Kurb indie music promotions

If you do this in a creative way, (“We sound like the Incredible Hulk having sex.”) - you can intrigue people and make them want your CD, or want to come to your next show. Whereas if you had said, “Everything” - then you didn't make a fan.

person asks you, “What kind of music do you do?”
Musicians say, “All styles. Everything.”

That person then asks, “So who do you sound like?”
Musicians say, “Nobody. We're totally unique. Like nothing you've ever heard before.”

What does that person do?
Nothing. They might make a vague promise to check you out sometime. Then they walk on, and forget about you! Why??? You didn't arouse their curiosity! You violated a HUGE rule of self-promotion! Bad bad bad!

Get yourself a magic key phrase that describes what you sound like. Try out a few different ones, until you see which one always gets the best reaction from strangers. Use it. Have it ready at a moment's notice. It doesn't have to narrow what you do at all. Any of those three examples I use above could sound like anything. And that's just the point - if you have a magic phrase that describes your music in curious but vague terms, you can make total strangers start wondering about you.

But whatever you do, stay away from the words “everything”, “nothing”, “all styles”, and “totally unique”.

Think of it from the other person's point of view: Imagine you saw someone with a business card that said, “President - Some Company, Inc.” You say, “What kind of business do you do?” - and they say, “Oh, I don't know. It's not like anything. I can't describe it. You'll just have to check it out! We're about 20 minutes down that road, and we're only open next Thursday from 11 to 12 at night.”

Would you really get in your car and spend a Thursday night to check it out, if they couldn't even tell you WHY you should? No! Think how many people you're losing when you describe your music in a boring, or generic way.

When writing their description, musicians often say “The members grew up in Boston and met in high school. After the bassist left to pursue another career, they found a replacement who has solidified the lineup as it stands today. They regularly play the local club scene.”

Imagine a computer store saying, “Our VP of finance graduated from Penn State. We found our office manager through an employment agency. After our initial marketing director left, we solidified our lineup as it stands today.”

Think what an office-worker would say to a friend about your music: “It's cute! They have this song that has a little ”hoop-hoop!“ at the beginning, with that baby voice. It's kinda funky! And he's got this sexy bedroom voice. Cool video.”

Think what one teenager down at the mall would say to another, when describing what they love about your CD: “Dude - it's like if Korn hadn't wimped out. It's like Busta Rhymes went metal, but they're from Mars or somethin. It's slammin. And you gotta see that picture on the inside cover!”

Let's say you've decided that your style of music should be proudly called “powerpop”.

If you say, “We're powerpop!” in the very first sentence or paragraph all of your marketing.
If your email address is “powerpop@yahoo.com”
If your album title is “Powerpop Drip and Drop”
If the license plate on your band van is “POWRPOP”

Well then... when someone comes into my record store and says they like powerpop, guess who I'm going to tell them to buy? Have the confidence to find your niche, define who you are, then declare it again and again and again and again. If you do it persistently enough, you will OWN that niche. People will not be able to imagine that niche without you.

(You can try to make your own, if you're brave. You might be “the best techno-opera artist in the world”.)

Define yourself.
Show your weirdness.
Bring out all your quirks.

Your public persona, the image you show to the world, should be an extreme version of yourself.

Proudly say what you're NOT: “If you like Celine Dion, you'll hate us.” ...and people who hate Celine Dion will love you, or at least give you a chance. You can't please everyone in this world. Recklessly exclude people.

Almost like you're the doorman at an exclusive club that plays only your music. Maybe you wouldn't let in anyone wearing a suit. Maybe you wouldn't let in anyone without a suit!

But know who you are, and have the confidence that somewhere out there, there's a little niche of people that would like your kind of music. They may only be 1% of the population. But 1% of the world is 65 million people! Loudly leave out 99% of the world. When someone in your target 1% hears you excluding the part of the population they already feel alienated from, they'll be drawn to you.

Write down a list of artists who you don't like, and whose fans probably wouldn't like you. Use that.

There is a vodka company that advertises itself as The Most Expensive Vodka You Can Buy. I'll bet they're very successful with it. It's almost a dare. (And it proudly excludes people!)

Other companies are all trying to find ways to be the cheapest, and someone had the guts to decide that they were going to do exactly the opposite of everyone else.There are some people who read the Billboard charts, and try to imitate the current trends and styles. I suggest, even as an experiment, strongly declaring that you are something totally UN-trendy - the opposite from what everyone else wants or is trying to be.

Perhaps you could advertise your live show as, “The most boring concert you'll ever see.”

Perhaps you want to call your music, “The most un-catchy, difficult to remember, un-danceable music you've ever heard.”

Or tell the music industry, “This music has no hit potential whatsoever.”

I'll bet you get their attention. It's almost a dare.

BEING WELL ROUNDED WONT CUT IT

Imagine the world's attention as a big foggy cloud. So thick you could cut it with a knife.

You want to cut through that foggy cloud, to call attention to your music.

Only problem is, if you're well-rounded, you can't cut through anything. You need to be sharp as a knife. Sharply defined.

Example: Your name is Mary and you put out an album called “My Songs”, and the cover is a picture of your face. The music is good quality, songs about your life, and when people ask what kind of music you do, you say “Oh, everything. All styles.”. You send the album out to be reviewed and nothing much happens. Doors aren't opening.

Imagine instead: Your name is Mary and you write 9 songs about food. You put out an album called “Sushi, Souffle, and Seven Other Songs about Food”. Maybe you recorded your vocals in the kitchen. Maybe you quit cooking school to be a musician. Yes it's a silly example, you see how this would be MUCH easier to promote.

You may be thinking, “But I have so much to offer the world, I can't just limit myself like that!” If you want to increase your chances of the world hearing your music at all, though, strongly consider stretching-out your musicial offerings to the world, and keeping each album focused clearly on one aspect of your music.

Notice the long careers of David Bowie, Madonna, Miles Davis, Paul Simon, and Elvis Costello to name a few. Each went through sharply-defined phases, treating each album as a project with a defined mission.

Here's some top-sellers at CD Baby:

Eileen Quinn. She's a full-time sailor. She writes songs about sailing. That's it. Five albums of them. And sailors LOVE it. She gets written-up in sailing magazines all the time.

Rondellus. Sabbatum. A traditional medieval music group from Estonia doing an album of Black Sabbath songs played on medieval instruments and sung in Latin.

4th25. American soldiers in Iraq wrote and recorded an album in their barracks on a cheap computer with a $100 mic, about what it's like to be over there at war.

Each of these albums got a LOT of press and a lot of sales, because they were sharply-defined, newsworthy, interesting to write about, easy to tell friends about.

Did you ever see the movie “The Player”?

Hundreds of screenwriters in Hollywood are pitching their movie ideas to the studio executive. Each one has about 5 seconds to impress him. The ONE sentence they use to describe their story decides whether the studio will read it or not.

You need to come up with one good sentence to describe your music. It has one goal : MAKE PEOPLE CURIOUS.

It should not try to describe every note of music you'll ever make. It should not try to justify your existence on Earth. It only has to describe your music just-enough to make people curious to hear it.

I described my band as “a cross between James Brown and the Beatles”. Of course not everything I did sounded exactly like that, but that phrase was just-enough to make hundreds of people want to hear more. I would see it work, every day, as I told it to people. You'd watch their eyes look up, watch their face change as they tried to imagine a cross between James Brown and the Beatles. Then they'd say, “Wow - I have to hear this!”. And that's all I wanted.

The shorter, the better. Give them one good sentence (a few good words), and stop talking. Let them imagine the rest.

How do you come up with one good phrase to describe your music? Here are some ideas:

Email everyone you know (especially your fans), saying you're trying to come up with a single phrase to describe your music, and ask their help. Maybe make it a contest.
Notice what's most unique about you. Do your songs have a recurring theme? Unusual instrumentation?
Find a few 14-year-old kids, and treat them to pizza if they'll sit and listen to a few songs, and describe it for you while waiting for the pizza to arrive.
Read a music magazine that's describing other people's music you've never heard before. Notice which phrases make YOU curious to hear more.
Offer to pay a music writer to help you. This is what they do for a living.
When you've got one you like, start trying it out on people. Watch their face. See if it lights-up. See if they get curious.

When you've got a great one, you'll know it. Use it for years and years.