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Want to Sell More Music? Forget the Music!

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This video which quickly summarizes an important topic I've talked about for years. The topic is so important, and so neglected, that I have an entire section about it in my book, Six-Figure Musician.

There are two main takeaways for you in this video...

1. Your message isn't meant for everybody.

If we're honest with ourselves, we all know this. For example, if you play music similar to Slayer, 90-year-old grandmothers aren't your target audience.

Still, there is something within our egos that says to us, "But probably some of those 90-year-old grandmothers would like this."

And that's true, there probably are a few who would. Taking your limited music promotion resources (and we all have limited resources in this area)  to go after "a few" people doesn't make sense though.

You're much better off excluding the 90-year-olds and going straight for the people who are most likely to get what you're doing.

There is skill in marketing, but it's also a numbers game -- play the best odds. When you try to please everybody, you please nobody.

Go for those who will be enthusiastic about what you're doing and ignore everybody else. You don't need "everybody" to have a successful career in the music buisness. 

2. Reach people on their level, in a language they understand.

This is the big takeaway here and I think the above video shows it as well as anything I could write. To put it bluntly -- if you want to really connect, you have to speak to people on their level.

I once was managing street promotion for a band and sent posters to the local rep ahead of time. The show was in my region, at a venue I'd never been to, so I went to check on things and was amazed to see that the posters had been modified in a big way -- the acts on the bill had been put in small type to make room for "2-for-1 Kamikaze Drink Specials" and other "non-music" promotion.

As I've made very clear Six-Figure Musician as well as here, clubs are in the drink business, not the music business. Still, for the promoter to almost completely ignore the music was a shock. But she knew the club (and its patrons) much better than I did and she talked to them in their language, which is what got people in the door and, at the least, gave the band an opportunity to win them over.

As I've said before, "your fans don't think about music in the same way you do." For most, it's background noise. Because of this, they're likely to write it off.

You have an opportunity to win people over to your music, but it doesn't matter how good your performance, recordings, or whatever else is if people aren't on the receiving end of the experience. You must come down to where they are to build them up to where you are.

Is there a way other than music that will enable you to better connect with your fans? If so, do it. You music will be the "background noise" they associate with the experience.


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