Where to market guitar instrumental music?

[themachinist]

I'm not really sure which category to put this thread in, or whether it's really suitable for the AGF, so please put me right if it isn't.

I'd really like to hear peoples opinions on ways to reach people on-line who enjoy acoustic guitar instrumentals, be it Blues, Folk, Country, Baroque, Contemporary, etc. The dynamics change so rapidly and frequently in the age of the internet I find it's hard to keep up and I often find myself reading an article about it that I then realise was published a few years ago and is almost completely useless in the present.

I'd also like to offer some of my own discoveries. Hype machine is an incredible tool, as music blogs have an increasing relevance and following as far as music critics are concerned. I recently made my first effort at self-releasing an album and I found as many relevant Folk blogs/websites as I could and submitted to them all, which resulted in quite a few worthwhile reviews and mentions.

I also found that many of the important magazines now accept on-line submissions, or at least their website makes it easy to find out about their submission guidelines and addresses. (Acoustic Guitar Magazine, Froots, The Living Tradition, Dirty Linen, Guitar International where some that I posted to).

[alohachris]

Aloha,

I got the music business part of my young life off the ground by playing at & promoting/selling cassettes of my music directly to Northeastern colleges in the 60's & 70's.

I became like the house "singer-songwriter" at a couple of schools. Got my music played regularly on campus radio stations & it took off - enough to cover my travel expensives to various schools with a bit left over. I did numerous campus radio gigs back in the live radio days. Sold thousands of self-produced cassettes at campus gigs & concerts, & then later, CD's to the tourism markets (another market to investigate that can be strong) here in Hawaii.

Sure, you can do a lot of that online now (I wouldn't know or care how at this stage). But I do know that there is no substitute for shaking hands & meeting the people who can promote your music to different audiences & then PLAYING LIVE to back it up. Identify who the "acoustic music marketing players & markets are in your area first. Then look for national online opportunities.

Of course, much of it depends on the scope of your goals, the music you play, & if you can perform your music well too. So work out a basic plan. Name your targets. Go after 'em - in person. Music self-promotion requires a thick skin, creativity, gas money & varied people skills. It's not for introverts. AND you can't do it from your computer alone. I still have never had a dime come from a printer.

And be prepared to back up your music with great & dynamic performances. Attract attention & "Know your song well before you start a-singing."

Try the college markets first. Kids still love acoustic guitars. It worked well for me when I was started out. Good Luck!

alohachris

[SteveHung]

Guitar9 (www.guitar9.com) showcases instrumental guitar music, and distributes CDs from instrumentalists. It focuses more on prog-metal shredding, but they also have categories for instrumental jazz-fusion (like Frank Gamble) and instrumental acoustic. I have my debut acoustic CD on guitar9 (http://www.guitar9.com/geetar.html).

[Ty Ford]

Dirty Linen is gone. In print and online.

http://dirtylinen.wordpress.com/about/

Regards,

Ty Ford

[Scott Whigham]

I'm interested in this as well. Have you considered hiring a publicist? I know they are expensive so they are outside a lot of budgets when self-publishing.

[themachinist]

Originally Posted by Scott Whigham

I'm interested in this as well. Have you considered hiring a publicist? I know they are expensive so they are outside a lot of budgets when self-publishing.

I'm hoping it might be a possibility in the future! But for now, as you say, it's out of my budget. I was lucky to learn a little bit about marketing in my previous job in the film industry, but online marketing is something that changes so rapidly it's hard to keep up. Also there's the problem of wearing all the different hats at once - Which can reduce your focus. But a lot of people seem to manage fine.

[Scott Whigham]

Bump!

I think I'm going to hire a publicist. I have a record coming out in October that is solo, instrumental (no bass/drums/etc) but it's an electric album. I don't know #$%(&% about promotions so hiring someone, though expensive, makes sense to me. I don't know what I'm doing though lol

[Martijn]

I've heard your songs, sounds very good!
I wouldn't hire a publicist to be honest, unless he is really into this kind of fingerstyle music.
Have you considered contacting Candyrat Records? I think that's the way to go.

[themachinist]

Originally Posted by Scott Whigham

Bump!

I think I'm going to hire a publicist. I have a record coming out in October that is solo, instrumental (no bass/drums/etc) but it's an electric album. I don't know #$%(&% about promotions so hiring someone, though expensive, makes sense to me. I don't know what I'm doing though lol

Scott, it totally depends where you are in your career at the moment, I would guess. I get the feeling that a publicist has a very different role these days as the vastly changed music industry (and it's associated technologies) has greatly blurred the line drawn between a musician being an aspiring musician and a professional. A good agent/publicist is someone who can take your career into places you can't take it yourself (or at least that's they're meant to do in an ideal world) and immediately establish you as a professional. Also, to relieve you of a lot of the marketing/phone calls/paperwork so that you can devote every waking hour to creative endeavour. That all said, with the way the music industry works these days, agents/publicists and indeed record labels and distributors are usually only interested in people who have somehow already established a large following. So it's a familiar chicken and egg situation.

Short answer: If you're a very wealthy man or have already built up a decent following, go for it! If you're an impoverished yet determined muso like me, dont!

[themachinist]

Originally Posted by Martijn

I've heard your songs, sounds very good!
I wouldn't hire a publicist to be honest, unless he is really into this kind of fingerstyle music.
Have you considered contacting Candyrat Records? I think that's the way to go.

Thanks a lot man! Yes Candyrat is a good idea, especially as they have branched out into all types now; Singer-Songwriters, full bands, etc.

I'm working away on a second album now which will have a lot of vocal tracks too. It's a big project and will take months, but with what I've produced at the end of it I'll be approaching labels, etc. I've never really felt like my first project, "Backwoods" is quite enough material to go on yet. I've always been told that people want to see consistency!

[PorkPieGuy]

If you want to promote your music to those that listen to Blues, Folk, Country, Baroque, Contemporary, etc., IMO you need to get out and play where these folks are gathered. To me, reaching people online is secondary to getting out there playing and meeting folks. Getting out and playing and showing your talent (which you have an amazing amount of BTW!) will help promote yourself online. The reason I say this is I have videos and whatnot I've put out, but I notice that when I stop playing out, I stop selling CDs and getting bookings. When I play out and talk to folks, sales REALLY pick up...both ONLINE and in person. Once again, this is my opinon, but I think if you want to promote yourself better online, print up a buncha business cards, play out and pass out cards, talk to folks, be nice, and play good music. People will not remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel. When they get home that evening or when they run across your business card the next day when they are cleaning out their pockets, they will be more likely to check you out. I've had people buy my music just because they've heard me online, but the vast majority of sales have come from people that saw me play out, picked up a card and ordered within the next week or so.

If you are familiar with this site, I'd consider checking it out. It gives tons of good tips to the everyday musician: http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/

*edit: I just checked my website. The VAST MAJORITY of folks that check out my website do so by going to the URL bar and typing in my website address and not links from AGF, Facebook, MySpace (ugh), or Google searches. I know the only way these good folks know my URL is from my business cards because I ain't that popular.

[Ty Ford]

"If you want to promote your music to those that listen to Blues, Folk, Country, Baroque, Contemporary, etc., IMO you need to get out and play where these folks are gathered."

+1111111111111111111111111111

[Scott Whigham]

Originally Posted by PorkPieGuy

If you want to promote your music to those that listen to Blues, Folk, Country, Baroque, Contemporary, etc., IMO you need to get out and play where these folks are gathered.

The VAST MAJORITY of folks that check out my website do so by going to the URL bar and typing in my website address and not links from AGF, Facebook, MySpace (ugh), or Google searches. I know the only way these good folks know my URL is from my business cards because I ain't that popular.

To be contrary, there could absolutely be a completely different explanation for the results you see. I know that, on the surface, your explanation seems "right" but it doesn't really pass "the smell test" for me.

We have one set of metrics to go on - only one set of data: "How visitors visit the website". While it's certainly better than no metrics it's barely enough info to make meaningful decisions on without restoring to using educated guesses to fill in most of the important info.

For example, answer these questions about "the visitors who visit your website":

• What age range are they in? This is a great predictor of social networking use+ability+influence
• What are their salary ranges? Discretionary income and all that
• Have these people met you in person or have they been told to visit the site by someone else?
• Have these people been to a show?
• Do they own a CD already?
• Are they on the mailing list already?

I know this is getting "heady" but here's the thing: these demographics are valuable. There's a reason that companies will pay $5-$5000 per "lead" when it comes with this information - it's because those companies can make better informed decisions, predictions, and that they can better understand the past given this info.

I totally believe that you know a lot of the answers to the questions above because you've met these people offline in the real world. But why aren't they sharing your info on Facebook? Why isn't Google showing more hits for you? It's probably because your visitors just aren't as into those things as another guitar player's/musician's visitors (and that's fine - I'm not in any way trying to pass judgment! I hope this "analysis" doesn't come off the wrong way!).

So, for you, if visitors are mostly entering your URL by hand into the browser, that doesn't mean anything to me unless you tell me how your set of visitors intersects with my (or OP's) set of visitors. My visitors might be 30 years younger on average and are mostly interested in Facebook, Google searches, etc. So if I followed your advice, I'd be wrong whereas you would be right for your audience.

I guess my (long-winded) point is this: be careful following just one person's advice without comparing their set of experiences with your set of experiences. My visitors almost exclusively click links rather than type it in. If I handed a business card, for example, to a 24yo kid in Dallas, he'd probably chuck it in the first trash can he could find. He's much more likely to Google search or Facebook than type in a url.

Different strokes for different {folks, genres, ages, experiences, etc}!

[PorkPieGuy]

Originally Posted by Scott Whigham

To be contrary, there could absolutely be a completely different explanation for the results you see. I know that, on the surface, your explanation seems "right" but it doesn't really pass "the smell test" for me.

Here’s the thing – from my personal experience, when I don’t play out, everything slows down. Web traffic slows down as does record sales. It’s been like this for years doing whatever kind of music I’ve done (from rock to folk). Heck, if someone can throw up some youtube videos, a great website, and record a CD and put it on iTunes and have lots of success, have at it! I think that it’s great if someone can promote themselves online without having to hussle too much. Heck, I wish I could do that, but because of my demographic, it doesn’t work that way.

A lot of folks that buy and enjoy my music are not of the generation that downloads iTunes very often (I can see this through my CDBaby account – electronic downloads vs. swiper sales). In addition, even the people that buy online prefer to have a physical copy of the CD as opposed to an MP3 or an iTune. I’m 36 years old, and I MUCH prefer a CD to iTunes…even though it’s more expensive. A lot of times, the only 20-somethings that buy my CDs are to give away as gifts to older relatives, which is fine.

I get out and play for folks that (hopefully) enjoy my music and can relate to it in some way. This is why I told the OP that if he wants to promote his music to those that enjoy Blues, Folk, Country, Baroque, Contemporary, etc., he needs to get out and play where these folks are gathered.

I don’t know, maybe I’m getting old and my thinking is flawed. I consider online presence and promotion secondary to live performance in front of people in real time, and this is probably why I come across as a dinosaur.

Originally Posted by Scott Whigham

So, for you, if visitors are mostly entering your URL by hand into the browser, that doesn't mean anything to me unless you tell me how your set of visitors intersects with my (or OP's) set of visitors. My visitors might be 30 years younger on average and are mostly interested in Facebook, Google searches, etc. So if I followed your advice, I'd be wrong whereas you would be right for your audience

I guess my (long-winded) point is this: be careful following just one person's advice without comparing their set of experiences with your set of experiences. My visitors almost exclusively click links rather than type it in. If I handed a business card, for example, to a 24yo kid in Dallas, he'd probably chuck it in the first trash can he could find. He's much more likely to Google search or Facebook than type in a url.

Different strokes for different {folks, genres, ages, experiences, etc}!

You’re right; my target audience is a total demographic. But I’m thinking that if the OP is looking to promote himself to the individuals that are interested in folk, blues, country, etc., there’s probably not going to be a ton of 24 year olds hanging out there (but there could be. I’m so far removed from what young people are into these days it’s pathetic). My assumption is that the OP and I probably have several similarities in demographics, and I was wanting to let him know what works for me. I understand his desire to promote himself better online; I mean, who doesn't?

[Doug Young]

One thing to keep in mind is that the market for instrumental guitar is almost entirely other guitar players. "Normal" people think it's background music to be talked over, or that you've forgotten the words :-) With a few rare exceptions, successful instrumentalists combine the music with teaching tools - tabs, instructional videos, workshops. A solo guitar CD by itself is going to have to be pretty stunningly different to get much attention these days.