SONG CONTEST BLOG

As an artist growing your business, you’ll often reach out to publishers, labels and prospective fans who may be interested – but not necessarily expecting – to hear from you.

I’m talking about a cold email (or unsolicited email) composed and sent in a personal, professional and transparent manner.  Don’t confuse this with bulk email sent to recipients who did not directly opt-in to your list.  That’s spam.

From my experience, a cold email will get answered when your message addresses the recipient’s urgent need.  Easier said than done, right?

Over the years, I developed a simple check-list to ensure that my cold emails rise to the top, get opened, read and responded to.

11 questions I ask myself before I click the ’send’ button:

1. Is my email subject line personal, compelling and distinctive?

2. Does the message in the email body list and persist the benefits of communicating with me?

3. Have I included all the facts (not the fluff) about me for the recipient’s reference?

4. Have I demonstrated that I sincerely care about the recipient?

5. Have I clearly expressed what action I would like the recipient to take after reading my email?

6. Can my message be shorter, clearer and more persuasive?

7. Have I strategically timed and conceived my follow-up emails in advance?

8. Is my persistence justified in my follow-up emails or am I coming off as pushy?

9. Do I have a response email ready (at least in my head) if and when the recipient replies?

10. Am I primed for resistance and emotionally prepared for rejection?

11. If the recipient doesn’t reciprocate after several attempts, do I have a plan B?

The next time you reach out to a music manager, music supervisor or venue owner, try running through these questions before you click the ‘send’ button.  This small extra step may help you rise above the noise and get you and your music heard.

Please share your own tips >>

Scott Ginsberg, author and motivational speaker, writes:

Because of our instant gratification culture, we’re impatient.

Because of our privileged upbringing, we developed a mediocre work ethic.

Because of our self-reliant, entrepreneurial bent, we don’t offer loyalty easily.

Because of our abundance of choices, we’re quick to quit and pursue something better.

No wonder we can’t stick with anything for very long.

Now let me ask you this:

Are you sticking to your plan to achieve a successful career in music?

And what do you do when your plan doesn’t go according to plan?

Leave a comment >>

JamLegend is the web-based answer to Guitar Hero and Rock Band, providing a free and social gaming experience that allows users to ‘play along’ with great tracks using  their computer key board (which doubles as a guitar if you hold it upright and use the ‘Enter’ key as the plectrum).  It’s a fun way to listen to and discover new music, play along with favourite tracks, and compete against like-minded music lovers.  JamLegend relies on user-generated music from independent artists.  Considering the scope and scale of the video gaming industry, it appears that JamLegend has created are very viable and powerful opportunity for artists and music promoters to garner additional exposure.  Here is how to submit your tunes.

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While next-generation music pros are angling for music 2.0 success stories and peddling self-promotion concepts to upstart artists, Bruce Warila of musicXray wants us all to take a breather, not go overboard and lose our shorts.  Bruce colourfully describes the myriad of current industry obstacles and unveils a step-by-step coup d’état.  I particularly enjoyed this analogy, perhaps one of Bruce’s softer moments:

“Genres are coastlines, niches within genres are beachfront properties, and standalone artists are rocks or grains of sand.  Sticking with the metaphor: coastlines and beachfront properties are compelling, interesting and entertaining; rocks and sand are things that get stuck in your shorts and sandals.”

Read the entire onslaught.

iLike, the hugely successful consumer-facing extension of the not-so-hugely-successful indie artist community, GarageBand, announced its further investment in self-promoting artist tools for iLike registered artists, specifically the marketing and syndication of music and music-related collateral across several social networks.  The 300,000 member iLike artist community will now be able to automate their feeds to Twitter, synchronize their YouTube channels to their iLike accounts, add an ‘up-selling’ widget to their MySpace concert listing, and include an iLike ‘music tab’ to their Facebook profile… and this is just the very tip of the ice-cream: iPhone apps, content syndication tools, premium artist stats, own web-domain management and many more flavours. 

iLike is a powerhouse, catering to 45 million music fans across its network.  This investiture will undoubtedly put some pressure on small players such as BandMetrics and RockDex who focus on statistics for artists, and ArtistData who focus on content syndication, to offer value features that iLike can’t or simply chooses not to.  And in spite of ReverbNation’s exponential growth and market lead on the indie artist front, iLike enjoys an unmistakable advantage: primed access to consumers en mass.

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