Are you planning ahead? If not, you need to be. Here’s why…

Plan Your Release Dates Carefully

Whether you are in January or in April, make sure that your record label continues to grow!

Here in the UK, if the university market is your target audience, then you need to organise your releases according to their schedule. Most students are studying for around 8 months in a year (as the rest of the time they are partying ! You will need to plan your releases to fit those time lines.

You need to know your target markets timetable to effectively schedule your releases. This will enable you to release in a timely manner while staying flexible to adjust schedules when needed. So, be in-tuned to the patterns and behaviours of your audience.

The best way to make sure that you can get your record label going and keeping it up to date is by planning ahead. In business, this is known as forecasting. You will want to project what you want to achieve with the next month, 3 months, 6 months and year. By doing this, you will know exactly where you stand with other label competition and with your labels finances.

While you are forecasting what you want to do, make sure that you include new projects to develop, old projects to maintain and developments that you want to arise with the business as a whole. These three areas will bring you in more prosperity and opportunity.

Stay tuned! We will be bringing you more tips on how to set up your record label to thrive!

If you somehow found this page by either shear determination or by magic and you want to get more of these types of useful tips on how to get your new record label off the ground correctly, click here to find  more juicy record label business building information.

How have you found your schedule? Is it difficult to plan out? Leave your questions or comments below

I did an interview with Plugo.la front man, founder, president Erik Peterson. For those of you that don’t know about Plugo.la (pronounced Plugola), Plugo.la is a social music community and marketplace for indie music artists and their fans.

I love Twitter. Reason? Because, that’s where I found this brilliant resource for you all.

This interview is pretty long, so what i’m going to do is split it into 2 sections. You’ll get the first part today and the next and final part tomorrow.

So, without further ado, let’s get on with the show…

Can you tell us a little bit about what you do?

My name is Erik Peterson and I’m the founder of Plugo.la (Plugola); a social platform and music community where independent musicians can promote, distribute, share and/or sell their music and videos; and music fans can be part of the fun and even earn a commission for participating.

How did you get started?

I got my start playing in bands back in the late 80′s thru the 90′s; first as a guitarist, then switching permanently to drums. In the early 90′s, after getting fed-up with the politics involved with being signed to a label, I began my own. It was fairly short-lived, mainly because I had no idea what i was doing. I learned a lot from my mistakes in that venture, though. Unfortunately, a major change in my life led me away from the music industry for a few years. Not long after, I began marketing online as a full-time profession.

I attended this big reunion/anniversary show with a line-up of bands I grew up with and played with when I was part of the scene. After hearing all the live music and seeing everyone again just reminded me how much I loved that lifestyle. The next day I was searching for a way to become involved with the new generation of music. I eventually started a video/mp3 sharing site for indie music, modeled after YouTube, called; Jamphetamines. This helped me see what musicians needed and wanted to promote themselves, and what music fans wanted in order to stay at the site longer than a few seconds. During this time I took all the knowledge I gained about digital marketing, social media, SEO and the record business and began developing Plugola.

How should our listeners gauge if Plugo.la, is right for them?

People should know that Plugola was developed to help musicians sell their music and videos. It’s not just another site for artists to add their profile, upload a few songs for free download, link to their myspace profile and leave it. It was designed to give the artist (and music fan) options and to continue the trend of sharing music/videos, but in a more controlled environment. We also incorporated incentives and tools so both artists and fans can get the most out of using Plugola. Our focus isn’t only musicians, but music fans, too.

How long did it take you to get you to where you are now, and what would you say to our listeners who are already tired and frustrated?

It took way longer than I ever anticipated and I still have quite a way to go. I’m not trying to discourage anyone. I’m just saying it has taken a lot of work, persistence and patience; just as it would for most. Hang in there! Nothing worthwhile is built overnight. Use that frustration to fuel the fire to keep going. You may need to change things up a bit. It is said that the key to great writing is rewriting. Perhaps there are some areas that could use some tweeking.

What information do you plan to pass on to our listeners today? Please just give us a quick walkthrough.

I will be giving a basic overview of what independent musicians should be doing online to successfully market their music.

What are the top 5 areas should an indie concentrate on when promoting/marketing music? Could you give us a step-by-step breakdown?

Since my focus is really online and digital content, I can really only give it to you from that point of view. (in no particular order)

• Engage Your Fans: This is increasingly becoming an extremely important part of marketing your music/brand on the web. Yes, your music is important, but your fans also want to know about you, what goes on behind the scenes and how you create such an incredible sound. You can keep your fans updated all the time and for free by using web tools and the fans are expecting it more and more these days. Some of them even want to help you and just be part of what you’re all about. Give them easy ways to spread the word and your music.

• Stick to your niche/genre only: It’s natural for musicians, or anyone really, to want mass appeal. But with so many options available these days, targeting just your niche will help you develop true fans much easier. True fans are the ones who will talk about you, buy your merch/music and come to your shows. If you’re destined for mass appeal, these will be the people who bring you there.

• Good Design/Layout: I know there’s a lot of cool technology out there (mainly Flash) to make a web site look really slick. As great as they look, they’re not very effective in terms of marketing and/or branding. For one, it’s important for your fans to be able to find you in the search engines and a Flash designed web site is almost like search engine repellent. Also, our eyes are not trained to take in valuable information on such a design. You may get the wow factor, but as humans, we need text and the boring stuff to be able to understand what’s going on and have it sink in. You must think like a visitor to your web site when coming up with your design and layout. Keep it simple. When a new visitor comes to your site, you have maybe 1 or 2 seconds to grab their attention enough for them to stay and see what you’re all about. Humans are lazy and we don’t want to have to click around or search to find what we’re looking for. You want to grab their attention immediately, but without being annoying or obtrusive.

• Web Presence: Be everywhere & active. One of the downsides to today’s Internet is that fans/surfers expect updates and if you don’t update regularly you’re really risking losing your fans and followers. Do your best to keep everything updated. This means, your blog, all your profiles, twitter feed, etc. There are tools and services to help you update these profiles & sites all from one place, making it much easier.

• Make it Easy: A big mistake I see a lot when coming to a band’s web site is that I have to look for the information I’m seeking; usually the music. This kind of goes back to your Design/Layout, but it’s important enough that it stands out on it’s own. Keep the scrolling and the clicks to your music/content to an absolute minimal. If there too many steps, there’s a very good chance your visitors will give up before getting to their destination. Plus, rarely do people want to be taken to another site. If you’re operating your own e-commerce store, again, be sure to try to keep them on your site with as few steps as possible.

In your experience, what’s the absolute easiest or best way to market a band/label/artist?

There’s no real easy way to do it. Believe me, I wish there was secret to it that we all just haven’t found yet, but that’s just not the case, unfortunately. However, I can say the Internet is absolutely wonderful for promoting your music and/or band. I’ve spent the past 9 years or so marketing both physical and digital goods online; trying different approaches; and I have found that these techniques are keys to marketing success online:

- Exchange traffic/visitors: I can not stress this enough. Exchange links with similar sounding musicians. These links should be placed in a visible spot on your site and not buried on some ‘links’ page. Not only will this help you increase your search engine rankings, it will also help create a steady flow of targeted visitors to your site. This is the best way to attract interested music fans to your site. It says, “If you do not like what I have to offer, try these other guys”. If the “other guys” are doing the same thing, you will also get some of their visitors and maybe new fans.

• Link to Everything: Anytime your music is reviewed or you’re mentioned on another site, good or bad, link to it to show your fans who else is talking about you. Again, this will also help generate new music fans to your site. This where social bookmarking comes in handy.

• Lead the Way: Tell your fans and visitors where to get your music or merch. Even it’s obvious, tell them where and (if necessary) how to purchase. A banner or embeddable widget usually isn’t enough. Show them the way. Also, remind your fans that you have music available. You would be surprised how many people need reminding. Just be sure not to go crazy and get labeled as a spammer.

• Update and Build: Like I mentioned above, try to keep your social/online profiles updated on a regular basis. I’ve found it easiest to set certain days aside for certain online duties. Also, keep building your presence in every corner you can find of the Web. This can mean fan sites, lyric sites, merch sites, other social networks, whatever – just as long as it’s part of your overall goal to dominate your niche. Then, link all those sites together and continue. The more ways there are to find you, the better. These are called “feeder sites”, where they feed targeted visitors/ fans to your main site/store.

• Be Completely Honest: One of the most important qualities to succeed online is trust. Especially when it comes to purchasing anything. You may be the most honest person in the world, but to a typical surfer there’s a chance you’re trying to scam them. So just be honest and make your fans feel comfortable about pulling out their credit card. Word spreads very quickly online, you don’t want to suffer any irreversible damage by being known as “shady”.

Do you have a formula for releasing music?

We really have no formula, per se, since we have put the control into the artist. However we have devised Plugola so artists can release one or two songs for free to attract fans to their store where their full album is available for purchase/download.

What are some pitfalls that our listeners should be on the lookout for, and how can they be avoided?

Don’t get caught up in the hype. All this nonsense about how the sky is falling for the music industry is simply just that — nonsense and hype. Although the industry is changing significantly, as long as people still like music, it isn’t going anywhere. Just try and be logical when taking in all this new information you may be reading from music biz/tech blogs. Some out there have an agenda and no business dictating how musicians should be conducting themselves….

Click here for part 2…

When trying to get radio airplay, especially when you’re starting out, you should always start with the smaller radio companies first.

The major labels pump a hell of a lot of money into getting their  music aired. So, note that your competition will be fierce!

But, it can be done.

The first thing you want to realize is that commercial radio stations make their money from advertising. Because of this, they  need to attract the biggest advertisers that pay big bucks! So, for the stations to make money, they have to appeal to the biggest market which will inevitably be the popular music fans – or “pop” for short!

If you don’t make “pop” music, how are you going to attack this? Well, this is the “Do-It-Yourself” 6 step guide to getting your music on radio:

1. 1. Before you even contemplate contacting any radio station,  make sure you have your marketing plan In place. What this means is to have your bio, tour dates, release schedules, press coverage, etc, etc. It is no good you saying that “you just seeing how it goes”, or anything like that. You won’t  get any brownie points for that! Have it all on one sheet of paper. Nice and professional looking
2. Choose the right radio station that your music will fit the  criteria with (no point submitting hip hop on a classical music radio station)!
3. Find out who the programming director (who programs the shows) and the music directors (who decides what, listens to the music and recommends what gets heard) are. On smaller stations, they are  usually one and the same (person that is).
4. Either send your single (meaning don’t give them a choice of choosing a song) on CD, your bio, etc, by Fed Ex or hand deliver it to the PD/MD.
5. Whether or not you can pitch in person, make sure you come  across professionally. Show the stations that you know what you’re doing.
6. Have the mentality of ignorance when it come to the larger  commercial radio stations. If you break through and get heavy  rotation, great. If you get light rotation, great, but don’t be down  hearted if you only get spot rotations on the specialist shows. Most indies don’t get any commercial airplay at all.

The good thing about the above plan is that you can use it for all the different types of radio stations. In fact, I will advise you to start with the smaller local, internet,  college stations and build momentum, before moving up the  ladder to the medium and larger size stations.

At the same time keep records of the airplay you receive, as  you can use it when you pitch for the big commercials’.

What do you think of this tactic? Leave your comments below…

This is a 25:55 minute video that takes you though a free tool that will allow you to get a bit of code and insert it into your website, myspace page and a couple other social networking websites – and build a mailing list.

Watch the video below, as I give you an overview on how to signup and it’s features (please note the video may take a little while to upload – but it will be worth it)!:

The reason why you will do much worse than use a tool/service like this, is because you can either use it on the web, or at your shows.

What I also like about this tool is that you can import the contact details you collect directly into your account by uploading them from a csv file (or excel spreadsheet).

Click here for the link to the website Scriggleit.com

IMPORTANT NOTE: It has come to my attention to which I have to admit I missed the terms of service, but scriggleit.com isn’t entirely free. It states that in they offer a NON-FREE service as well as free services. The Scriggler fan data collection utility and the Scriggle Kit electronic press kit feature are free only up until the trial period has ended. After which your account will stop until you pay for the subscription, if you wish to continue.

To be quite honest, this is a lesson to always read the small print.

To read the terms of service click here.

Non the less, this is a valuable tool.

If you have any questions or thoughts about this, leave your comments below. Your feedback is always appreciated.

I was checking out David Hoppers blog Music Marketing [dot] com, and I came across his latest blog post.

The thing that intrigued me especially about this particular post, is because what you are about to watch below in the video is something I have been talking about from some time now to a few private students and some music associates.

I have a saying and that is “give your music away and sell your fans your t-shirt”.

Now, don’t take those words literally, but the concepts behind that thought is what is, I feel, the new business model.

Watch the video taken from a keynote presentation at the Music Digital Summit ’09, presented by Mike Masnick, of Techdirt.com

Let me know your thoughts. Post them below….