At the end of August 2000, I read some advertisement transcript at CelticWays.com. In it Toilet Wilmott, NMA Promoter, spoke of a new way in the music market. He predicted CDs were going out of style to be replaced by MP3s and the new digital technology. And he awoke in me a desire to look into the new music theoretical account establish in MP3.com.
Three calendar months later, the Brobdingnagian Bards are nearly $4000 richer, and have got been #1 on the World/Folk and Celtic Language charts, plus, a Top MP3.com creative person for a over two hebdomads in January 2000.
So the inquiry many of you are asking is how did we make it? Are there a peculiar formula that you used to accomplish this success? At the hazard of creating some awful competition, I'm going to give you my step-by-step formula for making a number ONE hit on MP3.com.
First, allow me state you some rudiments about us. We execute regularly throughout Southwest. Yes, we have got a mailing listing with nearly 400 subscribers. But quite honestly, I don't believe that those were the head factors in our success, because our success struck nearly two calendar months after our last gig!
No, rather, it flexible joints on something else. And here it goes.
1. Pick a song. Any song. While I believe with adequate promotion you can do any song a hit, it assists tremendously that it is your best. So do it the best recording, the best songwriting, the best at everything. If the production sucks! Remake it. Hell, record a unrecorded version professionally. You can do a good solid recording of one song for under $40. So make your best.
2. Name your song creatively. Quite honestly, you might necessitate to rename it a few times to happen one that gaining controls the attending of MP3.com visitors. I establish out through experience that "The Bridge" was no where as interesting as "Tolkien", or even better "Tolkien (The Hobbit & Godhead of the Rings).
Now prove it out. See if people are willing to chink that name. How? Ask some friends. Post to newsgroups. Join mailing listings and inquire them. Contact other instrumentalists and see what name lodges out. Ask your mailing list.
Also, see naming it something with which people can associate it. The amusement industry is a good start. Political events can be hot if timed right.
Remember that on the MP3.com charts, it's not about what your song sounds like, it's all about the song title! Desire some more than great tips? Order a transcript of "50+ Tips On How To Maximize Your Income on MP3.com."
3. Instrumental songs make better. So if you have got an instrumental songs, see using that as your chief hit to break. Quite honestly, instrumentals make better on the charts because they can be anything to everyone. If you don't desire to utilize an instrumental fine. But you will probably accomplish greater success if you lodge with an instrumental ballad. The cool thing is when your instrumental songs starts climbing the charts, you can utilize its success to pushing up your non-instrumental tunes. You see my whole end was not to force "Tolkien" to the top, but rather acquire all of our melodies up the charts. The success of "Tolkien" brought us over twenty melodies in the Top 40 throughout MP3.com!
4. Post the song in the right genre. From twenty-four hours one, "Tolkien" was in the Celtic Language genre. It could've gone in "mood music" or some other classical genre, but we picked one that tantrums the style of the song. It's named after a phantasy author. Most phantasy music could suit in that genre.
However, there is one of import short letter here. The Celtic Language genre is not an easy one. While I state the right genre, the right genre is the 1 that gives you maximal exposure with minimal effort. Remember that it usually works best to start your song in a class as deep as possible. The ground is that once you acquire to the top of one chart, you will automatically be moved into the adjacent peak chart.
For instance, "Tolkien" was posted in > World/Folk > Traditions > European > Celtic. As it climbed it moved to the #1 place in each of those classes before hitting #1 in World/Folk and finally #34 on all MP3.com.
5. Add song short letters and lyrics. Though it is up for argument just how much clicking through to read the song short letters and words really increases your payback, it makes supply interest. So add some short letters about your song. State your hearers how your song came about. It do the song more personal. Plus, many sites will utilize the line drive short letters for reviews. If you don't have got any, you might acquire lean reviews.
6. Brand the song available for download. Yes, you can fervently seek to protect all your music from being pirated, or you can have got a figure 1 hit. It's your choice. I have got yet to see a Top 40 hit that was not available for free downloading.
People desire to take your music with them...so they can state their friends. Plus, believe of it in this terms. A visitant come ups to your website, listens in HiFi. He wishes your song. So he downloads your tune. You've just gained TWO listens from one listener! If that individual listens and wishes more than of your tunes, you'll derive a batch more.
Now a speedy tip. MP3.com makes not properly label MP3s. The lone label
that you have got control over that they make properly tag is the lyrics. So, whether you have got words or not, include some contact information in the words section. That way, when they start sharing your MP3 with their friends, their friends will cognize how to acquire back to your website to download more music, and purchase your CDs!
A amusing short letter about "Tolkien", our MP3.com top 40 hit in January."Tolkien" was originally spelled "Tolkein" because that name is one very commonly misspelled name by fans. But despite the mis-spelling it still was a major hit on the charts.
7. Your dam CD. Just like in the world outside of MP3.com, cadmium gross sales bid the charts. If you are selling well, your songs ascent the charts. If not, they don't. For two months, "Tolkien" sat just outside the Celtic Language Top 40. Finally, in early January, I was talking to my friend Rimbo, he decided to travel ahead and purchase a transcript of our new CD, the "Best of the Bards". The adjacent day, we leapt in to the Celtic Language Top 40 and kept climbing! Honestly, I am forever thankful to Rimbo for his assistance, so delight driblet by his site and listen to some slayer music (including another J. R. R. Tolkien tune).
8. Price Your cadmium Low. While we're talking about merchandising CDs, retrieve to terms your cadmium LOW. That agency $6.99. Why? Well there are many reasons. First and first is you will sell more than CDs, especially overseas. All of our cadmium gross sales this calendar month have got been from outside of the United States. Basically, foreign transportation is expensive. If your cadmium terms are low, other countries will see purchasing your cadmium more.
Also, you can follow Ernesto Cortazar's illustration (and now our own) and apparatus regional distributors. Thus, you can promote your fans to purchase big measures of your CDs and sell them in their regions. This manner you sell more than CDs and your songs go on to climb up the charts. Check out our Bard Distribution programme for an example.
9. Use Your Mailing List. While the mailing listing did not acquire us going, it did impel us to the top. I had a good mark of Nagians who were listening and downloading our music day-to-day to give us an other manus at pushing our music up the charts. Your fans are an invaluable resource so usage them, but don't maltreatment them. Also, retrieve to offer inducements now and then. It'll do the the success all that morning.
11. Pay It Forward. Some of you may retrieve the article I wrote a few calendar months back on effectively using the the "email a friend" mathematical function on MP3.com. Well after start the Pay It Forward plan, where we put up a web page with just email golf course and told people, if they enjoyed our songs to "Pay It Forward" and share the music with a friend, we started having 5-20 people emailing others with our music per day. That was up from zero before the program. So see encouraging your fans to "pay it forward".
12. Play live. Alright, this is of course the most obvious, and I surmise everyone's saying, "yeah, yeah, I know, and I read it elsewhere about a twelve times". Well of course it is deserving mentioning because after "Tolkien" took off. We started having gigs a few hebdomads later. And at those gigs, people began requesting this song. It also gave us an chance to stop up the song. "Yes, caput over to MP3.com and you can download it free. Just see mp3.com/thebards". It worked. When our stats started to sag, the unrecorded gigs kept the song at the top. So acquire out there and stopper your music live!
13. Custom HTML. This was one of my absolute favourite small fast ones that really helped our music to soar. Head over to http://mp3.com/thebard and expression at the usage hypertext markup language we set up there. There's quite a few golf course listed, right?
Well all of those golf course were indispensable to our success. You see, when I started adding golf course directly to our page, I had only a few. Immediately, I noticed that every song in that listing was climbing the charts. Basically, people dropped by proverb some golf course and downloaded or listened using our links. Well, while the MP3.com affiliate programme was going I saw 100s and then thousands of people clicking each of those golf course so I added more.
Then I added direct golf course to the audio data files on my other sites. If you travel to the Brobdingnagian site and hunt for "(Princess Bride) Buttercup's Lament", or "Eleanor Plunkett" you won't happen them. You see, both of those songs are listed on different sites (Marc Gunn, Bard & Classical Celtic, respectively). But anyone who came to the Bards site could listen to songs from these other sites and these other sites would acquire paid for the listens!
So now I have got three sites making money. Next thing you know, you could've checked out our MP3.com net income while we had a #1 hit, and you would've seen only $100 per day. But we were actually making about $130-150 thanks to those other two sites (and not including the affiliate income).
Then, I started the BardsCrier Network to assist out some friends. So adjacent thing I cognize all of my NMA people like Rimbo and Carol Stober started making an other vaulting horse or two from people at our site downloading like crazy!
What it boiled down to was that having easy entree golf course on your website is invaluable. People will utilize them and your songs will acquire more than listens, than if they remain in the MP3.com format. And since all of those Custom linked songs were climbing the charts, it helped pushing and maintain "Tolkien" at the top!
So what are you waiting for!? Start adding your Custom HTML!
14. Payola. Payola is variable auction bridge advertising. You can offer your song for placement in one or respective of the many genres on MP3.com. This placement travels on every page in the genre you win, so you're getting a batch of visibility.
Back in January. I offer for the top Payola places in about four different genres, including genres in which "Tolkien" is not normally associated (such as Classical, Easy Listening, World/Folk, and Books/Spoken). I offer for the top place and usually won one of the top three in each of those genres. I
received a good 15-40% of my hits from payola as a result.
But now, MP3.com have added respective other word forms of payola that are even more than valuable including: Main Page Promotions, Greeting Cards, and Search Engine Promotions.
While none of these promotional tools are the end-all and be-all of getting your song to #1. Each tin be an unbelievable tool for pushing you up the charts.
One Concluding Note About Payola. How make you offer with payola? Well if you travel to the Bards Weeper mp3 page you will happen some "secrets" in audio form. But allow me start by saying if you're not making money, it really is not wise to start command on payola. I used payola to force us over the edge, not as a crutch. Instead, start by making certain you're making a few dollars from free promotion. Once you maestro that and have got earned a few bucks, then start using payola to force you over the edge.
