Music Marketing

When it comes to Music Marketing, the holidays is a time to make more sales! It’s a proven fact that during this time of year sales increase dramatically due to the Economics of Christmas. Let’s take advantage of this awesome time of year to build engagement with our fans and make more money with with these 4 music marketing tips.

Music Marketing Tip #1 – Original Christmas Songs 

Record some Christmas Songs on your phone & make them yours. What do I mean by this? Come up with your own lyrical stanza that helps move the song in a new direction and adds a more personal flare. You have many classics to choose from, but I’ll name a few here: “Silent Night” “We Three Kings” “We wish you a Merry Christmas” “Jingle Bells.” Let’s start with “Silent Night.” How can this relate to the songs you write now?

Here’s a quick lyrical example:

I don’t how much this means to you/ Sometimes these words I say just can’t get through/It seems this silence is all I need/To understand what we’ve been through/and seeing in your eyes today/a melted moment fades away into…. Silent Night.

That was off the top off my head, but hopefully you see how this original story can blend into the classical “Silent Night” and it becomes a piece of your personal writing (aka: Band, Songwriter, Composer, etc.) The best part about all of this is you don’t have to worry about copyright infringement. Most of these classics were written in the 1800’s. Have fun, improvise & add to the story of the song. With this in mind, telling a story through video will help you keep your fans engaged.

Music Marketing Tip # 2 – Christmas on YouTube 

Make a YouTube Video singing these songs recorded with your phone and use a Christmas themed back-drop. (Aka: If you live in Colorado, shoot some video in the snow or if you live in LA, find a Christmas Tree or get some Dollar Store Santa Claus Hats & some other props.) Keep your video environment/theme centered on Christmas. The goal is for you to create great content/engagement and not spend money. Overall, your cost is the time you will need for the quick video shoot & probably half a day to edit the video. To help you create a steady-cam effect, just get yourself one of those cheap Phone Stands to shoot the video at Target, they run for about 14 bucks.

For video-editing software, if you have a PC, Windows Movie Maker will do the job and Mac has iMovie. If you don’t know how to edit your videos, you can always find someone to help you for pennies on the dollar with Fiverr.com. I highly suggest that since video-making is one of the top ways to create awesome content/engagement these days, that you take some time to learn how to do this. Trust me, it’s not as hard as you think and you don’t want to depend on someone else every time you upload new content.

At the end of the video, make sure to provide a call-to-action. Example: Thanks for watching our video, share our URL with a friend, send us a message on Facebook & we’ll send you a song for free! I am including Facebook here because it gets your fans to interact with you on another social platform where they can “like” your page & you can build fan engagement on Facebook Messenger. More importantly it gets you hits on two separate platforms: YouTube & Facebook, killing two birds with one stone. Nothing is more personal than a song dedicated to your fans, use social media to connect with your listeners on a whole new level and build your songs around them.

Music Marketing Tip #3 – A Personal Christmas Touch 

Record one of the classics but include your Facebook Friends in your new rendition. We wish you a Merry Xmas (name, name, name, etc.) Make it personal and build the song around your fans. By including them in your song, you are doing something personal, unique and most importantly a word-of-mouth vehicle they will share with their friends.

Since we are being budget friendly, record your songs on your phone. For me, I use the app “Smart Recorder” on my S7 and it sounds pretty good. Remember, we’re dealing with spontaneity. This is more about FUN & being in the moment. You don’t need to have a mastered polished recording. In fact, the more polished the less personal it becomes. There’s something to be said for keeping things a bit gritty. With that being said, don’t go with your first take and call it a day.

Once you have a pretty solid recording you will need to transfer your files from your phone to your desktop. Most of the recording apps from your phone will download your files as a WAV which you can then email yourself. If your file is too large, use Dropbox.com or just save it to your Google Drive. Once your file has arrived, you can convert your files to an mp3 with Audio Converter. I’m not a big mac user, but iTunes also provides a simple way to convert your files to mp3. Once your files have been converted, focus on selling your tracks directly from your website and facebook with your won music marketing store.

Music Marketing Tip #4 – Your Own Website Music Marketing Store 

Once you record your new Christmas tracks, upload them & sell them directly on your Facebook & Website with your TunePort Store.  (Read: The New Music Business & why you need TunePort.com.) To view how to place your store on Facebook – Click Here. Also make sure you include links to your store on all of your social media platforms. Your Store URL is: https://tuneport.com/profile/yourartistname

Happy holidays and here’s to making a lot more sales!