Artistopia Help Center

A. The quick answer is easy- in everyway and anyway you can. That answer sinks in quick too. It takes a lot of hard work to succeed in any business. If music is your passion, then you have to follow through with the persistence, the dedication, the time, the patience, the energy...the practice, practice, practice and tireless work that it takes.

Learn more about every aspect of the business (offline and online) and communicate with fellow artists in your area (successful or not). Artistopia offers several layers of communication with other members within the community for networking and collaboration, so use them.

There are tons of tips for promoting your music online and offline, and here are a just a few. These tips are taken from an ongoing forum thread posted in the Artistopia Discussion Boards under the Marketing and Promotions Forum.

Join quality OMD (0nline Music Distributors) web sites with useful productivity tools, traffic and collaboration potential and include in your signature in ALL your web travels a link to your profile and music.
Business Cards- When talking to anyone, hand one out.. You must include either the link to your website or to at least the best place that hosts your music. Consider your link as your online business card. Example: http://www.artistopia.com/YOURBANDNAME
Play for free if you have to, any where, any time, get your foot in the door!
Create an event and donate the proceeds to a charity. This can open up some interesting contacts and opportunities.
Collect addresses, email addresses to keep your fan base current on what you are up to.
Consider having a house concert.
Create your own support group of family and friends- and communicate well with them on your plans and goals.
Hand out your CDs. Have your web link printed on the CD.
Print up a poster or flyers about your upcoming show and post it wherever your type of fans would hang out and include your web link, show date, name of CD, where CD can be purchased.
Send press releases, reviews of your shows to local newspapers, magazines and event papers.
Check your public and local radio stations that play your type of music and try to get some air time.
Hand out your CD to club owners that feature your type of music.
Get your name in a good, comfortable web forum and ALWAYS include the link to your music!
Join online music groups and newsgroups.
Give a review get a review, honestly is the best policy, but not brutality.
Create a newsletter, if you are a decent writer, with content of value to the receiver.
Send out press releases and reviews of shows.
Get online airplay.
Know your audience, who and what your target areas are.
Start a Blog, well written and kept current.
Use internet class ads to promote upcoming events and possible collaborations with others.
Create a banner to drop in your forum signatures or other online locations.
Word of mouth has always been the best promotion. Get people talking about you.
Be unique and interesting to look at in some way. Let people know you are professional and have star quality...build your image.
Be innovative in your promotional efforts!
There is a such thing as OVERKILL, in that it is better to describe your band/music as "we sound similar to the Beatles" rather than "we are the biggest thing since Led Zeppelin!". So word your description accordingly.
Never spam email.
Never mail your CD without a purpose or a contact person's name on it and expect miracles. Far better that the contact person knows to expect your CD, his or her name is spelled correctly, and you are mailing it to a company that actually works with your style of music.
Learn every area of the business you are in. Knowledge is power.
Meet people, get out there and shake hands, and without overkill, let them know about your music.
Wear your band! Get a jacket, t-shirts (etc) and add your band name or logo on it. Wear it everywhere and be a walking advertisement.
Be on friendly terms with other bands and artists in your area.
Create a “street team”, whether online or offline…they are core people that wish to help you further your marketing efforts.
Start or become a part of a songwriting circle. This is a local idea (though it is possible through the Internet), to meet with other songwriters in your own area and share your songs. You can get feedback on your work, share ideas and tips, possibly collaborate on work, learn about what's happening locally, help each other in many ways. If you wanted to start your own circle or look for one, you could use Craiglist for your Wanted or Needed post. Most ask that you be open minded and dedicated, with a willingness to listen and give feedback.
Promote a CD give away of your music. Ask potential fans to send an email saying what they think about a subject < insert an idea here > perhaps about the indie situation in general, a controversial subject, something to pique their interest and respond. Post an entry response deadline and announce the winner.
Be persistent!

Suggests are just that, suggestions. You find what works for you and/or tweak any of the above. These are all tried and true marketing tips and by adjustment, would work for nearly any business. The old motto of "who can promote you better than you?" ... is the whole basis of your name being on the streets. You never know who knows somebody that knows somebody that will be just the introduction you need.

Q. Music fans, how do I get them?

A. Did we say hard work again? Yes. Getting started, you may need to play or sing for free in many spots, especially if they are not big on booking you. Do what you have to in order to get your name KNOWN. Offer things for free. Do return appearances. Widen your circle as quickly as possible. Collect an email and a snail-mail address base. Know WHO your audience is and get yourself in front of them. All this is just for starters...

The best place to start is locally, your own neighborhood, school, town or city. Collect your friends, make friends, recruit them as your base fans, and keep shaking hands. Let people know when and where you are making appearances and what new song you are coming out with. Let them know about merchandise and CDs for sale. Develop a street team to help hand out flyers. And keep expanding from there.

Q. Why can't I cut out the "middle-man" and do my own promotions independently?

A. Sure, you can do it that way, if you have the time, the knowledge and the resources available to you. AND it sure does help to know the right people that have the right connections that will listen to you. AND if you have the Internet savvy to build a good quality Web site and get it linked in all of the right search engines AND directories AND have your site come up in the at least the first 3 pages of a Web search....(easy explanation for that...how many of you look at search results beyond that???).

Are you in a position to be actually making a living from your music yet, or are you still paying bills with other work? Then you need time to practice your music, create new songs, go out somewhere and perform. That makes for a LOT of hats to wear.

Sure, you can do a LOT to promote yourself, but your main goal is the perfection of your craft while hopefully making a few bucks, is it not? Any successful person or business has taken full advantage of EVERY single resource available to them to chart their course for success. Artistopia is here to help you succeed!

Q. What is my artist URL?

A. URL is an acronym for "Uniform Resource Locator". OK, so what is that, you say. This is a web address for any page found on the Internet. Much like a home address could be 1234 Oak Street, Sampleville, New York, 12345, a web page has to have an address to find it. Web URLs begin with http:// - this is just the way it is. You get to Artistopia by typing http://www.artistopia.com in the address bar of your browser. So your artist URL to get to YOUR profile on Artistopia, will be the name you inserted when you set up your profile – Here are some example URLs of a few high ranking Artistopia artists:

VJ King Jr http://www.artistopia.com/VJ-King-Jr
Vinny Rebel http://www.artistopia.com/Vinny-Rebel
Claudia http://www.artistopia.com/Claudia

Note: In the address bar of your Artistopia profile browser is the numerical address of your URL, which is correct also, but use your much easier to read, remember and to find URL with your name in the address!!