How to Advertise My Music or Band on MySpace

A Technology Evangelist reader writes:

Hello, I recently read your article on word of mouth advertising on MySpace, Flash and RSS and I was very intrigued. I thought the idea that rollerwarehouse had was very clever. I'm a music artist on MySpace and as I'm sure you know the place is flooded with other musicians and artists and so it can be extremely hard to stand out. So I wanted to email you to see if maybe there were any suggestions you could give me to try and really get myself out there and advertised and standing out amongst the crowd. I've been trying to think of a way to incorporate the strategy that rollerwarehouse used but I'm not sure how and I've read The Tipping Point as well which is along the same lines of what I'm trying to do with my music on MySpace. If there is any help or suggestions or advice you can give me, I would GREATLY appreciate it.

-MySpace Band Advertiser

Great question, MBA.

First, let's assume that you're a great artist because, frankly, it's nearly impossible to market a marginal artist. If you're not great, fix that first.

Next, decide how you want to measure success. Is it based on your MySpace friend count, song plays, CD sales, etc.?

Now that that's out of the way, here are some ideas:

Assuming you decide to use a rollerwarehouse style Flash ticker, publishing your latest news and performance dates through the ticker would be valuable content your fans would likely be willing to share. Do you fans love you enough to publish your ticker? Maybe there is an incentive you could offer fans to add the Flash ticker to their site, such as a free signed CD or ticket to an upcoming concert?

I think you're biggest marketing opportunity comes from letting your offline fans know about your online / MySpace presence. Do you advertise your MySpace URL at concerts? On your CDs? On posters and fliers? Mention it during performances? If not, that's a great place to start. Make it easy for your fans to stay in touch with you. Here are some comments from a band member friend of mine who has had success using MySpace to market his band:

"The main thing that has helped us grow our fan base are the audio and video clips you can upload onto your space. This way we can tell people to visit our site and they can check out our music without having to be a MySpace member. We also have a video up there from one of our shows and that can sorta get fans to feel like they know you a bit better which is nice.

You can also put up announcements telling people when you have shows or album releases and that helps a bit too. However, I'd say though that the best thing about it are the audio and video clips."

I bounced your question off a few of my biggest audiophile friends to find out what they thought top MySpace bands were doing right. They suggested that responding quickly by email to people who take the time to post comments is key to connecting with fans. This personal touch creates a close relationship with fans who care enough to post. Build a loyal base.

An artist friend suggests making the most of bulletins. Use but don't abuse them. Announcing new songs loaded to your profile, new CDs, or special performances would likely be appropriate uses.

Of course, it's important to have something valuable to your fans on your MySpace page, so put your blog to work, include songs, and use your calendar to promote upcoming performances. That's really what MySpace is all about for artists. Include videos from recent performances.

And, like it or not, popularity breeds popularity, so consider leveraging your most beautiful friends on your profile page.

Mario, help me understand how a band is better off broadcasting a video on a web site currently ranked 1,647,157 by Alexa rather than leveraging the networking power of MySpace where bands can build a fan base, keep in touch with those fans on a daily basis and broadcast the same videos?

And your comments dismissing the MySpace audience as "for people with funny acts or really amateuristic" seems unfair considering that many of the most professional names in music use MySpace.

I use FriendAdder.com automated programs for MySpace. They have worked quite well for me ;) I can request 500 friends per day, send auomated comments to my friends to gain exposure to their friends. It sure beats the days of manually clicking and typing all day trying to get my band stats up.

Jerod, how is sending 500 friend requests a day on MySpace to people you likely don't know, or to profiles you likely haven't even visited different from spam?

I suggest building an offline real-world fanbase by touring and sending crowds into a frenzy and then reflecting that success online.

From my experience, the friend adder can be a great tool if used right. I don't necessarily use the friend request option but I utilize the messenger. I typed a sincere email asking people to visit my page and offer their opinion of my music. I make positive music and try to really push that point about myself as an artist so I expressed this in the email. I found that I get a good number of replies telling me that they don't normally reply or listen to the artists that send them messages but I presented myself well so they checked out my page and liked what they heard. At that point they usually add me. I figure quality is better then quantity. While it's a little bit of an ego boost to look at your friends count and see it go up substantially due to the friend adder, its a false sense of security and hope. Most people want to have a large number of friends for one reason or another so they will add you sight unseen, just to raise the count. Atleast with the messages, I know that the ones adding me are genuinely interested. Plus I'd rather have 1000 friends with 200 plays a day then 20,000 and 50 plays a day. While I can see why you would think it was similar to spam, it saves a ton of time to be able to use the messenger and I can then spend the saved time replying to the emails and posting comments and doing the rest of the necessary tasks it takes to really build a solid fanbase on myspace. I tried going to each individual page, it just takes too long and as an artist, I have too many things to do. The messenger offers us a helping hand. Sort of an online street team. I hope this has helped. Take care.

Comments

1. Posted by: Mario van Breda on August 22, 2006 12:24 AM:

A better way to promote you or your band is on RTV Channel. It is live internet television, and when your clip/music is oke the will broadcast it over the internet. Advertising or promoting on MySpace is more for people with funny acts or really amateuristic. So if you want a break. Send your video to RTV Channel

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