A lot of ambition and only a few Euros? Neil Cartwright, a British pioneer of digital music business, devoted his workshop “Ten Ways To Promote Your Music On A Budget Of Less Than € 1,000” to marketing strategies that promise maximum results with minimal monetary use.
As so often in life, the same applies to the broad field of marketing: It does not depend on what you do, but how you do it. Therefore, it initially seemed a little trivial when Neil Cartwright first praised YouTube as a priority tool for the promotion of music at his workshop. Of course, the video portal is free of charge and makes music, at least in theory, accessible across the globe. This could even make sense to medial inexperienced musicians. But as a practical man and head of digital development at Media Junction, one of the most progressive music agencies of Britain, Cartwright seeks to identify the channels that raise attention, away from the own friends and acquaintances. It’s all about the brilliant idea, certain unique features and the resulting momentum. YouTube is only as good as the creativity of individual users. Those who believe in panaceas, have long since lost. Cartwright’s favorite example of a successful deal with YouTube is the clip of OK Go with Here It Goes Again. The video with the misused treadmills caused such a viral stir, that it was featured on The Simpsons as well as The Sims, and even an animated Lego version of the OK Go’ic success can be found everywhere on the web. A prime example of contemporary marketing, which costs were limited only to the production of the video.
Cartwright’s main message of the workshop was about helping people help themselves. Besides, the “how?”, the answers to the “why?” were just as central and were vividly demonstrated with marketing tools such as Soundcloud, mailing lists, tagging or websites. And even if the recommendation for the regular distribution of newsletters, as well as the advice to use YouTube may have sounded kind of trivial, Cartwright took the theme from the abstraction by providing representative data from both the perception and the return flow of emitted information. In the vernacular it is called “the more the better”, but musicians should be aware that even in terms of promotion and marketing, the dose makes the poison.
Neil Cartwright visualizations of the workshop “Ten Ways To Promote Your Music On A Budget Of Less Than € 1,000” can be found on the internet at .
Johannes Luxner
translated from the German by Doris Miyung Brady
https://www.mediajunction.com/