In this episode of Modern Music Marketing I discuss music promotion strategies with Matt Pelosi from Cyber PR. Matt is a music producer, but he does music marketing for a living, specializing in ad strategies and social media management for artists.
The book I talk about late in the episode is Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson.
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Important Points:
Andrew and Matt encouraged artists to be proactive and, if needed, volunteer their services for free to demonstrate their value to the music community.
Automate and streamline your content creation process for music, videos, and social media. For example, Andrew has a system for planning titles and designing thumbnails. Matt schedules his posts, allowing more time for music content. Both stress that a system frees up artists to focus on their music.
Matt recommends ensuring a strong social media presence before starting a PR campaign, as it impacts how bloggers, vloggers, and influencers perceive your brand and image. Andrew and Matt both emphasize that the foundation of a successful campaign is having remarkable songs with compelling stories. Matt also stresses the importance of evaluating a PR agency’s strengths, particularly their network of contacts and relationships. Lastly, Matt advises that it’s not about being on a big distribution list or featured by major influencers; it’s about appearing in niche and targeted spaces, featured by smaller influencers who align with your genre and personal story as a musician.
Matt advises artists to release songs that align with their core values and purpose, emphasizing the use of stories which can encompass various themes beyond love, such as humor. The key is to treat each song release as a narrative in itself.
Podcast Outline:
[00:56]: Matt started studying music at Icon Collective and working as an intern in music production studios. — Matt
[02:56]: Matt’s move to L.A. opened his eyes to how vast and diverse the music industry can be. — Matt
[03:51]: Matt sees his training at Icon, especially with Ableton and other music tools, as just the beginning of his musical exploration. — Matt
[05:38]: After parting ways with his band, Matt proactively reached out to the Cyber PR team, offering to volunteer as an intern to expand his knowledge of the music industry’s business side. — Matt
[08:10]: Taking a cue from Martin Garrix, Matt advises listeners not to hesitate in reaching out and showcasing their skills. — Matt
[08:30]: Andrew believes that your closest associates shape your overall character. — Andrew
[09:03]: Successful individuals often surround themselves with other successful friends, fostering a dynamic exchange of ideas. — Andrew
[11:13]: When you’re new to something, Andrew advises listeners to seek feedback. — Andrew
[13:26]: Matt suggests listeners should value feedback but trust their instincts. — Matt
[14:07]: Matt suggests that listeners seek feedback from trusted sources who are knowledgeable in what you need input on. — Matt
[14:44]: Matt values mentors for marketing and optimizing music business processes, emphasizing the need to produce and promote music effectively while maintaining quality.— Matt
[17:22] Andrew and Matt stress the importance of having a systematic approach for tasks, such as video preparation and social media posts, to enhance work efficiency. — Andrew and Matt
[21:01]: Ariel advised Matt that the focus should be on smaller, more targeted playlists rather than large ones for promoting songs. — Matt
[24:21]: Andrew recommends prioritizing a dedicated core fan community over a large but uncertain audience to ensure genuine music listeners. — Andrew
[28:12]: Matt conducts ad experiments, testing five strategies to identify the most cost-effective one. He only pursues those with a cost per click below one dollar. — Matt
[28:55]: Matt recommends targeting micro-communities. — Matt
[29:25]: Using Facebook’s Business Manager insights can help you target fans of brands associated with musicians in your genre. — Matt
[32:34]: Matt emphasizes that a successful TikTok strategy must align with the platform’s demographic. — Matt
[33:59]: Matt believes FB and IG content won’t work on TikTok.— Matt
[35:53]: As with any video platform, the objective is to engage your audience and encourage them to watch more of your content. — Matt
[39:51]: Cyber PR provides access to their dashboard, which includes outreach from bloggers and influencers who have featured you. — Matt
[44:48]: Cyber PR offers a detailed plan for optimizing your social media profiles and provides valuable resources for preparing your PR campaign. — Matt
[49:03]: Andrew and Matt talked about consultants who make promises of tips and resources but often focus on upselling rather than delivering — Matt
[51:33]: Cyber PR typically asks artists to share their songs and the story behind them, allowing for a purposeful and coherent release. — Matt
[54:36]: Matt believes unveiling the deeper story behind the music reflects an artist’s values and purpose, and connecting with listeners is the most crucial aspect of PR. — Matt
[56:28]: Matt recommends using the stories behind songs to inspire, motivate, and entertain, not limited to just love themes. — Matt
[58:46]: Matt believes that advertising on Amazon remains costlier compared to running IG and FB ads and directing traffic to Amazon. — Matt
[1:06]: Andrew and Matt agree that promoting something entirely new is more challenging than marketing something that is more straightforward. — Andrew and Matt
Wise Words:
[09:04]: It’s this big thing where people who are successful seem like their friends are somewhat more likely to become successful. ‘Cause they’re all bouncing ideas off each other, and they’re all kind of helping each other out. — Andrew
[16:58]: Then once you kind of come up with a system to;” this is how I’m going to record this, edit this.” Figure out all the titling and thumbnails and everything, and get kind of a template that you can copy. Then, all of a sudden, that process becomes so efficient where you can focus on what matters, which is the content.
[19:30]: You have to make sure your social media is on point. You have to make sure the song’s good. You also have to make sure that the song is going to work for the demographic that that PR agency has because PR is very much based off, of connections that that person has. — Matt
[21:01]: So you want to go for those smaller level influencers at first and go for a lot of them. Rather than shoot at a gate that everybody’s going to, like, let’s say you want to go to spinning records right away, everyone’s in there. It’s very hard to get in. So try finding maybe on SubmitHub some smaller ones. — Matt
[1:09]: It’s not always the music targets you got to get to. Like when you’re when you’re targeting your music ads, you have to think about the type of person that’s going to like that song. — Matt
Resources Mentioned:
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If you enjoyed this interview you might also like this one I did with Benn Jordan (The Flashbulb) on how he makes a full-time living with music.
