Instead, let’s talk about just giving your music away.  Screw the money,  Bet you never thought you’d hear me say that, huh?  But, don’t worry, I still have your skinny wallets in mind and trying to fatten them up for you.  I don’t want you to give anything away without expecting something in return.  Your fans don’t have to know that you are expecting anything in return… they will just get some free music, and think you are the nicest band in the world.  Only you and I will know better.

What I’m talking about doing is creating some special Christmas music, and making it something special just for the fans.  This is one of the oldest music promotion ideas around.  People love Christmas music and anything having to do with the holiday.  There are people out there who collect every Christmas song they can find.  You have a built in new audience with this, and you’ll get lots of buzz, referrals, talk about you, and yes, in the end, money.

Go in the basement with some kind of recording device… you don’t even have to have high quality music equipment for this one.  You are going to bang out, really quickly, some kind of Christmas greetings and then a song for your fans.  Then, only give it out to people in your fan club.

You do have a fan club, don’t you?

If not, now’s the time to start.  Get some mailing list software.  Put a big sign up form on your home page, and tell people that by signing up they will get access to free recordings from you that are ONLY available to those who join the fan club.  If you can, do it as a pop up on your home page, and every other page.  If you don’t know how to do this, let me know, and I’ll post something about it.

Now you have a fan club.  They get this exclusive Xmas recording to brag about and amaze their friends with.  Those friends will want it also.  They’ll sign up.  Your mailing list will grow, your fan base will grow, and everyone will think ‘what great guys’ your band is, and that you have the xmas spirit just like they do.  Bah Humbug… you just want to get them on your list.

Think no one will care?  The Beatles put out a fan recording every year.  Elvis, the Beach Boys, Springsteen, just about every Country singer, and tons more bands have put out Christmas recordings.  Some became big hits and get played over and over every year near Christmas.  You’ll get some ‘word’ out on your recording, and it it’s really good, rerecord it right and make it an official release for next year.  Maybe you’ll have a hit… radio stations are hungry for new Xmas music.  They can’t get enough of it.  And, of course, next year, along with your hit, you can make a new Christmas song for your fans.

Alright, up the ante… take that recording, put some videos of you playing around with the song as the background and upload it to youtube and all the other video sites.  Go to the torrent sites and feed them… Send out press releases talking about how fans love your free Xmas song.  Oh yeah, in the intro, when you are telling your fans to have a Merry Christmas, don’t forget to mention your website so when it gets passed around, everyone will know where to go.

The season is upon us and the time to act is now.  Get working on your Christmas song promotion today.

Contact local newspapers, web sites, radio and TV stations in your area and tell them about your gigs. Ask if you can give them an interview. Here’s a little secret. Media outlets need lots of content. They chew it up and spit it out constantly. And interviewing you will help them get that content. Often, they are eager to promote you because they need the material. In other articles, we’ll discuss in depth how to work with the media to promote your music.

Print up flyers on your home printer and hang them wherever there’s a community bulletin board such as a library, supermarket, or post office. If you belong to a volunteer group, make an announcement at the next meeting or put it in the newsletter. If you are a member of a house of worship, put it on the bulletin board and ask if you can put an announcement in the order of service. Put up flyers on telephone poles (if allowed).

There are lots of ways to get people to come to your gig.

You can invite other bands to play with you. Here’s a tip: don’t play first because not everyone has arrived yet. Don’t play last or everyone may leave before you come on. If you are a major attraction, playing last is ok, but if there are a bunch of bands, try to get the middle spot or just before the headliner when the crowd is the biggest.

You can also have a battle of the bands. You can have a contest. How about a singing contest where the best vocalist gets to guest star with your band? Yeah, just like American Idol. In fact, if you have the kind of music that particular crowd enjoys, use American Idol in your music promotions. Most people love that stuff.

Or, how about other contests? A songwriting contest and your band will play the song written by the winner. You can also have a t-shirt designing contest. Have the participants design a t-shirt with your band’s name on it. Your band will use the winning design on your merchandise - give the winner a free shirt. Most bands pay a lot of money for a great design. You can get a few for just a few samples. You can also have a contest where the winner gets a free music lesson with the musician of their choice.

You can also give stuff away. Shirts, hats, all kinds of stuff preprinted with your name on it. It’s dirt cheap to make short run cds these days. Create a special one to be used as a prize, limit the number of them, and make it a collector’s item.

Often, when you play for free, you can tie it into a ’cause.’ Major charities will often sponsor musical gigs by unknown bands, and you’ll get a ton of publicity.

On top of that, you’ll get people who come to your show just to support the charity. You’ll get promoted by the cause you would like to support. Even if you have been paid to play in the past, it’s worth it to play for free because it keeps your name out there and you will make new fans. You never know who is listening to your music and how that person can help you towards realizing your dream.

In other words, play your music as much as you can to anyone who will listen. And, whenever you play, promote the hell out of it. This is the absolute best way to pull together a following, which will draw the attention of the record labels and get your music onto the Ipods of tons of music lovers.

The most important thing to do when beginning a career in music is to play live. If you’re not established yet, don’t be afraid to play for free. This is the best way to promote your band or yourself. The kind folks here at the Music Marketing Center are going to help you figure out how.

Check your local newspapers to see if there is a fair, festival, or open mic night where you live. Those are perfect places to get started and lots of successful musicians and bands have gotten their careers of the ground that way.

Try to find places to play where the people are likely to want to hear your music. But, if you can’t find anywhere that has the right audience for you, don’t worry about it. If the usual audience is wrong for the type of music you play, try to bring your own crowd… Don’t rely on the venue’s usual crowd. Promote the show yourself and target your promotion to your audience. Even if one person stays to listen and likes you, that’s one person more than you had before you started. And that person will tell others.

If you play an event, make sure that your name or the name of your band is on all of the promotional materials. That’s a huge step to marketing your music.

If there aren’t any events in your town, put on your own show. That’s right, just like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney (yeah, I know… I’m showing my age here - actually, that stuffs even older than me. You can even do your show on property that you or your friends own and not pay a thing.

Most towns issue permits for public gatherings. So if you can’t have a gig where you live, see if you can get a permit to play in a park near by. Permits aren’t too expensive and the publicity will be worth it.

Playing for free is a good, low stakes way to practice. It’s very different playing in front of an audience than in your basement or garage with just your band or a few friends listening. It will give you confidence so that when you play for a bigger audience. You’ll be prepared.

Say you play electronica, and there is a club in your area where you can build up an audience.  Before you start booking your band into a cool club you heard about in the city of your dreams, you better make sure your audience goes to that club or you’ll be playing to two people.

This is why you’re lucky to being starting a career in music now. The internet is a tremendous resource and a great equalizer. A short time ago, only the labels had the marketing information, now you can have the same information. You can market, promote, reach out to your fans, find musicians (if you need them), make connections, sell your music..

Yes, you can do all that online. And yes, that is the start to becoming world famous - faster, for less money, and with less connections than ever before. And that’s because you don’t have to waste your time and money traveling 100s of miles to find out you’re playing at the wrong venue, you can look it up online.

Most clubs have web sites and you can usually tell a bit about who goes there and who plays there by it. Also, see if the venue has gotten any press. Even if it hasn’t, most cities (even small ones) or regions (that don’t have a big city but have a much of decent sized towns) will be listed in some sort of arts or culture magazine or newspaper from that area and they put their articles online. They are very easy to find by googling it. After you read about the club, you can decide if it’s worth it to play there. This is something that works world wide, not just in the place you live.

Once you go international, there are different trends to be considered in different countries.  Laws are different.  Customs, attitudes, taxes, the way the media does its job, all sorts of important stuff is going to vary everywhere you go. Be as knowledgeable as possible, get a tour manager if you can (or be one for yourself), and work with people you trust who speak the language. You will lessen your chances of getting screwed (we’re talking about business here) and you will build an audience and maybe even make some money.

Don’t forget to sell your CDs, t-shirts and other merchandise, which will get your name out there and name recognition is very important when marketing your band.  Oh, and when you go into those different countries, make sure that you are allowed to bring your merchandise with you without paying taxes or getting the confiscated at the border.

How do you become knowledgeable about different countries and make connections? The internet of course. At this point of time, it’s all done online. The internet has the made the world a much smaller and more manageable place.

Marketing your music is work, but you can do it from your home computer. You take the same steps you applied to promoting your music or band locally and use that globally. Here are some things to think about:

Find out where your audience is.

Find and contact the media in that area.

If you’re interested in touring, find the venues that fit your music.

Send CDs or MP3 to be reviewed by the media and tell them where and when you’ll be playing.

We will cover how to finance a tour and or a CD in other articles. Be sure to check back.

You don’t need to be the first to do something like this. Sometimes, you just need to be the loudest. It will cost you next to nothing, and you may reap huge rewards from latching onto trends like this. Go for it.

Best case, they may help you ride on the other band’s coattails while spending most of their time with the other group. Worst case, you’ll be stuck in a contract with someone who doesn’t do a thing to help you. And, if you start to take matters into your own hands and become successful, they are still going to get their percentage. Great.

You can market your own music. Yeah, it takes a little time and energy, but until you hit it big, you should have plenty of that. Just follow Music Marketing Center’s advice and you can promote you music better than 99% of the so called professionals. After all, most of them are stuck in the past anyway, thinking that what you need is a deal with a major label. Very few of them know about using the internet, mobile phones and other creative marketing strategies to make a big splash.

Once that splash is made, the labels will be fighting for you anyway. The advantage to doing the marketing yourself is not only will you save money, but you can also decide how, where and when you want to promote your music.

The music industry has changed big time. To promote yourself effectively, you have to be aware of the trends. Not just the trends in the news, but the trends in the ways people are getting their music. In case you haven’t noticed, record stores are becoming a dinosaur. They are dropping off the face of the earth. The record companies don’t want you to know this… in fact, they were slow to figure it out themselves.

Digital delivery accounts for a larger percentage of the way music gets into the hands of fans every day. That’s all over the news. But, what they don’t talk much about is how the fans are finding out about new bands. The hippies thought there was a revolution going on in the sixties. They made a big stink about it (aside from all the jokes about them not taking baths).

The revolution is now!

And it’s a quiet one. It used to be that the A&R man from the record company woudl tell the record stations what the next big hit will be. Why did the stations listen? Payola. Yeah, it became illegal to give money to radio stations to bribe them to play their songs, but they found creative ways to do it anyway.

More and more, it’s the regular people on the internet who are finding new bands, talking about them, spreading the word, and making bands that have never gotten any airplay huge. And it doesn’t have to cost the bands anything.

Today, you don’t have to just worry about pleasing the record companies (yes, they do still have a lot of influence, so you may not want to completely ignore them). You now need to get direct contact with the fans. Find your biggest, loudest fans, and let them tell everyone else about you.

It doesn’t matter if these loud fans are great to be around or annoying as hell. Treat them like gold, because they are going to help line your pockets with gold.

Do special stuff for them, make them feel special, and they will sing your praises, making you rich and famous in the process. In the coming months, the Music Marketing Center is going to fill your brain with tons of ways to become successful in the new age. Stick with us, we are just getting started.