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Saturday, 12 June 2004 |
Which is better, sample tapes or sample CDs and should
I hire a “street marketing company” to do it for me, since they can hand
out more than I can?
Dear Tim Sweeney,
I have read a number of your articles regarding pre-show promotion. In
most of them, it talks about handing out sample tapes or sample CDs to
potential fans. While I have tried this and it works for me, there are
times when I get a greater response than others. Even though, I am
handing out the same 2 songs each time.
My questions are, which is better, sample tapes or sample CDs and should
I hire a “street marketing company” to do it for me, since they can hand
out more than I can?
First of all, I am happy to see that you have taken the steps you needed
to start to effectively promote your live shows. Too often, I will get
emails that say, “I’ve handed out hundreds of flyers before a show and I
get little or no response, what did I do wrong?”
Obviously, handing out flyers to people who are not familiar with you
or your music is not productive. Like I have always said and will
continue to, “No one can hear your music on a piece of paper.” It
doesn’t matter how great you say it is on your flyer, people can’t
listen to a piece of paper. So I am glad to see you are serious about
giving them a sample of your music to listen to.
I am also glad to see that by handing out tapes and CDs, you have moved
passed the “dead end philosophy” that, just inviting the people on your
mailing list to every show, will be the answer to your ongoing success.
Obviously, once fans have bought a CD, it doesn’t make sense to invite
them to more shows for the sole purpose of trying to sell them another
one.
While the questions you asked me are very easy to answer, I am sure that
they have been a source of frustration for you. Remember you have to
“break the pattern” of not thinking creatively. Regardless of what
others say or think, challenge yourself and believe in yourself. Just as
you did in writing your songs and producing your CD.
With all that said, the answer to whether sample tapes or sample CDs is
better to give out, depends upon the demographic of your fans. While
most artists and bands can easily tell me whether they get more women or
men at their shows and what age bracket they are in, most can’t tell me
the kind of jobs their fans have, or their income level. This is
critical information for you to know!
Why? Depending upon the type of jobs your fans have and what they get
paid for them, usually dictates what kind of car they drive. This is
important because you may be handing out sample tapes to people that
only have CD players in their car! While they are polite in taking them
from you, they won’t listen to them in the car where we want them to.
While they may have a cassette player at home, that defeats the purpose
of what we are trying to do. We want them to listen to it in their car,
where most people listen to music. We want to frustrate them on the
limited amount of music there is on the tape or CD. If they like it,
they will want to come to your show to hear more or want to buy the full
length CD.
So you need to determine which is better, sample tapes or sample CDs,
based upon your fan’s particular job, income and their car. However,
keep in mind that with in the next few years, all American cars will
only have CD players.
Regarding your last question, should you hire a “street marketing team”
or company versus you handing out the sample tapes or sample CDs. Don’t
be fooled!
While a street marketing team can hand out ten times the amount of
copies you can, their effectiveness is one tenth of what yours is when
you hand them out. Even if its to a smaller amount of people.
The purpose of you giving out the sample tapes and CDs is for YOU to
“bond” with the potential fans. While someone else can easily give them
the sales pitch, its not the same for music fans as talking to the
actual artist themselves. Street teams are often viewed by music fans
like the girls in department stores, who try to give you the free
perfume samples or try to spray you as you walk by. Your music deserves
more than having a street team just blindly handing it out and so do
your potential fans.
Review the section in, Tim Sweeney’s Guide To Successfully Playing Live,
about where to specifically hand out the sample tapes and CDs for your
upcoming shows.
Best of Luck,
Tim Sweeney
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 12 June 2004 )
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