One of the big buzzwords from the last ten years has been “Viral Marketing” because of its promise of fame and fortune. Viral marketing is a marketing technique that uses the various forms of social networking to generate increased brand exposure. The term was first used by Tim Draper to describe Hotmail’s practice of adding a signature at the end of a user’s outgoing email message to advertise itself, thus spreading the word via its users. Going viral (an Internet marketeers dream) is when the object of interest (usually a video) is quickly passed around by word of mouth (social networking in all of its forms) and brand awareness grows exponentially.

From a bands point of view, there has never been a better time to spread the word and market ones music with so many excellent networking applications and tools available. And going viral - the tantalizing, teasing lure that draws in hundreds of thousands of bands to overloaded sites like MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook - is still just a dream for the majority of independent bands who can’t organize themselves to set up an official website, let alone plan out a marketing budget. But, if you want to go viral and get noticed by the mainstream media, you will have to get your arse in gear and get your band a Music Video.

I was contacted by Caroline Bottomley of Radar Music Videos requesting a link from Unsigned Band Promotion (me) and I thought, “I ought to do a blog post about Radar Music Videos”. Why? Because I don’t know anything about making music videos, and Caroline is a doppelganger of my lovely niece Carly!

I start off my investigations by reading Radar and in Google. I Google:
“Music Videos”, “Music Video Production”, Music Video Production Companies UK, Music Video Directors, Music Video Promotion.

Here’s a sample of what I viewed/read (not in any order):
Music Videos on Yahoo, YouTube, The Music Video Production Association (MVPA), British Music Video Directors, Amstore - Music Video Production, Rupert Noble - Music Video Production UK, Happy Hour Productions, After Hours Films, The Music Video DataBase, Radar Music Videos, Radar Commissioned Videos, plus various inf. on Twitter and MySpace.

A music video is basically a “commercial” for the band, they are normally made for marketing and promotion. And along with a demo CD, a website and professional images (which normally precede), they are The must have for a band - venue managers, promoters and booking agents love a well made music video, they can get a much better idea of what a band is like if they can watch a live performance. A music video will not come cheap, I posted How should a band spend £300 of promotional money?, however, £300 will not buy much in the music video production world where the base/entry level costs would be about £1,000.

Put your heads together and work out your marketing and promotion budget and strategy - you’ll want a return on investment (difficult to calculate). I’d say an independent band needs to budget between £2k to £7k to be able to hire a music video director who will do everything for you - of course a much cheaper option would be to use a student filmmaker or someone just starting out in the industry. The advice Caroline gives bands and labels on Radar who aren’t sure about what budget to post: low budgets are unlikely to attract experienced directors, and experience really does make a difference to the quality of a music video. Higher budgets are much more likely to attract experienced people who you can be pretty sure will turn in what they describe in a treatment and probably exceed expectations. Less experienced directors are less likely to be able to turn in a video as described in their treatment.

If you are spending large sums of money I (Me not Caroline) would recommend that you use an established music video director with a track record to help cut your financial risks.

So, how does a band find a video production company? Enter Radar Music Videos an intermediary between bands & artists and a worldwide network of music video directors.

This is what they have to say about themselves:
“Radar Music Videos is a global network of music video directors, ranging from viral hitmakers and award winners to student filmmakers. Bands and indie labels use the Briefs board on the site to advertise their music video brief and invite treatments.”

“Bands/labels can click through to the profiles of directors whose treatments they like to see biogs and showreels. All directors who submit treatments are ranked according to their experience and nearly always, more experienced directors make better music videos. Bigger budgets and planned promo campaigns will attract higher ranking directors, bands/labels with very small budgets will attract treatments from newer directors. The site works best for budgets between £100/$150 and £5,000/$7,500. Above that, we recommend clients find a local production company, where they can go on shoots, into the edit and so on. If you’re spending more than £5k/$7.5k you probably want to get more hands on. The best music videos usually come from a brief that is ‘open to all ideas’ and which doesn’t need to be performance based.”

“Radar holds back 15% of the video budget and bills for that 15% if the client commissions a Radar director. There are no additional charges and nothing charged if there’s no commission. We’re also non-exclusive, so bands and labels can be soliciting treatments from their usual director contacts at the same time they’re advertising with us.”

“Artists and labels say they appreciate:
The talent discovery.
The number of treatments they get.
That we make it easy to evaluate and choose directors.
They think they get much better music videos through us then they would commissioning on their own.
They often get great promotion - videos we promote have generated 3 million views and many features.“

If you want to go viral and get noticed by the mainstream media, get your arse in gear, get over to Radar, get a music video.

I took my son into Ben Sherman, Reading, last Friday to buy a T-shirt, while I was there I saw and picked up a card that announced, “Are you an unsigned band or talent?” and this is what it goes on to say:

“In February 2009 Ben Sherman re-launched it’s website. It’s bold, it’s beautiful and in the spirit of all things mod, we’ll continue to support the best British bands out there.“

“Put the scales of justice back into balance, and make your music heard.“

“Each month our Big British Sound page will shed the limelight on an unsigned talent. Your signature track will play automatically as our browsers click their way around the site, and we’ll even dedicate an entire page to you; band bio, gallery, media player with tree of your best, videos, links to your MySpace… the lot. Think of us as your musical pied pipers.“

“To expose yourselves (in the best kind of way) to thousands of new groupies, send an email to: unsigned@BenSherman.co.uk, along with a link to your MySpace, or simply attach three of your favourite tracks.“

“If you make the grade, we’ll be in touch.“

Nice one Ben Sherman

A couple of weeks ago Valerie King who is a senior contributor for the Atlanta online music resource The Silver Tongue contacted me regarding her blog post, The Art of Blatant Self-Promotion: A “How To Guide” for Artists and Musicians. She asked me if I’d take a gander and do an interview on what UnsignedBandPromotion.com is all about, sometime in the future.

I had The Silver Tongue interview in my mind when I read Ariel Hyatt’s Social Media & Online Marketing For Musicians - 10 Questions For an Expert in the Trenches on Music Think Tank, and I wondered what questions Valerie would ask me and how I would be able to respond? Have a read of the MTT post and see question 10. So in preparation I asked myself the question: How should a band spend £300 of promotional money? £300 is about $500! Of course, £300 doesn’t go very far if you’re employing someone in the UK for “social media networking services and instruction” - one day at best! But you might be surprised to see how far £300 goes.

1. £62 If you haven’t got one already, get yourself a website. £62 (per annum) will get you a free domain name and free setup, 1500 gig’s of webspace, 15000 gig’s of bandwidth, 2500 email@yourdomain.com accounts, blogs, forums, galleries, e-commerce software - a quick start online store, $75 in Google and Yahoo search credits, etc…
   Networking and online marketing needs focus, a strategy and a focal point. Your own domain name and website is the perfect focal point. For more inf. see: iPowerWeb
2. £125 One of the reasons a band should have a website is so they can collect fans email addresses and send out a newsletter and gig information. A well maintained mailing list is the one thing that will increase your audience numbers and boost your website’s traffic. £125 (per annum) will buy email marketing software (hosted is best) that will allow you to have up to 500 subscribers (more subscribers will cost more), and unlimited: email campaigns, website sign up forms, newsletters and autoresponders… A website and an email newsletter go together like rock & roll. For more inf. see: AWeber.
3. £62 A common free gift for a band to give away is an mp3 - the more people who listen to your music, the more music you’re likely to sell. A flash drive is an expensive free gift, handle with care, but it would make a terrific prize or lure for a gig. £62 will buy you, 20 X 1GB USB flash drives at an average low cost of about $4.99 from Amazon, eBay and Google Product Search - obviously you need to load it up with your music - and maybe earn some ‘extra’ (even pay for the whole shebang) by including your sponsors message. Ask the recipients to pass it on once they’ve downloaded your music.
4. £13 One of the most important ingredients in a successful marketing campaign is Your Contact Information - it should be on everything. £13 will buy you a self-inking rubber stamp that includes: your logo and 4 lines of text in black, red or blue ink. Include: your band’s name, telephone number, email address, website URL. There are loads of sellers on the ‘net. It’s very low tech but an effective and productive idea - stamp it onto everything!
5. £38 Give something away. Nothing on the internet is really free, there’s always a pay off: “We give you a voucher from the website and you get a free gift at our next gig” :: “You join our mailing list”. The problem is, how much to give away? £38 will buy you 100 x 25mm badges imprinted with band’s name and logo. Of course you don’t have to give them away, selling badges is an age old way of promoting your band’s name and making a few quid too.
   As with all ‘merchandising’ products, the more you buy the cheaper the individual item becomes. Here are some more ideas: bumper stickers, drum sticks, fake tattoos, greeting cards, guitar picks, imprinted pens, lanyards, lighters, matchbooks, portfolio of signed pictures (DIY version), stickers. There are loads of sellers on the ‘net. Make sure the free gift is easy to find and simple to get, and don’t forget the pay off.

Ciao 4 niao,
Unsigned Band Promotion
UnsignedBandPromotion.com
~ helping musicians and artists get their websites noticed by fans, search engines
and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own ~
http://www.unsignedbandpromotion.com/

While UnsignedBandPromotion.co.uk is developing, I am giving UK bands the chance to advertise and sell their Albums, MP3s or Merchandise from the front page.

Of course I am doing it for free. If you want to add links to your album, MP3 or merchandise go to: Add Your Link to find out what information I need.

As usual I will be promoting the website organically - which means I will not be paying for the privilege of being in the top ten search engine results for my chosen keywords. It would have helped if I’d chosen some keywords!!!

In Conversation With Bands,
Unsigned Band Promotion
UnsignedBandPromotion.com
~ helping musicians and artists get their websites noticed by fans, search engines
and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own ~
http://www.unsignedbandpromotion.com/

The Slips

The Slips are an electro band from London. They asked me ever so nicely if I’d do a little feature? Why not? Here it is.

Even though The Slips have only been going for just over a year (formed summer 2007), they are already generating a storm in the electro scene. David Treahearn and Rob Haggett (The Slips) come with a pedigree and a neon sign that says, “successful future”, having worked alongside the renowned Mark Stent in his London studio and with everyone from Madonna and Gwen Stefani to Bjork, Massive Attack and FischerSpooner - they sure seem to be going places, so they say.

But what do I know about them apart from what I read: “Super-hot upcoming electro duo with their super-hot CSS remix” says Rob da Bank, Radio 1, “Dirty Daft Punk funk which out LCD’s LCD Soundsystem” - Clash Magazine, and what I hear on The Slips’s MySpace page?

Unfortunately, I would not say that The Slips’s website is pulsating, gloriously bouncy or super-hot [Oh! You thought this was going to be a “Band Review”. No, this is a “Band’s Website Review” - sort of!] considering these two guys are super high tech - I’m very disappointed.

The Positively Good Bits The first thing you see on The Slips’s website is (their logo): “Enter Your Email” so you can begin to download their free remixes, not many bands do this as well as The Slips. There’s a payoff (great), The Slips get your email, you get their “gloriously bouncy bit of electro-glitch disco” (quote London Metro) RMX as a free download - and that is perfect and almost enough to satisfy my taste buds.

The home page has some textual content on, including good contact details, but that’s it, nothing else!

The Negatively Nasty Bits Well actually the list is so long it’s embarrassing, so I’m only going to highlight the main points. Taking it from the top: The website address www.theslips.net redirects to www.overspecific.com/slips/, and a redirect usually employs <FRAMES>, it’s not totally disastrous, but it thins down the promotional effectiveness of the main URL - theslips.net. This is a very common problem, a lot of bands do it, especially redirecting to MySpace.

The real main page ‘www.overspecific.com/slips/’ does not Validate. There are loads of errors caused mainly by the mostly missing/incorrect DOCTYPE declaration. The IMG alt tag is also missing - a keywords opportunity missed.

The <TITLE> tag is ‘The Slips’ which is too short, use up to 40 characters including the spaces. Put your band’s name first, use lowercase and no punctuation e.g: ‘the slips electro rock band london’. The <DESCRIPTION> meta tag is missing. You need this. Basically you need a short readable sentence with minimal punctuation of no more than 150 characters including spaces - put the band’s name first. The <KEYWORDS> meta tag is missing. Only include the most frequently used keywords contained within the title, description and the webpage, use lowercase - the keywords meta tag is not vital.

Of course I could go on, but I’m not going to because what’s missing from their website is real content and purpose to be there, the home page is really just a click-through portal to The Slips’s MySpace page, it should be the other way around, there are no other pages on their website. For more information about what The Slips should do with their website, see: SEO for Bands. The Slips have 11679 MySpace friends at time of writing, and this should translate to about 7 committed fans or should I say voracious customers. Those seven committed fans need to be identified, contacted and cherished.

• The Slips
• The Slips on MySpace
• the slips [on google]
• electro bands london [on google]

The Slips released a 7″ single Girls At The Back Up in the States as part of LA based IAMSOUND’s Singles Club, reaching No. 6 on The Hype Machine on the day of the release - awesome BUY it NOW - Click Here - $6.99 uses PayPal or you can BUY NOW From iTunes - MP3s or 7′ vinyl with including DRM-free MP3s.

main photograph copyright Joe Hunt & The Slips

I first discovered Color Theory when I stumbled into Brian Hazard’s erudite blog Passive Promotion. Brian is Color Theory, and the Passive Promotion blog is Brian’s narrative of his efforts to promote "The Thought Chapter", his latest and seventh album. Funnily enough though, it was the artwork for The Thought Chapter by Maya Klein that first caught my attention in: The Thought Chapter has left the building, it made me read on, and I soon realized what a thoughtful, talented and intelligent man Brian Hazard is.

It was my wholehearted pleasure to make Color Theory a Micro-Site and crank up their Internet presence a few more notches. Great music may promote itself! But Websites don’t

Following my Buddhist beliefs, Unsigned Band Promotion is not a business and is not seeking to make profits from bands using this website. I help musicians and artists get their websites noticed by fans, search engines and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own and I do it for FREE. There are some costs to be covered, and I try to meet these costs by users donations and by promoting affiliate links. But, I’m still way, way out-of-pocket!

It’s always tough trying to keep a free service going, especially when it is so very hands-on. Please show your support and make a small donation. I am not asking for much, as little as £1 or $2 would be greatly appreciated.

Very many thanks for your support
Donations are fast, free and secure when made with PayPal

HAPPY CHRISTMAS
from
Unsigned Band Promotion
~ helping musicians and artists get their websites noticed by fans, search engines
and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own ~
http://www.unsignedbandpromotion.com/

The award wining production company Coast are looking to make contact with unsigned bands who would be willing to allow their track(s) to be used in an major online ad campaign (we’re talking for free here). Each of the tracks used will feature in a series of video blog films designed to promote the skincare range, Clean and Clear. In return for the use of your track, each band featured will have a profile and link from the Clean and Clear- Celia & Chloe website. This is an opportunity for artists to have their music heard by tens of thousands of people and increase the traffic to your myspace or website.

If you’d like your track to be considered please email Tony McKee at Coast Productions with a link to your track.

Obviously they are looking for bands who appeal to teenagers especially girls!

Unsigned Band Promotion UnsignedBandPromotion.com

Here are two emails I got this morning:

Subject: No Subject
Body: hey our band could really use some promotion. Can you help us out?

++++

Subject: WE NEED HELP TO PROMOTE OUR BAND IN EUROPE
Body: Nothing

Please Send Me Your Band Information.

Contact information is one of the most important parts of your Email. Include: your name, your band’s name, a couple of telephone numbers, postal address, email address, website URL.

Don’t just rely on contact information to give your email a sense of realism, also include your genre and a very short bit of original blurb - otherwise I will trash your email!

TURN UP THE VOLUME,
Unsigned Band Promotion
UnsignedBandPromotion.com
~ helping musicians and artists get their websites noticed by fans, search engines
and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own ~
http://www.unsignedbandpromotion.com/

I’ve just read an article - that I think all unsigned bands should read - on God Is In The TV Zine by Bill Cummings called Take a stake in a band.

The Article describes how The Race, a male and female fronted, 5 piece alt. indie band from Reading, intend to raise money through a scheme called "The Stakeholder Fund". It is a great idea, and one that I have always advocated. It is not a new idea however, in 2002 Jake Shillingford (click on /Invest) of Exileinside was one of the pioneers of the Do-It-Yourself approach to promoting and marketing his band and music through the internet and Web 2.0.

I also love The Race’s idea of "PASS IT ON" …follow the links and read "Take a stake in a band" to find out more. And while you are there, join GIITTV.