Your Music Marketing: Speedy And Aware?

SSometimes speed and playing too busy can become a crutch in many ways. To really have the ability and knowledge of how you are tracking your progress and your ability, sometimes you have to lay on the brakes.

Tracking Progress

As a music producer, in preproduction I used to have the bands play songs much more slowly than they normally would to see how solid things were when you take away the speed.

The same thing went for individual artists and their solos or separate parts. In many cases, playing a blazing fill or lick, or whatever, is all too often crutched by the speed. Many musicians work to be able to play things faster and faster as a benchmark, but how well can you play a part or even sing a part very slowly.

How good is the technique, especially with the new space that has been introduced? How confident does it sound? How clean does it sound? Does it sound in time for the time and tempo it is being played now or does it feel rushed? How are you tracking your progress when it comes to your playing?

Music marketing with Loren: speedy and aware

Slowing things down is just one way to check out the technique, but also to see exactly what is there when space is introduced. It is a great practice tip, and, lastly, it will make your faster speeds be that much more precise, together and locked in.

On that same note, taking away instruments and listening to what something sounds like alone or what a song sounds like without the bass, the drums or a guitar can help you really understand what is working and what might be a crutch.

Of course something would be missing, but how could a part be played a little stronger or maybe a certain line doesn’t need to be brought back, because it is already clearly and strongly stated even without that instrument there?

These are all great tricks to try in the practice room, in the studio or in the writing phases.

These same tricks can be applied to your promotion, too, when it comes down to your music marketing and the marketing mix of things. Sometimes artists get so locked into either posting too much, posting too little, not looking to see the results, the conversions, the reactions or the adds, likes, retweets, follows and sales.

Slow it down, put up ads for shorter periods, make a posting plan for blogs, videos, song samples or special merchandise and then after the plan has been completed, take the time to look at what was working and what didn’t. This can help you see if you are viewed with a good reputation or if you are coming off as spammy as well as what is really effective and what isn’t.

Too many people take to social media promotion, marketing and advertising like they are just blindly throwing things at the wall to see what sticks and, well, what sells. They don’t slow down to smell the flowers or better yet how many flowers bloomed and where.

By slowing down the tempo, you can find the strengths, refine the weaknesses and see a larger picture. You are able to really get a sense of not only how you are delivering the message, but even more important, how it is being received. Put time in to slowing down to find the best ways to speed up and grow your visibility, sales, fan base and networking in the music business.

Loren Weisman is an accomplished music producer, author and music consultant. He is the author of “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business”, a book to help independent artists, musicians, bands, labels and managers achieve self sufficient and sustainable success. For more info on Loren and music consulting services, visit: lorenweisman.com/musicconsulting

A version of this article originally appeared on lorenweisman.com. We are grateful to Loren for his allowing the republication of his material on Dotted Music’s blog.