Avoid advance promotion. Be buyable first.
2008-05-17
I often hear musicians say they want to do advance promotion - telling people about their new album before it's available for purchase (whether digital or physical).
Though the plan may be to generate excitement, I think the opposite happens. Imaginary dialog:
- Check out my new music!
- Where is it? Can I buy it?
- Not yet - but soon!
- Why are you telling me now?
- So you can be ready for the announcement!
- (... 2 months pass ...)
- Check out my new music! It's ready!
- I think I already heard of this. Not new. Delete.
Or, as Cory Doctorow says, “Internet users have short attention spans. The moment of consummation — the moment when a reader discovers your book online, starts to read it, and thinks, huh, I should buy a copy of this book — is very brief. That's because ‘I should buy a copy of this book’ is inevitably followed by, ‘Woah, a youtube of a man putting a lemon in his nose!’ and the moment, as they say, is gone.”
(Next time you think a song you wrote deserves 5 minutes of someone's attention, look at what this guy did to compete for that same 5 minutes of someone's attention.)
So, the best plan goes like this:
- Record your music.
- Start conversations with bloggers and other biz-people you'll want to turn on to your music later. Nothing to pitch them now, just get to know them.
- Prepare your marketing/promotion plan, but don't do it yet.
- Get your music up for sale (on iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, etc).
- Once it's available at every store (and you've tested it by buying one copy yourself) - update your websites (including MySpace, etc) to make it obvious everywhere and easy to buy.
- NOW do your promotion. Tell fans and friends repeatedly. Contact people you've come to know from past conversations, let them know it's available, and ask if they'd like to hear it.
NOTE: the exception to this rule is when you're raising money by letting hardcore fans buy the album before it's released.
Hi Derek,
Seems like common sense to me (not that we're all running on that all of the time). Put those carts in front of the horses, and you're asking for trouble.
That is wonderful advice.. and that video hurts my brain when I think about how time consuming it must have been.
Anyone have good suggestions for blogs that review quirky rock/alternative.. ?
Speaking of which, there's a new DELETE ME ep up for sale at my blog..
blakegriffith.blogspot.com (scroll to the bottom)
definitely worth the $2!!!
Hi Derek,
I agree with you and this is what I'll be doing for my upcoming album.
I only see one problem... with CDBaby actually.
For obvious reasons, you only want 5 CDs in your stock to start with.
But if I want to use CDBaby as my sole distributor, this would suck to say at my launch:
"Go to CDBaby to buy my CD" and have it sold out after 5 copies sold (hoping I will sell more than 5 CDs in the first week!)
Now, as I said, I understand CDBaby's policy but at the same time, as an artist, it doesn't make sense for a launch. It gets easier for longer distribution though.
What would you recommend?
I, as I'm sure other artists too, don't know how many CDs I'll sell at my launch but as an international artist, sending another package to CDBaby could easily take 1,2 weeks.
Anyway, I'm sure you see what I mean!
I believe once you are out of stock at CD Baby you can overnight more very fast and they're very good about letting the buyers know that more is on the way!!! (and they take backorders). Otherwise -- good article!! Although I do let journalists and friends know I have an album "in the works" I try to be really specific about the drop date and CD release, and not talk much about it until that time (content, theme, special guests, etc.). This article does give me another way to look at it!! Thanks, Derek
But don't jinx yourself...sending 20 discs will give you the best chance of selling two out of the gate. Five is a good number. Send ten the next time. There is plenty of experience and reasoning behind the initial asking of five discs.
Great article btw...I am plenty guilty of sending newsletters saying "it's coming", and this article is sort of a sign for me to have more patience in the future.
This is one of the most important things every musician needs to take note of. It's really obvious actually, but so few people talk about it and the idea just hasn't spread nearly as much as it should.
Jumping to a well-known example, look at what Trent Reznor did with Ghosts. He released it and let people buy it before any sort of promotion began, nobody even knew it was coming. He understands this crucial point (he said so specifically in an article I read some time ago).
Thanks for bringing this idea into the spotlight.
So true. Bottom line, in my opinion, is that everything needs to be done with an outcome in mind. You don't just get in a car and drive around without a destination.
And the outcome needs to be something you can quantify.
All advertising, in my opinion, should look at monetary return on investment. Simply doing something for "exposure" won't keep you in business. There are lots of "exposed" people who are broke.
I guess this doesn't apply to pre-ordering? Because the product is theoretically available. What we usually do is schedule a CD release show and then put one of the "singles" up on our MySpace page to get people excited about the new CD and show.
I used to wish CD Baby had a way for our non-local people to pre-order the CD when we made the announcement, but all of those people just buy it on iTunes anyway or SnoCap anyway. Even if you make it cheaper at CD Baby.
I don't like the idea of starting conversations with people and having them get to know me just so I can turn around and sell them my music. I'm sure it would work but that is just too much of a manipulation tactic in my opinion. If you have something people want enough they'll buy it even if they've heard it 100 times first. What is lacking for most indie artist is that vehicle of repitition to an accepting audience.
Having something to sell before doing certain types of promotion does make a lot of sense. If you're an artist no one knows about it doesn't matter anyway. Wearing your struggle on your sleeve could turn out to be the best exposure you could have ever hoped for.
I couldn't agree with you more. But doesn't point #2 contradict the rest of the article? Shouldn't we assume that bloggers and biz people have the same short attention span as the audience? What's the point in contacting them to say "I'm a musician who at some point in the future may have something that will be of interest to you"?
Derek,
Great stuff, as usual. And I must say that the video is insane! I had to embed that in my blog as well.
Also, I just noticed that you've got your music ideas put together in an awesome free e-book. I've uploaded that to my blog as well - with credits to you, of course!
Thanks,
KevOz
http://www.KevOz.com
The exception is the key here. Building up hype with nothing to back it is a time waster. Building up hype while getting something of value from a potential fan is essential.
Most musicians that use Discmakers, CD Baby, TuneCore, what have you, have a lul between the recording and the selling. This is the time that is essential to be pumping your product and gearing up for sales come day 1.
You can do this with pre-orders, mailing lists, free tracks, contests, etc.
Give up something in exchange for something and get the buzz started. Give them nothing but the hype and expect nothing but empty promises in return.
Way guilty as charged
But , with film makers and TV using this for movies or programs not due out for months and book publishers posting a sample chapter of the authors next book in his current novel, it has led me to believe there is merit in coming attraction promotion.
Avoiding advance promotion has always made sense to me. Nice article. There is a burst of energy, an excitement that is fleeting when things are presented to the public. Everything MUST be in place. But this principle is much larger when looked at in a macro-time frame context. I must yet again mention the book "The Black Swan" by Mr. Taleb as he has written a quantification road map for the world in his two books. (also fooled by randomness) When someone puts up their music online, writings, art or anything else of that sort they are allowing the possibility of exponential exposure should the situation arrive. Example:
1. A person creates music in the emptiness of their solitary studio with no one listening and the end product finding little audience. In their minds they are wedded to the realization that it is as if they were singing on Pluto. But this can change at any moment, a year, or a decade later. With modern connectivity which has never been seen in the history of the earth
(and getting better all the time) a solitary nobody can be connected to billions of people in a flash. (I amuse myself by imagining that several billion people are listening to my performances as I record them. Har ahr har har har!! It cracks me up when I do that!)
When I went to a movie called "Cross of Iron" I thought it was a great movie that was ground breaking in the war movie genre at that time. I told everyone about it but it just didn't have any traction at that time. But the work was there and years later, it found that traction to great acclaim. The movie Repo-man was another that came millimeters away from obscurity but in the music score there were many great punk bands. The film was kept alive by devotees of that music and later the film became a cult classic.
2. When the moment comes, it comes very fast and you have to be prepared, all you have is what you have. The idea of "One hit wonders" might owe itself to people acting as if their current situations prior to fame was how things would always be. Had they been working hard all of the time then when their moment came they would have had product ready to go, so as to utilize momentum. Momentum is the key word in the modern world. Stocks display it, humans especially do, physical aspects of the world do and most of all, popularity is momentum based. When two famous people get married their momentum is enhanced. When Britney Spears has her troubles, her momentum increases.
The moment when success hits an artist they are beginning a momentum campaign. That is why, if you are in the limelight it is a good idea to go on as many talk shows, concerts, jams, and whatever as you can. At these moments your image and the ability of it to attract interest is what the brokers of momentum (Jay Leno, Madison Square garden, Wall mart cd distribution etc. etc.) want. They want you, because you can help them and the more they use you the more your momentum grows.
But the great problem of such powerful momentum is that, at that moment you are having your time evaporated and you cannot easily create product and/or art at that time. That is why putting up projects for distribution and having 20 times more of it ready to be put into distribution is a good idea. (Thank god for CD baby and I-TUNES etc.)
This takes the idea of no advance promotion to a bigger extreme. Advance promotion? Are you kidding? Why are you talking, you should have 30 more CDs ready and you are yapping about only ONE? One that isn't finished??
Har har har!
why does advance promotion work for some people and not others? I see tons of ads for upcoming releases (I'm in NY), or what date an album is "dropping," etc etc. Just curious as to when advance promotion is good, for who, and why. Thanks
Hi Derek,
Damn, I wish I had read this before I started telling people about my new single, D'OH!!!
Oh well, hopefully it's not too late, I'll stop telling people about it and follow your advice, which I think sounds great! Thanks for everything.
Thank you Derek! We hope you are having a great summer.
Advance promotion only really works for acts on major labels -- because those labels can spend millions on marketing. That means they can put the name of the artist and the album out in front of people repeatedly, over weeks and months, in different media (TV, newspapers, internet, record stores, ads in the subway, etc.). Thru simple repetition and pervasiveness, they can create the impression that something is popular, and thereby make it popular.
As an independent artist, you may only have ONE chance to put your name, music, images, ideas, etc. in front of potential listeners/customers. Therefore, you have to have a product available immediately.
People who are genuinely intrigued at the moment they hear about you and your work may not ever hear about you again. And they may not remember enough days or weeks later, when your advance-promoted album drops, to seek it out.
If you can give it to them when they're excited about it, you have the best chance of making a sale, and making a new fan.
Interesting as always. The video was most inspiring. If I understand correctly, I'm not supposed to tell anyone until my mural-sized graffiti animation in a South American metropolis is fully complete and posted. Then I just sit and bask in the fame?
One comment about where advance promotion is necessary: traditional media such as magazines, TV shows and newspapers. Although Derek is right in that they won't review anything that's not out. But they often work with lead times of 2-4 months. AND they may ignore you if you come to them after your release date, having gotten all sorts of online attention. This may be changing, but newspapers have a pretty widespread online reach and it can be very advantageous to be featured in print and online simultaneously.
Wassup everyone,
From my own experince I think that advance promotion is good only when you have the money to backup that promotion or if you are signed by a major record label. But for us as independent artsit and not having that kind of money to make a big marketing campaign or promotion, we can't affor to be telling people about an album that is coming soon but you don't know when; because that is loosing money. Why? because you don't have the product available for those people, and you might don't get another chance to tell them again. I also think that for family and friends is ok to tell them, because they can help you to finish your project. But other that that it wont be a good idea.
I think that a big part of selling is getting a "perfect buzz storm" & the timing for that is impossible to predict unless you are a total nut (like me only worse). I have a database of contacts I've built over the years (as all of us should) & it includes information on how long it takes for something to get in the library at a radio station or reviewed on a website or in print. So I do my best to send the slower reaction time folks a six week lead so they're only a few weeks behind. Also you want the release date to be right before this storm of reviews & airplay hits. If I hear something on the radio & it's not available at the time, I'm going to buy something else. There's a lot of mystery to it.
Also it is worth noting you should never announce a release date before the item is in your hands, you never know what might happen (like when I had a disc come without shrinkwrap that I needed to ship back for wrapping). I always make stuff available to direct fans on my website as soon as they're in my hands & set the release date about 8 weeks later.
A potential way to legitimately build a pre-buzz (depending on your type of music) is a re-mix competition with a release of a re-mix EP 2 months after the initial album.
Long post, but I hope it helps someone.
hrt
Brian John Mitchell
www.silbermedia.com
I do agree with the article in majority, but there are a few exceptions that do come into play. When you have started to build a fanbase, they want to know when your next project is coming out, and if they have signed up for a newsletter, I find no harm in letting those fans get the info they signed up for. Even some weeks in advance. These fans are the foundation of your movement. You need them to help spread the word about you, and that information can be key.
BUT...... If you jump the gun and start a major campaign online, that is meant for everyone, you will hurt yourself. I have left a company that had no idea how to operate, and still does not. They have repeatedly gone online to talk about a project that has not been released in 4 years. I have been on some of the websites, and the "fans" are ripping on the company now, believing the project is never coming out, and are now losing faith in the artist and label. True example.
As in all things you read or learn, figure out how it can apply to you. Not everyone`s successes will be yours, but figuring out their blueprint and finding how it can apply to your music and fanbase is the key. And remember, every true entrepreneur fails 9 out of 10 times. Keep trying new things an finding new ways to get out there.
Good luck to you all!
To me advance promotion makes sense in certain situations. At our shows, I 'll always tell people about the upcoming
record, and just give out recordings of the new material to them, samplers and such. you don't have to have a lot of money to do a little bit of advance promotion, especially if you back up what you're talking about.
And somebody already said on magazines, you don't really get as many reviews if your record is already out.So you have to have some advance promotion in my opinion. What's messed up is if you keep hyping with no substance.It really isn't that long for folks to know you have a record coming if it takes a couple weeks to get into iTunes's system for an example.
Just make sure that the record is there;without false release dates if at all possible.
aren't you doing this with your own new businesses? "coming soon?"
good advice Derek stay strong jah bless
Wow! That animation was an amazing piece of work! Would be great to work with more people with that type of imagination.
Thanks again, Derek, for sharing.
....nothing stays the same,
life is a trip...enjoy it while you can, ever funkin' on, the one! Derek, ...you are a good man and you have done good things for your fellow musicians. We love you, for the help given...it will not be forgotten and I know you will keep doin' it, 'cause that's you! rubberhorn
Linda - "But , with film makers and TV using this for movies or programs not due out for months ... it has led me to believe there is merit in coming attraction promotion"
Yes - but those cases are well
known artists and the audience already know and CARE who they are and it's worth piqueing their interest early.
However, if you (or I) are a nobody, advance promo is going to mean nothing to people and just confuse them.
In short - I agree with Mr Sivers!
I think it depends on your audience. I saw the 2008 olympic games was advertised 1 year ago and it has not even start yet.
Another, example is Lil Wayne's album ( The carter III ) broke records because of his marketing strategy which is doing collabos with alot of artists before his album dropped. Also reaching the teen demographic doesn't hurt.
- Poppa
http://cdbaby.com/cd/poppahiphop
I have a song called "Nobama" about the upcoming presidential election ready to release, but I'm going to wait until it gets closer to November to release the song, because people start paying more attention to politics then.
If I released it today, it would be long forgotten by the time the election rolled around.
However, I did post a 30 second sneak preview video of the song on my myspace page. I'm hoping this will build excitement about the song, but at the same time, not overexpose it.
Thanks for your insight. You've help me move a lot of product.
Hi Derick.
You Teach and inspire me Bro, I am very glad you are here and I have access to your Knowledge and Great advise. I am thanking you for all you have done and will be doing for us Musicians.
Good Luck with your new Ventures Brother. You make the world a much nicer place to live in.I wish for You Health Strenght Welth and Knowledge. So you can continue to change the world for Better.
One Love Derick,
Michaek Arkk.
Totally Right!
That's how I've always done my music business and am very contented too.
Hi Derek,
Who could you recommend for my CD manufacturing?
I've gotten nearly 2 dozen quotes from looking on line. Some with good prices so far are incompetent.
thanks - 8 panel double CD digipak
303 422 9715
new label in Colorado...
Hey,
I thank you for this entry. I really cannot afford to promote my albums. First of all Second Changes is an instructional tool for guitarists and bass players. You can just plug in and play bass lines or meodies. Thats all.
signed Rick