Sadly, this is not some sort of sinister comic-book style supervillain threat… it’s just the truth.  When you’re in a developing band, and you’re trying to get people out to shows, or trying to sell the first few shirts/download cards/CDs/what-have-you, you’ll most likely start by telling your close friends.  When you do, please keep something in mind… your friends will all ask you to get in to the show for free, to be on the guestlist, to have a free copy of the record, free shirt, etc.  But the truth of the matter is, if your friends are supportive of you and your efforts, they should be the first ones willing to reach into their pockets to pay your asking price.  They, of all people, should know how much hard work you’ve put into your music, and everything that goes along with it, because they’ve most likely been with you through it all.  So there really shouldn’t be an issue for them to pay a few dollars to support you.  Let your friends know that you need to keep the limited number of free spots/discs/etc. open so you can use them on potential business partners who you might be interested in working with instead.  They’ll understand.

Of course, it should be mentioned that you shouldn’t be milking your friends either… they shouldn’t be expected to show up for every single gig, or buy every single new merch-item you release, but if and when they want something, or want to come out to support, don’t be guilted into letting them have it for free, simply because they’re your friend.

Just make sure they know how very much their support means to you.

Try adding a hook!

So if you’re in a band and you’ve decided that you need to post more updates on your site than you currently are, or if you want to try and make your updates a little more interesting (and who doesn’t?)… try applying more concept.  More of a “hook.”

Here’s what I mean… say for example, you just want to keep your site updated frequently, so you’ve decided you will write a daily blog for an upcoming tour… or you are going to implement a weekly update to post… don’t just write about what random stuff happened that day, or that week or whatever.  Posts like “so we woke up in the van, brushed our teeth in McDonalds bathroom, and set out on the road again… only to run out of gas, blow a tire, and overheat the engine all at once” are only okay if you’re REALLY interesting (best to assume you’re not), or if something really extraordinary happened… but for the most part, it will be generic updating of mundane life that isn’t going to really endear anyone to you, or make them want to come back to read the next one, or forward it to their friends…

One idea to make things more interesting, is to try coming up with a concept or theme for your updates… one band I know of wrote an entire tour blog where every entry was focused solely on documenting the unique filth and grunge that was the bathrooms at the bars they were playing in each night.  It was entertaining, and made me want to listen to the band, because I thought they were interesting.  Maybe you’ve got the opportunity to go on tour with your favorite band of all time, so you decide to write about your experience getting to know them, and watch them every night… even though it doesn’t actually talk so much about you or what you’ve done, that’s a great hook!  Not only does it show you’re excited about the tour, but you’re tapping into the other band’s audience as well, then they see how excited you are about seeing the other band, then they think you’re interesting and they’ll check your band out too.

Being more interesting isn’t the only reason to apply a stronger concept to your updates though… Something else happens when you’ve put the thought into it and come up with a hook for them too, and that is you’ll find them a lot easier to write because that extra bit of focus really helps to spur the creative juices on.  Before you know it, updates will be flowing out of you like crazy, they’ll be more interesting, more engaging, and more likely to create return readers.

And your own creativity is the only limit to what you could use as a hook, so since you’re all really creative musicians, this should be easy!  Have fun with it.

A friend sent me the link to check out culturejam.com – after poking around on the site for a bit, it seems like they’re doing some interesting work in the twitter-world, with a specific eye toward music marketing.  One of the main things they seem to be doing is providing a twitter-app, that will back-end a download function.  Most of the examples they provide on the site seem to live on a sub-domain of the artist website.  So for example, if you visit http://twitter.moby.com you’ll get to listen to the entire record, then there’s a box near the bottom of the page that allows you to post a tweet-review of the record, (the suggested tweet already has an URL shortened link included) and in exchange for the tweet, you are then given access to a free exclusive download. It’s a great way to tap into your current followers networks and engage them in a transaction… their tweet for your free download.

I don’t know how I feel about the value proposition, and what is the value of a single tweet?  It could be very attractive to developing artists, however it also seems like some of the artists they’re working with are fairly established… Moby, Imogen Heap, Travis Barker/DJ AM among them, though there are others who I was not immediately familiar with.

Might be a good idea, and the service seems to be a valuable one, although there’s no mention on culturejam’s website as to how much an artist/label has to pay to use their services.  At any rate, it’s worth a look.  You can check out other examples of their services, listen to a podcast by the CEO, and sign up for their mailing list, or contact them directly if you’re interested in trying them out.

www.culturejam.com

And if anyone’s worked with them already, post your experience in the comments section.

This is the subject of a panel topic I have submitted to SXSW2010.  The focus of the panel would be to have a discussion over the use of interaction and interactive tools, by bands and musicians.  Some musicians say they would rather remain private, and let their music do the speaking to the fans… others are more than happy to open up and communicate directly with fans.  Is one strategy better than the other?  Are they both mutually exclusive?  Do fans really want to know every daily activity their favorite musicians do, or does sharing too much remove some of the unattainable magic of being a star?

Here are some specific questions designed to lead the discussion:

• I’m a musician, should I be blogging/twittering my life for my fans?
• What tools are used online by fans and musicians to communicate?
• Is there such a thing as sharing too much information?
• How often should I be posting online?
• What are a fans expectations regarding online interaction with musicians?
• Does a musician need to answer every question/email/messageboard post/tweet send their way?
• Can I communicate regularly while still maintaining my privacy?
• What sort of things will a fan think is interesting reading online?
• How can a mundane activity be turned into an interesting post that a fan might care about?
• What if I want to remain mysterious? How do I do it, and can I get away with it? Will that hurt my career?
• Does a developing artist have a different set of “rules of engagement” than a superstar artist?

If you like this topic, and think it would make a valuable addition to the discussions at SXSW2010, I would greatly appreciate it if you would vote for this topic to be added to the program.

SImply click the “Thumbs Up” image at the beginning of the article, and follow the instructions!

Thanks very much,

Ian

Wow, it’s been too long since my last article… will try not to do that again…

Okay, I suppose I shouldn’t speak for all cellphone companies, but in past experience I’ve seen cellphone companies offer fantastic incentives to join their network.  They’re offering huge discounts on the handsets, at times even free, very attractive talk and data plans, etc.  We all know the catch is that they want you to sign a contract with them for years, and then sometimes it can be difficult to ever get out of the agreement, but that’s not the point of this article… the interesting thing is that all their best offers and incentives are saved only for people who haven’t ever given them any prior business.  It’s all about the new customer.  Once they’ve got you, it can feel at times like they don’t care about you anymore, or certainly not as much as someone new.  Suddenly, your hard-earned business that they really went out of the way to get from you doesn’t feel like it matters so much anymore.  You’re yesterday’s news.

Doesn’t feel very good does it?  Doesn’t engender any sort of loyalty, or make the customer feel appreciated very much at all.  I’ve heard many people rail against their cell-phone provider – I’m personally quite happy with mine at the moment, but it’s not really because they’re making me feel special or valued as a repeat customer… my satisfaction comes from a quality handset, and quality cellular service.  Meaning, they’re simply delivering the goods they promised, at a level of quality I am content with.  But I don’t feel any loyalty toward them, or feel that they’ve treated me in any way special at all, in exchange for my continued business.

I feel like bands can sometimes spend all their energy trying to entice new people to listen to their music, and once a person has bought your music. or come to a show, there’s sometimes very little effort put towards making that person feel appreciated or special, beyond the band putting on a good show.  (simply delivering the goods as promised.)

There can be lots of similarities between the cellphone company example, and a band… so I have to wonder what would happen if a band started to treat their existing customers as the most special ones, instead of future potential customers.  There could be repeat purchase incentives, special offers made only to your best customers, exclusive shows only for people who bought a certain expensive merch item,… the sky’s the limit really, when it comes to ideas.

What would you do (or even better… what ARE you doing) to make your current fans and customers feel special?

Myspace, Twitter, Facebook, LastFM, buzznet, Bebo, Xanga, Hi5, Youtube, Reverbnation, iLike, imeem, orkut, and the list goes on… there is seemingly a TON of different social networks that a band could potentially have a presence on.  The problem is, each one then requires updating and managing… which can become very time consuming.  The other problem is that these social networks seem to pop up all the time, there’s always new ones around the bend, and we’re now starting to see public perception shift away from some towards others.  So we have to start preparing for the fact that ones we’ve already been using might start to wane in popularity, being replaced by newer, better options.  It’s inconceivable to think they’ll be around forever.

So what do you do?  Spend all your time creating profiles on all these different sites, adding friends, interacting, posting the same update twenty times across all your platforms, and build up your networks only to have people lose interest in that site?  It can seem overwhelming.  How do you make all this work for you, without spending every waking minute of your days working on all this?

One way to make it manageable is to prioritize them.  There should be one main place on the internet that fans should become conditioned to understand is your “home” online.  This should be the place that all the other places online drive back to.  It should be the place that news gets posted first, new music is posted, videos premiered, tour dates get announced, everything.  Ideally, it should include a way for people to purchase products from you as well.  This should be your website, hosted at your own domain, that way you have control over it.  You also get access to all the metrics, traffic, geo-tracking, etc. so you can monitor your growth.  You should also be trying to build your own email contact list via the site, because email is still the main way of communicating between people online, and if the list is yours, you can control the communication.

Now, sure, it sounds like all the above things (news, music, video, tourdates, fan-messaging, etc.) can all take place via Myspace, or Facebook.  That is true.  They can.  But the difference is you don’t own Facebook, or Myspace.  All the user-data belongs to them, and for the most part you can’t get access to it, and therefore cannot learn from it.  You don’t have control over who’s a member and who isn’t, and you don’t have control over what rules they impose, or even when or if they shut the site down!  Imagine having build up your Myspace for years to the point where there were thousands and thousands of people there who actively wanted to connect with you, and then Myspace goes out of business.  What do you do now???  You suddenly would have no way of getting in touch with any of those people.  So be sure to be building your site and your email lists up first and foremost.

For your overall communication strategy, look at it like this… your website is there for the people who want to engage with your music, above anything else.  The time they spend on your website is all about you.  If they’re on your site, they’re actively paying attention to you, and you can speak to them that way.  All the other profile pages that you create on outside sites are there to speak to the people who are already using those sites, interacting with eachother.  Those people are on those sites interacting whether you are there or not.  You need to be on these sites so those people can find you and connect with you in the way they have already chosen.  You should not be spending your time trying to drive people to connect with you on any of those sites, instead you should be on these sites so that the people who already use that site can connect with you, and get information on you.  Keep a few of these sites updated regularly (I suggest Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter), but most importantly use these sites as ways to let people know that there are new things posted up on your website.  So a news item gets posted up on your site, then you post a facebook message, myspace post, and twitter a summary of that news item and give people a link to your website if they want to read more.

All the other social networks can also be similarly viewed (as ways for people who already use those sites to connect with you) but you don’t need to keep them completely updated all the time.  It’s okay to have fairly static pages on these sites, as long as they’re still complete.  They don’t need to have news, and tourdates, or other ever-changing info, but they should have bio, photos, music, and links to your other sites.  Create profile pages on these networks and set them up in such a way so that people who visit your page there will know where they should click through to, in order to find out where you really are engaging with fans online.  This can also be made even easier by services like Ping.fm that will actually update several social-networks at once… this is a perfect thing to use for these sites.  Drive these folk back to your Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, and then ultimately back to your website.

If you imagine an upside-down triangle, split horizontally into three regions… the top level (the widest part of the triangle) is all your tertiary social network sites – all those drive down toward the next level, which represents your active social networks, like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter.  Then, in the end those continue to drive down to the bottom of the triangle, or the ultimate destination… your website, where exists your ultimate online home.  The real place in which you should want your fans to congregate and interact with you.