Decide What You Want
The most important military principle is the Principle of the Objective. This principle requires that you decide in advance exactly what it is that you are trying to accomplish. What exactly is your objective? In my experience, fully 80% of all problems in personal and music production life come from a lack of clarity with regard to objectives and goals.

Clarity Is Critical
Clarity of objective precedes all other elements in strategic thinking. Here are some questions that you can use over and over again to focus and clarify your objectives. The first question is, “What am I trying to do?” The second question is, “How am I trying to do it?” The third question is, “What are my assumptions?” And the fourth question is, “What if my assumptions were wrong?”

Question Assumptions
Having the courage to ask these questions, and to question your assumptions, both spoken and unspoken, is a key mark of the superior person. Sometimes individuals avoid questioning their assumptions for fear that they will have to change their minds or do something other than what they started out to do. However, false assumptions lie at the root of almost every failure. The only way that you can root out these wrong assumptions is by carefully analyzing them and discussing them, and then by demanding proof or evidence that these assumptions are still valid.

Project Forward In Your Mind
Another method for clarifying your objectives is for you to project forward and look backward. In other words, imagine that you have already achieved the objective that you are working toward. Project yourself forward in your mind and then look back to the present day, to the present moment. What do you see? What changes could you make looking back from this imaginary perspective of hindsight? This is a key peak performance thinking technique.

Determine Why You Want It
The final part of clarifying your objectives revolves around your identifying the reasons why you want to achieve this objective in the first place. Why is it important? Is it still as important as when you started off? Is this objective more important than any other objective that you could be working on? It is essential that you be clear about the answers to these questions.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to apply the principle of the objective to your personal and business life:

First, take out a piece of paper and answer the questions: “What am I trying to do?” What are your goals? What are your objectives? Why are you doing what you are doing in the first place? Is this the very best use of your time and energy?

Second, question your assumptions. What things are you assuming are true about yourself, the people around you and the situation? What if one of these assumptions turned out to be false? What changes would you have to make if you found that your most cherished assumptions were not based on reality, or were contradicted by facts?

Take Time to Think and Plan
Highly productive Indie Music Professionals take the time to think, plan and set priorities. They then launch quickly and strongly toward their goals and objectives. They work steadily, smoothly and continuously and seem to go through enormous amounts of work in the same time period that the average person spends socializing, wasting time and working on low value activities.

Getting into the “Flow”
When you work on high value tasks at a high and continuous level of activity, you can actually enter into an amazing mental state called “flow.” Almost everyone has experienced this at some time. Really successful Indie Music Professionals are those who get themselves into this state far more often than the average person. In the state of “flow,” which is the highest human state of performance and productivity, something almost miraculous happens to your mind and emotions. You feel elated and clear. Everything you do seems effortless and accurate. You feel happy and energetic. You experience a tremendous sense of calm and personal effectiveness.

Become Alert and Aware
In the state of “flow,” identified and talked about over the centuries, you actually function on a higher plane of clarity, creativity and competence. You are more sensitive and aware. Your insight and intuition functions with incredible precision. You see the interconnectedness of people and circumstances around you. You often come up with brilliant ideas and insights that enable you to move ahead even more rapidly.

Develop a Sense of Urgency
One of the ways you can trigger this state of flow is by developing a “sense of urgency.” This is an inner drive and desire to get on with the job quickly and get it done fast. This inner drive is an impatience that motivates you to get going and to keep going. A sense of urgency feels very much like racing against yourself.

Create a “Bias for Action”
With this ingrained sense of urgency, you develop a “bias for action.” You take action rather than talking continually about what you are going to do. You focus on specific steps you can take immediately. By employing this technique you concentrate on the things you can do right now to get the results you want and achieve the goals you desire.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, select one major task confronting you and launch into it immediately. Don’t hesitate. Move fast.

Second, start doing this every morning, first thing, until it becomes a habit.

ralphsutton.com/blog

The RSS Monster

Not too long ago, when you found a website you were interested in and wanted to stay on top off, you had two choices: 1) subscribe to the site’s e-zine and get updates by e-mail, or 2) bookmark the site by adding it to your browser’s favorites list (and you had to remember to visit it often).

In essence, an RSS feed allows you to subscribe to a website, which just happens to be a blog. You can subscribe to blogs using something called a news reader, feed reader or aggregator. These readers are popping up everywhere. The latest versions of the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers allow you to subscribe to feeds directly from the browser. You can also subscribe if you have a personalized 
page set up on Yahoo, AOL or Google. You can also use programs and sites such as NewsGator, Bloglines, Rojo, FeedDemon and others.

Viewpoint: If you’re not familiar with how these feed readers work, think about how your e-mail inbox operates. You open your e-mail program and all of your latest incoming e-mails pop-up, listed by subject line, with the most recent message at the top. Feed readers work in a similar way; open it up and all of the blogs you’ve subscribed to will show up, with the latest content at the top, usually with just the headline and maybe the first few lines of the blog post displaying. It’s a pretty awesome way to have only the information you want delivered to your desktop.

Eight cool things about blogs

You should get cozy with blogs. Here are some good reasons why:

1.    Blog messages don’t get trapped in spam filters. If someone subscribes to your music blog, they will always get your latest posts (as long as they check their readers).

2.    It’s easy to subscribe to a blog. And unsubscribe too. A fan simply adds your feed link to his or her news reader to subscribe. They can unsubscribe at any time by removing it from the reader.

3.    Blogs are easy to publish. Most bloggers use free automated services or software. Little knowledge of HTML is required. Use a template, enter your text, and publish. You’re an instant blogger.

4.    Search engines love blogs. Google and the rest eat up fresh content and reward websites that regularly update.

5.    It’s a great way to stay in touch with fans. Easily let people know about life on the road or how the new studio sessions are going.

6.    Other bloggers like to blog about blogs. Once you publish a blog, you’re part of the blogosphere where cross-pollination rules.

7.    A blog can be a great creative outlet. Expressing yourself in writing on a regular basis can be fulfilling and leaves a public record of your ideas and experiences.

8.    You can build a community and encourage interaction. Activate the comments feature on your blog and get immediate feedback to your questions, stories and rants.

As an Indie Music Professional if you’ve been shying away from the blog world, jump on in. The water is fine.

http://ralphsutton.com/blog

Indie Music Marketing and Web 2.0

What is Web 2.0?

The term “Web 2.0″ was coined in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci in her article, “Fragmented Future”.  DiNucci’s use of the term dealt mainly with Web design and aesthetics and she argued that the Web was “fragmenting” due to the widespread use of portable Web-ready devices. Her article was aimed at designers, reminding them to code for an ever-increasing variety of hardware. As such, her use of Web 2.0 hinted to the current use of the term.   Today, Web 2.0 represents the movement from static websites where users can only view information to web users now able to participate in online content creation through website interactivity, blogs and social media networks across multiple platforms.

Sounds good? Would you like to take your Indie Music marketing to the next level but you think you need help creating your own Web 2.0 strategy? Don’t hesitate to contact me for quick and easy techniques to get you moving in the right direction.

Success Leaves Tracks

When I began searching for the secrets of success many years ago, I discovered an interesting principle: success leaves tracks. A wise man who had studied success for more than 50 years concluded that the greatest success principle of all was, “learn from the experts.”

Learn From the Experts

If you want to be a big success in any area, find out what other successful people in that area are doing, and do the same things, until you get the same results. When I studied the interviews, speeches, biographies and autobiographies of successful men and women, I found that they all had one quality in common. They were all described as being “extremely well organized.” They used their time very, very well. They were highly productive and they got vastly more done in the same period of time than the average person.

Be Both Effective and Efficient

High performing men and women are both effective and efficient. They do the right things, and they do them in the right way. They are constantly looking for ways to improve the quality and quantity of their output. As a result, their contribution to their organizations was vastly higher and therefore much better paid, than the contributions of the average person.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action and your Indie Music Career infocus.

First, develop a study plan today to learn from the experts in your field. This can save you years of hard work.

Second, decide what is the most important thing to do, and then decide how to do it.

In the old scarcity economy model, the music that got stocked in stores, played on the air, and covered in the press was determined by what I call the “pre-filters.” They include record label executives, retail store buyers, program directors, editors, etc. Actually, these pre-filters are still very much a force to this day but, as I’ll show in a moment, their power is dwindling. So it’s this small elite group that decides what is worthy of entering the corporate pipeline. Their decisions are made in two ways:

1) They stock, broadcast and cover more of what has already proven itself popular, giving the general public more of what it seems to want.

2) Of the new artists and CDs that come out every month, the pre-filters predict what they think will be popular (in addition to giving prime retail placement to labels and distributors that pay for it).

Again, this system led to the black and white “hit or miss” mentality of the past several decades. The good news is that the Internet and digital technologies have created an abundance economy where everything and everybody have equal access to the marketplace online. The only problem is, the online marketplace is flooded with products and noise of all kinds. It would be easy for consumers to become overwhelmed and confused by all the choices. That’s where “post-filters” come in. Music fans don’t have to wade through everything to find the gems. They simply use some new tools and trusted sources to help them sort through it all. Here are just some of the post-filters that fans use today to find new music:

• Friends – personal recommendations from familiar people will always be the leading way that consumers discover new music, books, films and more.

• Customer reviews – being able to read what other people think of a given CD on Amazon or CD Baby influences a lot of purchase decisions.

• Popularity lists – they come in all shapes and sizes: most downloaded, top sellers, highest rated, most discussed.

• Blogs and podcasts – the new niche tastemakers are bloggers and podcasters who cater to narrow audiences.

• Genre-specific resources – From AllHipHop.com to Rockabilly Radio, people gather where their main interests are addressed.

• Search – when in doubt, fans “Google” their favorite genres and see what comes up.

Your job as a Indie Music Marketer is to tap into these sources. To make the best use of post-filters, do the following things:

• Encourage your current fans to share your music with their friends and make it easy to do so.

• When a fan sends you a glowing e-mail about your new CD, ask them to post their comments as a review on Amazon, CD Baby and more – and give them the links where they can do that.

• Ask all of your fans to go to a certain site on the same day and vote you to the top of one of the popularity charts.

• Search for the terms your fans use to find music like yours then try to gain exposure through the top sites you find.

Use open-source promotion

Another offshoot of this evolution is the blurring of the lines between people who produce creative content and those who consume it. Case in point: A several years ago the Beastie Boys gave digital camcorders to 50 fans at a show in New York City and asked them to record everything they saw. Group member Adam Yauch then combined his favorite bits from the 100-plus hours of footage into a feature film. Other examples:

• Janet Jackson solicited artwork from her fans and incorporated some of the best ideas into her CD cover.

• Barenaked Ladies (who did not renew a contract with Warner Music Group and are now independent) made the ProTools tracks to 29 of their songs available to fans who wanted to do their own remixes of them.

That’s in stark contrast to the old major-label habit of protecting copyrights at all costs. These days, the smartest musicians, managers and indie labels are redefining what intellectual property and promotion are. In this new era, artists aren’t the only ones who do the creating while fans passively sit by and wait to be fed the latest music. Now everyone has an opportunity to express themselves. Use this to your advantage. Co-create with your fans. Ask them to help you produce videos, artwork, T-shirt designs, even alternate versions of your recorded music.

Bottom line: Get fans involved and allow them to be co-creators in your success story!

These are just some of The Rules To Indie Music Marketing, and they are some of  the most important ones. Focus on them and you will see more results, more fans, and more money.

I Got Good News And Bad

This is great news for indie artists. Unfortunately, the old scarcity business model is so ingrained in our culture, it has lead to many unfounded beliefs, such as:

• If it isn’t a hit, it’s a miss

• The only success is mass success

• “Independent” = “They couldn’t get a deal”

• Low-selling = low-quality

• If it were good, it would be popular

Fortunately, a growing number of creative entrepreneurs are figuring out ways to make the most of this new “abundance economy” where practically everything is available to the public, where the cream rises to the top based on what consumers actually want, and where you can make an impact (and a living) without ever ranking on the Billboard Hot 100 list.

So, what kind of world do you want to live in? One of scarcity, hits and misses? Or one of abundance, hits and niches? The choice is ultimately up to you.

This is the age of the empowered music fan

Another big change the Internet has brought involves the evolution of the techsavvy, modern music consumer. This is crucial to your future success with music, so read carefully:

Old-school music business: Back in the day, record labels would determine who the ideal audience was for a given act. Then they would hunt down those specific types of fans via targeted radio stations, magazines, concert venues, retail outlets, etc.

As I mentioned earlier, music consumers had limited ways of gaining access to new music, so they relied on commercial, programmed media sources to filter new artists to them. Sure, some adventurous fans made the extra effort to dig for new music via “alternative” sources such as fanzines, college radio stations, mix tapes, etc. But most people weren’t willing to work that hard to discover new sounds.

So music consumers were mostly prey reactive to the efforts major labels made to track them down and feed them the latest music. That’s where the term “target marketing” comes from. You aim your marketing message at your prey and fire away.

New-school music landscape: Today music fans are in control. They rely less and less on programmed, spoon-fed media sources and are finding it easier than ever to discover new music on their own. Using an iPod, FaceBook, satellite radio, Internet downloads, podcasts, TiVo and more … members of the digital generation are determining what they want to hear, when they want to hear it, and how.

Hunted become the hunters

Consumers who in the past were primarily hunted down by the music industry system have now become proactive hunters, empowered to choose the music that’s best suited for them. This shift has thrown the creation, promotion and distribution of music into a tailspin.

That’s one of the biggest concepts I’ve been marveling at lately. For years I’ve been talking about “artist empowerment” and how musicians should take their careers into their own hands. But what needs to be equally stressed is the huge shift toward “music fan empowerment” and “consumer empowerment.”

Insight: For a long time now I’ve repeated this mantra that “we live in an incredible era of self-expression and self-empowerment.” And it’s true. But these opportunities don’t exist only for artists. They’re available to everyone.

And that’s why sites like FaceBook, Flickr and YouTube are so popular. They give average people a chance to express themselves, connect with other people, and discover hip new things.

Get into the discovery zone

Consumers today don’t respond very well to being “marketed to” in the traditional ways. However, they are more passionate than ever about discovering new music. It’s just that now they prefer to discover it on their own or through the recommendation of a friend or trusted blogger, podcaster, music magazine, etc.
As an indie artist, what should you do in this environment?

You should still understand who your ideal fan is and actively seek them out. Simultaneously, you need to put yourself in the best position to be “discovered” not by a record label A&R rep, but by a curious music fan in search of his or her new favorite song or artist.

Word to the wise: The best way to promote yourself online in today’s environment is to think outside the box of your own personal web site. Yes, you want to use your own domain name as a home base that you steer potential fans and customers to. In addition, it’s vitally important that you leave traces of yourself all over the Internet.

That’s why you need to establish a small presence in all the places where your ideal fans congregate online. Get set up on FaceBook and YouTube. Publish a blog and a podcast and video content. Post your own online press releases that get picked up by music news site feeds. In short, give people an easy way to find you online and a reason to talk about you once they do.

With that said  be sure to come back next week for Part #3. I will share with you my experience on why fans need filter, and be sure to leave a post, I want to hear from you.

Peace of Mind
The first of these seven ingredients of success, and easily the most important, is peace of mind. It is the highest human good. Without it, nothing else has much value. In corporations, peace of mind can be measured in terms of the amount of harmony that exists among coworkers. The wonderful truth about peace of mind is that it is your normal natural condition. It is the basic precondition for enjoying everything else.

Health and Energy
The second ingredient of success is health and energy. Just as peace of mind is your normal and natural mental state, health and energy is your normal and natural physical state. If you achieve all kinds of things in the material world, but lose your health then you will get little or no pleasure from your other accomplishments. So imagine yourself enjoying perfect health, and think of how you would be if you were your ideal image of physical fitness. Then strive for your mental goal of fitness and health.

Loving Relationships
The third ingredient of success is loving relationships. These are relationships with the people you love and care about, and the people who love and care about you. They are the real measure of how well you are doing as a human being. At almost any time, you can measure how well you are doing in your relationship by one simple test: laughter. This is true for companies as well. High-performance, high profit organizations are those in which people laugh and joke together. Examine your relationships, one by one, and develop a plan to make each of them enjoyable and satisfying.

Financial Freedom
The fourth ingredient of success is financial freedom. Achieving your financial freedom is one of the most important goals and responsibilities of your life. A feeling of freedom is essential to the achievement of any other important goal, and you cannot be free until and unless you have enough money so that you are no longer preoccupied with it. When you decide exactly what you want your financial picture to look like, you will be able to use this system to achieve your goals faster than you might have imagined possible.

Worthy Goals and Ideals
The fifth ingredient of success is worthy goals and ideals. To be truly happy, you need a clear sense of direction. You need to feel that your life stands for something, that you are somehow making a valuable contribution to your world.

Self Knowledge and Self-Awareness
The sixth ingredient of success is self-knowledge and self-awareness. To perform at your best you need to know who you are and why you think and feel the way you do. It is only when you understand and accept yourself that you can begin moving forward in other areas of your life.

Personal Fulfillment
The seventh ingredient of success is personal fulfillment. This is the feeling that you are becoming everything that you are capable of becoming. It is the sure knowledge that you are moving toward the realization of your full potential as a human being.

Action Exercise
Take the brush of your imagination and begin painting a masterpiece on the canvas of your life. It is for you to decide clearly what would make you the happiest in everything you are doing.

Here’s the deal… more than a billion people now have Internet access around the planet. That’s a lot of people and a lot of opportunities at your fingertips. It can also be bewildering, as the number of new music sites and the variety of online tools continue to grow at dizzying rates. Just when you get a handle on how to promote yourself effectively with existing web-based tools, something new comes along to cloud your vision and fill up your to-do list. Not to worry. In this post, I’ll give you a quick crash course on what’s new and what’s most important to know about marketing your music on the Internet today. If you read my post titled, The Music Business has Changed What About You? it was a real eye-opener. If you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor and do so, because in it I write about the changing face of the entertainment industries.

For decades we lived in a scarcity economy. We were introduced to new music, books and films via retail outlets, radio, TV and print publications but all of these avenues of exposure had physical limitations. There was only so much shelf space, airtime and editorial pages to fill. So in order to appeal to the widest audience and turn a profit, only those things that were determined to be the most popular were stocked or covered.

Reality: This lead to a lop-sided cultural mentality.  A book, band or movie was either a big hit or a giant dud. There was little ground in between the two extremes of popularity. You were either part of the system or an outsider.

Then came online retailers such as Amazon and Netflix, which were not constrained by the physical space limitations of traditional sellers. For example, the average Borders bookstore carries about 100,000 titles, while Amazon offers nearly 4 million books. The average Blockbuster carries about 3,000 DVDs, while Netflix offers close to 60,000. The average Wal-Mart store carries about 4,500 music CDs (filled with more than 55,000 individual tracks), while the online music subscription service Rhapsody offers more than 1.5 million individual tracks. And guess what? About 25% of the total revenues on Amazon and Netflix come from products not available in retail stores. On Rhapsody, that figure is about 40%. Yes, from titles outside the hit list. CNet’s overwhelming research concludes that  when given unlimited choice (along with the ability to filter through the choices), people will stray from the hits and spend a considerable amount of money on non-mainstream products.

Come back next week for more information on how to market your music online.  I would like to also hear about your experiences with Indie Music Marketing online, so drop me a line today.