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(Not) In The Pages Of The Rolling Stone.... A Little Music Business Ditty

2010-08-30T18:00:40Z

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

2010-08-30T07:27:06Z

As musicians, it’s almost guaranteed that at some point you will have said or at least thought “I need more fans!”, and while there are countless blogs, resources, and gig slots open for you to act on that, I often feel that the best way to learn why someone does something is to be that someone – or as they say “take a step into their shoes”.

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.

And finally good luck :) - I acknowledge that there are obviously thousands of ways to build fans, but I hope this has been helpful and showed the value of actually tracking your footsteps and reading the effects of music marketing from the fans perspective.

Image Credit: Photofmdotcom

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

2010-08-28T00:11:37Z

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

2010-08-27T15:20:25Z

“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.
- - - - -

Ariel Says:

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?

2010-08-26T04:20:16Z

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

Total Email Addresses: 51

Google Analytics insight

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

http://SufficientCauseMusic.com

Building a Festival: One Beer at a Time

2010-08-24T21:30:11Z

“…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?

2010-08-24T19:27:26Z

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

2010-08-21T05:48:40Z

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

2010-08-20T20:05:00Z

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.

What Is 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.

10 Tips To Consider When Starting A Tribe

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.

Conquer Your City - Conquer Your World

2010-08-20T19:53:34Z

A downfall of indie bands that I have noticed is their lack of inspiration when playing their local area. Often times they are so longing for some grand international tour of stardom, they forget that they can create fan buzz and music sales on their own home front. The band or musician finds one bar/venue that will let them play and they set up 1, 2, or 3 gigs per month there. Each month. As for promoting the event – Facebook invites! And a myspace notice!

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

With a little pre-planning, organization, and planning, an indie band can set up a valid and professional “City Tour” that will increase their exposure, fan base, and ultimately their sales of music and merchandise.

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.

Now, go conquer your city!

(For help with your own city tour, virtual tour, or online promotion, find me at: http://www.facebook.com/interidoru)