Music Industry Trends: New Music Business Model or No Music Business Model?

Interested in comprehensive online music marketing for bands, musicians, performers, entertainers – etc? We provide online management and marketing services to arists, musicians and performers around the world.

Contact me, Matt to talk about building your music brand online – kurbpromo@gmail.com

What else have I been up to?

Also read another article”New Business Models or No Business Model?”

I think what Gerd is saying here is that conditions  are constantly changing for music businesses so it’s essential to stay flexible.

That’s why I put so much emphasis now in building the brand because whatever value proposition you’re trying to leverage to generate income, if your brand is strong its easy to change up and do something else if you’re smart. If people are coming to your website because they’re coming for you and to get your content, then it doesn’t matter what you’re selling as long as it’s a sweet deal and that’s what branding is all about.

So when you’re talking about “no business model” it doesn’t mean come up with some cool thing that everybody loves but would never pay for. It means right now, we just worry about engaging as many fans as possible with consistent and quality content – and as long as you build a smart platform, then later you can think of a thousand ways to give those people more of what they want from you and get some money.

Copywriting – for bands, musician’s bio’s, blurbs, write ups, press releases, reviews, blog posts, articles . . .

I have also been doing some copywriting for a lot of artists, mainly working on their landing page copy.

So all I can say about this is I often take this stuff for granted but a lot of artists when left to their own devices come up with some pretty terrible shit when it comes to describing themselves and doing that thing I always talk about: engaging.

Need a whole post on this – I guess it’s part of this “anti-branding” concept I talk about – this condescending “hey buy our t-shirt” and “check us out” kind of vibe doesn’t always create the right impression. It’s extremely subtle the art of branding, but you don’t see that many big bands being all like “yo check us out”.

I could name a dozen crimes in such copy or bio’s related to artists but I’ve got to get back to work.

Yes you’ve got to be compelling.

Some of the shit I read in artists bio’s or blurb, honestly, why in the HELL would I care about that? I want to hear about some crazy shit that’s on another level. It doesn’t matter what game you’re playing, you can always take it to another level. You’re trying reach people here so you’ve got to stand out – and stand out meaningfully, not just by having some novelty factor or gimmick that’ll get old fast.

Also, this concept of social proof again, you’ve got to demonstrate immediately that you’re real and not a pretender, and how that is conveyed very much depends again on the value of your brand and your target niche.

It’s great if you tell me where you’re from and what acts you are a little bit like because those are important searchable keywords. but don’t tell me you’re taking the world by storm unless you’re in the habit of summoning hurricanes and have the pictures to prove it, otherwise the main impression you create is that you’re in the habit of summoning bullshit, and trust me, that market is a little saturated.

I guess what I’m saying is that if you’re sitting there and you dont have good ideas about how to build your brand by producing compelling bio’s, intros, blogs, blurbs etc. then you might find yourself in need of my services, because I provide a comprehensive service for all your online marketing needs, and if you dont have great copy that engages visitors when they first arrive to visit you and hear your music online then it’s going to be that much harder to engage to the extent that you can actually build fans.

You should email me: kurbpromo@gmail.com or phone +64 27 684 8250

If you’re Interested in comprehensive online music marketing for bands, musicians, performers, entertainers – We provide online management and marketing services to arists, musicians and performers around the world.

Contact me, Matt @ Kurb to talk about building your music brand online – kurbpromo@gmail.com

Music Business Management: Leverage Music in The Growing Games and Software Market

It’s all just a part of our comprehensive online music marketing and artist management packages.

Contact me, Matt @ Kurb – kurbpromo@gmail.com

So, great day on my blog today with 320 uniques so far – that’s my best day ever!

And when somethings working in online promotion, well you go for it! So what gems of wisdom can I impart about music marketing and promotion on my blog today?

As I said, I’ve been blogging for 20 months now and now I’m seeing real traffic. If we’d got your blog to 300 unique visitors a day then we’d seriously be expecting 3 email sign ups and building a 1000 strong email list within a year.  And an email list with 1000 willing names on it is the beginning of a serious music business.
But today I read a couple of articles about the decline if the CD and the devline of music industry revenues in general.

Same old stroy really, nothing to get worked up about.

Except I make most of my money from CD and DVD duplication so it’s got me thinking about my own advice and having faith in the power of your brand to serve as a platform for monetization even as we move into an era where entertainment products and service have an ever more intangible value related to the association with the artist and their artist brand.

I don’t know what I’ll be marketing in 10 years from now but I’ll be buidling positive and engaging associations alright, whatever we end up selling or however we make our money, it’s goingall going to flow from that – positive engagement and experiences.

Also, this, from a guardian article questioning the conclusion that downloads are responsible for lost music industry revenue:

But the reality is that nowadays, one can choose between a game costing £40 that will last weeks, or a £10 CD with two great tracks and eight dud ones. I think a lot of people are choosing the game – and downloading the two tracks. That’s real discretion in spending. It’s hurting the music industry, sure. But let’s not cloud the argument with false claims about downloads.

This is the writing on the wall. Providing is all about being useful and fulfilling a need.

Especially when I’m talking about ideas for creating revenue, what exactly is your plan to get more involved with your music in the burgeoning gaming industry?

How are you going to be a starter on that track?

Let your non existant label deal with that? Or that guy who tries to act like your manager?

Look I’ll tell you how I run my business. When I get an idea to make money, I put up a few blog posts and a new page up on my website. I say – this is what it is, this is how much it costs and from then on it’s just as many convincing, reassuring and persuasive arguments I can make to sell the deal.

So . . . are you making this information available? Have you put forward this proposition so that you can start connecting with the gaming industry and software developers? Are you posting blogs about this in particular, are writing specific tunes and creating content to engage with this specific and tiny but intensely valuable part of your potential fanbase?

But then I could just as easily turn that on it’s head.

You see, if a computer game is now becoming the standard unit of entertainment consumption, how are you using software to develop your brand?

There’s a whole raft of ideas there for creative people.

NIN nails had their Iphone app. Fall Out Boy had an online game but it didn’t engage me at all because I had to make a character and I couldn’t be fracked. Bored already, yo.

Meanwhile on the other side, I’ve seen marketers develop free software and apps as tools for the purpose of spreading links and engagement. For example, a toolbar app that updates with feeds from your band . . . gives you instant access and engagement with that fan as soon as they open their browser.

Again, this comes down to authentic engagement. Is this product – whether free or not or whatever it’s role in the business model / proposition – is this product actually going to be useful to my fans so that it provides engagement?

Is it going to be a branding exercise like a video, a chance for fans to explore and engage with the message and values of the band?

Is it going to have some viral novelty factor that makes it spreadable?

Hey it’s your game. And all you have to be aware of is that the game is changing rapidly and new rules are emerging. What is going to give you the edge in connecting and engaging with fans?

And if people don’t want to buy CD’s and no one wants to sell them because everybodies buying games . . . and those games are gonna be pretty shitty if they’ve got no decent music on them.

Economics is a funny thing. You see now, even more people will want to make games to make money, so more projects will be underway over the next few years and more investment will be put behind it.

And more young guys or amateurs coming through with their own ideas will establish clout – and just like you, they’ll be looking to build strong partnerships to enhance their brand.

so if a the gaming industry is where the money is going now, how are you going to be getting in on the action?

Interested in comprehensive online music marketing for bands?We provide online management and marketing services to arists, musicians and performers around the world.

Contact me, Matt to talk about building your music brand online – kurbpromo@gmail.com

Ghost Blog / Guest Blog? Artist Support For Promoting and Building A Musician’s Blog

Hey it’s me, Matt from Kurb again!

We offer comprehensive music marketing services, it’s $600 for 3 months.

Contact kurbpromo@gmail.com

You get comprehensive strategy, email management, web development and design including your blog promotion, video promotion, social media promotion and basic online content promotion – copywriting, and article marketing, graphic design, search engine optimisation as well as advertising campaigns online. This is full artist management and development for future revenue and music business! Contact kurbpromo@gmail.com today to talk about getting your spot while it’s available!

I guess I’m a little bit more positive about blogs now to help promote artists but it’s definitely not a short term music marketing strategy – it’s a strategy to build engaged readers and pan for gold (fans) amongst a lot of random search traffic, but as long as you’re committed to the many months it will take to become rewarding then it will be worthwhile.

But when I’m working with an artist, blogging is usually the last thing on their minds. But immediately it’s important to get relevant content up on your blog. I’ve just launched my new chill out music label and service so I’m wanting to build that up slowly now – except – well I kinda DO have a couple of business to run here.

So my content guys are going to be writing articles for me, just like they do with the artists using our music marketing services, laying down content on their blog to get it through that initial period where keywords are thin on the ground and google’s got no love for your blog.

Blog promotion is just one of many parts of our comprehensive service offered to develop artists and music brands online.

Now this may not be the greatest piece of music journalism ever but what it’s doing is providing that critical mass of conent. Once a few months have gone by and dozens of posts are building up with all those relevant keywords, then I’ll see the results as google sends searchers to my site, just like it sent 320 different people here on Monday.

And whats more, my staff will be using this article and slight variations of it to syndicate this article, through submissions to article directories such as www.ezinearticles.com, out to other sites where they will run this content and link back to my site, once again providing

- quality links form a trusted site

- keyword relevant links

- one way non reciprocal links

the three ticks to building links that increase google search optimisation results for musicians and bands.

And it all builds more traffic to your site, and when they start coming it’s time for the artist to become more involved – OR, more likely, you have to start paying us more because youre starting to take off and you need to start developing deeper and more authentic engagement however we can without demanding any more from the artist than we have to.

The point is – more fans coming to the the artists blogs to engage – and when they get there, do you think reading some crappy article is what they’ll be doing first? Not if we can get those big propositions up front!

Sign up for email – get access to free stuff – WOW look how crazy this artists vibe is – AMAZING!

Seen the latest video diary? Photo gallery?

We’re on a sliding scale here from the small time to serious new music artist material.

Articles like this now, on the web and on your blog are just tiny breadcrumbs leading to the big house made of candy.

So lets get you on the road to candyland – sounding and looking like an inspiration – and leave the details, such as blogs, bread crumbs, a thousand online marketing angles – to me:

Matt @ Kurb kurbpromo@gmail.com

Our $600 Music Marketing 3 month campaign covers just so damn much -including developing your blog and posts for it. There’s just not that many places you get that kind of comprehensive personal service and attention without having to roll out big money.

WIth our online artist management service you actually get the marketing department you would on a small label. Except now the music industry is all on you – are you going to back yourself or let someone else push their brand forward with new music marketing strategies?

Here’s an article one of my writing team has provided for my “chill out channel” blog to start building up the density of content and keywords I need, specifically chill out music. but more niche terms such as free chill out music, free chill out music download, and free chill out music mp3 are also going to be terms i’ll be gunning for.

Please note I have not edited it or touched it in anyway – this is the standard of regular niche related blog posts we produce to develop content on a musicians blog to build it up in it’s initial stages:

With so many things need to be done everyday, it’s no wonder that a lot of us finds it hard to relax. Reports have it that about 6 out of 10 people experience stress from their works in their everyday lives. Not a serious matter? Think again. Stress can lead to many harmful diseases. And the fact that you can’t go on a vacation everyday, there’s a way of fighting stress and you can have it in the comfort of your own seat, it’s called music.

Music therapy is proven effective against almost all kinds of diseases including heart diseases and mental illness. We all know that music has a lot of genres that people listen to for entertainment and relaxation. But one certain genre stands out from the rest it is called chill out music.

From the word itself, chill out music’s main purpose is to make you chill or relax. It’s a combination of jazz, lounge, dub and electronic music also known as techno. Chill out music is known to dance clubs where people go to relax, also known as chill rooms, and eventually became a household term. Chill out music introduced the “feel free to dance” ambience that benefits the listener.

Here are the benefits of Chill out music:

1. It relaxes your mind. With smooth tempo, deep bass lines, the sweet sound of the saxophone and the soothing notes of the guitar and keyboard, chill out music helps you extract all the uneasiness in your mind. While doing things that make your head hurt like working or studying, rest for 5 minutes, listen to a chill out song and stretch your mental muscles. And also you can listen to a chill out song while doing something, this can give you a better concentration.

2. It makes you more optimistic. It’s common for a chill out song to have such sweet lyrics. Chill out songs have lyrics that offer a “good vibe” aura that will give you a “worry free” feeling. Some chill out song lyrics make you remember things from the past or the moments you treasure, the hometown you’ve left and the familiar faces you want to meet and also the dreams you want to achieve giving you a better outlook in life.

3. Saves you from stress. As I’ve said, it is proven that stress is one of the factors that generate such diseases that can harm your life. One way of extracting stress is through body motions. While doing something listen to a 10 minute chill out song that will make you dance. Working while dancing? Not a bad idea, right?

4. Helps you sleep. This is true to some people. A lot of people suffers from sleeping disorders that create discomfort. One way to solve this is by means of listening to music. Medical reports show that some people find it easy to fall sleep while listening to music specially slow music.

With the benefits of chill out music in you hand or rather in your ear, fighting stress is as easy as turning the radio on. And remember don’t be afraid to dance with the music it’s good for your health. So feel free to chill.