Last time, I mentioned that the music industry might not actually exist as a separate industry, at least for the purposes of creating a business model that you can use to market your music.

Sometimes, however, it seems like there is a sort of music industry—one that has as its customer base all the musicians, songwriters, composers, and other creative people. Based on the pitches in my inbox, it is akin to the once growing vanity publishing business that made “pay to publish” a terrible phrase (although it came from a noble tradition). And we don’t even have to look as far as “pay to play” to see the demon rear its ugly head.

A quick history (optional)

Actually it has been around for a long time. It’s roots are found in ads in the back of magazines where you could find advertising for “song poems” that could be made into greatest hits, if only you were smart enough to hire this company to put your words to music and create a record that they would then “promote.” (If you aren’t familiar with printed magazines, don’t worry about it. Just bear with me.) Your professionally recorded song would be sent to all the radio stations (which is how it was done). Of course, your song would stand heads and shoulders above the others on the air, because the song would be crafted by a professional songwriter (obviously otherwise currently unemployed for unknown reasons) and professionally recorded.  Well, of course they were professionals—you paid them, which made them professional (i.e., earning money from music).

Back to current events

These folks, because they preyed on songwriters, were called song sharks, and although the magazine ads are mostly gone, and the disguises have changed, the fact that they prey on the desire of creative people to get their music heard hasn’t changed in the least. The internet not only makes it easier for music to get to people, it also makes it easier for the sharks to pitch their latest revolutionary way of getting your music heard.

Unfortunately, it is hard to separate the sharks (some of which seem to have morphed into vampires, in keeping with entertainment trends; so let’s use the term song vampire for them from now on) from legitimate toilers in the vineyards of music. Music is not a single product, nor simple. There are not any canned ways of doing things that produce more than canned results. So there is a great deal of room for hardworking agents, music pitching companies, music libraries, and so on. But there are few rules to help distinguish the revolutionary new idea (excuse me, we call them “platforms” now) from the same old con in new clothing.

It’s all very tiresome. And to add to the confusion, some things work for a while, then succumb to their own popularity.

Conventional wisbits

There are two competing bits of conventional wisdom out there. The first, the older, is that you shouldn’t pay for anything. That was the advice offered in the song shark era. If your music is any good, then people will pay you for it. If there is money to be made from your music, then plenty of talented people will be willing to work with you to get it in the right hands. This seems dated now, but there is a kernel of truth in it still. But it conflicts with conventional wisdom bit #2: If you won’t invest in your career, why should anyone else?

The problem I have with this wisbit (i.e., wisdom bit—it is the moral duty of journalists to corrupt the language with more meaningless jargon) is that first, it doesn’t provide any guide for where to invest. I have untold thousands of dollars invested in musical instruments, training, computers, software, microphones, sheet music, more instruments… I will stop here, having made that point. None of this is what the song vampires are talking about. What they mean is that my not giving them money is proof that I lack confidence in my own ability, music and career. To that I say (along with many things probably left unsaid): “Bullshit!” What I lack, often times, is confidence in their ability to help me in any way. The fact that they got some punk rock group into a club in Des Moines doesn’t mean a thing about what they can do in getting my music to recording artists, placed in films, or even get me more money when I play the local coffee shop (Yankee Creek, every other Sunday morning, 9:30-11:30—hope to see you there) or a regional festival. In fact, many of the “services” make my life harder because it seems to revolve around my running my life in a way they understand.

That isn’t how it works in the corporate world. In that universe (world is too small a word) the PR person goes to the client (hat in hand, dressed up real nice) and gets a spiel on “what we do and how we do it” and then goes back to the office to devise a program that does what the client wants.

But the point here is not to rant about the ineffectiveness of much music marketing; rather I simply want to point out that when it comes to song vampires, you not only don’t necessarily get what you want or need, but that it might soak up time better spent doing something frivolous, say making music.

Soft sell ending

So if you have some ideas of how to tell opportunities apart from the invitations of song vampires, share them. But bear in mind that everyone seeking money from you is not a vampire, unless they work for a government.

Press Play To Watch The 2009 Holiday Message From Kavit Haria:

FREE Teleclass With Kavit Haria on Mon 4th January 2010:
Strategies For Kickstarting Your Music Career In 2010.
Click Here To Book Your Place

In part one we talked about your theme, then in part two investigated using it to write a press release, or several releases. Now we need to figure out what to do with all that work.

The PR job

Part of your job as the public relations person for your band or music is to find places that your message fits. Sure it is easy to see the big kids getting stories on themselves in the people pages, but until you are a name, that isn’t your goal. Your goal is to establish relationships with the media that cover what you do and, over time, give them a sense of your story. This is going to be a lot of work, but there aren’t many effective shortcuts.

In starting, you need to look at the media that cater to local and regional stories in your back yard. Because you are local, you have a leg up on other bands. That means you want your story to go to local radio stations, newspapers, regional magazines, and local television. One press release in that market might not make a splash. That’s okay. You don’t build an image overnight, just as you don’t make a career out of one CD (or shouldn’t want to).

When I was a magazine editor, often I would find press releases that I never used—even though they might be well written, they might not be appropriate. But the good ones (and the bad ones) make an impression, and when I was assigned a story on a topic I hadn’t covered before, those well written press releases could get me calling the folks who sent them to get ideas and information. Naturally, they got mentioned in the story. Similarly, your theme, expressed in a series of well written press releases, establishes you as an obvious subject for a certain kind of story.

If you have established a presence as a community focused band, and you send a press release out about a CD that is songs about the community, local television or radio might suddenly feel the urge to have you on the air. Local papers can disregard the press release in favor of a feature article. My letters and press releases on my music have gotten me coverage and an featured appearance on TV Ontario (my 15 minutes of fame), and features in regional publications. One multimedia magazine turned a CD press release into a telephone interview carried on the internet, and then used a song from the CD as background music for a slide show of photographs that were being featured.

Finding places to send your story

There are two great sources of information on publications—the internet and the publication itself. The masthead of most publications lists the editor names, often the areas they cover (such as CD reviews) and how to contact them. Sometimes features tell you exactly what information they want to consider you. And you should read the publications to learn what areas they cover and how they cover it (the angle). Make sure you fit. The internet can provide much of the same stuff.

For instance, if you think your story is perfect for the ROLLING STONE, under contact information, the site tells us:

That took about two seconds to find out.

If local tv is your goal, a quick search on, say “Television stations Nebraska” produces a complete list at states guides/nebraska. There, it tells you that the local affiliate for ABC in Lincoln is KLKN-TV . If you have a gig booked there, you can get the event announced on the community calendar by sending your press release to: Channel 8 KLKN-TV Community Calendar, 3240 South Tenth Street, Lincoln, NE, 68502, or fax it to 402-436-2236.

The challenge is to build up a core database that consists of the various media that get the message to your fans. You want the editor names, contact information and the kinds of stories they handle. All are not the same. Then you cultivate these people. When they run a press release, even just a tiny blurb, a thank you email is in order. EVEN IF THEY GET THE INFORMATION WRONG! This is networking at its most important. Editors get promoted or move to other publications and jobs, so treat them all right, and with respect. Your news is not the most important thing in their world, so don’t soak up a lot of their time. The easier you make their job (such as with a well written release with all the pertinent facts) the more likely they are to use it. Your job is to get better at that as time goes on. Editors, like everyone else, prefer to work with the willing.

Media depend on information—they are not hostile to your efforts. That is why they publish contact information. Collect it, use it, learn from it, and build relationships that will bring you visibility in a time when the information noise level is reaching absurd heights. After all, if you don’t make people aware of your music, they can’t know how good it is.

Soft sell ending

These three parts of the PR story are not all inclusive. They are highlights of my own experience on both sides of the PR world. PR will not make you a success, but if you are successful, it can let the world know about it, and that will grow your success—take it to a higher level.

So think about your PR effort. What can you do to make your music, your band stand out in the way you want to be known? (If you think any PR is good, check out Tiger Woods current problems.)

Also, I am very close to this subject. If you have more questions on DIY PR, let me have them. If I can provide a quick answer, I will. If it deserves another blog entry, then I will do that.  And, importantly, try to have fun with this. After all, it’s only life, and you won’t get out of it alive.

In part one we looked at developing a theme for your public relations campaign. Now lets look at how you put it into play. One of the most basic tools of PR is the press release. You don’t just write one, but a stream of them. Because this is true, your press releases should:

1. Be focused.
2. Promote the theme
3. Provide clear and consistent contact information.
4. Always have a newsworthy angle.

Making the campaign effective

Suppose for a moment that the theme you’ve hit on is that your band gives back to the community—is, in fact a vital member of the community (not just the music community). Now that does mean you have to say this in the same words in every press release, but when it is not part of the main message, it should underlie that. It is your angle or spin.

So you do a CD and decide that you will donate the money from downloads to say a cancer fund. First you need to do two things—contact the people you will be donating to and see if they will give you permission to use their logo. They might want to hear the CD before they approve you using their image to promote your own.

So if all is well, you want to write a press release that focuses on this specific project and its benefits. Don’t tag the donation part at the bottom of a press release about your CD release. The news here is that you are releasing your new zydeco punk CD to benefit left handed animals, or whatever.

Some organizations even have press people to help you promote the announcement, and might even promote what you are doing.

The point here is that you need news and not: “Yet another CD release party.” Even if you aren’t doing it to promote charitable causes, there is always some kind of hook you can hang your news story on. It can be that the music is seasonal, the lyrics reflect current events, the person who wrote the song or sings it has some human interest angle, any number of things. My advice is to look at news stories about bands in the magazines you read and see what the hook is. Most stories only look at one. In a recent story in ROLLING STONE, for instance, an interview explores Rod Stewart’s “return to his R&B roots.” There is other stuff in it, but we don’t care.

The hook will be important in two places in the press release: the headline and the first paragraph. Both should be right to the point. This is not the place to explain or give background. Suppose you have a band call ARS GRAVITAS (please don’t), and you are providing music for a locally produced video. Then your headline could be

ARS GRAVITAS DOES MUSIC FOR VIDEO

If you live in the mythical town of Littlebit, Missouri, and the video is about that place, then make it

ARS GRAVITAS DOES MUSIC FOR LITTLEBIT VIDEO

For the local and regional papers and magazines, you would then have a lead graph (first paragraph) that goes something like:

Which raises the point that you might want several versions of your release targeted at the various publications. Through the wonder of word processing that is simple, and well worth the effort.

Keep in mind that the press release is about the news item. This is not the place to mention that you grew up writing parodies of Lawrence Welk songs. That goes in your band sheet. Keep the press release short—one page is optimum. If there isn’t room for the whole story, that is okay. This is really a teaser. A reporter who wants to do more than a blurb (which is your first paragraph) will contact you.

Which brings me to the most important thing you must do. Put your name and contact information at the top of the release. And then, the last sentence (a separate paragraph) should read: “For more information on ARS GRAVITAS and the whole zydeco punk movement sweeping American (and parts of Eastern Peru), contact Billy Joe Whatshappening at…..”

The Envelope Please

What goes in the envelope with the press release? Most often, nothing at all. If it is a news event, such as talking about the fact that your band played at the opening of the local KFC, send a photo. Don’t send a CD (you can provide links to music samples with the contact info).

I also want to note that CD Baby, always a friend of the indie musician, recently posted their own summary of PR and marketing at http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2009/11/music-publicity-101/

It’s fun to see the different approaches people take.

Now this is how we start. There are many permutations and options, and space precludes getting into them all, but I’d love to hear how you promote your theme, challenges you face in getting your story out, or PR successes that you’d like to share. Next time we will talk about sending materials out—what, where, and how. In the meantime, get creative and get writing.

I started to write a blog on how to write a press release, and realized that to fit everything in, I needed to break this into three parts. This one will cover what many of you might not realize is an important first step—establishing your PR message. (The next parts will talk about how to prepare the message and get it out there effectively.) While marketing messages can be about your latest CD or big gig, public relations is more theme based. This lets you ensure that you communicate a single idea that underlies everything you say about your music or band. And developing a good theme that will carry you over time requires thought and research. If you do it right, the marketing messages are going to provide a constant reinforcement of the overall PR theme.

Research? Sure. Do you really know why your fans like what you do? Can you state it in a single sentence without being silly and saying “cause we are good”? If not, you haven’t got your theme.

What is a theme? The theme is basically the story of your band. It sets out the thing, one thing, that makes your band different. Not unique (bad word anyway), just different. If another band playing similar music is in town, why should people spend their hard earned money on your gig? And right here comes the first difficulty.

Become an outsider

I am going to assume you don’t have the financial backing to hire an outside PR person. If you do, that can be a big help, but since you don’t, here is how to put on that person’s hat and become a PR person looking at your band from the outside. You must find important things that are of interest to your audience, not your mother or the rest of the band.

It is very important that one person be the PR person for the band, because this only works if there is a single, consistent story.  You can all discuss the idea and contribute to it, but one person should have the responsibility for maintaining its presence and consistency in all that you do.

The PR person has the rough task of finding an objective story. And it might not be the obvious one, or rather, the obvious story might not be the best for you.

Mastering two audiences

What makes PR tricky is that there are two audiences and they are layered. If you don’t get through the first layer, the second layer will never hear of you. The first audience layer is that of editors and music reporters. You need to develop a message that will make them feel that your band, your music is newsworthy. If possible you want an angle that will let the writer present you as a discovery.  Remember, the writer has an audience too, and they want interesting information on breaking trends and ideas.

So what does an editor want? He or she wants to know why you or your music, preferably both, are different from the other bands flooding the mailbox with PR and CDs. To this end, do yourself a very big favor and banish words like “best,” “hottest” and “new” from your vocabulary. These are superlatives that other people should use, not you. Editors are even more tired of them than everyone else. And by the way, even if you have the only punk band ever to use harpsichord and zither, you are NOT a unique punk band. Breaking the mold is great, and a good story hook, but “unique” and “punk” or any other genre, are incompatible terms. If it is unique, it isn’t punk, and so on. Pick your poison.

You probably want to go with a genre, and not make up your own. Typically, a punk bank using odd instruments is of greater interest than a Zydeco/Punk band. Not always, but an odd category is, in general, a harder sell. For one thing, many publications specialize in certain genres and you don’t want to give them an excuse not to run a story on you.

Keep it human

To reach the second layer audience, the readers of the story, you need to make sure your story has human interest. Even if you are doing modal jazz, readers are going to relate more to your human struggles than technical musical information. The fact that you play everything in Lydian scales is less interesting than the fact that you make your living running a dairy farm and got hooked on jazz when you learned that the Windows audio logo is in E flat.

But the question that must be answered is: “why do you do what you do?” So you do all the lead breaks on kettle drum and didgeridoo, so what? The thing that might be interesting is why you do that.

You will need to find a sounding board, because quite honestly, we all bullshit ourselves real well. Maybe you want to go where Miles Davis feared to tread, but are you truly doing that now, or just working toward it. Editors and writers of any experience survive by having well developed bullshit detectors. To get passed them, you need an honest story. It doesn’t need to be a madcap tale. It can be that you formed your band to pay the rent when your parents lost their jobs and you found a home in the blues. It can be simply that you make music cause you love it, or don’t know how not to. That is the underlying story. Then, the story behind the latest CD or gig becomes an episode in that bigger saga. The human interest builds over time, and the audience impatiently waits to hear what will happen next. In the best sense, it becomes a living drama.

And drama hooks audiences, both at the screening level and the readers.

But do remember that this story is one that, if it works, will cling to you, follow you everywhere, so it better be one that is true and that you want in the minds of fans and everyone else.

What stories have you created before, and what has worked well for you? Or perhaps, what challenges have you faced with your public relations campaign?

Most of my articles have addressed songwriting from the business to business perspective—you are creating songs or instrumentals that you want to place in film or television, or get some artist with a track record to release. For those of you who also make CDs, or at least recordings, there is also the issue of promoting your music, and yourself as an artist.

Music marketing is big time, especially online marketing, and it’s almost easier to talk about what you can’t do (for the moment) than what you can.  But we will give it a shot.

Social networking is a big step forward, as is selling (or giving away) downloads, and putting together electronic press kits to help the world know about your music. There are even online public relations services to get the word out.

If you are looking for airplay for your music, sites like www.AirPlayDirect.com are there to provide that connection.

Sometimes it is all far too much.

So let us divide these up a bit and see if any hold promise. In this article, I want to look at social networking and electronic press kits. Next time we will focus on online PR (how it works and how to use it).

SOCIAL NETWORKING

As Kavit point out in a recent article, there are some good strategies for using the various social networks to get attention. Better yet, many of them are interconnected. I put songs up on reverbnation. Whenever I post a new one, there is an announcement on my status update on twitter, myspace, facebook and, of course, reverbnation. In fact, any status update I make at revernation goes to all those places. This probably produces a certain amount of yawn inducing overlap, but it is efficient. A variation is that myspace and twitter are also now linked. All of this incestuous sounding linking is free, and fairly easy and quick to do on days when the wind is from the West and the Powers That Be are smiling. As a result, this falls into the “why not?” category of promotional activity.

Similarly, Fanbridge helps you collects fans from several social sites and provides a way to send out blanket emails to them, announcing gigs, your upcoming CD, or news from the band. (Does anyone e-mail anymore?) If your fans read emails, this is another brainless way to stay in touch. Actually the content should NOT be brainless–just the distribution method. Send out things the fans will find interesting or save the electrons. We don’t need more garbage out there. Your fans (and I) will appreciate you all the more. But inside information, or thought provoking ideas could score some points.

I should point out that Reverbnation also provides widgets you can use to collect fans, and others to  put your songs on Facebook and so on. It’s all very powerful in terms of efficient promotion.

ELECTRONIC PRESS KITS (EPK)

These started with a bang. Who could resist sending stuff out electronically? Everything you needed to know about a band, including songs and videos. But SPAM filters and the vast amount of stuff cluttering in boxes put paid to the idea.  It is just as effective to send links to songs on broadjam.com or Reverbnation. They let you send links to specific songs you have posted. It is a bit classier than sending an mp3 and doesn’t foul up the inbox.

But an EPK is an online presence, and lets you provide an information rich link in your signature line. And so, such an account, say with www.sonicbids.com or Airplay Direct, can do you some good.

All of these are useful, but not enough in and of themselves. Also, there are about a bazillion of these now; and don’t take my naming these as a recommendation as to what will work for you.

Ultimately If you want to be noticed, your music heard, you will need the market muscle of public relations. Public relations can be proactive, where these sites are reactive, and it can be targeted to a niche, genre, or just a good story.

Be Among The Willing

Talking to other musicians and composers I am often reminded what a contrary lot we can be. Putting a band together and keeping it together is often compared to trying to herd cats. It can soak up a lot of effort without getting any useful results. Sure you get some grand experiences, but results?

Of course sometimes it works. And that is because you have lucked into working with a group that can best be described as the willing. When I lived and worked in the Los Angeles area, I was impressed to find that the studio musicians, the ones really making money, were accessible, eager to share their knowledge and experience and just downright friendly. The loved what they did and it showed. As players, they were willing to learn, to try new things, or do old things one more time when it was called for. In addition to their skills, that attitude was what got them work.

MUSIC AND REALITY

In the current market, with music even being treated as free (google “giving your music away” and see how much reading there is), lowering the price you charge won’t make you more successful. It might even make you less successful—after all, if you don’t value your music, why should a customer? Some libraries even wave licensing fees, hoping to make money on the back end, from performance royalties. That can work, but it is a slog and a big gamble. It all depends on who licenses it and how they use it.

If that doesn’t appeal to you, there are marketing tricks galore that you can try, if you have the time. There must be more music sites than there are musicians trying to sell music. And, if you don’t have time, there are people willing to do the tricks for you– if you have the money. But the noise level is so high that it is hard to get heard no matter who does the shouting.

So what is a kid to do?

REVISIT NETWORKING

Networking was all the rage long before Facebook. In fact, it was all the rage before anyone called it networking. Business to business work (as opposed to retail) has always been to a large extent about relationships. Good sales people build rapport with their customers. No matter what the business is, networking is an important set of skills (it isn’t just one thing!).

Successful companies understand this and have built their success on responsiveness to their customer’s needs. When the customer needs something, they show their willingness to be part of the solution. And there is that word again—willingness. A willingness to provide support, ideas, effort, whatever it takes, is a significant quality of a successful person in any field.

So what does that mean to a musician/composer/songwriter? Basically it means that your job is, in addition to creating the best music you can, to help your customer solve their business problems. If your customer is a music library, paying attention to the kinds of music that they like to work with is a start. But what about those difficult calls?  Can you come through with Nigerian music, or a hip hop Christmas tune? If your client is a music supervisor, the same applies. And the other side of it is respecting them. Don’t send them something that isn’t quite right, but might be close. Or something not done well. Act professional to get treated professionally.

Now of course there are more ways to serve your clients well. But it is up to you to get to know the client. If a singer has a certain image, give her songs that enhance that image…don’t create a new one unless you are asked to.

Another item to note is that many businesses grow each other. The supplier becomes successful helping their customer become successful. A fledgling Disney Corporation and a garage operation called Hewlett-Packard did a lot for each other. Be willing (that word again) to work with fledgling film makers—you won’t make money on that project, perhaps, but your work can get heard. And if the film maker hits the big time, he or she will remember the willing workers that propelled that success, who made it a little easier.

In the last week itself, I got three e-mails from one independent musician, sending me a reminder to attend his gig in London. If I get one more of those from him, I’ll probably just hit “Unsubscribe me from your list” at the end of his e-mail and he’ll lose me as a fan. If I’m a fan thinking like this, there’s probably tons of other fans who think the same way.

However, it’s not just this guy’s mistake.  Many independent musicians commit the same mistake as well. They think it’ll just be a “quick nudge” to remind the fans to attend the gig but instead it’s perceived as more e-mail in the inbox. The fact is, if you send your fans one e-mail that’s enticing enough, they’ll come to the gig if they want to. If they don’t want to, there’s really not much else you can do to convince them otherwise.

My advice is to just e-mail once a week, once a fortnight or once a month based on what you have going on. I prefer to receive information once a fortnight from independent musicians that have got stuff going on. If you haven’t got more than 3 gigs in the month and you’re not really doing anything else, there’s probably no point e-mailing once a week, right?

I still believe however that sending a reminder to someone to come to your gig is good – just not through e-mail that takes up people’s valuable time and they may not come anyway. So how about sending them a quick “note” – it’s a nice and new idea from a web 2.0 startup with their product called loopnote.

Loopnote works like this: you set up a loop for your band, call it “Seattle, Blues, R&B” for example, and then get all your fans and friends to join up to the loop. They get to choose how they wish to receive notes (RSS, mobile, IM, etc) and then when you’ve got a gig coming up (or anything else you need to let them know about), you simply have to shoot them a quick note with the core information the day before. Within minutes, your fans will be reading the note.

If you want to see how it works, check out the directory of loops, find one that stands out to your interests and join it. 

That’s a quick reminder without taking up time and clogging up their inbox. More importantly, it also shows you value your fans time.

Good question. I encourage all musicians to start and grow a blog, and naturally, because I do, I get asked many questions around blogging. Andrew Dubber gets asked it a lot too. He’s put up his thoughts at his blog. I wanted to put my spin on it too.

Like Andrew, I believe your music is another form of communication – just like print and television. You write, sing or perform a song because there’s some meaning behind it for you or someone else.

A blog is another form of communication – one that gives you a platform for interaction with your fans. We’re now living in an age of transparency and attention. Social networks are taking over people’s lives and allowing them to reveal a lot about their identity, personality and even background information. We’re having to be even more transparent to get people’s attention. Things like what we do, where we hang out, how we socialize, what kind of stuff we’re into all help build trust and relationship with others.

Blogging also allows your fans to keep up with what you’re up to and hang out with you. If they don’t find you and stick with you, they’ll go to the next best musician who’s got similar music to you. You’ve probably then lost that person as a true fan.

Your blog is also a good method of communication for “after the sale” stuff.  I see a lot of musicians focus on selling their CD and downloads that they totally forget to keep their customer interested in what else they have to share. If someone has already purchased into your music, it’s a sign that they like it and they probably “buy into” you as an artist. For that reason, they’re going to be more easy to sell to again. A blog allows you to continue to build a relationship so that sale naturally follows when they’re ready.

I also get asked questions about whether this could be the news page… or what happens if there’s no comments from people… or what to write about… and more.

I would recommend a blog rather than a standard news page. Most of the time, news is just news – there’s nothing exciting about it. It’s usually a page where you post something that’s just for “telling the world” such as ‘Our new site is up’ or ‘We’ve got a new band member’ or ‘Our CD is coming along’ or whatever. A blog, however, reads like a journal. A place where you can grow a community that’s interested in stuff you do not just now, but over time.

I also get asked about comments and the lack of them on people’s blogs. The most frequent goes like this… “What happens if I set up a blog and don’t get any comments… won’t my site look bear and it’s show a lack of community?”

Initially, that’ll happen. Even if you have a big e-mail list like I do, migrating them onto a blog takes time. And although I have a large list, you’d think that many people will comment. The fact is, marketing statistics show that only a very small percent, between 1-3% of your readers will in fact comment. Most will just come, read and then leave. For example, my Google Analytics account shows that out of 11,000 people who were mailed about this blog post, 1300 people clicked and came to it, and only a few commented. It’s a numbers game.

The next point is about what to write on your blog – and I think this is where many musicians stumble. They don’t know what to write and end up writing something poor or writing nothing at all. A good blog is made up of good content that has a good frequency and that gets people to think or take action. Before you dive into a blog, set up a calendar for posting - it’s a great way to avoid getting “blogger’s block”. 

Back to the point… if you don’t have comments, don’t worry. You still have readers, and they may not want to comment. You should still use something like Google Analytics to track the blog so you can see what’s happening. 

To sum it all up, you’re role as an independent musician is to focus on building a relationship with your fans so that they’ll listen, buy and buzz about your music. A blog will let you do that if you’re open about yourself and forget about the ‘celebrity’ status or culture. As a result of building a relationship, that will come (if you want it).

Starting a blog is simple. Go to Wordpress and set up a blog. You don’t have to write – consider posting from your mobile using Utterz, creating a video using blip.tv or just having a mini-blog with Twitter. 

As independent musicians, we’ve got to do a lot of the marketing on our own – that’s in addition to booking gigs, making music, speaking to producers, negotiating deals and much more. The challenge is in staying consistent with all our tasks and doing them as we should be so that the small tasks on a regular basis can snowball and realize it’s results.

John Jantsch over at the hugely popular Duct Tape Marketing Blog shares a great tip for marketing businesses, and just like your independent music career can be thought of as a business, this tip ‘wowwed’ me with its simplicity that as of today, I’m going to put it into effect in my business and with my team members too.

But it would work so effectively for musicians too. John says that too many people see a crazy idea for marketing and go chase it, only to then drop it within a couple of days and weeks instead of being focused with it. He says, “The key is to understand the work that makes a difference, remained focused and plug away. Chasing the new new thing will drive you crazy and never allow you feel what momentum does for a small business. “

Here’s the tip in his own words:

Here’s a tip if you find the allure of the noisy new thing is too loud to stay focused on what needs doing. Create a score card with no more than ten marketing related action items on it. Rate each of those items for importance – give a new sales presentation five points and a new blog post two for example. Both of those marketing related activities will pay off, but one is clearly more important than the other. Now, set a goal of twenty points every day. (The blog post and sales presentation would have netted you seven.) By turning your little marketing tasks into a game you get two benefits. 1) You might actually keep focused on winning the game by completing important actions and 2) if you find yourself with some free time, you might dive into an important marketing task instead of wasting your time reading email.

Of course, you probably wouldn’t want to do a sales presentation as a musician, but you could replace it with ideas in my “Strategy Guide to Succeeding As A Musician in 2008″ report. It’s free so if you haven’t read it, go get it.

His advice: dream a little smaller.