How to Make a Moment During A Performance

Here’s some really great information from my good friend and guest blogger, David Jackson, better known as “Jammin’ Dave Jackson” from his wildly popular podcast for musicians, The Musician’s Cooler.

As you read Dave’s post, think to yourself, “How can I create a special moment in my performance, whether it is at a wedding, a corporate gig, or even at a public concert?” Take this one step further and think about how you can make a moment in a conversation, bring something to light that will help people remember you. Enough food for thought. Here is Dave’s post:

“Making a moment” is technically is a phrase I’ve heard Tom Jackson use (and from what I hear his DVDs are awesome). When you are on stage there will be times when the audience decides to have their own show. An example of this is at a Pearl Jam concert in St. Louis where “Kim” was translating the lyrics into sign language. Eddie Veder decided to pull her on stage. This made a one of a kind moment that people will remember, “remember when Eddie pulled that chic on stage?”. Here is the video.

One of the things that can make you more endearing to the audience is to have a good sense of humor about yourself. Justin Timberlake has boosted his popularity through his appearances on Saturday Night Live. This boosted his popularity amongst men (a demographic he was probably lacking when he was in the boy band).

Michael Bolton was on the Jimmy Kimmel show and working with Jimmy, he produced a bit called “The Michael Bolton school of Michael Bolton.” It’s hilarious as Michael continues to steal the microphone from little kids. While I’m not a huge fan of Bolton, I do give him credit and think he’s “cooler” now that I see he’s not so uptight. You can watch the video here.

So when the audience throws you a curve ball, don’t get upset, laugh it off, and go with the flow. Chances are you will end up with a one of a kind moment that you’ll end up telling your grandchildren about.

Read more of Jammin’ Dave’s fantastic posts and hear his podcasts at musicianscooler.com. Thank you, Dave, for your contribution!!!

How to use Facebook to Promote your Products or Services

Here’s some really great information for any gigging musicians, including wedding musicians! This article is from my virtual assistant and guest blogger, Christine Buffaloe of Serenity Virtual Assistant Services.

I currently manage and maintain several business pages for clients on Facebook. Over the past couple of years they have seen an increase in sales and interest in their services as well.

When using this tool it is important to remember that Facebook is just that, a tool. It is one of many, but I have found it to be extraordinarily useful.

Here are just a few ways in which you can use your business page to promote:

1. Post items to your status updates that pertain to your area of expertise using keywords in the content.

2. Set up Google Alerts to find content to share with your fans. This can be from blogs and other websites.

3. Use the Events function to create events that you are hosting or promoting.

4. If you have a blog, import your blog into your "Notes" on your business page and you will have ready-made content every time you post a new entry to your blog.

5. If you know Facebook Markup Language (Facebook's version of HTML) or know of someone that does, add your newsletter sign up box to your page. You can even add your products as well. See sidebar at http://www.facebook.com/TheMusiciansGuidetoBrides

6. Create a music library of your music and share with your fans.

7. Post your videos to your page. If you are a musician, post your music videos. If you are an artist, post videos of the creation of your art.

8. Post photos and lots of them. They are a great way of showing you at your gigs, book signings or gallery openings.

There are many ways in which to use Facebook to promote. For more ideas on missed opportunities on Facebook, go to Serenity Virtual Assistant Services to receive your free tutorial on how to create a Facebook profile or purchase the CD or transcript of "11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook".

Why Giving Away Free Music Downloads Is a Great Music Marketing Technique

Musicians inexperienced in business economics often don’t understand the idea of giving away free music downloads in order to earn sales. Well, I can’t tell you what to do. Sure, I could show you some “evidence”, but my market research is poorly-defined. So really, I can only testify what I’ve done and point you to other bands who swear by it too.

I started out giving away free music on MP3.com. Back then, MP3.com was paying artists every time someone downloads their music. When the site closed down, I had a tough dilemma. Should we keep giving away music or should we stop? I decided to test it.

I took a risk. I realized the reason that we were one of the Top 30 bands on MP3.com was, in part, because of our strategy of how we gave away free music downloads. Thanks to that site, we now have well over a two hundred thousand fans around the world. It is all thanks to free downloads.

WHY does it work? Because my whole music marketing philosophy is not about selling music, it’s about making fans.

You see, my goal is not to sell one CD. My goal is to make a FAN who will buy CD after CD through my entire music career, maybe even provide me with a retirement.

You see, I STILL have a new fan even if they don’t buy my music. True fans tell friends. And friends tell friends. Somewhere magically along the way, people buy my CDs. That’s why I make a living as an independent musician.

Honestly, I won’t claim this is for everyone. If you’re fiddler isn’t comfortable giving away music. Don’t do it. There are other ways to promote yourself. So do what makes you more comfortable.

As for me, I publish a The Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine, and I get musicians telling me all the time how much it’s helped them. But there are just as many others who’ve done as well without.

I guess, I just see my method easier. It doesn’t require me trying to sell someone on something I think is great. They only have to listen again and again. I just provide them the music. They listen and listen and listen. And they are convinced.

Think of it like radio. People freely listen to music over and over ad nauseum. Then they buy the CD. That’s what free music downloads does.

It’s a little counter intuitive but the results are just tremendous. If you’re a musician, give it a try. And if you’re a Celtic musician, make sure you submit your music to the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine.

Marc Gunn is an acoustic Celtic folk musician, called “The Godfather of Celtic music online” for his steadfast support of indie Celtic music, free Celtic music downloads, and his award-winning Irish and Celtic Music Podcast, one of the most-popular music podcasts on iTunes. He has helped 1000s of musicians save and make money with their musical groups through The Bards Crier Music Marketing Ezine.

3 Reasons for Hiring a Musician for your Wedding

My new book, "The Bride's Guide to Musicians: Live Wedding Music Made Easy and Affordable" is now available for pre-sale on Amazon.com. My book is filled with information for hiring wedding musicians rather than using iPod stereo or pre-recorded music.
Need more reasons? Blog author Amanda Williams offers several reasons:

1. Live bands are great for getting guests to interact with each other.

2. They are more likely to remember the band that played at the wedding than any sort of prerecorded music.

3. You will get the most for your money if you are willing to hire a band. This is especially true if you are choosing a band that plays requests or follows a set playlist.

She also says, "After you have experienced a live band performing at your event, you may never want to have prerecorded music played at another event afterward." Read more at Merchant Solutions IQ.

And if you need tips on how to hire a harpist, string trio or quartet, check out Lianne McCombs blog.

Music for Your Wedding

Got wedding questions? Need some music suggestions for your wedding? You'll find answers to many questions, such as what to songs to choose for your wedding march. You can also type in your own questions and receive answers.
WeddingQuestions.net also contains answers for many other wedding questions you may have. It's a sort of "Dear Abbey" for wedding how-to questions and wedding etiquette questions. Check it out. Ask some questions. Get some answers. Have a wonderful wedding day!

Learn How to Write a Press Release

There are plenty of suggestions in my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides", where you'll read that press releases lead to free advertising. It's simply a bit of tantalizing information that you send off to the media. It tells them why they shouldn't pass up the opportunity to mention you in their next newspaper or magazine edition, their next podcast, radio or TV broadcast, or their website e-zine or blog.

Your press releases can round up publicity that money simply cannot by. If you're a musician or entertainer, here are 7 examples of what publicity can do for you:

1. Publicity brings you wedding business
2. Publicity can get the word out about your musical abilities
3. Publicity turns you into a music expert
4. Publicity give your clients and your potential clients a chance to know more about you.
5. Publicity for "good works" makes you look good in yur immediate community and among your musician peers.
6. Publicity gives you credentials.
7. Publicity can bring you fantastic performing opportunities that you would have never received without the media exposure.

Get started rounding up that publicity by creating press releases. My book gives you specific ideas for writing press releases to create wedding business if you are a musician. For more general instructions about press releases for musicians, you'll also find some great additional pointers from Christopher Knab's "Music is My Business Blog". In his blog, you'll read:

* When to write a press release

* What the print and broadcast media need

* Layout and essential info

* How to structure a press release

You can also pick up some great press release ideas from the Publicity Hound, Joan Stewart. Sign up for her FREE "89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases". Or if you want it all, here it is in one great ebook download.

Marketing Tactics for Musicians

Tanglewood Productions hosted the first in a series of forums discussing the technical aspects of the music business, legalities, the rise of iTunes and trends in the music industry. The forum also included issues from using the Internet as a tool to marketing tactics for musicians and good business tips.

You can now view a video of this panel discussion. I was honored to be one of the panelists, along with Eric Chun of Creative Music Services and Mitch Koulouris of Gigatone Entertainment.

Tanglewood Productions is open to suggestions for upcoming forum topics. So if you have an idea, contact Michael at Tanglewood.