Special guest blog by StreetJelly musician Clifton Printy to help his fellow musicians.
Building Profitable Entertainers
Clifty and Jim
So here’s the deal.
You know at StreetJelly we have been building a series about promoting yourself and succeeding as a musician. Guess what? It is hard work. A creative and diversified approach to generating income will help today’s musicians earn a living.
Your fans, in one form or another, are your customers. But! Don’t try to sell to them. The idea is to be their friend, be in their heart and minds. When they are ready to buy, they will buy. You are their trusted pal.
Did I call your fans customers? Why yes! And if you don’t see them that way, you might quit now and save yourself some time. Your Music is your Brand. If you plan on any monetary success from your fans, then they have to be viewed as customers.
So don’t abuse them like spamming their email with, “buy my this and that.” Remember, they will come to you when they are ready.
Mentally put your suit on. You are a business. This is the music business so get into your business brain. Start spit balling. What would you buy? Here’s a few off the cuff ideas.
A “Love eating lobster and listening to Slam” sticker
“That’s my Kind of Music! Danny Campo” coffee cup.
The !clifty: Coffee cup
Summer Russell’s “Red Riding Hood Feet-Pajamas”
So, ideally in a business you deliver a product and your customers pay you for it. For musicians, you are asking them to support your musical livelihood.
Are you making a plan?
Let’s start with some baby steps. Do you have customers? Maybe an email list of fans?
Try this to-do list…
- Start a newsletter.
Goal, populate an email list and send out a bi-monthly newsletter to your fans. - Set a fan base goal. Let’s call it 500 people for this.
- When you are at 500 people ask them what they want.
- Deliver it for a price.
So here is your assignment. Think up your own ideas. Share them with your friends by commenting below. Make a difference. And thank you for contributing to the livelihood of your fellow musicians, BTW. ~Clifton Printy
John Bishop on February 10, 2015 at 1:15 am said:
Good article Clifty. It’s also good to promote your shows on Facebook as well, although I usually only promote special events.For example, I’ll be posting to try and get viewers for my Valentines Day shows, but I won’t post if I’m just doing a random jam. I don’t have t-shirts, coffee cups, or anything to promote, but if I did I think mentioning them during a broadcast would be a good thing to do, not putting any pressure on your viewers, but just to let them know you have things like this available. Like you said, if they want it, they will let you know, no need to be pushy about it. Heck, I’m too old to worry about promoting my music, especially since the music I play isn’t exactly the norm on Streetjellly, but it’s nice to have a few viewers, especially during special event shows. I have to say the people who appreciate my music on SJ have been exceptionally supportive and really good people, and from my experience will be very supportive of anything any performer would like to promote as long as you don’t stuff it down their throat. As with anything, if you treat people the way you want to be treated, they will be there for you and take an interest in whatever it is you may have to offer. Anyway, thanks for the post and keep an eye out for the idea Raw gave me last night…the JerseyJB “Aint No Slouch on the Couch Tour”. Is there a way I can motorize this darn couch?….:)
Markus K on February 10, 2015 at 3:13 am said:
Great article Clifton, I especially like your point of not being pushy. They will buy when they are ready. Good all round info. 🙂
Clifton on February 15, 2015 at 11:33 am said:
So for the month of January I retro gave out t shirts to my big supporters. I didn’t buy them I took my profits from the show and made that my budget (this of course meant that only those who covered the cost of shipping and the shirt got shirts. The reason I said this is that I am shooting for a smaller target so I can reach more viewers in my budget.
Carl Johnson on February 27, 2015 at 3:46 pm said:
Thanks Clifton. As you know I’ve been playing for a good many years. Never really started playing in public until the early 90’s at least for income. I wrote my first song in 94 which I play from time to time on SJ. Since then I’ve written many more and have most copyrighted. Going to attempt finishing my first CD (at 62 years of age) this spring with a few musical friends in New Mexico. At this time I have no general website for anyone interested in my music but soon will when all my music is ready. I do have a few email addresses of people who have been following me and hopefully I can attain more each week. I certainly got some good ideas from your blog Clifton and I will pursue them harder now that I’ve finally found a place where other musicians are willing to help other musicians. Won’t see that often in my area. I’m super inspired with SJ and all the people who attend my shows regularly and will do my best to keep them coming back for more.
Regards, Carl Johnson aka. Restless_Native