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Content tagged with marketing

Why your Facebook Friends Hate You!

facebook unfriends dislike You know that Facebook page you always check in on? The one that has interesting updates, good videos, great blogs and cool pictures? You know that one that even if you don’t see an update on your main page, you will still type in that page just to check in?

Now how about this for another set of questions…you know that page you can’t stand? The one that puts up the worst stuff, over posts, has those multiple repeat posts of the same updated two to four times, spams you with show schedules, invites to groups over and over again, excess hype and other annoying updates?

And for whatever reason, you have you have not unfriended them. Whether it is being nice or feeling guilty or maybe you have unfriended them and they added you again and you accepted them. Maybe you keep them as a friend but you block them and honestly have no idea what they are up to.

Now the real question.

Which one are you?

You know those people and hopefully you aren’t one of them…The ones that brag about having this many followers, this many friends and this many connections and yet they wonder why they aren’t getting people to their shows or selling their music and merchandise?

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What would you say? Your bio and one liner being most effective for the music business.

So in coming up with the bio, the tag line, the one liner or any aspect of a description of your band, your sound or your live show, what do you say and even better yet, do you say that regardless of who you are in front of?

I'll be back one linerA great deal of the consulting I do for artists on the promotional content level often starts with the bio. The bio is a pain, creating a strong professional and solid one is even more of a challenge.

There are a few basic rules about using the right keywords, the right comparisons and the right bullet points to attract people and the press to you, but the ground work and foundation comes from the continuity and finding that right phrase, tag line, bio or whatever to stand by across the board. You want to be confident, assertive and strong but an excess of arrogance and and ego can hurt you in the end.

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Market Your Indie Band by Offering Your Music for Free

The process is overwhelming to complete an EP or full-length album for independent artists. Another difficult aspect is letting music fans know that the EP or album exists. Experts suggest that bands need to execute the basics – practice, tour and generate a fan base.

Creating a presence online is a different story. You can upload tracks to websites that generate links, so you can send the generated links to independent music blogs and post them on your websites and social media profiles. Be sure to display links to online stores where you are currently selling your music.

How about giving your music away for free?

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Have You Thought About Investing in Independent Artists?

With common investment opportunities considered questionable moves these days, why not add the indie music industry to your portfolio?

Major labels can offer limited contracts to bands and fulfill their dream of being the next big thing. Actual profit numbers have said to be minimal. The costs of practice space, studio time, producing, mixing, etc., have been taking from artist’s payouts from the labels.

Home studios offer more affordable producing and mixing services and can provide greater profits for those involved.

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Is Your Indie Band’s Presence Strong on Search Engines?

Generating an online presence is something that has been ignored by bands that we search for when we look for information on new independent artists. Indie bands and artists generally have one or two sites that they have signed up on, but there’s a lack of vital information.

Since all of the social media sites are free, why aren’t artists taking advantage of this free marketing opportunity?

Your band’s website should be dominating the first page of search results for your project’s name. All of the social media and music websites should be right under it, fighting to take up the first page.

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Indie Artists: Keep Your Social Media Profiles Unified

We receive many submissions from independent artists and bands who want to be featured, but they leave out important information about their projects. So we research their website, blogs and social media profiles to see if we can put the missing pieces together in a timely matter.

Unfortunately, we regularly find that bands are inconsistent with updating their social network accounts. Their websites offer outdated information or just don’t offer the basic information a fan or news/feature writer would be looking for.

Running a band is like a business and keeping your marketing cohesive is important to your exposure.

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Did You Waste Money on a Customized Myspace Profile?

Unfortunately, many bands have relied on social networks to be their hub for information, instead of purchasing a website. One of the popular strategies I’ve seen is buying a URL and directing it to a customized Myspace profile.  Are you one of these cases? Well say good-bye to your layout.

Myspace has sent out an email notifying artists that their profiles will be upgraded to their new theme. All profiles will be upgraded by Nov. 29, 2010. I like how they sugar-coat it with encouraging statistics.

Over a million artists have already upgraded and seen increased engagement around song plays, video plays, photo views — all the things that are important to you. We’re now going to be upgrading ALL artists on Myspace to the new profile over the coming weeks.

Thanks for the warm notice Myspace, but what about the artists who paid to have their profiles customized? It seems like they are left out in the cold on this move.  What happens if you don’t upgrade your page?

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Top Seven Reasons Why Artists Strongly Resist Social Media

Ariel Hyatt founded Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR and her firm has worked with over 1,000 musicians and bands of all genres. Her company is now 100% digital and helps artists increase their online exposure. Sign Up here:http://www.arielpublicity.com. Follow Hyatt on Twitter @cyberpr.

It happened a few weeks ago in Australia.  I was standing at the opening cocktail reception for APRA’s Song Summit Music Conference overlooking Darling Harbor in Sydney, and I was chatting with a perfect stranger (who it turns out is a very famous Australian musician with quite a few top 10 hits in Oz).  Noting my foreign accent he asks “What brings you here?” “I teach artists about online marketing and social media.”  I answer sheepishly, because this news is not always met with elated enthusiasm.

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