In this article we’re going to talk about two more secrets: KNOWING YOUR MARKET and USING THE WEB.

Let’s start with the one about THE MARKET.

Like it or not, you can’t sell a bagel to somebody who is looking for a pita. Well, maybe you can, but it’s certainly going to be a lot easier to sell the pita.

Each record label specializes in a certain genre of music. For example, some labels are purely country western. So what do you think YOUR chances are of getting signed by them if you play heavy metal?

Can you say slim to none?

So the first thing you have to do is research the label you want to hook up with and see if they are even interested in what you do. One way to do this is to go through the Songwriters Market. This is a book that is published once a year that has many record labels listed along with what music they’re interested in.

But that’s not enough.

Let’s say you DO play heavy metal. There are numerous sub genres of heavy metal such as Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal and so on. What you need to do is go through the label’s catalog and see what bands they’ve signed and what style of metal they play. Listen to their music if you can.

Does YOUR music fit in with what the label traditionally signs? The more it does, the more chance you have of getting the deal.

Moving on, let us now discuss about how to USE THE WEB TO SERVE YOUR BAND. For this, we are going to talk a little bit about Web sites.

There is no question that we are living in the Internet age. People who years ago would have never dreamed of looking up anything online are now LIVING online.

Get used to it…it’s not going anywhere.

Thus, you need a web presence. I’m not saying you should have one. I’m saying you NEED one.

However, just having a web site means nothing if people can’t find it. So what you need to do is spread the word so that people DO find it.

One of the best ways to do this is through YouTube. Why do I say YouTube? Because if you go there, a lot of what you will find is music…tons of it.

Many up and coming groups are creating music videos and posting them up on YouTube,

How does this bring people to your web site?

Easy…YouTube allows you to place links on your videos that will let people know what your site exists and also how to find it. This is a great way of getting traffic to your web site.

As for the site itself, it should be as professional looking as possible, feature a bio of your group, where you’re playing and some samples of your music.

This is also a great place to actually sell your songs through digital downloads.

Web sites are cheap to create and can prove to be quite profitable if utilized correctly.

For a complete course on these two secrets and many other aspects of getting your band noticed and signed, please look for the third (and last) article of this series.

Author Bio: JOE BRIGHTER has successfully frequented the music biz corridors for over 25 years now. In his blog he discusses on band management subjects and the current practices and trends of the business. He has also written a thorough report that will help you get your band signed!

Category: Entertainment
Keywords: band promotion,unsigned bands,band management