Music Success In Nine Weeks

I’ve just launched a new CD (African Numbers) and my partner and I are about to start marketing it. We know we need better strategies than we had for previous CDs. We did our best with the first two albums following roughly this course of action:

1. Buy any magazines/newspapers that look suitable for our CD
2. Write a press release
3. Contact the publications and send out the press release
4. Punt the albums on Twitter & Facebook
5. Write and rehearse a show to promote the CDs at schools, in stores, shopping malls etc
6. Contact radio stations

We had some success with these methods, but our campaign was managed rather haphazardly (by us of course!) in fits-and-starts.
Lets face it: We’re first and foremost musicians, and the idea of promoting ourselves is rather daunting. We learned a lot. Some methods worked better than others. But it was difficult to keep momentum and follow up on leads while trying to distribute the CDs and at the same time earn a living from gigs & studio work.
So with the new album we decided to find a way to plan & structure our marketing campaign. This is where “Music Success in Nine Weeks” enters the picture. The book is by Ariel Hyatt, who runs a successful music P.R. company www.arielpublicity.com
Is the book any good? Watch this space… On the 11th of October begins the 3rd Music Success in 9 Weeks Blogging Challenge. If you’ve purchased the book you’re invited to enter the challenge (free of charge). You need to write a weekly blog detailing your progress working through the book. On completion, the blogs are judged, and the artist who has performed the best wins a 3 month campaign (among other things) from www.arielpublicity.com
So if you’d like to follow our progress, please subscribe to the blog, or check in once a week. And comments/suggestions are welcome, we need all the help we can get!
Note: I’m not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the sites/books/people listed above.