The
Words You Use
By Tim Sweeney (http://www.TSAMusic.com)
The words you use to "describe"
your songs are just as important as the words you use in them.
In a time when your potential fans are focused on their daily problems of
life (traffic, a job they hate with people who aren't really their friends
and everything in the world costing more than before) it is important for
you to give them the insights into what your songs are about. Help them to
understand that your songs are based on the common life experiences that you
both share. (This is even more critical for instrumental artists).
To help them get a better understanding of who you are as an artist and the
value in your music, post the insights of your songs from your Artist Profile
on your web site. (This is especially important to reach new fans). Share
your insights during your shows onstage and when you are talking to your fans
one on one.
The simple act of helping your fans appreciate the message in your songs when
they are preoccupied with all their problems in life will help them discover
the common bond between you and help to sell them the CDs you currently have
sitting on the floor in your living room.
To start selling more of your CDs, use the proven strategies in my audio book,
Tim Sweeney's Guide To Releasing Independent Records Part 2. To help you write
the insights to your songs that will capture new and existing fans, use Understanding
Who You Are As An Artist. Both audio books are on sale and can be ordered
at http://www.TSAMusic.com/products.asp
Breaking The Ice
By Tim Sweeney (http://www.TSAMusic.com)
All styles and genres of music
are based upon the messages in the songs. It is the ideas of what we want
to communicate that inspire us as artists and musicians to write and create
the songs we do. Ironically, it is the built in fear of talking to people
we don’t know that limits us from sharing the messages in our songs with as
many people as possible.
As artists, we live within the misbelief that our music will speak for itself.
We believe that if we write a song and put it on a CD, have it played on the
radio or merely perform it at a show, the person who hears it will immediately
understand the message in it and become inspired by it. Unfortunately when
you stop and think about it, that’s not reality.
Our fans are made up of the same people we see and interact with everyday.
People who are stressed out all of the time because they let every little
thing in life control them. The question really becomes, can they really hear
what you are trying to say in your song when they are not paying attention?
However, fighting the fear in our human nature is one of the keys to becoming
a more successful artist. Instead of hoping the person listening to your song
will get the message, lets help them to. Here is a simple strategy to try
at your next show that will help you sell more CDs.
Before you begin your next performance, walk around and talk with everyone
who is there. Continue to build the bond with the people you already know
and spend time especially with the people you haven’t met before. In essence,
“break the ice” with them. Have them get to know you in the conversation as
a person and an artist. Help them to understand what your music is about before
you start playing.
When you do this, you will find that they will listen more attentively when
you talk about your songs on stage and they will be more focused on connecting
with the messages in them. When they have had a chance to get to know you
and then hear your songs, they are more interested in buying your CD after
the show!
Instead of hoping your new and existing fans will listen to your song and
hear what you are saying, help them to understand it through a conversation
first, so they can be inspired by it.
This June, I will be giving a very unique seminar that no one else can offer.
This series of 13 indepth workshops will teach you the specific live show
strategies I have taught major label artists (including some of your musical
influences) over the last 23 years. These strategies have specifically helped
them get thousands of new fans and sell more CDs at shows than they ever did
before.
You will learn different ways to promote your live shows that will get you
the new fans you want and need. How to change the visual aspect of your live
show which will keep your audience’s full attention and then, how to sell
more CDs in 10 minutes rather than in 2 hours after your show.
As a special bonus at this seminar, I will be offering one on one sessions
where you can play and we can talk about how you can specifically change your
show for the better!
To register for this seminar, go to http://www.MusicStrategies.com.
Everyone who registers before March 31st will receive a FREE copy of my audio
book, Tim Sweeney’s Guide To Successfully Playing Live (while supplies last!)
To contact me directly about your music or to order my other books, check
out our website at http://www.MusicStrategies.com
Motivation
By Tim Sweeney
(http://www.TSAMusic.com)
Beware! The following
may initially upset and frustrate you but you need to read this all the way
through!
Motivation. Where did it go? What? What do you mean? I spent all this time
recording a new CD, manufacturing it and now playing shows. Just because it’s
not selling the way that I want it to I’m not upset about it. Am I?
When you seem to lose your motivation for your music or your art it becomes
a confusing time. As artists we become everything from frustrated and rattled
by it to a state of mind where we are unmotivated and depressed. But where
did it come from? You spent days and weeks writing songs and fine tuning them
to capture the experiences and elements of life that have impacted you enough
that you had to express them. Once you had them down the way you wanted them,
you decided they had to be recorded in the studio so you could put out a new
CD for others to hear them. After all, these songs are much better than your
previous material. (Sounds familiar?) Then you made a decision to save money
from your day job, borrow from friends or family or even pre-sell CDs to pay
for the studio and manufacturing of your new CDs. Then after months of hard
work and frustration in the studio, at work and with the manufacturer, your
new CDs arrived. Boxes of them.
You gave some out to your family and friends or sold them a few of the initial
copies. You sent out an emailer to your mailing list and said check out my
new CD on my site and come buy one. Maybe a few did but not hundreds. Then
you put them on other music sites that sell CDs. It should have sold hundreds
or thousands of copies. After all they claim to have thousands or even millions
of customers. But again that didn’t seem to work either. But that’s okay,
you just need to play a CD release party and hit your mailing list again and
send an invitation to the various press people about the show and hundreds
of people will show up! However that didn’t work the way it was supposed to
either because most of the initial 1,000 CDs are still sitting there on your
floor.
The next step you tried was to hire a radio promoter or publicist (who really
aren’t and who don’t care about CD sales). You paid them thousands of dollars
to get you college or low ranking commercial stations to play your CD for
a few weeks in cities and states where you can’t even travel to play shows
or for 2-3 sentence write ups in publications that didn’t generate any new
fans at your site or at shows. And now you are becoming unmotivated and frustrated
because after they “supposedly” did their job, you still didn’t sell hundreds
of CDs. Even after more shows in our hometown and more promotion to your mailing
list you don’t seem to be selling very much!
If this sounds familiar to you, you are not alone! This is what I hear from
almost every artist that contacts me and wants me to help them. How do I fix
this scenario so the artists become more successful? I work with them on the
following.
1. This is your passion. As artists the first thing we have to do is stop
taking the rejection we receive as something personal. Instead of learning
from what we are not doing to effectively tell people about the messages in
our songs, we see them not paying attention or not wanting to hear our music
as a personal attack. This includes the media not wanting to write about us
or our upcoming shows or play our songs on the radio to people not coming
to shows or even if they do, not wanting to buy your CD afterwards. The first
step in solving the problems mentioned here is to stop doing what you are
doing.
Throw away your press kit and one sheet that “supposed” publicists and radio
promotion people think is right (but only signifies you as a non-priority
that people can ignore) and create an Artist Profile. One that talks about
who you are as an artist and what your music is about. Two, use what’s in
your Artist Profile at shows. Don’t play the same shows as before, give people
you. 45 minutes of music is not going to motivate people to buy CDs. Learn
to interact with them before, during and after your shows.
2. Reconnect with the reasons why you wrote the songs. What inspired you to
work that crappy day job and save money to record these songs in the first
place! What motivated you to keep going when it looked like you wouldn’t get
the project done? Where did that go? Nowhere. It’s still inside of you! Just
waiting for you to bring it out.
3. To reactivate your passion and inspire you to stop sitting around and making
the same mistakes, we must change your focus. You will now focus only on the
things that will get people to shows, get you exposure in your home city and
generate sales. First, a new specific marketing plan that will focus on how
to double your fan base that actually comes to shows. Second, a small list
of daily actions you can take with the limited time you have to promote your
music. For example, researching the media in your home city and what are they
writing about or what they are playing on the radio these days. Who is drawing
most of the music fans in town to their shows and how are they doing it? You
must focus on the things that will work right now. Mailing CDs around the
country where you can’t put them in stores, play shows or won’t get enough
attention that it will generate any online sales either isn’t.
4. Interrupt your pattern. If you can’t think of new ideas sitting at home
then do what successful people do, leave. Go to the gym (another place you
promised to go to); go outside, to a coffeehouse, the park or go play golf
instead. Change your environment and you will begin to remember what inspired
you to take this path.
5. Understand that this is your passion. Not others. You must communicate
it to people whether in person or in writing. Who cares what other people
think is right or wrong for you. Be bold and passionate. You wanted to influence
people with your music and change them, do it by showing that same passion
everyday! Hand out CD samplers every week so you can meet new people and let
them know what you are doing. Play shows in new places.
The passion you have for your music is still in you! You just to find it again.
Here’s two ways you can find it right now. One, my two audio books, Guide
To Releasing Independent Records Part 2 (which is NOT the same as the first
one) will give you new promotion and marketing ideas you can use in the next
few minutes. It will also help you write your first draft of an Artist Profile
and help you create the materials you need to talk about your music. My other
new audio book, Understanding Who You Are As An Artist (which seems to be
everyone’s favorite), will give you specific ideas of what you need to do
to more effectively communicate your passion to people and get yourself remotivated
when you are frustrated or depressed. Both of these audio books are designed
for you to be able to take the ideas and work with them immediately. You can
order them through this link: http://www.TSAMusic.com/products.asp
The second way I can help you is directly. The books will help you get going
again and will be a great source of ideas you can listen to again and again,
but sometimes you need someone who has been through it to help you create
a specific plan. A plan that you can actually do and write the material with
you and help you accomplish the things you want to do so you can sell the
first 1,000 CDs and start to influence people in your home town like you wanted
to. I have helped and continue to help thousands of artists in these very
areas and help them get on the path they need to sell more CDs and accomplish
what they want with their music. Call me at 951-303-9506 or mail me your CD
and promo material to the following address.
Tim Sweeney
TSA
31805 HWY 79 South #551
Temecula, CA 92592.
Include a note or a copy of this email in it. I will be happy to review your
CD and promo material and let you know how I can help you.
Best Regards, Tim Sweeney
Building And Continuing
Relationships
By
Tim Sweeney (http://www.TSAMusic.com)
As we all know, we have a much
easier time building and continuing a relationship with someone when we can
meet with them in person. When we can’t, staying in touch by phone is the
next best thing. But as your mailing list grows to hundreds or thousands of
people, meeting with them in person or calling them before your upcoming show
isn’t possible. However reliable or not* (see below), email becomes one of
the only options we have left. With that in mind, here is something to think
about.
According to our research,
most artists only get 3 % of their mailing list to come to their live shows.
Why is this?
While schedule, location, day and time play a role, the biggest factor in
whether or not your fans come to your next show is the question of why should
they. The fact that you have a new CD or you want as many people at your next
show as possible is not a great motivation for them or interesting enough.
To make your next show announcement more effective focus on the following.
We all receive a lot of email and regular mail. The most effective is the
kind that seems to “talk to us.” It focuses on something that we are interested
in. The same has to be true with your email. For example, what will they learn
from you at your next show? Are you going to talk about the topics and ideas
in your songs? What kind of experience are they going to have? Are they going
to meet new people they can go to future shows with and hang out?
You are the motivating
factor why people come to your shows! They want to hang out and talk with
you. They want to connect with you.
With that in mind, try
this strategy. Plan a pre-show meeting at a restaurant or bar or at the venue
itself and invite people to come a couple of hours early to hang out with
you! Talk with them about who you are as an artist and what you are doing
with your music. Talk about the ideas in your songs. Learn about them and
what attracts them to your music. Build a bond with them before the show and
you will see two new results. One, they will buy more CDs after your show
because they are more connected with you. Two, they will want to bring their
friends to future shows since they have this new relationship with you.
When your fan base gets to be more than you can personally interact with,
email is one of the only solutions to let people know about your upcoming
shows. To get more people to turn off their televisions and leave the house
to come see you, you have to give them more of a reason than you are performing.
Help them see the value and benefit in coming to your show!
For more ideas of how to promote your music more effectively to the people
on your mailing list, get new fans to come to your shows and sell more CDs,
order a copy of my audio book, TIM SWEENEY’S GUIDE TO RELEASING INDEPENDENT
RECORDS PART 2. Use this special link to get it on sale http://www.TSAMusic.com/products.asp
Getting More Reviews From The Press
By
Tim Sweeney (http://www.MusicStrategies.com)
A lot of artists seem to be having problems getting the writers and reviewers
of newspapers, magazines and websites to talk with them about their music
or write about them, their CDs or review their live shows. Here are three
thoughts to keep in mind when dealing with the press.
1.Always send an Artist Profile instead of a press kit. A press kit identifies
you in this industry as a “non-priority artist” they can skip over without
reviewing your material and most press people will do as soon as they see
one in the package. A press kit doesn’t provide the information the writers
and reviewers need to write a good article about you. As I talk about in TIM
SWEENEY’S GUIDE TO RELEASING INDEPENDENT RECORDS PART 2, an Artist Profile
is specifically designed for the media and to be used in your web site. It
provides the press with the story you want them to write about you. * Most
press people like to look at an artist’s web site. Do not use a press kit
in yours because it is missing the key elements that get people interested
in buying your CD. As a result it will not help you generate the number of
CD sales you want every month.
2.Bi-weekly or monthly updates are critical. While it is important for you
to communicate to them how your music is of interest to their readers, you
also need to tell them how many CDs you are selling every month and how the
“buzz” about you is growing. Do not send press releases about upcoming shows!
Send them actual updates.
3.Your live shows are key. One of the biggest ways the press measures the
interest in you is based on how many people are coming to your shows. Obviously
an artist that can attract 300 people to a show versus 30 is a sign to the
writers that people are interested in you.
I am covering this subject in detail at www.MusicStrategies.com.
If you haven’t written your Artist Profile yet or you are not getting the
number of people you want to your shows, be sure to use my book, TIM SWEENEY’S
GUIDE TO RELEASING INDEPENDENT RECORDS PART 2. You can get a copy at www.TSAMusic.com/products.asp
If you need help writing your Artist Profile, review the Artist Development
Program on our site and send me a copy of your CD and the promotional material
you send out to the press to review.
How Do Your Shoes Affect CD Sales
By Tim Sweeney (http://www.TSAMusic.com)
While it is important
to dress the part of being an artist and looking your best at all times at
your shows, your shoes do have a definite affect on the amount of CDs you
will sell!
More commonly referred to as “shoe gazing” in the 1980’s, often mastered by
Dark Alternative or “Doom & Gloom” artists, the art of ignoring an audience
while you are performing to become affixed upon your love for your shoes has
seen a dramatic increase in popularity in recent years. In the performance
workshops I have been teaching, I have noticed that no matter whether its
a solo artist or a guitar player in a band, the fear of visual contact with
an audience is growing. While in the old days many people viewed it as a guitar
player’s love to push the pedals every other verse, they completely misdiagnosed
the problem.
While it is true some guitar players have a “pedal fetish” it is their fear
of connecting with the audience that is the purpose of their fixed downward
gaze. You see the fear comes from the lack of work they have done before and
after their shows. Simple things such as getting to know their fans by handing
out sample CDs personally. Hiding in the back of the club complaining with
other artists about how everything and everyone is against their music career,
instead of going into the club and introducing themselves to everyone there,
whether they came to see your group or another. But lets not forget the after
thoughts! How it is far more important to put away your gear or go in the
back after the show and complain about no monitor sound or another person’s
playing, than to hop off the front of the stage with CDs in hand and go sell
them.
At a recent show I saw an artist stare at his shoes so much that the majority
of the audience started staring at the spot he was. When I asked the girl
next to me why she didn’t buy a CD she said, she had to save her money for
a neck massage!
One important point to keep in mind. Music is a personal thing. Its a connection
between people. People want to become connected with you. People buy CDs.
Not the floor or your shoes.
Want to sell more CDs? Check out my books at http://www.TSAMusic.com including
my new one, PART 2 of Tim Sweeney’s Guide To Releasing Independent Records.
Why
Emailing Your Fans Regarding Your Next Show Isn’t Working
By Tim Sweeney (http://www.TSAMusic.com)
While there are multiple reasons
why most artists don’t get the response they want, some dealing with the email
text or the timing of their emails, one major reason is that they are emailing
the wrong people! One of the biggest problems I have found is that artists
don’t collect some of the most important information when having people sign
up on their mailing list. Here’s what you need and why.
Their Name - Obvious but you need to personalize their emails and it also
helps against spam accusations.
Email Address - Review what they wrote down carefully. Make sure you can read
all the letters and numbers. Review what they wrote with them. * If they have
a Hotmail, Yahoo of other free email address, expect your emails not to get
through! Free services offer “limited box size” which spammers fill quickly
and these companies have been accused of “dumping” emails before they are
delivered. (That means erasing email messages before they go through their
servers. Some companies have already been fined for this.) If they give you
a free service email address, ask for another.
City & State - While you know where they signed up, you need to mark it down
in your database. Simply because when your list expands to thousands of people,
you won’t remember everyone on it. Besides it doesn’t do much good to email
fans about a show that is hundreds of miles away from them!
Zip Code - One of the most important if not the most important. Most cities
are huge. For example, Los Angeles is considered to be 90 miles in size. Simply
listing someone as living in LA doesn’t do any good. As you know, fans only
drive a few miles when it comes to drinking and driving. The safe distance
they feel they can get home before the cops will catch them. Research what
are the closest zip codes around the venue and only invite those fans to the
shows. After all, even if you were invited to a show that didn’t serve alcohol,
would you drive 20 plus miles each way?
Venue & Date - Something you should put in a separate field when entering
in their email information into your database. Always make a note of what
venue they came to see you at because they will most likely come to that one
again. Noting the date is important to see when they came to see your show
last. These are a few of the items that your email database should have per
person.
There are a number of others that I teach at my workshops http://www.MusicStrategies.com
Looking for more FREE advice or to greatly increase the amount of people coming
to your next show? http://www.TSAMusic.com
Why
Being Popular At Home Is Important
By Tim Sweeney
(http://www.TSAMusic.com)
Obviously there
are a number of reasons why being popular and financially successful in your
home city is critical. The sheer benefit of not spending your money or time
traveling in the car or van for a number of hours to play a show for 20 people
is one. Here are some others you may not be thinking about that can be to
your benefit.
With a large and
growing fan base that comes to your shows and have bought your CDs, you will
be able to attract the attention of artists in neighboring cities you would
like to play in next. Since you are successful in your home area, you can
play with other artists who are successful in their home cities. This obviously
gives you a dramatic advantage in promoting your music in new markets. In
essence you will have an instant audience to play for in the new cities you
go after.
While you are capturing
the interest of artists in other markets, you are also attracting the attention
of major label artists. As you know, most major label artists are counting
on the airplay they have received to deliver them an audience. Unfortunately
they find themselves in the same position as other new artists. Booked into
venues where they can’t fill the room by themselves. Well guess what? You
are the answers to their problem! Your dedicated fan base can fill up the
back half of the room or can help both of you play an even larger venue. Of
course the other benefits include getting paid more to perform, media coverage
and hundreds of potential new fans you will be playing to. Not to forget what
influence your dedicated fans will on the new people that come to the show.
Focus on being
successful at home first and see what opportunities it creates for your music
career!
Need help selling
CDs and taking your career to the next level? Check out our website at http://www.TSAMusic.com