Folks who follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Spotify are aware that we're engaged in a battle at the moment. (UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for voting for us - we came in second place in the Rock/EDM/Alternative battle)
No, it's not a legal battle. It's not even a music battle, though it's couched in those terms.
This is a social media battle. Sponsored by IndieNation (makers of the Indie Nation App), this is the second battle in a series of events designed to help Independent musical artists leverage social media to grow their fan base, with the ultimate goal of breaking big in the music world.
There have always been independent artists, playing in local scenes everywhere, and often invisible or limited to small niches. What's popular is not an indication of who is the best - it's just who has the best marketing machine behind them. In the past, indie artists printed their own records, they worked the road (Snake spent two years touring the Southwest in the early 1990s and can tell you that it is fun and rewarding, but a really lousy way to try to make a living)
Anthony Barksdale, the mastermind behind IndieNation, understands that music marketing is not what it used to be. The old system of big A&R departments, top 40 radio, and corporate marketing campaigns targeting carefully selected musical niches is crumbling. Cheap and easy access to music on the Internet means that profit margins for large multinational music machines are eroding. That means we need a new model for musical artists to make money - a model that is still in the formative stages.
What has changed? Well, the independent artists haven't gone away. Financial success in music is still determined by popularity and marketing, not by talent. BUT, the playing field is more level, more open. It's now up to individual artists to market themselves, and they have an unparalleled global stage to do it on. Musicians may still be discovered by an A&R exec ploughing through a pile of demo tapes, or by a promoter visiting a small smoky bar, but they are also breaking on YouTube through viral social sharing, or being promoted one message at a time on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Spotify, or sites dedicated to independent musicians - sites such as SoundCloud, BandCamp, blend.io, RadioAirplay.com or IndieNation and its affiliates Indie Speaks and UnsignedArtists.club.
How are Cats Cradle Robbers responding? We're learning! The past week participating in the battle is teaching us more than ever before how to leverage our social network to get votes. Here's some of our key learnings out of the exercise:
- Getting people to see your message is the first challenge. On Instagram, that means leveraging relevant hashtags such as "#electronica, #edm, and #seattle to get our message out of our narrow channel and into the public eye. On Facebook, that means using every trick in the book to get each message shared and liked as much as possible so that Facebook will show it to more people with higher priority.
- Enlisting help means personal interaction. Figure out who your champions are and get them on the phone to call their friends. If you run into a friend on the street, grab their phone and enter their vote for them (with permission, of course :-)). Make it impossible for people not to help! One of the vocalists on our battle track It Begins is phoning all of her friends in Chennai, India and asking them to vote every night while the rest of us are asleep. Friends like that are your key connectors, and their help is vital to success.
- The content is not important. We posted a recent work in progress somewhat at random, and used this as our battle song. With social media marketing, you are not trying to engage people based on the quality of the material - you are leveraging loyalty and goodwill to develop a mutually trusting relationship with your audience.
- Feedback to your audience is important. When they vote, thank them. Show them the results of their actions, and make them feel like they're making a difference. Create excitement and encourage others to share that excitement.
What does this mean for our financial success? So far, the results are not yet in. Marketing and publicity professionals will tell you that building a social platform and finding an audience that is engaged and active is the most important precursor to marketing success. For us, at this point we're working to build visibility and acceptance for our unique brand of electroacoustic recorded art music.
With your help, we can win this battle.
Once we make that milestone, we're hoping that IndieNation can help us win the war.
Keep voting!
-Snake and DJSE
