General NFoRMAToN on FiNDiNG Your market onlne

Author Frances Vincent, in her book MySpace for Musicians, brought up some good points for identifying your target market. Among those, Vincent suggested asking your fans directly; researching contemporaries and competitors; becoming a student of pop culture by listening, watching, reading, and going places; and networking.

One marketing article by Donna Gunter (2006) put it in these terms: "Are you fishing where the fish are?" Gunter went on to describe several research tools available online to help research the target market. Here is an expanded list of those sources:

1. Professional associations. They generally have information related to the market based on commissioned research studies. For the music business, that would include, but is not limited to, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), the Association of Independent Music (AIM), various genre-specific trade organizations, and the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI).

2. Professional conferences. Many of the trade associations hold annual conferences with panels and presentation on the latest research in consumer trends. Several notable conferences worth attending are South by Southwest, NARM, and MIDEM.

3. Trade and consumer publications. Read up on the market and the industry by subscribing to the top publications. For the music business that would include, but is not limited to, Billboard, CMJ Network, Radio and Records, Pollstar, Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone and Variety. Check out Billboard. biz. There are also genre-specific magazines such as Source, Vibe, Country Weekly, Downbeat, Remix, Christian Musician, and Alternative Press.

Source:http://musicnewsdaily. com/org.html.

Source:http://musicnewsdaily. com/org.html.

Table 10.3 Industry Conferences

Examples of Industry Conferences

Billboard Magazine sponsored events

The music industry's most powerful business-to-business events, including Digital Music Live, Mobile Entertainment Live, Billboard Music and Money Symposium, Billboard Touring Conference and Awards, R&B Hip Hop Conference and Awards, Latin Music Conference and Awards, and more. www.billboardevents.com/ billboardevents/index.jsp

South by Southwest SXSW Music & Media Conference: Austin, Texas

Showcases hundreds of musical acts from around the globe on more than 50 stages in downtown Austin. By day, conference registrants do business in the SXSW Trade Show in the Austin Convention Center and partake of a full agenda of informative, provocative panel discussions featuring hundreds of speakers of international stature. www.sxsw.com

National Association of Recording Merchandisers

National Association of Recording Merchandisers

The NARM Annual Convention & Marketplace is considered the industry's premier venue to learn, discuss, and meet. Industry players come together to make business deals, hear live music, get the latest research, see the most up-to-date technology, showcase new product lines, hammer out solutions to industry issues, and network to find new business partners. www.narm.com/esam/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Convention

4. Online discussion forums/lists. Go for the industry-oriented forums rather than fan-oriented sites. Entering terms such as "music business forums" into a search engine should return a plethora of sites. For example, www. starpolish.com and www.getsigned.com are good industry reference sites. Also try AllMusic.com and music.AOL.com.

5. Online networking. Find out where other industry folks hang out online and get to know them. Or visit their web site and look for a "contact us" link. Drop them an e-mail to encourage online discussion.

6. Blogs. Leaving comments for other bloggers in the industry can help raise your profile in addition to fostering intellectual conversation and learning from the bloggers. Don't hesitate to leave questions in your blog comments—they may be answered by other readers as well as the blogger. Check out AOLMusicNewsBlog.com and Billboard.blogs.com.

7. E-zines. The use of e-zines to promote an artist is covered in the chapter on Internet promotion, but these e-zines can also be a good place to gain an understanding of the target market. If the publication is professional and successful, the publishers probably already know a great deal about their readership. Although they may not share that information willingly or without cost, the results of their knowledge and understanding should be evident in the subject matter of the e-zine. (For example, if the e-zine has an article on the quality of MP3 files compared to other formats, then perhaps the readership is technology oriented.) Gunter noted that reading these e-zines will "give you a great overview of typical issues and problems faced by your target market." Check out www.ezine-dir.com/Music.

8. The radio industry. Radio has a long history of studying music listening trends. Radio stations routinely conduct marketing research. RadioandRecords.com has a section on ratings that lists the top radio markets and some format and demographic details on each.

Make it Easier for Your Market to Find You

In the early 1990s, Internet researchers alluded to the coming age of broad-catch, moving away from the days of broadcast, where multitudes of people consumed a common message or programming simultaneously. Broadcatch on the other hand, refers to the concept of media consumers seeking out programming, entertainment, or information. Under this scenario, the role of marketing and advertising shifts from that of "carnival barker" to that of information FIgure 10 2 provider—being there with the product information when the consumer is in the market and looking. With that comes the shifting role of marketing to making it easier for the market to find you rather than you finding your market. Part of that effort is outlined in the chapter on optimizing your web site—the idea of being at the top of search results for the product category. For this effort to be successful, it is necessary to think like the consumers and gain an understanding of the process they go through to find you. What search terms are they likely to use? Do they always correctly spell the words? What if your band is an alternate spelling of a commonly known word, such as Boyz instead of Boys. Will your potential fans know to spell Boyz with a "z?" If not, all keyword-based advertising and search engine optimization should

include spellings and keywords most likely to be used by members of the target market. That is when marketers regret it if they have to use a domain name with a hyphen, or an extension other than dot-com, because most potential customers may not remember the subtle differences.

Think Virtually, Act Locally

Be sure to find and post notices at every possible local site where your target market is known to hang out—just like sniping (putting up posters) in the nonvirtual world. If there are local web sites that post upcoming events and concerts, make sure to find these sites for each geographic market on the tour schedule and post a notice of the event, complete with viral components directing the visitor to the artist's web site. Potential fans may be perusing these sites looking for things to do locally and may have no prior awareness of your artist. Again, this requires getting into the mind of the potential consumer and imagining the process they may go through in discovering your artist.

Continue reading here: Youtube

Was this article helpful?