Sites that are interlinked together are subwebs (subsets) within the World Wide Web.  Search engines rank and score websites by measuring the authority and the authenticity of every subweb on the Internet.
 
The stronger your subweb is, the higher your site will rank against keywords, phrases and concepts (as categorized and tagged) that occur on both your site and within your site’s ENTIRE subweb.
 
Authority and authenticity are weighed and measured by search engines that use complex and evolving algorithms that size (metaphorically speaking) the entire width, height, depth, complexity and the population density of your entire subweb.
 
The question every marketer should have is: how do I strengthen my subweb?
The answer is: you have to gather authority by delivering authentic value that real humans link to.  This sounds more complex than it really is.  Here are three steps that will get you there:
 
Step 1 - Create something valuable and people will share it.  Internet users share and embed links to original, high-value content (information) that genuinely informs, educates or entertains.  The amount of link sharing and embedding that occurs is proportionate to the value that your content delivers to a specific audience.  The sum of all this linking becomes the schematic of your subweb.  
 
Step 2 - After you have created something valuable, step two is to deliver it to places where it will acquire the most authentic and authoritative links, as determined by how search engines weigh and measure subwebs (see third paragraph above).
 
With this in mind, the best places to post your content are on open, unbiased and focused (genre or topic-specific) sites that aggregate serious and engaged audiences that include contributors, readers, viewers, and listeners that have common (generically speaking) values, interests and desires.  Placing your content elsewhere has lesser value, as the linking (as measured by search engines) simply weighs and measures less.
 
It’s a matter of trust: sites that are open to comments (diversity of opinion); that are unbiased (not beholden to sponsors); and where audiences have shared values, interests and desires (your niche) simply generate more authentic and authoritative linking (to and from) than random, dissimilar sites around the Internet.
 
Step 3 - Now that you have strategically placed your content creation, simply make sure you have embedded a link to where you live on the Internet within it; by doing so, you will have increased the authority and authenticity of your own subweb; and the next time search engines weigh and measure (index) subwebs, your site’s search ranking will increase because of it.  Moreover, you will also be able to count on the visitor traffic that will surely originate from these same links back to you!


This post does not have a lot to do with music, and I am not an expert on how search engines work.  A lot of the ideas and concepts in this post I randomly borrowed from others, and I am looking for feedback from MTT readers that know more about this subject than me.  

What this post is however, is a brief description of how Music Think Tank works for me.

about Bruce Warila

Stay out of the scene

Conventional wisdom in the music business has it that you should send promo copies of new releases to music publications and music radio. This, of course, makes perfect sense. People who are reading about music are likely to be interested in the music that you make, as long as it’s within the ballpark of the music that they came to the periodical or the broadcaster for.

The logical extension of this idea — that you should send promotions to the online equivalent of music broadcasters and publications — also makes perfect sense. Therefore, one of the most clearly sensible things to do would be to locate MP3 blogs to have much in common with the kind of music that you promote.

Here’s a good place to start looking:
MonkeyFilter’s MP3 blog listing

MP3 blogs are written by enthusiasts who have become opinion leaders in their field. They provide MP3 use of songs that they recommend to their readership. This differs from a music publications in the sense that every review is therefore necessarily a positive one. So by extension, if you send them your music and they choose to talk about it on a blog they are doing so as an opinion leader with their implicit approval.

Of course you have to content worth the idea that your music is now being given away for free to potential customers. However as we have discussed, and will no doubt discussed further at great length, this should not concern you. At any rate, MP3 blogs typically leave music up online for only a week or so, so that bandwidth costs do not become excessive.

Since it costs nothing, or next to nothing, to send promos via MP3, it does make sense to cast the net more widely than you might if you were posting physical CDs. With that in mind, I would like to propose a further lateral step beyond the logical MP3 blog approach.

People who write blogs with large readerships, but which are not about music, also probably quite like music.

That is to say, enthusiasts and opinion leaders in the area of politics, popular culture, technology — even accountancy — could still form part of your potential constituency, even if they are not readers of music publications. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that the vast majority of music buyers do not read music publications.

It’s probably also true that most of these opinion leaders are never sent promotional copies of music. The chances of an MP3 blogger choosing to promote your music on their blog is probably slimmer than the chances of a political blogger promoting your music on their blog… simply because being sent a promotional disc is nothing new to people in the music business — but quite a novelty outside of it.

So picking me a bunch of blogs that you have some affinity for (other than musical affinity) and locating the authors via e-mail might actually be a very good way to expose your music to a readership that isn’t looking in the places you might ordinarily expect.

You may find you want to do this more thematically. For instance, readers of blogs about wine, food, expensive cars, or right-wing politics may not be the ideal audience of your angry indie protest band.

However, there’s nothing to say that readers of blogs about hi-fi equipment, surf boarding, alsatian breeding, or indeed someone’s personal life, might not have clear areas of intersection with your kind of music.

So, strategy: spend some time on the Internet having a look at a range of different blogs. Track down the ones with significant readership that may have things in common with the kind of people you might expect to listen to your music.

Put a couple of MP3s on your website somewhere that the authors of these blogs can access them (but which aren’t immediately obvious to the general public). Send the blogger of choice a polite e-mail saying that you enjoy their writing, and that you would very much like for them to listen to your music. If they like it, you’d be very pleased for them to give it away as an exclusive gift to their readership.

For most recipients, this will most likely be a first. The sheer novelty of it will at least get you past the first hurdle. It will get listened to. However, I’d suggest you politely request that if they are going to go ahead and give it to their fellow alsation-fanciers, that they host the MP3’s on their own server. That way, they’re not just giving out a free link to your music to all and sundry but are instead valuing the promotional gifts to their own constituency and managing its distribution.

As a PR strategy, this strikes me as an incredibly effective ploy, and one I haven’t seen put in practice as yet. It gets your music in front of a whole new crowd of people that you might ordinarily never have had access to simply because they are not the people who read the music publications or listen to the radio stations you imagine they might.

In other words, it’ll get you talked about in the vast majority of scenes untouched by the rest of the music industry. Which strikes me as potentially of some value.

I can not believe that March is upon us that means only one thing… It’s SXSW time again! Undoubtedly it will be just as full-on as last year with over 100,000 attendees expected to flood the venues and streets of Austin downing (free) Dixie and (free) BBQ and soaking up the music and the mayhem….

 If you are packing your bags for Austin Here are my tips for you (This guide is not just for SXSW; it’s also for any music conference out there!)

 

Envision What You Want Before You Arrive

My first bit of advice: Arrive prepared. Know who will be attending and create some goals before you get there.

 

Attend at Least One Music Conference Each Year

I believe all serious musicians should make it part of their job to attend at least one conference a year.  They can be expensive to get to, but think abut it this way: Music lessons were at one time expensive, and so was your equipment and those things are also vital for your career. Conferences are the best place to meet people who work in and around the music industry and are a relaxed environment to connect with people in it who can change the course of your career.

Austin, Texas, a wonderful city, and its distractions are many. But, keep in mind that this is not a vacation. It’s a work-related learning experience, and with a little planning and foresight you can have a million-dollar conference.

 

Before You Go, Get Connected!

SXSW Social Media:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SXSWFestival

MySpace:www.myspace.com/sxsw

Twitter: www.twitter.com/sxsw

 

Get registered to the South by Southwest Directory

Go through the site, which is VERY user friendly and links to your Twitter and Facebook seamlessly to determine whom you may want to meet before you arrive. Drop them a personal e-mail using their interface.

 

Bring Business Cards, Fizzkicks Cards & Postcards

Yes, You should have a business card and your card should not just have your name and number.  It should have good information about what you or your band sounds like (your pitch) , your Twitter handle, Myspace & Facebook URLS, and links to any other places people might be able to find you online. A photo of you or a band logo would also be highly recommended.

 

Don’t Haul A Ton Of CDs

I do not recommend bringing a lot of CDs. People are overwhelmed with free CDs and they won’t want to carry them home so it’s better to get people’s business cards and mail them a CD or better yet send your music digitally through Bandcamp of Soundcloud as a follow-up after you get home.

 

Talk To Strangers

Don’t be scared to take risks and meet people. Conferences are friendly places.  Just walk right up and ask “So, what brings you here?” You’ll have a new BFF in no time.

 

Attend Panels – You Will Learn Something J 

It’s tempting to blow the panels off and hit all of the free day parties but I encourage you to make an effort to sit in on at least one or two panels per day, on any topic that interests you, and take notes.

 

Get Mentored!

Most conferences have amazing mentoring sessions where you can sign up to have one-on-one face time with the industry peeps. Some of the most important people in the music business will be sitting there ready to meet with you.

When you do go to a one-on-one mentoring panel, be prepared to meet these people, and make sure that you have done your research and have specific questions to ask them.

 

Follow Up!

The moment you get home, make sure to send thank you notes, e-mails and follow up with every single person that you met. If appropriate, add them to your e-mail list. Never send your pitch or talk about business in the first initial e-mail. Get people to respond to your follow up by just being friendly. If you do not follow up your trip and hard work will have been a waste of your time. So, don’t rip yourself off here!

Please add your own tips or tricks here:



After 45 hours of work over six weeks, my song is one of the 118 approved to be in the RBN Store when it launches. My last article laid out what it takes to get your song in the game, namely a deep skill set and lots of time. While I managed to clock in well under my 60-80 hour estimate, I had a considerable head start. I’d already messed around with Reaper, my stems were ready to go, I’d played through most of Rock Band 1 and 2 on all instruments, and my Xbox 360 was already networked to my studio computer. Plus, I’ve been a full-time mastering engineer for twelve years and a computer geek all my life. Even so, without the expert guidance of the folks at creators.rockband.com, my song never would’ve made it through the pipeline. They are a wonderful group of people – true professionals in every sense of the word.

Knowing what I know now, would I do it again? Probably not. Here’s why:

1. The authoring guidelines are rules, not suggestions. I mistakenly counted on some wiggle room. I figured if the parts made sense and felt right to play, they’d be acceptable. Not so. For example, on medium difficulty, green-blue chords are not allowed. There can be no kicks or snares between right hand time keeping gems, period. There are lots of rules, not all of them intuitive. Personally, I think that’s a good thing. My initial concern that amateurs would flood the store with flawed product was unfounded.
2. Playtesting others’ songs can take as long as authoring your own. Authoring is a collaborative process. It takes me about an hour to playtest a song completely, on all instruments at all difficulty levels. You might need a dozen playtests to prepare your song for peer review, so you should plan to do at least that many for others. It’s not just a goodwill gesture. If you don’t actively contribute to the community, nobody will touch your songs.
3. Hiring a professional is affordable. If you’re willing to share the royalties with an authoring company, your upfront cost can be as low as zero. There are plenty of companies eager to chart your song, with a variety of pricing structures.
4. Professionals do a better job. Authoring is both an art and a science, and experience matters. No two companies will chart the same song the same way. Check out the expert previews on YouTube and you’ll spot considerable variation. It’s not easy to capture the magic of a real live performance.

Currently, Noble Rhythm is charting another one of my songs. They’ll take half the royalties, but no money up front. Obviously they’re a lot more optimistic about my sales potential than I am!

Brian Hazard is a recording artist with fifteen years of experience promoting his seven Color Theory albums. His Passive Promotion blog emphasizes “set it and forget it” methods of music promotion. Brian is also the head mastering engineer and owner of Resonance Mastering in Huntington Beach, California.

Have you had some success at a music conference?

Could you distill a lesson from that success that you could share as advice to other musicians in under 2 minutes?

I’m doing the opening keynote-style one-hour talk at the South by Southwest Music Conference in three weeks, and I’d like to include you, if so.

The subject is practical advice on how to get the most out of the conference. Similar to this article. (Please read that link first.)

During my talk, I’m going to feature videos of advice from my musician/music-biz friends. I thought it’d be nice to share the exposure, and good for the audience to hear many different opinions.

So if you have some short advice from experience, please:

1. Compose your thoughts to deliver it succinctly, between 20 seconds and 2 minutes. The shorter the better. Base it on fact, not opinion. Tell about your specific success at a conference, and the shareable lesson learned from it.
2. Record a video of you speaking this advice. (Audio quality is crucial! Avoid room reverb.)
3. Upload the video in the highest quality possible to vimeo.com
4. Email me the URL to your video when uploaded

I’ll use the best ones in my keynote speech, displayed on the big screen to the audience, with your name and URL in a big font.

Feel free to email me the text of your advice first, if you want feedback before bothering to record and upload a video.

I’ll reply back to every email, to let you know if I can use it or not.

VIDEO DEADLINE: NEXT WEEKEND: Sunday March 7, 2010.

(Of course the earlier the better, so if I can’t use it, there’s time to tell you why, if you want to re-do it.)

The other day I had the pleasure to spend the afternoon with my son Elijah.

After hanging out and playing with him for a while, the scene turned pretty nasty when the talk of a lollipop surfaced.

Now, anyone who has kids knows very well that when the discussion around candy hit’s the table, you know you’re in for a tough negotiation. They usually nag until that sugar stick is firmly wedged in their mouth without interruption.

Being that it was late in the afternoon and dinner was approaching, I had to pull out my deceptive ninja tricks to keep him from wanting that lollipop he was screaming so loudly for.

As you might imagine, as the standoff continued, the scene got pretty messy. It wasn’t until twenty minutes after a barrage of screams and cry’s, that I finally let him have his way.

Finally, as silence and calm hit our living room once again, I was able to breathe calmly again and re-gain my thoughts. I started watching him in his delight eating his lollipop and started thinking about the whole situation in a little more detail.

Other than realizing that my son is one heck of a negotiator, there were a few other thoughts I had that I think might help you and your band in those moments of panic and doubt though the up’s and down’s of your music career.

1. Never Take “NO” For An Answer

In this business persistence is everything.

I know so many bands that get disheartened by one sour review or one agent who doesn’t like them or one radio station that will never play their music.

Remember this fact and be inspired by it – The Beatles were turned down by every single major record label before they released their first single.

The Offspring recorded a bunch of albums and toured for ten years before having their breakthrough album Smash. TEN YEARS!!

The point is that there are so many times and cases where you just don’t know where or when that big moment is going to arrive and the key is to never stop and never ever, for any reason take NO for an answer.

You just have to keep going, just like my son, who’s father eventually caved in and gave him the lollipop.

Back in the day, our band Noise Addict sent our music to a radio station. We got a letter back and the first sentence they wrote was –

We think your band sucks!

Aside from being totally funny and comical, we took it with a grain of salt and kept going. About five years later that very radio station were playing our song on high rotation.

Once when there was a big push on that album, we took that letter in to them and had a good laugh about it. But the point is that getting a No or a You Suck should only strengthen your resolve, just like with my son persistence to get his lollipop.

2. Find That Little Wedge or Opening and Milk It

When my son went to war for his lollipop, he didn’t just kick and hit me until he got what he wanted (three year olds today are much smarter than that), He pulled reverse psychology tricks on me. He got his little sister to gang up on me and he also started running around the house making a mess until I conceded.

In short, he kept working all the angles until he found that little wedge that caused me to cave in – screaming and crying!

I’m not sure about you but one thing I cannot handle is the constant crying of a kid. It drives me crazy. So after five minutes of screaming and crying, his wedge of opportunity opened and delivered him exactly what he wanted.

The same holds true with the music business. There are so many ways to penetrate and get to the right people in this business. The first trick is to really know and understand who your prospect actually is. This is really a whole process in itself.

Once you’ve covered this ground, then it’s a matter of understanding how to pull their strings and find their soft spots. Finding that wedge or opening to lure them in and get whatever it is your looking for from them.

In most cases, it might just be the need to have a great story up your sleeve to suck them into your world or being able to rattle of some compelling statistics about your band to prick their ears up, but the key is to be able to find that wedge and milk it, just like my little boy did.

3 Frequency Frequency Frequency

I guess the most frustrating part of dealing with children sometimes is that when they don’t get what they want, they keep going at you like a broken record, and I think we all know that the concept of frequency really works.

When a message is thrown at you over and over again in a concentrated period of time, the chances of escaping is very hard.

Frequency works!

All successful ad agencies will tell you that a consumer needs to hear a message at least eight times until they’ll act or respond.

I guess for bands, it means that to really create any sort of ground swell you must be out there working all the angles in your music scene so potential fans and industry insiders cannot avoid you.

Play play play. Even if it’s to no-one at first. Even if it’s at your local library BBQ. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that your creating some sort of frequency and consistency.

Email your fans once a week, post on your facebook page every few days with updates. Whatever it is, just keep doing it….. If anything, just for the sake of frequency.

Once an A&R guy sees you in three or four places that he himself is already prowling for new acts, or hears about you from two of his trusted friends or see’s you in a trade journal he trusts, you’ll start to see how the tides turn and the interest in your band will take shape.

Frequency for your band’s profile also involves understanding the different types of “media” (radio, TV, online, print etc) that are out there and knowing how to get free exposure and frequency from them.

Again, there is so much to be said about each topic, however leveraging these “medias” and creating frequency is so important to help attract industry attention and build your fan base.

So there you have it, three innovative thoughts around my super stressful Sunday afternoon session with my son Elijah. I do have to say though that he’s not half as bad as I made out.

If his music career will be anything like his desire for lollipops, you’ll all be hearing much more about him very soon!

By Daniel Kohn 


Check out my blog - www.AskKohnny.com

Check out my new book - Inside The Music Biz

Does that seem like an odd question to ask? Read this and I think you’ll agree there are many times when you simply lie to yourself about the workings of the music business and how to find success in it. And it’s costing you big time!

Let me explain …

In the 1990s, back when I published a local music magazine in St. Louis, Missouri, I remember feeling so frustrated at times. Especially when certain businesses wouldn’t advertise in my publication or sponsor music events I put on.

“What’s their problem?” I would whine. Didn’t they see all the work I’d put in to create a great resource? Can’t a guy with a good idea get a break in this town?

Of course, I really knew the answers.

In some situations, the business and the event simply weren’t a good match. I may have wanted their participation, but from their perspective, they needed to allocate their limited marketing dollars to other things. There was a part of my brain that realized that, but I paid no attention to it.

In other situations, I simply hadn’t put in the time to develop the relationships that other media people had. Therefore, I didn’t get those ad dollars. I even told myself many times how I needed to get out and meet with more potential advertisers and sponsors. But I rarely acted on it. And as a result, I lost out on some business.

I knew what the problems (and the solutions) were. But I chose to ignore them, get frustrated, and chalk it up to other factors that were out of my control.

In other words, I was pretending to not know something … when I actually knew it all along.

So, what are YOU pretending to not know?

For instance, you know … people are easily distracted and that it can take a number of follow-up attempts before you get a response from somebody.

Yet … you give up after one attempt to reach someone and complain about the lack of response.

You know … what inspires you and your friends to support a new artist and buy their music.

Yet … you act as if you have no idea how to promote your own music and connect with fans.

You know … the importance of spending time practicing and writing new material.

Yet … you settle for mediocre performances and songs that “will do” when you put out new music.

You know … how you like to be treated and communicated with when someone has something of value for you.

Yet … you pretend to have no clue about how to leave a voice mail message or send an email to someone who can help you.

I guarantee, you know way more than you give yourself credit for.

So, I ask you again:

What are you pretending to NOT know?

-Bob

http://TheBuzzFactor.com/
http://MusicPromotionBlog.com/

Here I go again….  It’s Part 6 in my 1,000 True Fans series. 

For this installment I asked my new friends at Sorted Noise in Nashville to introduce me to some of their artists who are doing it right.  I am happy that they introduced me to Josh Ryan. Josh fronts the group Secrets in Stereo and in just two years has made some impressive inroads by using social media (blogs) to bond with a tight knit community of fans who support him. What is interesting about Josh is the fact that he makes a lion’s share of his money from TV/Film placements and not from live shows. 

Ariel Hyatt: Do you believe that 1,000 true fans is a theory that can work?

Josh Ryan: (quoting directly from the article) “Someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work.”

Then, geez…absolutely.  Obviously, this means that it’s the artist’s responsibility to continue to crank out content, and give them something to buy.  And I think (as you are finding out with previous “In Defense” interviews) the number is much lower than 1,000 for a solo artist because of the low overhead.  Although I write, record, and promote under a band name, I’m actually a one man show.  So, this applies to my situation.

 

AH:  Are you currently making a full-time living as a musician from your music? And How many years did it take you from day job to part time job to F/T Musician?

JR:Yes.  My head is above water at the moment. When I moved to Nashville 3 years ago, I forced myself to only work part time.  I live by this thought process… Whatever you spend the most hours in the day doing, then that’s what you are.  If you work in a warehouse for 40 hours a week, and write songs and play shows on the weekends, then you aren’t a songwriter.  You’re a warehouse worker.  Writing songs and playing shows is just your hobby.  Like watching football. 

I know that thought process may rub some people the wrong way, but it worked for me.  I didn’t move to Nashville to be a waiter or a warehouse worker.  And, if that meant trading in financial “security” for time in the day to spend on my real job, then that’s what I had to do.

But, to answer your question more directly… I’ve been fully supporting myself financially with music for two years.

 

AH:  If possible (I know you may not want to share this information), can you share the amount of money you have grossed in the last 12 months, broken

JR: I’ll give you a larger sample if that’s ok.  Let’s look at the two years I’ve been self sustaining.  Also, I’ll break it down into Direct (money made directly from Secrets in Stereo music) and Indirect (money made from outside opportunities created by Secrets in Stereo music).  I will get into the details of each in the next question.

 

Direct Gross = approximately $80,000

Indirect Gross = approximately $17,000

Total Gross over the last 2 years = $97,000

 

AH:. Can you give us a breakdown percentage wise of the following:

JR: DIRECT

A. Licensing for TV/Film/Advertising 59%

I made a decision early on to make this my focus for Secrets in Stereo.  Obviously, it is.  And, that will be reflected in the following numbers as well.

B. Live shows 0%

Yep… that number is right.  For a few reasons.  One, I live in Nashville.  You don’t make money playing in Nashville.  You lose money.  And, two, my overhead is very high to take what I do (and do it right) on the road.  Partly, because I use hired guns and those hired guns are good and expect a certain amount of pro level pay (Again, remember, I live in Nashville).  And partly because I have a fairly elaborate show.  Lots of players, lots of tracks, lots going on.

I intentionally listed “Live Shows” second, because I want to illustrate a point… There are more ways to make money in this business than those on  the traditional route.  Hitting the road makes A LOT of sense for A LOT of bands.  It just didn’t and doesn’t for me.  When I play shows, they have to count.  They have to have a purpose.  And that purpose (for me) isn’t necessarily to make money.

C. Digital Sales 14%

This is securely connected with licensing.  Placements equal digital sales. And the best part about these sales, is you don’t have to do anything (outside of the placement, of course) to get them.  You make money while you sleep. 

D. Fan Funding 5%

This is an on going campaign (as of Feb’10) for my next album.

E. Merchandise 5%

F. Physical CD Sales 2%

My focus is on digital.

 

INDIRECT

A. Licensing other artist’s music 9%

B. Consulting 5%

C. Session Singing? 1%

 

AH:How many die hard fans, fans that will buy everything and anything from you, would you imagine that you have?

JR: About 100. 

 

AH: How long did it take you to build up this many fans?

JR: From the day I launched my Myspace (wow… that sounds so stupid now) until today.  2 1/2 years.  It’s definitely a snowball effect.  It was pretty hard at first.  The key for me was not only having small tipping points but being able to attack and capitalize on them. 

My first being my first placement 2 years ago… a 2:30 feature on an MTV show called Engaged and Underage.  The second that episode went off, I was all over blogs and message boards making sure everyone knew who sang that song.  Some of those fans I made then are what I would consider “die hard” fans today.

 

AH: What Do you mean you were “All Over Blogs? This seems like a very interesting tactic! Can you elaborate - what type of blogs did you hit?, how did you find them?  what did you say when you got on them?  how did you make “fans” out of that?

JR: There are really 3 levels to this tactic…

1. First things first.  I needed to be found when someone went to Google or Yahoo to search for me after they’ve heard the song.  I call it “Proactive Searchability” Although MTV has gotten better at this, at the time, it was hard for viewers to find who sings a song they heard on a show.  So, when I found out my song was going to air, I went to Yahoo Answers and Google Answers, created a profile, and asked the questions that I thought a viewer would ask.  Something like, “Who sang the song in Episode 7 of Engaged and Underage with the lyrics ‘I don’t wanna live a day with out you, I just wanna make you happy’?”  And this would all be before the airdate.  Then, I logged in with my Secrets in Stereo account, and answered the question (with links of course).  Voila!  Proactive searchability.

2. The next thing site I targeted was MTV itself.  They have a cool blog for everyone one of their shows called MTV Remote Control.  Engaged and Underage has been off the air for a while, and they had a blog post yesterday.  So, it’s pretty active.  For this site, I just went through the comments and looked for people asking who sang the song.  Then, I just answered them.  Simple as that.  Also, an answer is always better than just posting a comment announcing who you are.  If no one’s asking who you are, then your music didn’t connect.

Also, on MTV, they air all episodes online.  This is a great opportunity to become a part of the conversation as it happens.   The Hills gets over 1,000,000 plays online alone.  So, when I had a song or two in that show, I would stake out the live forum, waiting for someone to ask who sang that song.

3.  The third level of this tactic, is all the 3rd party blogs, forums, etc about the show.  All I did was Google “Engaged and Underage,” and a slew of sites popped up.  Obviously, Facebook groups were a great place to start.  But, there were also a handful of independent blogs that were ecstatic about hearing from an artist that was on their favorite show.

 

AH: Do you have a strategy with long-term and short-term goals in place to get to 1,000 true fans or for any future looking aspects of your music career? If so, can you share these goals?

JR: I have long-term, short-term, mid-term, weekly, daily, hourly, minute-ly goals (OK, maybe not “mintute-ly.”  That’s not even a word.)  But, all of those goals point towards my overall objective… Grab a potential fan’s attention, collect their info, convert them to a die-hard.

Tactically, that might play out like this…

1. A potential fan hears one of my songs on Grey’s Anatomy

2. I’ve written a blog on my site about the placement entitled “My song Not Today featured in the November 17th episode of Grey’s Anatomy.”  So, when that potential fan Googles “who sang the song with the lyrics, ‘not today, not tomorrow’ in the November 17th episode of Grey’s Anatomy,” guess who they find?

3. On my site, I give away a lot of music in exchange for emails.

4. 3 months down the road, my new fan knows all my songs by heart.  I send her email asking her to join the subscription portion of my site (A big goal for me in 2010).  She does.  And, now she’s a die hard.

AH: Have you ever made money from social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, or Ustream? Can you please tell us exactly how and correlate them?

JR: I don’t really see them as money makers.  Although, I’m sure the sites have effected sales.  If you’re smart and use them tastefully and creatively like Amanda Palmer’s auction, then it works.  But, even with that example, she didn’t look at Twitter as an ecommerce solution.  She looked at is a communication and community building solution.  It just so happens money was involved.  The moment we start looking at Twitter and Facebook as money makers, they will become Myspace.  

 

AH: Has your connection to the podcasting and online world, and your popularity with podcasters helped you to earn more money?

JR: I made a big push with PMN [Podsafe Music Network] a while back, and got great coverage.  I need to revisit that.

 

AH: What are your next steps to continue to help yourself move forward in your own career?

JR: My ongoing goal, is to continue to get TV/Film/Advertising placements, and build buzz and a fan base from the exposure of those. 

A big 2010 goal is build a well put together subscription portion of my site.  When you look at artist like Matt Ebel, it’s refreshing and exciting to see how that can be such a profitable platform.  If you do it right.

Beyond that, who knows where the industry goes.  Let me say this… I’m not one of those major label haters.  I think they aren’t really a logical solution for 99.9% of artists right now.  But, they aren’t going away either.  And they shouldn’t.  At some point, they are going to have to see working with an artist as a “joint venture” or “partnership” where the artist is bringing just as much value to the table as they are.  And when that day comes, they might make more sense to me as an artist. 

I’m looking forward to the day when an artist (hopefully me) comes to a major label and says… “Ok, I don’t need help with all this other stuff you offer.  But, I’ll partner with to you release and promote my record, and you get X number of points per sale.”

 

AH:  If you could give a band or artist any type of advice on how to start in social media, what would you advise them to do?

JR: The strategy of a few years ago was “be everywhere.”  And I think that’s true to a certain extent when referring to being “Googleable.”  But, I would say, go to where the people are.  Not more musicians.  Don’t waste your time building profiles on social media sites that won’t be around in a year.  Do your research, and stay up to date with new sites and trends.  I recommend hypebot.com, mashable.com, and musicthinktank.com (of course).

 

AH: If you had $500 to spend on marketing and promotion, how would you spend that money?

JR: If it was just money that was given to me, I would experiment on a thing or two that I’ve been wanting to try.  Google Ad Words.  Facebook Ads.  Things like that.

 

AH: Is there anything else you would like to say about 1,000 true fans?

JR: As I read through my answers (and think about them from a reader’s perspective), I need to make one point.  Obviously, I can’t make a living solely based on the finances of 100 True Fans.  And I don’t, as you can see from my percentage breakdown.  That doesn’t mean that the theory is bogus. 

If I had 500 True Fans (and hopefully I will sooner rather than later), then I could never get a TV/Film placement again and be fine financially. 

But, that’s the beauty (and reality) of it.  You don’t have to depend solely on those True Fans.  They are the foundation of what you do.  They give you security.  But, then you’ve got all these other peripheral revenue streams to compliment and build that foundation.

 

AH:  How do you use analytics to your advantage? What are your measurable online results, and how do your measures help you with your music career?

JR: I’m a big data geek, but I realize most people aren’t.  If someone just wants basic info that might open their eyes and answer some questions, the “Insights” section of your Facebook Fan Page is a great place to start.  It’s fairly basic, but it’s got some great info that can help an artist begin to shape their target audience profile.

 

AH: . On a scale of 1 to 10, would you say you share a lot (a 10) or are you guarded in what you exposure on social media sites about yourself and your personal life?

JR: I share things that I would want to hear from an artist.  As long as you’re personal at some level, you’re using Twitter correctly.  A fan doesn’t know what you’re leaving out.

 

AH: What would you say to a fellow musician, that thinks that Twitter is just sharing “eating a tuna sandwich”  and is stupid?

JR: Not much.  I got tired of trying to help artists that don’t want to help themselves a while back.  The reality is, if they don’t see the value in it, then they aren’t going to use it usefully.  Therefore, for them, it would be stupid.

 

Come hang with Secrets In Stereo

Official Website – http://www.secretsinstereo.com

Twitter - @SecretsInStereo

Facebook Page – http://www.facebook.com/secretsinstereo

So many artists ask me how to get their music placed in Film & Tv and Josh is blogging in deep detail about his experiences and hopefully he will give us all some pointers for how to generate placements. Josh is writing a series of detailed blogs on www.sortednoise.com based on his experiences up to this point, as well as about his experiences over the next 4 months as he writes, records, promotes, and releases his next new album.  He says about  the blog posts: “I’m basically talking more in detail on what I’m referring to here in these answers. It’s going to be focused on TV/Film placement.” 

Here are the links to the first two…

http://www.sortednoise.com/a-living-breathing-case-study-of-a-diy-artist-part-1-meet-the-artist/

http://www.sortednoise.com/a-living-breathing-case-study-of-a-diy-artist-part-2-3-things-that-have-let-me-quit-my-day-job/

I published this post on my blog two years ago.  Creating an elaborate plan may not be for everyone, but someone is going to succeed at doing this.  The image below is one of the most important parts of this post.

There has been a lot of discussion on this blog and on the Internet about the end of the album as an organizing principle.  Spending mind time on the decision to make albums or to sequentially release singles is missing the point.

Revenue from the sale of music is slowing considerably for everyone.  Reoccurring revenue, which is the ongoing stream of revenue you make outside of touring, is going to come from consumers that tune into and fall in love with your brand on the Internet.

To persuade fans to tune in, to fall in love with, and to spend money on your brand, you need an elaborate plan that goes way beyond the album or singles decision.  You will have go far beyond creating a MySpace page that features five of your songs and ten pictures of your band.  You will have to rethink what it means to be entertaining on the Internet. 

The name of your brand, the URL you use, the first word you type, the sequence in which you release your songs, your lyrics, the images you feature, the videos you release, the messages you type, and everything you put into your online presence should be part of an elaborate plan to seduce fans.
 
The concept of seduction does not have to be sexual.  I use the concept of seduction to convey complexity and long term planning.  Map out a two year or three year plan that elaborately pulls people into your world of images, poetry, lyrics, stories, music, mystery, hints, clues, energy, characters, plot, storyline, drama, intrigue and excitement.

A regular old website or MySpace page is not the ideal vehicle for building a brand upon.  Your name and your image may not be the ideal vehicle to build a brand upon.  Start by thinking like the creator of a television series.  What do you call it?  What is it about?  How many “seasons” will it take to tell the story?  Make the presentation simple and compelling, but make your plan to seduce - elaborate, intriguing and complex. 

posted by Bruce Warila

At last count, if I’m correct, I’ve attended the SXSW Conference at least seventeen times, and on many of those visits I have been very grateful for the opportunity to speak on a panel. When Brian Zisk, a co-founder of the SanFran MusicTech conference, invited me to speak again on a panel in December, and also to join him on his panel at this year’s SXSW, I gave pause.

Seventeen years is a long time, therefore that begs the question - what has all the talking, presenting, networking and mingling at SXSW achieved for the music industry/community at large?

The answer to that is simple - it’s hard to know what, if anything, changed and even harder to quantify. Yet change came along anyway. In that seventeen year timeframe we all saw the rise of the more public face of the Internet, the nascent World Wide Web. And as Chris Anderson of Wired points out, “… the Internet is the once-a-century invention. The Web is just one application upon it. There are, and will be, others.” For music, as we know, this was a serious game changer. The labels blinked…

Some musicians learned to use the web well and at SXSW in March 2007 David Byrne warned record labels that they must act very quickly and adapt much faster to the web’s promise. He predicted that by 2012, sales of music as downloads or through streaming services would strip the sales of CDs. He was very prescient. I share his views but I also now lay the blame at the feet of the musicians themselves. There is so much more they could be doing if they fully embraced the social web with a strong, well planned digital strategy. Or, as I put it in this essay - Dear Musicians, Please Be Brilliant or Get Out of The Way.

What follows here is the full version of an interview I gave for SXSWorld Magazine. An edited version appears in the print and online magazine on page 58. The discussion centered around our company Fight and its approach to brand strategy and iterative marketing. Our ideas would work just as well for bands and labels. After all, they are brands too.

For the layman, how would you describe what your company does, and how it functions in relation to the changing online and media landscape? Fight is a brand strategy company that works with clients to help them align their brand strategy both online and off. For too long, advertising agencies have been struggling with the asymmetrical online world. It puzzles them because they consider the web like TV, as if it has multiple channels. They see the web as packed with eyeballs all wanting to see their clients messages - that is totally untrue. Getting attention online is the key. One-way, controlled messaging is not the answer.

Fight approaches this problem by working with companies, setting realistic goals and targets, then moving ahead in iterative steps to see what is working. If all is well, we move to the second stage of the campaign - based on results. If something isn’t working we move back to the previous phase. We continue testing and analyzing throughout the campaign. The old adage of “build it and they will come” doesn’t work on the web. We want to show results and actual $$ ROI for our clients.

How does the social-networking aspect fit into this, and how can musicians make better use of it? What needs pointing out is that “social media” is just an idea. [Edit: I prefer to use the term, Social Web] The term “social media” feels like it was dreamed up by marketers, who, believing the web is like TV, wanted to create “channels” to reach people online. Remember, as Chris Anderson of Wired wrote in a Tweet recently “the Internet is one of those ‘once in a century’ inventions and the web is just an application that sits on the Internet. There are, and will be other applications.” 

Social networks are simply places where people gather online. Anthropology takes care of the need for humans to be constantly in touch, technology just shortens the distance between us via, say, the web or mobile devices. Therefore, I’d argue, that bands need an online digital strategy worked out in advance. Having a MySpace page or Facebook fan page is not a digital strategy for musicians.

Now that Google has delivered Google Music Search and Twitter provides real time search, I argue that musicians must now have their own url. If they did, then they would benefit from those searches by having their url come up in the results. If they don’t then their MySpace url will come up first.

A digital strategy would ensure that the intended actions of a fan landing on the musician’s web page might include buying some music, a T-shirt or signing up to an email list. If you are just one of millions of bands on MySpace I’d say those are difficult result to achieve. All those social network tools should simply be used as part of a strong digital/online strategy.

How does your background as a musician and [former] label owner influence the way you approach these issues now? I developed my thoughts and ideas about online music distribution over the last 15 years. I reached my current phase of thoughts and ideas after attending SXSW 2009 and realizing that musicians were using the web because of its zero barrier-to-entry model, but I felt they weren’t using it wisely. That was when I wrote “The End of The Recording Album As The Organizing Principle” 

In your SanFranMusicTech essay, you lay much of the responsibility for the current state of the music industry on musicians, rather than record companies, for not taking better advantage of the branding and social-networking opportunities available to them.  Could you expand on this a bit, and on what musicians can do to function more efficiently in the current climate?  Should artists be focusing more on building and developing their brand, rather than focusing on record sales? I’m not sure that you’ve grasped the big idea behind the essay. I’m not saying that musicians should necessarily be using the web for branding and social networking opportunities, I’m saying that merely releasing a CD in 2010 will be a bad idea. The web should be used as one part of musician’s strategies for the music-release-as-an-event idea.

Big thinking is required and unfortunately the thinking still remains small and cloistered around the old way of releasing a CD, as part of a release/reviews/tour campaign that is still a label mindset. The web isn’t suited to a ‘campaign’ strategy. Labels will argue “oh, but we use the web by posting videos to YouTube and getting MP3s to music blogs” but that is small potatoes I think. I know it’s a cliché, but Radiohead and NIN gave everyone pointers to how it can be done. Embracing those ideas is now up to musicians. If they don’t start to embrace bigger thinking, then musicians will definitely not make a living from their recorded works.

What are your goals and objectives for your SXSW appearance this year, and what issues do you plan to address? I believe I have attended SXSW at least 15 times and I have been fortunate enough to have been asked to speak on panels for many of those visits. I always look forward to SXSW [especially now, as it has expanded into the Interactive world] and I arrive expecting to learn something new, which does happen occasionally.

One example was being able to sit in and hear Clay Shirky remind a panel of journalists, book publishers and newspaper folks that “the internet is the largest group of people who care about reading and writing ever assembled in history…”  That phrase of his could also be paraphrased as “the internet is the largest group of people who care about music ever assembled in history…” When musicians, labels and others paint music downloading as ‘piracy,’ ‘stealing’ or ‘illegal’ they are creating a “Fog of War” that is intended to serve one purpose that can be summed up as -

We don’t understand how music lovers want to access music, nor do we understand how an eight year old girl today will want to access her music in future. Therefore we will continue to speak out in media catch phrases, instead of doing deep research that will allow us to understand, via real data, how better to serve new generations of music fans.  My goal? That’s easy. I would love nothing more than to have a forward-thinking record label or band manager hire Fight, to help them be successful in a shifting online music world. Talk is cheap, action is required based on real information.

Fight is a brand strategy and iterative marketing company based in Portland, Oregon, USA

In case you have not seen this video on leadership lessons by Derek Sivers, have a look.  This video is destined to be a classic, and it’s one of those YouTube videos that parents should consider showing to their children.

The following was copied from the interview pertaining to Music Think Tank Andrew Dubber and I gave to the BBC.

1) Decontextualize first, promote second. Artists are in love with their songs/music, and they should be. However, prior to throwing a year of your life into promotion, force yourself to get anonymous feedback from at least thirty friends, twenty artists, and from ten industry professionals. If most love your songs, then promote. Otherwise, go back to the classroom/studio and learn how to make “better” music first.

2) Don’t listen to industry promotion professionals that were successful in 1999. Nobody has the answer to obtaining and sustaining mass-market exposure. Nobody! I don’t care what someone says they did in the past; make them demonstrate the success they obtained six months ago.

3) Seek experienced production people. When it comes to making music, experience is way under-rated in this industry. Studios have gone out of business because everyone is a producer/engineer now. Find the most experienced/successful producers, engineers and songwriters you can find. Money spent on a successful producer or a great songwriter will go further than money spent on a promotion “expert”.

4) Don’t go it alone, it’s almost a waste of time!  (translation: promote and collaborate with other artists)

5) Act like a software startup. Expand your definition of a “band” to include people that can handle things like social media, video production and software development. Find someone to help you use the equity in your venture to compensate everyone involved.

posted by Bruce Warila

Most of the people that show up to a band’s MySpace page are not randomly browsing to find unknown music; rather they already have a specific (and rather obvious) purpose in mind (no specific order):

Purpose 1 - To get information or updates:
Fans want to stay updated.  Casual fans want the essentials.  Super fans want updates on everything.

Purpose 2 - To listen to an artist they already know about:
Previously recommended, or previously discovered, or entering your MySpace page via a Google search, fans are often clicking in to have a (another) listen.

Purpose 3 - To acquire or purchase something: 
Fans may simply want to acquire or purchase something (a free download, tickets, merch, music, interactions, etc).

Purpose 4 - To interact with a specific artist: 
Some fans want to personally interact with a band or with a band member; interactions can be free or premium (use your imagination).

Fans often want to GIGIGO
Most of the time, fans want to Get In, Get Information, and to Get Out (GIGIGO); they don’t want to get sucked into a rat hole of confusing graphics, spinning banner ads, ad-covered music players, fake friends and overwhelming choice.

With all this in mind, I would like to present our concept (below) for MySpace:

Note: All display options are shown below. Artists will control how much or how little they want to show.

Please post your feedback and questions in the comments below:

If you would to help us make this MySpace concept a reality, please contact us at LiveMusicMachine: +1.443.552.0332

MySpace Concept Creators

• David Sherbow (MusicBizGuy) is a thirty-five year music industry veteran and the CEO of LiveMusicMachine. 
• Cara Peckens is an experienced digital media strategist, a graphic artist and a partner at LiveMusicMachine.

Click the graphic below to view a full-size preview.


Question:
You are a musician and you want to sell your music on digital retail sites.  You are deciding between two digital distributors to deliver your new album to retailers.  The two distributors, Distributor A and Distributor B, have different payment terms and fees.

• Distributor A charges a one-time album set-up fee of $20, plus an annual “maintenance” fee of $20, and takes no percentage of your sales (Distributor A passes 100% of the sales revenue it collects on to the artist).


• Distributor B does not charge any set-up or annual maintenance fees, and takes a 10% cut of your sales revenue (you the artist keep 90%).

Assume both distributors will deliver your content to the same stores and offer identical service except for the payment terms. Which distributor do you choose?

Do the math!

The answer, as you may have guessed, depends on how many albums (or single tracks) you think you can sell.  If you passed junior high algebra, you’ll find the math here quite straightforward:

Let’s suppose the average revenue per album sold that your distributor collects is $7 (this is what iTunes would pay out on a $10 album, after Apple takes their 30% cut).  X is the number of albums sold.

Artist earnings from Distributor A in Year 1 = $7 * X - $20 set-up fee - $20 annual fee

Artist earnings from Distributor B in Year 1 = $7 * 90% * X = $6.3 * X

Now we can find the number of albums you’d have to sell in Year 1 to earn the same amount from Distributor A and B:

7 * X - 40 = 6.3 * X

0.7 * X = 40

X = 57

And there you have it.  If you sell more than 57 albums in your first year, you’ll earn more money with Distributor A.  If you sell fewer than 57 albums, you’re better off with Distributor B.  Using the same calculation, you will see that for every subsequent year after Year 1, you need to sell more than 29 albums per year to earn more with Distributor A.

Beware of “small” percentages

In many business situations, a commission-based model between a client and service provider makes perfect sense.  There’s nothing inherently unfair about a distributor taking a percentage of an artist’s sales for their services.  However, it’s important to understand how commissions impact an artist’s earnings over time, especially if there is a flat-fee alternative for essentially the same service.

Returning to our example, let’s look at what it would cost you to distribute an album for 2 years using Distributor A and Distributor B.

Under Distributor A, the cost is $60 ($20 set up + 2 * $20 annual fee) regardless of how many units you sell. 

Under Distributor B, the “cost” is 10% of your sales, which in our example is $0.70 per unit.  The table below shows some examples of what Distributor B’s fee would be depending on your sales numbers over a 2 year period:

Albums Sold Distributor B’s Fee 50 $35 100 $70 200 $140 500 $350 1,000 $700 5,000 $3,500

As you can see, 10% of revenue adds up quickly.  Distributor B’s model becomes significantly more expensive than Distributor A’s $60 flat rate, even for a relatively modest level of album sales.

Again, there’s nothing wrong per se with a distributor taking a percentage of revenue.  But when a distributor says “We only make money when you make money!”, remember that they also take more money as you make money.

Choosing the right distributor for you

There are other factors besides payment terms that you need to consider when choosing a distributor.  Which stores they deliver to, how frequently they pay royalties to artists, data reporting/analytics, reputation, reliability, and promotional services are all important factors to think about.

Ultimately, you should be able to answer the following questions before selecting a distributor:

1. How much will it cost me (in upfront payment and/or % of revenues) to work with this distributor, based on the number of albums I think I can sell?

2. Is this distributor more expensive than the next best alternative?

a) If so, how much more expensive?

b) Do they offer enough extra services/value over the next best alternative to justify the higher expense?

You can use this spreadsheet to compare how different assumptions about revenue per sale, album sales, and distributor terms impact artist payout: 

Digital Distributor Math Worksheet

Several days ago, Allan Shadow published a colorful tribute post about David “Honeyboy” Edwards and how he received a Lifetime Achievement (Grammy) award last week. 

Here’s a ninety-four year old man that has given his life to songwriting and music.  How could we (humans) not be somewhat interested in this story?  At least that’s what I thought.

I counted seventy-eight plays on MySpace (where Mr. Edwards’ online presence is maintained) - twenty-four hours later.  It’s kind of shocking at first, but I guess it’s not all that surprising when you think about our culture.

If you have fans, an audience, Twitter followers or Facebook friends, please let’s show this man the ATTENTION he deserves. 

Congratulations Mr. Edwards.

Have a Facebook fanpage but still not sure how to make it pop?

Many artists have been asking me about the bext Apps for their Facebook Fan Pages

Here are six Apps that will set you on the right path, help you to stand out from the pack and keep your fans engaged and interested in you on a consistent basis.

 

1) Involver – http://involver.com

The people at Involver are masters of fan page branding. They offer two applications from their gallery free of charge (they have some wonderfully tiered packages, but those will cost you). I would recommend installing the Twitter and YouTube applications on your page, but there are other great ones as well. Your fans will then be able to see you last 5 tweets and last 6 YouTube videos right from your Facebook fan page.

*Check out the free app gallery here: http://involver.com/gallery.html 

2) iLike Music Tab – http://tinyurl.com/FacebookiLikeApp

One of the premiere music applications for fan pages. One great feature that iLike exclusively provides is the ability to load a large, MySpace-esqe banner. It is somewhat difficult to currently brand yourself visually on facebook (without spending a lot of $), but this is a good start.

This app plays music, shows your Twitter feed, has links to purchase songs, etc. In order to create on one these you need an iLike account: http://ilike.com

 

3) ReverbNation - My Band - http://tinyurl.com/FacebookMyBand

There is a lot of overlap between My Band and iLike. The main functions that separate My Band are the merchandise options (fans can buy merch right from this tab), and the newsletter/street team sign up box.

*If you do not have a newsletter management service or widgets that you currently using throughout your web presence, I would start to get acclimated with ReverbNation, and use My Band on your FB Fan page.

If you are already using a newsletter management service and have your widget situation covered, iLike is the way to go because of the beautiful branding opportunity with the large horizontal image.

 

4) Poll Daddy Polls - http://tinyurl.com/facebookpolldaddy

Poll Daddy Polls feature both private polls that only your friends can see, and public ones that you can share with all of your fans. This is a great way to poll your fan base and see what they really want!

 

 

5) Selective Tweets - http://tinyurl.com/SelectiveTweet

Update your Facebook Status from Twitter but only for the tweets you choose. This is a great tool for musicians who want to save time but still want to be selective.

Just end each tweet with #fb when you also want to update your Facebook Fan Page status. Note: *This won’t work if your tweets are protected.

 

6) Twitter/Facebook synch - http://tinyurl.com/TwitterTweetFB

*For personal pages, not fan pages

Many people ask me about this, so I wanted to include it. This links your tweets with the status updates on your personal profiles, not your fan pages.

 

 

Happy Facebooking Everyone!

Come Hang with me here: http://www.Facebook.com/CyberPR

The legendary bluesman David “Honeyboy” Edwards received a lifetime achievement award at last night’s Grammy Awards ceremonies. One of the last of the first generation bluesmen, Honeyboy was a close pal of Robert Johnson and a contemporary of Charley Patton and other blues pioneers.

The 94-year-old Honeyboy was instrumental in establishing a unique American voice, one that was born of slavery and struggle, spirit and magic. It’s a rich history that begat rock and roll and even rap. Artists from Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones to Jay Z emanate from those underpinnings, and many more contemporary artists have paid homage to this field of music from which they came.

If the blues seems like a quaint, dusty, irrelevant music genre, give a listen to Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Johnson and Honeyboy. Listen long in the dark with your eyes closed and go on a journey to the center of the American music universe. And when you turn the lights on, read a copy of the late Robert Palmer’s “Deep Blues,” a thorough primer on the music and its handprints on American culture.

Dave “Honeyboy” Edwards, left, and Allen Shadow.

I got a chance to talk with Honeyboy after one of the many blues concerts I’ve promoted over the years that have included the likes of Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, James Cotton, Earl King, Little Milton, Odetta, Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Honeyboy was as charming as he was informative, happy to tell stories of Johnson and the early days. I considered it an honor and was pleased to see this giant of American music recognized last night.

# # #

Allen Shadow is a rock artist, songwriter and PR pro. For more, check out his blog.

Here’s a Monday morning riddle for you…

Do you believe crowds of humans will ever (or do now) sway as much control over the rate and depth of media dissemination as the established media machine does now?

It’s easier than ever to make studio-quality songs and great looking videos.

You can easily distribute your music and creations worldwide.

Through promotion tools and strategies, you can continually increase the rate and depth in which your media spreads throughout the world.

However, just as there‘s always someone that’s stronger, faster, smarter or wealthier than any one of us, will there always be entities that can push media faster and deeper into the marketplace than ALL of us (humans) networked together?

My answer to the question above is:  The media world is flattening, but it will be years before networks of humans can consistently push media and messages faster and deeper than most media entities can now.  However, due to the shrinking fortunes of most media businesses, the gatekeepers that control mass-media exposure opportunities are looking for artists that are flat-earth savvy (capable of mitigating risk by excelling at self-promotion) and/or content that has flat-earth appeal (the potential to go viral).

It’s a conundrum.  You currently can’t match their speed and depth (of dissemination) on your own, but they can no longer afford to feature you unless you can obtain speed and depth on your own.

This in an update to a previous post.

To the extent that a recording artist (versus an entertainer) is the sum of his or her songs, I am going to stipulate that song-adoption equates to artist-adoption.

I effectively use this formula when working with industry startups and artists to concisely communicate (usually on a bar napkin) the challenges that artists face as they attempt to obtain marketplace traction for their songs.

I have updated the formula (below) to recognize the importance of placing unknown songs into a series of songs that are familiar to listeners (the Adjacent Song Factor).

Fans = L * OFR * SSR * RR * ASF
Fans = Listeners * Optimal Frequency Rate * Social Situation Rate * Resonation Rate * Adjacent Song Factor

• Listeners - a song obviously needs as many listeners as possible.
• Optimal Frequency Rate - a song needs maximum spins (plays) within a compact span of time.
• Social Situation Rate - a song benefits from maximum socialization during that same time period.
• Resonation Rate - the percentage of listeners that a song easily resonates with.
• Adjacent Song Factor - the frequency rate in which a song is placed into a series of familiar songs.

The formula stipulates that for a song to obtain maximum traction, all the variables in the formula have to push up and max out.  If you plug the formula into a spreadsheet and play around with scenarios, you will notice (it’s all multiplication), that a single low variable sinks a song (this is important). In other words, you need ALL the variables to work for you to maximize the conversion rate from listeners to fans.

Here’s an extended description of the variables:

Listeners (L)
Listeners (L) is the variable that equals the number of listeners (not fans but receptive listeners) that have frictionless access to your song via a download, a music stream, a broadcast, or by way of receiving your CD.

Optimal Frequency Rate (OFR)
It’s often stated that falling in love with a song is a complex process. For the purpose of this post, I am going to speculate that a song needs to be heard by the average person at least 10 times within 60 days to make a shallow (but lasting) memory imprint. Therefore, 10 spins within 60 days equals the Optimal (maximum) Frequency Rate of 100%.

Less spins over a longer time period equates to a lower Optimal Frequency Rate.

Social Situation Rate (SSR)
Once again, the imprinting/socialization process is complex. Most (young) people need social cues (signals from others) to believe in (adopt and evangelize) a song. When people spin songs in a vacuum (think about the lone iPod user with headphones on), they are less likely to have an imprinting experience than during a shared/social listening session.

Social settings (where social cues are gathered) range from listening to songs with friends, to hearing songs at a club or party, to sharing/playlisting/promoting songs to friends online. In a perfect world, 100% of a song’s early spins would occur within a social situation; this would equate to a Social Situation Rate of 100%.

All social situations are not created equal. If you want to be more specific, assign varying weights to different social situation types.

Resonation Rate (CR)
Resonation Rate is the subjective component of the formula. Listeners are going to love your song(s) along a spectrum. A percentage of listeners (this would be the resonation rate) are going to adopt your song, while others won’t give it a second listen.

Adjacent Song Factor (ASF)
A recent study has shown that listeners easily tire of screening unfamiliar songs.  The more often that a song is played within a playlist or stream of familiar songs, the higher the Adjacent Song Factor is going to be.

Now in simple terms…
You need a ton of listeners; a lot of spins within a compact time period; spins that occur within social situations have more impact; you obviously need a great song; and your songs are more likely to be received when sandwiched between pre-existing hits.  Sounds like radio doesn’t it? 

about Bruce Warila

I had the honor and pleasure of speaking at NAMM last week about how to make money in the music business. Normally when I speak on panels it’s me and a few other Social Media,  Marketing, and PR peeps but this panel which was curated by Tony Van Veen of CD Baby / Discmakers was exceptional because it included an artist who is making it right now…  Brian Mazzaferri, the fearles leader of Chicago’s own I Fight Dragons had incredible insights to share about was his band is doing now to make money in the brave new world of “The old model isn’t quite totally dead yet, but the new model isn’t really proven either.”He took some time to really delve into his thoughts on the theroy and I’m delighted that he shared his insight with me and I know you will be too:

Ariel Hyatt: Do you believe that 1,000 true fans is a theory that can work?

Brian, I Fight Dragons: I will first say it’s an awesome theory and idea.  And if I had to place a bet, I’d say that in 10 or maybe even 5 years, it will be MUCH more possible.  However, I’d imagine most people reading this would like to build a music career now instead of waiting 10 years, so then I would have to say a very qualified yes, with some big conditions:
 
Condition 1: You’ve got to be a solo artist.   MAYBE a duo.  The handful of people I know who are truly making this type of model work make decent livings, but start dividing that living up 3 or more ways, and you dip below the poverty line pretty quickly.  My band has 6 people in it.

Condition 2: You’ve got to be both willing and able to do a lot of things yourself that traditional “professional” musicians don’t.  Same reason.  Managers, Producers, Booking Agents, Labels, Graphic Designers, Publicists, Studios, and Webmasters all need to get paid, and that’s above and beyond your living.  Every member you add to your team needs to eat.

For example, my band toured with mc chris this fall.  He calls this balance ‘trimming the fat.’  He runs an incredibly efficient music operation, self-managed, self-produced, self-webmastered.  The only team members he has are a booking agent and a tour manager that does the business and merch with him on tour.  But that means he has to do the rest himself.

And in the 1000 true fans model, that’s the goal!  That’s the finish line!

I would say this is the toughest realization for most people pursuing an indie music career (I know it was for me!), since I think the main reason we got into this industry was to make music, and we probably don’t have as much passion for the business end even if we have the ability.  And that’s as it should be!  If you have MORE passion for the business than the music, why do the music?  Personally, I like the idea of working with team members.  My manager, booking agent, lawyer, and social media coach are all ridiculously awesome at what they do, and working with them gives me more time to focus on music.

“If you have MORE passion for the business than the music, why do the music?”  - Brian, I Fight Dragons

However, having a 6-person band and a large team, I’d say my band’s “True Fans” number is definitely above 10,000, which starts to become preposterous when you think about what a “True Fan” is.  Make no mistake, even 1,000 is very very hard to get to.

So, as much as people like to hate labels (especially the majors), we’ve come to the ugly truth: they’re really the only people investing the time and money it takes to build an artist up in the traditional ways.  And people like to say terrestrial radio is dead, but trust me, it’s no such thing. Radio is crazy powerful.  

Plus, the other tricky part is that a True Fan is not a possession.  It’s a relationship.  As such, it grows and changes, and people come and go as you grow, and as they grow and their lives change.  Plus the more True Fans you have, the less overall time you have for each one, which is definitely a factor for the people that are your biggest fans.  Keeping up with 1000 personal relationships is a monumental task!

 

“…a True Fan is not a possession.  It’s a relationship.  As such, it grows and changes, and people come and go as you grow, and as they grow and their lives change.”

- Brian, I Fight Dragons

 

And I suppose I’ve written an essay here, but to sum it up, I do think 1,000 true fans is possible, but currently only under very specific conditions.  However, as more and more people spend more and more time and money on the internet, this can (and likely will) change over time.

 
AH: Are you currently making a full-time living as a musician from your music?
 

B, IFD: Yes.  Admittedly it’s pretty damn humble, but I hope it will grow :)

AH: How many years did it take you from day j-o-b to part time job to F/T Musician?

B, IFD: Well, I started in music in early 2007.  For the most part I’ve worked part time from then until late 2009, making just enough to stay alive while spending every waking moment on music.  Also, I should say that my first few projects were huge learning experiences that went nowhere, and my current band didn’t really launch until early 2009.

AH: Can you give us a breakdown percentage wise of the following:

B, IFD: I don’t have exact %, but I’ll try and say how we do:

A. CD Sales?

We’ve sold a little over 4,000 physical copies of our debut EP, almost entirely at live shows. This is our biggest source of income at live shows.

B. Subscription Site?
 None.  All of our subscription-type content (email-list) is 100% free

C. Live Shows?
Because we’ve continued to try and play larger venues and to tour, we usually make very little money from guarantee / door, and instead make it mostly from CD sales with a little bit from t-shirts

D. Merchandise?
T-shirts.  They’re awesome and they sell at live shows (and a little bit online), but they’re EXPENSIVE.  Especially if you want to make them decent quality and you don’t have the budget to order very many at once.  We also do really well selling sweatbands and wristbands.

E. Other? Please name what the other categories might be.
I think Other is very very important.  Making limited-edition, very high-value stuff is awesome.  We sold 100 Lifetime Membership USB drives for $100 each (lifetime admission to any IFD show, free digital content for life), and that was a huge $10,000 boon for us.

Also, digital downloads are very important too.  We’ve sold around 10,000 tracks online through iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, etc.

AH: If possible (I know you may not want to share this information), can you share the amount of money you have grossed in the last 12 months, broken down by months correlating with market, and promotional, and touring efforts?

B, IFD: We do have some data on this, but it’s scattered around (I need to get it together).  Honestly we only started about 12 months ago, so it’s not very much data, and I’m not ready to share it quite yet :P

AH: How many die hard fans, fans that will buy everything and anything from you, would you imagine that you have?

B, IFD: That’s a tough question.  I’d guess between 500-1000.  It really depends on what you mean, since I think there’s a sliding scale, not all True Fans are created equal (although they are all created awesome), and a lot of them come and go depending on what’s going on in their lives.

AH:How long did it take you to build up this many fans?

B, IFD: It’s been about a year.

AH:  Do you have a strategy with long-term and short-term goals in place to get to 1,000 true fans or for any future looking aspects of your music career? If so, can you share these goals?

B, IFD: Well, to be honest, right now we’re talking with labels about releasing our full length.  If we released our full-length on a major label, it would go to radio, and we would tour to support it.  I’d say my biggest goal is to continue to try and bring awesome fan interaction and social media stuff to a larger scale, and to see what other awesome things we can do artistically that people will enjoy.

AH: Have you ever made money from social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, or Ustream? Can you please tell us exactly how and correlate them?

B, IFD: Not directly.  Those are great ways for people to discover us, and for us to interact with fans, but we generally try to keep those channels about interaction and not about sales.

AH: Has your connection to the podcasting and online world, and your popularity with podcasters helped you to earn more money?

B, IFD:  Indirectly, yes.  I wouldn’t say we’re incredibly popular with podcasters, but those that have been our champions (Hipster Please, Mothpod, GeekDad, The Nerdy Show, and more) have been invaluable in helping us spread the word. 

 

AH: What are your next steps to continue to help yourself move forward in your own career?

B, IFD: For us, the next big step is finalizing how we’re going to release our debut full-length album, and how we can bring the social media and crazy new ideas we’ve used so far to work on a wider scale.

AH: If you could give a band or artist any type of advice on how to start in social media, what would you advise them to do?

B, IFD: Starting is a tough thing.  I’d say know your audience, and join the conversation.  Use Twitter especially to join in conversations that are already happening.

AH: If you had $500 to spend on marketing and promotion, how would you spend that money?

B, IFD: Just marketing and promotion?  I guess Facebook Ads are the only specific ‘marketing’ money we spend.  I’d say a lot of the money we spend to make and distribute free content is arguably marketing money though. 

AH: How do you use analytics to your advantage? What are your measurable online results, and how do your measures help you with your music career?

B, IFD:  Analytics are definitely important to know if things are working or not.  We use Constant Contact, so I see how many people open each of our emails and who clicks on what.  That’s very very valuable.
 

AH: On a scale of 1 to 10, would you say you share a lot (a 10) or are you guarded in what you exposure on social media sites about yourself and your personal life?

B, IFD: Probably 7.  We try to share a lot of ourselves, but we try not to make people uncomfortable.

AH: What would you say to a fellow musician, that thinks that Twitter is just sharing “eating a tuna sandwich”  and is stupid?

B, IFD: Um, “you’re stupid.”?  Learn about something before you dismiss it.

AH: And – is there anything I missed you want to say?

B, IFD: I guess I would say that it’s a fascinating endeavor.  My last big concern about the 1,000 true fans model is longevity.  Most of the people using it work through the internet, and everything on the internet has an exponentially shorter shelf-life than it’s Real Life corollary.  

I just think there’s very little data right now on how long an internet music career can last.  Most traditional music careers, even people with a hit record, are lucky to last more than a decade, and so traditional music business literature says to make as much as you can while you’re hot and save it up for when your career’s over.  

What’s the new model for that?  Is the expectation that an internet music career is longer than a traditional one?  I suppose one could argue that, but it’s a tough sell for me.  The internet is fickle, and tastes change.  I guess we’ll see the truth of that as time goes on too.  

Sorry to be the ultimate downer!  I’ve been wrestling with a lot of these issues myself lately, and these are my latest thoughts.

“For the record, I’m incredibly positive about music in general, I just guess I think we’re in a weird spot right now where the old model doesn’t work like it used to, but the new model isn’t powerful enough to take over yet, so there’s upsides and downsides to each one.  I suppose my biggest goal is to combine them both :)… I don’t think I’m the ultimate authority, this is just where I stand at the moment.

Hang with I Fight Dragons:

http://www.ifightdragons.com/

@ifightdragons

http://www.myspace.com/ifightdragons