Spend $3000 or $100 and a Little Work

I have for some time felt that musicians get screwed by many people form labels to people just looking for a buck. In many ways this makes me look carefully over things when I get asked. Well while doing some direct marketing for this blog a couple of days ago I came across an ad that made me sick.

What can you get for $3000? Is the following enough for that kind of money?

• 50 INTERNET PRESS SENDS: We will get your CD or DVD to 50 journalists and reviewers from the Internets top E-Zines and online magazines.

50 sends of your press kit? I am sure they don't make sure it is good though. This is only Internet reviews too hmmm. If you purchase a copy of the Indie Bible and send out to 5 online locations a day this would take you only 10 days and less then $50.


• 300 INTERNET RADIO SENDS:

Again you can send out to online radio stations yourself from the information in the Indie Bible. Over 1000 I am sure in your musics genre.

• 10 ONLINE STORE SENDS:

Set-up shop with CDBaby.com and not only get online stores and digital distribution but also physical retail stores too.

• DIGITAL MUSIC DISTRIBUTION:

Something else you can get from CDBaby.com most of the sites listed by this company are available and those that aren't probably have low sales.


• 10 MP3 SITE UPLOADS: We upload three of your artist's best tracks to ten of the best MP3 sites. Plus we build a full artist page on each site from their templates. An important tool to make your artist's presence known on the Internet.

Now this one is worth while not $3000 worth while though. I think if you can get your fans involved though you can be listed on more then 10 networks.

• $100 WORTH OF KEY WORD PURCHASES:

Another one that I feel is worth while but not at this price. You can look for outsource sites and ask for SEO work. This will get you a list of keywords and you can then set-up your own account with google, Yahoo, and MSN buy your own keyword searches.


• CLUB/CHATROOM DEVELOPMENT: We will build a Yahoo club and chatroom for your artist and promote it to Yahoo group's to build a fan list. This is a fantastic way to make personal contact with fans worldwide. A super marketing tool. We develop your club for a period of four months.

Club/Chatroom would be nice but only if you already have a community built up.
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• 80 HOURS OF DECOY OR DIRECT MARKETING: Our people can either use direct marketing to get your message out to the public, or decoy marketing to acts as fans who just want to tell people how great your artist and their music are. We use MYSPACE direct individual personal contact, MYSPACE groups, blogs, bulletins, and forums. We also use FRIENDSTER blogs, groups, and direct contact, and our massive network of YAHOO GROUPS.

Now we get something that would be fantastic and would be worth spending a bit of $$$ on. I wouldn't pay $3000 though, and if you can get your fans to help out then you can find out where you want to be known and have an army to get you known there.

• ONLINE VIDEO PROMOTION: The newest sensation for promoting bands is through internet video sites. With our new special internet video campaign we put your band's video on 10 of the top online video sites Reach thousands and thousands of people for a few hundred dollars. It's the best bargain in advertising you'll find anywhere!__We create an artist page for your band or artist on ten of the top online video sites including Youtube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, AOl Video, Veoh, Blinx, Grouper, Revver, and more. Our technicians process your video so that it streams for online viewing with the best picture quality possible. We upload your processed video to the pages we created on the top 10 video streaming sites. And all for one extremely low price!

You can upload your video to 20+ sites just ask me and I will dig up the list for you.

So now let me look at what I thought about this and the cost that my thoughts came up with.

Indie Bible - $40
4000 publications from around the world that will REVIEW your CD!
3200 radio stations from around the world that will PLAY your songs!
Not all of those will be right for your band but it is cheaper and more then offered by the above company/individual.

CDBaby.com - $35 plus shipping your cds to the company.
Super D distribution gets you into over 1200 retail shops. Plus there is a simple explanation on how to get your music into local shops to where you are playing live.
Listed on over 45 download sites such as I-Tunes, Rhapsody, etc. More then offered in the above.

Netvalar - ???? Free for now
List of 20+ places online to upload your video. Lets not forget you are free to come back to me for advice on what to do with those videos once they are there.
SEO work, actually I will be looking for that info I had a while back on outsourcing and you can expect to see it here in my blog soon.

Your Fans - Hell whatever you spend on them is worth it but normally free.
That 80 hours of work telling people how good your music is. I think your fans can put in way more hours then that.

Total my route compared to $3000 = $75 + Work on your part and that of your fans. Less then $100 though you will find yourself spending more then that on some of the above as time goes by.