Musicians and Artists: Don't be a rude traveling salesman

[Thedy B]

Article (c) 2009 Hits A Million, LLC All rights reserved

In my previous posts on musicians and artists being traveling salesmen, I discussed why it's important to always have your music on you, what type of product to have on you, to travel to spread your brand and product, and to always be ready. But I have to talk now about how to sell your music. If you are going to be a traveling salesman, you've got to have the right sales pitch!

Having the wrong sales pitch will turn a potential customer or fan off and will turn them into a word of mouth nightmare. We all know that people are 10x more likely to spread negative things about their experiences than positives. That's the reason why most businesses have a consumer service line that complaining customers can call and disclose their issues with the product, the service, the price, or whatever is upsetting the customer. It gives the customers a chance to vent and gives the company an opportunity to resolve the issue BEFORE word spreads about the problem. So having a great sales pitch is key!

"Come check out my music" is NOT a great sales pitch! "Let me know what you think about my music" is not a great sales pitch. It's old, tired, overused, not creative, and it's too direct. It puts people on the spot. But if you asked someone, hey have you heard this artist by the name of ______, people are more likely to be curious enough to discover something that they feel they may not know or may not have seen or heard. Now you have the person at least curious. They may not listen then and there but if they keep hearing the person's name or music, then they will really check the person out! Why? People always want to be in the know. So be creative and kill the "come check out my music" message! R.I.P. check out my music!

And even when you develop the right sales pitch to use, make sure that you switch it up some. Yes branding involves repetition but check out my music is not a brand! Additionally, even companies hire others in order to combat what I'm going to call as ear fatigue. Hearing the same thing over and over again is dull and boring! People will tune you out like a man does a whining, complaining, nagging woman. Since you want people to hear your music, switch up your promotions campaign with something new, something different, and then add your brand. Listen to how McDonald's gets different songs, different arrangements of the same song, different people to sing the same song, etc. Do the same: Switch it up some but not so much that your brand loses credibility as if you don't know what your brand is!


Lastly, please don't let the next words after hello be: come check out my music; it's a turn off to most. As a musician/artist/producer/songwriter, you do have to tell people about your music. Everyone in the music business understands promotions and understands that music has to be talked about and shared to be sold. But timing is everything! Relationships are everything. If every time people see you or follow you or get an email or message from you, it's about checking out your music, people will quickly ignore you, stop following you, block you, and/or stop responding to your emails. And you especially don't want to do that with total strangers UNLESS someone has expressly asked you to send them music. Even then, a short line such as this is way more helpful:

"This is XYZ Artist/Band/Songwriter. We met at ABC Place. You said you were looking for artists, songs, beats, and I believe I have some music for your artist/producer, etc. I'm attaching it here for you to listen to. Let me know if it's what you're looking for?"

Notice that the focus is on establishing who you are, where you met, what THAT person needs and how you can fulfill it. It's not about how hot or great your music is; it's not a request for feedback. It's not about you. It's about establishing that you are a source for that other person to use for their needs. When you take that approach, you are more likely to get a response than a simply yo, come check out my music!

Building relationships takes longer than promoting your music yourself but it has greater rewards!

Good luck on promoting your music!

Thedy B, Attorney/Songwriter
Hits A Million, LLC
hitsamillion.ning.com

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/thedyb http://twitter.com/hitsamillion

[Kay'Vion]

Well put.... I'm taking notes!

[Melzy-J Alloy]

Hi! My name is Lil Melzy-J Alloy by name ! I am done with my music VIDEO ( [e-mail] )
Dear SIr,
With due respect to your person and With much sincerity
of purpose I make this contact with you as I believe that

[Dozi]

Kudos! The whole pitch to "check out my music" is so abused to the point where no ones is checking out music anymore. I stopped saying that because it was annoying when I open up a message and that's what it was about. I realized that I was one of those people! I prefer to build relationships with people I feel have the same goals and taste as I do and when there is new stuff I have been working on, I let them know about it. One of my best supporters, Danami suggested and is helping me with a cd and that will be my next town cry. I know those who know me or know of me will be interested in what I've done and will "check out my music!"

Thedy, you always have such enlightening blogs. Frank and to the point!!!

Kudos to you

Much LUV

;)

[VincentK]

Thanks for the advice. Its very helpful.

[Thedy B]

Thanks for reading it and I do hope it helps you get heard in this overcrowded industry!!

[Mahoganee]

Great advice and wonderfully put. I appreciate your words of wisdom and I am putting it to ggod use. Stay Blessed.
Mahoganee of DivaMilitia, LLC

[T-Wrecks]

Thedy,
I'm sure glad that picture isn't any bigger!

:)

[kathleen gorman]

This Blog was really helpful, thanks for sharing your insights. This will alter somewhat my approach to contacting radio hosts and requesting airtime. Thanks Thedy for your continuing
guidance and advice on how musicians can be more professional and effective in their careers.

[Damien Willis]

Amen! I hear "Hey! Check out my music!" 800 times a week, and it doesn't make me EVEN A LITTLE curious. I would be much more inclined to check out someone's music if they tried to create an ACTUAL buzz about it. Great advice, Thedy!