There are a ton of individuals out there claiming to be music marketing experts, music publicity experts, and social media marketing experts. Yep – Literally thousands upon thousands. With regards to marketing and publicizing your music you have a wide selection of good choices. RIGHT? Wrong – a great deal of choices – yes but just how many of them are truly worth their salt? Not Many!
For reasons uknown unscrupulous “music-want to-bees” prey on musicians – I don’t know why, maybe they think they’re a straightforward soft touch. Maybe they don’t really like musicians or even worse – can’t stand music. (WOW) Many of these individuals are or were musicians themselves, or possibly an intern somewhere in the music business, or actually love music. They believe this gives them the proper to proclaim themselves a music marketing expert, or even worse, a music publicist which takes a long time of music industry experience and the accumulation of a large number of music media contacts, and further, advertise the best possible product or service that may accelerate your music career.
Well here is what I must say about that: I am a musician myself — albeit a long time ago, back then, there have been still many music industry scam artists. I’ve experienced the deep pain to be screwed by unscrupulous people claiming to be my savior in the music business. THE WEB and the leveling of the independent music playing field has exposed a huge amount of opportunities for these sharks and scam artists to work their game. The only way my band became successful was sheer luck – we found the right honest people.
Here is a checklist to seriously consider when choosing your ultimate publicist or marketing service:
Check their credentials – And follow this checklist
Do they will have a creditable online presence?
Do they have a huge selection of testimonials? Or, as I prefer to call them TRUSTIMONIALS – Check their references!
Just how www.nicolaventuri.com “HONEST” years of experience do they have? Ver!fy this
Have they written hundreds of articles about music marketing?
Do they participate in many high-profile music industry organizations?
Does the prospective marketer or publicist answer all your questions
or do they subtly evade them?
Will they let you know who and where they will be promoting your music with?
i.e. their music media affiliations – or do they tell you to wait and see?
Have you seen proven examples of their work?
Will they give you what they are promising in writing?
Before you bother making a choice consider –
INTEGRITY – HONESTY – TRANSPARENCY
Apart from doing great work that truly helps you with your career, these are most likely the three most important elements to take into account
If any or all of the above credential checks aren’t in the positive category —
BEWARE, YOU MAY BE BEING SCAMMED
Being fortunate enough to discover the right people for our project way back then, I’m not saying that it’s impossible to do so. I’m just saying that it is so incredibly important, nowadays especially, to accomplish your homework and due diligence before you shell out your hard-earned cash. Most indie musicians are on a shoestring budget and every penny means something in their mind. Take the time to possibly confer with a creditable music industry consultant. Most should be able to recognize a scam when they see it.
So, to all you unscrupulous sharks out there waiting to swoop down on the next unsuspecting musician, sorry about writing this article – but you need to be exposed. Therefore, I am not necessarily sorry. It’s people like you that provide the music business, honest publicists and music marketers a negative name. Shame on you! I love my Indies and all musicians and artists also it hurts to see them rooked. Try another niche’ – maybe people who need marketing help in selling rockets or industrial products and services. BUT – Leave Our Music Niche’ Alone!!