PROMOTION                     MyCD.CA   

 How to Promote your Songs, How to sell your music

List of Music Promotion Articles

1) How to promote your music on TikTok by Art Rock MyCD.ca

2) The Advantages of releasing single songs by Art Rock MyCD.ca

3) Why Radio Won't Play Indy Music by Jerome C. Ford

4) The Overall Picture of Music Marketing by Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion

5) The SHOCK Factor by Art Rock MyCD.ca

6) How to Make a Great Press Kit Scott Richards

7) How to Promote Your CD by Rashi Singh

8) To Tour Or Not To Tour, That Is The Question! by Sheena Metal

9) Merchandise for Radio Promo by Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion

10) What makes a video go viral? The tips and tricks you need to know by Ash Flight

11) Benefit from Submitting Online Press Releases by Dee Owens


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1) How to promote your music on TikTok by Art Rock MyCD.ca

You can find the links to basic info on how to set up a TikTok account and how to do a video, on there website at support.tiktok.com. In this article we are

going to focus on how to use TikTok as a vehicle to promote your music and you as an artist. TikTok videos are usually 15 seconds but you can go up to 60

seconds. It isn't long enough to do a complete song, but remember people aren't going to TikTok to listen to music. They are going there to be entertained

and amused, they usually are looking for a good laugh. Show them something comical or entertaining while you have the chorus of your song playing.

Remember, for you, it is all about the music, your music. You want to let them know, that is your song that they are hearing and where they can find it,

to play and to be able to hear the complete song.

With TikTok you can have lots of small takes in that 15 to 60 seconds. This is where you have to decide, how you want to be perceived as an artist. If you

want to be seen as cute, funny and likeable you could incorporate different short cutesy type comical skits of you doing different everyday things. If you

are a prog rock band, death metal band or are generally performing music with a darker style of lyrics, you might not want to be seen as cutesy. You may want

to be seen as a serious artist. In that case you could do takes of you sitting in the studio or your home studio, playing your instruments, singing in the

mic or moving to the song, while singing it or playing your guitar or instrument, the same way you would perform it on stage. If you can, put some comedic

breaks in there. Do a cartwheel, a shot of your pet, your six pack, your scantily clad girlfriend etc. There are ways to lighten it up without making a joke

of yourself, if that is what you choose. You will probably have a lot more skips than the comedy act will, but then you normally would anyways. This would be

due to the less popular genres of music. Those genres are generally much less popular than the mainstream, which currently would be rap, hip hop, R&B, Pop

and Techno.

Whichever route you take, you have one common goal. You want to get them to see you as an musical artist, the artist who wrote that song they are hearing in

the background. You want to let them know where they can find you, your songs, your website or social media pages. But you don't want to come across as an

infomercial. Keep it fun and or entertaining. Think about how you can get the message out, while making it entertaining enough so they don't hit skip.

Remember to include hash tags so people can find you when they do a search. TOP of page

article by Art Rock / MyCD.ca / Absolute Music copyright Absolute Music 2021 all rights reserved

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2) The Advantages of releasing single songs by Art Rock MyCD.ca

Releasing single songs instead of an album can have some great advantages. In today's world where there are billions of bits of information blasting around

the internet, it is extremely difficult to get noticed and and even more difficult to be remembered. By releasing nine singles instead of one album with nine

songs on it, you will have nine times as many chances at announcing a new release. This would keep you more upfront in your listeners minds. You would be

releasing new material more frequently.

This would also move your chance at success further ahead. For instance, if it takes you an average of one month to finish a song to the point you are ready

to release it, you would have a release next month instead of nine months from now, when the full album is completed.

If you are a Progressive Rock Band, releasing singles, shouldn't stop you from doing concept albums. You can announce the single as a first song release

from a new, upcoming concept album, coming out this year. When you do the second song, you announce the single as the second song release from a new concept

album coming out this year. You could do that, song by song, to the end, then release the complete album. That would give you ten cracks at the market from

your nine songs. Ten chances to announce a new song release or an album release from nine songs.

If you are a new artist it is easier to get a new person to listen to one song versus an album of songs. You also have to remember that every single person

is not on the internet every single minute of the day, looking for music. The more shots at a new introduction you have, the better the chance of you getting

noticed, by a larger group of people. Everything in life is about numbers. The greater the number of people that see you, the larger the number of fans you

can get. You will never get a million stream plays if only one hundred people see you.



article by Art Rock / MyCD.ca / Absolute Music copyright Absolute Music 2021 all rights reserved TOP of page
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3) Why Radio Won't Play Indy Music by Jerome C. Ford


One Reason Why Radio Won't Play Indie Music And What You Can Do About It by Jeronimo Black

As I clicked on a popular music business forum, I was greeted with a question. "Why won't commercial radio play music by Indie Artists?"

My reply to this person was as follows:

"As a former Operations Manager and Music Director on both the Comm and Non-Comm sides, Let me break the reason down for you.

Commercial Radio needs ratings to get paid from advertisers. Most advertiser's, on radio, are ad agencies. Ad agencies base their "buys" (sponsorships) on a

Cost per point ("CPP") basis. CPP is based on how many thousands of listeners a radio station can capture in a 15 minute period (or cume).

Many commercial radio [Program and Music] don't want to put thier ratings at risk, by airing an 'untested song' on the air. So what these commercial radio

directors do, is, air music based on the national charts provided by Radio and Records, Broadcast Data Systems (BDS) and Billboard.

These charts are mainly influenced by the major labels via promotions and strategic alliances.

Your best best is to do like Knarles Barkley. Knarles Barkleys' single "Crazy" went #1 on the internet and radio couldn't help but to get them the single on

the air.

Get your music on music submission sites, make some noise on the net, and get a CDBaby.com account so you can get your music on iTunes and start promoting."

I suggested this because the music business is going digital. Clear Channel has a partnership with GarageBand.com where they will feature a certain amount of

new artists every week in on their website. Since Clear Channel is the biggest and most innovative broadcaster in the music business, it's just a matter of

time before the other cowardly copy-cat broadcasters will follow suit.

The world is going digital, while radio continues to operate using an analog business model. You can be successful in the music business if you change your

marketing model from analog to digital.


About the Author Jerome C. Ford is a 20 year Radio and Records Veteran, Music Marketing expert and Vice President of Succeed In the Music Biz!

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4) The Overall Picture of Music Marketing by Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion


There are two options for your independent music in the music business: You can either try to be your own record label (and/or PR firm, music

company, entertainment agent, etc.), or you can partner with others who will do the work for you if you pay them. Either way, you need to know

who does what.

A Record label, PR firm, music manager, music publishing company, entertainment agency, music distribution firm, entertainment lawyer, music

magazine, and most any other entity in the music industry are all part of a "mass media" wheel that generates airplay, publicity, gigs and record

(CD) sales. All this is part of a record deal (from a record label), or, it can be used to get a record deal. Alternatively, you could decide

just to keep as much of it in-house as possible, thus creating your own operation. This is a realistic option if you will be in the business for

five or more years, and you are willing to work at least 30 hours a week at it.

A real record company handles four basic areas of music marketing: Radio, PR (public relations), gigs, and music retail. The radio portion is

what this entire site is about; radio is the most complicated part of the music industry, and the most expensive part of the budget of a major

record label. If you hire an independent radio promoter, they can also help a little with PR, gigs and retail, provided the airplay campaign is

large enough.

The PR (publicity) portion of the entertainment industry is obtained by hiring a PR firm (or PR person). A large record label has these people on

staff, but will still hire out for more push. A smaller independent record label sometimes will just try to do its own publicity, maybe by just

focusing on some local music magazines. Big mass media music magazines, however, will be beyond what an independent music label can get.

The gig portion of your music marketing is obtained by partnering with an entertainment agency who book gigs for you (good gigs can get you some

PR too.) Small music labels will just try to book their own gigs. Note that an entertainment agency for gigs is not the same as an entertainment

agent that an actor would have.

For the retail part of the music industry, a record company would hire a retail promoter, whereas a small independent record label would just

call stores on their own. Note that this is NOT the same thing as music distribution, which is simply a middleman between the record company and

the music retail stores... they just take retail orders once the retail promotion person causes the sales to happen. If you have no retail

promotions person, you will have no sales, regardless of the radio that you do.

The entertainment industry has a few other entities you will have to work with... like the music manager (i.e., personal manager) and the

entertainment lawyer. While they are not into music-marketing or mass-media details the way a record label or radio promoter would be, they are

needed with things like music publishing and general operation once you are on the road (but probably not before.)

by Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion radio-media.com

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5} The SHOCK Factor by Art Rock MyCD.ca

The shock factor in the music business has been widely used to garner attention for music artists. It can help to get you noticed and remembered, but it can

also get you despised and hated. All of those possible outcomes are good for publicity. Here are three examples of a set of Music Artists who successfully

commandeered the shock factor. These examples also show how "the Shock factor" has evolved over the years.

First there was Alice Cooper with thick swathes of mascara makeup around his eyes, his hair frazzled like he just took his hand off a Van de Graaff

generator, holding a doll. Then decades later came his counterpart, Marilyn Manson. Named after a psycho killer, sometimes sporting woman sized fake breasts,

wearing contact lenses that made his eyes look like a possessed demon, and bright lipstick on for a glamorous finishing touch.

Then there was the Rock band Kiss , faces completely covered in makeup, looking something like a cross between a cat, a head-hunter, a spaceman and a drag

queen. Then decades later there counterpart, Slipknot, came along with masks that made them look like deranged psychotic serial killers.

For the Pop Rock Ladies, there was Madonna, picking up where Blondie left off. She shocked crowds with her lingerie like attire on stage and in her music

videos. Then decades later came a slew of female artists in the battle of the sensuous lingerie clad Divas. Who's short shorts can go the shortest on the

back side, who can have the biggest cleavage and the lowest cut top.

Do you see the pattern happening here? Who can shock, scare or tantalize the most. The shock factor can definitely get you noticed and very quickly. Although

if you are going to go down that road, you have got to out do the last biggest thing or come out with something completely different. Ideally something that

hasn't been done yet.

In the famous words from the past, Go Big or Go Home.

article by Art Rock / MyCD.ca

 
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6) How to Make A Great Press Kit - A Musician's Guide By Scott Richards

As an owner of an independent record label, I often get asked how to put together a greatpress kit. I have found that young musicians understand their music,

but are often intimidated by the marketing end of the business. In this article I will help you figure out how to position yourself, whether you are a Latin

female vocalist building her base, or an upstart garage band just looking for a break.

What is a Press Kit:

First of all, there is nothing magical about the term “press kit”. All we are talking about is a little background on you/your band, some basic facts, good

quotes about your music, a couple of good pictures, and a sample of your music. You will use this to send to newspapers, lawyers, radio stations, A&R reps,

promoters, and anyone else who is willing to spend five minutes reviewing your material. Additionally, on the internet you will hear about an electronic

press kit, or EPS. An EPS is the exact same thing as a conventional press kit, except it is downloadable as an electronic file instead of a hardcopy form

which must be mailed.

The main purpose of the press kit is to generate interest in the artist and their music.

What to include:

Include a limited amount of background information on yourself. It is fine to say where you are from, but no one really wants to hear about every singing

performance you did during elementary school. Sometimes less is more.

Talk about your music. Who do you sound like, and who does your music remind people of. The reader needs to be able to have a good idea of what your music

sounds like just from your description. Be thoughtful and feel free to be a little funny here (but stay professional). Saying something like your band sounds

like a cross between “Maroon 5 and Green Day after 20 cups of coffee” helps the reader understand. Remember, if you don’t generate enough interest in the

first minute, they will never listen to your demo.

Talk about what you are good at. What makes your band special and different from others? What skills and experiences do you bring to the table? Remember if

you are looking for a record deal, you need to prove to your reader that you have all the right ingredients for them to spend hundreds of thousands of

dollars marketing you. Launching a new artist is risky, so you need to help the record exec understand why you are a solid investment.

Include quotes and/or press clippings as you generate them. A good quote from a reputable source (not your brother-in-law) can add a lot of credibility to

your press kit. It lets the reader know that you have already been reviewed and your material is worth listening to. Ninety percent of press kits

unfortunately end up in the trash, some good quotes and positive reviews can create the momentum necessary to get heard, and who knows – maybe even become

famous.

You can go with one page dedicated to a bio (biography), and a separate page focused on quotes about your music, or you can combine the two into what some

people call a “one pager”. My personal preference is to boil everything down to a tight one pager. My desk gets cluttered and papers get separated. If you

have you quotes separate from your bio, there is a possibility that I could misplace one or the other. With the advent of digital photography and high

quality color printers, it is even possible to include a small picture on your one pager to make it even more complete.

Make sure the overall language and tone of the press kit is consistent with your image. If you have someone help you write your bio, make sure they have

heard you music and know what you are all about before they hand you something that might sound great, but isn’t about the real you.

Include a couple of different 8x10 pictures that show off different features about you and your band. Include shots that would be appropriate in a news

article, but also highlight your key assets from a visual perspective. Your press kit should look professional, but your pictures should reflect your style

and music, so you pictures can be much more crazy and creative. Make sure you clearly label the picture with you name and contact information.

If you don’t have good pictures of your band, one of the best ways to get some is to go to a modeling agency and ask for a referral to a good local

photographer. These photographers are often willing to do some great work for around $300 for the whole package. Make sure you get an agreement upfront that

you own the copyrights after the shot and get the high resolution digital images on CD (with a copyright release you can print these photos at any major

retailer). A photographer who does work with models is very different from a photographer who takes family pictures. They have a much better idea of what you

want, they will encourage your creativity, and they are much more willing to give you the copyrights.

A current gig sheet can also be useful showing where you have recently played and where you are playing in the near future. This can demonstrate that the

music is current and has a following in the community.

And of course, your music. Send a high quality CD demo, preferably mastered if you budget permits. Avoid burning your own CD on your home computer with a

stick on label – it looks cheap. There are many new CD duplication services on the internet that will manufacture you CD with a printed color insert, and on

disc printing even if you only want a few copies (CD replication is for batches over 1,000 but CD duplication is for batch sizes as small as 1). Expect to

pay around $5 a retail ready disc for 1-5 CDs, with prices dropping off for larger batches. Make sure you clearly label the CD and the case with you name and

contact information. The worst thing in the world that could happen is that they love your music, but they have already lost the rest of the press kit and

don’t remember the name of the band.

What Not to Include:

Don’t oversell yourself. Saying that you are the greatest band that ever lived, might be true, but it probably isn’t. Be positive and promote yourself, but

focus on statements that are credible. People in the music business hear hype all of the time, and for the most part are numb to it. Hype is good to use with

the general public on things like posters (they often believe it), but your press kit reader is more sophisticated and will see it as cheap theatrics.

Including too much of your personal history can make you seem like an amateur with nothing meatier to talk about. Your reader wants to understand your music

today, only your psychologist needs to know about every little detail of your childhood.

Don’t include anything that makes you look too desperate. You want to come across as a quality professional artist. Remember, you make great music. If your

band is called the Chicken Heads, then it might be cute to include a rubber chicken in the box, but otherwise I would stick to the basics – bio, quotes, gig

sheet, pictures, and music.

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How to Package It:

Include a professional looking, personalized cover letter targeted at the person you are sending the press kit to. Your message needs to be different if you

are sending it to an A&R rep at a label seeking a record deal, versus sending it to your local newspaper for a review in their music section. Be brief and to

the point. Also, be clear and state exactly what you would like from them.

Put it all together in an organized package. Since you are most likely mailing your press kits, make sure that the CD does not bend the photos, and that your

kit will arrive looking the way you intend. You may even want to test a press kit (send it across the country to a wrong address, and then it will come back

to your return address) to evaluate your packaging.

Your Music Is Art, But Your Press Kit Is Business:

Remember, be professional. The person you are sending this press kit to probably gets hundreds of them, most of them are garbage (and that’s where they end

up too). Your music can be crazy and wild, but your press kit needs to be more business like. You are asking someone to spend their valuable time reviewing

your material. You may also be asking them to enter into a high risk expensive financial relationship with you. The person you are dealing with is in the

music business, they need to make a living. The only way they can do that is to deal with real talent. By presenting a professional package you give them

confidence that you are dedicated to making great music, and not just messing around.

A Word About Unsolicited Press Kits:

Avoid wasting your time and money sending a press kit to someone you have not talked with already. Always call and make contact first, ask who you should

send it to and what their process is. If possible, have someone who knows the person act as an intermediate and make the initial introduction (this can work

wonders). The music business is all about contacts, create and leverage your network. After sending your press kit, call in a couple of weeks and follow up

to make sure they received it and got a chance to review it.

Example:

To see a good example of a press kit, go to Legend Vega’s website at legendvega.com.

Scott Richards is the president of an independent record label, 3JVL Productions, Inc.

Want to hear great music?

Visit Legend Vega's Official Website legendvega.com

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7) How to Promote Your CD by Rashi Singh

Congratulations! Your debut CD is now recorded, replicated, packaged, and ready for market. It’s an amazing feeling to see the fruit of your labor in front

of you, nicely packaged as a CD that’s ready to be sold alongside the big wigs in the industry. One small problem: you don't have the backing and capital

that the big wigs do to promote your CD... and you just know your CD can be a huge success in the market.

Promoting a CD can seem like a daunting task at first, especially if you haven't done anything like this before. Here are a few tips and ideas on how you can

get started promoting, and selling your music CD.

1. First, you should plan a launch party. Tell all your friends and fans when the CD is going to launch, and generate some buzz. Let local papers and shops
know as well, and have them help you spread the word.

2. Network - tell everyone you know about your new CD. Ransack that mental rolodex of yours, and hit everyone you know, and tell them to do the same. Believe it or not, this is probably your best resource!

3. Have a website before your CD launches, and use it to promote your CD. Set up a page on myspace and other similar sites that allow navigators to sample your new tracks.

4. Look into setting up an email list for your fans. Before the CD launches, send out an email letting everyone know. It’s cheap, it’s easy and it’s a fast way to get the word out about this and other upcoming events.

5. Write a press release and put it on your website. You can find lots of examples and instructions of how to do this online.

6. Contact the music reporters at your local newspapers. Don't leave out the smaller papers - sometimes they are the heart and soul of the local music scene.
Offer a free copy of your CD to local radio stations. Remember the school stations - they frequently tend to favor local artists. If they play it, it could pay off quite well for you.

7. Approach internet radio stations, and offer them the rights to play your CD for free. Every time they play a track, you receive free advertising.

8. Call DJ's and DJ companies and offer a free copy. If they play your CD, that's more free advertising.

9. Get a barcode for your CD. This can help encourage retailers to sell your CD.

10. Get your CD sold at online distributers, such as cdbaby.com or amazon.com

11. Sell merchandise with your name or the band's name on it. This is not only a little extra revenue - it's great advertising.

12. Find out if there is a music show on your local TV stations, and see if you can be featured.

13. Cross-promotional deals - Talk to another similar band, and work out a cross-promotional deal. ie. They promote your CD at their shows, and you promote their CD at your show. Or even better...

14. Work out cross-promotional deal with several bands. Each band contributes a track or two to a sampler CD. Then each band gives away the sampler CD as a "bonus" with every CD they sell of their own.

15. Naturally, you should promote your CD at every show you play

There are lots of things you can do to realize your dream faster. These are some simple ideas on how you can begin to promote your CD, and get the word out to your future fans. Good luck!

Rashi Singh is with Duplium Corporation, a CD duplication company based in Dallas and Toronto. Duplium provides top quality CD and DVD Replication,

customized printing and packaging, and full-scale fulfillment solutions. Visit duplium.com for more information or to receive a quote. TOP of

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8) To Tour Or Not To Tour, That Is The Question! by Sheena Metal

It's every musician's fantasy. The tour bus rolls up to the arena (full of groupies, beer and pizza). Fans are crowded out front hoping to catch a glimpse of

America's hottest band. The group is escorted to their dressing room (full of more groupies, beer and pizza). They enjoy the various pleasures of stardom

while roadies set up the stage. It's show time. The artists take the stage. The crowd is screaming. The lights are glaring. The amps are humming. The drummer

clicks off the first song and...

You wake up in the back of your PT Cruiser. Your bass player's elbow is in your ear and the drummer's asleep on your foot. You've eaten nothing for the last

week but corn dogs and frozen burritos. This is not the tour you imagined. This is not your Lilith Faire. This is not your Lollapalooza. This is not your

Warped Tour. This...sucks.

Every musician dreams of touring. Getting out of their same boring town. Trying their tunes out on new crowds, in new areas, for fresh faces. Bonding on

road, writing new tunes in the motel room, free food, free drinks, getting paid, getting laid...living the life.

But the music biz is full of touring horror stories. Bands stuck on the road with no money to come home. Musicians not eating for days. Clubs canceling gigs

the night of with no warning. Negative reactions from bar patrons and local bands. The list goes on.

So, how do you make sure that your touring experience is a positive one? What can you, as musicians do, to eliminate potentially negative experiences and

create positive ones.

The following are a few tips that add success to your touring experience:

1.) Don't Plan A Tour Because You're Unhappy At Home---Just as an affair will not fix the problems in a marriage, a tour is not the cure for: problems within

the band, problems in the band members' lives, or a general malaise for your local scene. A tour is strain and stress and loads of work. You should be

excited, and enthusiastic and positive when planning.

2.) Over Prepare Before You Leave---You can never plan too much or take too many precautions. At home is the time to rethink ever scenario and arrange

accordingly. Get the van tuned up. Pack extra emergency money. Bring a list of additional clubs in the area in case your gigs fall through. Pack extra

strings and sticks. Bring a backup guitar. Pack extra merchandise. Bring emergency food/water. Pack extra batteries and power cords. Bring cell phones.

3.) Be Humble And Thankful---You're in a strange town and a new club, act like a guest. Nothing ticks off a club owner/promoter who's taken a chance on an

unknown band more than out-of-towners swaggering into a club like Paris Hilton in an episode of "The Simple Life." No matter how cool you are in your own

town, this is unproven ground and your first impression is important. Ask, don't demand. Set up quickly. Play at an appropriate volume. Clean up after

yourselves. Be friendly and courteous. Say "please" and "thank you". Unless you're booking in Jerkville USA, this positive attitude could set you well on

your way to a repeat booking with better perks and more local support.

4.) Seize Every Opportunity---If you're going to take the time away from work, family, and the buzz you've built in your own music community to head out into

the great beyond and conquer unknown lands...you might as well come back with something other than lovely memories and an out-of-state parking ticket. You're

in a new place and the possibilities are endless. Sell CDs. Sell T-shirts. Get new names on your mailing list. Solicit local reviews, interviews, and radio.

Introduce yourself to other club owners for future bookings. Find out who books local festivals. Play an impromptu house party after your gig. Make new

friends that can street team for you next time. Think of something I haven't even written here and do it!

Don't Expect To Conquer The World In One Tour---Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will your touring empire be. Have fun. Enjoy each trip and using it as

a building block to make each tour to that particular place better and more elaborate. Play your cards right, and after a few trips you may be making

terrific money, have secured lodging (either new friends let you crash or a club pays for a motel), get food and drinks comped, and guaranteed press and

radio coverage.

In short, touring can be the best thing that ever happened to your band if you work hard, play it smart, and follow through correctly. But no matter how much

you love to tour, always remember to keep your foot in the door locally. It's the great work that you do at home that makes other clubs excited about you

bringing your show to their town.

About the Author
Sheena Metal is a radio host, producer, promoter, music supervisor, consultant, columnist, journalist and musician. Her syndicated radio program, Music Highway Radio, airs on over 700 affiliates to more than 126 million listeners. Her musicians' assistance program, Music Highway, boasts over 10,000 members. She currently promotes numerous live shows weekly in the Los Angeles Area, where she resides. For more info: sheena-metal.com. TOP of Page

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9)Merchandise for Radio Promo by Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion

Merchandise has a definite place in the marketing of any artist or band, and it is usually the first thing a band puts together, sometimes even before they

have a CD. What I'll cover here is how the merch can be used for radio station airplay promotion, which is entirely different from how it can be used for

other things like gigs; these items COULD be sold at gigs, and indeed should be, but by itself, merch won't do anything for your radio... merch has to be

used with a promotion campaign to be effective.


COLLEGE RADIO: The idea with college is that you are trying to impress the people at the station; not the audience. And there are a lots of people at a lot

of stations, so the items have to be cheap, and lightweight to mail.

When doing a college radio promotion, stickers are your first merch choice. You send them right along with the CD to the stations. Stickers are cheap,

universally accepted, and they don't add much to the postage. The idea is to get them stuck around the station.

Next up on the college list is shirts, which most bands make anyway if they have the money. But you don't send them with the CDs... you offer them to

stations who are charting you. Often this will be incentive enough for a poor college student to dig up your CD and check it out; which is why you don't send

the shirts at first... the kids would just keep the shirt and forget the CD. They have to do something for you first.

Posters don't have as much use for radio as you might think. Nobody at the station cares about your poster unless they already like the music; so it defeats

the purpose of using a poster to get played. And there is little room at college stations to put up any more posters on the walls... they are already packed

floor-to-ceiling. Plus, the shipping cost is high because of the shipping tubes. So posters really fall short of what other items can do for you.

Heat transfers, magnets and tattoos are useful for college, but are more difficult to get people to use, and thus should only be done only if you already

have stickers and shirts.

SPECIALTY/ MIXSHOW: For these, you want to give items that are of interest to the listeners... not the station people (the more and better the items are that

the station can give away, the more listeners the station will get.) And there are far fewer stations to deal with compared to college, so we can now start

looking at meatier items.

Shirts still apply, but now you can now consider antenna balls (in quantity), bandannas (for rock, rap), coolies, coasters, dog tags (for rap), foam guitars

(for rock), pens, gum (printed wrappers), key chains, rubber stampers, and even rock-paperweights. With specialty/ mixshow, you can send one of your items

with the CD, but the real value of the items is in quantity (10, 20, or 30 pieces per station) for stations that are playing you.

COMMERCIAL REGULAR ROTATION: Truth is, no band/artist merch is going to affect your regular rotation. Only if you are already in a hefty rotation would a

station care to give-away your stuff. If regular rotation is really what you are after, and you have the money, stick to standard promotion practices...

they're going to cost far more than any merch items you could make anyway, and you'll need all the push you can get.

by Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion radio-media.com

$ $
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10) What makes a video go viral? The tips and tricks you need to know. by Ash Flight

Creating a video that goes viral and racks up millions of views is the ultimate goal of nearly every person who uploads a video onto the internet. With

millions of new videos added daily, the competition is fierce and generating views is no longer just a matter of simple luck. Here are a few tips that will

encourage web-users to share your video and help it "go viral".

Lets begin looking at some viral videos that have become highly successful without a large budget or brand name behind them. Firstly, the 'Facebook Song'

made by Rhett and Link. This dynamic duo made a song about their obsessiveness with the social networking giant Facebook. This catchy and original song

eventually led to the pair's online fame, which includes their own paid web video series, high sales in Rhett and Link merchandise as well as televised

adverts on channels such as Aljazeera.

Secondly "Take Me Out" by Atomic Tom, a newly released viral video, which was recorded on an iPhone, showing the band Atomic Tom performing one of their

songs live on a tube train, using only musical iPhone applications. This video generated an astounding amount of views on the very first day it was uploaded

to YouTube and has since delivered a huge amount of press, a new fan base and a potential record deal.

Now of course, both of these videos enjoyed a certain amount of luck in attaining Internet fame, but both of these videos had several key factors that

contributed to their popularity, such as short and snappy titles; a lot of YouTube users think that shoving as many key words in a title will generate views.

This is completely the wrong way to do things.

I have found several video creator's who seem to think that inserting hundreds of keywords will generate views. What this actually does is generate a lot of

spam-styled videos, which ultimately amount to a very low view count. The reason being is that people are searching for something in particular and they want

to find a video showing just that. They are not interested in a random video, which holds no relevance to the keyword they are searching for.

So, now that you have a rough idea of a few strategies that work, let's delve deeper into a few tips every video creator should think about implementing.

Title

Keep it short and concise. Make sure it sounds original and describes exactly what the video is. A good example of a very popular video is titled 'Surprised

Kitty'. The title says it all, it is simply a kitten being tickled and surprised. The success comes as people are looking for, or interested in, kitten-

related videos; and this delivers exactly that.

Tags

As I explained above, tags are of vital importance but they should be used in moderation. Do not flood your videos with tags, be sure to use relevant

keywords and perhaps one topic, which is popular but also holds some relevance to your video. Do not use celebrity names frivolously as your keyword would be

competing against several million other users who have used the exact same tag.

Description

An appropriate description of your video is just as crucial as relevant tags. Be sure to word a description that appeals to your target audience and try

adding a question within the text, which will help prompt users to engage with your video via commenting and subscribing. It also provides an opportunity to

drive users back to your website and other video content by adding a full http:// link within the description, preferably in the first couple of lines.

YouTube Annotations

Annotations are the small text boxes that appear on videos allowing the owner of the video to interact with the viewers. These have been proven to make

viewers feel more involved with a video and also maintain their focus longer. So ensure your annotations are informative, witty and add a touch of humour to

engage with your audience.

Cross Promotion

If you have a Facebook or Twitter account then be sure to post links on your Youtube profile page and ask your friends share your video online. Social

networking continues to grow, so a lot of the hard work can be done by your friends that will produce big results.

Secondly, post your video on a number of other video sharing websites. Youtube is not the only online video website which can generate fame and viral

success. Try websites such as Vimeo, Daily Motion, Twitvids and Sevenload.

Conclusion

If you implement these tips, it won't guarantee that your video will "go viral", but will it definitely improve the chances. Just remember, it only takes a few people to like and share your video to kick start its road to viral fame.



About the Author
Ash Flight is the Marketing Assistant at Spectrecom Films Ltd, an award-winning corporate video production company, the UK's leading online video marketing authority and owner of Waterloo Film Studios, a four stage white / green screen
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