The Music Gardener - Artist Manager, Music Marketer

Last week in our marketing music series we covered the basics which are radio and publicity. Now we move on to branding. In order to bring a consistent message to our target consumer, we need to determine our branding strategy. Branding begins with a title for the record, photo shoot and packaging design.

Circleslide

The title of the record was easy as Circleslide’s front man, Gabe Martinez, was already convinced that we should name the record after one of the songs on the record titled “Echoes of The Light.”

For the Circleslide photo shoot we chose Thomas Petillo. Thomas has worked with Robert Plant, Marty Stuart, Kid Rock, Chris Tomlin and Matthew West to name a few. His style of photography lines up well with Circleslide. We requested an in-studio photo session with some creative elements of light. Thomas captured some great photographs utilizing the band and different light bulbs.

Circleslide’s record label, Save the City, hired designer Brian Glassco to design the packaging. Brian brought in even more creative light elements to layer on top of Thomas Petillo’s photograph for the cover. The elements were designed to flow throughout the packaging. In addition to the packaging, Brian designed web banners and images for social networks using consistent light images from the photo shoot and colors from the packaging.

Echoes of the Light Cover

Now that we have our “Echoes of the Light” theme, we will turn up the creative marketing for our blog post next week.





http://www.artistgardenentertainment.com

Covering the basics is important to every marketing plan whether it is marketing mainstream music or Christian music marketing. Last week we defined our target consumer for Circleslide. Now it’s time to cover the basics for marketing the release. I define the basics as radio & publicity. It you don’t have a plan for at least one of those, then you may as well pack up and go home because no one is going to know that your record exists. It is possible to launch a record with either radio or publicity alone but if you want the best chance for success then your plan should include both.

Radio - One thing Circleslide has been missing in the past is radio. We worked two years with the band on their writing to ensure that we have strong contenders for radio. While there is still no guarantee that radio will play the songs, we feel confident we have great radio songs. Finding the right radio team is vital. There are several Christian radio promotion people who are great at what they do but we thought James Riley would be our best choice for Circleslide. James has been part of the success of many #1 songs throughout his major label career and he really believes in Circleslide’s music. He helped us narrow down to the song “Looking Up” which is the song he thinks has the best shot at radio. With Jame’s direction, we decided to work both Christian AC and CHR radio simultaneously.

Publicity - Publicity is vital to any record release! I have seen records succeed without radio airplay as long as the publicity campaign was strong. The publicist’s job is to secure press coverage in the places where your target consumer hangs out. The only way consumers know that a product is available is if somebody tells them. The publicist also helps get a current bio in place which is a key item needed in telling the story. Circleslide’s record label, Save The City Records, has a publicist on staff so there was no need to hire an indy. I recommend a 5 month plan for publicity campaigns. Ideally, the story should begin being told a couple months prior to release and continue for at least a few months after release. Below are some of the various stories/angles we will be rolling out for Circleslide.

1) signing with a new Provident/Integrity distributed label, Save The City Records

2) new record “Echoes of The Light” streeting October 5

3) Circleslide has been through much opposition the last year including their home & music gear destroyed in the Nashville flood, gall bladder surgery for front man Gabe Martinez, Gabe’s bout with E coli, death of loved one and immediate family diagnosed with inoperable cancer.

4) new partnership with Mercy Ministries

5) other nuggets we will reveal over the next few weeks

Do you have radio or publicity experiences to share?

http://www.artistgardenentertainment.com

Define Your Target

The first step in any marketing plan, regardless of what kind of product you are marketing, should be to define your target consumer. It is extremely unproductive to begin a product launch without knowing who you are targeting.

The marketing plan that I will be rolling out in this blog series is for the band Circleslide. Circleslide primarily records and plays shows for Christian audiences. That makes it pretty easy to determine the first trait of the consumer we are targeting. Our target consumer would be a Christian who listens to music. That is still a very broad target as it could be anyone from a young child to a 90 year old who rocks to the hymnal every Sunday. I had some preconceived notions of Circleslide’s audience when I first began to work with them. Assuming their audience was a male rocker 18-30 couldn’t have been further from the actual. That is why a little research is always a great idea. I traveled to a few shows and observed. Who attended the shows? Of those attendees, who seemed to enjoy the show? And who swarmed the merch table to buy cds? Much to my surprise it was Becky! Becky is a name the Christian music industry uses to describe “soccer moms” age 25-45 who listen to Christian radio and frequently buy Christian music and books. The Becky’s of the world love the band when they see them live and they especially love the stories that frontman, Gabe Martinez weaves into the show.The reason this was such a surprise is that Circleslide has seen very little Christian AC radio airplay preventing them from being exposed to the Becky masses. However, their new record has several songs that promise to be strong contenders at Christian AC airplay. There are even a couple worship songs on the record which tends to please Becky. All that being said, it is apparent that Becky will be our primary target. Circleslide also has a rock edge. Not screamo or metal but more of a Bruce Springsteen/Zeppelin/U2 kind of rock. The kind of rock Becky’s husband Todd might appreciate. This really helped narrow our focus. The record has enough medium to ballad AC songs that Becky will love while offering enough rock to keep Todd interested. Becky and Todd can finally share and enjoy the same cd!

Target Consumer: Women age 25-40 who listen to Christian AC radio and their husbands. Circleslide’s “Echoes of The Light” presents a unique music experience that will appeal to Becky while giving her husband (Todd) enough rock to make it a record that they can enjoy together.

Do you have experiences in defining a target consumer that you would like to share?

http://www.artistgardenentertainment.com

The Ultimate Vacuum!

If your marketing doesn’t SUCK maybe you need a better plan? The whole idea of marketing is to create a plan that causes consumers/customers to joyously suck up your goods or services. In order to create the suction, you need a plan.

Before Diana and I launched Artist Garden Entertainment, I logged 20 years working for record companies. I worked on the distribution side and we were dependent on our record labels to provide marketing plans. Surprisingly, for the last seven years that I worked for one of the big Christian music companies, I saw very few marketing plans from our 15+ labels. There were a few exceptions, Big Idea and INO, who did provide exceptional marketing plans for every release. It’s no surprise those two companies continue to excel while the others went out of business or soon will be closing their doors. The frustration I had with the absence of marketing plans in Christian music drove me deep into a study of marketing. What I found was, it’s really not that difficult to write and implement a plan. The marketing plan is your road map to reaching the consumer. As Dora The Explorer says “Without a map how would we know where to go? Can you say map?” (Can you tell I spend time with children?)

I do quite a bit of marketing these days and without a marketing plan, I would be lost. I thought it would be fun to roll out one of my plans on The Music Gardener blog. Over the next month or so, I will be posting a blog series called “The Marketing Plan” Wow! I know that title is creative but “it is what it is.” I’m saving my creativity for the actual plan. Hopefully, you will glean something out of what I share. I encourage you to leave comments with your thoughts. Input from creative people is priceless!

Tomorrow I will begin the series with “Defining your Target Consumer”

http://www.artistgardenentertainment.com

Circleslide

Seattle, Wash. (August 16, 2010) - Save the City Records is excited to announce the signing of critically acclaimed Christian rock band Circleslide, whose debut project landed on Christianity Today’s 2006 Year in Review “Best of” round-up, among other accolades.

Since then, the band — frontman Gabe Martinez, lead guitarist Jonathan DeAnda, bassist Eric Vickers and drummer Lee Yoder — has toured unceasingly, refining their modern rock ruminations, while keeping their ministry agenda firmly in focus. In addition to shows with Newsboys, TobyMac, MercyMe, Casting Crowns, Salvador, Jaci Velasquez and Downhere, the Nashville-based band has headlined everything from clubs to churches and colleges, with plenty of youth camps and outreach events in between — all of which build off the group’s Youth With A Mission beginnings.

“Throughout all the traveling, our goal has always been to make music that could inspire people, touch hearts and lead them to Christ,” says front man Gabe Martinez. “We’re so excited to be a part of the Save the City Records family, because we know that is where their hearts are as well.”

“We are proud to partner with Circleslide, one of the highest-caliber and hardest-working bands in Christian music today,” comments Derek Hoiem, President of Save the City Records. “They are full of energy, excellence and passion, as their many fans can attest. Their new album showcases their versatility and artistry, and they are a fantastic addition to our artist family.”

Circleslide is currently in the studio putting the finishing touches on their upcoming project, Echoes of the Light, set to release in October.

For more information on Circleslide, visit http://circleslide.net

http://www.artistgardenentertainment.com

Brandon Bee Creation West 2010

The Music Gardener spent the last two weeks of July on a musical adventure that took my wife and I on a journey through the beautiful states of Washington and Oregon. While its good to be back home in Nashville, we are already missing the cool dry northwest weather.

Our first stop was Enumclaw, WA for the Creation West festival. The new festival location made for a different experience than in the past. The views from the Gorge of past years were missed, but Mt Rainier as the new back drop wasn’t such a bad thing. One of our artist, Brandon Bee, had the privilege of playing for the communion ceremony just after the Newsboys performance. I must say that Brandon did a fabulous job leading 10,000+ people in worship while Harry Thomas, founder of Creation, presided over the ceremony.

The following day, another one of our artist, Holly Starr, took the main stage revealing some new songs from her soon to be released record, Tapestry. Showing a new rock side to her show, Holly strapped on a Fender Strat for the first couple of tunes. It is always nice to see an artist you work with, giving it everything they have to entertain and engage an audience and Holly did just that!

Mr Talkbox, Mike Silva, Kevin Thornton

After Creation, we took a drive down to Albany, OR for Mike Silva’s Willamette Celebration. Circleslide took the main stage on Friday evening and rocked out 18,000 attendees just before Skillet and the Newsboys. The following day Brandon Bee and Byron “Mr Talkbox” Chambers brought their music to the festival. Brandon Bee and his band really rocked it out in the 100 degree heat just after the Metal Mulisha did their motorcycle stunts.  Byron “Mr Talkbox” Chambers the did his thing bring the crowd to their feet and making the evening a blast for festival attendees.

We then traveled up the Columbia River Gorge towards Quincy, WA. What an unbelievable drive! Diana and I spent a couple of days on Lake Chelan in strategy meetings with our newly signed artist, Holly Starr. We held most of our meetings on a boat sitting in the middle of the lake. I think that has to be one of the best meeting locations we have ever used! Isolated from the rest of the world, we were able to accomplish some great planning.

From Lake Chelan, we made our way back to Seattle via a scenic pass through the majestic mountains of Washington. Another beautiful drive! Seattle then became our home base for the remainder of the week. We had marketing meetings with our partner, Save The City Records, and prepared for the Soul Shine event topping off the week. Byron “Mr Talkbox” Chambers, Bejiman, Kevin Thornton and Rachel Lampa really brought an incredible show to the Experience Music Project in Seattle on Friday night!

http://www.artistgardenentertainment.com

“We Are Nashville” is the slogan that Nashville residents adopted after the major flood that destroyed much of the city and surrounding areas this past Spring. The national media was scolded for not covering the floods and eventually Anderson Cooper showed up and apologized for the media not giving Nashville the attention it deserved. Meanwhile, as the “help your neighbor” spirit was building within the Nashville community, the Gospel Music Association was apparently fast at work making plans to move the GMA Dove Awards Show to Atlanta. While the Nashville Visitors and Convention Bureau is scrambling to keep tourist coming to town, the Gospel Music Association decides to move the Dove Awards show to Atlanta? Now, that’s the perfect way to show love to the city that has supported your infrastructure for 41 years and is now in desperate need of tourism dollars. Yes, I can see the GMA is trying to be cool like the Country Music Association who took their awards show to New York a few years back but is this year really the year to be cool? The GMA should take notes from the CMA who kept CMA Fanfest in Nashville this year and they donated proceeds to Flood Relief. What the Gospel Music Association is really saying through this move to Atlanta is “We Are Not Nashville”

Seeing the GMA make this decision, makes me feel really embarrassed that I am a GMA member. I think back on all of the benefit shows that Christian artists rushed to put together to help the flood victims and now the industry totally misses the simplest way to help. I don’t plan on being in Atlanta for the Dove Awards Show this year even though Atlanta is my hometown and it would be a very easy trip to make. Instead, I will be donating the money I would pay for my 2011 GMA membership to the MusiCarers Nashville Flood Relief fund.

I don’t normally like to write negative posts but the news of the GMA moving the awards show to Atlanta really struck an emotional chord in my soul. I witness many businesses and friends struggling to rebuild from the flood disaster.  There are still thousands of Nashvillians who are jobless due to the flood. This decision to move the awards show will have a negative impact on jobs and local businesses in Nashville and surrounding cities.

http://www.artistgardenentertainment.com

I received many comments on The Price Is Right? post that I put up a few weeks ago. Some of the comments were posted on-line while others were given to me live and in e-mail form. What really surprised me is how many people still defend the argument that music should be cheaper now than it was 15-20 years ago based on the argument that it is cheaper to make and deliver digital music than it was for physical music in the past. Really?

Let’s take the economics of one song and break it down. We are going to assume the ideal scenario for a song that is written, recorded and marketed quickly. Our assumption will be based on an eight hour day which is definitely the exception for creating, recording and marketing a great song.

- A song that takes very little time to write still probably takes the better part of a day (eight hours) What should the hourly rate for a song writer be?

- A song that requires little amount of time to record will usually take at least a day (eight hours) What should the hourly rate be for the studio full of recording gear even if it is in a garage or basement?

- What is the engineer’s time worth based on an eight hours of work?

- What is the producer’s time worth on an eight hours of work?

- Let’s assume you have a marketing person who is able to pull a marketing plan together and execute it in a day. What is eight hours of his time worth?

- You also have the designer who designs the record cover which is required even in the digital age. What is eight hours of his time worth?

- Someone has to upload the music and work with iTunes in order to get it positioned and pictured. What is this person’s time worth?

- A radio promoter spends hours of time calling hundreds of radio stations making them aware of the song and asking them to play it. This is impossible to do in a day but what do you think their hourly wage should be?

- The publicist spends hours of time calling and emailing hundreds of magazines, TV shows, internet sites to set up interviews and record reviews. What should their hourly rate be?

- Magazines, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Reverb Nation, and even Google require a nice photo in order to feature the artist. What do you think the photographer’s hourly rate should be?

- Someone has to collect the money and make sure the songwriter’s, artist and Uncle Sam are paid. What is this person’s time worth?

In conclusion, let’s look at the .99 cent price of a song. iTunes keeps .30 cents leaving .70 cents to cover everything listed above. If we take the twelve people listed above (and there are many we left out) and divide up the .70 cents, each person would get roughly 6 cents per song sold. There are no guarantees that a song will sell more than 1 copy and many don’t. At 100 copies sold, each of these people would make $6 total. Based on eight hours, that is .75 cents an hour. Minimum wage is $7-$8 depending on which state you live.

Is this really how we want to value music?  Can we change the perception in consumers minds?

http://www.artistgardenentertainment.com

This is one of the early post from The Music Gardener blog. IT dates back to when I was using the Wordpress.com platform. I decided to re-post it as it has been one of the most popular post since I began blogging. Most of the the info holds true well into 2010.

2009 is here and the marketing fury begins! Social networking has become a crucial platform for every marketing plan designed to sell music. As I was working on setting up a new release recently, I was reminded that social networking was present and played a key role in the beginnings of the Christian music industry. Twenty years ago, the Christian radio landscape was very under developed. Yes, there were am talk radio stations in abundance but no real outlet for 24 hour Christian music on FM radio. KLTY in Dallas was just being launched. The marketing plan for a Christian record consisted of touring churches and selling cds at the merch table after the show. As KLTY began to grow, this incredible organic thing blossomed. Listeners would hear new Contemporary Christian Music on the radio in Dallas. Word of mouth would then quickly spread like wild fire across the country. I think it would be safe to call this phenomenon an early version of social networking. Dallas is home base to a major seminary and many ministry organizations. When students returned to their hometowns or spoke to family via the phone they would share their excitement about the music they were hearing on the radio in Dallas. I believe this was the birth of social networking for Christian music. As KLTY became a power house for all music in Dallas, the social network grew into this incredible marketing machine. If your song was played on KLTY, your record was a success and proof was in the sales at Christian bookstores across the country. Gold and even Platinum Records became a reality in Christian music for artist like Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Jaci Velasquez, DC Talk and Point of Grace. More of these 24 hour FM Christian Music stations began to pop up around the country. As numerous Christian music stations popped up all over the country, markets like Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Orange County, Houston, Sacramento, D.C. and Grand Rapids all began to play a major role in promoting Christian music artist. Then the landscape began to go through another transition. As Christian radio stations were bought up by corporate America, the social network impact began to wain. No need to buy your music based on what some friend in Dallas was telling you as you had your own Christian radio station in your market. As corporate America began running these radio stations, play list began to shrink. The almighty dollar became more important than playing new music so playlist became stagnant in the name of ratings and testing. Along with this change, came fewer record sales. The fire and excitement of discovering new music was extinguished. Marketing executives at Christian companies became frustrated as the traditional marketing plans which were designed around radio were no longer effective. That brings us to today. If early forms of social networking appear to be the catalysts for the huge explosion of Christian music twenty years ago, why would we all not be running towards any and every new social networking tool available to us today? Some marketers are utilizing social networking tools and those are the ones who will find success in 2009. The marketers who are stuck on MySpace as their only “go to” for social networking will be left behind. MySpace is certainly a great social networking tool for music but there are many more social network sites emerging. Facebook and Twitter are exploding and it amazes me how many people who consider themselves marketers don’t even have an account set up with those networks! Artist Garden Entertainment will be utilizing many of the social networking sites in every marketing plan we design in 2009. We believe that social networking is vital to any marketing plan. Christians are huge evangelists when they believe in something and social networking sites give them the evangelizing platform.  If you are looking for help navigating through the plethora of social networks, contact us for help.

www.artistgardenentertainment.com

The Billboard Bulletin reported this week that the week ending May 30 clocks in as the lowest week for number of albums sold since Soundscan began tracking sales in 1994. At first I was in shock but then I remembered the music business has been headed in that direction for quite a while. I tweeted about the information and received many responses asking my thoughts on what was causing the decline. Honestly, I was at a lost for words for a minute. In the past, the last week of May would have been a great week as retailers ran huge sales with “graduation” themes.  My first thoughts were to blame it on the BP Oil spill, Obama, global warming, downloading or lack of hits. Then I remembered the many things over the last 15 years that appeared as warning signs. Many of the independent retailers screamed out the warning signs but the music industry chose to ignore them. First the home video industry took a bite out of the entertainment dollar, then it was video games and while both of those were going on, the music price wars were in full force. The way our world consumes entertainment does, always has and always will continue to change. We can’t stop it. However, the music industry does appear to be stepping back in time as it has once again become a singles business. Consumers are now enjoying the ability to “cherry pick”. I must admit, I do my share of “cherry picking”. I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we didn’t have the ability to “cherry pick?” The movie industry amazes me at how they continue to grow. Not only are they able to continue to increase ticket sales but many customers also buy the DVD when it is released. They don’t give consumers the ability to pay for and receive only a portion of a film. A movie is considered a full body of work. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what would happen if the music industry forced iTunes and all digital retailers to move to the “album only” format? Yes, I know the fears of driving consumers to steal music but with the way sales are plummeting, it doesn’t appear they are buying music anyway? Instead, all we hear is that music is moving towards the “free” models. Is that really the direction the music industry has to go? The only people that hold the power to “Turn the Beat Around” are the content owners. Isn’t it time that the music content owners band together and stop the madness?  The world will be a boring place without a song!

How would you “Turn the Beat Around?”

http://www.artistgardenentertainment.com