Wednesday, June 29, 2005 

How to promote yourself at a music conference

I participated last night on a teleconference call about how to promote yourself at a music conference. I'd like to share some thoughts on this topic with you.

To me, it's all about networking. You gotta make connections with people. Be sure to arm yourself with business cards and if you are in a band bring CDs. Also remove the wrapper from your CDs. I get bombarded with CDs at music conferences and I hate having to get that wrapper off so do us industry people a favor and remove it.

Make yourself stand out from everyone else. Think outside the box. What can you do differently?

One thing I find useful is for you to develop your one liner pitch so when you are approached by an industry person who says "how would you best describe your music?" you don't have to think about it. You should be able to come right out with it without having to think about it. When someone says to me "what is GoGirls"? I say "GoGirls is the oldest and largest community of independent women musicians. Our mission is to promote and empower women in music". I don't have to think about it. I've said it so many times that it comes out naturally. So think about your pitch and practice it until you can get it out without hesitation. It will impress people!

Another thing that helps is to arrive to the conference early and start working it. If it's at a hotel, stand just outside the elevator or an area where people arrive so you can greet them. Introduce yourself and let them know when/where your band is playing at the conference.

Hope this bit of info helps! If you would like to chat with me one-on-one, I'm available for phone consults at reasonable prices. You can get info about it at www.indiemusiccoach.com.

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~

Monday, June 27, 2005 

Intermixx

Check out this internet music community called InterMixx InterNetwork. It has some really good resources.
http://www.intermixx.com/www.intermixx.com/mixxmain.html

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~

Monday, June 20, 2005 

Something to think about today...

"Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer". -- Denis Waitley

That's a great quote. We can relate to it. Think about the last time something went wrong at your show... like the time the sound guy screwed up your best song at an important gig. Did you cry about it or did you move on, figuring a solution so it didn't happen again. Living in the past will not fix your problems. Work on it now, in the present, so your future will be brighter.

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 

The Musician's Atlas

Here is one of my favorite resources for the indie musician... The Musician's Atlas. It is chock-full of such great information I can hardly stand it!

Here is an excerpt from their web site:

With The Musician's Atlas, you can Create, Perform, Record, Promote, and Sell music more successfully. With or without label support. The best-selling Atlas helps you build and sustain your career by supplying the most qualified and in-depth contact information available - complete with critical details that other resources leave out. We've contacted and qualified more than 24,000 US & Int'l music industry contacts in over 28 music business categories for The Musician's Atlas volume 2005. And we added new categories including Canadian College Radio and Booking and a section covering Video & Home Recording.

The fine people at The Musician's Atlas are so supportive of GoGirlsMusic.com, that they offer us an industry discount. You can take advantage of it by going to http://www.musiciansatlas.com/gogirlsmusic.asp.

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~

Monday, June 13, 2005 

Something to think about today...

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained." -- Marie Curie

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~

Friday, June 10, 2005 

BATTLE OF THE GOGIRLS '05

GoGirlsMusic.com presents the BATTLE OF THE GOGIRLS '05.

Does your band have what it takes to beat out all the other GoGirls? Then we are looking for you! All entries will be judged by a panel of music industry professionals lead by GoGirls founder, Madalyn Sklar. The panel of judges will choose six bands to duke it out on stage. These bands will participate in a live showcase in front of judges and audience on August 20th at Trophy's Bar in Austin, TX.

All six finalists will receive great prizes. The winner will receive cash and prizes!

More info at www.gogirlsmusic.com/battle

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~

Wednesday, June 08, 2005 

If not today, when?

We all have good intensions of starting something today. Today is the day! Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not here yet. So today is the day. Woo hoo!

Okay, so what are YOU going to do today to further your music career? Make a plan of action and as Nike says Just Do It! Well I know it's easier said than done. But is it? What is keeping you from making something happen today? Jot down what you want. Make a to-do list. Start now!

I know, it's so easy to say to yourself that it can wait until tomorrow. It's easy to say "I can do it WHEN I have more money, WHEN I have more time, WHEN my kids get older." Why are you letting WHEN control you?

Start today. Start now. Make today the day YOU make something happen.

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~

Monday, June 06, 2005 

The One-Dollar Music Marketing Tool

by Bob Baker

Traditionally they come in yellow. But these days you can find them in orange, green, pink, blue and all the other colors of the rainbow. In school you probably used highlighters to flag important passages in textbooks. Or maybe you use them now to note meaningful paragraphs in your favorite how-to titles.

I'm talking about highlighters. And in case you didn't know it already, you can also put this inexpensive writing instrument to good use in marketing your music. Here are three creative ways to do just that:

1) Highlight important facts on the outside of your mailing package

I once received a press kit on the band Earth Crisis, which was playing an upcoming date in my hometown. On the outside of the mailing envelope, the publicist had handwritten the band's name, the venue name and date of performance in dark ink. Then she highlighted these notes in bright green.

The editors and reviewers who receive packages like this know in an instant what they're about and why they are timely. Especially with regard to media people who already knew of the band, this simple technique helped the group avoid the slush pile.

2) Highlight pertinent dates on your tour schedule

If your band is on tour and promoting a string of dates along the way, you definitely want to notify the media in each city where the group performs. Some publicists craft a separate press release for each city, which if fine. But other bands take a more economical approach: They list every city, venue and date on one sheet, which is inserted into every press kit.

The one-sheet system is fine and dandy, but editors still have to scan over the document in search of the relevance to their specific city. And quite often, these packages are sent to music media in cities not even on the tour schedule - which wastes editors' time searching for a concert date that's not even there.

Which brings us back to a music marketing rule I've hammered home many times in the past: Make it easy for media people to give you free exposure. The harder you make them work, the less recognition you'll get.

The easy solution: Highlight the date and venue that's pertinent to that city. That way, the line will stand out in the overall listing of tour dates. This will take a few more minutes to coordinate when putting together your press kit mailings. But the payoff could be substantial.

3) Highlight standout quotes within your press clippings

Hawaii's Crash the Luau Records recently sent a promo package for the band Tone Deaf Teens. Five of the act's most favorable reviews and write-ups were interestingly arranged on one appealing page.

In addition to that, the most positive and descriptive sentences within each review were highlighted in yellow. It allowed someone reading about the band for the first time to get a quick grasp of what this group was about.

You didn't have to wade through multiple paragraphs and exposition that didn't matter. The highlighted sections forced you to go right to the heart of what Tone Deaf Teens is all about.

Using a colored highlighter to draw attention to the important points you want to get across to the media is a simple but powerful way to stand out.

Why not go out right now and invest a buck or two in your music marketing campaign?

Bob Baker is the author of "Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook," "Unleash the Artist Within" and "Branding Yourself Online." He also publishes TheBuzzFactor.com, a web site and e-zine that have been delivering marketing tips and inspirational messages to music people of all kinds since 1995. Get your FREE subscription to Bob's e-zine by visiting http://TheBuzzFactor.com today.

Saturday, June 04, 2005 

Madalyn's Recommended Reading...

Check out the book below. I'm reading it now and I love it! It's very insightful.



Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~

Wednesday, June 01, 2005 

Mu$ic Bu$iness

By Krist Krueger

Introspection (an interview series)
-- Publicists --

A discussion with:
• Rhonda Kelley/Rainmaker Publicity
• Michael Farley/Michael J Media Group
• Anne Leighton/Leighton PR

Click here to read this interesting article about the lives of indie publicists!

Hope you enjoy this insightful article.

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~

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WHO IS MADALYN SKLAR?


    Madalyn Sklar is a music business coach & consultant, blogger, social networks expert and author. She has spent over 15 years helping independent musicians and music business professionals achieve greater success. Her motto is: working smarter not harder. She also founded GoGirlsMusic.com, the oldest + largest online community of indie women musicians.

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