Ideas on Marketing a Metal Band!

This is another one of those “how to promote your band” articles I do every couple of months; I generally stumble across a lot of info like this on the web. Mainly because I’m obsessed with the whole marketing thang but more importantly it helps us, as a band, put together a strategy for really pushing us hear and letting people find what we do.

As a band we work and meet with a lot at other bands and artists in search of getting that lucrative deal because let’s face it everyone wants to be able to tell their boss to fuck off and go on tour with the likes of Slayer, Machine Head and Def Leppard, don’t they?

Ok maybe the last one is just me, but doesn’t it all break down into marketing anyway, and how we allow other people and industry moguls/ Mongols to find our music.

How many times have we heard a band in an empty pub/club playing to 1 person and his mate?You could be the best band in the world but if you don’t tell anyone how will anyone know? Don’t rely on your promoter 9/10 he/she doesn’t give a shit!

“Many companies invest 35% to 65% or more of their profits back into
marketing and advertisements every year. Becoming and remaining number one
requires a lot of work. Advancing to more and more new customers not only
requires more and more marketing but keeping the old ones happy! “

This is a great quote, I found it at.

http://www.articlecity.com/articles/music_and_movies/article_641.shtml

But it makes sense, ok as unsigned musicians, we don’t have a lot of cash to throw about, but it does show were our priorities as a band (or company) should lie.

Promoting a band these days consists of either a myspace page or Twitter, get a CD and sell T-shirts, right?

Wrong!

Promotion of a company uses email, giveaways, Competitions, mini DVD discs promo’s, cold calling, internet marketing etc. You must do at least 3 forms of promoting to get a response out of your audience. The newsiest one for bands is musicmp3 ringtones and Video Games. So why don’t we adopt this strategy when developing our B(r)and.

Here’s a few alternative ways to promote I stole from another site:

• Great item that I have seen so far are mini DVD discs called pocket reels. GOTO www.pocketreels.com for more info on how to pick them up. These mini DVDs can go a far way just think what people would do if you handed them a mini DVD. They go crazy and they are super impressed! Place a nice video of your band on it and see how many new customers you receive at your next show!



• Having a photograph (Like Kuroii) or a videographer at your shows (Like Tim Johnson) to help promote your band is a good thing. They can take pictures and or videos and upload the images or videos to your website which can boost mailing lists and a fan club! And then they may be compelled to come to your next show and bring more friends or soak in the opportunities for fame and the live music experience itself.



• That brings us to a mailing list, each visitor to your website you should be collecting their email address so you can send them useful information like when your next show is going to be.



• Promoting your band is not easy so do yourself a favor and get a good publicist to promote your band. A good one can get you in 3 to 4 magazines and newspapers in one month for free, of course you have to pay the publicist but it will be well worth it. It can range from £400 to £2000. Note you can do this part yourself if you know how to negotiate with editors. 5. Promote your band by creating a really cool website! You’ve found ours but look into ways of finding a page to call home and use all the Social Networking sites to direct traffic to it.



• NB make sure you can edit content on your site without a third party, this is a common mistake a lot of businesses & bands make, you’ll need your update your special offers, gigs, and shows of course.



• Make a professional music video for your band or gig. This will help with promoting your band. High quality Video can be found at many locations for a crew with experience. for people who want an affordable video in the Southport & Northwest area please contact Tim 7. Saving the best for last.



• Another great way to promote your band is by making a mp3 ringtone, or polyphonic ringtone for example you can download a nickelback ringtone and wow free advertising everytime someone calls that person and bam there is a song on your phone. You need help making your own mp3 or polyphonic ringtone please go to A-FREE-RINGTONE.COM By making a ringtone like nickelback you can have your song ringing all over the world!

Your goal is to continue to reach more and more locals. Develop more ways to attract people’s attention. Always have something on you to promote yourself with.

Hope this helps

Till next time!!!
\m/

Sa-da-ko - Southport Haiti Buskathon

We've been getting involved with a lot of events around the local area this week, so much so we played a local charity night in aid of The Haiti appeal.
Good fun was had by all, if you would like more info regarding how your band can get involved with the Southport Buskathon please connect the chaps on their website.

In the meantime this video was taken by band chum Tim Johnson:

Sick Ass Metal in Manchester

We are seriously gigging it up to the max at the moment, so much so, as I write this I’m pretty much hungover and exhausted from The Manchester Metal Collective’s All Dayer that we played yesterday.

I have to admit the lads there pulled of a reet good day of music, mayhem, and beer filled magic but with over 40 bands to organise and 4 stages to sort out it was kind of showing that the crew were struggling a bit to keep a tight ship.

Never the less we did our thing and managed to catch some of the best metal bands the North West has to offer. You can check out the line up at the MMC website & Manchester Metal Collective Facebook Page.

Also this week we the Lads over at Spine of God Reviews have been in touch with a review of our Battle of the bands Heat in Preston last week, I thought I would leave you with this Sa-da-ko article so you can see how we got on:

Till next time

Sa-da-kO
\M/

Get In The Ring, Battle Of The Bands, Round 2

The second edition of the battle of the bands saw a much heavier line up compete for the Preston crown.
Opening the night was Apollyon. Intensity was delivered in its purest form by these extreme metal nutters as they blasted through three songs of pure brutality. The immense guitar skills of Glen Brazier were the driving force behind the endless assault that never lost effect.

The band was quite textured and occasional melodic
interludes made Apollyon varied enough to stand out against other extreme acts.

Providing a slightly more melodic set was the crushing Servosi.
Servosi had a brilliant backbone with the drumming of Ryan Briggs (who had only
been with the band 6 days!) and the bass of Dave which stomped all over the
worshipping crowd. With some Metallica-esque vocals and chant along choruses,
Servosi proved an unforgettable live experience.

Giving some emotion packed metalcore was closers to the evening,
Sa-Da-Ko. As soon as Sa-Da-Ko opened their set energy poured from the stage and
was lapped up by a devoted following. The band had got the combination of modern
hardcore and metal spot on and had a singer who looked genuinely possessed by
the ghost of hardcore past. Some bizarre in-between song banter aside, a
powerful set.

With Apollyon and Sa-Da-Ko through, anticipation grows as to who
will be king of the Preston jungle.

Stills from "Red" - Album out Soon

Tim Johnson, the Director of “RED” for our album launch, was kind enough to send a load of stills over to me last night.

They look Awsome!

He’s added a lot of colour and saturation to his edits so you should be in for a treat when it raises its ugly head in the next few months. The album its self is and the artwork for it is very near completion and we are just about to sent it all off to be reproduced.

Preston Get in the ring: Battle of the Bands

As part of our battle of the bands gig in Preston we recently did an interview for angel of metal. The Rock on Preston Battle of the bands competition has been able to draw some big attention from the likes of Metal Hammer.

Any way I thought I would put up the Sa-da-ko interview here so you read it and find out more about the band.

Please introduce your band, the current line-up and what each
of you do.
The name of the band is Sa-da-ko and band members
are:
Jim - Vocals and awesomeness, Simo - Guitar & vocals, Jay – guitar,
Rob – cougar, Greg - Drums

How would you describe the band’s sound?
Sick ass metal!

How do you approach your song writing and what
is your lyrical theme/content?
Our sound is forged from a mixture of
styles and influences. When we write we try to keep a lot of elements from world
cinema and in particular eastern horror in our lyrics.
We are lucky enough
to be able to have access to Aku Studios in Southport so we can concentrate on
building a layered sound, although a lot of our writing is done all together to
keep the dynamic of the live show.

Who gets involved with writing of lyrics and melody? Is it down to specific individuals or a collaborative process?
We all write together as a unit, in order to accommodate all of
our styles and influences.

How often do you practice and have you any shows lined up?
We practice at least once a week, twice where possible
and have quite a workload gig wise at the moment....

What has been your best gig so far, and why is it so memorable?
We organised a Halloween
gig in our home town of Southport, with a fancy dress theme of zombies and
survivors. The turnout was amazing, our first sell-out show, and managed to
shift a load of demos and merchandise! Both the crowd and the sound were brutal,
and a good night was had by all involved!

What was the last song you listened to, either on the radio, your mp3 player, at a gig...?
The theme tune to Saved By The Bell...

Is there anything about the metal scene today that you would like to change?
Apart from attitudes of
people stuck in their ways, all we would like to see is an increase in
popularity of the genre, and more nights like this one being held with a good
promotional team behind it.

What do you think of the Preston/North West metal scene right now?
There's a lot of talent out there in
the North West. It's been a while since we played Preston, so we are looking
forward to experiencing some of the finest calibre of metal, as well as
experiencing the fine beverages of the town!

What do you consider are the benefits of initiatives like Rock On Preston and Get In The Ring?
Exposure being the main reason for us personally. It's a good
chance to expand the influence of the band, and recruit more metalheads into our
family.

What’s next for the band?
We have our first record out
in early March, produced in AKU studios, and this is due to coincide with the
release of our first ever video, for the song "RED". As you can tell it's a time
of firsts, another new experience is the chance to be doing a tour in Germany
and we are excited by the prospect of gaining more momentum as a band, and
further bettering ourselves musically!

For those wishing to check out more, what is your myspace link?
Just google "sickass metal" and you
will find us or you can type www.myspace.com/sadako01 and we are there!

Were through to next round!!

just waiting to see who we play with during the Semi-finals, wish us luck

\m/