Making Your Release Unique by Jake Smith

Jake Smith is a TuneCore Customer Support Representative and editor of the weekly newsletter

A few months ago, I wrote an article called "Marketing Outside The Box", in which I discussed artists (most of whom had been on a major label at one point) who had come up with a unique way of making their content available.  Radiohead gave away "In Rainbows" on their website and allowed fans to pay whatever they thought was a worthy price.  Jill Sobule let fans contribute money before recording her album in exchange for prizes of different tiers (the lowest tier guaranteed a copy of her CD when available and a higher tier earned fans a private house concert).  Of course in discussing "outside the box" techniques, we had to mention Nine Inch Nails:

"Nine Inch Nails (with some help from TuneCore) offered their album Ghosts I-IV in a number of different formats, including 9 free tracks on BitTorrent sites, all 36 tracks on Amazon, and then multiple physical packages including a limited pressing $300 deluxe version."

Now, I would agree that the above ideas are all fun, buzz-worthy, groundbreaking, etc., however Jill Sobule, Radiohead and Trent Reznor were already well known artists before they made such creative leaps from said box.  If I, Jake Smith, have an upcoming release will anybody (aside from my mother - God bless her soul) be willing to pay $300 for a deluxe version of my album? No.

Trent Reznor wrote a post on the NIN forum today which addresses this exact issue.  You can read his full article here.  Highlights include:

• Set your goals: Do you want to be a megastar and share the rights to all your content with a major label, or do you want to forge your own way?
• "Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY", as your goal should be to reach as many new fans as possible.
• Sell your physical product on Amazon
• My personal favorite, "Use TuneCore to get your music everywhere".
• Follow the lead of the Beastie Boys and make your content available in as many formats as your fans could possibly want it.

Should we take this quickie post from Trent Reznor as gospel?  Definitely not, I know plenty of TuneCore users who have done great without giving their songs away (unless you consider MySpace streams giving the music away) and who sell only digital files without a physical component.  However, with so many artists fighting for attention, it can't hurt to spend some time thinking about how to make your releases unique.  I often think of two examples:

One was from an artist named Peter Mulvey who rode his bike to every gig instead of driving as a way to raise environmental awareness.  He filmed a short video about the experience and got some good press as a result.  The other was from a cool group I saw play in Asheville, NC called 'Hope For Agoldensummer' who constructed their own fabric covered, hand-bound, screen printed limited edition CD for sale on their website.  Because these artists demonstrated a passion beyond simply songwriting and recording, I felt more connected to what they had to offer musically.

What are your guys' thoughts?  Do you agree with Trent that the only way to become "Lady GaGa/U2" famous is to sign with a major label, or will artists eventually be able to reach those heights on their own? Do you think you should provide music for free as a way of reaching a larger audience, in addition to making it available for sale?  As a new or developing artist, what ideas can you think of to make your release more noteworthy?  Let me know!

Comments

[Robin]

Hi all.
Nice write-up Jeff.

As noted above - it's definitely a tough question :/

Nowadays even people who live in the most remote parts of the world can get massive exposure, and be known by millions thanks to the internet. You can also rely on guerrilla marketing techniques to get featured in influential media outlets.
It's definitely possible to succeed without backup of a major label (then again we have to define what success means. Here's an interesting article on the matter: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/06/dont-need-a-major-label.html).

A major label will just get you there quicker and snatch some of your integrity while it's at it.

Whatever the way, bands need creativity, the right timing, the right contacts, luck, work (work, work, work etc..), and a healthy dose of patience and perseverance.

oh, and lets not forget talent :)

[Nicholas Chase]

WOW, this is a tricky question. I worked in the pop/club arena for 15 years and no fewer than five times nearly grabbed that brass ring, the deal with a big label and ended up recording and distributing a CD on my own, with good success but it was painfully hard to get those units out to the world-at-large, and being a studio artist, I didn't have the real option of touring to promote the CD.

Now, in another incarnation, treading into the musically experimental arenas, and having developed a solo act, the possibilities for digital/internet distribution have really opened a new market for me. It's most likely that people who have seen me live or know me personally or are familiar with my work from some other venue will be my immediate buying market, and less likely (but not impossible) that random listeners will impulse buy the recordings.

Can I broaden that market? I can tell you, I love the assurance of having my work immediately available through TuneCore and the digital market - because it's better than a business card: I can tell someone that my recordings are available on iTunes and with consistency they will listen to the 30-second clips and consider purchasing the recording. Generally if these people don't download it, they add themselves to my mailing list. It seems evident to me that digital distribution is worth a mint in publicity.

[Erasmo]

its a difficult thing but not impossible

I have a friend who writes articles in different news papers and magazines around the world...
you should find yourself a friend like that...
But where... and why...???

1- Why: "news papers" are part of the media imperialism as well as magazines...
if you get an article wrote down about you (band, producer, etc.), you will definitely get a few more views on your myspace, and the probablitties that you get called from a club somewhere in the world who wants you to perform there...
Also there are tons of Independent popular Blogs, Magazines and News Papers, its just a matter of propulsion...

2- where to get yourself a friend like that?
well the answer is already given... most of those independent blogs are wrote by journalist who work for major new papers and or magazines...
read any article on a famous news paper and write down hes/her name and google the name+blog you will definitely have some results.

Thats one of my strategies to get known.

loved the article!

Erasmo.

[Pizo Meyer]

I have to say this is an interesting subject. With the growing number of artist out there and with the ease of digital distribution; the question that keeps coming to my head is "how are you going to get found?" First and foremost a solid release! Now yes there's advertising but most artist especially independent artist are on a budget. Running several Ads on various sites can really hurt your pocket book (i.e. the money you don’t have). So thinking outside of the box is definitely a good subject to bring up in this tough economy. I decided to create my projects logo (i.e. my band) that seem to fit will on girls t-shirts. I give them to friends or family to wear as promotions. If other people like the design or t-shirt they might just ask what is that on your t-shirt?