There’s only one of me, and with my team building up, you’d do well to go in on some serious music marketing and promotions to make it happen for you as an artist. We’re about online promotion and online business, that means the bit where you see some money.

Email: kurbpromo@gmail.com

Well I have an assistant here now, plus I tend to group things into 5 hour tasks so they can be accomplished easily. This is letting me get a lot more done.

It’s good to think outside the sqaure with income, think long term, think like a marketer. Branding. If you’ve only got 1000 fans you don’t have a brand, no one knows who you are. When thousands of people recognise what you are and what you represent, THEN you have a brand.

Most of the time I’m helping artists just get to that stage. I don’t promise fame. You’ve got to be GOOD!
I’m not sure at this stage how you’ll get fans to volunteer much demographic information, i’m not experienced in that area, though I can see how certain campaigns, especially online advertising and use of google analytics could arm you with the information about who is visiting the sites. There’s licensing potential, there’s possibly a variety of usage income.

one of my clients is having success with Pump, and Rumblefish securing $500 for one off deals on various songs, but things move very very slowly.

Reverbnation is useful as a tool, as is Soundcloud and Bandcamp, it’s worthwhile participating, but other than maintaining a professional presence and using some of the tools, it’s not a strategy in itself.

Online is basically what I do, I can offer creative as well as operational.

Some artists need 6 months just to get themselves established online. But however long it takes, you go to a game plan. Relentless barraging attacks!

You’re winning inch by inch, fan by fan until one weary cycle, the dam bursts forth and suddenly your cool enough to go viral for 5 minutes and new fans come spouting in.

What then? You keep going, you sell them stuff. You book gigs. You have a brand, you’re not nobody anymore, and you have permission and a note from your mother to say that you could consider this as a career.

But back to the nuts and weary bolts of your music marketing campaign because it’s that greulling yet inspired struggle that will slowly win you enough fans to matter enough to not have to work when you’re not making music.

I’d probably recommend we try to implement the structure of mini campaigns. 4-8 weeks in duration, one after the other.

involving at least:
1 video
1 newsletter
3-4 blog posts
1 ad campaign
1 “article marketing” campaign - this is a press release specifically designed to attract google ranking
+ social media interaction around the campaign (thats up to you to make sure seb is online everyday chatting about the themes of the mini campaign)

see this way if seb is using social media, and we’re doing some promo, then he has a THEME to talk about.

If you do 1 blog post a week, and each blog post has one intriguing tweet per day, and 4 blog posts can make 1 newsletter per month, you see how there’s a “content system” there that fans can be following continually?

to be realistic you want to be planning each campaign months in advance to ensure a smooth execution.

I’m not sure how long it would be to get traction from these, but if we don’t rely on participation we don’t need short term take up for it to succeed in attracting attention, and building the newsletter base.

that’s my suggestion, artists need to take up this challenge online to appear constantly active with these themed mini campaigns  drawing in new fans and continuing to be relevant to the growing fanbase while it grows to a critical mass.

At the moment I charge $US250 for 12 hours.

The point of the bomb which is about 15 hours, is to get you started and make it look like you are building up.

That will give you the numbers to get you started, but you need solid campaigns to turn on  real fans, you got some ideas there, but you need to strengthen your platform first.

You’ll need a newsletter especially as you’re already getting entrepreneurial:

a newsletter is the only place you can really sell stuff properly. Facebook, twitter, youtube are not going to let you turn their site into an e-commerce page, but you can just get away with selling more stuff through a newsletter. thats why I use it, and drive fans to the newsletter.

I can simply give your designers the code to work with but you’ve got to make it clear to fans that signing up is a good thing, because then you just set them up to be propositioned again and again, month after month.

The advertising is like facebook yes, but facebook is not really right for this kind of marketing unless you’re feeling rich. We are buying fans after all, so lets buy them cheaply and THEN see what they’re willing to buy.

You gotta get them signing up so you must think about that on the website, it’s gotta be clear as day. Otherwise you just got a fan who turns up, sniffs around, then goes away again to wait for your next facebook update or whatever, when you want to get those fans opening their wallets.

Basically, I will probably continue to charge more and work with less artists. Either my clients will develop into more successful acts or bigger acts will take us on for more involved campaigns. Not only is the service we offer unique, but it is going to become more exclusive, and more instructive, because I don’t want to work with artists who don’t have the qualities to be successful.

You see the moment I can prove I can make an unknown artist into a career artist, demand for what I do will hit the roof, and I can definitely charge more.

But again, how is it that I’m successful? I talk plenty about tactics and even strategies in online marketing on this blog but now continuing on our “kurb promotions music marketing in the future” theme, what changes is the music industry going through which has made my music business so fertile?

last 2 posts on our future music marketing:

music marketing campaigns

music marketing services

Wanna know more about what we do for musicians, artists and bands? personal one on one management and marketing for $250 p/month! kurbpromo@gmail.com - we can exchange skype details and chat!

Hi, I’m Matt from Kurb, my team and I offer a full and comprehensive online music marketing and music management solutions for artists at the cheapest price we can offer it without being swamped - it means artists get everything they need, websites, design, advertising, social media, video, youtube promotion, blogging, email management, business model development - AND you get to talk regularly one on one with me about what we can do for you, then we go away and do it. The equation is simple, it’s $250 for 12 hours per month; I can’t take everyone. So get in while it’s still cheap, you don’t get this level of service anywhere else for this price!

Just email me, Matt - kurbpromo@gmail.com, happy to talk to you over skype about what we offer. Why not email your website or myspace so I can take a look where you’re at and offer suggestions.

Everybody wants to be a superstar, that’s the long and the short of it.

So how can artists benefit? By understanding where changes in the music industry are taking us.

In the past there was only one way to become a star and that was to be picked up by a label and fed into the massive, powerful hype machine they built to blast musicians brands all around the planet.

And didn’t being a superstar look so glamourous?

Fame is the pinnacle in our media saturated society and now everyone demands the right to it.

Reality shows from American Idol down tell people that anyone can be a star and why would you want to be anything else? To not receive attention is to barely exist.

I can’t delve too far into the psychological and sociological concepts here, the fact is that in the past stars were on a pedestal. Now the label pedestal factory is being dismantled, but a bigger factor is that everybody wants to be famous now, everybody wants to be recognised.

Now in our little corner of existance, guru types just like me have started spouting that it is possible for anyone to become famous now because of the internet.

And increasingly, yes, the demise of the monolithic label structure means there are going to be more crumbs available than ever. People love music, they love the experience, but more so than ever before they want the experience of being the musician, the focus of attention, and simply because of this and the confusion in the industry, I will always have clients.

It would be fairly easy to replicate what Ariel has done and for me to have a dozen assistants each working with a dozen musicians, and I’d be making a lot of money, but to me it’s about developing and working with musicians long term who have the commitment to want to build a career from their music and truly value, like I do, what it is to be able to make a living online from music, when there is so much confusion around the online music business and there are so so many people all fighting for attention.

American Idols, Sing Stars, and Guitar heroes - you can see the industry beginning to shift it’s weight to the massive yearning in the market for people to have their own essence and performance recognized.

But this is where smart thinking comes in, thinking about the fans.

So when this comes over to you, are you thinking about the fact that your fans are more egocentric than ever?

Does Lady Gaga not realise her fans are more desperate than ever for colour and flair and uniqueness and originality to enter their lives, served up like a happy meal?

You think she doesn’t realise fans want to see the boldness, empowerment, expression she embodies? They are desperate to be represented by such an entity.

It’s that special sauce, it’s the same wherever you go. Have you got the special sauce?

What are you going to do to involve your fans to make them the star of the show? After 3 months with us, I’m already discussing this with artists. Involved fans are true fans, and true fans do your work for you of earning yet more fans, more attention that can be converted.

Fan remixes, videos and other content featuring fans own contributions are simple ways to activate fans egos.

But what can you sell them that can make them more caught up in the experience of attention? This is a major way this business is changing. I’ve built a business that caters to it, so how can you “sail with the current” and integrate this fundamental shift in fans behaviour into your business model?

Ideas and concepts like this is why musicians hire me. Musicians who harness these trends cleverly will be successful. Do you want to be successful? Well get some help because it’s a big wide world out there of people who all want their share so get some help.

Our services start from $250 p/mnonth for complete online music marketing and management. Email Kurbpromo@gmail.com with a website or a myspace we can see and we can chat, get on skype, and give your music career the edge.

]]> http://musicmarketingmanagement.com/2010/08/american-idols-sing-stars-guitar-heroes-the-changing-future-of-the-music-business/feed/ http://musicmarketingmanagement.com/2010/08/our-music-marketing-services-and-campaigns-in-the-future/ http://musicmarketingmanagement.com/2010/08/our-music-marketing-services-and-campaigns-in-the-future/#comments Sat, 14 Aug 2010 09:02:45 +0000 Matt @ Kurb http://musicmarketingmanagement.com/?p=865 It’s the future of kurb’s music marketing services! You can read my reflections on how it is I got lucky enough to be here in the last installment of the future of music marketing campaigns - now that I’ve found love for my music marketing services, what am I going to do with it.

How would I like to work with artists in the future so that we’re all happy, and all making money, putting out great entertainement, and all doing great work, that works?

That’s what I’m wondering about!

Wanna know more? it’s $250 p/month! kurbpromo@gmail.com - we can exchange skype details and chat!

Hi, I’m Matt from Kurb, my team and I offer a full and comprehensive online music marketing and music management solutions for artists at the cheapest price we can offer it without being swamped - it means artists get everything they need, websites, design, advertising, social media, video, youtube promotion, blogging, email management, business model development - AND you get to talk regularly one on one with me about what we can do for you, then we go away and do it. The equation is simple, it’s $250 for 12 hours per month; I can’t take everyone. So get in while it’s still cheap, you don’t get this level of service anywhere else for this price!

Just email me, Matt - kurbpromo@gmail.com, happy to talk to you over skype about what we offer. Why not email your website or myspace so I can take a look where you’re at and offer suggestions.

Oh the things you’ll see!

In the last post about our future music marketing services, I talked about my background, how years of hard work in music marketing, and so many mistakes had actrually set me up in a strong position to go forward in possibly new directions in the field of music marketing services and music marketing campaigns.

A lot of artists don’t accept having to put in years of work, waiting for the breakthrough. When I offer you a 3 month campaign, it’s only the beginning.

I may produce an information product, a $47 ebook with all my “secrets” in it, but I think in music, it’s so much about branding, and nuances, that artists need my personal input and experience helping their business to grow that’s why I charge $250 for the combination of consultation and implementation of music marketing services.

There’s a lot of great musicians out there who haven’t spent 5 years online devising smart business implementation and execution, that’s why artists need me.

I’ve just recently got an assistant so we can cope with up to a dozen clients at a time - that’s why places are so limited - remember I run 3 other online businesses, so I can’t spend all my time on artist management. But I do want to develop what we can offer and what we can do.

I don’t see the need to expand our client base. We just need to do more for the clients we have, and at the same time attract higher end clients who can benefit from our increased capacity and scope as we grow.

What started this article was a vision of me interviewing clients and forging ahead creating powerful content with clients, and connecting clients with contacts and creative actions that could truly benefit the artists I work for.

Two massive concepts in music marketing there: people who have the power to create awareness, and contributing seriously dynamic ideas to an artists music marketing campaign.

Of course this is possible when you’re chargin a premium and have been working with a client for over 6 months. Most clients come to me without nearly the platform and base of resources they’ll need to develop to really launch

What if you did make that contact? What if that video or blog post did go wildly viral? And you’re not even equipped to deal with it?

I’ve seen it happen to clients. Great, your story went viral, you picked up 600 new fans, but if you’d really been prepared and organised, that could of been 6000.

6000 fans who are serious on a newsletter is a serious chance to do some music business. That’s a stage where you want to be paying me a lot more than $250 per month to organise those fans.

You only need to get a $1 out of each one each month to have a serious career.

I don’t always make a lot of sense, but artists do need to have a little faith like a good entrepreneurial bootstrapping business person would - or at least be prepared to pay me to handle that part.

So where does it end? If a band I liked with really exciting ideas and openness came along and offered me US$1000 a week to be my exclusive client, yes I probably would shut up shop.

Instead of more clients, I will probably move toward less clients who pay more.

Yes the business itself and the services I offer will grow, but it will grow in terms of depth, rather than the breadth of customer base.

I could hire more assistants and take on dozens of clients, but the work becomes scrappy and unfocused, I need an assistant just to keep me up with all the music marketing campaigns we’re running.

If I had just 4 clients paying me $1000 a month, then I could focus on really strong material, but then the artists would have to be established enough to be able to afford that. But somethings gotta give, either the artists I work with will develop strong enough platforms to require more from me, a higher calibre of artists will begin approaching me, and finally the artists with deeper pockets will be signing on on the strength of my reputation.

So the result is, my services will continue to become less accessible. I already no longer have my mobile number on these blog posts, I’m not that desperate any more, and skype means I can connect with my clients better anyway.

The nature of my service will evolve also - more management and more administration is involved in organising a real business.

Here’s a nice snippet from a recent Bob Lefsetz post to get you looking forward to the future as much as I am!

The successful touring artists of today, the new guard, don’t bitch about online theft.  They know without free distribution to spread the word, they’re screwed.  They know that their calling card is their music, not their visuals.  They know that the audience has no concept of a release schedule.  You put out as much music as you feel like and your fans find it.  They know that the show can’t be static.  You can tour again and again in the same market as long as your show is different.  They know they’re in bed with their audience.  That unless you treat your fans right, you won’t grow.  They know every opportunity is not a good one.  Sometimes you’ve got to leave bread on the table, overexposure has a cost, that they shouldn’t do anything that can alienate their core.

Wanna know more? it’s $250 p/month! kurbpromo@gmail.com - we can exchange skype details and chat!

Wanna know more? it’s $250 p/month! kurbpromo@gmail.com - we can exchange skype details and chat!

Hi, I’m Matt from Kurb, my team and I offer a full and comprehensive online music marketing and music management solutions for artists at the cheapest price we can offer it without being swamped - it means artists get everything they need, websites, design, advertising, social media, video, youtube promotion, blogging, email management, business model development - AND you get to talk regularly one on one with me about what we can do for you, then we go away and do it. The equation is simple, it’s $250 for 12 hours per month; I can’t take everyone. So get in while it’s still cheap, you don’t get this level of service anywhere else for this price!

Just email me, Matt - kurbpromo@gmail.com, happy to talk to you over skype about what we offer. Why not email your website or myspace so I can take a look where you’re at and offer suggestions.

I’ve always been proud of the business model we’ve used at kurb promotions - not just because it’s different, but because I’ve had to keep striving to find exactly what it is that artists need to develop a strong presence online that leads to income.

4 years ago, my service was simply spamming myspace and uploading artist’s mp3’s to sites, that’s about it. But that was okay, because back then spamming myspace could actually do a lot of good things for a band’s music promotion, and I didn’t charge that much either.

But then came websites, blogs, search engine optimisation, online advertising, newsletters and everything.

At first I used an example of working based on how to make money online and applying that to the music business. Then when I started to make good money, I based a lot of my promotions model for artists on my own.

I tried to get more ambitious, but I already had a lot of experience dealing with musicians and their concerns, afterall I’d wasted a fair few years and a lot of money trying to get somewhere with my own music. But music wasn’t really my gift, it was only at 19 I decided that it might be important to me, and that is a little late in the game when so many have been preparing for performances all their life.

But of course these days in the music business it’s a marathon not a sprint.The business side of the music industry opens you up to a lot of truth and reality.

In the beginning I could only do what artists were willing to pay me to do, but now, I’m able to charge more as more artists are interested in our services, and I am able to be quite clearabout what is at stake here. Not everyone, not most everyone, just a tiny fraction will ever make it in music. If you’re not realistic about that then that’s not my problem. Go and buy an ebook and see where that takes you.

Every marketing guru I’ve followed would be pressing me to produce my own $47 ebook music coaching program, and I seriously considered it as I was getting quite fed up with how demanding artists would become.

What price fame? There’s so many ways to frame this question from a business perspective. If I was selling guaranteed fame I couldn’t charge less than $10,000 and even then it would probably be too cheap. But I don’t sell guaranteed anything, that’s not the business we’re in. Entertainment is more entrepreneurial than ever, and as I’ve maintained, the artist is now in control - and responsible - for their own independent music mangement and music marketing.

For only the tiny fraction will the angel or venture capitalists from the label descend to buy your soul from you, to replace the years of hard work you’d have to do by putting a whole lot of money behind you. I’m sorry there’s no substitute for hard work.

I’m lucky however, I’ve done a lot of the hard work over the last few years. For the first time I’ve had the pleasant suprise I’ve seeing things moving with unexpected momentum due to the fact that I’ve been clingingn on and pushing for just so long now, year after year. The only marketing I do, is writing this blog. It’s true.

But it’s important to me to do a good job, and also develop the potential of my music marketing services company. Too deliver the most value in artist promotions and artist management, and reap the reward.

That’s why where most music marketing consultants gravitate toward the model of launching their product because of it’s business sense, I believe my clients get amazing value because they’re talking to me on skype every week, and then I supervide the implementation of their whole music marketing campaign and music marketing strategy.

That’s huge.

So 2 forces will be coming into play: That my clients will gradually become established, their income streams will become established, and they will require more management and music marketing services from me and what’s more, a higher calibre of more established artists will approach me requiring the services I offer.

I already had a weird moment this year when consulting a client on publicists and slowly realising that these publicists didn’t know much more than I did.

You can’t charge $5,000 for going hype machine and emailing a track to every relevant blogger! I just sat their thinking, hell! I can do that with my team for $200! There are some guys in offices in New York, LA and London who will need to think seriously about the work they’re doing before guys like me can prove we can do just as good a job at a fraction of the price.

The next part of this blog is here! music marketing services in the future!

]]> http://musicmarketingmanagement.com/2010/08/the-future-of-our-music-marketing-campaigns-and-services/feed/ http://musicmarketingmanagement.com/2010/08/more-artist-tips-on-marketing-music-services/ http://musicmarketingmanagement.com/2010/08/more-artist-tips-on-marketing-music-services/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:46:27 +0000 Matt @ Kurb http://musicmarketingmanagement.com/?p=860 Alright, know the deal? No? I’m Matt from Kurb, my team and I offer a full and comprehensive online marketing and management solutions for artists at the cheapest price we can afford to offer it - it means you get everything you need, design, advertising, social media, video, blogging, you get to talk one on one with me about what we can do for you, then we go away and do it. The equation is simple, it’s $250 for 12 hours per month; I can’t take everyone. So get in while it’s still cheap.

Just email me, Matt - kurbpromo@gmail.com, happy to talk to you over skype about what we offer. Why not email your website or myspace so I can take a look where you’re at and offer suggestions.

I hope your web designer is smart about the functionality of your music website because a website can be as impressive to look at as you like and still not be effective for marketing.

That’s a good idea to create income streams outside of selling downloads or CD’s, exactly what I was talking about, how much you can rely on music sales really relies on how long term your approach is. Also outside of the northern/western regions, you can do what I do and cater to wealthier markets in the states / europe, and what they want.

We can offer social media marketing, but it so important to marry this with strong content to launch ideas such as competitions etc. also, I would add advertising to this because at least with advertising you’re on solid ground whereas social media can be so variable.

It’s one thing to have promotions going on myspace, facebook, twitter, youtube, but obviously you’ve got to be active.

With our more established clients, once the platform is established, there’s a cycle of issuing video content, a blog, newsletter, article marketing, repeating those themes in advertising material - so though we’re doing the promotion, and you guys are doing the day-to-day interaction and content, there is substantial content around a theme (such as competitions, new songs etc.) that both newer and longer term fans can check out.

We’ve done so many promotions where the artist isn’t really present and had nothing to present and it just doesn’t work.

for $500 we’d do 20 hours and for $1000 we’d do 50 hours. Most of our units for social media marketing, blogging, advertising are 5-15 hours. usually we do 10-20 hours on a client per month depending on what they need and what we’re available to accomplish.

5 hours would cover a promo video or a blog/newsletter/article marketing unit, and monthly basic social media promotions

10 hours would cover your advertising which I strongly recommend. With a credit card, I can secure you up to $150 credit included in that. So basically if you have a website and a credit card, this would be my main suggestion.

15 hours is our classic social media bomb, which is mainly numbers based, - I think that covers 1000 facebook likes, 1000 twitter followers 1000 myspace friends and 10,000 guarantedd views on youtube. This is a numbers based approach - you must remember these views and connections wont amount to anything unless you use them.

That’s where the video and blog units come in to provide content around which fans can comment, share, enter competitions etc.

Hope this is giving you some idea of what we can do.

you’re limited in a lot of ways by what you can do with free sites and you do have to be flexible when you’re developing your site for very specific outcomes.

It does a fine enough job of showcasing basic brand themes, but for the work you need done, more detail will be needed. When using strategies such as advertising, seo, etc you need to be able to amend and streamline the frontage, amend to your needs, in a way that is suitable for short term and long term promotion.

There are too many limitations when your promotion is not geared to your own site which you can develop on your own terms.

Again with your videos, and this would extend to a blog we set up, there needs to be more clarity to the presentation.

It’s great to have material for entertainment purposes I feel this should be developed, because it’s key to establishing a brand and a profile, but essentially your outcome is to create appeal where you’ll get work and opportunities in new line ups so that has to be key to how we approach broader strategy and the way that video content and blog content is framed.

There’s a balance between providing entertainment and branding for your profile, and then extending that for the kinds of opportunities you are looking for.

That’s why I would start by suggesting we start with a new website we can promote, and going forward from there. The site and the videos have are a start but will need to be polished before we’re ready to advertise, use other tactics, and get real traction.

We offer a full and comprehensive range of online music marketing packages and services - contact kurbpromo@gmail.com, let me see your website or myspace and we can jump on skype to chat.

So now I have a new PA I’ve got lots of time to try new things, rather than tinkering with the nuts and bolts of client campaigns. Clients are happy because every week their campaigns are going forward and there’s now room for ideas.

A cool website, ad campaign, social media presence, videos, newsletter, it’s all great but if you’re not doing something really interesting then enough people aren’t going to care.

Enough people care about me for me to do alright, but hey what if I cracked it big, if I proved I could an artist breakthrough? Is that what I want? Is that what you want to be a big time star?

Or do you just want to do alright like me? Well follow closely you’re only a few years behind me/

It’s as I always preach from example: Once you have your solid online platform in place you can start to launch fully realised concepts.

Oh wow, Matt.

Y’know do something decent, put some effort in. Once you’ve found something that works, you’ve got to focus us depth over breadth.

No, get me - you have outcomes, you need to build your core fanbase, you need to sell propositions to them both sides of the interaction in which you actually receive cash, you need to activate fans in new ways to do new things that support your outcomes.

How will you do that without ideas? Ideas that really motivate people to act. Ideas that will make your fans respond.

You have the website, it looks great, the campaign is all optimized, all that blogging and linkbuilding gets you nice results on google, your social media is thriving . . . you’re ready to inject something into the supply channel that will have everybody flipping out.

Again, it will take me at least $1000 and 4 or 5 months just to get your platform to this stage, for most artists. That’s totally straight up. Before you can even hope to launch a viral campaign that could work, you need to build that foundation, but once the channels are open, to your website to your content - through social media, ad campaigns, search engine authority, then you have the chance to get enough people caring that their reaction will be significant for you as an artist.

Then you can look to meet your outcomes.

My outcomes? I keep moving forward, I know I could be charging more still, but I can’t! I have to keep building but that’s lucky for you, because right now I mate not have any mindblowing content on youtube or on my blog or wherever, but you can still hire me and my team for $200 for 12 hours or $250 for 16 hours and we do just about everything you need to market your music online and make a business out of it.

I think that a lot of people who say that viral models can’t be reapplied haven’t heard of shakespeare. Basic elements of dramatic conventions can be applied in so many situations, it’s been done by hollywood for years, this creates entertainment for fans! This creates connection - well, now, you’re hollywood, or maybe you can have a shot at least with our help.

Talk to me, Matt at Kurb - kurbpromo@gmail.com to find out how the complete range of services we offer could help you move forward in developing a music career.

Happy to discuss upfront what we can do for you, send me a website or a myspace to look at and your skype ID so we can chat.

The costs are:

$200 p/month for 10 hours

$250 p/month for 15 hours

$300 p/month for 20 hours

Email: kurbpromo@gmail.com

we are super busy right now, hopefully if I can get my new staff up to speed I can have room to take on new projects - We’ve barely got enough positions available to cover the waiting list that has built up especially with old clients coming back.

Although only doing a  3 month campaign every time you’re releasing is not the smartest way to build momentum online.

One thing that’s awesome about having more staff here is now I don’t have to deal with annoying clients personally. How do you not be an annoying client? Educate yourself about online marketing and be realistic about where marketing efforts are taking you.

$500 is not a lot of money. It’s a step forward, but it’s only that, it’s a step. If we could guarantee results we could and I would charge 10 times what we do now. But this is the music industry and it’s all or nothing, the winners are few and those who tried and failed are many. Whether that’s what you want is up to you.

In some cases what I would suggest is rather the expense of monthly management that we look at particular projects.

For example, if you don’t have a website at all, this is one of a few things you’ll want to invest into establishing before getting serious about online promo.
So rather than saying $US200 for a months management, we’d say $US200 for website set up and design, and then take it from there, to the next step you’ll need.

That way you know what you’re getting and how much it will cost, it also means we can begin talking about what your long term plan is.

Selling downloads is a long term strategy. Short term, a strategy to give me $1000 just to possibly make $1000 back as an investment into your brand and overall exposure might be very different than putting emphasis on selling downloads. You’ve got to look at how the thing will work from a business perspective.

I’ve just hired a new assistant which means I’m able to take on a few more clients for now.

Well the basic $200 website appears as follows - here are 3 new clients websites we are currently developing now.

www.acediamond.info
www.mervmac.com
www.djthuyvu.com

As I said this is a basic set up in progress, plus a blog with a premium theme included, and your aweber email managment set up - if you’re looking to develop something more professional, you can then go on spend more building on top of this, we can bring in specialist developers to build thta for you.

With social networking, you do need a clear idea of what you’re trying to achieve and how you’re going to achieve it.

So many clients I’ve had have not really understood that social networking is not like other marketing campaigns, you actually have to be involved, and the best way to do that is to know what you’ll be doing.

A lot of clients give us $500, and we give them twitter followers, facebook friends, myspace friends, youtube views, but nothing comes of it because the artists are not taking the initiative. They’re not interacting and building relationships with the fanbase, they’re not offering value, and representing character.

This is where the website comes in, for sending fans from social networks to your website to learn more about you guys and to open other communication channels such as email for selling songs and promoting gigs, etc., stuff you can’t always do efficiently on social networks without a system such as we advocate in place.

We can get you the numbers, but you’re not going to get the best result unless you’re active in understanding how the channels work.

It is probably time to start thinking about new video also which specifically has a prompt in some way for fans to sign up for the list.

My new assistant will be ready to get stuck in to some jobs for you, doing affiliate set up and panels to offer fans different types of propositions that can lead to revenue for the artist, and processing all the written material you submit for newsletters, article marketing, and blogs so that’s all out of the way, and that’s in place building up the traffic that has already started coming through.

I’m just trying to get a grasp on the best way to promote giveways, perhaps we can develop a press release? maybe some more info regarding the songs? Even if you can put together a written piece based on the songs and the giveway, my assistant can take it from there.

So really, the main point for us to tackle next week is having a really strong written intro on the front page, i’d really like to work on the position of the “monthly giveaway” because we need that initial pitch to really entice the fans with value to sign up for email.

other than that, if you can give me some more info or written material about the song giveaway mentioned, that would be useful because it’s hard having my assistants work on things when I can’t give them clear instructions about the task.

What can we get done for you in 12-16 hours? Why don’t you ask, I consult artists on the full range of services we can offer to get your online music promotion moving and what is likely to be best for you.

Platform development? Brand development? Fan targeting? Fan engagement? Sales? Business Models? General online management?

We offer a full and comprehensive range of online music marketing packages and services - contact kurbpromo@gmail.com, let me see your website or myspace and we can jump on skype to chat.

It’s one thing to try and look as if you’ve made it “faking it to make it”. You might not follow my example but most of my moves are backed up by solid business, because an army marches on it’s stomach. You can’t keep rolling forward in this without cash.

Every musician needs a business man in their corner, that’s what I do. I always encourage artists to build foundations of business long term, but let’s face it, most artists are hopelessly romantic, and that stuff isn’t always quite so exciting as the ego rub of big numbers that everyone else can see.

I am usually always willing to listen and hear what an artist is trying to do, afterall, they’re paying me to help them, and I am trying to help them become responsible for maintaining their own career in the music business.

These days, I’m a little bit more vocal, with some of my clients I can be upfront. I always say that from my experience some strategies - like focus on youtube marketing rather than say, having really really good videos, don’t lead to sales. Video doesn’t really convert in terms of selling downloads. It’s great for exposure, but you’ve got to take that energy somewhere before you’re going to see financial return from it.

And sometimes I tell artists about how everything works so that they understand what is possible with the resources we have, then they understand what to expect.

I’m not so worried about artists working out my magic formula because let’s get real, there is no magic formula for artists in the music business.

There’s the resources available, and the best strategy for using those to connect you the musician with your audience.

Every artist and musician has strengths and weaknesses and in order to bring enough impact online you’re going to have to amplify that somehow, I am only part of that solution because even I can’t provide all the ingredients for success, you need a team of sharp people who are co-ordinated. That’s what a label was there to do for anyone who had enough talent to interest them.

Now artists are running free and all the musicians accustomed to the label hand that feeds them cannot survive in the wild. That’s why they come to someone like me, who hasn’t had a job in 9 years!! Because I’m sufficient on the ecosystem of the net, I understand it, I must have made at least a quarter million online in the last few years. Wow. Staggering really.

Here’s a tip, it takes more than a 3 month campaign. If you want to make a living online with what you’re doing, you need to be commited long term.

But what I am doing is trying to bring on more staff to get the situation straightened out. When I’ve got that situation under control, you’ll most likely be dealing with one of my people and we will take it from there.

With the online presence, it’s usually it’s two steps - first getting into the routine of social media and online content, and then stepping up to mini-campaigns that will draw fans in, where the content is based around a theme - for example, a new song is released, so activity on twitter, blogs, videos, ad campaigns, concepts that encourage fans to interact etc. will all tie in with that theme.

This often requires planning at least a month or so in advance, as the artist becomes more familiar with the requirements for a successful campaign, you can get more ambitious with what you’re attempting in terms of bringing in more fan sign ups or other responsive outcomes.

I can develop the mailing list, or you can handle that on your end, but we’ve got the professional platform, we know how to operate it, and fundamentally we’re using high performance autoresponders to craft a campaign that delivers over time – from artists, to their fans.

Usually I used to let the artist have free reign and the main strategy was usually based around social proofing, which I’m pretty sure I communicated to them and they understood were pretty limiting strategies, but it was their decision to pursue that direction.

What I mean is purely focusing on youtube views, myspace friends, twitter followers etc. for the sake of appearances. I also did some basic linkbuilding to improve the seo of his site.

This is not a pointless strategy as it doesn’t look good trying to launch an artist when appearances suggest they have no initial traction.

But I was always trying to suggest the importance of marrying this kind of social media promotion with content and campaigns that target and engage a smaller section of core fans.

I advocate a system where content from the artist goes over to us to deploy online, build links etc. First focusing on the quality of the content, and then having a distribution strategy in place.

Over time more complex campaigns of this nature can be developed.

Do you need music marketing services? We have recently increased our capacity and are able to take more clients. We have 2 packages: 12 hours for $200 or 16 hours for $250.

We offer a full and comprehensive range of online music marketing packages and services - contact kurbpromo@gmail.com, let me see your website or myspace and we can jump on skype to chat.

Packages start from $250 for 12 hours documented consultation and taskwork.

Services include web design and set up, online advertising, web promotion and search optimisation, fan management systems, social media marketing, content creation and promotion including video production, youtube video promotion and video marketing, copywriting, blogging and more . . .

We help you decide what could work, and then our team goes to work!

you just need to contact kurbpromo@gmail.com

Happy to discuss serious projects over skype.

Okay still working an a super kick ass script for our new music marketing sales video. I’ve done plenty before where I just kind of warbled on about stuff so now I’m really keen to kick it up to another level and really getting into the guts of what it is that we offer.

Because that’s what you’ll have to do. Hundreds of bands want fans to sign up for their sloppy ass slack jawed punk newsletter and buy a frickin T-shirt or merch, what are you saying to the fans that makes you different?

You’re in the same position I am. My videos make me suddenly real as a person to anyone who sees them, not just words on a page telling you what you SHOULD be doing. I am actually a guy you can pay $250 p/month to handle your online music marketing and business for you.

This is what fans connect to. Something real they can see, not just pretty websites and a song they only heard once from somebody they’ve never heard of.

But now I’ve got this opportunity what am I going to do with it? I’ve got to grab viewers attention by putting something on the table that will get them interested, but I also have to drive the message home of why people are going to be better off with me, what is it about what I’m offering that is special?

Basically the level of experience I offer and the depth resources available to me means what I charge is pretty low.

There’s no point bringing too much logic into it. No need to say that if I could prove that I could make people famous I’d be charging at least 10 x as much. No need to say that I know as much as anybody else at this stage of the music industry where everything is so changeable. Those are true but they are not helping me convey what I need to.

Why? Is the question. Why are you choosing kurb, why would I sign up for updates from your band? Why would I? What makes it so important?

You have to answer these questions and convey this stuff!

I know that I’ve continued to grow in this business, and artists who are smart can either come with me now, while I’m still cheap and still available to help them, or lose the opportunity now to actually take steps to building a solid foundation through online promotion and business, because when everyone knows things have changed you’ll no longer have that opportunity.

I know I will have moved on. If you know other guys who can help you with online stuff and are willing to help you, then great, give them $250 p/month, but otherwise, you need to contact me because there is virtually no way you’re going to cut through with out putting effort into being as smart as you can with online music marketing.

You need to back yourself all the way in music, but I’ve always had a pragmatic approach, I’m looking to leave artists I’ve worked with, even just for 3-6 months, with a platform optimised so that they can actually use it to build the results I have for myself in online business, by continuing to put effort into it.

I guess you could spend a lot more and get a lot less than our packages, but you can see how much thought I’m putting into coming up with ideas that will really hook people in and make them keen to know more about what I’m doing.

You only get one first impression, and remember, most artists out there are so boring and uninspiring, like me, you’ll see it doesn’t take much effort to stand out as just offering a little bit more than what they could expect from the normal music industry shark.

If you’ve got a strong message, you need an equally strong and clear way of communicating that.

If you haven’t found your message or the right way to get it across, maybe you might want to work on that before making your big music marketing proposal to your audience and future fans.

You must get over yourself. I know how you feel. The world is going to judge you. Of course they are, but we don’t care about the people who aren’t interested in what we’ve got to offer, because they don’t want to buy our stuff anyway!

We only a need a tiny portion of people who think our videos are cool to want to spend money on getting more and deeper into the experience you’re offering. It’s easy to do, it’s at the cultural cutting edge, the opportuity exists now to connect with fans so get into it and get some video done!

This week, next week, the week after, every week!

But first . . .

At Kurb Promotions we run an affordable music marketing service for artists so that everything they need to build a business online from their entertainment services and products is provided and catered to!

EMAIL: kurbpromo@gmail.com

Websites, design, youtube video production and promotion, newsletters, fan management, online advertising campaigns, publicity, social media, if it’s onine, we do it! It’s just $250 per month and that gets you 12 hours work.

That could get you 20,000 guaranteed youtube video views as part of online video promotion service! There are lots of different online music marketing strategies we offer!

Get in touch, we can talk on skype, whatever is suitable to your needs - just don’t forget you won’t get personal consultancy and development to this standard elsewhere at this price!

So today I am working on a new video to go right there on my right which is a good place for people visiting my site to check out my video.

In fact being such youtube heads as all are, just seeing a video and being too lazy to read all the writing, a lot of visitors would probably just go on ahead and start watching the video.

Now since we want to get through to our fans, and we’ve got to let them know what’s going on immediately

In my case that I offer special music marketing services and then I proceed to inform immediately on what makes those music marketing services so special.

I just don’t think you can hire anyone with my expertise at the prices I charge. The people who are as smart as me and smarter already have good gigs, they are not interested in taking on your music or your project for $250 a month. They’re not. They’ve got other bigger things on.

Or alternatively you could be ripped off by someone who doesn’t see the big picture for you as an artist. They want you to buy a whole lot of stuff, or your outsourcing to some guy who is proabably great in one area such as web design or social media, but doesn’t have the full picture. Is not able to talk to you about what you need to get your music to take off.

But I’m not going into all that. I need to say all that in one sentence, and then I need to get straight to the proposition. It’s $250 for a month. That’s what it is. Have you got $250?

But if this was your video as an entertainer, we wouldn’t be trying to sell something because it’s not based on scarcity, your market is completely different but the power of not mucking around and pushing the best proposition you can is going to get you on the way to building a fan base.

Believe me, if you’re unknown, or even if you’re getting heat, asking people to buy your album as your lead proposition is ridiculous when you are trying to build the biggest fan base possible and then use that to create a market.

Commonly you’re there to represent your brand and represent what you have to offer. It’s got to be at least a free song for download, it’s got to be something that grabs people enough to agree to making a connection with you and what you’re doing as an artist.

Remember you’re the creative one, I’m here to help you, and sure if you pay me more, I’ll come up with the ideas, but we’re always working on a budget here so you’ve got to get creative, innovative and think about what you can do with the resources you have, and the resources we can offer you - video production and marketing, animations, editing all that stuff.

The resources are their for you to come up with a great music marketing video intro that achieves the outcome of getting a new fan to accept your offer of free music or whatever in exchange for ongoing permission to interact - which opens the door later to more viral and potentially revenue gathering campaigns when the fan base is solid enough.

The video allows you to push out your music, to push out your brand, and to push the proposition to build fans by securing their email or even some social media contact. Any kind of connection you can then build on towards revenue generating activities, and in establishing this relationship, video is one of the most important to do this, because you can communicate a whole lot of important information that other human beings like to know about you before the sign up for just anything - and in a short time.

Next post I am going to be working on my script for my new #1 music marketing services sales video, the one I use to hit new visitors to the site who are serious prospects for expanding my “core fanbase” or clientele.

youtube promotion