Phase 4: Fulfillment.
25.Action: Locate radio station music directors.Ingredients: Phone listings, internet guides, etc...- These are the people will decide to play your songs. Find them. Sell your music to them. Make sure they get all the promotional materials in a timely fashion. You might even want to invite them to a mixing session.
- Together with your creative team, decide which songs you want to put on a single. Then, distribute CDs to the local radio station music directors that you have located. I think it is better to submit a single rather than the whole album because that will focus attention on one or two tracks. It is completely true that one track can sell an entire album. Ask Celine Dion about what Titanic did for her.
27.Action: Tell all your friends.Ingredients: Your phonebook, email, telephone, paper and pen.
- List all the people who might support you, even if you're not sure.
- Tell them to buy your album, tell them to call the radio stations and request your song. Word of mouth is one of the most effective forms of advertising. Think small, or don't think at all. Almost every successful recording of every successful band started in a local market through word of mouth. American Idol notwithstanding.
- Distribute, promote, sell your music to people you know and earn from that too. Besides, the more you are heard, even in a friend's car, the more you'll succeed. I played a gig for 14 people once, and two of those fourteen hired me for gigs that filled 250 seat theaters. " Spread your bread upon the waters."
28.Action: Do your advertising.Ingredients: Courage, creativity, deal-making skills, budget, your marketing concept.
- Whenever you plan, when ever you budgeted, don't be afraid. Do it with full commitment and belief that your recording is worth every penny you spend to publicize it.
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A lot of music is sold digitally these days. There are lots of great web sites that will sell your CD both as a physical product and as a digital download. There's so much to be said about the web that this page is not large enough for.
30.Action: Plan your next goal. Congratulations! You have recorded your album! It's now getting played on the radio. Now is when the real work starts. Think of advertising, think of live performances, think of expanding into other local markets. Look for a manager. Think about a record deal. Our work together was to achieve a specific goal and we did it. That means you can choose the next goal, whether it be to further this project or another project, and achieve it. I wish you all the best.