The information in this article is to help you break through the concrete wall of the music industry. The statement below is an excerpt from the e-book The System by Cool Water.
Once you have completed the grueling process of making an album, now it’s time to put the System to work in your favor. If you are like most artists, you cannot fathom putting your product in the stores without the help of the record company. Well, that is what the music industry would like you to believe that you have to be dependent on them. Breaking the psychological chains can be frustrating at times with no money. While BET, MTV, and other stations, show you a lavish lifestyle of how things could be if you sold millions of records, this is not always the case for most artists.
To begin to build the buzz, you need to gain the public’s attention by doing something abnormal to the eye. Putting out 2,500 flyers a month is your first starting point. If you are consistent, people will begin to notice you are promoting yourself regularly. All the world’s’ progress depends upon the unreasonable person. Just think if Bill Gates would have not dropped out of college and created Microsoft, there probably would not be a Microsoft. What if Russell Simmons decided to listen to his dad and finish school there would be no Def Jam (LL Cool J to Young Jeezy).
Following your intuition is the most important thing one can do. After placing flyers into the public domain, then comes the act of staying original. The more you do not look familiar, the better your chances of staying ahead of the pack. Putting out flyers will keep people in touch with what you are doing weekly. Next is the process of moving the product. Start with the out of the trunk effect. Selling your product out of the trunk gets instant exposure of your product to the people. From this point, build a route of retail stores (mom and pop) gas stations that you can place your product in and sell products without your physically having to be there. Independent gas stations are always looking to make money with a product that looks like it is worth their time.
After you have ten to fifteen stores who want to do business with you, then the next phase is doing shows. Doing shows helps place the face with the product. The trick to this is keeping the tornado twirling, so it does not burn out. After a period of a year or so, then people will begin talking and looking at what you are doing. Finally, work the Internet, Soundcloud is a great place to start.
Finally, Facebook is another excellent place to allow people to know you are out there working your music. Use your Hotmail or Yahoo as much as possible. By you sending out e-mails once a week, it puts folks on blast about your product. You will start to break the mold in the industry by doing these things.
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