath-like indie band" in a track title, and got a *lot* of downloads.
Loomis
"The television is the retina of the mind's eye" - Videodrome
How about putting some MP3's out and including contact information in the id tag? This information can be a simple email address or web site address. Something like "for more info contact ...." or "to purchase CD ..." You could release it into the world of P2P networks or newsgroups. You can then see if these distribution methods actually help unlike what the industry tries to make us believe.
If you choose the Open Audio License published by the EFF, I would strongly recommending listing the music in the Open Music Registry (see link in my .sig). If you so choose, you can use that listing to request tips/donations from listeners.
(This is directed to nometa, not Milo Fungus, who provides an example of what I'm describing in the 2nd paragraph above.)
No Laughing Allowed!
How about trying to meet some indie filmmakers and getting your music on the soundtracks for their films with a credit at the end, or maybe a bit part or cameo? Some indie films enjoy a lot of success, some don't, of course.... but it might be sort of a symbiotic relationship- indie filmmakers are trying to achieve the same goal as you.
The probelm behind online marketing is that its cheap enough for everyone to do it. So you loose the "unique" feel of conventional advertisement.
The truth is the reason behiond the success of traditional advertisement is that its very expensive. That guarantees that the customer will remember the few brands that manage to get a goot marketing campaign.
Having said that i would recommend you to leave traditional online advertisement (websites, p2p, slashdot, etc) as secondary, and focus on untraditional and innovative advertisement. Im not telling you to hack google to show your band as the result of every query, but to be smart and careful.
For instance, you could start a "music for geeks" campaign, giving away linux CDs in your shows and showing source code behind the stage, that would get you on the news, and from there (if you are good) you are done.
The key: innovation, do something nobody has ever done.
Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
Push some of the songs via P2P. Better yet, release them under a license that ALLOWS redistribution so long as credit is given to your band. The idea is to push your band and get it greater exposure.
Give distribution rights to online radio stations, etc. Under the same terms. The idea is to make people *fascinated* by your band as well as liking the music.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Well the Da' Dead did it. Remember that the bands signed by Big Labels don't get rich from CD sales--they get cash from touring. The Grateful Dead (IANAGDF) gave away their tapes at concerts and toured like crazy. The thing with doing concerts is that your manger has to sell promotors to invest in your act. i.e. Budwesier concert series, Ozzfest, Radio Stations, etc.. Record labels just make it a thousand times easier to get a venue of 40K+ people to listen.
"Get them before they get....
Another thing to try is contacting the owners of the top listened to internet stations on Shoutcast that match your genre. Maybe they would want new stuff to play.
This is a very good suggestion. I've bought several CDs from independent bands I've heard on Internet radio stations.
Another: Find message boards/newsgroups/email lists that are appropriate, and just hang out and post there. Make sure your band's URL is in your sig line. Don't blatantly advertise, unless that's acceptable. Just be part of the community. I've seen web hits on sites skyrocket from things like this.
I work with a number of bands who have been signed to major labels - the biggest in the industry, some of whom still are; many of whom were summarily dumped due to inter-company politics, line-item accounting and circumstance. I've managed bands; I've handled promotion from all aspects and I'm here to say the major label is a thing of the past, unless: a) you look gorgeous and want to be fully exploited for a few years and then dumped and know how to save your advance checks, b) are willing to give up almost all of your publishing royalties.
The majors don't work the way they used to. They don't "develop" acts any more, unless it's part of the current fad formula and they can own the majority of you. Otherwise, any decent, hard working band should not look at a major record deal as anything more than one of those scam "mortgage your home and get some cash"-type deals because that's exactly what they are. You get signed, you get a bonus, but then the label charges you for everything they do for you (after hugely inflating the price) and in the end you don't end up with anything except your advance, which most bands blow immediately, then they're stuck trying to make a living off touring.
In the past, the major label was necessary for distribution - the Internet puts a dent in that monopoly. So it leaves little reason to sign to a major except that some still believe it gives a band some credibility, but others think exactly the opposite.
Ironically, nowadays, a label is more likely to court a band when they don't need a label: they've already proven they can sell their product and work their ass off, so it's of little risk for the label, so why even sign? One of my bands was signed to one of the biggest lables in the biz, and then they didn't spend hardly a penny to promote them, then in a merger deal with another company let them go and handed them a bill for $2,000,000.00 for expenses! The biggest phallacy in the world is that you've "made it" if you're signed. That's like saying you've found "love" the first time you're gang raped in prison. But that's just my opinion.
What does this have to do with online promotion? Everything. The Internet is the scariest thing to ever come along to the major labels and the "music mafia". Every band that fully-exploits the Net to promote themselves and distribute their music bypasses the traditional monopolies and insider deals with the mega-corporations who now own both lables and radio and put their artists exclusively in rotation. The solution is to go grass roots.. reach people online, and ultimately demand will force the big players into having to distribute and embrace those bands that don't fit their exploitive formulas.
So ROCK ON...LINE
Back around 1993, I was a guitarist in a local band put together by an older friend of mine - who was aspiring to be a musical success for at least 10 years before I met him.
He had written literally hundreds of songs, and from the sound of his old cassettes, had a pretty good band together for a little while in Chicago.
Anyway, the only "marketing" we did was an investment in flyers and a couple batches of t-shirts with cool artwork on them - plus mailing tapes to any underground paper or local newspaper that would accept them for review.
The rest was just plain old "word of mouth". The most effective thing we did was playing for free at house parties. Pass the word around that there's a kegger at such-and-such a house on Sat. night - and collect "donations" for the beer at the door when people get there.
After a year or so, we developed a following of fans/groupies. Did we ever make any money from it? No, not at all... but it was a lot of fun, and I'm really glad we did it.
I think it *could* have become serious, but if you don't have money to sell yourselves (or cater to a record label who will provide that funding), you just have to do it the hard way. That is, win over fans one at a time - until you've built up a "critical mass" of fans.
Basically, I think the trick is, get a day job - but don't lose track of your long-term goals. Keep playing gigs. Above all, keep writing your own stuff and putting it out there. I see bands in this area that are musically very talented, but they keep playing everyone else's stuff. Sure, the dance party/nightclub crowds love hearing that - but in the end, the credit keeps going to the original writers of the songs, *not* to you! That's no way to become any more successful than what you earn playing those weekend nightclub gigs.
Keep on doing whatever it is that makes your fans like you. Rinse, repeat!
Ok, I know we all like the net and it really neato to download files from P2P, but lets all face it, a butt-load of people still get a lot of their music from the store, hear it on the radio (then download it), word of mouth, etc, etc. My suggestions, for what they are worth--
You say you perform live. Great! SELL CDs (if you don't already). Really, it's not hard to record and burn a master then copy 5,000 either through yourself (heh) or pay a third party to do it. Yeah, the latter option requires you to shell out some cash, but what you do sell, you pocket. I've seen street performers do this successfully.
Radio. Somehow, some way, get air time. Even if you have to buy it. I won't claim to be a marketing genius, but radio is the best way to reach a lot of people. Buy a commercial slot. Play a condensed minute-thirty version of your most popular song and where you'll be playing next. Heck, some DJs might even give you a free shot or two.
Find a way to slip it into the format of popular internet radio. Yes, I remeber what I said at the top, but that doesn't mean it isn't without use. Winamp is hella popular, as is WAR. Find the most popular channels and hook up with their directors, slip your song in with a blurb about you. A few of them are revenue starved. Pay them. They'll like you. A lot.
I know, most of my solutions revolve around fundage. I'm also assuming you have jobs other than the band. Unfortunately, it's a nessisary evil, especially if you don't want to sell out. That's the big trade-off. "The Man" provides you the capital and as such, has lots of influence over you. In your situation, it's the opposite. You don't want his influence, but you still want to reach as many ears as possible. Unless you catch some extrodinarily lucky breaks, money is part of that equation. I'd hope there are easier ways, but these are the best I can think of. Unlike a previous co-worker mine who had a band thinks, success rarily jumps out and bites you on the ass while you sit at home, unemployed and play at a bar twice a month. I wish you the best success.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Numerous scientific studies have proven focus groups ineffective at determining things like this. Reason? The people want to please the interviewers and give them answers they think they want to hear. This goes double for image-heavy industries like music. Who would want to be seen by the interviewer and the other participants as unhip? Maybe some snooty slashdot readers, yes, but not most folks. So they lie.
And we get crap.
Besides that, do you think these focus groups are shown a true range of choices? I think it's more like, "Do you prefer boy-band A, B, or C?"
Garbage in, garbage out.
And really, what choice do we have? All 250 million of us here in the States including Gramma and Grampa Beefy-Midwesterner are going to jump on the internet, spend the time finding the music we like, and download it?
Someday, maybe, but in the meanwhile, the music industry has us by the short and curlies, and they know it. Most of us will buy their crap and like it because we have no other real choice.
Which brings us around to the poor poster, who it seems has been locked out of the big-time. Kind of like the diamond industry: diamonds are in fact so damn common they have to lock most of them away and heavily control all sources to artificially prop up the price.
Talented musicians are that common, too. Human artistic talent is that common in general, and it would be recognized, utilized and appreciated more often if oligopolies like the music industry didn't have a vested interest in suppressing it.
<rant mode="capitalism" position="con">
Free market types are the worst hypocrites in the world. Leave aside the fact that the whole concept that ' the invisible hand of the market will guide us to efficiency' has been proven to be true only in very limited situations.
That's just ignorance of modern economic science. What strikes me as true hypocrisy is the fact that those who scream the loudest for 'free markets' are usually the ones doing the most to squelch any true competition in those markets by raising the barrier of entry so high that only ruling class people with interests in common can compete. Thus, ologopolies and monopolies quickly come to dominate the supposed free markets.
Which, I suppose, is what those bastards meant by a free market all along. Free for them, that is.
</rant>
That being said, turning a trick from the evil capitalist's own book and using Guerilla Marketing techniques to get your product listed in popular underground journals could work.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I run a linux box that holds the website for a local indie band myself. We started with a webserver on windows, and I moved them to linux. Then we added soundbites on the website, gave them {member's first name}@{their band.com} email addresses, and set up a realplayer 8 server. (Real did release the linux server for free--but it didn't stay up long.)
Then we put a few select mp3s of their music on the server, and with icecast and shout, we ran a shoutcast server. Shout supports some random looping and continuous play, so we could cause it to seem like it was a pseudo-live internet radio station.
Then we got a little nefarious. We configured the icecast server to announce back to shoutcast.com, and with a couple minor tweaks to the source, we fraudulently announced ourselves as a server capable of 2500 listeners with (random num +1600) listening, and then announced to each genre.
And the listeners did come. Watching the connection logs, I got over 400 listeners in a 2-week spread, some from as far away as .hu (we're in Iowa.)
We also got a nasty letter from the Nullsoft people along the lines of cease-and-desist or we'll see you in court, so I shut it down and put an old, unmodified server back up. Number of listeners did drop off, but we did get some loyal fans in the process.
But I'm not proud of what I did--in the strictest sense, it was morally, ethically, and legally wrong. But in the marketing sense, it was great because it cost only the money we were already spending for electricity and internet access. So, our marketing budget was $0, but we still made an impact. As for me--well, I was under orders from the boss to get creative. When I dreamed it up, he demanded to see it work. :)