Where/How do I advertise my services?

[xaviersykora]

Hello! I would like to begin offering drum MIDI editing/programming/composing services, but I have very little knowledge on where and how I should start advertising these services. I started by posting an AD on SOS, but I don't really know where to go from there.

Thank you guys in advance!
Looking forward to spending more time on this forum.

[James Perrett]

I'm kind of in a similar situation to you having just taken early retirement from my day job and I'm now wanting to build up the studio business. One difference may be that I've had a professional studio in the past and I still have a few clients from those days but I'm still going to need to find new clients.

In my case I've been fortunate enough to make this change at the same time as our local council has started on a drive to encourage small businesses in the area. They're putting on a few courses over the next few weeks and last Friday's was about using social media to publicise your business.

One of the biggest things that I learned was to take a look at your competitors to see how they publicise themselves. I've been doing that over the last few days and I would have to say that I never realised just how many people are doing some of the things that I'm thinking of offering. This means that I'll need to think about what I really want to be doing and aiming at that market rather than offering my services cheaply to all comers.

The big thing about the music business is that it relies heavily on word of mouth - most people would choose to use your services based on things they've heard about you from people they trust. Going to local music events and talking to people is a good way to get your name around. I'd also make sure that there are samples of your work easily available so that people can check out what you can do.

[The Red Bladder]

Hello! I would like to begin offering drum MIDI editing/programming/composing services, but I have very little knowledge on where and how I should start advertising these services.

I would have to say that I never realised just how many people are doing some of the things that I'm thinking of offering.

The brutal answer is that offering music services of one sort or another an hoping to earn a wedge by so doing, is a non-starter.

As James knows, I run a medium-sized studio (100sq m live room, accommodation, grand piano, 48-channel tracking, etc., etc.) and over the past five years or thereabouts, we have seen the band and other live acts recording market just vanish. Gone. Nichts, rien, ноль, שום דבר, nic, neamhní, لا شىء, dim, کچھ بھی نہیں, cassum. It just ain't there no more!

Why?

Because it is today a consumer activity.

Unless you happen to have a large studio in a city where lots of music gets recorded at a very high level (Berlin, London, NY, LA, Nashville) the recording business as a stand-alone venture is over.

As I have banged on about, since about 2002 on this very forum, you have to add video/film to your repertoire of services and you have to do so at a professional level. Parallel to that, you have to add some other services. We for example, have opened a music school and we have just begun a strategic alliance with the local talent school. The studio has been full to the gunwales for the past three days, with unbelievably talented youngsters recording their material, in order to showcase their talent and the scope and range of the school and other initiatives.

We shall be using their pupils in a comedy feature film next year about the music business.

The gateway function of being able to record, edit, mix and master music is well-and-truly over. Reaper, DaVinci-Resolve and other unbelievably sophisticated programmes are now a free download (or dirt-cheap) so anybody with the wherewithal to buy a few mics and a couple of Octopres can practically do anything to do with audio.

Well - they think they can - and that's all they really need!

[Albatross]

Get a whistle and a laptop and become a DJ. But hurry up. My mates were making a fortune and touring the world DJ'ing in restaurant chains and art galleries and fashion shows etc. I was talking to them the other day. Their work is drying up because there's some websites (beat[something]) that will put a show together and then stream it (or something, i don't really understand) and now you just only need the whistle.

And whistles are cheap.

[Folderol]

Get a whistle and a laptop and become a DJ. But hurry up. My mates were making a fortune and touring the world DJ'ing in restaurant chains and art galleries and fashion shows etc. I was talking to them the other day. Their work is drying up because there's some websites (beat[something]) that will put a show together and then stream it (or something, i don't really understand) and now you just only need the whistle.

And whistles are cheap.

Good Lord! That totally destroys the whole point of having a DJ - One that's any good plays the audience as much as the music. How on earth can a pre-programmed set replace that?

[Drew Stephenson]

Because for most people, most of the time, music is just background noise.

[Albatross]

That's right, people don't care.

Though to be fair my mates would pretty much put together the show in advance, anyway. When they started out they played vinyl, but the logistics of carting half a ton of vinyl around when the show could sit on a pen drive became a no-brainer. So they do modify the set as the show progresses to some extent but in the main its ready when they open up. They might drop in a tune here and there.

They are pretty handy. The chap was a pro drummer before the sessions dried up and he got his wife some decks. She started DJ'ing, he is the techie.

They do everything in Logic. Thousands a show so can't knock it. But like i said, they are being undercut badly and as Drew says........

[CS70]

Hello! I would like to begin offering drum MIDI editing/programming/composing services, but I have very little knowledge on where and how I should start advertising these services. I started by posting an AD on SOS, but I don't really know where to go from there.

Thank you guys in advance!
Looking forward to spending more time on this forum.

There's no hard and fast recipes, but you may look at it from a few point of views.

First, what's your market? Are you targeting penniless startup bands, cover bands, established acts, or trying to get Bruce Springsteen go midi drums?

Then assess if your market is realistic and can provide meaningful revenue streams - Bruce ain't realistic, not so much because of midi drums, but also because if he wanted to have some, he'd have a long list of people to ask to. On the other side, penniless 14-years old bands won't have any money to give to you. Market has also a geographical connotation, which may or may not be relevant to your services of course.

Watch out, you may find out there's no market - then you have to figure out how to create one, but that's a much riskier proposition.

Once you've found the market, figure out how best to reach it in marketing terms, and how much marketing budget you can afford. Obviously the bigger network you have, the better it is, but if you had a large one you wouldn't pose the question.

Facebook and Google Ads are an excellent and cheap way of getting the word out. You can also segment to people in a very specific geographical area, which allows you to get the best bang for the money in reaching your market. You may choose both, but the best one may depend on your market, especially age. Even grumpy old men who can't have anything of all that social stuff use Google

Obviously networking in person is still a good thing - I suspect the pro market is very small tough in any given country or location, and how many midi drums can they need? You probably want to hit the serious but still not pro muso, who is willing to outsource some of the creative process and has a little budget for doing so.

[Scramble]

Though to be fair my mates would pretty much put together the show in advance, anyway. When they started out they played vinyl, but the logistics of carting half a ton of vinyl around when the show could sit on a pen drive became a no-brainer. So they do modify the set as the show progresses to some extent but in the main its ready when they open up. They might drop in a tune here and there.

They are pretty handy. The chap was a pro drummer before the sessions dried up and he got his wife some decks. She started DJ'ing, he is the techie.

They do everything in Logic. Thousands a show so can't knock it. But like i said, they are being undercut badly and as Drew says........

God, all us musos are really feeling for the poor DJs. Terrible, terrible shame, and definitely not an occasion for schadenfreude.

[CS70]

The brutal answer is that offering music services of one sort or another an hoping to earn a wedge by so doing, is a non-starter.

You can file that as a point under under the realism assessment. On the other side, good MIDI drums (i.e. which sound like a drummer played them) aren't easy to make, which means not many can do it. And there's plenty of musos who would pay some quid to have seriously good stuff rather than what they can cobble together themselves. I know I would, if I didn't have a drummer

Whether or not you can live out of it is, of course, an entirely different question.

[Albatross]

God, all us musos are really feeling for the poor DJs. Terrible, terrible shame, and definitely not an occasion for schadenfreude.

Absolutely not [snigger snigger]

[den83]

Hello! I would like to begin offering drum MIDI editing/programming/composing services,

I think the first 2 are non-starters. Which leaves composing. Composers don't really advertise their services.

Are you any good?

[petev3.1]

You can file that as a point under under the realism assessment. On the other side, good MIDI drums (i.e. which sound like a drummer played them) aren't easy to make, which means not many can do it. And there's plenty of musos who would pay some quid to have seriously good stuff rather than what they can cobble together themselves. I know I would, if I didn't have a drummer

Whether or not you can live out of it is, of course, an entirely different question.

Agree with this. I'd be a very insignificant potential customer.