A well maintained and growing email list is a mighty tool. Why? Because it provides a quick and easy way to keep in front of your adoring fans, and it is absolutely FREE.

The sad thing is most artists drop the ball on building this marketing powerhouse. So, in an effort to stop this atrocity, I decided to give you four simple and effective tactics to build that list.

1. Migidy Mic Check…

Your standing on stage, maybe the beach balls are floating atop the crowd, or the mosh pit has attracted the state police, or maybe the fans are singing so loud you can’t hear your stage monitors. Whatever your situation, the fact of the matter is that you have human beings sitting right in front of you, hanging off of your every word, wanting to become your fans.

Do you realize the power of this moment? Right now your audience is focused on one thing – you. And as hard as it may be to believe, at this very moment, more than anything else, they want more of you. How do you give them what they want? Speak up and offer to get connected.

Tell your audience in your own genuine words that your email list is the way you stay connected to your fans. It is how you pass on latest news and how you notify of your upcoming gigs.

Simple and effective. Do not let one gig pass without asking your fans to get connected.

2. Give it away now…

Ok, you know the value of seizing the moment while you’re at the microphone, now lets make signing up a little more enticing.

Do you like free stuff? Who doesn’t? We are suckers for trinkets and giveaways. Now just imagine if you were to offer your fans an opportunity to get something more valuable than a mere trinket. What if you offered them the opportunity to win one of your T-shirts or autographed CDs, or [wait for it…] Both! Oh my, the pandemonium, the crowd goes nuts.

How would this work? Simply hold a contest where the entry form is a piece of paper that asks for your fan’s first name and email address. It’s that simple. You exchange the chance to win one CD (your cost under $2) and a T-shirt (your cost around $5) in exchange for the email address of the members of your audience. If the cost of giving away a few pieces of much merch bothers you, just think of the value of only one new fan dragging a friend to your next show, shelling out two covers charges, selling a t-shirt to the friend and both of them telling others at work about their experience… Lets move on.

3. Something Of Value

Ask yourself what the real objective of the contest mentioned above is? Let me tell you plainly, the objective is to mutually exchange something of value. You offer something of value to your fans in exchange for something of value to you. A surprisingly high value item to your fans is a simple old-fashioned newsletter. You know, the thing with silly facts and stories about you? Offer this gem in exchange for something of value to you – your fan’s email address. This is an easy sell because you need their email address to send the newsletter right? It is a natural win-win situation so use it.

4. Point of Sale

Now were at the end of the show and people are flocking to your merch table. Your latest self-titled CD is flying off the shelf. Your fans are even picking up that illegible sticker that was designed by your crazy cousin Fred. Are you going to just let them walk away without offering them the chance to stay connected to the band that they just layed down their hard earned cash to buy a recording of?

You have a perfect opportunity while you are counting out their change to “ask them” to sign your concert connection and stay connected to the band. What’s the worse they can do, say no?

There you go four tactics you can use tonight to pack fans into your mighty email list. That should get you going. Remember it is the simple and effective tactics performed flawlessly over and over that make you successful. Don’t miss a beat and watch that email list grow.

Nobody’s Buying What They’re Told to Anymore

The Big Labels

The big labels are having a hard time selling CDs. They are panicking because they put a lot of cash into producing, marketing and promoting new releases and the masses aren’t biting. An associate of mine got signed to a record deal last year. The whole package cost the label about six hundred thousand big ones to produce and promote the whole thing and they have only sold about a thousand CDs so far. The music industry is getting nervous. Why do you think this is happening? The answer is simple: the Internet.

The Internet

The Internet has become the greatest sales tool since the radio. It offers you an inexpensive way to promote, distribute and market your own CDs and gives you the opportunity to make much more profit per CD than you ever could any other way. There are millions of music lovers surfing the Web every day searching for music that they want to discover all by themselves. They don’t want to be told what to listen to and buy anymore. There will always be the mainstream market and Tower Records will stay on the street corner. But, let’s face it: the Internet offers consumers many more choices, plus the option of listening before they buy anything. You can also browse for hours in your underwear without a clerk calling the cops.

Choices

A friend of mine who happens to be one of the greatest guitarists around (he’ll get mad at me if I tell you who) and has also been signed to a major label for the last ten years just lost his contract. As I said before, CDs aren’t selling, so artists are losing their contracts right and left. He has the option of shopping around for another contract and could get one without a doubt, but he has decided to do the whole thing himself. His logic is this: he has a big fan base so he can still sell a bunch of CDs without a major label. Granted, he won’t be able to sell as many as he could with a big company promoting every release, but he doesn’t need to.

I’ll tell you why. When he was releasing CDs signed to a major label, he was only making about 6% on every CD he sold. By releasing it himself, he makes more like 80% profit. The more CDs he makes and sells, the higher his profit margin will be. Even if he sells only half of what he has in the past, he’ll still make much more money. A ton more.

Artistic Differences

Prince also did the same thing. The reason I can mention his name is because I don’t personally know him. I never discussed this with him and I don’t know the specific details (so forgive me if I am not completely accurate), but from what I understand the whole thing started because Prince, being the creative genius he is, wanted to release a lot more material on every CD than the record label wanted him to. I guess the record label’s logic is that, the more songs there are on the CD, the more packaging you need: more plastic, more paper. All these things cost more money and cut into their profit margin. Prince probably just wanted to release CDs that suited his artistic needs and at the same time gave his fans what he assumed they wanted, more Prince per CD.

Obviously they couldn’t meet eye to eye. Since he already had an enormous fan base, he decided to do his own releases. Prince is a true pioneer. Record companies aren’t in the game to create art; they are in it for money. They are very particular about what kind of songs you write, how many minutes each song is, and the order of the songs and the mix of the recording. For these reasons, “true artists” have a hard time dealing with producers whom the label decides are best for them. If you don’t want to be told what to do, doing it yourself is a great option. With the advent of the Internet, this is becoming an easier undertaking.

How to Promote Your CD

Gigs

This is an easy way to sell your CDs. Bring ‘em to your gigs, set ‘em up and just take cash on the spot. Or, leave some at the register so people can buy one on the way out. You may want to offer a cut to the club you are playing at. Make sure to mention your CDs during your set, and don’t forget to point people to your site for information on your band and concert schedule.

Marketing

Without a major deal you will have a rough time selling CDs in stores. You won’t have the money for promotion and distributors won’t touch anything under five thousand units. If you want to get your CDs in some stores you will have to think of some different marketing strategies.

This is what I did. I went around to some small music schools. You know, the kind that are inside music stores. I offered them 25% on every sale. All they had to do is play the CD in the waiting room when people where waiting for their lessons. Without a doubt the students would ask whose CD was playing. When they found out they could buy it, a lot of them would. It is a “win win” situation for everyone involved and only sets me back 25% on each sale. To put it in a CD shop would set me back between 50% and 60% for distribution and the cut that the store takes.

I also pay the musicians on my CD a distribution charge of 25% on each CD that they personally sell. I don’t mind letting them make a little money on the deal because, as I said before, I’m making enough profit on the CD to not care too much.

Another thing I did was tie up with an effect maker. HAO, a maker of great stomp boxes, asked me to record a CD demonstrating their distortion boxes. Rather than take money for my studio time, I offered my services for free in exchange for a few hundred CDs that I give away from my site or guitar9.com when anyone buys my new CD, “Prospects.”

Try to figure out whom you can team up with as a marketing partner. How about a restaurant, car wash, veterinarian, or your local church.

Your Site

Important Features

The next thing to do is to get your site up and going. Your site must have three important features: a way to sell your CDs, a way to point people to your gigs where they can buy your CDs, and last but not least, a reason for people to visit your site and leave with a CD ordered or a memo in their schedule book to go to your gig next Friday.

Sell From Your Site

One super easy and cost-effective way of selling from your site is to use PayPal. This system allows visitors to buy from your site using a credit card. PayPal simply charges you a small percentage and credits the rest to your account. You will have to mail each CD out, but can get your girlfriend to do that for you. Another way is to send them to an Internet CD shop that will do everything for you for a slightly larger cut. I’ll get into this a little later on.

Point People to Your Gigs

This is easy. Post your concert schedule. It helps to include the time, door charge, and address and phone number of the club. I would also link to the club’s site if they have one.

Reason to Visit

Since no one is promoting you, you’re going to have to attract visitors to your site. You are going to have to find a way to make people who don’t know anything about you want to become your fan and start a lasting relationship with you through your site. This is what I did: I put my knowledge of the guitar and experience as a teacher to work. I offer free guitar lessons on my site. I cover a bunch of different subjects such as music theory, scale and chord patterns, etc.

This is what usually happens. Someone sitting at home is having trouble sleeping because he is confused about the Phrygian scale. He heard someone say that this scale works nicely over a certain kind of dominant chord and can’t figure out why. He goes over to his trusty computer with his guitar in hand and punches into his favorite search engine, “phrygian scale over dominant chords.”

Low and behold, a link pops up for my website. He visits, finds the information he needs, may even e-mail with a question which I will, without fail, e-mail a reply to. He may even listen to one of my tunes, come to one of my gigs, or even buy one of my CDs. To be honest, I don’t even mind if he doesn’t buy one. I made a friend in the deal and helped an aspiring musician in the process. What could be more rewarding? I have people asking me questions from all over the world, from Russia to Hong Kong and everywhere in between. Spreading knowledge about the guitar is the niche that I fill with my humble site.

Internet CD Shops

If you don’t want to deal with mailing CDs out to different parts of the world you can use an Internet CD store. I use guitar9.com and CDbaby.com. All you have to do is mail a bunch of CDs to them, and they will sell them and send a check to you from time to time. All you have to do is link from your site to your page on their site and the whole thing comes together pretty easily.

The best thing about using a site like one of these is that music lovers browse through, searching for the undiscovered gem and may, by chance, discover you! I can’t tell you how rewarding it is when someone I never met in a country I have never been to, buys one of my CDs because he found me in a Web store, listened to a track or two, found something that connected with him in the music that is very much connected with me, and parted with money that he probably worked very hard for. If I were signed to a major label, the whole thing would probably be a lot less rewarding.

Net Networking

You will want to promote your site by networking. Link from as many sites as you can. I write Articles (just like this one) for different sites from to time to time. No money changes hands but the whole thing works out because the website gets material and I get free promotion. It also helps me get my writing skills in order and organize my ideas on various subjects. Send your CD to Internet radio stations and music review sites.

A Word on Recording

The same computer technology that made the internet possible has also made recording simple and inexpensive. Ten years ago, not only did you have no place to market, promote and sell your CD, you also had no way to record it without spending some real cash. Computer technology has inspired thousands of engineers to open up studios in their houses or in other small spaces and you can get yourself recorded for a fraction of the cost these days because of this. As I said in one of my last Articles; no matter where you decide to record, make sure you are prepared before you go to the studio. The big and small studios both charge by the hour so make sure you have it together. If you want to research this subject a little more, check out my friend David Chambelin’s site: http://www.dbwproductions.com/ He produces and records various artists for a very reasonable price. He’ll even arrange your stuff and play on it for you. His site offers advice on how to prepare for your session.

Have Fun

The whole thing is a blast. You have nobody to blame if you can’t sell any CDs, and that’s part of the adventure. You get a chance to use your head, grow in the process and make friends around the world. What could be better than this?

So you have got yourself a great group put together. Everyone knows the songs inside and out. You have acquired all the equipment you need to gig. The van is tuned and ready for action. Your bass is polished and the new strings shine. You found some great looking stage clothes. 2 brand new rolls of ducktape are on standby.

What’s wrong with this picture? The phone is not ringing. Why?

The “Life Blood” of a band, any band, is advertising!! I’m sure you have heard the saying “Any press, even bad press, is good.” Why? If you can get people to hear about you, say your name, talk about you over coffee, without hurting anyone or committing a crime, this is “good”.

The times, they are a – changing

Tougher D.W.I. laws, boomers getting older, gas prices way to high, the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, whatever the reason, people are not going out to listen to bands like they did 10 years ago. Everybody you know, and their cousin, has a band. The number of clubs supporting live music are dwindling. Karioke A.K.A. Crapioke, and D.J.’s are hiring on at much lower prices and bumping us out on the streets. How can you compete?

Advertise!

When Payday Daddy gigs, every gig, we are constantly selling ourselves. Not only through the music we play, and the stage show we do, but we always push our name. On every table, in every club, for every gig, is our full schedule. This shows where we will be for the next year. The phone number of every club is listed on the bottom of the page. This way, if someone wants to come out and see you again, but they are not sure where that club is, they can call for directions. Chances are, if they had to take the time to look it up, or call information, they wouldn’t do it. Also, on the schedule, our webpage address. The website has the full schedule, always updated, easily accessible. Also included is our email address and home phone number. This allows your adoring fans to get in touch with you in whatever way is easiest for them. You must be willing to be available.

The mailing list

This is a very expensive, time consuming endeavor, but it will pay off. Doing a mailing list involves work, a lot of work, for someone. Along with your schedule, you will want to include your “Mailing list sign-up form”. And you will need to remind the people, many times, that it’s there and what it will do for them. First off, it will allow them to be “First in line” on any changes in your calendar. It will make them one of the “Elite few”, and they will like that idea. So, what you need to do is make you up some forms, 6 to a page works great, and what it consists of is their name, address, and zip code. Very easy stuff. Once you have their valuable information, you need to get a good program such as ” My Mailing List”, and enter the info there. Every 2 months or so, you will send a postcard to the mailing list folks. This is a card stock paper, that is available a places like “Kinko’s” or “Minuteman”. I take in my master copy, and have them print it up and cut it for a very good price. The work and cost comes in the stamps @ .20 each, address labels, and your return address stamp. We deduct $20.00 from every gig to help support the mailing list. This way, no one person is out of pocket more than the others. Make sure you don’t forget to change the address on the cards that come back to you, or delete them out completely if they have moved to the ends of the earth.

Posters

Posters should be put up a couple of weeks (ideally) before you play that club. That gives ample time for people to see you, and your name. Put them up yourself, if you can. That way, you know it will get done. Sometimes, you will have to rely on the club to do it for you. If this is the case, call them and follow it up. Chances are, if you don’t, those really cool posters will sit on the contacts desk, and sit, and sit. If you can afford it, go all out on your poster. After all, it represents you, and you want to make a good impression, right? Nothing looks worse than a badly photocopied picture. Include the dates and start times on your posters, and hang up a couple extras if you can. Some will be damaged, torn down, ripped, or even stolen.

Newspapers

Introduce yourself, in person, along with your schedule, photo, and a bio to the “Entertainment Section” person as soon as you can. Be polite and professional. This person can be your best friend in the advertising game. Ask them to please run your photo along with a write-up on where you will be playing. If they do it for you, call them and thank them. A little appreciation can go a long way. Don’t expect them to run your photo more than a few times a year, if you are lucky. This is why you are doing all this other stuff. Contact them the week before your gigs, to remind them of where you are going to be, club’s address and phone number, and if there will be a cover, and how much.

I hope this has inspired you to really go out and push for your group. If the people don’t know where you are, they won’t come, and you won’t be hired back. Don’t count on the clubs to do it for you, they won’t. That’s why it’s so important to do it yourself. Good luck!!

The first thing they will see is the packaging you sent your promo in. If it has coffee stains or bacon grease on it, you might as well go back to bed. It will end up in the garbage can. What happens after you mail it is no reflection on you, but if it’s nasty when you send it, you have made a fatal error. I buy large padded mailing envelopes at Office Depot. You can purchase a dozen for about $10.00. These have sufficient size and padding to prevent damage to your CD or band photo. I have often thought it would be a good idea to use more colorful envelopes, which are available. But these don’t offer as much padding and are more costly. The choice is yours.

I use report covers to hold Payday Daddy’s promo info. These look clean, neat and professional. The first page is a cover page. It has our band logo, and also shows we were voted the #1 Band in West Puget Sound for 5 years. This is the first thing the owner will see – this is our first impression.

The second page is a letter of introduction combined with a band bio. We combined the two because, as I said earlier, you don’t have time to mess around. You may only get a minute, so pack all you can into the smallest space possible.

Most word processors have a letterhead you can use, or you may want to create your own. Payday Daddy’s letterhead has the name of the group and contact information: the manager’s name (me), address, phone numbers, email, fax, website, and mp3 site.

If you know the name of the contact, start your letter with the name and address:

Bob Smith
Picks or Fingers Club
100 Fender Way
Activebass, Cyberspace
99999
(111) 111-1111

(Fill in the following blanks with your band’s info.)
Dear Mr. Smith:
This letter is to introduce you to our band, Payday Daddy. We are a 4 piece group that plays Rock and Roll covers and originals. We pride ourselves on putting on a great show, and we always make sure the audience has a memorable time whenever they see us. We have a mailing list with over 500 people, and we do whatever we can to promote ourselves at any club we play. 

(Hopefully, you have a mailing list. This is good information that the club needs to see. If you don’t, please see my article “Getting the gig and keeping the job” and “How to advertise yourselfand your band.” These go into more detail.)

The next section should be about the members of the group. For example, “Lesa McCabe on bass and lead vocals; Kent McCabe on rhythm guitar, harmonica and vocals; Richard Arriola on lead guitar, guitar synth and vocals; and Mike Craig on drums and vocals.”

Be sure to add your business card to this page. Use a paper clip. Do NOT staple it on! No, no, no. Tacky.

If you have any kudos you can brag about, this is the place for them. Here are some of ours: we opened 2 shows for Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1999. We won the “Best Band in West Sound Award” for 5 years. We have 3 CDs, and 2 are getting radio airplay. Facts like these look wonderful. This gets the club thinking, “Hey, these guys MUST be good. Look at all this STUFF!”

Next in your promo should be newspaper stories and other Articles about your band. (If you don’t have any, see my other Articles for help.) Follow this with a band photo. Black and white is standard, but I like to add a color one also. And last but not least, include your band’s promo CD. This should be a 4 to 6 song CD, as the club will not listen to more than a few seconds of each song. Throwing in a 38 song collection would be a waste of your time and money. Instead, pick 5 of your best tunes, and get a good recording for each. This is where a trip to a studio will pay off. If everyone shares in the price, it won’t be so bad. Go in prepared, so you won’t be spending hours going over that one drum part at a cost of $40 an hour.

After you send your promo to the club you really want to play at, give it a few days and call your contact. Good luck!