This is me

I just got off the phone with Ropeadope artist and friend Clay Ross.

About an hour ago, he emailed me along with other friends and special fans about his upcoming CD Release party at Joe’s Pub. My initial response to him was, “This is the type of shit that makes a difference for artists today…direct contact with the customer aka fan. But I would have reworded some of what you said. If I come [to Marco Benevento's show] tonight, I’ll let you know why I said that.”

Immediately, he calls me back, leaves a message because I was busy talking to my roommate, and ALSO emails me saying, “well shit man, tell me now before I send out the rest of em…”

I got the feeling he wanted to talk now, so I called him back and told him the following: “if you’re emailing friends and fans, you want to make it about THEM, so minimize the “I’s” and maximize the “You’s” in the email.”

You need to see the CD Release Party as a party for the fans because they make your career. He gets that because he wouldn’t have written the email in the first place if it wasn’t the case, but he had to rework a couple of his paragraphs.

Personal emails help bridge the gap between fan and musician. It lets them know you value them as fans and it makes the fans feel special because they’re a part of your life.

I made the analogy of promoting a shows to a generic salesman. I told him I have friends in sales who know their client’s spouse’s name and their kids’ birthdays, for example. These sorts of things make people comfortable with giving you money for your goods and/or services. As a musician, your service is creating sounds that evoke emotion in people that make them want to listen again and again, see you live, buy your CD, wear the t-shirt, subscribe to your email list…basically continually give a shit about you. Otherwise, someone is going to sway your fans into liking them better than you.

So when writing emails, playing shows, recording albums, or blogging for example, remember it’s about them, NOT about you.