Be Your Own Music PublicistAn E-Book to help you release your music

yourself, just the way music pros do it!

© Copyright 2017 by Mike MutenyoAll Rights Reserved

www.terazonewmedia.com

TABLE OF CONTENTSCONTENT

Cover

Preface

Table of Contents

Welcome

Get the mastered copy of your song

Shoot a Music Video or Prepare a Lyric Video

Open an email address

Get emails of DJs, Radio Producers, TV producers, Bloggers

Set The Song Release Date and Design the Artwork

Social Media and Sharing Artwork on Social Media

YouTube Account

Write a Press Release

Release the Music Video

Media Tour/Secure Interviews

About Author

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WELCOME

Dear Artiste,

Veterans in the music business all over the world have one thing incommon; they say success in music is 10% talent and 90% hard work (or smart work as some of you may call it). Therefore, if you believe you’ve got the talent and the self drive to succeed as a musician, this e-book is for you.

The book is not exhaustive because the music business is wide and its marketing landscape is ever changing but it has the fundamentals of planning and pulling o� your next song release with the leastresources at your disposal, yourself. What you need is plenty of internet, dedication and weed! Ok, I’m kidding on the last one As the title suggests, this little book contains ‘Do It Yourself’ tasks that you normally pay for or ignore them altogether when you are releasing your music.

All the Best!Regards,Mike

GET THE MASTERED AUDIO�Get the �nal mix of the song from your producer. A good producer ensures the song recording, mixing and mastering is done on time. The audio should be sent to you both in MP3 and Wav format (preferably the highest quality of 320kbps) and in three piece; the Full song, Vocals and Instrumental.

Once you have the audio, listen to the song yourself uncountable times, to bond with it and also note if there is anything you might have wanted to be in it and the producer might have missed. Add the song onto a playlist on your mp3 player, computer or mobile phone and play all those songs nonstop. This playlist should include hit songs, both local and internation-al, to assist you notice if the mastering of your song is at par with the songs doing well on the market. The audience is the same, remember. Excellent products have a set standard too, remember.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

SHOOT A MUSIC VIDEO ORPREPARE A LYRIC VIDEO

Whether you want to release the song with a music video or a lyric video, it squarely lies with you as an artiste. It depends on the plan you have in terms of releases and how you want to get them out to your fans and also the availability of funds to shoot a good video.

One point to note if you are releasing a music video is that ensure you have a good budget to enable you enlist the services of a very good video director, script writer and everything that goes into getting a good product. A bad or sub standard product is hard to sell and yet music is a commodity that is dependent on people’s emotions. You have to capture the listener’s attention and their emotions for the song to get on rotation on radio and TV shows and also for people to hit the share button once they have listened or watched it.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

OPEN AN EMAIL ADDRESSOpen an o�cial email to use for your music and music business stu�. This email should be professional and have elements of your stage name in it. Remember, there is beauty in simplicity. E.g. if your stage name is Band Beca, open thebandbeca@gmail.com or bandbecamusic@gmail.com

If you happen to already have a website and a customized email derived from your domain e.g. bookings@thebandbeca.co.ke the better, it makes you look more professional and serious as a musician.

Upload your pro�le photo or logo on the email to give it authenticity when it hits someone’s mail box. It is very easy for the email receiver to mark a strange email as spam if it lacks a pro�le photo.

Add an email signature, for it to be included at the end of each email you send. The main components of a signature are your stage name, phone number, email address and social media handles.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

GET EMAILS OF DJS,RADIO PRODUCERS,TV PRODUCERS, BLOGGERS�

Now, with your email address set, you need contacts. The music industry is always growing and the business model is ever evolving, music is no longer sent out to the media on CDs and tapes; we have email. It is e�ective, cheaper and faster. Therefore, getting emails of the industry people should be your next task, this appears hard especially if you are starting out but we have three ways to get them.

The �rst option is to buy an updated contact list from a Music Publicist, Music PR Company or Music Label. Few of them do sell though, as it takes years and e�ort to build an updated and detailed list. The second option is to create yours. This is what you should do. For a start, identify 100 DJs, Radio Producers, TV producers, Bloggers. Head on to their pro�les especially Twitter and Instagram, 80% of them have their emails on there, as that’s how they get booked for gigs and get feedback from their fans. For those who do not have their email addresses on social media, send them a message or DM. Ask for one. Third if you are friends with an established musician, publicist or music manager, ask them to help you with their contact list.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

SET THE SONG RELEASE DATE

DESIGN ARTWORK

Set it at least two weeks in advance.This is very important as it will make your mind stay �xed on a speci�c date therefore you will have the discipline to ensure all is set by the day of the song release.This also creates anticipation in people who are looking forward to the song release.

Get it done by a professional graphic designer. The artwork should have The Song Title, Your Stage, Name, Date of release, Name of producer (optional) and Name of video director (optional) and your social media handles. Remember, there is beauty in simplicity. Good graphic designers know this. Research what other musicians, who do your genre, are doing. In terms of what their posters include and which ones stand out. Copy that. There is no harm in that. Give it to the designer as a sample from where he or she will draw inspiration from.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

DESIGN ARTWORKIf in doubt on the work done by the designer, send a few people who have a keen eye for art, even to that designer you cannot a�ord but you look up to, whatever opinion they will give you, trust them as they are good at what they do and can spot mediocre a design from a far.

WARNING! Do not release poorly done artwork. DO NOT. This can make your song hit the trash bin even before someone has listened or watched it. You will need people to share the artwork before and after the song has come out, which they won’t do if the artwork is bad and majority won’t tell you it is bad.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

SOCIAL MEDIAOpen social media accounts if you do not have. At the moment these three are the in thing; Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, although it all depends on your target audience; their age and the platforms they are more likely to be found more on. Research more on this and choose which channel to run with, but social media is very important as it gives you online visibility even if your audience is not here.

Improve the Social Media Accounts to look professional and research a bit on what type of content is appropriate for your audience as this is what will attract targeted followers e.g. presenters, DJs and show hosts who are very key to artistes as it is through this that they will pick up your new music thereby tremendously helping with the promoting and marketing of your new material.

Upload your pro�le photo or logo on all your social media accounts and ensure there is uniformity. Update them at least twice a day or even more but not too much to become a nuisance to your followers.

WARNING! Do not set you brand’s account on private mode on Twitter and Instagram. What is the essence of social media anyway if it isn’t social? Whatever your reason is, if you want to separate your music life from personal life, have a personal account. This you can set to private mode and then use it to interact with family and friends on a personal level.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

SHARE ARTWORKON SOCIAL MEDIA

Start sharing at least one week to the release date or even for days to, the intention here is to avoid burn out or too much waiting till the anticipa-tion dies.

Get good and catchy captions to accompany the artwork every time you share it. Check the spelling too before you hit the share button!Check the most appropriate time to share the artwork as the intention is to share it when most of your followers are online.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

YOUTUBE ACCOUNT�Open one if you do not have.

Upload channel artwork and details for people to know whose channel it is.

Optimize it for ad words (to enable to get paid when ads are played to people before your song plays). There is too much information on ad words from Google itself.

Customize your YouTube URL e.g. www.youtube.com/thebandbeca. At the moment you can only do this once you hit more than ten channel subscribers and your channel is more than a month old. If it’s a new account do not stress yourself on this.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

WRITE A PRESS RELEASEThis is a document you write to brief the recipients of your new music especially the media about the song.

There are a lot of templates online to use to write a short and precise press release. Proof read to ensure there are no typos.

Main components of a press release are: The title, Artiste, theme of the song, music producer, music video producer and brief biography of the musician.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

RELEASE THE MUSIC�Get the YouTube link of the new song; include it in the press release.Paste the press release in the email or you can attach it then followed by the three piece; send to the DJ contacts you have.

The same email but with only the press release and song (remove the vocals and instrumentals), email to the remaining contacts; Radio Producers, TV producers, Bloggers.

Share the YouTube Link of the new song on your social media pages and musical Whatsapp groups you are in.

For those contacts you sent the song especially DJs and radio and producers, tag them the song on social media for visibility just in case they did not see your email.

If you have friends who are established musicians or have a huge following on social media, take advantage of that and ask them to share your new song. If it is a good one thing for sure is that they will share! They can’t risk seeing you blow up without being part of the glory of course.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

MEDIA TOUR/SECURE INTERVIEWS

You can secure services of a music publicist or music pr agency to do this for you but if cash strapped, do it yourself!

Reach out to contacts that you have and let them know you have a new song and you would like to secure an interview to talk about it.

This can be online or events or even a one on one introduction to these media people by a friend.

Step by step you will create your own contact list and if your music is good they will be calling you themselves for interviews.

The only way to be an expert at securing these interviews is to network more and more. Nothing beats face to face communication. This is how the music community or industry will get to know you personally and be able to identify more with you.

Get out and attend events, meet ups and ensure you get to know at least three people at the end of each meet up.

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

ABOUT THE AUTHOR�

Mike Mutenyo is a creative entrepreneur with keen interest in Music, Arts and Digital Media. He is the CEO of Terazo New Media, Kenya’s leading agency in Music PR, Artiste Representation, Celebrity Bookings and Artiste Branding Consultancy. Their clients include some of the most recognizable musicians in East Africa.Mike is a strong believer in the new music business model which places emphasis on self motivated musicians who are ready and willing to break traditions and boundaries in order to achieve success in music.Click HERE to visit Terazo New Media’s website and learn more.

Mike Mutenyo

B E Y O U R O W N M U S I C P U B L I C I S T by M I K E M U T E N Y O

@MikeMutenyo

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