Music Promo 101

Just like most people online who are out to get your money, I know of no secrets for you achieving success. Unlike them, I'm not interested in your money except if you want to buy our music. But I have been studying these things for a while and I'm posting as much for my own benefit (to remind myself) as for anyone who might accidentally discover this blog. Trust me, I do plenty of things wrong, but that's okay.

I'll try to skip most of the jargonese you typically find like "It's not who you know but who knows you." I guess that stuff's fine for selling books. This is just a start. I want to keep these in short bursts.

Best book for networking - actually for getting along in life - is probably still one of the originals, "How to Win Friends and Influence People", Dale Carnegies 1937 book.

Become a "renaissance man" (or lady). i.e. learn to do things yourself. Even if you end up hiring someone else, try it first yourself. And I mean everything..

After we finished recording our first CD and while we were waiting for the pressing, I went to our local library and read every book I could find on marketing and publicity. While you're doing this, make sure to learn how to write a press release.


Volunteer. Yep best way to learn. I volunteered at a local radio station once a week for about a year. I wanted to know how CDs arrived, how they went through them sorted them etc. not a pretty picture, but you want to know these things. Funny thing, they couldn't figure out why I was doing it. But they appreciated my work and they actually offered me a job making sure the Sunday morning polka show was broadcast. I passed on the offer, but you see how this can work for you.

Volunteer. Music Conferences - you bet. I've covered this on our website and I'll get back to it another time here on the blog, but here are a few links
Loud Music Festival 1996 & 1997

Music Musings - this includes concert reviews as well as the Sonalysts MixxMag music festival (see I practiced a bit of e-journalism - also published Indiegrrl Fan Ezine for a few years)
http://www.tagyerit.com/musings.htm
1998 Nemo Music Festival in Boston

1997 Philadelphia Music Festival - be sure to check out Patt Smith's keynote speech

1998 CMJ - College Music Journal

We did Music Conferences and Festivals for a number of years. Not sure why I stopped posting summaries, but I'll sum up some of our other experiences in a future post.

To be continued ...