In this podcast I touch on the importance of building a team to help you achieve your goals. And as always, I give you a good dose of some dope indie hip hop music.
With the newest social media trend being Twitter, a lot of established as well as independent artist have taken to the networking site as a way to increase awareness of their brands and movements. Although the site boast music friendly opportunities i.e. New Music Monday’s, a lot of users are starting to complain about the onslaught of music they are either tweeted or fill their timeline. Rightfully so, if your a DJ, radio personality, or have anything to do with the entertainment industry you have to expect these tweets to fill your timeline from time to time So, I have decided to come up with a couple quick do’s and dont’s for independent artists that can help further as well as build their relationships on twitter without being blocked ignored, or unfollowed.
1. Do be considerate in your approach.
Just like how you have to be careful in how you approach someone on the street, you also have to be considerate in the way you come across on twitter. I think a lot of people feel as though they can act any way the want because they are not in front of that person or because its through the internet. What most Read the rest of this entry »
Headliner.fm is a cool tool for independent artists. It gives you the opportunity to exchange promotions with other artists over the Internet. It’s free. Check it out.
In a market saturated with so many hip hop artists, you’re going to have to go beyond just lyrical skill to make an impact. You know, the kind of impact where you influence the way a group of people dress, speak, and think. Far too many emcees ignore this aspect of their careers because they feel that they should remain free from “gimmicks”. Read the rest of this entry »
In my city and in others I’ve traveled to, some promoters put on what they call, talent showcases. Most of these lame shows are put together by letting any rapper perform who pays an entree fee. On top of that, the artist is given a number of tickets that he must sell to his friends and supporters. These are the only group of people usually cheering for him during his performance because no one is there to see anyone else but the artist they came to support.
Anybody can get in and perform if they have the money to pay. These showcases are stacked with well over a dozen artists Read the rest of this entry »
Fanpush is a cool marketing tool that uses Twiiter to help independent artists get their music out. Fanpush is in beta right now and more features are promised to come in the near future. Check out the video and try it out for yourself.
1. Don’t think that heavy marketing and aggressive promotion will be the solution to all your problems. Your music must be great. No amount of marketing will make people care about bad music.
2. Don’t be afraid to be different. Biting someone’s sound and style may get you noticed short term, but the artists who have a lasting affect are those who dare to stand out and create something new. Read the rest of this entry »
Your image is just at important as your music. Especially in hip hop. Most people will try to determine what kind of music you make just from a glance of your pic. This is why you should give serious thought about the promotional pictures you send out with your music.
You can’t imagine some of the horrible pics artists send me to post on this blog. The above pic is a recreation, but a very mild example. I get bad mobile phone pics in the bathroom, with their children, with their girlfriends, got one in the kitchen, driving in the car….you get my point. Blog and website owners put a lot into making sure their sites are visually appealing. Well, at least most of them do. And they don’t wont crappy pics detracting from that. Read the rest of this entry »
Some time ago I addressed some very irritating marketing tactics that artists were using on Twitter. The article was called 5 Very Bad Twitter Marketing Habits. But equally irritating are tactics some Facebook users use to promote themselves or their music. Here are some of the most annoying ones.
1. Event invitation spam. This is at the top of my list of Facebook annoyances. Promoters repeatedly send RSVP notices about their events and they flood my inbox. You actually have to take time out to find the event and click that you won’t be attending or you’ll leave yourself vulnerable to repeated alerts. Sometimes you can’t tell who is even sending you these invites.
Any Facebook friends of mine that abuse this function get blocked. Some abusers don’t even take to the time to notice that they are inviting me to an event that’s not in my state. Most people are annoyed at this and I hope that Facebook comes up with a better way to stop this. Over aggressive promotion is a sure way to turn a potential fan to a person who’s more than glad to leave your social network. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t miss another opportunity to share your music or network with a good contact because you didn’t have your music or info on you. Way too often, I’ve checked my wallet to exchange info with a contact only to say, “Sorry, I don’t have any more business cards.” You can avoid mishaps like these by always having a few things with you. Here is a short list of them.
1. Business Cards: In this day of great technological advancements, this old school way of passing along your info is still the quickest and most effective. It’s a pain in the ass for me to write down your website and for you to tell me that your email address has an underscore in it. Save me the time and just put it all on your business card. Plus, business cards are cheap to purchase. Vistaprint will make you some for free if you’ll just pay for the shipping. Read the rest of this entry »
