Make It In Music - Posterous Daily

I don't how often i have heard people say "No i don't use Twitter, it's just a bunch of people saying where they are, what they are doing and what they had for breakfast" and "What can I do with 140 characters?" Well, it has proven it can do a hell of a lot more than that, from distributing news, social and political commentary, to marketing, distributing not only short bursts of text but also pictures and videos. It has now been around for 6 years, and has pretty much become the leader in spreading information across the world, becoming the social barometer of our times.

It is now an essential tool in any musicians marketing strategy, and there is a wealth of techniques you can use to get the best out of twitter in keeping your fan base informed and engaged.

Not only can you use it as a news service, it also has great potential for you to find new fans, and get them to discover you.

Since its inception, there has become a wealth of third party utilities to help you exploit the potential of twitter to the full. Two i have been using the most over the years are Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. They give you the ability to monitor the 'twitterverse' and search for keywords and hashtags (twitters own keyword system that allows users to find tweets on certain subjects such as #art #photography #ladygaga etc) that could be relevent to you, your music and your goals. They allow you to join in the conversations and connect with people discussing things that could be relevent to you, and in turn, you might be interesting to them.

Chris Singleton over at Prescription PR has put together a list of 13 top tips for musicians and bands using twitter which i think you should take a look at. Here is my favourite peice of advice from his article...

By all means post links to your band's new videos and MP3s from time to time, but do not get too fond of doing so; otherwise you’ll just look like a jerk. Believe me, when it comes to overcommunicating about my own music projects, I’ve been there, done that and bought the t-shirt…and despite waxing endlessly about the importance of musicians keeping schtum for five minutes, I still see artists (who should know better) bore their friends, family and remaining fan to tears with hourly Facebook updates about their latest creative endeavours. Nobody cares after a while (if they ever did in the first place –geddit?). Instead, post links to great content from other sources – whack links up on Twitter to scintillating articles which don’t happen to be about your music (and rest assured, there are a lot of them). Or make witty observations about cheese and/or the credit crunch. In short, get a reputation for being an interesting dude, not a self-obsessed bore.

Check out the rest of his article here.

We also have an article on our Make It In Music site on twitter for musicians here.

Links

http://www.prescriptionmusicpruk.com/the-prescription/2012/5/1/using-twitter-top-tips-for-musicians-and-bands.html

http://www.makeitinmusic.com/twitter-for-musicians/

Most musicians have been there... that frustrating moment when you just cant seem to get past a certain point, where you feel everything you create is rubbish, where you cant find that missing peice, that melodic resolve, that final hook, or perfect lyric.

Keeping the creative juices flowing is just as much a disipline as the learning an instrument, a disipline that can easily get forgotten as the pressure of a deadline approaches. Recently i have discovered that two musician friends of mine have been shedding light on this subject, giving some very cool tips on how to deal with those dry moments of 'writers block'.

Steve Hillier ( music producer and tutor, and the man behind Dubstar ) has written this excellent article on the Point Blank Music School blog given you '10 Ways To Overcome Writers Block'. 

My favourite tip from Steve is...

Make connections between ideas and styles that don’t currently exist. You could argue that’s all creativity is, finding new ways of combining ideas and concepts and discovering new developments. So do it, and don’t forget the Vulcan philosophy of ‘Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations’. It proved useful in many tricky situations on the Starship Enterprise, it might help you too.

You can check out his other tips in the full article here.

Hit making house music producer Mike Monday, currently now living down under in Australia, says this about how he realised he could tackle the problem of no inspiration.

When I wrote and played music my “inspiration” was sporadic and I thought it came along randomly.

But when it did, WOW! The music just flowed through me. It didn’t seem like work, it was almost completely effortless.

So as time went on I got increasingly obsessed with what made the difference between “inspired Mike” and “stuck Mike”. How could the same person who’d knocked out a tune so easily one day be procrastinating, fearful and dithering the next?

Same guy - totally different results. And I started noticing certain patterns and strategies in my thought, words and actions that seemed to make a difference. But I still couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

Then, about a year ago I discovered a methodology that fitted and expanded upon what I had noticed in myself. There were certain things that I was doing when inspired, loving it and hyper-productive, and not doing when bored, struggling and stuck. I tried these techniques on myself and it worked like a dream. I then started trying it on others and it did the same.

He has a website now on the subject helping musicians to deal with those uninspired moments here.

Links

http://www.pointblankonline.net/blog/10-ways-to-overcome-writers-block/

http://www.mikemonday.com/

Digital distribution is going to get one step easier later this summer for the DIY artist. As you probably know here at Make It In Music we completely advocate 'direct to fan' marketing and love the facilities that Topspin have to offer artists, a comprehensive tool kit that help them to promote their art, connect with their fans, and build a solid business.

Well now we hear that Topspin are teaming up with Tunecore. Tunecore is a digital distribution company that has deals with iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, simfy, iHeartRadio and a whole bunch of other services around the world.

The two companies compliment each other perfectly, meaning you will be able to have your music auto-delivered from Topspin to TuneCore or from TuneCore to Topspin without having to re-upload.

This takes the pain out of numerous uploads in different formats and re-entering metadata and codes for both companies. And the data from your direct to fan sales at Topspin are merged with the data at Tunecore so you can see where you are with sales in a single glance.

Check out what Topspin has to offer the DIY artist here.

For more information on this merger you should go here.

Links

www.topspinmedia.com

www.tunecore.com

 Throughout the years I have known many many bands that seem to think that their music will do all the talking. That somehow their fantastic songs are all they need to win the hearts of the listener and convert that person into a lifelong fan. 

This in a sense is true conviction that any artist should have about their music, and that's no bad thing because inside that is also how we all feel we discover music, on a personal level, but the reality is we wouldn't hear anything if it wasn't for marketing, which is the first basic concept to understand in developing any career these days in the music industry 2.0.

The independent DIY artists really needs to embrace marketing, and Cyber Pr head honcho Ariel Hyatt has put together a cool set of posts explaining in 3 stages how to increase your fanbase and income. 

Ariel starts off saying that bands and artists seem to be more concerned with increasing the numbers and getting new fans, which is no bad thing thing, but also puts the emphasis on focusing on the fans that they already have.

  These fans don’t need to be found, because they are already your fans. Studies have proven that it is much harder to make a new client and get them to purchase something than it is to get a client that already knows you and trusts you to purchase from you over and over. 

It's all very well building numbers, but engagement is the key, and keeping your act in your fans mind. Building a solid marketing strategy is key to getting new fans and keeping old fans interested. 

You can read her full post here

Links

http://arielpublicity.com/2012/04/16/basic-marketing-principles-for-artists-part-1-3/

http://arielpublicity.com/2012/04/23/basic-marketing-principles-artists-part-2-increasing-frequency-purchases/

http://arielpublicity.com/2012/04/30/basic-marketing-principles-artists-part-3-increase-amount-money-charge/

Three days ago, an artist called Amanda Palmer launched her Kickstarter campaign to fund her new Album, Art Book, and tour. She was trying to raise $100,000. She has now currently raised $485,000.  Nearly HALF A MILLION DOLLARS!

The response is phenomenal and has acheived this amount with only 8,470 backers. Some of whom have pledged vast amounts, 25 have pledged over $5000 each, for a very special package from the artist. Pledges range from $1 to over $10,000. Check out more about her pledge packages and project here.

And Kickstarter is not the only place you can go to to get fan funding of your musical project. A friend of mine called Plum has recently raised £5000 to finance not only the manufacture of her album, but also a video and promotion to boot! She used Sponsume.com to raise the funding needed. Check out here strategy/pledges here. Other places to organise and raise the capital needed are Pledgemusic and Fundit so there are many places to tackle problem of getting your dream financed.

Seeing the response Amanda got in only three days reminded me of an interesting article I read recently by Chris Singleton over at Prescription Pr, who has put together a series of Dos and Don'ts when it comes to a Fan/Crowd funded project.

Check out his article Getting Your Fans To Fund Your Album here.

Links

www.kickstarter.com

www.sponsume.com

www.pledgemusic.com

www.fundit.ie

http://www.prescriptionmusicpruk.com/the-prescription/2012/4/16/getting-your-fans-to-fund-your-album.html

This came to my attention from Clyde Smith at Hypebot. 10 top tips from the horses mouth so to speak. 

Originally sourced from article in American Songwriter, they asked a range of industry professionals what is needed after you have written some great tunes but haven't built a sizable following or become visible to possible music industry allies.

There is some excellent advice here

Kendel Ratley – Director of Marketing, Kickstarter:

"If you're still establishing your fanbase, check out where your peers, favorite artists, or bands you want to emulate share their music and follow suit. There are countless platforms and venues to debut your work. Identify your audience, think about where you discover music, and post accordingly.".

The top tips have been sorted in Clyde's article here, but for more depth check out the full article on American Songwriter here.

Links

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/04/10-tips-for-succeeding-in-todays-volatile-music-biz.html

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/03/dream-big-how-to-succeed-in-todays-volatile-music-biz/

Following on from our daily post 2 days ago 'The PC Is Dead' we found an interesting post on the Music Think Tank site breaking down the importance of breaking into the smartphone world properly and developing and using mobile apps.

Engagement is now everything to you and your fanbase, and cellphones now number 5.6 BILLION users on the planet. That means there are alot of new fans to find and engage with a mobile application.

Cory Crossfield states in his article... The reason most campaigns for artists fail is the fact they equate fan interactions with conversions and sales. If the interaction between a fan is to be measured into how likely they are to purchase something, the value of creating an experience is lost and so is the fan. When combining interactions and mobile applications, the ability to create the experience is amplified because you are taking a device the fan communicates with and uses every day and engaging them.

This is creating a more personal continuous experience for the fan/user, and in this fast moving digital access world, you dont want to be out of their mind for too long. They will soon become disrupted and move on to the next thing that engages them. 

you can read his full article here.

Link

http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/why-mobile-apps-matter-for-music.html

So, you got great songs, a great image, a cool website and a cool name. If no one can find you on google or other search engines, then all that hard work could be in vain. Understanding how to get your project on the front page of google is now just as important as any other part of getting your career together for the independent DIY musician.

It's all about tuning your website content. This is called SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). When a user places a word/phrase in the google search window, the sites that are tuned to that specific word or phrase will appear. The ones that are tuned the best will appear on page one.

Users searching for things on the internet rarely go beyond page one of google because they can usually find what it is they are looking for or an alternative there.  So it is essential to try and get your site tuned so when a new fan is searching for music they can find you, preferably on page one.

There are millions of websites out there, and right from the off, your website is competing with all of them. You are jostling for a 'chart position' here just as much as you would be in the music charts, but don't be put off thinking there is a whole 'dark art' to be learned here.

 I found a cool article on theunsignedguide.com, going into detail on how to get your site search engine optimised, helping you understand keywords and and keyword phrase structure to get your site tuned up and google friendly.

We also have a great article on the Make it in Music website 'Search Engine Optimisation for your Band Website'  going into details with a video on keywording your site.

Links

http://members.theunsignedguide.com/blog/336/seo-for-musicians---part-1/

Part two here http://members.theunsignedguide.com/blog/337

http://www.makeitinmusic.com/band-website-seo/

Technology has come along way in the last few years, and the trends of consumption change along with it. We are now heading towards a time where people will no longer be carrying around their laptops as smartphones will soon out number PCs on the planet. 

We have moved to a world of access, where we have everything we want at our fingertips, and just as the music industry adjusts to a new business model, along comes the next.  Still the problem remains with the 'old guard' record labels struggling to keep it together, and maintain some kind of resemblance of what the industry was. But, will they, and you the music makers, be ready for what comes next?

Even Facebook is starting to realise it's the mobile market is where the future is with its purchase of Instagram. No one wants to get left behind. The model is changing.

Bob Lefsetz sows a few seeds here for you to think about where all this is all heading, also with a view on how current social trends may soon dissapear and become outmoded.

You can read his article here. 

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2012/04/24/seeing-the-future/

Why Facebook bought Instagram  read more on that here.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/04/15/pinterest-will-take-facebook-into-the-mobile-age.html