How to Make a Living as a Full-Time Indie Musician cont.
Chris 
Carrying on from my last post, I found this great post on the Ariel Publicity blog where successful indie artist John Taglieri’s philosophy on being an indie musician was summarised.
Read more about ‘How to Make a Living as a Full-Time Indie Musician’ at Ariel Publicity (The Original Cyber PR Blog).
—
Discover More About Music, Websites & Marketing
FREE Book Offer: Make Real Money On The Internet by Stephen Pierce
How to Make a Living as a Full-Time Indie Musician
I’ve been listening a lot recently to this audio download titled “How to Make a Living as a Full-Time Indie Musician”.
Music marketing author Bob Baker interviewed indie successful artist John Taglieri and picked his brains on how John took control of his indie music career, what steps he took and how he has been able to give up the day job to focus on music full-time.
There are were many similarities discussed which parallel building a good business, things like
- Determining your vision as an artist
- Setting regular goals to achieve
- Figuring out what success means to you
- Working on the baby steps every day to push you forward
They discuss the pro’s and con’s of the indie music path versus the major music path. John describes a major label record deal as a bad car loan and he explains why.
They discuss plenty more insightful topics including using Myspace, publicity and building a fan base.
You can learn more about it on Bob Baker’s website.
—
Discover More About Music, Websites & Marketing
FREE Book Offer: Make Real Money On The Internet by Stephen Pierce
Have You Sorted Out Your Band Press Kit?
A really valuable tip I picked from the music marketing workshop I attended the other week was the need to have a press kit available 24/7.
You should have both an online and offline version available for press, promoters, booking agents, etc.
The press kit would include things like:
- Band bio
- Press photos
- Music samples
- EPK or video bio
By having both an online and offline version, if you don’t happen to have any physical press kits on hand for whatever reason to give to someone, you can direct them to your website where they can get all the necessary information they require.
Your website is available 24/7 so put it to work!
Keep your bio concise
Also try and keep all your information current and concise, a bio that’s 10 pages won’t get read. Trim the fluff and just present the most compelling facts you can.
Image thumbnails
When you upload hi-res press pictures, make sure you create thumbnail images for people to preview.
EPK (Electronic Press Kit)
It’s worth the little effort needed to create a 2 or 3 minute video where you can present what the band is all about.
Anything that can help make life easier for the person seeking information on you is a plus and a video can present a bit of personality that won’t come across on a written bio.
—
Discover More About Music, Websites & Marketing
FREE Book Offer: Make Real Money On The Internet by Stephen Pierce
Do You Have A Music Marketing Funnel?
A marketing funnel is a systematic process which people go through in order for you to establish who is seriously into what you or your band does.
The marketing funnel looks like this:
Suspect -> Prospect -> Customer -> Life Long Customer
The Suspect (Unknown interest)
With a marketing funnel, everyone is a suspect until they raise their hand and express an interest in what you do. You can’t be sure who is interested in what your band does until they give you a sign they are interested.
You can’t convince someone to like your music if they don’t, you just want to sort through and find the people who are interested.
The Prospect (Known interest)
As soon as someone indicates they are interested in what you do, they move on and become a prospect. This can be indicated by someone joining your mailing list or becoming friends on Myspace for example.
They have now qualified themselves as someone you should establish more contact with. The point now is to see if they are interested enough to move on and buy your music to become a fan or customer.
The Customer (Fan)
These are the guys and girls who have proven they like you enough to spend money on you. Treat them well and look after them as these are the people who most likely to spend more money with your band buying more music, merchandise, tickets to shows, etc.
The Life Long Customer (Raving fan)
These are the hardcore fans who will back you no matter what. They eat, live, breathe and believe in what you do to the very ends of the earth.
These are the people who are keen to help spread the message about your band, join your street team and want to help promote you. They will support and buy almost anything you do.
Why is a marketing funnel important?
It gives you a way for figuring out who is at what stage and how that can benefit you as an artist. As people move through the different stages, the numbers become less and less but their value to you becomes more and more.
A hundred raving fans will benefit you in so many more ways than a thousand interested prospects. What you need to do is nurture your relationships with people and figure out who is who.
—
Discover More About Music, Websites & Marketing
FREE Book Offer: Make Real Money On The Internet by Stephen Pierce
How To Post Video To Multiple Video Sites
It can be real time consuming uploading a video to multiple sites usually.
TubeMogul takes the hassle out of it where you upload a video once and then they distribute it to multiple sites for you!
You need to sign up for an account with TubeMogul and then each other video site service you wish to use ie. Youtube, Google video, Yahoo video, Metacafe, etc.
After that, you provide Tubemogul with your login and passwords for the video sites you have accounts with and they upload it to them for you.
They even provide statistics on your video views so you know where and how often your videos are getting viewed.
Handy service huh?
—
Discover More About Music, Websites & Marketing
FREE Book Offer: Make Real Money On The Internet by Stephen Pierce
Follow Me!
Stay updated
Recent Posts
- Dubstep: Is it taking over the world?
- New Twitter look and feel
- SEO anchor text strategy
- How to tether Android to Mac
- Foo Fighters new album Wasting Light live from 606