A Guide to Building Your Brand and Marketing Your Music

Music Business

Table of Contents

Berklee Online’s Music Business Offerings 5

Building Your Brand with PR, Radio, and Digital Media 6

Essential Framework to Creating a Successful Marketing Campaign 9

Music Business: Brand & Marketing 2

Begin a new musical journey.Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary

principle that the best way to prepare students for careers

in music is through the study and practice of contemporary

music. Berklee Online extends that tradition to serve an even

wider audience, for a fraction of the cost. Alumni of Berklee

College of Music and Berklee Online have collectively won

more than 250 Grammys and Latin Grammys. This free

handbook features educational content from inside some

of the required and elective courses within Berklee Online’s

undergraduate Music Business major as well as from Berklee

Online’s Master of Arts in Music Business degree. The material

from these degrees highlight what you need for success in the

music industry of tomorrow: versatility.

Study from anywhere, on your schedule.

Berklee Online offers you the opportunity to obtain a degree

in your own rhythm. With access to Berklee’s acclaimed

curriculum from anywhere in the world, you’ll be able to

participate in award-winning online courses, multi-course

certificate programs, and earn a Bachelor of Professional Studies degree. All of Berklee Online’s courses are accredited

and taught by the college’s world-renowned faculty, providing

lifelong learning opportunities to people interested in music

and working in the music industry.

Earn your bachelor’s and your master’s degrees online.Berklee Online’s degree programs are the most affordable

and flexible option for earning your music degree from Berklee College of Music. Apply today and receive an

admissions decision within two weeks.

Degree Highlights

• Less than half the cost of campus tuition

• Financial aid available

• Part-time and full-time study• Transfer credit from other institutions

• Credit issued for prior learning

• Berklee degree completion opportunities

Undergraduate Degree:

Bachelor of Professional Studies

in Music Business

Sharpen your knowledge of the concepts,

skills, and methodologies needed to succeed

in today’s evolving music business. You will

study how the music business currently

operates and where the business is headed in

the key areas of music publishing, licensing,

law, management, touring, marketing, and

entrepreneurship. Through hands-on instruction

from Berklee College of Music’s award-

winning music business faculty and industry

professionals, this degree will prepare you for

a variety of music business-focused careers,

including artist manager, booking agent, music

publisher, business manager, concert promoter,

music supervisor, label operations manager,

entrepreneur, and more.

Graduate Degree:

Master of Arts in Music Business

Innovation is shaping many areas of the music

business, including management, marketing,

licensing, distribution, touring, and more. The

Master of Arts in Music Business program

prepares you to be a leader in the growth

and success of the evolving music business

by connecting your passion with advanced

knowledge and skills in the key sectors of

the industry.

Throughout the program, you’ll learn from

industry professionals and undertake in-depth

analyses of factors, both internal and external,

that influence the industry—from technology and data to policy, law, and finance. Coursework prepares you to complete a culminating

experience that allows you to define your unique contribution to the music industry and advance

business opportunities that present innovative,

viable solutions in the marketplace.

The program is designed to be completed

in one year. You will complete 12 courses at

a recommended pace of three courses per

semester over four 12-week semesters. But you

are welcome to study at your own pace as well.

Throughout the program, you will participate in

a community of highly engaged and motivated

peers and faculty committed to high-level

learning and collaboration.

Berklee Online’s Music Business Offerings

Berklee Online’s Music Business Offerings

Learn More & Apply

Building Your Brand with PR, Radio, and Digital MediaBy Shain Shapiro

What comes to mind when you refer to one of your favorite

artists? Even if it’s their music, which is the primary point of

reference, there is always a visual element that complements

that—Björk’s extravagant outfits, Slash’s long hair, hat, and sunglasses, and Daft Punk’s futuristic costumes are but a few examples.

When trying to build a successful career as a popular artist, your

public image—your brand—plays a major role and ultimately defines how you are going to be perceived by the public.

Excerpted from the undergraduate course

International Music Marketing: Developing Your Career Abroad

Music Business: Brand & Marketing 6

ASSETS, ASSETS, ASSETS

So what are the assets your media pack needs to contain? Here are the most common ones,

and remember, refer back to your checklist! It goes without saying—though I will say it—that all assets need to be the highest quality possible.

• Bio

• Press release• Sales sheet (for the distributor)

• Promo photos (max five)• Single cover

• Album cover

• Music videos (on average, three for

every album release)

• Video teaser

• SoundCloud links

• YouTube links

• Promo CDs

• Write a captivating press story

that grabs readers from the start.

• Talk about the music. Describe it.

Make it sound exciting.

• Avoid too many artist references/

influences.• Nobody cares about the band’s

background, such as how they met, etc.

• Keep it real: include quotes.

• Keep it concise!

• Adjectives: don’t over-do it.

• Be original.

• Check out the Why I Deleted Your Band’s

Promo Email Tumblr and cross-check your

language!

THE GOLDEN RULES FOR DRAFTING AN ARTIST BIO

Any public performer has a public image associated with

their art and it’s very difficult to separate them from each other. So every time that art gets exposed, the public image

gets exposed too. Therefore, the public image becomes an

inseparable part of the artist and, in some cases, becomes

art itself.

Here are some of the steps you'll take when building

your brand:

Music Business: Brand & Marketing 7

WORKING WITH PR, RADIO, AND DIGITAL MEDIA

Dr. Shain Shapiro is the founder and CEO of Sound Diplomacy. He has worked in the music

industry for nearly 20 years, including roles as the European Representative of the Canadian

Independent Music Association, and as UK Press Manager for One Little Indian and FatCat Records. He is also an internationally published music journalist, writing for Timeout, VICE, and

others. He holds a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London.

Understand that this is a two-way relationship. Editors want

page hits and visitors, so that their website becomes (or

remains) popular and is able to generate more advertising

money. The content you are offering needs to satisfy that need.

Promo CDs need to be sent to long-lead press (for example, monthly music magazines) at least three months prior to an

album release. If a publication runs the story, link back to them

in a social media post. Feel free to thank them, talk about your

experience doing the interview, or pull out a phrase that you

liked that they wrote about you.

• Include the music link first.• Don’t forget to mention release and

tour dates.

• Include a link to a spectacular artist photo.

(Do NOT send the 1 million GB pic in the

email itself!)

• Use an intuitive email subject.

• Use a few press quotes.

• Always be polite.

• Don’t demand coverage.

• Ask for their opinion (they love that).

• Give them time and pitch well

in advance.

• Understand the editor’s point of view.

• Develop the relationship over time.

GOLDEN RULES OF CONTACTING A JOURNALIST

You only get one chance to pitch something, so you need to be able to impress quickly.

Be very careful with what you choose to include in your communication. Here are a few

things to consider:

Music Business: Brand & Marketing 8

WORKING WITH PR, RADIO, AND DIGITAL MEDIA

Essential Framework to Creating a Successful Marketing CampaignBy Mike King

When discussing the most important facets of marketing, we

usually talk about goals, strategy, tactics, identifying who you

want to talk with, and creating a funnel to measure success.

However, a more complete framework, starting from the top,

would need to include the following:

1. The BIG Idea

What is it you want to do and what are your goals? Are you

working to launch a new artist’s career, or are you interested

in starting a new music management company? What are

you working to do, and how will you measure success?

2. Market Research

Once you know what you want to accomplish, determining

the opportunities in the market are critical. First-mover

advantage (being the first to create something in a particular market) means there is less competition, but it

Excerpted from the graduate course

The Business of Music Marketing

Music Business: Brand & Marketing 9

also means you could have a more difficult time gaining traction for something consumers might be unfamiliar with.

Gaining an understanding of potential market size for your

idea, trends in the market, and buying habits of potential

consumers will all work towards validating your idea, as

well as set the stage for creating the strategy for your

marketing plan. For example, if your idea is to launch and

market a physical vinyl-only store in Keene, NH, you would

be well-served to understand the consumption habits of

the local community, the number of potential consumers in

the area, trends in vinyl, etc.

3. Competitive Analysis

Complementing the market research idea above, it’s

helpful to understand your competition as deeply as

possible. Who else is doing what you want to do? How are

they doing it? What opportunities are there for you to do it

better? Understanding how your competition prices their

offering, how they market, who they partner with, and how

they brand what they are doing provides you with solid

insight into how you can differentiate yourself. There are

a wide array of tools and services available to help with

determining what your competition is doing, and where

they are spending their advertising dollars (which is the

best indicator of what they are truly focused on).

4. Target Market

Knowing who your potential fans are, and targeting your

marketing appropriately to reach those who are most

predisposed to being open to your product is definitely a best practice. Segmenting your market and identifying

appropriate outlets and techniques to reach the right

Music Business: Brand & Marketing 10

FRAMEWORK TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING CAMPAIGN

folks allows you to be more efficient with your marketing effort and associated spend, and have the added layer of

potentially delighting prospective consumers, as opposed

to annoying those who have no interest, and will likely

never have an interest, in what you are doing.

5. Positioning

Once you have a handle on the market and on any

competition, you can work on positioning your product

or service. Creating a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) based on opportunities you have discovered through

your research, or through surveying existing consumers

of your product or service helps to guide your marketing

messages, images utilized, and overall strategy. Your

marketing positioning and associated outreach should

also include best practices with behavioral marketing

techniques. Consumers are motivated by any number of

biases (confirmation bias, outcome bias, zero-risk bias, and more).

Strategy and Tactics

All of the above flows into creating your strategic and tactical marketing plan. Your strategy and tactics will

include everything from the operational aspects (pricing,

ecommerce and bundling options, website creation

and visibility, etc.) to the platforms and methods you

use to communicate, your social media plan, your

acquisition techniques, your image and copy choices,

content marketing, partnerships, paid and organic search

techniques, and much more.

Music Business: Brand & Marketing 11

FRAMEWORK TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Mike King is the author of several Berklee Online courses, including the Business of Music

Marketing, part of Berklee Online’s Master of Arts in Music Business program. Before coming to

Berklee, he served as the Marketing/Product Manager at Rykodisc and the Director of Marketing and Managing Editor of Herb Alpert’s online musician’s resource, ArtistsHouseMusic. He is also

the Vice President of Enrollment at Berklee College of Music and Chief Marketing Officer at Berklee Online.

6. Budget

How much do you have, and what is the most appropriate

way to spend? Online advertising provides marketers

with the ability to adjust campaigns midstream based on

results, and while it is important to align your marketing

spend against specific goals, a marketing budget should be flexible to support changes in the market, testing, and optimization of efforts.

Data and Analysis

One of the most critical aspects of marketing is to

effectively measure your efforts. A proper approach to

data and associated analysis includes measuring the

effectiveness of as many of your campaign ideas as

possible, including the results of A/B testing taglines,

images, overall advertising campaigns; traffic to your website, lead and registration activity, and tracking costs

to your marketing efforts—cost per acquisition (CPA), cost per click (CPC), cost per lead (CPL), etc. Again, online endeavors provide marketers with a variety of tools to

measure their effectiveness, and the cycle of marketing

execution testing variables measuring results is a

great way to ensure that you are on track with reaching the

right people and validating your marketing assumptions.

Music Business: Brand & Marketing 12

FRAMEWORK TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING CAMPAIGN

How Berklee Online Works

Renowned Faculty

Berklee Online instructors have managed,

produced, and engineered hundreds

of artists and records and have received

numerous industry awards and accolades.

Each week you’ll have the opportunity

to participate in a live chat with your

instructor and receive one-on-one

instruction and feedback on assignments.

Award-Winning Courses

Instantly access assignments, connect

with your instructor, or reach out to your

classmates in our award-winning online

classroom. Study from anywhere in the

world at a time that fits into your schedule.

Specialized Degree Program

No other accredited institution offers the

acclaimed degree curriculum provided

by Berklee Online. Earn your degree

at less than half the cost of campus

tuition and graduate with a professional

portfolio that will prepare you for a

career in the music industry.

Like-Minded Classmates

Offering courses for beginners and

accomplished musicians alike, our

student body comes from more than

140 countries and includes high school

students getting a jump-start on college,

working professionals, executives

at industry-leading technology and

business firms, and members of internationally known acts like Nine Inch

Nails and the Dave Matthews Band.

Experienced Support

Every online student is assigned a

Berklee-trained Academic Advisor.

Each Advisor is passionate and

knowledgeable about music and here

to support you throughout your online

learning experience.

Try a sample lesson for free at online.berklee.edu/sample-a-lesson

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studying music online?

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