Basic Marketing Principles For Artists - Part 3: Increase the Amount of Money That You Charge

by Ariel Hyatt from Cyber PR Blog June 24, 2009

This is the final segment of a 3 part series that was inspired by a mastermind program I am participating in with Ali Brown who is my mentor in the world of online marketing.

Here’s the recap:
There are three ways to increase your income:

1. Increase your number of clients (fans).

2. Increase the frequency of purchase, how often your fans buy from you. (and you’d better have more than just music to sell).

3. Increase the amount of money that you charge.

Increasing the amount of money you charge poses a problem if all you have to sell is music because music is now widely available for free, and people have proven that they are not willing to pay a premium for music.

However, fans will pay plenty of money for experiences, like a great concert or a chance to be a contribution to an artist, a special memento, or wonderful merchandise that really resonates with your fans.

I found two artists that exemplified this strategy – Jeff Krantz who created a BIG payday in one fell swoop and Phil Putnam who has been slowly increasing his bottom line over time.

Jeff Krantz & The $10,000 Song
http://jeffkrantzmusic.com

Just last night I was hanging out with past Cyber PR client who had a fabulous tale to tell. Jeff launched his singer-songwriter career in Second Life where he has managed to build a wonderful fan base.

Through networking online, he met a man who fell in love with his songwriting and became a fan. This man called up my artist and told him that he was having a big anniversary coming up and he wanted a special song written just for his wife. He asked if he would be up for writing and recording a custom song for her.

Realizing that this was a huge opportunity told his fan that he would present him with some options he began to THINK BIG. So he created 3 packages that this man could choose from with three separate prices (depending on how much he wanted to spend / how involved it would be silver, gold and platinum)

Here’s what Jeff wrote about how it worked:

As part of the Gold package that the client chose, I agreed to write 3 different songs (first verse and chorus) for the client to chose from. Once the client selected the song, Ispent 1 week writing 2 full lyrical options for the client to chose from. Once they had decided on the song, Jeff went into his studio and recorded the song, bringing in musicians to fill out the arrangement. He then sent it to a top studio to be mixed and mastered and 2 weeks later he sent the client the finished song (with the masters). “It took about 60 hours in total but it was so much fun and I made almost 10 grand for the effort!”

The point is because he leveraged just ONE relationship with just one fan he managed to make over $10,000 on ONE song.

Had he not been working on increasing his fanbase by networking online, he never would have had this opportunity present itself to him.

Phil Putnam - How To Slowly Increase Your Value
http://www.philputnam.com

Phil (full disclosure: Phil is a Cyber PR client) wrote back with what he did to increase his prices and overall bottom line.

Yes, I have taken a few steps to increase the amounts I can pull in.

1) The lion’s share of my new price leverage has come from having a very successful music video on MTV/LOGO. When you get wide exposure like that, people will pay more to hear/see you.

2) Make longer albums: my latest record “Casualties” has 16 tracks on it, price point at $11.99 on iTunes rather than $9.99, and it sells better than any of my other records.

3) Raise my concert ticket price/door charge $2-3. Ex: from $10 to $12 advance/$15 at door. I’ve seen an increase in my concert attendance since raising the price, and I also book higher quality venues.

In general, I find that being able to raise your price point is a result of two things:

1) Adjusting the perceived value of your work among your listeners. We set the pace for how people perceive us. If we say our show is worth $12 instead of $10, people will pay $12. And then it becomes our job to give them a better show.

2) Working harder to make better music, give better shows, and build better contacts. It’s simple business: you want better pay, do better work. Raising price point isn’t a marketing trick. You have to earn it.

What I like about what Phil did is he increased his momentum at the same time he increased his prices. I’m quite sure that the $2 - $3 he increased his prices by add up to be significant gains over the course of a year or two. Thanks Phil!

But again back to basic principle #1 which Phil leverages excellently: The amount of fans you have, the true fans who are connected and engaged will be the ones who can lead you to bigger opportunities down the line.

Those fans are the ones who will want to engage with you in an authentic way, and purchase whatever it is you are offering even if it costs a few dollars more or give you more than you ever expected because you provide deep value really says something.

I would love to hear how you have managed to add value and get more profit.

Basic Marketing Principles For Artists - Part 2: Increasing the Frequency of Purchases

by Ariel Hyatt from Music Think Tank

The first piece in this series focused on increasing the amount of fans and how this is a necessary step towards success. Part 2 of the basic three principles is increasing the frequency of purchases.

The cornerstone of this is simple: You can not only sell music.

In order to get the frequency of purchases up you must provide something that actually gets your fans to buy more frequently.

If you are only selling one album or one set of MP3s, it's pretty near impossible to get this step accomplished because your core fans will only have one thing to buy (therefore making frequency non-existent).

Billboard recently reported that over 2,500 record stores have closed in the US since 2005. This points out to one very clear conclusion: People are buying fewer CDs (of course we already knew this) but think about it –

Are you only selling music?

I sadly see this all too often. Artists work very hard to put out a great CD, and of course the music is the cornerstone of your brand but to survive and thrive in this industry where music is widely distributed for free online, you must create additional products and offerings to sell.

Remember not to put the cart before the horse here, But if you don't have a fan base to sell these things to, there's no reason to build a series of products. So, at the same time you must be building a two-way conversation with engaged fans and building more trust. This is where Social Media comes in.

Survey Your Fans

Expert Internet marketers never release products without testing the demand first. You may think you know what your fans want but they might surprise you.

Understanding who they are and what they like/ want is therefore critical.

Internet Marketers always ask their core fan group what it is they would like and then they create products and offerings based on their answers.

I have said this may times – that music is a feeling and it’s hard to market a feeling but as Terry McBride points out music acts as social glue that holds us together emotionally and in groups and brands and products can always be sold to groups.

So it's hard to get your fans to give you input on your songwriting - that is your personal journey and your preference but it is EASY to get them to tell you what they like and want to buy.

Is it girlie T’s?

Yoga mats

Special non-leaching water bottles

Limited edition T-Shirts

Extra think hoodies

If you don’t ask them they wont tell you

Set up a survey online and use your email newsletter list or Facebook page to get fans to tell you what they may buy from you in the future. There are many free tools that will help you track your survey results. I like Survey Monkeyhttp://www.surveymonkey.com This services allows you to create a survey that you can send out to your fans to ask them specifically what they might like to buy from you and how much they are willing to pay.

Then make it and they will!

Brilliant Artist Merchandise

I have run into some great merch ideas over the last year.

Here are some great merch ideas to get you inspired

John Taglieri, who I talk about often has a marvelous new series of EPs and books called Lives. This new project will consist of four 6-song EP’s, books & graphic novels, as well as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and blogger accounts for the two main characters. http://thelivesproject.com/

Family Force 5 created a limited edition T-shirt of the month club. They offered their fans a new T-shirt every single month and it generated thousands of extra dollars for themselves and their fans loved the limited edition shirts. http://www.myspace.com/familyforce5

Will Deynes made a Valentine's Day song, and he would custom record the name of people's beloved's right into the song. He sold dozens of them to his fan base at Valentine's Day.

http://www.myspace.com/wildeynes

I met Shelter with Thieves, from Halifax, NS and they gave me an awesome USB drive full of music and special bonuses like artwork and videos, and it’s wonderful because fans can use the USB drive for school projects or at work.

http://www.shelterwiththieves.com/

Jen Chapin, being environmentally conscious and clear that her fans are too like purchased a few cases of SIGG Water bottles and had them customized. She sent an e-mail to her entire list that she had wonderful, non-leaching, water bottles for sale and she ended up selling many of them http://www.jenchapin.com/

Carla Lynne Hall is organizing a Bowling Tweetup at The Harlem Lanes near her home just to hang out with friends and fans and bond. He is not selling merch yet but you can be sure that when it comes time for her to sell that extra time she took to make friends with her fans will pay off. Studies show that people purchase from those they like and trust and Carla is building trust.

http://rockstarlifelessons.com/

and lastly I want to mention subscription based websites and fan clubs.

Matthew Ebel & Ari Hest are two great examples to look at

Matthew has a site that gives fans live recordings, new music, ringtones, videos, exclusive invitations.

Ari Hest released a song every single week for a year then he let the fans vote for the best ones to put on his album which he cleverly named Twelve Mondays

Wat are you ding to inspire your fans to incresae the frequency?

I would love to hear....

Buy Me Some Peanuts & Marketing

I always say this:

“Hope is not a plan”.

What I mean is this:

“Your ass better have a bona fide plan, with strategic, realistic, and actionable steps towards growing your fan base, or you can kiss your lagging music career goodbye in a few years. Don’t have a plan? Ask for help before it’s too late.”

Just trying to share some insight from hindsight. My apologies for beating your head over a dead horse. But you think this doesn’t apply to you? Then show me your plan. :-)

Here’s why this is so important:

There are more than EIGHT MILLION artists/bands on MySpace.

This is who you’re competing against for your fans’ attention.

To comprehend the sheer magnitude of people stealing your spotlight, let’s visualize. Let’s say each member of each band is represented by a fan sitting at a ballpark. We’ll estimate that there’s an average of 3.25 people per artist or group. This means that you’re competing with a group the size of the crowd at every single Angels home game from the last ten years (www.baseball-almanac.com). And just like at the ballpark, everyone’s shouting & making noise. How does your music get heard over the roar of the crowd? How do you stand out?

One choice solution is Ariel Hyatt’s company Cyber PR.

I spent some time hangin’ with Ariel on her turf in New York this past week. She's an intelligent, driven, knowledgeable, finger-on-the-pulse, bundle of maroon-topped spunk. For over a year now, I have been observing Cyber PR’s operation. The verdict? It’s the best bang for your marketing dollar money can buy. And Ariel is the real deal.

There are many companies that claim to grow your brand. What attracts me to Cyber PR is RESULTS and ACCOUNTABILITY. I could talk for pages & pages about all the value Ariel has crammed into the Publicity Packages. Instead check ‘em out here.

One “secret” to music success is spending more money on marketing than on gear. Or beer. Not fun. But it’s not rocket surgery. Or brain science. You simply MUST let the world know what you’ve got! Think I’m not talking directly to you? If you have more guitars hanging on the wall than gold records, then I’m talking to you. GO HERE NOW. (If you have more beer bottles in the fridge than guitars on the wall…invite me over.)

Cyber PR will put your face on the hypothetical ballpark’s hypothetical Jumbotron…and blast your music over the hypothetical P.A. system, for all the journalists, bloggers, podcasters, etc. to see & hear. That’s how you stand out.

But Cyber PR is oh so much more.

I’ve barely scratched the iceberg.

Stay tuned. :-)

Cyber PR Publicity Packages are now available for all ArtiSans Label artists.