Promotion strategy for selling mp3 releases

[Ritzi Lee]

What we have now:
- DJ's supporting the release.
- Portals like Beatport and Trackitdown.
- Fora like Blackout, Livesets, etc...
- Myspace...
- Possible mailing lists to do targetted audience reaching.

Besides the above list I have a feeling there is a lot missing.
If you consider Beatport as your portal for selling mp3's, it's a big resource with soo many tracks on it, it's almost impossible to let the crowd have any notice about your new stuff, without some effective promotion strategy.

Does anyone likes to share experiences?

[Jay Pace]

The thing I like about some of the new sites is the amazon style recommendations

"people who bought this also bought this"

Then the more you buy, the more you get matched. Like the tivo of mp3 music - after a while the site just recommends stuff you will like based on what you bought previously.

Unfortunately whilst this is great for the user its of little use to the promoter. I'd look at buying banner ads on the site to click through to your track - get them at the point of sale. If its good it will get bought.

[Ritzi Lee]

The thing I like about some of the new sites is the amazon style recommendations

"people who bought this also bought this"

Then the more you buy, the more you get matched. Like the tivo of mp3 music - after a while the site just recommends stuff you will like based on what you bought previously.

Unfortunately whilst this is great for the user its of little use to the promoter. I'd look at buying banner ads on the site to click through to your track - get them at the point of sale. If its good it will get bought.

Yeah second that regarding the banner stuff.
I know Beatport has some game rules regarding advertising.
First of all it's free of charge, but your release will have to match their criteria. Besides a good and complete presentation for yur release, they would also examine things like:

1. Name recognition of the producer and/or remixer
2. Past performance of the label and/or label group (Good sales in the past?)

Rather unclear statements, considering how they would interprate this information.

[Jay Pace]

Its fair enough though.
They don't want their banners used to push shoddy releases on unknown labels as it devalues their site.

Suprised its free to be honest. They want to be seen as recommending the important records as it gives them kudos - so I suppose they want to qualify your record as important.

Big yourself up basically, and see how you get on :)

[dan the acid man]

does anybody actually pay attention to all the banners on there ? i know i never do, i just find my favourite sections and start clicking

[Jay Pace]

I'm aware of the Traktor ads that have been running here.

Its relevant, a product I would (and do) use and If I was in the market for it I might click through and find out more...

[RDR]

With the deal we have with IODA they have a promonet which enables us to provide a designated free track which gets sent out to all the promotional partners, blogging partners and others.

The track must be designated by the artist as available for free download for these purposes, i have to say im not that keen on the idea as i havnt seen the evidence for its effectiveness, but the label management at IODA are pretty positive it does work, im yet to see the evidence.

[t-dj]

www.neomusicstore.com looks not too bad

I'm using www.soundloud.com at the moment but they have some limits (10 MB per track, 35 tracks hosted max) - then again its completly free...

[detfella]

does anybody actually pay attention to all the banners on there ? i know i never do, i just find my favourite sections and start clicking

recent study on banner ads

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...anner-ads.html

[Louk]

for mp3 selling i heard www.broadstreetdigital.com are quite good for content syndication, i also recommend doing promotion to magazines and radio stations as well, a lot of digital labels just send a few links willy nilly and don't really think about promoting the track to big djs, however you did say this in your first post but don't also forget press/radio - two very important avenues for promotion

[DJ Becka]

Here's an interesting question.....and this comes from the comments about press/radio being a great medium for promoting digital releases.....

Do you guys find that magazines are still taking vinyl releases more seriously than digital?

Because I dont think I've ever seen any reviews in magazines for digital releases.....I could be wrong, but I'm still thinking that writers/reviewers still havent fully embraced the digital side of the industry yet.....

How can we change this moving forward in the future? Outside of putting ads in the magazines.....how can we get writers to actually listen to and publish reviews of this stuff?

I'm curious what people's thoughts are on this......

[DJ Becka]

Oh, and one other interesting thing I've noticed on vinyl releases - some labels are actually putting on the back covers 'also available on beatport'.....so you could look at this in one of 2 ways - either they are adding another nail to the vinyl coffin, or they are doing this for people who perhaps like one or 2 of the tracks on the release, but not enough to spend the money for it on vinyl - thus advertising that it is available on beatport gives the consumer the option of purchasing the tracks they DO like in digital format.

[Ritzi Lee]

www.neomusicstore.com looks not too bad

I'm using www.soundloud.com at the moment but they have some limits (10 MB per track, 35 tracks hosted max) - then again its completly free...

Could be a good solution if you have enough time left to set up the whole thing and to manage it. Or better, let someone do it for you under your auspicien.

[Ritzi Lee]

for mp3 selling i heard www.broadstreetdigital.com are quite good for content syndication, i also recommend doing promotion to magazines and radio stations as well, a lot of digital labels just send a few links willy nilly and don't really think about promoting the track to big djs, however you did say this in your first post but don't also forget press/radio - two very important avenues for promotion

About magazines, and radio.
I was thinking about the use of it. You see, with radio and magazines you're reaching the broader side of the audience. On the other side, try to imagine what are the needs for the 'mainstream' audience. They surely don't have any need to hear techno on the radio. Only when they like to go out clubbing or so... Also most people who really like to buy mp3's are the people who play it in clubs, parties, or just for freaking out, like undeground music freaks always do... And if they like to know what's upcoming, they will know it through the usual info channels, that is the same we all use if we like to know something.

Besides people who dj and produce, the rest just look for free downloadable livesets anywhere. (that is in the spectrum of techno music)


The point is that it makes sense to think about how to take use of the reliable resources in an effective manner.

[RDR]

Here's an interesting question.....and this comes from the comments about press/radio being a great medium for promoting digital releases.....

Do you guys find that magazines are still taking vinyl releases more seriously than digital?

Because I dont think I've ever seen any reviews in magazines for digital releases.....I could be wrong, but I'm still thinking that writers/reviewers still havent fully embraced the digital side of the industry yet.....

How can we change this moving forward in the future? Outside of putting ads in the magazines.....how can we get writers to actually listen to and publish reviews of this stuff?

I'm curious what people's thoughts are on this......

I think that this is the case because there isnt the same promotional pathway the vinyl has had. The digital pool is more liike an ocean and the product is physical and sits well in the hands of a reviewer. There is a large amount of digital product to wade through with many of the tracks (as good as they may be) not really being stand-out. Lazy journalists probably dont help the cause.

[Ritzi Lee]

How can we change this moving forward in the future? Outside of putting ads in the magazines.....how can we get writers to actually listen to and publish reviews of this stuff?

I'm curious what people's thoughts are on this......

Specifically for magazines, what kind of readers would you expect to read your add?

[Ritzi Lee]

I think that this is the case because there isnt the same promotional pathway the vinyl has had. The digital pool is more liike an ocean and the product is physical and sits well in the hands of a reviewer. There is a large amount of digital product to wade through with many of the tracks (as good as they may be) not really being stand-out. Lazy journalists probably dont help the cause.

So actually they have the same kind of problem like we labels do, to get noticed. How funny that is. :)

[DJ Becka]

Specifically for magazines, what kind of readers would you expect to read your add?

I suppose that would depend on which magazine you are advertising in. If you are putting an ad in Home & Garden magazine, I highly doubt anyone will buy your music or even pay attention to the ad (well maybe they would look at it and think 'why is this ad in this magazine?'). If you are placing the ad in a music magazine that is specifically targeted towards people who are purchasing electronic music - whether it be djs, or just clubbers who like to purchase music for their listening pleasure - then I would imagine these are the kinds of readers who would be looking at your ad. Generally, when you are placing an ad in a magazine, you want to find out a couple of things from them - like how many people subscribe, what territories do they circulate to, how many people read the magazine - things of this nature. Then based on those numbers, decide if it's worth spending the money for an ad. Also take into account that a smaller label, with a smaller budget, obviously wont be paying as much money as what bigger labels do - so it might not be a bad idea to place an ad if the magazine is willing to give you a good rate. Does that help answer your question or was there something else you were curious about?

Other avenues of promoting digital releases - myspace - you now can have a beatport player on your page with a list of your releases and the opportunity for people to buy, which I think is a useful tool. The downside to myspace though, is that I see too much spam coming thru my in-box telling me to listen to people's tunes and buy their music. But, for every one person like me who hates spam, there's always one person who actually will be inclined to listen to and possibly buy the music when they get such emails on there.....

[dan the acid man]

recent study on banner ads

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...anner-ads.html

that's an interesting read

[Ritzi Lee]

* - so it might not be a bad idea to place an ad if the magazine is willing to give you a good rate. Does that help answer your question or was there something else you were curious about?

Yes it does. I was just checking out if we're thinking on the same frequency. In Holland we had magazines like Bassic Groove and Update. Since the upcoming popularity of internet fora and dance websites, these kind of magazines stopped existing. In the world there are still a view mags who survived like in Germany and England. But to tell you the truth, I really don't know now what kind of people would buy these magazines. In my own perception it would be people who are interested in clubbing, fashion and trends. Not people who are really interested in buying the latest cutting edge music. But please correct me if I'm wrong.

Other avenues of promoting digital releases - myspace - you now can have a beatport player on your page with a list of your releases and the opportunity for people to buy, which I think is a useful tool. The downside to myspace though, is that I see too much spam coming thru my in-box telling me to listen to people's tunes and buy their music. But, for every one person like me who hates spam, there's always one person who actually will be inclined to listen to and possibly buy the music when they get such emails on there.....

Yes I've just made one for myself. Soon my whole Underground Liberation collection will be available for digital releases. I've also advised my distribution to think about a good PR plan, beacause it's still relatively a new way of selling music. It's NOT the same as selling vinyl.

I'm also not really into spam. But maybe it's just because 99 of the 100 tracks are not like I want it. But on the other side email lists like Livesets.com are very usefull to reach many techno freaks in Europe and outside.