Start the New Year with Back to Basics: Prepping for Future Success on The Music Biz Weekly Podcast

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Michael Brandvold

This week’s episode #91, January 4, 2013 – Back to Basics: Prepping for Future Success.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

It is the start of a new year and this is a great time for you to take a look at all your to do lists, notes, journals from the last year and review them and put them in order. Take inventory of you online world, make sure everything is consistent across all sites. Set some goals or milestones for the new year, review your goals from last year (you had some I hope).

This podcast was brought to you by Music Xray.

Featured Track Of The Week: “Biplan” from the Mononesie.

We’re stoked to announce our brand new Featured Track Of The Week, as selected from the submissions we received on the opportunity we created on our Music XRay account. If you want to submit your song to be featured, create a profile on Music Xray and send it to us here.

You can find Mononesie online at http://www.mononesie.bandcamp.com/

This podcast was brought to you by Music XRay.

Music Xray automatically matches your songs to real industry opportunities. Then, they give you direct access to the decision makers. Then, they guarantee they listen AND respond. No, Seriously.

Tune in every week for the latest discussions and comments on the music business

Follow us on Twitter:

Follow us on Google+:

About Michael Brandvold:

Michael Brandvold is a freelance music industry consultant based in Northern California. Having launched Michael Brandvold Marketing to leverage his years of experience to provide direction to large and small clients in the areas of online & social marketing as well as e-commerce and customer acquisition and retention.

Gene Simmons of KISS first tapped Michael’s skills as a pioneering online marketing strategist to launch and manage all aspects of Kissonline.com’s multi-million dollar enterprise, including their ground-breaking VIP ticket program.

Michael has also managed the online efforts for Motley Crüe, Rod Stewart, Madonna, Ozzy Osbourne, Madonna and Britney Spears to name only a few.

About Brian Thompson:

Brian Thompson, Managing Partner for Thorny Bleeder Records, is a Vancouver based music industry entrepreneur, record label owner, artist manager, marketing consultant, radio promoter, publicist, web designer, blogger, and industry speaker.

Formerly the corporate head of music buying and marketing for a large national music retail chain, Brian has since moved on to become a well respected voice on the convergence of artist development, music marketing, social media, and technology.

Get Your Goals in Order, Fans First, Sales Second

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Michael Brandvold

Selling a stack of cds I get all sorts of emails and messages sent to me and some are just so inspiring… inspiring to write a article. Here is an example of something I recently received.

“Can you provide any advice? I have a goal of selling 50,000 – 100,000k units in the next six months.”

You need to understand your goals and be realistic. There is a order to your goals and reaching one makes the next possible.

Lets examine this goal of selling 50-100k units in six months.

First question I would ask, is it realistic? Can it honestly be reached? I would say no. Selling that many units can be a huge challenge for even established artists. In this era of the music business selling large numbers of units just is not a realistic goal. But…

That being said, if you have a fan base of a million fans, MAYBE there is a chance. Lets take a look at this artist’s fan base.

Twitter Followers – 90
Facebook Likes – 130
Email List – none to be found

I would say there is no fan base. Look at the numbers and tell me that you really think that is a goal you can reach? With no fan base how can you expect to sell anything?

Maybe the artist is playing ALOT of live shows? Nope, no shows listed on their website. No shows, no audience, no fans.

This is a perfect example of a goal that honestly is impossible to reach and completely unrealistic. The first goal should be 10,000 fans in the next six months, total fans on Twitter, Facebook and email list. With 10,000 fans you might be able to sell 1000 units.

Get your goals in order, fans first, sales second.

What Did You Accomplish This Year and What is Your Plan for Next Year – Six Questions You Need to Ask

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Michael Brandvold

List your goals With the new year approaching quickly it is time to review your accomplishments from the last year and put a plan in place for next year.

If you want to succeed you just can’t fly by the seat of your pants every day. You can’t move forward if you don’t know where you want to go. You should take some time to think about where you want to go with your career in the next year and more importantly why. Don’t get caught up in the common cycle of tour, record, release product, tour, record, release product. That is not a plan. That is just following everyone from the last 25 years. Touring, recording and product are important, but think about what you are hoping to gain by doing each of them. Don’t be afraid to do it a bit different. If you say I want to release a new CD because I want to sell them and use the money to fund the band you need to also ask… how many CDs are you going to sell? Be honest. Will you really make enough money to make a dent? Is your band in a building your fan base mode? Then maybe you should consider using the new recordings as a way to gain new email addresses, Facebook likes, Twitter followers, YouTube subscribers. You could sell one fan one track and make $.99 or you could gain the ability to directly communicate with a fan moving forward and maybe sell them more than one track.

You don’t need to create a 50 page business plan, that is overkill in my opinion. But, you should at least create a basic list or outline of what you hope to accomplish and why you want to accomplish each item.

Here are six questions you should be asking, it is important to be honest and realistic. This is not something your fans are going to see and review. This is your internal business plan.

Six Questions You Need to Ask to Plan for Next Year

1. What did you hope to accomplish in the last year? – Be real, on the cover of Rolling Stone should not be on this list unless you are Lady Gaga.

2. Did you accomplish these items? – Maybe you partially accomplished something, make a note of that.

3. What prevented you from accomplishing those items you didn’t finish? – Another moment to be really honest. Not everything will succeed, most things won’t succeed. But you should be able to learn from what you did not accomplish to help you not repeat the same thing a second time. Learn and move forward.

4. What do you want to accomplish in the next year? – A basic list is all you need. Again, be real.

5. Why do you want to accomplish these items? – If you say you want to tour in three new states, why? What will this accomplish for you?

6. How will you move forward to accomplish these items? – What actions will you need to take to succeed.

Now you should have a number of tasks and action items which you can start acting upon. Create mini plans or projects around each task or goal and get started.