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Archive - April, 2009

Be Excited

April 25, 2009 in Focus with 3 Comments

Excitement about your music starts with you, so be excited about it.

Excitement about your music starts with you, so be excited about it.

Your band, your music, your live shows, your recordings, your websites… everything about your music-making endeavours should make you excited.  It should be exactly the way you want it to be, because it reflects who you are and helps other people to percieve you the way you want to be percieved.

True, you should feel as though making your music is what you were always meant to be doing, but on the other hand, no one is forcing you to do it.  You’re doing it because you love it.  (or at least you should be.)  So in everything you do, that relates to your band/music, be excited about it.  Don’t just “let” others feel your excitement, MAKE them feel your undeniable excitement!  Be passionate about the work you’re putting out into the world, because it’s YOUR work.  Don’t put it out there until you get it right, and then when you do, be proud of it.  Be excited for it, be excited BY it!  When presenting your music to others, don’t be sheepish, embarassed, shy, or nervous.  Show people how much your music means to you… be passionate, vibrant, and enthusiastic.

People want to get excited about music, but you need to help them realize that your music is worth getting excited about.  That has to start with you, because if your music isn’t exciting to you, why should you expect it to be exciting to anyone else?

Twittering Bands – Good and Bad Practices

April 15, 2009 in Emulate, Featured, Interact with 6 Comments

trying to help bands avoid communication fails...

trying to help bands avoid communication fails...

Back in February I published an article, “Building Fan-Band Relationships In 420 Characters Per Day” that put forward some tips on how bands could take better advantage of the Twitter platform, and utilize it to more effectively communicate with their fans.

Since then, I have seen a large growth in the number of bands who are using Twitter, and have seen many examples of good practices and some examples of not-so-good practices, some of which I’d like to call attention to here.

Some great example posts of good use of twitter by a band:

- “We’re #1 [national] artist for most views on Youtube today!! You guys rock keep checking the [song title] video! -N

This is a great post because it’s informative, yet promotional, but doesn’t sound egotistical, in fact it has a thankful tone, contains a directive inciting fans to perform a desired action, and the post is “signed” by the band member, so a reader knows which band member logged in to Twitter that day.

- playing at 1714 XXXX street in LA at 2pm. directions at http://XXXX.com – only room for 50 people so come get in line asafp!!!

Another great use of twitter, in that it announces a promotional message that your fans would care about, (a secret show), gives specific details, conveys urgency, and excitement.

- @username What exactly is a garbage plate?

This is a great example, because it’s a conversational response to something one of the band’s fans actually said to the band.  Interacting with the fans is crucial, because the Twitter platform is not meant for one-way communication.  It’s meant for conversations.

- http://twitpic.com/XXXX- yes, you can play with the mac, just don’t touch the keys or drool on it.

This one is great because it uses a twitpic, and everyone loves to see pictures posted from their favorite bands.  Especially when the photos and caption provide insight into what you’re doing, showcases your personality, or something that you’re passionate about, and has an interesting caption.  The immediacy of Twitter makes the photos seem even more special because there’s the feeling they are happening right “now.”

- sick with flu, in bed, brain full of emptiness. watching DVD of doctor who and drinking hot toddys. life, love & time are great mysteries.

Another post that shows personality, talks about some non-music related interests, keeps fans updated in a very intimate way, and still manages to contain a profound thought.

- What are some new bands/artists that don’t suck? I need some new music that doesn’t sound like some regurgitated crap I’ve heard before.

Okay, so this one isn’t articulated the best, since its a little negative, but the idea of polling your followers to get them to talk about other bands they listen to is a great idea.  Not only does it engage your audience, get them talking about music, but it actually also gives you useful info about your fanbase that could help you better market your music.

In general, posts that inform, inquire, engage, and interact are the best.  For a really great example of an artist who is being extremely effective on Twitter, check out @amandapalmer.  She’s the lead-singer of the band The Dresden Dolls and also a very talented solo artist.  Whether you like her music or not, you could learn a lot stylistically from her twitter account.  She does twitter-based Q&As with her fans, holds impromptu secret shows announced via twitter, does quick promos like “first five people to @reply me get on the guestlist for the show tonight”, surprise fan meet-ups, polls her audience, talks to them, has conversations with them, posts lots of twitpics, and demonstrates many other lessons in effective online fan-communication via Twitter.

So just before I wrap this up, I think it’s only fair to comment on a few bad practices, however I’m not going to call anyone out or anything like that, but here are a few “please don’ts” to keep in mind…

- please don’t publicly thank people for their support when really what’s happened is that you followed them first, and now they decided to follow you back out of courtesy.  Note, this is especially bad when you do this with famous musicians.  @depechemode is not showing their support of your band, by returning a follow.

- please don’t REPEAT OVERLY PROMOTIONAL TWEETS THAT ARE WRITTEN ALL IN CAPS.  PLEASE DON’T REPEAT OVERLY PROMOTIONAL TWEETS THAT ARE WRITTEN ALL IN CAPS.  PLEASE DON’T REPEAT…see what i mean?

- if someone follows you, don’t automatically assume they’re now your fan.  Don’t auto-DM them thanking them for their interest in your music, or make any other assumptions like that.  Consider that the online equivalent of someone saying “hi, what do you do?” and you’re response being “Oh my god, it’s so great you talked to me, because now we’re best friends, and we’re gonna hang out every day and you’re mom’s gonna bake me cookies.”  It’s a little weird.

- please don’t ignore questions or comments from your followers.  Even if it’s only 140-characters worth of attention they gave you, that’s still effort they didn’t have to bother making, so if they’ve gone out of their way to do it, you had better pay them the respect of replying.

I’m sure there are more of both good practices and bad practices… but I’ll tell you what… I’ll stop here, but I invite everyone to continue this post through the comments section.  What are some more good and bad practices that you’ve seen?

Be Interesting, and Be Interested

April 11, 2009 in Featured, Interact with 1 Comment

interestingTwo things that sound similar, but are completely different.

When you’re planning to send an outward communication, whether it’s online, on-stage, in an interview, in a conversation with a fan, or whatever… always try to think about what your fans want to hear from you.  Try to be interesting. Share unique anecdotes that illustrate your personality, show examples of some of your personal quirks, likes, or dislikes.  Talk about the things that excite you, the bands you’re listening to, etc.  Always try to put “interesting” out into the world.  Don’t just talk promotionally all the time, as people will stop listening.

Conversely, to speak to the second half of this post’s title… be interested. This means pay attention and react to those who are talking to you, both online and off.  When someone comes up to talk to you after you’ve just finished playing a show, stop what you’re doing and listen to them.  Stop packing up your gear/merch, don’t ever look over their shoulder for someone else to talk to… look them in the eye, ask them their name, shake their hand, treat them with respect, and have a conversation.  Similarly, when interacting online, if someone emails you, @replies to you, comments on your blog, or whatever…respond!  Answer questions asked of you, get involved in the odd conversation online, reply to your emails, etc.  This is the type of “humanizing” that a fan wants… they want a meaningful interaction with you… they don’t necessarily care what you ate for breakfast, unless what you ate for breakfast was really interesting.  (cheerios with chocolate sauce, for example… though I don’t recommend it.)  If that’s the case, go ahead and share!

Artistshouse Music

April 8, 2009 in Use with 0 Comments

picture_1Here is a great website community that endeavours to “help musicians and music entrepreneurs create sustainable careers.”  They’re building a vast wealth of resources that include video clips, articles, blogs, text transcriptions and full-length video pieces that cover a huge range of topics like musician strategy, marketing, production, legal, education and careers in music.  These topics then get broken down into more specific sections like tools/gear, careers, genre, networking, songwriting, publicity, promotion, advertising, retail/distribution, merchandise, touring, fan base, internet, arranging, home recording, pro tools, manufacturing, mixing and mastering, pro recording, msuic videos, entrpreneurship, ethics, publishing, services, touring, music as business, copyright, performing, learning, teaching, and believe it or not that’s not a complete list of the topics on which this site has resources for a musician to dig into.

This site is also an aggregator of video interviews and footage from a large number of musicians and music industry professionals… the list is way too massive to include here but I can link to it here.

Furthermore, Artistshouse is very active on Twitter, and they are always sending out links to articles from all over the web that will be of interest to independent musicians and people in the music industry, and I definitely recommend following them.

They also host a live weekly video-stream/online chat program that takes place every Wednesday (or almost every Wednesday anyway) that extends their community into the live arena, and allows you to see the folks at the centre of the site.  The folks seem really nice, they’ve certainly been kind enough to me by linking several of my blog posts out to their community of musicians, and I appreciate them for it.

The people behind this site are backed by the Herb Alpert Foundation, who had the idea to create an online non-profit resource for musicians to get information, support, professional guidance and expert resources to help them navigate the challenges of the music industry.  To read more about the folks who are at the centre of the artistshouse community, check out their about page.

It seems like Artistshouse is organized by people who are trying to help musicians for all the right reasons…which is a great thing, but as with all communities, they are only as good as what their members make of it, so I suggest if you’re interested in checking it out, then try it out with fervor.  If you’re going to sign up, then interact, watch, learn, listen, talk, comment, suggest and be active regularly… get involved and make the most of the platform being provided.

Think Strategically

April 4, 2009 in Build with 3 Comments

If you’re a musician, in a band, or solo performer, and you are aspiring to be able to make that your full time work, then one of your main goals, (aside from writing better songs, and making your live performances better) is to grow your audience.  Sounds pretty obvious, but it’s also a pretty broad statement.  Let’s get a little more clinical for a minute… Increasing the number of people who like (and will pay for) your music and the ancillary goods surrounding it is a quantifiable mission that you can constantly work on, and there are many things you can do in effort to continually achieve this goal.  My advice would be to always think, and be, strategic with your efforts.

Start by targeting someone.  Zero in on who is more likely to enjoy your music.  To figure out who you could target, try stepping outside yourself for a second and think about these questions, and make sure your answers aren’t just your wishlists of heroes… be as specific and realistic as you can, it will only help you more.  Start by imagining your album in the bins at a record store.  What section is it in?  If it was in a campaign flyer alongside other releases from other artists… what other artists are they?  If you were on tour opening for some other bands, what bands would it be?  Make a list of those artists and look each of them up on iTunes.  For each one, make note of the “listeners also bought” lists… it will give you more artists who appeal to a similar demographic as you will.  Try the same thing on Amazon too.

So now you have a list of “like-artists”… note, these artists don’t need to “sound like you” because I’m sure you would like to consider yourselves unique or different from them… instead, consider these artists as musicians who would  most likely appeal to the same group of people that you would appeal to.  Then study what those artists have done promotionally… see what websites feature them, what magazines/blogs talk about them, what bars play them, etc.  Find contacts at those places, introduce yourself to them, and start building relationships with those people.  Focus on those places to get your music featured.  Also, go online to your like-artists social network pages, and you’ll have a direct window to your demographic.  Scan their myspace friends, see if there’s any common factors… are they mostly male, female, is there an age-range that stands out, do they live in suburbs, urban centres, what countries, etc.  Don’t just start friending their fans out of the blue, but if you want to, send introductory messages to their fans who are from your hometown or from towns where you have concerts upcoming, something like “hi, XXX, sorry for the uninvited message, but we’re an independent band from XXX, we noticed you’re a fan of XXX, and because of that we thought you might like our music too.  Here’s a link to our page, and if you like what you hear, we’d love you have you as a friend.”  Just know that you’re message to them is unexpected, so be polite, somewhat apologetic, and brief.  And don’t add them as friends, let them add you.  It’s a slower process, but it weeds out false-leads… you’re far better off with 100 friends who asked to be your friend, than 1,000 people who accepted your unsolicited request.

Get active in the fan-groups of these artists, and don’t just go there to shout about your band.  Talk to the fans, talk about the other bands, ask questions, etc.  People who like what you have to say, will check out your profile, and then check out your band.  You don’t need to talk about your band, you just need to have conversations.

It’s not about shouting, it’s about targeting the most-likely candidates for a successful campaign, giving those people something meaningful (a friendly greeting, a conversation, a free download, an invitation, etc.) creating a relationship with them, and ultimately helping them to discover your music.

Thinking strategically about your promotional actions, and targeting specific demographics will give your efforts more focus, more efficiency, and ideally more success.