Music Marketing Video Resources!

Hello Fellow Jazz Friends,

Welcome back to the Jazz Musician Marketing Blog . It’s been a very long time since my last post. I’ve put together a playlist of music business related videos that will hopefully stimulate your creative music marketing  juices.

There’s no better time than now to take advantage of the constantly evolving music models that are developing thanks to the powerful medium of the internet. Check them out & feel free to give me your feedback.

Peace & Keep Swinging!

Andre Hayward

Posted in Booking Gigs, Music Business, Music Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Videos | No Comments »

Cross Reference Marketing For Jazz Artists

Hello Jazz Friends,

Welcome back to the jazz musician marketing blog.

Are you frustrated with booking club dates?

Have you grown weary of spending wasteless dollars sending promo material to jazz venues that only results in a low return on investment?

No need to feel slighted or embarrassed by your well meant marketing efforts.

There are some alternatives.

Club owners, booking agents, and talent referral services have expenses too. We can’t expect the majority of the groups mentioned to have the musician’s best interest in mind. Think of these opportunities as more or less a joint venture partnership.

Us jazz musicians are looking for a place to develop our music, hopefully have a sizeable crowd attend, and make a decent night’s wage.

Club owners simply need warm bodies to fill the place and buy drinks. Consider it a priveledge when dealing with one who really loves the music. There’s rent, liquor licenses, utilities, and employees to pay as well. The last thing on a club owner’s thing-to-do list is to cater to the jazz artists’ financial needs. Unfair as it seems, it’s just plain reality.

That’s ok! I have some ideas I’d like to share with you. A big mistake for us artists is exhausting energy marketing our services to the same old traffic. Why not get in front of some potential new and fresh traffic? What I’m alluding to is the whole idea of cross reference marketing.

Consider the following buzzwords when seeking alternative performance opportunities:

• Organization

• Corporation

• Association

• Non Profit

• Society

• Coalition

• Collective

• Union

• Encyclopedia

• Directory

The initial step in doing some research on the buzzwords I’ve listed is to locate a free and valuable resource sitting on your shelf right now; “The Yellow Pages”. Just that simple. Once you begin to thumb through the yellow pages using the buzzwords, you will discover a treasure of gold.

A source of comprehensive information I feel that’s completely ignored is the local library. Make the reference department of the public library your friend. Most reference librarians are eager to help solve problems and answer any research questions you may have. Contained in the reference library is just about any directory, encyclopedia, or repository of professional organizations on a local, regional, and international level. The majority of information from the public library can be accessed online as well.

Almost every professional field of endeavor has an extended organization, association, or meeting group. These professional groups hold and attend various events. You can also be guaranteed a public relations, human resources, or events coordinator.

Another powerful source of hidden treasure is to refer to most popular search engine, Google. Brainstorm a list of target professional groups and combine your query with some of the corresponding buzzwords in the search bar. From the Google search engine, you will again find even more hidden marketing assets. Yahoo directory is yet another source for more ideas. At the end of this post, I will list a software resource that will speed up your marketing research.

Begin to archive your results either using your favorite online bookmarking service, notepad on your computer, or a database software solution. I personally recommend File Maker Pro

Once you have a number of resources archived, now’s the time to begin establishing relationships with the events coordinator via phone. You’ll find that you may have better results with initial human contact as opposed to blindly sending a promo package via mail or email.

Be sure to spend some time out of your day to research and archive these alternative sources. These types of opportunities tend to be more lucrative monetarily, aiding in acquiring more gigs due to increased networking and referrals.

There will be more on this topic. I feel that it would be helpful to impart the information in bite size chunks. Good luck with your research!

Keep Swinging!

Andre Hayward

Here’s the research tool I promised to mention. It’s called the “Search Automator 3″. It’s purpose is to take a keyword, and within seconds, turn it into a treasure-trove of websites, ebooks, tutorials, resources, checklists, guides, tips, tricks, articles, MP3s, videos, images, and more. Check the video demo out.

Click To Order The Search Automator 3

Posted in Booking Gigs, Music Business, Music Marketing | No Comments »