How To Get More Sales On iTunes!

How To Get More Sales On iTunes!

You have worked hard on writing and recording your album.  Now it’s time to put it on iTunes.  But what do you do next to make sure that you see some sales? If you want your album to sell, you will have to promote it.  Below is a list of 12 easy things you should do to get more sales on iTunes.  Follow these suggestions and you will be selling more of your music and growing your fan base in no time!

1.       Send Your Album Out For Review:

Send your album out to local newspapers, magazines, and blogs along with a friendly letter asking if they would consider reviewing your album.  Getting reviews is extremely important.  It allows your music and message to be exposed to new audiences.    Hopefully, someone will read the article, like what the author is saying, and go to iTunes to check out and purchase your music.

2.      Print Up Download Cards With A Sample Of Your Music:

Download cards are an affordable, easy way to get some promo for your new album.  I would suggest making up a card and putting 1 or 2 songs from your album on it.  On the card make sure you include your contact info, track name, any band artwork, and of course a message stating that the full album is available on iTunes.

I have found that since these cards are cheap, as little as 1000 cards for $99 through Distrophonix, you can hand them out for free to potential fans and not feel guilty or go broke.

The goal with the download cards is to hand these cards out to as many people as possible.  A great place to hand them out is at local malls, music festivals, and outside venues as shows are letting out.

3.      Create A Banner With A Buy Link: 

Make it easy for fans to buy your music.  One of the best ways to do this is to make a simple banner that can be posted on your site and social networks.  This banner would link directly to your music on iTunes.

4.      Sign up for LastFM: 

This is a great place to get exposure for your music.  LastFM has the power to introduce your music to millions of potential fans.  When you do your distribution through Distrophonix they do this for you automatically.

5.      Get On Your Social Networks: 

Not to overstate the obvious, but getting the word out through social media is an absolute necessity if you hope to have strong sales on iTunes.  Use Facebook, ReverbNation, Twitter, MySpace etc. to let people know that your music is available on iTunes. 

6.      Start A Mailing List: 

Your fans want to stay in touch with you.  One of the best ways to do this is to start a newsletter giving updates about the band and informing them of new shows.  In this newsletter also include a link to your music in iTunes so that your fans can easily find your material.

7.      Offer To Give Something Away For Free For A Good Album Review:

Getting positive album reviews on iTunes is the key to success.  The more album reviews you have, the more exposure you will get in the stores.  A good way to get positive album reviews is to offer your fans free tickets to a show, or some free merch for any review they do.

8.      Tell People You Are On iTunes While On Stage: 

While you are on stage, and have everyone’s attention, make sure that you tell the audience that your music is available on iTunes.  This is really a no brainer, but you would be surprised by how many artists forget to do this. 

9.      Get Help From Your Existing Fans:  Ask your fans to help promote you. It is amazing the impact even one fan can have if they get on Twitter or Facebook and start talking about their favorite band or artist.  Make sure to reward anyone who helps you in this way, and of course let them know how much it is appreciated.

10.  Consider Putting Your Music In The Rock Band Video Game: 

Consider using the power of video games to market and promote your music.  By getting one of your songs in the Rock Band video game, you have the chance to expose your music to an entirely new audience.  If they like the song, you can bet they will buy it on iTunes.  Distrophonix can also assist you with getting your music on Rock Band. 

11.  Do A Facebook Advertising Campaign: 

Facebook can be very powerful because it allows you to specifically target those that may be interested in your music.  For a few cents a click, you can drive a lot of potential fans to your iTunes storefront.  To learn more about this check out the advertising section on Facebook.

12.  Consider Taking Part In A Shared Magazine Ad In A Major Publication:

Advertising in magazines specific to your genre can be very effective, but expensive.  To keep it affordable, consider buying an ad space and splitting up the costs with a few other artists that you are friends with.  That way everyone gets exposure, but at an affordable price.

Written By:

Distrophonix LLC

www.Distrophonix.com

http://www.distrophonix.com/video-game-distribution/

http://www.distrophonix.com/distribution/

http://www.distrophonix.com/download-cards/

Planning A CD Release Show? If So Read This First!

Almost every conversation I have with a band about CD Pressing starts like this:

“We would like to replicate X number of CDs, our CD release is scheduled for…..”

The last thing any band wants to do is to have a CD release without discs.  Also, having a CD release with an album you’re not happy with, or packaged with art that you regret is potentially worse.  CD manufacturing is not a long process (10-12 Business Days in most cases).  However, you have to be ready for the unexpected.  You may have the art files completed, but when you receive the proofs you may notice a typo, or that there is something missing.  Your master may have data issues you may need to address.  You may want to completely change your art, or even your track order.

If you have not booked your CD release, you have all the time you need to fix any issues before you begin the manufacturing process.  I understand the need to share your newly recorded music with the world as soon as you have left the studio, however rushing this final step could completely undo all of the hard work you have put into your album.  Every band wants their CD out as soon as possible, but it's much better to have your CD arrive a month or two early, than one day too late.

So first things first, DO NOT schedule your album release party/show/event while you're still recording.  Once you have your CDs in-hand and you have made sure that you are happy with them, the first thing you should do is begin promoting it.  This is why major studios advertise, give out flyers, have merchandise in kid’s meals, put out hundreds of commercials and put the album/movie/product in your face as many times as possible.  No major studio would ever silently release a CD a week after it was finished mastering and expect anyone to buy it.  Here is some great advice from industry experts:

“Give yourself at minimum three weeks to get the CDs out to local newspapers and magazines in time for them to write a review before or around the same time as the official release date. You can even sell limited signed editions as pre-release copies before the official release. This can help considerably with bringing in a little cash flow to offset all the money you just spent on the recording and production process.”  David Barber – Former President, Colorado Music Association

“Contact local press about your CD release at least one month before the CD release show. Don’t be like every other band when you contact the press either.  Calling on the phone or sending an email is almost the least you can do. Set up a day and time to personally bring an advance copy of your CD to the local entertainment writer(s).  Many writers say very few artists bother doing more than call or email them these days.  Those same writers say that since so few artists actually bother to come to and meet with them personally, they usually write about the artists that do stop in person 100% of the time.”  David Codr – Publisher, The Music Phonebook

“The best advice I can give is to… plan ahead. The biggest mistake is …. I would have to say out of all my orders, 90% of the orders I get from my bands are bands that already have a date for a CD release party, which is usually only a week to three weeks out. They don’t understand that the manufacturing takes three weeks. Every Friday we have bands in our office picking up CDs between sound checks and their CD release party show. When I ask them how much promotion they did for their show, they often say, “None, because we didn’t have any CDs.” And that’s when I say, “There probably won’t be too many people at your CD release party because you didn’t do any pre-releases or proper planning.” Bands tend to think the day they get their CDs should be the day they have their CD release show because they can’t wait. There [is] usually very little planning. There are no reviews in the local newspapers, no Internet reviews. That’s definitely the most common error that I see…  In my experience, bands don’t budget well either. They spend all their money on recording. They’ll spend … as much as $20,000 on recording and then … want the best-looking package on no money. Budgeting and timing always seem to be the biggest issues.” Joe Guyette – Owner, Breakthrough Media

These are the steps you should follow and check off in order:

1.            Recording and Mastering

2.            Graphic Design for Album Art

3.            Replication

4.            PROMOTION

5.            Schedule Your Release

6.            Play Your Show

If you skip any of these, or try to bunch them together, it will not be a smooth ride.  If you run through these in order, you will make more money, be happier with your product and have a stress free process.

Written By:  Aaron Perez

What Not To Do When Marketing Your Band!

What NOT to do when Marketing your Band

Summary: 6 don’ts when marketing your band 

There are many “don’ts” that people are unaware of when marketing to certain audiences. This blog focuses on marketing don’ts for musicians trying to promote their band throughout communities. Some individuals over promote, while others do not advertise enough. Be sure to follow these six steps, because if you don’t you may send current and potential fans away from supporting your music.

1.             Do not use social media to force sales

             

Social media networks are intended to connect and build relationships with individuals through    possible common interests, etc. These platforms should not be created to force sales on your friends and fans. Make attempts to connect with your fans instead of promoting services and products. Also, do not use Facebook or Twitter as a sales tool; for example, when selling a new T-shirt or album. You should be offering free T-shirts and albums every here and there to show appreciation for your fans.

2.            Do not “spam” your friends

First and foremost, everybody hates spam mail. Sending out a mass e-mail occasionally is okay, but constantly sending out blast e-mails to your fans can get very aggravating. You want to your fans to be excited when receiving an e-mail from your band so make sure they are personal, and interesting. Another way individuals can spam is through Facebook events. As an artist, be sure to only promote the events that you will be performing at. The more events you send out to your fans that do not include you, the more likely they will start ignoring your invitations. This could lead an individual to un-like or un-follow your page and you do not want this to happen. People become your friend on social networks to follow you, not to follow other bands and artists that they are not interested in.

3.             Do not create lengthy advertisements 

It is very important to keep ads simple; lengthy and drawn out advertisements usually are not attention-grabbing to readers. Please, veer far away from creating ads that contain paragraphs and are full of long sentences. Avoid using special words that may confuse readers who are viewing the advertisement. Typically, lengthy and unappealing ads will not attract individuals to continue reading and will draw readers away. Advertisements should always be concise, to the point and attractive when creating promotions for your band. Choose a color and font that your audience will enjoy and can easily read. Whether you are creating an advertisement for an        upcoming show, or a new song release, adding images to an ad can really bring it to life and catch potential listener’s interest.

4.             Don’t be like everybody else  

Bottom line: nobody likes a copycat. There is high competition in the music industry; therefore    musicians should be different and unique. What if there was only one song in the world that    everyone had to listen to, wouldn’t life get boring quickly? When starting a band, you should aim   to be unforgettable and special. Don’t copy an image from another artist, and certainly do not imitate a song from another musician. By being different and developing your own sound, more individuals will become interested and intrigued with your music. The same goes with your “look,” create an eye-catching look so your audience can buzz about you. “Hey, did you see _____’s outfit at the concert? It was awesome!” Lastly, make sure that all advertisements aren’t comparable to other musicians. The last thing you want is someone to mix up your ad with another band due the fact that they were similar in color and phrase.

5.             Do not ignore your fans 

Responding and paying attention to your fans is extremely vital. Do not, I repeat, do not ignore   your fans! Not only can you lose their trust and loyalty, but fans can utilize word-of-mouth     marketing by putting a bad word about your band out in the public. If you have Facebook,Twitter, or a Myspace page etc., be sure to respond to all posts and comments. Just think about it: you don’t have an image without fans, and you don’t have fans without creating connections with individuals. Fans are very valuable aspects in the music world and you need to maintain strong relationships with them. By consistently responding to e-mails or social media alerts, this can help build your trust with each fan which is priceless.

6.             Don’t forget to produce a marketing plan 

Creating a marketing plan tends to be the most overlooked tactic when marketing a band. Many musicians may be focused on producing high quality music instead of generating marketing methods. Marketing plans are important because they set overall goals and help focus on how to achieve specific objectives within a band. One day, sit down with your band and construct a plan covering ideas like: How can we attract and gain more fans? What is our budget? What are some ways to expand our opportunities in the music industry? How can we inspire the public to purchase our music? A marketing plan entails what hopes you have and how to get there, and is something you should absolutely spend time on.

By: Danielle Peterson

Danielle is a Marketing Specialist for Distrophonix LLC. Distrophonix is a company based in Baltimore, MD specializing in music marketing, distribution, Rock Band Encoding, CD pressing, and mastering for musicians worldwide.
 

www.Distrophonix.com

Music Marketing Tips on a Budget

Summary: 6 tips musicians can utilize when marketing their band on a tight budget

Many musicians become stressed out when it comes to creating a valuable music marketing plan, especially while promoting on a tight budget. Not only does marketing involve a great amount of time, effort, and hard-work, but it can quickly become extremely expensive. Most commonly, artists usually don’t have marketing finances to splurge on; your key focus may be on producing great quality music for your fans. Here are some music marketing tips for artists to exploit while upholding a budget.

1.     Take advantage of social media outlets

Social media platforms are marketing tools that every musician should take advantage of. The two essential benefits that social media marketing brings to the table is the fact that it’s free and can reach a mass audience. You can use websites such as: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, YouTube, ReverbNation, and so on. These social media networks can help build your bands awareness and can also assist with connecting among fans. By connecting and building relationships with fans, this allows you to communicate which is an important factor when promoting your band.

Upload new songs to your page and keep it entertaining. Keep your fans updated when shows are coming up and also when new songs will be released. Posting funny and interesting stories while touring on the road, or traveling to shows will keep fans on their feet and amused. Social media platforms allow individuals to upload photos, so by submitting images onto your pages, this will become appealing to viewers and will keep them coming back for more. Another piece of advice is when individuals comment on your posts/songs/photos, make sure to comment back and make it personal.

2.     Create a blog site for your band

Blogging is a great way to create an image and express yourself as a band. Most blog sites are free, which once again is a benefit for your pocket. This is a fast and easy alternative to get your bands name out on the web throughout the online presence. Blogging is an excellent and fun technique to use. You can write about crazy and interesting occurrences that happened during shows, recordings, and trips. You can utilize this tool by sharing background information about your band, and by expressing your thoughts and opinions as well. Be passionate about your writing because fans and followers will be reading your content, and hopefully exiting your page with a good notion.

3.     Maintain and build relationships with fans

Maintaining personal relationships with fans is the most vital aspect in the marketing world. Connecting with fans is important because the more you build a connection, the more love and support you will receive from them. If a fan is totally feeling your band, and you build a relationship with them through social media or blogging sites, your fans will sincerely feel connected with you. Where else but online can you connect with thousands of fans at once? Fans will become loyal to your band and express their delight through word-of-mouth to friends and family if you maintain friendly relationships. This will not only lead to a positive image, but loyalty will increase awareness as well.

4.     Make certain contact information is present on all sites/e-mails

Artists should always double check and make sure that their contact information is listed on all e-mails and web pages. This is the most inexpensive, yet the most common marketing mistake that I have seen artists make. Whether you are trying to book an open microphone (mic) slot at a local café, or a search for an open concert/event listing, make sure the respondent can contact you. Also, this goes for websites too. If you are creating a Facebook, Twitter, or company website, be positive that you list all contact information so individuals can get in touch with you with questions and opportunities. Include information like: band name, e-mail, telephone number, potential address and all links to social media sites.

5.     Attend and play at local shows

Attending and performing at local shows may be the priciest out of the 6 marketing tips, but this suggestion will leave you with the most experience. Some shows may even be free to attend which is a huge advantage while on a budget. You can bring flyers or download cards with you to hand out to individuals who seem interested in your band. Attending shows can also help you build relationships with potential fans, which is extremely valuable for artists. By being on the other side of the picture and performing, this may be the most influential marketing tools to take advantage of. Sign up and offer to perform at open mic nights, or even offer to be the opening band at a local concert. Although, you may not be paid as much as you would like, this can build a great image for your band and people can enjoy your live tunes. Focus of making an excellent impression and really “wowing” the audience!

6.     Distribute download cards

Instead of distributing business cards for promoting your band, hand out download cards as a different and more interesting alternative. Download cards allow artists to promote and advertise bands with the ability to host albums and demos. Be creative when designing your download card. Design these business-sized cards with full color and visuals to catch fans attention. These cards have codes located to either the front or back that fans can use to download your music. Distrophonix offers 1,000 download cards for $99; this is a great and affordable deal. You can gain the $99 back by selling them to fans and making a huge profit.

By: Danielle Peterson

Danielle is a Marketing Specialist for Distrophonix LLC. Distrophonix is a company based in Baltimore, MD specializing in music marketing, distribution, Rock Band Encoding, CD pressing, and mastering for musicians worldwide.
www.Distrophonix.com

Tips For Designing A Good Band Website

Summary: Tips for designing the best band website possible.

If you follow these tips and guidelines below, you will have a great band website that will make you look professional, engage fans, and blow away your competition.

1. Get a memorable url: You want your websites url to be memorable. The best url’s are those where you can just have your band name followed by a .com. Unfortunately though, many .com domain names have been taken. If this is the case consider a .net, or come up with a url that is a phrase that contains your band name followed by a .com. ie. If your band was named The Beatles, you could use the url thebeatlesrock.com.

2. Connect Your Social Networks To Your Band’s Website: Make sure that all of your social networking pages (Facebook, MySpace, Reverbnation, Twitter, etc.) are linked to your bands page. This makes it much easier for your fans to connect with you on the social network of their choice.

3. Provide Links Stores Where Your Music Is For Sale: Make it as easy as possible for your fans to purchase your music. Make sure that you provide links to your music on iTunes, Amazon, etc. If you want to go one step further, consider signing up for an affiliate program with the stores that your music is found in. Becoming an affiliate will allow you to make additional money on your sales because the stores will share a portion of the revenue that they make above what you normally would get. Another nice feature is that if your fans purchase any other music while they are on a site like iTunes, you will get a percentage of that as well.

4. Provide Detailed Contact Information: I can’t even begin to tell you how many band websites I come across where the band forgets to provide contact info. Make sure that, at minimum, you include an email address and phone number.

5. Provide A Street Team Resources Section: If you are serious about your band, you need to have a street team. Make their job as easy as possible by providing marketing materials such as flyers and posters that they can download from your website, print off and distribute. You may also want to consider providing banner ads that your street team and fans can post on their own websites and social networking pages. Another good promotional tool is screensavers and desktop backgrounds.

6. Have A Bio Section: Fans want to get to know you. Make sure you provide a band and band members bio along with plenty of pictures.

7. Audio/Video Links: If you have free music or videos to share, make sure that you either embed them on your website, or at minimum, provide links to where they can be found.

8. Collect Email Addresses: If you have a band newsletter, make it easy for fans to sign up for it. Newsletter companies like Constant Contact and Campaigner provide a free newsletter sign up tool that you can imbed on your website.

9. Make Your Website Aesthetically Pleasing: Make sure your website looks great! If you are going to take the time to make a website, make sure that it looks professional. A cheap, ugly website will actually do more to hurt your image than to help it. If you have a bad website, you are better just having no website at all.

10. Make Your Website Easy To Use: Please make your website easy to use. Make sure that all features are clearly presented to the viewer. Keep things simple.

11. Sell Your Merch: A website is a perfect place to allow fans that are unable to attend your shows to buy your merchandise. Post pictures of Tshirts, CDs, stickers, patches, etc that you sell. Use paypal to accept credit cards.

Written by: Brenden Bosmans

Brenden is a Marketing Consultant to Distrophonix LLC. Distrophonix provides digital distribution (iTunes & 400+ other stores), CD Pressing, Download Cards, Mastering, etc. to Record Labels, Musicians and Studios. To learn more about Distrophonix check out:
http://www.distrophonix.com/

10 SEO Tips for Musicians and Bands

How do you find information online? In reputable blogs, or your friend's Facebook wall? Through Google and other search engines? Well, you're not alone. Millions of people look for information via search everyday.

In a world saturated with entertainment options, improving your website so that it receives more traffic from search engines, also known as search engine optimization (SEO), is more important than ever. So let's talk about some ways to get your band website ranking near the top of those results!

1. Choose your keywords
The first step is to create your "top 5" list of keywords -- words or phrases that you think people might use to find your website. This could be your band name, musical style, or location. For example, if you're an 80s cover band in Idaho, your keywords might be "80s, live, cover band, wedding, Boise Idaho."


2. Content is Key
Once you have your keyword list, sprinkle them sparingly throughout your website (in your bio, in page headers, in buttons, etc.). A good rule of thumb is to write for humans first, and search engines second. Google knows when you are going overboard on trying to insert keywords into your page, and can penalize you. An extreme case would be removing you from their search database all together (which is more common than you would think!)


3. Choose a great domain name
When choosing a domain name, try to choose one that contains some of your keywords. Google puts websites with keywords in their domain name in bold, so they stand out in search results.


4. Set your META tags
META tags are another place that you can add keywords to your site. Think of them as a way to insert hidden keywords into your pages without actually adding them to that page.



The most important one is the Title META tag. It is what appears as the main link to your page in search results. By default, we set the Title tag to be your artist name, followed by the page (for example Bob Smith - Music). You can change this to add even more keywords manually, like "Bob Smith - Country music in Fairfield, Connecticut".

There are two other META tags that are relevant to search engines, called "Keywords" and "Description." They aren't used quite as much anymore, but they are still worth adding some keywords to anyway.


5. Build links
Google ranks sites that are trustworthy, not spammy. One way it measures this is by counting the number of websites that link back to yours. The more external sites linking back to yours, the better. To see who is linking to you now, you can do a Google search for link:www.yoursite.com


The easiest and best thing you can do to get links, is to produce quality content that people will want to link to. Don't forget to add links on your website to other musicians you have played with, respect, or know (why not network in the Bandzoogle community?) - and ask them to return the favour!


6. Use your networks
Google loves frequently updated content on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, etc. Post quality content, and make sure to link back to your website (and yes, Google can read short urls like at http://j.mp or http://bit.ly )


7. Don't forget YouTube
One often neglected opportunity to improve your search ranking is to post YouTube videos that contain keywords in the title. YouTube is a Google company, and videos will appear in search results, right alongside websites. Make sure to link to your website in the video description field, and tag the video with your keywords.


8. The power of plain text
Search engines strip away images, and can't read Flash or video, so make sure your keywords appear in good old plain text.


9.  Make it easy for Google to browse
Publishing a "site map" file gives Google access to all of your pages (Bandzoogle automatically does this for you. You can also submit sitemaps manually if you like through your Site Promotion section in Bandzoogle). On top of that, a good practice is to add text links with keywords that link to internal pages in the main content of your home page.


10. Measure and adjust
You can check out how well your keywords and phrases are doing in your site traffic report. See which keywords people use to get to your site, and add the popular ones more often. You can also type your chosen keywords into Google.com and see where your page comes up in the listings. Based on these results, you may want to change/tweak your keywords.

Remember, Google may only update every few weeks, so changes to your site will not immediately be reflected in their search results.


Search Engine Optimization is important to your band's website success - it can provide publicity, exposure, help build your fan base, get gigs, and hopefully increase revenue as well. So why not try some of these tips on your site today? Good luck, and share any SEO tips and comments below! I'd love to continue an open discussion with you.

By: Melanie

Source: http://bandzoogle.com/blog/blogposts/10-seo-tips-for-musicians-19895.cfm

Tips For Marketing & Making More Money For Your Studio

Summary: 7 tips for growing your studios business.

1. Use Search Engine Marketing: Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing allow you to have ads for your studio pop up in search results. This type of marketing can be targeted to just your local area and it is very cost effective. For example, if you are a studio in St. Louis, you can have your ads appear in results whenever someone searches for “recording studios”; however your ad will only appear in search results if they are originated from the St. Louis area. If they click on your ad they will be directed to your studio’s website. This click may cost as little as a penny. If no one clicks on the ad then you are not charged anything. It’s as close to risk free as you can get.

2. Give Away Something For FREE: Battle of the Bands competitions are always looking for prizes to give away. Consider offering them something simple such as 1 song recorded and mixed for free. Require that if you are giving a prize away, that on all marketing and promotion materials for the Battle of the Bands, that your studios name and logo are featured.

3. Offer A Discount: Identify who the major bands/artists are in your local scene. Offer to record for them at a discounted price if in return they tell their friends and other bands that they play with that you did the recording. Word of mouth advertising is the best. Aspiring artists always want to follow the footsteps of the larger artists in the scene. By being the studio that works with the larger acts, you will get the business of the up an coming ones as well.

4. Put On A Showcase: Sponsor a night at a local venue where you can bring in bands that you have recorded. Make sure that all marketing and promotion materials say something to the effect of “XYZ Studios Present: . . .” This will help you to grow your brand while at the same time keeping your current clients happy.

5. Offer A Student Discount: Offer a discount to local college and university students. To get the word out post flyers around campus, and talk to the music professors. The professors can be a valuable ally in helping you attract new clients.

6. Get On The Social Networks: If you are not already signed up for Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, do so now. There is so much opportunity to connect with artists in your local area, that it would be a shame to not do so. When on the networks, interact with local artists that you would like to work with. Offer advice to them and correspond with them in a meaningful way. Being on a social network also allows you to learn more about your potential clients. This will help you identify needs they may have then you can help them with.

7. Join An Affiliate Program: As the recording engineer you have the first opportunity to help your artists get the products and services (CD Pressing, Mastering, Digital Distribution, Download Cards, T-Shirts etc.) they will need after the recording is complete. By teaming up with a reputable company like Distrophonix you will have the opportunity to earn additional money for your studio for each referral you send their way. To learn more about the Distrophonix referral program check out: http://www.distrophonix.com/affiliate-program/

By: Brenden Bosmans

Brenden is a Marketing Consultant to Distrophonix LLC. Distrophonix provides digital distribution (iTunes & 400+ other stores), CD Pressing, Download Cards, Mastering, etc. to Record Labels, Musicians and Studios. To learn more about Distrophonix check out: www.Distrophonix.com

Easy Ways to Self Promote Your Gig

Summary: Ideas for inexpensive and free self promotion of your band.

Many start up bands miss easy opportunities to get people in the seats of their upcoming gigs. Below we will discuss a few inexpensive ways to self promote your garage band, indie band, or established act. All of these ideas are simple yet cost effective ways to promote on a budget.

The first step in self promoting your band is word of mouth. Basically everyone in the band needs to take a proactive role in getting the word out on future shows and gigs. Word of mouth includes telling your family, friends, coworkers, and anyone else your band knows that may be interested in your bands genre of music. For example, have your parents or relatives tell their coworkers or friends and so on. It can be surprising how many seats you can fill by simply by word of mouth through family and friends.

Secondly, have flyers printed for your next show. This can be done fairly cheap at any local copy store in your area. This is a cost effective self promotion tactic. Design a simple flyers with your band name, logo or artwork, genre of music, original or cover tunes, date and time of show, Band website, Contact information, and phone number and name of the club or venue where you will be performing. After designing your show flyer, send a few to the club or venue where you be playing. It may even be a good idea to hand deliver the flyers and ask if you may hang a few yourself. This way you can make sure your flyer will be seen by patrons of the club. Another idea is to place flyers on bulletin boards at music stores and other places where you may find a crowd for your gig. One word of caution, always get permission to place your flyers. For example, if you decide to place flyers on cars in a parking lot get permission from that lot owner. Some people tend to throw the flyers on the ground and cause a mess for a lot owner. The lot owner also has your contact info from the flyer so he may take legal action. So the moral of the story is get permission before placing flyers.

Next, contact any local or regional newspapers or entertainment type papers in your area. Most of these newspapers have weekly band listings in their entertainment sections. Email or call the papers until you find the proper contact and send them all the info they request. Usually you'll want to send Show Place, Date, Time, Band Name, and Cost of show (if applicable).

Lastly, search for concert calendars on the internet for free listings in the city or regional area your playing the gig. Many concert calendars will list your shows for free. Find some of the more popular ones that may get more internet traffic. Do a search on Concerts listings, events listings, free band listings or something of this nature, and add the city to the search.

Above are a few ideas for inexpensive or free self promotion of your band. Try to use all or most of these tactics for every show you self promote. Remember, the more fans you get to the show the better the chance you'll have of getting booked there again and building a career in that city or region of interest. Good Luck!!!

Source: www.MediaWebSource.com