GET YOUR ALBUM MERCHANDISE AND PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
You will want album-related merchandise ready for sale by your release date.
1. Album-related T-shirts and merchandise
Since you are doing all of the publicity and marketing for your new album, you can get the most
out of your work by having merchandise and T-shirts created to sell along with your new album.
2. Promotional materials: posters, postcards, stickers, fliers
Having posters and sending out postcards to advertise your new album and shows is a tried
and true way to generate promotion. Because they have much of your artwork, Disc Makers
makes it easy and affordable to print posters, postcards, and stickers for you to help you
promote your release.
CD RELEASE SHOW / LISTENING PARTY
QUICK CHECKLIST
Some of the steps you'll want to cover for the
all-important first show or listening party
in support of your album include:
Booking the venue.
Scheduling your CD release show/listening party in advance with enough lead time for all your publicity efforts to pay off.
Give yourself about 8-12 weeks.
Involving your street team and inviting them in advance.
Sending an announcement to your mailing list.
Updating your music resume documents, website,
and web presences.
Writing a press release about the show/party.
Sending the press release at least 8-12 weeks in advance for traditional media and one to two weeks for new media
(sometimes even the day before or day of).
Put up posters and get a CD display case to the venue a few
weeks before the show to introduce their regulars to your music.
Plan and prepare the publicity campaign
The following material has filled many books, so rather than go into detail about how or why
you'll want to do all the steps below, we'll simply list them out so you don't forget to do them.
1. Plan your PR campaign
This should be your overall strategy for the album and any live shows you do in support of it.
Most bands do both a traditional media campaign (such as newspapers, magazines, and radio),
as well as a new media campaign (such as podcasts, music blogs, MP3s, entertainment blogs,
Last.FM, and more).
PROMOTION = CREATIVITY
Publicity is not just compiling lists and following steps mechanically. It can and should be fun
and creative too. It won't be hard — you're a musician, so you're already creative. It's at the
planning stage that you should be channeling that creativity into how to build excitement and
buzz about your upcoming album.
Here's a few tips to get you started:
• Do a contest.
• Make a video. It worked in the days of MTV and still works today in the days of YouTube
(see Ok Go's treadmill video for "Here It Goes Again" for an example of a unique low-
budget video that went viral).
• Create a Flash game based on a song on your album.
• Partner with a blog or podcast. For instance, when the band Beatnik Turtle released the
album Sham Rock, he worked with the podcast The Gigcast to create a cross-promotional
online hide-and-seek contest, giving away the new CD.
getting noticed and planning a creative and effective promotional campaign for your music is
a big topic.
2. Set up alerts with your new album name and song titles
You'll want to keep up-to-date on what people are saying about your new album and songs.
In the physical world this is difficult, but online it's as easy as setting up a Google Alert with
your band name, as well as the name of your album.
3. Update your "Music Resume" documents (Part I)
Your "music resume" contains the following important brand elements:
• Your Bio
• Your Fact Sheets
• Your Online Press Kit
• Your Offline Press Kit
• Your Tour Schedule
• Other PR Documents with the New Album Information
These are the documents that you'll either send out (to the press, bloggers, music reviewers,
etc.) or need updated online if they have questions or need more information. Updating these now will save you time and energy later when you start sending these out or people start asking
you for them. Plus, they'll help you update your website and web presences consistently.
4. Prepare PR documents such as press releases
Sending a press release is a simple way you can notify the media of your album and CD release
show. They're not that difficult to write and there's even free press wires that will help you blast
out your release to the media.
5. Compile your target PR lists
There's plenty of outlets within your arm's reach that you can target to get your music
reviewed and heard. This is a large topic and we tackle this throughout The Indie Band
Survival Guide. But, in short, you'll want to compile a list of:
• Album review press, magazines, zines, and websites
• Traditional local and national press
• New media press
• Commercial, college, and public radio stations
• Internet radio stations
• Music blogs
• Music podcasts
• Radio stations
• Non-music blogs covering topics in your niche
• Non-music podcasts covering topics in your niche
• Other websites
If you find a website, blog, radio station, or podcast that looks like it may play your music
but lacks details about submitting, reach out to the blogger, podcaster, or website owner
directly. Always obey the rules of submission. Don't miss out on coverage by making their
life more difficult.
YOU DON'T HAVE
YOUR OWN WEBSITE?
Don't rely on MySpace or
Facebook as your website. Sites like
MySpace and Facebook are important for promotional purposes,
but these are what we call "web
presences." Every musician needs a
home base — a site that you control,
with your own domain, where you're
not competing against advertising.
Every replication order with Disc
Makers comes with a free HostBaby
trial. HostBaby is a web hosting
service for musicians. HostBaby
features include 4GB of space,
hundreds of design templates to
choose from, an email newsletter
tool, gig calendar, streaming audio,
guestbook, and blog/news page
tools. You also get unlimited email
addresses @yourdomain. Often
overlooked, writing from your own
band's domain name is a simple,
consistent, and effective branding
and promotional practice.
For more information about
HostBaby write on the comments section to get a link to read more.