Customer Reviews

Web Marketing for the Music Business

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of those few books about web marketing that doesn't require the Geek Squad to help you become a user of the essence of the book. It is extremely well-written and researched, and gives genuine no-nonsense guidance to those in the music business about how to use the web to promote their artistry in a business environment. I've adopted this book for my use in the college classroom because it's an excellent guide for my students, but it's also a valuable tool for the music professional who wants to use the Internet as a way to compete for the ears of music consumers.

A truly comprehensive book that every musical artist should read before attempting to promote themselves on the Internet. It not only covers the do's and don't's of website creation, but guides the reader through many of the other online promotional tools available. As both a computer and music business professional, I can attest to all of the trial and error that independent artists go through when it comes to the Internet. This book will spare them most of that and take them right to the stuff that works. I highly recommend it.

This book is a comfortable, portable size, yet it includes all the essential information you need. Beginning with the history of the internet and of iTunes, it then moves on to examine current trends in music marketing and overall strategies.

Then comes the meat of the book: a really impressive overview of web site construction from choosing a domain name to installing e-commerce software, an up-to-date discussion of web marketing and social media, special concerns about mobile devices, and a terrific collection of resources.

A reasonably tech-savvy person will be able to read and understand everything here without suffering, and there are lots of suggestions for web resources when you want to learn more.

This book isn't going to teach you CGI or turn you into an audio engineer. It is going to make it possible for a musician to do a lot of online promotion on a DIY basis. Just as importantly, it'll give you all the know-how to distinguish between what you can do yourself and what you want to hire done, and to make good decisions on who you hire.

As a musician and a web marketer, I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

Tom Hutchinson and focal press's "Web Marketing for the Music Business" is an informative book that is geared more to today's modern technology (pre-Twitter) and utilizing SEO, landing pages and social media aspects for promotion.

For the most part, what Hutchinson writes about is pretty much correct as I have worked with talent utilizing the same tools featured in his book. Chapter 7's search engine optimization, blogs, monitoring web traffic are very important in today's web marketing for not just music but any kind of business. But It was very smart for Hutchinson to include a chapter towards mobile music marketing, especially if you are geared towards international music and knowing that countries like Japan have gone full on mobile and physical sales are decreasing at a rapid rate.

"Web Marketing for the Music Business" comes with the following chapters:

CHAPTER 1: Development of Music Marketing on the Internet - Background on the Internet, iTunes and online environment
CHAPTER 2: State of the Market - Trends in music sales, music delivery and marketing and internet use
CHAPTER 3: Overall Music Marketing Strategy - Publicity, Advertising, Radio and Retail promotion
CHAPTER 4: Domains and Hosts: Nuts and Bolts - Web Site Basics, Domain Hosting
CHAPTER 5: Creating the Website - Website Goals, Designs
CHAPTER 6: HTML and Scripts - Flash, CGI Scripts, Web Widgets
CHAPTER 7: Optimizing and Monitoring Your Web Site to Increase Visitation - Search engine optimization, blogs, monitoring web traffic
CHAPTER 8: Audio and Video for your Web Site - Audio files, embedding music
CHAPTER 9: E-Commerce: Product Ordering and Fulfillment - Online retailers, e-commerce
CHAPTER 10: Finding Your Online Market - Market Segmentation, Tracking Consumer Behavior
CHAPTER 11: Successful Promotion on the Web - Search Engines, E-Zines, Grassroots and viral marketing
CHAPTER 12: Social Networking Sites - MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, BEBO
CHAPTER 13: Internet Obstacles - Web Site mistakes, Internet Marketing Ethics
CHAPTER 14: Mobile Media - Cell phone to Mobile, Mobile Social Networking
CHAPTER 15: Mobile Music Marketing - Music Goes Mobile
Online Resources for the Music Business

Overall, "Web Marketing for the Music Business" is a very good book that focuses on the basics and getting the manager, artist and even those pursuing a career in entertainment marketing, especially for those who are involved in marketing for music artists. Of course, there is much more information that can go into chapter 7 since searching engine optimization is important but you also need to know what you are doing and knowing the positives and negatives of a search engine. But again, this book is jut covering the basics and does a good job at that.

Definitely a book worth purchasing!

You might think this book has been written by a musician for musicians, but it's not.... it's apparently written by a college professor for marketing students. It's either too simple, covering stuff any web saavy, street smart artist would already know, or could easily find out by Googling or asking their friends, or it covers stuff so out of reach (like TV advertising and other stuff only major label artists could ever afford) that it's totally impractical for the average indy artist or garage band. I did gleen a few useful tid bits from this book, but if you are already a musician or band, looking to market yourself on the web, you would probably do better to surf user groups, ask web saavy friends lots of questions, and Google keywords and videos on You Tube to get ideas.

I selected this book because I was working with a children's choir at the time, and trying to help them get their name out there. Though I was no longer involved in that project by the time I got around to reading this book, I was surprised to find a lot of good information about marketing any sort of business online.

I don't know much about the music industry, or marketing entertainment, but I thought those aspects of the book were interesting, well researched, and well written. Also, in many cases, simply replacing the topic of "music" with any other product or service seems to render the book useful in a wide range of fields.

The sections on creating a web page seemed oddly out of place in the book, since the topics and skills required to do that effectively would require multiple books on their own. That's the only issue I had with the book though, and even those parts weren't bad, just out of place.

If you enjoy reading about marketing strategies, I think this would be a good book to pick up.

Though I find many books on marketing to be annoyingly slick and thin on content, this professionally-written text covers exactly what a working musician needs to get started with web-based marketing or to add increased purposefulness and breadth to their approach. Befitting of an academic text, the author is rigorous in providing citations for trends and statistics in the industry, and yet this reads lucidly enough for an independent musician lacking the enforced discipline of a classroom setting.

Though the text covers topics at a fairly basic level, the breadth of coverage (trends and history of internet marketing, creating web sites and driving traffic to them, social networking, mobile marketing, etc.) over 15 short chapters ensures that this book can help most musicians address gaps in their internet marketing strategy. For example, most do-it-yourself musicians I know aren't really emphasizing Search Engine Optimization and promotion to internet radio, though this book makes the case for why they should be. Most importantly, Hutchinson makes a real effort to put all marketing strategies in context. For example, the chapter on "Overall Music Marketing Strategy" highlights the advantages and disadvantages of a range of offline (radio, retail, touring, etc.) and internet media in order to place web marketing strategy in the context of all other available options.

I'd recommend this for all do-it-yourself musicians as well as those who want to better understand and communicate with a hired marketing specialist.

Given that this book covers rapidly emerging technologies, this book is relevant now but will probably need updating in a few years.

This is one of those rare finds in educational books. The author does not talk down to the reader and does not try to impress by using terms only those in the know would use. There are lots of ideas that had never occurred to me and I have been at this for a long time.

My only complaint is about the opening chapter. It goes into the history of the music business on the web. Personally I thought this space could have been put to better use. It would be like getting a reference for starting a restaurant and getting the history of how restaurants began.

Other than that I found this book well worth the time and effort to read. Highly recommend.

I know nothing about the music business. I'm strictly a music consumer. However as a business owner that does marketing on the web I was extremely impressed with howcomprehensive and detailed this book was. Hutchinson walks the reader through the business angles of marketing, music, and the web. These are the type of lessons taught in an MBA class, but focused strictly on aspects that would appeal to a musician.

The chapters focusing on the technical aspects of developing a website didn't quite fit into the book. The designer skill set to develop a website was way beyond the scope of the book. Musicians learning html isn't terribly valuable. Work with a good web designer and keep the focus on content. Everything else in the book was solid gold from how to develop a viral marketing campaign,leveraging social media, and even creating mobile and email promotions.

Even if you don't have a music business, get this book just to learn how to market your business on the Internet.

Are you a marketing major looking to get a handle on what you will need to market music on the web from the ground up? If so, this book is an excellent place to start. It's in a textbook-format and is probably intended to be used in some local college courses, working its way through multiple topics such as the history and (probable) future of music on the Internet, choosing a good ISP, good website design, effective ways to create brand recognition and encourage repeat visitors using SWAG (aka "stuff we all get" such as T-shirts, mouse pads and baseball caps), and even various low-cost or free software covering all aspects of web music, such as MP3 encoders, alternatives to Photoshop, etc. The book seems to provide a good roadmap to anyone looking to help a local, active musician sell their product online.

This isn't a book intended for a DIY musician using only a laptop to record trance music or other electronica, nor is it a book intended for those who hope to sell their music 'in their spare time.' If you fall into those categories you might be disappointed. There's no accessory DVD with freeware bundled on it, either. The book assumes you already have a thriving gigging/songwriting career and are looking to take it to the next level by selling your music online. I'm not troubled by this at all, but it's something you ought to be aware of before purchasing it. If anything, it reiterates that entering any successful Internet business requires a great deal of hard work, preparation, and dedication.