Independent Music Promotion on the Web: 3 Steps to Success

Let's face it, the wildfire spread of web-based portals designed to introduce independent music to the world has created a bewildering array of opportunities and costs. So where do they all balance out? When does the cost of signing up to yet another music promotion service yield results? What results are we looking for anyway?

The key is to make your web promotion targeted, systematic and rich.

What is the main drive for independent artists promote their music on the web? The fundamental incentive for web promotion is the opportunity to get your music heard by people who might otherwise never know that you exist! If people know you exist they can become fans and repeat-listeners. Which of those fans buy CD's and downloads? Targeted listeners.

The most important goal of web promotion is to attract targeted listeners.

Any independent artist who says they use the web to sell their music has missed the primary target - attracting targeted listeners. Attracting targeted listeners should be every independent artist's first priority. Remember, you don't sell your music - listeners BUY your music. It's a buyers market. The more targeted listeners you have, the more sales you make - provided you are systematic in getting your targeted listeners.

The best way to get targeted listeners is to be systematic.

Many artists tend to approach their web promotion thinking that since they have a website and have signed up to a couple of artist showcase sites, that the listeners will just come pouring in. Yes you have managed to target some potential listeners, but you still have to shout, "Hey, over here...you'll like the sound of this!" A systematic approach to getting listeners to hear your music will attract and maintain their interest. But remember to make sure you have the content ready for the listener to enjoy.

Sites rich in content will retain your targeted listener.

In the independent artist's case, the rich content is the music. This may seem like old news, but look at the amount of independent artist websites that give the visitor loads of info about the band but very little (or hidden) ear candy. Music should be the first thing a visitor gets. At the very least they need an obvious link to where they can listen to your music. And not just one or two tracks but a variety of your music. Independent artists have to remember they have not had the radio exposure to model the presentation of their music after more well established acts. Listeners need to be convinced they like your independent music before they will buy it.

So the question is how to make your web promotion targeted, systematic and rich?

Tips for Targeting.

The best targeted listeners on the web will be those that make it to your website. Find a way to know who they are. Setup a newsletter and make it easy to sign up to it. People interested enough to want to receive news about you are your hardcore web fans, keep them happy.

The next best group of targeted listeners are those that hear your music on other sites. Try to pick sites that allow listeners to link to your site. If they like your music they might click on that link to visit your site. You can then find out where these visitors are coming from. Find a good web statistics package that lets you know which sites your visitors are being referred from. Take note of those sites and focus your efforts with them accordingly.

When choosing sites on which to promote your music, check to see if they offer any individual stats relating to your music. Like how many track plays or page views you and your music receive on their site. This way you can check in periodically and monitor your performance with these sites.

Systematic Steps.

The key to being systematic is organization. Keep a note of all the sites you use to promote your music, a brief description of what they do and how much it costs. Try to get into the practice of monitoring all of them regularly. Take note of which sites are getting better results than others and focus your efforts accordingly. You might pay for minimal promotion on one website, while another gets you loads of listeners for free. Naturally you'll want to put more effort into updating the sites that are getting better results.

Provide a link on your website and newsletters to all of the sites you use to promote your music. Remember your website visitors are your hardcore web fans and are the most likely to check out and spread the word about your spot on other websites. So encourage them to visit your profile on other websites. At the very least it raises your stats on those websites - making your music look more popular!

Try to create a ring of sites that link to each other though the content you supply. For example, you might have your music on your own website and two other showcase sites - Site A and Site B. Your site should without a doubt link with Site A and Site B. Site A should link with your site and Site B, Site B should link with your site and Site A and so on. What if these sites don't allow you to setup links to other sites? Put a web address in the areas where they do allow you to supply content. Like biogs or descriptions.

The ultimate aim of linking all your sites is to provide your listeners with a variety of access points to your music, as well as access to the different ways various sites may deliver your music. Remember to link to your specific page on the site and not just the site itself. Your site linked with a site that play your tracks on Internet radio, linked with a site that sells your downloads, linked with a site that sells your CD's provides for a powerful combination of exposure.

Be Rich

Without money! That is the challenge that most independent artists face. The conventional approach to selling music is that it should not be too readily available to listen to, should the incentive for listeners to actually buy albums be undermined. This has persuaded independent artists that they should limit web listeners to low-quality snippets of streaming audio.

Independent artists have to remember they don't have the resources and finances to support the "shotgun approach" of spraying their music across radio and music television. Big artists have big companies behind them that need to recoup the costs of mass media exposure, and therefore try to limit the extent to which listeners can sample their music on the web. Listeners have already heard the music and are trying to find a copy of their own.

Conversely, listeners haven't had a chance to listen to independent artist through conventional media. Therefore independent artists can't assume that people will buy their music off of a website if they don't get a chance to really listen to it. If people have already heard an artist's music, and like it, the value they pay for is in owning a copy they can play whenever they like. If people have not already heard an artist's music, the value is in being able to sample as much of the music as possible.

So being rich is providing your listeners with as much of your music as they want to listen to before they buy it. Now you don't have to make all your tracks available for free download, but you can provide good quality, full-length streams that impress the listener and enhance your sound. Not tight-fisted snippets that lose the listener because they are lo-fi and over before they attract the listener's interest.

Being rich is also making your music available in a variety of formats for different audiences. Telling fans that your music can be heard via Internet radio, on-demand streams, mp3 downloads and mail order CD means you can appeal to listeners who prefer more than one type of media. You can also use your web promotion to go beyond simply plays and sales - consider licensing.

Licensing your music for use with television, film, advertising, websites, video games and other multimedia will open up your listening audience, provide revenue and introduce a degree of professionalism to your career that attracts the notice of industry reps and A&R. Adding this depth to your web promotion helps to enrich the presentation of your music and retain targeted listeners.

So remember: a) maximise your targeted listeners, b) be systematic in obtaining them, and c) retain them by making sure your own site and other sites are rich in content.

Nick Hooper has helped to create Tunetrader, an online platform for the promotion of independent music at [http://www.tunetrader.com]

Win Friends & Influence People Through Music -- Is It Possible?

The idea that studying music improves the social development of a child is not a new one, but at last there is incontrovertible evidence from a study conducted out of the University of Toronto.

The study, published in the August issue of Psychological Science was led by Dr. E. Glenn Schellenberg, and examined the effect of extra-curricular activities on the intellectual and social development of six-year-old children. A group of 144 children were recruited through an ad in a local newspaper and assigned randomly to one of four activities: piano lessons, voice lessons, drama lessons, or no lessons.

Two types of music lessons were offered in order to be able to generalize the results, while the groups receiving drama lessons or no lessons were considered control groups in order to test the effect of music lessons over other art lessons requiring similar skill sets and nothing at all. The activities were provided for one year.

The participating children were given IQ tests before and after the lessons. The results of this study revealed that increases in IQ from pre- to post-test were larger in the music groups than in the two others. Generally these increases occurred across IQ subtests, index scores, and academic achievement.

While music teachers across the country greeted the new research enthusiastically, in fact, many other studies have previously shown a correlation between music study and academic achievement.

In 1997, well known music researchers Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and their team at the University of California (Irvine) reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science. A group led by the same two scientists had earlier showed that after eight months of piano lessons, preschoolers showed a 46 percent boost in their spatial reasoning IQ.

The March 1999 issue of Neurological Research published a report by another group of researchers, also at the University of California (Irvine), who found that second-grade students given four months of piano keyboard training, as well as time playing newly designed computer software, scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than other children.

Students with coursework and experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT, according to a Profile of Program Test Takers released by the Princeton, NJ, College Entrance Examination Board in 2001. This report stated that students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation.

Another part of this same study shows that longer music study means higher SAT scores. For example, students participating in the arts for two years averaged 29 points higher on the verbal portion and 18 points higher on the math portion of the SAT than students with no coursework or experience in the arts. Students with four or more years in the arts scored 57 points higher and 39 points higher on the verbal and math portions respectively than students with no arts coursework.

Another study also found support for a relationship between math achievement and participation in instrumental music instruction. The researchers found that students who participated in instrumental music instruction in high school took on the average 2.9 more advanced math courses then did students who did not participate.

In fact, various studies over the last 10 years suggest teaching kids music can heighten their aptitude for math, reading, and engineering. (One explanation for improved ability in mathematics is that music theory is based on mathematical truths. Rhythms are divided into fractions - half notes, quarter notes and eighth notes. Scales have eight tones, and the steps between them follow an equation.)

A McGill University study in 1998 found that pattern recognition and mental representation scores improved significantly for students given piano instruction over a three-year period. The researchers also found that self-esteem and musical skills measures improved for the students given piano instruction.

And data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 revealed music participants received more academic honors and awards than non-music students, and that the percentage of music participants receiving As, As/Bs, and Bs was higher than the percentage of non- participants receiving those grades.

In 1994, a report entitled "The Case For Music Study In Schools" was printed in Phi Delta Kappan, the professional print journal for education. It included details of research conducted by physician and biologist Lewis Thomas, who studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. Thomas found that 66 percent of music majors who applied to medical school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group.

The same report asserted that the very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry were, almost without exception, practicing musicians.

The world's top academic countries also place a high value on music education. In a study of the ability of fourteen year-old science students in seventeen countries, the top three countries were Hungary, the Netherlands, and Japan. All three include music throughout the curriculum from kindergarten through high school.

St. Augustine Bronx elementary school, about to fail in 1984, implemented an intensive music program, and today 90 percent of the school's students are reading at or above grade level. And a ten-year study at UCLA tracked more than 25,000 students, and showed that music making improves test scores. Regardless of socio-economic background, music-making students get higher marks in standardized tests than those who had no music involvement. The test scores studied were not only standardized tests, such as the SAT, but also in reading proficiency exams.

Music training helps under-achievers as well, according to research published in Nature magazine in May 1996. In Rhode Island, researchers studied eight public school first grade classes. Half of the classes became "test arts" groups, receiving ongoing music and visual arts training. In kindergarten, this group had lagged behind in scholastic performance. After seven months, the students were given a standardized test. The "test arts" group had caught up to their fellow students in reading and surpassed their classmates in math by 22 percent. In the second year of the project, the arts students widened this margin even further. Students were also evaluated on attitude and behavior. Classroom teachers noted improvement in these areas also.

In 2005, it appears the pace of scientific research into music making has never been greater. The most recent evidence from the University of Toronto confirms what many other researchers have already detected - that music boosts brainpower, academic achievement,socialization skills, and emotional health.

It's logical, when you think about it. People who learn to play an instruments are in groups -- bands, choirs, orchestras, combos, worship teams, etc. And working and making music with others is bound to help relateabilty with people and foster close bonds with fellow musicians.

So it appears that learning to play music, whether guitar, piano, or some other instrument, actually does contribute to your ability to "win friends and influence people."

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD's, CD's, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds an advanced degree from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.pianolessonsbyvideo.com He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled "Amazing Secrets Of Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions" with over 55,000 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free two-year subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com/

Legal Music Downloads

On July 28, 2004, French Internet access providers and music copyright owners signed a joint national charter aimed at cracking down on illegal downloads and expanding the amount of legal music tracks available online (AFP). This is the latest in a series of moves taken across the world to combat music piracy as production labels see more and more of their profits being lost to illegal downloads of music files.

The music industry has been saying the same thing for several years now: peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks are exponentially distributing pirated music across the world through the Internet, and this constitutes a copyright infringement. In English, this means that the fact that I downloaded a Tori Amos track through Kazaa yesterday and am listening to it right now makes me a criminal. So far, so good. Quite true as well.

But the real problem is not that people do not want to pay for music. Often I sample new music off the Internet before buying the CDs. Chances are that if I like most of the album, I'm going to buy it. On the surface this is what radio stations do when they play music. The difference, however, is that it has become insanely easy for me to acquire almost-as-good-as-original quality mp3s of any track that I want to listen to, and even if I don't pay a dime, no one is there to catch me.

The principle of accountability has vanished. When one sees that there are two ways to acquire the same product, but by sacrificing a 'little' bit of quality you can get it for free without being penalized for it, what would most rational people do? P2P networks have made finding music off the Internet ridiculously easy, and most of us tend to 'forget' our social responsibility when it comes to such 'trivial' matters. To contribute to this, copy-protection techniques used on CDs by major production houses are always a step behind the latest cracking algorithms, and steps taken to prevent 'ripping' of CDs and DVDs have proven fruitless so far.

Enter music downloads of the legal kind. Disregarding the small number of 'free' legal music available for promotional purposes, more and more artists and labels have begun to provide a pay-per-download music service. In essence, you can purchase individual tracks or complete albums through a secure online transaction and then download your 'purchase' and, with variable limits to personal use, pretty much do whatever you want to do with it (Several providers digitally encode the files to prevent them from being played on other computers, or to be burned onto CD-Rs)

This is both a move to encourage free-riders such as me to start acquiring 'legal' music and an economic adjustment to the digital music revolution. Developing technologies are changing the way people perceive and use music. The advent of iPod and other mp3 players has meant that more and more people are becoming accustomed to carrying around their complete music collections with the latest players offering space for around 10,000 songs. This holds frightening possibilities for record companies. There is a very real concern within the industry that the CD format is fast going out of style, and as technology evolves, consumer demands for the best 'medium' will change as well. Till a few years ago audio CDs offered unparalleled music quality, a factor record companies used to encourage people to 'buy instead of steal (download)'. However, today's high-quality digital formats mean that audio quality is comparable, and in some cases equal to, CDs. Some experts are even starting to predict that within a decade CDs will become history as digital music will evolve to a point where we will be have access to our entire music collection (hopefully paid for) wherever we want it: in our car, at work, anywhere in the house, even on the beach. Matched with promises (and the reality) of audio quality, this is a serious threat to traditional business.

Thus, providing legal music online is a means of the industry trying to position itself to take advantage of the rising trend of portable music collections. A quick glance across major online music stores tells us exactly so. While offering free-riders affordable music (allowing them to purchase only the tracks they like instead of forcing them to buy the complete album) to ensure that they do not turn to music piracy, sites like eMusic and Apple's iTunes are backing the new trend. iTunes, Apple's online music store, has the added distinction of being supported by perhaps the best mp3 player in the business, the iPod. In this combination, Apple has found a very secure marketing brand and ensured that it takes full advantage of this cross between technology and music.

Legal music downloads appear to be the perfect answer to stopping music piracy, at least the downloading kind. Therefore there is no surprise when one sees major record labels pushing to expand such services. However, recent developments tend to make us question what the overall agenda really is. After a period of consolidation of the digital music market in the last two years, albums available for download online are being priced higher than they would normally be in retail stores. It used to be that you could download a song for $0.99 and a complete album for $9.99, but now stores are setting higher prices, with tracks going for $1.50 or even $2.49 and $11.50 albums being sold for $12.50 and $13.00 online. What is going on?

In positioning themselves to take advantage of changing market forces, the music industry has also hit upon another major factor in determining sales: consumer behavior. Legal music downloads offer people like me the comfort of never having to waste time in retail stores looking for my favorite track from high-school days or wondering when the latest album of Nickelback would hit the shelves. Instead, all the hassles are removed with everything easily searchable, previewable and downloadable from the comfort of my computer chair (and this baby is very, very, comfortable). Consumers may not be usually rational, but they are always looking to save the effort when it comes to making any sort of purchases. Online stores (or is it the major recording labels? Who knows...) are now cashing into this very aspect of human psychology and are beginning to charge extra for a service they are portraying now as a privilege. Having already consolidated their core target market, the time has now come to increase revenues.

Would this drive people back towards music piracy? Highly unlikely. People are not evil, or criminal, by nature. Appeals to their better nature usually work, and that is the strategy adopted by agencies like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) who are actively involved in putting a stop to illegal music sharing. Media campaigns encouraging music lovers to pay a dollar or two for tracks instead of 'committing a crime' by downloading them for free are actually working as slowly but surely, more and more people flock to online music stores. And with existing customers sticking to this more 'comfortable' way of buying music, the industry is finally starting to win back ground it lost due to music piracy.

For more information about this topic please visit http://www.Every.ca

admin@every.ca

Mike Ber is the owner of the Canadian Domain Name Portal called http://www.Every.ca. He is also a contributing author to Canadian Computer Magazine [http://www.computermagazine.ca] and http://www.Developer.ca website.

Massage Magic - Music & Touch

What Massage Therapists Do!

Have you ever thought what massage therapists actually do? Ideally, they provide a safe, warm and comfortable environment. There are soft clean linens, warm aromatic oils, background music, their knowledge of how the body works, warm hands and a sincerely caring touch that guides you into relaxation of those tired and stressed muscles.

Why Do We Need Massage?

It is difficult to imagine the overwhelming scope of what just living day to day can do to our health and well being when we make the trained reactive acceptance to be in stress. We have been educated to deal with negative stressful events in many ways, but our first inclination is to react. Research indicates that the negative health effects of stress may be due to what has been called Accumulated Emotionally Reactive Stress Syndrome (AERSS). This means that the more emotionally negative issues that we are faced with and react too, the more we retain and accumulate stress in our physiology. Stress has been linked to a growing number of illnesses. Attached to all negative events there remains a direct connection to the emotions that either occurred at the moment of the event or shortly thereafter. Each emotional event can present us with an opportunity to make a choice of how we perceive that event. When we react we begin our walk down the path to being stressed. When under stress, we may exhibit a variety of indications that we are under stress, such as anger, frustration, increased anxiety, physical discomfort, higher blood pressure, shallow or hesitant breathing, insomnia, depression and much more. The important thing to remember is that our society has been raised in an environment that bombards us with things that have negative tastes, smells, images, sounds, music, violence, corruption and news etc. All of these touch us emotionally and place our physiology into a sympathetic nervous reactive state. Our Fight and Flight reactions release the stress hormones and the body goes into a defensive posture. Blood goes to the extremities and muscles tense up and as long as we retain the emotion connected to that which initiated the stress, our muscles will remain tensed up and our immune system's ability will begin to decline. We might choose to do things that we normally would not do, such as make attempts to hide or escape from the cause of our stress. On the other hand we could choose to do things that lead to a happier outcome, such as listening to uplifting music, accepting the situation as an opportunity to learn and even receiving regular massages. According to internationally known trauma recovery therapist, David Bercili, "the body is a living organism designed to resolve even the tragic of life's experiences". What if we accepted the root cause of our stress as an opportunity to learn and revise our method of dealing with it?

Can Massage Really Help?

Research from a large number of sources compiled over the last 50 years indicates that receiving a massage on a regular basis can assist in the release of the physically retained symptoms of stress. There are many styles or application techniques of massage. Some, like Sports Massage, are specifically designed to deal with physical trauma. Others provide for a very spiritual outcome and some are very emotionally relaxing. The important thing to remember is that from birth to death we all crave touch. Sincere and unconditionally given touch promotes and enhances our general sense of well-being. It returns our bodies to a natural state wherein the Spirit / Mind / Body connection can begin the process of healing from within.

The Power of Music

There are a large number of studies that indicate that music has power. Music has been used as a background element in massage since massage was performed on the participants of the first Olympic games. You may wonder why music is being used more and more in the medical and mental health community. The answer is, "because music has a direct impact on our emotional state and our emotional state has an impact on our physical state. It has the power to initiate changes in behavioral patterns. It can manipulate the way we express our patriotism, Love, joy, sadness or anger. It can soothe or excite us. Today most Massage Therapists play some sort of relaxing music while giving a massage. Many of our nations hospitals and nursing homes retain the services of Certified Music Therapists. Doctors often play music in the operating room during surgery. It has the power to calm and inspire us at the same time or create a negative effect on our emotions. Research has shown that Music/Sounds that expresses fear, anger, violence and profound sadness negatively effect our stress levels, our learning abilities and then our sense of health and well being experience a decline. On the opposite side of the spectrum, music that is enjoyed, joyful and uplifting has the opposite effect. That brings us to a question. Is it the vibrational qualities in music that interacts with the our emotional vibrations that gives us the opportunity to experience some level of emotional healing which will facilitate an improvement in our general health and well being?

The Vibration of Music & Our Health

Like everything else in the universe, we are in vibration. Within our bodies the movement of fluids, the bio-electrical-chemical impulses from our brains activate movement internal and externally. Hence, we are always in a state of vibration. We create musical vibration by exerting a force that is applied to an instrument designed by nature or man to produce a sound that when arranged a certain way creates music. Be it a stick hitting a hide drum or the stroking the strings of a harp, the sounds of music are simply vibrations traveling through air and contacting our bodies. Most of us have been to concerts or been stuck in traffic beside a car with what seems like a 100 speakers. We literally feel the vibrations of the music that is blasting out at us. Our car and even the ground vibrate. It can be very annoying and that is a negative emotion which can trigger a stressful reaction. What if those vibrations were coming from music that we enjoyed listening to and it was also uplifting? Uplifting usually means different things to different people. There are many factors that can determine what is uplifting. When the subject is musical preferences in our modern society, our entire individual cultural history, which would include our patriotic persuasion, age, religious beliefs, geographic location, parental and peer influences can have a huge impact on what we see as uplifting. What remains is the simple fact that a variety of studies show that uplifting musical vibrations trigger a parasympathetic response in the nervous system and music that is not uplifting can trigger a sympathetic reaction in the nervous system. Many of us would not even shop the way we do without the influence of the background music we hear in the super market or mall. Have you ever noticed that many commercial advertisements have a piece of music that is usually geared towards giving us a feeling of just how "happy or healthier" we would be if we bought that product. It is our natural desire to be emotionally happy and healthy. This "positive emotional input" facilitates the activation of our desire to be happy and healthy and the result is that we may buy the product or service. Our physiology wants be well and to receive relief from the ravages of Accumulated Emotionally Reactive Stress Syndrome (AERSS). Listening too or feeling the vibrations of carefully selected music can enhance the ability of the immune system's energy to facilitate better health and well being.

The Magical Combination - Musical Vibration & Touch

Although usually played in the background, music provides us with a wonderfully joyful method of providing massage. Just listening to it lifts us up emotionally and therefore physically. Imagine what it would be like to actually feel the vibrations of music during a massage! We would become totally immersed in it as we willingly surrender to the power that will allow us to begin the healing process from within. This process can be initiated by combining of the vibrations of Music, which is provided by utilizing the Acoustical Touch System (ATS) (Patent Pending) and the synchronistic application of a massage technique that is called Vibrational Attunement Massage(TM) (VAM). The ATS transmits the vibrations of the music through the massage furnishing and applies it directly to the physiology. This induction of music that is uplifting and enjoyed by the recipient creates a strong desire to enter a deep state of relaxation while retaining the ability to be aware. Depending on the musical selection, which could be very active or very sublime, the recipient could express great joy or fall asleep. It has been noted that drooling and smiling are common responses when playing lively music. After the music begins to send out the vibrations, the Massage Therapist who has been certified and trained to utilize VAM begins to apply the synchronistic touch in concert with the music. In a way the recipient becomes the orchestra and the therapist becomes the conductor. The exchange of energy actually benefits each of them. The recipient goes into a state of deep relaxation and the therapist uses less energy during the session. Both are happy and re-energized at the end of the session and the therapist, because they used less energy to perform the work, are really ready for the next recipient. When one works within music there is a very different perspective. Most who have received only 15 minutes of VAM have used only one phrase to describe the session, "WOW that was amazing".

©Dustin Fox 2005 All Rights Reserved

Dustin is a Professional Member of the ABMP, graduate of the School of Holistic Management, inventor of the Acoustical Touch System and innovator of the Vibrational Attunement Massage technique. For information about VAM Certification and Training seminars or the Acoustical Touch System, contact Dustin at: Cell: 800-304-9197 or E-Mail: amt@wispwest.net