Offline Marketing For Unsigned Musicians and Bands

Thanks for the feedback Big Rob! I'm not charging for access to the website as I want to attract as many Artists, Bands, Live Music Venues and Fans as possible!
What I'm hoping to do is to charge an affordable incremental subscription for extras such as webdesign, mobile app design, Facebook page setup & Timeline design, Twitter setup & background design. MTV Artist Page setup and maintenance. I'll also be setting up showcase gigs where I'll take a percentage of ticket sales. I'm also going to offer a ticket sales service on the website where I'll charge a small booking fee. With regards to Band Merchandise, I'm going to offer Band Merchandise design and sales on the website, with access to this merchandise for sale on the band/artists mobile app, therefore allowing fans to buy merch on the go or more importantly whilst at gigs..

So in effect I'd be working as a promotions business with a difference!

Thanks for that idea Andrew! I can integrate that with the mobile app as well as having push notifications on the mobile apps.

Thanks again for the feedback guys, keep it coming guys!

Jacob

Thanks for that mate!

@SJJPFYTW would love to hear your feedback on my site

Depends on how "exclusive" you want to be.

Maybe after you develop the traffic, PPC ads are the way to go for making money.

You want people using the site. Make it easy for them to.

That's an interesting service you offer there.. maybe there's some room for collaboration there?

I don't want to be the second negative Norman in this thread, but here goes...

As a former member of a working band (east coast) I can say that we would never go for something like this. The main reason: when we promote ourselves, we want complete control over everything. That means look, feel, taste, sound, and touch.

The second reason is... like JD said... we're not spending the money. Working bands have enough expenses as it is (gas, for one, is HUGE) and adding another monthly tab, albeit small, wouldn't have flown with us.

The third reason... ReverbNation, CDBaby, and BandCamp all have massive amounts of traffic. The network is huge, and the numbers in that network are even bigger. How do you plan on creating networks of that size to justify any price point at all?

Again, not trying to sound like a downer. But musicians are NOT a good target market. But hey, prove me wrong and send me a link to sign up when it's done - I'll throw up some music on there myself.

It does make sense.

Okay, I will give you a couple of secrets.

Back before I got published as a songwriter, I use to subscribe to taxi...it was before the internet, back then it was a print publication. I responded to all kinds of offers they had, but ultimately you are right, I needed someone to let me be creative, not teach me how to market myself I felt. But I did get alot out of their service, for instance, they had a service where they charged like $35 bucks to have your songs critiqued by hit writers... I did that a few times and really learned alot from the critiques.

Why would a hit writer take the time to critique songs so cheaply for Taxi? Because their hits were 20 years ago and they are broke now ... half the hit writers of 20 years ago are working in telemarketing rooms and delivering pizza's now, Trust me I had the guy who wrote for John Michael Montgomery in my own telemarketing room and also Ray Flacke who played lead guitar on all Ricky Skaggs records.

Moving on...

I hesitate to say this...REALLY...because people love to attack my experience... But,

Later on, after my songwriting career had ended I started a website, to put musicians online, and each week, having knowledge of where to get all the reliable publishing tips sheets after a decade in Nashville, I figured I would put up talented musicians on my site for a fee, and send links to their music out to all the appropriate song publishers...

That didnt work out too well, even though a couple of writers did get single song publishing contracts from it. I couldnt get very many musicians to pay. So I switched the site around and geared it toward the modeling industry , using the same concept, and it went ballistic and made a ton of money.

One thing that helps is if you can get a couple of "Big Name" endorsers. It's not easy to get current major artists, and producers onboard... however you can focus on top musicians, like for instance, I got "Yanni's" drummer onboard, and various other popular studio musicians, just by offering them a free listing. The behind the scenes guy that the public doesnt know, but whose name means something to musicians themselves.

Also you can focus on managers and producers who are just beyond their prime... who are looking to get their name back out there. For instance I had ELO's (Electric Light Orchestra) manger, and Britney Spears back up singer, and some old producer that worked with "New Edition" and 'Bobby Brown"... People like that. Those people are more accessible than many think. You arent going to get clive davis on the phone, but you can get to some people who have big names and may not be current any more, still their name carries alot of weight with musicians and adds credibility to your site.

Listen, the "engineer" who worked the board on Bobby browns album , quietly taking instructions from the producer, is a NOBODY in the music business... literally a NOBODY, however, when you put him on your site and it says you are endorsed by Bobby Browns engineer... It means ALOT to musicians and gives you alot of credibility, even though to the industry itself he is just a guy running the board , like a "waterboy".

If you have the credibility factor that helps alot.

Why would ELO's manager want to be listed on a random website that caters to aspiring musicians? Why Would Bobby Browns Engineer want on it?

Basically it works just like IM does, they wants to have access and exposure to people who are interested in production services. Engineers dont make hundreds of thousands of dollars, they get paid by the hour to sit and run a board, they dont get royalties and all that... They are glad to take on new projects and new artists who will pay to work with them on projects.

So a website that caters to aspiring talent is a "pool of prospects" to them.

You just have to be creative.

You arent going to get to the hottest new artist, but you might get to his songwriter...they are just normal people who work behind the scenes, you might get to the engineer or [producer of an act that was huge ten years ago, which is the equivelant of a washed up nobody in the industry, but in the mind of the public an artist that was big ten years ago isnt really that long ago at all... and the guy that engineered his album is a pretty big deal to them.

In short, what gets musicians attention is name dropping, and you can drop alot of names if you focus on behind the scenes people.

Then of course you want to provide a quality service, but no one is going to take advantage of it, if you cant draw them in, and name dropping is the way to do that.

Basically you can either contact these people by looking them up on the web, or you can place ads online that say "Looking for an experienced producer who has worked with big acts" like I did... the old guys from back in the nineties are looking at those ads trying to dig up production work, and they will come out of the wood work responding... you will get people with all kinds of credentials. Just try to explain to them what you are doing and how you can expose them and their services to alot of developing acts.

Im trying to help you here with real experienced advice... but I have to tell you Im sticking my neck out doing it, because there are people just waiting for me to tell a story like this, so they can spin it and say all kinds of things...

Anyway, I am giving you the biggest key here...get some credibility for your site, it isnt hard to get as some may think, you just have to target it, and place ads saying you are looking for producers and musicians who have worked with big acts. They will respond thinking there is a production gig in it for them.

People will contact you. Put them on your site, and now you have credibility.

-John

Ps. I forgot to tell you the major advantage. You get to JV with these guys and send them talent. If they land a $5000 3 song production deal with one of the aspiring talents on your site, you can make a thousand bucks for brokering the deal.

For instance TAXI makes money when one of their members orders a few song critiques, they pay the songwriters a few bucks to listen to the song and write a short critique and they keep their cut of the fee's.

Thats how I got two songwriters published with single song contracts. I made money hooking them up with a producer, who agreed to help develop their songs in the studio, and pitch them to publisher them if it came out good. Of course they had to pay the cost for the studio time, and musician line up... which is where the producer made his up front money, and also where i myself made some money.

You make money on the back end by co ordinating stuff like this.

I'm not even going to go into why I'm not in that business anymore, it was a thing that lasted about a year, or less... and its a long story that would open up a big can of worms, and people would spin it all over the place..., but would be glad to answer any specific questions you have about getting started.

-John

Edit:. We had a joke in Nashville... like the redneck jokes "You are soooo Nashville if..."

One of them is:
"You are so Nashville, if the guy who mows your lawn has had a number one hit song."

"What the difference between a pizza delivery guy and an ex hit songwriter?" Answer: NOTHING!