Promoting Your Playing And Your Music And You!, Tips and Tricks on Getting the word out about you! Options

[Todd Simpson]

One great way to get the word out about your playing and your music is none other than youtube. I"ve kept a youtube channel for a few years now and have have more than one million views and have met wads of great players all over the world.

In particular, GERMANY! I LOVE Germany! More than half my views are from Germany! 600,000! Here is a graphic showing the views from the "insight" portion of youtube that allows you to visualize all the data related to your account.


If you don't have a youtube acccount, START ONE! I have gotten THREE ENDORSEMENT DEALS JUST FROM MY VIEWS ON YOUTUBE! It's a great way to get noticed!

Todd

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Aug 26 2010, 02:21 AM

[jafomatic]

One thing to remember, and it saddens me how much this happens, is not to neglect your youtube account. Most folks here do have them, along with myspace, facebook, twitter, etc, but they end up just uploading a video and ignoring it.

I can't stress enough how much more activity you'll get if you interact (even just a little) with your fans. Look at the folks out there who have become "internet famous" and you'll see they all maintain the perception --real or not-- that their fans matter to them. After that, go look at shreddy guitarists. There's maybe one or two out there who will even bother to respond to their fans.

Your fans will do half of your marketing for you if they think that you might recognize them or speak to them in return.

[Todd Simpson]

Very well said! I make sure to respond to every comment, every question, every friend request on youtube as well as twitter and facebook. It's critical. Music is a social thing and social networks are a great way to meet new musicians!

Todd

[Gitarrero]

Never thought about it that way...I usually deactivate the comment and rating option on my videos...maybe I shouldn't do that. Do you think the choice of how to name a video is important, too?
Hey Todd, I am amongst those german viewers! Seems like my countrymen spend most of their internet time surfing youtube...plus your style of music is kinda popular in Germany!

[jafomatic]

Never thought about it that way...I usually deactivate the comment and rating option on my videos...maybe I shouldn't do that. Do you think the choice of how to name a video is important, too?
Hey Todd, I am amongst those german viewers! Seems like my countrymen spend most of their internet time surfing youtube...plus your style of music is kinda popular in Germany!

If you want people to see it, naming and tagging are VERY important. The question is whether or not you want to entertain the trolls at your own expense.

If you don't want the trolls (or the views) then using the "unlisted" option will allow you to link/embed it freely for REC and MTP entries without the video showing up on any of youtube's searches. I used to simply not tag my "learning to play" videos and that kept trolls and viewers away. The only people that ever saw them were GMC members and ... mom

If you really do want people to see your stuff:
- tag liberally, anything that might relate to the video! Gear used, song style, techniques used, etc.
- spell the name of the famous song that you're covering correctly.
- do not use a "backing track" for the copyrighted song you're covering. Play it yourself or risk its removal.
- answer questions in the comments. if no questions are asked, just thank people for the kind remarks.

The "internet famous" folks are mostly successful by promoting themselves as a brand, they interact with their viewers and with each other.

[maharzan]

Just having a YouTube account isn't going to help. I hardly get 100 views on mine. I noticed it goes beyond that if I post to GMC..

So, what other ways are there to increase views and get noticed? I think I need to start doing covers of famous songs. That seem increase views to 1000s as I have seen on some of the channels.

[jafomatic]

Just having a YouTube account isn't going to help. I hardly get 100 views on mine. I noticed it goes beyond that if I post to GMC..

Think how many more you'd get if you tune your guitar first! <3

So, what other ways are there to increase views and get noticed? I think I need to start doing covers of famous songs. That seem increase views to 1000s as I have seen on some of the channels.

Famous songs work wonders, look at pomplamoose. They completely remake a popsong every few months and get millions of views. Toyota licensed their cover of "mister sandman" for a national commercial in the US.

If you hate popsongs, and I totally understand that, then take the song and totally remake it in your favorite style. It's a pain in the butt, it's great practice, and you don't need to do it that often.

Also of import is the VIDEO RESPONSE BUTTON. Submitting REC for a GMC lesson? Post that sucker as a video response to the instructor's original, most of the guys have them on their youtube accounts.

I think you (maharzhan) did Muris' Lukather lesson, right? Note the views right now, and see if you can repost it as video response to Muris' original --Don't forget to tag it properly!-- and check the views again around the end of 2010.



This post has been edited by jafomatic: Aug 27 2010, 05:15 PM

[jafomatic]

haha.. jafo.. I am on to it.. for sure..

Yep, I am transcribing cry for you by andy timmons... that might do wonders for me, (hoping)...

That's going to be a start, but it's deceptive. Remember... that name is known only to other guitarists. That's not going to get the same results, I think. The song title will help a bit more, but those are not hugely famous songs.

[Santiago Diaz Ga...]

One thing that has worked for me is to play something not very common from a well-known player (In my case, Serrana by Jason Becker). And then, all the rest of my videos are from my projects or stuff of mine. It's like a presentation letter

[Todd Simpson]

1.2 MILLION VIEWS! 3,000 SUBSCRIBERS! HERE'S HOW

Getting your videos watched is of course crucuial. I"ve made it to 1.2 million views and 3,000 subscribers so far using some pretty simple rules.


ANBODY can do this. Just look at our main man Kristopher Dahl's youtube page! HUGE views, STELLAR responses. Lead video he is playing behind his head.

http://www.youtube.com/user/KristoferDahl

Simple Rules
#1 - Post videos that encourage repeat views such as good lesson videos with tablature if possible.
#2 - Tag every video using tags that will help people find your vids. Borrow tags from vids that have HUGE views but don't "tag Spam"
#3 - Respond to every question, comment and friend request no matter how long it takes, WARNING: It seems to take forever but it's fun and it's worth it to meet all those great players and students on youtube.
#4 - Find students who you could help and suggest your vids to them.

Pretty simple stuff. I'm a "Youtube partner" now and get to share revenue with the ads that are on my channel. It's also led to several endorsement deals (EMG, Minarik, Fretlight). It's a great way to get yourself heard and seen. Not to mention it's a great way to share your skills with aspiring students and pimp GMC! Go for it!

Todd

[maharzan]

Thanks for sharing Todd. I will followsuit. It would be cool to get endorsement deals...

[Gitarrero]

Thanks for sharing! I think I'm gonna tweak my youtube channel today...

[Todd Simpson]

PROMOTING YOURSELF / YOUR BAND / YOUR MUSIC!

Social Media - They key to it all.

Another great place on the web to promote yourself and your music is FLICKR.Com. This is the original pioneer of photo sharing sites. Start taking pix of your band, your studio, whatever, and keep posting and sharing! Just another way to share yourmusic and yourselff.

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PROMOTING YOURSELF / YOUR BAND / YOUR MUSIC!

Social Media - They key to it all.

Another great place on the web to promote yourself and your music is FLICKR.Com. This is the original pioneer of photo sharing sites. Start taking pix of your band, your studio, whatever, and keep posting and sharing! Just another way to share yourmusic and yourself.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/primalscene/s...299528072/show/

PROMOTING YOURSELF / YOUR BAND / YOUR MUSIC!

Social Media - They key to it all.

Another great place on the web to promote yourself and your music is FLICKR.Com. This is the original pioneer of photo sharing sites. Start taking pix of your band, your studio, whatever, and keep posting and sharing! Just another way to share yourmusic and yourself.

FLICKR

Embrace Social Media Flickr, Myspace, Facebook, etc.

[Todd Simpson]

BRANDING YOURSELF AND YOUR MUSIC:

It sounds lame, "branding" as if you are some type of detergent or mouthwash that needs a lable and slogan. It's offensive. However, it's also crucial. You need to develop yourself in to something of a recognizable commodity in the great big world. Even if you are only known to a handful of people.

Your "brand" or "Rep" will get places ahead of you. Good or bad it will tell people things about you ahead of time. For example, if you want to join a band, or get a job, somebody will google you. They will find you on facebook, myspace, etc. and whatever pics and text you have up there will form the basis of their judgements about you even before they know you.

So be careful about what you put up online and who you share information with. It's critical that you put yourself out there enough to be relevant and searchable, but don't put out the wrong message. Don't post pictures of yourself intoxicated or half cloathed or what not. These pix float around forever on the web and can bite you later on. So be careful but be pro active about your online "image", "brand", "rep", etc. Be kind, be professional, don't rage or hate as it always makes you look silly.

Now that we have that covered, here are some things you need to be doing to keep up your "brand".

1.)Facebook Page - Updated regularly
2.)Twitter - Same
3.)Myspace - Same
4.)Youtube - Same
5.)Blog - Same

the good news is you can use www.hootsuite.com to login and post to all your social media for you! You make one post, it goes out everywhere you want it to go and you can determine when! Very handy and FREE!

Take a look at my Signature below, it's got all the links to my social media shiz. Sometimes it can be a pain to update all of this, especially at first when it's only for a few people. But you have to start somewhere. Make it part of your daily routine, just like practice!
Todd

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Sep 1 2010, 04:25 AM

[Todd Simpson]

GETTING THE WORD OUT ABOUT YOUR AND YOUR MUSIC! (Efficiently)


Hopefully by now you guys have all created a facebook page, twitter account, etc. and Try to post things regularly to start building base of listeners so that as you create music, join bands, etc. there will be people who want to hear it. It always starts small, so even if it feels like you are writing to three people, keep going. Crowds come after the effort, not before it.

However, posting to all the various social media sites is a PAIN! So I've found a great, free, site that lets you create a post once and distribute it to all of your social media at once! You can even schedule when the post will go live. For example, you've recorded a new track, or demo, or your first CD. You make a post about it that night and want it to go out in the late morning so that folks will have it at the top of their news/twitter/facebook feed. So you create the post, with links to the music and tell hootsuite.com to post it the next day at about 10:30.

The best news is that hootsuite.com is free! They should give me a mug/tshirt/calender for pimping them though. Here is a link to them and a picture of the hootsuite interface.

http://www.hootsuite.com/



Todd

[Todd Simpson]

Getting Your Band/Music Project Out there and noticed.

here are some basic things to do first to promote it once you have a band identity (name, logo, artwork, graphics, etc.) and some tunes.

1.)Create a Facebook "Fanpage" / "LikePage" just for the project.
2.)Create facebook profiles for members and link them to project page.
3.)Create a myspace page for the project
4.)Create a sonicbids.com electronic press kit for project.
5.)Create a twitter account for the project.
6.)Create a hootsuite.com account for the project (as in the previous post, this will let you update all your social media at one time)

This isn't an exhaustive list, but it's a good start. Also, post frequently. The more frequent you put out information, the better recognition you will generate. Don't spam certainly, but stay active.

Todd

[Todd Simpson]

Here is a great article from TUBEMOGUL.COM and BRIGHTCOVE.COM (both big players in streaming/analytics) about the current state of affairs and future trends in online video viewing. Clearly, streaming is the future and knowing how people consume media can give you a big advantage when trying to promote yourself and your music.

http://www.tubemogul.com/marketing/Q3_2010.pdf

Todd

[Todd Simpson]

THE SHRINKING MUSIC BUSINESS AND HOW TO THRIVE DESPITE IT

The sad news is that "Music Business" that is the biz of selling units of music is shrinking. It continues to shrink every year. But fear not, with change comes opportunity. Have a look at this chart.


This trend promises to continue well in to the future indicating the "Traditional" Music Biz is simply going away. But it's not really going to disapear. It's just changing. That's great news for you as an emerging artist. The first thing you have to do is forget the measure of success in the old model. Usually this involved getting signed by a big record company and such. These days, most of those companies are dead broke and inches from bankruptcy. So what to do?

The good news is there has never been a better time to be a musician. Distribution is now free (the internet) but your music should also stay free. This is something many new artists struggle with. But at first, until you have a pretty big following, your main enemy is OBSCURITY, or the fact that nobody knows you or your music. So give your music away, put it in indie movies, short films, anything. You just need to get it out there and get it heard.

You may be thinking "How will I make money if I give my music away?". You won't, at first. Once you reach a certain critical mass, (once you have a decent following that is statistically verifiable whether on youtube, twitter, whatever, that is a kind of currency, a kind of wealth. You can take that to vendors, (folks that make stuff you want like guitars and amps) and ask for a "sponsorship" essentially you agree to pimp product X to your audience in exchange for getting product X for free or crazy cheap.

You may say this, is great, but it won't pay my bills. Your right. To do that, you will need to find places to put your music. Sign up for as many online music services (like one mentioned here in the forums, minusdrums.com) and wads of others that will either buy your music for licensing / selling to others, or license it for you and split the proceeds. Many of these companies offer "non exclusive" contracts meaning you can put the same song on more than one sight.

Also, try to make friends with up and coming film directors. Contact the film program at every school/university near you and offer to help score student projects. Even if by "scoring" you just offer up some songs. Odds are some of those directors will find work, and when they do, you have a history with them and by then a relationship and that leads to opportunity. Next thing you know you are making music for movies.

Same is true for games. Insert yourself in the lives of creative people and establish relationships. It's these that will provide the best opportunities.

I've just listed a few ways to monetize your music. I didn't touch on touring, gigging, etc. But I wanted to go in to areas you might not think of. This is a great time to alive and to be making music. Embrace the change and find your path.

Practice!
Todd

[Todd Simpson]

THE SHRINKING MUSIC BUSINESS AND HOW TO THRIVE DESPITE IT

The sad news is that "Music Business" that is the biz of selling units of music is shrinking. It continues to shrink every year. But fear not, with change comes opportunity. Have a look at this chart.


This trend promises to continue well in to the future indicating the "Traditional" Music Biz is simply going away. But it's not really going to disapear. It's just changing. That's great news for you as an emerging artist. The first thing you have to do is forget the measure of success in the old model. Usually this involved getting signed by a big record company and such. These days, most of those companies are dead broke and inches from bankruptcy. So what to do?

The good news is there has never been a better time to be a musician. Distribution is now free (the internet) but your music should also stay free. This is something many new artists struggle with. But at first, until you have a pretty big following, your main enemy is OBSCURITY, or the fact that nobody knows you or your music. So give your music away, put it in indie movies, short films, anything. You just need to get it out there and get it heard.

You may be thinking "How will I make money if I give my music away?". You won't, at first. Once you reach a certain critical mass, (once you have a decent following that is statistically verifiable whether on youtube, twitter, whatever, that is a kind of currency, a kind of wealth. You can take that to vendors, (folks that make stuff you want like guitars and amps) and ask for a "sponsorship" essentially you agree to pimp product X to your audience in exchange for getting product X for free or crazy cheap.

You may say this, is great, but it won't pay my bills. Your right. To do that, you will need to find places to put your music. Sign up for as many online music services (like one mentioned here in the forums, minusdrums.com) and wads of others that will either buy your music for licensing / selling to others, or license it for you and split the proceeds. Many of these companies offer "non exclusive" contracts meaning you can put the same song on more than one sight.

Also, try to make friends with up and coming film directors. Contact the film program at every school/university near you and offer to help score student projects. Even if by "scoring" you just offer up some songs. Odds are some of those directors will find work, and when they do, you have a history with them and by then a relationship and that leads to opportunity. Next thing you know you are making music for movies.

Same is true for games. Insert yourself in the lives of creative people and establish relationships. It's these that will provide the best opportunities.

I've just listed a few ways to monetize your music. I didn't touch on touring, gigging, etc. But I wanted to go in to areas you might not think of. This is a great time to alive and to be making music. Embrace the change and find your path.

Practice!
Todd

[Fran]

Just added these articles to our knowledge base Todd

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/inde..._And_Your_Music
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/inde..._business_today