Last week we told you about TopSpin's awesome new website. We spent the weekend digging through it and rounding up some of the great things you can learn from their ahead of the times ideas. One of the first things that stuck out with us are the things you need to have together to get involved in a campaign with TopSpin. If you are a band that is looking to make a big impression with your next release these are things you should make sure you are setting yourself up for in the future. Head to the jump and we will discuss them and how to get yourself moving in the right direction.
Here is a copy and paste of what TopSpin wants from you before you can be considered to do your next release with them. Below it we will discuss what each question means you should be doing.
The list of questions below will help you determine if you have the tools needed to execute a rock-solid direct-to-fan marketing plan.
- Do you have 90-120 days before your next project launches?
- Do you know the cost of goods sold for your digital and physical content?
- Do you have accounts on social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter?
- Do you have uncompressed WAV or AIFF files of your master recordings?
- Do you have the means (or access to a designer) to create web-ready artwork?
- Are you the person who grants approvals throughout the entire planning and execution process?
- Are you able to provide accurate stats on your Web site traffic and past sales history?
- Do you currently have marketing services, Web development, and physical distribution partners?
- A release that is going to make a huge impression takes time to plan and build hype for. Getting together mailers, graphics and a marketing campaign also takes time. Even though we have told you not to place so much emphasis on first week sales, and the futility of putting out tracks before anyone can buy your record, you still need to have time to get some promotion in order and choose the right ways to get your music out to the world.
- Your band is a business obviously and knowing all the details on how much it costs to make everything you do is very important. Having these numbers organized and readily available along with the knowledge to figure out what in the hell they mean gets more and more important everyday.
- This should be obvious, if you do answer no to any of these sites though you better go here fast.
- Having high quality masters on hand is one of the most important things these days. We told you in the past how to make sure you are getting good audio and how to keep it on hand for when it is needed.
- Having a go to designer is super important for your music. Keeping a relationship with one is even more important since it is very easy for them to flake out on you and delay your project. Assembling a team of people to do all the essential chores for your band is one of the keys to not sitting around sitting on your hands waiting for things to come to your band.
- If you are bound by a terrible label or management contract and you are caught in a constant bureaucracy of having to get a couple people to sign off on every decision your project is going to move slowly and painful. To many chefs in the kitchen will slow things down to a halt and records in the digital age need to move fast.
- Last week we told you about getting to know Google Analytics. Hopefully you have been studying up since then. Knowing how to read your stats is getting more and more important to know how to effectively run your business.
- Being tangled up in an existing contracts can slow everything down. As much as many music industry deals signed can sometimes be done because you have nothing else going for you. If you have committed yourself to a complicated relationship it can take months even years to get out of. Which makes many people not very eager to work with you.
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