Gain some exposure and do some good

11/26/2009

0 Comments

 
Many musicians can gain useful exposure by doing good. Especially, with the holidays around the corner it's a great time to be thinking about ideas of ways you or your band can align what you're doing with music with a good cause that can help others. The result is doing good for others and as a by-product you/your band can also gain some useful exposure.

There are several charities that could use some extra help furthering their cause, whether it's raising money or clothing items or food. These organizations always seem to really ramp up during the holiday season. So, your band could offer to put on a performance allowing those who bring a canned good free admission to the show instead of paying the cover charge. Then donating the food items to a local food pantry. Or you volunteer to perform for the Salvation Army while manning one of their red collection buckets outside of a store around the holidays to collect donations. There are several ideas--be creative.

The idea is to sincerely want to help others using your talent. By doing so you can publicize your efforts on your social media sites, your web site, send a notice to your email list to try to get your fans involved with giving. By doing good and letting others know how to get involved and help out you'll increase your own exposure in a positive way. You may even get some news coverage in your local area. Plus, and the most important part, is that you'll feel good that you're using your talents to help the community.


Nick Venturella's sites: music site and business blog site

Check out Nick Venturella's archived Examiner.com articles
Add Comment
 

Thanksgiving

11/24/2009

0 Comments

 
It's that time of year once again...time to give thanks for the good things in our lives.  It's also time for good food, and usually lots of it.

I definitely suggest taking a brief moment, at least quietly to yourself, to think about what you're thankful for.  I know for me this past year has been filled with a lot transitions, a new addition to the family, and some tough circumstances to get through.  However, I'm grateful for a loving family and the good things they bring to my life.

Times have been tough this past year for many with the state of the economy, among other things, but certainly don't forget the good things.  Unfortunately, negative things in our lives carry more weight than the positive things, so it's often easy to forget the good stuff.  Make sure you remind yourself and others about the positive things.  We could all use more of those.

Take care, and have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
-Nick
Add Comment
 

Invest in self-promotion

11/17/2009

0 Comments

 
One of the biggest dilemmas of independent musicians is the ability to promote their craft on a larger scale. Perhaps, a larger problem is finding the resources (a.k.a. money) to create a big promotional bang that produces measurable results.

However, an issue that is raised is the old adage, "you need to spend money to make money." Now, the music business, or your craft in particular, should not only focus on or be all about the money, but if you're a professional musician earning an income from your craft it is something that you'll have to deal with some time or another.

What I'm really talking about is that independent musicians are all too often not willing to spend much, if any, money on promoting their craft. For example, many musicians will spend a healthy amount of money on a new guitar or some other piece of gear, but he/she won't spend $50.00 on music promotion. It's great if you have that awesome piece of gear that you just had to have, but who cares if you don't have any fans at your shows because you're too cheap to pay for an email service to regularly email your fans about upcoming events.

The point is, if you're going to spend money developing your music career put the lion's share of your budget into marketing and promotion...no matter how big your budget is.

Here are some reasonably priced, yet high impact things you can do to help your promotion...

  • Get a good email service to regularly stay connected to the fans on your email list. There are several out there that offer reasonable rates. FanBridge offers some of the lowest I've seen, and they have great service designed specifically for musicians.
     
  • You need the free social media sites as part of your web presence these days, but do get a hosted web site that has a web address that is just your band or name. It's helpful to have an online "homebase" for fans to find you, or to work outward from--list the social networking sites you can be found on from your main site.
     
  • If you're home recordings of your band's music just don't sound the way you want then pool money from each member of the band and get to a studio or a friend who knows how to record better than you and get at least 3 songs recorded well and to your liking...I guarantee you if it doesn't sound right to you, it won't sound right to others.
     
  • Designing a band logo, flyers and posters...if you don't have a friend who is good with design software and you're not very good at it yourself, again pool some of your money together from the band and hire a designer, even a design student, to put together a nice logo for your band so others can easily identify your band when they see it. Also have a designer put together a design that could be used for posters, flyers, and maybe even T-shirts.
The point is, the music is the easy part, it's much harder to share that music with a larger audience.  To find that larger audience, and help them find you, you have to invest in some things that will help further your cause. The alternative is spinning your wheels and wondering why you're not getting where you want to go.

Nick Venturella's sites: music site and business blog site

Check out Nick Venturella's archived Examiner.com articles
Add Comment
 

Why don't more companies run this way

11/06/2009

2 Comments

 
I recently read a profile of Jason Fried in Inc. Magazine (Nov. 2009 issue).  Fried runs the company 37Signals, which you may know as the creators of the popular online collaboration and project management software, Basecamp.

37Signals is technically based in Chicago, IL, though they employ folks in across the nation and even other countries.  What struck me as completely refreshing was Fried's philosophies regarding meetings and a 40 hour work week, among other things.

I personally identified with the way Fried approaches work and his dislike for time-wasting meetings, and the micromanaging constraints of a 40 hour work week.  Fried's thoughts are that meetings are a waste of time...his example was that if you have 10 employees in a meeting for one hour that's 10 hours of wasted productivity because you've pulled 10 people away from what they were doing for an hour.  Also, Fried mentioned that he doesn't much care for how many hours his employees work a week as long as the work gets done.  That said he's completely fine with the idea that employees can work from home or at their Chicago office, or both, etc.  He also doesn't seem to care if employees work during regular business hours or not.

The idea that Jason Fried doesn't seem to want to impose typical work day structures in his company that might hinder creativity and productivity is a sentiment that I think could benefit many other companies.

Perhaps your employees would be more creative and productive if they had less of a traditionally structured work day.  Certainly something to think about.
2 Comments
 

6 ways to boost your bands exposure in tough times

11/01/2009

0 Comments

 
6 ways to boost your bands exposure in tough times
(these tips were written by Nick Venturella and appeared in music marketer Bob Baker’s e-book, How to Recession-Proof Your Music Career )

1. Look into booking better-paying gigs. Always easier said than done, I know, but college shows and corporate gatherings (conferences, etc.) often have a budget for bringing in entertainment that tends to be higher than that of a bar or club venue. That makes such a show more worth your while financially. However, you need to make sure this is a good fit for you and the music you create. Plus, there is usually a lot longer lead time to book these kinds of shows.

2. With the power of the Internet, you can create short videos, or even audio recordings, that act as teasers to longer versions of those videos/audio recordings. The teasers could drive traffic back to your web site, where fans can buy the longer versions as a digital download.

3. Use the Internet to regroup and engage your audience more online. Blog a bit more, and simply ask your fans in what ways they would enjoy experiencing you/your music in these tough economic times that is impacting everyone. Then figure out which ideas you can actually pull off, and deliver them as best you can. This can help you find a solution to survive the tough economy while firming up your connection with your fans by delivering what they’ve asked for in a Web 2.0 way.

4. Simply make those rare recordings (B-sides, live shows, demos) available as digital downloads or full discs available through an online store. Essentially, increase the amount of new consumable music you can offer via the Internet to keep your fans interested with new “stuff” from you/your band. This helps you maintain that relationship with your fans.

5. To still allow rubber to meet the road, you can partner with other musicians from your area to book a complete bill at various venues, travel together, and split the travel expenses.

6. Do house concerts, both locally and regionally, and as part of the
agreement, have whoever is hosting the concert put you up for the night, which will eliminate a hotel cost and help your bottom line.

Nick Venturella's sites: music site and business blog site

Check out Nick Venturella's archived Examiner.com articles
Add Comment
 
Blog NV | Nick Venturella