Three part series that is a very good dissection of what you need to do to find success as a musician in the web 2.0 world.
It's viewpoint is pretty much perfectly in line with ours - that you need to focus on having great songs and build an online fanbase that you may then parlay into a record deal or not, depending on your choice.
Read them here :
Part 1 - Getting your music ready.
It was very revealing.
Jay is a respected authority on what makes a song a hit in the post filesharing, online music dicovery world. This is all revealed in his excellent book - Future Hit DNA.
I encourage you to go and check out Jay's site and if you're serious about writing hits, try and see him speak or buy the book.
Here's a few nuggets from last night. Apologies to Jay if I miss the detail!:
Topspin and Nimbit on the same panel at NARM talking about their platforms and giving great data insight and tips on how to maximise the direct to fan model.
All kinds of fascinating stuff - such as the fact that the greatest driver of sales is a Facebook share - still thinking about your Facebook page as an 'extra'? It's an esential!
Well worth watching!
I don't agree with it!
Well, I do and I don't.
Read the whole piece and the comments (particulalry that of 'Mitch' towards the bottom).
I won't try to paraphrase what the article is about other than to say that it argues that the demise of the old school industry and the need for musicians to become the archetypal 'DIY musician' will mean the end of opportunity for many would be artists. This is explained at length.
Whilst I agree that there are now obstacles for all aspiring musicians to overcome, I simply don't agree that the evaporation of the record itself (and the record deal) as a primary source of income for bands is the end of a financial springboard (or safety net) for those seeking to live out a career as working musicians - whether they pursue global fame or self-financing niche notoriety.
Sure, it is in some senses a shame that the musician now has to fund the beginnings of their own career (financially and through learning non-musical skills). but that's the way the world is now and pining for an old system will do no-one any good.
The flipside for me is that if you want to build a career, now there are more opportunities than ever to seek out a fanbase and build on it - whilst earning a living. My own experience tells me that if your material is good you can make a living quicker and more reliably outside of the old system.
Maybe it's beyond your ability to earn a living by being a DIY musician because no-one really thinks you're music is worth supporting?
If that's the case, don't moan about the system - get back to your craft and make some better music! Come back and try again.
Someone's got to bring this up, because it's not a pretty picture. Consider, first, direct-to-fan marketing and social networking, said to involve fans so that they're more inclined to attend shows, invest in ‘product', and help market it. In practise this is a time-consuming affair that reaps rewards for only the few. Even the simple act of posting updates on Facebook, tweeting and whatever else is hip this week requires time, effort and imagination, and while any sales margins subsequently provoked might initially seem higher, the ratio of exertion to remuneration remains low for most. It's also an illusion that such sales cut out the middlemen, thereby increasing income, except at the very lowest rung of the ladder: the moment that sales start to pick up, middlemen start to encroach upon the artist's territory, if in new disguises. People are needed to provide the structure through which such activities can function, and few will work for free – and nor should they – even though musicians are now expected to.
So, I was glad to see this review on the Entertainment Retailer's blog which explains the event, but also has one cracking idea that I think bands could use at gigs anytime, anywhere.
But then something happens. People start turning up. In droves. The next minute Jarvis Cocker is DJing on the Rough Trade stall. Oh, look, there’s Steve Lamacq. And Bernard Butler. And lots and lots of people.
Mute have lifted Record Store Day’s “indie cupcake” idea, but they’ve gone one better. Each cake has a little flag in it with a “QR” code. Just snap it with the camera and you get a free download.
Being Mute, these are not just cupcakes, these are conceptual cupcakes, a statement on the value of music in the digital age: Cupcakes £1.50, Music free, reads the sign.
There’s a palpable enthusiasm in the air.
The sun is shining. It is like a school fete. But the coolest one you’ve ever been to.
And, you can see what the idea is - QR codes on cupcakes. You buy the cake and eat it but the QR code gives you a free download. You could tie this up with pretty much anything. I love the idea of selling cakes (or other suitable food at your gig) rather than the music itself, but leaving your fans safe in the knowledge that they can download the music as well.
You could link the QR code to a page on your site where the buyers have to give their email address to get the download, thereby adding everyone to a 'buyers list' - that being the most responsive list of fans that you have.
In the UK, this company can make you QR cupcakes - Google will find you someone to do the same wherever you live.
But, if not cakes, how about selling artwork with a QR code and linking it to a download. Look at this piece to see how much QR codes can be tarted up - they don't have to be Black and White.
And, in fact, Mute's cakes didn't have the code on the cake but in a little flag. How about making full-size flags with QR codes. I remember a few years ago as Kasabian were breaking in the UK, every festival you went to had hordes of Kasabian flags. People notice flags!
QR codes - I'm really getting into these. You should too.
It claims to look at your last 199 tweets and then schedule your tweets at the times that they are most likely to be read, Retweeted or replied to.
My client noticed greater activity - I'll let you know if I do too!
We wrote about a piece in the Independent about Adele the other day.
Bob Lefsetz has followed up on the piece and his comments are far more eloquently put than mine!
This is SO right it should be distributed to every wannabe musician to shed light on the proper direction to take in a career.
It’s about music. And credibility. And Adele has both.
The public believes her music is real and believes she’s all about the music. That’s another one of America’s downfalls, executives wanting bigger paychecks convincing vulnerable musicians that they’ve got to play with the Fortune 500 and Clear Channel to get ahead.
Hogwash.
People want to believe. That’s what blew up music forty years ago, that’s what’s been lost in the MTV/CD era. People no longer believe the artists are all about pursuing their craft, getting it right. People can’t identify with artists the same way they can’t identify with Lloyd Blankfein and the rest of the Wall Street titans. Come on, read that Mariah Carey tripe. Is this YOU?
It's not earth-shattering stuff, but it does cover some basics very well - and you might well not have thought about them before.
Such as, make sure you have all your rights in order so that your tracks can be licensed quickly and easily, and make sure that you have instrumental versions at the ready.
To be fair, the guide is about 'getting your music ready for licensing', not about how to snag that $50,000 ad synch!
The Who - work out who you are!
The What - what are you putting out there to tell people about you?
The Where - where are you playing and promoting?
The Why - give people a reason to come or buy!
Lots of great nuggets of advice in there - check them out.
Don't lock people out completely from listening to your music by forcing them to 'Like' before they can hear something!
Read their advice and think about it!
Mashable have a recent piece on creative ways that people have come up with to create resume's when job hunting.
But, you can use these same tactics for various parts of your music promotion.
How about creating a video that you have on your press kit page of your website where you or you and your band answer some typical questions that a blogger might want to know the answers to.
Or how about creating a QR code that takes people to that press kit page or your music store page (or wherever seems like a good idea) and get it out to your fans - on a poster at gigs, on a badge, sprayed on to your merch table etc.
These people have come up with some very creative ideas for their resume's - look at them and apply them to your needs!
Just to be contrary, I had to post this article about Adele from today's Indie newspaper.
It tells us that she doesn't Tweet, won't play festivals and doesn't do brand tie-ins or advertising hook-ups.
Pretty much three cornerstones of what I and those like me who peddle advice for the aspiring musician would all be telling you to do.
So how come it works for her and yet we tell you to do it differently?
Well, the truth is that she got IMPORTANT THING NUMBER 1 right ages ago, and this allows you to ignore everyone and strike out for all your goals secure in the kowledge that you'll get there in the end.
SHE IS HUGELY TALENTED and she has some GREAT SONGS.
I don't care whether you agree with me or not. If you don't agree, you're deluding yourself and will carry on deluding yourself when you should be taking stock and perfecting your art!
And, don't forget that this is not overnight sucess - this is 'Album 2' and nearly 5 years after she left a performing arts school and thre years since her first Album.
Where does that leave all the advice that we 'musician bloggers' hand out?
Well, it all still works - and Adele would still be where she is if she followed those suggestions. But, don't mistake my advice for a 'magic bullet'. It will give you the best chance of building a fanbase and getting noticed by the wider public if used properly and if you put in a lot of hard work.
But it won't work for shit if your music's shit!
I am a fan of Bandcamp - but not as much as Mark Dowdell who wrote this guest post over at Tight Mix.
It's a great summing up of why any musician would be wise to check out Bandcamp for selling their music - and he looks at it from the point of view of both the listener and the musican - the service that Bandcamp offers is great for the consumer just as much as the seller.
Would I use Bandcamp as my only 'direct to fan' sales channel? No, I wouldn't.
In fact, I might if I couldn't afford any other route as it's free at the point of use and charges a 15% share of any sales income.
Why wouldn't I use it as a sole sales presence if I had the financial choice? Well, it's not as flexible as building your own store and offering bundles and packages of tracks, merch, different formats - the model that Topspin is pioneering.
That said, it is a cracking way to sell digital tracks direct to fan and I would always have a Bandcamp site, even if I had my own store at my band site selling tracks as well.
We wrote about how music writers, bloggers and sync agents are trawling Bandcamp looking for gems (as they did with MySpace back in the day) and obviously you need to be there to take advantage of that possibility. Plus, there are music fans who now prefer to buy at Bandcamp - so let them.
Simple 'How To' post on getting your music on iTunes.
Back in the day, it used to be every musician’s dream to see his CD on the racks of the local record store (raise your hand if you’ve ever sold your own disc to a shop in order to see it in the “Used” bin). Now iTunes is the place to be when it comes to hocking music.
If we’re talking about the paid digital download market, iTunes easily outpaces its competitors. And while Amazon just dropped its download prices and launched a cloud-based locker, iTunes still reigns supreme for now. That’s why we’ve taken a look at how to get your music up there as easily as possible — and it’s pretty damn easy.
Image by Karola Reigler Photography
Check out this long post about the continued resurgence of vinyl and what it means, both culturally and for you as a mucsician.
It's a great piece that links out to various other articles to look at the whole picture of what is currently happening with vinyl sales - the truth being that they are on the increase but are a tiny fraction of music sales overall.
Cutting a vinyl record today is about making a physical artefact of a release. It carries with it prestige. Its scarcity is part of its value, with exclusive 12″ releases again returning to the days when DJs were judged by the obscure gems in their collection, not the disposable digital hits.
But, for the DIY musician, this format is something special. When you have a fanbase that can support the cost (somewhere between 2500 and 5000 people on your email list - actively interested in your music) there will be a core number amongst them who adore the idea of a physical 7" or 12". I see it all the time with my clients where we get a steady stream of email asking for various records on vinyl. OK, sure, it's genre dependent to a degree (all those trip-hoppers and electronic fans love vinyl more than some other niche fans) but, for all artists, the market is there.
Learn about vinyl - it's tactility, warmth, superior sound, heritage etc - and when the time is right, make a big deal about offering it to your fans.
But, if you read the story it gives insight into how people trust what they read on Twitter and how Retweets and "quotes" from other users can add instant authority to your Twitter stream and profile - and therefore, to your music.
Or maybe it's just time to set up a hoax!
For the right way to use Twitter as a musician - go here.
Clearly, so does Rick at Musician Coaching.
The difference between me and Rick is that he has posted a great informative answer to that question!
Recording a cover song can be a great marketing tool—providing artistic interpretation on a song that your audience may already be familiar with. A cover can also bring notoriety to your art from people who were previously unfamiliar with your work. However there are legal implications to covering a song even if you are giving it away for free.
Image by j_lai
Great guest post on Thorny Bleeder from Jeff Odeja that takes the form of 5 things that Jeff wishhes he had known when he was in a band trying to 'make it'!
1 ) How can I get signed?
Well, How many people are coming out to your live shows on a regular basis? How many 'records' or singles are you selling? Is this generating enough of a buzz to interest industry professionals? How about generating an income? In most cases, to be honest, no one wants to sign you unless you're really worth their while. Are your sales going to amount to paying for some of the marketing costs / salaries associated with hiring a team? Having a label behind you is essentially just having a big team of experienced professionals (in some cases) working your music for you. If you're not making tens of thousands of dollars, why bother?
What a great way to get your name and material spread across the net!
It's a simple idea - and I won't spoil it. Just go and read about it on the link.
Maybe you can get involved or maybe you can see the potential in coming up with a plan like this.
His latest post groups together 25 articles breaking down the basics of music marketing.
He says:
'As an emerging musician, marketing your music and yourself can be an overwhelming though. Even an uncomfortable one at times. Some musicians are naturally business-savvy and are lucky enough to truly understand how branding and marketing can help create a sustainable career in music. Unfortunately these 'lucky ones' are few and far between, with most musicians having a far more difficult time the fact that their ability to establish a fan base and create a sustainable career is dependent on the their business and marketing skills on top of their musicianship and performance.
So, I've put together my first course all focused on helping you to better grasp the idea of marketing and how it can help you with career advancement, if executed properly.'
I love this post at Independent Rockstar - a collection of videos on the subject of inspiration.
One of them, a particularly brilliant compilation of clips that spells out Will Smith's motivation, we'd featured on the main site a while ago - read that post here.
My favourite in this blog post comes from inspirational speaker Les Brown. Watch this one if you don't watch any of the others (although I'd watch them all!) - it's a masterful lesson in not giving up and being ready when you're chance appears.
Go and watch all the videos here.
A slew of musicians tell us what song changed their life and why.
We all have these moments in our life and can't turn back once the lightning strikes.
Can it be as simple as Adam from Hurts says - that hearing an album blew his mind so much that he had to become a musician?
Adam Anderson of Hurts
"Paranoid Android" or "Exit Music (for a Film)" by Radiohead
I had zero interest in even listening to music until I bought OK Computer. My family had no musical heritage... I wasn't brought up with music around me in the slightest. I honestly only bought this album to begin with because I loved the artwork; I knew nothing about the band. I was so swept away by the music, just transported away instantly... so much so that within a few days I was always going to be a musician. It was probably one of these two songs that captured me the most.
Great piece from the Independent. Read them all here.
After the previous post that suggests that you need to pander to a standard view, this is the antidote - and proof that the opposing view (a resolute and steadfast belief in yourself and your material) can winn through - big time.
It doesn't matter that this story is about Sade and whether you like her material or not, nor that it's about the old industry - there are things to be learnt here.
What they needed was some DIY thinking. Sade's boyfriend played the tracks to friends who worked at style-bible the Face. They liked both Sade and the music and put her on the cover with the headline: "Sade, the Face of 1984." The band quickly organised a gig at the club Heaven, inviting journalists who witnessed 1,000 people being turned away at the door. The next day all the record companies tried to sign them. Most of the labels wanted to send her to the US to work with big producers such as Quincy Jones. But Sade had a clear vision of what she wanted to do – so instead of the biggest offer, she took the deal that allowed her to finish what she started.
Image by basheertome
This is a great post that covers some of the same ground as our free eBook for musicians - which you should get if you haven't already!
All I'll add is that the advice in this post and in our eBook isn't intended to make anyone give up, but it should be taken to heart. You need to be able to analyse what is and isn't working with your music or band and make the changes that are stopping you moving forward.
I have had the privilege of sitting as a judge on the largest annual Band Competition in Finland. It has 200 bands attending every year, and I’ve been part of the judging panel since 2005. The competition is aimed at unsigned bands, and is open to anyone. The entrants are picked in the order of entry submissions, so the bands are not required to have previous gigging experience. Some of the bands are playing their first ever gigs, while others have been playing youth clubs for years. Needless to say a bit of experience goes a long way. Year after year, I’ve witnessed the same problems that the bands make in the beginning of their journey. Here is my top list:
But, it's more than that because the tips delve into what your press kit is saying about you, your music and your band - and gives insight into what the 'players' receiving it are going to think about you.
For example, anyone in the industry will read a lot into what you've listed as your tour dates (see the piece), but that doesn't mean that you need to make it up. What you need to do is have a touring plan that builds you an audience and sees you covering some geographical area worthy of note. Do it, then you can put it in your press kit and impress those you need on your side.
Read the post with that idea of applying the tips to your band first so that you can then write about them - it's like a microcosm of what you need to do to get noticed by the established industry. Even if you are 100% DIY, and may never need a press kit as such, these tips will help you build a more effective presence and fanbase.
And for a more trad view on what should go in there (for pushing the boat out and appealing to the 'established industry') - try this article.
My take - most bands don't need a press kit most of the time! You will want somehing to send to venues and promoters to get gigs (but a link can often do this), and for everything else, as a DIY musician, your site should be able to do all the talking. I'd only ever send one to someone you've already connected with, and I'd tailor it as in point 1 of the main article - which is great advice.
But, the alternative take is that you never know where one might land and what chance that might create and so liberally sending them out has it's proponents too!
Common sense maybe - but you still need to be reminded.
Most artists and bands now use Twitter to promote their music and connect with their fans. But like with all promotional tools, there are certain things you should avoid doing. I’ve searched through literally thousands of artist accounts on Twitter and noticed some alarming trends. Here’s a quick Top 5 things that could cause you to lose your fans on Twitter:
Of course, when you have a day to spare, you can read our definitive guide to Twitter music marketing.
This article in the Guardian talks to a few professional songwriters about their jobs. It's not got tips as such, but sheds light on how pop songs are written by these experts.
Collaboration is a great way to force your skills forward quickly. You'll be lucky to find a way to write with one of these professionals if you're outside of the old school label system (although it is not impossible). But, the idea of writing a song in an afternoon with a collaborator or spending a weekend building a rapport with a co-writer from which songs can come, are both things that you can try.
Maybe that's just how professional songwriters tend to be: whatever other attributes the job may require, a giant ego and a sense of preciousness aren't really among them. This may be why songwriting tends to attract so many former performers, who have either tired of the limelight or watched it fade, and are now making some pragmatic decisions about their futures. Among the more improbable credits on recent hits were the three songs on Beyoncé's last album co-written by Ian Dench, formerly the guitarist of 1990s British indie dance band EMF (big hit: Unbelievable); then there's She-Wolf by Shakira, partly the work of Sam Endicott, moonlighting from his day job as frontman of New York-based the Bravery.
Click here for our main site's section on Songwriting tips.
Read the DIY Musician piece on this here.
I was quite amazed by how many of the Top 100 are not this week's hits, but are songs that have been out a while. Not sure what it means as we have no idea what YouTube is measuring, but it's not what I'd expected.
So, why is it a goldmine?
Well, this is YouTube telling you what are the most popular songs so that you can do a response video or a cover video - or use that information for some other purpose that you can come up with.
I can't find an RSS feed for that page, but I have feeds in my reader for the following for the same reason:
Most Viewed Today
Most Viewed Week
Most Viewed Month
Top Favourites Today
Top Rated Today
Recently Featured
You can find how to get these feeds here - http://www.youtube.com/t/rss_feeds
A lot of the videos in these aren't music, so the new chart is a bonus.
I'd recommend all aspiring musicians look at these videos and charts regularly to see what songs are getting views globally and perhaps to make some videos that will get views off the back of their popularity.
But - beware the covers game. I'm a fan, but this Hypebot article illustrates the danger.
It's from the start of the year and isn't really about one thing but it sums up the state of being a musician in a web 2.0 world really well and covers some of the things that are essential - YouTube, mobile, live shows.
I want a bass player who can fix the van. I want a keyboard player who can screenprint some shirts. I want a drummer who can shoot some video, throw it into iMovie, and put a YouTube thing together—second largest search engine now—and fuckin’ sell some more tickets. I want a lead singer who can shag the world.” – Martin Atkins
That's just one little bit. It's all really good stuff!
I recommend that you read the whole thing here.
In preparation, I'm reading his latest book with the ever so eloquent title, 'Welcome to the Music Business - you're Fucked!'.
It's a good read and I'll be going over some of the points with Martin in the interview.
For now, I wanted to draw out one thing that he says, as I found it to be so true from my own experience.
'All anyone that is going to help you will do is use the building blocks that you have created yourself, and try to build something with them. If you don't have any building blocks, there is a limit to what anyone can do to help you.
Take that on board.
I have managed artists and songwriter/producers for years and the thing that is at the root of their success (or failure) every time is their work ethic. I can't make something happen if I have no songs to play people, records to promote and market, live shows to bring people to. I can drive a lot of it, but you, the talent, need to buckle and down and do some work.
And, these days, when you're unsigned, that includes all the DIY musician marketing, as well as the actual business of writing, recording and performing.
Don't wait for someone else (a manager or label or whatever) to come along and lift you to success - get as much done as you can yourself and these people will come looking for you.
Check out 'Welcome to the Music Business - you're Fucked!' here.
And Martin's previous book, 'Tour Smart and Break the Band', is an absolute essential for all musicians. Just see what the reviews on Amazon say!
The piece looks at one band's decision to use Kickstarter to raise the money to make their first album but it also has input from the studio where they were going to record - which adds a different perspective.
What I like about it is that it goes into detail about how the band came to decide on fan funding, and what they did wrong!
In retrospect, we should have anticipated these sorts of questions. We also should have prepared a short video presentation for the Kickstarter page. Seeing a short pitch with real human beings in it makes the project seem more personal; all we had was a relatively formal, but excruciatingly vague description of what we were trying to do. Sure it made sense for our fans who had seen us live, but it didn’t introduce our band to strangers stumbling across the Kickstarter page. All we had was a photo of us on stage performing, and since we were all very unhappy with the quality of our demo recording, we didn’t even have an example of what we sounded like.
He lists the people he thinks are the 10 most powerful right now in Music - and tells us why. He also looks at those that aren't as powerful as you'd think.
His conclusion is that talent and 'direct to fan' is the answer - oh, how odd, that's what we're teaching!
The future is in the hands of the public. Who will follow the leads of individuals utilizing tech tools to build infrastructure. I’d love to tell you exactly where we’re going, but I don’t know. But one thing I’m sure of is the future will not look like the past. Those in the past have blown it by insisting the public stay in the past. The public loves digital files, wants tons of them, for nowhere near a buck a track, yet the labels still cling to an old model. The future is a new model. Based on access. Monetizing in ways heretofore unseen. It’s about marrying Richard Russell’s acts with Topspin exploitation. All the while charging the public to hear everything at their fingertips. We’ll get there. And most of the people who were powerful before Napster will be ancient history. Some of those who are powerful today will be history. But those who make the music will survive. If they’ve put in their 10,000 hours, if what they create resonates with the public. You don’t have to make what everyone else does. But when you get it right, you need a Coran Capshaw or an insightful twentysomething to navigate a career where you make every decision thinking about your audience, not your wallet. There’s plenty of money..if your music is great and you’re credible and you know that the old institutions, radio and television and labels, mean less than ever before.
With your own site as your online hub, you should be posting information about you, your music and how it is part of your everyday life - all of which will enagage your fans.
You might also decide to start a blog on your niche, or your local music scene or some other topic that will help support your efforts as a musician. Being the person who writes the best blog on music / entertainment / going out in your town will quickly make you a key player in your local scene, which in turn will advance your music career. As will building a blog on our genre of music to attract global fans.
I'm not saying that you have to build blogs as well as your own site, but it is a good strategy.
And, even if it's just your site for your music, unless you're a techy, you'll need some solid advice.
I did when I started Make It In Music.
And I turned to Darren Rowse - the owner of ProBlogger - one of the authority sites on how to be a blogger.
Before I launched our site I read his book cover to cover and it helped me a great deal!
Today, he is launching a new book, at a 50% discount for this week.
It's called ProBlogger's Guide to Your First Week of Blogging and if you haven't built a site or if you have, but you're not blogging, it will help you a massive amount and give you the kick start you need to make a difference.
The book I read was his 31 Days to Build A Better Blog, which I wholeheartedly recommend, but as it's on offer and is for beginners, start with his new one first.
@ConcertIn pointed me to his post on MusicThinkTank in which he sets out his thinking on best practice for your use of a Facebook Fan Page to promote your music. It was written before the latest round of changes at Facebook, so it talks about FBML tabs (but the functionality of these is now bettered by iFrame tabs) and refers to the old layout.
But, I agree with the main thrust of his approach, which is to keep things simple and have one set of information on each tab. That makes a lot of sense, but he goes on to argue that having a dedicated music tab using one of the apps that we referred to in yesterday's post messes that up and confuses fans. That last point I don't agree with.
By all means split up your content onto easily navigable tabs and set a gated iFrame page as your default landing page for new fans, but having a music page powered by RootMusic (or one of the others) is, for me, an add-on and I trust fans to know that it's not their only option.
I'm writing lots of stuff about Fan Pages at the moment for a series of posts and cover much of this ground. In particular we'll be looking at music pages and the three stages of iFrame landing pages.
Here is what Jan says in his post:
The Page and the tab are two different things
Please note that the page, or the Facebook Page if you like, is the entire web page. The tab is a part of the page, every page usually has a few tabs. There are native Facebook tabs like Wall, Info, Photos, and then the administrator can also add a custom application tab like our own tab Concerts. Musicians often add different, so called, “band pages”. In most cases these tabs, despite being called “pages”, bring the MySpace touch and feel into Facebook. For fans this is a frustrating experience. There is simply too much content which is not presented in a user-friendly way.RootMusic added some new features to their BandPage app last week.
See the video below.
We are just working on a post that looks at all the options for this kind of 'Music Page' for your Facebook profile but this is seen by many as the market leader.
Certainly, it works very well as a page on which to host your music, video, images and more and the latest upgrade promises clever 'gating' options - that being where a fan has to 'Like' your page or give up their email to get some kind of freebie - generally tracks.
But, in this post on Hypebot it seems that some users think that some of the functionality is a little convoluted - mainly because to make the tracks downloadable after gating you will need to make them publicly available on SoundCloud and because of the Facebook permission pop-ups that are displayed when people offer their email address.
Read the comments here to see what users think.
Some of these may be legitimate concerns, but it is still a very slick offering and one that I'd urge every band to consider. I'd also look at ReverbNation's Band Profile and DamntheRadio.
Here's the list of the update's features from the BandPage blog.
Lite Customization Options – We thought your BandPage could use some spice, so we’ve added a banner option as well as limited colorization features to our free package.
Mailing Lists – Yup! You can start collecting email addresses straight from your BandPage and export the contacts to a CSV.
Like to Listen or Download – Want to build your fans? Easy! Use the like to listen or download feature – non fans will have to like your page to gain access to your music.
Banner Link- Simple but effective. Provide a click-through link on your banner to point to your store, webpage, or other promo materials. Don’t forget to tell your fans to click!
And for our BandPage Plus subscribers, along with the full advanced customization editor, we have added some powerful tools!
Gated Content – Content is locked until the user likes the page, joins the mailing List, or tweets. Want to do a fan only download campaign? Tweet to download? Email address to listen? You got it!
Fan Only Banner – Build a different message for non fans and fans. Create a call to action in your banner space and tell non fans to like your page for access to exclusive streams and downloads.
Banner Video – Give your fans an engaging welcome with a custom YouTube video right in the banner space. It works great for featured music videos or calls to action for the fan. Flexible and powerful – you have full control over the size and positioning!
Primarily written for business/ brand users of Twitter, all the advice is applicable to musicians.
Of course, you need to read the definitive guide on Twitter music marketing on our site as well!
We cover some of the same ground but this has good info on how to find people to follow and, in particular, how to make your tweets stand out as interesting - the answer is to treat them as headlines.
You don’t need to dedicate the time to a tweet that you would give a full blog post. But there are a few simple things you can do to make your tweets achieve a better reach among your followers.
Whenever you tweet an article, try to link it with the interests of your community.
This means that sometimes the title of the article will fit this purpose very well, sometimes it won’t. Try finding a quote in the article that particularly relates to your community’s and followers’ interests.
In that we mentioned two new innovative online music publishers.
The Guardian - being a month behind us! - have just done this feature on one of the companies - Songtrust, which is a great option for you if you live in the US.
If you're in the UK, you should check out Sentric Music - very good at what they do.
The Guardian say:
Songtrust doesn't just collect royalties for its users – it also helps them get their songs placed in television shows. TV stations such as ESPN, the Travel Channel and National Geographic don't have the budgets to license music on a song-by-song basis, and many independent artists can't get their songs used by these channels as they only do blanket licences with individual publishers. As Downtown Music has blanket licences with more than 300 production companies, Songtrust lets users take advantage of those licences, too.
It's from Hypebot and it's the Sonic Bids' boss's view of the industry as it is today.
His final five tips are pretty much exactly what we've been saying all week!
The post is about a photographer who shoots people attending gigs and is fascinated by how the fans identify themselves with the band.
It's a bit of fun worth checking out, but there's a serious point that you can draw from it. As well as being gobsmacked by some of the shots!
Seth Godin wrote about 'tribes' as groups of people bound together by a common interest and it applies perfectly to music fans. Find posts about it or the book itself with a quick Google.
As an aspiring musician you must get to know how you fit into a scene and create your own tribe. If you don't know what you're about and where you fit in, how can possible fans be expected to do so?
GaGa did this perfectly and created a named tribe of 'Little Monsters'.
As well as suggesting that you check out Godin's book, I came across this article the other day which looks at a similar theme but not from the fashion / demographic point of view.
Your fans are your bread and butter—they are the ones who are literally going to keep you in business. Most of us musicians don’t have the luxury of having a label or marketing machine behind us, but the good news is, if we’re willing to put in some effort ourselves, we don’t have to wait for that to happen. If you’re a good musician, or have a good act, there is an audience out there that wants to hear your music. You just have to identify and connect with that audience—find out who they are, and how to reach them.
Below there are links to two articles about Songkick, which you can read for fun. It's an interesting company full of people who love music and it's destined for big things.
But, as a musician, what you need to know is that Songkick is becoming the leader for live music tracking.
As an artist, you can use the data that they track to automatically update your gig listings on your site, Facebook and various other sites.
And you don't even have to create an artist profile to do so, as they scour the web for all the gig information that they can find and list it for you. If your band is so new that you don't have a profile - you can make one.
It makes the process of updating your gigs on various sites a no-brainer and I can't see anyone usurping them now.
But, what's even better is that it's evolving into a social network that encourages people to go to gigs - users go to 4 times as many gigs as the average fan. It's not a social network like Facebook, but somewhere that people can interact about their concert-going experiences and can have a list of artists that they follow to be kept informed about.
Read their info for artists here.
Like I said, you're a dumbass if you don't use it.
And here's the two articles about them:
I have just posted on the main site about a DIY musician who has used all the things we talk about here to set herself up for a successful career.
Just as I posted it, I read in a newspaper this quote from Aloe Blacc (currently having a hit everywhere with a record that his small but cool and well respected indie label posted to YouTube a year ago!) that fits perfectly with my post:
"I never wanted to set foot into a major label until I was completely prepared for the industry".
Wise words.
Sort your act and music out first. Build a fanbase, know what you are about and then, maybe, look for a deal. Although, if you did the first bit right, they'll come looking for you anyway!
Image by mandiberg
This is a business focused post but it is definitely worth reading as it has tips and opinions from loads of people on how they use Facebook and what they do to grow their fanbase there.
I could single out ideas but, really, it's worth five minutes reading to see if anything they mention strikes a chord and gives you an idea for something that you're not already doing.
Whether your Facebook page has 100 fans or 50,000 fans, a Facebook page requires ongoing attention to the type of content you post, frequency of posts, understanding about your users–what brings them to a page, what engages them to like, comment and share, and what keeps them coming back. If you’re serious about your Facebook page you cannot take a laissez -faire attitude, pages require ongoing commitment.
The one thing I will point to is Wildfire - a paid app tool that allows you to do some of the things that people in the post talk about, such as quizzes and other forms of viral promotion.
I've not used it but I will be trying it out in the near future. I do however know a band that use it to run contests and both they and their fans love it!
Image by Steve Snodgrass
After yesterday's post that wandered around the subject of a major record deal, these two links seemed the natural follow up.
This post from Music on the Make looks at what artists get wrong in their quest to get signed.
Despite all the talk of how getting signed is not going to do you many favors, most artists are still hoping to get signed. And why not, it can help you in many ways, if you are smart about it. However the effort they put into getting signed is often simply a waste of time. I still see this happening a lot. Here’s the typical blueprint:
If you’re lucky you’ll get a decline letter, but most of the time the result is a complete radio silence. All record companies receive dozens of unsolicited demos every day. The majors receive hundreds. Your hard work on that demo is going straight to the big brown box by the receptionist, who picks up the mail every day. (I’ve seen the box, it’s big!)
Instead, your time and money is much better spent on figuring out who you are, creating interesting stuff and making connections.
And it points to this article on Universal's blog written by two A&R men that gives great insight into what they are looking for.
I'd like you to read the comment by 'Pazuzu' on this Guardian post about why Nerina Pallot still wants a record deal with a major. It's the ninth comment down.
I would reproduce it in it's entirety but I don't have permission so you have to go over there to read it. The follow-ups in the later comments clarify his thoughts.
I'm not that interested in the article itself.
I met Nerina a few times many years ago when she played keys in a band called, if I recall, 'Thumb'. Very nice she was too and clearly talented and if she feels the need for a major deal on the basis of what she says in the article, then it's a perfectly acceptable choice.
But, it's what Pazuzu says that works for me.
When I started our main blog, I thought that to 'make it in music' was to become a lauded, respected, volume-selling mainstream success. That's where the bulk of my experience was at the time and it's what I thought all artists wanted.
As I have written more and become more involved in 'direct to fan' I realise that there are a myriad ways for musicians to 'make it' - be that playing the music you love regardless of whether you find an audience, doing it yourself but looking for a fanbase that can financially sustain your lifestyle (whether that is modest or fantastical), or indeed the pursuit of global GaGa fame, plus a whole other load of perfectly sensible models to fit individual desires and definitions of success.
I then realised that whatever it is you hope to achieve, you should always focus on your art and the skills you have so that the expression of your art can be as complete as you are then able to make it. Practice, effort, improvement and humility will all make that art better.
And, as you improve, everything that we teach and point readers to, should help in the promotion of that art in the most effective way that the music industry and the wider modern world allows. Whether you choose to promote or not is up to you.
But, if you do, the tools and our knowledge will help.
In his comment, Pazuzu says:
I can't figure out if you want to make music or make sales. In these times, people seem to confuse the two, as though commercial success is any marker of artistic worth. If people want to be artists of any kind they should be prepared to toil in obscurity. It's one of those unpleasant truths life throws at us. All of us have seen tear-inducingly talented people performing in obscurity and going nowhere commercially, while mediocrity is lavished at every turn with riches, privilege, and praise. And yet artists flock to major record labels to seek validation through commerce. No artist should ever feel entitled to make a living, much less a fortune, from their art. That is a courtier's mentality. If they do happen to "make it," good for them, but let's not confuse the two distinct and incommensurable things that are artistic worth and commercial value.
I do actually believe that the DIY musicians who use the direct to fan model can now build a career that is financially sustainable and might then go on to global success (which might or might not involve a deal with a major label). But I also believe that talent and persistent pursuit of artistic improvement is the starting point for those DIY musicians.
So, although I love his view of what it is to be an artist, I think we are in a golden age for music where the 'tear-inducingly talented' will only fail to find success (at some level) if they don't use the tools at their disposal, or if they choose not to.
Don't give up on the major label deal if it's what you desire, but don't see it as the be all and end all. Make yourself great and work to build a fanbase using what the 'DIY musician' industry that is beginning to appear wants to teach you. Where that might take you, who knows, but it's better than blindly hoping that you might be good enough for 30 seconds of fame from a copycat produced bit of generic pop bollocks.
Fact!
I have only read the first two chapters, but it looks great.
I like the way that it takes quotes from successful musicians for each of its 10 points and then expands on them in detail.
Nothing better than learning from people who can walk the walk!
It looks like a book that all aspiring musicians should find the time to read.
I'll be finishing it off tonight!
We should all be making sure that our websites work and are easy to read on Smartphones, but we shouldn't ignore the simplicity of text messaging for marketing.
I'm no expert in this, although we have used it in the past with bands that I've managed on major labels. It used to be out of reach for DIY musicians!
Some apps that bands use (like Mobile Roadie) are similar (to texting) in that they send 'push mesages'.
But, this piece by Jon Oszajca on text message marketing using a new service called Call Loop is worth a read.
Perhaps the most significant factor with text messaging is that the open rate of each message is nearly 100%. After all, who doesn’t click the tab on their phone when a message comes in.
Email on the other hand is another story. Open rates tend to average between 10% – 40%. That’s a significant portion of our hard won leads who are not even bothering to read our emails.
Another great thing about text messaging is that it’s a great way to alert people instantly about real time events such as live shows, album releases and special promotions. Furthermore, it’s a relatively new medium which offers a lot of opportunities for those of us who get involved now.
Great open rates and being at the forefont of new methods is always a good idea in marketing!
Call Loop integrates with the autoresponder that we recommend - Aweber.
Check them both out.
Ariel Hyatt posted these two short videos on the basics of how musicians should use Twitter and although I have posted the first one before, it makes sense to have the two together!
Here's part 1:
And here's part 2:
Of course, once you've got the basics you should regularly dip into our masterclass series on Twitter for Musicians.
According to a company representative, the new music page will be "used to engage with anyone within the music community (musicians, fans, others in the industry) and also includes some best practices for how musicians can maximize their Facebook presences."
The info tab on the music page boasts the following features:Read the Billboard piece here.
The good news is that this must mean that Facebook is taking on the challenge of making Facebook the Social Media focus for musicians. With MySpace withering (and not really a Social Network anyway - although we suggest you keep an EPK like page there), Facebook has the landscape all to itself and ought to help us all out!
Check out the Facebook Music page here.
The page has some useful direct links for setting up your new Music Fan Page and also has a page of tips under the 'For Musicians' tab. Plus, it looks like they're going to group articles of advice together under the 'Articles' tab.
Check it out, 'Like' it and bookmark it and keep an eye on what Facebook are advising you should do to promote your music on their site.
Of course, check our ever expanding section on Facebook for Musicians too!
The point of the first article is that greatness is within your grasp if you can be bothered to work hard enough.
I'm sure many people who read this post will have heard about Malcolm Gladwell's theory of '10,000' hours that he sets out in his book 'Outliers'. If not, get to Amazon and buy a copy since it's a phenomenal book that will inspire.
In short, the argument, backed up by lots of evidence, is that experts, geniuses, superstars are all made and not born, and it's the effort, application and practice that makes them so - and generally to get to the standard that marks you out as different, takes 10,000 hours.
Just because you have a hard life, just because you’re willing to forgo the spoils of the middle class, that does not mean you’re good.
You’re only good if you work at your craft. And that does not mean learning how to play "Stairway To Heaven"…that’s just the beginning. How do you get to the point where you know all the notes, have practiced the scales and can come up with something innovative and new that will make our heads turn?
By spending a lot of time picking.
Your move.
Read that piece from Bob here.
And the old NYT piece that sets out the theory that Gladwell developed is here.
But, go on from there and read Bob's piece about why making singles rather than Albums is the way to develop and then get your self noticed.
It follows on from the need for practice.
It's called 'focus'!
And by making singles and trying to make them amazing you'll also be putting in the hours.
Bob makes other points about why the Single is better than the Album in the modern music business - all of which are valid.
Concentrate on making music. Focus on making the best music you can. And release it when it’s ready, don’t hold it back as a result of some sales scheme. Once again, that’s major label thinking for dead bands. That’s how they sell the Stones or the Beatles or… All that hype about the "Exile On Main Street" anniversary set… Have you heard anybody talk about it recently? It’s set in amber. Whereas the music of a working band must be in the ears of listeners on a regular basis.
In short - practice forever, become great at what you do, learn to innovate and then make great music regularly and feed it to the world to build a long term rabid fanbase.
Simple, but not easy!
