Marketing Singers/Songs

People are tribal about music.

If your artists can understand this and make music that appeals
to this tribal grouping tendency they can make money.

I'm a player. I know musicians and I also know why most of them
struggle to make money at it - they don't give people exactly
what they want to hear.

Secondly - musicians often let themselves down by NOT being
relentless self-promoters. They just wish other people, like
you, would do it for them. They inaccurately perceive their
jobs as being to play music. No. It's not. Playing music is the
fun part. The job is promoting.

I would avoid working in a promotional capacity with any
music group with talent but a less than burning, passionate
desire to succeed and the willingness to actually sweat the
details of promoting themselves aggressively.

Pick your battles friend. I know a lot of people who "deserve"
to have their music heard but few who are willing to go out
and do the work to be successful in the business. You'll be
frustrated if you don't work with people who are on the same
team with you.

I've worked in the music industry for many years. This is a tricky one. Not having checked out the people and their music, there's no way I could tell how to market them. What's the "chemical reaction" to their work from their audience. Are people raving about them?

If C is committed to his other career, that's great that he has money coming in, but it takes dedication.

It sounds as though you have heard their music and see dollars - but if none of them is really serious about making it a career, you are going to be up against other artists who are. It takes much more than raw talent, you have to be very driven also.

Although the artists need to be highly motivated, I disagree with the post above. It is not absolutely essential that they do their own promotion. They do, however, need to be driven enough do the work it takes to blow people away with their art - and to seek out those who will do the promotion so that they can concentrate on their art. If an artist really has the talent and drive, people in the business will fall over themselves to align themselves with them.

A good question to ask yourself is this: If I do not secure a position working with these people today, will someone else do it tomorrow? If someone else will do it tomorrow, that's a strong indicator of success. If no-one else is beating down their door, you probably shouldn't either.

For internet promotion - CD sales are pretty much dead. Digital downloads? Myspace traffic and web 2.0 traffic in general is difficult to convert, but it is possible. But there are millions of artists on myspace - you can't just throw some tracks up there, invite some friends and make bank. Do you have a record producer and a studio?

The good thing about the internet promotion is that you can test it out with small outlay (assuming your music is produced and finished!) and see if it takes.

Are you thinking just of internet promo, or of actual management? 20% is a reasonable cut for management. Are your acts going to tour? Do you have industry connections who are ready for artists that you will bring to the table, and who trust your discernment? Have you ever managed a tour? have you ever run a record label? Have you ever worked with music distributors - both in traditional media and digital? Have you ever hired a publicist? Have you ever worked with a radio promoter?
If not, you will be up against other managers who have, and other artists who are out showcasing their music several days a week.

Anyway, hope that helps.

If the music is good, it will spread on its own. Make some videos for people to share and post them on YouTube, etc..

Check out Ronald Jenkees YouTube page. He promotes himself on YouTube and sells his music directly to his fans. Study what he is doing. He is building a fanbase without the help of a label... and all he really has are a couple 'ghetto' videos and a website with Wordpress installed. I think he just uses PayPal which makes it super easy to set up.