Bob Baker's The Buzz Factor
Music marketing tips and self-promotion ideas for independent songwriters, musicians and bands.
Bob Baker's Indie Music Promotion Blog
News, notes and ideas on music marketing, self-promotion, artist empowerment and more
May 16, 2008
Go Straight to the Fan!
A new blog post by Bob Lefsetz echoes the direct "focus on fans" mantra I've been preaching for years. Here's an excerpt that addresses the age-old need artists have to "get the word out there":
"Realize the focus should not be on the media, but the fan. Just like the Internet rid the music business of the need to manufacture and ship, this same Net allows an act to forgo interacting with the media, to go straight to the fan. You must go straight to the fan."
Here's another gem I highly endorse:
"A Website is no longer just a repository of information, it's the front door to your fan club. You may be a musician, but second to that, you're running a club. You have to spread the word on your music, you have to create demand for your tour."
That's right. You're no longer simply an artist. You're also a community builder, a party planner, and a social director all rolled into one.
-Bob
P.S. I'm not suggested you should ignore the media. In fact, I'm doing a three-hour workshop on effective music publicity June 1 in LA. The real lesson here is that all your marketing efforts are for the sole purpose of attracting fans and building relationships with them.
Register now and get discounted tickets!
Check out Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook, the classic guide to indie music promotion. Now revised and updated, with four new chapters on Internet and Web 2.0 music marketing.
Did you enjoy this blog post? Subscribe now and get all of my newest ideas delivered by email or RSS feed. Learn how here.
posted by Bob Baker @ 9:11 AM 2 comments
Feed Me
What About Bob?
Bob Baker is an author, indie musician and former music magazine editor dedicated to showing musicians of all kinds how to get exposure, connect with fans, sell more CDs, and increase their incomes.
Bob's Books
Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook:
201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Song-
writers, Musicians and Bands on a Budget
55 Ways to Promote & Sell Your Book on the Internet
A easy-to-read overview of online marketing
- Killer Music Press Kits
- 70 Ways to Promote & Sell Your Music on the Internet
- Music Marketing & Publicity Crash Courses
- Indie Music PR Bootcamp
- Killer Music Web Sites
- How to Triple Your Music Income This Year
- Online Music PR Hot List
- How to Make a Living as a Full-Time Musician
- Do-It-Yourself Internet Music PR & Publicity
- How to Use Video to Promote Your Music Online
- How to Publish Your Own Indie Book
FREE Music Tips Ezine
- Get Bob's Free Music Marketing Tips by Email. Find out more.
Connect with Bob on
Reprint Rights
- Click here if you'd like to run some of Bob's posts on your own blog, web site or e-zine.
Previous Posts
- Tweeting Tenaciously on Twitter
- Twitter: I Get It Now (and So Should You)
- How to Create News Hooks and Story Ideas the Music...
- What Could You Learn From a Nashville Hit Songwrit...
- The Oprah Winfrey & Jerry Springer Guide to Person...
- Tom Jackson Joins Indie Buzz Bootcamp Lineup
- Internet Music Marketing: New Podcast
- Passive Music Income & Fan Choices
- MySpace Haters & Corporate Conspiracies
- 'MySpace Music' to Take On iTunes
Favorite Music Blogs
- Derek Sivers
- David Hooper
- Andrew Dubber
- Music Think Tank
- Ariel Hyatt
- Artists House Music
- Musicians Cooler
- GarageSpin
- Bob Lefsetz
- Hypebot
- Music Industry Report
Copyright 2004-2010 Bob Baker
Bob,
Good point about how artists must promote more than their music, i.e. role in community, national, and international concerns. Let me add the following in light of financial pressures facing record labels today. The real value of an artist today is more in the value of what the band/he/she offers to fans, communities, consumers, business, etc. at large, as opposed to their music. Labels can then market the complete package.
I agree with Stephen's point and with Bob's post above with two caveats:
1. Yes, an artist's music may have become less important in terms of the recorded music stored on CD and marketed via a large corporate distribution network, but in a sense looking at the artist's role as communicator and at his/her music as their means of communication the music has never been so important. In that sense nothing has changed.
2. Though the "new media" has added considerably to the role of the artist in promoting his/her music, in a sense this is a return to the way things have always been. Many people do not think about the fact that before the advent of the modern record industry these are percisely the kinds of things artists always had to do to promote their music with or without the Internet.