Chances are, if you’re in a band, you’ve put on your own shows before. Eventbrite is a great tool for offering online ticketing to your events, and the best part is that it’s free unless you want to charge money for the tickets. They’ve partnered with Paypal for the accounting part, so your fans can pay by credit card or directly from their Paypal accounts. Their fees for paid-tickets are reasonable too. (2.5% per ticket, plus credit-card purchase fees for applicable tickets of an additional 2-3%).
Just another barrier that is being torn down, allowing bands to function as effectively, if not MORE effectively than “the old ways” of doing business in this industry.
All in all, a great service, for reasonable rates. And I love that they only make money when you do.
You're steering the ship... are you paying attention?
If you are in a band who is serious about getting your music out into the world, and becoming professionals (making your livelihood from your music) as you get more successful, you will slowly develop “your team”… your manager, a booking agent, a publishing company, perhaps a label, a publicist, a radio promoter, your favorite concert promoters in each market, sound-engineers, producers, etc. There will be a great number of people who are not actually in your band, who you will assign certain responsibilities to, and they will be charged with overseeing and helping you build parts of your business.
The importance of surrounding yourself with people who you trust, and who share the same vision of success as you almost goes without saying, but there’s something else you must never forget about all these other people you work with as you navigate the music industry: For each and every one of them, there can (and will) always be “another band.” A manager will work with several acts at a time, labels and agents have rosters of artists, promoters deal with tons of different bands, as do publishers, producers etc. But for you, this band is probably the only one you’ll be in. Or at most, one of only a small number, and hopefully it is one of the most important things in your life. So no matter how many people work with you, or for you, it is ALWAYS up to you. If you don’t care, you can’t expect anyone else to. If you don’t ask the questions, or get involved with every aspect of your career, you have no one to blame but yourselves if the path is not going in the right direction. If your label isn’t marketing you the way you want to be marketed, it’s your responsibility to stand up and say so. If you’re not playing shows with the right type of bands, don’t settle, and don’t be afraid – say something. Ask a question.
Be the active driving force behind everything that happens in your band’s name, and if you don’t understand why something is happening (or isn’t happening), you owe it to yourself to ask the questions….after all, it’s your band.
The micro-blogging platform can be very useful for musicians.
Are you on Twitter yet? It’s been around for a few years now, but has existed mainly in the tech world. Only now is it really breaking into the mainstream and musicians are starting to discover it as well.
So what is it? Basically, it’s a micro-blogging site, that provides a way to send quick updates to a large group of people. In the US, these updates can be recieved via SMS (unfortunately Twitter recently cancelled SMS-receiving capabilities in Canada). You can send your updates via web, SMS, or mobile-apps like Twitterberry from your smartphone.
How does this help musicians or bands? Your fans can follow you on Twitter, and therefore sign up to receive updates from you, and the updating is instantaneous, and they can get their news from you right to their phones.
There are definitely ways to Twittering well though, which I’ll talk about in another post… in the meantime, check it out for yourself, search the twitterverse for folks you find interesting, and dive right in. Sign up for an account and try it yourself. It can be very useful, and it’s also borderline addictive, so twittering often isn’t difficult.
Music is art, and art is subjective. That means people are going to hate your band, even if you are ridiculously successful and millions of people around the world adore you. And should you be so lucky as to have your music adored by millions worldwide, and you happened upon the last person in the world who still hates your band, and they told you so… you’d probably say to them something like “that’s fine, that’s your opinion” or “I do my music for my own enjoyment, not for someone elses,” or something like that. You wouldn’t take that negativity to heart, you’d focus on your own successes and struggles. You’d focus on your own art.
Why then, is it that there are so many bands out there who are completely obsessed with the goings-on of other bands. Far too often, I hear things like “why the hell is that band on the radio” or “my band is so much better than those guys… how come they get all the tours.”
Well, the truth is there are many reasons as to why another band is achieving more success than your own, but don’t focus on the negative aspects of that fact. And certainly don’t dwell on the fact that you think your music is superior to that of what is currently popular. Those bands didn’t make their music for you.
Focus on the things you actually can control, and don’t be negative. Write songs, write more songs, and then write some more songs. Don’t think that just because you recorded a record that the work is over. It’s not going to be your only album ever. Put it out there, and keep writing. Practice performing live. then practice more, and then practice some more. Play shows, play… okay you get the point.
It’s really easy to offer excuses, and complain about the fortunes of others… but almost every time, the bands that are successful are more focused on their own craft, and their own activity than they are focused on the successes of others.
Davey Havok, lead singer of AFI gets propped up by his fans in more ways than one. Photo credit: Kristina Loncar
Whether you like their music or not, dark / goth / pop / punk-rock heroes AFI are leaders in fanbase engagement, interaction, and reward. Back in 2003-2005 they ran an Alternate Reality Game that invited fans to solve puzzles, find clues, and interact with each other. The game was rewarding lucky participants with laminate All-Access passes, meet-and-greets, soundcheck parties and secret concerts long before ARGs like this hit mainstream with Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero. Plus, the band has been using the social and community-mobilizing aspects of online forums to great gain for years.
In fact, not once, but twice, the band have won awards on the MTV Video Music Awards. Once in 2003, and again in 2006. Not so uncommon, but the difference is, both awards recipients were decided by public votes. In both cases, the band mobilized their fanbase to help them win, but they did so by truly creating a feeling within their online street team and their official fan club that if fans helped the band win the award, it would be a victory not just for the band, but for all the fans as well.
It worked. Fans cried when this band won their awards. Fans felt as though they themselves won the award. How did they do it? AFI are not shy when it comes to rallying their fans, and asking them to unite to help further their cause. But, they are also not shy when it comes to rewarding their fans by acknowledging them, and sincerely thanking them. This truly helps create the feeling that the band and their fans are one team, working together. The key is the sincere acknowledgement. You can’t just ask your fans to do things for you without some acknowledgement for their time spent on your behalf. It doesn’t matter if that’s in the form of tangible goods like exclusive stickers, posters, t-shirts, what-have-you, or if you’ve got a point-system that keeps track of how much work a fan has done for a band, or if it’s just giving them a sincere and heartfelt thank you. Whatever it is, make sure it’s meaningful. And make sure you mean it. Those two things may sound similar, but they are different. The first one says to make sure your rewarding your fans with something substantial, that will make them feel their efforts have been worth their time. The second one says that if you ask your fans to do something that will benefit you, and they actually do it, then you had better thank them and you better be sincere about it. All this social community and networking can be undone if fans feel their being taken advantage of.
Check out these two videos, and you’ll see a perfect example of what happens when all this is done right. The first one is the AFI’s acceptance speech, from the second time they won a moonman, in 2006. Listen to the sincerity in the singer’s voice when he’s thanking the fans. And the second video is of a fan, watching the band accept that award on TV. It’s also important to read the video description on the second one. This is what it says: “this is me freaking out about AFI winning Best rock video! I voted 600 times for them! I am SOOOOOOO happy they won! I helped Davey get his moonman!”
Watch these videos, learn from them, and then make sure you do everything you can to inspire this level of community between your band and your fans. If you are one with your fans, amazing things can happen.
Social media, web technologies, mobile interaction… all of these are amazing tools that a musician now has in their pocket, most of them available for free. There is no excuse for a musician not to be using all these tools to the best of their availability to maximize their fanbase, enhance their fans experiences, turn fans into friends, and turn friends into evangelists. So much can be achieved simply by using these tools, and using them well.
However, there are two things that are simply unavoidable. You need to invest the time needed to build your networks, and you need to be talented musically. It’s true not everyone who wants to be a successful musician is going to become one, but if that’s what you want to do, then that’s fantastic. But you need to focus on it all the time. Spend your time practicing your instruments, writing new songs, booking shows… but then spend time making friends with other bands, showswapping, and engaging with people who have told you they like your music. Don’t just go on Myspace and start friending random people, (or worse… only friending girls in bikinis) then never talk to them again. Start conversations, get active in already-existing conversations… find messageboards that discuss topics similar to the lyrical material of your songs and start talking to people, try all kinds of different things to grow your fanbase. Just be smart about it. Think, target, then engage them. And make the time to engage in meaningful conversations with people about your music. You can’t just always have a one-way outward push to people. You need to listen and respond to what they have to say as well.
Screaming from the rooftop no longer works. Conversations do. Make time to converse with your listeners. And make time to get better musically. Lock those two things in, and the rest will start to fall into place.
Social media, web technologies, mobile interaction… all of these are amazing tools that a musician now has in their pocket, most of them available for free. There is no excuse for a musician not to be using all these tools to the best of their availability to maximize their fanbase, enhance their fans experiences, turn fans into friends, and turn friends into evangelists. So much can be achieved simply by using these tools, and using them well.
