A short while ago, Youtube implemented a new design called ‘One Channel’. You can see an example of this design in action on Yasmine’s Youtube page.

The ideas behind this is a much simpler channel design that also works well across many different devices. As more people get tablets and smart phones, it has become increasingly important to be able to effectively display your content to as many of these devices as possible. This new channel allows this.

Although this is very cool, it isn’t the only cool new feature. For example, One Channel now allows you to present one set of videos to your subscribers, and another set to people who haven’t yet subscribed. As I’m sure you can imagine, this gives a lot of exciting possibilities (I.e. Subscriber only videos etc).

So, here’s how to set up your new One Channel design on Youtube. Give it a go, it’s really easy to do!

Getting A Picture For Your Youtube Music Channel

Au revoir (‘Goodbye’ for those non French speakers ) elaborate graphics, all you will need is a photo of 2560px by 1440 px.

On most screens, only a small area of this photo (Usually 1546px by 423px at the center of the photo) will be shown. So if you add text, all of it needs to fit in there. I wouldn’t suggest you put too much text in though.

On a TV, the whole photo will be used. On desktops, tablets and smart phones, only part of the photo will be used. This will make it look like a banner (Its length will depend on your screen).

If you want to get all the visual information and sizes, click here (You can also download the template from this page).

Once you’re ready to add your image, click on the ‘add an illustration for your channel’ message on the banner. From here you can drag and drop your photo.

Adding Links To Your Other Websites And Social Profiles

Once your image is up, you will probably want to add some links to your other music based pages. To do this, go to the top right corner of your banner and click on ‘edit the links’.

Here you can add several links :

The first one is the link to your official site (Which, by the way, you should have. If you haven’t yet got one, learn how to quickly and easily set one up here).

After that, you can add links to any social networks you may have. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Soundcloud, Tumblr, Instagram etc to name only a few.

Adding A Teaser To Your Channel

Right below your new illustration, and to the left, will be the teaser content for your channel. You can make this different content for subscribers and non subscribers.

By hovering the little arrow on top of this spot, you will call up the editing tool.

You can now add a video for people who haven’t subscribed to your channel yet.

You can either film a short video explaining what your channel is about (Keep it short and simple, and make sure you include a call to action) or simply choose your best music video or footage.

People who are already subscribed to you will see a video from your channel in this spot.

Describe Your Channel To Potential Fans

Next, go to the ‘about’ section (To the right of the home icon), click on the editing pen, and describe your channel.

This description doesn’t need to be very long, but it needs to be relevant to the actual content of your channel.

It will appear by default on all the descriptions of your new videos and on other places on Youtube, so be sure to change this as and when is needed.

Creating Sections And Playing With Playlists

Playlists are very important in the One Channel design. Youtube now allows you to add playlists of both your own videos and other people’s. So if you and another musician are supporting each other, you can add their videos to your channel, and they can do the same with your vids.

Again, when you hover on a section, you are calling the editing tool. You can choose to add one or several playlists to the section, and present it horizontal format (line) or vertical format (list).

You can add as many sections as you like by clicking on ‘adding a section’ (Below the last section).

And you’re not limited to videos from yours or your friend’s channel. You can also add a sections with videos you like, music artists that have inspired you, people you’re working with, etc. The choice is yours.

Conclusion

And voilà ! You’re all set

Changes to platforms you’re used to can be confusing at first, but hopefully this guide has showed the new Youtube design isn’t that difficult to understand, and using the above step by step instructions you can get yours set up exactly how you want it.

So, what’s your view on this new Youtube design? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

“There’s so much knowledge out there, I don’t disagree with you, but it’s scattered all around the web. Impossible to find the really credible resources!”

And then it hit me:

“Why don’t we stop whining and do something creative instead?”

Our First London Music Conference With Andrew Dubber

A week after, the first conversation with a famous music expert was a reality.

Darker Music Talks took place in London on a rainy Monday of January, with around 20 UK musicians asking questions to Andrew Dubber for about an hour.

The first bridge between serious knowledge keepers and passionate independent musicians revealed something promising: musicians can be really conversational about their music career when the chance is provided.

Especially when this person has tons of actionable knowledge they could benefit from, or advocates a refreshing, modern mindset.

For those who are not familiar with Andrew Dubber:

He is Reader in Music Industries Innovation at Birmingham City University, a public speaker, the founder of New Music Strategies and an adviser to Bandcamp and Planzai. He’s also the author of 20 Things You Need To Know About Music Online and Music In The Digital Age.

I’d describe him as a legend in the independent music scene and a charismatic speaker. That’s why I could see a lot of happy faces at the end of the event.

What Lessons Can Andrew Dubber Teach Us?

There is a strong tendency nowadays, and it has a lot to do with the way people consume information. We prefer distilled knowledge instead of long essays with too much in depth information.

I tend to prefer the second one by the way, because it alters your understanding of already existing stereotypes.

This conversation with Andrew contained valuable nuggets of wisdom that could sum up the proper mindset of a musician in the digital age.

Let’s go.

1. Being Social As A Musician

“There is just one thing you need to understand about music online: ‘This is a conversation’. And it seems like a really oversimplified way of looking at the Internet, but it just human beings talking to each other.”

Key Words: Be human.

In 1999, C. Locke, D. Searls, D. Weinberger and R. Levine published the Cluetrain Manifesto, which contained 95 theses about online conversation. They were difficult to digest at that time, but now things are obvious.

Thesis no. 3: “Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.”

Today, we see how these simplistic words have conquered the online word. This is what you should deeply understand, whether you’re a marketer of a coffee brand or a musician.

Be human.

Talk like you would talk in the physical world. Understand that you’re not talking to profiles or bots. There’s an alive human being behind each conversation.

Announcements and ‘screaming’ via press releases and ads is dead. Brand humanization is not merely a trend, it’s the consequent result of understanding how the Internet works.

2. Make Yourself Interesting

“In an online space there is the conversation and there is the things about which the conversation is taking place. You can either be talking to people, or you can be the thing about which they talk. But the easiest thing to do is make things people have conversations about. They’re called ‘social objects’. “

Key Words: Social objects.

This is the fancy way to say ‘be interesting’.

Jyri Engestrom has coined the term, and it has to do with the fundamental understanding that people talk every day about stuff, but they only pick stuff that make them sound interesting individuals.

Talking about the weather is not a topic that enhances your image, but some novelty that you recently discovered is worth talking about.

In general, this is the mindset behind virality. Think in reverse and spot something that people will be interested in talking about or some trend that the masses have not had enough of yet and you could ride while they’re hot.

Then make it real and give to people the chance to ‘discover’ it.

There’s a catch though. The aforementioned are seasonal tricks.

Most importantly, be originally interesting and show your real self. People cannot be fooled by imitators. Building an interesting character heavily depending on others’ creations will not take you a long way.

Being the social object because you’re an innovator is the path to fame after death.

3. Keep Your Fans Engaged And Interested

“Give them a reason to come back. Give them something that will encourage their engagement and will make them want to stay on the mailing list.”

Key Words: Keep them in the loop.

I figured it out with my own band, after being inactive for many months on social media: if you disappear from the public eye for a long time, don’t expect to be remembered.

It’s simple. Life goes faster, so does information consumption. The human brain cannot keep up with everything we encounter in our daily lives. We only remember information that is either on top of mind or integral part of our habitual living.

Short attention spans are satisfied with short and sweet posts that contain strong visual elements and bits of information without the fluff.

On the other hand, our favorite bands don’t have to be on top of mind, because they achieved something stronger: they’re a habit of our lives because we chose to.

The latter is the ultimate goal, longevity in other words. It cannot be achieved, though, without mastering the first step, which is to keep people in the loop and engage with them in a meaningful way. Once you break this barrier of disbelief against you, you can say you got yourself a real fan, not just ephemeral audience.

4. You Can’t Stop Music Piracy, So Don’t Sweat It

“In independent music, your problem is not piracy. Your problem is obscurity. You want people to have conversations about you. You want people to have things of yours they can share.”

Key Words: Don’t restrict.

Lots of debate against piracy, whether it’s wrong or right to copy and spread other people’s art on digital media, whether copyrights are helping or restricting etc.

There’s not much debate to be done on this topic, I reckon.

Andrew put it in a brilliant way; you should not care about piracy when you haven’t built awareness. Restricting the audience from sharing your work is plain nonsense for the digital age.

Personally, I see it as a blessing. Having fans to evangelize your work and spread it around the world is something everyone would wish for, and this should be the goal in the first place.

How can you make money if you don’t sell your music and let others pirate it?

Read further…

5. Give Your Fans A Real Reason To Buy Your Music

“There is nothing you can do to stop somebody having what you make for nothing. That’s not the problem you wanna solve. What you wanna solve is ‘How can I be that meaningful that they want to give me money for something they already own?’ “

Key Words: Meaningful incentives.

This was a question asked when the session started: “How do you make people pay for your music?”

Andrew’s answer was disarming: “You can’t force them to.”

As Mike Masnick highlighter in his keynote talk about Trent Reznor’s model, it’s all about CwF + RtB (Connect with Fans + Reason to Buy).

The latter is the incentive you provide to the audience to pay for what you do, and I don’t strictly mean your recorded music. In fact, recorded music will not be a great revenue stream in the future. We already see happening, and it’s not pure randomness.

The future audience, the ‘digital natives’, will either pay for digital goods because either they have a connection with the brand, in other words because they volunteer to pay (this is what’s happening with Kickstarter) or because it’s a service that saves them time, organizes their lives and/or gives them something first.

I don’t see recorded music anywhere near this mindset. Stop forcing people to pay for your songs, let them spread them and give them incentives to pay if they want.

6. Let Your Fans Help Mould Your Music Career

“I want my face to appear to the page of the band that I like. It’s like I’m actually involved in this process with this person that is making this music that I love. That’s a completely different dynamic and a much more personal and gratifying connection.”

Key Word: Personalization.

Personalization is going big and is here to stay. Recently Bandcamp launched the ‘Fan pages’, where you can make your own profile and concentrate the favorite music you’ve found around the platform, connect with other individuals and share your tastes with the world. They infused the ‘social’ element.

Not random either. We are in the ‘We’ era, as described in the book “Pendulum” by M. Drew and R. Williams. There is a need to say out loud what we stand for and what groups of people we belong to.

Having our face in the music page of our favorite band, showing that we participated in the Y cause and making public that we supported the Z crowdfunded campaign is a characteristic of our nature that will exaggerate in the next years.

Don’t forget that: in an era where big numbers are considered to be a success and reaching new people with the click of a button is costless, being a human and talking face to face with people enjoys a new, unique meaning.

We have the need to feel like humans again and know that others feel likewise as well.

7. Own Your Own Data

“Anything you put up on Facebook is not your thing, it’s Facebook’s thing, they own it. Personally, I would use Facebook to direct people away from Facebook.”

Key Words: Own your data.

No, it’s not wise. It’s common sense.

You cannot really build something and surrender it to a third-party to build their own business. Well, you can, it might bring some interesting results and boost your audience.

But maintaining this mindset will never help you build a real following and business for yourself. You need to own the data you create and collect.

Facebook shuts down tomorrow, what will you do? Right, all the data (which you don’t own anyways) will vanish.

This is the juice of Andrew’s point: Facebook is merely a communication tool and a service to drive more audience to your own website. It’s not a replacement.

Email is an evergreen means of communication. Yeah, lots of ups and downs in the meaning it has for people, but it is an integral part of our lives and will never fade away.

It’s simple. Start building your mailing list today and own your data (Shaun Letang: You can see our guide about building a mailing list here. I also suggest you build your own music website rather then relying fully on social media platforms. Social platforms should be used to drive traffic to your website, and should themselves be diversified).

Bonus 8^th Tip For Music Industry Success

“There is actually a formula for music business success on the Internet. Step one is: Be F**king Amazing.”

This is the cornerstone of success. No matter big marketing budget you have or interesting discussions you start, simply put, the essence is one: your art needs to be amazing.

Cliche, for sure.

I know you’ll counter-argue that art is something subjective and there are always fans for any kind of music. And that’s absolutely true, this is the magic of artistic creations.

Do you want to know the difference between making art and making a career in art? In order to make a sustainable career in music, you first need to be able to reach a respective volume of audience. This happens by offering music that is already accepted by the broader audience, or by teaching the audience how to love your eccentric and unique kind of music.

The second one is more difficult. Both tasks entail a mutual element: Be amazing.

I hope you enjoyed some of what Andrew had to say about music in the digital age. You can read up a lot more about him on his official website.

About Tommy Daker, The Author

I’m Tommy Darker, the writing alter ego of an imaginative independent musician. I started ‘Think Beyond The Band’ because I feel proud of what I’ve accomplished so far and I like helping other fellow musicians that struggle with the same problems.

I love starting conversations, join me in The Darker Side to talk about the music business. If you share the same mindset, find me on Facebook and Twitter and let’s talk!

Photo Credit: Andreas.

Your band’s presence and exposure on Facebook has just became all the more vital. Facebook Graph Search is on its way, and could possibly change the way potential fans hear and find your music.

There are many ways to market your band with little or no budget, and social media is an excellent place to start your online marketing strategy.

So far potential fans have been able to find your page by studying their friend’s list of recommended pages, or when enough of their friends comment on your bands posts. Facebook Graph Search however will be able to expose your band’s page to new fans in a way that Google search results have never been able to.

Read on, as we talk more about this new Facebook feature below.

How Does Facebook Graph Search Work?

Mark Zuckerberg describes its use: “Graph Search is designed to take a precise query and return to you the answer”, he said, “not links to other places that might take you to the answer”.

‘The Zucker’ in person at the Facebook Graph Search Press conference.

The new search function can understand a mixture of phrases. In the case of your band, a search for ‘Friends in Australia who like electro-funk’ core and going to gigs’ will show you exactly who this criteria matches. If your band’s page lists you as ‘electro-funkcore’, and their friends in Australia have interacted with your page, you may have just found yourself a new fan.

The varied use of this service, rather than searching essentially for music has other possibilities for your band page.

Online Dating- Yes. Yours could be the music of love. Who doesn’t appreciate a partner who you can share your incredible music taste with?

Searching for ‘guys in Manchester who like country music and eating out’. What are the chances of someone spotting they like your band, giving you a ‘Like’ for their own profile in order to feign interest and secure a hot date with them? Stranger things have happened.

How To Tune Up Your Band Page For Facebook Graph Search

Have your band page appear in as many search results as possible by completing these instructions. You will also be left with an informative and interesting page for your visitors.

1. Your band profile: place your band name, genre, and location in the main headings. This includes your URL and the ‘About’ section. Also include any other key words that you think people would search for in relation to your band. Fill in as many sections as possible so that every potential search category is complete.

2. Photos: Facebook shares your visual content a lot wider in your news feed than it does a long written post. Tag everyone present, including a tag for your band page. Title each one with its location and something that will stimulate discussion around them.

3. Privacy settings: the best settings are no settings. Remove any age limits and country restrictions on all of your band’s content. This makes them as widely available as possible for search results.

Here is Facebook’s guide on managing your page

What Matters Most For My Band Or Rap Page To Appear In A Facebook Graph Search?

• Engagement: creating conversations around your band has the ability to increase your visibility in someone’s news feed.

People are naturally curious about something already gaining plenty of attention.

The number of conversations around your band and positive mentions will become more important as Facebook Graph Search becomes more intuitive. Engagement is the first step to encouraging ‘Likes’…

• ‘Likes’: these are the most important way to ensuring your visibility in search results. ‘Likes’ are the confirmed stamp of authority that your band is worth someone’s while. The posts that you create must be written and designed to ensure they receive the most likes.

How Can I Turn Engagement Into Likes?

Facebook lets you become more than just a band. You have the potential to create a whole community centered on your music and your combined personalities.

Give them unique reasons to ‘Like’ your band. They want to feel part of something exclusive. They want get closer to the people who create the things they enjoy. This is how.

Organize competitions and offer exclusive giveaways such as tickets and downloads; be as creative as you like with what you offer. Place a condition on each entrance that they must ‘Like’ your page. Here are a few ideas.

1. Caption competitions: the best photo comment wins. This also encourages ‘engagement’.
2. Album artwork contest: announce a new song; the best artwork is chosen for the song/album.
3. Simply ‘Like’ or share our band page and receive a free download.
4. Post a favorite lyric on your band page.

You can get more Facebook marketing tips for musicians here.

The below handy info-graphic shows you how to write those amazing posts that will result in fans sharing them far and wide.

Source: blogs.salesforce.com via Vesa on Pinterest

Go forth and spread the word of your musical genius. Facebook Graph Search is coming; your band page will be ready.

About The Author:

Tom Siddle is a musician and experienced music industry writer who works on behalf of BIMM: Brighton Institute of Modern Music.’

How To Form A Band – The Ultimate Guide Part 1

This is a three part series looking how to set up and run a professional or semi professional band. If your aim is to form a band which can make money from gigging (Or you already have a band but want them to do more with themselves), make sure you read these guides in full.

Start off by reading the above mentioned guide, and once you’ve done, get started on this one.

Now that you’ve caught up with part one, let’s continue on from where we left off.

P.S. If you find these guides helpful, please share them on your usual social networking sites, and link to them on your own websites. The more shares we get, the more articles we’ll write.

Marketing For Maximum Exposure

When I set up my band Celtic Clan, I had the advantage of knowing how to market a product, as that’s my background (marketing and PR). Happily, this resulted in a full book of work, just 3 months after launching. We did around 100 shows in our first year, and were able to turn professional almost immediately.

Some of my ideas you’ll like, and some you won’t. When reading this guide, I suggest you take what works for you, but do bear in mind these are tried and tested methods. So many bands fail at this step because they don’t know what to do to get work, and people get fed up of waiting and drift off.

I’ll keep everything brief here, and if as a reader you’d like more expansive information, keep checking our website and band blog as I often post more up there.

Step 1 – Deciding Who Does What

Vital!!!!! If people have different skills to offer, that’s great. But everybody in a band has to pull their weight, otherwise resentment forms.

I’d recommend one person (the bandleader) handling this side of things if possible, so you can keep track more easily. And DO NOT be afraid to take a cut of the fee for doing this. I take 15% for managing the band – it’s all transparent and nobody minds, because without it, we wouldn’t be getting any gigs in the first place. If you’re the person in your band who gets gigs, you can see more advice on how to get gigs here.

Step 2 – Branding Your Band

A ‘brand’ is the uniqueness of something that makes it memorable. Think of all the great brands that spring to mind instantly: Coca Cola, BMW, Walkers Crisps, Cadbury’s Chocolate. All household names with recognizably. And that’s what you need for your band.

We chose a great logo for ours, a strap-line (the slogan, if you like), and a look; kind of Celtic, gypsy with coin belts, crushed velvets and waistcoats for the guys. It makes us look professional and we stand out.

Everything to do with your band should reflect the look or feel. This should ideally be sorted out during the stages where you’re first forming a band, but if you’re past that stage and haven’t done so yet, now is the time.

Step 3 – Building A Great Website

This can’t be under-estimated. Get a decent site build, it should cost around £400 – no more.

Note from editor: If you want another way to creating a music website for much cheaper, you should check out this site which walks you step by step through the process of how to make a music website.

A good site really sorts out the men from the boys. Again, keep the band colors, the logos and the ‘look’ in keeping with your branding.

If you can set up a website before you begin gigging, this is a huge help. I did this with Celtic Clan, and it helped make us look like an established band, before we really were. It requires planning and some financial investment, but if you’re all in it together…

So, firstly you need to register a domain name. Use a site like 123-reg.co.uk (Good value). Register your domain name before someone else does.

Then start planning how you want your site to look. Ours unfolds in a great order, is easy to navigate and is full of lively info. People remark on how professional it is all the time. Imagine you’re a punter looking for a band, what do they want to see?

Your site should include pictures, a promo video if possible, gig lists, write ups on the band members and audio recordings.

Lastly, you need to find a good web designer. We used Darren from iKandidesign.com – a really helpful independent guy who works for lots of entertainers. He’s based in Birmingham, so if you’re also based there you may want to check him out…

Step 4 – The Marketing Accessories

As well as your site, you’ll need supporting material. These are physical tools which help your band stand out when you’re up on stage. Here are a couple of the things we like to get made:

• For maximum effect, we like to use two pop-up banners. These provide a great backdrop for any stage, and instant publicity. They cost around £60 each to have made, and they display just the logo, the website address, and our strap-line. That’s it. You don’t need any more info. Don’t put the phone number on, as you want to drive people to your website. People will be able to see a lot more information about you here, and be able to pre-qualify themselves as being someone genuinely interested in your band. After all, if they’ve already looked around your website and still make the effort to call you, don’t you think they’re going to be more interested then someone who takes your number in the spur of the moment and doesn’t know anything more about you? Your website will both inform people about what you offer, and screen out anyone that isn’t potentially serious about hiring you. This will both save you time and get you more gigs.
• We also give out postcard-sized flyers as our cards. These have the logo and strap-line on the front, and bullet points and contact details on the back. That’s all you need.

That’s probably enough to get going, but it’s worth considering CDs and T-shirts etc for the future. Anything to promote your cause.

Step 5 – Getting Seen

This is the hard part, but what you’ve been working towards. If you’ve done your background work, you’ll have a website, supporting materials, a good set list, good internal organization and all be working towards the same target. Time to let people know you’re out there. Consider the following:

• Showcases.
  One of the best things we did in the early days was the Keeping It Live showcase. This is a showcase event which happens in the UK twice a year, once in the northern area, and once in the Midlands. It’s a 3 day event that is really well run, and attended by literally hundreds of agents of all sorts. The phone rang every day for 3 months after this, and filled our diaries up completely. If you’re not from the UK, look around for alternative events like this where you live.
• Open Mike Nights.
  Sounds obvious, but a good way to get some exposure.
• The Care Home Circuit Is Another Opportunity.
  Retirement villages are massive now, and they have an active entertainment programmer. Speak to the activities coordinators there.
• Register With Agents.
  Agents are impressed with a good bio, photos, and if you can put a show reel on YouTube for them to show their clients, that also helps. Bear in mind this must be agent friendly (with no branding). So when you’re having a video made, get two edits. One with branding for your own use, and one without which agents can use to promote you.
• Look For Opportunities Outside Of The Norm.
  Malls and shopping centers often have events. Ask what’s coming up over the next few months and see if you can be involved.
• Weddings Are A Prime Market.
  Book to display at a wedding fair. Make sure you can play at the fair, or at least play your DVD whilst on the stand.
• Offer To Support Well Known Local Bands.
  Or to a charity night somewhere. Make sure you inform the local paper of when it’s happening too. Provide them with a good photo and a small write up of who you are and what you’ll be doing.

How To Form A Band And Get Paid Gigs Conclusion

So that’s it for part 2 of our guide on how to form a band, you can see part 3 here. The opportunities are endless once you get your thinking cap on, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box when it comes to getting paid gig. The important thing is that everyone in the band is committed to working, and available for work when it comes in. Good luck in your search!

This is a guest post by Ruth from Celtic Clan, the Birmingham Contemporary Irish band that doesn’t just do Irish! Take a look at their website for more useful information or to book the Midlands’ best Celtic and Irish function band.”

That’s the potential power of YouTube. According to YouTube, more than 800 million users visit the video-sharing site each month, and more than four billion videos are viewed daily. Even more amazing? Seven hundred YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute, a percentage of those being videos by musicians.

While your potential audience is massive, so is your competition. More than 60 hours of video are uploaded every day, which is equivalent to more than 176,000 full-length Hollywood movies each week. Independent musicians also have to account for competition from big labels paying to promote videos, and vying for your potential audiences’ attention.

YouTube success hinges on optimizing your video to maximize the chances that the right people will see and share your work. You didn’t create an amazing video of your newest song just so no one would see it, right? You need to get your music video seen, and we can show you how to do that!

Here are a few quick and easy tips to help you maximize your video’s exposure by optimizing your video for YouTube. This will work on music videos, your artist interviews, or any other type of video you will make.

Keywords Are The Key

YouTube optimization is a lot like search engine optimization – both rely heavily on relevant keywords to serve up the best content for searchers. Choosing relevant keywords is the most important step in optimizing your video for YouTube, and can mean the difference between 15 views and 15 hundred views.

There are four steps for optimizing your YouTube video with keywords.

1. Find Relevant Keywords.
   Review keywords on videos similar to yours, especially those with a high number of views, which will give you an idea what kind of keywords bring viewers to a certain video. Search for the keywords you might use to find your own YouTube video to determine if the search results are what you expected – you might have a different idea of keyword relevancy than your potential audience! Steer clear of adding irrelevant – yet popular – keywords to your videos. Irrelevant keywords might help your YouTube search results, but it’s not likely users will actually watch it. For a broader keyword picture, check out the YouTube keyword tool. It’s a free service that lets you see the most popular keywords based on language and country.
2. Getting Your Title Right.
   Start by optimizing your video title. Think of a newspaper or magazine. What type of headline are you drawn to reading? Choose titles that are descriptive, catchy and clear. You have 100 characters, including the spaces between words. Focus on the keywords you discovered in step one.
3. Choosing A Category For Your Music Video.
   Choose a category for your video. Search for videos similar to yours or browse the categories you believe would be the best fit for your own video. Think about using a less popular (but still as relevant) category so your video has a better chance of being seen.
4. Description And Tags.
   Add your description and tags. Your description should be as detailed as possible and include the ever-important keywords related to your video. You can include details like your location, genre, instruments or even the background of your song. You have approximately 800 words in your description, so use them wisely! Your tags, which have a 120-character limit, should also reflect your keywords.

All of these things will help your video be more relevant to any related search terms. This will help your target audience (And potential fans) find you a lot easier.

Settings To Set Your YouTube Video Apart

Keyword relevancy is only the first step to optimizing your YouTube video. YouTube also gives musicians a variety of further settings that can better help you optimize your video…

When you upload your video, you should always check the broadcasting and sharing options to make sure your optimized YouTube video will appear in searches. Privacy should be set to “public”; comments, comment voting, video responses and ratings should all be allowed so your audience can engage with you; and video embedding should be permitted. That way, when someone wants to share your video on their blog or article, they can embed your optimized video right from the YouTube website. People sharing your music video on their blog can only mean more exposure, so make sure your share settings are in order.

Adding Lyrics And Text To Your YouTube Video

YouTube videos are converted into Java, so the content isn’t crawled by search engines. To give your YouTube video an optimization boost, you should include captions or transcripts. These can be a written version of your song lyrics if you’ve uploaded a music video, or a written version of your interview.

To do this, transcribe your video or add captions if it doesn’t contain any dialogue. Save the transcript as a .txt file, then go to your video manager and click “captions” from the drop down menu beside your video. Finally, upload your .txt file to complete the process. Your video will now be accompanied by additional keywords and text, which will often help improve your optimization on YouTube.

Conclusion

By spending a little extra time optimizing your YouTube videos, you can share your songs with a much wider audience. Simply uploading your video and hoping it’ll find your target is a poor plan, so do what’s necessary to get your video found. You can find out more about video optimization for musicians in the Academy, so check it out if you haven’t already.

About The Author

Steven Payne is enthusiastic about all things to do with marketing promotions. While he isn’t busy with his day job, he shares his marketing knowledge with those in need. In this case, it just happens to be you cool musicians.

At the age of 24, I became a product manager at the major record label BMG. Before that though, I used to play the drums in a heavy metal band for several years.

Like many musicians, we often tried to get local venues to allow us to gig. This though, wasn’t always easy. Most musicians almost beg club owners and bookers to play another gig, but there is a better way: While begging can work from time to time, the only solution to carry on getting gigs in the long run is to get a bigger audience to your concerts. Not easy I know, but true. As they say, “Don’t shoot the messenger”.

Live bookers, club owners, label executives and other music industry professionals have a job to do. These people are not necessarily greedy, but they need to earn from what they are doing. In their eyes, it’s not about how much exposure you’ll get for performing at their venue. It‘s about the organizer’s earnings, at least when it comes to live gigs beyond your own garage and cultural institutions that are subsidized by the government.

In other words, whether or not you’re booked is not normally based on how talented you are. It’s based on the amount of money you will make for the booker and the venue owner. Having said that, even if you’re not a big name musician yet, you can still pull off shows and make them successful.

Example – Event Marketing During A School-Break Concert

So here’s an idea me and my heavy metal band pulled off in our hay day. This is an excerpt from the book “Bandologie – How to Lead Your Band to Success as a Musician”:

Even if you aren’t part of a world famous band, you can still run an original and inventive sales promotion to increase your music sales. Back in the day, my former band and I had scheduled a live show at our local youth center. Few people had appeared at our previous gigs due to our bad advertising in the past, but this time we had an idea.

During my two free school periods, I drove to the school closest to the youth center. I had managed to get an appointment with the school principal there. I handed him our demo tape and press kit, and asked him if he would let us play our heavy metal in his break hall on the Friday morning before our show. He looked a little perplexed, yet agreed: “But only three songs maximum, and after the break, silence!”… Deal!

The school break-time bell rang. We let loose with our first track. The student’s eyes widened: There was a live band belting out music right in the middle of their break hall! By the second song, enthusiastic and surprised students were jumping around, and by the third song a crowd surfer even crashed to the floor right at our feet!

After the third song, I shouted at my band: “Only two minutes left. Quick!” We put down our instruments and spread out our flyers, which were literally ripped out of our hands that day! Naturally, I had also called the local press in advance, and so the following day there was a half-page article, which included a huge photo of us, in the best known newspaper in the area.

I’m sure I don’t have to mention that more people came to our concert that evening than ever before! It was a complete success…

[[ End of the book excerpt ]]

How The Speed Of Implementation Helped Us

Back then, we felt that another local rock band was our biggest competition. When the lead singer of this band saw US playing in HIS school, his anger almost made his head explode. He later screamed at some of his band mates: “This was MY idea!”

Well, having ideas is a nice thing, but ideas don‘t get you anywhere unless you put them into action.

Additionally, speed of implementation can be an important factor on a highly competitive market like the music business. In this case, we both had the same idea (We did not steal it) but our band was much faster in carrying it out.

The mentioned lead singer later admitted that he had “planned” this idea for more than a year. In contrast, when we had the idea, we talked it through at our very next rehearsal, and the day after that we had decided to go for it. I instantly visited the school‘s facilities, checked the locations of any necessary electrical outlets, and made a note of what equipment we would need.

The effect of this promotion sounds easy to achieve at first. However, it was a lot of hard work for us as a band. One of the reasons why the school principal agreed to let us play, was our precise preparation.

When the principal asked me how everything’s going to work (At our meeting before the promotional concert), I instantly replied something like:

“The best place for the stage is the right corner in front of the teacher’s room. There is a socket and we will bring junction boxes. Our mixing console can be placed on a desk on the other side of the room. We will bring a multicore cable and our self-made PA system. There are twelve mid-sized wooden boxes spread across the hall. These can be build up as a stage. We will bring a thick carpet for the drums, so there will be no damage to the boxes. The only problem is the double-door of glass. It would have to be closed on one side to make the stage fit in. This should still be enough space as an emergency escape route and the escape routes for the audience lead into the other direction anyway. Do you want to see our layout for the promotional poster?”

What I’ve Learned Since That Promotional Concert

From my time as a musician and all the studying I’ve done since then, I’ve learned two crucial things:

1. The music industry is much LESS about ‘becoming lucky’ than about 99 percent of all musicians still think it is. It often boils down to a healthy mix of talent, music business knowledge, and clever marketing.
2. This industry is driven by business-minded MUSICIANS to a significant degree. These are the people that know how to get on important radars, and really know how to get themselves out there.

So while other musicians play standard shows in front of empty clubs, you just learned the truth about the amount of knowledge, straightforwardness and energy than can enable YOUR band to do a successful promotional activity. Learn to think outside the box with your promotional ideas; Don’t be afraid to think big, and don’t be slow to implement them!

About The Author

Nils, the contributor of this guide, is the author of the book ‘Bandologie – How to Lead Your Band to Success as a Musician’. You can see more information about this book and buy it via www.bandologie.com/book. If you want to know more about Nils himself, check out www.bandologie.com/nils.

Music is a powerful, almost mythical force. And, while you often read and hear about the amazing talent of the men and women responsible for the sounds that mean so much to us all, we seldom hear about the people who make it possible for us to hear them; their managers.

It may sound like more than a slight exaggeration to say that without managers, we would never hear music. But if you know anything at all about how the music industry works, you know this isn’t much of a misstatement.

The one thing everyone in the music industry agrees on is this: Management is everything.
Good management will allow a talented artist to realize their fullest potential and make sure the public becomes equally aware of it. They allow room for creative development, rebirth, and career longevity in an industry that is fickle on its best day.

Shirley Bassey Reborn Thanks To New Management

While no one would dispute the storied career of Dame Shirley Bassey, I highly doubt anyone anticipated her remarkable 2009 comeback.

After having been away from recording and performance for a number of years, Dame Shirley blew everyone away with her 2007 Glastonbury Festival performance. It was after this that former PR guru turned manager Paul Carey approached her with a concept for a new album. Not only had Mr. Carey been in touch with a number of top contemporary artists regarding writing tracks for the record, he had a plan for the entire project: from the album itself, to the marketing, promotion, and tour.

This is an prime example of two key traits any manager must have; foresight and organizational skills.

Mr. Carey thought out every aspect of the project before a note had been sung, and that played a huge role in its overall success.

As relaxed and whimsical as performers look on stage, a lot of difficult business goes into getting them to that point. This is why managers are so important.

While artists are establishing their careers, it isn’t uncommon for a band member or close friend to take on the management duties. While this is fine, in theory, there are a few things that are very important to keep in mind.

Being a manager is quite a lot like being a parent in that you assume many different titles and roles simultaneously, and are seldom fully acknowledged and appreciated.

When a band becomes really successful, you’ll have a bigger budget to work with and can delegate responsibilities to others to assist you. In the early stages, most of the work will lie with one or possibly two people.

For this reason, be certain that your manager possesses a few key qualities.

Key Qualities That A Music Manager Should Have

Here are some key qualities that your manager should have:

They Should Be Trustworthy.
Your manager will prove to be the most important person in your career. Always. For this reason, you must be able to trust them with absolutely anything and everything. If you can’t, then you need to get a new manager. While it’s crucial for artists to stay abreast of the business aspect of their careers, they must also be able to rest assured that their manager is always looking after their best interests. Remember, this person will be handling your income, negotiating on your behalf, and representing you to the public. You need to feel confident that they are doing so honestly.

Your Music Manager Should Be Organized.
There will be dates, order information, venues, contacts, travel, and a myriad of other minutiae to keep track of at all times. Make sure your manager (or potential manager) is equal to the task, because if they can’t keep it straight, everything will end up in shambles. Ultimately, that will reflect negatively upon you, the artist.

A Good Manager Is Always Punctual.
This could probably fall under the “organization” category, but I feel it’s important enough to warrant its own paragraph. Tardiness is annoying enough when you’re meeting a friend for a tea or coffee, but imagine having a manager who is constantly late for important meetings and negotiations. Your manager is a reflection of you and should be a positive one. If they’re constantly keeping people waiting, venues and companies will want to stop dealing with your band, NOT your manager. This will mean fewer gigs and interviews, and ultimately less revenue for you.

They Should Have A Good Business Sense.
That isn’t to say all managers have to have a degree from the London School of Economics, but let’s face it – musicians want to focus on music. Managers serve as the right-brain advocates of the artists they represent. It stands to reason that your manager should have a good sense of negotiation, contracts, accounting, and be well versed in current music industry happenings.

Take Courtyard Management, for example. Bryce Edge and Chris Hufford, and co-manager Brian Message have been with Radiohead from the beginning of their career. They have provided an environment in which the band can thrive creatively, all the while making sound business decisions and giving advice that allows them to maintain a career as one of the most innovative and respected bands of the past twenty years.

Final Tips When Hiring A Manager

It obviously takes a lot to find a good manager but the most important thing is to remember that ultimately, it’s business and needs to be treated as such.

Even if a lifelong friend ends up in charge of your career, be sure to have a contract drawn up.
At the early stages of a career it may not seem important, but stating expectations, responsibilities, and salary in a contract will ultimately protect all involved.

Finally, be sure to trust your instincts. No matter how highly regarded someone may be or what credentials they may have, if the chemistry doesn’t feel right or you don’t feel they can take your career in a direction you’d like to go, don’t sign on with them.

They may be the greatest manager in the world on paper, but if you can’t agree on what projects you should focus on, little will get done and everyone’s time will be wasted.

With the right guidance and support, the potential for artistic growth is exponential. Finding the right manager, however, is the one time when musicians absolutely have to use strict business sense in making the right decision.

If you want to hear more music business advice from Christine Infanger, check out her site Thirty Roses, a Music Industry blog advising on trends, technology, and more.

In an era where social media is a finger-click away and virtually everyone has a smart phone of one kind or another, it’s hard to make your band stand out in a sea of artists fighting for a chance to be heard.

A few years ago I was offered the opportunity to head up the marketing and promotion for an agency based in New York City. They needed a competent go-getter (me) to handle not only the Chicago market, but the Midwestern United States as a whole. Additionally, I was in charge of establishing and maintaining Street Teams for a number of the artists on their roster – both well known and unknown – for the entire US.

This was a prospect which had me giddy with anticipation until the catch came: I was to do all of this with virtually no budget (Read: Money).

Here are a few things I learned. Hopefully, enumerating on my experiences will prove helpful for a few.

Ask For Help Promoting Your Band

This may seem rudimentary but it really is that simple.

If you aren’t yet at a stage in your career at which you’ve got managers, promoters, and a PR team to help you with such things, ask around to see who may be willing to lend a hand. There are always students at universities studying music business, management, marketing, or advertising who need proverbial guinea pigs to learn the basics from.

I myself have began working with and for several people this way. The beauteous part being, such people will typically help you for free.

You can also ask within your family and circle of friends – can someone pass out flyers advertising an upcoming gig? Can you get a group of friends together and give out sampler CDs or mix tapes?

See if shops, clubs, cafés, restaurants, hotel lounges, and any establishment you can possibly imagine will play your music for their clientèle. One band I was promoting played music that was very avant-garde, yet still calm and a bit serene at times. I read about a new “hotspot” hotel that everyone was going to and went to talk the manager about them. I told him about the band and how I thought the music would be a great addition to the ambience. And guess what? He played their music!
A band that would have gotten virtually no radio play in Chicago still got heard by hundreds of people, because I asked. Manners and a smile go a very long way. that will never change.

More importantly, it’s free!

Many college students have spare time and are fairly open to new music. Take advantage of this!

I would literally walk around college campuses with an iPod and headphones to let people hear the new artists I was promoting. I got response on the artists and the people got to listen to new, up and coming acts (And let’s face it, who doesn’t like to say they heard someone before they were “known”).

If possible, I would hand out stickers, buttons, and CD samplers. Any swag that I had, no matter how small. People love getting things, even something as simple as a sticker to say “Thank you for your time, give our band money”.

In my travels, I also found that college radio stations are more than willing and eager to work with artists on just about anything. They have airtime to fill, requirements to meet, and they want to host the “hottest” radio show around. If they can get a few handfuls of CDs, free download codes, or the aforementioned stickers and buttons to give away to listeners, they are often very grateful.

If you have upcoming gigs, even better. Everyone wants to say they were on the guest list for the “insert your band name here” show last night. Letting a person or two into a gig for free could pay off en masse if they tell all of their friends to join them and make a night of it (Which, in my experience, frequently happens).

Get A Street Team For Your Band

Street teams can be a wonderful tool for an act with a slightly established following. Music fans talk about the music they enjoy, and you don’t have to pay them to do it. Use word of mouth chatter among fans and peers as a powerful marketing machine!

If your band alone hasn’t quite established the fan base for an entire street team, why not partner up with similar artists in your city and create a “your city” street team? (Editor’s Note: Great tip I hadn’t even thought about, thanks Christine ).

Do keep in mind, for street teams to be effective, organisation is key. Keeping track of what members are where and what they’re working on (I.e. Passing out flyers for an upcoming gig, emailing local radio about getting your track played, etc) is very important. Delegate tasks to people according to their strengths and comfort levels. Some people love talking to people and would love to hang out at a venue and pass out flyers to the audience of a gig letting out. Others may be better at emailing and making phone calls for you. The more at ease someone is, the better they’ll be at the task at hand…

Be Social With Fans

By “social” I’m not necessarily referring to social media. While sites like Twitter and Facebook are invaluable tools, I don’t believe they are a replacement for actual, human contact (Gasp)!

While it’s wonderful for artists to be actively involved in communicating with fans on the internet, I believe it takes many elements to successfully promote a project, and therefore requires several different approaches. A huge part of why fans love to follow their favourite artists on Twitter on Facebook is to get the sense of being involved and feeling connected to them.

Nothing can provide this more than actually interacting with them in person.

Many artists figured this out long ago. They aren’t playing stadiums, but do enjoy a successful career as full-time musicians with a devout fan base. After each show, you’ll find band members at the merchandise booth signing autographs, taking photographs, and generally chatting it up with their fans.

It may be nice to get a Twitter update from someone, but those are the types of interactions that fans really appreciate and which will lead them to them spending more money on your product.

It also takes very little effort for the artist to spend a few minutes before or after a gig to say a few “hellos”, shake a few hands, and be pleasant to the people paying their wages. You can be a multi-platinum selling act with the greatest management and promotional team behind you, but nothing can replace the artist-fan relationship. Use this to your advantage!

What Happens If You’re Not Part Of The Band?

For those not in the band but rather promoting them, the same basic principal applies. It really all comes down to being kind and friendly, as it’s amazing how far this will go. Again, manners and a smile go a very long way.

Also, it’s important to keep in mind that you’re representing the artist(s). Whether working directly for an artist or for a marketing firm or label, remember, it’s still business. You can absolutely have fun while promoting music, be it your own or someone else’s, but always, ALWAYS be professional.

The key to any of these tactics is to utilise any resources available to you. It’s amazing how many fans you can find if you’re willing to do a bit of work! That’s all for now, I hope you found these tips useful. Please leave any additional advice in the comments section below.

Christine Infanger is a music and music industry devotee based in Chicago. In the past, she has worked for various Indie labels and marketing companies promoting a range of artists.

Find her on Twitter @NoraBarnacle or contact here via crinfanger @ gmail.com

No Longer Available.

For a while now, I’ve been using Twitter to drive new fans to IMA and a few other websites I own, both music and non music related. If you’re reading this now, there’s a good chance you’ve found a link somewhere on Twitter or Facebook, and have followed it to this page. If you have, congratulations, you’re about to learn the secret to dominating Twitter!!

If you want to skip the background info and start dominating Twitter now, click the below link for your 100% free copy of our Twitter Domination ebook. Once you have shared a Tweet or Facebook message, you will be given the link to download the ebook right away. This book works whether you’re in the music industry or not:

No Longer Available.

Please note that none of your information is stored by us or Cloud Flood (The service we use to deliver you this free ebook). Once you have shared the message, you will be taken to a page which says ‘Access Link’. ‘Right click’ on the link, and choose to save the ebook to your computer. Alternatively, click the ‘Access Link’ text, and the ebook will open automatically. Be sure to save the book to your computer before you close it down. If you need any help with this, please ask any questions in the comments section below.

So, What Is Twitter Domination?

Twitter Domination is a new ebook I’ve created that shows you how to make the most of your Twitter promotion. In this book, I detail exactly how I’ve built my Twitter accounts up to thousands of followers each. I also let you know how I drive thousands of these good quality Twitter followers to my websites each month.

What I mean by ‘good quality’, is they aren’t just random numbers on my Twitter account. They are people who have a proven interest in what I am Tweeting about, and will interact with my Tweets and go on to visit my website. In other words, they are the kind of visitors you want.

In this book you will get a load of actionable promotion and fan building tactics that actually work, as I have proven time and time again. What’s more, I’ve shown a few friends these tactics to make sure I wasn’t just getting lucky, and all of them now have over 1000 interactive followers on their page (One has over 8000). By following this guide, you too can have the same.

What You’ll Learn In Twitter Domination

Download Twitter Domination to learn:

• How to automate everything you need to do, so hours worth of manual work instead takes minutes.
• How to communicate with your followers effectively.
• How to set up your first twitter account.
• How to personalise your Twitter profile and make yourself easily recognisable.
• And much, much more!

Sound good? It should, as you’re about to get a whole load more people in front of your music or whatever it is you’re promoting! In order to download Twitter Domination, simply click the below button and share the message on Facebook or Twitter. You may need to log on to your account before you do so:

No Longer Available.

I hope you enjoy Twitter Domination. If so, please share this article around on your favourite social networking websites, or write a unique post about it on your website.

Please Note: Some of this ebook may look familiar to some of you, as part of it has been posted on IMA before. Despite that, I’ve also included some never seen before tips and tricks which is key to making this strategy work. It’s because of this, that I recommend you still check Twitter Domination out.

Yes I know, this goes against everything you’ve been taught so far. We all know how hard it is to sell your music to new fans, so the obvious step seems to be giving out loads of freebies until people are ready to buy your music right? Ummm, wrong!

The thing is, giving your music out for free can actually be doing more harm then good. By doing this, musicians are reinforcing the view that music should be free for listeners. In actual fact, musicians have as much right to make money by benefiting other people’s lives as anyone else does. Would someone makes board games just to give them out for free? Would a cleaner clean a hotel if they weren’t getting paid? Would a bus driver allow free passengers just because they enjoy driving? No, no, and NO!

In this article, I will show you exactly why giving your music out for free is a bad idea. I will also show you what you should be doing instead, and help you get your music distribution tactics back on track.

Note: If you find this article useful and want to stop other musicians making these common mistakes, please share it around as much as possible.

What I Define As ‘Free’

Before I go any further, I’d like to define what I mean when I say ‘free’.

Giving your music out for free is giving your songs out without you gaining anything tangible in return.

Yes you may get a few more people learning about you and becoming fans, but these results can be few and fan between. On top of that, a lot of these new fans will forget about you as time goes on. As they download more and more free music, your song will probably get lost somewhere on their hard drive.

What You Need To Remember

When you make your music, you need to ask yourself: Who do you really make it for? A lot of people claim they make music just for the love of it. If that’s the case, you don’t need to be reading this article. Independent Music Advice is a website aiming to help you learn the business side of the music industry, and therefore gain more fans and money. If you’re making music just for you, carry on singing in your bedroom.
If however it’s your aim to gain fans and make money, you need to remember one thing: People will only become a fan of you and your music if it benefits their lives. In other words, you’re offering them a service.

Now ask yourself this: Why are you paying to make other people happy? It costs you time and money to make music, so if you’re giving all this music out for free, you aren’t really getting anything from the deal. The people who download your music however are getting exactly what they want. Does this seem fair to you? Because it doesn’t to me…

Giving people an unlimited amount of your music for free is a big problem, and something that needs to stop.

The Problem With Giving Out Too Much Free Music

OK, so now why is giving out your music at no cost a bad thing? Well:

• It Doesn’t Make People Want To Listen To You Any More.
  Just because you give out your audio as a free download, it doesn’t mean that you will get a lot of people downloading it. Even if you hand someone out a free CD, there’s no guarantee that person will go on to listen to it. Many times people have given me free CDs at events and shows. Do I go on to listen to all of them? No. And I know a lot of people are the same.
  It takes more then just giving someone your music for them to listen, you have to give them a reason to want to listen. If you don’t do that, your CD will end up at the bottom of a pile and never get played.
  Now the interesting thing; If you can give people a reason to want to listen to your music, you won’t have to give your music out for free! You will be able to ask for something in exchange, and they will be willing as they already have it in their mind they want to hear your music. This largely makes giving your music out for free obsolete.
• People Start To Expect It.
  If you always give your music out for free, people will come to expect it. So when you start to make more of a name and you decide you want to start charging for your music, you will have a hard time selling it. After all, the majority of your fan base is made up of people who are in it for the freebies. As soon as they see they have to start paying now, many of your fans will disappear. They already have a load of your music, so what’s pushing them to get any more?
  While you may get some that stay and don’t mind paying for your music, you will look back and realise you spent a lot of time and effort making people happy who didn’t benefit your career in any way. Not a good feeling at all.
• Your Music Will Have A Lower Perceived Value.
  Perceived value is what people think your product is worth. If something is widely available for free, people will naturally feel like it’s not worth as much as it’s easy to obtain. This is how a lot of people think about music right now.
  If however something is harder to obtain or it’s a higher price, people naturally think it’s of a better quality. Because of this, it’s sometimes possible to raise the price of your product and make more sales then if you set a lower price point.
  You of course don’t want to charge so much that it’s not worth buying your music, but giving it all away for free will definitely make people perceive your music to have less value.
• You’ll Lose Money.
  Making good quality music isn’t free. You have to pay to use the recording studio, for the cost of pressing up products, for marketing and promotion expenses, and for anything else that needs to be done. If you do all of this only to give your music out for free, you are losing out on money. And where does that money come from? My guess is your own pocket.
  You shouldn’t be paying to make other people happy, it should be a two way thing. You should benefit from people hearing your music, and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for something in exchange for your songs.
• You Will Lose Motivation.
  If you keep spending money on creating music that people don’t end up downloading, you will eventually lose motivation. If you lose motivation, what’s to keep you making music any more?
  We get into music for the love of it, but there are things along that way that have many a musician giving up on the industry. If you don’t want to become one of these people, you will need to start seeing some tangible results. Giving out your music free of charge doesn’t often give tangible results, so isn’t really worth you doing.

What You Should Be Doing Instead

So, now we know you shouldn’t be giving your music out for free, what should you be doing instead? Well:

1. You should be selling it. And,
2. You should have some songs available to download as part of an exchange process.

The selling your music part it pretty obvious. You should have your music on a shop page of your website where people can buy it in exchange for money.

The exchange process on the other hand is something quite different.

Instead of letting people download your music for nothing in return, you should only allow people to download some of your songs if they help you out in some way. This could be them giving you their contact details, or by them promoting your music in some way. This is a win win situation for everyone. They get to download your music and learn about you, and you get to keep in contact with them or have them promote you to all their friends.

We call the songs we use in this exchange process ‘promotional songs’, and cover this strategy in a lot more detail here. In that article we look at how to give out your promotional songs (And the best way to maximise their effect), the single to promotional songs ratio, how to encourage more people to download your promotional songs, how you can use your promotional songs to encourage people to buy your paid releases, and much more.

Should You Give Your Music Away For Free Conclusion

Giving your music out for free is a huge mistake, and one that many musicians unfortunately make. When you know how however, it’s possible to let people hear a few of your songs without paying any money, but also benefit from the deal yourself. It also gives your music a higher perceived value, and makes you appear to be a cut above the rest.

Don’t give out all of your music for free and expect to get loads of fans overnight, most people will still largely overlook your music as there’s so much free songs floating around anyway. By putting a small barrier in the way of obtaining your music, you may get a few less downloads, but anyone that does download will be more of a quality fan.

If this article has been an eye opener to you (And I hope it has), please share it round on your favourite sites. Thanks as always for your support, and I hope to see your views in the comments.