Why market?

• It's fun: Imagine knowing that the fruits of your labor were heard by thousands of people on radio stations and through Internet sites around the world!
• It's good business: The more copies of your album that you sell, the better production qualities you can afford on your next CD.
• It expands the community:
  • Publishers are sole community segment with power to bring filk to new mass audiences.
  • I'm standing here because Teri, Jordin & Catherine had the wisdom to promote Minus Ten and Counting to the space enthusiast community -- including National Space Society catalog placement. Correspondingly, as a 14 year old space activist, I was pulled (with many others) into filk.
  • How many potential community members don't know about filk and might be with us today if they were exposed to it, now that publishers don't promote as aggressively outside the community?
    

How to market

1. Identify the audiences who will be buying your album
2. Make sure these audiences know your album exists and has their interest piqued ("buzz building")
3. Ensure these audiences can buy your album as conveniently as possible
   
   

Identifying audiences:

• If possible, include a few songs that appeal to sub-genres with active communities (e.g. Mercedes Lackey fandom, Star Trek/B5 fandom, C++ programmers, Eric Bogle fans, etc.) as "hooks" to attract the album to new audiences.
• Always obtain permission if publishing derivative works or parodies! (otherwise, hard to leverage because you risk being sued ;)
  
  

Informing audiences:

• Seed interested filk dealers with pre-release copies. (Increases your project's mindshare. Dealers are also often asked, "What's coming out next?". )
• Make pre-release "halo" tracks available on mp3.com, linked from your web site. Let rec.music.filk know about them. Enable people who enjoy them to be informed when release comes out.
• Leverage opportunities to get your pre-release product heard. (filk convention con suites, filk parties, etc.)
• Donate a few pre-release copies to well-attended charity auctions.
• Announce on rec.music.filk. Consider using your .sig, too.
• If you wrote the lyrics and they're not part of your CD's liner notes, consider making a lyric booklet as a convention "freebie" for flyers table. Leave a few copies in con suites, where people will often read anything filk-related they find. ;)
• Send promotional copies with appropriate cover letters to websites, newsletters, magazines, radio.
  
  

Making product easy to buy:

• Make available for easy, secure "impulse" credit card ordering!
  
• Throw a few release parties at filk-savvy conventions
• Remember: For many filk CDs, the majority of your potential buyers don't attend conventions, and have never heard of filk.
  
  

Recommended companies for secure ordering:

http://www.paypal.com - Only allows one product-type per order. Only takes a ~3% cut.


Places to get heard:

http://www.mp3.com - Largest collection of MP3s on the Internet. Pays money to high-popularity artists.

http://www.napster.com - May be shut down pending October court case. Check out the "New Artists" program. Requires a regular Internet connection.

http://www.prometheus-music.com/eli/virtual.html (Virtual Filksing) - Largest and oldest collection of filk MP3s/RealAudio files on the Internet. No longer actively maintained.


Resources for radio airplay:

http://www.houg.com/OtherShows/index.html - Comedy shows similar to The Dr. Demento Show

http://drdemento.com/faq.shtml - See the "I have a funny song. Can I send you a tape of it?" section.

http://folkradio.org/howto.html - Getting Airplay on Folk Radio Shows (Bob Blackman)


Recommended filk dealers:

http://www.filk.com - DAG Productions, Eric Gerds. Covers California, and some national conventions.

http://www.nidlink.com/~quicksilver - Quicksilver Fantasies, Pat Apodaca. Covers Idaho and bordering regions.

http://www.random-factors.com - Random Factors, John & Mary Creasey. Mail order, and California conventions.

http://www.geocities.com/sffilk/sffilk.htm - Southern Fried Filk, Michael Liebmann. Covers Southeast US.

windgesang@doso.de - Windgesang Filk (Germany), Thea Bergermann. Covers Germany.

cx692@freenet.carleton.ca - Minstrel's Glen (Canada), Glenn Simser. Covers Toronto area.

roper@xnet.com - Secret Empire, Gretchen & Bill Roper. Covers Midwest, and many WorldCons.

(none available- try the Ropers) Juanita Coulson. Covers Midwest.

(none available - e-mail me) Tales from the White Hart, Kathy & Leo Sands. Covers East Coast.


Filk Reviewers:

ttuerff@primenet.com - Tom Tuerff. Writes a filk column for ConNotations

doc@america.net - Rob Wynne. Writes a music and poetry column for Aphelion Webzine. Often reviews filk.

brightriver@iquest.net - Duke Egbert. Writes occasional filk reviews for Daily Vault.


Books Every Filk Publisher Should Read:

Guerrilla Marketing Excellence (Jay Conrad Levinson) - Fifty golden rules for marketing a product on a near-zero budget.

How to Make and Sell Your Own Recording (Diana Sward Rapaport) - The basics of production and promotion for independent artists, including how to write a project business plan.