Indie Success Tips in an iTunes World

[alansteward]

Indie Success in an ITunes World

As a record producer that worked with many Grammy winning acts and artists from the Temptations to the Baha Men, I've seen the enormous changes, the record industry has gone through in the past years. Many feel that all these changes, the illegal downloading etc. may bring the end to the record industry and artists can't hope for much more than to give their music away.

I feel that this new age of ITunes and Internet Marketing offers unlimited opportunities to bands and musicians that under the 'old system' of traditional record labels never would have had a chance.

Here are my five success tips for musicians and bands that want to make it in the music industry without a major label contract:

1) Get Distribution. Until very recently, getting any kind of distribution was impossible without a major label contract. ITunes does not take independent artists music. Now this has changed. You can sign up with either TuneCore www.tunecore.com or CD Baby www.cdbaby.com to get your music into all the major online outlets like ITunes, eMusic, Amazon etc. That's like instant world wide distribution. With a few mouse clicks, your songs are available from Tokyo, Japan to Novosibirsk, Siberia. And with online sales, there are no returns, no CDs to manufacture, no big advance costs to worry about.

2) Market your Music. There are unlimited ways to market your music on the internet. Your own web site is your first line of defense, if you don't have a site, get one. Selling your music there is as simple as placing a link back to ITunes. Then, there's MySpace, where you can set up an artist site for free and get your music heard, your videos played and more. Marketing yourself on the internet is hard work. Getting people to link to you, getting found in the search engines. etc. Here's a quick tip: To get found on the net, don't concentrate on getting the name of the band into the search engines. Remember, nobody knows you yet, so nobody will be searching for "The Rocking Elephants" or whatever you are called. Instead, try to get links that point to your style of music. When somebody searches on Google for "Russian Rock Fusion" your band's name should come up on top. We are following this strategy with www.alansteward.com and it is working quite well.

3) Market to Radio. A word of advice here. As an independent artist, you are wasting your time trying to market yourself to commercial radio stations. They will NOT play your songs. It takes millions to tap that market. The average marketing budget for a new major label release is at least 5 million dollars. You can't compete with that. What you can do, inexpensively and effectively is to market to college radio, internet stations, clubs, jazz programs etc. There are thousands of these outlets and in this day and age it is actually an advantage if your music is not mainstream pop but maybe reggae, jazz, electronica etc.

A good, and free resource to get airplay on these specialty outlets and radio stations is www.indie-500.com There is no charge to list up to three songs and Indie 500 will make your music available via digital delivery to hundreds of specialty stations and DJs that play YOUR kind of music. Since Radio Programmers can instantly download your songs if they like them, there are no CDs to ship and no expenses on your part. And best of all, you don't have to resort to spamming radio stations trying to get some airplay. Everybody wins! The major labels have been using digital delivery for years but Indies have greatly overlooked this. According to Billboard Monitor 86% of Radio Program Directors actually prefer digital delivery.

4) The rebirth of the EP. One thing I noticed on ITunes that no matter what album you look at, there are only two or maybe three songs on the album that get all the sales while the rest of the tracks get almost no sales at all. Yet, in order to get on ITunes, you have to have an 'album'. So you are wasting in a sense a lot of recording time and energy to fill an entire album just to sell those two or three 'hits' Our record label Slim Chance Recordings www.slimchancerecordings.com decided that we would only release 5 song EPs from now on. We feel that the EP will be the new 'album'. ITunes requires you to have an album but they don't tell you how many songs need to be on it so we found five a pretty good number. If you are an artist that has a lot of variety in their music, you can split one traditional album into 2-3 EPs that has songs of a similar style. So, your EP #1 may do well with jazz lovers while the next EP does well with fans of R&B. My EP "Slim Chance and the Groove Enigma" caters to people who like a more melodic kind of electronica with the exception of the ultra-commercial "Give it Up" www.alansteward.com/giveitup/ that is the 'single' of that EP and probably has the widest appeal.

5) Leak it to the Illegals. Now this is probably the boldest move. The big complaint from all musicians and labels is the illegal downloading. Big labels are suing individuals, big artists take Napster to court to shut it down. But here's my take on that. If you are an 'unkown' and you don't have any sales anyway, why not give your first song away to get a fan base. You cannot get 'distribution' quicker than giving your stuff away by leaking it to the illegal downloaders and to make sure it gets around quickly. But here's the trick. Do not call your track 'Honey" by the 'Honeymakers' or whatever your song or band are really called. If your track sounds somewhat like Linkin Park, title it 'Unreleased Linkin Park?' with a question mark behind it. Hey, now everybody who likes Linkin Park and looks for an illegal download will see your song and if they like it, they will download it. The key here of course is, the MP3 tag for the song when they play it will show the real name of your song, your band name and if you are really smart, the URL to your web site.

Alan Steward, Recording Artist and Producer
www.alansteward.com

[1undread]

Biggin up the man called Alan Steward!
Thanks for the info

I have tried some of these but the indie 500 site and the viral marketing on the illegals I have yet to try these. I cant wait to test these out.

[alansteward]

The viral marketing to the illegals by leaking one of your songs to the MP3 sites may not be everybodies cup of tea. I know Metallica or Britney Spears wouldn't go for it. But for us artists with that 'slim chance' of getting noticed when the majors have the big money to spend, it is something you may want to consider.

As for Indie 500, I am personally involved in that site and I hope it will prove to be a very good way to get some airplay on stations that the majors can't (or won't) reach. There are even some major FM stations on board. Radio Programmers love the idea of picking and choosing their music rather than being bombarded by 1000 CDs in the mail.

Alan

[yourockradio]

Spinnin' your wheels... Round and round you go, where you sell something... Nobody knows.

Blah, blah blah.

Placement, placement, placement. Doesn't sell crap. And you know better! That is what amazes me.

Show us the stats. PROVE that this random placement crap really works. If you have no following, you are NOT distributing. And you, Alan, of all people... KNOW BETTER! All of this willy nilly throwing your product around hoping something sticks is ridiculous! But you know what? People will buy into it.

Very sad.

All of this information is wonderful. Anyone can research this stuff, it is all over the Internet. I respect your effort Alan, and I know you have insight. Let us quit the blah, blah, huh? Can we get an organization together and really create careers, or are we just gonna give out out a bunch of placement sites? Is there an action plan? Or is it just slam your jam and hope for the best?

There is a lot more to marketing then just placement. There is a lot more to musicianship than just recording some slop and throwing around the Internet. Quality counts. Strategy counts. Image building counts. Half of the music I receive for my show is of such poor quality it no wonder nobody BUYS it! And I am not talking about the actual song, I am talking about the quality of the recording and the final product. People are NOT gonna buy trash sounding recordings. Why should they? They can STEAL major label music any time they want! We have to set a standard and set ourselves apart from "Johnny the Bedroom Rockstar" if we want to have a competitive edge in an over saturated market!

I love ya Alan, appreciate ya, but we really need to lead here and not just relate a bunch of useless directions for people who really need leaders.

See where I am coming from?

[yourockradio]

Damn 10 minute time limit pisses me off!

Alan... What I am suggesting is that WE, as Indie artists, need to become a company. You are a freaking powerhouse of information and knowledge. YOU are a shining example of what I am talking about.

These musicians need organization and structure to accomplish what they dream of accomplishing. The resources that are available to this type of organized effort makes the major labels look like dime store operators... But ONLY if we are willing to organize our potential!

That is the message. I cannot say it any plainer than this.

All this "stuff" you just got through posting... I bet if I felt up to it I could find every link you just posted somewhere here on this forum. My point is that we can harness our Indie Power into a monster, the likes of which the music industry has NEVER seen, and will never experience again! But it takes commitment and togetherness. All this "I'm an Indie" stuff is great for 14 year old kids, but doesn't work in the real world. This is shark infested waters, and we need the protection of our immense capabilities as a unit, not a bunch of people running around in circles ALONE!

Can you hear me NOW?

[alansteward]

Hi YouRock,

I understand what you are saying and I think we are on the same wavelength. The title I suggested for the Indie 500 web site was 'The world's largest Indie label' but people found it was suggesting that they were planning to form just another label.

My concept is to bring 100 top unsigned bands together to work as one marketing machine. Just imagine, every song released by a member of that group of artists would immediately receive more positive reviews on iTunes and Amazon than the latest Britney Spears diddy, Can we not pull that off?

The point of the post was, you need to be on iTunes first to do that. So some of the basics have to be there.

Coming back to Indie 500, and that goes to the point on how much crap you get sumitted to your station, every artist there has to be approved on their musical talent and yes, saleability. This is in stark contrast to the Soundclicks on the net that take anybody who can put a few acid loops on a time line.

This group I envision has to have quality but also the basic knowledge to present themselves. I've seen too many really good bands that have Myspace pages for a band page that is so packed with colorful widgets, gadgets and tenthousand pictures that some poor guy on dial up can't even get the page up after waiting for half an hour.

So, forgive me when I start at the basics. Make sure your music is available, make sure you can be found on the net if somebody is looking for you and make sure that your local college station knows where to find your music if you tour that college next week.

Alan

[yourockradio]

What I tell people is simply this... It doesn't matter, you can be on "YouBlowMe.com" and if you have real fans, not this drive by click click, MySpace listens garbage, you will sell your product! So putting your music on CD Baby your Momma's Baby or 15 dozen CD storefronts, IS NOT going to increase your sales, it just won't! Music Forte creates a high quality storefront, and if you have a following, that is all you would ever need to sell your CD. Digital... Same thing. Itunes, or whatever... All you would need is (1) store if you have the customers. Even here... You can sell downloads right here. If you have customers, they will come here as well as they will ITunes or anywhere else to buy your music.

The marketing is the most important aspect to your success in this or any business, and 99.9% of people do not have the heart, or the knowledge it takes to be "in your face" every day of the week. And that is what it takes to market ANYTHING, condoms or music, it does not matter. But most people are not built that way. Nor should an artist be concerned with that aspect of business, they need to make music, perform, write songs, and that is enough. What more should they personally have to do? That is why we need an organization that leverages all of our skills and knowledge into a cohesive central unit. Then we can compete with the real "players" in the industry and become a force to be recognized and reckoned with!

All of this placement crap is useless without anyone to buy your offering. Distribution and placement are not the same thing. Distribution means that you have established the market, and you are delivering the merchandise to the appropriate wholesaler or retailer for final sales distribution. Placement is part of that, but it is not the defining aspect of merchandising a product. You can place paper plates in a china shop, but it does not mean anyone cares about it, nor will they purchase them.

My trademark on You Rock Radio is that YOUR music will sound better on OUR station than it will on your own CD player! Mastering is done at You Rock Radio for that reason, because we will not put YOUR music out there to be "less than" it is meant to be. I am not complaining, you understand, I was giving the example of what is wrong with the Indie product versus major label offerings. Music Forte is my sponsor, and as such I use a lot of material offered here at this site. The compositions are fine, no question in most cases that the artists can write a damn fine song, but the final product is often appalling. And I will not embarrass an artist by releasing anything less than a commercial quality on the air at You Rock Radio! I owe them that much for all the work they put into the songs, but I have to be honest and tell you that I would never release some of this stuff until it has been mastered. That is my thought on that subject and that is why I WILL NOT be snooty and only let supposed "good" artists on my show. Who an the hell am I to say whether there is or isn't an audience for YOU? That is the problem in the industry today, if the AR guy is on the rag, or didn't get any last night, you are screwed!

What I am saying though is that I don't care if you are playing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" if you can find an audience for it then let's rock. But the product needs to be the best damn version of Yankee Doodle that there is... That is the bottom line.

[yourockradio]

I didn't give you that "Negative Karma" crap either. Whoever did that... Knock it off. It's immature and meaningless. But I wanted the man to know that I don't do that kind of nonsense.

[alansteward]

Wow YouRock, if your outlook at Indie marketing is right, am I ever royally screwed!

Now I have to get a band together (I feel like Elwood Jake.... 'let's get the band together!)

....and then I have to go to Bob's Country Bunker and try to book a gig so I can find and meet 'real fans'.

I guess if you are right, there is no chance for the Enigmas and Steely Dans of the Indie World at all.

That just leaves us with just one question:

Now what do you have to lose doing the things that I suggested in my post?

None of the suggestions cost any money or involves buying a tour bus, fiddles and dressing up in funny hats.

Alan

P.S. Don't worry about my 'negative karma' I helped two ladies across the street last week and gave to the poor. I am sure I'll be alright.

[yourockradio]

Nothing... Nothing at all... Nothing... Nothing at all, absolutely nothing.

That's crap. That's not what I said. And Steely Dan and Alan Parsons were MARKETED partner! You don't get it. Possibly, because of your pride and ego (which men like us are famous for), and maybe you never will. And that is the "I'm Mr. Independent" mentality, it is a defeatist attitude, because nothing you just said has a DAMN thing to do with what I just said!

You can place your music anywhere you want. That's all well and good, it don't mean dick, but it ain't hurting nothing. It is just another circle jerk. WE all like a good pud pulling from time to time. No big thing.

We are talking apples and oranges. Too bad. I thought we were getting somewhere. IT DON'T MATTER WHERE YOU PUT YOUR MUSIC!!! IF YOU HAVE NO AUDIENCE, NO ONE WILL CARE!

All of these websites, including this one, have turned into a big musicians circle jerk. Everyone patting each other on the butt, and nothing ever happening. I am suggesting that we become a company, a unit, and you are talking about bands and bars. Not singing the same song for the same choir.

These "fans" have no connection to us anymore. WE are just ships passing in the night, click, click, click, and "Alan Who?" "Aaron Who?" They forgot about you before they even listened to you. It's sensory overload man, and it will destroy potential careers in the long run. What I am telling you is I have a marketing strategy that will blow the doors off of ANYTHING that you just suggested as "placement". Not that you are a bad dude, or your suggestions are bad, they are fine. But we all know this jive already.

AM I gonna share it in a forum? Hell no. But I am methodically implementing the whole program piece by piece. All I am telling you is that all these "leads" are so much blah, blah. WE all know this crap exists. The question is... "What can we really do to make it work?" That's it, Alan.

So please don't belittle what I said with your lack of understanding. Open your mind to the truth. You have what WE need, but you just are not aware of it. Links are not what WE need.

[yourockradio]

What I am telling you is that I know how to fix this right here...

LONDON (Reuters) - Sales of music fell at a faster rate in 2007 than 2006 despite digital sales soaring, and the gatekeepers of the Web must act if the industry is to beat piracy, the international trade body said on Thursday.

Global digital sales grew by around 40 percent in 2007, the IFPI group said, but this was not enough to offset the sharp fall in CD sales, meaning the overall market is expected to be down around 10 percent for 2007.

As part of its response, the industry is calling on Internet service providers to take more responsibility for illegal file sharing by either disconnecting those who repeatedly upload music or preventing illegal tracks from being downloaded.

Many ISPs have so far proved reluctant to engage on the matter, but the music industry is hoping this could change following a move by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to block Web access to those frequently downloading music or films illegally.

"It is hard to persuade anyone to be a pioneer but what we have with the French government is a very energetic government understanding how important the French music industry is to French business and culture," IFPI Chief Executive John Kennedy told Reuters.

"That leadership shows that it's not as dreadful or as problematic as people think," he said in an interview.

The industry has also been boosted by a landmark ruling in Belgium which ordered a service provider to block illegal file-sharing -- although the company is appealing -- while in Britain, the government has said it could impose legislation if an agreed settlement between both sides cannot be found.

I am telling you that I have the answer to ELIMINATE piracy, and to sell music on a massive scale! That is what I am telling you. Can I convince you in a music forum? Doubt it. But when you do hear it, you will know that what I am telling you will work! True story!

And it has NOTHING to do with podcasts and iTunes. Screw iTunes! These are the same proprietary bastards that messed up the Macintosh marketing with their single minded, "let's try to trap the public" mentality. Sure, it worked this time with the iPod, good thing for Mr. Jobs. It ruined his wonderful computer/OS! Only real diehard Mac fans own one, and most can't afford one. But the iPod taught us one thing, the same damn thing I said 12 years ago... Digital is the way the world will hear music. All my CD burning buddies said you are full of it, CD's are the stuff... "Nobody wants those stupid Mp3 things, they sound like garbage" and that may be true, but here we are, 12 years later and...

I am not talking out my butt here. There is a definite route we could take to change this for independent artists. Getting listens on MySpace isn't the answer. It's a nice addition to the portfolio, but in the big scheme of things it means just a little. That is what I am talking about... Not bars and bands. I hate bars, and nobody will get in a band with me anyway!

Do you blame them?

[suzannedestaubin]

Thanks, Alan Steward, for the good advice. I have been following this discussion for a while and have learned a lot. The idea of independent artists teaming up, a sort of co-op, is a good one. Would you accept artists of different genres?

Often, when submitting music to one site or another, I run up against a paucity of genres available. This seems to stifle creativity. Some of us just don't fit so neatly into the categories.

It would be great to somehow pool the experience of MusicForte users.

[alansteward]

This must be the longest thread in history. People may get the wrong idea that we are having an argument here. By the way, I like the girl in your logo.

Let me get very 'Zen' on you for a minute. I strongly believe that life is just one enormous string of unlikely coincidences. And if it wasn't for those 'coincidences', I would be nowhere now. Every Platinum winning project I ever worked on, every major artist I ever worked with, every movie soundtrack...if you look at them closer, they all came by 'coincidence'

That's where my 'placement' strategy comes in, and it works. I place endless 'bread crumbs' everywhere for people to stumble over and eventually somebody always does and another big project comes my way.

Here's an example: Last year I did a recording project for a musician in the US that I never met in person. It made me a cool 10,000 bucks and that would take a lot of iTunes sales to make that and here's how that came about:

The guy is a huge Alan Parsons fan (funny that you mentioned Alan Parsons!) and when he browsed the net trying to find Alan Parsons, seeing if he's still doing recording projects, he typed in 'Alan Parsons Producer' or something similar and under the listings 'Alan Steward, Producer' popped up. He went to my site and listened to some of my music on the site and found that I just had such a producing style so similar to Alan Parsons, so he contacted me if I wanted to do his album.

See where doing your groundwork comes in? If I didn't work so hard on 'placing' my web site, that's a whole lot less money in my pocket.

I know all the things I suggest in my post are common knowledge but you would be surprised how many people don't pay attention to these basic things.

Luck don't happen by coincidence.


P.S. Just saw your new post. The majors are in trouble and blame it all on piracy? Isn't that maybe good for us. If the majors cut back on servicing the smaller radio stations to cut their losses and concentrate on the stars with the most rehab visits to make the 8 o clock news, there's an opening for us to get in. I personally hate to watch a whole hour of VH1 and every single music video is by Universal.

[alansteward]

This reply is in response to Suzanne's post. Yes, I know genres and labels can be restricting. I find the five songs on my last EP could probably go in five different categories. Where there's no choice, list yourself in the category that you feel you fit best but also that people may find you the easiest.

This goes a little to my advice on top of this post to bring out EPs rather than albums. So, if you sound a little jazz on some songs and more Reggae on others, release two different EPs under the two different categories. (Wow, YouRock, here's an instance where my advice is of use already)

As for working together to build 'the next big label' by having an army of indie artists promote each other. I think that concept is open to every genre of music and if you want to be part of my list of contacts, you can e-mail me at alan@alansteward.com

[yourockradio]

There ARE NO COINCIDENCES. Sorry, can't buy into that one. I'd love to believe you made a "Cool 10,000" however, I don't. I am not calling you a liar, however I think your two pound fish is now 10,000, if you get my drift. The contradiction in terms is that on one hand you say everything is random coincidence, and on the other you say luck is no coincidence. So which is it?

People talk man. Most of it is blah. blah this, blah blah that. Talk is cheap. Show us the money! So you did that? Show us. Let's see the check, there has to be some accounting. Let's see something. You don't owe to nobody, but it sure would make it nice for people to see that what we preach is the gospel and not some random blah, blah.

I am not saying that your placement techniques are wrong, or misguided, or out of touch. In fact, there nothing wrong with anything you have said so far regarding things that are great resources and leads. What I am saying is that if you say all you did was place your music on iTunes and BAM... Then you are being disingenuous and your pulling our pee-pee.

Regardless, within all of this blah, blah, you still are in a defensive posture, defending "your" technique. That tells me a lot. What that tells me is that the truth is different than the printed story. And I am curious to know what that is. But the bottom line is that no matter what techniques YOU used, I am talking about something on a totally different plane than you are still harping on. Your linkage, leads, whatever, are all legit. You are still not hearing me though. You allude to it, but it seems that there is still something I can't place here right now. I'll figure it out eventually.

And do you think that you are the first person to talk about EP's man? Wow, that is pretty egocentric. I did a whole article on release-re-release regarding EP's many moons ago. That is part of my point overall. Round and round we go... Where she stops...

And NO... piracy is a problem for anyone who makes music and sells it. I don't care about the majors, not even on my radar screen. The article said that "Pioneers are hard to find" (Hint), and that is why I reprinted it.

And no... We are not arguing people. I want something from this man, and I am digging it out of him.