Content IS Promotion: Internet Music Marketing presentation
Hey thanks to Jason @ Depot Artspace and all those who came along to hear my very first presentation on digital music marketing and stuff.
As it turns out I get more than a biscuit. But the important thing for me was really some points I can make – as I often do – that are relevant to artists and one of the most important things I’ve been talking about recently but had to quickly skim because my talk was damn near 2 hours! Definitely room for improvement there. But I did feel good that even though I went on way too long and had to skim some of most important stuff about engaging fans and monetizing fan relationships, most people stuck around even though I went on and on.
The fact is, that online music promotion is complicated. You can catch up with some of those posts in my 7 part series here:
Part 1 is here: In digital we trust – preparing for digital music marketing and promotion
And part 2 is here: Are you ready? Content you need for your digital online promotion campaign
Part 4: Getting your head around using social media and web 2.0 to promote your music
Part 5: Setting up a music artists website
Part 6: Music Artist Website promotion: Marketing and Sales
Part 7: Music Artist Website Promotion: Engaging, EMail and Monetizing
And don’t forget: Our new artist community has launched @ http://www.newmusicmarketing.com - it’s still free to join in July and we’re starting to add new in depth content already.
So in a lot of ways for me this presentation was a bit like a gig – and though I don’t see myself packing out stadiums at $50 a head for presentation talks on online music marketing – like most gigs when you’re starting out, it was an opportunity to get experience engaging deeply and in person with an audience.
I knew it was an opportunity to develop my presentation skills. Now there’s a reason that this applies and that’s not just about developing my skills as a performer.
It’s about the growing power of audio and video to provide a platform to really connect with a large, focused digital audience.
That means although there was an opportunity to improve my performance – which is really important for musicians, more so than for marketers – it was the knowledge that there would be a lot of power in digitally distributing this performance.
I knew there would be audio taken at the event and that I would be able to get into doing some videos based on the presentation content aftwerwards, and syndicate those videos (if theyre decent!) out over multiple online channels thus multiplying the effectiveness of my efforts.
Also it raises some points about how you engage.
There was some mention that I didn’t really use my talk as a platform for Kurb. I’m not one to shy away from a marketing opportunity, but this was about creating positive engagement.
I could have talked up myself and what I do, but there really is no substitute for value. If people who engage with your material walk away thinking “Wow, that was really good!” Then most of the work is done.
And that’s what it’s about. By just focusing on being as good as I could be and giving value to the audience . . . they know who I am, they know what I do, so will those who hear the podcast and watch the videos. The rest will just follow.
A lot of top bloggers can come across as quite sanctimonious and holier-than-thou when they talk about engaging audiences using new media. It’s all very well for them to talk about high quality, high value when they’re doing 5 figures a week and you’re still working your crappy job.
But I made a fresh assertion during this presentation when I said that “content IS promotion” during this talk, because every piece of high quality content is an opportunity to engage with your audience and advance the relationship.
When I think about all the work I’ll be doing on my videos over the next few days, and waiting on the audio stuff from Jason, I know it’s hardly going to convert directly into big profits and opportunities. (well, it might)
But I do know that it’s going to create opportunities to engage my existing audience as well as drawing in new people from around the world who are interested in the way I do business with and for musicians. If more people are going to get more value from this content then it’s going to foster relationships that lead to profitable interactions.
I emphasised this in different ways in my talk, but I know, especially when I get a frantic email or call from a musician that though many people do connect with my blog, my bulletins etc. and that’s been great, video and audio content gives you so much scope for real engagement and real connection.
This is how I’m talking about engaging fans.
It is the 80’s again – without video you could be losing your edge in your ability to connect with people about what you’re doing.
I kept on thinking about radioheads New years webcast which I checked out in regards to these videos I’ll be working on.
I’ll admit I do tend to avoid listening to a lot of music and watching a lot of music video simply because I am very easily influenced. But given the massive buzz around Radiohead, I couldn’t help it!
And watching their webcast we could see the way that Radiohead make their music, as they performed it in their own rehersal/recording space, we could see them performing with passion, we could see that their drummer does look kinda weird, like drummers do, but he’s definitely into it. On the stroke of midnight they stood around in the pitch black freezing cold in a field outside the studio and did an acoustic version of one of their songs.
Their was some weird kinda arty stuff and short poems between each song.
So long story short, I was engaged. They got me, and here I am, responding positively to the free secondary content from radiohead I engaged with.
Radiohead perhaps had some deal for the webcasting of the video but really, there wasn’t big money in this webcast for them. It wasn’t about sales and marketing, it was about engaging fans with content, and letting the rest take care of itself.
I think for those who purchased “In rainbows” it would feel like a bonus, but the flip of that was that for those who didn’t purchase “In Rainbows” it was a step forward in building that relationship through engagement with content to a point where that could certainly happen under the right circumstances.
For those who did purchase John Reese’s “Traffic Secrets” they probably felt they already had received much value in the free videos they watched, paying for the full program was just a follow through.
I’m going to be putting up notes from my talk on my blog soon – both from my hand out and from my own extended notes . . .
Because we all know – more content – more words – more love from google – more opportunites to engage with content and foster relationships and interactions that lead to monetization.
Just like John Reese says: “Own more of the net!”
And Matt Turner says: “Content IS Promotion”
Kurb is an online promotion company specializing in digital music marketing and artist management.
Follow our blog at http://musicmarketingblog.info for cutting edge web promotion as we launch http://newmusicmarketing.com – the exclusive artist community putting artists in control of their online promotion and revenue management.
Within New Zealand we also provide low cost and hassle free CD DVD duplication and printing as well as poster design print and placement in Auckland.
http://www.cd-dvd-duplication.co.nz
http://www.aucklandposters.info
http://www.kurbartistmanagement.info
http://www.newmusicmarketing.com
Online Music Promo – Engaging, Email Lists and Actually Monetizing: Lucky 7 Final chapter
Okay on we go with the very last episode of our 3 part series on getting your head around online promotion basics and then it just mutated into a seven part whopper!
In today s stunning conclusion it’s just all business. It’s not basic anything anymore because we’re actually engaging fans and we’re actually monetizing it.
Here’s whats happened so far:
Part 1 is here: In digital we trust – preparing for digital music marketing and promotion
And part 2 is here: Are you ready? Content you need for your digital online promotion campaign
Part 4: Getting your head around using social media and web 2.0 to promote your music
Part 5: Setting up a music artists website
Part 6: Music Artist Website promotion: Marketing and Sales
And don’t forget: Our new artist community has launched @ http://www.newmusicmarketing.com - it’s still free to join in July and we’re starting to add new in depth content already.
And of course tomorrow @ The Depot in Devonport I’ll be be giving a presentation on all this stuff Check it out if you’re in auckland.
So it was cliffhanger end last time when we suddenly discovered while we were promoting our websites and building the power of our musics brand message to connect with audiences – it was the good old email list that formed a fundamental strategy for monetizing all along!
There are many unique propositions you can be using to monetise this valuable, influential brand you’ve built up and these relationships you’re building with your audience, but your potential fans don’t want to be bombarded by what you want to sell them. That’s not real. They want to connect with a message that makes them open to having you earn their trust. And this is where the proposition of having new fans sign up for an email list is probably one of the most successful strategies to create income long term, because the relationship is based on respect for a fan who welcomes your interactions, and will be prepared to spend money as the relationship and the unique value grows.
As the music industry evolves, I always say well . . . the last time I saw the rulebook on making money, it was flying out the window. Only one thing holds true and that is creating value for the fans and managing the relationship leads to artist success.
I think most of the old music industry think Radiohead was just a bad dream. They need to wake up.
Okay so lets wrap up this thing by describing some different ways you can innovate to create revenue from your website and email list – and remember what I’ve said about new music business models – its not a horse race! You can ride every income stream that is worth the effort.
The idea is to continually innovate and optimize so that you are enhancing the value of your most profitable interactions and minimising the effort of your least profitable interactions. This is fundamental in guiding the innovative process.
Lets look at some areas for innovating monetization:
Pricing structure: Trent Reznors last Nine Inch Nails release was remarkable for the number of pricing iterations he created on different products available, so there was a product for fans at every level from a basic $5 download all the way up to a limited edition item valued a $300 that netted him $750,000 over the 48 hour period they took to sell out. The remarkable thing was also that this was an instrumental album, that though creating further options for licensing and synching, however was not really NIN’s core content. But NIN’s core fanbase is fully engaged and they dont care.
Income streams: The asian music market, where rampant piracy cripples the value of physical goods and copies, has led the way in showing how developing wide and deep ranges of products and service under the brand of an artist can actually leverage the effects of piracy.
The opportunities here to innovate abound. Maybe you need to have a serious and open minded think about what kind of products and services you can provide. I realised I could go to 6 year old’s birthdays and play pirates for $200 a pop, there’s this guy I heard about who offers to write and record love songs – mainly for the wedding market.
There’s Bob Baker’s buddy who sold 15,000 CD’s on the pier playing cheesy love ballads twice a week for 18 months.
What have you got? Is it your raw technical skill? Is it your charisma? Is there are specific message around a common issue that peopel conenct with through your music? Do you have prolific output?Do you make a fashion statement with what you wear or a sexual statement with what you don’t?
You need to identify exactly where you can creating the most value with your specific skills and doing those things that you love that dont seem like work and leverage it!
Fan supported: In the fan supported model which has already been demonstratably successful, the artist set up a system by which there was increasingly personalised rewards for example – $10 pre ordered a copy of the CD, $500 gave you a thank you in the CD liner notes, $5000 gave you a trip from anywhere in the US to stay courtesy of the artist for a weekend during the recording and participate on the backing vocal of one of the songs.
Ad supported revenue: We often talk about the digital revolution creating an “attention economy” that is, in a digital environment where copies of content cease to have financial value, the value is then transferred to the attention created through content and the opportunity that remains to create revenue from attention through advertising.
Advertising networks online are getting increasingly sophisticated, and although I hold fast to the assertion that in 2008, 1000 page views should equal 1000 cents earnings – and currently after blogging for over 9 months, that’s about what I earn from my blogs in a week – I honestly believe that conditions for online advertisers will improve across the board as the medium continues to improve and show its effectiveness. First, muso’s will start out with Google adsense ads, before looking into joining an ad network potentially capable of delivering more lucrative and more consistent targeted ads charged per impression, finally a successful established musician should be able to attract sufficient interest to be able to cut out the middleman and sell advertising directly to niche partners.
Affiliate marketing: Affiliate marketing is a lucrative form of online marketing that drives online sales with high commissions, thus attracting many like a modern day gold rush. Those with online products will join an affiliate network that will provide its “partners” (bloggers, webmasters etc.) with ad offers. The tracking of these sites and offers is a highly sophisticated commercial operation and once a sale can be traced to somebody who once visited your site with the corresponding ad displayed, you will be accredited with a 40%-75% commission on the sale value. As I’ve discussed before the range of products is staggering, and sure, miracle diets etc. do tend to sell better BUT what you’ve got to realise is that there are free offers that pay out. This means you can leverage your email list to present a variety of offers to your fans. But the fact that you are able to collect 75% commission on digital products does raise possibilities about relative product value.
E.G. – Buy a month worth of digital movie rental for $US40 (of which the band gets $US30) and get our new album (worth $10) free!!!
You getting me? Things could get interesting.
Monetized communities:
So monetizing communities is based around the concept that the content that drives your promotion and monetization through advertising etc. becomes exponential once you have harnessed fans to actually create content for you.
Discussion about you, discussion with you, discussion about content, interaction with content, deconstruction (“mash up”) of content . . . when your fans are doing this for you, you’ve now got a a wild freeform content generating, web ownaging machine!
You want them designing their own t-shirts and selling them to one another and taking a cut. “c2c” means “consumer to consumer”.
The way we do business is about to be fundamentally changed online.
But yes. Artists must accept relinquishing control.
In 2013 If some kid photoshops your face on a dogs body and sells 50,000 t shirts online then you’re going to have to take your 25% cut and massive exposure and sulk in the corner.
But on communities gotta touch on what I’m doing personally with kurb – as a working model – so you can see in practice the model of a high value online community that is monetized. And the fact that you can see that I’m doing it, it’s not some huge leap for you. Cost me a few hundy.
With http://www.newmusicmarketing.com I’ve set up a forum platform from which to distribute high value content. In my case it’s content that I feel is to valuable to share freely – in your case it’s most likely your music. But in creating a platform on which to monetize premium content and your fan relationships you can create dynamic propositions.
You can build a list of 1000 hardcore fans who are happy to commit to paying $1 per week ($1 per week????) and be part of a premium experience that gives them premium access (you stop in the members over the week to interact) and access to premium content: your music, videos, special exclusive content, giveaways, competitions and prizes, special free gigs, seriously, innovation can run wild!
BUT
like I said. It’s just one horse in the stable. Your making $1000 p/week of your premium membership sites – your also making pocket money out of advertising, digital retail, royalties and licensing, your gigging of course – even your good old CD’s and merch . . . y’know? The futures not dark.
But you gotta get started now. It’ll take years for your online presence to dvelop and mature.
Okay, So I hope you’ve enjoyed this series!
I’ll be doing a post soon about going back over your blog and editing it for optimisation as a clean up each of the articles in the series.
Part 1 is here: In digital we trust – preparing for digital music marketing and promotion
And part 2 is here: Are you ready? Content you need for your digital online promotion campaign
Part 4: Getting your head around using social media and web 2.0 to promote your music
part 5: Setting up a music artists website
And don’t forget: Our new artist community has launched @ http://www.newmusicmarketing.com - it’s still free to join in July and we’re starting to add new in depth content already.
And of course tomorrow @ The Depot in Devonport I’ll be be giving a presentation on all this stuff Check it out if you’re in auckland.
It’s time for me to get on with developing my community at http://newmusicmarketing.com
And I’ve got work to building my blogs presentation to build a more powerful brand and develop more and new ways of monetization.
Look for me at http://musicmarketingblog,info as I’m getting my act together here!
And make sure you subscribe by RSS because I just know I’m going to be talking more about branding, engaging fans and more about developing these relationships and monetized interactions soon.
Cheers!
MUSIC MARKETING @ KURB
Kurb is an online promotion company specializing in digital music marketing and artist management.
We've moved! Follow our Music, Marketing and Management Blog here for cutting edge web promotion, putting artists in control of their online marketing and revenue management.
Within New Zealand we also provide low cost and hassle free CD DVD duplication as well as poster design print and placement in Auckland.
kurbpromo@gmail.com
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