Sell Your Album Online with TuneCore
I want to start by wishing all of you a happy new year! These past few weeks have found me INUNDATED with projects. I hope the same goes for you. While the holidays are fairly distant to the mind by this point, I do want to suggest that, if all you got from Santa was a brand-new muffler, then I hope you were CELEBRATING instead of (possibly) frowning. Here’s why. I had, in the past (upon movin’ to California), humorously come across a book about how to make it in Hollywood. It was written by a college professor and counselor. It tried to sell me some neurosis. I decided not to buy. I’d already owned some.
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While I miss New York, I also love to drive. People like me took the subway. We stayed down with the people. Do you? New York was my home when I really started playing live. In Hollywood, we drive to our shows and get to avoid lugging equipment on the subway. Despite this convenience, Artists in Hollywood often have to put up with the problematic social disease known as: “It’s All About The Car.” Artists don’t want to pull up to the loading dock in a “piece of s&%t,” but it can be unavoidable. Most Artists don’t really care, but if it is Hollywood, and it is valet, the strictest of the VIP and managerial staff (in addition to on-lookers), might be judging something as superficial as what type of car you drive as part of your perceived “packaging” and, above all, “the first impression of you.”
Unlike the suited job interview for work in a boring office, where the “Powers That Be” (thankfully) don’t get to see what you pull up in (since you likely get to park in an underground structure 50 floors down from the interviewers, or at the very least, park on the street), when you’re an Artist or Band pulling up to the loading dock with equipment, you are seen and having to greet Staff the very moment you pull up. Make sure your car is CLEAN. Disagree with me if you must, but I am (mostly) only including Hollywood here in the quarantine. Make sure your car is PRESENTABLE, no matter what you drive. Or, grab a limo and go in style, no matter what city you live in. You’ll have more fun, especially if it’s not your best performance. The problem is that a limo is so often a complete waste of money that you should be SAVING. Your actual physical appearance should be polished. In Hollywood, you must be a “Star.”
If you drive an older Ford Focus, that’s FINE. Focus on having that “sledge hammer of a dent” running from the left front grill across your entire left door “repaired or pushed back in somehow,” even if it’s done by a Mickey Mouse Mechanic made in Anaheim. That trusty little yellow bubble on wheels now needs to be WASHED, because the last time you washed it, George Bush Jr. was in office. Yellow bananas turn brown when they are ripe. Your automobile is not a banana and, while it might very well be a lemon, wash it squeaky-clean anyway and dump out all the empty fast food bags that have piled up on the front and back seats. The “interview,” or more specifically, “your first day at work,” in many ways starts the moment you pull up to the club. A car that is visually sloppy might suggest that you don’t take pride in your packaging and appearance. You might look unprofessional (even if YOU look GOOD). Don’t get caught off-guard.
Obviously, it doesn’t matter what you drive. But you do want to try and start living impeccably, no matter where you are at with your music career and your finances. It’s about self-respect. It will do wonders for your self-esteem when you start to fine-tune and MORE OFTEN UTILIZE the daily objects and artifacts you have in your life that, when used, make you more productive in creating, promoting, performing, and distributing your music. Things can flow more freely this way. If you’re in Los Angeles or anywhere else where you drive to your shows, then your car is PART of your productivity and appearance. Get your car fixed, no matter what you drive. It’s cheaper than buying a new one. Save the money for your survival and your music, especially during these times. Keep doing what you love during the process, and the money (should) follow.
More to come.
(C) 2011 – Paul Alexander for: www.MusiciansCompanion.net – All Rights Reserved. Paul Alexander Music: http://www.PaulAlexanderMusic.com – The Official Home of Paul Alexander Music.
I have often humored myself with a notion that, the greatest mistake any man might make is to view his own life as a “story” at all. In terms of making a decision as to whether or not you should pursue a music career (as opposed to downgrading to a hobby), you need to get absolutely clear in your head what is fact and what is fiction, regarding your decision. If you have chosen to be a professional music Artist, your songs might very well tell a great story, but perhaps, so should you if you want people to pay attention to your songs or your music. This includes Instrumentalists as well as the pens they should all be using to write about what the music they create means to them. I understand that not everybody likes to speak, especially when we all want so badly for our work to speak for us. Unfortunately, those songs aren’t able to instruct people to push the play button on the ipod. They may not even be in the ipod if you are not doing your part to push them in some way so that people will know they exist and, perhaps, push the play button themselves. You will have to include your music in the marketplace.
Life (in the esoteric) has no need for a story, since it should be filled to capacity with living. That doesn’t mean that if you’ve chosen to pursue a music career, you should be afraid of success either because, if you are, you won’t get anywhere. To get too caught up in a story (especially if it’s one’s own) can be a complete waste of time, I realize. It can also be quite a lot for others to have to deal with. Yet, if you are looking for a happy ending to your story, you had still better realize that you are worth the creation of one. You will get to leave something truly invaluable behind: your music.
To be fearless in the face of success, one must keep in mind that none of us knows the ending to the larger story (the one that includes all of us). No matter how it ends, we were fully living and love was the only meaning. Sorry if I sound corny, but for everybody’s sake, I hope I’m correct. Go ahead and write a story, write your career, and don’t be afraid. At the end of the day, it’s sometimes helpful to keep the idea that all words might be meaningless, but the words or music you created might very well end up a needed (and even healing) portion of another person’s daily existence.
The idea that there is no real meaning grants you the opportunity to create some without any fear of success. The idea might also free you up a bit (along with your productivity when pushing your material), as unconventional as it might sound. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there musically for fear of a consequence to your story. It can often manifest as success from A LOT of hard work. Those that go the very farthest in this world probably have the wisdom that their own “lives” (at least in the esoteric sense), have no real need for a story. This gives them the FREEDOM to create one without fear of consequence (again, mainly of success). Let this idea free you up to create something too, particularly a successful music career. The “story” is nothing more than any (successful) person’s by-product from fully living and participating, being present to do so, and not getting caught up in any story line, especially one’s own. This idea might keep an ego in proper check too, which should also lead to success. Humility is often a storyline that is, by far, most admirable to all, at least in my own book.
(C) 2010 – Paul Alexander for: www.MusiciansCompanion.net – All Rights Reserved. Paul Alexander Music: http://www.PaulAlexanderMusic.com – The Official Home of Paul Alexander Music.
You can enhance your music promotion and music publicity efforts by distributing news-worthy stories of your Act or band to sources that are interested in your particular topic or musical style. It is a key strategy when promoting your music. All information you publish about your music should have a GENUINE news angle.
While the main goal of distributing a press release is to get your music exposure, your press release must not sound like you are trying to “sell something.” Prospective publications will not publish you if it sounds like you are “advertising something.” They are likely bombarded on a daily basis with these “spam-like” types of press releases that never end up getting any news coverage. Music promotion requires something “newsworthy.” Is there a message in your music that you would like to get across? Explain it “in writing.”
In terms of creating your press release of your Act or band, you might want to think about having an experienced journalist write the press release for you. He/she will likely find a slant within your music )for use when creating a news story) that you or your band haven’t thought of yet. If he/she can’t, find someone who can or, better yet, diversify your musical activities and events.
The most important primer that you should have completed before making an official news announcement to media is having all pertinent (and current) information about your music published on your website. This includes music available for sale (and available as a sample for streaming), as well as how to contact you. If you are not out playing live, you can still distribute press releases about your projects if they are relevant to a current event, or if you are involved in a charity in support of a “greater good.” This would create an opportunity to pursue music promotion and music publicity, since you would be drawing attention to a much-needed charity.
(C) 2010 – Paul Alexander For: www.MusiciansCompanion.net – All Rights Reserved. Paul Alexander Music: http://www.PaulAlexanderMusic.com – The Official Home of Paul Alexander Music.
In your continuing efforts with cultivating music promotion and music publicity, I want to draw your attention to a WONDERFUL resource for musicians, songwriters, Artists, and bands at: www.cmj.com. This site has a mailing list for successful music promotion and music marketing. Their continuously updated list of music festivals and song writing contests can be sent to your inbox along with instructions for easy, automated submissions of your music. I am constantly updated with their activities, and the amount of music promotion opportunities they provide is truly relentless.
In keeping with the virtue of an automated approach to music promotion, music marketing, and music publicity, we must remember that, despite the much easier (and less bulky) “cyber-approach” to promoting your songs, it still requires effort. In a world that more resembles an episode of “The Jetsons” (as opposed to “The Flintstones”), let’s not forget that with better ease in getting things done comes a new form of laziness: cyber-laziness.
The Jetson Family had a machine that could dial up a gourmet meal of turkey or steak with all the fixins’ in a matter of moments. They could even get their meal in “pill form.” Yet, when they came home from work after a long day of pushing buttons, the idea of pushing just a few more buttons to dial up their dinner was an exhausting task because, to them, that was the present-day “work” that was involved if one wanted to “eat.” They had no appropriate comparison to make regarding how much more difficult it was to take something out of the freezer and microwave it. How primitive (and yes, welcome to our own reality). Microwaving something takes a bit of work for us, a lot of work for some, but to the Jetson family, they would liken the task of microwaving food with having to grind one’s own flour and churn one’s own butter.
My point is that all work is “relative” in terms of the task at hand, and depending on how far technology has advanced in an effort to ease the process of working. We are in the age of cyber music promotion. You can sell your music on itunes and sell instant downloads, upload your songs for consideration in music festivals, contests, and the like. You can book a gig online, send your music to a producer in London in seconds, and blast a press release around the globe in seconds. So why aren’t you doing these types of tasks? Because, as easy as things have gotten (technologically), it still requires the pushing of those buttons. SO… start pushing those buttons, and you’ll get your gourmet meal very soon. You might even grow a successful music career in the process.
Music promotion, music marketing, and music publicity should be fully automated. In the cyber-age, this cannot be emphasized enough. If I sound like a broken record at times (no pun intended), be thankful. The key point to remember is that, sources of automated music promotion, music marketing, and music publicity should not serve as a substitute to your own efforts with promoting your songs. They are meant to enhance your music promotion efforts, and help save you valuable time and money. Many companies exist solely for the purpose of promoting your songs to online magazines and media outlets. This doesn’t mean that all companies that do this will benefit you, especially if you happen to be lazy and expect them to make you a Star on your own behalf. You (ideally) need to be playing live or, at the very least, promoting your songs and their message for yourself, with a minimum of one serious task a day (as I continually mention throughout this blog). Make sure you know exactly what you’re getting, and if it is possible to follow up with any company that has received your music. The great news is that you can also ingest a music video these days, and thanks to high definition video cameras available at very inexpensive prices, getting a crew together and creating a WELL-EDITED video (your music video should be very well-edited) should not be difficult or expensive to shoot, copyright, and release.
First of all, I got a flood of comments for some older posts I wrote before the holiday and, THANK YOU SO MUCH to readers who have taken the time to actually read and truly listen with their (inner) ears. I am very grateful. By the way, I dug up this URL for you to visit: www.famewizard.com.
Now, let’s get on to some quick specifics about publicity for your music! I have to stress that you really can’t do “all of this” by yourself. If there is any way you can get a publicist to help you (especially solo artists and songwriters), this would be very helpful. Music Publicity ranges greatly in price, and you get what you pay for. Having a Publicist run a music campaign is generally expensive, but a great publicist can really amp up your exposure. My thinking is that anybody who needs a publicist should find a great one with a steady track record of success who is (ideally) in the same city as you live in (or very close to it) so that you can establish a working relationship, and the publicist knows that you are doing your part too by performing or at least having new songs to push. There are great publicists, there are horrible publicists, and there are also thieves in this world. Therefore, paying someone you don’t know that much about who lives in a different state than you do is the easiest way to get screwed. That’s not to suggest that you can’t have one in a different city in the future, so long as you are also living/working in multiple cities across the country as a “working act.”
Promote your music and don’t blame the big online companies if they are giving you an opportunity to work with them. Some of the very biggest names in music promotion, music marketing, distribution and sales are enabling you to promote your music and sell your work alongside some very prominent names (think itunes here). The digital arena, in particular, is leveled on your behalf, and you can thank some of the big guys (believe it or not). A little laptop can go a long way; this is the crux of The Musician’s Companion blog, along with the book, which focuses on utilizing the process of “automation” in your music marketing plans, and in all areas of your life as you promote your music.
Only the wise know that there is very little point in trying to visualize a tangible music promotion line that divides the major and indie music companies out there. What’s interesting is that we share the marketplace within one “universal marketplace” called music (and to the largest extent, a global economy pushing all goods and services). Interestingly enough, it is the larger companies that have responded to the need for musicians and writers to share their work by offering distribution in various capacities to all who take the initiative of creating quality work. This is a good thing. Don’t blame the big companies and create an intangible line out of what was never tangible, especially when the larger companies are the ones who appear to be recognizing and (somewhat) broadcasting the idea that they consider all forms of music and writing for ingestion within their servers.
There are large businesses in America and small businesses in America. Mutually beneficial arrangements should be regarded as a sign of hope. It isn’t like the big guys will try to buy you out unless you have something to offer them in the first place, so don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, regardless of your “vantage point,” or what you call “home” within the music industry. The best type of existence is a “working, harmonious coexistence” between larger and smaller companies (in this case, music companies). Again, don’t blame the big guys. Your chances are there to sell, so why wait? If it’s not about money for you, look at it as the ULTIMATE opportunity of getting people to “hear you.” We’re all in this together.
© 2010 – Paul Alexander for: www.MusiciansCompanion.net – All Rights Reserved. Paul Alexander Music: http://www.PaulAlexanderMusic.com – The Official Home of Paul Alexander Music.
