Log In
Members
Home
Add Reply
Add Topic
Topic RSS
5:34 am
October 28, 2011
Offline
QuoteThanks John for another great lesson!
My album just came out last week, so I'm afraid this has come a little too late to help me. At least for that specific release. So, I'll have to apply it to the next one. Too bad this wasn't last month's lesson. It's all very useful information.
For those who want to register their music with Sound Scan use the link below. You will need to have a UPC bar code.
http://titlereg.soundscan.com/.....ntitlereg/
I personally like the audio format for monthly lessons. It gives me a chance to work on other things while I listen, but it depends on the lesson. If it's a lesson on facebook advertising, I would definitely prefer video format.
Also, where do I go to find iTunes charts? Billboard and Amazon are easy to find, but I can never seem to find the iTunes charts. A web link would be useful, or instructions on how to find it through the iTunes player. Thanks a bunch!
- Doug Clyde
ALBEDO MUSIC
- Doug Clyde, ALBEDO, http://www.albedomusic.com
2:02 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
Thanks Doug, glad you enjoyed the lesson. You can find the main iTunes charts here: https://www.apple.com/itunes/charts/
Not positive where the genre charts are, I believe you need to go into the itunes store and browse by genre and look over to the right hand side for the current top songs.
Thanks for checking out the lesson.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
12:37 am
October 28, 2011
Offline
Thanks John,
I eventually was able to find the iTunes charts, through the iTunes player, after lots of navigating. They have a top 200 list for albums and songs, but only for specific genres. My genre was not on the list.
I also looked at the Spotify charts, but they don't sort by genre. It's everything together in one Top 50 list.
- Doug Clyde
ALBEDO MUSIC
- Doug Clyde, ALBEDO, http://www.albedomusic.com
9:10 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Gotcha, glad you were able to find it. I'm sure there would be some secondary genre that you feel your music might fit into, no? Are you able to find a few similar artists and see what genre they are listed in?
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
2:38 am
February 16, 2014
Offline
Awesome Training!!!! I try to keep up with the trainings but since my wife had a baby a few months ago, It's been hard to get on the forum.
I wonder where can you go to find out where one would chart based on sales data for each genre. For example, if I was a EDM artist I would need to sell 350 to be in the top 100 that week. I hope that makes sense.
Terry Ali
C.S.T.(Christ Saved Terry)
http://www.cst313.com
10:03 pm
October 28, 2011
Offline
John,
My album is listed under New Age on iTunes, but for some reason they don't have a top 200 New Age chart. Similar artists are also listed under New Age. Classical would be my secondary genre, but iTunes is no longer accepting new Classical submissions. I guess I could go with Electronic for a future album if I wanted to try to show up on an iTunes chart.
- Doug Clyde
ALBEDO MUSIC
- Doug Clyde, ALBEDO, http://www.albedomusic.com
10:19 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Hey Terry,
Getting access to soundscan would be the only way that I know of. Soundscan is very expensive though so you would need to pull a favor with someone who worked at a label or was in the industry and had access.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
10:26 pm
February 16, 2014
Offline
Thank John. I'm actually gonna try to release my single soon. I was curious.
Terry Ali
C.S.T.(Christ Saved Terry)
http://www.cst313.com
11:36 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Happy to help. Good luck with the release.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
We're just about to set up Beth Ford's debut single for release on Flo's 'micro-indie' label.
We're using CD Baby and Flo aims to 'launch' the promo for the release on 6 June, for a release date of 13 July, which gives plenty of time to promote the release and build pre-orders. I think iTunes starts to take pre-orders 30 days before the release date. I am hoping that they allow this for a single as I have only seen it mentioned for albums. Assuming we can get pre-orders, we'll want to push fans towards iTunes - does that make sense? Should we be considering any alternatives (eg Amazon?), bearing in mind that we want to try to get a chart position for Beth as part of her overall promotion (she is a very new artist)?
I'm also a bit confused about when we indicate which chart the record should be included in - does this happen as part of the CD Baby listing? And do you have any advice about which chart to aim for? Beth has a 'classical crossover' style but the song she is releasing could rank as pop or folk too.
Finally, we haven't forgotten that the aim is to build Beth's email list. We're thinking of offering free tracks to people who pre-order. We'll have to work out the technology for this but I think we can get it more or less automated with Aweber and email. Somewhere in the back of my mind I think I have heard or read advice from John about this, and I also have an idea that iTunes frowns on this, but I have no idea where this has come from - am I making this up? And does anyone have any advice about how to do this, from past experience?
Thanks for your help - we're very new to this so we really appreciate your help
Deb x
Hey Deb,
It's really great that you guys are already out there promoting other artists.
Let's see. If charting for a single is important I would probably focus on iTunes but also have an Amazon link for those more comfortable with that platform. But I'd put 80% of the emphasis on iTunes.
The genre is entered when you sign up for CD Baby. Here is an article on their site: http://support.duplication.cdb.....t-do-I-do-
I'd try to focus on the least popular genre that makes sense. With pop you'll be going up against enormous artists. With something like folk the competition should be much smaller. You'd want to do a little research to get a sense of how competitive each genre was. But you also want to make sure the genre is an accurate description of the music.
I'm not sure how to offer a free track to people who order with the goal being to get them on your list, as most of your buyers will already be on your list. Instead, what I have talked about in the past is offering an incentive of a different bonus track or two to people who order. Just tell them to email a dedicated email address with their iTunes order number and you will send them the freebies. You could either manually send these out or set up an aweber email address for the list and subscribe people to a customer list that way. Then set email number one to send out the bonus track. If you automate it then people who didn't actually order could get the free track. But the chances of those numbers being very high are low. It's your call. Sending the bonuses out manually won't take much time.
The only issue here is that iTunes doesn't send the order number out for a few days. One thing you COULD do is tell people that you just need their email address and suggest that you somehow have the ability to verify the purchases (which you don't). This way you could get people their bonuses a lot earlier. It's a bit of a questionable approach. I did it once years ago and it worked pretty flawlessly, but it's up to you.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
Thanks, John - that's really helpful.
We've sent the track to CD Baby with a release date of 13 July.
Now we are setting everything up, as you suggested. The only hitch so far is that iTunes doesn't allow pre-orders for singles, so we'll just have to work harder at getting people to join the list ahead of the release date and encourage them to but on 13 July.
We're planning to offer a free download now (the one that we have been offering for a while as a lead magnet for list building) with two further free tracks when they purchase the single on 13 July. This may seem very odd because we are effectively giving 3 free singles for the purchase of one, but this artist is very new so it's all about establishing credibility and building the list at this stage, rather than making money.
We've been doing well with press and PR for this artist (as I have shared elsewhere) and we have a few more stories ready to run over the next few weeks, so we are hoping to drive traffic towards the squeeze page and from there use the limited time offer to encourage purchases on the release date.
I am still a bit in the dark about whether we can hope for a chart position. I know that there are non-genre charts too, which might be easier to target, but we need to do a bit more research to see what we should be watching on release day in case we manage to hit a chart position, even if only for a short time.
As ever, all advice is very welcome.
Thanks again
Deb
11:46 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Sounds good. You might monitor iTunes singer songwriter chart, or whatever genres you enter. I've helped a few artists who have charted there without needing a ridiculous number of sales, if only for a short time. But to be honest, I don't really deal with singles much so I'm not 100% sure what chart opportunists are available to you.
One major piece of advice I'd offer is to go old school and pick up the phone on the days leading up to the release and ask friends, fans, and even family for support. Get commitments and then call everyone on release day and remind them to order. Financially it's such a small ask that I'm sure just about everyone will be willing to do it. I can't stress enough how many copies you will sell that you otherwise wouldn't by doing this. Just explain to people that first day numbers are really important for her charting potential. It's really easy for people to get behind.
And of course do the same with your mailing list. You could also run single day ads to your Facebook fans, as well as a custom audience made up of your mailing list. Really go with the "we need your support TODAY so that we can show the industry that we have something here" angle. People get it.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
Thanks so much for your advice - we'll build all this into our campaign.
Isn't it strange how we forget about using the phone these days? 
Deb
Yeah, no one does it, but most of us have at least a few hundred people that we consider a friend on some level. And a few hundred sales in the first week is enough to do quite well on many charts. Not to mention, it can mean a few thousand dollars on a full length album.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
We did it!!!!
Flo released her friend (Beth)'s single yesterday and it is listed as no.3 in the new releases/singer-songwriters niche for iTunes for today.
I'd call that a result, wouldn't you?
We have no idea what the sales numbers are like yet but I'd be very surprised if they are much beyond double figures, so I doubt it will sustain the chart position for very long. But as a bit of social proof for a new artist it's priceless.
We'll be contacting the local press with a 'local girl gets chart hit with her debut single' story.
Thanks for all your help and advice
Deb
3:53 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
That's really fantastic Deb. You should post this in the case study forum as it's own thread. Like you point out, regardless of specific sales numbers, this is some great social proof and fodder for press. Well done!
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
2 Guest(s)
