Posts Tagged ‘Music Industry’
Music Industry Quick Tip: Be Honest in Your Press Releases
When you write a music press release, it can be tempting to stretch the truth a little bit. That’s easy to understand. Your press release will be competing for attention with tons of others, and to get your story told, it needs to stand out. The thing is, kind of like lying on a resume, your liberty with the truth will almost always come out. Here are a just a few press release no-nos:
- Attributing an endorsement from a member of the media to an endorsement by an entire organization is bad practice. For instance: the front page of this site contains a blog, written by me. This site is owned by the New York Times. If I write in my blog that I think your album is the best album I have heard all year, you can’t then turn around and send out a press release that says, “Best Album of the Year – New York Times.” An opinion expressed in a blog, on a radio show or in some other informal environment that is not an official review must be expressed as such. In the case mentioned here, you would need to attribute the quote like this: “Best Album of the Year – Heather McDonald, About.com Music Careers.”
Now, if the “Best Album of the Year” claim was in a specific review of your album that was published on, say, Pitchfork, then you could say, “Best Album of the Year – Pitchfork”. When in doubt, always come down on the side of attributing a quote very specifically rather than generally.
- If you have worked with a well known artist or producer on one track, be clear about the extent of your relationship. Don’t suggest that an entire album was produced by someone if they only did a few tracks or that the artist has closer relationship with your project than they do. Even if you don’t come out and say that they did work they did not do, leaving the suggestion open that someone produced your entire record when they didn’t is still misleading.
- Don’t say you toured with someone when you only played one show with them. Landing a gig as the local opening act for a big name musician is impressive on its own. Simply say “have opened for (insert list of names)”. Saying that you toured with them misrepresents the situation.
- You’ll notice a trend here – being clear is key. You also have to find a way to promote yourself by working with what you’ve got. For instance, although you don’t have to say that when you opened for musician X that they had nothing to do with selecting you, you can’t be ambigious about the fact that you shared the stage with them on more than one occasion. Before you add something to a press release, consider whether or not the person on the other end of the claim you are making would back you up. Not sure? Don’t write it.
And of course, it goes without saying that out and out making things up is never, ever OK.
Why It Matters
You may be thinking, “who cares if some journalist thinks that I played five shows with musician X instead of one, if it gets them to write about me?”. Well, it matters. A lot. Here’s why:
- When you send out a press release, members of the media usually take your claims in good faith. If they promote your music/cover your story, and your claims turn out to be false – or even if turns out you stretched the truth a little bit – you have compromised their integrity. At best, you have embarrassed them in front of their readers and given the impression that they are less than reliable. At worst, you could cost them their job. Making enemies in the media is not a good course of action for anyone in the music industry.
- You will be embarrassed when the truth comes out. It takes all of a minute and half to verify anything you say in your press release, and the truth will come to light. If someone you have inappropriately attributed a past association or quote to calls you on it in a public forum, it will be extremely embarrassing for you. If a member of the media decides to write about you making false claims in your press release, it will hang-your-head time. Getting a reputation for dishonesty is bad for business. Image the story covered on a blog and the trail of snarky comments it would receive. Bad look.
What To Do If It Is Too Late
What happens if you have already sent out a music press release that contains misleading information? If you haven’t been called on it, immediately revise your press release and send out the corrected version. If you have been called on the info, here’s how to handle it:
- Apologize for the miscommunication.
- Own the mistake. Don’t try to save face by clinging to the false story. Simply say that you didn’t intend to give the wrong idea. If someone got the wrong impression – you gave it to them. Accept it.
- Offer to do what you can to correct the mistake. If someone has covered your story somewhere, ask them if there is anything you can do to take the blame away from them, like writing an official statement correcting your info that they can print.
- Send the corrected press release.
- Reiterate that you didn’t mean to cause harm and say you hope that you can still keep them informed about your music news.
There is no guarantee that someone burned by running with misleading information from you will be OK with working with you in the future. However, apologizing and owning up to the mistake will go a long way in most people’s books.
Music Biz: Where Independent Artists Go for Reliable Opinions About the Music Industry
There are many avenues for one’s music creativity. Most of which are provided not only for work but also for entertainment such as theaters, movies, or as independent performance. There are certain groups who accommodate one’s creative expression and when good, it creates popularity. Most independent artists search for these opportunities wherever they can find. Independent artist can do well in the competitive world of artistry when they are equipped with knowledge on how to go about with selling their expressions and capturing the interests of the public.
In the music world, independent artists can look into several resources where they can get knowledge on how music industry works. These resources provide knowledge to independent artists on the stand of other workers in the music industries who provides possibility on how to make an independent artists’ craft succeed. One of these resources can be seen in Music Biz site online. Music Biz provides articles related to the music industry. The articles are opinions and analyses that come from the players in the music industry such as artists, producers, recorders, music marketers, music distributors, music enthusiasts and other contributors from the music world. Independent artists and other interested music lovers can capture the thoughts of these music insiders by the way they express their opinions in the articles.
Articles contributed to Music Biz are scrutinized and edited well to meet the standard of how the articles should be presented. Articles are required to be specific in terms of music events and situations that support the comment or opinions. Generality does not provide the needed knowledge of the readers in the music world. Since articles are more of opinion or comment rather news, Music Biz requires that contributors should be reasonable and logical in their observation, experience or own point of view of a certain subject concerning the music industry. Writers are also encouraged to write new perspectives, issues, and events in their articles to add to the spool of articles already in the site. Lastly, Music Biz encourages contributors in the music world to be identified so they can be known and establish their credibility among readers. However, if the writer wishes to be anonymous, especially when discussing critical issues or events, Music Biz will also respect that.
Music lovers, independent artists and other music players can learn from the articles in Music Biz. It will help them set their pace and understand what music enthusiasts think about what is going on in the music world.
Music lovers, independent artist and other music players can learn from the articles in Music Biz .
Promoting for musicians
If you are a budding musician or band and are looking for ways to sell your music online then below are some proven tips to get you started. They are free and will generate a lot of exposure in promoting your music.
Forums are a great way to promote your music and ultimately drive potential fans to your site and music. You need to find forums that are not only specific to music but also to your genre of music. For example, if you are a Christian rock band, there is no use trying to promote your music in a reggae forum. Promote your music to your target audience. You never know who is reading your forum posts and the whole game is about getting your name and music out there in a number of forums.
Free music networks such as MySpace and YouTube allow you to upload and share your music. MyBandMate is an example of a site that allows you to target your specific audience by promoting your music in various ways via online forums, chat, article postings, music and video uploads, classifieds and much more. Remember, it is a numbers game so the more sites you get onto the more exposure your music will get. Take advantage of these free music networks and you may just get discovered in a big way!
Chat rooms can be useful in spreading the word around about your music. Once again you need to choose the right chat rooms otherwise you will just be wasting your time. These chat forums can be a great way to network.
Blogs have been all the rage of the last few years and they have a powerful presence in ranking highly in the search engines. A well written blog that provides the reader with valuable and informative content can keep that reader returning on a regular basis. In your blog you can have links for fans to buy your music or CDs online.
Classifieds are often under utilised by musicians. Most people think that classifieds are only there to post jobs, sell instruments or look for new band members. However, you can generate a lot of traffic and eventually sales by posting your music for sale in the appropriate category.
Have you heard of Squidoo? If not then this is a great marketing tool that’s free and allows you to create a page about your music or band. You can then use their powerful marketing tools to achieve a high ranking in the search engines.
Having your own website is not essential but it’s definitely worthwhile. A simple one or two page site can cost you less than $100 a year so the cost is not too high. Many webhosts such as GoDaddy allow you to register a domain name, sign up for a years hosting and use their easy to use software to create your own website without any technical or previous website knowledge. If you don’t have your own site then MySpace and MybandMate are definitely two free music networks that allow you to create your own profiles and mini sites with all the required features to promote your music. If you are a musician and are not using these free music networks then you better ask yourself why not! You can’t sell your music if you aren’t willing to put in some time promoting your music.
Many bands are using Google Adwords to promote their music. This has proven to be successful for many bands but it can also be quite costly. These small ads are not only displayed in the Google search results but also on sites with related content for your topic. Remember to carefully select your keywords to bid on and learn more about how much you should be paying per click.
Another great way to generate free publicity is to type up a brief news release and submit it to be launched all across the internet for free in one of the many free press release sites. Often these news releases will achieve high rankings on the search pages. Be sure to use the keywords in your title, summary and content.
Other key points to note are that you need to build a relationship with your fans. This can be done via these music networks or your own newsletter. By building your list you can promote and sell your music to people who you know are interested in your style of music. You can also send out samples of new songs.
Musicians need to be aware that the majority of their income will come from the money they make from their gigs and selling merchandise at these gigs. This is why you will want to have a box of CDs with you to sell at the end of your gig. You need to target potential customers while they are pumped about your music. This is when you want to sell your CDs.
Ultimately, to sell your music you need to firstly promote your music via the various avenues as outlined above. You could have the next best hit single or a top selling CD but if no one knows about you or your band then you will never sell your music. It is such a competitive market and you should use all of the free tools out there on the internet to showcase your music to the world. Everyone who has a computer is a potential customer and therefore you have a global market!
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