The Music Gardener - Artist Manager, Music Marketer

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

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”

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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?”

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As I navigate through music marketing and artist management in this new era, I am reminded of something I learned early on that remains constant and will always be the cornerstone for music. This “something” has been present since the very first note of music was created. At times, the music industry becomes frustrated and impatient in attempts to manipulate it but it can’t be avoided.

Artists search for it…

Record labels hope for it…

Radio exist for it…

TV and Film create images for it…

Humans long for it…

The Song… It’s all about the Song.

http://www.artistgardenentertainment.com

Jack Bauer

As The Music Gardener watched the season premier of “24″ last night, I couldn’t help but wonder if Jack Bauer could save the music industry? If the music industry marketed music the way “24″ is marketed, would we create more die hard fans? Every season, Fox launches the season with a special 2 hour episode of “24″ and then they keep the weekly watchers salivating for more by giving us just enough to keep us coming back on a regular basis. I find myself thinking about the next episode throughout the week and for months.  Maybe the music industry releases too much music up front? Of course there is also the Jack Bauer factor where he successfully foils the evil plans of the criminals who attempt to blow up the world. Maybe we could enlist Jack Bauer to foil the plans of those stealing music?

What do you think the music industry could learn from Jack Bauer?

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I never really thought I would be talking about jewelry and music in the same sentence until this week. This past week was the marketing launch of my wife’s jewelry line 2dangle. We have had a lot of fun creating the launch plan. Of course, I was given the task of creating the website and doing the marketing for 2dangle. My first task was the website. If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you know how adamant I am about using a blogsite instead of a static website and that is exactly what I did for 2dangle using WordPress as the engine.  The first day of the website launch we saw 4 times the views of the biggest day on any of my other blogs. Day two brought almost 1,000 views! That told me something immediately. More people are interested in jewelry than music. We happened to run into fashion designer Jeff Garner who was putting the final touches on his Prophetik fall fashion show. Jeff asked to use 2dangle jewelry in his fashion show. What an amazing opportunity! As we watched the fashion show, something inside me began to stir as music played such a huge role in the Prophetik fashion show. Why not create musical earrings? Only joking… but it did make me start wondering why jewelry creates so much more blog traffic and interest than music. One conclusion that I came to is that jewelry is considered a daily necessity in people’s identity. The watch, the earrings or the necklace one wears projects a personal image/identity.  I can remember back in my high school days when the music one listened to played such an important role in their identity. Music appears to have lost it’s significance as a necessity in people’s daily lives. Can the music industry change that? Figuring that one simple thing out could possibly be the key to reversing the sales decline in music.

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One thing that I have always had a hard time understanding in business is why some people don’t return e-mails or phone calls.  When someone doesn’t return my phone call or e-mail it screams “I don’t respect you!”  If you find yourself saying I’m too busy to return calls and e-mails maybe you should find help developing your organizational skills? This past week I was having a live conversation with a friend who runs a marketing company about how business was slow for him and finances are tight. The crazy thing is I had e-mailed him a week ago with potential business for him and he didn’t bother to return my e-mail. Now more than I ever I would encourage you to return calls and emails. You never know what kind of great new business might be headed your way if you give it a chance.

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The photograph to the left is often my view while listening to music and dreaming. The picture probably sheds a little light on why I refer to myself as The Music Gardener and why our management/marketing firm is called Artist Garden Entertainment. I wish I could share a picture that would show you what our garden looks like in the evening but my photography skills don’t compliment low light pictures. Looking at our garden in the evening is when I get the most inspiration. We work with our artists and our marketing much the same as we do our garden. We plant ideas, fertilize and water them and are sometimes amazed at how they develop. Some end up creating much more than we could ever dream while others seem to wither away. We constantly weed out the dead ideas and replace them with new ones. It is always a work in progress but so rewarding when something incredible blossoms. We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the talented artists we have on our roster. Many times I wish we could see 5 years into their future to get a glimpse of how they develop. Part of me is glad we can’t because we would miss the best part of what we do which is watching them grow!

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Last week Artist Garden Entertainment had the opportunity to attend Randy Elrod and Spence   Smith’s Lifework 2.0 seminar again. Lifework provides a wealth of web 2.0 knowledge  that helps us as artist managers and with our music marketing. One great bonus with the seminar is that they allow alumni to attend future seminars at no cost. This has been a huge help as there is so much information being taught in a single day. It sometimes takes me a few times to really grasp the techno talk and Randy and Spence are constantly introducing new developing web 2.0 techniques. Lifework is responsible for the Music Gardener blog. I didn’t have a clue as to how to begin to blog until taking their class. Even though I still have much to learn, I finally have a solid understanding of blogging, Twittering and SEO. If you work in any aspect in the music world, I highly reccomend taking their next class!

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Artist Garden Entertainment has been doing a great deal of marketing brainstorming over the last couple of weeks and the idea of “free music” seems to be a re-occurring theme. Many examples over the last year point to successful marketing campaigns having some element of free. One of the best campaigns that I’ve seen was the launch of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” I signed up for the free download and immediately bought the entire record when it was available. Coldplay is on a much bigger platform than most of the artist we are currently working with so using a similar campaign would most likely net disappointing results. Our plan is to use “free music” with a different twist. We look to partner with established brands outside of the music industry to create a “free music” campaign. It is important to find a brand that is compatible with the artist. Gummi Bears and Metallica probably wouldn’t work well as a partnership? Although it would be nice, the brand doesn’t have to be national. Regional brands or developing brands often prove to be great partners. Doing a little research might even result in finding a brand that you aren’t personally familiar with. The key is to align the artist with a brand that has a parallel audience and projects a similar message as the artist.  Whatever the campaign, I am definitely not in favor of giving away the entire cd. I know many people would argue with me and throw examples of successful campaigns but you will never convince me to give away the entire cd as I eventually need to generate money for the artist. My idea of “free music” is to leave the listener wanting more. Give them a taste and if they like it, they should be willing purchase the rest of the cd. If they aren’t willing to purchase, then did the artist really connect with the consumer anyway?  www.artistgardenentertainment.com