How to promote an album

Step #1- Get on the front page of the most popular music download service on earth. Step #2- Give away your single to get people interested in your music and talent. Step #3- Sell, Sell, Sell. Some friends of mine, The Midway State, are slated to release their debut album on July 22nd to rave reviews. I've been listening to the music since Daenen gave me the album a few weeks ago (yes, I'm that cool) and I love it. It's not leaving the car's CD player anytime soon, that's for sure. But how does one promote an album in this day and age, where people are apathetic, piracy is rampant, and consumers are lazy? I think theres a big difference between a relatively unknown group, just starting out, and a popular franchise group intent on putting out their 7th mega-platinum super diamond album. I only have context for the former, so I'll avoid speculation on the latter.

The Midway State plays a lot of shows. They've opened for Mika, OneReplublic, Daughtry, 54-40, and many others, and soon Avril Lavigne and some bigger names. They grow their fans by earning their admiration with talent and energy and passion. The group is diligent about replying to fan email and comments, and maintains a healthy presence on MySpace, Facebook, and a few other sites. So about the big money promotions. Getting a single on iTunes, national distribution and radio spots, featured MySpace promos, and city by city guerrilla marketing & ads? Mobile campaigns to get the music into the hands of the consumers with as little friction as possible. (txt MIDWAY to 66937 and get free music-- in Canada anyway...) This is why small bands still want the 'big deal'. All this costs money, and record labels are still good at some things. The problems arise when popularity isn't coming from TV spots or radio promos, and all your grassroots marketing online drives all your customers to iTunes; pretty soon, you have to figure out a new model. I do like Free though. I like it alot. I really enjoyed Wired's article about the 'freeconomy', and how basically there's Free-- and everything else. Even iTunes irks me a little bit... I have to set up an 'account' to get my free single of the week. My information, and the ability to communicate with me is not free. So they lose me. I think these guys are on the right track. They're doing things in the right order: Great Music, then fans, then marketing, then awesome time. If you get a chance, look them up and give them a listen

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