When you think about the word ‘Community', what comes to mind?

Most people would say their local town, or their ‘home base'. In fact there are communities everywhere. Personally, I can't even count how many communities I belong to anymore. My town is a community, my state, my country, my college had it's own community, my workplace, my church, I'm part of the ‘male' community, I'm Italian American, I am part of a Smashing Pumpkins fan community, I am a member of numerous online communities, I am part of the musician community, more specifically the guitarist, drummer, and singer communities…it goes on and on. All of these communities revolve around a unifying interest which brings it's members together. What communities are you a part of?

Now how does this relate to promoting your music? It's simple. Imagine there's a table. On one side of the table there's a big bowl of water. On the other side of the table there are 6 smaller glasses of water. In your hand you have food coloring. Your goal is to turn 64 ounces of water red as quickly as possible. Will it be faster to drop the food coloring into that one giant bowl, stir it up…or have to stir it individually 6 times in all of those glasses? This is too easy for you…

Communities are like tornados that gather speed quickly. People have more fun doing the things they love while surrounded by others who share their interests; the whole group benefits from this synergy. This can mean a huge deal for your promotion/marketing efforts as an independent artist. But let's take things one step at a time.

Who is your target audience? This question may be difficult for new artists or even seasoned artists who never gave it a good thought. Who does my music best connect with? Who will buy the most of my CDs? If you think this isn't important, think again. When a record label first catches wind of an up-and-coming artist, the first question on their mind is…who can we sell this to? It is not a guessing game; your target audience is your niche in the music business market, and you must make your territory clear. The saddest thing is a talented artist whose genre was unclassifiable and his music, while intended to include EVERYONE, actually reached NOBODY because of it's inability to “fit” somewhere. There's nothing wrong with being “stuck” in a genre. That doesn't make you any less original, it makes you more marketable!

For one of my earlier bands, people would always ask me, “What style of music is it?” and I would respond, “Well, it's a lot of everything…it's kinda Rock, but then again Jazzy…I can't really describe it.” I USED to think this was “cool”. I also believed that if I kept the door so widely open that my fanbase would encompass EVERYBODY! But this was not the case….

A fact that every artist must deal with is that Not everybody is going to like your music. In fact, the majority of people may not. But look at it this way: if only 1 out of 100 people like your music, and there are nearly 300,000,000 people in this Country…you could have a 3 million person fanbase. That's incredible, and that's a lot of CDs to be sold. My point is to find out who likes your music the most, and build your product around them. (Your product is your band, your music, you image, your stageshow).

Ok, so you've tested your music in different markets to different crowds, and you've realized your getting the best response from males 17-35. Good news, your in the majority…bad news, YOUR IN THE MAJORITY. This means while many, many people are potentially going to be your fans, you have to fight through the clutter of competition to reach them. (Read my article on connecting with fans after the show for advice on deepening fan relationships the right way!) So this is where the power of communities comes into play!

Did you think about which communities you were a part of yet? Great! Those are the places you want to put the ‘food coloring' into first, because You are already a part of them! By looking at your marketing efforts in terms of clusters or communities, the task becomes much smaller. Any community is going to serve your promotions better than on a one-by-one basis, but some communities are simply bred for spreading your music. Let's talk about some of the ripest places to promote!

High Schools

If you are a member of this High School, and your music is quality, you have a great opportunity in your hands. High School students make up the majority of music purchases in the country, and it makes sense. Between the ages of 14 and 19, kids are not yet ‘jaded' by music. Unlike a 26 year old guy, they have not yet heard all the great albums that will make them realize what ‘crappy' music really is yet! Not saying that your music is crappy, but I'm saying that they are Impressionable. The other factor which makes them prime targets is that they probably don't work full time jobs yet. They have time to sit down, listen to music, surf the web, go to shows (if they can get a ride). And lastly, they are ‘excited' by music. High School can be a strange and confusing time for many teenagers, and music gives them a way to connect to something. It will help identify them, and comfort them by being a voice of the emotions that they may not have learned to express yet.

What to do?

Book a show a month away. Press up a TON of sample CDs with a few songs each on it, and a link to your website. Find an ‘ambassador' for your music; this shouldn't be hard to do. If you are in the school it could be the friend of yours who knows everybody. If you are not in the school, find somebody who is…you could try finding people on MySpace but then again I feel like I'm encouraging you to be a stalker. I'm staying out of that one…anyway, you need to get somebody (or a few people) to be your promotion ambassador and help distribute your CDs. You can do it yourself, but having other people work for you is MUCH, MUCH MORE POWERFUL… see my article on “Word of Mouth Marketing”.

You should find that Kids simply eat up your CDs. Make sure to include somewhere on there Proof that your music is somehow ‘connected' to this community. Title your sample CD something like, “Live from Ridgemount High Cafeteria”, or whatever. You could even say the name of your Town, the “Cranston Central EP”. That's just my idea anyway, you can name it whatever you want…but keep in mind that people are more likely to listen to it and get excited about it if they Know that they are part of the same community.

Besides High Schools, Colleges also work well. You will find a greater mix of people at colleges and also just a ton more people. I went to a University with over 20,000 people in it, but I found that marketing to them was difficult from the outside in. I tried the one-on-one approach at first, which worked well for people who were receptive to me…but what really worked is finding the communities within the community! Colleges are all made up of sub-communities; Fraternities, Sororities, Musician Guilds, Artist/Painter groups, Democratic Society, Italian Society…whatever. If you are not a member of some of these…join! Word will spread fast that one of the members from this community is a “Star in the Making” and people will support you.

If you are not a member of the College, don't worry. Use the same tactics as described above…find an ambassador or two, or three. This is why it helps to talk to your fans at shows. Find out where they are from, what Communities they belong to. Find people who you can trust with a box of 10 sample CDs with flyers…Are they excited to share your music with others? For my information on putting together a Killer Street Team, read my article!

Schools and Colleges are by far the best communities to hit, but smaller groups such as the people you work with will be great as well. At all the jobs I've ever had, promotion was incredibly simple and effective. I would give a CD to one or two people, but not everybody at first. All the other coworkers would see and get curious. The people who received the CDs would sing my praises and then before long, everybody in the damn place wanted one. Soon I had 15 bonafide new fans, all extremely motivated to see me succeed. When I had a show, each one of those people would bring one of 2 of their friends and bingo…instant crowd! All from giving a few CDs out to people I work with. Think Food Coloring.

I hope this article has opened your eyes to the opportunities that Communities provide for promoting your music. I'm sure you can think of a ton more that I didn't mention here, like YouTube, MySpace, etc., but the same rules apply. Take advantage today. Get people to work for you. Communities will form the foundation of your fanbase, and the foundation of your success. Remember the nature of groups: people coming together around a shared interest. When that interest is YOU and your music, the momentum will build faster than you believe. Take care and good luck!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 31st, 2007 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Music Promotion Articles, MySpace. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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