Online Music Marketing: Campaign Strategies, Social Media, and Digital Distribution

The internet has created a seismic shift in the music industry. Traditional physical marketing outlets, while still important, have been augmented with a variety of online-based marketing, sales, and distribution outlets, all of which require their own specific marketing approaches and strategies. This course takes an in-depth look at the tools and emerging technologies artists can use to generate interest in their music, acquire new fans, and sell their music. The course begins with an introduction to online marketing—the opportunities available, case studies on how artists are generating interest online, ways to optimize the fan experience, and the major differences between online and physical marketing campaigns. From there, the course covers the basics of developing a website; securing a domain and hosting company, developing an optimization strategy so potential fans can find the site using the search engines, and best practices for creating a fantastic user experience. Once students have a website set up, the course will look at ways to optimize visibility and acquire new fans using social media and third-party sites like Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, MySpace, Wikipedia, and more. The course also explores the best methods for generating demand, looks at successful artists and what they are doing to build their community online, and explores other organic (as opposed to paid) marketing opportunities online. This course also considers effective pricing and product techniques designed to reward students' most enthusiastic fans, while helping to generate a higher net margin for them as artists. To help expand marketing and sales outreach, the course discusses pricing details and options for third-party distribution and sales partners (such as iTunes, Amazon, Tunecore, CD Baby, and others), as well as artist-service-based partners (Reverbnation, Topspin, Nimbit, Bandcamp, and others). The final lesson in the course presents options for integrating all of these online concepts into offline activities (such as touring, selling merch, traditional retail options, and press) to enable a fully integrated marketing campaign, one that is timed to generate as much interest (and sales) as possible! By the end of this course, students will have mastered the art of online music marketing, and have a fully timed, integrated, and optimized marketing plan that they can use to build up digital touch points, generate interest in their music, and sell music online.