Lessons Learned From Band Camp by Jake Starkey

Lessons Learned From Band Camp by Jake Starkey

Here’s a quick 5 (notice not TOP 5) things to consider when marketing your band, your music, or honestly even yourself.

1. Myspace is not the world wide web – Yes, in this day and age you need to have a Myspace page, but it cannot be your only source of advertising or marketing.  Fan pages are good but vanity pages get obnoxious quick.  You need professional websites, music videos, cd design, epk’s and photography.  Professional does not equal expensive to your pocketbook, but rather equals dedication and perseverance in the eyes of label A&R executives interested in pushing bands that push themselves.

2. Find an advocate for your music – It can be a label, it can be a PR firm, it can (also but not exclusively) be your fans.  However, YOU, the artist, cannot get up there and say how great you are.  It will endear you to some for your cockiness, and turn away a vast majority.  Which brings up:

3. Word of mouth is better than any type of marketing – However it’s been proven that a person who dislikes something is more likely to tell others than a person who likes something.  Not sure about the specific stats, but I believe it’s something along the lines of 8 people who dislike something will tell others for every 1 who likes it.  So word of mouth cannot be the only thing you rely upon.

4. Why marketing is still important – Marketing is not sales.  Marketing is raising an awareness of your performance this weekend, the cd you are promoting, etc.  When people show up to your show and buy a ticket, or order your album on iTunes, that’s sales.  Additionally, marketing is not about finding new listeners, it’s about reinforcing your standing with your current ones.  Think of it like this: the reason you market is to make your current fans die hard advocates, which means they’ll forward the link to your music video, to your website, to your music online, to your performance dates to their friends, which gets them to buy the cd and go to the show.  Your biggest fans are your salesmen, the ones getting your music heard.  Marketing is the tools YOU give THEM to make the sale for you.

5. If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound – And here’s the big kicker.  You are an artist and yes it is possible to be both an artist and a businessperson, but my personal opinion is that at any moment you can only be one or the other.  Jamming with your bandmates in the rehearsal studio is not the time to sit down and write a business plan.  So don’t make your music based on preconceived (and ill conceived) ideas of what will make a hit.  Make the music you want to make, then find the right people that knows how to get your music heard.  Because making music that no one will hear is like not making the music at all.

Make your music, your art, using your vision and your passion.  Then consider letting someone who has a passion and vision for how to express your music visually to help you.

And speaking of that, here’s the shameless plug:

Jake Starkey

Jakestarkey.com