Promote Music on MySpace

But the more important questions to you as a Musician are, do you even have a MySpace page and if so, are you consistently making money selling your music and merchandise with it?

If you answered no, then you are not alone, because when it comes to marketing, packaging, promoting and selling your music online, 99% of MySpace Musicians are simply lost. So over the next few minutes I am going to tell you exactly how to increase your page rankings in the search engines, which will drive even more traffic to your MySpace page, as well as how to increase your fan loyalty and turnout at your shows - all in just two simple steps.

So what do you say we just jump right in and hit the ground running?

Did you know that there are over 100 million people on MySpace today? And the fact is, if you are not making money with that kind of exposure, chances are you may not be using MySpace the right way to market, promote, package and sell your music and if you are, there is an even greater chance that you are NOT using it to it's full potential and may even be using it in ways that can harm your chances of success.

My friend Ty Cohen who Ernie Singleton (former President of MCA Records) teamed up with online to help him find artists to mentor, says he's found that "...over 99.9% of the people in the music industry who have MySpace pages have them set up all wrong, which is simply why they are not seeing the results and amount of success that they should be seeing with 100 million people just outside their window. In fact, most people are not seeing any success, other then getting a couple of hundred plays of their songs every week or so."

Sound familiar to you?

According to Tom Anderson - Co-Founder and President of MySpace: 

"Bands are going to MySpace because it's free and they don't have to know how to do a Web site," said the site's 29-year-old co-founder and president. "But the biggest reason is because there are 43 million (Now over 100 Million and Growing!) people on MySpace." As Reported by News Media MSNBC.MSN.com

And Tom is completly correct, you don't have to know how to do a website to build a page on MySpace, but the most common misconception musicians have in building their MySpace page is - that's all they have to do, and this couldn't be any further from the truth. Because to see any kind of success, whether you're trying to build a huge fan base, or generate online sales of your digitial music, there are many things that you absolutely must know how to do correctly or you risk completly screwing it up.
 

FACT:

In 2005 alone the Gross revenues of online digital music sales, for both independent and established artists combined, generated over 1 BILLION dollars. Yes, Billion!

Wouldn't you like to have a piece of that pie? Of course your would!

It is insane the amount of people you can reach on any given day with a page on MySpace Music, because your reach is not restricted to just your local area -  people from all over the world can listen to your music, which means you can market, promote, package and sell your music on a Global scale, just as if you were your own major label with mass distribution capabilities.

But merely, having a MySpace page does nothing for you, because there are so many pages on MySpace now that the market is simply saturated with artists and their music. And if you don't know what you're doing when it comes to building, maintaining and utilizing a large loyal fan base to your best advantage, then you simply risk being lost in 100 million other pages.

I was just discussing this very thing the other day on the phone, when Ty Cohen's name popped up and we both agreed that he hit the nail on the head - the trick to utilizing MySpace to your best advantage is having the knowledge how to do it right, and this is exactly where most musicians are falling short. Because it's not their music that sucks, and it's not because it costs them any money, we've already established that MySpace is absolutely FREE!

And what's more is that there are just a handful of bands out there that have actually gotten onto MySpace, who are not signed to any labels, but have still managed to create quite a buzz for themselves. One is The Format, an indie rock band from Phoenix , Ariz., that boasts more than 146,394 "friends" on their MySpace page and has amassed over 8.5 million (yes, million) plays of their music files.

That's an incredible achievement for any independent artist, wouldn't you say? Would you like to take a guess as to what their online digital music sales might be worth? Well let's do some math real quick...

If they have 8.5 million people playing their music, let's be conservative and say that just 2% of those plays converted to 1 of their songs being purchased at .99 cents. Here's what you'd end up with:

8,500,000 x .02 = 170,000 sales x .99 cents per tune = $168,300

THAT'S ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-EIGHT THOUSAND, THREE HUNDRED BUCKS!

Now do you see the power behind MySpace? And it is my guess that with a sales force as large as theirs (over 146 thousand strong) their conversion rates are much higher which means more profit to put in their pockets, and remember, what did this cost them? Zilch, nadda, nothing...because MySpace is Free!

Terry McBride, chief executive of Canadian label Nettwerk Records, who manages the band and handles their marketing and promotion, said "...having fans help sell the band's music (to other fans) is the wave of the future."

"We have a strong belief that the next major retailer in music will be the consumer themselves," McBride said. "This is just a step for us in the right direction."

And the great thing about MySpace is that you don't have to be a computer geek to squeeze every drop of promotion juice out of the marketing tools available to you. You don't even have to be internet savvy, because there are just so many instructional guides out there (even in video formats, if you are a visual learner like me) that can help you put together a really killer looking site in no time. But you absolutely must know how to utilize your visitors and get them to do exactly what you want them to do when visiting your site.

Look, if you are trying to promote a CD or gigs to fans, then this is the place to do it, but it absolutely must be done the right way or you risk completely losing every opportunity you have to make a good impression with not just your potential fans, but also with your peers in the music community as well as the rest of the world at large.

So I bet you're wondering just exactly how some of these bands are getting people to do all the legwork for them...

1. Post bulletins about upcoming events to grab your fan's attention. Don't have any shows lined up?
2. Then create a blog, write in it daily or weekly. You absolutely must keep this up-to-date to entertain your fans and keep them coming back for more until you do have shows lined up. This will ensure that when you do launch an announcement for any one of your up-and-coming shows that you will have a much more successful fan turnout.

What's that you say...blogging is not your thing?

Well did you know that blogging can increase your page rankings with the search engines and essentially draw even more people into your site? Having  fresh content posted daily or even weekly to your site is the key to steadily increasing your page rankings within the search engines.

It's also common knowledge that some of the best writers and song writers in the world keep daily journals because it helps them to become more fluent in their craft. What is their craft exactly...the written word, and being a musician it is also a part of yours!

So what do you think of blogging now? 

I think it's one of the best FREE self-promotion tools you'll ever lay your hands on and so does just about every Internet Marketing Guru out there - listen to their wisdom and put it to work for you, it's making millions for them as we speak. 

And if you can you copy and paste a simple little piece of code into the content of your pages then go open yourself a Google Adsense account! It reads the content of your pages and then delivers up ads that are relevant to your site and also relevant to what your visitors might be interested in. You get paid for every click on those ads and I'm going to let you in on another little secret - Music advertisers can pay you extremely well in some cases. Some of my own sites are making between 5 and 10 bucks a day just from people clicking on my adsense ads!  

It won't seem like a lot at first, but as the traffic starts increasing to your site, so will your clicks with adsense, and with 100 million people browsing, the possibilities of are limitless. Some people are bringing home over $9000 a month by creating pages with nothing more than adsense ads in them! 

The opportunities with MySpace for musicians are countless, and these are just three examples of how to use them to your advantage, however, you have to know how to fully utilize and take advantage of each and every one to their maximum potential to be able to market, package, promote and sell your music correctly online and you also need to know a whole lot more than just placing graphics, copying and pasting code and how to post a few blog messages.

You'll need to learn: 

• How to correctly use MySpace to promote yourself, artist or company to reach it's over 100 Million Users (do this wrong and you will screw up big time, you may even have your pages removed from the search engines altogether!)
• How to successfully build a huge fan / friend list in less time.
• How to create your own MySpace group to attract fans like magnets and have every single one of them loving your music and dying to purchase anything that you have for sale.
• How to create a killer profile that will draw music fans, paying customers and industry bigwigs to your page like bees to honey.
• How to get a "viral" avalanche of people to listen to and spread your music around the Internet like wildfire, while you profit all the way to the bank.

And my friend Ty Cohen literally wrote the book on how to package yourself to your fans and the MySpace Music Community, and how to keep them coming back for more. It's called the MySpace Manuscript, and he's giving you the opportunity to get your hands on it for just $1!

He's also written a companion book called Sell Music Online Like Crazy and I must say, I consider myself a pretty net savvy person, but when I read this book I was totally blown away by some of his methods. Some of the methods in this book I would have never even dreamed of doing to promote and sell music online, and most of them are 100% free!

Ty Cohen is a perfect example of someone who doesn't just learn what everyone else learns, he applies what everyone else doesn't. His material will show anyone who is really serious about making it in the music industry, how to do it. But if you are one of those people who are looking to make it big by sending out demo CD after demo CD, then this is NOT for you, because that's old school and way out of date.

However, if you are prepared to listen and follow the wisdom of a man who has successfully mentored a countless number of thriving individuals in the music industry, then get his book now and learn how to do it the right way - the profitable way!

If a Music Mogul like Ernie Singleton thinks Ty's methods of promotion cutting edge enough to want his help online, don't you think you should take an interest in what Ty can do for you as well?

I seriously urge you to learn how to use MySpace to its maximum potential as quickly as possible, because if you don't then you're just 1 out of 100 million other needles in the haystack.

Ty's methods can also help build you a very large and loyal fan base from around the globe in no time (and that in it self can become an unstoppable guerilla marketing, promotion and sales for force you worth it's weight in gold!).

Utilizing MySpace's ability to build yourself a huge fan base, in conjunction with  PlayItForTheLabels.com's ability to introduce you to the Industry Reps is a winning formula for success no matter how you look at it.

Look, do yourself a favor, PLEASE visit Ty's website, spend the lousy dollar to get his MySpace Manuscript and learn everything this man has to teach you. You'll have 14 days to give it a read and return it before being charged the full price - but I know you're not going to do that, because I know just how valuable this book will be to you once you've had the opportunity to discover some of Ty's groundbreaking methods and begin implementing them yourself. But even if you do decide to ask for the refund, the book is yours to keep because it's in a digital format.

Now I'm not telling you to go purchase Ty's book for a dollar, read it and then ask for a refund, because that just wouldn't be honest, but what I am asking you to do is give his methods a shot to work for you as they have so many other artists and musicians that are seeing their own success and profits using them. I promise you that your music is worth it, don't you think so?

To Your Success,

Tony

Owner/Director of Marketing

Play It For The Labels Team

P.S. I decided to create this lens because I've had a lot of feedback from musicians explaining to me how they were deeply hurt and sorry that they could not afford the extra $25 a month (that's just $6.25 if divided between 4 band members) to utilize PlayItForTheLabels.com. And I wanted you to know that I sincerely empathize with you, because I'm a musician myself and I know exactly just how hard it can be out there. So I've decided to provide you with the cheapest and most affordable opportunity I know of for you to get yourself bucketloads of cash, by simply following someone else's blueprint that has already been proven successful and repeatable by many, many other artists. They are utilizing MySpace today to build themselves huge fan bases and using their digitally formatted music as their own personal ATM's and you could be too. Ty is giving you a HUGE value here that you just cannot afford to say no to - better get it while it lasts because you can't even get a gallon of gas for a buck anymore.