Apps, Mobile & SMS

Turn Your Band into a Virus… with a Book?

Your-band-is-a-virusGuest post by Aarti Kelapure of Evolver.fm.

We have learned to be leery of marketing. After all, marketers and advertisers are paid to push commodities — human and otherwise — on the defenseless masses whether or not they believe in what they’re selling, or so the story goes. Perhaps I’m being too cynical, but we’ve all seen marketing that borders on propaganda.

So what? You’re not a soul-sucking marketing executive, right? You’re a musician exposing your heart to the world. Your music will sell itself because you have soul, man.

I hate to be the bearer the bad news, but in today’s saturated media market, some degree of self promotion is almost certainly a must, especially if you’re a new artist or band without any “people” around you to take care of promotion and other matters.

The web has made it easier to market stuff, which has also made getting noticed among the noise even harder, as many have observed. Canadian music promoter James Moore wrote Your Band Is A Virus – Behind-The-Scenes And Viral Marketing For The Independent Musician to demystify the digital marketing process, and luckily for you, perhaps, it’s filled with helpful information and concrete examples.

Written in clear, straightforward prose, Your Band Is A Virus ($10, hard copy or ebook) offers independent musicians or anyone who is curious about marketing these days a wealth of practical advice, both banal and novel. In addition to focusing on digital media marketing as it applies to music, Moore covers traditional marketing methods too, so there’s something for everyone.

Moore begins with a fundamental tip: sound good. Even technically unsophisticated listeners have so many listening options that they don’t have to — and won’t — sit through 15 seconds of a poor-quality (for whatever reason) track. He advises shelling out money to re-record if you need to, because no amount of promotion or marketing will help if you sound bad.

After getting the right sound, Moore advises getting the right look. No, he’s not going to point you to the nearest skinny jean depot, or tell you where the best old-timey barber shop is to get your mustache waxed and trimmed.

Instead, he’s talking about the grunt work that should solidify your band’s image before unleashing it to the world’s cruel judgment. He calls this “Behind-The-Scenes Marketing.” Here, you’ll learn how to build a standalone band website, after covering hosting and design options, tips for making search engines find your band, the essential building blocks of a band page, and how to build relationships with targeted press members to gain press quotes you can use later.

You’ll also learn to penetrate iTunes' tricky terms of service and (legitimately) get your music into their store, as well as in eMusic, Rhapsody, Amazon, Spotify, 7Digital, and other digital music services. This little trick of using content aggregators to do the dirty work for you also gets you into apps build atop these services’ catalogs.

Sounding and looking good seem like obvious tips. Why do you need a book to tell you that? But one look at the Myspace cemetery of insufferable bands confirms the unfortunate truth of just how many artists have put themselves out into the world before they were ready. Avoiding their fate might be incentive enough to read the book.

Once your band is locked and loaded, you’re ready to turn it into a virus. Moore’s chapter on “Viral Marketing” will give you all the tips you need for building your fan base, getting them to help you spread your music, and doing social networks and blogs the right way.

What makes this book a must-have for struggling musicians is the explicit detail of Moore’s suggestions. He doesn’t just provide avenues for reaching audiences, but also the nuts and bolts of using them — stuff like HTML codes and sample wording for websites, press releases, and emails to journalists/bloggers.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking to expand your band’s fan base, or just want to revamp your web presence — or even if you want to become one of the people who helps bands do this stuff — we can safely highly recommend Your Band Is A Virus – Behind-The-Scenes And Viral Marketing For The Independent Musician.

 

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11 Comments

  1. Competition in the music industry today is crazy, especially when everyone has access to technology now and can just record their songs at ease. I like the concepts that this book focuses on and the directions that Moore is targeting at. I think I will get a copy for my band haha.

  2. The music industry is one of the toughest one to embark on. Everybody knows that the popular bands easily make millions with a couple of concerts, but not everybody knows that there’s millions of other bands struggling behind to build a name. It’s really difficult to make it big or to even start out.

  3. I think it’s best to hire a manager for your band early if you are serious about starting up a band. All big time singers and musicians, and other professional performers all have their own managers. It’s the only way you can expand your reputation without sacrificing your time to focus on composing and practising your songs. Marketing is an entire niche by itself, and there is a reason why there is ironically a whole market just for this niche.

  4. My band was also one of the victims of myspace. I’m planning to rebuild a whole new online brand but I’m quite at a loss as to where to start. I’ve tried advertising on Facebook and Twitter, but never gained much fans despite my efforts. I’ll like to see what James can teach me, and I think $10 is a worthy price to help me set the ball rolling.

  5. My personal music creation got taken down by iTunes due to violation of some of its Terms of Services which I didn’t even get a proper explanation or any chance to appeal. I can’t even tell how my music violates its terms. It’s a lot trickier than it looks and there are not much courses that really focus on this area, so I’m going to see if this book can help.

  6. It’s interesting how these comments are not only all written in a similar manner but sound kind of fake.
    I just checked our comments system and they all come from the same IP!
    I hope this isn’t what’s being taught in the book.

  7. I read through the book. He goes through each step in detail and puts it in simple terms so that you can follow through even if you have absolutely no experience in this marketing niche. You should read it if you are struggling with your band’s progress and with so much talents surfacing in the competition, you need to at least know the gist of it all.

  8. I was looking for ways to expand my fanbase through some marketing. I notice bands who joined competitions already got some form of promotion and marketing throughout the contest, so it’s easier for them to build up from there. But I personally hate to be directly compared against other bands through a grueling popularity contest. I hope the methods taught by this book won’t take up all my time to implement as I’d rather focus on my songs.

  9. Even if your music sounds great and you manage to sell your music on all the online stores, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will automatically be heard or can make it big.
    I’ve have some of my band’s songs on eMusic and Rhapsody too, but unfortunately nobody even bothers to give my band a chance based on our anonymous reputation. Cruel society, but it’s impossible to survive as a newbie without marketing.

  10. I’m trying out some of the strategies. Well, the whole thing is actually not as tough as it looks. You just have to follow their instructions and dedicate some time to implement them. It has helped my band made a bit of progress so far. We gained some fans quite unexpectedly, and it’s a good start. I’m going to continue with the methods and see it goes.

  11. I’ve read some of other James Moore’s books and I’ve been following his blog for a while now. He has quite a good grasp of whatever he teaches and imparts everything he knows unconditionally. I’m sure it’s going to be another good informative read so I just went ahead and bought without any qualms. I’m about to join my friends to form a band, so it’d be great to have the prerequisite knowledge!

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