Music “Push” Marketing Strategies and Concepts

The advance of Internet use has drastically changed the economics of the music industry over the last decade. Over the last ten years music sales have dropped. Musicians and artists have had to adapt the changes to be successful. Those changes include how they market, whom they market to and what they market for.

Julien Mitelberg wrote and article for the Huffington Post called “Push, Don’t Shove – Music Marketing That Actually Works.” In the article Mitelberg discusses the concepts of “push” and “pull” marketing online. To paraphrase Mitelberg’s definition of the two concepts:

1.     Push marketing is a straightforward approach that forces the information about your music or tour date on the prospective customer through the distribution of advertisement.

2.     Pull marketing is more of a backdoor approach that helps the prospective customer find you on the Internet.

Although many of us are more inclined to be less pushy and want the fans to find us, the more affective way to sell the product or service in music seems to be the push strategy. Mitelberg includes a study by Bandsintown, which can help us to better understand what brings concert attendees to the show. The study showed that prospects are most likely to respond to “push’ marketing strategies.

Mitelberg made the following statement, which reflects his analysis of the Bandsintown study:

“More than 80 percent of music fans surveyed said that Facebook posts and email blasts inspire them to purchase concert tickets, compared to more traditional outlets like magazines, newspapers, or even blogs.”

Push marketing reminds me of an age old sales and marketing concept called “direct” marketing. Direct marketing is simply the concept of taking your product or service directly to the presence of the prospect in hopes of selling and or raising awareness of your offering. Direct marketing is still and effective tool used today by many reputable companies. Some of today's new push marketing strategies could be considered direct marketing on the Internet.