The staff at the Indie Music Marketing & Consulting Group wish all the readers of our blog and very Happy, Healthy, and Properous New Year.  May the music be in you!

The staff at The Indie Music Marketing & Consulting Group, the writers of The Indie Music Promotion Blog would like to wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas.

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If you’re recording your own record and releasing it independently then essentially you are your own record label.  So why not do it right and sign other artists while you’re at it.
This step by step blueprint shows you how to start and run an extremely successful rap record label.

The staff at The Indie Music Marketing & Consulting Group, LLC — Publishers of the Indie Music Promotion Blog would like to wish all of our musicians, labels, and readers a very safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

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http://www.indiemusicconsultant.com

As an independent or unsigned musician you may be wondering just exactly what is the function of a music publicist.  Well, clearly they certainly have a few important functions in the promotion of your music career – this is for sure.   This article is geared to showing you the guidelines to publicity in the music business regarding the new media music press release.  The primary function of a good music publicist is to generate awareness for an artist’s project and their CD product releases.  They do this easily, if they are good and evidently they must be very well connected.  A well connected music publicist has built many relationships over the years with music journalists, and music media outlets.  There are many entertainment publicists for hire however it is crucial to slowly make the right decision when hiring a music publicist.  When a publicist who has built relations and is well connected speaks – the music media and entertainment media listens.  There are many music-publicist wanna-be’s so do it slowly, and most certainly do exhibit caution in your selection of a music publicist.

There are obviously various strategies employed by a real music publicist to create awareness for a music project from advertising, marketing, to obtaining features and reviews.  Evidently one of the biggest forms of music marketing implemented by a music publicist that allows them to powerfully promote their artist’s release or tour is the almighty music press release.  Hands down, this is one of the most effective methods of music marketing for your project.  In today’s world over 90 per cent of press releases are distributed digitally to new media Internet entertainment related web portals.  So this is the way to go.  Forget about print press releases.  They are just not effective and rarely used any longer.

An effective new media digital press release should contain the following elements in order to be effective and powerfully and strategically draw awareness to your music project, release, and tours.

* The story contained in the music press release should be newsworthy and be of interest to readers.  Powerfully and slowly create a headline and subheadings that cannot be ignored.

* Define your target audience and subsequent press list – In the case of a music press release obviously your release should be geared and directed toward music journalists and new media entertainment web portals that specialize in your music genre.

* Clearly talk about the unique qualities of the band or release – something that stands out among the sea of other artists and musicians

* Include quotes from reviews, and magazine media outlets if you have them

* Add multimedia to your new media press release such as video and photos

* Note details of tours and releases and don’t forget to add a link to your websites and contact information.

* Don’t forget to add your press release to the news and media page of all of your websites.

* Obviously you must make sure your digital music press release is properly optimized for the search engines.  The release will be found easier when it is enriched with keywords and this will ultimately drive massive traffic to your website if the story is interesting.

Once the carefully and powerfully created music press release is complete, optimized and ready to blast you should slowly target the geographic areas and music and entertainment markets you want to blast out to.  There are a few good press release distribution wires available such as beatwire.com, prnewswire.com, businesswire.com, and prweb.com among others.

It is crucial that music press releases are written precisely the way they have to be in order to generate the interest you need for your project to be worthwhile.  Every single element such as copy, multimedia, the story, etc must be taken into consideration.  Obviously it cost a couple bucks to utilize the services of a press release wire distribution service so you want to make sure that the press release is worthy, professionally written and search engine optimized.  If you’re not sure how to write and prepare a professional music press release then by all means engage a professional music publicity writer to do it.  It doesn’t cost much and it can assure the effectiveness of your release.   The music press release is far too important to just throw something – anything up there.  You can view some professionally written press releases at my website which is listed below.  Best of luck.  Let me know if you have any questions or if I can be of assistance.

©2009 Ken Cavalier   All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Ken Cavalier is a music business consultant, publicist, and marketing expert and author.  He has been assisting unsigned and independent artists with their music careers since 1983.  He is the founder of The Allure Media Entertainment Group, Inc. an artist management and publicity firm in Philadelphia, PA.  He is a voting member of The National Academy of Recording Arts and Science (™The Grammy Association) His passion for music and assisting independent artists with their careers prompted him to form The Indie Music Marketing & Consulting Group.  An organization specifically designed to assist Indie Artists with marketing and promoting their careers.  The firm specializes in publicity and copywriting services providing professionally written music press releases, one-sheets, features, bios, and other music media among a wide variety of music marketing and music promotion services for Indie musicians. 

For more details and information on his company’s services visit: http://www.indiemusicconsultant.com

With the state of the music industry as it is today, many, or I should probably say most independent musicians attack the process of recording their record on their own.  I have stated before that engaging the services and expertise of a professional engineer and music producer can be the best thing musicians and bands can do when they have put all the material together and are ready to go into the recording studio and record their album.  However, I have also stated that this can be an expensive process and a lot of artists just do not have the budget for this. 

Over the years I have worked with many artists, record producers, and recording engineers, in the studio during the music recording process.  If the budget perimeters prevent you from hiring a well known and professional music producer and engineer, and you’re basically doing it all on your own, most likely in your own home-grown recording studio, here are some very important tips and a guide for the DIY Album recording process:

The Preparation

* It’s probably a good idea to put together a ruff-up live demo of the material you plan to record.  This will help you to ascertain the best and worst parts of the songs.

* Thoroughly rehearse all of the songs – even more than you are considering recording – Work on arrangements to come up with the strongest songs and parts possible.  Make sure everyone knows all of their parts like the back of their hand.  You should be able to play all of the songs in your sleep.

* USE A CLICK TRACK – The flow and tempo is extremely important.  The drums drive this rhythm – so make sure everything is perfectly in sync.

Beginning the Recording Process

* Make certain everyone is in total tune

* Go through this process as if you were on stage in front of a thousand screaming fans – record with emotion.  Worry about the technical aspect afterwards.  This can always be adjusted.

* Punch in whenever possible as opposed to repeating parts.  It can be easy to burn out.

* Put the focus and essence of what your music is all about.  If you are primarily a vocal band, place a lot of emphasis on the strongest part of your production.

* Record The rhythm first, over dub the other parts.  Don’t worry about effects – You can add them later.

* Don’t over do it.  Spread out your sessions.  The old theory of remaining in the studio for 12 – 14 hours per day is another good way to burn out and not be effective.

 Reviewing the Session

* Make rough demos of every session progress.  Review it quietly in your own time and space at various levels and machines – such as your car or ipod.  It is important that you do not rely on the loud level from the studio to critique your product.

* When it comes time to mix – bring in a couple different sets of ears.  Other musicians or friends can be a great second opinion.  You may be too close to the music and recording to detect deficiencies that other may pick out.

The Final Process – Mixing and Mastering

* As stated above it’s always a good idea to have alternative opinions.  Bring in other musicians.  Although – too many opinions can be difficult to deal with.  Simply put all the opinions in place – then leave it alone and move forward on your own.

* View the production as one finished piece or as a whole.  Don’t focus too much on particular instruments.  Everything should be mixed equally correct to ensure the overall sound.

* No matter where you mix – please use the same speakers as you used in the studio.  If not you’ll be easily befuddled at how different everything sounds.

* Mastering:  For optimal sonic superiority, I highly recommend that you engage the services of a professional mastering engineer for this process.  The new ears and expertise of a great mastering engineer can make or break your product.

There you have it – Just a few basic tips for recording a great CD.  I will go into more technical detail in future articles.  Best of luck.

©2009 Ken Cavalier   All Rights Reserved

 Ken Cavalier is a much sought after music business consultant, artist manager, publicist, and music marketer.  He has authored many publications on music promotion and marketing and works with independent and unsigned artists in promoting their projects.  Ken works very closely with top music industry music producers and has a close working relationship with Grammy™ nominated record producer David Ivory (Atlantic Records – Halestorm, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Silvertide, Patti LaBelle) As an independent A&R representative for Ivory Productions, Ken has brought many projects both nationally and internationally to the production company which have turned out to be highly successful.  Ken’s companies Allure Media Entertainment, Inc. and The Indie Music Marketing Group generally take completed Ivory produced projects to the next level by facilitating the marketing, publicity and promotion.  For information on taking your career to the next level or to connect with a professional music producer you can contact Ken from his website.

http://www.indiemusicconsultant.com

As an independent artist trying to gain exposure for your project, create some awareness and enthusiasm for your band, but also trying to make a living with your music at the same time you may wonder — Is it is a good idea to provide a free download of one of your songs online for fans and/or potential fans?

There are a couple different patterns of thought on this throughout the music industry. To some it still remains a controversial issue, others may tell you it is a no-brainer. Here is a brief summary of the pros and cons to allowing at least one of your songs from a full length or EP-CD, or a single to be downloaded online for free.

Pros to Allowing a Free Download:

* You are giving your current fan base a way to interact and spread the word about your music
* You are offering a gift of appreciation to your current fans
* You are providing an enticement for current fans and potential fans to purchase the entire album once they have had a taste of your single
* It can be a great promotional tool. You can get setup with promotional postcards to give away at shows which have a promotional code. The fan is directed to a website where they punch in the code and get their free download. This way they really feel like they are getting something of value for free.

Sure, you can always offer fully streaming music which allows fans to listen to entire songs without downloading it to their hard-drive or iPod, which will entice them but by giving them a free download you are actually offering them more of a token of appreciation and you are opening a lot of doors with new fans. Whether you know it or not, no matter how encrypted or non-downloadable you think a track may be, it doesn’t take someone who is just a little tech-savvy to be able to clip it anyway.

Cons to Allowing a Free Download:

* You are losing revenue for each free download
* You are losing potential revenue for each person the original person who downloaded your song shares the file with.
* That’s about the only con —-

So you have to weigh the two to figure out if it makes sense to offer a free song download. Obviously it does not make sense to offer an entire record for free download. Kind of defeats the purpose of trying to sell records, doesn’t it.

I believe the greater majority of music industry labels, managers, and publicists, will tell you that it probably can’t hurt to offer a free download once in a while. You may want to offer it on a limited basis in the course of initial promotion so that you do not lose revenue on a consistent basis. The choice is ultimately yours of course – but again – once in a while should not hurt sales and could potentially increase them in the long run.

All the help you need to promote and market your project is HERE

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If you are an independent artist releasing a new CD with plans for any form of retail physical music distribution than it is essential that you are aware of and register the product release with Neilson Soundscan – especially if you are interested in attracting record label attention and eventually going for a record deal. Neilson Soundscan is the primary information system that tracks the sales of music and video releases throughout the United States and Canada.   They powerfully record your CD sales statistics which is ultimately picked up by the record labels who constantly monitor Soundscan looking for up and coming artists who are proving to sell CD units independently.

Sales data is generally collected weekly from over 15,000 retail, mass merchant, and online stores and venues.  Neilson Soundscan is also the sales source which is used to compile the music charts for Billboard.  So obviously, it makes a great deal of sense to register your CD releases with Soundscan.  The information system can only track and record sales on CDs that have what is called a UPC code (Universal Product Code).

What Exactly is a UPC Code?

Why is a UPC Code So Important on My CD?

A bar code or a UPC as it is also known, is “an arrangement of parallel lines and spaces that vary in width which represent data.” Specifically, they represent a unique 12-digit number, sometimes called a Universal Product Code number. When placed on your product or CD, these bars can be scanned by lasers so that stores can digitally record what products they have sold. You’ve probably seen how much time they save cashiers at stores.  This data is picked up by Neilson Soundscan.  So when you sell a CD at a retail outlet utilizing scanning (as most if not all) do today, this is registered and you get credit for the sale.