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QuoteHello everyone,
I'm Frank, a singer songwriter from Amsterdam.
John, thanks for setting this thing up. You've taught me a lot and I'm already getting some results.
I have a couple of questions. I have added some of the things you teach to my website at http://frankensongs.com
The 'free download' scheme has gotten some people into my music and into my list. I'm sure I can improve on it, but the most common remark I get from people who listen to my music is that they're not sure how to describe it to people. I heard the talk on branding and I understand how having a well-defined identity and letting your personality shine through come hand in hand, but the music itself is diverse. I get the same thing I have with shows. People either dig my rock & roll oriented songs or my country/folk stuff and the people who like both are in the minority. During a show I can just gauge the crowd reaction and adapt my set accordingly, but I have no idea how to translate this to online marketing.
- Is there a way to split your 'market' without becoming a 'schizophrenic' brand? Is my music really that eclectic in style?
I've set up a bandcamp profile at frankdeboer.bandcamp.com and http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FrankdeBoer. If you would listen to some songs and tell me if it's really as much of a dichotomy as I think it is I'd be much obliged.
- I have songs in English and songs in Dutch, I was raised bilingually. There is absolutely zero crossover interest in those songs, but both sides of my catalogue are reasonably popular locally. Do you think it would pay to create a separate 'brand' for the Dutch songs? I don't have an online presence for that right now.
-I have a YouTube channel that used to pretty popular but has gotten fewer views as of late. It's mostly cover songs and originals mixed in. I really should clean that up or maybe even start a new channel with original songs and well-produced videos only, but I don't want to lose the audience I already have. I have a Johnny Cash cover and a children's song on there that's getting steady weekly views in the hundreds and I need to do something with that traffic. Do you think it hurts to have lower quality songs on a channel along with the good ones?
PS. Do you think bandcamp or CD Baby is better? CD Baby does way more in the distribution department and I've had a few more sales that way, but bandcamp is a such a technically superior music platform.
Thanks again, John!
11:44 pm
October 27, 2011
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Hi Frank,
I don't have a great answer for you but I find I have a similar problem in that my duo's music fits into several niches but not perfectly. What I've started doing is bringing out the aspects of our music in my copy writing and communications that fit the niche I'm marketing to in the moment. So if I'm targeting Celtic music lovers on Twitter, I'll emphasize that in my bio, for example, even though we are not strictly Celtic at all. But I don't have a separate identity for each niche. In my experience audience's seem to be very open to the eclectic stuff once they feel comfortable that you fit the niche they are interested in and can relate to. It's like having even a little bit of that niche in your style makes them feel safe to explore your other stuff.
I think it is probably easier to fit perfectly into a niche, but so many musicians don't because we love to explore. The advantage is that with variety your live shows are probably a lot more exciting than if all your stuff sounded the same. It's good that you can gauge what is needed in your live show, but it might just be the atmosphere and not really that the individuals in the audience like one style over the other.
8:15 am
June 7, 2011
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Hey Frank,
Glad to hear you're liking the content so far and that you're already seeing some results.
I find a lot of musicians feel the same way but in my (possibly jaded) opinion it's almost always pretty simple. I'd simple call you a singer songwriter. It is easy to start adding adjectives to that to give a more accurate impression, but I think that is a nice general term that fits what you do. Not all fans of singer songwriters will necessarily connect with your stuff, but it's likely that most of your fans will consider themselves fans of singer songwriter music. That's how I sort of look at it anyway. I find that the more you can pinpoint what you do, the better you will do. For example, Charley Langer (a fellow IC member who really does well with this stuff), is a "smooth Jazz" artist. Not much wasted targeting there, and his stats are always pretty strong from what I know.
Re: Language... I would focus on one funnel that you think stands the best chance and has the biggest potential audience. Dial that in and start making some money and you can then expand into another market (or language as it may be).
Re: Youtube. I wouldn't create a second channel for a number of reasons. 1. It's too difficult to do a great job with multiple channels. 2. The authority of your channel helps a lot with ranking your videos and age, number of videos, and number of subscribers all really hep with that. So don't water it down. And I don't personally think mixing up the videos is that big of a deal. Most people will find your videos via emails from you, the search engines, or Youtube itself. I don't see the risk of turning off a subscriber to be that much of a risk as long as you're having fun and putting out videos you;re proud of.
Re: CD Baby or Bandcamp... Totally depends what you want to do. I like the order process better with bandcamp, but I like CD Baby because of the distribution aspect of it. And I don't hate them as a retail platform.
Hope that helps.
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Thank you both for your input. I'm going to focus on the singer songwriter aspect. Venues often bill me that way no matter what I say, so I guess it works.
Annie, I went to your website and got more of a renaissance feel from the Scarborough Fair download than Celtic. I was very curious about the website so I signed up to your mailing list. I like the recording! Does it work having nothing on your website but a squeeze page and an MP3 and doing everything by mail? Do you have public gigs that you promote on another platform?
9:14 pm
October 27, 2011
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Hi Frank,
Thanks. Glad you like the recording. People often tell us we have a Renaissance sound but we go with Celtic because it's the most familiar term to people and we really don't know much about Ren music. We actually fit more into the British folk sound (like Pentangle or Fairport) but so few people know them that it doesn't make sense to compare ourselves. We also fit into psych folk or prog folk - but again - it's not familiar enough. So recently I've been saying to people "a combination of Celtic and original folk" . I'm not sure if that is the best I can do, but at least it doesn't get a blank stare. On facebook i'm using "Celtic and Not"
I find that the squeeze page definitely converts well compared to a website. I also find that people are much more likely to read an email than to just come to our website or see a twitter or facebook post. I actually do have a website / blog that I created not too long ago. It's here: http://www.hobbyhorseband.com My idea is to use the blog to bring people in from twitter, facebook and search engines with blog posts about a variety of topics. So far it's working on a small scale. It's also a regular website with info about us - including gigs. The site still needs a lot of work. I think as it is, it is ambiguous that we are even a band.
I'm in the process of completing a new EP and after that will be doing more marketing, rewriting my autoresponder series and setting up a limited time offer. Through my autoresponder series as it is, you'll soon get an email with an offer for my old CD. It's not really a great example of what you should do for a limited time offer, but even so, brought in more sales than if I just had it sitting on my website. So - yes - communication and selling through emails has been effective.
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