The Friday Five - 15th June 2012

We spend everyday at the MIIM Mansion scouring the web for news to bring to you. Usually we find top tips and guide you to things can be especially helpful for the DIY musician/Artist in the new music economy. But with all that reading we cover a whole lot of news, articles and nuggets that are equally as useful, informative and often downright funny.

So from now on, on a Friday, we are going to give you our Friday Five. Five cool things we found this week, that didn't quite get to our post of the day, but feel we just had to share with you in some way.

So in particular order....

 

1. Songstarters

Need help in starting to get that tune in your head out? Then try this....

http://servethesong.net/song-starters/

 

2. The Top 100 Must Follow Music Resources on Twitter

Seems like a useful continuing series from Chris Robley, broken down into groups of 10.

http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2012/06/top-10-must-follow-music-tech-wizards-on-twitter/

 

3. Is Your Music In An Art Gallery Or At Ikea?  

Read this a while back, something to consider though...

http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/is-your-music-in-an-art-gallery-or-at-ikea.html

4. 8 Simple steps to Formating a Proper Press Release

Just incase you didnt know...

http://arielpublicity.com/2012/06/11/8-simple-steps-to-formatting-a-proper-press-release/

 

5. Free Music Making Samples Download

Yes summer is here, are you feeling Balearic? Fancy writing some downtempo/chillout? Music Radar are offering a free download of 253 samples to help you create the mood...

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/sampleradar-13154-free-sample-downloads-217833/109

 

And don't forget to check out our latest article on the Make it in Music website,

5 Rules of Fan Engagement in Social Media

 

see you next week,  Steve

Above image from Bjazz

 

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.

 

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.

 

Fans and artists connect to make touring easier

If you're an indie artist trying to put together a tour on no budget you soon realise that a load of your budget gets blown on even the cheapest place to stay whilst on the road.

Whilst we and others like us are always trying to come up with the best tips for musicians, sometimes an idea comes along that is just brilliant and that we couldn't have thought of.

Better than the Van is one of those.

Hooking up fans and artists with floors to crash on and gigs to swap. Simple. Going through a revamp at the moment and US centric, it could do with all the support it can get if it is to become the awesome resource for touring indie bands that it deserves to be.

Having put bands on the road with no money for decades I know that this could make the difference for many bands between touring and getting a break and not being able to afford it. Please sign up if you're in a band or have a floor that a band can crash on!

Read about the updates due here.