I just finished doing a video interview with some nice gents from Australia. One of the topics they asked me about was Music Marketing for Indie Musicians. I realized while I was answering the questions that so many of the music marketing techniques I was recommending are common sense things we often overlook unless reminded.

Your instinct – or should I say reflex  – is often to market music in a way that feels like it would appeal to you. But you aren’t the potential buyer, and may not be objective when judging the effectiveness. So the first step is to identify exactly who your most likely buyer is.

How old is he? Is he actually a she? What is his life like? What does he like to do in his spare time? Where does he do it? Who does he hang out with? What kind of radio station does he listen to? Does he go to clubs to hear live music? How does he buy music? How old or young is he or she?

Music Marketing Segmentation

That’s really just a fancy way of saying that you need to identify the types of people who will buy your music. It would be extremely rare to find any music (other than the Beatles) that has across the board appeal. Demographics and psychographics matter for all forms of marketing – even music marketing! Your audience represents a marketing segment, which you need to identify and concentrate on with a relentless passion.

Once you’ve done some serious thinking and identified your target market segment, you need to answer one central question that all consumers ask when confronted with any sort of pitch. “What’s in it for me?”

Very little else matters if you can’t answer that question, and you better answer it well!

What is in it for the potential buyer? Are you in a genre that he or she likes? How is your music a cut above? What makes your music accessible, yet unique? Are you able to describe your music in a way that quickly makes it easy for your potential customer to imagine what he or she will hear?

Yes, you need an “elevator pitch,” and a really good one at that! To simply say, “My music is awesome and you’ll love it,” isn’t enough. If you told a potential buyer, “My music is similar to Taylor Swift but with male vocals,” the buyer would instantly know what it is and decide if he or she is interested in learning more or hearing it.

Marketing Your Music is Really Just a Conversation

Once you get the right people to listen to your music, you need to keep them engaged. Invite them into your life. Help them get to know you. Post session videos on YouTube. Post videos of your shows, your road trips in the van, and whatever else you can think of that makes your listeners become fans. The more they know you, the more they will feel like they discovered you, and want to share their new discovery.

Write a blog. Keep it relevant. Talk about your songs. Tell your readers what inspired you to write each one. Ask your readers to interact with you. Which of your songs do they think are the best? The answer might surprise you and that could be valuable information that helps you sell more music

Follow up with the people who buy your music. If you capture an email address for your purchasers, send them a short thank you email. Give them a chance to opt in to your email list. Ask them politely, and let them know that you’ll respect their privacy by not sharing their info.

Don’t hammer them over the head trying to sell them more music right away. Let them get to know you a bit, then politely ask them to buy more. Asking for the sale is something many creative people have a hard time doing. People are afraid to sell because they worry that the potential buyer won’t like them any more.

Selling Your Music

If you’re selling something they’ll love, then you’re actually doing them a favor by making them aware that they can buy it! Think about it – don’t you only get disgusted by people trying to sell you what you don’t want? If somebody tries to sell you a handy 8-track recording studio for your iPhone would you hate him or her? Not likely, because it’s something that might benefit you.

Marketing Your Music with Search Engines

Search Engine Optimization or SEO has become critically important. How many times a day do you use Google? So does everybody else! It’s your job to make sure that any and all the web pages that have your music on them are visible to all the search engines. It’s also important to do everything you can to get on the first page when the search result comes back.

I don’t have enough room here to teach you everything you need to know about SEO, but it’s not as hard as you think and you really need to know who to do the basics. Taking just one weekend to read SEO Made Simple by Michael Fleischner.

But remember, all the SEO in the world won’t help you much unless you are effective in figuring out how to categorize your music in simple, common terms that consumers would naturally use in conversation and when using a search engine. “Indie Country Pop” is a pretty good example. Click the link and see where you’d be if you titled your sound, web page and your genre as Indie Country Pop.

Let’s try something more specific this time. Search Google for “Acoustic love songs for weddings.” How would you like to have your song appear on the first page for that term? Think you’d sell any music? You bet!

More Music Marketing Advice

There are plenty of people offering advice on how to market your music. Some is good, some not so good. Most songwriters and artists don’t do any music marketing other than building a MySpace page and putting their music on CDBaby and other online music retailers. If you use any of the techniques I’ve described above, you should be head and shoulders above your competition. Effective music marketing is an ongoing pursuit. If you tend your garden regularly, it will flourish.

“What Are Film & TV Music Supervisors Looking For?” Songwriters, artists and especially composers ask me that question all the time. I’m going to give you the answer in a minute. Be forewarned, you might not take me seriously because it’s so incredibly easy!

Remember when your parents told you not to watch too much TV because it kills brain cells? Well, that might be true for the average person, but maybe not for musicians who want to know what Film and TV Music Supervisors are looking for. It might even be, well… downright educational.

There’s no better way to figure out what kind of music the supervisors need than to watch and hear what kind of music they actually use! I’ve been preaching this for years, but very few people seem to have listened. The success of those who have listened has been obvious.

The road maps are out there, and there are clearly different maps for different destinations. Reality TV tends to have its own sound, dramas have another, comedies another and so on. All you really have to do is turn up the volume a bit, listen past the dialog and take notes. Yes, I said take notes!

I know, I know… you thought you had finished school. Well, I promise you this education will be more fun than high school even was, and I guarantee there aren’t any bullies in the hallways waiting to stuff you in a locker.

Set aside just one hour per night to do your “homework.” Make sure you watch at least two of each type of show or movie and write your research down.

How many instrumental cues overall? Did any similarities pop out? Which genres? Instrumentation?

How many tracks were songs with lyrics? What subjects were the lyrics about? Which genres? Male or female vocals predominant?

What types of scenes did each play in? How long did each piece run?

Was the music in the clear or under dialog? Was it a background piece, did it appear to come from a source (like a jukebox in a bar scene), or was it featured performance (like a band playing in a bar) with no dialog over it?

Was the music current sounding or did it sound like it came from a particular time period like the 70s?

After doing this for a couple of weeks, you’ll have enough data build a spreadsheet and probably start to see some patterns forming. The trick is to find the patterns and types of music that best match your skill set. In other words, if you’re a little weak at writing lyrics, then maybe you’d be better off concentrating on instrumentals.

Common sense, right? Sometimes those things are easier to see when somebody else points them out. The next time you wonder what Film and TV Music Supervisors are looking for all you need to do is go watch some TV to figure it out.

You can also sign up to get FREE updates of TAXI’s Industry Listings so you can see exactly what TV and Film Music Supervisors are looking for every two weeks.

Good luck!

How to Produce Better Recordings and Mixes in Your Home Studio

TAXI TV live with Rob Chiarelli, Mixer, Producer, Engineer and Re-mixer who has made more than 70 Gold and Platinum Records with artists like Ray Charles, Madonna, LeAnn Rimes, Kelly Clarkson,  Coolio, The Temptations, Diana Ross and many, many, MANY more! His Advanced Production class at the Road Rally is a huge hit every year. See Rob’s THREE-page discography.

Jeff Greenleaf shows up in the Success Stories section of our Forum quite often. Want to know how he’s used TAXI to build his fast-growing success?

How to improve your odds of writing a hit song.  It’s part art, with some science that can dramatically increase your odds of writing a chart busting hit.  Ralph Murphy is  a leading expert on this melding of art and science.

TAXI founder Michael Laskow interviews Networking in the New Music Business author Dan Kimpel about presenting yourself as a professional in the music business.

“Is TAXI.com Legit, a Ripoff, or a Scam?”

I see this question in many blogs and forums on the Internet, and it can most easily be answered by clicking this link;

http://forums.taxi.com/taxi-success-stories-f7.html?sid=83a018e72b01f7def67ded698395641e

Here, you’ll see TAXI members who are signing deals and getting Film and TV Placements posting success stories in their own words – no editing, no advertising, just the plain old truth from current TAXI members.

So, why do other musicians post stories about their lack of success using TAXI? Why weren’t they successful using TAXI is big question! If the successful songwriters and artists are using the exact same company and services that the unsuccessful TAXI members are using, what’s the key difference?

Logic tells you that if they are both using TAXI, but some are successful and others aren’t, that the variable isn’t TAXI at all – that’s the one thing that is constant!

So the variables must be:

1)    The quality of the music they are submitting

2)    How well they are targeting their submissions

3)    How well they’re using TAXI’s feedback to help them improve their music and make better choices when making song submissions to TAXI’s A&R staff.

Again, it makes common sense that if some are successful and some are not, then the variable isn’t TAXI at all!

Obviously, not all of the songwriters, artists and composers who join TAXI have great music. But it’s hard to imagine that they are going to make an online post that says, “I wasn’t successful using TAXI, but it was my fault for making music that was less than top notch.”

It’s also hard to imagine a musician saying, “TAXI didn’t work for me, but it was my fault for not reading their Industry Listings carefully and pitching the right music for the right opportunities.”

And finally, some people find it difficult to hear truthful feedback about their music and not take it personally. That’s easy to understand. Creating music is very personal, and there’s also that feeling of, “It’s finished and I don’t want to go back and work at making it better,” or, “I’ve already pressed a thousand CDs and I can’t go back and change it.” In both cases, it’s probably easier to blame the messenger – TAXI.

If you’re thinking about joining TAXI and you’ve read negative comments on the Internet or heard a fellow musician make negative remarks, consider the source, consider the quality of their music, consider their willingness to work hard on their music, and then go to our public forum and post this question; “Does TAXI deliver on what it promises?”

TAXI is not a magic bullet and we don’t promise overnight success. But, as you’ll see by reading the TAXI members’ success stories in their own, unedited words, TAXI works really well for the people who use it well.

And yes, it’s the same exact service that doesn’t work for others. All things TAXI being equal, it’s up to you to determine how well TAXI will work for you.

And do us a little favor will you? The next time you see a forum or blog post telling you that TAXI is a scam, a rip off, or isn’t legitimate, please post a link to our unedited Success Stories Forum so other deserving songwriters, artists and composers can hear the truth, straight from the horse’s mouth. Thanks!

P.S. You can also read more about successful TAXI members on this page!

Learn exactly what Broadcast Quality Music is and what it sounds like. Hear examples and see TV commercials that have really simple one-instrument music beds that earned their creators thousands of dollars. Virtually anyone with a home studio can easily make Broadcast Quality Recordings.

Also answering these questions:

• Can I earn money with Instrumentals and Songs?

• How long should my tracks be?

• What are “Universal Lyrics?”

• Do my tracks need to be “Mastered” to be competitive?

• What is a “Buttoned Ending,” and do I need one?

• How much money can I make?

• What do I need to do to start earning money from Film and TV Placements?