Do you have a Twitter account? You may have recently signed up for Twitter, heard of it but not sure how it works, or perhaps you have no idea what a Tweet is. However if you want to reach your fans and spread your music virally Twitter is an extremely important component in your online marketing plan.
Think your current and future fans are not on Twitter? Think again. Per CNET.com Twitter users “purchased 77 percent more digital downloads, on average, than those who were not tweeting.” Tweeters are on the pulse of everything that is going on the minute that it happens and they share what they find interesting with their ‘followers’ by ‘re-tweeting’ (RT @TwitterUserX).
Eat Sleep Breathe Music finds new artists daily on Twitter. One of the bands we discovered was The Lights Out from Boston. They were scheduled to perform at Asbury Park’s Wave Gathering music festival. A follower suggested we check them out, so days before the event we listened to their music on MySpace and started following them on Twitter. Before they played on Day 2 we had already ‘Tweeted’ with the band and told them we would be at The Saint to see them play.
According to a statement released by market research company The NPD Group, “Active Twitter users are simply worth more to record labels and music retailers than those who are not using Twitter. Used properly Twitter has the power to entertain — and to motivate music fans to purchase more new albums, downloads, merchandise, and concert tickets.”
What does that mean for you? Twitter is free publicity and lets face it many bands/artists need all the free publicity they can get. But in order to reach your fans and gain new ones you have to be an active Tweeter. The Lights Out is a great example of a band effectively using Twitter to communicate with their fans and market their music. We spoke to Adam Ritchie, the lead guitarist for The Lights Out, on his experience with Twitter and he provided us with some great tips and a case study.
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