Promotion

[themilkhouse]

Okay, so I just recently opened up a small studio in Boston, and I'm looking for some ideas for promotion. Preferably low-budget promotion.

Obviously we're doing the Myspace thing. Going to shows. Putting up flyers. Blah blah blah.

For those of you who own and operate small studios, what have you found to be really effective for getting sessions booked?

If anyone is interested, here are a couple links so you know what you're dealing with:

<a href="http://www.myspace.com/themilkhouse">our myspace</a>
<a href="http://www.themilkhouse.com">our website</a>

(most of the audio clips are from my old home studio, and as such, sound atrocious. just thought i'd get that out of the way before the feedback starts rolling in)

[The Byre]

1. Put up a conventional website. Animations and noises only serve to annoy and usually cannot be viewed by people when they are at work. People want information like kit lists, prices, past customers and location and not clever web design. I had no idea who or what you are, as all links past your opening page were blocked by our wirewall. Other links like blog and profile lead to nothing.

2. Go to gigs and netork.

3. Don't bother with My Space. It's just the electronic version of everybody shouting at once and nobody is listening. If I want to find out about something or somebody, I look on the Web via Alta Vista or Google.

[themilkhouse]

I agree, for the most part, with your comment about Myspace. It is generally an ineffective promotion tool. However, about 95% of my clients have a Myspace profile, and whether i like it or not, about 95% of my future clients probably will too. It would be completely foolish to completely ignore that. So yeah, sometimes I message bands on Myspace. And I would say that I usually get 2-3 gigs every month as a result.

As for my website:

Yes, flash-based pages can be distracting. I'll most likely be moving to an HTML based site within the month. But on the same token, musicians are creative people. Recording is a creative industry. Many of my clients are in the 19-25 age range, and "cool factor" plays a huge role in my success. If i laid my site out to look like yours, I'm fairly certain that I would frequently hear comments that it looks like the website for a Retirement Community.

I do appreciate the input though. And I will be taking steps to ensure that the website is easier to navigate and than information is more clearly displayed.

Oh, and I'm going to shows almost every night. I think I have the networking game pretty much down. And in America, Myspace plays a role in that.

[temetrepo]

word of mouth has been the best one for me. I started with one client, now most of the time i'm booked full for a few weeks straight and new people keep calling for studio time around here. All thanks to the existing clients showing the work they've done here

[Cojo]

Originally Posted by themilkhouse

As for my website:

Yes, flash-based pages can be distracting. I'll most likely be moving to an HTML based site within the month. But on the same token, musicians are creative people. Recording is a creative industry. Many of my clients are in the 19-25 age range, and "cool factor" plays a huge role in my success. If i laid my site out to look like yours, I'm fairly certain that I would frequently hear comments that it looks like the website for a Retirement Community.

Flash don't make a site "cool", the design does, and that can be done without flash! I guess your flyers looks cool, do they have flash in them!?

[themilkhouse]

Originally Posted by Cojo

Flash don't make a site "cool", the design does, and that can be done without flash! I guess your flyers looks cool, do they have flash in them!?

Yup. And they play OggVorbis files. And make coffee. And predict the weather.

[Cojo]

Originally Posted by themilkhouse

Yup. And they play OggVorbis files. And make coffee. And predict the weather.

[not_so_new]

Actually many of the ideas here on this thread are great.

Sorry if this seems like spam, it think it is relevant to the thread (mods feel free to delete it if you want). My woman owns a marketing ad firm that specializes in promotional items and consulting for small business start ups. She does AMAZING work (I can tell because her clients love her) and she is reasonably priced. If you are interested in her contact info shoot me a PM.

[JonCraig]

there's a series of books called "guerilla marketing". search on amazon and buy one/some/all. they're what you're looking for.

--jon

[Jules]

Website pissed me off as I couldnt access photos quickly enough..

How about a free studo time competition with a local radio station / local music mag.

[Makinithappen]

Originally Posted by Jules

Website pissed me off as I couldnt access photos quickly enough..

How about a free studo time competition with a local radio station / local music mag.

This is what our place does. A couple of the bigger venues in town have "Battle of the Bands" competitions and we sponser them with free time. 1rst place is 20 free hours with us, second place is a case of beer type things. Anyhow. It has proved very beneficial because

1) These venues have radio commercials everywhere and at the end of each commercial, it mentions our place.

2)At one of the bigger places, as soon as you walk in the door there's a giant banner with the name of our place.

3)Bands ALWAYS want more than 20 hours so we still get a couple of days of paid work out of it.

4)These bands have just beat out a ton of other bands on different nights and it is rare that they completely suck

5)Bands that play out that much have lots of friends in the band/bar scene and for every "Battle" band you get, you also get 3 or 4 of their friends bands.

[themilkhouse]

Originally Posted by Makinithappen

This is what our place does. A couple of the bigger venues in town have "Battle of the Bands" competitions and we sponser them with free time.

i've actually thought about this. i really like the idea for all of the points you listed. i have't really put too much effort into making it happen yet, as it was just one idea out of about thirty. but since i've actually confirmed that it's worked for someone else, i'm going to get on it.

thanks.

[Makinithappen]

Originally Posted by themilkhouse

i've actually thought about this. i really like the idea for all of the points you listed. i have't really put too much effort into making it happen yet, as it was just one idea out of about thirty. but since i've actually confirmed that it's worked for someone else, i'm going to get on it.

thanks.

Well. There is also a downside. Once every 2 1/2 months or so, the studios has to convince one of our four engineers to work 20 hours for free or very cheap. Doesn't sound like a big deal but when I get picked...it gets a lot harder to show up to the session with a big smile on.

Oh well. Sometimes it ends up being a ton of fun.