The brains of the music industry.
As head of CD Baby, Derek Sivers has been a go-to person on the web and at conferences for musicians looking to learn how to make it in the biz. Having recently sold CD Baby to Discmakers, Derek Sivers has begun work on a bunch of new projects, all with the similar goal of helping artists. They seem to be in the planning stages, but you can go to his website and sign up for announcements and see what he’s got cooking.
Also, you should download a FREE e-copy of his Music Marketing Advice book.
MySpace recently launched “Find Your Fans,” a pay-per-click service that allows you to create and publish an ad for your MySpace profile and position it in front of your target demographic.
We’re a little behind in noticing, since I haven’t logged into my group’s MySpace page in a while. It seems that Tom recently sent a mass message to all music profiles detailing the new ad program.
Here’s how they describe it:
What is it?
“Find Your Fans” beta is an ad platform that enables anyone to easily run advertising campaigns on MySpace in an affordable, effective manner.
How does it work?
Before you can begin, you must have an active MySpace profile set up. Once you have a profile, “Find Your Fans” beta allows you to create your first online advertising campaign in just a few easy steps:1. Create an ad. You can easily create an ad using our pre-built ad templates. Just browse our template library until you find the template you like, and then add your own text, image(s) and logo(s). You can also upload your own ad to run in your campaign.
2. Select your target audience. You select the audience that you are targeting with your ad. With “Find Your Fans” beta, you can target your ads to users within a specific gender, age range, geographic area or user interest.
3. Choose a budget and schedule. You choose the maximum amount of money you are willing to spend and how long you want your campaign to run.
4. Create an account. You will need to create a separate username and password for your “Find Your Fans” account and provide us with a valid credit card.“Find Your Fans” beta will handle the rest for you. Your ad will run on MySpace and be targeted to the users that you have chosen. Your ad will continue to run until your campaign has reached the maximum spending limit or the scheduled end date you have set for the campaign. You do not pay for your ad to simply appear on MySpace. You are only charged when someone clicks on your ad.
How much does it cost?
The minimum spend for a campaign is only $25! You only pay when someone clicks on your ad and visits your profile (.25 cents for each click). You tell us how much you’re willing to spend upfront, so you’ll never spend more than planned.
My initial thoughts
MySpace is so overrun with advertising already, that the concept strikes me as not worth the time or money. Each click costs $0.25, and with the MySpace generation so used to free music, which is readily available on the site and other social networking sites, the odds are small that the average musician would recoup the investment by selling music. Perhaps they will find new fans that will go to gigs, but again, I’m doubtful. Other MySpace marketing efforts available to the small-budget artist don’t yield much, so why should this one? Maybe I’m just too cynical…
Please correct me if I’m wrong, or if you have used these ads with some success…Perhaps there is hope:)
Here’s a link to a blogger that’s applied for the ad program and promises to post info on how it works / goes…
And here’s one that’s more optimistic on the program: click here