the word please

Mr. Julian Moore's blog at Frontend hasn't yet failed to amaze me. This time he's talking about the art of persuasion, and he picks up 50 points that are relevant to a struggling artist's promotion regime.

Click here to read the original post.

I won't rehash his post here, but I just want to talk about the power of the word 'please' for a struggling artist. I only realized it myself after reading his post, so it should be a good idea for you to read it, because you might learn something new like me.

When you were kids, you've probably been taught to say the word 'please' when you ask something from people. But the word 'please' is terribly overlooked and under-appreciated by struggling artists (who I can safely assume to be adults) who are trying to sell/promote their music. I saw a lot of MySpace comments, forum posts, blog comments etc that neglected the word 'please' like these examples:

Download our new song XXXXX now!
Vote for our band and get us played on XXXX FM!
Come to Lil' Bugger's gig at Club XXXX this Sunday!

Now those read like commands rather than requests or suggestions, ain't it? No 'please'? Your mam would've said 'where's your manners?'

The clubs don't need your songs to bump up the party; the average hip-hop head does not feel obliged to download your songs, and the human society does not require your songs to function. You are trying to persuade them to do something for you, by downloading your songs and coming to your gigs and stuff. And I think the best way to get them to do it is by being courteous, and that involves putting the word 'please' in your exhortations. Make it sound softer.

The word 'please' makes you sound more human and more humble, and that in turn makes you more accessible to your fans/potential fans. So they would want to download your song/come to your gig/buy your merch and stuff.

Let's attach the word 'please' to the aforementioned sentences:

Please download our new song XXXXX now!
Please vote for our band and get us played on XXXX FM!
Please come to Lil' Bugger's gig at Club XXXX this Sunday!

It sounds better now ain't it? Maybe some people would think, "nah that sounds pussy". Well, it's up to you to put 'please' or not, it's all down to personal preferences. What I suggest is you experiment with the word: try putting 'please' in comments delivered to several MySpacers, and omit it in another batch of comment to another group of MySpacers. See what happens.

Don't think I'm a hypocrite, I've also done this since way before. I would just copy and paste comments on MySpace saying 'download my song now!'. I was effectively commanding people to visit my site and click 'download'. No wonder I didn't get much back then. But now that I've learned it, I'll be putting the word 'please' in every instances where I interact with my listeners or promoting my music to potential fans.

However the word 'please' alone does not guarantee your songs reach 1000 downloads overnight. Combine it with careful wording of your online promotion and a kickarse song.

I'm no authority on this shit, but this is what I learned.

And it's always good to be courteous and polite. The world will become a better place if everyone is polite (especially struggling artists).

Cheers
The Rhymeweaver

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