19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you're an Indie Musician, you need to buy this book!, November 25, 2007
This review is from: Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Songwriters, Musicians and Bands on a Budget (Revised & Updated) (Paperback)
Bob Baker brings it in this book. As the title of this review implies, if you are a musician of any type and want your music to be heard, you need to buy this book. The insight comes with every single page and doesn't even stop at the end of the book; on the last page he gives you a link to his website, www.thebuzzfactor.com where you can sign up for weekly promotional tips plus a plethora of new and up to date marketing information for musicians. He breaks things down into lists that make the book easy to read.
I've read a lot of music marketing books, and none of them even compare to this. Bob's analogies and real life experiences truly shine and help to make the book filled with useful knowledge.
In the first section, the basic training, he talks about the three main stages of music marketing: creating awareness, making connections, and asking for the sale. If you aren't doing any of these three, then you need to. The second key point he hits on in this section is goal setting. If you don't actually write your goals down and set focused, yet flexible, deadlines, you won't succeed. He then shows the first five steps of marketing (and profiting from) music. Theses include knowing who your ideal fans are, what motivates them, what your brand identity statement is, and focusing on what your fans will get out of the music. Finally, he hits the point of knowing what kind of music you are dealing with and how to portray it in words.
In the second section, online marketing, he shares several key insights on how to use the internet effectively to market your music. There is so much money spent online on music that you are crazy not to be marketing yourself with the internet. Baker gives many examples here of how different sites like myspace, facebook, flickr, and youtube are so useful and profitable. As well, by using blogs and podcasts to promote your group, you appeal to a much wider variety of people. He continues by giving more sites that can be used for indie artists and as well more examples of people who have succeeded in music by using the Internet.
In the third section, music publicity, he starts by giving 32 new ways to promote group or new release. These examples, some hilarious, are all insightful on how to use your imagination to tie in with recent events or publications. Next, he gives a list of 29 key elements to creating a sizzling press kit. This is without a doubt every self promoting musician needs to have in their head. Then, Baker talks about how you should talk to media people, how you should address letters to them to draw attention to yourself, different ideas for advertisements, and lots of other brilliant things that one wouldn't normally think of.
In the fourth section, money and sales, he starts off with 39 ways to sell a lot more of your cd's, dvd's, and music merchandise; once again, he offers many more insightful ideas on how to sell yourself and to get people to check your music out. A huge list of independent music sites follows. He then goes on to describe how you can make money as a musician and other random ideas on how to make some more money on the side. The basis behind this section is basically how to make money for a band.
The fifth and final section, promotion tactics, starts with 13 low-cost, high-impact music promotion ideas that work. These are more ideas on how to basically sell yourself as a musician. In Chapter 19, Baker describes how to use the telephone to get more and more exposure. This is very informative and is something every musician needs to know to become a better salesperson for their band. He concludes the book with still more brilliant ideas on promotion.
If you're at all interested in establishing renown within the music industry, you need to get this book and read it cover to cover. You'll love it and it will surely take you places you didn't imagine. From a musician's standpoint, trust me, this book is worth buying.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most useful handbook an indie artist can buy, November 4, 2007
This review is from: Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Songwriters, Musicians and Bands on a Budget (Revised & Updated) (Paperback)
To be truthful, I was skeptical when I first read about this book and doubted it could help me much as I'm a nightclub DJ, not in a more traditional band. I still gave it a shot and it's one of the best purchases I have made for my DJing thus far. This book is full of little "aha" moments - ideas that are at once practical and unusual. There are no magic secrets in the Guerilla Music Marketing Handbook, but page after page of resources, inexpensive (or free) ways to promote yourself and your music and helpful true-life stories to illustrate the content and give further inspiration.
I started putting the ideas in this book to practice only a few days ago (I just received it in the mail this past week) and have already gotten a handful of new names for my mailing list (which has been converted into a benefit-packed club), gotten a gig with a highly respected Chicago promoter and had a new photo shoot to help hone in on the image I'm trying to convey. I look forward to the continued results I will see from putting this book into practice. Kudos to Baker!
-Dani Deahl
www.danideahl.com
danideahl.vox.com
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Stuff You can Figure Out Yourself, June 16, 2009
This review is from: Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Songwriters, Musicians and Bands on a Budget (Revised & Updated) (Paperback)
I'm sure Mr. Baker is a nice person, but his big skill is not conquering the music business, it's writing self help books & keeping himself employed.
I'm not that familiar with all this new internet marketing stuff, but most of Mr. Bakers suggestions are things people can come up with themselves. Mainly the author offers motivation, self help type positive affirmations.
The book is peppered with lists which repeat themselves endlessly & very little hard information!
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