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Written by Jaron Lewis
Every talent we possess is supposed to help us earn a living, and so does music. Musicians make a lot of money from performing live gigs, events, and tours. Unfortunately, other artists never get a lot from their efforts due to either lack of music promotion backing them or being misled by a fake music management agency.
A music marketing firm is normally tasked with marketing artists work by promoting their music and setting up gigs for them. If you have a good agency that means every week you will have a show to perform. On the other hand, a phony agency will hardly secure three shows for you in a month leading to your career taking a nosedive. Let’s see how you can tell the difference between a real agency and a fake one.
Does your music marketing agency blast you with many emails full of promises that they will have you featured in popular magazines, music blogs and newspapers? Run for the hill and never look back. Marketing ought to be more organic and less hype. If the information they send you is useful, then stick around. But if ALL they do is market in their emails, that's a no go.
Many marketing agencies make lofty promises with an intention that you will fall for the bait. Getting a record deal requires hard work and teamwork. It’s not something you can press a button, and you get. Avoid any agency that takes you for a rabbit by dangling a carrot in front of you.
Marketing agencies who are interested in an artist work will rarely put money first. They believe that the best way of achieving something is by working together as partners.
If an agency promises to sell you Soundcloud, Twitter and Facebook followers, ignore them right away. You don’t need to be smart to detect such scams. If you agree to such an arrangement, your profile will likely get pulled down, and you will lose all the followers including the few you had.
If an agency spends a lot of its time blogging, tweeting and passing around press releases about you, then they are not worth being paid thousands of dollars. Can’t you tweet or blog about yourself? You are paying them for professional services (things you can’t do but they can). If they keep hiding behind services you can do on your own, then they are nothing but scams.
Every reputable music marketing firm has a website where they publish the names of ALL their artists. Their websites too are professional and organized. If, on the other hand, a website displays a few names, perhaps it’s time you look elsewhere. Most of their websites are an eyesore and not worthy of viewing.
Your music is your business. Use the above tell-tale signs to differentiate a real music marketing firm from a sham one.
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