When making an album

November 1, 2017

In the past few weeks, a recurring scenario seems to be happening with Canadian Artists that I connect with …..                                                    Great product but it hasn’t moved since they released...

In the past few weeks, a recurring scenario seems to be happening with Canadian Artists that I connect with …..

                                                   Great product but it hasn’t moved since they released it. Hardly any views on youtube, haven’t sold any or few phycial CDs (now that’s a whole another blog decission)

So the first thing I ask ….

how much is your marketing budget?

And the common thread — after spending a huge amount of money on the music and physical CDS (some of the prices out there are CRAZY) and expensive music videos

NOTHING

Sooo the artists are left with a product that they can’t move!!!

Because they didn’t budget marketing money into their creative fund.

 

So let’s say you have $20 grand for album (which is kinda high if you are a indi artist as you can create a great album for way less)

Take a look at where you don’t have to break the bank

For example, do you need to pay huge amounts for artists to play on your album or maybe can find artists you can collobrate with — maybe you can play on their album and vice a versa. Or maybe students can play on your album. Big Band Legend Artie Shaw would always hire students for his big band.

https://youtu.be/pCXVxE_YeP4

Do you need that award winning graphic artist? There are hungry graphic designers who are just as talented as the succesful ones.

Do you need record your album in the studio that Michael Jackson recorded at? Or is there a smaller studio where the equitment is just as good but costs less because it isn’t known?

Music Videos? Do you neeed to work with the guy who did Drake’s Video or maybe there’s some college students who are super creative and talented and want to make videos?

Or maybe an album isn’t a good idea — maybe release a couple of singles — there is so many things that you can do as an artist today. You aren’t locked into the old school record labels’ methods.

Start networking — get to know the artists in your area. What can you offer artists?

For example Janelle Monae’s Tightrope — before that hit no one really knew about her. She was determinted to be a musical theatre artist but kept running into “you are too short” so she collobrated with local hip hop artists to create an album. The rest is history. Looking at the video, this video didn’t break the bank either.

And remember

  1. be proud of your work
  2. be open for collaboration
  3. step out of the box
  4. budget BUDGET for promo

Last but not least — look at succesful artists (for many generations) – what worked for them — what didn’t — what can you learn!!!

 

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