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12:57 pm
January 24, 2013
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QuoteHi mastermind!!
I've read post by John for a while now, but I've only been an inner circle member for about 2 weeks now. I've read/watched/listened to pretty much every post that's up, and I have been studying music marketing for a couple of years now, reading books and blogs and the lot.
Now i'm in a bit of a dilemma, and thought maybe you guys can help me out.
I know to be successful in the music biz, or at least make a living, I need to define myself as an artist, define my style, my genre, so I can sell my music to the ideal fan. Here's the problem though, I like doing so many different kinds of styles and sounds. One day I rap to a typical hip hop beat, next day I play piano or acoustic guitar and the day after that I create synth sounds with massive and have the wildest groove going.
To really be happy and creative I know I need to act out with all those styles and do everything that comes to mind and puts a smile on my face 
Unfortunately that makes it really difficult to attract the ideal fan and describe my music in general. When people ask me I usually say it's Indie Pop, because that's the most general term for everything I create I could come up with.
So, now my question, do any of you masterminds see a way to make it work with multiple genres/styles, being successful I mean, how would you go about it? or do I have to "settle down" for now and have to choose a genre to define myself for now.
I used to go with different pseudonyms, but it's a lot of working maintaining 3 different facebook pages, twitter accounts, blogs, websites, email lists, pinterest accounts, etc. if you know what i mean....
I kindly ask you to give me some ideas, maybe you have a similar problem, or maybe you have found a way to make it work...thanks a lot for any input.
peace
Al
7:16 am
June 10, 2011
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Hi Al...
I have a fairly diverse set if elements in my music too. Over time, I've seen it sort of gel because it's usually me singing, and that seems to bring it all together most times. But I've done some soundtrack work and other things that have taken me pretty far afield, soundwise too...and I haven't put any of that music out in album format for the very reason you cited in your post.
I think it's good to consider how this can best be marketed. I've gone the psuedonym route too, at times. What I ended up doing a few months ago--and you can take this for what it's worth, since I'm still building my own career and don't have astounding numbers to be authoritative on the subject--was to take the advice of a marketing/branding specialist (can't recall her name just now) John had as part of a presentation on aspects of career-building.
Her take on things was to build a brand out of yourself. That is, who are you and who is your potential 'tribe' (the people who will relate to you and become your ideal fanbase)? Once you have that kind of nailed down, you then take actions that really align only with that 'brand' or 'position' you've started to build in the minds of your fans.
With that in mind, there are acts (Rush, Zappa, just to name a couple) who had diversity as part of their whole identity. For me personally, I've started to find ways to keep my natural musical diversity as part of my overall 'brand'. But I think doing the work of finding out how to best brand yourself is key. For me, I came up with 'adventure'. I'm from Alaska originally, I'm an Indiana Jones nut, I live a pretty full-contact rural lifestyle mostly...so 'where music and adventure meet' is the position I'm working to take in my fans' minds. Diversity dove-tails with that nicely, but only if it serves the overall brand concept I've come up with.
And there are probably people who could speak to this more effectively than I could, but I think finding that common thread that becomes the brand that is *you*...that's a great place to start. It takes some work. If you can't find a branding specialist, there are ways to go about distilling that down for yourself...or you can even hit people up here for some feedback, possibly put up a flyer at a local college or two, soliciting some help from someone majoring branding, advertising or positioning....there's more than one way to go about it.
But I, personally, think it's a very good and important place to start if you want to build a fanbase and have a strong identity to use as a career-compass.
Michael
Preview the New Video Single, 'Beautiful One', Now!
http://www.m-overdrive.com/video
10:16 am
January 24, 2013
OfflineWow, thanks Michael!
So, what you're saying is basically that i don't necessarily need to choose one genre/style only, but need to work on my branding to make it like a theme, so people can identify with that...seems hard
Well, I hope I get a couple of other masterminds to reply to my problem, so I have maybe a couple ideas to choose from... 
have a great day
Al
3:36 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
I agree with everything Michael said, but to add to that... I just had this question on the recent "state of the indie music industry in 2013" we had the other day.
It's not the only solution, but one solution is to break each genre into albums. So in other words you would have one piano album, one jazz album, one rock album, (whatever). Then you would build a unique squeeze page for each genre and target very niched out audiences. I'd probably even create a unique follow up series for each genre. You don't need to reinvent yourself each time though. Just tweak the same basic funnel to be genre specific. Then take everything you have and group it into a members area where people can get access to all of it for one great deal.
So for example, you promote your piano album to piano music fans for $10. Once they buy you send them to an upsell page where you explain that you are a very diverse artist and you have a collection of 60 songs that they can get for a mere $29.95 (a 50% discount). Maybe even make it annually recurring if you can justify it.
And for customers who don't take you up on the big offer you can follow up with by sending them promotions for each individual album, form time to time. This way you can monetize your entire catalog without confusing your prospects pre-purchase. Chances are you'll find that one genre does much better than others and you'll know where to focus.
Piece of advice though. Start with just one funnel. Don't try to do it all at once or you'll never get it done. Not sure which one to start with? Send one song from each genre to all, or part, of your list and ask them to tell you which their favorite song is and what they'd be most likely to buy. Whatever the consensus is is the obvious place to start.
Or just brand yourself as a diverse artist like Michael suggested. It just makes targeting a bit harder, but not impossible at all.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
7:53 am
January 24, 2013
OfflineOk, that sounds actually quite good too John.
I also thought about the album/genre route, but not the way you have with different squeeze pages and sales funnels. I already have a squeeze page in place http://www.TemptingTone.net where i give away 3 of my latest songs, which are pretty different in style already though.
but I will definitely look into both routes...probably go the route where I can create one album after another and maybe I have enough acoustic songs, where i can make a stripped down album.
I hope i get to where I want to go soon enough
thanks for the advice
10:15 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Happy to help
Best of luck and keep us posted.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
11:33 pm
February 13, 2013
Offline
Hey Al,
I totally agree with John's response. Quite intuitive (as we all know that he is). I have something to add to that. First off I don't see any reason to have to "settle" for one genre...you can always create what ever you wish. However, John is right when you are trying to reach an audience, to cut down on confusion, it is best to segment it. So DO IT ALL!!!!...but on separate albums. Branding-wise a good "proof of concept" with this approach is Toyota. Toyota makes, Lexus. Everybody knows this. However, Toyota is a SEPARATE product from Lexus, with a SEPARATE customer demographic. So, Toyota, at a GREAT company expense, took the time and TONS of money to set up SEPARATE auto dealerships on SEPARATE properties to ensure that the brands would be kept separate and wholesome to their respective customers. Toyota customers RAVE about Toyotas and Lexus customers RAVE about their vehicles but there is a CLEAR line between the two brands. Think about it, have you ever seen a brand new Lexus for sale on a Toyota lot? Most likely, not. This would be important to you because while your following will certainly love you, acoustic piano clientele may not think so highly of rap clientele, who may not think so highly of Acoustic guitar clientele, etc...and you don't want these predispositions to manifest to your singular brand.
If we think of your music in a business sense (as a product...I know, Yuck, but hear me out), you have a rap product that may (and probably) has a completely different demographic/customer than the marketplace for piano music. So, as John mentioned, strive to keep these products and "brands" separate to ALLOW them the chance to find their respective audience. Think John Mayer. He does a couple really successful pop albums and then did a TOTALLY cool blues record. Good for John Mayer, good for the blues too in the sense that his popularity from one brand gave a more obscure brand and product a larger audience and a chance to thrive. If you set your brands/genres up separately, you will undoubtedly see one or two genres "rise to the top" clearly outperforming the others sales-wise. Focus on getting traction on the genres you get the most success at first and you can then afford to put energy into marketing the others, ya know.
Also, if we take the spirit of a great quote from Billy Joel (and I am paraphrasing) "all my songs are my children, I love them all equally. Some of my children grow up to be doctors and lawyers, and some grow up to be delinquents" If we think of your different genres as your "children" you can clearly give love and attention to each. Some will just have bigger markets.
Hope this helps,<img class="spSmiley" title="Laugh" onclick="spjEdInsertSmiley('sf-laugh.gif', 'Laugh', 'https://www.mmmanifesto.com/insider-circle/wp-content/forum-smileys/', '
');" src="/insider-circle/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif" alt="Laugh" />
Johnny
Johnny D
Daredevil Production
1204 17th Ave. S
Nashville, TN 37212
818-383-4207
10:30 am
January 24, 2013
OfflineHey Johnny!
Thanks for the input, yeah that's a really interesting point you're making here. But wouldn't that Toyota/Lexus example fall under the category of using different pseudonyms for each genre??
well, I have actually looked into my heart...ha what a clichée ...and found that I have a quite defined style that I should pursue already, except for maybe a couple of melancholie tracks (stripped down), and some weird shit, I'm mostly within the Pop, Dance-Pop, with elements of Rap and Dubstep. So im just gonna call it T-pop. Why not create a new genre, there are only so few
anyways, since I sort of have a couple of you guys' attention, could you please tell me whether my squeeze page is good or not, because I'm not really converting. although I have to admin that I don't have too much traffic going there too.
I would love to get some feedback on that.
Thanks again Johnny for the detailed input
peace
Al
4:52 pm
February 13, 2013
Offline
Hey Al,
I'll check out the squeeze page when I can. I do know whatever you are doing to drive traffic to the squeeze page sort of "sets it up" and creates the urgency. But I digress, this is much more of John O question.
Congrats on the artistic epiphany. Now as a producer, I would say "I love T-Pop and ask my artist in your position...What can you do to "blend" all these cool stylistic gifts you have into this musical "lane" you have chosen to pursue? You know, to make the new music genre as unique and cool as the new music genre name!
Cheers and GOOD LUCK!!
Johnny D
Johnny D
Daredevil Production
1204 17th Ave. S
Nashville, TN 37212
818-383-4207
9:00 pm
January 24, 2013
OfflineHey!
Yeah, that's what I have been thinking about the past couple of days...what can i do to make this new genre stylistically interesting and cool, so it will set itself apart...i will let you know
Thanks,
Al
12:10 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
Hey,
The squeeze page has a cool look about it. With that said, it might also be distracting to some because it's so vibrant. Really depends on the demographic.
The biggest issue I see is that there is no enticing happening there. You are promising a free download but you are not explaining why i should care and how your free download is going to be worth my time. I would add some supportive copy to really pull people in.
With that said, until you test it by sending at least 100 targeted clicks you don't really know what you have. Only testing will really tell you how good or bad your squeeze page is.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
3:10 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
I'd also like to add that it could use some kind of element to tell viewers what kind of experience they can expect to have by downloading your tracks. When I view the page, I have only the image, the colors, and the font style to try and "interpolate" or "guess" what kind of music is waiting for me on the other end, and it's not really clear what that may be. So I think some copy with "image" words evoking what experience the viewer can expect would add to that "enticement" factor that John mentioned.
10:48 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
Great advice all around. It's got me thinking about how to distill some of my stuff down too, so thanks John, Al, Tim and Johnny.
Yeah, very hot squeeze-page! I like it because as eye-popping as it is, I can still get a distinct message pretty quick...but I have to agree, a little 'selling' copy/text would make it a bit more incisive. Maybe some testimonials ('This music saved my life! -David Lee Roth) or a review or even just your own take on why it's imperative to get that free download.
I have sort of followed the path others are outlining here, which is to group music that sounds the same on albums and release it that way, with the intermittent 'collection' to cover a broad range of it (like a 'greatest hits' or something). I hadn't thought of doing an distinct sales funnel for each, but it totally makes sense.
Over time, I think your fans will tell you what they like the best, but who knows how many potential fans you could reach by organizing your music into distinct releases and targeting the right potential fanbase with each? My latest release was a kind of 'affirmation pop' thing. It was inspired by my son and his love for happy music (he's five), but it still has big guitars and vocals on it. However, I'm making inroads with some more new-agey friends online, since the lyrics and general vibe are something they would dig more than my hard-rocking friends. Certainly it's available to everyone, but as far as targeting goes, figuring out what 'tribe' really will resonate with this particular album is key I think.
Looking forward to checking out your stuff, Al...
Michael
Preview the New Video Single, 'Beautiful One', Now!
http://www.m-overdrive.com/video
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