After completing this course, you will be able to:

A. Identify target audiences and demographics for albums, 
artists or concerts.

B. Design and manage a promotional campaign using press, radio, 
TV and social media to reach the target audience.

C. Create and distribute effective press releases and artist 
biographies.

D. Understand the special problems and resources required to 
promote albums and artists to commercial radio, television and 
national press.

E. Create and manage an online community dedicated to a 
single artist or concert event.

F. Use metrics such as Pollstar™, Soundscan™, and NBS™ to 
measure effectiveness of campaigns.

Course Topics Outline: 

I. Overview of Music Promotion

A. Historical overview of music promotion, including publicity, 
public relations, radio and television promotion, 
marketing, advertising, street teams, internet, and social 
media.
B. Traditional techniques and players
     1. The radio promoters
     2. The publicists
     3. The product manager
C. New media and non-traditional techniques and players
D. Campaign styles
   1. Top Down
   2. Grassroots
   3. Regional and Hybrid Campaigns
   4. “Oil spots”:  A promotion campaign as counter insurgency

II. Identifying Target Audience

A. How the music defines the audience. Scenes, styles 
and genre considerations.
B. How artists naturally “brand” themselves.
C. Target Demographics: differences and similarities to target 
audience.
D. Where?  Geographical considerations. “Virtual Geography”.
E. Tweaking the brand for the target audience.

III. The Written Word

A. Press releases, biographies and discographies.
B. Websites, mailing lists, tweets, Facebook pages, and other 
social network considerations.
C. Branding and “the voice”.

IV. Publicity and Press

A. Local press and regional press primer.
B. National press techniques and considerations.
C. Why NPR and certain television shows are considered “press”.
D. The care and handling of music bloggers.

V. Radio Promotion

A. Commercial Radio
B. Non-Commercial Radio
C. Independent radio promoters or “indies”
    1. History
    2. Ethical and legal aspects
    3. Current practices	
D. MTV, Video specialty shows. Case study Grey’s Anatomy

VI. Marketing

A. The four P’s of classic marketing.
B. The four P’s in context of the music business
C. Does price matter?
D. Paid advertising and considerations.
    1. Radio and TV
    2. Online.  Micro-targeting. Case study “spotlight”
    3. Special considerations Facebook Ads, Google Ads and 
Groupon
    4. Special considerations: promotions with physical 
and online retailers
E. Branding revisited

VII. New Media

A. Building an online community
B. The importance of the website. “Own your fans”
C. Special Considerations Facebook
D. Special Considerations Twitter
E. YouTube, Vimeo, blogging, tumblr and others
F. “Street teams”

VIII. Why Record Stores still matter

A. Record stores
B. Other tastemaker gathering places

IX. Campaign Styles

A. Top down
B. Grassroots
C. Regional and Hybrid
D. “Oil Spots” why successful promotional campaigns are like 
counter-insurgency.

X. Financial Considerations and Metrics

A. Budgets
B. Estimating effectiveness
C. Metrics traditional  Soundscan™ Pollstar™ Billboard™
D. Metrics; non-traditional.  NBS™ Big Champagne™