As an independent artist, you should see yourself as content creator. And I include myself in this category, although I have a record deal and been with a label for over 10 years. This is true for Smooth Jazz artists as well as artists in other genres. Unless you are in the upper echelons of a national/international touring act and have a full service label, that has a marketing team, a promotion team, sales team and radio team etc., all dedicated to your career, you might have to do some of the leg work yourself.
Big terrestrial radio stations have been on the decline, especially in the Smooth Jazz genre , but in others as well. However, internet radio stations and also internet TV stations ( like PAXstereo TV) are popping up everywhere. These are stations, are usually not reporting to the Billboard charts and are therefore rarely serviced by the record label. They are also always looking for content. I do realize, that there are many of them, which have such a limited following, that they are not worth your effort to create content for. But it’s the sheer number of them, that sometimes makes up for it. Also some of them get more popular as they gather more interesting content. And since you will be delivering your content digitally, how long does it really take to paste another e-mail address into your delivery?
So what kind of content should you create, other than your music? Here are a few ideas:
- Behind the scene footage / “The making of “ – collage
Ricky Lawson
Whenever I record an album I try to collect photos, cellphone video and camera footage from the sessions. You could take such items and edit a short 2min short in iMovie or similar program. Distribute it to Internet TV station, YouTube Channel, Facebook etc…
- Do your own interview
Write out some questions. Maybe have a friend come over and ask you those questions and record that conversation. Don’t go overboard, this doesn’t have to be an hour long 5 min is plenty
Distribute to Internet radio stations
- Interview your peers
A few years back I came up with the idea to interview my peers back stage at the festivals we were playing. I called it “Backstage Pass with NILS” . click on the link to hear an example
Distribute to Internet radio stations
- Create generic song ids.
Hi, this is ______ and you are listening to my new single ________ from the album______
Distribute to Internet radio stations with your single and CD
- Create your own zero budget Video
Ideally we like to have a slick looking video but as a new and independent artist the budget might not be there. However you can create a Video with virtually no money as long as you have a cell phone. Even if you just sit and play along with your song, this will be more interesting to watch than a static picture with your music playing behind. Check out my friend Johnny Britt’s Video as an excellent example “I Tried” official video
Distribute to Internet TV stations, social networks
- For more ideas go to my YouTube Channel and check out the “Behind the scenes”, section
For Alley Cat I did a series called “Anatomy of a Song”
For my City Groove CD I did a series called “The Making of”
For my guitar book I did several instructional videos
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