Study old hits for new ideas

I like this post for its take on why many songs are hits today and why studying them is risky.

There’s an important reason why old hits can help even more than current hits. The success of today’s songs is strongly influenced by the rather temporary notion of the performers’ personal popularity. And so the popularity of a song doesn’t necessarily mean that the song is a good model for songwriters.

That's a massively important point! So many of today's hits in pop are driven by celebrity culture and mass market songwriting by a small clique of producers. You aren't necessarily hearing great songs as an odd combination of great hooks and sharply honed media savvy. Can you copy that on a global scale as an unsigned artist? Probably not.

Better then to look back and uncover the art of quality songwriting as your tutor.

Nothing wong with those beat driven radio hits, but are they building long term classic songs? - probably not.

Read the whole piece here.

Getting a record deal in the modern game

That's if you want to - and for many, that's becoming less of a dream. We're massively pro the DIY musician and know that for many that is now the way that I want to do it.

But, if you're building a fanbase and making a noise, chances are that you'll attract attention and might decide to do the deal with the devil.

The positive spin is that building momentum on your own is the precursor to DIY success or a record deal - so you need to be doing that anyway!

Watch this music industry lawyer giving his verdict on what is required.

Or watch on Youtube here.

Using Easter Eggs to enagage your fans!

Image by *clairity*

Sorry, not that kind of Easter Egg!

But the principle is the same - giving your fans something to reward them after making them go on some kind of a hunt to build their interaction with you and your music.

On Wednesday, Andrew W.K.’s twitter followers got into a tizzy because their favorite party/animal motivational speaker has started hiding samples of his new air freshener around New York and tweeting clues about where fans could find them.

W.K.’s fun and games might be the year’s first example of an artist sending his fans out on a hunt for goodies, but it’s not going to be the last. Artists have been creating little puzzles and curiosities for their fans for decades, and they remain one of the greatest ways to engage your fans not just with you, but with one another.

Read the post here.

15 Critcal mistakes that musicians must avoid

Image by jster91

I wander all over the internet looking for the best advice I can possibly find to pass on, and I aim for 3 to 5 things per day. Enough for readers to take on board and not too much to overwhelm. Quality not quantity! Some days I find them and some I don't!

I do, however, find a bunch of people consistently coming up with great stuff. One of those is Jon Ostrow at Mic Control.

So, when I uncovered this today, which is 7 months old and not on his site, I got to the bottom and saw that he'd written it. I felt that since I'd tweeted loads of his posts lately that I shouldn't pass this one on for fear of being too repetitive.

But, I have to as it is critically good.

Every one of these 15 mistakes / tips is a failing I have seen time and again.

Read this well!

Musicians are entrepreneurs whether they want to believe it or not. By writing music under a band name, pen name or even just their own name, they have effectively created a brand that must be properly marketed if it is to thrive and flourish. But there in-lies a major problem: not all musicians know anything about marketing and they will eventually make some critical mistakes that lead to the demise of their short-lived venture. It is, however, the musicians who take the time to learn from past mistakes made by other musicians, and furthermore learn to correct these mistakes, that are the ones who build up the kind of influential brand that has lasting power.

These are 15 potentially crippling, yet ultimately avoidable marketing mistakes that are all too commonly made by the emerging music community, along with tips to help you as an artist to overcome and succeed in the best way possible:

Read the post on Music Think Tank.

 

True music success takes time and effort - just like anything worthwhile!

Image by Incase.

Bob Lefsetz must have had a week or two off, since he's come back with two great posts on a similar theme - how it takes time and effort to become good enough to be successful in music (or in anything if truth be told). We peddle this line on the main blog - read the basics in our free musican eBook.

I'd urge you to read both of Bob's posts.

Doesn’t this sound like the music business?  A plethora of unskilled kids telling us they’re great, that they deserve success?

Could it be the music business is faltering because the music just isn’t good enough?

Now let me be clear, you’ve got to be great.  The Palm Pre is pretty good.  But not as good as an iPhone or an Android.  And before you start quibbling, one of the things that made the iPhone such a phenomenon was the ecosystem, the App Store, and the synching software.  Sure, the Pre would hold your music, but how in the hell were you going to get it on there, it was tedious!

So if you’ve got one hit, almost no one wants to see you live.

Justin Bieber?  That’s MySpace.  Big story for a year or two, even the mainstream press buys it, and then instant devastation.

Where are the acts that blow us away?

Certainly not the Black Eyed Peas.  That’s entertainment.  Still, will.i.am just can’t get rich enough.  Now he’s gone and made a deal with Intel.

Hell, Steve Jobs was blown out of Apple, his own company.  The iPod didn’t even come out until twenty five years after the initial Apple computers.  Where are the acts that are growing and developing into greatness?  Are we really waiting for Ke$ha to deliver her "Sgt. Pepper"?

So let’s stop the debate about piracy.  Let’s focus on the music.  And agree that whatever money comes raining down, it’s just not gonna be in the league of Lloyd Blankfein’s compensation.  That music isn’t about getting rich, but making a statement.  Doing it your way.  Having an influence.

But in order to have said influence, you’ve got to gain adherents.  Which takes a long time, see Mr. Jobs above.  And Jobs purveyed incredible products before the iPod, just like the initial albums of classic artists were oftentimes ignored.  But you don’t cry, but soldier on.

That's from this post - The Tiger Mother Craze

And then there's this, where he talks about the practice required to become great.

In the old days, before the Internet could make everyone famous overnight, our successful artists had a backstory.  They’d played with this person and that, some who’d also gone on to become famous, many who’d gone straight after tiring of the grind or finding themselves just not good enough.  Pete Best was not the best, he got ousted from the Beatles just before they broke.  But Tom Petty reunited with his old buddies in Mudcrutch decades later.  Who did Willow Smith come up with?  You see we’ve got the fame part down, but there’s no substitute for growing up, getting knocked around, learning the ropes.

And what was Harry Houdini doing?  Learning how to perform.

The greats were not only musicians, but incredible showmen.  Have you seen David Bowie?  Bob Ezrin made incredible records with Alice Cooper, but when you went to see him there was a show so out there, so creative that you had to tell everyone you knew about it, and drag them the next time Alice came to town.

And how about Hendrix?  He sure could play.  But that didn’t prevent him from employing his teeth, lighting his guitar on fire.  And it’s not simply coming up with these stunts, it’s about practicing them over years.  Speak with a comedian.  He always bombs early in his career.  He has to learn how to feed off of the audience.  Not only what lines work, but when to shut up, when to wrinkle his eyebrows.  This is very hard to do when your show is on hard drive.  A great show is an interaction between performer and audience.  Movies are two-dimensional, live theatre and music positively breathe!

That's from his Houdini post.

10 ways to force your fans to download your song

Marcus at The Musicians Guide (@themusicguide) posted this useful list the other day.

He was inspired to write it by Brian Hazard's post on ways to get people to hand over their email addres - which we also looked at here.

In my opinion, none of the tips below will increase the rate of visits to downloads (or conversion rate) quite as much as an improvement in song quality, but these tips are still likely to have a positive effect when used to complement great music.

1. Offer your fans exclusivity
We all love something that’s special to us, exclusivity in itself is a form of incentive as it gives a feeling of superiority. Offer your mp3 exclusively to your mailing list subscribers or Facebook fans or live show attendees before the rest of the world to reward them for their actions.

Get all 10 tips here.

 

 

10 things for musicians to blog about

MicControl delivering the goods again on this one.

I advise my clients to write at least two posts per week on their site and, usually, to email their list once a week pointing them at those two posts (and perhaps something to buy as well). Sure, some artists think once a week is too much email, but I think once a month isn't enough - so pick something between the two that you feel comfortable with. See my posts on building and using your fan email list for more on that.

Whatever you decide, they key is to have really engaging stuff on your site for them to read!

Jon Ostrow has come up with some great ideas of things that you can talk about in this post.

However, the very real problem that many musicians run into with blogging is that they misinterpret their need to blog as just another form of self-promotion. 

But creating a blog as a musician does not inherently mean it needs to be about yourself. In fact, it's actually more beneficial for you if you avoid writing about yourself... people tend to hate narcissism more than anything else in the world.

So what SHOULD you write about then? Well, why not write about other aspects of your passion for music. You are a fan right? You are exploring the inter-workings of the music industry right? You have tried and failed a bazzillion times right? Well write some of that down! People are always on the look out for new blogs that tell it like it is. This could be a great way for you to expand your networking into the blogosphere and establish meaningful relationships with those who can actually help you build a credible name!

The following are a few ideas to help you get the brainstorming session started, but please feel free to add more ideas below in the form of a comment:

Read John's list of 10 tips here. 

I'd add that it's also important to be actively involved in the comments on the site too - discussing things back and forth with your fans is great engagement!

Share music on all your profiles from one place

You might've seen this mentioned on Mashable the other day, but I was just checking it out as it fits in the last part of my now delayed but mammoth series of posts on 'Twitter for musicians'.

Bln.kr allows you to upload tracks and then spread them across all your social network profiles with one click. The Pro version (currently free for 30 days) has some additional functionality.

Mashable had this to say:

Bln.kr is kind of like Hootsuite for bands — a platform that allows musicians to share a song across Facebook, Twitter, etc, as well as track how fans are digging their jams.

The service is rather simple to use: Sign up for a Pro account ($10 per month), and connect Bln.kr to social accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, YouTube). Upload a track, add a title, cover image, category, tags and download setting (it’s also possible to enable a “Track for a Tweet”-esque feature, which is pretty cool), add a custom message to one’s share and go for it. One click lets a person share the track to all of his or her networks.

Read the whole Mashable post here.

And here's their video explaining the service.

Bandcamp - How To

This is a crackingly good reference on how to use Bandcamp for your band.

Bandcamp is one of he best options for running your own digital sales from your own site and other online presences. We thoroughly recommend it.

Enter Bandcamp, a service that allows musicians to price and sell their work as they see fit, in whatever digital format they choose. This user-defined pricing scheme puts a great deal of control in the hands of artists, albeit at the cost of a profit percentage that goes to the site. In essence, a user's sales fund the service's operations, which in turn aim to help market and sell the musician better. It's a trade-off that has proven to be a powerful tool for accomplished musicians such as Sufjan Stevens and Amanda Palmer. But Bandcamp can benefit the less established as well -- as long as they're willing to accept the compromise. Read on to see if Bandcamp's innovative business model is your key to freedom from the shackles of iTunes' uniform pricing, or just another shady tactic from the record industry.

Read their whole guide here.

2000 things to generate 20,000 fans

This is going to be interesting.

It's a year long project by Michael Brandvold on his blog where he is going to post 2000 ideas each aimed at getting him 10 fans. A great place to pick up tips on how to build your fanbase.

As he says:

Author David Meerman Scott made a honest and realistic quote, “if you want 20,000 fans you must do 2000 different things that each generate 10 fans.” This was my favorite quote from 2010 and I am going to take this on as a challenge for 2011 for an ambitious project to give you 2000 different things you can do to generate 20,000 fans.

I am defining generating fans in a few different ways:

1. A brand new fan who has never followed you before.
2. Engaging with existing fans to get them to participate.
3. Engaging with existing fans to get them to convert on an action.

Some of these items will apply better for larger acts, some items will work for any act. Some may work for you, some may not… not yet. Some these can be done with little effort, some will take some web development, some might even require some significant development. Some of these have successfully worked for me over the years. The point is to create a list of items that would cover a wide range of acts and abilities.

The post will be updated all year long, so it'll make a great reference to flick through at any time for ideas.

Go and check it out and bookmark for future reference.

How can I offer value to my fans?

I just took this video from the Topspin Blog.

If you can't see the video embedded below, you can watch it here on their blog - Ian Rogers Interview.

It's a great interview with Ian Rogers, CEO of Topspin - the artist direct-to-fan software - and it ranges over a wide range of topics, ALL of which are important for the diy musician to be thinking about and knowledgeable of!

I've timestamped the video below to start at the point (10 mins 38s) where Ian answers the question above and gives some great insight.

That's one great bit but the whole thing is well worth watching.

A simple contract for your gigs

I got a tweet from @BrandonSings yesterday asking if I could recommend somewhere to find a 'performance agreement' for his band's gigs.

I then realised that I've drafted more contracts over the last 20 years than I like to think about and maybe loads of these are really useful to unsigned and / or aspiring musicians. You know I did 4 years as a music lawyer before becoming a manager, right? I still do a lot of basic contracts for my clients to avoid the expense of using a lawyer - which would be madness for me and my clients given that I have the skills.

So, I dug out a short 'heads of agreement' that we've used for years for one-off shows to be completed with a promoter or venue. This is fine for bands or for DJ's - we've used it for both.

I spent an hour this morning going through it and checking it over and I think it'll do for most situations. I think I've also made it pretty obvious what you'd need to amend or add (that's the stuff in bold!). I'm not going to hang around to give endless advice on it's use, but if you need it, it's worth having. You can download it as a Word document at the botom here.

One important thing to know about "the law" is that, although there are basic tenets which make something legal and enforceable (a contract must have an offer and an acceptance and a payment of some sort), you can (mostly) forget all that legal mumbo jumbo. In the first instance a contract means what it says and it can be written in plain English. There are some caveats to that, but you can cobble something together that will usually cover your arse. Obviously the problems come when an agreement gets tested by it being the subject of a court case - but we don't have time to go into that now!

Made me think though - I have a contract for pretty much every eventuality a band could come across - gigs, synch licences for commercials and movies, band agreements, song split agreements - all sorts.

Is it something that I should dedicate the time to and put together as a package?

I'd need to charge for it as it'll be a shed load of effort. What do you think?

For now - you can go here and download this artist perfomance agreement.

Do let me know if you'd be intereted in more of these though - leave a comment or tweet us.

Use the latest research to market your music

It's all very well listening to me, and others who do the same thing as me, witter (or twitter) on about how you should promote and market your music.

But, what if we're all wrong?

Well, thankfully the lovely people at Nielsen have gone and worked out the latest facts about how people are consuming music and interacting with artists. So, not only can you listen to our advice, but you can also be safe in the knowledge that hard data is backing up our recommendations.

This has been summarised very well in this piece on Music Think Tank - which is therefore well worth a read. As they point out, once you know that three times as much music is consumed by watching videos on YouTube as by legal downloading, you'd be a muppet not to get amongst it on YouTube - wouldn't you?

If you want the full data, you'll be needing to hand over your email address for the full report on the Midem site.

Building a fanbase from niche markets - part 2

This is a pretty dry and intense series on Music Dish, but it's worth persevering with as the message is excellent.

We looked at part 1 here, and now the author, Anne Freeman, has moved on to part 2.

I'm not going to add much as you need to read her piece, but I think she may lead you into confusion since she relates the art of understanding a niche to something outside of music and doesn't tie the two things together that well. (Tommy Silverman ties them together superbly in point 1 of this piece, so read that as well!).

That said, what she (and Tommy) is saying is very important and I'm with Tommy in thinking that almost every artist breaks out from a niche. If that is so, you need to begin in a niche and understand how to leverage from there.

Welcome back to the "How to Build a Fan Base from Niche Markets" series of articles. The goal of this series is to give indie artists some practical strategies to develop an effective niche-marketing plan for their music. In the previous article, we discussed how artists typically developed their fan base - or not. We also learned about marketing, and looked at what I called "Linear Progressions" that show the steps that indie artists typically take when attempting to build a fan base. If you have not read Part 1 of this series, you can do so by clicking on the following link:

We ended Part 1 with the following linear progression based upon the definition of marketing found in Part 1:

Linear Progression: Building Your Fan Base 301 (Marketing)
(1) Identify a potential audience for your music

(2) Design a marketing strategy to develop audience interest in your music

(3) Build a relationship with that audience

(4) Implement strategies that create value for that audience and to turn them into sales

(5) Make your music available to those fans in every possible way

(6)Implement strategies to keep those fans and expand your fan base

Read Part 2 of Niche Marketing here.

Making money from music is a struggle

I saw this post yesterday thanks to Jon @MicControl.

It's a sad truth, but one that artists need to get their head around before they embark on a life where making music is their only or main source of income.

Even a level of success which looks profitable to the outside world often leaves an artist in a strange netherworld of some fame, yet no cash! At the same time, most people around them will asume that they have made plenty of money. This is amplified in a band where there's not a lot of cash generated and it has to feed more mouths. Have look at this classic rant from Steve Albini which explains why an artist signed to a record company can end up selling a lot of records and yet make no money.

The DIY musician can do better than the signed artist if they can fund their record releases and touring to profit, but it's not easy for them either.

Forewarned is forearmed.

The idea that musicians—even well-known musicians who sell out large club shows—have money is a misconception for the most part. Financial concerns and viability obviously vary from artist to artist; no two musicians are exactly the same when it comes to money and how it’s made and spent. But what most fans fail to realize is how much it costs to be a musician and how much more it costs to be a musician on the road.

Read the whole post here.

Be fucking awesome!

Image by moonlightbulb

I love this post.

It's not aimed at musicians per se, but I think it's highly relevant!

It's from a really interesting guy who writes about what people these days like to call 'lifestyle design' and he touches on all kind of subjects.

It reminded me of a post that I put on our main blog where Will Smith sets out his methodology for succes - read and watch here how to achieve your goals. I know that loads of people have found that very useful and inspiring. Someone pointed out to me yesterday that the bit where Will says he isn't especially talented but is massively motivated is a very important thing for aspiring artists to realise. Talent alone isn't enough you need to do something with it.

How about becoming 'fucking awesome'?

That's gonna help, right?

People will tell you that there are all kinds of yardsticks to measure progress.

What they don’t say is that most of them are worthless.

Money, career, fame… whatever. That’s all fine and good, but the bottom line is that there is one thing– just one– that really matters.

Being fucking awesome.

You can be broke and be awesome. You can be in a wheelchair and be awesome. You can be homeless and be awesome. You can even be dead and be awesome.

You want a purpose to your life? I got one for ya.

From this day forth, your purpose is to be the most fucking awesome person you can imagine being.

Read the whole post.

100 New Years resolutions for musicians

Jon at Mic Control has pulled together this post with contributions from loads of musician advice bloggers.

It's great. The bloggers have come up with 50 resolutions - easy to implement real world ideas that will give your career a boost - and contributors have added the rest.

He wants everyone to join in and add their ideas - including you.

I've added mine - too long-winded as usual! - so Jon would appreciate it if you went and added yours too.

Of course, this is a great resource of ideas that will help any aspiring artist move their game on.

Read and add to the list of resolutions here.

 

What does a record producer do?

Image by The Daily Ornellas

I mostly manage songwriters and producers these days - so I found this short piece to be solid and useful advice.

So often a band these days will come to us thinking that because they have the equipment and some (pretty good) skills, they can record, produce and mix their own record.

And, some can - to a degree.

But, what people often forget is that production and engineering is a skill, like any other, that can be perfected and honed over many years practice - Malcolm Gladwell and his 10,000 hours (Google that if you don't know what I'm on about!).

So, whilst you might well have a great little studio set up (the democratisation of the means of production being a laudable step in the right direction for the music biz), and may be able to produce a pretty good sounding track or two, that doesn't mean that you wouldn't benefit from a producer.

Give it some thought.

The best way I know to describe what a producer does comes in the form of this analogy: A producer is to a recording as a director is to a film. When it comes to making a film, the buck essentially stops with the director.

In a film, the director steers the ship, working with everyone from the technical editors to the actors in order to achieve his or her overall vision of the movie. It is exactly that way with a producer when it comes to making a recording.

The producer have the experience to work with the studio engineer (often possessing the technical expertise to engineer the project themselves) and the musical understanding to help the artist with everything from song choice, structure and arrangement to the all-important vocal performances that are vital in giving a recording its personality. In short, a producer provides the experience and necessary perspective to guide a recording from start to finish.

Read this piece from Serve the Song in full here.

Billboard's 'Uncharted' chart - Huh?

Billboard launched their Social 50 chart a month or so ago - and it got a fair bit of stick for not throwing up many new faces - obviously, the most talked about artists in social media are the biggest anyway!

So, they've hit back with the 'Uncharted' Chart. To qualify, you need to fulfill a bunch of 'we've not been mentioned or charted before criteria' and you need to have a profile on MySpace Music - so that's most artists covered.

The placings are then worked out by counting social media data using Next Big Sound - covering plays on MySace and YouTube, Twitter numbers etc.

Unlike the Social 50, I think this chart has a real chance of exposing emerging talent to the denizens of the 'old school' industry who do still take trade mags like Billboard seriously.

As we said before on the Social 50, I'd make sure to fill in my profile at Next Big Sound and have that profile on MySpace, so that I qualified as you never know if you might make their chart and get noticed from there.

Read their own post about it here.

 

Video tagging on Facebook - a la SoundCloud

This is an interesting new app that could really take off on Facebook.

If you use SoundCloud, you'll know that the most listened to, shared and downloaded tracks or mixes are crammed full of annotations by listeners.

Clicking them and reading what people say about a track or a mix is one of the most compelling things about listening to stuff on SoundCloud. It's brilliant fan engagement. A mix or track with lots of annotation is also getting loads of social proof that makes you want to see why people are bothering to leave a note.

So, what if you could do this with video?

Well, that's what this app, BlipSnips, does. It's only a Facebook or iPhone app for now but it allows you to upload any video to Facebook and share it for that kind of tagging.

Seeing how this works at SoundCloud, I think this could be massive on Facebook.

More and more users are sharing video through Facebook, whether by dropping in links or uploading their own clips. Facebook is the fastest-growing referrer of video traffic, and users are beginning to upload videos to the site in higher numbers as well. And now a new iPhone and Facebook app aims to give you even more reasons to use Facebook as a video hosting destination.

The app, called BlipSnips, allows users to tag videos along the timeline. This is huge, because under the default Facebook uploader, users can only list friends who appear somewhere in the clip  Now, with BlipSnips, you can tag the exact moment on the video timeline when they appear on camera. Sweet.

Read the piece about it on ReelSEO here.

Selling out - the old fashioned way

We've written about 'selling out' here and here.

Thankfully, most artists and fans realise that the important word there is 'selling' and not the other one. And, that you have to sell in order to have a career that is sustainable.

That doesn't mean that you can't be true to yourself and your art though. And you should. What it means is that in the new future of music landscape, sponsorship, advertising and endorsement become one of the ways that artists can find to earn a living from their art.

More importantly, these days, the companies that want to work with artists understand much better that not undermining the credibility of the artist is better for their mutual relationship and benefit.

This was not always the case as this brilliant article shows.

It has a load of examples of how musicians went much further than most would be happy to today and where the alignment of musician and brand is, at best, questionable.

Bear this in mind when you look for endorsement and sponsorship at any level - how will your fans react and what will it do to the long term image of the band. I believe that this applies even when you're first starting out and trying to get free guitar strings from your local music store in return for backing them on your fliers or from the stage.

The music industry is in such rough shape that some of your favorite bands have resorted to selling automobiles. No, they aren’t hanging around in the lots at the local used car dealerships in clip-on ties and promising a limited-time offer, but they’re on television, licensing their songs and finding more ears than they ever could on the FM dial. It may be that what was once seen as selling out for cash, now just makes sense.

“Because everything is so instant now and people seem to always have their laptops and smart phones with them when they’re watching TV, when a song that they like comes on in a commercial, they can just look it up and buy it right then, and this is something that the artists realize,” says Peter Shane, vice president of creative services for Spirit Music Group, a music company that specializes in placing songs into all sorts of media and works with iconic catalogs by the likes of Lou Reed and T. Rex.

And read the whole post and watch the ads here.

Here's a choice one from the Rolling Stones and another from New Order to be getting on with.

And New Order - in it for the money!

NPR is the secret ingredient for music promotion in the US

We've written about the power of NPR in building awareness for new artists before.

In fact, it seems to have such a bearing on initial awareness in the US that we hope to talk to the folks at NPR and bring you some 'how to' info on getting on their radar. We'll keep you posted.

For now, this is a news piece on why their listeners are early adopters and the sort of people that you want to be reaching. Although they have a terrestrial following in the States they can really help your online music promotion as their flagship shows are broadcast on the web.

With so many music options available to listeners at any given moment, breaking a new act is more challenging than ever. Even the perfect alignment of mainstream press and promo — say, a Rolling Stone feature, a performance on Conan or a video in rotation on one of the MTV channels — won’t necessarily add to an artist’s bottom line.

But during the past decade, one media outlet has proved to be incredibly effective in connecting a band with its target audience, prompting an instant sales bump and, most important, spreading the word: National Public Radio. Arcade Fire, Florence + the Machine and Vampire Weekend are just some of the indie acts that owe much of their crossover success to the member-supported network, which boasts an audience of 34 million, according to Arbitron, along with a devoted online following.

Read the article here.

Seven rules for effective social networking for musicians

Image by Rosaura Choa

Not everything in this piece on Music Think Tank is in line with my advice. Read the comments below the piece as well for the full effect!

For example, I advocate Fan Pages rather than personal profiles (or both) on Facebook for promoting your music although I do acknowledge the drawbacks that the comments to this piece talk about.

Nonetheles, it is a GREAT piece that really serves to remind you what is important in the relationship between you and your fans and how you need to nurture that bond.

The most essential point to note in my approach to social media is that it begins with the word social. In order to generate interesting discussions and interactions, you must follow exactly the same practices as you would at a party.  You wouldn’t just stand up on a table in the middle of a room full of people and shout, “come to my show!” or, “buy my music!”  

You need to create engagements where there is a naturally developed interest in your affairs and your music.  If you stick with a party conversation long enough, you’ll inevitably be telling your new friend about your band.  They are a lot more likely to check you out than someone you walk up to on the street and hand a flyer.  

In addition, when you use social media properly, you are promoting the product “you” (I put you in quotes because the “you” in this case is a public persona and is partially distinct from the true you), not your music.  If you want the music you make to stand alone and develop its own social identity without your persona and personal identity backing it, I’d suggest not bothering.

Read the whole piece here.

 

You might not need MySpace or FaceBook but you do need a mailing list

This is a great piece on HypeBot about how Robin Davey's band have given up on social networks as a way to reach fans.

Instead they've made their artist site and their email list the core of all their fan interaction. I'm not sure that I'd abandon social networks - I'd rather maintain a presence on all platforms and focus people back to a great and regularly updated website - but I can't fault the data.

Last week one of our artists made two posts to the blog on their site and then emailed their list. The traffic to their site jumped exponentially (1000% the day of the email, 500% the day after and 250% the third day). As you'd expect, it takes a few days for people to open and read email, but, also, over 40% of the people on the list clicked through and spent over a minute on the site.

You NEVER get that kind of traffic and conversion from social networks - it's just not possible across all the noise!

Read our posts on building a fan mailing list and start one now if you haven't already.

No matter how many fans you have on a social network, it is the platform itself that dictates how you can communicate with them, how you can post updates, how many words you can use – the connectivity with fans is limited.

When MySpace crashed, we lost that connectivity with 40,000 + legitimate fans and our 1 million or so plays became meaningless, it is nothing more than a number. When it comes to your next release, it means nothing unless you can reach those fans again. It quickly became apparent that we could not communicate with our fans the way we wanted through these means.

We have always maintained an email list and we realized that the majority of our traffic came from posting direct to our fans through this platform. We decided to stop updating our social networks and exclusively use our email list last year. The overwhelming response from fans was fantastic. To make it a successful two way tool, when we send emails we are not just plugging our latest release, we mainly communicate our feelings and thoughts on topics we feel our fan base would like to talk about. We openly encourage people to reply and we feature the best replies we get. It's not actually that groundbreaking an idea, and I have to credit Bob Lefsetz email list as an inspiration, but it works very well for us.

Read the HypeBot piece here.

 

Artists that found fame on YouTube

I know that I keep saying that I won't do more on Youtube for musicians, but those johnny-come-latelies at Mashable have jumped on my bandwagon and listed 15 people that owe their discovery to YouTube! Thanks to @Buzzsonic for pointing it out.

You could do a lot worse than spend a little time looking at what they did and how they got there.

Check out Mashable's post here.

Here's one of them to get you started - Esmee Denters.

Do hit songs need a hit title?

Image by iboy_daniel

In our free eBook for musicians (please DO get it, if you haven't already) we talk about how Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf wrote their biggest hits by coming up with arresting and fascinating titles first and then writing the song to fit.

This article looks at the issue of whether a hit song needs a hit title and has some interesting points to make.

Should you go for the Steinman / Loaf method every time? - no, probably not - But it's another little tool to put in your songwriting kit to be pulled out at the right time.

Read the whole piece here.

 

YouTube viral method

I haven't gone mad - really!

Yes, that is a Sesame Street video below - and yes, it has got plenty to do with your video marketing education and use of YouTube for musicians.

How?

Well, that video made by Sesame Street is a very clever idea that use the in-video annotations that YouTube offers - which allow you to link to another YouTube video.

I've never created anything that clever on YouTube, but as far as I nunderstand it, you can only link to other videos on YouTube using their annotation service (I know you can off-link using some text and/or third party tools) and this video uses that to create variant possible next scenes.

If you click on any of the options, you are taken to an appropriate next video that resolves your question.

Imagine doing this as a band?

You'd get massive viral traffic (like Arcade Fire did for their http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/, which is a very different idea but my point is its viral natue!).

You could start a performance of your new single and then stop and ask people if they wanted you to play the rest - in drag / on harmonicas / by the sea - whatever.

That's just one idea - there are loads more ways that you could use this.

I guarantee that a band will do this within a few months and you'll go 'Aaaghh, I wish I'd thought of that' - well you can do it now.

Be that band!

Read this piece that tells all in more detail.

And here's the video.

Use Viinyl to promote your release

We looked at Viinyl when it was first released a month ago, and now Chris Bracco has written a great 'how to' piece on his blog.

It's undoubtedly a great addition to the myriad methods that you now have available for online music promotion, but one that stands out for it's simplicity in both idea and use. I recommend it highly.

Viinyl is a fairly new service that popped up in late 2010 that allows you to create “song-based websites.” They ended up being one of my top picks for 2010′s most interesting and innovative music start-ups, and I’d like to dive a bit deeper into the free service with this post.

If you ever find yourself wanting to promote a single, using Viinyl is an excellent way to provide your fans with a rich media experience surrounding a single song. In this post, I want to show you how you create a one-song web page with Viinyl, and how you can link to it via a subdomain on your official website (e.g. “singleimpromoting.mywebsite.com”).

Check out the whole method here.

YouTube, Blogs and the Future of Music

Jon Ostrow (@MicControl) put me on to this yeterday.

Great interview with one of the founders of Elektra where he talks about how he sees music promotion today.

Watch it and get some ideas!

Get your band booked at a festival - here's how

Image by Tobin Voggesser

What an amazing place for a gig?

That's what I thought when I read this piece. I had to contact the photographer who let me use the pic to find out where it is - it's the Powellapalooza music festival at Lake Powell in the US.

I know you're going to want to know!

But the piece is why you're here. This post from FanManager sets out sensible steps to take to get your band booked on festivals this summer - and now is when you need to start working on this as line-ups are already being booked and finalised.

I’ve been on both sides of the coin, acting as the talent buyer for 2 festivals and as a booking agent focused on festivals performances for a roster of 12 nationally touring artists. There are definitely some tricks to the trade for getting your artist onto a festival lineup. Here are some recommendations that will steer you towards successful festival bookings.

If your artist is nationally known and desired, most of the information below will likely not apply. If you are reaching out to the appropriate festivals, you’ll make a call or shoot over an email and negotiations will begin if the festival has interest in your artist. Better yet, the festival talent buyer will contact you.

Read the whole piece here.

Then find festivals and get chasing!

Facebook Tagging - a full guide

We looked at Facebook tagging a while ago in this post.

It opened my eyes to a tactic that very few people use on Facebook.

But, now, Mari Smith - an expert on all things Facebook who we've referred to before -  has written a post that is really a full guide on how to use '@ tags'. Her angle is about businesses using it, but it applies to musicians too - probably better in fact.

Tagging your Facebook friends in photos is one of the most ingenious and popular features on the site. Tagging friends in Notes is another use of tags, though used less often than photos. In September 2009, Facebook broadened this tagging feature by allowing users to tag friends, pages, groups, events and apps in status updates and posts. This type of tagging is referred to as an “@ tag.”

But, the big deal isn't in tagging photos or the like, it's in using tags to spread your posts right on to massive traffic fan page walls. There's a right and a wrong way to do this - basically spam will make you look like a twat.

Mari has the lowdown - read her post here - and use the technique.

How to get a (better) record deal

There's a post on our main blog that adds some background steps on how to get a record deal - you might want to read it as well as these below.

Then there's this great 2 part post from the Live Unsigned Blog.

Part 1 looks at the position you need to be in to get signed - you're best off creating a 'buzz' with DIY musician efforts (although I believe sending in a demo if you're at that stage is still a reasonable use of your time - a long shot for sure, but worth it if that deal is what you're after).

Although it is possible to do really well completely independently some people still want a record deal, some see it as a form of validation. Some artists only want to concentrate on the music and let the label handle the business (although I’d argue that its easier to concentrate on the music if you have control of your own career). Signing to a label isn’t about forgetting about the business side of things – its the start. Labels expect you to work hard promoting your product and can often fail to do the same for you. Its not ever going to be that easy.

Part 2 lists a whole load of things you need to get straight if they offer you that deal!

Make sure you get a music industry lawyer to review anything before you sign it. I know of one indie label that signs a lot of indie acts then just uploads their music to Bandcamp and takes a large percentage of the sales. The bands could do this themselves and make far more money, they gain nothing from the deal. Don’t let this happen to you. If its a bad deal just walk away.

These two posts have a lot of good advice - check them out.

DamntheRadio - Facebook Fan Page wizardry

I mentioned and linked to this in the last post, but, in case you missed that one, here's a little bit more info.

All artists now need to be rocking a good Facebook Fan Page - you know that already.

Unlike MySpace, there isn't one accepted way to do the perfect 'Facebook for musicians'.

This is a new option - and I really like the look of it.

It's just been bought and integrated with FanBridge which means you get loads of cool Fan Page stuff and it links to your email system - if you use FanBridge that is!

Just go and read what they have to say about their service and let me know if you choose to use it over RootMusic's BandPage.

Band websites - the basics!

Image by Alex E.Proimos

I just got off the phone with an old friend who didn't know what we had been doing with Make It In Music.

I had released a great record for her maybe 10 years ago - she's talented and definitely not stupid, but she is rubbish with technology! I'm not going to embarass her though and point you in her direction.

Why? Two reasons. First, she doesn't have a website for her music for me to point you to!!!!! Second, I'm not taking the piss out of anyone - we all have lots to learn.

The thing is, she is totally capable of doing what she needs to do with technology - everyone is - she just needs to believe it and give it a go.

She has a new album about to be self-released and was calling me up for some of the cuff advice on how to promote it - when it transpired that she had no website and that her email list was in her email client and she emailed them all by using 'BCC', we didn't get to any promotion advice!

I told her to drop everything, build a website that gave away music in exchange for email addresses and then worry about promotion!

Here's the email I just sent her after we spoke:

Buy your domain name here - Namecheap

You'll need to point the domain name to the hosting you buy - this is called Nameservers. Search their support FAQ or Google.

Buy hosting here - Hostgator

It is relatively easy to install wordpress on the hosting and make that your site - you're looking for 'Fantastico Deluxe' icon in the hosting control panel. Again - look at their FAQ and talk to support - they are ace.

In your position - look at Nimbit. Maybe use their instant website - Nimbit

This has it all - digital and physical sales, exchanging an email address for songs for free, website theme. And it will grow with you.

You must put your email addresses in a system - if you don't go with Nimbit, for you I like FanBridge.

I normally recommend Aweber -  but knowing your fear of technology I think you'll worry about having emails in one place and site stuff in another - although, again their support is ace and it is actually easy to use.

Then on your Facebook page use DamntheRadio - which links with FanBridge or RootMusic's BandPage - which doesn't, but I'd use that if you've gone Nimbit. Nimbit also has stuff that works in Facebook.

The key is - band website, email system collecting names - interact with the fans as you do already. Give free music and get them involved.

Come back to me when that's in place and we'll talk about promotion!

So, I hope she's doing that right now.

I forget that there are people who should know better who aren't even doing this basic step. And many are super talented.

Please send them to read this post!

 

Do we need a vetted MySpace?

Roostie has appeared on every self respecting music industry blogger's radar today.

Have a look at these pieces on the Guardian site and HypeBot.

It's a social network / artist promotion site that aims to restrict itself to a maximum of 3000 artists chosen from submissions by a panel.

Quite what happens when they hit their 3000 limit isn't clear - although I have asked them to let me know! If they do, I'll pass it on.

I'm not against another place for artists to upload a profile and maybe reach new fans, but I'm not sure that it's the future either.

The recipe for building your fanbase is to get your own site and the key social networks (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace) plus music sites like Last.fm, Pandora and ReverbNation. That's where the traffic that may like your music is....in droves. So that's where you need to be.

If Roostie can become a hot destination for music fans then we can add it to that list but it's a very big challenge for them. Remember Ooizit? Me neither!

That said - I would have a profile everywhere one was available if I had all the time in the world - but you need to prioritise.

Online Music Marketing in a nutshell

 

Image credit: adebond on Flickr

 This article covers the basic steps that you need to have covered so well that I think I will be tweeting it ...... a lot!

Dotted Music lay out what you need to have, where you need to put it and how to get people to find it and buy it - which is what marketing is!

It's the best overall picture of online music marketing that I have seen.

If you are a musician or in a band, chances are good that you’d like to make some money from your music. CD’s, digital downloads, t-shirts, bumper stickers… the options are almost endless for a savvy musician.

The question is, how do you get people to find what you’re selling? With millions of bands and musicians worldwide, getting people to find you may seem like hunting for a needle in a haystack. Well, it doesn’t have to be.

On the downside, the odds of your website ranking well for any music related keyword phrase with even remotely decent search volume is pretty much nil. But don’t despair! As a musician looking to make money online, there’s a much better way.

First, before you try to sell anything, you need an online presence. This website or profile will be your digital hub, and everything we cover from this point on will point back to this site. If you already have a website, fantastic. If not, you may not actually need one

Read the whole piece here.

How a Wordpress website works - use one for your band

I saw this on Musformation the other day but it comes from a techy website called Yoast.

You can see the original post there.

We are always writing about how you need to make the hub of your online promotion your own band website, and we always recommend that you use Wordpress. This infographic explains the basic elements of layout and functionality.

Someone working on your act - a member of the band, manager, or friend - needs to understand this and make it the hub of what you do!

 

How to run an online street team

Thanks to @Buzzsonic for this and for making me have a good look at the Fan Manager site that it's on - loads of great advice.

This piece is all about creating street teams online - something that Amanda is a bit of an expert on seeing as that's how she started out in the Music Biz.

The entry below will cover everything you need to know about online street teaming in this new digital era.  Although physical street teams are still important and relevant for many hard touring bands, online street teaming is becoming much more prevalent.  Here is why…

1) It has never become so easy to reach tens of thousands of people in just a few minutes. In today’s ADD culture, people want instant bite sized bits of information. People are tuning out billboards and traditional advertising and are much more willing to listen to a recommendation of a new track, video, or concert from a friend.  This is why platforms like Twitter and Facebook are so important today

2) People are becoming more Green and online marketing leaves absolutely no carbon footprint. There is nothing more disheartening than seeing handbills and other marketing materials littering a venue, plus there can be fines for blatant disregard of public property. 

3) The technology is developing at such a rapid pace and sharing content is a seamless process now.  The power of fans to create viral sensations through word of mouth is unparalleled and traditional media is struggling to keep up with the change.  The power is back in the hands of the passionate fans out there.

Here are our tips on how to get this done right…

Read the piece here.

One of the things that I love about this piece is that these guys do this day in day out. The advice is on their own site, so you can look around and see exactly how they do it for real.

Have a look at the tools that they use for each artist and how they have a page of assets for street teamers to use - it's genius. I especially like the hosted fliers and banners and media players which have Facebook share and Twitter Tweet buttons and Forum BB code - as you can see in the screen grab above.

All you have to do is point your street team to the asset page and they can share your band's stuff directly from there.

I will be copying this method!

 

Let your fans ask you anything

I just joined Formspring.

It lets people ask you questions and I was inspired to give it a go by this article on Thorny Bleeder.

Have you checked out the latest popular social media site, Formspring?

It's a site which simply allows users to ask you anything, even anonymously, with no limits to the length of your reply. Fomspring encourages people to find out more about each other in a simple and fun way. Responses can range from straightforward to surprising and can lead to understanding something more about the people you know or find interesting.

This social website is growing very quickly, especially within the under-20 demographic, and already has over 20 million users. 

I'm about to find out if letting people reach out and ask you anything is a good idea. Although, I did say I thought it was awesome when Norman Cook added it to his site - as mentioned in this post.

So I figured I need to give it a go.

Don't overwhelm me as I have decided that if I get too many questions, I will just have to not answer them all. I might not get any!

But, as an artist - what a great way to build your fanbase - reach out and give your fans exactly what they want.

Move your MySpace fans to Facebook or your email list

After yesterday's post about MySpace, several people pointed out to me that many artists have a dormant or, at best, unmotivated fanbase languishing on MySpace.

Shouldn't they be making efforts to reinvigorate that relationship and get those folks to interact with them somewhere where they are more active - perhaps their own site or Facebook, or get them on to their fan mailing list?

Of course, they should, and a bunch of people think the same thing and have been writing about it.

With the hook-up between ReverbNation and MySpace you get a whole bunch of their fan tools that you can now use directly inside MySpace. Whilst this means that it is now easier to communicate with your fans within MySpace, it also means that, for the first time ever, you can contact them all in one go and ask them to join you somewhere else!

Not sure they thought that through!

If you have a ReverbNation account, you can log-in and message them all to join your ReverbNation mailing list. You can then always move them from there to your mailing list system of choice - Aweber if you know what's good for you!

This post tells you how - http://blog.reverbnation.com/2010/12/23/4-easy-steps-to-increase-your-mailing-list-with-myspace-messaging/

GarageSpin has a list of methods that will help you move your fans somehwere new.

And, of course you can check out ReverbNation's original post about using their tools within MySpace.

And, you may as well watch their video about it too:

Whatever you decide to do about maintaining or ditching MySpace, make a concerted effort to let your fans there know that you can offer them more somewhere else before abandoning them as digital dust.

How to create great relationships for musicians

Image by reachshalabh

I'm always recommending MicControl - Jon does a great job whether he is writing or getting people to guest post on their 'MicSchool' section. Check out the site in depth!

This piece is all about how musicians need to foster relationships with a network of people in the music business - and not just to treat it as a one-way street.

Whilst the article talks about relationships with industry and musician folk, the same stuff applies to your relationships with fans.

In my dealings and conversations with successful artists, managers, labels, and other industry workers, it has become abundantly clear that increasing your chance of success can be done by embracing two very simple concepts: create great music, and develop great relationships.

Unfortunately, the second half of that equation is sometimes (mis)labeled as simply ‘who you know,’ which implies that an existing connection is required in order to succeed. Sure, having an uncle that works for a label, or having a friend from high school who is now the guitar tech for Coldplay can help, but that’s rare. Those who have succeeded have done so by working hard at developing, and maintaining, great relationships with those they work with.

Here are some tips for developing contacts with meaning:

Read the post here. It's good!

Making the most of your Facebook page

Amp Music Marketing have a great site and loads of experience in online music marketing from their day to day job of putting what they preach into practice.

This post sets out a handful of tips on how to best do things on your Facebook Page.

I particularly like their data that 11am on weekday mornings is the best time to post for maximum effect - but all the tips are great.

Check their list out here.

 

 

10 ways to get a fan's email address

Brian Hazard has some really great 'how to' posts on his Passive Promotion blog - and seeing as he is primarily writing about what he does to sell his own music his information is backed up by real experience.

This one lists 10 ways to trade some of your music for a fan's email address - thereby allowing you to build a fan mailing list.

I measure my success as a recording artist by the growth of my mailing list. The best way to get someone to subscribe is to offer something in return, and a great song is a powerful incentive. Here are ten techniques to negotiate that delicate exchange:

Read Brian's list of 10 great methods here.

 

The action is somewhere between the album and the hit single

I loved that line from this great article in the LA Times.

The problem is, we still haven't devised a language to describe the increasingly vibrant area between the two poles of the studio album and the hit single. It's existed since the dawn of the modern-day music industry, this territory of remixes and B-sides and EPs and homemade tapes. And in 2011, this realm is increasingly where the action is.

The article ranges across the very large area that is the modern music business and how artists are taking advantage of the new tools and opportunities to do innovative things with their careers.

It's well worth a read and hopefully it will give you an idea of a new and different way to bring your music to your fans.

Read the article here.

You're stuck with MySpace, for a while yet

This is a great article on DigitalMusicNews that I only spotted thanks to @Buzzsonic.

I'd urge you to read it but don't miss the comments as there's a lively debate about the article's conclusion going on all the way down the page.

Even with the rise of artist service companies, few are positioned to replicate what is perhaps MySpace's biggest asset: its role as the musician's calling card. The myspace.com/bandname URL is a common convention most bands adhere to and more consumers recognize. Chances are good that the piano man at your neighborhood bar has a MySpace page, as do the world's most successful acts. While combining a number of APIs and widgets on an artist's homepage can achieve the same functionality of MySpace, few have the potential to achieve the URL ubiquity that MySpace has.

Read the piece and the comments here.

Although I wish it wasn't so - I agree that all sensible artists should retain a MySpace presence, even now. It needn't be much more than an up to date information page that points back to your own site, unless your act knows that it's fans would still want MySpace to be the primary point of contact (true for less and less artists today). 

I think it will become less important in the next year as it's SEO usefulness dies away, but the new ReverbNation tools mean that you can at least try to maintain a relationship with the fans that want to visit you there.

Sell your music on Facebook

Moontoast is a new suite of tools that allow you to sell your music direct on your Facebook fan page.

It also promises much more - interaction, storefronts on multiple platforms (your website and others) with email collection and track sharing to come. Is it the answer to Facebook for musicians that everyone is looking for?

Will it be better than RootMusic? It looks like a more comprehensive offering, but, I haven't used it yet, so it's a case of watch this space.

Go and look it over at http://www.moontoast.com/

Why Artists fail

No fluff on this one - I feel like I always have to add my view, but not on this one.

Go and read the post at We Are Listening.

The 50 most blogged artists in 2010 - how to be one in 2011

The Hype Machine has very helpfully compiled a list of the top 50 most blogged about artists, albums and songs of last year.

Why should you care?

Well, I think that cultivating a following amongst influential music bloggers should be a key part of every artist's online music promotion and marketing. I don't need to tell you how, since Chris Bracco has laid it out in this essential and very impressive guide.

Look at this post on our site to see how that fits into an overall online music marketing strategy.

Looking at the list from the Hype Machine you might think that you'd have to be either a semi-folk Americana acoustic act or banging electro! Maybe you do to get the attention of this sub-set of bloggers (that style of music is heavily favoured in the largest most successful blogs).

But, if that's not your niche, fear not as you can easily find a plethora of people to write about your music - no matter what the style.

Nonetheless, if you do fit that scene, you are set to get the most coverage!

Check out their top 50 most blogged artists here.

Find your style to find success

This post kind of contrasts with the previous post - whereas that said that you need to look at what elements commonly make a song successful, this states that you need to find your own original niche in order to stand out.

As it says, sure, A&R men (and future fans) are looking for the next GaGa, but they are also receptive to something new - they just won't know it until it comes along!

However, they aren't mutually exclusive - you can fit your songs to the current paradigm for success, look to successful artists to see how they create their public persona, style, sound and so on, but you can still be true to your own belief and musical aims.

It's a tightrope, for sure, but that's why it ain't easy!

Any kind of music success requires that you know yourself before you can promote and sell what you've got.

Read the post on the ever great Gen-Y site here.

What do the big hit songs of 2010 have in common?

Jay Frank's 'Future Hit DNA' site and book provide analytical data on what characteristics made songs become hits.

His book is WELL worth a read - you can get it here.

But, without spending a massive $10 on access to Jay's hugely insightful ideas, you can look at his report on the top 100 songs of 2010 and what common features they had...for free. Persoanlly, I think it's pretty much the best $10 you can spend to improve your chances of writing hit songs, but that's up to you!

I'm not saying that you should try to seek out a perfect formula and, of course, you should remain innovative, but it would be plain stupid to ignore the data about intro length, song length and bpm.

You might choose to not always stick to that framework but when working on something that you know is strong and has radio potential, get the fine tuning down and go for the jugular.

That’s not compromise or selling out – it’s just intelligent!

As well as checking out Jay's post, if you don't have it already, you'll benefit from the way we cover this and the way songs need to be crafted in a free eBook on our site here – http://www.makeitinmusic.com/free-ebook.

So, Jay's post:

2010 has finally wrapped up, which means it’s time to analyze the common threads of the biggest hits of the year. At the mid-year point, I looked at the Top 50. This time, I extended the analysis to the Top 100. Collectively, these 100 songs accounted for 187 million downloads and well over $200 million in revenue. These 100 titles also account for approximately 36% of all new music track sales. This means over one in three new music downloads come from these songs. Many elements that have been brewing for the last few years that are detailed in Futurehit.DNA really started to show their ability to bring success this year. Here are some of the shared traits:

Read his post and data here.

 

Songwriting - a major contrast between verse and chorus hooks people in

I give some advice on songwriting on the main blog, but I mostly get other people to write that stuff for me.

My experience helps me pick a great song and I know some of the things that I am looking for - as we talk about in the '10 Key steps...' eBook - but I am NOT talented, technical or musical myself.

So, this article loses me after the first paragraph - but the first paragraph I understand very well and agree with.

If you're a writer and musician, hopefully you understand the stuff about keys and 'Aeolian mode' - I know what a key is, but that other thing???

The article references the idea to the current Bruno Mars hit - so you know massive hits obey the rule.

Contrast is one of the most important elements of successful songs. You want to contrast one section (a verse, for example) with another (the chorus) enough so that they're distinctive, but don't differ so much that they sound like they come from different songs. Without enough contrast, songs tend to sound long and boring, with chords, melody and lyrics coming across like a long run-on sentence. So how do you create enough, but not too much, contrast?

Read the whole post here.

 

 

Handstamp with your landing page + gig = offline to online traffic

This is so simple and so good.

Great post from a great site - have a dig a round - and I know that this little strategy will work to get fans checking out your site the next day.

The key thing is to have the stamp have a specific URL - where they will get specific rewards - mp3's or live recordings - whatever you tell them. Remind them from the stage and this is a winner.

Can't believe that I hadn't seen it before! Check our post on how to get a gig if you're struggling at that stage - then do this when you do.

Read the post here.