"BLUE KRISHNA"--AND MARKETING...

“Blue Krishna” is online: http://www.soundclick.com/share?songid=10947098 With Sedona Marie (co-owner of the Rainbow Lotus) on flute, and “Rockin’ Dr. Tom” Tracy on sitar. Mixed in Audacity because poor about-to-be-replaced “Alice” the ‘puter couldn’t produce a decent CD to dump to the Tascam.

Fun song, and I am happy with the way it turned out. Commercial? I doubt there’s a market for that sort of thing; it’ll get played (and maybe requested) at the Rainbow Lotus, where it all started, and maybe a few other places, but it’s unlikely to be a regular inclusion on a setlist, much less ever make it to a record. The recording is an interesting experiment—yes, a sitar really can be a bluegrass instrument. (Of course, George Harrison showed it was a rock ‘n’ roll instrument, so no one should be surprised.)

That does beg the question how one does market stuff these days. Even the Nashville pundits agree the old models don’t work any more. (The big record labels appear to be the only ones still maintaining you can’t become a success without a contract from a big record label—but they’re reportedly in serious financial trouble themselves.)

There are a lot of success stories out there featuring folks who ignored or bypassed the “traditional” (record label) route, but the unanswered question in each case is “How did they get noticed?” There are a lot of good writers and musicians out there, and with times hard, more and more are performing in order to make ends meet (for some, it’s the only way they have to make ends meet).

So you do gigs (and maybe some of them will even be paying gigs), and you have music posted online, and videos on YouTube (et al.), and a commercially-recorded CD for sale online and through Retail Outlets and at gigs. None of that guarantees you success or even an income, though they’re important pieces of the “getting noticed” program. (A little like winning the lottery. Very few people win the lottery, but one thing they all have in common is they all bought tickets.)

I’m not after a guarantee, particularly (it’d be nice, of course), but I am a fan of targeted marketing—deliberately going after the people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. (That’s how I’ve done personnel recruitments as a city manager, and it’s worked out very well.) In this case, I’m not sure where or who the target is.

That shouldn’t stop me. One can broadcast—it’s inefficient, but one might see a target audience begin to be identifiable somewhere in the process. Internet “stations” abound; they can all get the CD. Venues can get cold calls with a CD (or, if I’m soliciting a solo gig, a DVD of me performing solo). Festivals can get a “You don’t know me, but…” letter—again, with a CD or DVD. And one can drop periodic (and hopefully not annoying) requests into Social Media telling them about these efforts and saying, “Hey, if you know any of these people, would you put in a good word for me?” And I can find these people the same way I find city manager jobs to apply for: keep my eyes and ears open, and when I hear a name dropped, go after it.

More videos to do; video is one place I can be really experimental, since I don’t know enough to have any preconceived notions. I saw an ad from one video production company saying that (for a price, of course) they’d send you a camera and you could shoot a bunch of footage that they’d proceed to turn into a music video. Novel idea, there. I have two old digital cameras that can “do” video. Could I tap some people I know and ask them to shoot some footage that they think would fit a particular song I gave ‘em (I wouldn’t care what it was—could be scenery, or even their band playing the song), and then mail me back the camera? If I could get several people to do this for the same song, I could blend the clips together, and it could be really interesting.

As with the “Blue Krishna” song, it might be nothing more than a Fun Thing. On the other hand, how many artists enlist their fans in making videos of their songs? Why not?

Joe