Best 0f 2010 - most innovative music start-ups

This is my last daily post of 2010 - and what better way to round up than Chris Bracco's look at the best music industry start-ups of the year.

Chris's blog has had some of the most informative posts of the year and this is no exception - a look at a bunch of new companies that every diy musician needs to at least know about and hopefully get the chance to use.

The end of the year is approaching rapidly, and a lot has happened in the music industry over the past twelve months! There have been many incredible albums released this year, some of which surprised the public and even became nominated for Grammy awards.

You see all of these “best of/worst of” lists pop up around this time every year, but personally I’m bored of the formula. This year, I’d like to compile a list of the most unique, interesting, and innovative music technology companies, regardless of whether they managed to generate any revenues for the year.

 

So without further ado, I present to you what I believe are the most unique music technology companies of 2010 (in no particular order)

Read the post here.

Thanks for the support in 2010 - we'll be back in 2011!

The emergence of crowdfunding

As part of We All Make Music's 'Best of 2010' series, Rocket Hub have put together this list of 4 signifcant developmenets in fan funding.

Fan Funding or Crowd funding - whichever you prefer - really came of age in 2010 and this list gives you some places to go and learn more about how you can use it in your music career.

Read the post here.

 

New Music Business paradigm

Another brilliant list from Bob Lefsetz.

He also points us to this article from OK Go's manager.

I don't need to tell you anymore than to go and read another set of 6 great tips on how to build your fanbase in the new music business.

One thing we do know…  Music lives online.  It’s a digital medium.  The fact that majors still get the most revenue from CD sales illustrates their fear of the future.  If you’ve got nothing to lose, you take chances.  If you’re the steward of a dying business, you don’t want to take the blame.  You want to blame everybody else.  But the blame game is done.

In order to make money you’ve got to have an online presence.  You’ve got to build your name to the point that people know who you are and are interested in following your next move.  Once upon a time a hit made fans interested in what came next.  Now a track is seen as an isolated event.  You can quite literally be here today and gone tomorrow.  How do you succeed?  By burrowing deep online.

Read Bob's list of 6 here.

How did they get signed? Free eBook from Audiorokit

I was asked today to take a look at a new site called Audiorokit that aims to connect your music with industry players who are actually looking for specific material, styles or genres.

It's a great idea and a site I'd definitely add to those that you should be aware of and using as a diy musician. It's brand new and needs to get some density to reach its potential, but go and take a look.

Darren who set it up has been around the music biz for a while and is looking to fix a problem of access that all musicians have.

He's also been kind enough to let us give away a free eBook that he's written that tells the story behind how 10 acts (some you know, some you don't) got their break and got noticed. It should inspire you and maybe give you some ideas!

Download - 'So how did they get signed?' here.

 

 

Facebook Fan Page changes coming and to affect musicians

So there we all are just getting to grips with Facebook for Musicians.

Not least me and Amanda - Amanda has written 30,000 words or so of our definitive book on what to do with your Fan Page as a musician - and now they're going to change it! Just when we had it all covered and were working to release the eBook in early 2011.

Oh, well.

This article is a good round-up of all the hullabaloo yesterday and suggests that we will be losing a good few of the things that we'd become used to on our Fan pages.

Be informed - read the piece here.

MySpace launch fan management tools

Maybe it's not all over for MySpace?

Just when everyone is saying that it's over for the original music focussed Social Network, out they come with some serious tools to make the life of the average band a lot easier.

And, remember, I still advocate and active MySpace presence as a key part of your online music promotion, because a vasty nyumber of people still turn to MySpace as their first stop when looking up a band to hear their music.

In my mind, it is still a place you have to have a presence.

However, the former “place for friends” has recently announced an integration with marketing and promotion platform ReverbNation that will give artists a handy collection of tools that they can use to track analytics (both on MySpace and on other social media sites) and organize and contact their fans. The new contact tools are an extension of Reverb’s Fan Relationship Management application, FanReach.

Mashable have the scoop - read it here.

10 things you need to be doing at gigs

Image by CalvinCropley

Great post from We All Make Music to remind you what you should be doing to get the most out of every gig - for yourself, your fans and the venue. Just because you can get a gig doesn't mean you know what to do to get the best result from every show you play!

For the most part it's obvious and just good mannaers but we all need to be reminded now and again.

Read the list of 10 here.

 

10 low cost rules of music promotion

Bobby Owsinski's book, Music 3.0, is great.

It sets out a real roadmap for musicians seeking to succeed in their own digital music marketing and promotion efforts. I recommend it.

On his blog, he reworks sections of the book and this post caught my eye as it gives a simple yet comprehensive list of things all aspiring musicians should be doing - a couple of which are different to what you might see elsewhere.

In particular, I like the idea of having a separate email list for a small band of 'influencers' and of asking anyone who posts about your music to give you a specific backlink to your site.

Never leave promotion to someone else. You always must be actively involved in at least an oversight level to be sure that not only are you getting promoted, but that it’s something that’s beneficial to your image as an artist. This even includes having a publicist, since she takes the cues from you. Especially don’t depend upon a record label, particularly in these days where so few people do so many jobs. It’s up to you to develop the strategy or it might not get developed at all.

That being said, here are a number of very low-cost M30 ideas that you can do to get your promotion started.

Read the piece here.

Quantum events can lead to success

This is a slightly odd one for us to pass on as it is in some ways at odds with what we usually preach - that you can develop your own success.

That is very much what I believe but this is an interesting article since I can't argue that a quantum event - or as the English would say, a 'leg up' - will clearly speed up your journey to success.

Can you seek out these kind of opportunities? Yes. Hence why we advocate widespread and judicious online and offline networking to boost your following and chances of happening across someone who can really help you promote your music and build your career.

Talk to any successful artist, producer or songwriter, and you’ll discover that each of them struggled at one level until a breakthrough happened and their career took a quantum jump ahead. Just like playing a video game, artists “level up” when a quantum event happens. Quantum events include things like meeting the right producer, getting feedback on your songs from a master songwriter, being signed to a development deal with an indie label, releasing a great single, having your homemade sex tape “accidentally” leaked on YouTube, etc. Everyone’s quantum events are different.

Read the whole piece here.

Best Marketing Moves of 2011

And, if the predicitions from Bob for 2011 aren't enough for you, this is an awesome review of the year's best online music marketing strategies that worked in 2010.

Marcus at The Musicians Guide (whose post on Mic Control we featured yesterday!) has done a great job of picking out a bunch of marketing efforts by a range of artists that really got results for the perpetrators - look over their shoulder and learn some tricks!

Read the post here.

 

Music Marketing Trends for 2011

Bob Baker - you know, the guy who has been advising artists on music marketing longer than anyone - has recorded 2 videos and made a pdf of some tools and trends that he thinks will be impacting on your music marketing and promotion next year.

Are you familiar with QR codes, Google Goggles, NFC technology, or location-based scavenger hunts? These are just some of the technology and marketing trends I cover in the two videos below.

Just go and watch and read here!

Giving music away really works!

I found this video on the Time website.

Jonathan Coulton has become a succesful DIY musician by building his fanbase largely by giving music away. He has a great take on it in this video - "What's the worse that can happen - millions of people listening to my music for free!?"

It shows insights into how he got where he is and things that he does to engage his fans - well worth watching.

If the embed doesn't work - click this link to go to the Time site.

Get a record deal via YouTube

I love that this has happened and that it vindicates many of the strategies of online music promotion that I and my ilk have been putting forward.

Ahmir, an R&B act who have developed a massive YouTube following largely by recording vocally impressive covers of current hits, have just signed to a successful label that can take them to the mainstream industry.

I think that perhaps they didn't actually need a deal but that highlights something we don't often talk about - the easiest access to mainstream writers & producers (that an R&B act like this needs) and to radio and TV is through the major label system. Or certainly through the connections and networks that they still have the most hold over - but that will change over time.

That doesn't mean that you can't do it DIY, but there is still a place for the machine - especially in pop and R&B.

Watch their video below and go and read the pieces on MusicMarketing.com which put me on to the story.

This piece has the story about Ahmir.

But, in particular - read this piece - which looks at how the intelligent use of covers (or perhaps samples a la Black Eyed Peas?) brings your band to a whole new audience.

Don't underestimate the importance of band photos

I spoke to Jon at Mic Control about this post on their blog yesterday.

It's true that most bands think that a photo of them is just another part of the press pack or things that they need on their website, but it's a key part of your music promotion and you need to get it right.

The article by Marcus Taylor makes a lot of good points.

As a musical artist it’s natural to prioritise your music as the most important asset that you can offer your fans – after all, that’s what you set out to do; make music. This is fine, because without the music you probably wouldn’t have fans, which the point that I’m going to make in this post depends on, but perhaps there is an emerging need to prioritise photos or images more so than you currently are.

Read the post here.

I'd add that you don't want any of your photos to look anything like these! - http://www.rockandrollconfidential.com/hall/index.php

Top 5 tips for independent and unsigned bands

Surface Festival is kind of like and international massive 'Battle of the Bands', but it's also a hub for the advancement of live music.

Check out their site as you might fancy entering.

They also write some good basic info on their blog - such as this piece on tips for unsigned bands.

It's a simple overview but worth checking out as it looks at the fundamentals you need to have a grip on as you build your fanbase.

The unsteady and unpredictable climate of the music industry over the last 10 years has allowed different forces to emerge in the techniques bands and artists can use to gain success and popularity. Obviously, many of these contemporary and digitally conceived methods have been overlooked by record companies. The price of ignorance is proving an expensive blunder; from simple self promotion of music to attempts to control copyrighted material, big labels are still struggling to come to terms with the digital world. The Surface Festival bestows all the tools bands and artists need in the modern digital age to gain precious exposure in the discordant music industry. Musicians and artists must understand what principal issues are at stake to their success and survival in the changing face of the UK music scene. Here are our top 5 tips for coming to terms with today’s music industry:

Read it here.

 

Indie Band Survival Guide Interview

Interview with the founders of IndieGuide.com on HypeBot.

Go and read it here and look forward to part 2.

My only comment is that if they can hold down serious day jobs (see what they do in the piece), write 2 books, run their site AND record 18 albums and tour, then why does the average diy musician complain that they can't get anything done? More effort required - these guys are an inspiration.

Making the right first impression when you play live

Image by Stig Nygaard

I wish that I'd written these posts that have a brilliant take on a key aspect of your music promotion.

Making the right first impresion.

The articles on Wayward Musician are written about getting this right in regard to live performances, but they apply to so many of the encounters you have in the music industry that they can benefit you in all areas where your music career crosses paths with people helping you out.

Would you go out on a first date being rude and belligerent, only to end the night by stealing plates and silverware at the restaurant?

I’m going to guess not.

Then, try not to do the equivalent when you’re playing a venue for the first time…or anytime.

Last week we talked about some easy ways to land gigs and touched upon the importance of making a good first impression.

It’s just as important in the music industry as it is anywhere else in life.

Over the next few posts I’m going to cover four different areas in which you need to nail that first impression in order to book better gigs and further your career.

Part 1 - The Promoter

Part 2 - The Sound Engineer

Part 3 - The Bartender

Part 4 - The Audience

Selling out = creating your chance

This is a great article on Music Think Tank - I learnt stuff that I simply didn't know about Bob Marley and his journey to massive success. So much so that I went and listened to the 'Jamaican' and 'Island' versions of his first album for Island Records - and it revealed the process he went through.

That will make sense if you go and read the article!

What makes it so interesting though is the truth in the piece that moving your music from a niche in which you are successful and respected to a larger mainstream audience will require some change - that is self defining, since it is that very change that will make your music appeal to that wider audience.

Take on board the main theme of the argument - that what is so often called 'selling out' is really just opening yourself up to changes that will allow you to reach your full potential. Isn't that another way of describing artist development?

Bob kept a tight rein and his music was still very much what he wanted it to be. The polish didn't hide his talent or spoil his work. It's a tricky line to walk but will give you greater appeal.

Read the article on MTT here.

 

Fan Funded record label officially launches in the UK

We love fan funding - we write about it a lot.

And, in fact, we mentioned this particular innovative model in this post here.

My Major Company is officially launching in the UK this week, although it's been open for business for a few months already.

The two links below to press reports give you the idea so I'll spare you the details ....other than to say that the label's first shot at this in their home territory of France brought about a million selling record. The method of funding from fans to this serious level means that a band has an instant following ready to buy their record plus marketing and promotion resources.

It has more depth than some fan funding methods as it comes with full label support.

Read and watch the pices here on Techcrunch and here on Sky.

And visit My Major Company's site here.

You need a band website

I bang on about the need for you to have a band website.....a lot!

To be fair most of the people who write about music marketing and diy musicians, say the same thing.

The image above gives you an idea of what you should be doing - it's not exactly right for musicians but, then, I just found it after a quick web fumble - but it illustrates the idea - have profiles on all relevant social media but point everyone back to your band website where you control everything.

This article on the ever brilliant Mic Control looks at the reasons why.

One question that pops up from time to time is, "Do you think artists should have their own website and domain name?" And every time I’m asked, I give the same answer: Hell yeah! I think the benefits of owning your own band website are abundant, and I will go into some specific benefits in this blog post. But I'd to start off with what I consider the main reason why, as a musician, you should really have your own website.

Read their piece here.

How to chart in the Billboard Social 50

Amp Marketing have a great site where they blog about their daily involvement in the latest methods of digital music marketing.

Last week they posted this piece about how you can make sure you have a shot of appearing in Billboards latest new chart - the Social 50. It's not going to be easy but, at least if you take the steps that you ought to be talking to have a chance, it's worth the time and effort.

It requires you to claim your social media accounts at Next Big Sound - which is simple and then try to add followers and fans to make a dent in that chart.

Last week Billboard announced the launch of the Social 50 chart, which will rank artists based on their weekly additions of friends, fans and followers (depending on the network), artist page views and weekly song plays.

Although the first week was dominated by big acts like Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Eminem, there is still room for smaller independent artists to make a splash – like Christine Grimmie at number 15.

Read their piece here.

Also check out their great tips on using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as a musician.

Twitter Search and finding out what's happening right now

Mashable created this video and posted about it here yesterday.

I've embedded it here though as it goes perfectly with my 5 part post on Twitter for Musicians - which I am desperately trying to finish today!

Dead simple - this video shows you how to use the advanced Twitter Search to find out up to the minute and more personal tips on anything - searching on Google is obviously 'the daddy' but it can take ages for good material to get indexed and if you're looking for the latest view on something, Twitter Seacrch is where to go.

This can be applied to music, music promotion tips, local venues to play - anything you can think of that's connected to your music career.

Find the advanced Twitter Search at http://search.twitter.com/advanced

Martin Atkins wisdom on touring

Martin Atkins is a great combination of artist whose really done it all and an engaging speaker.

This video just has a couple of gems in it from a Q&A session he did after a talk. The first one is a bit specialised for people in a large band, but there are other bits of gold about not overplaying your area and how to promote shows cheaply. Plus, is SXSW a good idea for a brand new band?

If I was an aspiring musician - I'd listen to Martin a lot and buy his book! You're going to learn some great music promotion tips from him every time.

Flowd - a mobile Social Network focused on music

Do we really need another Social Network that we have to keep up to date with and feed with music and content for our fans?

Probably not is what I fear for this new service - Flowd.

Because I like the idea of this on the move fan engagement, but how is it going to rise above the competition and catch on?

Flowd is a cross between a status update site like Twitter and a location network like Foursquare - allowing people to vist locations and interact with other users. It runs as an app on a Smartphone but also can be accessed on the web.

It's big difference is that it aims to help music acts get even closer to their fans.

The app allows acts to talk directly to their fans, share their latest news and tour dates, and it uses location-based tools so artists and fans can check-in at venues and events, and artists can then reward their closest fans for attending their gigs.

As well as the dedicated app, Flowd also allows you to automatically push your updates and content straight to Twitter and Facebook, so artists can manage all their social networking from one place - either online at www.flowd.com, or through the app on their iPhone or Android handset.

Sounds good and in this article at MacWorld they like the idea too:

Flowd offers many of the standard features found in popular location-based social networking apps like Foursquare and Gowalla; you can check in to local hangouts, broadcast your location to friends, view a list of places most frequented by your friends, and so on. But what sets Flowd apart from other apps in this genre is its inclusion of artist pages, where can check in to view and comment on an artist’s latest activities, and take part in competitions and contests.

Antti Viitanen, Digia’s Director of Product Management, walked me through a brief tour of the newly released app; here’s a hands-on first look.

When you first run the app, Flowd asks you to create a new user account—a quick and painless process. Once created, your account can be synced with Facebook Connect and Twitter, letting you share your activity on Flowd with those networks.

Read their in-depth review here.

Improve your live show

Image by lightning bolt_01

Great short post on the awesome power of compelling live performance. You might know how to get a gig, but you need to pull it off once you do!

Plus they link off to a great free eBook on how to build your fanbase one fan at a time.

Once you have determined that your music is really that good, whether you make any money in the music business will depend largely upon your personality, charisma, and most importantly, on how good your live performance is.

An artist’s live performance is the core to their success. It must be constantly improved through a labor of love as long as the artist is performing. Regardless of what kind of artist you are, be it a band, singer, rapper or DJ, practice makes perfect. Formulating a live show and practicing it until you can do it in your sleep will make it seem all the more spontaneous when you perform before a live audience. Reaching a certain level of confidence and comfort with your live performance will enable you to deliver an engaging experience that will resonate with your fans, and will ultimately steer you towards the path of greatness.

Read the post and get the free eBook here.

Common SEO misconceptions - learn SEO for your band website

I did a piece on our main blog about Band website SEO the other day.

This is a major topic that, if mastered, can seriously affect your success as a musician. Watch my video on the blog and see what I mean!

However, it is really detailed and takes a while to master.

I thought that this article might give you a few pointers to set you off in the right direction in thinking about how what you put on your site can attract the sort of internet seracher who might like your music.

If you get what I'm saying, do your own research and learn more about SEO for your band website. I will do more on the blog over time too.

Business owners, website operators, students – they all ask for SEO advice.  Usually, I ask them a few questions in return before giving out my words of wisdom.  Questions such as: “What are you doing currently for SEO?”, or “What do you know YOU aren’t doing?”.

Something I noticed when asking the questions of those asking ME questions, was that there were several things people were doing (or not doing but THINK they should be doing), that would not help them in their SEO efforts.  So for today we will go over common SEO misconceptions, and a few things you CAN do to help you SEO rankings.

Read the piece here.

Nimbit's Instant Band Website

We mentioned this before.

But, if you're a DIY musician, you HAVE to have a solution that sells your music.

Nimbit is a great option as it integrates selling direct-to-fan from your own site with an email list builder and all sorts of cool stuff.

They now have what they call 'Instant band Website' which is a Wordpress plug-in that drags info from your Nimbit dashboard to automatically build a website.

As we were talking about the need for a band website the other day I thought that this, as one of the obvious solutions, deserved a walk through. Luckily enough the person who built the plugin has done just that.

Watch to see how easy it is to get it all to work together and to get your band website live. Nimbit has a free option that includes the site but you will need to pay for your domain and hosting.

Check Nimbit out.

20 essentials for new artists

Tunecore are without doubt one of your top choices for digital distribution of your music if you're a diy musician.

They have loads of great training stuff on their site as well as a blog that turns out great posts on a regular basis.

This is one such post that gives a useful list of things for a new band starting out to consider and do.

You’ve decided to form a band. Let’s get your business in order. What are the most important things you can do to make sure that you don’t trip yourselves up down the road?

Read their list of 20 here.

Guerilla Music Marketing - tips from Bob Baker

This is a 'Don't Miss' post from Mic Control.

An interview with the longest standing online music marketing teacher, Bob Baker, which is full of really good usable advice.

Bob Baker is an author, speaker, indie musician and former music magazine editor dedicated to showing musicians of all kinds how to get exposure, connect with fans, sell more music, and increase their incomes through their artistic passions. He is the author of the highly acclaimed "Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook" and the "Music Marketing 101" course at Berkleemusic, the online continuing education division of Berklee College of Music. 

I had reached out to Bob in hopes of dipping into his seemingly endless well of knowledge surrounding 'guerilla marketing' and thankfully, the interview far exceeded my expectations! Bob has also recorded audio versions of his answers

Read the whole post and listen to the audio here

Using the '@' on Facebook as well as Twitter is essential!

There is one character that should appear in most of your facebook posts and tweets. No, not YOU, silly! I’m talking about the “at symbol” (@). For many of us, it resides on the same keyboard key as the number 2. And now that we know WHERE it is, let’s look at WHY you should regularly use it in your social media communications.

So says the article on CDBaby's Diy Musician blog.

This mystified me for a long time but once I worked it out we have used it for all our clients.

We obviously talk about '@replies' in our Twitter for Musicians guide. But, generally just 'shouting' at someone on twitter with an '@reply' is wrong and just doesn't work. BUT, on Facebook, mainly because you have 140 characters and you can post Fan Page Wall to Fan Page Wall, you can do it without being spammy.

And it can be VERY powerful.

So, for example, you could do an acoustic cover of a song by a hot band and post it on your Facebook Fan page (via YouTube). Then you could post across to the band that you've covered's Fan Page and you will get people to come over and see your post on your Fan Page wall.

BTW - most really huge artists have disabled posts from others on their walls, but there are still a huge amount that haven't.

Read it here - and implement it!

Nudgemail - so you don't forget

I know this is completely off topic but I found this yesterday from mega-blogger Chris Brogan and it's just so good that I thought you might want to hear about it.

Have a look at Chris's review here - Nudgemail Review

And have a look at their 'How To' here - Nudgemail How To

Basically it allows you set a reminder that will be emailed back to you at any point in the future that you decide.

Not to be used as a complete To Do List (I use Remember the Milk for that, which can be used to spread tasks across band members - very useful!), but for vital things like calling a promoter, filling the van with gas or any number of things you just don't want to forget when you're busy being a diy artist!

 

Music piracy is officially over!

Is it?

Wired seem to think so in this article. Maybe the future of music is secure!

And given that they make the case well and that buying music is supporting artists - not just behemoth entertainment companies - maybe it's the right result.

So there’s really no reason not to buy—and surely you understand by now that there are reasons why you should. When you buy instead of bootlegging, you’re paying the band. Most download retailers send about 70 percent of each sale to the record companies that own the music. Artists with 15 percent royalty deals get 15 percent of that 70 percent, or about 10.5 cents per dollar of sales. Those who write their own music and own their own music publishing companies—an increasingly common arrangement—get another 9.1 cents in “mechanical royalties.” Every download sends almost 20 cents straight to the band.

Read the blog piece here.

Just call it a 'show'!

This article is about one promoter's use of Adwords to sell tickets for a tour / show.

But, the data showed that the response rate to the Ads was nearly 5 times higher when they used the word 'Show' rather than 'Tour'.

It's safe to assume that this is human nature at work and using the word 'show' on your flyers and posters will be more effective in bringing the punters in. Worth knowing as a little trick in your music promotion armoury.

Media Junction were recently asked to promote a tour by a global superstar. There were five gig dates happening in Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle, Liverpool and London. The promoter agreed to work with us on a ‘Test & Learn’ strategy to ascertain which headlines and keywords were most effective.

We segmented the audience in to 3 groups:

1. People who were searching for the artist name
2. People who were searching on specific terms related to the Tour
3. People who were searching for terms related to the artist & venues, e.g. similar artists, song titles

Read the piece here.

 

Have you got your domain?

I was banging on about band website seo the other day and was shocked by mail that I got telling me that many artists didn't have the skills to buy a domain and build a very basic site.

We'll be looking at that issue further in the future.

For now, go and read this post on buying your domain name from the Good Lizard Media blog - Have you got your domain?

BTW, I buy all my domains from Namecheap. They are and it's all you need!

Remember, domain from one company and hosting from another (Hostgator) to avoid nightmares if you get a problem with one or the other.

How to make your tweets go viral

So, I've been beavering away on my magnum opus - Twitter for Musicians - for weeks, and it's finally getting published this week.

I'm therefore pleased when I find something to add to it in the Dailies.

This is a great post on the ever amazing CopyBlogger site that looks at some of the statistical data about sharing and retweets on Twitter.

Publishers can complain and wistfully wish for the good old days of blog links and Google juice, or they can adapt to the new reality Twitter represents. Getting your content “ReTweeted” on Twitter (i.e. getting people to repeat what you’ve said, usually along with a link) can drive significant quality traffic to your site, which in turn can boost your subscriber numbers.

So, how does ReTweeting happen, anyway? Well, here are the 5 factors you need to take into account when trying to get your content to spread virally on Twitter.

Read the post here.

 

Pledge Music - an interview about fan funding

I have posted a fair bit on the Dailies sites about fan funding - because I believe in it.....a lot.

This post is an interview with the founder of one such site, Pledge Music.

It ranges from his personal experience in setting the site up to examples that inevitably give insight and tips on how to set up your fan funded project whichever service you do that through.

Benji Rogers is the founder of Pledge Music – a platform that enables musicians and fans raise money for new records or touring while simultaneously raising money for charity.  Prior to founding Pledge Benji played (and actually still plays) in a group called Marwood that were signed to a few different labels in the UK.  He started off in the music business as a roadie on various high profile tours.  I wanted to catch up with Benji because I had been hearing that large numbers of people were raising money with Pledge – and it was actually working!

Read the interview here

 

Music 2.0 - all about interacting with your fans

Bas Grasmayer published a pdf on the best practices for online music promotion - which he guest posted on our main blog.

I saw this post on his blog the other day which reflects on the way that the interactivity a player has with video games should be used more in music and the ways fans can engage with it.

The huge advantage games have over music, is that games are designed to be interactive (since games were invented), while music has lost much of its interactivity since the invention of recording technologies. While the gaming industry has always had its eyes on interactivity, the music biz completely forgot about this, which brought out a very awkward situation when it was forced upon the music biz (eg. suing fans, going bankrupt, stifling innovation).

I think the best business model is an INTERACTIVE business model. This doesn’t mean that the music itself has to be interactive, but the experience of the music, the music-fan, the artist-fan, the label-fan, and the fan-fan relationship should be as interactive as possible. This interactivity is much easier to monetize and much more rewarding for fans to engage in (and also for the artists).

His post goes on to give some suggestions and ideas for more interactivity - which are great!

Check out his suggestions on his blog.

New Facebook design announced

I tweeted this last night, like everbody did as they heard about it!

But, if you missed it, Facebook have launched a re-design of the profile pages.

As far as I can tell, at the moment this is being applied to personal profile pages and will be applied to Fan pages in due course. So, exactly what changes this means for design and interaction for Facebook for musicians, we shall have to wait and see.

Obviously, we'll let you know when we work it out!

For now, Mashable had the drop on the story here - http://mashable.com/2010/12/05/new-facebook-profiles-now-available/

And Facebook's own FAQ's are here - http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=new_profile

Viinyl - single track online promotion centre

Great post from BuzzSonic....on his own blog!

Viinyl is a site that allows bands to make a single page site that promotes a single track - with video, music player, sharing, free downloads and email capture. A brilliant instant solution to promote your music.

Viinyl is a cool new service from Canada that enables anyone to create an interactive single song-site within minutes that comes with lyrics, artwork, videos, notes, various download options, promotional tools and analytics.

I was able to upload a track, add a YouTube video, about page and sort out my one page site in just a few minutes here. It’s a great tool for bands and artists who want a way of dishing out a free download in exchange for that all important email, or as a mini EPK or simply as a quick introduction for a promoter, potential manager or A&R.

Check Adrian's post out here.

What Social Media can do for your music career

I posted about social media tips for musicians on the main site the other day - Go get the pdf if you didn't.

So, when I saw this post from Online Fandom about some real experiences of using Social Media by successful artists it caught my eye.

Every one of them has a tale to tell that’s different from everyone else’s. I’m hearing repetition, but I’m also hearing new things from everyone I talk to. Anyone who sells a “one size fits all” model of how to build and relate to audiences online is either peddling snake oil or oversimplifying things so much they’re not very useful.

Check it out here.

Rules for music success

I asked Bob Lefsetz for permission to reproduce part of his recent post on Kanye West as it has this list of 8 things you should use as rules for your music success, and I wanted to be able to point you to them as a reference.

Thanks Bob - here's the original post on Kanye on his site at Lefsetz.com and at lefsetz.com/wordpress

He talks about the way that Kanye has been rehabilitated in the public eye after the VMA debacle by doing it his way.

But, the bit that I wanted to focus on is that he extrapolates these rules - they are BRILLIANT and cut to the core:

1. Be really damn good.  Great art makes up for a ton of ills.  One can argue strongly if Mel Gibson makes a movie on his own dime and it’s great, he can reemerge from the depths.  We’re a forgiving populace.

2. Don’t fall on your sword.  Your crime doesn’t mean as much to people as the mainstream press says it does.  Kevin Smith sat at home, depressed as the man labeled "too fat to fly", but eventually Tiger Woods crashed his car and Smith’s foibles on Southwest, which were inaccurately reported, faded away.  A career in the public eye is first and foremost about persistence, and perseverance.

3. Play the mainstream media game, die by the mainstream media game.  News outlets don’t care about you, they care about advertising, they care about ratings.  Don’t let the tail wag the dog.  Katy Perry is in the news every damn day, but she still can’t sell out an arena.  Get your perspective right.  Katy’s handlers have got it totally wrong.  What does showing off your tits have to do with music?  Kanye’s not the best-looking dude on the planet, but it doesn’t matter, because people believe he’s good.

4. If you’re not willing to give away something for free, you’re not willing to have a career.  If Kanye can give away free tracks, why can’t you?  It’s about your relationship with your fans.  The song doesn’t have to be on the album.  You’ve got to know where in the food chain to charge, and it’s not at every contact point.

5. Maintain contact.  You’re doing your own act.  Now, with the Internet, you don’t need permission to do it.  You can perform on YouTube, you can tweet, less is more is history.  Now you always give more, and the public decides how much it wants to graze in your neighborhood.  Fans come and go, but you can’t let it impact your art.  You’ve got to do what you want to do, not what you think the audience wants.

6. Have a personality.  If no one hates you, you’re not doing it right.

7. Don’t focus on the album release.  Your marketing’s got to go on for years.  The Doobie Brothers released a new album.  Straight to the dumper.  There was no Twitter presence, no fan engagement, just a record most fans don’t know exists and don’t want anyway.  And I only use the Doobies because they’re an ancient act, and all the ancient acts don’t know how to do it.  You don’t need a label and you don’t need an album.  You need fans, which you’ve got, and you need to know how to reach each and every one of them.  Pat Simmons should have played acoustic in someone’s house.  The band should have done live performances of classics on YouTube.  They should have gotten their fans involved.  If Paul McCartney wants to sell a new album, he’s gonna have to do it this way too.  Unless you want to be a recluse, if you want to survive in the new world, you’ve got to get yourself out there.  Don’t pooh-pooh it as marketing, it’s performing!  And isn’t that what you do!  And it can be as much about music as you want it to be.

8. In a chaotic era you’ve got to go your own way, you’ve got to forge your own path.  No one knows, certainly not the mainstream media guys or those at the label.  They know how it used to be done. It’s incumbent upon you to do it your own way, for yourself.  The Eagles can’t sell every ticket?  How come Don Henley’s not on Twitter, he’s got opinions.  Just putting tickets on sale is no longer enough.  Hell, how do people even find out about the gig?  Most people complain they didn’t know you were playing.  And if you’re a new act?  You’ve got to be good.  And if your goal is to connect with the mainstream and have it do your bidding, you’ve got it wrong. It’s about a career.  And you build it.  And it works because you’ve got fans.  Your label doesn’t own your fans, nor does the radio station, only you do.  Start there.

Playbutton - a badge that thinks it's an album

I can't remember where I found this but it's a great idea as an alternative format for your album.

It's a badge (button, if you're American) which has an album's worth of mp3 material on it. You can't change it, so it's a fixed format, like an album.

In the direct to fan model having alternative formats and versions of your releases and selling packages of the CD plus vinyl and something like this is very much the norm.

Prices start at around US$9 per unit when you order 300 and drop if you order more - so it's affordable.

Have a look at their site here.

 

More band website SEO

Having laboured over my own post on SEO for the DIY musician I just came across this post that does a pretty good job of making some of the methods very clear.

Well worth a read.

• Concentrate on Keywords that describe your band.  For Example, Tribute Band, Original Rock, Cover Band, Alternative Music.  Also, place your City and State where you play in your keywords of your site in the Meta tag portion of your site. 
• Meta tags on your site should include a Title, Keywords, and Description meta tags in that order in your html code
• and more.......

Check it out here.

The Four Faders of successful songwriting

I'm always looking for great songwriting tips.

This article takes a stretched analogy to give you a way to look at what makes a song successful. No point in me elaborating, but it's worth a read.

In our other articles, we’ve had an overview of Parameters and Roles, and we’re ready to look at one more paradigm — that which deals with the parameters of why songs achieve or fail to achieve commercial and/or artistic success.  This paradigm will be known as the Four Faders, using an analogy we’re all familiar with: the controls on a mixing board.

For any song you can name, someone will say “It’s a great song !” — For any song, there will always be at least one person, besides the writer and his/her circle of friends, who thinks so.  Others will say “It stinks”. 

The song may make the Top 10 in several countries, or in a regional market, or it may never be played on any station.  It may sell a million downloads, or none.  It may become a pop culture icon, or known only to a cult following.  It’s easy to say that a song is popular or not, or that it’s a hit or not, but that gives no insight as to WHY.  It does not tell you whether the song is well-written or not.  Being a “hit” song often has nothing to do with being a well-written song.

You can check it out here.

SoundCloud updates make it ever more essential

I love SoundCloud - all my artists use it to host tracks and, in particular, DJ mixes.

It's not brilliant for directly interacting with followers (although that can be done) - more importantly, the annotation and commenting on their players massively encourages interaction with your music - which is where a fan relationship starts. It's a great part of your online music promotion toolbox.

Plus, the players are embeddable and customisable.

I don't recommend using it exclusively, but I do recommend having a presence there.

This article talks about some very clever updates to their offering that they have recently made - more about live recording on the web to SoundCloud rather than about using it for your music hosting and dissemination - but doubtless you can find some creative way to use this to further your cause.

Today, SoundCloud, an audio platform that has concentrated on music makers so far, makes a significant pivot into the wider sphere of audio sharing. Up until now SoundCloud has done a pretty incredible job of attracting well known artists to its platform such as The Foo Fighters, Kylie, Deadmau5, Moby and Caribou, who have used it to effectively socialise their music. But today Soundcloud releases the ability to record sound direct via the site, and via it’s updated iPhone app. That puts it into the realm of pure audio sharing platforms such as Cinch and Audioboo. In other news SoundCloud has also passed two million users.

Read the piece here.

 

Band website SEO = fans & sales

Go and read and watch this on the main site - Band website SEO

In the post I discuss and prove to you how learning 'search engine optimisation' will pull fans of your style of music into your band website.

That's right - me doing my first video on the site!

I hope it makes sense as I have had to do it as an overview but I want you to know how important this skill is.

I also recommend that you go and check out a music marketing expert's free and paid training in the post - you should.

But, if you don't want or can't afford his premium training, you can learn a lot by getting busy with Google and hopefully my post will give you some stuff to start with!

10 Success Strategies for DIY Musicians, Managers & Promoters

Bob Baker - @MrBuzzFactor - is the original artist-focused music marketing guy and has been giving advice online to all aspiring musicians for years.

He has now released another free pdf entitled  - 10 Success Strategies for DIY Musicians, Managers and Promoters. It has some general ideas, some specific tips and some motivational / mindset stuff.

Got to be worth reading.

Get it here - 10 Success Strategies for DIY Musicians, Managers and Promoters

 

Facebook Fan page contest winners.....

.....are:

Stephaan Cloet
Anil Govind
Stacey Lee

I've sent you each a message through Facebook as I need an email address to be able to buy the eBook for each of you and have them sent through.

If you have a problem with replying - send me a message through the contact page of the main site - http://www.makeitinmusic.com/contact

THANKS to everyone who liked our page during the 2 weeks that it was running. We went from just over 100 fans to 174, but we did tweet everyday.

This was part promotion but also part test of the method of using a contest - it worked but it's not as easy as I had hoped to add people to your fan page using this method.

I like the contest idea - perhaps we'll try with a much bigger prize next time - but you'll all be included if you're already liking us!

Thanks again.

Ian

Make your music video go viral

Mashable - brilliant post about various techniques that you can use to help your music video go viral.

YouTube music marketing is one of the essential ways that you can now get your music heard - you need to be using it as much as possible and these ideas can help.

They say that Internet killed the video star (or the Limousines did, but still). We would beg to differ. The web has opened up a tour bus-full of opportunities for bands hoping to get their music out there via the cinematic medium.

And to back up that assertion, we’ve talked with musicians, including Cee-Lo Green, Auto-Tune the News and OK Go, and gathered together their top tips for making an eminently shareable music video.

In the past, the realm of music videos was a whole lot less democratic — but that’s all changed dramatically in recent years.

Go and read it here.

And then, like they say....there's always cats!

Make your art more valuable to others

Image by betsyweber

I hadn't had a rummage around Derek Sivers blog for ages - but I was rewarded when I did - if you haven't read it, you should - as you'll learn a lot.

Derek ran CDBaby for ages and did so as a DIY musician himself - so he has learnt a lot too!

I picked this post to mention, but I could've picked many others - maybe I will.

I like this post as it accepts a fundamental truth about the starving artist - you need to see your music how others do and see why they will or won't support you financially.

When someone creates something that is really important, powerful, and valuable to them, it's hard to imagine that it's not important, powerful, and valuable to others.

But money only comes from doing something valuable to others.

The starving artist pours his heart into personal expression that's incredibly valuable to him, but not (yet) valuable to others.  That's why no money comes.

The good news is there are two ways out of the starving artist problem, and either one can be fun.

Read the whole post here.

Online Music Marketing - a plan

@BuzzSonic and @DannyDee were talking about Virginie Berger's online music marketing plan yesterday.

It reminded me that she let me post it on our site a while back.

You need to read it - it's brilliant!

Get your copy here.

Alternative funding options for artists

A newsworthy post from the Guardian which looks at where funds can come from for artist development.

With some investment funds who were funding new artists pulling out as it's 'too risky', where can that money come from?

The piece reveals great statistics about how the Canadian government made funds available that allowed, amongst other things, for the band Metric to have a four album embryonic growth. Got me thinking!

"The creative industry has been one of this country's biggest exporters for generations," says Message, who's also the chairman of the Music Managers Forum. "But who's going to fund the future of our culture?" He doubts that banks will ever loan money to artists – no matter what the government says – so instead he suggests the government takes 1% from the EFG scheme and makes that €20m available as startup seed capital.

Read the piece here.

12 rules of keeping your fanbase engaged

This is a welcome return of Adrian at Buzzsonic.com to blogging rather than his recent habit of uncovering other blog's golden posts and tweeting them. Which he does brilliantly!

Read his post which dissects another article by Dave Allen of Gang of Four and pulls out a simple list of 12 Golden rules of fan engagement.

There’s a bunch of quotable bits from the whole piece but I thought that Dave’s twelve bullet points were a good starting point  for ideas on how to keep your fan base regularly and consistently engaged.

Not your usual, “the CD is dead” diatribe.

“Music fans are no longer patiently waiting for their favorite bands to deliver new music according to the old customary cycle – album, press release, video, radio, tour. No, the fan base has to be regularly and consistently engaged. Some Ideas:

Just read his post here - or follow through from there and read the original as well.

Facebook to take over the music industry?

I got sent the link to this article yesterday and then spent an hour and a quarter watching the whole video!

Mark Zuckerberg is unmissable as he goes on telling us how Facebook can make every experience social and how that will, in turn, revolutionise the way we buy and sell everything - particularly things with a social element - like music!

I didn't, unfortunately, come away thinking that I knew how this would play out and what I could do to advise musicians to be ready for it.

But, I think, do what you're doing using the 'direct to fan' model and work out how to build a fanbase that you interact with regulalry - that's you being social with them

At the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave a six minute speech about how, starting sometime in the next five years, he expects his company to make billions and billions of dollars turning the TV, news, film, and music industries upside down.

The speech was nuanced and obviously pre-planned. It contained big revelations. But because it came in the middle of a wide-ranging, hour-long interview, hardly anybody noticed.

Read the piece here.

And, watch the interview below. It should start at the really intersting point automatically, but if not, it's at 16.59. But, then, may as well watch the whole thing!

10 ways to engage your facebook fans

Go and look at this post on facebook music marketing on our main blog - Make It In Music.

It's a description of and a link to two free pdf's and recorded webinars by the world's biggest facebook marketing company.

Their expertise can be applied to your efforts.

Well worth studying!

Artist Development - it's now down to you

Bob Lefsetez telling us that artist development at major labels is dead - and he's pretty much right.

But this article goes further - looking at why you're making music and how you can rely on yourself if your motivation is right.

So if you’re a new act, stay indie.  You’ve got to, in order to be control of your own artistic destiny.  If you can’t change direction on inspiration, chances are you won’t connect for more than a moment, if that.

And indie is about forgetting everybody else and focusing on your fans.  If your fans are burned out on your music, you must make more, even though others have never heard it.

Read it here.

Why 'indie' never meant cool....but it does now

Image by IndiePics!

I think @BuzzSonic tweeted both of these stories.

What I like about them is that they discuss what it was to be an indie before the means of distribution became available to all. In fact, any artist who signerd to a label - as they had to in order to get to make a record and have it put on sale (with a few very notable exceptions) - wasn't really 'indie' at all.

Yet, it still mattered! The cool kids only wanted to back bands that were 'indie'...and, for many, that remains the case.

Well, what could be more truly 'indie' then being a diy musician??

I've often wondered why people prefer independent labels but have no concern over the nature of ownership of publishing companies or booking agencies. The idea of independence being about labels is a fascinating one because it reveals that the chief concerns are issues of autonomy, artistic control and rejection of the establishment. If an artist has signed a contract with a label of any sort, independent or major, they have given up control and it really is a matter of the specific practices of the label how much of a good or bad thing that turns out to be. Independents are viewed as having less marketing power and fewer financial resources, leading to the assumption that they give artists more control and greater ownership – but that isn't always the case.

Read the Guardian article on why 'indie doesn't mean independent record label anymore' here.

The digital revolution has caused the mostly Anglo-American music calling itself “indie” since the early 1980s to change at an accelerating pace over the past decade in several interrelated ways. Because it is easier than ever before to record and distribute music cheaply or for free, the sheer number of “indie” artists producing popular music has skyrocketed. On the listening side, the Internet has made almost any recording instantly accessible, along with huge quantities of information about artists, genres and labels. This implies profound shifts for a subculture founded upon record collectors’ encyclopedic knowledge of pop and rock history as well as up-to-the-minute connoisseurship.

And get the In These Times piece on the 'end of indie' here.

Top 10 ways to sell and promote music online

Matthew Ebel absolutely nails it in this post on how to promote music online.

Matthew is a working musician who uses all the methods that he can find to promote and sell his music. So these tips come with a dose of real world testing and experience.

I love them as they are bang to the point. Particularly the stuff about getting a domain and a website - you know, like how I've been enouraging you to do that on Friday and today?? It is absolutely essential!

I’m no Ariel Hyatt, but I’ve been told I have some good ideas for using online tools as an indie musician. I mean, heck, I do this for a living. If something I do doesn’t work, I drop it like a bad habit and move on to the next idea. Is this list comprehensive? Hell no. In fact, I’ll probably have better ideas tomorrow. Right now, though, this is the best list I could divine. Here are some patterns I’ve seen over the years:

Read his 10 tips here.

Hostgator extend 50% off offer for Cyber Monday

Just a heads up - we mentioned this hosting offer on Friday.

Look at my post again and read the comment that I added yesterday - I was shocked by some of the questions people had about building their artists website.

50% off Hostgator hosting here.

10 websites that every DIY musician should know

I wanted to post this the other day but it mysteriously disappeared for 24 hours or so!

Now, it's back - a great article on 10 key sites that every DIY musician should at least be aware of - in fact, YouTube and Twitter aren't optional really, are they?

I’m going to focus on the second and third moment by providing a list of websites your band should visit to stay ahead of the curve.

Some sites are organizational tools, some are means of communication, while there others that relieve the tasks a band manager usually performs. And the best part about the following sites? You don’t need to be the most tech savvy person in the world in order to use them. It just takes some diligence and of course, creativity.

Anyways, I hope you find a couple of the sites to be useful.

Read the post here.

What is a 360 degree record deal?

Although I was a music lawyer - that's how I got my start - these deals didn't come in until I was a manager - but I've still seen my fair share of them.

These are two great posts that look at what the 360 deal is and what it means for artists. If you get signed or are looking to get signed in today's business, this is 99% likely to be the kind of deal you will get. You need to know about it!

The first one is from the great NPR blog via @BuzzSonic.

"Most deals are about 270, maximum, not 360 degrees," he says. "In theory a 360 deal encompasses all revenue that an artist brings in, and hence the name, '360 degrees.' I'm going back and forth between '360' and 'multi-rights.' Usually in my writing I call it 'multi-rights.'"

Read the NPR piece here.

And this very considered article is from Jon Ostrow at Mic Control - altough I couldn't find it again on his blog, so this is from somwhere that it was reposted!

Simply put, a 360 deal is a business relationship between an artist and a music industry company. It doesn’t have to be between record label and artist, as seen in the 2007 360 deal signed between Madonna and promoter Live Nation (Jay-Z signed a similar deal in 2008).

Read Jon's piece here.

Hosting for your band website

Short of time today as I've been helping my mate (he does some of my design too) buy web hosting for his new website, installed Wordpress and got his site up - all in under 2 hours.

Not bad!

You can see it here - http://pauljeffreydesign.com/ - there are some formatting issues to sort as we imported from a Wordpress.com hosted site that he built the other day, but it's up and running immediately.

He moved to his own domain and hosting as he understood that it's much better in the long run to be in charge of your own main web presence rather than leaving it at one of the hosted blogs.

You can do the same for your band today!

He did it today as there is an outrageous 80% off Hostgator hosting offer on today, only for Black Friday.

If you don't have hosting for your band website, go and check my post about it out before the offer expires.

Check it out here.

 

14 Tutorials to improve your recordings

This is a GREAT collection of detailed posts to help you get the most out of your recordings.

Not only that but the whole blog is a mine of information on everything to do with recording, production and composition - including technical tutorials on recording platforms and software. It's great - a must read for the DIY artist.

When is a track finished? Does what I’ve done sound good enough? Should I add a few more tracks? I ask similar questions when I’m cooking for the kids. I could heat up some pies, or serve sausages and mashed potatoes. They’ll eat it if they’re hungry enough, but I won’t win any awards. But if I’m cooking for a special occasion, the decisions I make and thought process I take are different. I’ll think about the best combination of ingredients I can get, and will usually add some subtle spices to the mix.

Making tasty music is similar. There are things you can do to add spice at each stage of the production process. Here are 14 tutorials that show us how to do make your tracks spicy.

Read this group of posts here.

Syndicate your blog to reach your fans everywhere

Great little tip for your online music promotion on syndicating your blog posts to everywhere that you have an online presence.

As a musician working to build a fanbase you should be blogging on your band / artist website about things that your fans want to know about - and then spread those posts to other sites - MySpace, Facebook, Last.fm.

Considering that the first thing that people do when they learn about something new is Google it, in today’s music world, if you don’t exist on the Web, you don’t exist at all for a large number of fans.

Of course, all artists should have their own website. But to make an impact, you need more than just one hit on a search. Fortunately, musicians can leverage the large number of free sites and services that are available to put up their music, such as MySpace, Facebook, ReverbNation, Eventful, and Last.FM.

This post shows you how.

Music collaboration online - available to all

Hypebot piece on the intriguing Indaba platform that also looks at how the democratisation of the means of production and distribution has given everyone with talent a shot. The gatekeepers are still there but you can go around them, so it's down to you.

Indaba is a very exciting prospect that allows all musicians at any level of skill to collaborate on music or seek out people to help them and vice versa.

It's a great musicians resource that you should check out.

Central to the founding ideology of Indaba Music is the notion of collaboration; they strive to empower musicians with the means to network and make music together. Since 2007 the website has grown to harbor over 500,000 musicians—from amateurs, who make music for the love of the craft, to Grammy Award winners, who've created music on the professional level.

Prior to the emergence of the social web, the tyranny of geography inhibited musicians from collaborating on a large scale and class distinctions were far more predominate than they are today. This prevented amateurs from gaining access to commercial works and professionals from seeing the value that they can create. In the music industry, we've reached the point where more music is being made and consumed than at any other point in history and Indaba has positioned itself to harness the sheer abundance of cultural creators behind it.

Read the piece at Hypebot and visit Indaba.