After sitting in JFK Airport for over 5 hours due to weather delays, Chris Hacker and I are finally here at SXSW.
Connect with us on Twitter – we’d love to meet up with all of you!
Jon: @jon_ostrow
Chris: @chrisnhacker
In the meantime, we’ve got another nugget of advice for you from Chris Rockett!
Chris Rockett is the founder of the Music Marketing Classroom, whose mission is to empower musicians to create a sustainable income, even with a modest music career, and teaches a simple four-step marketing philosophy to achieve that goal.
First off my advice would be that even though you may get all the Margaritas you can drink as part of your rider, it does not mean you have to use it.
I was over playing on the BBC stage at SXSW a couple of years back and after a long flight (and our set being pushed back until 1am) it was not our finest hour.
On a more serious note I would suggest that every musician take a moment to think of some EPIC freebie you can giveaway during the event.
There is a lot of people there trying to get noticed so you need to go the extra mile to stand above the noise.
For instance you might give away your whole album… PLUS a video recording of one of your shows.
You can do this by uploading it to SoundCloud and YouTube as a private upload that can only be accessed from a special link. (There is an option for that on each site)
Next, print up 200 business cards with a URL that will allow you to capture an email address in exchange for your killer freebie. Make it your mission to go out and talk to as many cool people as you can.
After a few minutes of being a super cool dude slip in that you would be happy to give them a free $25 coupon to get your “album package” and give then the card with the website URL on it.
You could also get them to text you or just go old school and make a note of their email address on your phone.
Once you have the email address you can use a killer app for Gmail called “Rapportive” that will show you if your new contacts are also using Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Chatting with your new music biz contacts through these sites will deepen the connection.
You now have a brand new email and social media list which is something very concrete and valuable to show from your time at SXSW.
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