Everyone has this common misconception that personal assistants are only for the rich. That only bigwigs and famous celebrities can afford to keep one on-call to handle all their businesses and settle problems. It might be the last thing a start-up musician would expect to do with all expenses dedicated to many other things. You decide you can handle everything on your own and are determined that everything is going to be solved through hard work. Then, you realize the hours of the day seem too short for all the tasks at hand. Instead of working on your next album, you find yourself stuck all day responding to followers in Instagram and Facebook – great.

The idea of hiring a personal assistant isn’t very ideal when you think of the daily wages you have to deduct from your already-depleting business fund. But for those who are looking for a cheaper yet equally efficient alternative, a Music Marketing Virtual Assistant can be hired instead. Read on to find out what to expect.

The following are five (5) advantages of having a personal virtual assistant.

1. You are in control of the work contract.

Unlike regular assistants, virtual ones understand from the start that they will only be paid by the work they render to you. No requests for lunch breaks, paid leave and day off. That’s a 100% of your money dedicated to cater only to your needs! You don’t have to worry about renting an office, providing a work desk and supplying all the office supplies and electronics. They can be called whenever you need them with just a call or chat. You don’t even have to wait for them to take the bus and come to you. They respond immediately and would even be delighted to be called often. Most importantly, gone are the extra periodic expenses (benefits and incentives, health insurance and taxes) you have to pay when hiring an employee under you. You have control of the terms specified on the work contract. Carefully lay out your expectations and policies and you’re good to go.

2. Let them handle tasks you don’t feel like doing.

You won’t get a chance to boss around people like you can to your Music Marketing Virtual Assistant. One of the beauties of having one is that you can shove all the tasks you don’t like doing – most of which you were never good to begin with or simply don’t have the patience to push through. Imagine how much time you can save by having one other person to handle all the complicated time-consuming tasks that can’t really be skipped since they’re also important for your marketing campaigns. Say goodbye to writing formal letters and making calls to important people. Even ordering your food becomes a luxury now that you have someone else to help. Instead of consuming your time hurriedly posting blog updates and whatnot, you can focus on improving your music.

3. Get the job done without exerting any effort.

Let’s face it, sometimes we like to procrastinate; more so if the work is something you don’t really enjoy. You forget important tasks because you mull over insignificant ones that you are more interested in. Have you ever tried travelling and having your luggage sent to another airport? That’s the kind of stress you’ll experience if you don’t get the job done properly. And then there are the virtual assistants. Professional ones have a knack at multitasking, you’d even wonder if they have extra hands and feet. The best ones will keep a close check on your schedules and bookings to make sure you get there on time and without delays. It’s ideal for you to have a personal way of tracking your performance schedules, rehearsals, meetings, travel dates and personal information. This is expected, but an extra set of eyes can help you find possible discrepancies. Moreover having someone to keep you in-check and on-time with appointments greatly help your career in the long run.

4. Virtual assistants come in a complete package.

You won’t ever find an experienced VA who’s going to shower you with questions for every task you give. They apply for work knowing the type of job they’re getting into. Some prefer to hire beginners because of lower wages. They might help you save a bit but you’ll be spending a lot of time training them first – which takes time and effort you don’t have. By the time they get the hang of the job, you would have already been done with the things you needed to do. It is a fact that you’ll be spending more by hiring someone tenured. However, this would also mean you’ll get a Music Marketing Virtual Assistant who understands that their job is to lessen your burdens. For anyone who wants to successfully thrive in their own career, a well-informed assistant is a very good investment you will never regret having. The only time they’ll need your attention is when you check the flow of your schedule and add new personal entries.

5. Expect an all-out supportive partner.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that virtual assistants are like sidekicks. They go where you want them to go and come whenever you need them. You might have other people working for you like managers, drivers and publicists so it would seem a bit of a stretch to get another person. But, it’s not just about the obvious tasks. Sometimes, you will find yourself agonizing over how to inform your manager that you’ll be late just because the driver caught a cold. You can’t ask the publicist to drive for you since that’s not really in his job description. A Music Marketing Virtual Assistant is the one person among all your employees who can handle coordination. They are flexible and can handle several tasks simultaneously. All the while keeping tabs on your other personnel and ensuring your schedule flows smoothly. They can be called for overtime and can temporarily cover the duties of your other employees. You can relax and continue making good music to sell while he handles the rest. This way, no matter what problem arises, you won’t be alone facing them.

Being a music graphic designer I hear thousands of artist on a monthly basis and I must admit there is alot of talent out there but the problem is artist don’t know how to get their product in front of people.

The thing is that artist actually don’t need a marketing team you can learn how to promote yourself it just takes time and some reading. Nowadays with the internet you can learn how to do anything you need to know especially market.You can go to Google right now and type in music marketing and tons of sites will pop up with information, and honesty learning it yourself will give you knowledge you can use for the rest of your music career and you can save some money plus we all know knowledge is power.

You can’t keep doing the samething and expect different results.I see alot of artist who have 5 or 6 mixtapes out when they have hits on their 1st mixtape but they didn’t push it properly.Artist got the game twisted its not about quantity its about quality.Artist want to brag about how many mixtapes they have out but what did you make from them how many shows did you get from your mixtape? You should promote your mixtape for at least 3 months and you shouldn’t be working on your next mixtape until you properly push the first one Whenever you release a mixtape you need  to have a custom mixtape cover and a marketing blueprint that your going to follow and make sure everytime you try different methods and once you find methods that work milk em.

There are tons of online and offline music marketing techniques that you can use from flyer marketing, music blogs which are real poweful,magazines and much more.You whole focus is getting your music in front of as may faces as possible because the music niche is a numbers game and you have to think outside the box and have drive to be successful in this business.So stop using the same marketing techniques that aren’t getting results.

Boy has the music game changed from back in the day ever since the internet hit, and the major labels hate it because now artist don’t have to be slaves to the record labels anymore because you can build your own fanbase now online and sell your music digitally.

The internet allows you to connect with people on a whole different level and it allows you the artist the opprutunity to get your music heard and make alot of money without any record label at all just like Kevin Gates.

Say what you want about Kevin Gates , but you have to respect the hustle he is making a killing online and doing shows he grossed 2.3 million last year alone and he said over %43 came from the internet sales. The thing about it is that any artist can do the samething you just have to have a blueprint set up like he did and its not even that hard. I’m going to give you 3 things that Kevin Gates does that you should apply to your music marketing hustle to help you build a solid fanbase you can connect with and of course help you sell music and products.

1.Custom website-.First thing first the first a website is mandatory you should look at your website like your online trap spot you have complete control over your own site you can sell whatever you want on your site. When people look for you online they don’t  want to you shouldn’t have to say check me out on Reverbnation/ blah blah or checkout my facebook page at facebook/ blah blah .You need to have a web address just for you it should be www.YourLabel.com this makes you look like a serious professional artist. All your songs and videos should always be released from your website your whole goal is to get the traffic to your site.

2.Building An Email List- This is such a crucial marketing strategy and so many artist don’t do it. When it come to building an email list you can control your income forever. I’m going to use Beyonce for example when she release her cd without any promotions well thats kinda true but the way she did it was the email list.Just think about when you go to these artist sites they have you enter your email to get tour dates, free gifts, unreleased tracks etc  the whole purpose behind them doing that is to generate thousand of leads to promote songs and products to later. So think about how easy it is to make sell a new single or new shirt you release if you have an email list of 20, 000 people already interested in your services. I think you get where I’m going with this. When you release new singles etc just don’t give them to the people have them enter their email  to get your new track and if they don’t who cares because they probably wouldn’t buy from anything from you anyway your focus is the people who join the list you can market to forever.

3.Selling Singles- Breaking down the mixtape and pushing each song by itself to get maximum profits. Dropping mixtapes with a amazing mixtape cover is coo but the money is in the singles.Look at it like this most people drop about 1- 4 mixtapes a year which is good but there are hundreds of thousands of rappers dropping mixtapes also so its easy for someone to forget about you with so much material coming out daily. This is where hustling the singles comes into play. The whole goal is staying  relevant and this will help you stay in front of fans faces on a regular basis.

For example instead of releasing a 12 song mixtape once a year release 1 single a month for 12 months. This keeps you relevant and your giving the fans new material on a regular basis and this allows you to put a month of promo into each track and sell the song individually which equals more money. Just like in hustlin you make more money when you break it down lol .

Tips on Finding the Best Publicist for your Band

To  get noticed and heard in the music industry in this age of the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, it takes effective publicity which involves good communication and teamwork.  The best publicist is one who works on independent releases and you can feel they connect with you and has proven to be able to connect with the audience using modern and standard channels.  Finding the ideal publicist for your band will cost you though; here are the 10 best tips to help you through this process, whether you are looking for a permanent publicist, for your next tour or album.

1. Check there track record: When searchhing for a quality music publicist, among the initial details you will get about them besides the name is how long they have been handling Public Relations for which musicians presently or have in the past.  You should also find out where else they featured in, and have a look at their blogs and try find if you know any writers, media producers in the music press and the media they may have had solid relations with because positive work sells itself.

2. Follow referrals, read Reviews: If you expect to hire a publicist that will be aggressive in hunting for you, you have to do the hunting yourself.  It is much easier to find reliable information today on these subjects because of the internet, take advantage of it.  Talk to referrals and check out publicist reviews and make a list of a few.  Every now and then you come across a name, on a blog referral and your heart will feel it when you know it’s the perfect fit for your needs.  Follow any promising link and gather information before moving forward.

3. What’s the Publicist’s current client roster: The best place to start following a promising lead?  If you follow a referral that takes you to the contact of the publicist, find out how effective they are in promoting their clients and what techniques they are using to see if it is what you are looking for.  However, I would advise you to consider only publicists who currently have not so many campaigns running, you need to find a publicist who will have time for you and who can give your music the attention it takes to truly absorb and feel it.

4. Find a publicist that specializes in your music genre: this is a very important point many bands and solos overlook, yet it is very important.  Just because a publicist is doing amazingly well promoting a friend who plays jazz doesn’t mean they can turn your next rock tour into a cosmic travel.  Be smart, look out for the small things.  A publicist may take your project because you have talent, but unless they feel you first, you will not really get efficiently understand each other.

5. Your publicist and your audience must connect:  This means that your publicist must be on the same page with your kind of crowd.  You don’t need to be supporting the same football team or watch the same TV shows but you must see that you can form a connection outside the studio and office.  Make a friend first and you will make a wonderful partner.  Your publicist should not only understand but ‘know’ how to be your fan second.

6. Good communication breeds teamwork:  While assessing a potential publicist for suitability to handle your PR, get to know how forthcoming they are on information such as schedules, fees, plans and everything else.  The best publicist is not one that uses and industry jargon to end every sentence, it is one that communicates the clearest and in time.

7. What do they think about your music?  When considering a candidate to be your publicist, you would want him or her to be your fan, but if not a mentor who believes you have the potential to reach out and turns millions of people out there into your fans.  Get your mixtape to the publicist ( make sure it has a fire ass mixtape cover and look for the belief and enthusiasm that comes with good communication.

8. Set expectations and make them clear:  Before you chose your publicist, it is important to set the right expectations and be clear on what you are seeking.  Do you want a local or an international campaign?  Do you want a publicist to handle press and organize tours or just a PR manager to connect with fans online?  You should also understand when the publicist is available and what opportunities they see.  Setting expectations MUST go both ways for it to work.

9. Responsiveness:  How long did it take for the publicist to respond when you approached them about working together?  Did they have time for you or did they just pass you on to an assistant?  Being a musician is not a job, it is your life, and you should expect to find a publicist that is prompt, pays attention to detail and understands more than just audio and visual communication and responds to them.  Trust me, you will come back here and thank me I pointed this out.

10. Budget: Finally, find out how much it will cost you to hire the right publicist.  Can you afford what they are asking?  Based on the duration of the contract, does your band have sufficient finances to keep the publicist comfortable and dedicated even if things go south?  Remember that hiring the best publicist could be costly considering you just got a team member whose fruits are not instantaneous.

You are now set to find the best referral for your next album, tour or public relations project.

Other Resources Mixtape Cover Design