Our next Guest Post comes from Jon Gorrie, a professional musician and editor for online music magazine BrassMusician.com – we asked Jon “As a professional musician and editor of an online music magazine have you noticed any significant trends in how musicians promote their work online?”
Jon Gorrie: Absolutely. Not so long ago, dedicated musicians websites and myspace.com were the primary means musicians and bands had to promote their work online. An artist or band could easily set up a website or myspace profile, make a great looking page, upload some sound samples, and voila, instant online presence. However, there was a problem. In the online world, the phrase “build it and they will come does not apply.” You may be the most amazing musician or band in the world, creating the most inspiring music, but if you’re undiscovered, and have your own website and myspace.com as your only online presence, chances are you’re more or less invisible to your target audience.
Agents and musicians with “their fingers on the button” as it were, are beginning to realise the extreme targeted marketing power of blogs and online magazines, and are starting to move in this direction for effective promotion to large, targeted audiences.
Musicians and their agents are now sending bloggers and online magazine editors copies of CD’s prior to their release date. Press releases often accompany the CD, and the blogger or editor is humbly asked to write a review of the work for publication online.
The process doesn’t seem very different to how things worked (and still work) in the analogue publishing industry. However there is in fact one significant difference: When you read an offline magazine review or newspaper article, and become interested in the product, you then need to venture to the local shops to order that product.
If however I write a review of a new album or work on BrassMusician.com, I’ll always include a link to where that work can be purchased instantly online, saving the consumer a considerable amount of time and effort. In other words, the reader becomes an instant consumer, and gets to own a copy of the new product immediately.
In addition, another advantage of blogs and online magazines is that they are free for anyone to read – no subscription necessary. And the potential audience is many times that of a traditional newspaper or offline magazine.
So, Is the offline world dead then for the promotion of musician’s works? I personally don’t think so. However, I do believe that the significance of the offline world is decreasing, and will continue to decrease over the next few years.
With the advent of mobile internet, the iPhone and such, I strongly believe that all musicians – both established and as yet unknown – will need to utilize the powerful presence of blogs and online magazines to promote their works and become successful in both the online, and offline worlds.
About the author
Jon Gorrie is the editor for BrassMusician.com, a professional trumpet player, brass pedagogue, composer/arranger, and conductor. He is also a performance psychology specialist and author of the #1 best selling new release, Performing in The Zone.
Have something to say about the music industry? Would you like to write a guest post for this website? Then we want to hear from you, please email:
steve at musicsupportedhere.com
Tags: marketing advice | music blogs | music marketing tips
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