First and foremost, I’d like to congratulate a handful of TuneCore users who have recently been featured in the iTunes Halloween Music section along with some very notable acts like Alice Cooper, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and John Carpenter (if you personally had an iTunes spotlight and I didn’t catch it I’m very sorry!)
I felt it was important to mention these albums for a few reasons. For one, I just thought it was cool to see albums I recognized from TuneCore on the storefront of the largest digital music retailer in the world. Second, this directly relates to an article I wrote a few months back about taking advantage of the fact that sales of Holiday music spike drastically on and leading up to the date of said Holiday. Third and most important, these albums serve as a reminder of the very real power that new artists and small labels most definitely did not have even just a few years ago.
With so many free and cheap promotional tools available to all artists, it’s understandable to feel like your music will just get lost in the endlessly cluttered World Wide Web. The sad truth is that it can. I love music, and I love discovering new music, but at the end of the day there is only so much audio I am physically capable of hearing. Will everyone reap a huge reward for the content they put out in the world? That would be awesome, but no. However, with a quality product, a long-term plan and a willingness to put in the hard work needed to reach a target market, many people who once couldn’t now can (and do).
That being said, I do not want to understate the extremely helpful boost that can come from creating music or covering a popular song specific to a holiday season. If releasing Halloween music doesn't work well with your overall artistic vision, don't sweat it! This is all just food for thought. Some random examples I can think of: I do not run a record label, but if I did maybe I would make a compilation album where every artist from my label performed an original Halloween song. Maybe I would spend some time searching iTunes and the other stores for Halloween terms that haven't already been used to death (for example, a search for "Kids Halloween" brings up 50 song results, while a search for "Silly Halloween" brings up 44 and "Teen Halloween" only brings up 19). Maybe I want to think ahead to all the other holidays coming up to see how I can prepare for them. A search for "Kids Thanksgiving" for example only yields 19 song results.
Anyway, I could ramble on like this for a while (I often do), but I would really love to hear more about some of the unique ideas you guys have tried or are considering trying. Do any of you think you've created a truly unique market position for yourselves? Do any of you use Holiday music as a way to lead listeners to other music you've created? Share it all here on the TuneCore blog!
Artist: Ultimate Horror Sounds
Album: Halloween Horror – Scary Sounds and Music
Artist: Ultimate Horror Sounds
Album: Halloween Chopped Up – Scary Horror Sound Effects
Artist: Monster’s Halloween Party
Album: The Ultimate Scary Sounds and Music for Your Halloween Bash
Artist: Sounds For Life
Album: Halloween Scary Party SoundsI felt it was important to mention these albums for a few reasons. For one, I just thought it was cool to see albums I recognized from TuneCore on the storefront of the largest digital music retailer in the world. Second, this directly relates to an article I wrote a few months back about taking advantage of the fact that sales of Holiday music spike drastically on and leading up to the date of said Holiday. Third and most important, these albums serve as a reminder of the very real power that new artists and small labels most definitely did not have even just a few years ago.
With so many free and cheap promotional tools available to all artists, it’s understandable to feel like your music will just get lost in the endlessly cluttered World Wide Web. The sad truth is that it can. I love music, and I love discovering new music, but at the end of the day there is only so much audio I am physically capable of hearing. Will everyone reap a huge reward for the content they put out in the world? That would be awesome, but no. However, with a quality product, a long-term plan and a willingness to put in the hard work needed to reach a target market, many people who once couldn’t now can (and do).
That being said, I do not want to understate the extremely helpful boost that can come from creating music or covering a popular song specific to a holiday season. If releasing Halloween music doesn't work well with your overall artistic vision, don't sweat it! This is all just food for thought. Some random examples I can think of: I do not run a record label, but if I did maybe I would make a compilation album where every artist from my label performed an original Halloween song. Maybe I would spend some time searching iTunes and the other stores for Halloween terms that haven't already been used to death (for example, a search for "Kids Halloween" brings up 50 song results, while a search for "Silly Halloween" brings up 44 and "Teen Halloween" only brings up 19). Maybe I want to think ahead to all the other holidays coming up to see how I can prepare for them. A search for "Kids Thanksgiving" for example only yields 19 song results.
Anyway, I could ramble on like this for a while (I often do), but I would really love to hear more about some of the unique ideas you guys have tried or are considering trying. Do any of you think you've created a truly unique market position for yourselves? Do any of you use Holiday music as a way to lead listeners to other music you've created? Share it all here on the TuneCore blog!
Dear Jake,
Please be more specific about exactly what the "hard work needed to reach a target market" in the quote below consists of.I'm not being facitious, I just would like to know because when I know, I will certainly do exactly that. I am beyond tired of doing the "wrong thing" and hoping for the right results.
"However, with a quality product, a long-term plan and a willingness to put in the hard work needed to reach a target market, many people who once couldn’t now can (and do)".
Here is a link to my music including my Christmas Product "Sandy the Bluenosed Reindeer"
www.scottfagan.com
www.lilfishrecords.com
Thank you Jake, I'm very much looking forward to hearing from you and applying your answer.
Scott Fagan
Posted by: Scott Fagan | November 09, 2009 at 05:38 PM
The Halloween Freaks have a song on iTunes, Amazon, etc., through Tunecore.
It's called "It's A Hip Hop Halloween Night", and is a fun, funky Halloween tune.
But I'm not sure what you mean by searching for search terms that haven't been used to death...how can we use that to our advantage, as we don't have any power to create keywords or anything on iTunes, or even to decide highly specific categories?
Posted by: Halloween Freaks | November 07, 2009 at 01:57 PM
Hey everyone. One thing that is really working for me is asking people for help. I made a Jingle Bells Techno Remix. What I have done is on Youtube sent personal messages to over 30 users with Christmas related videos that have over 100,000 views and asked if they could help spread the holiday spirit by putting a link to my video in theirs. Already 3 have responded saying that they will do so closer to the holidays.
-Peace
P.S. My channel is: http://www.youtube.com/thetechnolord
Posted by: Anthony | November 06, 2009 at 11:09 PM