This is Part 3 of the Indie Music Marketing Series: Why Indie Musicians are Struggling to Sell Their Music. If you missed the other two posts in this series, you can check them out here: Indie Music Marketing Series Part 1 and Indie Music Marketing Series Part 2
I have discussed that one of the reasons why indie musicians are struggling to sell their music is that they have forgotten or are not aware of, the true value and power of music. They are not leveraging the value of their music. Most indie musicians are not creating music to solve the problems of other people. They are not thinking and behaving like music entrepreneurs. It is important to understand the value of the music you make, to know how your music solves the problems of others. So for the next few posts in the series, I will share the value of music. In this post and the following post, I will share how indie musicians can gain more exposure, publicity, sponsorships, and a larger fan base by just understanding how valuable their music is to local businesses. Your music has value to businesses because it can help solve the problems that most local businesses face.
Problems & Challenges of Businesses
1) Two biggest concerns of businesses: how to save money and make money
2) Other Needs and challenges of Businesses:
- Increase competitiveness
- Save Time
- Make Work Easier
- Build relationships, brand, image with customers and vendors
- Expand business
- Attract new customers
- Retain existing customers
Value of Music to Solve these business problems and challenges:
1) Music Attracts Large Crowds & Gets People Attention
Everyone loves music. Music has been used consistently to attract large crowds and large viewing audiences. Just look at some of the most popular shows currently on tv: Glee and American Idol. The high school musical Glee returned for its second season with 13.7 million viewers. Although the viewing audience for season 9 of American Idol dropped nine percent, the singing contest show brought in on average 23.9 million viewers.
So what does all of this mean? Music has the ability to get people’s attention and attract large crowds. Radio advertisers have long understood the effect and power of music in commercials to capture people’s attention. Research has confirmed this, showing that music activates the area of the brain involved with paying attention. See Music Moves Brain to Pay Attention
Music also aids recall of advertising messages. People are more likely to recall advertising messages that uses music. Those listening to the advertisement will sing along, which increases their involvement with the advertisement and the likelihood they will remember it. How many of us still know the Oscar Mayer Weiner song or the Big Mac Jingle “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese…”? My point: People remember advertising that is paired with music.
So what does this mean for local businesses? Music helps local businesses draw attention to their brand and their products or services. Music can help businesses capture the attention of prospective customers/clients. Music is valuable in helping businesses become more competitive in a crowded marketplace.
2) Music influences shopping behavior
Sales: Experiments in supermarkets and restaurants show that slower music creates slower traffic flow, which means that people shop for a longer period of time in the supermarket and spend more time eating and drinking in the restaurant. When slower music was played, the supermarkets saw a significant increase in their overall sales volume.
Desire: Research has also shown that people are more likely to desire a product that has been advertised in conjunction with music they enjoy than one that’s been paired with unappealing music or no music at all.
3) Music has a powerful effect on product branding
Music is effective in distinguishing a brand. Music can help a product stand out in a crowded marketplace. Oscar Mayer and McDonald’s distinguished their products with music and used music to gain product awareness. We have seen this not only in the food industry but also in both the video game industry and the film industry. Everyone knows the famous Super Mario Brothers music used in the popular Nintendo game. In the film industry, we have seen this with film score. Remember the chilling music used with the shower scene in the movie “Psycho”? The shower scene is probably one of the most memorable scenes in film history.
In the next post, I will discuss strategies that indie musicians can use to leverage the value of music for local businesses.
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