Online Marketing for the Musician

Much of modern business is done digitally. We go to the Internet to find services we need while making comparisons and seeking the best value. Music is not exempt. Music professionals must have an online presence to establish their credibility and reach a wider audience.

I was reminded of the importance of my own Internet presence last spring. I received a phone call from a music professor in central Mississippi asking if I would adjudicate a piano festival. I was excited to participate and wanted to thank whoever had recommended me. As our conversation continued, I learned that my blog, Facebook page, and video performances led him to his final decision.

When I first began my career, I had no idea how to begin marketing myself. I still do not claim to be a master in this area and have much to learn. Here are a few things that I have learned about over the years that I offer as ideas to get you started in online marketing.

• Create a website. This is the first point of contact for most people on the Internet. It sort of functions as your home base. Many sites offer inexpensive hosting and make basic designs accessible for the beginner. I highly recommend purchasing a domain name that is easy to remember and allows your clients to find you.  (My website is currently used exclusively to schedule rehearsals with me.)
• Blog regularly. I've struggled with this point myself. Nothing draws attention better than regularly written posts that are honest, informative, and thought provoking. Collaborations began as a blog focused on chamber music; its focus quickly broadened to include teaching, rehearsal techniques, pedagogy, and anything else that came about as I began to pursue a career as a pianist. It's fine to have a mix of humorous and scholarly posts. The most important thing about blogging at the start is consistency.
• Make video and audio recordings available of your work. Most of us immediately think of uploading videos to YouTube.com. If you are like me, I also have audio files that would get lost on the video-based site. I have found Soundcloud.com to be an easy alternative for housing these audio files. Ideally, you will include links to your sample performances on your website. Just remember that these sites also benefit from fresh material; update your recordings as often as you can.
• Offer scheduling of rehearsals and lessons online. This has been a life saver for me! Rather than rehashing the details here, check out this post from November, 2013 for information about my positive experiences with the website web-appointments.com.  
• Facebook pages are relatively easy to set up and can reach a wide audience. Posts can include links to blogs, audio and video files, announcements about upcoming appearances, as well as sharing information about your daily musical life. Your goal is to get people talking. The problem can sometimes come in finding the balance between too many and too few posts. It's a balancing act that depends upon your audience.

That's just the tip of the iceberg of online marketing for musicians. The summer is the perfect time to begin exploring one or two of these. If you begin a blog or Facebook page, add a link in the comments section below. I'd love to follow you and find out what's going on in your corner of the musical world as well.

Seeking Young Audiences

Earlier this week, a friend of mine sent me a link to the trailer promoting LA Opera's upcoming production of The Magic Flute. The images are intriguing and I am interested in seeing the production. Take a minute and view the short trailer here. 

The more I thought about the production that was being advertised, the more I began to realize that LA Opera was pursuing a young audience. That's an interesting concept, so I decided to check out the rest of their upcoming season. What I found was both interesting and disturbing.

Seven operas are included in this season. Most are standards of the repertoire: Carmen, The Magic Flute, Lucia,  and Falstaff. Two lesser known works, Thais by Massenet and Billy Budd by Britten, are not totally surprising -- especially given the fact that 2013 is the centennial celebration of Britten's birth. The work that caught me totally by surprise was the revival of Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach. Forgive me, but this "changing image of opera" was bad enough the first time around! Why bring it back?

I get that visual effects and the abstract attract young audiences. I further understand that explicit sexuality draws modern audiences. (Carmen, Billy Budd, and Thais all carry a "parental discretion advised" statement.) What I'm wondering is if all of the re-imagining, explicitness, and exploration of the "unusual" is really a service or a disservice to the art form. At what point do we stop attempting to entice audience's to attend and begin to expose them to the power of music without all the bells and whistles?

I'm certain I'll be accused of being a purist and elitist. Nothing is further from the truth. I'm all for using new means of expression when they enhance the musical experience. I'm just wondering where the line is between enhancement and intrusion.

I'm an enormous fan of the work at Los Angeles Opera. I owe much of my understanding of the form to the incredible work the company has done over the years. I fully intend to see the production of The Magic Flute they are presenting this year. I am simply raising an issue that's been on my mind for some time now and was brought to the forefront as I viewed their season line up.

Marketing Yourself

After the many years of school to prepare for a career in the field of music, I have recently been confronted with a necessary responsibility for which my classes and hours in the practice rooms did not prepare me. In order to have a successful career as an independent musician, I must have a marketing plan in place. I have been blessed recently by two friends who are excellent marketers who have freely given of their time, talent, and insight. By no means do I want to suggest that I am now an authority on the subject. On the contrary, I know that I am student in personal marketing; my hope is that I can share a little of what I am learning to help others like me begin thinking about their marketing plan.

In my mind, marketing is basically equated with branding your name. My goal is that whenever someone is looking for a pianist, teacher, coach, or author, that my name will come to mind. In order to have people make that connection, I have to get my name highly visible and keep my name before my target audience.

Many piano teachers would begin the process with running an ad in the classified section of the local newspaper. I've been there and done that -- with very little success. After a 5 week run of a rather sizable ad for piano lessons at the beginning of the fall, I received 9 calls. Of those calls, 3 resulted in students. To put it bluntly, newspaper advertisements alone simply do not work. There must be more.

The current source of information in our society is the Internet. As daunting a task as it may be, a credible musician must have a web presence that is both informative and attractive. My website at the moment is a work-in-progress and should be ready for public consumption in the coming weeks. Did I build it myself? No way.....I'm not that technologically savvy. Website designers are readily available in most areas and can build a functional site for you at a fairly reasonable cost. (Or you can hope to be lucky like me and have a friend volunteer to build it.)

An additional Internet marketing prospect that I never considered is the social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. By setting up a Facebook fan page, I now have a central location (in addition to the coming website) to inform people of my performances, alert them to exciting news and connect with other musicians from around the country. I was intimidated by the fan page design at first and relied heavily on my Internet-marketing acquaintance, Michael. I must admit that as I work with the page more and more, Facebook has made the nuts and bolts of it all fairly user-friendly. I think most people can get a basic page going without too much difficulty.

Based upon the recommendation of a dear college friend, I began blogging. My first foray into the blogosphere was personal in nature. We quickly realized that writing was something I enjoyed and that I was fairly good at it. As conversations moved into my professional life, it became clear that I could also have a lot to say about music and its many avenues. That's when Collaborations was born. By simply writing quality posts on a regular basis, I am creating another web presence for myself and establishing myself as an authority in the field of music. With some slight edits and development, many of the blog posts I have already written have been submitted for publication -- yet another branch of the marketing plan.

Lastly, I'm working to make myself more visually recognizable in my community. Posters, programs, flyers, and newspaper reviews now all feature the same headshot in order to provide continuity to my marketing plan. Charitable donations of piano lessons and private performances are being made to arts organizations for upcoming auction fundraisers. I'm finding every opportunity to be an active participant in the arts scene of the community -- that means I'm attending shows and concerts of all types, volunteering in children's theater companies, and providing free lectures for parents on the benefits of arts education in the the lives of their children.

My marketing plan is definitely evolving and growing daily. It takes a serious commitment to keep everything going, but I'm certain that I'll begin to see the fruits of the labor sooner rather than later.

What is the one tool in your marketing plan that is unique to you? How has it been effective?