How to Build Your Mailing List

In addition to being one of the most overlooked forms of music promotion, it can also be one of the hardest campaigns to get off the ground. The biggest obstacle is getting people to sign up. Just as social media is the most convenient way for musicians to reach their fans, it is also the convenient way for fans to follow their favorite musicians. Given the choice between going through the hardship of entering their email in a box - or worse yet, writing it by hand on a sign up sheet at your merch table - they will always prefer to click a “Like” or “Follow” button.

Go through the extra effort and build yourself a new avenue to reach out to your fans.

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YouTube Primetime

Just as television has coveted time slots known as Primetime based on when potential viewership is at its height, this same phenomenon exists for YouTube. The drawback is that they aren’t as well defined or obvious as they are for television, but the good news is that everyone gets a chance to compete in these higher stakes timeframes.

If you post your videos strategically, you run the risk of no one having time to view the whole thing, having time to absorb it, or even watch it at all. They may be aware of it but by the time they feel like sitting down to watch video, it may have already dropped to the back of their mind.

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Business To Business

As a creative person, you may think of people with business ambitions as being a part of another class. Maybe you even look down on them for submitting to The Man and/or being motivated by greed. Either way, you probably think of them as being different from you. If managing your music career boils down to managing yourself as a business (and it does), wouldn’t it stand to reason that the same habits of successful business people also apply to musicians.

After all, is there really an essential difference between ‘greed’ for money and power and ‘greed’ for money and fame. If your answer is anything but “no”, you are most likely splitting hair to preserve your inflated sense of self-worth…so, get over it and embrace a few pointer from The Successful, not matter what world they have found success in. This means getting up early and getting as much done in a day as possible. It means have clear goals for each day, each, month, yea, and so on.

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Six Resolutions

One of the longest standing traditions tied to the beginning of a new year is the overwhelming urge to make a to-do list. We build them up as resolutions because we are "seriously going to make it happen this time", but really it's just a short list of things that we know we should have been doing all along. If you want 2015 to be The Year for your band, there's only 356 days left to make it a reality by mumbling these resolutions to yourself every time you pick up an instrument:

1) Educate Yourself: If you want the music industry to take you seriously, first you have to take the industry seriously.
2) Play More Shows: One of the best forms of marketing and one of the best ways to make money as a band.
3) Network More: Music is a 'It's not what you know, it's who you know' industry. Increase your odds by knowing more people.
4) Talk to Your Fans: Allowing them to feel like your friends is certain to double their devotion to your music.
5) Take a Risk: Have another look at that inevitability that has been stewing in the back your head; going on tour, making a high budget album, genre crossover). Maybe putting it off is the reason you are still not where you want to be.
6) Release More Music: Giving your fans less, but in more frequent doses is the best way to stay relevant.

If you were smart, you would have gotten very drunk on New Year's Eve and gotten these six things tattooed on your forehead (which would have the added bonus of getting fired from your job).

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How to Get on the Airwaves

Twenty years ago it was hard to imagine that any medium could replace radio as the most effective means for getting your music heard. Ten years ago it was hard to imagine radio lasting more than another decade. Imagined or not, in 2015 radio is still relevant. While many are still eager to use the platform (while it’s still around), most don’t know how to make it happen. Obviously the first step is sending your music to the radio station, but if you go about it the wrong there may not be a second step. While your favorite DJs may seems laid back, down to earth, and excited about the music they’re playing, the real decisions about what to play are left to the producers and program managers. These are pretty much the highest level of professionals in the medium, who are still involved in anything vaguely creative. This means that your approach needs to be professional as well in order to even be considered.

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Putting the BAND in BRAND

Devotees of Rock Report should not need to be told again that you should (always) be thinking of your band as a business. But in case you have never read a music industry blog before; the basic argument is that the goal of both businesses and bands is to make money. The only way either of them make money is by selling something. Not having a storefront or 1-800 number doesn’t make you as different as you might think.

The toughest hurdle between accepting, and using this understanding to your advantage is knowing when, and being willing to, sacrifice pieces of your creative vision to bring the ‘whole’ into fruition. Many artists with a sense of humor may start their careers with a band name that reflects their unique character, in part to help them stand out in the scene. However, they sometimes need to consider a more straightforward name if they want to reach the next level. Some of the more notable examples of this are the Goo Goo Dolls (formerly The Sex Maggots), The Shins (formerly Flake Music), Nirvana (formerly Pen Cap Chew), and most famously; Johnny and the Moondogs…oops, I mean the Beatles.

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