Texting your fans - good or not?

I am not a massive fan of texting your fans.

My objection is that it is VERY intrusive and can very easily lead to them getting pissed off with you.

Perversely, we've been doing some work on mobile apps and it seems that sending a 'push notification' through an app is way more acceptable to the average fan than a text.

That said, this video from Ariel Hyatt makes a great point that SOME fans will be very grateful to be reminded of gigs by text when an email or Facebook event wouldn't have reached them.

So, maybe it's something to consider for your superfans that you know won't get the hump.

What's your view?

Here's the video:

 

A guide to recording

Lovely people at Discmakers helping us all out with a free eBook guide to creating professional recordings at home.

You know we think this is important (see this post on professional recording for why)

Get their guide here.

You can do it

This is just a quote from @Lefsetz's mail newsletter that he sent out yesterday.

I quote it as he always posts it on his blog a few days after the newsletter goes out and I didn't want to wait!

He's talking about Mark Cuban, the US entrepeneur and how it made him realise how he, Bob Lefsetz, had managed to reach an audience. These short paragraphs really hit home, especially the final one:

Are you willing to put in the hard work to get there?

Hell, I'll be honest, I was stunned Mark Cuban knew who I was, never mind wanted a meeting with me. To shoot the shit no less, with no agenda, because he thought it would be fun... I'm just a guy sitting in front of a computer screen in my underwear, how did this happen?

Hard work and a paradigm shift. When I was printing my newsletter and sending it via snail mail, my audience was limited. But the Internet opened the world to me, and if I can just write something special enough, it's astounding who I can reach.

There are no limits online. Everybody's got an e-mail address. Yes, doors are closed, but you have the key in your pocket, you can open them. And it doesn't happen by knocking. It happens by creating.

It's true.

If you create something great and learn how to spread the word online, the modern world and all this connectivity is THE greatest opportunity musicians have ever had to be heard.

You can do it.

 

Social Media Tips for Musicians

Another long video from the IMS summit in Ibiza earlier this year.

The people on the panel are genuine experts and I do really recommend that you take some time and watch the whole thing.

BUT, for me the best stuff is from Randy Reed who manages an act called Pretty Lights that you may or may not have heard of. The facts about Pretty Lights are that he has given away (yes, for free) 1.5 million album downloads and as a consequence he sells more albums on iTunes et al and has a career that makes him a very good living from those digital sales plus touring and merchandise.

For me, he is the total answer that freemium (when applied to good quality music) clearly does work. If it's not working for you, my usual hunch is that your music isn't good enough! Therefore what his manager has to say about how to reach fans wuth Social Media is worth hearing, don't you think?

Randy comes on the video at 11.41 and then in a couple of other places, but, like I say, you ought to watch it all!

Here's the video:

 

Refined Facebook Ads target potential fans

You might well already have seen this new tool rolled out by Reverb Nation which allows you to use their Facebook Ad engine to promote a song to the fans on Facebook of artists who are similar in style and direct them to a dedicated landing page where the fan trades an email address for the download.

If you look at the testimonials at the very foot of their blog piece, it looks like they are acheiving about $0.30 per fan email address. That is impressive.

If we manage anything like that for a Facebook 'like' we think we're doing well when running Facebook Ad campaigns, but I value a fan's email address far higher. Maybe they aren't acheiving this every time, but with campaigns starting at $25 we will definitely be trying it out.

It looks like the engine constantly refines the ads in order to get these kind of click though rates as well - something that is a real pain (but absolutely necessary) when you're admin'ing the campaign yourself.

Here's the blog piece and the video:

 

Promoting Your Music on Facebook from ReverbNation on Vimeo.

A magazine for the DIY musician

I've been away again! Sorry for the lack of posts.

Whilst I was away I was contacted by the guys behind EyeSeeSound, which is a monthly web based magazine that offers a slightly different take on the music focused blog. I love their approach - I agree with them that having a monthly release and a magazine format on the web makes you delve deeper into their musings every month,

I've highlighted it here for 2 reasons. One is that they are obviously very open to approaches from DIY musicians as their remit is to focus on the DIY scene, but also, think about how their approach could be used to promote you and your music. I know we are always saying that you ought to have a regularly updated website, but perhaps you can step outside the box and offer something that has this monthly (or quarterly) approach - either as your sole offering on the web or as a paid extra for the more committed fan - like a fan club. And the web magazine format would work great for that.

This is what they say about their site-a-zine in their on words.

Focussing on independent and DIY bands and artists the magazine, Heads Up, offers an opportunity for music and culture lovers to discover new bands, short films, animations, artists, photographers and designers through a stylish and innovative approach to website design and functionality.

Check it out here.

Google Author Rank for musicians

I just learnt about this today and it's not quite ready to help musicians, but it will....soon.

Google Author Rank is part of the Google+ and +1 explosion.

It is Google's latest element in the socialisation of search results. As it gets adopted by authors who write on blogs and other sites, their Google+ profile details will be logged and affect search engine results and their image will appear in search results as in the image above.

This is a big deal!

An expert article from a Social Media / SEO (genuine) expert explains it here.

The fact that the quality of an author's content (as voted for by Google+ users and the +1 button clickers) will affect the ranking of Google's results is enough. But, when an image of an author appears on the right hand side of a search result, you can guarantee that search result will get more clicks.

It's early days and eventually all results will have author images, but controlling that to your advantage is another little slice of web-savvy that all musicians will need to master.

As yet, Google doesn't want you to have an artist or business profile - just individuals. But, very soon they will roll this out. And, if you use Author Rank and have a Google+ profile for your band with some great profile images, you'll be able to make these appear in the Google search results.

If you're writing about your local area's music scene or your musical niche globally (as you probably should be), that visual reinforcement of your band's involvement will be important to how you're perceived.

So, this is a tip that you can't actually use....yet, but it's such a game changer in terms of search and visibility that you need to be ready for it.

Read and bookmark this article and remember to come back when Google allows you to have an artist Google+ profile!

20 ways to use Images to promote your band on the web

I had to repost this from Wes Davenports new musican's tips blog.

Mostly so I remembered about it and passed the tips onto my clients - because they're great (the tips...and my clients!)

Photos and other kinds of images are so easy to have to hand now that almost all of us are carrying a very good camera in our phones. If that's a smartphone, you can upload straight to your Wordpress blog or Tumblr or Instagram (a personal favourite of mine and Wes's).

The post has 20 ideas of types of images that you can use and there's bound to be a few that you hadn't though about.

Sometimes all it takes to keep your fans in touch is a snap and 10 words of text, on your site, on Facebook and Twitter.

Just because you don't have a big piece of news to pass on, don't think that doesn't mean that your fans won't want to hear from you.

Post Pics!

Read Wes's list of 20 here.

 

Pure Solo - any use for the DIY musician?

I wasn't sure if this was something that we should cover, but decided that there were plenty of people who could benefit from the practice that it would encourage.

Pure Solo is an online recording tool that allows users to record their part (a vocal or instrumental) over studio quality backing tracks.

My concern is that this is glorified Karaoke that encourages the belief that a reasonable vocal or playing talent is enough to forge some success as a musician - and sure, there will be hordes of people that use it to record 'demos' and post them to YouTube. And, there's nothing wrong with that...... if it's for fun.

But then I realised that the Beatles learnt how to play pretty much every then existing R&B track in their relentless hours in Hamburg and that most musicians can learn a lot about their craft as players and writers by practising more and learning how great songs are put together.

So, it gets a recommendation from me if it's something that you can use to hone your chops or just for having fun.

But, please don't think that of itself it's a way to make yourself famous or to record professionally!

Watch their promo here.

Why hasn't a musician done this type of viral marketing?

Well, I know the answer - it's not cheap. Or it could be if you're mega-techy!

But, an artist on a major, particularly a 'boy band', could do this and it would get massive press.

Now, I know boy bands aren't our usual topic but when I saw this Playboy viral ad it made me think of the others that have gone before. Every time I see one, I wonder why a musician doesn't adopt it.

Do you remember the Mini 'Aveaword campaign where you could send your mates a message that was highly personalised (their name, their wife / girlfriend's name, their job) and which called them out for not being man enough to drive a Mini? It was genius.

Or the Dexter 'Hit List' serial killer video that named your friends as the next Dexter target?

Here's an article that mentions a few.

So, the Playboy ad below does a similar thing making you or your friend the object of the Playboy Bunnies' affections.

Imagine doing this for your band?

If you're a boyband, record every girl's name and a personalised message and get a fan to send a personalised video to their friend saying that she's a fan and thought her friend might like a free track to see if she likes them. This is SIMPLE, but effort intensive.

What do you think?

Here's the ad:

 

Ask the music lawyer

Did I tell you that I started out in the music industry as a music lawyer?

Solid skills to underpin what I do now.

So, I'm biased, but I recommend listening to music lawyers, both in relation to your rights, what they are and how to protect them, but also these days because they get involved in helping you get noticed and get a deal.

This new piece from Sentric Music looks at those issues and is well worth a read.

“If you’re in the music business, you’re in the copyright business”.

Never a truer word has been committed to digital ink on this blog and it is of upmost importance you remember this tiny idiom.

It’s these tricky little titbits of intellectual property that will ultimately result in an artist earning a living from his/her craft and therefore any deal they make should be tooth combed by someone trained in the relative judicial law the contract is written in.

Following are crowd sourced questions from various areas of the music industry answered by three lawyers at the top of their game. The contributors are anonymous in order for them to give the most honest answers possible without fear of feeling the wrath from the aforementioned ill-educated.

Enjoy…

Read it here.

Join the dots for DIY musician success

I love this post on Music Think Tank - an interview with Ian Rogers, CEO of Topspin, in which he talks about how DIY artists (or middle class musicians) can achieve success.

What I like the most is that it sets out the truism for almost all indie artists that the journey to success is a succession of baby steps, linking improvements in your music with an expanding network of fans and influencers (each a true 'publisher' of your work in the modern definition of the word).

The point is that from a PR perspective you have to be practical in answering the question: what are you destined for? The one thing I have learned is IT JUST TAKES A LONG TIME. It never happens overnight. You want to be Metric? Are you prepared to starve and take a mortgage on your home for 5-6 years plus? Because you are not doing it in the next 12 months. You have to come to terms with the fact that it will take three to four records to get from where you are. People dismiss the first four years or so that it took Bon Iver to break. Even the Mumford & Sons record; that thing came out in 2009 and really only broke here in the U.S. in the beginning of this year. A lot of people think they will release a record and it’s going to be huge. I don’t think that ever happens. Not anymore.

Read this piece.

It should give you hope and guidance!

Digital Album Artwork affects sales

I saw this mentioned by @thornybleeder at the end of last week and then had someone else ask me about it this morning to see if we agreed.

It's an article about how album (and single) artwork is changing in the digital age and how those changes can actually affect sales success.

The basic premise is that since we are approaching the point where the majority of album sales are digital downloads, the most viewed version of an album sleeve is the thumbnail size version on iTunes and Amazon.

Artwork designed to stick out at this small size (especially when people are browsing the shop category areas) really can help make people click through and listen and perhaps buy your music.

We have been simplifying our sleeve designs for most of our artists for several years for this reason and you should consider it too.

Of ourse, there is still  place for intricate and detailed artwork but be aware of the choice you are making or perhaps cretae a simple version for web sales and a more complicated version (of the same art) for physical sales.

I love great packaging when I buy CD or vinyl, but don't let that cloud your judgement!

Read the piece here.

Music Business pdf Guides

This is a post for those who don't follow us on Twitter or visit the main site that often.

On Friday we posted about 2 free pdf guides to the Music Business written by the folks at Berklee College of Music.

Go to our main site to get these music business pdf's.

Turn your fan base into your army

Mic Control's first webinar last week was a great success with all attending loving the event and the detailed follow-up notes.

So, they're doing another on August 24th - and, again, we aren't being paid to tell you about it, but just think it's a hell of a good way for any musician to spend $10 and a few hours learning some stuff that might make a radical difference to your career.

The topic this time is all about how to turn casual fans into avid fans and how to encourage them to spread the word about you and your music.

As before, attendees will get a pdf of notes and, on this occasion, Ariel Hyatt will be joining the webinar at the end to give her experienced insight on the topic.

Here's Jon's pich:

The topics covered within are:

1) Understanding the different types of fans

2) Exploring the importance of Super Fans

3) Creating a set of metrics to determine who and where your super fans exist

4) Converting your casual fans into super fans (building your army!)

5) Supplying your super fans w/ the proper tools and resources to market your music for you

Find out about it and register here.

 

14 New Rules - listen up!

Bob Lefsetz covers the same material a lot but every time he manages to sneak in a few new things to make you think.

This is, I think, his best set of rules so far - although I don't agree with them absolutely!

For example, he reckons that you shouldn't bother with Twitter and Facebook until you have traction - I disagree, they can create traction and your most evangelistic fans will want to be there to help you from the start.

Still, it is a great set of rules - I love his emphasis on development and practice before promotion and marketing, which is what we aim to preach as well - and every musician should take them in.

1. It doesn’t matter what kind of music you make.

You build your own audience. There’s an established niche for every genre. From folk to metal. Don’t worry about playing to everybody, just play to somebody.

The last thirty years, the MTV era, has been about giving people what they want, which is just like what they’re already consuming. Major labels and major media, most especially radio, had control of a narrow sieve and if you didn’t fit, you couldn’t play. That is not true today. Those powers mean ever less. You can reach your audience easily online. You’ve just got to start.

2. You’ve got to be good.

This is about practice. We’re in a music era, not a marketing era. Ignore those who tweet and Facebook their goings-on instead of focusing on the music. It’d be like Steve Jobs selling Dell. It wouldn’t blow up overnight. Even better, Ferrari selling Smart cars. A great marketer is nothing without a great product, focus on the product.

Play for three or four hours a day. Take lessons. Play in your garage before you play in public.

Read all 14 of them here.

 

13 types of video you should be making

I'm always banging on about video and how YouTube is crucial to the promotion of your music.

But often people think that they don't have the material in them to make videos.

They're wrong - you can film almost anything and post it to YouTube and your site etc.

This post from CD Baby has 12 great ideas of the sorts of things that you can do.

I'd add number 13 - Lyric videos.

If you're track gets any success at all someone will create a lyric video, so you might as well do it yourself. People love them and you can simply have lyrics on a plain screen or you can do what a Katy Perry fan (I think it's fan, not official) does below and use slideshow photos with the lyrics.

Sure, it's Katy Perry, but it's got 32 million views!

 

Facebook Ads - make the most of them

Chris, who writes at Prescription PR, was the first person to explain to me how he used Facebook Ads to increase his fanbase and those of artists he was working with.

We had several long chats in pubs about it before I tried it for my clients.

So, he knows what he's talking about.

Given all the above then, should you be advertising on Facebook? Well, there are still definitely big advantages to it for musicians. Most bands compare themselves to other acts, and as highlighted above, Facebook is extremely good at letting you target people who are interested in similar music to yours. And it’s still relatively cheap – at least where CPM (cost per impressions) is concerned: if nothing else, you can get a lot of brand awareness for a low spend, with 1000 impressions of an ad often costing as little as 15p. The trick is to make the most of your spend, and here are our top tips for doing just that:

Read the tips here.

 

Facebook Musician's Playbook

So, whilst I was away on holiday, Facebook released their own guide to how a musician should use Facebook to promote and market their music.

It's an ESSENTIAL resource that every musician should read and implement. Facebook obviously know their system and have the foresight to see what it's capable of.

One of the sections deals with how to use Facebook Log-In to register fans to your own site or mailing list. I knew about this but am yet to implement it. But, rest assured I will be giving it a try as it makes people more likely to sign up to your mailing list.

But, that's just one thing covered in the Playbook. There's also great stuff on using Facebook Ads and on fan engagement.

Only a fool would miss it!

Musician's Playbook