Welcome

- So much of the conversation in today's music business centers around how artists are getting paid, or I suppose I should say more accurately, how they're not getting paid. I spent the better part of 20 years as an artist manager, so I understand very clearly the importance of artists getting paid. But I also know that that conversation distracts attention away from the biggest issue facing artists and professionals, and that is: how to get great music heard. How to stand out from the crowd has always been the great challenge in the music business. It was true back when the record industry released five thousand records a year, and even more true now that millions of artists are creating and distributing music. If nobody hears a great song, or reads about a great artist, or sees a great performer in concert, there won't be any money to argue over, plain and simple. And the truth is that even if you're fortunate enough to get that music heard, there's no guarantee that it will sell or be successful in a commercial sense. Marketing and promotion is what gets your music in front of music consumers. It gives you a chance to make your case for their attention, and ultimately their money if they like what they hear and see. And then it's up to those music consumers to decide the winners and losers in the music business. While we can't ultimately control what those consumers like or don't like, we can control how we present that music in the best possible way. Marketing is all about telling your story, and in this lesson, we're gonna talk about how to market and promote your music, and turn those music consumers into fans. My goal is to give you a top level view of what you should be thinking about when it comes to marketing and promoting your music. We're gonna talk about the key elements in a marketing plan, whether you're a major label or an indie artist. We're gonna talk about how to craft your image and brand with your music, your photos, your videos, and how you can assemble all those pieces in a way that gives you the best chance of success. And then we'll focus on the things that you can reasonably achieve on your own, to tell your story in the most compelling possible way.