Let’s set the scenario. You have a band. You’re performing on a, hopefully, regular basis. You’ve decided you and the band are going to DIY’it for a while and handle the marketing activities yourselves. You’ve set up a website and created accounts for social media marketing tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc. Ok, so far so good.
But, now you’re thinking, where do I go from here. We’ll get into more details in future articles but for now I wanted to highlight several excellent resources to guide you in your music marketing. These are by no means the only resources available (and I’m sure I’ve missed several good ones) but I can personally vouch for the books or blogs listed below.
1.) “How To’s” for using your Website and Social Media tools (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)
Ariel Hyatt and Carla Lynne Hall have written an excellent book, Musician’s Roadmap to Facebook and Twitter, guiding musicians, or any business owner for that matter, through using the power of the web and the tools available for building awareness, connecting with your community, and creating “Calls to Action”.
2.) Engaging Marketing Ideas
Some of the best books on music marketing tactics have been written by Bob Baker. Two of his classics are Guerilla Music Marketing Handbook as well as Guerilla Music Marketing, Encore Edition.
Bob has been in the music business for several years and teaches a Music Marketing class through Berklee Music online program, which I highly recommend.
3.) Developing “eye popping” Content and Engaging your Fans
Content Rules, by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman is one of my favorite books that I’ve read dealing with online marketing. It gives several great examples of how to create content, what not to do, and examples of what businesses have done to to engage and inspire their customers or followers.
You may also want to subscribe to their newsletter at Marketing Profs for other marketing ideas or information.
4.) The Ultimate Tour Handbook
Tour: Smart by Martin Atkins is considered by many to be the “bible” of music touring. It has tons of advice from industry leaders who have “been there, done that” giving advice on how to prepare for a tour and what pitfalls to avoid. Don’t leave home without it !
5.) Great DIY Tool and Advice
The Topspin platform has been much discussed as soon as it was launched. They now feature a Berklee Music Online course to help guide you through concepts surrounding DIY music marketing and use of the Topspin platform.
Whether you use the platform or not I would highly recommend you follow Topspin’s blog and read some of their case studies. They are very willing to share the information they’ve learned over the years concerning music marketing and connecting to your fan base.
6.) Learning from Industry Leader
Artists House Music is an awesome site that has loads of industry interviews across a wide variety of topics. This should be a frequent stop for you to learn from industry experts and those that have many years of music business experience.
7.) Awesome Music Business Blogs
Here’s a few other blogs that feature a lot of different articles about music marketing or the business side. You’ll learn a lot from staying in touch with these sites:
What other resources have you found extremely valuable in marketing your music business? Let us know and share with others.
>
