Day 301: Web Marketing for the Music Business - Book review

Information overload, it's one of the catch phrases of this decade, that is for sure. This 'problem' is none more obvious than when it comes to searching for new music. Days of old would see is digging in record crates, listening to the radio and getting music live in clubs etc.

This presented the musician with a few simple choices when it came to promotion, the main problem would have been cash, as with fewer channels for promotion, naturally there would be more competition to be heard.

These days, the situation is in many ways inside out. You can have your own exclusive area of promotion, but no one, of few people might get to see/hear it. Enter "Web Marketing for the Music Business" by Tom Hutchison.

What this book attempts to do is to make sense of today's marketing landscape for the jobbing band/artist/musician.

What a relief to finally have a book dedicated to this young yet wild area of publicity. This isn't just about setting up a myspace and a fan page, there is so much more.

Starting off with a good look at the recent trends in the music business, it sets a foundation for how the advice later will work for you.

After garnering you with an understand of the more recent trends in music sales, format preferences and market splits etc Tom works you through your options for a marketing strategy, covering all the outlets available to you.

Following this, a large section of the book is dedicated to setting up your artist web-site. Particular details is given to what an artist will want to achieve from their site, all with excellent resources/links and tips.

These are the fundamentals, the following chapters however really get into the minefield that is today's on-line marketing. Topics covered include: Newsletters, internet radio, Social Networking, Self Distribution options, marketing mistakes and much much more.

Tom makes the subject matter very easy to read and understand. This is very important as if you are an independent musician looking to improve your marketing (which we assume you are else your manager will be doing this) terms like marketing and publicity can seem like verbal ball and chains.

The book finishes off with an excellent couple of chapters on Mobile media and marketing, and a fully stacked and invaluable Glossary of On-line resources (worth the money alone).

If you have made the first tender steps in self publicity, but seem to spend your time trawling forums, and spamming on myspace, then this is most definitely for you.


The small price of this book will pay for itself in the first few chapters alone. The subjects covered is both broad enough to cater for all types of artists/bands/DJs and detailed enough to leave you with few questions.

What's more, Bang the DJ bagged an interview with the author himself, this contains even more gold, so come back tomorrow for that!

Buy Web Marketing for the Music Business at Amazon here.

ISBN-10: 0240810449

Publisher: Focal Press

40/365

p&&l

bang!