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Dexter Bryant Jr. | Digital Branding & Music Marketing Consultant |d b r y j m u s ic @ h o t m a il. c o m | 813.770.9991 | Twitter@ d B R Y J m u s ic
The Record Label’s Guide To Digital Branding & Music Marketing 2.0
Page 1
THE RECORD LABEL’S GUIDE TO DIGITAL BRANDING &
MUSIC MARKETING 2.0
By Dexter Bryant Jr.
Table of Contents
T O P IC
P A G E#
Introduction
2
What Is Digital Branding?
2
What Is Music Marketing 2.0?
2
The 6 Phases of Music Marketing
2
Music Marketing 2.0: The Digital Brand Manifesto 4
Maximum Exposure Tactics
5
Recruiting Brand Evangelists
5
Glossary
7
Author Bio
9
Cover Letter
10
Resume
11
Dexter Bryant Jr. | Digital Branding & Music Marketing Consultant |d b r y j m u s ic @ h o t m a il. c o m | 813.770.9991 | Twitter@ d B R Y J m u s ic
The Record Label’s Guide To Digital Branding & Music Marketing 2.0
Page 2
Introduction
I wrote this ebook to educate music business professionals about the many challenges and potential rewards of
marketing and branding in the digital space. Whether you’re a record label, publisher, manager, promoter, artist,
songwriter, band, musician, or other music professional, this ebook provides guidelines for implementing digital
strategies that will help you grow your fanbase and sell more music. Rest assured, these strategies and tactics
weren’t cooked up overnight. The ideas and opinions presented in this text are a direct result of the years I’ve spent
researching music marketing, digital branding, and music 2.0.
If you like what you read in this ebook I encourage you to share it with your network of friends, colleagues,
associates, and supervisors. Share with bands and artists who could benefit from this information. Blog it, tweet it,
ReTweet it, email it, Facebook it, link it, write about it, whatever you want— just do it. Sharing is caring and
knowledge is power.
If you are a music business traditionalist, the rebellious hippie views contained in this ebook will anger and frighten
you. So be it. Ignore my advice at your own peril.
What Is Digital Branding?
Digital branding is the shift from old and expensive advertising like TV spots, prints, etc., to branding using online
media, social networks, and interactive design.
[Source:h t t p : / / b r a n d b u i l d . e u / d i g i t a l - b r a n d i n g - t r e n d s - 2 0 1 0 /]
―Digital brand engagement is brand engagement with a key focus on communication via the web.‖
[Source:h t t p : / / e n . w i k i p e d i a . o r g / w i k i / D i g i t a l _ b r a n d _ e n g a g e m e n t]
What Is Music Marketing 2.0?
Music marketing 2.0 is based on the paradigms of music 2.0 (otherwise known as the ―new music business‖). The
principles of music 2.0 and music marketing 2.0 are the attention economy, the rise of pull marketing, content
syndication, and new business models for digital content.
The 6 Phases of Music Marketing
1. Distribution
2. Awareness
3. Discovery
4. Credibility
5. Engagement
6. Sustained Attention
Distribution
Configure outlets where your music can be downloaded and/or purchased online. iTunes is the most popular choice
for retail digital distribution, followed by Amazon. Once your music is plugged into these distribution outlets,
customers are able to acquire your content/product. If you foolishly skip this phase your marketing will inevitably
fail because no one will have any way getting your music.
Dexter Bryant Jr. | Digital Branding & Music Marketing Consultant |d b r y j m u s ic @ h o t m a il. c o m | 813.770.9991 | Twitter@ d B R Y J m u s ic
The Record Label’s Guide To Digital Branding & Music Marketing 2.0
Page 3
Awareness
Awareness goes hand in hand with discovery. Discovery involves making it easy for interested parties to find your
content during the discovery process. Awareness requires giving people a reason to seek you out in the first place.
Awareness is tantamount to market penetration. An effective brand strategy, strong brand positioning, and PR are
how you make people aware of you and your music. Awareness is created through word of mouth, PR, digital PR,
online buzz, touring, radio promo, sales promotions, activism and cause-based marketing, street marketing, and
features & credits on outside projects.
Discovery
Discovery involves any destination where your music can be found, shared, and recommended, and thus gain an
audience. To amplify the spread of your music you have to make it easy for people to find your music during the
discovery process. Music-based social networks are vital to gaining exposure because that’s where huge databases
of music are shared online. At every point of discovery, make sure you provide direct links to your distribution
outlets in order to increase sales of your music.
Credibility
Third parties co-sign the awesomeness of you and your music through reviews, features, endorsements, cross-
promotions, and the like. The more that sources like these support your music, the more credible you become in the
eyes of your market and the more backlinks you’ll get— leading to increased web traffic and exposure. High-profile
partnerships, endorsements, co-branding, and sponsorships are terrific ways to establish credibility with your
audience. Famous people, experts, DJs, promoters, managers, booking agents, label executives, social media buzz,
and award nominations (not to mention wins) can all help you establish credibility.
Engagement
Direct-to-fan (DTF) engagement and the cultivation of relationships are central to this phase. Collect fan emails and
pull their info from social networks. Research, document, and learn your fans’ tastes, preferences, desires, spending
habits, demographics, psychographics, etc. Communicate with fans and solicit feedback. Encourage community
contributions from fans--remixes, fan art, fanmade music videos, etc. Use crowd-sourcing to determine your best-
loved songs and apply that knowledge to your marketing. Use buzz monitoring, social monitoring, and web analytics
to gauge brand sentiment and respond in real-time to conversations around your brand.
Sustained Attention
New content must be released at intervals that create sustained audience attention. Balance is key. Provide just
enough content so that fans are always begging for more. Daily or weekly song releases? Weekly/monthly/bi-
monthly mixtape releases? These choices are yours to make.
Release too much content for a sane person to keep up with. In other words: feed each niche market you serve with
so much content that diehard fans are forced to stay active and engaged to keep from missing something or falling
behind.
In marketing, every play is a chess move. Move the game towards an explosive climax so that your audience is
always on the edge of their seats anticipating your next move. Feed audience frenzy and exceed expectations with
every climax. Follow-up by rebuilding tension. Roller coaster tension build-and-release is the cycle that keeps fans
engaged.
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