Tag Archive - community

Culturejam.com – Twitter Apps For Musicians

August 31, 2009 in Use with 0 Comments

culture-jam-logoA 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.

Managing Social Networks

August 3, 2009 in Interact with 1 Comment

privacypic1Myspace, 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.

Be Where Everyone Is, Be Where Everyone Isn’t

July 12, 2009 in Build with 1 Comment

stand-out-in-a-crowdTwo approaches to promoting your band, both of which are not mutually exclusive.  Meaning, you should try to do them both as best you can.

The first, Be Where Everyone Is… is all about knowing your target fans, and making sure that you are active in those places, both online and in the offline space.  Being active where your potential fans already spend their time – the bars, websites, blogs, concerts, radio stations, specialty record shops, etc.  Make sure you are spending your time there wisely.  Don’t think selfishly when you are spending time where everyone is, that’s the kiss of death.  Thinking selfishly would mean you’re going to where everyone is, and shouting about what you want to talk about, not what everyone else wants.  That mentality leads to unproductive behaviour like shoving flyers in hands, postering, posting uninteresting shameless promotional messages online, shouting about your myspace, etc.  When you are in the space where everyone else is, think instead about how you can add value to what’s already there – if that’s having meaningful conversations, sharing news that the others will care about, helping out others within the community, putting on free shows, asking questions, appropriately giving away some of your music etc.  I say appropriately… don’t force it at people who aren’t interested… just make it available, then go about doing all the other things that can add value to the community you’re in, and every once in a while remind people it’s there.  (not more than once a week.)  You’ve got to stand out in the crowd, but not by being the one who shouts loudest… do it by being someone who adds lots of value to the community.

The second one, Be Where Everyone Isn’t… doesn’t mean playing to an empty room.  It is more about creative thinking, and since you’re a musician, hopefully you’re really good at thinking creatively.  This one is is about finding unique places to put yourselves and your music, where people aren’t expecting to come into contact with it.  Now, this is useless if it doesn’t match with your target audience, for example if you’re in a heavy metal band it’s probably not worth performing live on a flatbed truck outside the Wine & Cheese Show… while you might get a few wine-lovers who love their metal, the fact is it’s not efficient, even though it’s unique and unexpected.  But if you were in a jazz-band, that might be a great thing for you to do.  Try finding other communities other than music-based ones that are likely to enjoy your music, but aren’t currently engaged in talking about music…. Major record labels have entire departments to this, and they call it lifestyle marketing.  Again, if you’re that metal band, itching to play on a flatbed trailer, try playing outside the Tattoo Convention instead of the Wine & Cheese one.  It’s all about thinking about your fans, or potential fans, considering where else they might go when they’re not actively seeking music, and being there too.  So if you’d appeal to an affluent business crowd, maybe it’s busking at the airport, or engaging people online on travel messageboards… On a larger scale, this is why corporate brands associate themselves with certain musicians… the Vans Warped Tour, Blackberry and U2 / John Mayer, etc.  That’s the ultimate, and it can result in gobs of money changing hands, but that’s not the point here… the point is all about association and getting in front of new potential fans.  Now, you could just sit there and say “but I can’t get a tour sponsorship”… or you could say… okay, bands like mine get sponsored by Vans, so maybe I should try getting my music played in local skateboard shops, or alternative shoe-stores.  I can’t tell you every example, because there’s so many opportunities out there…. but I am challenging you to try and find these unique but suitable places to engage your potential fans.

Have fun, get out there, add value to your communities, and put more music out into the world in unexpected places.  Sounds like a good plan to me.

If you have done something that adds value to your community, or if you’ve done something unique to promote your music, let us know what it is in the comments below!

In A Band? Go See A Band

June 17, 2009 in Interact with 1 Comment

A great chance to support other bands.

A great chance to support other bands.

So it’s the kickoff to the North By Northeast music festival here in Toronto, which is Canada’s version of the SXSW fest.  NXNE isn’t anywhere near as big as it’s southern brother, but in some ways that’s better… you don’t feel like you miss out on as much.  Oh, there’s lots happening, more than enough to fill your evenings with many options of great bands at each timeslot, but not to the point where every show you choose to see means that you are choosing NOT to see ten other shows that you really wanted to see.  Maybe only five.

At any rate, the above is beside the point I’m going to make, though it’s the NXNE festival that was the inspiration for the post.  The fact is, there’s a ton of great bands out there and they’re all looking for support.  If you’re in a band, and you want people to come see you, why not return the favour, or better yet… why not just get out there and support some other bands, for the fun of it?  Not only is it going to be educational, in that you’ll get to see more about who else is out there playing around in your town, but you might see a good band, you might get inspired, you might make some friends, make contacts for future show swapping, meet a bar booker, a potential manager, who knows what can happen.  But bands need to support each other these days more than ever, so why not put yourself out there?  Just being out, supporting your local community of bands and bars is a good thing that will come back to pay off for you when you aren’t even expecting it.

Who’s Listening?

May 20, 2009 in Interact with 5 Comments

listenThere are a lot of bands registering for Twitter these days, and while the subject of this post is not specific to Twitter, it certainly was inspired by what I’ve seen a lot of while spending time using the service.  I know I’ve touched on this topic briefly in one of my previous posts, but I feel this particular behaviour needed a post of it’s own.  The behaviour I’m talking about, is “broadcasting.”  This is when a band (or a person) uses the internet as an outlet to send outward one-way communications.  Something like “NEW SONG NOW POSTED ON OUR MYSPACE” is a broadcast.  Sure, it’s informative, but it’s not engaging at all, and it doesn’t make the most of the opportunity that having friends/followers listening to what your saying presents.  And when this is the ONLY type of communication being sent, and in the worst case scenarios, the same message is being broadcast repeatedly, with no other types of messages in between, the offending communicator ends up doing themselves more of a disservice than they would by deleting their account and keeping quiet.

The feeling that type of communication engenders in the listeners is one that tells them the band doesn’t care about them at all.  At least, not beyond needing some attention paid to them, and they don’t care from who.

In this modern age, attention is fleeting, and it is PRECIOUS!!!  Someone who follows you has gone out of their way to click on (or search out) your profile, and then click again to request to follow you (or subscribe to your email list, or friend you on Myspace, or what-have-you)… and while a few clicks don’t seem like a lot of effort, they really are.  Because that person didn’t have to bother at all!  That means you’re speaking to someone who wants to hear what you have to say.  Unless of course, you followed/friended them first, and they’re reciprocating to be polite.  Those people need to be treated with respect too, but while they have said it’s okay for you to send them your messages, they may not be your biggest fan (yet!), so keep that in mind when communicating and don’t presume anything.

The bottom line is, just because you’re online, it doesn’t mean the unspoken rules of conversational behaviour go out the window.  Respond to people who say something to you, answer people when they ask you questions, don’t just broadcast your promotional messages all the time.  Treat your listeners with respect, and take good care of the attention they are giving you, because it’s very easy for them to give their attention to someone else.

Listening to what your listeners are saying – responding, asking questions of them, and engaging them in conversation are things you can do to make the experience they get from listening to you, much more rewarding for your listeners.

And then they’ll listen to you even more.

Network Theory & The Indie Band

May 2, 2009 in Build, Featured, Focus with 0 Comments

networkI was recently watching a fascinating documentary called “Connected: The Power Of Six Degrees”  that focuses on a growing field of science called Network Theory.  It’s origins stem from the celebrity-game “Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon” that challenges people to connect two seemingly random actors through the movies they’ve been in and via their co-stars.  The documentary focuses on how the world is much smaller and more connected than we ever thought it was.  They even perform an experiment on the doc, where 40 random people around the world are given the task of getting a package delivered to a specific Harvard University Professor, the caveat being you can only send the package to someone you know, who you think can help you get the package closer to the target recipient.  Then that person has to send it on to someone they know, and repeat the process until the package arrives at the intended person.  In the documentary, four of the 40 packages mailed, actually end up arriving at the Harvard professor’s office, including one that originated from a random woman living in a small village in Africa.  The documentary delves into how network theory can potentially help the world accomplish such widespread goals as combat terrorism, prevent viral pandemics, cure cancer, and more.  It’s a really fascinating documentary and I highly recommend everyone watch it any way possible.

Relating the topic of the documentary to the subject matter of this blog, it’s easy to see how the network theory principles outlined and demonstrated in the documentary can be applied to music marketing.  The package experiment truly proves that by spreading something organically, step-by-step throughout your network, it is very possible to reach a great number of people.  By travelling along a bridge that exists between you and your contact, then hopping onto a bridge that exists between them and their next contact, and continuing that process repeatedly, along these pre-existing bridges, it seems that it’s possible to reach almost anyone and everyone in the world.  Given that, it would seem that focusing on the network to which you’re already connected (friends, family, co-workers and fans), and creating something they then feel compelled to share with each of their networks is a very effective method of spreading your message.  It would seem to be far more efficient to strengthen and utilize the network connections that already exist, than to try and build new network connections where ones didn’t already exist.

It may seem obvious, but why not try spending your energy creating something remarkable that your current network truly wants to spread, and then help motivate them to do so?

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