Jeff Johnson hailing from Kentucky is a BEAST!  Not just lyrically, but from a business and music marketing and promotions standpoint as well.  He has a new mixtape coming out called “Marketing Genius Branding Tycoon” with KYMP KAMP and Hustle Squad DJ, DJ Slikk.  The moniker “Marketing Genius” definitely fits him well.  Jeff Johnson is innovative and is a SHINING example of how artists can do it themselves.

Check out these quick marketing videos he did below:

For more Jeff Johnson check out his website www.MakingMyName.com

-Eric “Fuse” Phillipson

Popularity: 100% [?]

About a week ago I made a status update on facebook that said, “Logging on just so I can hit ignore, ignore, deny, ignore, mark as read, deny.”  Funny, I know, but its true.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t deny, ignore, or mark as read everything I get, I confirm things I’ve seen elsewhere or am familiar with, I attend events that are relative to me.  This brings up a few points in Social Media and how artists are using it in music marketing and promotions.

With social media you cannot focus on one place. There is no reason, as an artist, you should be on Myspace and not on facebook and twitter, or even youtube.  These sites work together to build your brand recognition.  Myspace is great for use as a second electronic press kit (your first should be your own website).  Youtube allows fans to connect with you visually, twitter allows fans to see the day to day, and facebook is a great avenue to just keep that crowd up to date.

A good social media campaign for an artist will have all of their social sites working together to build the brand.  As an artist you are a brand and if you don’t think of yourself as such, you need to start.

Beyond keeping social sites in sync, many artists are failing at creating a targeted fan base.  Why am I receiving event invites for parties in New York when I am in Michigan?  The best thing about the internet, from a marketing standpoint, is that it is measurable.  You can measure where traffic is coming from, with ease.  So why take away from these measurable stats by not focusing in on your target market.

Here’s a tip for new artists, instead of spending countless hours adding a bunch of random people, why don’t you invest those hours into targeting potential fans in your city? Once you gain a following in your city, and you’ve captured them through your social sites as well as created your “street” exposure, then branch out to capturing those in your state, from there branch regionally.  If you start small with baby steps, you’ll be able to run eventually.

So why do most artists fail with music marketing through social media?

A) They don’t allow their social sites to build off of each other or run in sync

and

B) They don’t target potential fans

If you think of yourself as a business and make your moves based on business decisions rather than whats easy, you’ll see your career move in a better direction.

-Eric

Popularity: 5% [?]

The following is an article I wrote for Street Knowledge Entertainment’s Knowledge Blog.  It’s regarding the importance of being humble in the music industry.

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Being Humble as a New Artist
Eric Phillipson of SpeakYourMusic.com

New artist’s listen up! We need you! The industry needs you! You need you!  Over the years, through the declining industry, there is one trend that I’ve seen grow more and more.  That is the disappearance of the humble artist and the larger and larger presence of the big-ego artist.  It’s not that I don’t understand your swag or the fact that you’re the artist.  I get that.  What I don’t understand is all of the hating going on in the industry.

I can’t tell you how many artists I once worked with (keyword: once) who felt that they were above others when it came to certain promotional tactics or just working with some people.  Now I’m not talking about your somewhat established people, I’m talking about the ones who are trying to build a fan base or who are not yet making money off of this music they love (by the way, check out Q’s post on giving your music away for free).  These are the artists that need to come down, be humble, and take the “all promotion is good promotion” road.

Now being humble applies to many different things, these are what I’m going to cover:

• Management

• Promotion

• Fans

• Networking

The first one I want to talk about is management.  I see a lot of artists who hear that they should get a manager and then don’t even use them.  When someone wants to book a show, they give them their number or book the show themselves; they cut their “manager” out of all of their deals.  Don’t do that.  If you tell someone that they can be your manager, set up an agreement for compensation, and let them be your manager.  It’s aggravating when you’re told to manage someone so you put effort into them only to have them start cutting you out of the deals.  The being humble part comes into play just off of the simple fact that you need to trust your manager if you’re going to have one.  If you don’t trust them, get a new one.  Management is there to take a load off of you so you can focus on making music, and take yourself to the next level.

The next thing I want to talk about is being humble in the promotions you do.  I’ve seen brand new artists, who had no buzz in an area, who were not willing to go out and hand out CD’s or hang up fliers for a few hours during a late-night promo run. That has to stop!  If you have no buzz, you need to pull all stops and get out there and get yourself a name until you get to the point where you can hire street team help to handle that for you.  I know there are tons of artists who feel that lying about their fan base will bring in more fans or add to their swag; it won’t. If you know you have no buzz in an area, be honest with yourself and get out there!  If people haven’t heard of you at all, they will be more willing to listen to you if you’re actually out there rather than having someone else out there trying to pitch your music.

The fans! Answer every single one of them.  Even something as simple as “thank you” is perfect.  I’m talking to the people who get the MySpace messages or the Emails or have a few people come up to them after a show.  Not the ones who have mobs of people coming up to you.  There are too many artists who get sidetracked and read messages from fans without ever replying.  You’d be surprised how much fans are willing to promote artists who are willing to recognize them.   By the way, make sure people who receive your CD’s during handouts can contact you!  Just set up a “fan” Email address and slip it inside of your CD’s so that fans can contact you.  Fan mail is always a rewarding feeling.

The final aspect of being humble that I want to talk about is being humble while networking.  I’ve known some artists who don’t give others who are trying to come up the time of day.  I’m not even talking about on an artist level either.  Don’t always try to network with bigger people, sometimes networking with others who are trying to come up will work wonders for you.  Be sure to network with people coming up in other aspects of the entertainment industry, not just music.  For example, network with new clothing companies, people breaking into acting, graphic artists, TV people, people who are trying to start their own next big website, people who are trying to break into radio, etc.  Some of these people are bound to do great things, and even those who don’t become huge will still be willing to help as long as you can help them.  Plus, these people would love for you to support their new ventures and it always looks good when you are sponsored by someone.

In the end, being humble as a new artist can take you far.  Don’t get me wrong, I know there are some fake people out there who will try to take advantage of you, just always be sure to check your ego and remain a humble person,  you never know who you might meet because of it.

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Be sure to check out Street Knowledge Entertainment home to Philly based artist Trel Mack.

-Eric Phillipson

Popularity: 40% [?]

“I’d like to perform at your venue, how do I go about doing that?”

“Send us a press-kit”

End.

I’ve heard this exchange MANY MANY MANY times.  The truth is, a lot of beginning artists don’t know how to go about trying to get booked for shows.  I like to liken getting booked for a show (in the early stages) to job hunting and job interviews.

When you are trying to get booked for a show a lot of times you are trying to find the venue that has the right fit, just like a job that is the right fit.  If you are a BRAND NEW artist your first venue should be in your area.  A little basics real quick, capture your market (city) first. Once you find the venue that you feel is a good fit for you, there are a few options to explore.

One, you could try to book a show on your own night, this is good for people who have a decently established fan base.  But, here I want to talk to the young artists.

The other way is to try to book as an opener for a larger act.  This is where it is also like a job interview, going in to speak to the booker, you should already know the date and who you are trying to open for (i.e. know the company).  Also, a lot of times promoters are the ones who determine who is at the concert, so find out whether the venue is booking the acts or if an outside promoter is.

The reason I say booking is in the details is because the more you know, the less you’re asking the booker to research.  If you know the name of a group performing, the date they’re playing, and you think your style compliments them, you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of the new guys who call up and say “I’d love to play a show, what do I need to do to do this?”

By knowing exactly what you’re after you are taking out a lot of guess work.  Most bookers are still going to need music, so also try to find out when the person booking the acts will be in so that you can deliver a sample of your music to them.  This will raise your chances of booking a show a lot more than the person who decides to just leave it at the venue for booking to pick up when they get a chance.

Remember, it starts with one.  Once you get that first show booked and you can build a following of people to show up, you’ll keep building your leverage for other shows.  Just make sure when you’re doing shows, you capitalize on the opportunity!

-Eric Phillipson

Popularity: 8% [?]

Wow, so I don’t know if any of you all heard about Kentucky getting KO’d by the winter ice storm, but after about a week with no power except in one area of my house (I was lucky), I finally got my power back up and working.

I’ll be honest, after the storm hit, I was freaking out because I didn’t know how I was going to get everything done that I needed to get done.  I had music marketing and networking conference calls to be on, but seemingly no place to charge a phone,  plans to write but no computers to write them on… blah blah blah.

That was until I stopped to think about it, I do this music stuff because I have fun doing it.

Honestly, thats what it’s all about, it’s all about having fun.  Sometimes we get caught up in the business aspect of music so much that we forget why we’re in the industry in the first place.

There was an artist the other day who approached one of my partners and I to buy his CD.  We got to talking a little bit about his presentation, and who he is.  Finally, my partner came out and said it “So, are you doing this cause you have a passion to make music, or is it because you want to make music?” to which the artist replied “I wanna make money.”

Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting to make money from your passion, but we quickly told the artist we would be unable to help him.  Not because we can’t help artists make money, but because I can’t help people make money who are only in it for the money.

Here is what I have learned over the years, if you try to make money with something you don’t have a passion for, you’ll be discouraged quickly.  When all of your luck is down and your back is against the wall, sometimes a passion is the only drive you will have to propel you over the barriers.

Ask yourself if you’re having fun as an artist, because you always should.  This blog is a lot about the business, but its also about the lifestyle.  Being an independent artist is HARD!  There will be times when you get screwed over, when people turn their back on you, and when you feel like you can’t deal with chasing the dream anymore.  Its times like these when the passionate and the ones who are having fun survive.

Be fun, have energy, be passionate… thats part of how you make it happen.

-Eric Phillipson

Popularity: 8% [?]

Here is a quick video I did in response to questions regarding music marketing and how to market your music.

Enjoy!

- Eric Phillipson

By the way… if you have any questions regarding the topics I discuss, feel free to hit me up!

Popularity: unranked [?]