DM) What exactly is rainmusic.com?
DN) RainMusic.com is a web site dedicated to placing useful
information right at the fingertips of independent musicians.
When I first started doing music business on the net, I found
it frustrating trying to find good, useful information.
My desire was to create one place where you could go to find
all the best resources. That's what RainMusic.com is all about.
RainMusic.com is online encyclopedia of sorts, designed especially
for the working musician.
DM) And what has been the visitor's response so far? How many
are you getting a day?
DN) The visitor's response has been great. We had about 44,000
visitors last month, which averages out to about 1400 a day.
In general, our traffic has increased every single month. It's
been very encouraging. (done)
DM) And how has this affected your own career in the music
industry?
DN) It has been a very, very interesting trip. Prior to setting
up the web site I must admit I felt very alone, very on my own
in terms of "making it" in the music business. However,
since going online, my best industry contacts have all come through
the internet. I talk to a lot of musicians, and most of them
are looking for guidance. While I don't generally provide consulting,
I'm always happy to make a suggestion or two.
On a personal note, The web has meant great exposure for my
music. It's wonderful fulfilling CD orders from all over the
world. I feel my music has much more impact that I could ever
hope to achieve just locally. It was this success which lead
me to write my book, "How to Promote Your Music Successfully
on the Internet." After trying a number of different ways
to promote my music on the net, I found a few marketing ideas,
which really worked, for me. So I decided to document this. I
figured information like that would really benefit other musicians.
I know that I would have liked to have had a "how to"
guide when I first started out. It would have saved me a lot
of time and money.
DM) How many copies of this book have been sold so far?
DN) I release a new updated edition of the book every quarter,
and sell between 75 and 100 copies of each edition via the net.
So over the last two years since I first started it I'd say about
500 copies. This fall I plan to try a nationwide press release
campaign and see how it does. If successful, that would of course
really boost sales. If not successful, well I'll just try something
else. Either way it will be a great learning experience.
DM) I understand that you're also involved with music seminars?
DN) No, not at the moment. I have considered the idea and
have in the past discussed the possibility of a doing co-seminar
with Christopher Knab. I haven't taken that step yet, however,
as I'm not sure whether professional music consulting something
I really want to do full time. Ultimately, my goal is to continue
to pursue my own musical career, and I have enough to do just
promoting my music if you know what I mean. It's not that I'm
closed to the idea of doing a seminar... If someone asked me
to give one I'd seriously consider it. Who knows? If I tried
it once and it was successful I might find I really enjoy it.
DM) And how is your own musical career going?
DN) It's going well... at least on the net. As you may or
may not know, I'm a pianist. I've just released my fourth CD
of solo piano music. I perform locally here in Eugene, Oregon
when I can, but honestly I mostly do corporate gigs... dinners,
banquets and that sort of thing. They pay well, but they are
few and far between. The trouble is, all the venues in town I
used to play at regularly have turned to a "play for free"
policy, meaning they expect me to play piano just for tips. Of
course, that makes it very difficult to make a living strictly
on my music career.
That's why the Internet has been so great. This month I'll
do about $600 of business from my web site between CD and book
sales. While it's not enough to live on, and I still have another
full time job, it definitely helps keep the music going and the
dream alive. I have a lot yet to do on the net. As much as I
feel have already accomplished selling my music online, there's
lots more to be done and lots of other marketing ideas to explore.
I just take it a little at a time, trying to maintain a balancing
act between supporting my family, and supporting my music career.
It all takes time...
DM) What's your next step going to be then?
Right now I'm gathering reviews and articles to put a press
kit together for my new solo piano CD release, The Vigil. Once
I have that together I'll be doing the publicity thing for awhile.
Then I'm going to take my first album from 1991, which is currently
only on cassette, and put on CD. In September, I'll be putting
together a new edition of "How to Promote Your Music Successfully
on the Internet" and with that I'll try the nationwide press
release campaign and see how it goes. Thereafter, who knows?
Every month brings new surprises. I am forever optimistic.
DM) Is this your full-time job, or do you do something else?
DN) I work at a software company called Symantec. You might
have heard of them.... Norton, Delrina & Quarterdeck products
are all in our product family. I'm a Quality Assurance supervisor
for our E-Commerce division. So in my 'real life' I'm also heavily
involved on the Internet.
DM) What does a quality assurance supervisor mean?
DN) My team is responsible for testing and maintaining Symantec's
ongoing E-Commerce systems. While that includes our web site
(shop.symantec.com), that's a very small part of what we do.
We have a lot going on in terms of product/Internet integration,
and we're involved in testing part of that before it's released
to the public.
DM) Do you think you'll be able to do the internet work full
time?
DN) Eventually, yes. Naturally, I'm very eager to do so. I
have plans in mind that I think will allow for that over time,
but we'll have to wait and see. It all takes time.
I'm sure your readers are very aware of how difficult it really
is to make a living off the net. You have to come up with a really
unique, powerful idea to have a shot at it. It's not too tough
to make a few bucks here and there, but to make it a full time
job is something else. More often than not, you need to find
some serious investors before you can try something with really
huge moneymaking potential.
From a musician's standpoint, this can be a frustrating task.
I don't know a single musician who wouldn't like to do music
full time. I would suggest that the Internet alone is not the
way to do this... however the Internet is a very powerful tool
for promoting yourself or your music. It is but one more tool
in the musician's toolkit.
In my book, I talk about how you have to promote a 'bigger
idea' on the Internet to effectively market a 'smaller idea.'
Most people use the internet as a sort of interactive yellow
pages. As such, you have market yourself where the people go,
and you have to present a package to them that they will be interested
in. As an unknown musician, you haven't got a chance in the world
if you just stick your web page up on the net and expect results.
You have to target your audience, take your site to the audience,
and give them something they want. Let me use myself as an example....
I'm a pianist, and I have four solo piano CDs. My audience, naturally,
are piano music lovers. So, I have to consider what piano music
lovers might be interested in. Whatever that 'big idea' is they
might be interested in, that's the idea I have to cater to. Once
I bring in the traffic interested in that 'big idea', THEN I
market my music to them. You market the 'big idea' first, the
music later. You have to get the people to come to your site
before you can do anything.
DM) but it sounds like a complete shot in the dark?
DN) Not really, not if you do your homework. Generally speaking,
I think any musician can figure out what that 'big idea' is for
them. It might be a well known band, it might be up to the hour
music news on one topic or another, it might be a book...whatever.
If you're a band and you think Alice in Chains fans will love
your music... well then maybe you need to market to Alice in
Chains fans, a known commodity, to get those fans to try out
your music. I provide a number of step by step examples of this
concept in my book.
The thing is, I've tried just about everything in terms of
making money with music from the internet. I've figured out,
at least for me, what works and what doesn't. That's the information
I try to convey in the book, and hopefully that will save others
time and money. Obviously, there's always more to learn. The
Internet is constantly changing and as such you've really got
to stay on top of it.
Regardless of what you do as a band or as a solo musician
in terms of promoting yourself or your product, its going to
take time. I've had my site on the net for about five years now.
I didn't make money the first two years, I broke even the third,
and now things are going very well. It just takes time. Part
of this is because over time people get to know you, learn to
trust you, and then they become interested fans. You also learn
a lot along the way.
It may seem like a shot in the dark, but I think anyone can
sell product on the Internet. It just takes the right strategy,
and it takes a whole lot of work. Trust me on that one. Buy my
book and I'll show you how to do it.
Thanks Dominick, for the opportunity to talk with you.
