When Clear Channel controls the radio and the monopoly newspaper doesn’t like you, how do you win over new audiences?

The good news: there are many, many ways. Here are ten of my favorites.

1. Approach a local college or alternative radio station or community access cable TV station with a programming idea, like a live songwriter showcase. Other musicians will want to be a part of your show, and you’ll build an audience for your own music–and theirs.

2. Write CD or concert reviews for a local alternative (or mainstream) paper.

3. Give copies of your CD away to public radio and TV stations for their fund drive premiums.

4. Organize, publicize, and perform at charity events for your favorite causes.

5. Lead songwriting or performing workshops in the schools (these are usually paying gigs, and all the parents hear your name). Invite some of the kids to perform with you; they’re sure to bring a bunch of relatives along who will pay for their tickets and maybe buy a CD.

6. Announce your gigs in every community calendar. Newspapers, magazines, radio stations, community web sites, cable TV stations–they all run event listings. Type out one paragraph that includes a tag line about what you do, such as Sandy Songwriter, River City’s ‘Homegrown Bono,’ will perform labor songs and love ballads at The Trombone Shop, 444 4th Street in Downtown River City, Wednesday, January 15, 7 p.m. If admission is free or there’s a charity connection, say so. Include contact phone number and e-mail.

7. Find Internet discussion groups related to your cause. Whether it’s immigration, voting reform, peace, safe energy, the right to choose…there will be discussion groups online. Post responses and include a sig–a short on-line business card. Use different sigs for different purposes. Here’s one of mine (in a real e-mail, it would be single-spaced):

Shel Horowitz, mailto:shel@frugalfun.com, 800-683-WORD/413-586-2388

I make the world INSIST on learning why YOU’RE special

News releases, brochures, newsletters, ad copy, web copy, resumes, etc.

http://www.frugalmarketing.com * http://www.principledprofits.com

8. Set up a simple low-cost website. Include a couple of sound clips, pictures of you performing, a place for people to sign up for your fan newsletter, a link to your favorite musicians, and, of course, your tour schedule and gig availability.

9. Get exposure on other people’s websites. Write CD reviews, endorse their music with a blurb, submit articles on the local music scene…and always include your contact information and a statement that encourages people to visit your site.

10. Use the letters columns. Call in to talk shows. Post messages to Web forums…in short, use every feedback tool you have to spread the word.

Copywriter, marketing consultant, and speaker Shel Horowitz is the author of six books and publisher of five websites, five webzines and three ezines. His two most recent, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First (http://www.principledprofits.com) and Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World (http://www.frugalmarketing.com) have both won awards. He’s currently engaged in a campaign to get 25,000 people to sign–and spread–the Business Ethics Pledge: http://www.principledprofits.com/25000influencers.html

It?s a typical situation. You?ve been putting a lot of energy in your craft and people are starting to talk about your band. You?ve played a few shows and everyone is asking for a CD. I used to think that in order to release your own CD you would go out and play a bunch of shows and then someone would come out and sign you. They?d take care of everything. They?d set up the recording studio, organize the artwork, and pay for it to get manufactured. That?s not the case these days.

At present, technology is readily available for any budding musician to record, create, and duplicate CDs. CD duplication involves CD-R media. CD-R prices have dropped dramatically since the first CD Recorders were available on the consumer market. This makes it an affordable option for anyone who wants to copy their own CDs and pass them on to friends, family, or fans. This is a great option for the young band that is still getting their feet wet in the music industry. Duplicating a limited amount of CDs can keep a limited budget in place.

If your band is at the point were your ready to start selling your CD your best option is to make a retail-ready CD and having it replicated. What is a retail ready CD? These are the same CDs you find in the music stores by the major label artists. They have great artwork printed on CD inserts, a nice tray card insert, silk screened art on the CD, and they are shrink-wrapped.

The retail-ready CDs are not duplicated, but Replicated. This means that an exact replica of your CD master has been stamped out on all of the CDs. CD Replication is the way to go if you are serious about selling your music for profit. In fact most music stores will not sell duplicated CDs. Think about it this way. It is illegal to sell or profit from duplicating copy written material. If you tried to sell CDs that have been duplicated to a retail store you?ll more than likely get turned down. How are they to know that it is really your band? One of the best anti-piracy practices that CD manufacturing plants have instituted is the verification of copyright and ownership through a International Property Rights Form. Filling out an I.P.R. form ensures the CD Replication plant that they are not infringing on anyone?s copyright.

CD Replication not only shows that you value your art enough to have it made retail-ready, but also cost effective. I?ll break it down in general.

DIY CD Duplication

Total $1495.00

Typical CD Replication Package

Total $1000.00

These prices are very approximate and are only used for the purpose of estimating the difference between CD Duplication and CD Replication. Lets dig in a little bit. I?ve already illustrated some of the benefits of CD Duplication and the benefits of CD Replication. You can see above that you are spending approximately $500 more taking on the CD duplication responsibilities yourself and only getting 100 CDs!! Having your CDs Replicated costs less and someone else is doing the work. You can spend the time you?d spend on CD duplication and practice your chops or promote your upcoming CD release party, saving yourself $500 that you can use for items like merchandising, t-shirts, stickers, and posters.

Whether you choose CD Replication or CD Duplication, you?ll need to do some research. There are plenty of resources available for CD Duplication and you probably own everything you need. It is up to you and your band to decide which option is better depending on what level you see your band on. Are you a band that plays parties or small clubs, or is your band seasoned and touring? There are benefits to both. Find a local CD manufacturer in your area and ask for their recommendation. Most CD manufacturers also offer quick turn high quality CD Duplication with printing on the CDs. Keep rockin?!

Blake Stoffregen writes for many websites including Crystal Clear Sound CD & DVD Replication. Crystal Clear Sound provides cd, cdr and dvd duplication and replication services and offers packages from disc only to retail ready.

I have always had a big problem with my addiction to music. I tend to hear I song I like, then rush out to the local record store to buy the CD, without consideration for whether or not I would actually like the rest of the songs on the set. After years of this habit, I have amassed a huge CD collection, but I have been left with many one-hit-wonder discs that I no longer listen to and just gather dust while taking up space in my small apartment (anyone else fall for the infectiousness of Chumbawumba?s ?Tubthumping? back in the ?90s only to find the rest of the CD less than appealing?). I know I am not the only one with this infliction I like to call ? Itchy Trigger Finger Music Purchasing,? and we all could use some help in weeding out the now-undesirables to make room for hopefully wiser purchases in the future.

I have an established this routine for tidying my overflowing CD collection:

?Scan through your CD collection with this golden rule in mind ? ?If you haven?t listen to it two years, pull it out.? Make a pile of these discs that have not had a recent relationship with your stereo.

?Scan through this pile of CDs and remove the ones you know you like, regardless of lack of play over the last two years (everyone has favorites, but they cannot possibly be listened to on a regular basis when you are constantly buying new music). Put these back in your collection for future blast-from-the-past urges.

?Take the pile you have remaining and sort them in chronological order. The older CDs are the ones most likely to have been ignored over the years, and thus prime candidates for elimination.

?Read through the track listings of these discs to see if you recognize more than one song by sight. If necessary, slip them into your stereo to refresh your memory. If you are familiar with three or more songs on the set, then you probably enjoyed that CD at one point, and you can use your discretion as to whether or not you want to keep it in your collection, or part ways with it since you haven?t listen to it in quite some time. Those discs with only one recognizable song need to go!

Now you should have a pile of discarded CDs and you are wondering what to do with them. Use them as coasters? Use them as Frisbees? Have a CD-burning partying (I?m talking about the pyromania version of burning, not the process of transferring to a blank CD). These options are fine and dandy, but I?d like to suggest a couple of other options. You could invite some friends over so they can take a gander at what you no longer want. What?s old and tired to you may be just the thing your pals have been searching for (not everyone can be blessed with good taste in music). The other option is to find folks to trade with online. There are plenty of audiophiles trading at SwapThing. There are many categories at SwapThing, so you don?t necessarily have to swap your music for more music; you can exchange your CDs for virtually anything that someone else is offering. Good luck and get cleaning!

SwapThing.com is a site focused on building a strong swap community online. The ShareThing program helps non-profits get access to item & cash donations as well as volunteers and professional services.

This article comes with reprint rights. You are free to reprint and distribute it as you like. All that we ask is that you do not make any changes, that this resource text is included, and that the link above is intact.

When Clear Channel controls the radio and the monopoly newspaper doesn’t like you, how do you win over new audiences?

The good news: there are many, many ways. Here are ten of my favorites.

1. Approach a local college or alternative radio station or community access cable TV station with a programming idea, like a live songwriter showcase. Other musicians will want to be a part of your show, and you’ll build an audience for your own music–and theirs.

2. Write CD or concert reviews for a local alternative (or mainstream) paper.

3. Give copies of your CD away to public radio and TV stations for their fund drive premiums.

4. Organize, publicize, and perform at charity events for your favorite causes.

5. Lead songwriting or performing workshops in the schools (these are usually paying gigs, and all the parents hear your name). Invite some of the kids to perform with you; they’re sure to bring a bunch of relatives along who will pay for their tickets and maybe buy a CD.

6. Announce your gigs in every community calendar. Newspapers, magazines, radio stations, community web sites, cable TV stations–they all run event listings. Type out one paragraph that includes a tag line about what you do, such as Sandy Songwriter, River City’s ‘Homegrown Bono,’ will perform labor songs and love ballads at The Trombone Shop, 444 4th Street in Downtown River City, Wednesday, January 15, 7 p.m. If admission is free or there’s a charity connection, say so. Include contact phone number and e-mail.

7. Find Internet discussion groups related to your cause. Whether it’s immigration, voting reform, peace, safe energy, the right to choose…there will be discussion groups online. Post responses and include a sig–a short on-line business card. Use different sigs for different purposes. Here’s one of mine (in a real e-mail, it would be single-spaced):

Shel Horowitz, mailto:shel@frugalfun.com, 800-683-WORD/413-586-2388

I make the world INSIST on learning why YOU’RE special

News releases, brochures, newsletters, ad copy, web copy, resumes, etc.

http://www.frugalmarketing.com * http://www.principledprofits.com

8. Set up a simple low-cost website. Include a couple of sound clips, pictures of you performing, a place for people to sign up for your fan newsletter, a link to your favorite musicians, and, of course, your tour schedule and gig availability.

9. Get exposure on other people’s websites. Write CD reviews, endorse their music with a blurb, submit articles on the local music scene…and always include your contact information and a statement that encourages people to visit your site.

10. Use the letters columns. Call in to talk shows. Post messages to Web forums…in short, use every feedback tool you have to spread the word.

Copywriter, marketing consultant, and speaker Shel Horowitz is the author of six books and publisher of five websites, five webzines and three ezines. His two most recent, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First (http://www.principledprofits.com) and Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World (http://www.frugalmarketing.com) have both won awards. He’s currently engaged in a campaign to get 25,000 people to sign–and spread–the Business Ethics Pledge: http://www.principledprofits.com/25000influencers.html

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