You’ve got to get the word out if you want their
music to sell. But with so many methods of promotion and so many outlets for
music discovery, it can be difficult to know where to focus your efforts. Stay
calm! This promotion timeline will guide you through, step by step, breaking it
all down into bite-sized chunks so you can get out there and start generating
press and buzz for your artist. Promotion is time-sensitive, so we’ve organized
this guide as a timeline with which to organize the release of your next album.
Defining the Three
Types of Media
Traditional Media - Newspapers, magazines, zines, radio, and
television. Getting coverage from these outlets takes time and connections,
usually 3-4 months ahead of your artist’s album’s release date.
New Media - Born out of the web, these media outlets include
blogs, MP3 blogs, podcasts, video podcasts, and websites. These outlets crave
immediacy. Getting on these outlets is usually about connecting with them right
before and right after the artist album is out.
Social Media - Social media are promotional outlets built on
word-of-mouth as documented over the web and mobile platforms including sites
such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Social media is all about what’s
happening now. Getting the word out about your artist album is a constant
process that should happen all of the time.
12 months to 4
months Until Release: Album Production
You can start promoting your album even while your
artist are still making it. Fans today like to be let behind the scenes. They
want to feel a part of the creative process. Using social media, you can let
them in on your artist private artistic world.
Share photos and videos
Share details about the production process, your
studio, a new instrument, etc. on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube.
Showing behind-the-scenes details will get the fans you already have interested
in your artist next album before it’s even recorded.
Share demos and rough mixes
To give your artist fans a greater sense of
investment and involvement in your artist project, give your fans a voice to
pick their favorites between alternate versions of a song.
Assemble your street team
Getting your fans interested in what you’re working on
as it’s happening will increase your chances of stirring up a real buzz upon
the album’s release. As the old saying goes: you market through people, not to them.
4 months to 3
months Until Release: Album Preparation
Make sure you take care of these prep steps before
diving into your artist promotional campaign.
Set An Official Release Date For Your Artist Album
Between now and then, investigate distribution
options, as well as looking into any outside radio promotion or PR help you’ll
be enlisting for your artist.
Decide on the Release Event
Most artists have a release party, but if your artist
doesn’t play live, you can set up a listening party instead. Don’t let an
internet fanbase stop you from having a party: you can perform live on webcam
through a video service like Ustream or Livestream.
If you decide to have a release party, give yourself
time to publicize the show. Invite the media to come and add them to the guest
list.
Receive Your Artist CD
If you duplicated or replicated CDs, have them in hand
before starting the publicity process — long before you make it available to
your fans. There are two reasons for this. First, the goal is for you to
organize your artist release so that media coverage hits around the same 1 or
2-month window of time. The traditional media takes months to cover a story.
The new media takes just a week or so. The art is to time it so they both give
you coverage at the same time your artist album comes out. You’ll need to give
both kinds of media CDs to review in order to get them to cover the story.
Second, you’ll want to make sure your album is available for purchase just
ahead of the publicity. Otherwise, you’ll waste all of your hard work.
Enter the CD into Gracenote/Freedb
If you’ve ever wondered how your CD player knows the
album name and track info when you pop it in, it’s because of Gracenote MusicID
(gracenote.com) and FreeDB (freedb.org). These services scan the CD, and once they
recognize it, pull down the track information. Of course, when it comes to your
artist new album, there’s no way it knows this information yet. So, when you
first get your disc, you need to make sure that it is in this system, and enter
it if it isn’t.
Start the Digital Distribution process
Unfortunately, you can’t control when digital music
stores like iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, and the others actually make your artist
album available. Even major bands have trouble with this timing. Make sure to
put it in well in advance of your artist release date so that when your press
hits, people can buy it. This may lead to it being available before your artist
release party, but the only thing worse than having it available too early is
to not have the disc available for sale at all when the press covers your
artist. To sign up your album for digital distribution through Palace Music
Group, LLC, click HERE.
Prepare MP3s of Your Album for Press and Social Media
The New Media typically will want MP3s of your artist
music emailed to them for review, not necessarily the CD. Once you have your
artist CD, you should rip the files into high-quality MP3 format (at least
128kps). The key step here is to enter the ID3 tags--all of them. Don’t just
stop with the band name and song title.
Update Your Press Kit
You’ll want to update all of your artist press
materials with the information about your artist newest album, including the
artwork.
3 months to 2
months Until Release: Reaching out to the Traditional Media
Launching the Traditional Media Campaign
Now that you’re prepared, at three months, you are
ready to target the traditional media. This includes music reviewers, editors,
and reporters at newspapers, magazines, and radio. Assuming that you updated
your artist press kit with the new album, you’re ready to write your artist
press release and run a PR campaign.
Announcing the Release Party
Start the buzz. Announce it on all of your websites,
blogs, and social media outlets. Have your artist fans re-post and re-tweet the
news, too. Also, don’t forget to start including the date in all your
newsletters. Lastly, you can start creating posters and postcards for your
artist release party if you’ve arranged a venue for your artist show.
Social Media
Have the artist rehearsing for their release party,
or have any related band activities happening during this time, be sure to take
pictures, videos, and make recordings, so you can share it with your friends
and your artist followers now.
2 months to 1 month
Until Release: The Radio Campaign
Two months before the big release you should begin focusing on
radio. You’ll already have ahead start on the traditional media and press wires and your street team should be
active.
Radio Campaign
Radio likes to play albums ahead of their release dates. Give them
a chance to hear it first by running this campaign two to three months out.
Also, you should target radio stations near where you’re planning on playing so
that you can grant them interviews. The
most effective way to do this is to call ahead of time before sending your artist album, then write “SOLICITED
MATERIALS” on the envelope. Also, include the show dates that your artist are
going to be playing in their area. Offer to have your artist stop by the studio for an
interview or in-studio session. If your artists are independent musicians, you
should probably target college radio since it’s the most receptive to new
music. Especially college radio shows, which are usually run by students that love getting new releases before
it hits the public.
1 Month Until
Release: Reaching Out to The New Media
Now that you’re in the last weeks before the big release, it’s
time to hit the new media.
Launching the New Media Campaign (Part I)
The New Media’s turnaround time for stories is quick, so waiting
until the release is only a month away is a good rule of thumb. Running these
campaigns is much more simple than traditional media. No need for press
releases; just send a simple email to them with an offer of a pre-release MP3
so that they can check your artist music out before the public gets a hold of it. For podcasts,
you’ll want to start reaching out to them about 4 weeks before the release
date, since it takes podcasters some time to produce their shows. You can start
with music podcasts, but you should also consider a general podcast campaign.
For music blogs,
you’ll want to wait about 2-3 weeks before the release date. Keep in mind that,
while they do reviews, they often give away MP3s as well.
Target Your Local Media and Area
If you scheduled a release party, plug it again by contacting any
local media and telling them you’ll add them to your artist guest list. Also, this is a
good time to make sure that the local neighborhoods have posters, postcards, or
anything else that you distribute.
Reach out to your Fans through your Mailing List and Blogs
In the last month, plug the release party and the album release to
everyone on your mailing list and blog about it on your website. Ask your artist fans and street team to help you
promote your artist release and event. Have them talk about it online.
Amp up your Social Media
Social media should be used all the time, but with only one month
until your artist release date and party, it’s especially important to get the word
out. Think about creating an event on Facebook, or have a contest and give away
free copies of your artist album to those who promote the event. Ask fans to re-tweet and
spread the word to their followers and friends.
The Day of the
Release: The Big Event
Don’t just sit back
Use this day to communicate. Try to angle your newsletter, blog,
and social media updates to be about the fans. Fans look for themselves on
these sites afterwards, and when they do, they share those links with their
friends.
Take photos and video of the pre-event, the event, and
post-event.
Be sure to focus the lens on your fans as well. When you post the
content online, they’ll be excited to see themselves and will be more likely to
share the links with their friends.
Post-Release:
Building Word of Mouth
After you’ve released the album, your work isn’t finished.
Post-release promotion efforts can be equally as vital as the lead-up.
Launching the New Media Campaign (Part II)
While the traditional media rarely covers albums after they’ve
been released, the new media likes talking about new music all of the time.
Continue to send your artist music out to blogs, podcasts, and websites to generate more buzz
and accumulate positive reviews for your press kit.
Echo Good Reviews and Press Through Your Social Media, Blog, and
Newsletter
Post and link to good reviews of your album, your songs, your
release party, and any interviews you’ve gotten. Echoing this through the
social media will help keep attention on you as an A&R. Your artist fans will be more excited to
spread the word-of-mouth love as you support your artist album with a tour or series of
shows. Or, until your artist starts working on the next album and starts the process all over
again.
Would
you attend a training course run by someone with no experience of his
subject? Would you buy from a sales professional who had previously let
you down? Or, would you go "above and beyond" for a leader who didn't
routinely keep her word?
Chances are, you'd answer "no" to all of these questions. If you're
going to invest your time, energy, and enthusiasm with someone, you want
that person to be credible and worthy of your trust.
But what is credibility? Why is it important? And, how can you build it?
In this article, we'll answer these questions, and we'll look at why being credible is so important for a successful career.
What is Credibility?
The root of the word "credibility" is "credo," which means "I
believe" in Latin. Put simply, credibility is the feeling of trust and
respect that you inspire in others.
No single thing creates credibility. Rather, a combination of things must be in place for you to establish it.
Why is Credibility Important?
Think about a time when you worked under a leader who had
credibility. Chances are that she energized and excited her entire team.
You knew that she would do the right things for the right reasons, and
you trusted her judgment.
Credible leaders attract enthusiastic and committed followers, and
people want to work for them. But credibility is important in many
areas, not just in leadership roles.
For instance, sales professionals need credibility to be successful –
people don't want to buy from someone they don't trust, or from a
person who doesn't know about his product.
You also need credibility when you give presentations, deliver training, and sell your ideas.
How to Build Credibility
No matter what your role or position, credibility is something that
you have to earn. It takes time, patience, and consistency to build it.
Follow the tips below to establish credibility.
Build Character
If credibility were a pyramid, then your character and integrity would make up the foundation.
To
build character , first identify the
core values
that you won't violate – people with strong character stand up for what
they believe in, even when it goes against popular opinion. Spend time
getting to know yourself and what you care about most, and be willing to
defend your values and choices.
Integrity is also essential for credibility. You need to be known as someone who does the right things for the right reasons.
To preserve your integrity, think carefully about the choices and
promises that you make, and never make a promise or commitment that you
can't keep. When you make a mistake, own up to it immediately, and do
whatever it takes to
correct it .
You also need to be
authentic .
People who are authentic do what they say; there's no mystery about
their intentions, or about how those intentions might translate to their
actions. This is why it's important to know yourself inside and out,
and to demonstrate authenticity in everything that you do.
Develop Expertise
The more expertise you have and can demonstrate, the greater your credibility.
To
build expertise ,
choose a single area that is fundamentally important to your role,
organization, or industry. This will help you focus your efforts and
ensure that you don't become overwhelmed. For example, if you're in
engineering, you could develop an expert knowledge of the materials that
your products use, and you could then build out from this.
Also, make sure that you
stay up-to-date on your industry . When you're informed about industry trends and developments, people will trust your judgment.
While your reputation for expertise is important, it's just as important to
protect it
and acknowledge what you don't know. When you guess, or operate in
areas outside of your expertise without informing others, you run the
risk of giving out false information, making bad decisions, and being
shown to be wrong. This can undermine your
reputation for expertise , and damage your credibility.
- See more at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/establishing-credibility.htm#sthash.QXhftYNL.dpuf
You see, the success of
your enterprise has nothing to do with you. It has nothing to do with any
self-serving desires to attain success and wealth and recognition and freedom
and fulfillment from your activity. These self-attainments are one or more of
the major reasons you have created the enterprise you’ve created. And they’re important
reasons. I’ll talk about these in a minute.
