Audiolife.com - widget-based full-service e-com for musicians

Here’s something to look into… I haven’t signed up for an account yet, but it looks like the folks at audiolife.com could be on to something really interesting.  They offer full back-end services for bands to sell mp3 albums, physical CDs, ringtones, and merch, and there are two things that are most interesting about their service.

1 – Bands don’t need to create any inventory upfront… all the CDs are done using digital manufacturing, at audiolife’s HQ, and the clothing items are all made-to-order using some sort of digital printing techniques.  Again, that means that bands don’t have to pay to manufavture the shirts first, and they don’t need to worry about any shipping.  All bands need to do is upload content (mp3s of songs, mp3s of ringtones, and images for t-shirt designs) and audiolife handles everything else.  (Sure they take commissions, but who doesn’t?)

2 – The resulting storefront that you get from audiolife is fully widget-based, and can be embedded on any website or social network profile page you have, and the entire purchase process happens right inside the widget, never redirecting the customer to any other site.  They stay right on your site, the whole time.  The other beautiful part of the store being widget-based is that it can then be shared, and embedded on as many sites as you want, thus allowing all your fans to help you out by posting your store on their pages too… you just need to come up with ways to motivate them to do so!

It doesn’t cost any upfront fees to create your store, they only make money when you sell items (i like that). Their agreements are fully non-exclusive, thus allowing you to still post and sell your content any other way you choose.

My two questions would be:

a – how good do the t-shirt prints turn out?  It’s tough to say, so if anyone has experience here, please comment and let me know.

b – how detailed are the backend metrics?  I’m sure you can track sales geographically and demographically, but I’d like to know since the widget is embeddable, can purchases be tracked back to which instance of the widget generated the sale? If so, one could create incentive programs for fans who sell more merch for you… free tickets to the top sellers monthly etc.

Again, if anyone reading has experience using audiolife, let me know, it looks like it could be really useful!

check out their site here: www.audiolife.com and see an audiolife widget store in action here: www.myspace.com/theharmmusic

Be great, push your songwriting, study your influences, and interact with your audience.

Interacting with your fans in the online and offline spaces is one of the most important things you can do as a band.  From social networking, to email, to live-chats, to live concerts, meet-and-greets and merch-table conversations, forging a relationship with your fans is a very important part of being in a developing band.  That’s not to say that should you be so fortunate as to have massive international success that you should be any less interactive with your fans, but no doubt the frequency and methods will probably change, and that’s okay… fans will come to understand that, especially if you’ve involved them from the beginning, and recognized them for helping you spread the word.  They will actually feel like they had an impact on your success, even caused it, and you need to acknowledge the role they played in your success. And often.

That said, interacting is part of the promotion and marketing of your band… it’s not the essence of what your band is.  All the interaction in the world isn’t going to get you very far if you’re not a great band to begin with.

So be great.  Be really great.

Work on your songs and your songwriting… don’t just write a song once and assume it’s done.  Keep tightening it, honing it, experimenting with it, adding to it, stripping things away from it… there are lots of ways to try and make the most out of your songs… push yourself to make each song you’ve already written, even better – even more memorable.  Could you do it?  How?

Take a very detailed look at your live performance too.  One idea is to make a list of the bands who influence you, find out what concerts of theirs are available on DVD and get the very best ones.  The ones where that band is in their prime, and their most magical performance has been captured forever.  Do this for all your influences, and don’t just watch them… study them.  Repeatedly.  Learn what they did that made that performance so incredible… watch it once for the musicianship,then again for the energy, again for the intensity, the emotion, the staging, the movements, the imagery… leave no detail unnoticed.  Keep watching and learning.  Think about your own way of incorporating some of those things into your own band’s performance.  Don’t just outright copy your influences, but know that it’s okay to learn from something, take the influence, internalize it, relate it to your music and your band, shake it up a little and try it out your own way.  Never just walk on stage and play your songs for the room.  Always play them like a two-ton weight is hurtling down on you and the only way to stop it from crushing you completely is by playing your songs as powerfully, intensely and meaningfully as you can.  Imagine that the more heartfelt you play, the longer you keep that weight from crushing you.  Mean every single word you sing, feel every note you play, and love every beat you make.  It’s music, it’s supposed to make people feel something!  It’s not necessarily about who can jump around the most on-stage, or who can make the craziest looking singing-face, but you must believe and feel everything you do on stage, with every ounce of your being.  And not only do you have to believe it, you’ve gotta make the audience believe it too.  Make them feel what you’re feeling.  Make them realize beyond a shadow of a doubt that what you’re doing on-stage at that moment is the most important thing you’ve ever done in your life.  Because at that moment, it should be.

Do that, then get interactive with your fans.

Hire your team, not the other way around.

Jumping off from where my last article ended… I just want to expand a little bit on the shift in the mindset of the modern musician.  Or, at least, the shift I think should exist.

It’s very true, you need to treat your band like a business.  Keep track of costs and expenses, manage inventory, market, promote, sell, spend time and effort doing research and development (music lessons and rehearsals!) etc.  But there’s another aspect to running a business that should also apply to being in a band… and that is the hiring of people.  Now, I’m not talking about the members of your band… those people hopefully have already been hired, and are now permanent members of the board of directors.  I’m talking about your business team.

Before you go out “trying to get a record deal,” “trying to get an agent,” “trying to get a manager,” etc… let’s pause for a minute and consider something… With each of these people/companies, you will be negotiating an agreement between you and them, that will involve you paying them a certain amount of money (99% of the time it’s a percentage of the amount of money you stand to earn), and in exchange for said money, these people agree to provide you with specific services and aid.  That sounds to me like you’re hiring them… they’re not “giving you” anything, they’re working for you!

That’s so important I’ll say it again… THEY are working for YOU.

They earn money when you do, they succeed when you do, and they fail when you do.  They are business partners, not to be put up on a pedestal for any reason, with the possible exception of their past successes.  (But really, that’s the same as any employee… the more previous success a prospective employee has on their resume, chances are, the more money they are going to be able to negotiate for.)

The key thing to remember is that without musicians, the support staff don’t have any work to do.  They need you as much as you need them.  What everyone is really trying to do is simply find the best business partners to work with.  Keep that in mind if you ever get approached by “promise-tellers” or “star-makers.”  They are really potential business partners, or potential employees… you should be mentally “interviewing” them as such while you’re talking to them, and always remember that they should not be the stars, you should be.

Is going through the gate still the easiest way to get there?

Music Industry professionals like A&R reps and label staff, booking agents, managers, music directors, music supervisors, publishers and the like, all provide very valuable services that can significantly help an artist in promoting their music and getting it into places that are hard to access: retail shelf-space, movie soundtracks, video games, on the radio, MTV, having versions sung by famous musicians appear on their albums, live performances on opening slots on major tours, etc.  All very difficult things to achieve, and all potentially great things to have happen to a musician’s songs.  Given that, there has been a perception that musicians need to seek the approval of those folks who are installed as the gatekeepers of these access-points, in order to achieve success. These access points are viewed as goals… and attaining the acceptance from these gatekeepers is perceived as a “win” for the artist.

But when you ask yourself, as a musician why do I want these things?  Why do I want a record deal, a song on the radio, a song placed in a movie, an opening slot on a tour… what am I trying to achieve?  The answer, at the root of it all, is because these things all provide access to an audience.  That is the true goal.  Getting music heard by people.

It used to be, that these touch-points were the only ways to achieve that most ultimate of goals, but the fundamental shift brought about by interactive technology, social networking, the internet, email, SMS, web 2.0, recommendation engines, and the like, has changed things forever.  The wall between band and audience has been torn down and direct connection to a worldwide audience is now available to every musician, without requiring the approval of the gatekeepers.  Now you can keep your focus on seeking the approval of the audience, and you don’t need to be distracted by trying to achieve intermediary goals anymore.  All the other touch-points are still helpful, but should be viewed as additional opportunities brought about by business partners interested in working with you.  There is also a timing strategy that should be applied to engaging business partners… Begin by building your fanbase yourself, using web tools, interactive communication, conversations, live performances, community building efforts, and exhaust as many of the things you can do yourself first.  For more concrete suggestions on things to focus on, please have a look through this site’s archives.  You can also look to hire outsourced service providers for certain aspects, like taking your songs to radio.  But again, ensure that you’re conscious of the timing, so that you’re not wasting money.  For example, a good idea would be to engage a radio promoter in a certain market about a month or two before you’re planning to tour through that market.  That’s just one example, but in every decision you make, please ensure that you’re thinking strategically.

Don’t focus on “getting signed,” getting an agent, a manager, or any of the other intermediary goals.  Believe me, when the time is right, and you’re so successful that you can no longer manage the size of your fanbase yourself, and all the business aspects of being a musician are becoming so time-consuming that you don’t have enough time to practice, write, and perform… something magical will happen.  Business partners will present themselves… trust me, they will.  Don’t forget, it’s their job to find the artists that are going to become really successful, and connect with a wide audience.  The best way to attract reputable business partners is to show them you are attracting and building your fanbase on your own.  Ensure your main goal is connecting with your audience, and know that there is an entire playing field worth of ways for you to do that yourself.  Keeping this top of mind will not only help keep you from chasing goals that you shouldn’t be chasing, but by doing this, when potential business partners do present themselves, you’ll be in a better position to negotiate with them because you’ll be more focused on how they can enhance what you’re already doing, instead of giving them the leverage of being the gateway to reaching your audience.

Why chase after the approval of a gatekeeper when there’s no more fence in sight?

Use Ping.fm to send your message across all your networks at once.

Ping.fm calls itself “a simple service that makes updating your social networks a snap.”  It’s currently in beta mode, which means it ‘s free to sign up, and try it out.

Post a message to the Ping.fm service, and Ping then takes that message and distributes it out to all your social networking sites for you… so you only have to send it once.

You tell Ping.fm which social-networks you belong to (they support probably every one you already use), add them all  to your list within Ping, and then when you use Ping.fm to send a message, you just let Ping take care of the rest.  Type it once, and Ping can get sent out as your latest Twitter post, Facebook Status, Facebook Note, Facebook Photo upload, Linkedin Status, Myspace Status, Myspace Bulletin, etc.  Check out their mainpage for all the networks they support… a list of over thirty different ones.  It’s got built in support for URL-shortening too, and tells you how many characters your message will be, so it can stay Twitter-friendly.

You can send your messages to Ping.fm from many ways too… via SMS, instant messages, email, 3rd party apps, and more.  They make this very easy for you.

Signing up for a ping.fm account is about as basic as it can get… email address, user name, password, you’re done.  Then, when you’ve logged in, you can start adding all your networks, which does require you logging in to your various profile pages through their site (and presumably giving them your passwords… tin-foil hat-wearers need not apply I guess, but anyone trying to create a business like this, if they’re going to be successful at all, the privacy of this info has got to be fully respected… they wouldn’t dare compromise that.)

I only wish you could use it to send messages out to members of a Facebook Group, a list of email addresses, or more info beyond a “status update” but the reality is this service is still in beta and I’m sure they’re working on this.

For musicians, this is great simply because when you want to send a quick promotional news item or reminder out to your fanbase, if you’ve been active online you probably have many different places where you connect with fans, which makes updating each one of them separately a very tedious process.  So to only have to type your message once, and have it sent out across all your networks just makes things so much more efficient and easy, which, I hope, will make you communicate more often, thus strengthening the bonds you have with your fans, and keep you top of their minds.

This is not what it takes to be successful

As promised, today’s post is about trying to “buy your way in.”  There are several ways that musicians try to do this… they think that if only they could buy advertising, or if they could hire an indie publicist, or a radio promoter, or buy their way onto a tour, then people would hear their music and fall in love with it, becoming lifelong fans in the process.  There have been bands who were born from very rich stock, who have paid for everything I mentioned above, and more, and it still hasn’t gotten them anywhere.  I’ve seen bands spend thousands of dollars on everything from pyro, to a tour bus, to radio advertising, to all sorts of crazy things.  And even more heartbreaking are the bands who scrape and scrimp and save, to be just able to afford to spend their hard-earned cash on something like this… the problem is that while all those things are valid and useful things to have, they are also all a part of a strategic marketing mix that needs to be properly timed and well executed by trustworthy business partners.  Engaging these things too soon, in efforts to jumpstart a career is an extremely high-risk proposition, and not something I recommend, until the time is right.  They’re most certainly not the first things you should be thinking of doing, in efforts to begin growing your fanbase.   Sure, money can buy your way into a door that may have been shut before, but it’s not going to keep that door open for long.  It’ll be up to your talent to keep that door open.  And never underestimate the public, because they are too smart to be fooled with flash and cash…

Instead, why not make sure you’ve exhausted everything you can do on your own first?  The major superstar artists can’t develop strong relationships with their fans because there’s too many of them, but your fanbase is probably a size that’s manageable enough that you can.  You can personally respond to your fans messages, wish them happy birthday on Facebook, ask them questions, listen to what they have to say, and form strong bonds with them.  Personally invite fans to your shows, throw fan appreciation barbecues, do things that show your fans you care about them, and that you think they are special.  Evoking that feeling in your existing fans is going to spur them on to share your music with their friends, and that’s how it will grow.  Be creative with your fan interaction, and do things that make sense for your band, that will resonate with your type of fans.  All that is going to go a lot further than throwing some cash around in efforts to shout to a large number of people really quickly.  For an indie band, that’s just a band-aid solution at best, and a colossal waste of money at the worst.

If ever you catch yourself thinking something that starts with “if only…” always remember, there are no shortcuts to being successful.   It takes hard work, talent, and dedication.  Being a great musician is going to get you much farther than spending a ton of cash on shouting at people if you’re not.