Music Think Tank
Using Fan-Funding Techniques to Help Direct a DTF Marketing and Sales Campaign
One of the online sales techniques I’ve been advocating in my online courses at Berklee is for artists to create different physical and digital products and make them available on their own site at tiered price points. The idea is that you can offer something for all of your fans – the hard core fans might be interested in something from you that is a little more personalized and rare, and newer fans might be able to get something from you that wont break the bank. All the while you have the ability to offer something that cannot be purchased at traditional retail, which makes the experience of purchasing off of your site more rewarding for your fans. Here’s an example from the Yim Yames site:
Determining what you offer – and at what price point – is an art that takes into account a number of factors. For example, if the goal of your campaign is to expose your music to as many folks as possible, you’ll want to price some of your items lower and take a lower margin per unit. You’ll also want to take into account what unique items your specific psychographic would respond to the best. If you’ve determined that one of the psychographic traits your community shares with you is a love for vegetarian food, you might want to create a downloadable PDF vegetarian cookbook for your fans as a value add (similar to what Jonsi and Alex did for their fans).
Another important factor in creating an effective product and pricing plan is to use data to determine what options might create the best result for you; which brings me to the point of my post.
John Grubber turned me onto a fantastic post written a few weeks ago by Craig Mod, describing how he and Ashley Rawlings used the fundraising website Kickstarter to self publish a book by generating $24,000 in 30 days. The entire post is well worth reading, and although Craig and Ashley’s goal was to generate funding for their book, I think there’s a lot of similarities between his execution on Kickstarter and the execution of a successful music-focused DTF sales campaign on your own site.
Once Craig and Ashley had determined the overall goal of their campaign – to sell enough books to generate a return substantial enough to further expand their existing or similar publishing endeavors – their next step was to figure out what their strategy would be for the pledge tier offerings. WIth Kickstarter, people pledge a pre-determined amount of money towards a project on a tiered basis, and get something tangible in return, once the project is funded. Kickstarter’s tiered pledge functionality is not dissimilar to what a musician would offer for sale on their own site to their fans.
What was really interesting to me about what Craig and Ashley did for their book project was that they looked at the top 30 grossing Kickstarter campaign to determine the most successful tiers of pledges. This provided Craig with data that he could use, in his words, to “look for a balance between number of pledges and overall percentage contribution of funds.” Take a look at his graph below:
Chris’ analysis of this data is spot in, and I’d like to quote his thoughts from his blog, here:
“This data is, of course, hardly perfect (for example, not every project I looked at used the same tiers). But it’s good enough to give us a sense of what price ranges people are comfortable with.
The $50 tier dominates, bringing in almost 25% of all earning. Surprisingly, $100 is a not too distant second at 16%. $25 brings in a healthy chunk too, but the overwhelming conclusion from this data is that people don’t mind paying $50 or more for a project they love.
It’s also worth contemplating going well beyond $100 into the $250 and $500 tiers: they scored relatively high pledging rates compared to other expensive tiers.
The lower tiers — less than $25 — are so statistically insignificant (barely bringing in a combined 5% of all pledges) that I recommend avoiding them. Of course this depends on your project — perhaps there’s a very good reason for a $5 tier. More importantly, this data shows that people like paying $25.
Having too many tiers is very likely to put off supporters. I’ve seen projects with dozens of tiers. Please don’t do this. People want to give you money. Don’t place them in a paradox of choice scenario! Keep it simple. I’d say that anything more than five realistic tiers is too many.”
The overall results that Craig outlines above are generally similar for musicians who offer a range of products at tiered pricing levels on their own site. While I do think that offerings of less than $25 do make sense for most musicians, Craig’s overall idea of not providing too many low cost items make sense. For example, I’ve spoken to a number of my students and other artists that are interested in offering $1.00 singles off of their site. While this is possible to do, providing a lower revenue option like that tends to incentivize potential curious fans downward, as opposed to incentivizing folks to purchase a higher priced option.
Based on the data that Craig obtained from past Kickstarter campaigns, he created the following pledge tiers:
Lastly, Craig and Ashley engaged in a wonderful online promotional campaign that focused on their permission based social medial digital touchpoints, as well as key design blogs and magazine sites that were completely in target with their psychographic and demographic. They focused their messaging campaign using Twitter and Facebook (their messaging was relevant and minimal, too), as well as their own mailing list.
Craig and Ashley had build up an extensive mailing list of design and art world over the past 6 years, which they leveraged nicely. Take a look at the timing of their targeted email campaigns, and the results:
Example of the artwork that was used for the email:
Perhaps most impressive was Craig’s outreach strategy to the blogs that he felt were a laser shot target for what he was doing with this project, and his method of communication to them. He was not focused on quantity of external outreach – he was more interested in the quality of the blogs he did focus on. Again, this is fundamental marketing strategy that all artists could use to their benefit. Again, in Craig’s words:
“I’m writing to blogs that I’ve been reading for years, so for me, referencing older posts of theirs and personalizing these emails is trivial, and fun. Whatever you do, don’t send scattershot emails to media outlets. Be thoughtful. The goal is to appeal to editors and public voices of communities that may have an interest in your work, not spam every big-name blog. A single post from the right blog is 1000% more useful than ten posts from high-traffic but off-topic blogs. You want engaged users, not just eyeballs!”
Here’s his PR results on the project:
While we’re not talking apples to apples between what Craig and Ashley did with their book campaign and an online DTF music campaign, many of the best practices that Craig and Ashely employed in this campaign, from the data analysis they used, to their communication techniques are exactly what independent musicians should be focused on when they engage in online direct to fan sales and marketing campaigns.
Mike King (@atomzooey) is the Director of Marketing at Berklee College of Music’s online school, Berkleemusic.com. He is also the author and instructor of three online music business courses at Berkleemusic, including Online Music Marketing with Topspin. His book, Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail came out on Berklee Press last fall.
Merch Table Essentials: 15 Ways For Musicians To Increase Sales, Fans and Efficiency
As album sales are becoming a less meaningful component in the overall success of an artist or band, the live performance sector, including ticket sales and merchandise sales, is becoming increasingly important. While the live show itself must be unique in order to encourage repeat customers and ultimately drive ticket sales, the merchandise table has the opportunity to drive significant revenue and first hand, artist-fan engagement. But just having a merch table is not enough, as there are essential elements that must be accounted for in order to make the effort worth while.
Assuming that you have accounted for the typical ‘guts’, such as T-Shirts, CDs, Hats, Stickers, etc. there are essentials to any effective merch table that will do three very important thing:
Use these following merch table essentials to make sure that you are making the most of every opportunity at every show to make as much money and as many new fans as possible:
1) Mailing List: Far too often overlooked, yet one of the most crucial aspects of retaining fans, the mailing list is an absolute must on any and ever merch table. If someone is willing to invest the time and money to come over to your merch table and purchase your music, your t-shirts or even just a little sticker or button, it means they felt strongly enough about the performance to further their interest. Every merch table customer is a valuable potential fan. Do not let them get away from you.
2) Accept Credit Cards: To be frank, if you do not accept credit cards, you are not maximizing your potential to make money, and are letting potentially valuable fans walk away without your music or merch in hand. There are a few different apps out for the iPhone/ iPod Touch, iPad and Android platforms that allow you to turn your device into a credit card terminal, including the Square, ProcessAway, Merchant Swipe and iSwipe.
3) High Traffic Area: As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. Putting your merch table in a high-traffic area is crucial to sales. The increase in passersby will make your table seem more desirable. As more people check out your merch and start to make purchases, the more likely it will be that others will want to check out the scene as well.
4) Lockbox for Money: Professionalism is crucial when dealing with a merch table. No matter how the musicians represent themselves on stage, online or in public, merchandising is purely the business side of the operation. Not only does a lockbox hold one person accountable for any lost cash and discourages outside theft, but It also makes it less apparent how little or how much cash you actually have from the event.
5) The Plug from the band: Make sure the people who are actually listening to the music and who are enjoying it, have the opportunity to at least join the mailing list if nothing else. Announce the table, its location, and that YOU, the artist, will be there and are looking forward to speaking with everyone.
6) The Main Attraction: It is understandable that artists are either exhausted or are ready for more after the show, but nothing helps merch sell faster than putting the artists behind the table. Especially after the band has plugged the merch table and its specific location, it will be a delight for fans to have the opportunity to speak with the artists, get engaged and walk away with a new album and/ or a t-shirt because of the pleasant experience.
7) A Clean Table: Just like any store (think grocery store, toy store, convenience store, clothing store), potential customers connect the appearance of unorganization and sloppiness with that of a weak business. By splitting the table into well organized sections dedicated to each type of merch or even price point, it makes it much easier on the eyes, makes sales much more likely. Also continue to think of a clothing store, make sure you have clean, well folded t-shirts that range in color, size and gender specificity.
8) Bright Colors: Not only should your merch table be located in a high-traffic area, but it should pop out as the sour thumb in the room. Venues are typically dark, so keep in mind that darker colors will be lost into the clutter of the room. Set up a back-drop, use a table cloth and create a banner, all of which should use bright, vibrant colors to catch people’s attention.
9) Prices: Setting the right prices for the available merch is crucial to successful sales. Not only should everything be fairly prices based on the industry standard (which means you MUST do your research when planning the pricing strategy), but there absolutely needs to be merch available at every price point, from $1 dollar up to $100 dollars (or more depending on what you are offering).
10) Inventory Sheet: Organization is key to a healthy business. Using an inventory sheet will help you keep track of sales and will decrease the chances of wasteful overhead for your next tour. You can start to use the historical sales to forecast growth. This is especially important if you do decide to create unique merchandise for each stop on the tour, as it allows you to see where your merch sold better or worse, so you don’t waste money creating unique merch for the wrong places.
11) Unique Collectables: Though this is a much more expensive option to consider, creating unique collectables for each show creates an incentive for repeat purchases from repeat customers. Some fans will be so into your music that they decide to hit every show within a 100 mile radius of their hometown, so why not create incentive for them to hit the merch table at EVERY show they attend?
Ideas for some unique collectables are merit badges with a unique design reflecting each venue, laminated tour passes with specific dates printed on them, high-quality original prints of the show poster (signed by the band AND artist of the poster) and even shirts that specifically reflect the venue, date and city.
12) Bundles: Just like the unique collectables, you want to make sure that you offer unique bundles that can only be purchased from the merch table. The more creative you can get with these bundles, the more likely you will be to encourage a higher volume of sales, as well as repeat attendance to future dates of the tour.
An idea for unique bundles include a unique USB thumb-drive with hand-painted artwork that offers the entire back catalog of studio albums, plus free admission to all shows for the next year. The more unique, limited edition and exclusive you can make these bundles, the more people will be willing to seek them out, not to mention pay a premium for them.
13) Contest/ Drawing: This is a great way to ensure longer-term engagement with fans. The drawing could be for free tickets, a free limited edition bundle of music or even something above and beyond like an opportunity to go out to dinner and hang out with the band.
14) Picture Board: Remember the idea of the main attraction? (see above). Using a picture board is an opportunity for the artist(s) to establish a stronger connection with fans, meanwhile advertising the merch in order to increase sales. Start taking pictures of the artists with fans who are either wearing or holding up newly purchased merch. Then compile a huge collection of the pictures taken and display the picture board either behind the table or to the side of the table. Make sure it is visible and most importantly, make sure to include a band member in the pictures!
15) Branch Out Beyond The Table: Though the purpose of this list is to make the merch table itself more effective, the ultimate goal is to increase revenue and fan engagement. Grab a few friends and have them walk around the venue in a crisp new band shirt with their own mailing list sign-up sheet, some albums for sale, a few t-shirts for sale (especially the one they are wearing) and some FREE stickers or buttons. The idea here is to engage as many attendees as possible and to direct them back to the actual merch table where they can interact with the band members, buy an increased level of merch because of this new connection to the band and will walk away with a great, personal experience from the show rather than just a ‘fun time’.
Using a merch table to increase sales is always good, but if used properly it can be so much more than that. If you are going to take the time, effort and money to plan out and finance the merchandise for your tour, make sure you have taken all of these things into consideration to ensure that you maximize revenue and fan engagement at every show.
What other ideas have you used to make your merch table more effective?
Jonathan Ostrow (@miccontrol) is the co-founder of MicControl, a music blogging network based on a social networking platform.
15 Awesome iPhone/iPad Apps for Music Lovers
It should be no surprise that your iPhone/iPad is a great device for the music lover in us all, even beyond the iTunes/iPod capabilities that come standard. There are tons of apps available for a variety of music lovers. This is the list of the 15 must-have iPhone/iPad apps for music lovers to discover and listen to music, share the awesome music they love, and enjoy live music:
DISCOVERY
1. Last.FM
When it comes to preference based radio players, the two big names are Last.FM and Pandora. Last.FM uses the preferences of other users in the community who have similar tastes in music to recommend songs to you. You can like and dislike tracks all the while adding to the “preferences” that the app uses to suggest new music to you. One of the key differentiators for Last.FM is the unlimited number of skips. If you don’t like a song, skip it. Other apps limit you to a certain number of skips every hour which can be annoying when exploring new genres and artists.
On top of song recommendations Last.FM provides event recommendations with the ability to check off whether or not you’re attending in order to share with the rest of the community.
Price: FREE
2. Pandora
Now, to play devil’s advocate… Pandora is another preference-based music discovery app. By now, most people are familiar with Pandora. Type in an artist or song and Pandora creates a radio station based off the particular “attributes” such as vocal harmony, rhythmic patterns, etc. and uses this information to predict what songs users will like. Pandora’s one major downfall is the fact that you are allowed only 5 skips in an hour which can really make it difficult to try experimenting with new styles of music that you’ve never dabbled in before.
Personally, I like the Pandora app just a little bit better than Last.FM (just a few months ago it was the other way around). Right off the bat, Pandora is just a little bit more pleasing to the eye. As soon as the app loads you see the search function. Type in artist or song title and you’ve begun. Full artist info is available and it’s all put together with a very clean, easy to use user interface. Pandora does have its downfalls but when it comes to music discovery Pandora takes the cake.
Price: FREE
3. SoundHound
SoundHound is one of several music identification apps out there right now but offers a few extra bells and whistles over the competition. First, SoundHound’s main feature is its ability to recognize songs that are playing from a speaker or that you sing/hum into the built-in microphone. The app offers 5 free music identifications a month or unlimited IDs with the $5 premium version. You can also discover music with the “What’s Hot” section that shows the weeks most popular songs as well as “Underplayed” the section showing songs that are being listened to much more on SoundHound then on the radio.
Once you find your song, whether it’s on the app or pulling from your personal library, you can view the artists bio which includes sharing and purchasing features, in app lyrics and YouTube videos, and even a link to automatically create a Pandora radio station based on song or artist. In addition, tour dates and similar artists are available within the app.
SoundHound not only provides a great app to figure out the song that you just can’t figure out what it’s called but also includes a bunch of additional information on artists and discovery features.
Price: FREE
Premium version: $4.99
MySpace Music brings to you Romeo, an app where you can “fall in love” with music. Romeo reminds me of MTV (back when they used to play music videos) meets Pandora. With a whole bunch of music videos in their database, you can choose what genre you’re in the mood for (hip hop, rock, jazz, etc.) and also what kind of mood you’re actually in (energetic, partying, studying, romantic, etc.) and continuously plays music videos from mainstream and emerging artists. You can then “love” songs and Romeo picks up on your preferences over time. Romeo allows you to share, download and skip (6 per hour) tracks. This app helps remind you why MTV used to be cool and helps you to discover new music all at the same time.
Price: FREE
SHARE
TweetThatTrack is a fairly simple app that allows you to update Twitter with what you’re currently listening to on your iPod. With the simple push of a button an automatic update is sent to Twitter as #nowplaying on my iPod: {artist} - “{song}” while the app keeps track of your past tweets for you to review. This is a very simple app but great for those of you looking to broadcast your taste in music easily.
Price: FREE
6. iShareTunes
iShareTunes is essentially a music sharing game that allows you to earn badges for having a great taste in music. Share music from your library with your friends via Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail and receive comments, likes and re-shares. The more popular your shares become the more points/badges you collect and you become a trendsetter within the community.
You can also find people with similar tastes and view their profile, seeing their recent shares, comments, etc. While the developers are still working out some of the bugs, this app is still very interesting for sharing music and building your own following based on the music you like. If the app and badge system continue to be updated as they are now I can picture this really catching on… imagine the Farmville of the music community. Get on board now and start building your reputation as a trendsetter.
Price: FREE
LIVE MUSIC
Local Concerts is the best free concert app and it’s no surprise seeing as how it’s powered by iLike. The app asks for permission to determine your location and that’s it. You instantly have a list of upcoming shows in your area based on the music in your library. Find a concert you like and you can get directions, find tickets and share with your friends. You can also search through an alphabetical venue directory to see the schedule for upcoming performers.
Price: Free
8. BandMate
If you’ve got 2 bucks to spare, then check out Bandmate, an app similar to Local Concerts with a few more bells and whistles. BandMate will also recommend local concerts based on your music library but goes even further to find artists that match your preferences. From there the app gives you the ability to browse through bios, videos, artist websites, and ultimately keep track of all your upcoming concerts. As if you weren’t pumped enough to see your favorite (or next favorite) musicians in concert, BandMate creates custom playlists of all your favorite bands with upcoming shows. BandMate even gives you the ability to browse events in different cities so you can plan your next road trip based on shows you want to attend. With all these features you might ask yourself is there anything this app can’t do? No. The answer is no, end of story.
Price: $1.99
This is a great app for the live music enthusiast who’s looking for souvenirs from their favorite shows. Browse through hand-made, limited edition concert posts from over 200 bands including MGMT, Phish, The Killers and more. Once you find one that you like you can order it straight from the app and have it shipped to your door.
Price: Free
10. Concert Vault
Concert Vault gives you access to an enormous collection of live shows from the 1960s until now featuring artists such as Jethro Tull, Santana, The Who, The Ramones, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The… you get the idea. Search by most popular, newest or listen in on a handful of radio stations. After selecting your desired show you can skip around to different points in each set while reading full concert summaries, set lists and images of the artist. Relive the experience of some of your favorite shows of all time.
Price: FREE
LISTEN TO MUSIC
11. Pocket Tunes
Pocket Tunes is praised as one of the best streaming radio apps in the app store due to the inclusion of many different features not available through other radio apps. With over 16,000 podcasts and 23,000 pre-populated stations streaming (with the ability to use GPS technology to search for local stations) you’re guaranteed to find what you’re looking for. Pocket Tunes allows you to search iTunes Store for songs currently playing on the station you’re listening to with just the tap of a button. Are you going to miss a segment on your favorite radio show? Not with the recording feature (the TiVo of streaming radio) which allows you to playback portions of a radio show, skip forward and back, and gives you access to play radio programming even when you’re not able to connect.
Price: $6.99
Do you ever get bored of looking at your iTunes library while playing music? Do you ever wish you could walk down crowded streets bumping your iTunes library from an ’80s style ghetto blaster? I feel your pain. Well now it’s possible (available only on the iPad). Super Ghetto Blaster is designed to make your iPad screen resemble an old school boom box with active peak meters, spinning tapes in the cassette deck, audio controls and even organizes your music in a vintage cassette case stand.
Price: $.99
13. Audiogasm
Audiogasm is another app that allows you to make listening to music a little more visually appealling. The app creates “hypnotic visuals” that move to the music. Take screen shots by swiping the screen or shake your iPhone/iPad to change the animations on the screen. With options to listen to random songs or create playlists you can listen to your favorite songs and become mesmerized for hours. Maybe even days or weeks. I’ve been watching it the whole time I’m typing this. It’s a problem.
Price: $.99
14. Tune Frame
Tune Frame is the perfect party playlist app. Album artwork is displayed across the entire screen which creates an appealing way to show off your music collection. Tap an album and add it to your playlist (it automatically determines your favorite song from the album) making playlist creation relatively simple. Rediscover old favorites that you tend to look over in your iTunes library with changing artwork then just tap “play next” and it’ll be bumped up to the top of your playlist.
The coolest part about this app is you can plug your iPad into your home stereo for a party and suddenly you’ve got an interactive jukebox where your guests can create the playlist for the party.
Price: $4.99
15. TuneWiki
TuneWiki has been featured on MicControl before and it still stands as one of the best apps that combines music, video, and lyrics all into one. Lyrics scroll in time with the song (karaoke style) and even along with radio stations.
TuneWiki incorporates a community as well, showing you the most popular songs throughout the community and even giving “music maps” showing what people are listening and where in your area. Any music lover that likes to actually see the lyrics along with the music should take advantage of this free app.
Price: FREE
There’s an endless amount of music apps out there but this list covers the 15 that are most relevant for music lovers. I’m always open to suggestions though! What music apps do you love? Let us know for future lists!
Chris is the co-founder of MicControl, a music blogging network based on a music social networking platform. This post originally appeared on the MicControl blog on August 25, 2010. Chris can be found on twitter and facebook.(Not) In The Pages Of The Rolling Stone.... A Little Music Business Ditty
Here’s a little music business story for you… This one is all about MENTORING and Rolling Stone Magazine.
A Few weeks ago I participated in the mentoring sessions at the NYC New Music Seminar.This was special for me because I helped develop the mentoring sessions as an advisor to the NMS. Spending time with active artists in an intimate atmosphere where we could ask each other questions one-on-one got me thinking about the value of having access to music industry professionals and the pure gold in having mentors no matter how big a role they play in your everyday life.
Which, brought me back to a mentoring experience I will never, ever forget. It was 1998 at South by Southwest. Where I signed up to meet David Wild, an editor from Rolling Stone at the one- to - one mentoring sessions in the hallway of the Austin Convention Center.
As a young publicist with a stable full of full-time touring artists, the number one request I was getting from absolutely every artist who came through my agency was, “I want to be in Rolling Stone.” This request came to me no matter how small or how big the client was. And I dreaded this request because I had a problem:
The problem was, I didn’t know how to get an artist into Rolling Stone. I knew how to do PR and had placed a lot of articles in a lot of publications but the mighty RS had alluded me every time….
So I kept mailing CDs to, and leaving voicemail messages for all of the editors. At the same time, my artists and their managers were offering me all kinds of horrendous advice.
“Send them a REAL New York pizza with our CD inside the box!”
(clearly this band was not from New York as REAL New York pizza is procurable every day in midtown and therefore NOT special)
“Go to the office and wait in the lobby until someone sees you.”
(um, lobby? It’s an elevator bank)
“Pretend you are a messenger and hand deliver the music.”
(Ever heard of the delivery entrance?)
“We deserve the write up…The guy who mastered our album mastered an album that fillin the name of the editor of Rolling Stone JUST wrote about in the last issue.”
(oy vey.)
No matter how many packages I sent, no matter how many messages I left, I couldn’t get a single RS journalist to respond at all, much less say no to me. Which would of been deeply welcomed.
So, when I saw David Wild’s name on a mentoring sign-up sheet, I was freaking out, incredulous and nervous all at the same time. It turned out David Wild was a really nice man, and he’d heard of a lot of my artists. In fact, he’d listened to a lot of the albums I had sent him. He’d even bought albums by my artists (that I didn’t send him for free).
Our conversation changed my life as a publicist.
It went something like this…..
David Wild: “What are you doing for your artists in the media?”
Ariel Hyatt: “Well, I’m getting them in all the regional newspapers and magazines, and on some local television, and even on some local radio shows in the markets they’re touring in.”
DW : “You’re doing exactly what you should be doing”, he told me.
I was floored…. “Really?”
DW: “ Yes. See, I write about “newsworthy” artists. And what I write about needs to appeal to our mass readership of over 1,000,000 people. You represent some great bands, but at this stage of their careers they rare not eady for, nor do they qualify, for the pages of Rolling Stone.”
I walked away from that meeting feeling like I had done something right.
I would still have years of pitching Rolling Stone, because 99% of the artists I worked for still insisted that I do so. No matter what I said. They were paying for a publicist and therefore I was mailing those packages to Rolling Stone magazine - period.
I used to imagine David seeing my logo as my packages came across his desk, and I hoped that he actually remembered what we had talked about in Texas (and I hoped even more that he was enjoying my artists’ music).
That was what 10 minutes of mentoring did for me….
Eventually I did get a 2 of my artists in Rolling Stone:
1. Bruce Springsteen jumped up on stage with one of my artists Jen Chapin at a benefit show, oh and she happened to be holding her one-year-old child on her hip on stage at the time while singing. Oh, and she also happens to be the daughter of the late great Harry Chapin.
2. An artist who was internationally known (I won’t name names) had been arrested on a crack cocaine possession charge and was thrown in jail.
Newsworthy… Yep.
Why You Should Learn to Build Fans by Being a Fan
So I thought I would apply that theory to building fans and work out why I recently became a loyal fan of the artist Jason Mraz – what was the psychology and marketing that really made me warm to not just his music, but him as a artist (or brand).
I wanted to know how I went from being just aware of his hit single ‘I’m Yours’ to downloading albums of tracks, checking out his videos and tour dates - what steps did I go through as a fan, and what breadcrumbs did he leave online to turn me into a fan?
It’s worth noting that I first heard ‘I’m yours’ in Summer 2009, yet only recently became a fan of his - what was my hold up? Here’s what I think happened. This is How I Became a Fan of Jason Mraz Here is my recollection of how Jason Mraz made me a fan of his split into seven steps.
Step 1 – I first heard of Jason Mraz when I was driving along the south coast of the United Kingdom in the summer of 2009 when he released ‘I’m Yours’. Since then i’ve always associated his music with a nice summer vibe, but after that summer I didn’t become a fan for another 12 months or so..
Step 2 – One day when I was in the office trying to find more chilled out acoustic music that I enjoy and I decided to add a whole album of Jason Mraz to my Spotify playlist, thinking there may be a few decent tracks on there.
Step 3 – Over the weeks I start to notice a few songs of his that caught my attention and that I actually prefer to the original hit he released, but more importantly I realised that l liked all of his songs.
Step 4 – So now I’m at home with one of these songs stuck in my head and I go on my computer. Because I don’t have Spotify installed at home I go on to Youtube and because I’m comfortable that I will like all Jason Mraz songs I search for ‘Jason Mraz Playlist’ and stick a video playlist on in the background, of course I catch a glimpse to some of the videos – in particular the ones where there’s no music, just him talking.
Step 5 – I subconsciously take in what Jason Mraz is saying during the interviews and start to learn more about Jason’s personality and I begin to connect with his brand of being a non-materialistic and genuinely funny guy – which is a very likeable style.
Step 6 – I start to watch more videos, and learn more about his music until I finally decide to visit his official website to find out if he’s touring in the U.K anytime soon. Expecting a very bland list of dates and venues I am pleasantly serenaded by a hilarious background song that Jason sings about his tour webpage! (At this point i’m very impressed)
Step 7 – I am so impressed and happy as a fan of his that I start to tell my friends about his music, share his songs and well, write this blog post! How I got to Know Jason Mraz I believe that the biggest transition in the seven steps above from being interested in Jason Mraz’s music to being a loyal fan was step 5 where I started being exposed to his personality through videos. Here is the best example of a video that really shows how Jason talks to his fans, and invites them into his personality – whilst maintaining the highest of performing standards. How can you make your fans fall in love you?
- Be yourself – Most people despise a fake personality and can smell it a mile off, be your self and people will appreciate that.
- Be transparent – don’t hide the fact that you’re a small local band if that’s what you are – if you’re honest and likeable then your fans will be more inclined to help you get to the next step.
- Be professional but not too serious – After all, life’s too short for being too serious and worrying about everything, have fun but remain professional.
- Leave breadcrumbs everywhere – better yet, leave breadcrumbs that show off the points above and give your fans a good reason to love you. Remember not all fans react to the same mediums as strongly so keep producing images, videos, and text content to bait them.
Marcus Taylor is the founder of The Musician’s Guide, a music marketing start-up based in Oxford, United Kingdom. If you want to contact Marcus you can fire over a question on Twitter, or on Email.
Last Week On Music Think Tank
Bruce Warila: If I Were A Record Label And You Were An Artist, Would You Marry Me Anyways, Would You Have My Baby?
Jason Mencer: Building A Festival: One Beer At A Time
Josiah Mann: Making It In One Year - Is It Possible?
Ariel Hyatt: The Crowdfunding Quandry: Sales Vs. Art Vs. The Little Voice Inside Your Head
The Crowdfunding Quandry: Sales Vs. Art Vs. The Little Voice Inside Your Head
“The In-Crowd” is an inside look at crowdfunding, with Ariel Publicity Artist Phil Putnam and RocketHub.com co-founder Brian Meece. Each Monday, the boys are giving us an honest look at a crowdfunding project in action and dish on how things are going each week. From time to time Ariel weighs in as well. What is crowdfunding? Find out here.
What does it look like? See here.
- - - - -
I have been watching this project since it has started. Full disclosure Phil works with me and I see him a few days a week. Here we are at WEEK 9(ish): 60 days in, with 15 days remaining. Phil has $3,888 raised (39% of the $10,000 goal), and $6,112 needed to get to his goal. It’s been a journey to have a front row seat during this process. As you may know I believe that crowd funding is a vital tool that artists will be using for the foreseeable future and I have been blogging a series here on MTT called in Defense of 1,000 True Fans, where I have been interviewing artists who are proving the model and creating sustainable livings from their music. Phil points out that 200,000 people have been exposed in some way to his campaign and that 0.0003% people engaged. I would like to point out a few other things.
First of all I want to commend Phil: To have 60 True Fans or “Super Fans” (the amount of people who have contributed to his campaign so far) is no mean feat. Especially since Phil very rarely performs live and he has not had a mass exposure event (such as a placement on a major TV show). These are two factors that seem to make major impact for artists, according to the interviews I have conducted so far.
The Rule of 7
The marketing aphorism that your message must be seen at least 7 times before people take notice is probably truer today than ever before. With the thousands of messages we see I bet is more like 10 or more before people really take notice. There is a great article on that here: that I want to refer to because it brings up another very important point: I love this article by Andrea J. Stenberg What is the Rule of Seven? And How Will it Improve Your Marketing? because it addresses:
“So why do prospects need to hear your message so many times before taking action? If you are doing your marketing well…You have created powerful marketing materials that use language your target audience relates to. You speak to their major problems and how you can solve them. Why don’t they jump to their feet and grab what you have to offer the first time they see your message?”
One MAJOR problem here is the fact that music unlike marketing a problem doesn’t exactly solve “major problems” for fans. Music won’t help you lose weight, or keep your house clean or whiten your teeth. People have to have an emotional connection to music in some way, which in my opinion can be largely fostered from having people see you play live. So, the fact that people heard Phil on one podcast didn’t motivate them to invest heavily in his campaign because it was only one touch. He did reach a lot of people but not enough.
Here’s the second thing: The way this process can make an artist feel. Phil won’t say it because he tends to be one of the most positive people I have ever met however I could see as his friend, his publicist and his work colleague that this campaign felt confronting on many levels because asking friends and fans and family for money conjures up the little voice we all have inside our heads that tries to convince us we don’t deserve it, or we aren’t good enough or smart enough or whatever your little evil voice says to you.
And, it’s not what an artist signs up to do. An artist wants to practice, create music and play not market sell and constantly ask for money and unfortunately in this world of 7 (at least) you are all forced to ask over and over again no matter what your circumstance.
Phil my friend, It’s not over yet and I commend you for your braveness. I think that what you did is amazing because so few artists make $3,888 from selling their music. So maybe this year you don’t get to your goal but next year you WILL.
And in the end, win or lose I’m proud of you that you took yourself out of your own comfort zone and asked yourself to grow and expand in many ways that you probably can’t see just yet. Many people will benefit from your honesty and your effort. And Quit? Not your style at all….
Phil Says:
Having been raised in a WASP-ish household, I grew up understanding that social graces matter. RSVP to invitations. Never arrive at a party empty-handed (extra points if what you have in your hand is vodka). A drunk bride is unforgivably tacky. Don’t overstay your welcome. Wear clean underwear, in case you get hit by a car, go to the hospital, and the medical community concludes that you’re a filthy slut. And above all, handle every circumstance, good or bad, with style, satin wit, and grace.
You gotta recognize when people aren’t laughing at your jokes. You gotta know when you’ve lost the room. You just gotta be able to see when they’re not interested. And that’s what I’ve done. In general, people just aren’t interested in my crowdfunding project. Besides the 60 sensational, faithful, deeply cherished friends and fans of mine who have supported the project, the rest of my community of fans/friends just don’t care. Well, maybe they care, but the best I can see is that they’re indifferent. Indifference speaks. Caring acts. Over the past 60 days, over 200,000 people have heard about this project directly from me, whether during podcast and radio interviews, videos they’ve viewed, facebook posts they’ve commented on and liked. Over 200,000 people are aware of this project, and only 60 have taken action to support it. That’s a 0.0003% response rate. Three thousandths of a percent. There’s no pretty way to paint that; it’s just not happening. They’re just not interested, so I’m just not trying to push them to be. Not anymore. The party has crested, I’ve grabbed my coat, and I’m making the goodbye rounds gracefully.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not quitting the project before the full 75 days have passed. WASPs don’t quit. Good lord, WASPs just don’t quit. Anything. Quitters never prosper. Quitters don’t go to Yale. Quitters lose their country club membership. And now my grandfather is crying. Nice. See how quitting tears families apart. I’m not quitting, but I have essentially stopped pushing the project to my fans/friends. No more new videos, no more facebook posts, no more “Please get involved” status messages and tweets. Once it became clear that they weren’t interested, I started doing this cost/benefit foxtrot in my head, which you also will instinctively do if you’re ever in this situation. I could see that it would take a massive promo push to have a chance of raising all the money, and I could also see that my fans/friends would become seriously aggravated, and then alienated, if I kept shoving the project at them. I looked beyond the end of this project, this phase that is one short piece of a very long career still in front of me, and saw that it’s not worth souring their future allegiance for the sake of this present project that is, by all reasonable expectations, going to fail. I want my community with me for the long haul, and to make that happen I have to let this one go. So I did. I have.
Barring some astonishing miracle of hellacious generosity, I will not raise all $10,000 and the Songs About You album will not be made. That’s cool. I’m okay with that. The RocketHub team and I worked our asses off for this and it didn’t work. Some projects fail. Sometimes they fail publicly. I have no problem failing publicly. I’m content to fail because I love to learn, I love to grow, and I love to share my experience with others so that they can learn too. Hence this blog. There are still 15 days left in the countdown, and still a couple more entires to come in this series, in which I’m going to genuinely enjoy gathering up the good that has come from this journey and gratefully proclaim that nothing is ever a complete loss. I’ll take warm delight in being that well-heeled gentleman who departs right on time and thanks the host on his way out the door.
We musicians can take a page from the WASP handbook. We can handle every circumstance, good or bad, with style, satin wit, and, above all else, grace.
Brian Says:One of the fun things about Crowdfunding a music project on RocketHub is that it allows you to gauge project demand, test the market without risk and tweak accordingly.
Phil has a very high-concept album project framed around co-writing songs about his fans. So far the demand has been good, but not overwhelming for this particular project and this is valuable information to have. To gauge and test without risk, the funding method is “all or nothing” so if Phil is unable to raise the goal amount within the selected time limit, the project is scrubbed and contributed funds are credited back to Fuelers. This protects his fans from getting a sub-standard product – and protects Phil from having to make something when the demand (and funding) is not in place.
To be clear, Phil has had a high number of people contribute to his project - over 60 so far. Phil has also managed to raise close to $4,000. These are solid numbers for any musician. Plus Phil still has two weeks to raise roughly $6000 – which is also not impossible. The bigger picture happening here is that Phil is getting valuable feedback from his network regarding this project – and this feedback will serve him well regardless of the campaign outcome. This makes Phil a winner for taking the plunge and putting his emotions on the line.
Want to participate? It’s not too late!
http://rockethub.com/projects/140-songs-about-you
Making It In One Year - Is It Possible?
My name is Josiah Mann and I am the lead singer and founding member of the band Sufficient Cause. Our goal - ambitious or irrational as it may seem - is to become fully supported by our music, recorded or performed, within 12 months from today. We plan to do this without signing to a label (outside of a new type of record deal being made just for us…). We do not have a fan base. We have never released any music and we’ve never played a single show. We’re nobody.
Let me explain. From day one, I’ve done things differently than other musicians. Four years ago, after I had written my first couple of songs, I started out like many other musicians. I booked a gig at a little coffee shop and invited all my friends. I had played guitar for about a year and had played classical piano competitively, but singing and performing my own songs was a different story. The first show was pretty rough. I was extremely nervous and my voice quivered uncontrollably. I had never really heard my voice loudly in a speaker so I could hear how poorly I really sang, causing me to shy away from the mic. I couldn’t even hold my friends’ attention. It made it somewhat less stressful that everybody was talking over my music, though… Everybody told me “You just gotta keep doing it,” and “You’ll get used to it eventually,” but I didn’t see the point. After I’d played about 5 or 6 times at the same coffee shop, I threw in the towel. Not because I was scared; in fact in a former life I was a Heavyweight Golden Gloves Champion and National Chinese Kickboxing Champion. There was very little I was afraid of. But after a few performances, I knew I wasn’t ready.
I knew from my experience fighting that when someone steps in the ring against a professional fighter without proper training first, that doesn’t mean he’s brave. This is where I was different from other musicians. I knew that I needed to study.
So I trained. I became a student of music that is universally considered to be “classic”. I studied the music of bands like U2, Coldplay, Eagles, and Sarah McLachlan.
I also studied business. On one hand I saw Major Labels signing talent just to control the market and limit product choice and on the other I watched people like Trent Reznor and Corey Smith making a good living outside the established system.
Along with all this study, I also studied myself. I studied to know how I was different from these great musicians. I learned what my strengths and weaknesses as an artist and as a business person were and worked relentlessly to balance them.
About a year ago, after three years of recording the same songs on my Macbook Pro, I decided it was time to put together a band. But again I did it differently than most other musicians. I knew that to be successful for any meaningful amount of time we had to have the right team, a definite vision and message, and clear leadership. Otherwise we would fall apart over time like so many other bands before us. So I watched and waited for the right people. And once I knew I had the right people, we spent time getting on the same page and clarifying our purpose and mission.
From day one, we planned for success. We’ve built a foundation and now we are ready. Without playing a single show, we are competent musicians with good music. We have a self hosted website that is geared toward delivering consistent content and acquiring fan data. We have enough content to continually connect with fans and when the time is right we will give them a reason to buy. We have both a local and online strategy and are ready to put it in high gear.
All of these elements do not guarantee our success and we know that. We might die tomorrow. But we believe we have something valuable to offer and we will continue to enjoy the process regardless of the outcome.
We are doing a couple of things to chronicle our journey. First, here on MTT we will post monthly updates showing our stats and progress. We will also be blogging heavily one our site. In addition we plan to film the whole process for a documentary at the end of the 12 months. So without further ado, here are some of our current stats and the starting points as of (Aug 21, 2010).
Stats -Total Shows Played : 0
Goals -
Here is the basically the first stage of the plan, keeping in mind that opportunities are fluid and changing.
First Stage – Local Buzz
First off, we have recorded a free demo EP which is designed to get email addresses and help us start a local movement. We’re going to start gigging heavily immediately and our goal is to give away 5000 CD’s primarily at shows. Ideally, we would get an email address for each CD, but we might use other creative methods to give them away and get an email address on the back end… We’re going to build and leverage relationships with local media outlets as well as radio hosts and other local tastemakers in order to get coverage and build a buzz. While we are giving away this demo we will also be in studio recording our first full quality EP preparing for the next stage – blog coverage…
We are continuing looking to build our team, and if you listen to our music and want to be a part of what we are doing, please feel free to contact us at sufficientcause@gmail.com
To be continued…
P.S. We just put up the first song from our EP here on Music Think Tank. You can listen here.
Josiah Mann
Building a Festival: One Beer at a Time
“…and we’ll do it ourrrr way, yes ourrrr way. Make all our dreams come true…”
Upon walking into Asheville, NC’s Highland Brewery, the Laverne and Shirley theme song really couldn’t help but pop into my head. For those of you, unfamiliar with the Laverne and Shirley theme, here’s your chance to fix that.
My bandmates and I were given an amazing opportunity and I was very excited about it. We were about to get paid to work with beer…this was awesome!
This is Highland. This is where we pack the beers
Hailing from the blue collar world of western Pennsylvania, my bandmates and I understood a hard day’s work from the vantage of a steel worker or a coal miner. We quickly mastered our extremely technical jobs of putting beers into boxes and found enough time to work as many as three jobs at once. Highland noticed our enthusiasm and we were invited back.
After working a couple of times at Highland I realized the trend. Look to your left, it’s a musician; look to your right, the same. Highland Brewery supports musicians! They understand that making music isn’t always the most lucrative of careers so they scour the local music scene and ask their favorite bands if they’d be interested in occasionally making a few extra bucks…wow!
Well, one day after looking to my right and left sides, I realized that I had been working with some of western North Carolina’s top musical acts. There really were some incredible bands working at The Highland Brewery and nobody even knew it. I spent the rest of the day thinking of a way to remedy that problem.
I Decided To Build a Festival
This is me, I’m Jason.
The idea sat, undeveloped for quite a while when finally I sprang it on my band’s manager, Gene Dolan. That’s all he needed to hear. His gears were now churning and this idea was rapidly turning into a physical thing. For the next couple of days we had a one-track mind. The Highland Mountain Medley Music Compilation was all anyone around us would hear about. Our ideas became refined and eventually a functional blueprint started to evolve.
Being in a band, my number one concern was that the artists get paid. Being a music fan, Gene wanted to make sure that it would all culminate into a giant, amazing event.
We combined our goals and came up with an incredible plan. We’re going to put together a sponsored compilation CD featuring bands and musicians associated with Highland Brewery. Then, with the funds we’ve generated from CD and ad space sales we’re going to put together a small, but incredible one day festival.
Our first move is to get all of our ducks in a row, lining up everything we would need to begin to take action. Here’s what we’ve done so far:
1. Make a plan. Without a clear vision, our plan would never see the light of day. We blocked out a couple of hours to create an outline from beginning to end. This took several drafts as we worked through the possible roadblocks and pitfalls that we would unquestionably come across. A functional structure eventually developed and we were now ready to test the waters.
2. Pitch the plan. We’re going to need a fair amount of support from media outlets, businesses, bands, and venues to successfully pull this off. Now that we have a solid game plan, it’s time to find out if it’s got wings or not. We contacted everybody on our lists that would end up being involved to see if they MIGHT be interested in participating. Everyone said yes!
3. Publicly document the project. This step is monumentally important to the projects success for several reasons. The most important of those reasons is that it will keep us on track. I can imagine that it could be very easy to simply give up and let this project fall to the wayside. It’s public documentation that will continually be forcing us to both stay on course, and to be perpetually moving forward.
Another important aspect of documentation is publicity. Not only do we need to make a music festival out of nothing but an idea, but we must also tell the story of how and why it happened. It’s the story itself that will make people care about the project. People seem to be more interested in the “how and why” of things transpiring, than the simple fact that something happened. That’s why they’ll want to get involved, and ultimately, it’s the guaranteed publicity from the story that will make it easier to get sponsors, bands, and media on board.
It’s a good start that puts us well on our way to completion. It will take an entire community of music supporters for this to be successful, but that is the direction that the music business is taking us in anyway.
A Long Way From Cruise Control
The industry has definitely changed. There’s only so many times that I’m willing to ask our fans if they’ll give their email address as a vote so we can try and win another contest. If we’re going to continue to pay our rent while doing what we love, it’s become obvious that we need to create new and innovative ways to gain fans while making money. Grassroots, community oriented projects seems like one of the best ways to grow at a steady, organic pace.
The biggest successes I’ve seen from being in a band have come from our grassroots approach. We started as a passionate busking band on the streets of Asheville, NC and grew from there. We had no idea of what we were doing in the beginning. We would go to new cities without any immediate plan of returning, all-the-while gaining new fans without asking for their email addresses. It wasn’t working at all. People in our hometown were loving us but there wasn’t a single market within four hours of Asheville where people could even remember our band’s name.
Slowly, we learned from our mistakes and we’re finally growing a consistent fanbase all around the southeastern United States. We push the email list harder than our merchandise and we don’t touch cities where we can’t commit to returning again and again. I’m seeing this system work. Now we have 7 cities where we can guarantee a good turnout; and we’re finally hitting new markets, only to find venues packed with fans coming to see us for the very first time.
We’re still a long way from being on cruise control. We’ve got to be constantly playing shows to gain more fans and collecting an email address and a phone number from every single person who enjoyed our show. Basically, the trick, (for us) is to make yourself available for the fans to find you and then never let them out of your sight. It’s the surest way of building long-standing musical success that I know of.
Over the next couple of months, I’m going to be writing about both the progresses and pitfalls of an up-and-coming band and a brand new venture as we turn boxing beers into a compilation CD, and from there into a small, successful festival…and of course, all-the-while we’ll be doing it our way, yes our way…make all our dreams come true, for me and you.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Jason Mencer is in a band called Now You See Them. He is also part of a team who’s building a booking/management/promotions company called The Lama Agency.
__________________________________________________________________________________
If I were a record label and you were an artist, would you marry me anyways, would you have my baby?
Connect the title of this post to Bobby Darin’s song “If I Were A Carpenter”.
This quick post is a fictitious letter from any random label to every artist on the roster. If you have read any of my prior posts, you know this is a theme I touch on frequently.
From: Any Random Record Label
To: All The Artists On Our Roster
August 24th, 2010
Dear Friends,
It’s been said that over a million songs a year are being uploaded to the Internet, and that number is growing. In addition, the number of new “artists” entering an already crowded marketplace is exploding. And as you all know, it’s not only hard to generate a return on investment when promoting artists and music, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to fight through the noise. The last thing music fans need right now is another PUMP; what fans do need and want…are FILTERS they can trust.
From this day forward, this label will cease to PUMP out anything and everything you create. Moreover this label will no longer support or promote artist websites and brands. This label is going to have one management team, one fundraising initiative, one website, one set of widgets, a unified scheduling page, one mobile app, one social stream, one streaming radio service and one voice.
For the purpose of this letter, all this aggregated activity and the associated services will be known as The Venture. Permanent branding decisions will be made over the coming weeks.
The Venture will only feature the best songs, videos, photos and fan contributions that are uploaded each month; while The Venture’s streaming radio and video podcast service (featuring attractive personalities) will also spin songs (with synergy) from other labels around the world.
Before you set fire to this letter, please note that the label is going to be sharing ownership in The Venture. Ownership and profit sharing will be based upon measurable popularity metrics such as traffic and co-branded merch sales; everything will be transparent; specifics will be forthcoming; and if you are ever unhappy with the arrangement, we will help you move your stuff elsewhere.
The goal of this initiative will be to create a unique music and lifestyle brand that music consumers can connect with in cities all over the world. Fans connecting through The Venture will find other humans that have overlapping tastes in music, as well as shared values, interests and desires. Our long term goal is to be recognized as a brand that has unparalleled social sway and social impact within our target niche.
Although you can continue to maintain your own online identity, understand this: artists, songs and Internet uploaders are like ants; they are everywhere now; crawling all over the face of the earth; and building your own brand today is akin to taking on the world as a standalone ant. The size and scale of the metaphor is that acute.
Our best advice is to thin down your internet presence and co-brand with The Venture. The network effect of all of us (talented ants) working together will be far more powerful than any of you working separately. This strategy is the best way to build a platform that’s capable of launching artists, songs, tours, and co-branded products and merchandise. This strategy is also essential to our survival.
As for revenue, there will be no advertisements on our website! In addition to music and live performances, the products and merchandise we promote and sell together will be deftly woven into the fabric of who and what we are. More details on this part of the program will also be forthcoming.
Finally, you have nothing to fear when it comes to losing your own identity. Your name and your songs, which are the essential components of your brand, will always travel with you regardless of the label you affiliate with or the website you are on; once you have reached celebrity status, you can’t even hide from fans; they go where you go! Peace.
Thank you for considering this urgent matter.
About Bruce Warila • on Twitter
Last Week On Music Think Tank
Jonathan Ostrow: 10 Tips For Turning Your Fanbase Into A Tribe.
Apryl Peredo: Conquer Your City - Conquer Your World.
Mike Venti: Selling Out Your Shows Every Time.
Ariel Hyatt: Four Cases You Need to Know About and How They Affect The Music Industry, Part 2 with Joyce Dollinger.
Brian Hazard: The Individual Edition CD.
Jonathan Ostrow:The Musicians Guide To Fan-Funding.
For Musicians: 10 Tips For Turning Your Fanbase Into A Tribe
Fans of groups such as the Insane Clown Posse (the Juggalo), the Grateful Dead (the Deadhead), and Jimmy Buffet (the Parrothead), are all apart of communities that exists beyond the band. The music is what brought these groups of people together, and the loyalty to the music acts as the glue bonding them together, but the artists themselves have no responsibility to control the group - the community acts as it’s own separate entity, with its own leaders and followers.
These fans belong to a tribe.
Tribes exist as a way to connect and to share an interest in a topic, and it is because of this that you as an artist must recognize that creating a tribe is an essential step towards success and career-longevity. And since a developed tribe acts as its own entity, the incessant ‘shameless self-promotion’ that unfortunately paints the walls of all too many artists’ Facebook and Twitter pages will become a thing of the past.
With a tribe of loyal fans at your side - just one announcement of any album, any show, even any new merch will be absorbed and spread like wildfire. Remember that a typical characteristic of a tribe member is to be overly dedicated, or obsessive, which can be used to your benefit! Think of these obsessive tribe members as your own instant viral marketing strategy- these are the types of fans who make sure that everyone in their social networks know about this new announcement.
All tribes are created by people following a leader who is making it possible to connect and share with others who are also interested in a common topic. In most cases for musicians, that common topic is your music. Though it is very important to understand that it doesn’t necessarily need to be about the music. It can be something else that YOU, the artist, are passionate about such as global sustainability or political awareness, or it can be something that your FANs are passionate about, such as tape trading of recorded live performances. Even if the agenda of the tribe may surround a larger cause, the music then becomes the soundtrack to the movement.
So although a tribe is ultimately a separate entity from the band or musician, it is your (the artist’s) responsibility to be the initial leader of the tribe. Once the tribe is fully developed, the leadership can be simply transferred to the most dedicated members or member who possesses the proper leadership skills needed. This leaves you free of any further responsibility, yet the tribe will continue to support, obsess, grow and purchase.
Something to keep in mind is that creating a tribe can be a very time consuming and arduous process. But if the effort put in can result in a successfully developed tribe, you will see greater and longer-term success than ever possible before. So with that in mind, here are 10 important steps, or rather considerations for planning and executing the gathering of a tribe:
1) Have an agenda. This agenda can be as simple as sharing the music (i.e. in the case of Dead-heads and Phish-heads, the sharing and trading of tapped lived performances is and has always been the main agenda of the respective tribes) or can be revolved around something a bit deeper such as being ‘green’ as is the case with Jack Johnson and his tribe. Now, it is also important to understand that this agenda can change.
This was the case with the Phish-heads who felt strongly enough about the fact that bassist Mike Gordon was not turned up enough in the live mix, that they worked together to get his bass turned up by creating a campaign called People For A Louder Mike (which was featured in Bass Player magazine in 1998 and resulted in successfully having his bass turned up!). The agenda can be whatever the tribe would like, as long as it reflects the tribe as a whole.
2) Give the tribe a name. A name gives the fans something real to identify with. Think of the Dead-heads, Phish-heads, Juggalos and Parrot-heads of the world. There is a heightened sense of pride and enthusiasm from members within these tribes knowing that they are not only apart of something real, but that the outsiders (including the band) have given them a label. Notice that even Lady Gaga refers to her dedicated fans as her ‘Little Monsters’ - by doing this, she has created a separate entity for her fans to exist.
3) Determine which fans should and should not be included in the tribe. Different levels of fans have a different level of dedication, outward enthusiasm and support. This is extremely important - although it is hard to say ‘you cannot join our tribe’, it is a crucial step towards building a strong tribe. Going along with the 1000 True Fans theory, you want the core of your tribe to be made up of passionate and dedicated followers. Not only does this create a stronger bond between the existing members, but it creates a system of insiders and outsiders, and an increased level of desire by the outsiders to become an insider. And therefore, once again, the tribe is working for you to create a stronger following.
4) Build a ‘Story Of The Tribe’. Just as it is important in deciding which type of fans you want to be included in the tribe, it is just as important to create a story or manifesto to pull them in. The idea of a tribe is that everyone involved shares a similar passion, so your ‘Story Of The Tribe’ is your opportunity to describe the passions and goals of tribe, whatever those may be (i.e. your music, tape trading, sustainable ‘green’ living, etc.) in order to connect with potential followers. The story needs to be personal and reflect your own passion, but also needs to contain a clear message of the value in bringing all of these people together who share the same interest. Think: this is why you, the dedicated follower, should join the tribe.
The best way to tell this story is to create a short video that you can upload to Youtube and Vimeo, which can be shared by tribe members through their own social networks. If they feel passionate about something, chances are they have some friends who feel similarly.
5) Connect followers (fans) with each other. A very important aspect of a tribe is that it is not just about one person (the leader) making strong connections and relationships with others. This is not just a fanbase of people looking at you and your music. This is a collective of people who feel passionate about something. The only way for a tribe to flourish and thrive is if all of the members within have the opportunity to connect and share with each other. This is why 15 years after the death of Jerry Garcia, the community of Dead-heads is still alive and well - even if the band is no more, there is still a demand for the recordings of shows that spanned their 30-year career.
6) Maintain a high level of transparency. This is critically important to the overall strength and functionality of a tribe because it builds trust and stronger connections among followers, as well as the relationship formed between followers and the leader. This doesn’t mean that you need to go on to your blog or twitter account and make personal statement - there is nothing wrong with a little mystique, if that’s what you are going for (i.e. the Insane Clown Posse). Rather, this refers to maintaining a high level of transparency in the overall agenda of the tribe. No hidden agendas allowed.
7) Celebrate accomplishment. Whether the agenda of the tribe is to change something for the better or is to just bring people together, all major milestones should be celebrated as a way to highlight members within who have made a difference, to further the excitement of the tribe as a whole, and to keep motivating the tribe to reach new levels of involvement. Try starting an e-mal newsletter, be it weekly, bi-weekly or monthly that is sent out to all members of the tribe.
The Grateful Dead spent many years using a newsletter as a way to reach out to tribe members - Originally titled the Dead Heads Newsletter (later changed to the Grateful Dead Almanac), the mailing list was 40,000 people strong by the mid-70’s. Newsletters were often sent out with a little something special for the fans, including exclusive EPs and sneak previews of upcoming solo albums.
8) Empower member. The tribe is a collective. It is a gathering of people looking for the same thing, to become further involved in something they are passionate about. So give the members some responsibilities and give them ways to make a difference. By creating a way to empower the members of the group, each one has the opportunity to take the initiative. Without this sort of empowerment, the tribe may become stale and crumble.
9) Invent Rituals. This may seem ridiculous to some, but creating some sort of ritual that is shared between all members of the tribe is a way of widening the exclusivity between insiders and outsiders. An important part of having insiders and outsiders is working to increase the desirability of the tribe so that more people WANT to put in the time and effort to become an insider. By the time they have made that transition, they will be a fully-informed and dedicated follower.
In 1992, Phish created a ‘secret language’ that was taught to the audience. The language was a set of tonal and rhythmic sequence that acted as a call and response between the band and the audience. The band explained that the purpose was to let the re-occurring fans in on the secret, so that the new people who came for the first time would feel left out, making them want to learn the language, to attend another show and eventually take part in the ritual.
10) Educate. This is a very obviously tip, but it is something that should not be ignored. What better than to not only bring people together, but to teach them about the topic, get them more engaged and in turn create a stronger, more loyal tribe who is more capable of existing on their own…
Again, Jack Johnson has done an excellent job of this with his All At Once campaign. Not only has he created a tribe of his fans who also feel strongly about living a more green, sustainable lifestyle, but he has created an online social network component that gives people a place to learn and educate how they can better their lives and communities at large. And again, his music has become the soundtrack to the movement, as seen in the campaign video shown above.
So to recap, developing a tribe is no easy feat to accomplish. However, it does give you the opportunity to create a stronger fanbase, a bigger fanbase, and to increase sales all through this one outlet. If you do have something that you are passionate about, remember to take your time and establish the guidelines of who and who would not be included as a tribe member. This is not something that should be a widespread campaign, at least not at first. When developing a tribe, exclusivity is your friend because it actually creates a more desirable experience within, as well as a stronger desire to join from those unable to belong.
Jon is the co-founder of MicControl, a music blogging network based on a music social networking platform. This article originally appeared on the MicControl Blog on August 19th, 2010. For guest blogging opportunities or for simply reaching out, Jon can be found on twitter and facebook.
Do YOU belong to a tribe of any kind? If so, what is the agenda of that tribe? Please leave your feedback and/or suggestions in the form of a comment below.
Source: For Musicians: 10 Tips For Turning Your Fanbase Into A Tribe (http://miccontrol.com/micschool/for-musicians-10-tips-for-turning-your-fanbase-into-tribe/) by Jon Ostrow
Conquer Your City - Conquer Your World
I am not saying that a regular venue is bad. And I do not deny the tepid power of a general Facebook invitation. Certainly artists need to take advantage of all that online social media can offer – although there are far better ways to do that than most bands utilize. That is a topic for another article though.
This article is more of a checklist on setting up and promoting a city tour. Musical success will not come waiting on an international tour. (Actually, there have been bands that have become well known globally and have financial success with music sales without leaving the comfort of their home area. Again, a tale for another day…)
I’d like to mention what I feel are just a few of the many problems with the “lazy approach” of the one-venue/facebook invitation approach.
- Your current core audience tires of going to the same bar/club each show
- Your core audience can not be expected to attend every show you do so your audience numbers taper down
- The band members themselves tire of going to the same club to perform
- No new fans “happen” to hear you onstage, because you are in the same venue with same neighborhood people and your fans
- Your invite goes to the same people every time – so few new people receive the notice
- There is no proactive promotion to find new fans
SCHEDULING YOUR CITY TOUR
FIRST, take stock of your bands “tools.” Make sure you have at a minimum: a web presence, a physical/mail-able press kit, and an electronic press kit.
Your website should be simple, easy to navigate, have basic info on the band and the members, a player which allows visitors to hear your music, and it should be EASY to purchase your music/merchandise from your site. Nothing frustrates a site visitor more than wanting to purchase a download and having to navigate through the myriad gates of hell to find out how or where. (More detailed information on elements of a successful website in another article.)
If you do not have these things, spend some time putting them together before continuing your “tour” planning.
SECOND, set a band meeting and determine a reasonable number of gigs per month. Assuming you want to gain new fans, keep current fans, make some money, and encourage sales of your music and merchandise – a reasonable goal may be to play 3 shows per month, each at a different venue.
Of course, you and your band mates may have vacation time soon and want to pack in 8-12 shows in a month. Great! Pack in a lot of gigs and call it something clever like “Hot Summer in Sioux Falls Tour” or “Fall into Portland Tour.”
THIRD, do a survey and mapping of your local area. Go online and “Goggle map” or go old school and get a paper map. (Paper maps are more fun anyway!)
If you live in a metro area of 10 million people or more – such as Mexico City, Tokyo, Sao Paolo, New York, Shanghai, Los Angeles, etc. – you already have more potential fans, resources, and sales opportunities, in your local area than some entire countries have in population! Start treating your local area as a major resource for your success!
If you live in a smaller area, say a small city of 85,000, map out a more regional area. Use your town as a centering point and gauge a drive-time radial distance of about 2 hours out and mark this as your border.
Divide your area into multiple sections. If you are in a sparsely populated area, you may only have 6 quality areas. In a city such as Mexico City, you can come up with at least 15, after removing those “danger zones” that you dare not tread! The number of areas should indicate your basic minimum number of different venues for your “city tour.”
FOURTH, begin your research and search for clubs/bars/live houses in each of your divisions. Do an online search and pick up local newspapers and magazines. Look for websites of venues, ads for upcoming shows and where they will be at, etc. Ask your friendly fellow musicians to share their knowledge of venues in the area. (You DO network with other bands and musicians, right? Best practices of making friends, influencing, and networking with fellow musicians and music professionals – another article!)
As you compile your list of possible venues, you will probably notice various cost-types:
1. YOU pay them to let you play there – sort of like a rental hall situation
2. THEY pay you to play – but you may need to audition to be on the roster
3. FREE to play there
As a starting band, you might want to make initial bookings with the venues that are FREE to play. You pay nothing out of pocket, and can get a decent percentage of the cover charge. But DO contact and send your press kit to those clubs that require an audition or demo tape. Often these clubs are larger with a good reputation for their music performances – general music lovers will attend shows of bands they are not familiar with on the strength of that clubs “recommendation.”
If you chose venues YOU must pay, think carefully of your bands budget. Consider pairing with another local band to share the expense and your mutual audiences.
FIFTH, time for another band meeting. Get out the calendar and mark the days and nights when all band members are available for shows. Assuming you have regular band practices, those nights should already be available. Even if your fellow band mates have pesky “real” jobs, spouses, kids, school, or psychotherapy sessions – there WILL be at least 4 nights each month when all members are available!
And tell your cohorts to bring the significant other and kids to the show. Children are never too young to rock out – why else do they now sell infant size concert tees?!
SIXTH, contact the venues via telephone, email, website contact form. Send the physical press kit to those clubs that want it. Attach your electronic press kit to inquiry emails. Direct others to the website. Start scheduling your performance dates.
Okay – you have completed the above steps and you now have one, two, or three months worth of performances set up on your bands calendar. Your shows are strategically scattered in various neighborhoods and areas across your region at different styled clubs, bars, live houses.
Now what? On to promotion!
Perhaps your previous form of promotion was to send out a Facebook invite. List your upcoming shows on your website and/or myspace page. Maybe send a tweet to your followers. Great.
The problem is, this information is going to the SAME people every time you have a show! It can hardly even be called promotion – unless me asking my friends “hey, wanna come hang out Friday and grab a beer?” is promotion. It is really just a notice or an invitation. And let’s be honest – your last Facebook invite, the one you sent to your 4562 friends…how many came to the show?
(The problem with only using your Facebook and myspace friends as your invitees to the show is multi-fold: many of those “friends” are your family/friends that live far away. Many are online pals that share your love of Moroccan cooking. Others harvest your trees on Farmville. Some…just want to be friends cause you have a super hot profile pic. Sad, but true! Sure, many of them could become buyers of your online music and merchandise, but it won’t help your live audiences.)
A FEW GUERILLA PROMOTION IDEAS FOR YOUR CITY TOUR
- Have business cards made for your band. Band name and picture, musical style and website listed on front. Back should have the next 3-4 live show dates and venues written in. Going out to eat or drink? Give one to your server, the bartender, leave a couple in the bathroom stall. Shopping? Leave one in the dressing room, give one to the clerk. Going to some other bands live? Hand them to fellow audience members.
- Go old school with actual printed flyers or post card type notices. Do some reconnaissance in the areas of your upcoming shows and ask if the small shops or coffee houses will let you post one/two in the window. Put them on car windshields or in bike baskets – in areas where your bands demographic works or goes to school.
- Post on other bands blogs, sites, and facebook pages. If it is a bands webpage or facebook, do not post a hardcore plug of your show…but more of a “Hey, saw your show last week! It was great! Come see us play next week at Bryans! Maybe we can do a show together sometime!” Those band members read it, their fans read it…new ears listen. Read any general blogs regularly? Start posting friendly comments, and mention your band and activities. Read music specific blogs? Also post friendly comments, but also ask for input from fellow readers on your music, etc. Again, new ears for shows and sales. It goes without mentioning that when commenting, you should be signed in online so that by clicking on your name, the reader is taken to your website.
- Frequent shopper point cards! Don’t let major retailers be the one ones cashing in on the idea of customer loyalty. Grab it for yourselves. Your core audience, and new fans, sign up for the band’s point card (enabling you to capture names and email addresses so you can ALSO start a band mailing list – much more focused than general social media invites!), and start getting a punch/stamp each time they attend a live show. After a set number of attended shows – they get something: 5 shows get a free download or a band logo item. Maybe a discount on a higher priced item. 10 shows get no cover charge for a future show. A free t-shirt. Super fans – which have attended 30 shows? You offer to cover their favorite song by another band – in your own style, of course! The ideas are endless.
- Open Mike Nights! Regardless of your bands musical style, the vocalist and guitarist should work together and craft an acoustic version of one or two or your bands best songs. Metallica has acoustic versions. Lady Gaga has acoustic versions. Miyavi has acoustic versions. YOU should too! And on random Wednesdays or Thursdays when that interesting restaurant or bar has “Open Mike” night – the vocalist and guitarist attend and hit the stage for their allotted minutes. An audience that might never have heard of you, your style, etc – is there! For free! An event arranged by someone else. Impress them with YOUR acoustic version, tell the other performers they were “great” and/or “very unique” (even if it is not completely truthful) and hand out those business card/post cards.
Selling Out Your Shows Every Time
A sold out show is a day that every artist looks forward to. Nothing’s better than a packed house where the energy emanates from the audience to the stage and back again.
Unfortunately, many artists don’t get to experience sold out shows that often, if at all. Perhaps, only at the occasional CD release show, or a coveted opening spot for a more established act.
Thankfully, there is an easy way for you to change this and begin playing sold out shows more often. It’s quite simple in fact.
The key is to play in venues you can sell out.
The typical artist wants to play the best venue in town, regardless of their draw. The club where you have to play Tuesday nights for months, until the booker notices you and maybe bumps you up to a Thursday. It doesn’t matter that the venue has a 500 person capacity and you can only bring out 50 people.
A show is a show, right?
Wrong.
The atypical artist sees this situation and thinks differently.
Instead of spreading out the fans you do have in a cavernous room, start booking your own shows in smaller venues. Really small venues if you have to.
Do you have a city where you routinely draw 50 people? Then book a venue with a capacity of 40. If you can bring out 250 people, play a 200 capacity club.
The benefits to this are numerous.
1. Capacity Crowd
The gigs will feel bigger. Those 50 people who would have been spread out all over the cavernous club are now in a much smaller space, giving the overall show a “full” feeling, and a better vibe as a result.
2. An Experience
You’re providing a better concert experience for both the fans and yourself by creating a full house of audience members who are there solely to hear your music.
3. Building Buzz
Having the words “sold out” posted on your website, and the venue’s marquee, will help create buzz around you and your music. And, having a line up to get into a club never hurts your credibility.
Get started!
Start making a list of smaller venues you know that you can sell out. Contact the promoters of those venues and start developing a relationship with them. If you routinely pack their space, you will be invited back.
Keep in mind…
You don’t need to rely on promoters to book smaller shows. Take control. Rent out a venue and book your own shows. Many cities have smaller art spaces available, take a look around for any place you can transform into an atypical music venue.
Advertise your sold out shows to the world.
After the show has been sold out, don’t stop there. Start spreading the word. Announce the sold out dates on your social networking sites. Doing so will help build buzz and entice more people to come check you out, where you can hopefully covert them into fans.
Remember…
Routinely selling out your shows is as much up to you as it is your fans. By booking proper sized venues to showcase your music you can work towards the goal of making every gig a sold out show.
Have you played a sold out show? How was the experience any different from a regular gig?
__________
Image by: Jeremy Brooks
Mike Venti is a musician and creator of the Wayward Musician blog, which provides ideas and advice for atypical artists. This post was originally published on Wayward Musician on June 4, 2010. You can connect with Mike on Twitter and Facebook.
Four Cases You Need to Know About and How They Affect The Music Industry, Part 2 with Joyce Dollinger
Last week I posted the first two cases that Russell Rains, (Program Director for the Digital Media Management MBA program at St. Edwards University), talked about at the welcome lunch the SPOT Festival
These cases are complex and frankly had me a bit confused, so I asked my dear friend and attorney Joyce Dollinger who ‘unconfuses’ me on a daily basis to contribute her view as an entertainment lawyer and my go-to woman.
Case 3: Content Vs. Delivery
This case represents the people who own the art versus the technology.
Comcast Corporation vs. Federal Communication Commission and United State of America [United States Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit]
Who regulates the Internet in the United States? This is a profoundly important question for the music business, no matter what level you are on (indie artist, major label, writer, producer etc.)
It turns out there is no definitive answer. In other words, it is not clear who regulates the Internet. There was an assumption that it was the FCC because of net neutrality (the theory that everyone should have equal access to all parts of the Internet).
However the people who built the pipes that support the Internet (ISPs or Internet Service Providers) think that this notion is ridiculous. In their opinion if you use more of their bandwidth you should pay for more.
The appeals court in the District of Columbia ruled last month that the FCC does not have that authority. This shocked everyone in the music industry - if the FCC does not have the authority, then who does?
AH: Why did this case happen? And what caused it to get to the courts?
RR: Comcast challenged a 2008 FCC order banning the company from blocking its broadband users from using BitTorrent [a file sharing technology used for large film and music files]. Comcast in effect appealed the ruling and surprisingly the D.C. Circuit Court agreed with Comcast, stating that the FCC lacked the authority to issue the order thereby undermining the FCC’s adoption of the net neutrality policy. Net neutrality is an attempt to keep the Internet free from usage discrimination. In other words, net neutrality views all Internet traffic equally regardless of bandwidth consumed. By many, this policy has been seen as protecting the growth of the Internet; however, entities responsible for the build out of the “pipes” feel that consumers should be charged according to the amounts of data transferred.
AH: How this will affect the music career of an independent artist?
Joyce Dollinger: One of the reasons why the FCC sued Comcast was that the FCC thought that the ISPs (owned by the telephone and cable companies) should not be able to play favorites with the content that goes over the Internet network “pipes.” Therefore, it filed a complaint to prevent Comcast from blocking access to legal peer-to-peer content, which Comcast was doing by interrupting Internet connections between the users’ computers and the Internet network “pipes.” The FCC lost its case and the ruling called into question who now controls the Internet “airwaves” (big business or government). Since there was not a definite answer on net neutrality, it further increased the disparity on that issue. But with the outcome being in favor of Comcast, if the ISPs wanted to, they could literally shut off Internet network access – just like a light switch.
Artists, especially independent artists, depend on the openness and freedom of the Internet to survive and thrive in their careers. Independent artists run their businesses online: they sell music, tickets and merchandise; send emails out with press kits attached; chat with team members and fans; book gigs, and on and on… So for independent artists especially, this may impact their daily existence because they are not in control of their own destiny and most importantly – they are not in charge of their own music distribution. Until there is a definite ruling on the matter of Internet control, the ISPs seem to be in control of the Internet “airwaves” and they may now block the Internet network delivery and sales of their music and ancillary products, including merchandise and ticket sales.
Therefore, the net neutrality issue in this case is extremely important to independent artists; they need to have access and be able to compete on a level Internet playing field. They need to have access to the “airwaves” so that they can create their intellectual property – their music – and work within legitimate online distribution mechanisms that they know will stay open to them so that fans can receive their music. Additionally, they need access to broadband for their business dealings since music and video files are big and without broadband we would potentially be back to the Internet caveman days where you would need to wait all night for a file transfer to complete. This would end up hindering the speed with which artists would be able to sell and distribute music, especially in the fast, instant gratification world in which we live.
Further in scope, it could affect how independent artists connect and socialize with their fans using social media mechanisms. Since the future of music is necessarily tied to the Internet, this could negatively affect all entities in the industry, including major record labels like Universal and Warner, indies like Beggars Group and Wind-Up, retailers like iTunes or the Orchard, and Internet radio like Pandora or Grooveshark - both directly and indirectly.
AH: Anything you may want to say about why this case is so important?
JD: This case is so important because it gives power, control and responsibility to the ISPs and takes that out of the hands of government. They basically become the content gatekeepers. Further, it allows the ISPs to self-regulate and make judgment calls on what they think is appropriate use of the Internet network “pipes.” However, depending on what side of the scale you stand on in regard to what is copyright infringement versus copyright protection, the ISPs may provide a high level of copyright security if the ISPs believe that the delivery of certain content over their network “pipes” is infringing various copyrights and will prevent the infringement from occurring.
Additionally, the case is important because it is a case if first impression on this matter and the courts specifically rejected the FCC’s first try to enforce its net neutrality policy. As such, this ruling will likely force Congress to reassess, and/or reclassify, Internet services under the Federal Communications Act and therefore provide the FCC with statutory authority to regulate the ISPs’ business practices. However, due to high public policy concerns of governmental regulations of the Internet as a whole, some case law analysts suggest there should be Congressional support first.
Case 4: The Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
Note: This is not a case but rather an international agreement being negotiated by the office of the United States Trade Representative and several other countries.
This agreement includes many countries including the USA, European Union, Australia, and some parts of Asia. This treaty looks to reach an agreement on a very large scale. To reach enforcement of Intellectual Property laws including trademarks, patents, and copyrights (not just music and film) - including pirated merchandise like Gucci handbags and counterfeiting of prescription drugs. The end result is that there will be some coordination between these countries and some consistent way to enforce polices. This will most definitely affect the transfer of music.
AH: Why did this agreement come about?
ACTA would establish an international framework to more effectively combat the proliferation of counterfeiting and piracy.
AH: How this will affect the music career of an independent artist?
RR & JD: This proposed agreement is supposed to be about protecting consumers from counterfeit merchandise and medical drugs. It also addresses creating international standards for regulating the Internet to prevent unauthorized sharing of copyrighted works and copyright abuse by making ISPs liable for illegal content in part. What this means for independent artists is that this proposed agreement would potentially strengthen their intellectual property protections and enforcement of their music and merchandising rights in the physical and online worlds in countries that would be signatories to the proposed agreement. So if an independent artist saw that their music was being transferred online without their consent in a country that was part of the proposed agreement, they would be able to follow the proposed agreement’s enforcement procedures for recourse. Additionally, US Copyright laws affecting ISPs [under the DMCA] will be mirrored in most industrialized countries around the world.
However, this proposed agreement has been fraught with controversy. Most opposition groups believe that the drafting and negotiation of this proposed agreement has not been transparent. It has mostly been conducted behind closed doors in secret meetings. As the proposed agreement has not been available for public review or comment; certain parts have been leaked out. Also, if the proposed agreement goes through, it technically becomes a treaty since other countries will be signing it and it will obligate the US to legally enforce it which might change some US Copyright laws.
AH: Anything you may want to say about why this is so important?
RR: After several years, the negotiations are continuing in Switzerland this summer. Many feel that the main point is that ACTA could make the US’s DMCA an international phenomenon or mechanism, especially regarding ISPs. [See LimeWire above re: liability from inducing others to infringe copyrights].
###
About Joyce Sydnee Dollinger:
Joyce Sydnee Dollinger of counsel with Dollinger, Gonski and Grossman, practices in the entertainment law field and concentrates on music and media law transactions in addition to corporate and business entity dealings and some film and television representation.
Joyce and has worked in different capacities for major and independent labels such as BMG, Motown and Palm Pictures. She was also co-founder of a concert-promotion company and serviced as vice president and in-house counsel for a talent management firm. She is frequently asked to be a guest speaker on topics surrounding entertainment law, careers and artist management. She was the acting CLE Program Chair and Program Director of an all-day Music Business Law Seminar, which she created and produced with CMJ.
Admitted to practice in the States of New York and Florida, Ms. Dollinger is a graduate of Bucknell University and the University of Miami School of Law. Joyce lives and works in New York and may be reached at: jdollinger@dgglawoffices.com
The Individual Edition CD
This month I released my 8th full-length album, slated to be my last physical release. I might have gone the digital-only route this time if I hadn’t won free CD manufacturing from Disc Makers through the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. The fact that it was a physical release allowed me to take pre-orders, which provided the opportunity to test out my latest crazy idea - one that actually panned out for a change! Here is how I described The Individual Edition CD to my fans:
It will probably come as a surprise that I can’t create the exact same mix twice, even though the album was recorded entirely “in the box” on my studio computer. Arpeggiators randomly cycle through the notes of a chord. Panning effects start and end at different points. Some devices purposely insert glitches and other random anomalies. Beyond the occasional surprise, these differences are tough to pick out unless you know what to listen for. The qualitative listening experience is the same, but the fact that each mixdown is an “audio snowflake” gave me an idea:
As a souvenir of your support, I will create a personalized custom CD featuring unique mixdowns of each of the 12 songs I recorded for the album. The outtakes “Touch” and “Release the Hounds” are not on the standard Limited Edition CD and will not appear on any future physical release. The disc will open with a token of my appreciation – a spoken “thank you” mentioning you by name.
The Individual Edition CD is available through July 31. Keeping in mind that it takes me three hours to prepare each one, I’ve priced it at $99, which also includes a copy of the standard Limited Edition version. I don’t have much spare time to devote to this, so I can only take the first 20 orders. They will ship as soon as the CDs arrive, most likely before the August 4 release date.
If you can think of anything I can do to make it more special or meaningful, please let me know!
I ran it by a few friends first, and the consensus was that it was a cool idea, but pricy. I argued that $99 was reasonable considering how much time it takes to put one together. If nobody ordered, it would’ve been pathetic, but I wouldn’t have had to lift a finger. If I got more orders than I could handle, I would’ve had to turn people away.
Fortunately, the price was on target. I got 13 orders, generating more than 50% of the approximately $2,500 I’ve made in sales since I launched the album. The recipients seem to love the CDs, and I genuinely enjoyed putting them together.
I realize that as the artist, mix engineer, and mastering engineer of the album, I’m in a unique position to pull this off. Beyond that, the mixes required a degree of randomness that might not make sense in a non-electronic context. No matter what your role or style of music, there are variations on the theme that would excite and entice your fans:
- Deleted scenes. Remember that guitar solo you cut because it seemed too “self-indulgent”? That redundant 3rd verse? That 45 second fade-out? Your fans might enjoy hearing them in an extended arrangement, if only to compare and contrast with the album version.
- Live show for one. How about a personalized one-off live recording of the album? Make sure to mention the guest of honor by name and leave in the mistakes! If playing through the whole album is too much work, how about dedicating a single song of their choice from your discography?
- Unique vocal. You could use alternate vocal takes, or even change a line of the lyrics to include a fan’s name. How about inserting a clever line about how you’ve “done this 12 times already” and increment the number with each take? Even if you’ve already finished tracking the band, overdubbing a vocal is relatively quick and painless.
- Fan sing-a-long. Anyone with an iPhone can record themselves singing along to the chorus of your song. It wouldn’t be too hard to tune it and layer it with the lead vocal. Who wouldn’t want to share the results with everybody on their friends list? Alternately, you could layer takes from any fan who wants to contribute and sell the same “fan sing-a-long” version to everyone. It could even work in a live setting by recording the audience singing along, then handing out download cards telling them where to get the recording.
All of the above options require some mixing work and a mastering engineer to run the songs through the gear again for cheap. The cost might be hard to justify if you’re paying by the hour. If nothing else, you can always insert a vocal greeting or song introduction as an extra track on the disc. If you’ve got a mic and a computer with a CD burner, there’s nothing stopping you from making your release extra special for your most dedicated fans.
Brian Hazard is a recording artist with sixteen years of experience promoting his eight 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.
The Musicians Guide To Fan-Funding
Emerging musicians are in an eternal struggle against two evils: funding projects and growing a fanbase. In the past, musicians have funded their own albums, and have used it as leverage to gain more fans. But artists on a fixed income may run into issues funding their own projects, which can have harmful effects on the quality of the final product.
Of course, the next option is to release a demo or EP and work on building a fan base, meanwhile shopping around for a record deal with a major or indie label. The benefit here of course is that all of the financing of the album is accounted for, but lets face it, this is not the easiest thing to pull off. Labels typically won’t even look at you until you’ve crossed the 10,000-units-sold mark, and unfortunately that is becoming an increasingly difficult task to accomplish:
~Tom Silverman Founder, Tommy Boy Records
And more often then not, you as the artist are stripped of some if not all creative control, resulting in an album that may work for the fans, but doesn’t work for you.
The only option left, is to find someone else to fund your project. Why not the fans? With digital distribution and social networking on the rise, fans have more music at their finger tips than ever before. Therefore artists are trying all sorts of unique ways to engage their fans, empower their fans and create their own community of fans surrounding the music. What better way to engage and empower the fans than fan-funding your next project?
Fan-funding (or crowdfunding) is the simple concept of empowering the fans to raise money for you- to FUND your project. Typically this is done through an incentive system, in which the artist will set a monetary goal, and has a set amount of time to reach said goal. There are then different levels of rewards that vary based on the amount a fan contributes towards the project.
Not only does fan-funding give you the opportunity to fund a project where you maintain 100% of the creative control and ownership, but it can create a new level of excitement and personal connection between the fans, you and your music. Fan-funding can give you, the artist, the opportunity to share the journey of ‘the road to the completed project’ with all of your fans. And from a marketing standpoint, it gives you the means to create a more powerful, emotionally charged marketing campaign than ever before.
All fan-funding campaigns must contain 3 very important elements, which together have been labeled The Crowdfunding Manifesto by RocketHub co-founder, Brian Meece:
1. The Project
2. The Network
3. The Rewards
According to Meece, all three ‘pillars’ must be equally yet uniquely important in order for a campaign to be successful.
Past fan-funding projects have included raising money to produce full length albums, music videos, books, documentaries, and even touring and producing merchandise. The point is that if you have a network of fans, friends and family and have a project that you are dedicated about, no matter how big or small, you can use fan-funding to make that happen.
One of the three ‘pillars’ of fan-funding is the reward. An important part of the fan-funding process is the reward given to the fans who are willing to contribute money, which is not only an incentive for the fans to give the money, but is also a token of appreciation from the artist. However, fan-funding platforms such as the ones listed below, leave it up to you to establish creative rewards. In simple terms, the more valuable the rewards are to your fans, the more likely it will be that you achieve your goal.
Rewards vary based on how much money the fan is willing to contribute, so your rewards should also vary in greatness. While it is understandable for the smaller contributions to be met with a simple reward, such as receiving a signed copy of the album and/ or a T-shirt, you will find more success if you come up with some extremely creative and enticing reward opportunities. Here are a few reward ideas that may help you jump start your campaign and bring you one step closer to achieving your goals:
- For artists whose music is more focused on the lyrical content than the musical composition, offer hand-written and signed lyrics for a contribution of $50 or more.
- Are you also an artist? Offer an original piece of your own artwork (i.e. a painting, photograph or drawing) for anyone who contributes $100 or more. This is a great way to give people a constant reminder of your journey, and FYI - the cost of creating a piece of art can be fairly cheap, so the money they just gave you won’t have to go right back into the reward.
- Any artist with an enviable level of talent, whether it be through songwriting, musicianship or even singing can give a music lesson to any fan who contributes $100 or more.
- For artists who have been around for quite a while and have a few previous albums, give contributors of $200 a USB stick with all of your albums (including the new one), which also grants them free access to any of your shows.
- Put on a killer live show and are about to go on tour to support the new album? Give your diehard fans who contribute $500 the opportunity to hang out before and after a show, and write the set-list for that show.
- For any fan loyal enough to contribute $1000, they get to spend a day in the studio with the artist during the recording process for the album and receive an executive producer credit on the album. Not to mention all of the goodies from each level of contribution up to the $1000 mark.
-Any fan who contributes $2000 has got to have a personal/ emotional connection with the music that is so strong, they HAVE to ensure that this project becomes a reality. Why not act upon that connection and offer a private concert in their home or even at a special event like a birthday or a wedding.
- A well-told, engaging story. The first step to getting people to believe in your campaign is a great story. No one wants to contribute money to someone who posts ‘well… I failed at everything else in my life, so I figured, why not try music? Please give me money so I can make music :-)’
- Create a campaign video! Now that you’ve got the engaging story to explain your passion and why this project is so important, you MUST create a video and upload it to Youtube and Vimeo. When you encourage your fans and contributors to share your story and help spread the word, you have to give them an easy way to make sharing possible. Youtube and Vimeo videos are easily sharable through Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Blogs, Email and any other possible place you can think to get the word out.
- Don’t flat out ask for money, rather sell fans on the potential benefits of being apart of the journey.
- Update Often! Fans who have willingly contributed to your campaign, especially the ones who have contributed a lot of money, are looking to be apart of something special - a journey. You owe it to your contributors to update them often!
- Make the rewards for the smaller contributions ($5 - $100) very compelling. While you may be lucky enough to have fans who contribute more than that, the majority of the contributions will be for smaller increments of money. Make the $5 contribution reward appealing and you will have more contributors!
- Don’t forget about your brand! This goes along with your story, your journey and even your rewards. Rewards are only beneficial if the fans want what you are offering, so make sure that if your fans want signed gear, you give it to them and not a generic photograph. Vice vera, if you are personable and quite likable, don’t just offer signed albums when the fans clearly want to meet you in person!
Kickstarter: A safe and reliable service, Kickstarter has created an all-or-nothing pledging system that requires artists to achieve their goal before any money changes hands. In other words, if you don’t meet your goal, all pledges are cancelled. Kickstarter has cited three main reasons why this is so important:
Kickstarter is still in Beta, so all projects must be submitted in proposal form and reviewed by the Kickstarter team.
Fee: 5% of total funds pledged to all SUCCESSFUL campaigns
Successful Campaigns: Five Times August teamed up with Kickstarter in the early stages of the company, and successfully raised $20,546 (he had a goal of $20,000) in just 31 days!
Click here for more information about the Kickstarter campaign process.
Pledge Music: Similar to Kickstarter, Pledge Music uses an all-or-nothing pledging system, and is also still in Beta, so all projects must be approved before campaigns go live. However there are a few main difference:
- Artists can opt-in to giving a portion of their revenue to a charity of their choice.
- Unlike Kickstarter, the service’s sole purpose is to fan-fund music related projects. The benefits of this is that Pledge Music has existing relationships with third-party music services (i.e. if you want your music on online stores such as iTunes, Pledge has strategic partners to not only help you make that happen, but get you a better price in the process).
- Pledge Music recently released a data capture widget that is free for all artists. This widget allows artists to collect email addresses, Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers in exchange for a track.
Fee: 15% of total funds pledged to all SUCCESSFUL campaigns
Successful Campaigns: Demark-based acoustic folk artist Tina Dico set a goal of €30,000 to be reached in 30 days. Tina had also established in the guidelines of her campaign that 15% of all funds earned after hitting her target would go to Amnesty International. Tina smashed this target by raising TWICE as much as her intended goal (over €60,000 in just 30 days!). Of course, that also means that Amnesty International recieved a contribution from Tina of €4,500!
Click here for more information about the Pledge Music campaign process.
Rocket Hub: Labeled as a ‘grassroots crowdfunding platform’ Rocket Hub is similar to Kickstarter and Pledge Music in that it is a well-established, all-or-nothing fundraising platform. Also similar to Kickstarter, Rocket Hub is open to more than just musicians, citing that their services are open to anyone who is a ‘creative’ (i.e. Musicians, Filmmakers, Authors, Painters, Photographers, Scientists, Social Experimenters, Actors, Comedians, Chefs, Designers, Developers, Inventors, Programmers, Architects, Journalists, Startup Founders, etc.).
However, unlike either of the previous services, Rocket Hub is a completely open platform, meaning that anyone can create a fan-funding campaign and there is no screening process before the project goes live.
Fee: 8% of total funds pledged to all SUCCESSFUL campaigns
Successful Campaigns: NYC-based musician Alfonso Velez had recorded his album, but after some financial hardships, ran out of money before he could make all of the last, and crucial steps to properly releaseing an album. Alfonso set up a campaign with a compelling story, a target of $6,500 and a goal to “master the record, manufacture 1,000 CD’s, 100 Vinyl copies, 340 Digital download cards, 150 T-shirts and grab a publicist and tour support to get this record performed live in your town.” Using RocketHub, Alfonso was able to surpass his target of $6,500 by raising $7,730!
Click here for more information about the RocketHub campaign process.
Other Fan-Funding Services You May Want To Explore:
Artist Share - IndieGoGo - SellaBand - My Band Stock - CASH Music - SliceThePie - Pledgebank MobIncentive
With this information, you should have all of the basics needed to start your own fan-funding campaign. Remember that in today’s world of music, fans are no longer content with simply purchasing music. Through social networking and blogging, fans have established a new desire to connect with you, the artist, on a more personal level. Whether or not you decide to let the fans into your personal life is completely up to you, but if you are an emerging artist looking for a solution to the fan and funding evils of the industry, why not consider a fan-funding campaign? If executed properly, a fan-funding campaign can be your marketing, networking and creative outlet all in one.
Jon is the co-founder of MicControl, a music blogging network based on a music social networking platform. This article originally appeared on the MicControl Blog on August 13th, 2010. For guest blogging opportunities or for simply reaching out, Jon can be found on twitter and facebook.
What is your take on fan-funding? Leave some feedback in the form of a comment below. Good or bad, any suggestions or concerns are greatly appreciated by the community at large.
Last Week On Music Think Tank
LSD is great. Don’t let the Internet cure it.
There was a time when LSD could propel an artist to fame and fortune. Prior to today’s Internet culture which calls for everyone to share everything and anything, the only sights and sounds music fans ever experienced from the likes of Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison were LSD driven. I am talking about Lead Singer Disease (LSD) of course. LSD was the look, the sound, the swagger and the distinctive persona that each lead singer carved out and manicured, and due to the lack of today’s personal broadcast technology, it was the only personality that music fans ever experienced. Then came the Internet. The Internet cures LSD and that’s probably not a good thing.
Personally, I want my lead singers to be freaking super heroes. I have zero interest in knowing that you put blueberries in your Cheerios, or that you are flat out broke. I don’t even want to know that you are a regular human. Give me LSD over feel good videos, cameo shots, home interviews, cat holding, dog petting, bike riding, smiles, friends, family, or anything that makes you look close to normal. You drive a rocket ship, eat steel and shit nails, divine songs, date models, burn money, wear a cape, sleep naked, and when you blow your nose…a melody comes out. And, you are not an asshole.
There’s nothing that kills a buzz more that watching a new video featuring a great new band fronted by a charismatic lead singer, and then clicking to somewhere to find the same frontman eating barbeque at a picnic. Please! Hold something back dude. Think back to a time when bands were a complete mystery. Go there.
I will leave you with this video: The Rolling Stones , Sympathy For The Devil, security by the Hell’s Angels, 1969.
My other posts on Music Think Tank.
Structuring an E-mail Newsletter for Your Fans [Free Template]
One of the most valuable assets you will obtain during your music career is a healthy list of fan e-mail addresses. Unlike posting status updates on social networks, which tend to get lost in the mess of everyone’s news feeds, sending an e-mail to a fan is a direct channel of communication. A fan that opts into receiving your e-mail newsletter usually means that he or she wants to hear from you, and is interested in you and your music.
Since you are communicating directly to your fans, it is important that you get it right from the beginning. One big element of developing a newsletter strategy is the overall look, feel, and presentation of your newsletter. Is your newsletter just simple, plain text at the moment? If it is, consider livening up your newsletter a bit with this free HTML template download.
Design your own HTML E-mail NewsletterIf you have very basic HTML & CSS knowledge, this should be a breeze for you. There are several mailing list services (ReverbNation, FanBridge, AWeber, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, etc) that provide you with customized templates, but I always found that they rarely seemed to work nicely with the look and feel of the artist. So why not create your own?
Here is a free e-mail newsletter template that you can snag for free, if you wish…
I know it looks pretty generic, but that’s the point — spice it up with images and colors that reflect your overall online presence to make it your own! Get creative, just like if you were sitting down to write a song. Open the “newsletter-template.html” file in any text/code editing program (Notepad, TextEdit, TextMate, Dreamweaver, etc) and change fonts, background colors, images, borders, and more.
Also, I’d like to point out that simplicity with e-mail newsletters is becoming more important, since more and more people are reading e-mails from their mobile devices. If you have an elaborate newsletter design, it is very possible that your e-mails will not look right on cell phones and other handheld devices.
This template uses inline CSS, which means that it is embedded within the HTML that creates the template’s structure. Many mailing list services don’t allow you to attach separate stylesheets, or even include them in the “” section of the same document, so you have to write the CSS “in line” with the HTML.
Here are two examples of newsletters that I have created in a matter of minutes from this template:
Chris Bracco is currently the digital marketing coordinator at Intrigue Music, LLC, a boutique music management company in NYC. This post was originally published on Chris Bracco’s blog, Tight Mix.
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
