Independent Label-marketing strategies

[ochairu]

A slightly different question..

How about if you are working for an independent label and your looking for an effective marketing strategy on a very tight budget.

Can anyone reccommend anything?

Have tried: Google adwords, Search engine submissions, countless free listings, Spamming (me, never! ), word-of-mouth, banner campaigns on music sites, promotional plays on internet radio, HUNDREDS of promotional CD's to loads of DJ's... phew..

The music industry is such a bitch to break!

[nigel lawry]

yep its tough out there

since your local too me (16 miles) have you tried "Chiltern radio" if you have then how about this site

bedford unplugged

peace

[hariossa]

well, under a tight budget you can take advantage of every free publicity that you can get, let's see...

here in spain the SGAE was trying to charge all bars, pubs and restorants for every music or video they play, so many people began to offer their music for free to this places in order to get noticed. a very convenient exchange.

I don't know there, but here in madrid there are like 4 or 5 free newspapers that are given away to every person who enters the metro (underground) on peak hours; one day an "old times" musician sent a letter complaining about piracy and mp3s and internet, no big deal, but next day there was a response letter from a group saying "please download my music", complaining about big label's abuse on cd prices and the lack of fresh new music in the market, music industry decadence, etc...

the thing is that the group went to instant success and notice just because of that simple letter, resulting in BIG amounts of downloads and loads of people going to their shows. (I was told by one of their members).

regular people only trust in things when they see them on established media (TV, magazines, newspapers, radio), if you come from nowhere with a good quality product, you'll have little success because very few people can tell the difference between good and bad music products, most people just follow trends.

other thing for starting a trend is having regular shows so people who likes the music can gather every week or so and spread the news, a regular "residence" in a pub or disco can build a big following if the shows are good enough.

well, that's all that comes to my mind right now... other things that may work are: grab a can of spray paint and fill the city with your net address, give away cds on schools, colleges and universities; try to make the music played constantly on every small or independent radios...

it's very tough to fight the music industry right now, everybody seems to think that there's no use on spending money in music since you can download whatever you want from the net at no cost.

those were my 2 cents, I hope it helps!.

[ochairu]

yep its tough out there

since your local too me (16 miles) have you tried "Chiltern radio" if you have then how about this site

bedford unplugged

peace

Ahh! CHILTERN??? hehe, i tried them, they dont support indepedants.. i wonder why something to do with BMG methinks..

Will check outt hat link though, cheers for that.

Cheers for the advice hari.. were lauching your single tommorrow so all of this will be tried.. hehe.

[Didier]

Hello,

Have you tried your local press?

Usually, local journalists have not so much interesting things to report.

So, if you have an unusual angle, very often local journalists are delighted to cover it. An independent label might be unusual at your place, for instance, especially an international one, with a Spanish artist. You could, for instance, "sell":

- half the article on the label,

- half the article as an interview with Hari.

And there are good points about the local press:

- contrary to the Internet, people don't expect to find everything free in it,

- contrary to the Internet, you have not much competition.

Didier

[john]

Hey

You don't say if it's for brand awareness, or selling your artist music to distributors (i.e. internal industry awareness) or end user music sales.

I'll assume it's end user sales.

Online advertising:

Online guerilla marketing, low end keyword advertising, targeted banner placement, newsletter sponsorship, prize/award site sponsorship

Real world:

Newspapers, radio, local club DJs (give them your new tracks), leafleting, posters, newsletters, promo gigs featutring your bands.

The importance of both online and real world press releases are important (still waiting for one from you. Get onto your promo manager). They are free to distribute, and quite an artform. You can get some guidelines here:

http://business.songstuff.com/articles.php?selected=117

Online you will need to invest some time on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for your music site (assuming they can purchase on your site.

Coordinate your realworld and online campaigns.

Develop close ties with music distributors. Vital for real world success, but also available online, like SNOCAP.

You can of course do your own distribution, but if you can get in with som decent distributors you can focus on your core business more.

One thing you may not have thought about is recruiting free workers in the form of students etc. who are keen to donate their services in return for experience, or credit on a sleeve etc. of for promo freebies. Also try t-shirt give-aways in student unions.

Do some homework. Art schools have photographers, graphic artists etc. Drama schools have actors, fashion schools clothes designers, beauticians and make up artists, business schools have marketers, managers etc. All useful skills to have onboard. Never mind the fact that they may be willing to help do some leg work.

Anyhow, a few ideas off the top of my head just now.

Have you thought about viral marketing?

Hope this helps...

Cheers

John

[ochairu]

Cheers Didier and John, Most of which you guys have mentioned we have already put into place, i guess its a matter of time. As we have just passed the first quarter hopefully things will start to pick up. We already had a feature in local press as did some of our artists, but i think we will appraoch again with some fresh material. Our promo manager is working flat out, so much so i havent seen im for over a week-ill ask him to send a press release to you guys.

Nice article by the way, will heed this advice.

Cheers again all, anything else you can suggest will be a great help!

[john]

Hey

Do you have anything not mentioned you would add to our suggestions?

How's your promo manager bearing up? Don't work him too hard!

btw. Interested on an interview about AB?

[ochairu]

Yeah the promo manager is rushed off his feet at the mo, (poor geezer.. )hehe. Its all going ok now, were gearing up for our first official retail release in September now. Were gonna spend this time building more "hype".

Would certainly be interested in an interview, PM or Email me with details whenever you want to go ahead.

Cheers!

[john]

I'll get some questions together this week and PM you when they're done.