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Continued from page 41 these tools and tactics are new, there is something that’s timeless about it; what’s powering all of this technology—all of the social networking sites—is people. And people are using the technology to do what they’ve done for generations, for centuries, and that is commune with like-minded people. The Internet allows people to express themselves, which is great for artists. But it also allows people in general to communicate with other like-minded people. This goes back to the church picnic, the gang at work, the bowling league or whatever. People are doing the same things they’ve always done, only they’re using social networking tools and they’re not limited by geography. So realize the people aspect of all this technology and I think you’ll have a lot better time embracing it and using it to your advantage. Ms. Russell, can you add to that?

marketing and online tactics and PR with the same type of creativity that you would approach your writing, and that’s where you’re going to get in trouble. Tony?

Tony: For me, the greatest misconception about
music in the Internet is that free equals theft, or free equals bad. My company sells a lot of music, and I hear a lot of musicians—and particularly songwriters are prone to this—you’ve sweated blood over these songs and it’s got real value to you, and the concept of making it available for free is just counter to every hair in your head. And the fact of the matter is, if you don’t give it away, it’s really hard for people to hear your music when you’re not well-known. Case in point here: Who in the last three days has given away a CD to somebody else here? OK, put your hands down. Who in the last three days has sold a CD to somebody else here? OK. So, there are a couple of enterprising souls here, but you get the point. Most of you—if not every one of you—has given away your music, and it didn’t feel so bad, did it? You’ve met some other folks, discovered some other music, they’ve discovered some other music, and there’s an opportunity to there for now for a relationship to start. And that’s how relationships start—maybe not a physical relationship, because it’s the Internet—but that’s how it starts on the Internet as well, so get comfortable with it. Cool. Tony, in keeping with that thought, can you talk a little bit about how Internet promotion can be built into a larger marketing entity? Let’s say I’m a new age artist who lives in Lima, Ohio. I’m not, but if I were, and if I thought that the only thing I needed to do to get my music to the masses was an Internet campaign. Would I be wrong, or would I be right? Tony: You would be wrong unless you were lucky. Building your customer base, your fan base—your brand, as it were—takes hard work really across all planes, physical and digital. You have to perform; you have to be online; you have to make use of the social networking tools that are out there. You have to build your fan base, capturing contact information, and you have to have product to sell, both physically and online. So it’s really very, very broad, and if you miss any of those, you’re missing out on opportunities to build those relationships and capture fans and contact information. Debra, could you add something to that?

Debra: Absolutely. The first is, nobody cares what
you’re eating. Stop telling us what you’re eating— we don’t care. I think I want to kind of tag on to what Bob was saying because it’s about relationships, and if it’s not something you would say to someone’s face, don’t say it online. If it wouldn’t work at a cocktail party, don’t say it on Twitter. If you wouldn’t do this with dinner with friends, don’t do it on Facebook. If it’s not something you would get away with in person, don’t do it online. And, finally, the last thing is, the greatest misconception, I think, is that you can do the same thing on Twitter that you do on Facebook, that you do on MySpace, that you do on YouTube and on and on…that you can say the same thing over and over. You can’t. You need to target for who is using that social media tool. So the way you interact with people on Facebook should be different than the way you interact with people on Twitter. Beautifully done. Ms. Hyatt?

huge opportunity, because you can access micromarkets via the Internet in a way that you couldn’t via traditional marketing without spending an enormous amount of money. But, for example, if you’re gonna get on Twitter—or just having 4,000 people follow you on Twitter—it isn’t necessarily gonna help you unless you target the segment of the population who are going to love your music. So if you’re looking to market to music supervisors, you want to be focused on the people who are going to link you to music supervisors via Twitter, not just any person who you happen to get to follow you. But you have to understand what your market is in order to then strategize in that way. Does that make sense to you guys? So if you don’t have kind of an overall idea of who you are marketing to, it’s just throwing lots of spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks, and that’s an easy way to get overwhelmed because there are so many different ways now. I mean, I get an invitation to a new social media thing almost every day. There’s names, there’s LinkedIn… I can’t even begin to think of all of them. There’s no way you can do all of them, so you need to focus and target within a larger plan that includes face to face, that includes performance for those of you who are performers, networking and Internet. Brother Bob? Bob: For performing artists who are focusing on fans, the two greatest things that you can focus your time on—besides writing and recording great music—is to perform live as often as you can, get face to face, get people in the room with you and make smart use of the internet. And those things feed each other. At your live shows you collect email addresses, then follow up with people virtually later through their inboxes. You make people aware of your MySpace page—well, or these days, your Facebook fan page or your Twitter A/F account. So you’re in the room with them now, but you want to stay in touch with them. E-mail was the old-school way, and it’s still very important to collect names and e-mail addresses, but make them aware where they can find you online. And then, of course, you want to pursue publicity, which is another in the real world and online, which then feeds those people. A lot of people say, “Why do I need to be on all of these sites? Why can’t I just be on one of them?” Well, you’re forcing your fans to come where you are instead of meeting them where they are. So you want to have at least some presence on all of the more popular sites meeting people where they are. Some people just mainly use Facebook; some people are big Twitter users; some people are still using MySpace. But have a presence there, and then link them and make them aware when they are on MySpace that they can also find you on Facebook. They all kind of cross-link each other; they crossContinued on page 45

Ariel: Well, good one. Greatest misconception. I
think as creative people, we approach our art and our songwriting and our creative process with spontaneity and creativity. The problem is when you apply that—which comes so naturally to your marketing—you’ll fall down, because marketing should be scientific and systematic. So I think the greatest misconception is if you just act like you act in your creative life in your marketing life, you’re going to run into a lot of problems. I don’t necessarily agree with Debra that you shouldn’t share what you’re eating, because sometimes when I share what I eat I make new friends who also bake apple pies. So I think that there’s something to be said for sharing, and I think she’s dead-on about understanding which audience lives in which place; I think there’s a lot to be said for understanding which fiefdom you’re in. I think the biggest problem and the biggest misconception as a creative person is that you’re diving in and approaching
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Debra: Yeah. You should have an overall marketing plan, and Internet marketing and networking—all of that should be part of it. The idea of niche marketing, where you’re really narrowing your focus to a particular segment of the population is key. One of the main reasons the record companies are falling down is because they don’t understand the fact that the market has become fragmented, and there are a lot of micro-markets. But for you guys that’s a

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