How many fans do you have on Facebook?  It’s a simple question.  Anyone can see (or perceive) just how popular you are by taking a quick glance at the number.  What’s fascinating though is how artists get to that number and, most importantly, how engaged that fanbase is.

Let’s imagine you’ve got 10,000 fans on Facebook.  Somehow you’ve gotten 10k people to click the little “like” button.  They’ve indicated some type of interest, they’re intrigued by your music, they love your fashion sense, or that oh-so-witty meme you reposted.  Great!

Now … a week later, are they still interested?  How about a month from now?  How about when you’re ready to release that second album? [READ MORE]

Whenever I speak at colleges, I explain how marketing music isn’t the same as marketing any physical/tangible product.  If you’re trying to market a pencil, you want people to know about its quality, how well it writes, and that it’s an abundantly functional product ideal for all pencil-based activities.  The judgment call you make is a logical, functional one:  I like this pencil, it is better than the other pencils.  I will use it.

Music, on the other hand, isn’t judged the same way.  With rare exception (Blackwing 602s), music gets judged based upon emotional responses:  this song makes me happy.  This song makes me think of my boyfriend.  This song inspired me.  Naturally, this makes the music marketer’s job much harder.  Not to mention that so many musicians are self-managed, self-recorded, and self-promoted in a way you rarely see with physical products.   The big music marketing conclusion then becomes this:

The music industry is like going to a casino.  Sometimes you put in a quarter and end up with a million bucks.  But sometimes you put in a million bucks and end up with a quarter.  

If you sit down at a slot machine, you have no control over the outcome.  The best you can do is rely on the eventual odds that you’ll win.  Sometimes it happens in a few spins, sometimes it takes hundreds.  Understandably, it’s frustrating.  You want to somehow equate the amount of time and resources spent to your eventual outcome.  You’ll say things like “I spent a million bucks, why don’t I have a Grammy yet?”  or “I’ve been plunking quarters in this machine for 3 hours, when’s it going to pay out?!”  But that’s not how it works.   The solution, while not guaranteed, is still quite simple: [READ MORE]

It’s 2013 now.  We’re compelled by marketing law to do one of those New Year style blog posts.  If we don’t, we’re going to end up in marketing hell — which incidentally is filled with clip art and Groupon deals for pottery classes and auto detailing.  So without any hype and blinking lights, here’s our big advice for 2013: [READ MORE]

About a hundred years ago,  sheet music publishers got mightily pissed off.  The invention of the record player revolutionized music consumption.  Prior to this new technology, you’d buy the sheet music and learn to play songs yourself.  But now you could set up a machine in your house and play professionally recorded albums by popular recording artists and full bands — even orchestras!  In your living room!    Suddenly the value proposition was out of balance:  sheet music wasn’t as appealing or valued as records.   [READ MORE]

I get all kinds of email at D.I.-Why.  Most of it comes from artists that want to get their foothold in the music biz.  They’re about to release an album and they want to sell a kajillion copies, get rich, and never work again.  Other artists are looking for an angle toward licensing and placement, because “that’s where the money is.”  Still others are simply looking to build buzz toward an undefined goal.  Maybe it’s fame, maybe it’s money, maybe it’s the desire to disrupt the status quo.  I prefer the latter, but that’s another story … [READ MORE]