February

7 Ways to Destroy Your Music Career

Posted In: Band Management, Career Building, Marketing & Promotion, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

In our last post, I gave you the Secrets to NOT Getting Booked for a Gig. Today I ran across a post on Bob Baker’s Music Promotion Blog that I would be completely remiss if I didn’t share with you all.

7 Ways to Destroy Your Music Career

It’s a humorous take on the practices that keep bands and musicians in failure mode. Shamefully, I can say that I’ve been guilty of a few of these myself in the past. I still struggle with a couple in particular.

How many of these have you been guilty of?

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July

2

SEO and Your Band

Posted In: Marketing & Promotion, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

If you’ve created a web presence for your business or have done any research into online marketing, you’re probably familiar with the term SEO. If you’re an independent musician or a new band, however, SEO may be something you know nothing about. If you do your homework, it can help propel you or your band to “household name” status. If ignored, it can leave you in relative obscurity.

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. At first thought, you may be wondering why a band would care about a search engine, but consider the following scenario. Someone types your band name or a related keyword into Google. Are they more likely to click a link on the first few results pages? Or will they wade through fifteen or twenty to find you? You can bet, given our instant-gratification society, the’ll move on if they don’t find what they’re looking for fairly quickly. That’s where SEO comes in. You try to guarantee that you’ll be at the top of the list when someone searches for you or something about you.

So, how does SEO work? Different search engines have different rules for rankings and placement. However, there are some tricks that help your rankings, and there are pitfalls to avoid that will hinder them.

Three Things to Do:

1.) Obtain as many outside links (i.e. on other sites) to your site as possible. Some ways to do this are by listing your band on directories, with reciprocal links, and by leaving legitimate comments on blogs and social media that contain a link to your site.

2.) Add keywords to your content. Use discriptive words that you think your fans might use to search for you…or someone like you.

3.) Update your site with fresh content often. Search engines prefer sites that requently display new content. Blogs are a great example of this concept, and search engines love blogs.

Three Things to Avoid:

1.) Sites built entirely of flash. Search engines make more sense of regular HTML. In flash, content can often be embedded deeply within the code, causing search engine spiders (programs that crawl the web looking for relevant content) to give up and move on.

2.) Sites built entirely of images. Spiders need text in order to determine if your content is relevant. While links within your site improve ranking somewhat, search engines prefer text links to links that are images. So, instead of having your band name or link as a graphic, consider having it as text, which can be read by search engine spiders.

3.) Spamming. We all know spam in the email variety. However, there are other forms of spam as well. Comment spamming is leaving a comment on a blog or forum solely so you can drop a link to your website. If you’re going to leave comment, make sure it’s relevant and not just “Great post!”. The practice of content spamming is an easy way to get blacklisted. There’s also Keyword Spamming, which is stuffing your site so full of keywords that there’s very little actual content. This practice can actually hurt you with search engines like Google, which penalize keyword spammers by lowering their search ranking.

In today’s music industry, a web presence is a must. Keep these SEO principles in mind as you build a site for you or your band and you will see your search ranking, and hopefully your popularity, improve!

These are just a few tips that I’ve found useful in my SEO endeavors. For more information on marketing yourself online, check out my friend Brandon Eley’s book, Online Marketing Inside and Out.

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June

19

Can You Answer this Essential Question About Your Music?

Posted In: Band Management, Marketing & Promotion, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

Part of what I do at Butler Productions is to help fledgling bands get started, whether it’s with demos, albums, or management, or just to give some advice. When bands approach me looking for a producer, for management, or for consultation services, there’s one question that I always ask when we get started: “Can you define your sound?” While that sounds like an easy enough question, I bet you’d be surprised at many groups’ inability to tell me effectively what they sound like. I’ll get responses like, “we’re a rock band.” Worse yet, I’ll get, “it’s hard to describe.” Or, worst of all, the ever-dreaded, “we’re versatile.” The answer to this question often holds the key to a band’s future.

Why Define Your Sound

I’ve learned (the hard way), when I was in a touring band that was shopping for a record deal, that labels look for bands that fit a narrowly-defined niche or sound. When you’re asked the question, “what do you sound like,” they want to know how easily you can be marketed. Say “We’re versatile,” and you’ll quickly get shown the door. I can hear you saying, “Isn’t versatile good?” Very simply, no. Labels aren’t looking for acts to fit into multiple genres. They’re looking for acts that fit into one primary category–easy to define, easy to market.

The same rule applies for bands who are trying to get gigs. Club owners want to know specifically what style you perform. Most of all, they want to know if you will appeal to their crowd. Narrowly focusing your sound also helps you as a band know which clubs to try and, more importantly, which ones will be a waste of your time. You wouldn’t play death metal in a honky-tonk country bar. The outcome could get ugly.

Your Pitch

Marketers tell small business owners to develop a 30-second elevator speech. These are concise descriptions of your business and products. Simply, it tells who you are and what you do. This tactic is a vital one for musicians and bands as well. Your music is your business, right? Use the speech to describe your style, sound, and similar bands. Also tell them how strong your fan base is, or how many of your loyal fans you can (realistically) put into their club. Labels and clubs are far less concerned with your artistry than with how much money you can make for them. When you begin describing yourself in these terms, you begin speaking their language. That’s when doors start to open.

Where to begin

If you don’t know where to start in identifying your sound, try asking your friends or fans. Then reflect on which artists or bands you closely resemble. Having a comparison to a popular or easily identifiable group is a good thing. For example, I’m currently working with a hard rock/metal band that describes themselves as thus: “Iron Maiden with the vocals of Disturbed”. Now that paints a vivid mental picture for any club or an A&R person.

Here are a few of helpful books about marketing yourself as a musician:

For more information, consultation, or other production services, contact Butler Productions. We’ll be glad to help.

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