It’s 2012. Technology has completely revolutionized what it means to be an independent musician. It’s liberating, for those that are capable. It’s terrifying and frustrating for those that aren’t. No longer are there any restrictions from you being able to get your music to a potential worldwide audience. The hard part is to make sure what you’re putting out there is ready for that worldwide audience.
If you’re not as big as Drake, not blowing up like The Weeknd, not selling as much as Adele… it’s not because people don’t know about you, and it’s not because you’re not shouting loud enough.
It’s because people aren’t telling others about you.
So I finally got around to watching The Social Network last night. It was enjoyable, but it also got my brain working and picking up on a few things that bands (or anyone with an idea, really) could benefit from bearing in mind.
- Facebook wasn’t started with the idea they wanted to build a billion dollar corporation. They wanted to help students get laid. Your band shouldn’t be about “getting big.” Make sure you’re doing something that’s meaningful to you now.
- the first version of Facebook wasn’t the last version. And these songs you have now won’t be your last. Keep writing! Keep putting music out there!
- The Facebook guys launched their idea into reality, then continued to build it, expand its reach organically, and improve it before eventually securing investment funding. The same is true for pretty much every successful band.
- finally, most importantly, they didn’t allow themselves any excuses to NOT make Facebook, and no one said anything like “if only we had…” They just did it. Your band should do the same.
Ian Rogers (who I’ve met once, and is a really smart nice guy) recently posted his presentation on creating a digital marketing plan on the TopSpinMedia website. You can link to it here, and I definitely recommend you read every word. If for no other reason, it will inspire you with a ton of different ideas as to how you can better serve and grow your audience as a band in the year 2011.
Don’t misunderstand what he’s saying though, and simply run off to create a ton of different offerings, and throw all his suggestions into action at once. The part about there being a process and a strategic order to things is crucial. Always plan things with timing in mind.
And, as a very important aside… Ian Rogers can safely assume that you already make music that people love. That’s because it’s his job to market what you already make. As a musician, you can’t afford to make that same assumption. It sounds simple, but it’s really not. Make sure your music is incredible because if it isn’t, marketing it to the world is only going to make matters worse for you.
A friend sent me the link to this Mashable article today, talking about a new music/artist discovery tool called Hitlantis. I haven’t been able to get the actual Hitlantis site to function on my Macbook yet, so this post is purely in response to the Mashable article.
The idea behind Hitlantis is that it’s another site for bands to create their profiles on, and encourage people to become their fans on. Sounds pretty familiar so far. Only difference is the size of your fanbase is represented graphically on a map, and all the bands on the service are all placed onto the same ‘heat map’, so music fans can scour the heat map by genre and see what bands have bigger fanbases than others, simply by how big of a footprint they make on the map. Visually, it looks really interesting, and I definitely want to dig further into it. If the discovery aspect is fun for the end-user, then this could be a fantastic addition to the digital music landscape.
They’re apparently charging for upsells to artists though, including the ability to have a store (5 euros/month), and if you pay them 10-euro/month, you get record company pitching opportunities, and additional software features. Then they plan on taking a ten-point commission on any sales you make through their store. All this weirds me out a little bit, because it sounds like they could be making the bulk of their money off bands that are struggling to sell anything. It’s tough for an artist to make a living, and if these guys stuck with just the commission model I’d respect it more. They’d be making more of a committed statement to artist development, because they’d only be making money when their artists do.
I also somewhat disagree with launching yet another place that bands need to upload their music to, and create profiles on, and encourage people to become their fans on. But I don’t blame Hitlantis for that… I guess this is all Myspace’s fault, because as it declines, there’s no “one solution” to replace it yet. Could Hitlantis be that one-stop shop? Only time will tell.
Mobile app versions of Hitlantis are in the works too. Check out this video for a teaser.
We all know being in a band comes with a hefty dose of competitive feelings towards other bands. Whether it’s jealousy over who’s getting booked as who’s opener, or who is blowing who off the stage, who’s getting signed, who’s not, etc… bands are very often comparing themselves to other bands.
The problem I find, is most times bands are comparing themselves to their local contemporaries, or their friends bands. Why is this a problem? It’s a comparison of accomplishments, and rarely a comparison of skill.
If a band truly wants to constructively compare themselves to others, in efforts to improve their status, I would start comparing yourselves to world class bands. Get live performance DVDs of the biggest and best bands in the world who are in your genre (and some who aren’t!), and study them. Strip away things like expensive production, lighting etc and focus on how that band sounds, looks, and performs…Go see those bands live, listen to their songs, try to figure out what is making them a “world class band”… Study their faces, their stage presence, their performances, their techniques. Hold your band to that high of a standard too. Don’t settle for anything less.
Work towards being so good you could blow the biggest bands in the world off the stage. And don’t worry about the other local bands. Instead, you can just be cool, support them and be proud of them.
KLM Airlines did an interesting social media marketing campaign where they found people who were using Twitter and Foursquare to check in at the gates of their airline’s flights. A little quick online research of the user’s social networking profiles gave KLM enough info so they could surprise that person with a thoughtful and timely gift while they waited.
The campaign generated millions of impressions online and a good feeling around their brand. Sure it could be construed as a little creepy (as the socialtimes.com writer explains here) but I think it’s very interesting.
And there are plenty of ways a musician can apply this same type of social media campaign for their own benefit as well. In line at concerts (your own, or another band’s concert who’s fans might like your music) is the first that comes to mind, but I’m sure if you put a bit of thought into it you could come up with an interesting way to make it work for you.
The key to generating the good feeling is the surprise of the gift, but then if you keep doing it, and word spreads that people who mention you keep receiving surprise gifts from you, then you’ll get increased mentions and online chatter about you simply by those who are hoping to receive something as well.
Might be something worth giving a try!
Thanks to @withabullet for sending me the link to this story.
