The story so far:
So I did my first presentation on online music promotion and I was stoked because I was ready to start doing more video presentations and secretly working on my new ebook that will be a free gift when you sign up to our new artist community at http://newmusicmarketing.com
But then there was a massive storm and like not only my internet went down, and all my clients posters got washed down the street, but I decided to switch over to vodafone while I could and I was damn near offline for like 5 frickin days!!! I almost died.
So had lots of internet and postering to catch up on!
On top of that I’m doing my yearly tour of New Zealand so I’ll be on that for 3 weeks, plus when I drop back to Auckland I’m supporting an international DJ so blog is likely to stay pretty quiet over the next month or so.
In regards to touring, I might use this opportunity to post on touring but you really cant go past Justin at Audible Hype’s series check it out here:
http://www.audiblehype.com/diy/entry/part_one_is_touring_really_necessary_in_2008/
http://www.audiblehype.com/diy/entry/part_two_is_touring_really_necessary_in_2008
http://www.audiblehype.com/diy/entry/part_three_yes_touring_is_really_necessary_in_2008/
For me, I have a demanding job promoting other people’s music, so I don’t really have time with my work to develop my own music to the point where I can make money touring. I can not lose money, though, so really for me it’s a free holiday where I get to be a DJ again just like when I was on the dole.
But I also finally bought a computer thats dedicated to offline tasks IE music and video, and my soundcard seems to be happy so pretty keen to get into remixing more clients and developing content in that way. I urge you all to be prolific!
So!
Managing relationships and managing content online! That’s what it’s all about here at kurb promotions!
So much so that I had to cut this bit out and make it it’s own separate post. You see I was offline and I was trying to develop content like any normal person would, and although marketing starts with product development, whats the point of developing a product that you don’t know how to market?
A product like say . . . A cd of original recordings?
It’s kinda like having a shop with no salespeople in it. A lot of people would feel strange and leave. Some might look around, but only the people who didn’t want to pay for anything would actually get your music.
And it’s a funny metaphor because that’s what’s probably happening if you’re not playing salesman on your site!
That post coming up is all about how to really ramp up your marketing platform. We’re back again talking about the iportance of engagement, connections, branding, identity and building your email list and optimising fan interactions for profitable outcomes.
I’m also talking about my new cheesy landing page at http://kurbartistmanagement.info.
I know. It’s ugly. It’s cheesy. It’s not there to make me look cool. It’s called marketing and it means I get paid.
Which brought us back to the new projects i’ve been working on such as http://newmusicmarketing.com!
Because the whole idea of that site was about managing my relationships with my customers through a community. Right now it’s still free to access the whole site while the core content is going up.
But there’s not just that - there’s lots of the different stuff I’ve been developing online. So given that this IS an update I’ll talk more about what I’ve been up to first.
It comes back to what I was saying before about owning more of the net. Building broader platforms online.
That doesn’t mean joining every social network or social music service!!!! Remember what we said? Do you want to share your money with these social media venture capitalist entrepreneur guys in San Jose or do you just want to use (use being the right word) a handful of the sites that are the biggest and best for your audience and leech their traffic back to your site so you can keep all the money yourself?
Good. When you’re using the machine, make sure you use a good one.
Building a broader platform means building more niche awareness! A large amount of my leads for online promo are not musicians at all, they just want their videos promoted on Youtube. So seizing on that niche, I’m developing a site and related blogs just for youtube now, just for that active niche.
Let’s have an example. You’re in an emo band, so you probably launched your clothing label before you even had your first gig. Are you developing a website or niche online space for people who are basically more interested in the clothes than the music? Is that part of your niche that you’re embracing, or turning away from your main site?
Maybe personally you’re actively interested in . . . dogs, or cats, or axolotyls. In your website you have a place where people who like your music can connect with you about your pets, but have you thought about expanding a niche where people who are more interested in the pets can connect with your music?
Derek Sivers from CD baby - or should I say formerly of! - always talks about the woman with the CD of sailing songs that is a top seller. Now it’s a classic example of niche products taking off when they find their market, but I would also say that not only is there the opportunity for that musician to sell niche sailing products, but to also develop a website that is more focused on creating interaction with people interested in sailing and engaging initially through sailing content before connecting with relevant entertainment content.
I’ve just started working with more kids entertainers also, because the way they are able to monetize niche products is insane. I mean sure, I get paid pretty darn well for playing pirates at little kids birthdays but when my website is packin a full host of pirate related products that are simply purchased through my site and the delivered by a third party, thats when we really start talking. Passive secondary income, baby.
We’re still selling ads, we’re still collecting emails, we’re still promoting primary content for sale as well as niche products - it’s just the context is slightly more weighted.
But at the same time, we’re “owning more of the web”.
Teh Interwebz: I iz mor ov it
So let me survey my new operations for you.
Of course there’s my main website http://www.kurb.co.nz which is my NZ based HQ where my CD and DVD production and posters are pushed because thats my main earner within NZ.
But I also have another site at http://www.kurbpromotions.com which is a one page index of my services from a more international perspective, because I don’t need any more requests for CD/DVD production from Sweden.
Then you’ve got my new blog which is settling in at http://www.musicmarketingmanagement.com which is my main blog now where I discuss a lot of theory and some practical stuff on digital music promotion.
If you want to check it out you can see i’ve been learning quite a few web development tricks and I’ve picked up a few cool new toys as well. I guess it’s a journey to bring together the multimeida content experience and functionality of a typical website together with the powerfully functioning features of a blog.
But then of course on top of that I’ve got http://newmusicmarketing.com which is basically a community for artists who are either working with me or actively interested in developing online promotion where I can discuss more practical execution and also make available the kind of sensitive and powerful information I only want to impart to those who are or have or will actually pay me, and I’m in an environment where I control that information and I am collecting email addresses of those who sign up as well so I have the opion of launching na email list.
Then you’ve got http://www.kurbartistmanagement.info which as I said is my cheesy hard sell page. That’s where the big marketing persuaders come in. As I said, your social media profiles, your blogs, they are there to create the platform for us to engage the fans and establish the relevant credibility and authority. You know - if your singer cant sing or my spelling was any worse it’s not likely we’ll get to that proposition point, but when we do . . . those persuaders are coming down on you like snow!
Then we’ve got my small business promotions blog at http://smallbusinesspromotions.info thats a small business journal where I kinda blog about my experiences in business. This simply comes down to more words. More content. Owning more of the internet.
But then I’ve got my new small business site I’m developing at http://www.digibiznz.com which is basically more about hard selling small new zealand businesses on my online marketing services.
Yes, just like kurb, there’s no difference whether i do internet promotion in NZ or overseas (except I can charge way more overseas because NZers are all broke) BUT my niche is NZ. I know when I’m connecting with prospects in NZ they are far more likely to want to do business with me because there’s a connection and some security in it being a transnational interaction. We can talk on the phone to discuss their business online marketing requirements, etc. bit of basic customer profiling.
But really those are just features, and similarly not everyone will care if you like gothy emo clothes, dogs, or sailing or want to buy plastic pirate swords. But this is what I mean by a broader platform that captures more fringe and niche potential for you to engage new audiences.
We just keep trucking on at kurb!
We got another detailed post on developing solid marketing and managing fan relationships coming right up!
Meanwhile I’m working on my ebook!!!! Basically it’ll just be painstakingly detailed amounts of information on conducting music promotions online except unlike my blog I’m going to edit out everything thats not important or doesn’t make sense so you’ll have a tight overview.
It was only from doing my presentation and talking way too long that I realise there is huge amounts of detailed info to getting it right.
I’m halfway through, and I’d say I’ll be launching in late september, what I will probably do is when the paid forum is introduced at $97 for 3 months membership, you can get my ebook free! But then I might sell it for $12.97 on the side if you’re like allergic to forums or something.
With the forum I’ll just be basically developing it into a kick arse resource and then applying more effort to make it more usable, so the options there could be that you join the forum and then you pay your kid sister to carry out some of the relentlessly boring tasks.
If you ever wanted to be a band manager, well I can help you with that. It probably wont be until next year that I will develop specific resources for band managers
The problem I envisioned though was that if http://newmusicmarketing.com was a success (in business terms “success” is regarded as anything that didn’t fail) that I would probably get more hare brained schemes.
So I might try and see if I can get my music site off the ground before the end of the year. The kurb music site will basically be a site dedicated to fan experience and monetizing a community based on content provided by artists working with Kurb.
What’s the idea? Well basically while creating a platform where I can actually help artists to enter directly into earning from day 1 at kurb - it’s all controlled under my brand property.
They ain’t coming to download music from your band. They’re coming because I’m a kick arse web developer and I’m a kick arse internet marketer!
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