By Daylle Deanna Schwartz, Copyright 2006

Independent success is usually based on the amount of grassroots promotion that’s generated. Street teams are a great way to spread the word about your music to potential fans. They can effectively generate a buzz on a your CD before you even release it. If you have the budget, you can hire street marketing companies to put them together in any market across the country. If you can’t afford it, create one from fans, which I believe is the best way. This can be the single most valuable tool you cultivate to market your music. When you have fans that love your music, street teams are a very cost effective and productive marketing campaign. Tony Brummel, president of Victory Records in Chicago says, “They do anything from various promotions on the Internet; going to retail and setting up displays; securing in-store play; filling out stock check lists for us; giving us reports on what programs they see other labels’ product in; compliance for listening stations that we pay for, especially at the chain level. The big thing is going to concerts and passing out posters, stickers or samplers and doing everything in their community to promote our records.”

Often music lovers who are passionate about a specific genre know others who are too. Loyal fans work will work hard to spread the word. They can create excitement in record stores and keep you informed of sales and any marketing opportunities. Jay Woods, Senior Vice President and General Manager of New West Records in Austin is a big believer in having people talking up your record in stores. He says, “We don’t have the luxury of a big staff. So we constantly try to recruit people to be the eyes and ears for us in the stores. There’s only so much you can do over the phone. You’ve got to let people know you’re out there.” Street teams can help accomplish that.

Using street teams makes sense for getting new fans. Think about it. Which might pique your interest more? - an advertisement for an act you don’t know or fans enthusiastically telling you why they love an artist. Enthusiasm is contagious. Fans are happy to help you when they’re asked to. They will go to many lengths if you show appreciation for their efforts. Let fans know that you have a street team. Recruit members whenever you can. Get them excited about helping you. Have a place on your website for people to sign up to join. List what specific things you’ll need help with.

You need help with your website? Let them know. Someone to call media or radio stations? Ask! A fan may have, or know someone who has, the skills you need. Valerie Vigoda, lead singer and electric violinist for GrooveLily, is a great example of an act that's harnessed the power of their fans. They had a member of their street team act as their publicist for years. This fan went on to actually work for a PR company, so it was mutually beneficial. Announce what you’re looking for at all gigs. Encourage people to get friends involved. Keep a record of where fans live so you can tap into those in markets you tour. Fanpower is a force that can seriously help advance an artist’s career. It can create the grassroots awareness that’s necessary to sell CDs, book gigs, bring people to your website, get press, and get you to the next level.

When you tour, ask for help in each market. Street team members can give out flyers, hang posters, and do whatever they can to promote your gig. They can recommend radio stations to approach, ask stores to bring you in for in-store promotion and get stores to carry your CD. They can even help you find a gig if you don’t know venues in their region. Recruit fans to work a merch table when you perform. In return, give them free tix to your gigs, t-shirts, and whatever else you can do to make them feel special. Hang with them a little at the gig. Ask fans to go into chatrooms and post messages on the bulletin boards of artists who are similar to you. They can talk you up to music lovers who might love you too, if they knew about you. Make sure you have a good website that these potential fans can be invited to.
Show great appreciation for members of your street teams, whenever you can. Create a separate newsletter for street team members. Let them know your news first. Make it personal. Talk to them like friends, because they are! Thank individual members for specific things in the newsletter. It will inspire others to do things to get their name in it. You can’t make fans feel too special! And, that’s all most want for helping. Give them special t-shirts, advance copies of new releases, a song no one else has and any perks you think of. When fans feel like a part of something special, they’ll work hard.

Create a community among your fans, as GrooveLily did when they began their Petal Pushers (PP) program, which you should all check out on their website. http://www.groovelily.com Valerie Vigoda says they create a sense of community to make their team feel special – because they are. They work together to spread the word and it’s very organized. Vigoda explains, “The Petal Pushers turned into their own vibrant, growing community of friends. They have gatherings and parties. There is an active online discussion group, and we make "exclusives" available to the PPs as often as we can. We put one very avid Petal Pusher in charge of the program. He's the point person - asks each PP how they'd like to be involved, and encourages them to do what they're comfortable with: postering, flyering, contacting media, giving sampler CDs out, helping at the merch table at gigs, and in some cases, promoting shows. A small group of PPs funded our bumper stickers, which say ‘Petal Pusher Powered!’ People enjoy being part of a community, helping to spread the word about music they like... all we do is show appreciation as much as we can, and try to channel their incredible energies!”

Street promotion is important for grass roots awareness. If you give posters to your street team members in different markets, they can go to retail stores and talk to buyers about pushing your CD. Ask street team members to go to any place that a potential fan might go. Encourage them to let you know when they’re going to music events that fans of your genre attend, especially at a large venue. Give them T-shirts (preferably with your website on it) to wear. Ask them to give out postcards, samplers, stickers, or any swag with your name and website on it. Onno Lakeman, of Red to Violet, a duo based in Holland, says, “We have given people T-shirts and flyers for UK festivals and it works. In the U.S. we did the same during events so that thousands of music lovers visiting the festival see someone wearing the shirt and handing out flyers.” Street team members that can tap into the fans of other artists can help increase your following greatly.

Where might potential fans shop? Fans can bring promotional material to retail stores that music lovers may go into. These stores don’t have to sell the CDs. But they might give out swag to support the music, if enthusiastic fans approach them. Tony Brummel says, “That’s a big alternative marketing area for a label like us - a lot of alternative type accounts that might be interested in our artists will do things for us, outside regular music retail. For example, we continually supply skateboard shops, surfboard shops, place like that, with free music, t-shirts and giveaway items. In turn, they’ll give out our samplers, put up posters and play the CDs in their store. They don’t sell the CDs. We still want sales to be in music retail.” Many stores play music. Why not yours! And if you don’t care about retail sales numbers, ask them to sell it too.

If someone from a foreign country orders your CD off of CDBaby, contact him or her and invite them to join your fans. Offer to send them 5 free CDs for their friends with a pile of postcards advertising your music. They can leave the cards in record shops, clubs and other places that music lovers can pick them up. People who’ve done it say their orders in those cities picked up when a fan distributed cards. Then all of those people can be invited to join your street team too. With the Internet, street teams can be anywhere. Tap into this source of fanpower and your career can spread its wings more.


Daylle Deanna Schwartz is a music industry coach/consultant, speaker and author of the best-selling I Don't Need a Record Deal! Your Survival Guide for the Indie Music Revolution, Start & Run Your Own Record Label, and The
Real Deal: How to Get Signed to a Record Label (Billboard Books). Daylle also publishes Daylle's News & Resources, a free music industry newsletter and Self-Empowerment Quarterly, also free. daylle@daylle.com www.daylle.com www.idontneedarecorddeal.com has resources for advancing in the music industry.