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"Perception is not always reality." Something that I have been saying and teaching artists for many years. Especially when it comes to our beliefs about other artists. Too often, our perception of how well other artists are doing or how successful they are, is based upon how often we see their music video on MTV or how many reviews or articles we see. Not to forget the amount of times we hear their song on the radio. The same holds true of independent or developing artists in your area. The sheer amount of shows they are doing in your town and the promotion related to them, can cause you to think they are far ahead of your career. Ironically, it is often this "misperception" that influences new or developing artists to change musical genres to try to "jump on the trend" of what they perceive others are being successful with.

On the other side of the fence, what other artists think of us, our music and how successful they perceive us to be, is not always reality. But we may want it to be. Depending upon how successful we are in "painting the picture" that we have a number of things happening (monthly shows at a club or clubs in town, people talking about our shows, CDs in the stores, radio airplay, write ups in the press, etc.) is usually based upon how well we can manipulate the media and industry into believing that we have something going.

While I know your first reaction is going to be, "how can I manipulate the media and industry when they don’t even return my phone calls?" Whether the radio programmers, press, retail buyers or club/venue bookers return your phone calls is not always the most important part of your new "perception" strategy.

Most artists don’t know that before a record deal is usually offered to an artist, the record company will conduct a "market by market reality check." This entails having a special staff (or usually hiring my company) to contact the various radio, retailers, press and club bookers in the target cities you should be focused on and seeing what they believe is happening with your CD and how much they know about you. While support in the form of constant airplay or write ups in the press are nice, the record companies want to know if they are familiar with you and what is happening with you. But lets not forget the retailers and clubs. It is very important that the researchers see you have record sales in the stores and how many people are coming to your shows on a regular basis.

While record sales and attendance at your shows is something you can control through the effectiveness of your direct promotions, the question is, how can you get the radio and press to know what is happening with you, even if they don’t want to play your music or write about it? Actually it is quite simple.

Most often the radio programmers and press aren’t going to play your CD or write about you until there is more of a story developing. (Especially if you didn’t send them an Artist Profile). Your job is to keep them up to date on how your career is developing. You can do that by simply emailing or faxing them a monthly update about what is happening with your promotion. For example, airplay on other stations they monitor, write ups or reviews in other publications or online. What stores are stocking your CDs and how many sales you are having, where your are playing and how many people are coming. Updates such as these are passed on to the record company A & R staffs when they are trying to check to see if your music is having any impact. These updates can be the key to getting a record company or other industry people to pay attention to your music.

The "perception" of how well you are doing in your target markets is a key determining factor in whether you get sponsorship deals in the future. Not just from equipment manufacturers but from major consumer product companies. Ones that will give you thousands of dollars to help promote your music.

* We will talk about how to get sponsorship deals in the next article. To make sure you receive that article, sign up for my free monthly newsletter at http://www.tsamusic.com.

* To better understand what record companies want and how you can manipulate the media, order a copy of Tim Sweeney’s Guide To Releasing Independent Records through my web site at http://www.tsamusic.com

** If you are serious to the point that you want to do your music full time instead of your day job and sell 10,000 CDs in your home market then check out my upcoming workshop!

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