OK, I find that it is time to put this out there so that all bands and upcoming artists understand the finer points here of marketing themselves, I'm going to go off a little here, but I'm going to be very honest and share with you some thoughts about the VERY FIRST IMPRESSION anyone will ever get about your band, and that is YOUR NAME / MONIKER / LOGO / BRAND if you will.
What you call your group is IMPORTANT, and it may be the single MOST important thing you do, so you BETTER THINK ABOUT IT SERIOUSLY.
I can't tell you how many promo requests I get each week, where I don't even click a link to listen because the BAND'S NAME is just so strange, non-memorable, nonesensical, boring, lame or just plain stupid. I know this sounds really really harsh. But it's true.
I know bands feel a connection to their names or they likely would not name themselves these things, BUT... for your own good, I must protest and yell from the rooftops (in general because telling a band their name SUX, I just can't seem to bring myself to do).
OK some very GOOD thoughts are numbered below that you should consider when you are going to name your musical project, even if you are a solo artist, you may opt to use one word/name rather than both your first and last name, take ""STING" for instance, rather than "GORDON SUMNER" just a bit easier to remember?
1) Genre (musical style, the name must fit the style of music, general attitude, themes and direction your music is going) this is a no brainer for most, but not for all, this is generally a rule of thumb, it's not always the case and some leaders have learned to carve their own new nitch into musical history by creating their own sub-genre with their music and their names.
2) Cool Factor (does is sound interesting not lame? ) Another exceedingly important factor in a band name, does the name flow well, does it evoke an interesting image? There are a lot of artists out there that don't really fit into this category that have made it rather huge, but those artists came out at a time when there was A LOT less competition out there, at a time when their music was heard before their name was. This is not the case any longer.
3) Search Engine rankings ( the above mentioned things should be obvious, but don't seem to be for everyone, but a less obvious thought when naming your band these days is how will it search, what presence will it have online.
Generally speaking you want to stay away from any COMMON words or terms that are out there that are going to have a million other listings before yours, because it simply creates an ocean of information between you and your possible public, this is one reason why bands find alternate spellings for themselves (BUT most times that is a pitfall that will enter them into the # 2 category of possibly LAME names if not really careful)
Why is this a problem? Because even if your website were to get hit 1000-2000 times a week, it might take the band 10 years or more to get a listing that is showing up on the first page of a search engines results.
Where do you want to be? At the top of the first page right? Of course, so in order to get it there EASILY, you have to think about this one.
A really GREAT idea is combining two words into one word creating your own new hybrid word. Using this technique is great, just search these as you are coming up with them, if nothing else comes up in a search engine and the new word you've created is interesting, says something about your music, and fits into your genre or what you believe your nitch following would be into, then you likely have a great name for the band.
OK off my soap box now, I'm so proud of myself for not posting a few of the examples I got this week that were just horrid band names!
May "The Force" be with you!
What you call your group is IMPORTANT, and it may be the single MOST important thing you do, so you BETTER THINK ABOUT IT SERIOUSLY.
I can't tell you how many promo requests I get each week, where I don't even click a link to listen because the BAND'S NAME is just so strange, non-memorable, nonesensical, boring, lame or just plain stupid. I know this sounds really really harsh. But it's true.
I know bands feel a connection to their names or they likely would not name themselves these things, BUT... for your own good, I must protest and yell from the rooftops (in general because telling a band their name SUX, I just can't seem to bring myself to do).
OK some very GOOD thoughts are numbered below that you should consider when you are going to name your musical project, even if you are a solo artist, you may opt to use one word/name rather than both your first and last name, take ""STING" for instance, rather than "GORDON SUMNER" just a bit easier to remember?
1) Genre (musical style, the name must fit the style of music, general attitude, themes and direction your music is going) this is a no brainer for most, but not for all, this is generally a rule of thumb, it's not always the case and some leaders have learned to carve their own new nitch into musical history by creating their own sub-genre with their music and their names.
2) Cool Factor (does is sound interesting not lame? ) Another exceedingly important factor in a band name, does the name flow well, does it evoke an interesting image? There are a lot of artists out there that don't really fit into this category that have made it rather huge, but those artists came out at a time when there was A LOT less competition out there, at a time when their music was heard before their name was. This is not the case any longer.
3) Search Engine rankings ( the above mentioned things should be obvious, but don't seem to be for everyone, but a less obvious thought when naming your band these days is how will it search, what presence will it have online.
Generally speaking you want to stay away from any COMMON words or terms that are out there that are going to have a million other listings before yours, because it simply creates an ocean of information between you and your possible public, this is one reason why bands find alternate spellings for themselves (BUT most times that is a pitfall that will enter them into the # 2 category of possibly LAME names if not really careful)
Why is this a problem? Because even if your website were to get hit 1000-2000 times a week, it might take the band 10 years or more to get a listing that is showing up on the first page of a search engines results.
Where do you want to be? At the top of the first page right? Of course, so in order to get it there EASILY, you have to think about this one.
A really GREAT idea is combining two words into one word creating your own new hybrid word. Using this technique is great, just search these as you are coming up with them, if nothing else comes up in a search engine and the new word you've created is interesting, says something about your music, and fits into your genre or what you believe your nitch following would be into, then you likely have a great name for the band.
OK off my soap box now, I'm so proud of myself for not posting a few of the examples I got this week that were just horrid band names!
May "The Force" be with you!
