Marketing The Band

Theory, Pt. 3 - The Good Stuff

So in review there are four types of music fans (ignorant, fan, superfan, not a fan/ex -fan) and word of mouth is the primary method for music discovery today.

So what?

Three of those four types of fans do no engage in word-of-mouth.  People who are ignorant of your band obviously do not talk to their friends about your band.  People who are not a fan or are ex-fans of your band do not tell friends about your band (they might do worse, they might bad mouth your band and tell people NOT to listen).  Even regular fans do not engage in word-of-mouth promotion of bands.  When was the last time you told a friend “Hey! Have you heard about this band ________ ??  I think I sorta like them.  I mean, they’re okay.”.  Doesn’t happen.  You don’t both to sit and write a blog entry about a band that you mildly enjoy.  Sam in Garden State did not say “Listen to this band, they totally won’t change your life but they’re okay”.  Get the idea?

Superfans pass along good bands.  It comes naturally.  If you LOVE a band, you want to share that love with people.  You tell your friends about the song you’ve had in your head for the past week.  You blog about seeing this totally amazing band live last night.  The bands that you will buy anything from and will go any distance to see are naturally the ones you most often tell your friends (or the internet) about.  

THEREFORE, to enable word-of-mouth about your band, you must work to create superfans.  You must take people who are ignorant about your band and turn them into fans by first having a good product (the music) and then making them aware of it.  Then you must take those regular fans and turn them into superfans.  More on that in future posts.  You must also make sure that you keep your fans, in order to keep them from becoming ex-fans.  

The key to success in music today is to create superfans and to enable them to tell their friends about you.

How do you do that?  That will be discussed next.

Theory, Pt. 2 - Word-of-Mouth

Word of mouth is the most important and most common way to discover new music today.  

In the past, music fans were more or less told what to listen to by the music industry and the media.  Record labels decided what was to be released and how heavily promoted it would be.  They were able to more or less control what commercial radio would play, dictating what people would listen to.  They had a relatively high level of control of what appeared in the press.  The music industry took out ads in publications that more or less told you what you would listen to.  It was not a two way street; power over what was listened to flowed in one direction (top down).  There were very few alternative methods to discovering new music.  Unless you actively belonged to a scene (or knew somebody who was) or were one of the relatively few people with access to zines or a good independent college radio station, then you listened to what was forced upon you.  This is why previous generations have music touchstones that were shared by the entire generation; because there was no other choice.  

Now, in 2008, this has reversed completely.  Instead of the industry telling music consumers what to listen to, music consumers tell the industry what they want to listen to.  Power flows from the bottom up.  No longer are record labels able to dictate and control what the majority of the people listen to.  They are no longer gatekeepers.  EVERYBODY now has access to the various scenes around the world and almost everybody finds out about new music primarily through word-of-mouth.  

When was the last time you went out and bought an album because you say an ad in a magazine telling you to buy it?  When was the last time you bought an album because a friend or a trusted source (a trusted review website, a trusted podcast, a trusted promotional tie in, anything really) told you that you should? 

This is not just a phenomenon in music; it applies to almost every possible purchase a consumer can make today.  Look at the rise of word-of-mouth based review sites on the internet.  Look at Yelp, Amazon, or epinions.  Look at blogs.  When was the last time you made a purchase before consulting some sort of third party review of the product?  

This is how you see the rise of bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.  Previously they would have been completely unknown.  But in 2005 they put out a remarkable and quirky album that people liked and talked about.  Before the end of the year they were fending off major record labels because people liked their album and talked about it.  Other music fans listened to their friends and trusted sources and checked out the album and then told THEIR friends.  Or blogged about it, spreading the word to hundreds and thousands of other people.  Much like a medical epidemic, Clap Your Hands exploded in popularity.  This could have and never would have happened 20 or even 10 years ago. 

Word-of-mouth is now the primary and most trusted (and therefore the most important method) of music discovery today.  Therefore, everything you do promoting your band should work to enable and increase the ease of which people can talk about your band.  

Next I will talk about how word-of-mouth ties into the four types of music fans.

Theory, Pt. 1 - Types of Fans

There are four types of fans that exist, four types which I think are consistently found no matter where you look.  You can either be ignorant of a band, you can be a fan, you can be a superfan, or you can be a ex-fan/not a fan.  

I am ignorant of Mates of State.  I have never heard any of their stuff before.  I could be a fan but I’m not yet.  

I am a fan of The Hold Steady.  I don’t love them but if they’re playing live nearby I might check them out, I probably won’t buy their album but I will download it and listen to it.

I am a superfan of Neutral Milk Hotel.  Anything they put out I will purchase or have already purchased.  Not only will I see them live every time they play near me  but I would drive across the country to see them play.  Jeff Mangum could put his used gum on e-bay and I would bid on it.

I am an ex-fan of Weezer.  I was once a huge fan but for the past decade they have continually disappointed me so I no longer buy their albums and no longer go to their shows.  Similarly, I am not a fan of the Jonas Brothers.  I will not purchase, listen to any of their stuff, or even listen to any news regarding the Jonas Brothers.  For both bands I just don’t care.

These four categories are based loosely on the four types of people as described by Peppers and Rogers.  They are prospects, customers, loyal customers, and former customers.  For more, check out their book The One to One Future.  

Why are these four categories important?  Because superfans are the key to the success of any band.  Superfans are the people doing the word-of-mouth promotion of your band.  I’ll talk more more about word-of-mouth in my next post.

Rule #1

Before I write anything else, we first must discuss transparency.  As we see time and time (and time and time….) again, the internet is based on the principle of transparency.  Those who fail to acknowledge, yield to, and even embrace this will be severely punished.  This is a radical change from even ten years ago.  But what do I mean about the internet leading to increased transparency?

Last month a rookie police officer violently tackled, seemingly without provocation, a cyclist in Times Square and then filed a fake police report claiming the cyclist swerved into him and then resisted arrest.  Ten years ago this biker would have been convicted on the cop’s word.  Now?  A bystander posts a video of the incident on YouTube and within a day the cop is on desk duty, on his way to being fired.

Also last month it was exposed that the band Buckcherry purposely leaked their lead single on file sharing sites and then promptly fired off a scathing press release condemning the leak.  They assumed everybody was, for lack of a better term, idiots.  It didn’t take long for some people to figure out they were hypocrites who were manipulating their fans and the internet reacted swiftly generating much negative publicity for the band. 

The transparency of the internet means two things for bands. 

First, YOU HAVE TO BE GOOD.  If you’re not good, get good.  The days where you can get by via record label marketing hype are over.  People can easily just go online, download your entire album and within minutes see that the story your label (or you) are painting and reality are wildly divergent.  Not only that, but the ease of downloading music has led to much more educated consumers of music.  On average, people today have heard far more music than fans of previous generations and thusly are more aware of what is good and what isn’t.  IF you’re not good then people will know.  They will know and they will tell others that you are not good.  You HAVE to be good. 

What if you’re not good?  Just pack it in?   No, you get good.  No band or artist ever starts out good.  Bob Dylan’s first album kinda blows.  So does the Rolling Stones, Yo La Tengo, and The National.  If you’re not good, practice more, play more, experiment, and get good. Then take over the world.

A correlation to “YOU HAVE TO BE GOOD”  is YOU CANNOT FOOL PEOPLE.  Whether it’s fooling them by claiming to be a remarkable band and not, whether is to do something like Buckcherry and to assume you can outsmart the internet, or whether it’s any variety of other things, you cannot fool people.  Don’t try.  Please.  It will only come back to hurt you.

The beauty of the transparency is that it works both ways.  If you’re band, people will know.  But if you’re GOOD, then people will also know.  It has become increasingly hard (if not impossible) to be a great undiscovered band these days.  While in previous generations, through bad luck or lack of promotional abilities, it was more than possible for a great band to be completely ignored or over looked.  If you are remotely good, people are going to find out about it and you will be rewarded justly.

Introduction

Ever wonder how bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or Vampire Weekend get so much buzz?  This is how.  This blog details how to market and promote a band by utilizing the internet.  Everything I write about will be relatively simple to do for anyone who has at least cursorary knowledge of computers and the internet and is free (or nearly so).  In addition, while intended for bands and music, the basic principles details on this site are applicable to any other type of media.  It is my intention that reading this blog will allow anyone to be able to promote worthwhile bands effectively and innovatively in order to help build a fan base and buzz among music fans and to ultimately translate that buzz and fan base into artistic and financial success.