PHOTOS
Make sure you’re thinking big picture [meaning of your entire
musical presence... not a really large photo...] when you get artists
photos taken. [And for the love, please do not stand by a tree trunk
and smile at the camera.] You need to make sure everything about the
entire package all fits into whatever image you’re going for. It’s
good to ask yourself the question: who is my demographic? [Demographic
is a fancy word for the group of people who like a certain thing.] Are
you appealing to the Clay Aiken, Celine Dion crowd? Or the Snoop Dogg
crowd? Make sure you LOOK and DRESS like you SOUND. Then make sure
your pictures have that vibe. Don’t dress like a hard core punk rocker
if you’re singing adult contemporary love ballads. Your CD is a
product, a commodity, which needs to be marketed. And if you’re not
well defined and streamlined in your identity as an artist, you will
have a hard time finding an audience to which you will stick. And you
want to be very sticky! [And heck, if you’ve got money to hire
professional hair, makeup, wardrobe, art direction, etc. go for it.]
ABOUT RELEASING A RECORD
I’m going to leave the following paragraph, but even one year has made enough difference to change the situation in the industry. See below this paragraph for my updated thoughts.
[WHAT I SAID IN 2008: If it’s looking like your full record might take a few years to complete, [which is entirely possible because life happens] you might want to consider getting the first 5 or 6 songs mixed and mastered, and then print up 100 copies of a “partial release”. This will allow you to at least start getting it out there and get some momentum on it. We did this with our first 6 songs, and shipped the prerelease out to record labels and some radio stations that played our genre of music. [Good thing we did, since we had no idea it would still be TWO YEARS before we’d be finished.] From that we got 10 song licenses for various compilations, we got one song on the Banana Republic playlist, we got airplay on a nationally syndicated radio show, and we made some extremely valuable contacts which later paid off with CD orders when we had our full release finished. I am SO GLAD we did this!!! It’s the best decision we made. It might also give you just a little bit of satisfaction so that you’ll take your time and do the whole record right and not rush just to get it finished. Another option would be to call it an EP. But later after you’ve recorded more, put it ALL together because you can sell a full length CD for more.]
THIS IS WHAT I SAY IN 2009: In this age of digital music, it seems that the option of releasing a “single” or “EP” is so easy, it only makes sense to do so. If you only have a budget to get one song recorded and mixed by professionals, then go ahead and get a good looking graphic put together and digitally release that one song as a single. If you do it on CD Baby you only need to pay the one time $35 registration fee, and you can leave it out there forever without ever having to pay again. Then you’ll show up on iTunes and Amazon digital etc. Then after you get a few more songs recorded put them together with your previous single that you released, and put it out there as an EP. Then, after you record a few more songs [3 to 5], put those few songs out as another separate EP. Digital only. Then you can record a couple of more songs, and put it ALL together as a full length CD. Be sure, though, that you do have something previously unreleased on your new CD. One benefit of this is that when someone looks you up online, they see that you’ve released 4 different projects, which looks better than just one full length CD [even though it’s not really]. So it gives the perception that you’ve got more going on. One caution, be sure if you put it all together on one project, that the music production is cohesive, so they actually sound like they all belong on the same record. If your sound has changed over time, then keep the ones you like, and put them out on a new project, leaving the others off.
Don’t think that you don’t need any physical CDs for a digital only release. You will need promotional copies, so spend your money and make sure they look very good. That way when you mail your CD to sites like Pandora.com, it will be taken more seriously.
No one else cares about your music or your career as much as you do. Don’t wait for someone else to come along and do things for you that you think you’re not good at. Just work at getting better and do them for yourself.
[Hi all,
Ellen here. I've decided to take a very long handout that I
created for my college students and break it down into a series of
blogs. This is a summary of what I know about promoting yourself and
your music online. If you or someone you know is a self released
artist who doesn't necessarily have a plan of action after the CDs are
manufactured, subscribe to this blog and read the series. I'm breaking
it down into bite sized portions. ]
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