6 Best Kept Music Marketing Secrets

Hi Gang,

Here's a nice repost from our good friend Lior Shamir, Founder of We Are Listening, the international song contest platform for independent artists. Thanks to him for including Jango in his 6 best kept secrets.

So here goes...

1. Email Is The Holy Grail
Whether you’re tricking out your MySpace page or performing at your local venue, always think about what you can do to collect more email addresses. Believe me, there is nothing of greater importance than your email list. If you’re not using a professional email marketing service (EMS), you should start now. Mad Mimi is my favorite but I have also tried iContact (which I hated), MailChimp (which I liked) and Emma (which I loved but it’s a bit pricey).

2. Passive Radio Is Passé
Massive online radio sites get your music in front of targeted music fans. They are not your average passive radio listeners, they are music fanatics feverishly searching for music just like yours. Yeah, you have to pay for the privilege, but the exposure you get in return is guaranteed and trackable. In the music biz, it’s hard to find that kind of bang-for-your-buck value. Jango Airplay is the largest online radio promotion service that I know of. As a Jango affiliate, I regularly send artists in their direction. The feedback from these artists has been phenomenal.

3. Get Professional Help
Whether it’s your songwriting or your marketing (or anything else), never underestimate the value of expert advice. We Are Listening provides professional assessments for songs and lyrics. It’s what we know and what we’re good at. But you can find a service, coach or consultant for any project you wish to fast track to success. The humility required to ask for help and receive critical feedback is the mark of an independent artist and entrepreneur that people want to listen to and associate with. Personally, I can use all the help I can get!

4. Stand Out
You don’t have to be loud to stand out. The smallest touches can make a huge impact… and I don’t mean limited edition vinyls or glow-in-the-dark t-shirts. For example, I recently discovered that you can create your own custom M&Ms. It’s awesome. Imagine every M&M with your message and image on it, any colour scheme you like, and branded packaging. Great munchies at a gig. Lovely gift for any holiday.

5. Follow The Leaders
I can’t think of a better way to learn about the music industry and make great connections than by following individuals who have been there, done it, succeeded, and willing to share their experiences with you. For free. I recently published a post on the subject that should get you started:
14 Music Industry Leaders (You Should Follow)

6. Be An Outstanding Communicator
Most people are not. But it’s something that can be learned. Remember Secret #1 (Email Is The Holy Grail)? Well, that email list you’ve been growing is not worth a dime if you can’t put a compelling message together. Outstanding communicators stand out, lead and succeed. Are you an outstanding communicator?

Featured Artists - PopScore Top 5

Here's the newest hottest artists on Jango Airplay...

The featured artists are chosen by top PopScore each week so check them out here and see who's resonating the most with Jango's listeners. Each of these artists also receives 5000 Play Credits to continue to promote their music on Jango.com

Arist: StereoGoesStellar Formed in 2005, StereoGoesStellar is an indie piano pop band from Windsor, Ontario. They are currently playing as many shows as possible, while writing new material. Click to hear StereoGoesStellar: Eighty Eight Keys

Arist: Keston Cobblers Club The sound that makes Keston Cobblers' Club so distinctive comes from a desire to create contemporary, catchy music, fused with the wholesome grittiness of traditional folk. Click to hear Keston Cobblers Club: You Go

Arist: Reddfayce Reddfayce picked up rapping and production as a hobby just prior to joining the U.S. Army in 2003. As an artist, he prides himself on unabashed politics and a love for guitars of all shapes and sizes. Click to hear Reddfayce: Be Ready

Arist: Seve Vs. Evan Uber Nerds Evan & Seve transform their mad gaming skills into an Indie Synth Pop EXPLOSION! This Duo has been tearing up the west coast for the past few years, and will be releasing a new album in 2010. Click to hear Seve vs. Evan: Carnival Funhouse

Arist: Allan Moon Allan Moon, singer-songwriter & music producer, has just released the new single, "The Art of Rolling." His work has received rave reviews and has been compared to the likes of Nick Drake and John Martyn. Click to hear Allan Moon: The Art of Rolling

Airplay Artist Phil Vassar in NY Times

Checking out the New York Times over the weekend we were pleased to see one of our Airplay artists, Phil Vassar, getting some nice coverage in the 'Critic's Choice' section.

Reviewing his new album 'Traveling Circus' the New York Times says...'Over and over again on “Traveling Circus” Phil Vassar gets right to the point. A country singer by trade and an affable, comforting conversation partner by disposition, he has opening lines that set the mood, and the mood is often cloudy or outright grim.' - Read More HERE

Halloween List of featured artists

Below is a list of artists featured in our Halloween-themed stations, add them to your list of targets to get your music featured in the station.

Halloween Radio

Alan Menken
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Charlie Daniels
Danny Elfman
Davie Allan & The Arrows
Echo & The Bunnymen
John Williams
Klaus Badelt
Michael Jackson
Oingo Boingo
Oscar Brand
Ray Parker Jr.
Rockwell
Sheb Wooley
Spike Jones
Squirrel Nut Zippers
The Animals
The Archies
The B-52's
The Bangles
The Bomboras
The Doors
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (25th Anniversary Cast)
The Royal Guardsmen
The Searchers
The Specials
Warren Zevon

Dubstep Halloween

Bar 9
Basement Jaxx
Deadmau5
DJ Fresh
Emalkay
Fake Blood
Flux Pavilion
Kaskade & Deadmau5
Knife Party
KZA
La Roux
Pendulum
Rusko
Skrillex
The Glitch Mob
The Prodigy
Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Heavy Metal Halloween

Adema

Alice in Chains 

Avenged Sevenfold

Black Label Society 

Black Sabbath 

Bullet For My Valentine

Cold

Cradle of Filth

Danzig 

Demon Hunter

Dethklok

Dope

Five Finger Death Punch 

Helloween

In Flames

Judas Priest

Korn 

Lamb Of God

Lordi

Machine Head

Megadeth 

Mercyful Fate

Metallica

Misfits

Murderdolls

Slayer

Static X 

Static-X

The Misfits 

Wednesday 13

Alternative Halloween

Band Of Horses

Beach House

Beck

Bloc Party

Crystal Castles

Duck Sauce

Foster The People

Gorillaz

Harlem

Modest Mouse

My Chemical Romance

Naked and Famous

pavement

Radiohead

Shearwater

Siouxsie & The banshees

Smashing Pumpkins

Sonic Youth

Sufjan Stevens

Tegan And Sara

The Flaming Lips

The Kills

The Shaggs

The Smiths

The Specials

The White Stripes

The Whitest Boy Alive

Vampire Weekend

Wild Nothing

Dark Industrial Halloween

And One

Combichrist

De/Vision

Dead or Alive

Flesh Field

Heimataerde

Iggy Pop

Joy Division

Junkie XL

Juno Reactor

KMFDM

Marilyn Manson

MDFMK

Mindless Self Indulgence

Ministry

Missing Persons

Nine Inch Nails

Rammstein

Rob Zombie

Shiny Toy Guns

Soft Cell

Stabbing Westward

System Syn

The Crystal Method

The Prodigy

Happy New Year

A quick message to all Jango Airplayers wishing you the happiest of New Years and an incredibly prosperous 2010. To all of you playing gigs tonight...knock 'em dead. And most of all, have fun, be safe and remeber these wise words of T.S. Eliot...

'Last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice.'

More On PopScore - How It Works

After two weeks of PopScore we're thrilled with how much interest it has generated. We have awarded hundreds of thousand of Play Credits and have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback. There have also been a fair number of questions. Three recurring questions that we will try and answer below are:

- How is the PopScore calculated?
- What’s a good PopScore?
- How can I improve my PopScore?











So here's the lowdown:

How is the PopScore calculated?

As some of you probably know, each time we play your song to one of Jango's 7 Million listeners we ask them to rate your song. We do this through the use of a pop up window (the Make’m or Break ‘em overlay).










When listening to your song the listener can give a thumbs up, thumbs down, become your fan, leave a comment and more. We enter all these listener reactions into a formula to determine which songs, and therefore which bands, are most popular with our listeners. In simple terms the PopScore is a ratio computed by total number of plays as well as ratings, both positive and negative.

To go into further detail:

You need at least 100 paid plays in the calender week (Mon – Sun) on at least one song to receive a PopScore. In other words, your band will get a PopScore if you have two songs with 100 paid plays each, or one song with 100 paid plays, or 5 songs with 500 paid plays each, but your band will not get a PopScore if you have three songs with only 99 paid plays each. So, if you want to make sure you get a PopScore each week make sure you allocate a minimum of 100 plays a week to at least one of your songs.

With that said, the more plays you have in a week, the more people will hear your music and the more new fans you will get. Also, the more paid plays you have in a week, the more accurate your PopScore becomes. However, because we look at both positive and negative ratings, you simply can not buy your your way to a higher PopScore.

What’s a good PopScore?

The best possible PopScore is 100 and the top 1000 bands receive some amount of bonus Play Credits. The higher the PopScore, the more bonus Play Credits.

How can I improve my PopScore?

Good question (and one that is difficult to answer). There are many things that affect your PopScore. This includes:

- Basic Targeting
At the most fundamental level it does not make sense for a country artist to target fans of Metallica. Similarly, a hip hop artist should not expect to fare well if targeting fans of Kenny Rogers. Your targeting is important so make sure to examine your Fan Overlap Report which is accessible from within your Reports Tab.

- Premium Targeting
Premium Targeting allows you to target specific groups of people. By targeting your plays to people in certain states or countries age groups or gender, you make sure that your songs are only played to people that correspond to your selected targets. Premium Targeting may help you achieve a higher PopScore so keep trying. Premium Targeting is available under your Targeting Tab.

- Presentation
Overal presentation is always important. This can be anything from high quality mastering of your tacks to a great press shot or album cover. When we ask listeners to rate your music we tell them not only your band name but we also show your default picture. Being visually interesting and sounding great always helps.

- Your Music
This goes without saying perhaps but your music is obviously of great importance. Some of us Jugglers play in bands in our spare time so we know that writing music is hard and writing music that people respond to is even harder.

- Experiment!
You know this, music is an art not a science, and while there is some science at work within the Jango PopScore a lot of it has to do with subjective tastes of millions of people. So how do you write a number one hit? Perhaps by never giving up.

We're here to help, answer any questions you might have and to listen to your feedback but we see our role as providing great tools for the emerging band. How you use the tools we provide, and what you do with them is up to you.

Our ears are open !!!

- Jango Jugglers

Hip Hop Pioneer Almighty Kay Gee on Airplay

Almighty Kay Gee learned to rap in 1974 after he heard GrandMaster Flash and the Furious 3’s. During this time Kay Gee became a member of the all Jamaican “Cheeba Crew” where he learned to emcee and DJ simultaneously. He met DJ Charlie Chase in 1978 at an emcee convention and in 1979, after practice, became a part of the legendary Cold Crush Brothers.

Almighty Kay Gee influenced Chuck D, who he considers a “powerful emcee” as well as Kool Keith, who Kay Gee met in the third grade. He has collaborated with such artists as C&C Music Factory, KRS-1, Funk Master Flex, Doug E Fresh and more.

Almighty Kay Gee now brings you Allmighty Entertainment his new label which is set to bring forth a wide range of music with a collection of Hip Hop, Rock, Metal, Dance Hall, Country, R&B and Praise artists.





















Dainjamental (Dance Hall); Lost Legacy (Metal); Mansin (Hip Hop) & Raphael Lundy AKA Guy Lundy(R&B) are some of the artists scheduled for release fall 2009 and are all available to listen to on Jango.

Almighty Kay Gee has been in the business a long time and has seen the good, the bad and the ugly of it all. Here's what he has to say about using Jango Airplay to promote the artists on his label...

'Jango is the best thing for music in a long time I will be putting up my music and you should too, thanks Jango' - Almighty Kay Gee