Promoting a band, rather than making $$

Hello!

I was wondering if any of the tools or methods here on the forum would be useful for promoting my friend's band. They're excellent, but not very well known, and not at all mainstream.

I don't think they need SEO because they already have the #1 slot on Google for their band name, but then again, maybe I don't fully understand SEO.

I'm looking for ways to increase their visibilty in ways that aren't visibly questionable or spammy. That is, to get as many eyes and ears on them as possible. They won't be everyone's cup of tea, so the more people I can get to check them out, the better. I just don't want to do anything that will get them banned from facebook/myspace (etc) or will reflect badly on them.

A little behind the scenes black hat stuff is fine by me. I'm trying my hand at this, and if it goes well, I'll maybe try to make some money later (unrelated to the band, of course).

Sorry if this is an odd or inappropriate request. I just have a lot of faith in them and want to see them succeed.

I'm not interested in purchasing anything or retaining anyone's services. I'm just asking for some advice and a helpful pointer in the right direction.

Funny you bring this up. I'm assembling a turnkey service that basically does exactly what your friend wants. Theres no right way to go about it, i'd say the first thing you need to do is make sure thier site has proper social integration, that other blogs are writing about them, and that you get as much local press as possible. Then move onto submitting tracks to independent (read: shitty college stations) and internet radio. Hire a manager to get them to open for larger acts....etc...

iq465 said:

Funny you bring this up. I'm assembling a turnkey service that basically does exactly what your friend wants. Theres no right way to go about it, i'd say the first thing you need to do is make sure thier site has proper social integration, that other blogs are writing about them, and that you get as much local press as possible. Then move onto submitting tracks to independent (read: shitty college stations) and internet radio. Hire a manager to get them to open for larger acts....etc...

Click to expand...

Yeah, they've got all that, minus the actual manager. They manage themselves. They've opened for some pretty big acts and played outside the US a lot. I'm not sure about the college radio, but they're on internet radio. I'd been meaning to check into that. They're not some kid's garage band, they're just obscure at the moment.

Basically, I'm just trying to increase their exposure across the net. While they're big in their own scene, there's no way the average person would run across them (besides internet radio). I thought about artifically inflating their youtube views, to get them on the Most Viewed, and I'm still considering it.....but I think the band would be uncomfortable with that. I want them to be able to feel good about their actual vew numbers. I may have to resort to that anyway, but I'm trying other things first.

I just want to get people to their various pages where you can stream their music, or to their internet radio page. The music speaks for itself.

Edit: Since we're living in the real world, I should probably mention that the group are all attractive females (but they're artists, not cleavage self-pic internet attention whores). Just thought I'd mention that in case it gives you any ideas.

Sir_Helpington said:

Edit: Since we're living in the real world, I should probably mention that the group are all attractive females (but they're artists, not cleavage self-pic internet attention whores). Just thought I'd mention that in case it gives you any ideas.

Click to expand...

But could they be?

Put up a vid of them performing naked on youporn and I'm sure they'll get some attention

please share their url. ima band fanatic too. band + chics = oh lala!

Well there's no point ranking for the name of their band if no-one searches it. That's just for existing fans to search so that's not really helping (unless the band name is "lose weight")

Make UTu8e your home.

Agreed. Youtube is the way to get anyone especially musicians/bands out there.

Here's some tips from a musician to a musician:

- Sign up for every social networking community ever. Yes really. You might be surprised what different areas you can grab potential fans from. Not to mention you basically can build your own linkwheel.

- Bulk messaging still works. Some people hate it, some people won't listen to it, but if you can automate it completely, even if you've reached one new buyer of your music, it was worth it.

-TubeToolbox is the best software for marketing their Youtube. If they have professionally done videos, you don't have to worry about 'artificially' inflating their views; that software should start to create a bit of a viral buzz for you.

- Write a good press release, or hire some good writers to post reviews on sites like AC, Exmnr, Hubpages, etc. etc.

I could think of a lot more but hopefully that gets you on the right track.

please share their url. i am a band fanatic too. can you post here?

Go to reverbnation.com. Put their band profile up. In your profile you will have something like a myspace audio player. The more the number of views and "plays" your profile and music gets the better rank you get. So now do what you were planning to do with youtube i.e. inflate the profile views and song plays artificially and your band will end up on the first page with a kick ass rank and people will start recognizing your band more and thus your band will be super famous across the world. Hope this helps

One good thing about RN is that it also has a zillion promotion tools. You can choose from many customized widgets that can be placed on websites by you or fans of the band, including players, show schedules, etc. It also can be synchronized with other sites, like MS and FB, if you have accounts there.

vitomelon said:

Here's some tips from a musician to a musician:

- Sign up for every social networking community ever. Yes really. You might be surprised what different areas you can grab potential fans from. Not to mention you basically can build your own linkwheel.

- Bulk messaging still works. Some people hate it, some people won't listen to it, but if you can automate it completely, even if you've reached one new buyer of your music, it was worth it.

-TubeToolbox is the best software for marketing their Youtube. If they have professionally done videos, you don't have to worry about 'artificially' inflating their views; that software should start to create a bit of a viral buzz for you.

- Write a good press release, or hire some good writers to post reviews on sites like AC, Exmnr, Hubpages, etc. etc.

I could think of a lot more but hopefully that gets you on the right track.

Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch for the suggestions!

-They're on the social networking sites already. What's a linkwheel?
-Bulk Messaging? Could you elaborate?
-Will check out TubeToolbox. What does it do?
-I can write a press release. *For Immediate Release "_X_ Band is awesome!"* hahaha But can you elaborate on what those other sites are, and maybe provide links? (or at least not abbreviate them hahaha)

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated!!!

josh21- I would LOVE to tell you, but I don't want to associate them with my efforts directly. Let's just say they're an NYC antifolk band. All those bands are awesome, so throw up a lawn dart and you may hit them. Last.FM is your friend. They themselves don't know the full extent of my efforts, so even if people do figure it out, whatever I do is not their fault.

joteb & virtualc08- They are on RN, and I will definitely consider your advice about their rank. Right now I want to be as white hat as possible, but I guess some of the higher ranked bands may have played the same game you're referring to, so I prolly shouldn't feel too bad about it. I also don't want to risk getting them kicked off of RN (or any other site) in case they check for that sort of thing.