November 19th, 2007

Royalty Free Music from RoyaltyFreeMusic.com and More Music-Making Pointers for Musicians and Artists!

For a while now, we have been giving you some tips about getting started in the process of marketing yourself and creating background music and any other type of music professionally. Slowly, we've been revealing tips by sharing with you in pieces an essay written by the founder of the successful music Web site, CDBaby. Mike Bielenberg, composer of royalty free music, stock music chatted with Derek recently and got a slue of tips for those hoping to break into the music industry. (To catch up, visit the royalty free music news archives and start with the first THREE stories. Luckily it can also be read out of order - all the suggestions are self-contained!)

The artists and musicians that contribute to the stock music in our music library of over 10,000 tracks of original music are real-life working musicians with collective experience in the 20's of years in the music industry. They have enjoyed successful careers in a variety of genres and continue to work hard to produce the best royalty free music available on the market to bring you and other professionals just what you need to complete your most important projects.

Whether you have a little or a lot of experience with making background music, stock music or any other type of music, you probably already know that really getting your name out there and "seen" in the music industry - getting your career off the ground - is a lot of work. Here we present three additional tips from Derek Sivers, in his voice about getting yourself heard by fans, producers and others that will be integral to the success of your career.

Without further ado, here are three more suggestions for making a place for yourself in the music industry, again in Derek Sivers own words.

"1. THEY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT YOU. DON'T ASSUME ANYTHING.

People will always and forever ask you, "What kind of music do you do?"

Musicians often say, "All styles, really."

If the stranger you said that to happens to be a fan of Africanmusic, watch out! You better combine the polyrhythmic drumming of West Africa with the rich vocal harmonies of South Africa, with the microtonal reeds of Northeast Africa. And if they have any awareness of the rest of the world, then your CD better combine rage-rap, country line-dancing, Chinese opera, ambient techno trance, Hungarian folk songs, and the free jazz of Ornette Coleman. (Hey - you said "all styles" didn't you?)

This example is extreme, but constantly remember: people know nothing about you, or your background, or where you're coming from. If you say you sound "totally unique" - then you better not have any chords, drums, guitars, words, or any sounds that have ever been made in the history of music.

When you speak to the world, you are speaking to strangers from all kinds of backgrounds and tastes.

Open your mind. Realize you don't sound like all styles, and you're not totally 100% unique.

Do them a favor. Don't assume anything. Say what it is you sound like. Narrow it down a bit.

If you do this in a creative way, ("We sound like the Incredible Hulk having sex.") - you can intrigue people and make them want your CD, or want to come to your next show. Whereas if you had said, "Everything" - then you didn't make a fan.

What has worked on you?

Any time you're trying to influence people to do something, think what has worked on YOU in the past.

Are you trying to get people to buy your CD? Write down the last 20 CDs you bought, then for each one, write down what made you buy it.

Did you ever buy a CD because of a matchbook, postcard, or 30-second web sound clip? What DID work? (Reviews, word-of-mouth, live show?)

Write down your top 10 favorite artists of all time, and a list of what made you discover each one and become a fan.

Here's where it gets heavy: Ask your friends to answer these same questions.

You'll end up with a "how-to" list, giving you 100 ideas for how to make people a lifelong fan of your music.

P.S. This goes beyond music. Which TV ads made you buy something? What anonymous Emails made you click a link and check out a website? Which flyers or radio ads made you go see a live show by someone you had never heard?

2. Have the Confidence to Target

BAD TARGETING EXAMPLE: PROGRESSIVE ROCKER TARGETTING TEENYBOPPER

On CD Baby, there is a great musician who made an amazing heavy-progressive-metal record.

When we had a "search keywords" section, asking for three artists he sounds like, he wrote, "britney spears, ricky martin, jennifer lopez, backstreet boys, mp3, sex, free."

What the hell was he thinking? He just wanted to turn up in people's search engines, at any cost.

But for what? And for whom?

Did he really want a Britney Spears fan to get "tricked" into finding his dark-progressive-metal record? Would that 13-year-old girl actually spend the 25 minutes to download his 10 minute epic, "Confusing Mysteries of Hell?" If she did, would she buy his CD?

I suggested he instead have the confidence to target the REAL fans of his music.

He put three semi-obscure progressive artists into the search engine, and guess what?

He's selling more CDs than ever! He found his true fans.

If you don't say what you sound like, you won't make any fans.

A person asks you, "What kind of music do you do?" Musicians say, "All styles. Everything."

That person then asks, "So who do you sound like?" Musicians say,"Nobody. We're totally unique. Like nothing you've ever heard before."

What does that person do? Nothing. They might make a vague promise to check you out sometime. Then they walk on, and forget about you! Why??? You didn't arouse their curiosity! You violated a HUGE rule of self-promotion! Bad bad bad!

What if you had said, "It's 70's porno-funk music being played by men from Mars." Or... "This CD is a delicate little kiss on your earlobe from a pink-winged pixie." Or... "We sound like a cross between AC/DC and Tom Jones." Or... "It's deep-dancing reggae that magically places palm trees and sand wherever it is played, and grooves so deep it
makes all non-dancers get drunk on imaginary island air, and dance in the sand."

Any one of these, and you've got their interest.

Get yourself a magic key phrase that describes what you sound like. Try out a few different ones, until you see which one always gets the best reaction from strangers. Use it. Have it ready at a moment's notice.

It doesn't have to narrow what you do at all. Any of those three examples I use above could sound like anything.

And that's just the point - if you have a magic phrase that describes your music in curious but vague terms, you can make total strangers start wondering about you.

But whatever you do, stay away from the words "everything", "nothing", "all styles", and "totally unique".

Say something!

3. PROUDLY EXCLUDE SOME PEOPLE.

Proudly say what you're NOT: "If you like Celine Dion, you'll hate us."

...and people who hate Celine Dion will love you. (Or at least give you a chance.)

You can't please everyone in this world. So go ahead and recklessly leave out people.

It's almost like you're the doorman at an exclusive club that plays only your music. Maybe you wouldn't let in anyone wearing a suit. Maybe you wouldn't let in anyone without a suit!

But know who you are, and have the confidence that somewhere out there, there's a little niche of people that would like your kind of music. They may only be 1% of the population. But 1% of the world is 20 million people!

Loudly leave out 99% of the world. When someone in your target 1% hears you excluding the part of the population they already feel alienated from, they'll be drawn to you.

Write down a list of artists who you don't like, and whose fans probably wouldn't like you. Use that.

An Example: THE MOST EXPENSIVE VODKA

There is a vodka company that advertises itself as The Most Expensive Vodka You Can Buy.

I'll bet they're very successful with it. It's almost a dare. (And it proudly excludes people!)

Other companies are all trying to find ways to be the cheapest, and someone had the guts to decide that they were going to do exactly the opposite of everyone else.

There are some people who read the Billboard charts, and try to imitate the current trends and styles.

I suggest, even as an experiment, strongly declaring that you are something totally UN-trendy - the opposite from what everyone else wants or is trying to be.

Perhaps you could advertise your live show as, "The most boring concert you'll ever see."

Perhaps you want to call your music, "The most un-catchy, difficult to remember, un-danceable music you've ever heard."

Or tell the music industry, "This music has no hit potential whatsoever."

I'll bet you get their attention.

It's almost a dare."

There are EVEN MORE TIPS to be had from Derek Sivers, so stay tuned as, about every other week we unroll still more to help you get your background music, stock music or any other type of music career underway! Visit the royalty free music library for beautiful collections of music perfect for a variety of projects.

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