|
Download this to get a better understanding of what's going on. Beatport is not a bad company by any means. They are trying to help the smaller labels with this marketing guide that they put together:
http://www.mediafire.com/?7dzw9dwjhng
Beatport | Beatsource Aggregated Label Marketing and Planning Guide | 2008
Mission Statement
Our goal in creating this document is to give all of our labels that work with our
aggregation partners some information and tools to successfully market their music on
our sites as well as give information on how our stores work in relation to
advertising and promotions. If you succeed in creating more sales with these tools
then we all benefit from this partnership. This tool set will grow as our market
evolves to encompass all your needs, so please let us know if there is something that
we can change.
We want to let all labels know that we are specialty stores that focus on the
electronic and urban music marketplace, targeted to DJs that play these styles of
music. We work diligently to put the most internationally relevant and upfront
content in our stores, and have a team of 20 label managers that have years of
industry experience to manage our accounts, as well as place advertising.
Label Performance Requirements
To maintain peak performance for your label, we suggest frequency of releases that
keeps your label and artists name consistently in front of our customers, while
making quality and strength of the music top priority. Given the large amount of
labels we service and also applying to join Beatport, requirements are necessary for
us to continue improving our service to label partners and our customers.
For 2008 Beatport has established sales goals that apply specifically to our Tier 3
label partners. Any label that cannot produce $300.00 in GROSS sales each quarter
will be put on a probationary status. If the label is unable to hit the $600.00 mark
by the second quarter then that label will be cut from the Beatport system. We are a
digital download network, not a hosting company for MP3s. By increasing your
promotions outside of the Beatport store and providing a consistent new release
schedule we are confident that many of our low producing labels will be able to
achieve the quarterly sales goal. Below are some outlined explanations on how you
can meet these requirements.
Homepage and Genre Landing Page Advertising Policies
Advertising is not for sale on Beatport. All ad spots on all pages, as well as
newsletter picks, are chosen strictly by editorial discretion, determined by our
dedicated Genre Managers & our VP of Content. Below is a brief explanation of our
process.
Each Tuesday, all Beatport Label Reps from all territories pick their top priorities
for the week (Friday – Thursday). This means that if your release isn’t already
encoded into the system by Tuesday evening, it will not be considered for advertising
on the following Thursday. Every Tuesday evening the Label Reps submit their chosen
priorities to the Genre Managers & VP of Content for consideration on their
designated pages. These priority releases are submitted with as much information as
they’ve been given by the label to support the release (see section below titled ‘How
To Help Get Your Release Featured’ for more information)
We use many factors to help us make our editorial choices:
• Territories (worldwide availability or exclusions from certain territories?)
• Name recognition of the producer and/or remixer
• Past performance of the label and/or label group
• Genre; do we have a good balance of various genres presented on the home
page?
• Reviews / Club Support / Radio Support / Feedback
• Artwork (nice album art, artist photos, nice logo, etc.)
• Format; do we have a good balance of albums, EPs, & singles presented on all
pages?
Obviously, the more of these factors that apply to your release, the better your
chances are of receiving advertising spots.
How To Help Get Your Release Featured
Every Tuesday your aggregation Label Rep will recommend a select bunch of releases
from their labels to be featured on the genre landing pages, in the newsletter and on
the home page. Genre Managers and our VP of Content make the weekly final decisions.
To help your Label Rep make their selection and to make a convincing argument on your
behalf, we recommend that you contact him/her before the Tuesday with the following
information:
• Release Info
• Press Feedback
• DJ Feedback / Support
• Any other relevant information
This ultimately aids the Genre Managers & VP in selecting the best and most
appropriate releases to feature weekly. Also, it is of note that the only way to get
this information to your Label Rep is via direct email to them. They are not able to
pull these things out of your Content Submission package (which contained the audio &
metadata).
The site update ad spots are determined on Tuesday night, designed on Wednesday, and
go live every Thursday (approximately 12:00 noon Denver time).
There is no way of guaranteeing your release any ad anywhere on the site. However,
supplying your label rep with the most appropriate info on time will clearly aid your
case.
Planning and Strategy
There is more to promotions than just hoping for ad spots on Beatport. Below are
some other ideas that work.
Focus on New Technologies: The ability to download music is changing the way that DJs
collect music and play their sets. Having access to every song in your library
within a few clicks is an awesome tool for any DJ. A new obstacle in selling your
music is getting DJ’s to use the new technologies in software and hardware to
effectively use all of this music they have. Educating your DJ and fan base as to
these new technologies, and how to use them in their performances, will enhance and
benefit their DJ ability. Many are reluctant to embrace this new delivery system and
access to content. It is up to you to show these people that the download revolution
isn’t the evil enemy of vinyl; it is simply a new and effective tool for DJs to be
able to play a wider variety of sets, from a much larger selection of content.
Beatport has partnered with music software manufacturer Native Instruments. NI has
built a direct link to the Beatport site into the Traktor Player. This will drive
traffic directly to Beatport to search and buy tracks from the 500,000 people with
copies of this tool.
Research Beatport: Take some time to listen to and get to know some of the other
labels that have content on Beatport. Many labels are smaller up and coming
operations that are looking for feedback and support as much as you are. Finding
these labels that have content you like or that sounds similar to yours is pretty
easy to do. Once you contact like-minded people the network works even stronger for
you. The more you know about the others within the network, the more they know about
you. This is a good way to approach people about swapping remixes, cross promoting
releases, coming up with ideas for tours, gigs etc.
Top Ten Charts: Consistently posting your top ten lists and spreading the link to
those within the site is a great way to get your music out and into consumer’s ears.
Many consumers of Beatport are not DJs and don’t have the tools to mix music. If you
have a solid top ten list that people can download every month it will generate
consistent sales because you are doing a lot of the legwork for customers who may not
know about all of your favorite cuts. Having your producers and DJs doing the same
thing is also a good idea. You can send these charts to your label rep for Beatport.
You can then link to these charts (playlists) with your Beatport player.
Compilations: Many labels release singles and EPs that are only a sampling of their
producer’s work, in many cases only 2-4 tracks. Think about putting together
compilations of unreleased or bonus material by these artists. This will generate
more exposure for them and allow consumers to familiarize themselves with a broader
knowledge of their favorite artist’s music.
Beatport Player: www.beatportplayer.com This tool can be embedded in Myspace players
and any html websites, blogs etc. Using this tool links to your label, artist,
releases and charts on Beatport.
Other Promotions and Marketing
You have to let your fans and customers know about other options for them to access and buy your content online. Beatport is a digital distribution network, not just an
online MP3 download store. What makes Beatport stand out from the rest is the access
you have to the other users of the Beatport network. Beatport is set up to
give you an opportunity to get access to your end users of your content directly.
Online music sales in the past 4 years have exploded into the global marketplace
providing labels and artists with a new avenue of getting their music to the world in
a way that has eluded many for years.
Every label knows that getting the word out about your music and identity is the key
to success. Below are some ideas for successful promotions.
Beatport logos and links to your page within your existing website. Bounce the
link directly to your store. Contact your rep for these direct links.
Email blasts and viral campaigns. As a record label you should have a list of
email addresses of others in the industry, friends, fans and family who listen to
and support your label. Making a point to direct these people to your content on
Beatport is a great way to generate exposure for your new releases and gives them
a chance to check out your back catalog while they are in your part of the store.
Utilizing your artists. Get your signed producers and DJs involved in the
promotion process. It is in the DJs and Producers best interest to pump up their
new releases and shouldn’t be just up to the label to promote your content. Many
have their own websites and email lists, make sure they are promoting their
content through that avenue, as well as having links on their sites to their
tracks on Beatport. From their sites they can send their fans and DJs directly
to their tracks within your store on Beatport.
The Virtual Release. The best part of selling music through Beatport is that you
have very low production costs. Think about new releases of older content that
you wanted to put out but didn’t have the means. There is so much good stuff out
there and hot young producers looking for representation. You don’t have to put
everything on wax or CD. The future of buying music is changing and now you have
an opportunity to really step it up a notch through technology.
Release parties/Promotional Events. Do you produce events and/or perform at
them? If so you may have had record release parties to announce the release of
new vinyl and CDs, why not do the same for your online releases? Or connect the
promotions of a new digital release to tour dates or special events. Doing this
will add a credible and tangible feeling about your online content.
Beatportal.com You can now upload news and other promo to Beatportal. Login
with your beatport customer user/password and go to www.beatportal.com/submit.
This community site generates a high amount of traffic and is a solid way to
promote and link back to your tracks, label, and artists on Beatport.
Here is the best way to get featured: Put together an interview of yourself and
other artists mirroring the questions and style of the Beatportal headlines
section. Do short stories on releases, the label, artists, and news, whatever is
relevant. Don’t just post images as ads, write about them. Be sure to use
journalistic integrity, check your spelling and include images with your uploads.
The stories and articles that labels submit are then reviewed by the Beatportal
editors and articles that have the right elements have a good chance to be bumped
up to ‘featured’ articles.
We continually strive to provide new tools and new technologies for everyone involved
in the Beatport network. We appreciate all of your support and look forward to a
great year.
___________________
Audio Logic Recordings
|
