You’ve worked really hard and at last you’ve got a great band together and the gigs, fans and music sales are increasing. Then you see another artist in the same town or city playing the same kind of music as you, maybe playing the same instrument and approaching the same venues. So what do you do?Some musicians make the mistake of becoming rivals, competing against each other. Just this morning I overheard one musician invite another to their live show only to get the quite frosty response “I’m not sure where I’ll be. I’ll probably be performing myself.” That chilly musician is missing out on a huge opportunity to meet more fans!
When the online retailer amazon.com launched, one of the reasons people liked and returned to it was because of the now familiar “Customers who bought this item also bought ...” feature. Me and my friends went online, bought music, got suggestions for other artists and then listened to (and often bought) more music. It may be hard for you to admit, but your fans listen to other artists! As a consumer I have a fondness for jazz piano and listen to (and buy) music from any number of jazz pianists. Very often I’ll discover one artist by listening to or reading about another. As someone who helps musicians grow their audience and fanbase, I’ll look for fans of one musician and introduce them to another artist that I think they might like.
Why not try the amazon.com approach yourself? Here’s some easy ways you can support a fellow artist:
· Tell your Twitter followers about their upcoming gig
· Comment on their blog/Facebook/Youtube posts
· Mention them to other musicians, venues, bloggers or press
· Review/comment on their CD listings (including the ones on amazon.com!)
· Offer to open for them at a live show
Do this with a genuine heart and build a trusting relationship, both on- and off-line. Why? Because you’ll develop a healthy respect for each other and along the way you’ll naturally be introduced to each other’s fans. Don’t worry about losing gigs, fans or CD sales. You have your own niche and your own loyal fanbase who’ll love you even more for introducing them to new music!
Do you already do this? What results have you had? Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me!
Great post Sandra! Often musicians are our own worst enemies when we could be going much more to help ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThere is a scarcity mentality in the jazz world - too many musicians and not enough gig. This results in people being scared to help others because they think it will be at the expense of themselves.
As you point out, the opposite could be true and these are words we could probably all do with hearing.
sorry, that should be 'doing much more to help ourselves'!
DeleteThis is a Great Post Sandra. I am all for the Amazon Method where artists "scratch each other's backs" and help one another with the promotion of each others music. It provides the opportunity to establish new relationships with a different set of fans, industry contacts, venues etc, and by doing so puts across a positive image for the artist's music and persona for that matter. Potential fans may in fact be put off by any negative attitudes between similar artists and this could inevitably have its own negative effect on the sales of each artist.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your comment Brian. I have found that myself from time to time. Whilst in some ways competition can bring positive results it has to be "healthy" competition rather than "negative".
Barry, I totally agree with you about musicians being scared to help each other out because they think they'll lose a gig or venue. And Rich, you make some great points about missing out the chance to make new contacts and perhaps even putting off potential fans ... thanks for taking the time to comment guys!
ReplyDelete