I ran across this today at SXSW 2013. This is the epitome of bad music marketing. It represents the stupidity of throwing up a print advertisement, digital banner ad, or even a billboard without any strategy. This was just another piece of unnoticed noise in a stream of people shouting for attention.

Yes Tal B, you are on iTunes…along with 28 million other songs screaming for attention. The average indie band on iTunes that doesn’t have a team or strategy to actually message, brand, and develop a real fan relationship will end up with less than 1,000 downloads. That’s a micro fraction of the 25 billion song downloads iTunes claims.

Don’t become this statistic. Don’t think like Tal B, believing a poster on the streets of SXSW will actually move anyone. If Tal B was thinking strategically, he would have a free download link for a song. He would have a QR code for a website landing page with the free download, a video, a welcome from Tal, and a way for people to really connect with him.

This was a good reminder for me today. I took time to notice, not for the reason he intended. Remember, behind every great success in music there was a great strategy map. It doesn’t happen by osmosis or a half-cooked attempt.

Breathe In & Smile Out,
Chris