Online Promo Companies

[tgrover]

Hi.

has anyone on the boards ever used any of the companies like taxi, caragan or the music broker. Just another avenue i am thinking of taking with my music but wanted to know if anyone else had any good/bad stories about these ventures.

[john]

Sorry, no real experience of them. Are you thinking more from a "getting a deal" perspective, of for direct licensing of individual songs to artists/producers etc?

Cheers

John

[Lazz]

Currently test-driving a couple of promo companies.

Will let you know more when results are in.

[tgrover]

Sorry, no real experience of them. Are you thinking more from a "getting a deal" perspective, of for direct licensing of individual songs to artists/producers etc?

Cheers

John

Just curious if any have actually worked for people. Like have they been called by Sony etc who have liked what they have heard. They seem to have a good way of working but does it actually work or do you just pay five bucks to send a song of to noone!

[Lazz]

companies like taxi, caragan or the music broker

Hi Tim,

We may be talking here at some crossed porpoises due to my reading of the thread title as “promo” companies. However….

I have zilch experience and scant hard information regarding the companies you quote and their ilk. But I swear I recognise the scent of a very familiar and eminently sensible business model whereby the service-subscriber (you and me) is the guy who finances the operation for a result which is all but unquantifiable. Apparently, they offer an introductory platform alleging to promote you upwards into the open arms of the more big-time end of the business. But I have never been anywhere near persuaded of the efficacy of these agencies. Too much like a random raffle for poor suspicious little me.

What would be your interest and hopes for slipping more money their way ?

It is an objective scientific truth easily proven on fingers and toes that the only guaranteed and truly effective marketing tool we have at our disposal is performance and more performance and building your own fan-base. And, of course, once you’ve put in all that hard work of developing your own market, that’s when the oleaginous ones with their endless blue-sky promise of the great grail of ‘the deal’ will be all over you like necrotising fasciitis.

Neither of us has yet reached that level of desirability.

And here’s something else we share in common:

You have a couple of CDs.

I have a couple of labels.

So it does seem after all we might ultimately be looking at exactly the same small set of problems: i.e. – getting the stuff out there and talked about and known about, creating a market for whatever it is we’ve got, getting it played, getting people interested enough to want more and be willing to pay for it, professional survival.

That’s the bundle of activities I file under the rubric of promotion.

Publicity. All that old brand-awareness bollocks.

And that’s just a long way round to saying that the sort of on-line promo companies we are currently exploring are ones that service radio and selected niche media.

The one that has just started to generate some potential results is RadioDirectX.

They offer an established interface with international radio in general and specialist niche formats. Registered bona fide trade members have their own access to log-in and listen to sound-files and check out what’s new. Then they request station copies of whatever takes their fancy. We have a cool new CD that’s been listed for a week so far and has generated over forty requests from all over elsewhere. Many from Australia. Meaning I am now renewing approaches to Ozzie distributors who may hope to sell a few. If we ever start to get some real actual heavy radio action, that is.

One immediately apparent benefit is that, filtered by this intermediary service, the radio interest is coming to us. Those who express interest have self-selected for your niche already. Specialist market growth is real sexy for me. Another benefit is that all those positive and appreciative responses we do get will be added to our own specialist data-base to be able to work the same result more direct and in-house. So at least I can feel we get something back already for our 500 bucks. And, as far as the cost of international postage is concerned, I am also researching and reaching out for the most efficient and industry-wide technologically acceptable way of sending out functional radio-friendly files. They tell me it’s the new radio way. Makes a lot of sense. Has to be something better than jiffy-bags.

The downside is that the service costs money.

So does mailing out free station copies.

With no guarantee of broadcast result.

And uncertain conversion of any radio-play into hard sales.

As I said, it’s an experiment.

We have a couple of others going, too.

Not enough information yet.

Judgement postponed.

If I can ever give up having to driving taxi - that will be a very favourable sign.

[john]

Hey

My general feeling, and the reason I have never used one is: I see little of value on offer.

Can I ask, what would you want an online promo company to do? Or as Lazz points out an online song broker? Just interested.

[tgrover]

I just want as many people to hear my music as possible. The more people that hear it the more likely someone might like it. I am just trying to explore as many different avenues as possible.

But because these ones have a cost for myself i wanted to see what value they actually had.

[john]

Hey

Ok, services like Taxi are more focused on either brokering a deal between you and a label, or brokering your songs, not really public promotion. Although there are several sites involved in providing these kind of services there are a LOT of sharks in the water. For me this is might get you a deal, which is perfect for the artists who wants to sign a deal just so he can say "I'm signed", but not much more. There are after all deals possibly worth making, and deals most definately not worth making.

In terms of promotion there is little you can't do yourself, and to be honest normally you will make a better job of it. What you may lack is contacts, but that is where a little homework can yield dividends.

I am assuming you are meaning promotion services such as plugging a CD rather than a promoter you use for live gigs. Well, to be honest, you have to divide up the services on offer anyway. There are several specialist areas.

I'm still not sure if you want people to hear it so that someone in the biz hears it and offers you something (like a deal), or you mean just to build fans and a more open ended "see what happens". I'll assume your purpose is to get the public to hear (not buy) your track. I.e. broadcast and free downloads.

The obvious thing is to put together a press pack, put out proper press releases to both online and offline news services, especially music news services. Also target individual broadcast stations and individual djs. Press releases are important to get right. I've posted an article on Songstuff about this. News streams are free and can get you a lot of coverage. They are also neglected by most artists.

I know. The thing is: everything takes effort. The secret is to spend that effort as effectively as possible.

I think if I was considering brokering my songs for other artists to use etc I might consider using that kind of broker, but I would be expecting a poorer deal than if I went after it myself.

Where you can get value is in covering markets you would have a great deal of difficulty covering effectively, and for that I can recommend no one. sorry. Not very helpful huh?

Pluggers and brokers can, and I stress "can", bring contacts to the equation, but they do lose the personal attachment to your specific tracks. They tend to pitch in bulk unless you pay a lot of money.

have you submitted an ad or press release to Songstuff? I can't remember for sure.

Something else is to get interviewed, but I'm afraid that's more about making the most of any media contacts AFTER doing a press release.

Cheers

John