Magazine & X-TRA

CREDibility

CRED Development: Designed to help you step up your game plan

THINK VISUAL:  You can’t get your music heard. Even though you go through the trouble of making CD’s and giving them away. You’ve been unsuccessful in getting that much needed radio play. You doubt you ever will get radio play. So you resort to trying to create a buzz by giving away CD after CD and making your own mix-tapes. Of course we know that these things cost and it adds up.

The music biz is not a quick money business...for most.
I notice that a lot of artists tend to follow what they see other failing artists doing when it comes to promoting their product.
I notice that a lot of artists don’t perceive what’s going on around them in terms of industry change and being up on the latest types of technology to aid them in sales and marketing their product.

While it’s true the Jay Z ran the block and Master P put his area on, you have to remember that before they were rappers, they were business men.

Just because you rap or sing doesn’t mean that you have the ability to run anything more than a blender, let alone a successful business, record label or a career even if it involves just yourself. It’s rare when you can find an artist that’s as good at business as they are at their craft.

A lot of the methods that I’ve seen artists employ to market themselves are just not on point. The types of methods I’m referring to range from shock humor to draw attention to their product to unlimited free CD giveaways.

Let me get to the point.
We live in a visual world. Everyday people are constantly bombarded with images for products, food, daily needs, etc.

Let me give you a situation: You come to me and say “Hey Ray, I got the hottest song you’ll hear this year...I say okay what’s up with it. You hand me a CD. I say okay Homie. I’ll check this out later. Needless to say the next time you see me, I haven’t had a chance to listen to that CD you gave me.

Let me give you another situation: You come to me and say “Hey Ray, I got this hot video...I say okay what’s up with it. You hand me the DVD. I walk to my car and put it in...or my computer and play it.
Do you get it?

Let’s put it a different way: you say “Ray check out my new single then you hand me two discs, one CD and a DVD. So which one do you suppose I play first?

The DVD.

Why, because we live in a visual world. People are more apt to watch you than listen to you. How many times have you watched the Spanish channel on TV and you don’t know a lick of Spanish... or better yet watched TV with the sound turned off.

Now two things can happen from there. (1) I say “Hey that is a hot video!” Or (2) “it becomes part of my trash can collection.

But the point is that you have more chance of being seen than heard.
Yes, you should be seen and heard but...the advantage goes to the ones who have great visual content to promote their music.

In a market where so many artists want to rush DJ’s and radio stations to get their music heard, the best option is to be seen first.
Never forget that the music video was designed to sell a song. When you think about making a video, it should be one that gets people excited to watch over and over again.
So the song should be one that people want to hear over and over again. Let me spell it out for you; don’t make a video if the song isn’t hot. It adds up to wasted money, in the end it will be remembered as a lack luster production if it’s remembered at all.

In the early days of music videos, artists who had never done them nor had a clue as to why they should even do one went the way of the dinosaur. You’ve heard the expression “Video killed the Radio star”. Well, I’m here to tell you that a bad video can kill your buzz rather quickly. Visuals are really powerful so think before you jump into making a video. You want your video to rival that of mainstream artists (in concept at least) and/or quality if you can afford it. Use someone who is known within the industry or your area for shooting videos as this adds hype to your project.

Once you have your finished video, shop it around to various outlets. Include popular websites and TV shows in different cities that cater to your genre of music. They may just show your video for little to no fees.

This is a killer strategy that I’m about to give you for free. Don’t worries I won’t make the same mistake twice so take it while it’s here for the taking.

Contact 5 to 10 magazines in your area and outside of the region to promote your product and direct readers as to where your video can be seen. You should buy space for a short article about yourself in these magazines. Send the same article with your photo to each magazine. This approach to marketing your product works only if you stay consistent. You might even think about asking a magazine to add your video disc to a limited number of their magazines, of course you must submit a solid offer to facilitate the costs of this marketing.

If you can keep up this sort of marketing for at least six months on a consistent basis your career will take a turn for the best.

So get your visual game on point by using catchy consistent magazine ads and hot music videos. If you would like more info or assistance in getting your marketing on track, feel free to contact me.

Ray