I’ve had the distinct pleasure and honor working with The Minneapolis Pops for a couple seasons now. The Mpls Pops is a professional orchestra, mostly comprised of musicians who are also employed with the Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, that plays free concerts for Twin Citians. Over the years, the Mpls Pops […]

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Custom screen printed Rock Posters have always been big in certain music scenes (And will probably continue to be for a very long time). Sadly, the main stream does not share this sentiment, but one day… oh, yes… one day they shall! Whether you’re part of a music scene that embraces the beautiful art of a […]

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Image via WikipediaI was speaking with a friend the other day about patches. When I was in high school, patches and buttons were the way to customize your book bag and show off your stunning and ever-so-hip musical taste. The more enviable patches were those that showed more local and/or obscure bands (as opposed to […]

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Image via WikipediaFor the newbies to the cultBLOG, I like to use Jay Conrad Levinson’s definition of “Guerrilla Marketing” –mostly because he coined the term and has written about infinity and a half books on the subject. His basic definition of Guerrilla Marketing is accomplishing ordinary business/marketing goals by unconventional means. In the same respect, […]

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Image via WikipediaIf you’ve been reading the cultBLOG at all, you get how much I stress the need for merchandising; but properly merchandising your band or music organization is about more than just buying a run of one-color t-shirts and schlepping them to all over the place. No. There is actually logic behind all the […]

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Image via WikipediaToday I’m focusing on the “street team” –which is really something that I never really got.
I’m a total business nerd and I love talking about marketing, pricing strategy, branding, financial management, and any number of other topics that are probably tripping your gag-reflex. That being said, I think that there are way too […]

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Image via WikipediaTo append to yesterday’s post, I had some more ideas.
The essence of the post was that musicians should consider partnering with other creative firms and individuals to exchange some shared synergy with one another. If a band were to carry this to the professional extreme,  said musical group might hear their music in […]

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…mainly because I thought of it.
The Twin Cities (where CULT STATUS calls its physical home) are bursting at the seams with all sorts of advertising and marketing firms, small and large. Along with these come the ever-needed support companies. I’m talking about film and production companies and a host of independent contractors that supply bigger […]

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Image via WikipediaI was surfing around and came across a pretty cheesy article about how to use “guerrilla marketing” to market your band. I’m not linking to it because it was 95% worthless –and because the terms guerrilla, viral, street marketing, et al. have been abused beyond the point of recognition. Nobody knows what they […]

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Image via WikipediaOne of the most underrated, yet crucial marketing tools for many musicians and entrepreneurs is the simple sign or banner. It’s a visual reminder of who you are, what you do, or where to find you.
In the case of musicians, orchestras and bands, it provides your audience with a name, logo and website […]

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