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.

YouTube can break an artist

Got this Billboard article from a recent Bob Lefsetz email. It's an interview with Justin Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun.

Go and read it as it tells us a lot about the man, but also about Bieber and how he was discovered. Not least it has a telling indictment on all the major label A&R's who turned the kid down.

Now, whether you like Bieber or not and whether you believe he has a long term career or not (the article suggests that he is thinking how to make sure he does!), the fact that those talented, deep thinking, artist loving A&R men mostly couldn't see his massive success, tells us all we need to know.

Plus, they didn't believe that YouTube could break an artist.

You might not be or want to be the boy wonder Bieber, but YouTube is now ESSENTIAL to your success - a key part of your online music promotion. Managers and A&R men are now trawling it looking for future talent. So are fans.

Use it.

THR: What was the most common reason they gave you when turning him down?
Braun: They all said the same thing: that he's too young and no one's broken from YouTube. “Where's the platform? Go get a TV show, you can't compete with Disney or Nickelodeon.”

Read the whole article here.

YouTube Channel designs

We got very excited about the YouTube channel guide yesterday - and it turned out that, whilst some of the tips in it can be applied by all, the chances of being granted a 'Brand Channel' seem slim. Nontheless, for a solid bit of info on using YouTube for Musicians, it's worth checking out.

I've applied for a Brand Channel and will report back if successful.

Let's hope that they roll them out for all of us in time - I see no reason why not!

So, as I was looking for more information, I found these two posts that look at good Channel design. As I said, I'm about to do this for our Make It In Music YouTube channel so I'm looking for all the tips that I can find.

Perhaps you are too.

Some of these are Brand Channels and some aren't but they're really good indications of what can be done.

See these two articles on good YouTube Channel design here - http://blog.webdistortion.com/2010/08/23/youtube-channel-design/ and here - http://designmess.com/article/attractive-and-clever-uses-youtube-channel-design

15 Social media Tips - free PDF

I'm all a bit busy on the main blog now that it's getting towards the end of the re-design process.

So, head over there to get a brilliant free PDF from Social Media expert Mari Smith with loads of excellent information that you can apply to your social media music marketing.

Get the 15 Social Media Tips PDF here.

Live performances should be like Church

Image by Jiaren Lau

He's got a point!

You can learn a lot about how to build your fanbase from seeing what every Church does (that is, when they get it right - you don't want Europe's dwindling congregations to be your model!).

The things that engage worshippers in Church are the same things that will get a reaction from a crowd at your gig.

Really worthwhile allegorical piece.

If there’s one thing I learned from my former years playing in houses of worship, it’s that the Sunday morning experience is designed for maximum effectiveness. Granted, some churches are more finely tuned than others, but the principles of your average worship service should apply to every single concert you play.

Read it here.

DJ Shadow on Merchandising on the road

Last part (4 of 4) on Hypebot that we've followed, as a member of Shadow's team, Michael Fiebach, gives a master class on music marketing and  promotion. See the first part on the MiiM Dailies here.

This last part looks at the merchandising that they've made for this tour and gives a best practice guide. It's gold!

I love the fact that he points out that merch is pointless if you're band is whack - no-one will buy it! - and that a genius yet utterly obvious idea is to have bags! People will buy more and can check it to pick up after the show. So simple but almost never done.

This sums up the basics of the merchandising approach.  Care, attention, and quality are the most important things, and as with ALL of the topics I am discussing, if the music isn't good, and isn't commercially viable, then none of this matters.  So upcoming bands: perfect the music before you dive into this wonderful world of Direct To Fan mania. 

Read the piece here.

 

Why sign a record deal?

Great post that I again picked up from @BuzzSonic's Twitter stream - follow him if you don't already!

This is an insightful piece on whether it's worth it in this day and age jumping through hoops and working like a dog just to get a record deal, when you can, more than likely, achieve nearly as much with a far better income in the burgeoning world of 'direct to fan'.

I'm not saying that it's right for every artist to eschew the option of getting a record deal, but the beauty of the world we now live in is that you as an artist should be doing everything to build a fanbase and speak directly to an audience - whether you want to go it alone or whether you want that beginning of popularity to propel you to a deal. The work required is basically the same.

In traditional agreements- labels recouped their investment through record sales, leaving band’s earnings to be made from touring, merchandise and sponsorship. Now, 360-degree deals are the norm. Warner won’t sign anyone now unless it’s a 360 deal- a package which is more akin to a management deal, whereby the label will take a cut from any future sponsorship, seeding, use of material, touring and merchandise. And while this may remove the need for an ‘immediate hit’, in real terms it means that bands will earn even less, and have less control over their image, presentation and rights.

Labels traditionally made money from the process in which they were involved – ie/ recording and distributing records. Is it coincidence that now that recorded music sales are significantly declining, they change their business model? What gives them the right to impede on touring, merchandise, sponsorship or the use of music in films or adverts? How does this benefit either the artist or the audience?

Read the piece here.

YouTube's own guide to setting up and branding your YouTube channel

I've posted about this on our main blog.

Go there to read about YouTube's free PDF guide on creating and branding your artist YouTube channel.

You should definitely get this!

More Fan funding - one artist speaks up in favour.....

....although almost all that I have seen speak on it have been on the pro-side!

We posted several pieces about fan funding last week as the debate rattled on after Brian Hazard suggested that it might not be the best thing for artists - read that here.

Hyebot had plenty to say on the issue, and at the end of last week they interviewed an artist who'd had great success funding his record on Kickstarter and who wholeheartedly believed in the process.

Bleu, a singer-songwriter-producer, set a goal of $8,000 for his Kickstarter campaign. Almost overnight, 387 fans jumped into the mix and contributed nearly $40,000 to his cause. He didn't need to get the album funded. Rather, he just needed to cover the expenses of distributing and properly marketing his album.

All of these questions are based on assertions that Hazard made in his essay.

For example, Bleu took home an extra $32,000 from his fans. From Hazard's perspective, who contended that preorders are nobler than fan-funding efforts, taking that money could be considered dishonest in a way. Since, it greatly exceeded the initial need. Hazard says, "why should your fans pay to promote something they already bought?" It's an interesting way to look at it. Bleu was kind enough to assert his opinions on Hazard's and share this thoughts on this.

Check it out here.

 

Don't bore us get to the chorus - myth?

Image by agius

I wrote about several songwriting tips over the last few weeks and then found this brilliant blog which is full of great stuff on all aspects of the art.

I particularly liked this post about the truth or otherwise of the adage that you need to get the listener to the chorus asap - and how it can be applied to modern hit pop songs.

Is it true that the longer it takes you to get to the chorus of your song, the less likely it is that it’ll be a hit? On the face of it, it would appear to be true. After all, for most songs, the chorus is the most “hooky” part of the song, the part everyone remembers, the part that’s supposed to keep us coming back. So let’s take a quick look at the top ten hits on Billboard Hot 100 this week, and find out how long it actually takes them to get to the chorus.

Read the insight here.

But, the whole blog is worth a good look.

Things that will go wrong on stage

Once you've put in the effort to get a gig, it can all still go horribly wrong!

This is a great post that has some very simple tips for forward planning so that you are ready for those moments when you get ambushed.

Common sense maybe, but worth a reminder.

No matter how practiced or prepared you are, some things will always go wrong.

Even seasoned stage veterans have to be ready to deal with a large variety of unexpected mishaps.

Here are just a few of the incidents you can expect.

Read the piece here.

More touring more easily and more success

Songkick data shows that long tail artists are touring more and are finding it easier to reach their audience to work out where to play.

Internet awareness of bands has made this scale of touring more viable. And necessary, as the record sales income won't necessarily keep you afloat.

Is touring a key part of your strategy for 'making it'? It can be and should be if you can build your fanbase and give it what it wants.

For artists known and loved by hundreds or thousands (as opposed to millions) of fans, getting signed to a label is no longer the defining moment it once was.

Instead of selling records, “making it” has become about finding the best shows to play. Every type of band, from mega-stars to garage bands and reunion acts, is spending more time on stage these days.

Songkick, a web app that can track the music you and your friends listen to and alert you when those bands are coming to your area, released key observations on Thursday from its treasure trove of U.S. concert data. The study proves that, as suspected, bands of all levels are playing more shows each year since ’07, despite a slight dip in ’09.

Read the piece and see the data.

Ten ways to get more gigs

We are all always looking at ways to improve how we get a gig.

This is a great post on KnowtheMusicBiz that looks at the 'what's in it for me' attitude that every promoter or venue that you approach will have. It's natural that they need to have their best interests at heart, so don't fight it - play up to it.

When I used to play drums in a band I wrongly assumed that to get gigs I have to send demos out – the better my music, the high the acceptance rate. It seems sensible right? My thinking was basically that if I send more demos and make better music then I will get more gigs, which is true, but a bad way of thinking (IMO).

Here’s why.

The theory above does not take into account the two main criteria that promoters subconsciously take into account when booking bands; will they make me money? and should I make a personal effort to help them? (by this I really mean are they a friend, or have they been recommended by someone close, or do they just seem like really nice people).

So if I were to work on arranging gigs for a band now I would be thinking:
1. How can I offer more financial value to the promoter at gigs
2. How can I build a relationship between myself and promoters I’ve never met.

Here are ten ideas to think about.

Read the piece here.

Fan funding - fans are the new record label

Just go and see this post about fan funding on Hypebot.

I am pro fan funding, some are not, but this explains why fans helping you do your thing is a responsibility for your fans.

Plus, it's a brilliant way for this particular artist to get everyone to talk about funding his record. Clever.

That's all.

See it here.

Marketing + entrepreneurial skills = music success

Ariel Hyatt interviews Michael Laskow.

A lot of it is about how he came to set up the artist development business that is Taxi, but there are some great bits in there about the skills required to succeed.

In short, learn to market and work outrageously hard so that when everyone else has given up and gone home you're still there trying. Then you might well win and get what you want.

It's well worth a read.

I normally write articles and tips for musicians to help them with their online marketing, PR and community building.  But there is another topic I feel deeply passionate about:  Helping the next generation who want to make it in the music business understand what it takes to achieve that dream.

To succeed in service to musicians you must ne willing to stand by your dreams and persever. And you must have great entrepreneurial instincts and marketing skills. This is the advice from one of the most successful people serving artists today: Michael Laskow, the founder of Taxi.

Read the whole piece here.

Amazon moves into content - is a record label next?

This is an amazing article - not for what it tells us about Amazon right now, but because it gives a glimpse into the future that traditional media companies just can't see.

The future of music as a business can unfold in a myriad of ways - some of which we just can't guess at. But, it does seem clear that some of the massive companies that have grown from the late 20th century technology boom and the massive growth of the internet in this century may well be the ones that change it forever.

Apple, obviously, have changed the landscape for distribution and retail. Facebook has a reach that no artist can ignore.But there are and will be many others.

What are the existing record companies and live promoters doing to counter it? Pretty much nothing, and what they are doing is too late and way behind the curve!

This article is about how Amazon has announced a scheme for budding directors and screenwriters to pitch movie ideas to them for funding and possible production in Hollywood. It's called 'Amazon Studios'.

But, they also bought a small book publisher yesterday - are they going to do the same as a book publisher?

And if they are, surely they'll end up doing it for music. And if the second biggest online digital retailer wants to sign your record and promote it heavily - will you go there or collapsing EMI?

Take a look at My Major Company for a model that would work for a company like Amazon - a very interesting fan-funded model.

This is the post about Amazon:

Amazon may be the internet's dominant ecommerce company, but its ambitions extend well beyond retail.

It has fast become a key player in a market that is expected to become very large -- cloud infrastructure -- and now it appears to be making some moves into content which could be harbingers of things to come.

Yesterday, it launched Amazon Studios, a website for aspiring filmmakers and screenwriters. The concept is simple: allow those aspiring filmmakers and screenwriters to upload their work, collaborate and obtain feedback from others, and take the cream of the crop forward for possible production.

Read it on econsultancy here.

 

 

 

 

Twitter usage for bands

Simple - Chris Bracco has dug up a great video about musicians using Twitter. Great stuff full of tips on Twitter for Musicians.

Rather than embed the video here - go over to Chris's Blog and watch it - I guarantee that you'll find other great posts to read as well!

Visit the post on Chris Bracco's site.

Social Media Marketing - 5 business leaders to learn from

These 5 business leaders covered by Mashable all have something noteworthy to teach you about using social media marketing to promote music online.

Whether it's their use of YouTube to go behind the scenes at their sports club to bring fans closer to the action or tweeting their most interesting daily events - these are tips that you can model.

We scoured the socialverse for business leaders utilizing social platforms effectively and in innovative and valuable ways. The folks at Klout.com provided a list of the most influential CEOs, founders and business leaders in the social space based on Klout Scores, a measurement of true reach, amplification probability and network influence. This enabled us to compile this roundup based on Klout’s quantitative reasoning alongside our own top picks based on proven quality.

When it comes to social influence and value, these five business leaders outperform their peers in both quantitative and qualitative tests, proving that they have a grasp of how to use social media effectively.

Read the piece on Mashable here.

Let your fans behind the curtain - record and video everything you do!

Image by thebigo

We've talked before about how important it can be to film all sorts of stuff - not just performances - that you can upload to the web and have your fans find and spread. YouTube for musicians is a 21st century gift in terms of promotion and marketing. If you're not using it, you're an idiot!

As these two articles point out - don'tjust film or record the covers, the demos, the rehearsals - you can go much, much further.

As the piece on DIYMusician says:

The simple idea: record everything. Practices, jam-sessions, big gigs, little gigs, band meetings, video shoots, stopping at a taco truck in a different city every single day on tour. OK. So maybe the last example is just something crazy that only I would do (and cruelly inflict upon my band), but my basic point is that you never know when you’re going to capture something dramatic, magical, memorable, joyous, horrible, or otherwise noteworthy.

Read that DIYMusician piece here.

Then, this post on WeAllMakeMusic looks at a specific band covering a specific event. Great example.

There’s a very good reason people do things like take pictures, write journals (or, these days, blogs), and collect souvenirs. We want to capture a moment in time and hold on to it, reflect on it later and possibly share it with others, make them feel like they were there.

The David Crowder*Band have just released a great example of how bands should do that, too.

Read that piece here.

3 easy ways to land your first gig

Photo by internets_dairy

Another post that I saw in @BuzzSonic's stream.

This is a great post for those musicians that are looking to get their first gigs for their new act and are feeling it's a struggle. It may well be, but any band can get a gig with a bit of effort! Playing live is central to your music promotion, so you'd better learn how to get your gigs!

There’s this myth that seems to permeate through beginners that finding a gig is near impossible.

The reality is though that beginner musicians have no idea how to go about getting gigs, and as a result of their frustrations complain that getting a gig is actually in fact rather hard.

Well, it’s not.

Sure, it involves some work on your part, but…what else is new?

Read all 3 tips here.

What's the best time to release your album?

Photo by PPandM

If you're a budding DIY musician the issue of when to release your lovingly crafted record can be a vexing one. Misinformation abounds.

This post should help you make sense of your options.

I particularly agree with the suggestion that you shouldn't start promoting until you have any actual physical product in hand. Every major fuck up I have ever made on a record release has come down to something that we needed in a release cycle being delivered late - so get it all done and ready before you start!

All too often, musicians rush their new album’s or EP’s release without considering what the best time-frame for that release may be. Just because your album is done doesn’t mean you have to rush it out – there are numerous factors to take into account before you confirm your release date.

Here are some tips on how to schedule and promote your album’s release:

Read it here.

 

What is Twitter?

I am still working on my mammoth Twitter post ('Twitter tips for musicians') - give me a break, I'm rebuilding my whole site, doing these dailies and running a management company!

But, this post from Music Think Tank hoved into view and these opinions of some industry commentators might help you with your twitter music marketing - so I thought you ought to see it!

The what, why and how of Twitter is as confusing as it has ever been.  Since the music industry is one of the first industries to heavily embrace Twitter, I asked some industry friends the simple question: “What is Twitter?”  Their answers and my answer are below.

Read their thoughts here.

Why you should make more live albums

I was put on to this by @BuzzSonic who is always digging up great info for aspiring musicians.

This is a great post that looks at how the live album is now a way to connect the fan with the experience of live music that is at the centre of the new relationship between artists and their fans. The diy artist needs to find ways to monetise that relationship and the fan loves to re-experience that moment that they had at a live show by their favourite band. It also generates cash for your band!

Great article.

It is the sum of the fan's moments that resonate for them, the waves of energy that surround a point in time that sweeten the harsh tones of a bad recording, reduce the feedback and carry them along on a different journey than a quantitative checklist of tone, tune and rendition. In this context the live album isn't a yardstick of sound quality or even adrenalized performance; it is simply a memory prompt, an invitation if you like that has a buildup to and a letdown from a specific moment in time.

Read it here.

11 New Social Media tools for 2011

Social Media for the aspiring and incredibly busy musician can be a nightmare of research, data overload and a stealer of creative time.

This post looks at some new tools that might help in all those areas and make your online music promotion more of a breeze - a couple of these I will definitely be using.

It's hard to keep up with all the tools available to help maximise Twitter and other social media platforms.

But, over the last few months I've been testing some of the new ones I've stumbled across, getting a feel for the ones that have the potential to be the most useful.

Here are the ones I'll probably use more over the next 12 months and perhaps you might give 'em a whirl too...

Read the list of 11 here.

NPR is where it's at

Bob Lefsetz is always talking about the reach of National Public Radio in the US.
It should be of great interest to all artists because it is egalitarian and you have a chance of having your music picked up and played on one of their shows ('All Songs Considered' is probably your best target for new indie music of any genre) - which may be syndicated across nearly 1,000 local community radio stations across the States.
It's even better than that as most of the shows are released online as streams or podcasts.
I'm not saying that radio promotion of any kind is easy for the DIY musician in the US, but there are little chinks of light that you should go after.
Bob says this:
Whenever I’m on NPR, I hear about it multiple times, for months thereafter.  From people I haven’t seen since college, from people who care not a whit about the music business.  My mother will call and say her octogenarian friends heard me testifying.  Which is all a long story to tell you when NPR comes-a-knockin’, SAY YES!
Read his view in this piece here.

Join us on Facebook - get a free guide to Fan Pages

Our main site redesign is an ongoing project at Make It In Music.

I'm very pleased with where we have made it to so far - now comes the tricky bit of filling it with regular content!

I've started off with looking at Twitter for musicians and will start posting a very comprehensive guide later this week.

Facebook is next.

BUT, before I start posting some of the tips that we use on our musician client's Facebook pages, I want to increase the following on our fan page - I'll then be making changes to that fan page that you can see as we do them - we'll film them and post the method on our site.

So, in the next two weeks, I need you to join our Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/MakeItInMusic.

And I need you to ask other artists and bands to join.

In order to incentivise you, I am going to give away three copies of the brilliant AllFacebook guide to getting fans on Facebook - called '30 days to attract 3,000 Facebook Fans' - but in order to get one you have to be a fan of Make It In Music on Facebook.

I have learnt a great deal from this AllFacebook eBook over the last year or so and have directly implemented some of the ideas for our clients.

OK, it's only $9.95, so I'm not pushing the boat out with my freebies, but it is well worth having for all artists and I'd recommend it to all musicians.

For those that want to get it for free, well, you'd better just join us on Facebook and see if you can win a copy! I'll announce the three winners on our Facebook Fan page wall and buy you a copy on 1st December (I'll need your email address for that!)

So, I will point you to this page every day as reminder!

To join our Facebook Fan Page go to http://www.facebook.com/MakeItInMusic.

Have a look at the '30 days to attract 3,000 Facebook Fans' eBook here.

DIY music placement in movies

Image by Howdy, I'm H. Michael Karshis

Short and sweet post that has one cracking tip about how to find the right people to send your music to when pitching your music to movie music supervisors - use the IMDB database!

Getting your music placed in movies is not beyond the DIY musician - but it does require persistence and effort.

Music placement is when your music is licensed to be used in a movie, TV show, commercial, video game, or anywhere else you might hear original music. There are few things more exciting than getting paid to have your music placed, but getting paid without having to share the profit is even better.

If you are an independent band making a few waves, eventually someone will tell you they can get your music placed somewhere. It sounds too good to be true. And in the music industry, when it sounds too good to be true, it’s too good to be true.

Read the advice here.

 

How to break into the music industry - guaranteed

This is a cynical view of what you need to do to break into the music industry but it masks a horrible truth!

If the be all and end of all of your aim is to 'get a record deal', then playing to the masses and surfing a wave of musical simplicity that is already being consumed is a great way to go. Record companies (even in this day and age) will look for the next this or the next that rather than stick their necks out and sign something new and different.

However, as we espouse on our blog (Make It In Music), that isn't the way it has to be done and now you can create your own following and thereby your own success outside of the old system.

Still - this is a cracking article that should make you laugh and reflect!

According to Lindsay McDougall (triple j’s “The Doctor”, Frenzal Rhomb) breaking into the music industry is easy, anyone can do it, it just requires one small thing of yourself: the complete surrendering of your soul to the parasitic whims of the dull-eyed masses.

If this irritates your puritan indie sensibilities, fear not, these days there’s enough different types of cookie-cutter genre molds to fit even your most oblique electro-fuzz. You just need to squeeze yourself into one of the following song types:

Read the post here.

Hit Song Checklist

Photo by DieselDemon

I've said before about how fundamentally important it is that you have world-class songs.

To that end, I'm always trying to dig up great songwriting tips.

This post is a classic - 10 absolute rock-solid things to look at each and every time that you write a song.

How do you bring a new set of ears to a song that you’ve just spent a week writing and recording and listening to over and over again? That’s trickier, and admittedly, it’s never quite as effective as getting an outsider’s view. But sometimes it helps to have a framework for listening– a way to force yourself to observe the big picture that matters to a casual listener or an industry A&R person, rather than the fine details that become the focus when you’re writing and producing. For this, I offer one suggestion– try this one out on your latest masterpiece. Admittedly, you might not agree with all of my suggestions or standards. But if you’re in the music business and listen to demos everyday, you start to develop a pretty clear picture of what’s important in a song and where most songs tend to go wrong. With allowances then for a certain subjectivity and gut instinct that is part of the process, I offer you:

Read the 10 point song checklist here.

Successful Social Media strategies for musicians - case study

Great real-life study of how one aspiring artist used her nerve and hard work to find the seeds of success.

Jennie Walker is building towards a major label distributed release in early 2011 and this piece is about how she used online music promotion to get discovered - and what particular mix worked for her.

On a recent Saturday night, independent recording artist Jennie Walker talked about the powerful impact of social media, which led to her getting a record deal with Maddie Records. She explained how social media could be successfully used by sharing her own experiences as a new artist in her 40's, and talked about dropping her debut album "Night Flight to London" in February, 2011.

Read the whole piece here.

Being good isn't good enough

Tom Jackson is the man when it comes to developing your on-stage presence and turning your performance from the ordinary to the world-class.

He's done it at superstar level and sells various training courses to teach you how. Not cheap, but they are the best you can get - See his DVD performance course here.

You can, however, find a great deal of great stuff on his blog for free that is worth reading.

In this post he talks about how going from good to great as a live act is way harder than going from bad to good, as it's all about refinement of the details - and you can apply this to many facets of your musician's craft - songwriting, recording, even marketing!

One of the “7 Deadly Sins of an Artist” I talk about is “being good.” Doesn’t sound like a bad thing, does it? But trust me, being good…is bad!

There are a lot of artists out there that are good. Often, they don’t know they need help – they know they’re good. And when I work with a group that’s really bad, taking them to good is easy! There are so many things that can be fixed.

Read the whole post here.

Album press release - line by line guide

If you're releasing an album, this is a great lesson in music publicity.

A line-by line guide on how to write the perfect press release.

A well written press release is the first step in getting some attention for your new album. Use this template to help you organize your information. Note that this template was written with bands and indie labels in mind as the writers and the media in mind as the readers. PR folks and radio pluggers will want to take a slightly different approach with their press releases, and one sheets for distributors and stores should also be slightly different.

Read it here.

DJ Shadow - more from the road

We looked at the first part of this article about DJ Shadow's online and tour marketing a few weeks ago (here's the first part on the MiiM Posterous Daily).

This has since been updated on hypebot with parts 2 and 3 that look at which pieces of their online music promotion are bringing the best results.

Facebook, email, and mobile rule but MySpace still features.

In terms of all of the Marketing and Merchandising, everything is continuing to go great, and even better than planned.  I don't really have any horror stories, and I have already alluded to the successes in my previous posts, so I don't want to beat the same drum over and over, or have to embellish at all.  It is what it is: I think we came in with a great game plan, and, so far (fingers crossed) it is going VERY WELL.  Make sure you read my first 2 posts to see our marketing and merchandising approach, and how it has been working out

Here's Part 3 - find part from the links on Hypebot!

How to write songs you didn't know you had!

Photo by Hryck

Songwriting tips are the hardest thing to write and to find to post on our dailies sites. I am not a songwriter, although the main thrust of my management business these days is managing songwriters.

So I get to see people do it everyday and marvel at their varied approachs and talent - I've picked up a lot of tips!

Still, when I see a great set of ideas on new ways for you to tackle songwriting, I'll always stick them up.

This is one such post.

There are songs out there that have almost made me quit music.  Yes, they are that good.  They have brought me immense joy and great frustration all at once.  How could something so perfect have been writing in the first place?  How did the songwriter know to play that note next, or that scale over that chord?  Maybe they didn’t.  I’ll explain…

To most non-musicians, song writing seems like magic.  And it sort of is.  I mean, artists do seem to create beauty out of thin air.  Wonderful melodies are seemingly plucked out of nowhere or summoned from metal strings and ivory keys.  However, a majority of great songs come out of intense practice and dedication to the craft of songwriting.  I want to provide you with a list of techniques that I use when composing music.  Some may call these ideas radical, but they have proved to be very fruitful for me.  This list is just a handful of the many tricks I have come up with and employ on a routine basis.  I hope they can be of some help!

Read the whole piece at Head Above Music.

 

Building your fanbase in a niche

This is a cracking post - the first in a series of 3 - that looks at the fundamentals of how to build your fanbase and why targeting a small niche is far more effective than blasting away in all directions with no focus.

The key value in this post is in looking at what the author calls marketing 101 and 201 - which is what most artists do - and revealing that they are flawed.

Building a fan base is one of the consistently challenging aspects of artists' career. Finding and developing an audience for your art is also one of the great appeals, the golden fleece of a record deal (or a book deal, a movie deal, a show at a gallery), because a major record deal is perceived to be the quickest means by which to gain a broad audience and develop fans. And that can be true because major entertainment companies have the budgets and access to large audiences via major media and retail outlets.

Read part 1 here.

I can't wait for parts 2 & 3!

Data and Statistics can tell you what your fans are doing

This is a brilliant post by the ever informative Sentric Music Blog.

Used properly the unbiased feedback that you get from your data can help you target your future online music promotion far more effectively.

This post is written from the perspective of someone working in the music industry as a publisher but all the methods and skills can be applied to your music and the way you use the web to reach your fans.

Stats are basically unbiased feedback. Look at them in that light and you should start to see why they can be incredibly useful. Some of the blog posts I thought were the most informative have in the past been the least viral and some of which I believed to be my wittiest tweets have also gone un-RT’d. Whereas the post I did about Metadata, which when I wrote I believed to be a bit too niche (and pretty much only did it to solve a personal problem to therefore have somewhere to send people who kept emailing me shoddy MP3’s), turned out to be one of the most read posts I’ve done.

Read this essential post here.

Back up your facebook fan page

Now, I accept that not every aspiring musician will consider the safety of their Facebook Fan Page to be worth a small monthly fee.

But if your band is getting to any reasonable level of success it would be a pain to lose all the results of your hard won facebook music marketing, wouldn't it?

Well, you can now back-up all the data on your Fan Page thanks to Backupify - and although I haven't heard of Facebook losing anyone's data yet, I have heard of people's accounts being hacked or deleted by user error.

So, not worth it for all, but maybe for some. And if you're looking for other data back-up anyway, why not have one that can cover your Facebook page as well.

Now, for the first time ever, our users will be able to backup the complete contents of their Facebook Fan Page accounts. In addition, users of our Backupify for Facebook service can still backup, archive and export all News Feeds, Wall Posts, Photo Albums and Messages that are associated with their individual Facebook profiles. Backupify now provides users with the most comprehensive and effective Facebook backup solution on the market.

Read about their Fan Page back-up here.

Treat your content with care and be clear with your fans

The guys at Oniracom really know what they're talking about when it comes to the current landscape in music and how it applies to online music promotion and marketing.

This blog post talks about how artists communicate with their fans and how honesty and clarity are today's methods.

The Bandcamp blog had a very candid conversation with John Beeler of Sufjan Steven’s label, Asthmatic Kitty, after the release of Sufjan’s very successful All Delighted People EP release through Bandcamp. It was refreshing to hear someone from Beeler’s position in the industry speak this way. From the interview:

Read their post here. Read the links out too!

Basic SEO tips for musicians

Solid article with good basic information that you should bear in mind when building your band website.

If you know nothing about SEO ('Search Engine Optimisation') , then this will give you your first bit of knowledge and you can go from there.

Trust me - making your site rank in Google searches for some keywords is worth the time and effort!

How do you find information online? In reputable blogs, or your friend’s Facebook wall? Through Google and other search engines? Well, you’re not alone. Millions of people look for information via search everyday.

In a world saturated with entertainment options, improving your website so that it receives more traffic from search engines, also known as search engine optimization (SEO), is more important than ever. So let’s talk about some ways to get your band website ranking near the top of those results!

Read the article here.

Music Business Advice from 1998!

This article from Rick Goetz at MusicianCoaching.com is worth a read (as is all of his blog) as it's the first musician advice article he ever wrote from 12 years ago.

But, what makes it worth your time to check out is that almost all of it is still relevant today.

In the main it's about how to put on a good showcase for a label - a dying breed these days, but this is good advice if you find yourself doing it. The article ranges over a load more points of general musician advice.

Working in A&R, I have seen literally thousands of bands in the last several years (I actually tried counting the bands I had seen at one point to try and talk my boss into giving me a raise; no, it didn’t work, but thanks for asking). Let me make an early disclaimer by saying that there is very little scientific about the showcasing process. This article is not meant to be a foolproof plan for how to get signed when you showcase; it is really just a collection of my experiences with what has worked or not worked for people in the past.

Read the article here.

Using Mindmaps to write songs

Interesting video from a songwriter who has had recent success that suggests using the mindmap technique to come up with lyrical content for your songs.

But she also looks at some basic songwriting tips that you may well find helpful.

 

How to self-release your album

This is a mammoth set of posts that should be kept at hand as a reference for the diy musician planning an album release - really, there's not much he's missed!

It covers planning, recording, manufacturing, distibution and promotion in extreme detail. Brilliant work.

The self released album plan.

 

12 creative ways to use Facebook Ads for musicians

Good article on the uPlaya blog about using Facebook Ads in innovative targeted ways to acheive a specific result.

Facebook Ads can be very tightly focused using their own data so if you can make them pay in terms of return on investment they can be a brilliant way to build your fanbase.

These tips can help.

Learn from others how and what to Tweet

I'm writing a long series of posts for the main blog on Twitter for Musicians.

In doing so I've looked at a lot of musician's tweets and seen some really good and some really bad.

The series will look at this issue in depth but I've realised that it can really help some artists to see how others use Twitter and learn the pattern of self-promotion, being engaging, funny, forthright etc from watching others.

So, this series of posts on Flavorwire is a good place to start - they list Top 10's of people to follow - all of whom use Twitter in an engaging way.

One of the lists is 'Indie Rockers' but you can look at them all to see what they do that you aren't doing.

Find the lists here.

The future of Music PR

This is a video of a panel from the recent North Park Music Thing in San Diego which saw a bunch of panels on a range of subjects - we'll probably show you some more!

This one looks at the changes in music publicity that the internet and the changing music industry have brought about.

There's good advice in here on how to find and work with a good music publicist and on how to do it yourself.

The Future of Music PR from North Park Music Thing on Vimeo.

If the embed video isn't viewable - you can find it here.

 

When is the best time of day to post on Facebook?

I'm on the road today so I'm not sure how many tips we'll manage - but it made this one seem timely since it's about making the most of your social media efforts by timing them right.

If you're sinking effort into your online music promotion but no-one is listening, what's the point?

Bobby Owsinski has uncovered some research that should help you time your posting for maximum effect.

Read it here.

How to get your music in Games, Movies & TV

Picture by Patrick Hoesly

One of the artists that I've worked with for many years relies solely on synchronisation licences for his income - that's when his tracks are licensed for a game, movie or TV (they are synchronised with visual images - hence the name).

It is a great way to earn a living making music and it's also obviously a great way to promote your music.

But, how do you go about it?

This article from Live Unsigned blog (which I've just found and has loads of great stuff on it) looks at 8 tips.

A recent article in Word magazine made the point that TV, Film and Game music placements are the new radio in terms of exposing your band to a mainstream audience. Top US TV shows like Greys Anatomy and House can expose bands to a new audience very quickly, making Music Supervisors very powerful within the industry.

Read the whole article here.

BTW - I'd add that doing instrumentals and cut downs (20 seconds, 30, 45 and 60) with slightly different elements to the fore and having stems ready to be used to make alternative passes is a very wise investment in this field.

51 wide-ranging bits of advice for your music career

This is a great list of tips that is written by a musician actively engaged in the creation of great music and the use of modern direct to fan methods to get it heard.

He's at the coalface doing it and his tips are right on the money.

Read them here.

The touring bible - what to do and not to do

Photo by jacquie tranchida

You know that one day you'll be on the road, the big tour, which will finally give you the real break to promote your music.

But, what's the etiquette for making it a survivable experience?

This article in the Guardian tells it better than I could! - read it here.

9 tips for YouTube for musicians

YouTube music marketing is very badly neglected despite it being obvious that video sharing is a very big element in the success of many major artists that have broken through in recent years.

Enough said!

Anything that gives you a few useful ideas for making your band have that kind of impact is worth a read - as is pretty  much everything that I've found on the LiveUnsigned blog!

Go and read their 9 tips for musicians on YouTube here.

Miles Copeland on songwriting and hooks

We try to tell artists over and over again that if you suck at songwriting, nothing you do to market you and your material is going to work.

Miles Copeland makes the basics pretty clear in this great bit of video on the Artists House site. He also talks about rock and indie bands fearing the outside writer - this is ridiculous. If you need help to make it, go and get it rather than let your shortcomings doom you to failure.

"Don't let the chorus be a mystery - make sure it comes in like a garlic milkshake" - Genius!

Go and watch the video here.

 

MySpace is still an essential web presence for every artist....here's why

Everybody gets off on putting MySpace down and telling artists that they can now safely not bother with a profile there.

We, along with most music industry thinkers, don't agree. It comes down to the fact that MySpace music marketing reached something of a dead end with every band spamming every other band to add followers. That isn't the point though.

You have to have a presence on MySpace as it is the de facto place that people - fans and industry alike - look when they want to check out an artist. A lot of ways that people used to use it are now pointless, but an active, regularly updated, presence will still do you favours.

This article talks about how MySpace still dominates in music search results - look at that post here.

And this one from Hypebot elaborates on my thoughts by listing 6 reasons not to give up on the old girl yet - Read Hypebot's list of 6 here.

Sell more CD's!

Photo by Sheriff of Nothing

All artists ploughing the furrow of the DIY musician want and need to sell more CD's.

More simple tips from Dotted Music:

As an independent musician, you are the person responsible for marketing your CDs to your fans. This can take a lot of time and energy, but if you work smarter, you may be able to maximize your efforts so you don’t have to spend all your time trying to get those CDs sold.

Read the tips here.

Simple music promotion tips

I'm all for simple. And why should music promotion always have to be complicated?

Well, as this post states - it doesn't.

Getting more gigs, shows, events, etc. for your band is really just a matter of implementing a simple process, making it habitual, and then sticking to it. Below are some practical promotion tips that you can take with you to help you land more gigs, and spread the word about your music.

Read the whole post here.

 

How to write engaging newsletters to your fans

Photo by digitpedia

We looked at this the other day - see the post here on Posterous MIIM Daily - where we pointed you to a mammoth post on how to email your fans by Pet Marmoset. And, it's a cracker.

So, of course are our two posts on how to build a band mailing list.

But, today, there is another bunch of world class information on this very topic from PR and cyber guru, Ariel Hyatt.

Her piece looks at many aspects of how to send your email newsletter to fans including timing, tone and frequency. It's backed up by recent data that proves that email is still the best way to reach out to fans.

Boston based research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey has recently completed a study that all musicians should know about.

Here are the important highlights:

“Three-quarters of web users are likely to share content with friends and family, and nearly half do so at least once a week. But while much social networking content is built around such shared items, most people still prefer to use email to pass along items of interest.”

Read the piece here.

 

How to make your fans more dedicated

You'll have noticed that there are few sites that we regularly refer you to on the MiiM Dailies sites. That's because they invariably write really insightful stuff that we think will help you in your quest to be a successful musician.

One such is the blog at Mic Control. I batted a few emails back and forth yesterday with Jon Ostrow who writes the blog. His take on online music marketing is bang on.

The latest post looks at how to make more of your fans be more dedicated. Great post.

A 'Super Fan' is the most important player in your fan base. In chess, it would be your queen. Influential, proactive, genuinely dedicated, and most importantly willing to spend money on you. So of course, it makes sense that you want to cater to the needs of your super fans.

But what about all of your other fans?

Many will argue that by categorizing your fans and focusing only on the most dedicated, you are alienating those less committed to your art. However in reality, these boundaries allow you to understand your fan base at all levels of dedication and interest, and gives you the opportunity to convert weaker fans into more dedicated ones.

Read the whole post here.

 

Get your music on Pandora to be heard

We know from direct experience that having your music on Pandora can have an incredible effect on your profile.

An artist whose album we released 5 years ago has, over the last 2 years, slowly seen a rabidly loyal following grow - all of it thanks to his popularity on Pandora. His music is recommended on that service when people listen to other more mainstream artists whom he sounds like. Because his record is brilliant, he gains new fans every day directly from that exposure.

We have also seen his digital sales of an album that had sold a few hundred copies on release steadily grow month after month. This is the long tail!

Check out his music here - He's called Little People.

As part of the Edison Reasearch report, they have seen that Pandora is still growing massively fast and is the first stop for music discovery for one in 5 young Americans.

I know it works - you should be on there.

Read our blog post about how to get your music on Pandora from a while back.

And go and check out the blog post specifically about the growth in Pandora from the Edison Research.

 

You should make vinyl!

If it has any relevance in your genre and if you can muster enough fans to buy it, you really should make vinyl versions of at least some of your releases.

We try to do it as often as possible - fans love it and the very act of your material being available on vinyl marks you out as being serious and aids your music promotion.

The article below was another that I picked up from @BuzzSonic and looks at the resurgence of vinyl's popularity.

We live in the age of new technology. It seems the face of music, and the way in which we receive and listen to it, is constantly changing. CD’s can be listened to on thousand dollar sound-systems with multi-disk changers, or a stereo sitting in your mom’s kitchen. CD’s themselves are quickly on their way out, with the creation of MP3’s and products like the IPod. In the face of all this change, however, lies a huge contradiction to our generation’s seemingly constant urgency to go bigger, better, newer and shinier. This is of course, the resurgence in popularity of vinyl records.

Read the whole article here.

Build excitement before an album release

I love pretty much everything Mic Control write - insightful and no bullshit.

This piece on how an artist can engage fans in the lead-up to an album release has several killer ideas that all artists can employ but those engaged in a direct to fan release should be doing something along these lines for sure.

If fan-funding has proven one thing, it is that dedicated fans desire an experience more than a product, and are willing to pay good money to make that happen. Any fan can purchase a new album for $9.99 from iTunes or download it for free in exchange for an email address through Bandcamp, so why would they be willing to contribute $50, $100, $500 and even upwards of $2000 or more to experience the same music?

It is not because of some incentives or prizes, though some of them can be really cool, but because the super fans of the world are in love with the idea that they can join their favorite artists in the experience of creating their next album. This allows the fans to feel more connected to the music, simply because they felt like they were there with you through the creative process as it all came to be.

Read it here.

Singles no longer shifting albums

Photo by uitdragerij

As the previous post pointed out, some British acts are seeing some serious success in the US with what could be described as UK Hip Hop - or some better description from someone who listens to it, because I don't! - but it seems that it is all singles based and they aren't selling albums.

Why is that?

Hypebot have had a look at some of the reasons - personally I believe it's all part of the sea change that the digital music area has heralded. There will be album artists but not all artists will make albums in the future - they will survive on a stream of singles, radio hits, live appearances (rather than traditional touring as such) and online fanbases.

The old saying goes that for every great man, there is an ever greater woman behind him.  The same has traditionally been true for music - for every hit single, there is an even bigger selling album behind it.

Read what Hyebot think here.