Under the Hood: Online Music Marketing with Topspin

This is Mike King from Berklee College of Music. Ian and co. have been kind enough to let me hijack the Topspin blog for a minute to talk about our Online Music Marketing with Topspin course, which starts this Monday, September 27th.

We’ve been teaching the Topspin course at Berkleemusic.com for just under a year, and personally, it’s been one of the more rewarding things that I’ve been involved in. To get emails like the following from online students really reinforces the fact that we are doing something positive and immediately applicable for musicians and their career:

Subject: Brian Ray Pre-Sale + Topspin Marketing = Success!!

I just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know that Brian Ray‘s pre-order has been a huge success so far. We sold out the limited edition deluxe package ($35-$50) in less than 48 hours! I think Brian was a little shocked – he didn’t quite believe that his fans would be willing to spend so much money.

Had I not done the Topspin course, we probably wouldn’t have offered a deluxe package, just a CD, and would have missed out on $$$$ of sales. Thanks for all the inspiration and encouragement! I’ll be working hard over the coming months to implement even more of what I’ve learnt.

All the best,

Fiona

I’ve given a bunch of Online Music Marketing with Topspin course demos to folks here at the college, to successful musicians that are visiting our school, and to musician friends that need a hand understanding some of the best practices associated with online music marketing. I thought it might be helpful for all of you to take a look inside our course too, so we made one of the 12 lessons available for free, here (you’ll need to register on our site to view). This is lesson 6 in the course, which talks about forecasting, product and pricing considerations, Topspin’s orders section, and more. This is an archive of a section of the course that my colleague and Topspin ninja, Jason Kadlec, taught earlier this year. If you decide to check it out, be sure to look at the class forum (up top), the assignment page, and Jason’s archived chat. This will give you a good understanding of the communication and interaction between the students and the instructor – the course is a whole lot more than static copy on a page. You’re working with musicians, marketers, and managers from around the world, and led by an instructor that is an expert in Topspin and online music marketing. Again, this is just one of the lessons in the 12-week course, and we go through a ton of topics covering all things online (and some offline) marketing related.

I’m more than happy to chat with anyone about the course. If you want to reach me, I’m at mking [at] berklee.edu. As I mentioned we’re starting a new term on September 27th. Hope to see you online.

Mike