So how the freakin' heck do you promote your music/art/etc.?

[invisiblehouses]

Last month, I made a massive leap forward in terms of "delivering" on creative projects: I recorded a four-song album (EP) of drum machine-infused indie pop and released it via CDBaby.com.

And it's officially out there...Amazon, iTunes, Last.fm and about 15 other sites I can't even remember (Ambulance Crash by Mellotrons, if you're curious).

I've even got the next four-song set recorded, mixed and ready to go (it's called Les Temps Sont Durs pour les Rêveurs...funny how Steve started mentioning Amélie right after I started working on it). In fact, about half of the next next release (a 10 or 12-song LP) is written, as well.

Now here's where you come in: anybody have any ideas on how to actually promote music online? I'd like to move a couple digital units, at least. It's less about money and more about, "I think I've created something some people might enjoy. How do I reach them?"

The problem is, I don't have any particularly good ideas. Or any half-assed ones, really. Since it's one guy multitracking in a basement, I don't have a band to play live shows with (or the desire to start one, actually). Has anybody run across a good idea? It doesn't have to be music-specific...I'm willing to try wacky stuff, as well.

In return, I'll write a song about you on the full-length album. Okay, I probably won't do that, but I'll be really grateful to you the whole time I'm making it, okay?

[Johnny Metal]

Congrats on releasing an album.

I would be giving the stuff away for free left and right, and submitting it for listening to other websites where people who like this kind of music go, trying to reach those who could be interested. I would focus on promoting myself and my website, and once I had a good amount of traffic to my website, only then I would try selling.

Maybe give the album out for free, and even pirate it and submit to torrents so people can listen to it, if enough people listen to it, someone will buy it.

[LisaDreams]

Congratulations!! I have a few ideas ...

Email the webmaster of some websites you like and see if there’s any interest in playing your music for free in the background of the site. Pick some sites that interest you and that you think may interest other people that could get into your music. Offer it to the site(s) royalty free for three months and just ask that there be an acknowledgment that this is your music and/or link to iTunes or your site, etc.

If you have a facebook account, create a page for your music. FB now lets you login as your page, and you can "like" things and post comments as your page. This is a free way to spread the word about your page. I created a page last summer and was stunned at how much interest I've gotten in my page. I didn't have an account and had to create one to make the page and am so glad I did.

Create a free podcast series and release a new track through it each week or month, etc.

Of course if you have a website, I'm assuming people can listen to your music there. If you don't have one, make one immediately if not sooner.

Good luck!!

Lisa

[LisaDreams]

oops, did not notice the link in your signature

[invisiblehouses]

Good ideas, all.

So this is what I've decided to try:

I'm going to make CDRs with a couple songs, maybe two from the first release and one from the upcoming release. These I will put into the hands of as many people as I can. I'm thinking of calling it Great Big Whitman's Sampler-O-Mellotrons Hits or something.

Many of these songs work pretty good as acoustic numbers, so I'm going to hit up some open mics, both locally and in a few other towns ("My drummer couldn't be here tonight; he's a folder full of sampled drum machines from the late 1970s..."). At these, I will attempt to give said discs to as many people as possible, as well as make connections with other performers. Videos of these performances will be posted to YouTube, and I'm going to work on making "real" videos for some of the studio versions.

Meanwhile, I'm going to keep putting releases out as retail objects. When someone decides they want some more Mellotrons, there will be a variety of options already available.

Those are the preliminary plans. I'll look into some of the web-based ideas as well, but the more traditional "promote yourself by playing in front of people" route is something I can put into action in the short term.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, a Facebook "page" can no longer "like" or post to another page's wall; you can only do that stuff through your personal profile. Instruct me if you know otherwise!

Thanks, everyone.

[LisaDreams]

Originally Posted by invisiblehouses

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, a Facebook "page" can no longer "like" or post to another page's wall; you can only do that stuff through your personal profile. Instruct me if you know otherwise!

They added this capability this year so I'm unclear what your "no longer" refers to. In any case, last summer I created a regular FB account and then created a product page for my CDs. I'm not really into using the personal account too much and only have a few family and close friends connected to it, but I had to make one to create a page for Epic Meditations. When they revamped the profiles, they gave us the ability to login as any page we admin. So now I can choose to use FB as Lisa, or when I want, use it as Epic Meditations. I can easily switch back and forth. When I use it as EM my likes and comments etc., show up as EM. I'm not trying to push FB by any means and it may not fit for you, I just wanted to share that it has worked really well for me. I'm over 10,000 likes on my page and it has definitely boosted my amazon and iTunes sales.

Your ideas sound great for you!! Good luck!!

Lisa

[invisiblehouses]

Ah, I figured it out. I think the "use FB as Mellotrons" option wasn't there because I hadn't created a personal profile yet.

Well, I had one, but I deleted it months ago. This new one is for Mellotrons admin only, because I just don't want to get into it again.

[featherstory]

Join Zoetrope Virtual Studio Home and ask to join the private office Spirit Tribe, this is my office and I've been working for awhile on this project, the point is to allow creative people to make a living with their art, music, creative writings, etc.

We collaborate, share information/resources, critique and give feedback, and promote each other.

Also submit your songs to literary ezines.

[old dead wood]

Good job on the songs and the sound. Would you mind telling me what basic type of equipment you used: guitars, mics, recording controllers, recording programs, etc. ? Did you mix and master it yourself ? With which programs / equipment ? I have a style / sound similar to yours and want to invest in some stuff to be able to sell / promote as you are doing. Thanks

[invisiblehouses]

Originally Posted by old dead wood

Good job on the songs and the sound. Would you mind telling me what basic type of equipment you used: guitars, mics, recording controllers, recording programs, etc. ? Did you mix and master it yourself ? With which programs / equipment ? I have a style / sound similar to yours and want to invest in some stuff to be able to sell / promote as you are doing. Thanks

Thanks for giving it a listen!

I'm almost embarrassed to admit how shoddy some of the equipment I use actually is.

Drums: I'm using a piece of software called ModPlug Tracker outfitted with samples of ancient drum machines (Roland TR-606, CR-78, etc.). I played around with trackers a lot around 1997 or so; ModPlug is Windows-based and 100x easier than old Amiga exports like Fasttracker II.

Guitar: a Danelectro Innuendo that had its insides gutted and stuck back together by some idiot who doesn't know a soldering iron from a tire iron (me). Recorded directly into a....

Multitracker: Tascam DP-01 eight-track portastudio. With guitars, the "guitar" switch is flipped when I want a throatier, midrange-y sound.

Bass: cheapo Ibanez short-scale deal with a broken tone switch (yes, a switch, not a knob...astounding!). Recorded direct.

Keys: some old Casio toy my wife's older sister got for Christmas in 1984.

Vocal Mic: AKG D5. I love this microphone. Vocals are actually the only acoustically recorded part of the Mellotrons sound. Vocals are always double-tracked (gives it that cool Alan Parsons Project vibe, to my ears anyway).

Effects: Digitech DigiDelay pedal, Digitech RV-7 reverb pedal, and a positively rancid DOD FX-25B envelope filter pedal. These are used with guitars and keys, primarily.

Everything was recorded and mixed in my little basement den of musical iniquity. I did run everything through a compression software, though, since the Tascam has no built-in comp.

Basically, where some people have a nice, cohesive home studio with the whole ProTools setup, I have a mishmash of used and abused junk that I've collected over the past decade.

I'm trying to sell enough tunes to get a new Fender Strat, though. The Danelectro crackles from the absolutely terrible job I did "fixing" it.

[invisiblehouses]

Originally Posted by featherstory

Join Zoetrope Virtual Studio Home and ask to join the private office Spirit Tribe, this is my office and I've been working for awhile on this project, the point is to allow creative people to make a living with their art, music, creative writings, etc.

We collaborate, share information/resources, critique and give feedback, and promote each other.

Also submit your songs to literary ezines.

Very interesting ideas...I'll have to look into this over the weekend, as my eyes are going funny from being tired this evening. Thanks for the tips!

[Curtis2011]

And now you know why the term "struggling artist" is so prevalent...


That said, the first thing I would do is put your music up on Youtube videos, and put some keywords in the title that you think will be found by people searching for other already-popular music of the same genre.

[invisiblehouses]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

And now you know why the term "struggling artist" is so prevalent...


That said, the first thing I would do is put your music up on Youtube videos, and put some keywords in the title that you think will be found by people searching for other already-popular music of the same genre.

I've got YouTube videos up, but they're just the cover art while the music plays. I'm currently conceptualizing some "real" videos for the songs. I'm also going to start putting up songs in the "just me and an acoustic guitar" stage.

Since I don't have the tools to make a video where you lip-sync and all that crap (and since such videos are a bit pedestrian for my tastes), I'm leaning in the direction absurd humor. "Ambulance Crash" sort of suggests old safety films to me. I also want to do a "Bad Art Movie" video for one of them...something like "Mirror, Father, Mirror" from the movie Ghost World. I don't have dolls, crosses, or a prison toilet, though, so I'd have to come up with something ORIGINAL and derivative, instead of just derivative. I've also got a "Reefer Madness, Only With Coffee" idea, but it doesn't fit any of the first four songs.

If I could do a Pomplamoose-style "video song," I would, but instead of me playing all the parts, it would just be me attempting to play all the parts, then screwing up and freaking out, throwing things, storming off, etc.

[invisiblehouses]

Okay, so today I made my first "real" video for one of the songs, which I think sends the "entertainment factor" through the ceiling. I feel like I could really get into the process of making visuals for music.

I could not be happier with how this turned out:

Mellotrons: Ambulance Crash

[old dead wood]

Great job on the video. Did the video influence the song lyrics? I love the old 1950's scenes, reminds me of my neighborhood back then. Here's one of my favorite songs by a group called Wild Nothing that used movie video in a way similar to yours:

Wild Nothing - Chinatown - YouTube

Thanks for the equipment info. I was looking into multi-trackers and I had concerns about whther you could generate anything decent with those things. Since you did such a good job with it, I can maybe consider getting one. I had so many noise problems with a computer before.

[invisiblehouses]

Originally Posted by old dead wood

Great job on the video. Did the video influence the song lyrics? I love the old 1950's scenes, reminds me of my neighborhood back then. Here's one of my favorite songs by a group called Wild Nothing that used movie video in a way similar to yours:

Wild Nothing - Chinatown - YouTube

Thanks for the equipment info. I was looking into multi-trackers and I had concerns about whther you could generate anything decent with those things. Since you did such a good job with it, I can maybe consider getting one. I had so many noise problems with a computer before.

Thanx!

The song actually dates back about three or four years. I used to play it in a more traditionally indie-rock/garage style. I collect old safety films and stuff, so I just picked a couple and cobbled together the footy to sort-of reflect the lyrics.

The newer Tascams have better features like built-in compression and mic inputs with phantom power, so it's actually a lot fewer steps these days. Mine's from 2007, and it was an older model then, I believe.

Be sure to put some stuff out there on the Internets so's we can hear it.

[90802]

As a former wannabe musician, I did know a ton of info, but a lot of it has slipped my aging mind

I'd highly recommending checking out Tim Sweeney if you want to make money from your music. He has a lot of great ideas, and interesting ways to promote it.

One of his techniques is to make sampler CD's, but actually talk about the songs between tracks.

For example, if you had a two song disc, you'd do an intro for song one, an intro for song two, and after song two have a bit more information where they can check you out on the web, etc.

And as far as samplers...you need to do really targeted marketing. Don't just hand out random samples, those will likely end up in the trash.

Find performers that are similar in style to what you do, and hang out at their shows and talk to people. Chat them up, find out what they like about their favorite artist, and see if you can turn it around into something you have.

For example, if you get them talking and they say they like "Bad ass mofu*kers" because of the bass lines and pounding drums, tell them your music (if it is of course) is loaded with lots of hot bass lines and you beat the drums so hard you have to change the heads every day.

Bad example, but you get the idea

If you are only looking for a few spare bucks and have a lot of free time, have fun with it.

If you have ideas of making a living from your music, just be ready to put everything you can into it, and let it guide your life. There's really no other way to do it.

Best of luck!

[invisiblehouses]

Originally Posted by 90802

If you have ideas of making a living from your music, just be ready to put everything you can into it, and let it guide your life. There's really no other way to do it.

No ideas at all. These are experiments in entertainment and pushing myself to self-market. I'm not going to become a popstar; I passed the maximum age for that about ten years ago (I'm 34). Even when I was 19, the idea of touring for six months in a crappy van full of musicians didn't appeal to me much.

That said, it's always guided my life. I may not have always given it the attention it deserves, but the music software is always running in the background...grinding away since January 1982 when I got my first rock album! (Eye in the Sky by the Alan Parsons Project. Odd record for a six year old.)

Right now I just wanna crank out entertainment units and experiment with various channels of promotion. I've got the next EP already recorded and ready to go, and I just completed the drum machine parts for the lead-off track on a full-length effort (10 or 12 songs).

None of this is to say I'd say "no" to making a living from this stuff (Hey! Indie filmmakers! My music'd sound pretty cool in your next picture!). I'm just not gonna do all the standard "this is how we became rock stars" crap because I'm old and cranky and nerdy and I don't wanna go into it.

Thanks for the tips...I'll check out Tim Whatsisname.