15 Top SPAM Trigger Words

Everyone wants their newsletter to be opened but often it just ends up in your fan's spam filter. If you don't want that to happen, here are the top 15 phrases that are mostly likely to trigger that filter when used in your newsletter headline, according to Hubspot.

   1. Buy

   2. Buy direct

   3. Order

4. Cheap

5. Cash

6. $$$

7. F r e e

8. Save up to

9. Success

10. Wife

11. Medium

12. Avoid

13. Friend

14. Hello

15. Dear

You can find out a lot more newsletters, how to craft them, and how to build your mailing list in the Social Media Promotion For Musicians book.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Most Influential Music Cities In The World

Atlanta - The most influential music city

When we think of music cities, the ones that most often come to mind are Los Angeles, New York, Nashville and London, but it turns out that there are smaller cities that actually have more influence on the music of today and tomorrow. A study called the Geographic Flow of Music shows that sometimes our perceptions don't always match reality. Here are the top 20 music cities in the US according to the study.

Most Influential Music Cities In North America
1. Atlanta
2. Chicago
3. Montreal
4. Pittsburg
5. Houston
6. Toronto
7. Philadelphia
8. Richmond
9. Columbus
10. Los Angeles
11. San Diego
12. Austin
13. Minneapolis
14. New York
15. Vancouver
16. Boston
17. Denver, San Francisco, Seattle/Portland (tie)

When it comes to indie music only, Montreal, Toronto and Los Angeles are the top 3 with Denver and Seattle (surprisingly) at the bottom. For hip hop only, Atlanta, Toronto and Chicago are the top 3 with New York, Portland and Austin coming in last.

In Europe, the differences are even more stark. Here are the top 20 most influential European cities, according to the study.

Most Influential Music Cities In Europe
1. Oslo
2. Stockholm
3. Hamburg
4. Dublin
5. Birmingham
6. Leeds
7. Paris
8. Berlin
9. Brighton
10. London
11. Madrid
12. Bristol
13. Vienna
14. Barcelona
15. Manchester
16. Milan
17. Munich
18. Istanbul
19. Cracow
20. Warsaw

What's interesting is that 7 of these cities are in the United Kingdom, and 3 are in Germany, but who would've thought that Oslo would be the most influential of all?

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

John Lennon "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"

Let's celebrate the holiday with a Christmas song from John Lennon and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band. "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" was recorded in 1971 with the Harlem Community Choir as a protest song over the war in Viet Nam, but over the years it has evolved into a Christmas standard. We're all the better for it.

Happy Holidays everyone, and thanks for reading!

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Beyonce Fights Back Against The Amazon/Target Boycott

If you’ve been following the marketing strategy used by team Beyonce on her latest self-titled album, you know that it’s been quite clever so far. To recap, the Beyonce album was released on the unsuspecting public without any advance marketing fanfare whatsoever, which caused a bit of a commotion as that fact was trumpeted far and wide by bloggers and news organizations (including me, I should add).

Of course there’s always more to the story and so it is here. The album was released as a digital-only product, with a one week exclusive going to iTunes. This didn’t sit well with retail giant Target, who refused to sell the CD when it was released as a result. A few days later, Amazon joined the boycott on the CD as well (although it still sells the download). 

Even though Beyonce set an iTunes record with over 600,000 digital album downloads, having the number 2 and 3 retailers boycotting your physical product could put a crimp in your long term sales. So what did Beyonce do? She went on a shopping trip to a Tewsbury, Massachusetts Walmart on Friday night, announced to everyone over the store’s loudspeaker system that she was there to buy her album, then gave out approximately 37 grand worth of $50 Walmart gift cards to everyone she saw in the store.

Most of the press covered the move as Beyonce being nice to a bunch of people she didn’t know, but there was actually a grand design behind the shopping appearance. One was a subtle reminder to her fan base that even if you couldn’t find her CD at Target or Amazon, it was readily available at Walmart. She also sent an unmistakable message to Target that said, “If you cross me, I’ll give all of my attention to your competitor instead.” Read more on Forbes.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Which Social Network Should You Focus On?

Let's face it, there are a lot of choices when it comes to social network marketing, and although you can be on every network, it's usually best if you concentrate on one at a time. But which one?

If you want to sell your music and merch, there are clear winners, as reported by the research company Kissmetrics. On the infographic on the left, you can see that YouTube beats Facebook when it comes to time spent on the social network per month, and pages viewed per visit, but that doesn't tell the whole story.

Here are some other points that the company found after analyzing data from 18,000 ecommerce sites.

1. Run your marketing campaign during the week. It's far more effective than on the weekend.

2. Focus on retaining your fans and bringing then back to your site. They're the ones more likely to buy your products.

3. A small community of 500 active fans frequently beats a large community of inactive fans. Focus on your core audience.

4. Facebook brings more revenue than Twitter. People may spend more time on Twitter, but it's not as effective when it comes to marketing.

5. 65% of ecommerce traffic comes from iPhone and iPad users. Don't ignore mobile users, but concentrate on iOS first.

Read more about this specific study that Justin Butlion of Yotpo authored.

If you want to learn more about online marketing and promotion (which includes your website, blog and newsletter), check out Social Media Promotion For Musicians.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.