New On MusicBizAdvice.com: Marketing and Promotion Blunders, and Tips to Help You Get it Right

Over on MusicBizAdvice.com, we've posted two new articles containing dos and don'ts of Marketing and Promotion:

Marketing and Promotion Blunders Part One: Don't Let This Happen to You

and 

Marketing and Promotion Blunders Part Two: Four Crucial Tips to Remember .

I wrote these articles using real-life examples from promo pieces sent to my email box.  When I write How-Tos, I prefer to focus on how you can get it right, as opposed to what others do wrong, but the blunders in these were so unbelievably bad, I had to share them with you. (One was from a company that teaches marketing webinars and charges thousands of dollars for their marketing software.)

Here's hoping these tips will help you, and that you'll have more success with your marketing and promotion efforts than the senders of the original emails!

RR


Follow me on Twitter @MusicBizAdvice .

© 2013 Randi Reed and MusicBizAdvice.com .

Billboard Touring Awards 2013: The Hardest-Won Award

On November 14, 2013 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, live music industry behind-the-scenesers gathered for the Billboard Touring Awards, as part of the 10^th Annual Billboard Touring Conference.

Most of the awards were based on Billboard’s Boxscore numbers, with awards in a few categories determined with input from touring industry personnel. As its name implied, the Eventful Fan Choice Award was determined by fan votes on the Eventful event locator website. Country artist George Strait was awarded the 2013 Billboard Legend of Live statue. P!nk was named Billboard Woman of the Year, in addition to winning the Top Boxscore award, which is awarded for the year's top-grossing engagement at a particular venue.
 

Bon Jovi won four out of five of the awards they were nominated for. In addition to the Eventful Fan Choice Award, they won Top Tour (awarded to the top grossing tour), Top Draw (awarded to the top ticket seller), and Top Manager.  

Given that 2013 was Bon Jovi’s 30^th year in the business, and considering all they’ve been through during this touring cycle--guitarist RichieSambora’s no-show status for the second and subsequent legs of the tour, plus drummer Tico Torres’s two emergency surgeries during the South American leg and Tico's subsequent triumphant return--I was especially happy to hear the band won.

There will, no doubt, be some blowhard who writes a nasty remark or two about the “touring industry elite engaging in a self-congratulatory exercise.” (They’re so predictable, I have them memorized.)

I say, you’re Goddamn right they are. They should congratulate themselves.

Touring can be, and often is, physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting. On the performers’ part, to carry off a successful tour takes an incredible amount of focus and discipline. From behind-the-scenes, the planning and execution of a tour might be best described to someone outside of the industry as a lot like planning a huge wedding every night, as it's the only "real life" event most people can even begin to relate to in terms of scale and stress level. The difference is, on tour the “wedding” takes place in a different town every night, and you have to keep getting everyone and all the components of the reception to the church on time. Then you pack ‘em all up and do it all over again. And again. And again.

That’s why I’ve always considered the Billboard Touring Awards (and their sister awards the Pollstar Awards) harder-won, and maybe a little more special than some of the other music awards. During my career I’ve worked for and with some Billboard Touring Award and Pollstar Award winning promoters and agents, so that’s admittedly part of, but not all of it.

The thing that makes a touring award special is—and this is no disrespect to the Grammys or AMA’s, or anyone who’s won or been nominated for them—a Grammy-award winning song or album is made once, by perhaps a hundred or so people. An award-winning tour is made every night, by thousands.

Congratulations to all my colleagues and friends in the touring industry who were nominated, won awards, or even just came really, really close. You earned it.

A complete list of winners is here .

You can see who was nominated here .


©2013 Randi Reed and MusicBizAdvice.com . All rights reserved.

Music Business Survival: Three Important Questions Every Artist Should Ask When Making Career Decisions

On MusicBizAdvice.com I've posted a new article, Music Business Survival: How to Balance Practicality with "Being Yourself," and Three Important Questions.

The articfle was originally meant to be a blog post for this space (hence the blog-style writing of it), but during the editing process I realized it contained the three questions that are crucial for artists to ask themselves if they want to maintain their mental stability while pursuing a career in the music business. So, I reworked it as a post for MusicBizAdvice.com's Body and Soul section.

In this business, or any high-stakes business, people will constantly ask you to do things you do not want to do. Some will ask you to do things that are illegal, unhealthy, against your set of personal ethics, or what many people may consider to be morally reprehensible. Some will even push your boundaries just to see how far they can take you out of them.

That doesn't mean everyone does any of these things, but at some point, you will be asked.

A music industry career can be fun. The "business" part of the "music business" is also deadly serious.

You must learn how to handle this.

Hopefully, my post will give you some ideas of where to begin.

RR


Follow me on Twitter @MusicBizAdvice .


© 2013 Randi Reed and MusicBizAdvice.com . All rights reserved.