Produced on spec, now what?
I produced a concert series on speculation. CD's and DVD's are done but I can't find anyone interested in helping me market them or distribute or even a publicist. The project is in the can and I have about $150K tied up and can't find a way to get any of my investment back. The artists are Michael Martin Murphey, Gary P Nunn, Bill and Bonnie Hearne and Rusty Wier. The format of the show was that the artists went back to their early 70's Outlaw Country roots. I know it is a niche field but I would be happy with niche sales! I can't get anyone to talk to me about the project
Jeff
www.texasmusiclegends.net
Jeff
www.texasmusiclegends.net
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Goodrich on -
Jeff,
Your best bet is to harness the many powerful tools available today via social media like twitter, facebook, youtube, etc. If no one is interested in distributing or marketing your project, then you are going to have a tough time convincing anyone that they should.
But you are right, you have a niche product and you will be able to generate niche sales. Create an online store for your CDs and DVDs. You can use http://www.paypal.com to process payments, as it is the most popular and most trusted method of doing this.
I would suggest uploading previews/outtakes of your film footage to video sites like youtube.com and vimeo.com. Of course, tag the content with all the appropriate information so that users can find it, and include a link back to your online store. Create a Facebook Fan Page for your store as well, again including all the relevant 'tags' about the artists, songs, etc.
You will also need to go and seek out where the market for your content already exists online. By this, I mean find out where fans of Rusty Wier, Bonnie Hearne, et all, are online. There are surely other videos of their performances, forums where fans discuss the musicians, etc. Sign up for those forums and let people know about the content you have created.
Think like a grassroots, guerilla marketer. At first, you will need to find out where your niche ALREADY exists online, and then give those people the tools they need to tell their friends about what you are doing. If your product is great, they will be HAPPY to tell other fans about the quality of what you have produced.
Finally, on the 'publicity' side of this, you can contact bloggers that write about this type of music. Again, if you find the RIGHT niche, they'll be HAPPY to write about your product. Do some simple Google searches for each artist, each song that they perform, and similar artists, and begin to build your online presence in those places, always eventually linking back to your online store.
It's not going to be easy - it surely will require you to be proactive. But, in all honesty, there has never been so much opportunity for someone such as yourself to create a business out of creating their own original content and marketing themselves online. The pay-off to your hard work is that you will be able to keep the proceeds of your sales as opposed to splitting them with a distributor or paying a sum for marketing.
--Andrew
© 2009 Created by randy
