Sometimes I feel like the music industry is turning into a large Chinese buffet with a bunch of chicken samples.   And the artists are the people that stand in front of the restaurant saying “free sample” or “try one”.   There are so many artists that believe “if it’s free they will come”.  Or, I just want to be heard so I will give it away and everything else will “jump off”.  I don’t think that artists or their teams understand that just being “free” is not good enough anymore.  There’s so much more that goes into developing talent, building a fan base, and being successful.  Even if free is the beginning of your plan, ask yourself what comes next?  After I see that free download link, what’s going to make me click “download”?  Or after you pass me the free CD, what is going to entice me to play it and not stick it in the side panel of my car or throw it away?  I mean really, these days, it’s just another free cd.

The most important lesson that I learned in music retail is that free music is no good if no one is listening.   Free is no good if no one is there to talk about the new free music with some excitement.  It’s no good if it’s sitting in a box in a backroom collecting dust because the guy on the street team did not introduce it the right way.  It’s no good if it’s just sitting in a gas station because gas station attendants do not promote music…they SELL GAS!  I think people have forgotten, or they just don’t know, how to introduce new music to others.  The plan should be, let me get your attention and share music with you, not let me give it away for free and see if they listen to it.  Who does that?  Oh yeah…you do.

Now, if you are lucky enough to find a good promotions company, they know how to introduce your music to the people that can reach others.  Believe me, after 14 years in music retail, I know the difference between ”Des give this away for me” and “Des check this out its HOT!”  If the person giving me the music is someone I respect, then we talk about the music.  If I like it, then I share it with others and say something like “Ooo, you should check this out!  ____ brought it by the other day and it’s great!”  Now if someone tells me , “give it away”, then my response to the customer would be “Here’s some free music.”  See the difference?

At the end of the day, when you, or should I say “if you” create that great marketing plan, and free is at the beginning of it, just remember that TRC told you, free is not enough. There is a process to “breaking new music,” “building a fanbase”, or “creating a buzz.”  Most of which is based on how you work your project.   And if you need help with that marketing plan, let me know.  Although having great free music may be at the beginning of your plan, the rest of it is about…

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Check out That Retail Chick as she always has the inside track to anything involving music and music retail. Congrats on your new show Des!!!!

The information provided in this seminar will include:

Quite a title right?  I will put that out later.  I usually type about all the problems and never the solutions.  That’s because “the game is to be sold and not told.”  But since you only know the problem side of me, I decided to show you a different side of me using a series of “What if’s…”

What if…

1. You decided to push 1 song instead of 18 songs.  If you look at the way labels are making any money these days, it’s a digital singles market.  And while you are on promo disc #3 with no buzz, a record label else has taken a single and made a cool 350K.  Makes you wish you had just put that song out through tune core in addition to giving it away instead of signing that single deal huh?
2. When that single came out, you decided to make some money off of “merch” because you had to give the song away and maybe all you saw was show money (which comes to an end at some point) and none off of product.  But if you took that REALLY popular song, made a t-shirt, some panties, or a hoodie for it and advertised it on all those social networks you spend most of your day on; plus posted it for sell on your ning.com site, you could make a few extra bucks to invest in something else
3. You had 13,000 twitter followers, and you just happened to drop your latest mixtape (that got 50,000 views on that free mixtape website) on your own website?  Then you could drive all the traffic that you send to that site to your own and capitalize off of your traffic like that free mixtape website does??? (think THIS IS 50 on a smaller but still lucrative scale)
4. you thought of yourself as more than just an artist and thought of yourself as a business that could make money because you are actually more than music, you, with this hot single have created a brand, that can be sold in many different ways through many different products. I mean if you had the hottest song on the radio and 45,000 followers on twitter how many independent brands would want to advertise on your site?  Is this about making money as many different ways as you can?
5. You actually took the time to think about where your target audience was and stopped promoting to every Tom, Dick, & Harry that you saw walking down the street.  What if you could go straight to those people and promote to them because you know who your demographic is
6. You knew about the words DIRECT TO FAN PLATFORM & PERMISSION MARKETING.  Then all the people in the music industry would not get so many garbage emails and you would actually be sending music updates via email, twitter, facebook, & Myspace to people that really wanted to receive it.

What if all you needed was a little bit of structure, some market research, a great marketing plan, and someone to manage all of these things so you did not waste so much time & money doing the wrong thing.

What if you had just emailed “That Retail Chick”?

I’M JUST SAYING…WHAT IF?

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Plain and simple, if you have no money, it’s not going to work.  You can’t reach a DJ on twitter, or at a DJ conference, or in the club.  The label doesn’t want to talk to you because you are talented, or you look good, or a couple of people like you.  The radio is not going to play your song because they believe in it and just want to support.  This is a business.  You are a business, and every business I have ever known needed start-up money.  They needed advertising, they needed promotion, the needed a staff (team) to operate.

I often hear people say they’re grinding and working really hard.  They have been talking to all the right people but still nothing is happening.  If they just had the right advise or the right person working on their team with the right connections things would be a go.  Even the most connected person needs money to make it happen.   I hate to say this and kill your dream, because that is not my intent, but if you do not have any money,  it’s not going to work.

Invest wisely and God Bless.

Sincerely,

That Retail Chick