Musicians Featured in this Episode

Thanks to all the featured musicians for taking part and for making some great music…I LOVE IT!

- Chris

I Love DIY Music…The One That Starts With a Little LSD! is a post from: Promote Your Music a web site full of free information on how you can easily get more fans, more gigs and more sales with your music marketing efforts.

The great thing about this process is that you don’t even need a website or any money to get started because we are going to be using some wicked free tools to set this up.

The incentive for the sites you work with is to be able to offer their readers a really special and unique product for nothing. With a bit of luck (and some help from you) they will send it out to their mailing lists, post a link on their social media pages and do all manner of other things to spread your freebie around.

At the end of this lesson you’ll be able to send a pitch email like this…

…pretty tempting right!

But that’s not even the best bit…

… because all those new hits will go over to Facebook where you will ask people to “Like” your page in return for the freebie. You can now keep on entertaining them long into the future and posting the odd link to something they can buy.

Let’s get into the action =>

Step 1 – Creating your package offer…

Forget about a couple of MP3s…your thing needs to be real tempting to convince people it’s worth a mention.

The question is how do you create something worth $25 (or more) that will cost you hardly anything to create or deliver?

The simple answer here is that you need to set up a package offer.

A little hop over to Itunes confirms that the going rate for a new album right now is around $10.99 with a music DVD often being sold at around $15.99. So to convince potential partners that your thing is worth spreading around we’re going to base our offer around that.

Here’s what I suggest you put together….

Create a file on your computer and spend a little while setting up the best darn free offer that your fans have ever come across.

Note: One thing I should mentioned when it comes to delivering videos is that it’s going to be easier if you just create a word document that introduces each movie then links people over to private YouTube videos. Uploading and downloading online video takes ages and is not a slick process for you or your fans. (But again you want to let people know upfront that these are private ‘just for them” to keep your thing special and valuable)

So that’s the package offer done…I think anybody would agree that all those goodies are worth at least $25 so you’re not going to have to beg people to spread your thing around. Feel free to add in anything else you can think of as long as it does not cost you much and people can download it. (Don’t offer a free puppy or anything like that )

Step 2 – Compress and upload your package

To make your file easier to manage you want to compress it before uploading…

All you have to do is put all your files into a folder on your computer and then turn it into something called a “Zip file”.

Here’s how to Zip stuff on a PC
Here’s how to Zip stuff on a Mac

Now that your package is created we need to put it somewhere online so that your people can download it…

The usual place would be a website hosting account but we are going for the free option here so Google docs will do just fine.

Watch the video below for details…

Step 3  - Setting up Facebook

Now comes the really cool bit…

We are going to set up your Facebook page so that people who have “Liked” your music will be able to download your package instantly, but the new people will have to hit Like before they get access.

First thing you need to do is create two videos, the first one will welcome them into your musical world, tell them what they’re getting and then ask them to hit the Like button…and the second will thank then for Liking your page and tell them to click the link below to get your thing.

Watch this video to figure out the Facebook stuff…

So there you have it…

You’ve created the simple delivery process, now all you have to do is find people who have lots of Klout in your music scene and convince them to promote your thing.

By the way…”Klout” was a clue.

Alternative option

So far I’ve been showing you how to set this up using a Facebook page, but feel free to use the same process on your own site asking people to join your mailing list…it works just the same.

3 ways to find other sites to spread your freebie around…

1. Klout

This is a site that tracks how influential people are online based on a bunch of stats taken from social media interactions and stuff like that…

It’s an amazing tool because they have already created a Klout score for 100 million people so it’s kind of like a big giant research area to find out who can connect with lots of your potential fans quickly.

Watch the video below to see how I use Klout…

2. The biggest websites in the world

Klout is great but sometimes you need to dig a little bit deeper to uncover some more gold…

This process is not about one site in particular but a new way of thinking that goes like this:

• Visit the most popular sites in the world
• Find the most popular people on those sites who are talking to your potential fans
• Then email or call them to see if they would like to offer their people your freebie

So let’s try this with a couple of “King Kong” websites…

The websites below are among the most popular on the web which makes them perfect for the process outlined in the video:

• YouTube
• Facebook
• Twitter
• StumbleUpon
• Digg
• Technorati
• Amazon Authors
• Blogger
• Tumblr
• WordPress.com
• LinkedIn
• Itunes
• FlickR
• Pinterest

3. Your other interests

Finally I want you to make a big giant list of things you like to do outside of the music game.

This could be movies, sports or even monster trucks…put it all down on a piece of paper and make sure that you don’t drop food on it, because this is going to become a very crucial document!

Your fans don’t sit at home all day listening to the Ipod in a dark stinky room, they’re just like you and will usually have a bunch of other interests which lead them to sites totally unrelated to music.

So these sites also become a potential launch pad, and it will actually be easier to get their attention because they are not getting hammered by 100s of musicians everyday.

The reason I want you to start with you’re own interests is that your perfect fan is probably quite similar to you, so this is as good a place to start as any.

Let’s use ME as the guinea pig for a minute…I’m into this weird global treasure hunting game called Geocaching, so I might take my music to the Geocaching website and work out some kind of tie-in.

I’ll set up a real personal offer for them and chances are that the other Geocachers all around the world will subconsciously know I’m one of them and be more open to my free package.

Sure you’ll probably get your thing in-front of a few people who never listen to the kind of tunes you play but the cool thing about the music business is that fans are wild in their tastes, if you ask most people what they’re into the answer will usually be “all kinds of stuff…”

I think even if somebody did not especially like your style as a rule they would still download a package worth $25 just to get something free, and if your stuff really is cool you might even CONVERT THEM!

In any other industry you would never cross promote quite like this…

I mean if someone owned a Ferrari, you would not spend your time or money trying to sell them an old banger…but it’s not beyond belief to think that people who like rock music might also listen to the odd rap album once in a while so let’s give it a shot.

…this is a little off the wall but I hope it kind of makes sense.

You should now go back to the Klout method and the “biggest websites in the world” and uncover opportunities for a little cross promotion.

Remember that music sites get pitched by bands all the time but these other sites will probably not have come across this kind of offer before and may well be more open to what you have in mind.

*Bonus tip*

Another potential source of new fans is other musicians who may also be open to spreading your thing around.

Although I often find it’s easier to convince them if you can give a little financial incentive or if you can promote something of theirs in return.

Getting on the radar before you ask them to promote you

Most of the time if you just randomly email someone you’re going to get a big fat silence and not hear a thing back.

The steps below are for those of you who want to go the extra mile and do a little ground work before you go in for the kill:

The point of all this is so that you’re sort of “online friends” with this person before you ask for their help and they will recognize and feel good about hearing from you when you pitch your thing.

This is a great position to be in because it can be the basis for an ongoing promotion which turns into a regular source of new fans each month.

How to find their contact details

Here are 3 foolproof ways you can find the contact information of almost anyone you want to work with:

1. Most of the time there will be a contact button at the top or bottom of the page but if you can’t find a link press “control+f” on your computer keyboard and search the page. (They may have put the contact information somewhere weird)
2. Sign up to their email list. The messages will usually come from a email account that they check so you can just hit reply to the first message they send you.
3. Search for the website on www.whois.net, this will often list the site owner and maybe provide a contact email. (After you run a search you may have to visit a link at the bottom of the page for full contact details)

Your pitch email

You always want to keep your pitch as personal to your target as possible but to save a little time here is a sample email to get you going:

[personalize your message - mention something they have blogged about or tweeted recently. This will show that you care about what they're doing and it’s not just a bulk email]

I wanted to have a word with you about setting up a special promotion to give say 200 of your readers free access to my latest album and the collectors package to go with it. The normal price is $25.

We’ve been working real hard on the record, DVD and all the other goodies so I hope your people will really appreciate the freebie. (Just my little way to thank you for spreading the word)

I know that you would only want to pass around stuff that you’re into yourself so I’ve set you up with a free copy to get started…

=> You can download the album yourself HERE

That’s my little idea, hope you love it.

- Chris

P.S If you would like to go ahead with this I can provide a pre-written email, website banner and a bunch of other promo tools so that this won’t take up all your time.”

You want to let them know that this is special and that you’re not just giving it away to any Tom, Dick or Harry. I also suggest that you set up your package for sell on your own site so that you can show that others really do have to pay for what you’re giving them. (The fastest way to do this is with a simple PayPal “Buy Now” button)

After you send the pitch email, make sure you head over to Facebook or Twitter and let them know you sent them a message. This might give them a little push to look out for your thing.

As ever you should wait a couple of days and if you don’t hear back make sure that you send at least 1 follow up email or try to call them.

So that’s about it…

One massive lesson I want you to take away from this is that you don’t have to do all the marketing on your own. Each time you hear about a new music marketing tactic ask yourself if someone is already doing it and if you could convince them to let their audience know about your thing.

If you want to turn this into a complete “getting hits” engine just set up your package and then start connecting with 10 – 20 partners everyday. If you do this all year round you will have more hits than you ever need. Just another little example of how keeping it simple and making a commitment to one effective plan can build momentum and be all you need to get fans into your sales funnel.

Please let me know if yo have any questions and leave you comments and suggestions below…

- Chris.

How To Hack Years Off The Music Marketing Hustle is a post from: Promote Your Music a web site full of free information on how you can easily get more fans, more gigs and more sales with your music marketing efforts.

credit: by Kenneth Allen

Drum roll please…

THEY GET A JOB!

…I know it’s depressing right…but most of us find it hard to sell enough music to pay the rent, so we have to do all manner of other crap to get by.

That’s why “Money Getting” is one of the most important lessons I can ever give you, and why I’ve been working so hard on the Music Marketing Classroom Partners Program.

The partners program is my little pet project to give my people an easy second income stream that does not distract in any way from your music or marketing. Because the whole thing is linked to stuff you’re doing already.

My little romantic notion is that the partners program will become kind of like a “Musician’s Utopia” where we’re all making enough to live on using a transparent profit sharing system.

How can you get started? (Only 2 steps)

1. Sign up for a F’REE account with my payment processor so you can get paid. (Make a note of your Clickbank nickname)

2. Now let every musician you come across know about my F’REE music marketing cheat sheets using the link below. (Copy and paste the link make sure you replace YOURNICKNAME)

www.musicmarketingclassroom.com/?hop=YOURNICKNAME

…that’s it!

Everyone you send over will be tracked and if they love what they see and decide to go for the full classroom you get paid $44.

That’s for each person you send my way and it’s monthly.

(For instance 20 people would mean $888 per month)

So there you have it…a super easy way to help support your full time music career.

Hope you love it,

- Chris

P.S Here are a few ideas about where you can promote your link:

* Status update on your social media pages
* Email contacts
* Other musicians you meet at gigs
* Click here to put a banner on your site

How Do Musicians And Bands Make Money? For Dummies… is a post from: Promote Your Music a web site full of free information on how you can easily get more fans, more gigs and more sales with your music marketing efforts.

Musicians Featured in this Episode

Thanks to all the featured musicians for taking part and for making some great music…I LOVE IT!

- Chris

I Love DIY Music…The One That Starts With A Smile is a post from: Promote Your Music a web site full of free information on how you can easily get more fans, more gigs and more sales with your music marketing efforts.

Musicians Featured in this Episode

Thanks to all the featured musicians for taking part and for making some great music…I LOVE IT!

- Chris

I Love DIY Music…The One With Little Johnny Rockett is a post from: Promote Your Music a web site full of free information on how you can easily get more fans, more gigs and more sales with your music marketing efforts.

Musicians Featured in this Episode

Thanks to all the featured musicians for taking part and for making some great music…I LOVE IT!

- Chris

I Love DIY Music…The One Where Chris Tried To Sing Death Metal is a post from: Promote Your Music a web site full of free information on how you can easily get more fans, more gigs and more sales with your music marketing efforts.

credit: by CassiusCassini2011

At the moment most musicians market themselves with a big red flag that says, “hey, I’m only interested in my own success, please help me right away”.

THIS IS MADNESS! Think back to the last time you got a sales call to your home phone number, for some reason something smelled kind of fishy as soon as you picked up the phone…

Maybe it was this new voice that you never heard before with a hum of other sales reps in the background, or maybe it was the overly rehearsed sales pitch that you just knew had been repeated over and over again to get just the right tone…

If you’re anything like me then all these clues set alarm bells exploding in your mind and you will be doing everything you can to get off that call as soon as possible…because we all hate to be sold to right?

…and a lot of musicians are marketing their music in the same way.

I can’t tell you how many emails I get that are along the lines of “Hi Chris, I’m the best rapper / rocker / accordion player you’ve ever heard check it out” …now it turns out that I’m kind of weird and check out the music anyway (because I know that bad marketing does not necessarily mean bad music) but most people would delete that kind of message without thinking about it.

Cold calling promoters for gigs, sending in demo CDs with “requested material” to record companies, calling up managers, agents or journalists to try and convince them to come down to your show…all this stuff sounds like a good idea at the time, but as soon as you start doing it you will feel a little bit dirty because it’s just like throwing a bunch of shit at the wall to see what sticks.

The sad thing is that this kind of stuff will also zap your enthusiasm when you start to get rejection messages, and all that excitement you had for your music marketing will melt away like ice cream in the sun!

To the person who receives your message it could not be more obvious that you’re just another musician trying to step up the ladder, and they will do everything they can to remove your message from their life as soon as humanly possible.

Most people want to dig up cool new music for themselves rather than being manipulated into liking something after reading a spammy message.

So with this “red flag” problem in mind I want to talk to you about a brave new way that will let you totally disguise your music marketing as something that these people are truly excited to hear about…

What I really want to do in this lesson is to change your mindset and change the way you think about getting gigs and pitching all kinds of other things in your music career…so that you never have to beg anyone for help ever again.

You’ll never have to send out random emails that get deleted or make embarrassing calls to people you know are just doing their best to get the hell off the phone with you.

I recently started watching The Sopranos for the first time, and I have to say it’s like crack! My little sister has the box set and now she’s like my dealer and I will do anything just to get another hit when each season runs out.

While watching a particularly disturbing episode (where the guys were digging up a corpse that had been decomposing for months) it occurred to me that music marketing is kind of like being a mafia boss…because the best way to go about it is to help a bunch of people out, and when the time is right you call in your favors.

So we are going to test this mafia boss approach to have people hire you for cool gigs, I’m talking the kind of shows that are already busy so you don’t have to bust your ass trying to pull a crowd. All you have to do is go down there, totally rock out, then collect hundreds of new names for your email list…BADA BING!!!

If you’re not into the mafia stuff, here’s another little analogy for you…

When I’m thinking about contacting a new venue I often remember the little mouse who moved into my apartment a couple of years back.

credit: by Zorba the Geek

He would scratch around all night driving us crazy, trying to tunnel through the carpet right below our bed…I guess he thought that if he put enough work in there would be a big pile of food waiting for him at the end of it all.

Let me say that again just so it really hits home…

…this little tiny mouse was first trying to dig through the carpet, then I guess he thought he would dig through the floorboard, and under there I guess he thought he was going to find a utopia of food!

He would make a racket all night and in the morning when we looked at where he had been digging there was only the tiniest little scuff! It was quite funny really…but it also reminds me of the way promoters think.

They will work their asses off to book a band that they’re into, get a new venue on board, or promote a show… but as soon as they see a desperate musician coming at them they run a mile.

Kind of like that little mouse when he saw me trying to catch him with my homemade trap!

So if we are going to get anywhere with these people we need to be a little bit like James Bond and go in undercover, kind of get the lay of the land before we go in for the KILL!!!

This new mindset of booking shows relies on you being totally cool and giving the promoter a bunch of stuff before you ask for anything in return, but what can you offer?

The first thing that springs to mind for me is the fact that you’re learning badass music marketing and you can easily transfer those skills to make what you know very attractive to promoters…

Most gig promoters don’t know badass marketing like you do, so even though their show might be packed you can offer them cool services as a little incentive in exchange for them taking the chance and giving you a spot…

But don’t worry about spending your whole life doing marketing for other people, I have a little rule that goes like this…if you can’t offer something that you can deliver quickly and easily in 24 hours maximum then don’t offer it at all!

Now it’s time to get into a step by step system for making this happen…

First you need to find a local gig that you really want to play. Look for a night that is already going to be busy so that you can scoop up lots of new emails for your mailing list without having the pressure of trying to pack the place out yourself.

You can find local clubs by searching Google for “best gigs in YOUR TOWN”…make a list of the website for each.

Keep in mind that a lot of venues also use promoters for various nights and those promoters will often have their own website too. A tell tell sign would be if the information about a particular show said something like “presented by Eat Your Own Face”…

…in this case “Eat Your Own Face” would be the name of the promotion company and you would also make a note of their website too, because they probably work at a lot of other venues as well, which will give you more reach and also more ideas of where you could play.

Once you’ve found a few cool gigs and their websites look for a contact link and send an email to the venue or the promoter with a simple one line message….

This is a very under the radar way to begin your pitch for a show, because most promoters know that sponsorship is just like free money, and it won’t raise the red flag. In fact it should tickle them with excitement!

At this point the decision maker will usually get back to you and ask you what kind of sponsorship you have in mind.

Say something like this…

“I work with a musician called ________ and for starters I would like to donate all the proceeds from the latest album direct and instantly into your paypal account. So if anyone buys through your link we track it and you get EVERY PENNY.

I’m also going to set you up with $100 in free advertising on Google and then I would like to get my promotion team to help increase your Twitter following, I think we could add another 800 targeted followers to the list you have already.

We’d also be happy to do a freebie show for you and have our PR team send out a press release with links back to your site through 1000 + media outlets. (We can keep the set short and sweet so that you might just add us into one of the shows you already have booked.)

I know that you’ll want to check out the music before we move forward with this so I’ve gone ahead and set you up with a free copy of the album which you can listen to right now.

[link to your music]

Thanks for taking the time to consider my offer, we love what you’ve got going on at your shows and I look forward to hearing from you.”

BOOM SHAKE THE ROOM…NOW THAT’S HOW TO PITCH!!!

You could add a sentence or two to get across why your music is unique – something funny, or a review that gets their attention and makes them take interest in you as an artist. But to be honest you’re mainly getting their attention by offering them something they want upfront, so they’re already listening.

You’ll notice that I pitched this from the point of view of a manager or something like that but to be honest this is just a preference thing, your pitch should work just as well if you’re totally upfront about who you are.

If in doubt TEST IT OUT! (…please put that on my headstone when all the sex drugs and rock and roll kills me.)

Not every venue will go for this but you have a much better chance than if you just flat out asked randomly for a gig.

Maybe at this point you’re thinking “that’s all well and good Chris, but how on earth am I going to deliver on those promises?” and that’s the best bit of this whole thing…

Here goes…

Offering to give all the proceeds of your album is no big deal if it’s a download and you don’t have to ship a CD. In fact this is something I suggest in the Rapid Fan Formula method which is part of Music Marketing Classroom…but if you’ve not got access to that yet just get the promoter to set up a paypal button that sends people to where they can download your music after they pay.

…to be clear, you would just make a simple video for the promoter with Screen R showing them how to create a paypal button and how to set the thank you page to where the buyer can download your album.

Now I know that some people will fall off their chair at the thought of giving this money away, but I would suggest it’s better to consider the long game…you’re getting a show where you’re going to be able to collect lots of new fans who may buy your music for years to come. You might even get a regular show so the real consistent cash will come when you get these new fans to join your fan club and they are paying you each and every month automatically.

I believe it’s a big mistake to try and make money on the front end of your promotion, and I would personally rather give this away and create a massive incentive to have promoters help me.

As for the free advertising… you want to sign up for a Google engage account, go through the training and then they will give you a $100 in free advertising to pass out to the promoters you work with. (I think they also give you free advertising for yourself which will get the ball rolling with your mailing list.) Simple!

Next you can hire people for $5 to do the Twitter and press release promotion you promised.

Get the Twitter work done here…

Get the press release job done here…

Note: I also mentioned playing a short set in the pitch email but don’t see this as a negative, I actually think it can be cool, because it means you get to play your very best stuff and leave the people wanting more.

At this point you’ve provided everything you promised in just a few minutes and they think you’re a total rockstar. With a bit of luck they will give you your first juicy show…

So what’s next?

The whole point of what we’ve been doing so far is to get you that first gig, because I would say that someone who gives you one gig is going to be 30 – 40 times more likely to book you again in the future…so it’s really important to be thinking about the next show now and how you can make sure that you get a regular spot.

There are a number of things I want you to think about and take action on which should tip the odds in your favour.

Re-booking factor 1 – Play an EPIC show!

First and foremost you need to play like a badass and impress the audience, this is a big topic but all I will say here is that you want to engage the crowd, play your best tunes and leave people wanting more.

If you’re working with a venue that already has a regular clientele then the only thing that the promoter really cares about is that you play some killer music, and that people go up to them after the show and ask when they can see you play again. (If you’re feeling sneaky you could get a couple of friends to do this for you, but crime never pays in the end )

Re-booking factor 2 – Create an email list

The next thing is to make sure that you go around after the show and collect all the email addresses you can…

Now when you want to play next time, you just email the promoter and say “Hey, when I was down there before I managed to get 150 people on my email list, so if you would be interested in booking another show I’d love to email them all and let them know”.

That’s a very compelling offer because the chances are that the promoter has not even thought about creating a mailing list yet and even if he did he probably has not been actively building it like you have.

Re-booking factor 3 – Help promote the show

You want to show the promoter that you’re doing your best to spread the word about the gig as well…

So post it on your website, send a series of emails out to your list to the people who live within 20 miles of the venue, tweet about it, post it on facebook and make a video on youtube.

To be honest the gig should already be packed anyway so a lot of this stuff is just to show the promoter that you’re not taking them for granted. Make sure you send regular updates on what you’re doing and how you’re pitching in to spread the word.

We are trying to create a warm and fuzzy feeling around your musical brand.

Re-booking factor 4 – More promotion

Moving forward you want to be looking for quick things you can do to help spread the word about the night and keep yourself in the mind of the booker. Keep an eye on Fiverr for the highest rated gigs and surprise the promoter with another little bit of promotion every once in a while…

I would also suggest that you take a video camera with you to the show and make a little video letting people know how cool the gig is and when and where it’s taking place. Also include a short interview with the promoter if you can.

When you get home upload the video to YouTube and then find a dude on Fiverr who is willing to spread your video to the other top video sites.

This guy will send it to 30 of them.

Make sure that you include a link to your YouTube video in the description on the other video sites. So where they ask you for a little info about the video include maybe 100 words and then a full link which should look like this => http://youtu.be/wkWKfTymR_k

…and if you want to go the extra mile I would also hire this person to create 300+ links back to your YouTube video as well.

All this will hopefully get your YouTube video ranking well in Google because all these links sort of count as votes in Google ranking terms.

Now you just email the promoter and say “hey when I was down last time I made a little video to help promote the club, I sent it out to a lot of the top video sites and also created 318 Google friendly links back and it’s now ranking well if you type in BEST GIGS IN SOUTH LONDON… hope you like it.”

Probably the most important factor in Google ranking is the title of your video so make sure you include the name of the gig or venue and also where it is, so that people who are looking for a killer night out in that area will find it.

Re-booking factor 5 – Remember that you’re a badass marketer

Another thing I want you to look out for on the night is if the promoter has someone going around after the show collecting email addresses.

If not you have another golden opportunity to show off some of your badass music marketing skills..

You would say something like this….

“Hey when I was down the other night I noticed that at the moment you don’t have anyone actively building your mailing list. So what I would like to offer is to manage this whole thing for you. I’ll come down to the show and go around collecting a bunch of email addresses, then you will be able to let people know everything that’s going on at the venue. I’ve already invested in an email management system so this won’t cost you a thing…”

…another tempting little offer, but with massive benefits for you.

Because now you are down at the show on a regular basis getting to know the promoter even more, and while you’re there… Hey! Why not play a few tunes right?

But the best bit of all is that you’re now building a list of music fans who live near you and who spend money going to gigs. Obviously you don’t want to get shady here and just send them a bunch of your stuff, because you have offered to create a list for the venue and that’s what you’re going to do. But you do have full control of the email messages that get sent out and you will of course make sure that the sponsorship link to your album goes out with every message.

Re-booking factor 6 – Make friends

Make sure that you have a few minutes personally connecting with the promoter on the night…buy them a beer, have a chat and offer genuine appreciation. Remember that this show is probably their little baby that they have created from nothing, so if you think the show is cool make sure you tell them about it.

When I was putting on gigs no musician ever came up to me with a beer and said thank you (It’s OK, I’m over it) but I can tell you that if one of them did, they would have gotten a regular gig no doubt because most of the time promoters just get a lot of abuse and are the ones having to get the beers in and deal with all the crap.

Rebooking factor 7 – Call to action

If you follow a lot of my stuff you will hear me banging on about a “call to action” all the time, and this just means that if you want people to do something you have to actually ask them. Like buying your music for instance…

…and getting a regular show is no different, so once you’ve put the rebooking plan into action, it’s time to pop the question, at some point you need to ask for that regular gig.

Don’t wimp out

The result…

The whole point here is that after a while you are playing 2 -3 shows a week at really cool venues and that kind of exposure is only going to lead to even more gigs and opportunities, it’s like a snowball effect once you get this all going and set up properly…

Now it’s up to you to take a little bit of action, so let’s jump on the horse and ride it all the way to music glory!

1. First make a list of gigs you want to play, the websites and contact info.
2. Send a simple email offering sponsorship.
3. When they get back to you and ask what the hell you’re going on about give them the details of your MASSIVE BRIBE.
4. Deliver what you promised: Give them your album to sell, set them up with Google credits, hire people on Fiverr to promote their facebook page and send out the press release about your gig.
5. Now promote the show multiple times through your website, email list and social media. Don’t forget to keep the promoter up to date on what you’re doing (Within reason, they don’t need to hear from you every ten minutes)
6. Play a killer show, collect email addresses, buy the promoter a beer, interview her and make a promo video for the gig.
7. Now make it your mission to get a regular show by putting the “rebooking plan into action”
8. Rinse, lather and repeat repeat repeat with other venues and clubs

So that’s just about it for this post, I hope that you take this away and use it to get a bunch of shows. It’s still going to take time and effort, but this process should set you apart from the crowd.

Good luck,

- Chris

P.S I have a simple follow up system that will really increase the amount of people you hear back from. All you have to do is use a spreadsheet of everybody you tried to contact and the date. Then if you don’t hear back from them after a couple of weeks you always send at least one follow up message.

For some reason this will often show people that you mean business and they hit reply…don’t know why but it works, so use it!

How To Get Gigs Using A Weird Trick I Learned From Tony Soprano is a post from: Promote Your Music a web site full of free information on how you can easily get more fans, more gigs and more sales with your music marketing efforts.

Musicians Featured in this Episode

Thanks to all the featured musicians for taking part and for making some great music…I LOVE IT!

- Chris

I Love DIY Music…The One With All The Curse Words is a post from: Promote Your Music a web site full of free information on how you can easily get more fans, more gigs and more sales with your music marketing efforts.

Winners

Runners Up

Congratulations to our winners and THANK YOU to everyone that participated. We’ll be hosting another contest soon, so keep an eye out for more.

Music Marketing Classroom Winners Announced is a post from: Promote Your Music a web site full of free information on how you can easily get more fans, more gigs and more sales with your music marketing efforts.

This is the very last day of Music Marketing Challenge …WE’VE MADE IT PEOPLE!

“The road is long…with many a winding turn…” and so on.

Writing this I have a little sad tear in my eye, like mother goose proud to see my ducklings about to fly out into the big bad world of the music business to fend for yourselves…

…safe in the knowledge that you have all the tools you need to create a wicked and unique career for yourself, without having to wait for some gatekeeper to come and tell you that your music is worthwhile!

I think there is a small chance that the emotions of the day may have brought on a severe case of typing diarrhoea but don’t let that put you off because this lesson is going to tie it all together.

It’s all about taking everything you’ve learned so far and mashing it into a three month plan that will make music marketing like a video game…and you got that cheat book!

This may be the end of the challenge but making these videos has inspired me to keep creating more and more lessons for you, so keep an eye out for them.

Thanks for sticking with me over the past 34 lessons!

- Chris

Click play below to watch the next lesson…

Music Marketing Challenge Day 35 – Creating Your Music Marketing System is a post from: Promote Your Music a web site full of free information on how you can easily get more fans, more gigs and more sales with your music marketing efforts.