Do you have a website for your music?

The problem with most unknown artists is that they don’t want to invest in order to get known. It’s like they never heard the saying “it takes money, to make money.” One of the best ways to do this is to create a website to market their music. It is almost a given that companies and artists have websites that fans and more importantly A&R’s can visit. By having a professional looking website artists gain instant credibility and this credibility will get you one step closer to your goal. Here are a few elements that should be incorporated on your website. All of it can be done for as little as $500:

1) Contact Information: Make yourself easily accessible. If someone likes your music and wants to offer a way for you to make money off your music you better make sure you can be easily contacted.

2) SEO Ready: SEO or Search Engine Optimization is an organic way to make your website appear near or at the top of a search engine like Google when someone types in certain keywords. Cater to your local audience. For example if you are from Honolulu, Hawaii, make sure that you place text all over your site referring to your market. When someone searches for “Singers Honolulu” you want to be at the top.

3) Bio: Create a brief description of your brand and your music. People like to put artists in boxes (he sounds like 2Pac) put yourself in a box so others don’t have too.

4) Music: People need to hear your product.

5) Video: is very important as many people spend hours of their time watching videos online. If you have a show, create a video and display it on your site or add a pictures show your songs.

6) Links: You should link your website to your other social networking sites like twitter, Facebook and Myspace. You should also trade links with other popular websites that your target market frequents. This should increase traffic on your website and also increase your SEO.

7) Blog: A blog is a great way to keep people engaged. If you do interesting this and are always active people will follow. Once you have a “following” you will be more attractive to record labels.

www.yourprosound.com
1 Artist 1 Beat

Essential items every artist should have: (Part 1 of 5) Where is your demo?

The most essential item that an artist can have is a demo. A demo proves that you can create good music and if you don’t have one ready at all times, a lot of doors will remain closed. If you are in the business of selling music, then your demo is your business card. Here are a few tips for your demo:

1) Create at least 8 original songs that are well produced and mixed. Even though it is a demo is should sound as professional as possible.

2) Show these songs to at least 20 different people who will give you objective feedback on your songs. Ask them to rate the top 5 songs. After you have a pretty good idea about your top 5 songs, you now know what songs should be on your demo. Do not have over 5 songs on your demo and place the songs in order starting with the song that was rated the best. People have short attention spans. If you hand them a mixtape with 20 tracks, they will only listen to the first 2-3 songs and lose interest.

3) Make sure your CD is presentable. It should look professional and have your contact information on the CD itself and on the CD holder.

4) Always have your demo on you. You never know who you might meet.

www.yourprosound.com
1 Artist 1 Beat

Will people buy in to Spotify?

If you haven’t heard about Spotify here is a little rundown. Spotify is a music subscription service that allows people to stream music for FREE. Ah, but there is a catch. As you listen to your music you will also listen to advertisements after every couple of songs. If you do not wish to hear the advertisements you can pay a small fee per month (10£ in the UK) to eliminate this annoying feature.

Spotify is the number #1 music subscription service in Europe but it hasn’t been released in North America yet. This is supposed to change in 2010. The question is, will people buy into this new music model?

Although this is a progressive business model for music industry it has a long way to go to beat out iTunes. People like their music portable and Spotify still has bridge that gap. I like the idea but I’m not sure it’s going to catch on as fast as everyone is predicting. What do you think?

Read more here:
Billboardbiz.com

www.yourprosound.com
1 Artist 1 Beat

"I'm not a businessman - I'm a business Man!" - Jay-Z

When I talk to artists who try to “make it” in the music business, I ask “what have you been doing so far?” 9 times out of 10, I get an answer that sounds something like this “I am coming out with a mixtape, demo, album, soon and I’m going to promote it online.”

Ok, that sounds great but what’s the plan? In order to be successful in any business you must understand how the business works and offer something that someone will want to buy.

Here are some questions that every artist needs to answers if they are serious amount making an impact:

Product: What are you offering? How is your music different from other artists? How will your music get produced?

Market: Who is your target market? A&R’s, fans? What are these markets looking for? And how will you offer them your product? By when?

Strategy: How are you going to market yourself and your music? Where are you going to market? What is the timing? Can you be contacted easily? Shows, videos, guest appearances, interviews in media (ezines, blogs, TV, radio, magazines, newspapers)?

These are just a few questions that need to be answered if you are serious about making an impact. If you want to make it in the music business you have to start thinking like a business man.

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www.yourprosound.com
1 Artist 1 Beat