8 Reasons Why You Need to Have Your Own Website

Original post from Music Think Tank by Michael Brandvold

I was asked to write a guest blog on the topic of why it is important to have your own website. Well for whatever reason the blog was never posted and episode two of The Music Biz Weekly podcast reminded me that I still have this blog and that I should post it. This is a topic that I am passionate about. Let me make this clear, you must have your own website. Let me say that again… you need to have your own website.

Great social networks will come and go, and they are all important. You should be active on as many as possible. They are all great places to extend your website, extend your brand and presence. But everything should come back to your website.

It’s 2011 and you would think it is obvious why you need your own website. I can’t tell you how many conversations I have had where the other party says “I have a MySpace page, or I have a Facebook page or I have a Reverbnation page… I don’t need a website.” Or how many people have their own website, but spend all their efforts driving everyone to Facebook. All they seem to care about is how many Likes they can get. You should care about how many visits you get to your website. Some people don’t look at a website as a significant part of their business or brand. They may see it as a afterthought, something they guess they should do. If you were to open your own restrauant is the building and location that last thing you would think about? It is your future, everything you hope to achieve depends on it. Your website is your bit of real estate on the internet and it will be yours potentially forever. Make sure you treat your online presence with all the seriousness you can.

Here are some important items to keep in mind.

1. Own your domain and site

Easier said than done, but you should make every effort to retain ownership of your domain name and website. Don’t change the Administrative Contact for your domain over to someone else unless you absolutely must. Try to avoid signing contracts that when they are terminated leave your domain and website under the ownership and control of another party. If that occurs you will have no control over what happens and you won’t see any revenue from a website with your name on it. During a contract you can let someone else manage and operate your website, but do not let them own it.

2. Do not redirect your domain to MySpace or Facebook

You should be using Facebook, Twitter, Reverbnation or any of a dozen other social network sites to generate traffic to your website. To redirect your domain to a social page is to give your traffic to somebody else, for them to monetize and you to not share in the revenue. Traffic on the internet is money. When you are finally ready to launch your own website how do you plan to get everyone who is going to Facebook or MySpace back to your site? You have already conditioned them to just visit Facebook or MySpace.

3. It is your brand which you own and control

Your domain and website is your brand and you have full control over it. You decide how you are going to be presented. Use MySpace or Facebook and you are not the brand, they are. You will never be more important than their own brand. They will always come first over your brand and your desire to promote your brand. Don’t let someone else control what you can do with your brand.

4. What is the future of MySpace, Facebook?

Ok this will date myself, but I remember when AOL was “it”. When everyone was trying to establish their business on AOL. Everyone was advertising their AOL Keyword. Where is AOL now? Ok, how about Geocities? Everyone was building their website on Geocities for free. Nobody wants to invest any money in their website and Geocities let them get online for free. Where is Geocities now? And just how good were all those free websites? Or what about MySpace? Everyone knows about MySpace. Just five years ago they were “it”. Everyone had to be one MySpace. Everyone was growing their friends list on MySpace. We were all spending time customizing our MySpace page, blogging on MySpace. Where is MySpace now? MySpace recently announced a partnership with Facebook in hopes of breathing some life into the ghost town. What is the point of all this you ask? Do you know where Facebook is going to be in five years? I don’t think they will disappear, but they sure could change. Don’t put your future, your brand, your money into the hands of another website. Tomorrow they could be the latest fade or worse sold to someone who has different plans. In the case of Facebook, why would you send your traffic to a website that requires registration for any sort of interaction. You don’t get to gather that registration information, Facebook owns it. You are sending your fans to Facebook, for Facebook to market and make money from.

5. TOS, Terms of Service – you want to define them, not the lawyer from another website

This is directly related to #4. Don’t set yourself up on a site that the Terms of Service, TOS, clearly state they do not support content you might wish to post. Anything of a adult or sexual nature is going to get deleted by Facebook. Nikki Sixx recently tried to post a image from the new Sixx AM album and Facebook kept deleting it. Even in rock n roll you might have something that Facebook feels is too sexual. MySpace and Facebook are clear examples. You spend your time and money establishing yourself and sending your traffic to Facebook or MySpace and then one day you log in and your account is deleted. What happened? Your content was most likely reported by someone and without any notice your account and work is gone. Build a website where you decide what is appropriate and what is not. Don’t let the lawyer at some other company decide if they like what you are doing. I am not saying to not use Facebook or MySpace, I am saying DO NOT make them your primary website. Use them as traffic sources to your website.

6. Sales – you can keep a bigger piece of the pie

You want your own website so you can sell whatever you want, and keep a bigger piece of the pie. Although selling on other sites is possible there are usually hoops you need to jump through, and back to #5, what you are selling might be against the TOS and be cause for your account to be deleted.

7. SEO

Good luck trying to manage the SEO on a Facebook or MySpace page. If you have your own website you have full control over your SEO, over how the search engines will see you and what your target keywords are for your brand. If you have a strong presence on the various social network sites with links back to your website, Google will see those links and give you some SEO juice.

8. Stay on the cutting edge

With your own website you can experiment with all of the new internet technologies and tools when they are released. You are not at the mercy of a corporate giant who will decided when and if they want to adopt a new technology. If you build a WordPress based website you can play around with 1000s of plugins that add new functionality to your website. One click and you are streaming audio, one click you have a podcast being served through Apple iTunes. One click you have a events calendar.

Your website should be the center of your online universe, with all the various social networks revolving around it. Use the social networks to send traffic to your official website. Use them to be social, to interact with your fans and customers. Don’t spend your time and money to build up another website, spend it on your brand… spend it on yourself!

(Michael Brandvold is a 20 year music marketing veteran who has worked with unsigned indie bands and international superstars. Michael owns Michael Brandvold Marketing a site dedicated to providing tips and advice for musicians.)

10 Pieces of Essential Content For Your Band's Website

By Hilary Brown. Original post from Music Think Tank

If you’re a musician or in a band that’s trying to get your music out to the world, your website is a valuable marketing tool. Your website helps your fans, bloggers, and journalists find out who you are, what you sound like, and where you’re playing. It’s important that your website contains content for all types of visitors, from fans - current and potential - to booking agents and media outlets. Below are ten essential elements that every band’s website should have.

Relevant information.
If you have an album out, include easily accessible info about when it came out or will come out, the track list, and the label. Post a tour calendar with upcoming shows so fans can see when and where you’re playing, how much it costs, and where they can buy tickets. Be sure to include links to the venue website, ticket sales, other bands who are playing, and your Facebook Event.

A current bio.
Your bio is your opportunity to tell your story, share your history, and talk about your influences and accomplishments. Press and bloggers often refer to band bios when writing features and reviews, so it’s important that your bio is current, interesting, informative, and versatile. Can your current bio be used on a venue website to promote an upcoming show? Does it convey the message that you want to your fans? If not, it’s time to refresh your bio.

Reliable contact info.
If journalists or bloggers have questions, they expect to easily find reliable contact info on your website. If you have a PR/publicist contact, list who it is and how to contact them. If you don’t have a PR contact, list who to get in touch with and how.

Hi-Res PR photos.
Journalists (bloggers, web editors, print editors) who want to cover a band usually accompany any given post with a photo, but sometimes it’s hard to figure out which photos are for the press. Be sure to have high-resolution photos available on your website for journalists and bloggers.

A way to showcase your music.
Your music is your art, and anyone visiting your site is going to want to hear it, so make sure you have a way for them to listen and sample it. You can share your music on your website with a music player, embedded tracks, or MP3 downloads.

Merchandise.
If you have merch and music for sale, let your fans know where they can purchase it. If you have an online store (iTunes, Bandcamp, CD Baby, Amazon) that’s separate from your website, be sure to link to those online stores. Also, if your music is for sale locally at coffee shops and/or local record stores, be sure to list those addresses too.

Sharing features.
Think of your website as your home base and all of your other digital presences as extensions of that presence. Each social network potentially has a unique audience, demographic, and benefit for your fans (with some crossover). That’s why it’s important to integrate, or at least link off to all of your digital touch points from your website.

You also want your fans to be able to share the content on your website with their friends. Social bookmarking plug-ins to allow your fans to easily share content from your site on their favorite social networks. With over 500 million users, a Facebook Like Button, Like Box or Activity Feed is a no-brainer. Want to keep your fans in the loop on what you’re working on? Be sure to add an RSS button or “subscribe via email” widget to your site, so that your fans can subscribe to your posts.

Newsletter signup.
Even if you’re not regularly sending out a newsletter (yet), you should have way for your fans to sign up for one. Newsletters are a great way to directly reach your fans and create a more personal connection with them about new releases and upcoming shows. We recommend MailChimp, Constant Contact, orFanBridge. In addition to having a newsletter sign-up on your website, you should be collecting e-mail addresses at every show.

Videos.
The key to getting your music heard is always building more fans and attracting new people through creative marketing. Music videos are just another form of creative marketing for your band. They allow you add another layer to your artistic capabilities and capture the full attention of your audience by combining your audio with visuals. Music videos also make your band look more legitimate and professional, help you stand out, provide your fans a sneak peek at what they might experience at your live performance, and give any prospects a more personal look at you as a band.

Google Analytics and Feedburner.
Want to know where your fans are coming from and find out what parts of your site are getting the most traffic? Google Analytics can provide this information. Using such analytics can help you measure your website performance, help you drive traffic to your site, and cater to your fans’ online behavior. FeedBurner’sservices allow publishers who already have a feed (RSS) to improve their understanding of and relationship with their audience. Once you have a working feed, run it through FeedBurner and realize a whole new set of benefits.

A daily/weekly/monthly checklist for your band

Original post from Live Unsigned blog

It’s really easy to spend lots of time online and not actually get anything done to grow your audience. A simple daily check list can keep you motivated and stop you spending three hours staring at a twitter #catjokes hashtag. Better to spend an hour a day getting stuff done for your career than a whole day achieving nothing.

The following is an example of things you can do regularly to make things happen (and it goes without saying your music has to be brilliant and remarkable for it to work). Some bands may do things at different times (i.e. only blog once a week or post videos more often) but this is a general example of a social media tasking sheet for a band.

Read more here

SEO Band Names: How To Choose A Band Name So You Will Be Found Online

Original post by Chris Bolton from Music Think Tank

Make it easy for your fans to find you online.

Choosing a band or artist name that is search engine optimized (also known as SEO) can help your career down the road.

Yes, many bands have managed to achieve success in spite of unsearchable band names (the band Girls come to mind), but why not make it easy on your fans and choose a name that is easy to search for and find?

Many musicians have discovered (the hard way) that an unsearchable band name can hurt sales, reduce concert attendance, and frustrate fans.

And it’s not just major search engines like Google and Bing that you should be concerned about. A poorly chosen band name can make it hard for fans to find your music on iTunes, your videos on YouTube, and your band profiles on social networks like MySpace and Facebook.

Below are some dos and don’ts for choosing an SEO friendly band name. Just remember, these are only suggestions. The real keys to musical success will always be rooted in hard work and great music with mass appeal.

SEO DON’Ts

Don’t use common names, words or phrases
Common names and phrases are often searched for. So it’s difficult to place at the top of search results for these terms. Avoid band names like Blue, Harmony, Hot and Cold, or El Nino. These sorts of everyday names and phrases present an uphill battle for good search results.

Don’t get too creative with spelling
Using creative spelling will actually increase your search engine ranking, but only if your fans spell your name correctly. Take the band Gorillaz. Gorillaz fans know how the band name is spelled and therefore don’t have a problem finding the band online. But if I heard of Gorillaz from a friend, and didn’t know they used an “z” instead of an “s,” I might search for “gorillas” with an “s” and find myself knee deep in articles about big hairy monkeys.

Don’t use special symbols %@#!
Do you know how to put an umlaut over a ü when you type it into a search engine? Chances are, a good portion of your fans don’t. Many special characters will be unrecognized or ignored by search engines. Also some special characters can be misinterpreted by computer programs as code and it can cause errors. Keep this in mind before you name your band: < bl@st% >

Don’t piggy back
If you name your band The Katy Perry Experience you may get some traffic from Katy Perry fans who stumble upon your site, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to buy your music. Collateral traffic isn’t always the best quality. Also, popular news about Katy Perry may often supplant your good rankings and there’s always the possibility you get sued or the world gets tired of Katy Perry.

SEO DOs

Use more than one word
A single word band name will only be easily searchable if your band name is very unique such as Jamiroquai of Fugazi. But a unique band name can be hard to spell. Why not use a cool juxtaposition of a few common words such as Arcade Fire, Daft Punk or Kings of Leon. This way you can have a unique name that almost anybody can spell and easily find.

Test your band name in Google
Let’s say I’d like to call my band Unicorn Bluff. Let’s search for that name in Google. For a more accurate result, I’ll put “Unicorn Bluff” in quotes so that Google only searches for those two words strung together. In this case, there are only 307 results for “Unicorn Bluff.” The top results are related to a unicorn poster. This looks promising. There are no Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, or music related results on Google’s first page of results. My only concern with this band name is that “unicorn” has been a popular word in recent years for band names. So I might also do a search for “unicorn band” to see what my competition looks like.

Research Your Domain Name
A good domain name that is close to your actual band name will make it easier for people to find you online. If my band name is Unicorn Bluff, my ideal website is www.unicornbluff.com. Unicornb-forever.net would be less than ideal because it does not contain both keywords of my band name and it may be hard for my fans to remember.

If my first choice wasn’t available, I might go with:

www.unicornbluff.net

www.unicornbluff.co

or

www.unicornbluffmusic.com

Make sure to check on the availability of domain names while you do your research. A good domain name will make it much easier for your fans to find you.

Trademark Your Band Name
Once you’ve found the perfect SEO friendly band name, you should trademark it so nobody else can lay claim to it.

When will the band start making money?

Original post by Live Unsigned Blog

Many musicians refuse to do anything unless they are paid. This is completely understandable if you are playing covers, doing sessions or TV work etc. However if you are looking to build an audience this approach will slow you down. Ian from Topspin Media (who has worked with David Byrne, Moby etc) recently said:

“Our advice to artists is to not attempt to sell ANYTHING until you have at least a couple of thousand people on your email list.”

You can’t make money from an audience you don’t have (and as we have said before an email list is essential). You probably also need at least several thousand connections across a few social networks (not Myspace, social networks that work) that you are actively engaged with. This will most likely take years, so it requires a serious investment of time and hard work to build this literally one person at a time.

Read more here

When do you need a manager?

Original post from Live Unsigned Blog

A lot of artists are looking to get someone else to take over the business side of things allowing them get on with the music. Often they want a manager to “take them to the next level”, but this isn’t really how it works. It is useful to have a manager in the sense of someone speaking on your behalf, to help push your career through interactions with the industry, but only if they are the right one. You only need a manager once you are ready, when your product is good enough and you are a great band with a decent fan base. You still need to be hard working and interacting with your audience through social media, this is expected of all musicians now.

The way to get a good manager is to keep doing what you are doing, building a grass routes fan base online and through playing gigs (promoted on Live Unsigned). Building an audience one person at a time. Eventually you will hit the point where you will be approached, as long as your name is in the right blogs and print press and you are playing the right gigs. Try and keep doing as much as possible yourself for as long as you can, the more well known you are and the larger your fan base the more chance you have of getting decent management.

....Read more here...

Is YouTube Destroying or Saving Music?

By Alan Lastufka. Original Post by Music Think Tank

A few weeks ago Wired posed the question “Is YouTube Bad for Music?”. Their article asks if music fans’ access to almost limitless free music via YouTube is hurting revenue for artists by undercutting premium streaming services, and of course, iTunes/CD sales.

Later on, YouTube responded, stating that “Free Music Can Pay As Well As Paid Music”. YouTube retorted that their monetized views via AdSense and In-Video ads were putting millions of dollars into musicians’ pockets every month. (well, more accurately, into the record label exec’s pockets, but that’s a discussion for another article).

The more interesting debates seemed to happen on various music industry blogs who weighed in on the discussion with their own oped pieces.

This is not another one of those opinion pieces, this is a fact piece.

The Facts.

I am a musician. I am also a YouTuber. I upload and monetize all of my music and music videos on YouTube. I’m by no means a super star, but my videos have been viewed millions of times on YouTube, and I’ve earned thousands of dollars from YouTube against ads on those views. In fact, I’ve earned just as much from YouTube as I have from my music CD and download sales.

YouTube currently brings in half of my income from music. And as the owner of an online music label that works exclusively with YouTube musicians, I can tell you the same is true for everyone on my label.

YouTube is an amazing promotional tool when used properly. The sheer size of the site in content and visitors is astounding. Now before you trail off into a rant about cat videos and skateboarding dogs, know this: 8 out of the top 10 most viewed videos of all time on YouTube… are music videos. Music fans are there and they are gobbling up any videos they can find related to artists and genres they like.

5 Tips for Gaining Fans (and Money) on YouTube:

So here are a few tips for musicians looking to turn YouTube from a negative into a positive for their careers:

1) Don’t just sing, talk. Every music blog for the past decade has droned on about connecting with fans. What better way to do that than to sit down for a face-to-face conversation? Well, okay, face-to-screen conversation, but vlogging in between posting music videos is not only a fantastic way to engage your fans, but it means more content being uploaded to your channel, which means your name and face stay fresh in your fans’ subscription boxes.

2) Views equal dollars. The more videos you upload, the more repeat viewers you will have. If someone subscribes to your channel, every time you upload a new video, it shows up on their YouTube homepage. Don’t be annoying about it, but find creative ways to split up your content between multiple videos. For one example of how I personally did this, read my article here on Video LPs.

3) Collaborate with other musicians on YouTube. You might hear a lot of old time rockers reminiscing about the time their band opened for KISS or Led Zeppelin. Tapping into more popular bands’ fans is a great way to make a name for yourself. When I released my last album, I called in a few favors from some of my musician friends and had a different artist cover every single song on my album before release day. I was able to tap into the audience of ten different artists (some smaller, but most much bigger than myself) and their fans got to hear one of my songs being performed by an artist they already enjoyed. That kind of recommendation is priceless, and all it really cost me was a few emails.

4) Join, don’t just distribute. I see companies making this mistake all the time on YouTube. YouTube is a community. If you simply treat it as another distribution channel, you’ve already lost. Use the same practices on YouTube that you do on twitter and facebook; answer comments, reply to messages, watch other people’s videos and interact with them, blah blah blah. What starts off as a “marketing plan” will hopefully turn into more. Every musician I work with on YouTube has become my friend. We have conversations outside of sales stats and trends. And they’ve enriched my life beyond YouTube AdSense dollars.

5) And finally, include a Call to Action. If you’re going to bother building an audience and making videos, make sure that audience knows what you want from them. Include calls to action at the end of your videos, in video descriptions, and in the branding materials of which YouTube Partners get to take advantage.

Only YouTube.

Why should you listen to what I have to say?

In less than two years’ time, my record label sold over $1,000,000 of music using YouTube as our ONLY source of promotion. No radio, no music blogs, no nation-wide tours and no marketing department. Our artists simply made videos on YouTube.

Some about music, some not. And things aren’t slowing down, our latest release, “This Is Me” by Charlie McDonnell, sold over 3,000 physical CDs on preorder alone, and had iTunes sales to match.

Were it not for YouTube, we’d still be a bunch of kids playing ukeleles in our bedrooms, working day jobs.

Everyday is Valentine's day for you and your fans

Original post from MusicMarketing.com

February 14, was the official Valentine's Day, but you should be celebrating it today, tomorrow, the next day, and every day when it comes to the relationship you have with your fans. Every day, all day.

Way too many bands think of their relationship with fans as a one-way thing-- them broadcasting a certain message to the fans. For a long time, that was great. It worked because doing things any other way wasn't a viable option, fans knew it, and they put up with it, even though they wanted more.

But now, communication is instant. You post a message on Twitter and it goes out to hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people instantly...and they can reply...instantly. Same for posting something on a blog or Facebook.

What are you doing with all the messages that come your way? If you're not using them to build long-lasting, two-way relationships with your fans, you're leaving money on the table.

Communicating with fans is easier than it ever has been. There is no excuse for you to avoid it.

Don't know what to say? The first thing I suggest is letting your fans know how important they are to you...

Here are five ideas you can implement right now to do just that:

Free Show - Send out a free ticket for your next show to everybody on your list, letting them know you appreciate that they signed up. Most people travel in groups, so anybody who comes will likely bring a paying customer with them. This will get people talking about your gig to their friends and start the conversation about how great you are, fill your next show, and make you more money.

Free Drink - Similar to above, but send out a certificate that can be redeemed for a drink ticket at your next gig. Let's say the show is $10. Even if the drink costs you $10, which it won't, that's money going to the bar, which will make the club staff happy and give you a better chance of coming back again.

Meet and Greet - You're a rock star, so act like it. Rock stars have a "meet and greet" to connect with fans. It doesn't have to be formal. Just let people know you'll be at the club a little early, hanging out before the show. This doesn't cost you anything, has a high perceived value, and will help fan loyalty for years to come.

A variation of this is to combine your meet and greet with a free drink. That will really nail down the relationship and loyalty you get from fans.

Free Music - Exclusive "Fan Club" CD? You should be doing several of these per year. The most people consume your music on a regular basis, the more likely they are to support you. Again, something to combine with a meet and greet.

Exclusive Merchandise - People love stuff that not everybody can get. Giving fans a limited edition t-shirt with a design now available anywhere else gives them bragging rights and you'll get some great free promotion from it.

There are a million variations of this idea... A favorite of mine is designing something you throw out from the stage, just to people on the front row who make a lot of noise. This lets everybody know it exists, which makes something rare even more valuable, encourages audience participation, and gives attention to the t-shirt recipient, before the shirt is even worn.

Bottom line here is to let your fans know you appreciate them and to do it often. There is no way to mess this up, so just do something!

10 Things Every Musician Should Do Online Every Day

By: Michael Brandvold. Original post from Music Think Tank

Do you or your band have a daily online routine? You better. At the speed this world moves you can’t afford to miss even one day of what is happening. Your competition is not sitting still, so you better be out there. But as a band you have to find a balance that is not going to hinder your ability to be a band. You need to write, rehearse, record, perform… if you don’t do any of those things, being online won’t mean much.

So I thought I would take a look at my daily online routine and maybe you can apply to it your routine.

1. Quick Email Scan – When you wakeup, you’re a band, so whatever time of the day this might be is fine. Grab your iPhone or smartphone and do a quick scan of your email for anything important or urgent. Respond to those very urgent emails right away. You will know what they are when you see them.

2. Clean out garbage email – Get out of bed, get yourself some coffee, breakfast, whatever you need to get going. Sit down and open your laptop, clean out all the garbage email you received overnight. Even with spam control all our inboxes get filled with crap. Get rid of it now so you only have real messages to deal with.

3. Review all new Twitter followers – Twitter will send you a email for every new follower you receive. Do a five second scan of those new followers. No profile picture, no website link, no profile description, nobody follows them; delete the email and go on to the next one. If they have these items go check their profile in Twitter. Do a quick three second scan of their tweets, if it interests you follow them back. If they are clearly a music fan, a fan of your band, a fan of your style of music, a fan of similar bands… follow them back and send them a quick Direct Message thanking them for following you. Do this for everyone who is following you.

10 Ways to Trade a Song for an Email Address

By: Brian Hazard. Original post from Music Think Tank / Passive Promotion

I measure my success as a recording artist by the growth of my mailing list. The best way to get someone to subscribe is to offer something in return, and a great song is a powerful incentive. Here are ten techniques to negotiate that delicate exchange:

1. The classic squeeze page. You’ve probably stumbled onto one of these before: a fine-tuned infomercial-style pitch with a clear call to action and no exit links. The sole goal of the site, often just a single page, is to generate conversions. In our case, a conversion means “squeezing” an email address out of a potential fan. Seamus Anthony describes the method here and demonstrates it using his own music here. It may do the trick for first-time visitors, but returning fans have no clear path to explore the rest of your content.

2. The homepage squeeze. Identical to the classic squeeze page, except for a small link that takes you to the rest of the site. Returning fans are forced to opt out every visit - an annoying speed bump. Then again, if the free song is rotated often enough, it may encourage repeat visits. Theoretically, a site could use cookies to bypass the squeeze page for return visitors, but I don’t know of any service or WordPress plugin that does it.

3. The “free mp3 download” page. This is my current strategy, but there’s definitely room for improvement. An SEO friendly “yourbandname.com/free-mp3-download” URL and clever use of keywords can pull in traffic from Google searchers trying to freeload your music. While a simple “free mp3s” link in your site’s navigation isn’t distracting for repeat visitors, it’s easy to overlook. Still, I’m not going to force my fans to jump through hoops every time they want to post a comment.

How to Manage an Effective Street Team In the New Digital Decade

By Erik Koral. Original post from Music Think Tank.

One of my New Years resolutions was to do a bit more blogging and provide the music and marketing communities with some cool tips in navigating the web and managing your street campaigns.

I have been in the marketing field for over 10 years now and running FanManager for 6 years, so I wanted to post some of my observations and let you know what has worked and what hasn’t.

The entry below will cover everything you need to know about online street teaming in this new digital era. Although physical street teams are still important and relevant for many hard touring bands, online street teaming is becoming much more prevalent.

Digital Music Strategy Guide

Virginie Berger's guide to a good digital music strategy provides some useful insights into the essential online profiles bands should be using, how to use these, the importance of establishing an email database, understanding SEO and stats and all sorts of goodies. Enjoy!

Virginie Berger's Digital Music Strategy Guide

(Via Make It In Music)

Is Money Limiting Your Band’s Growth?

Original post from Music Think Tank

You might have assumed from the title of this article that it would be about techniques of acquiring funding to pay for the overheads of running a band, or exploring where best to invest your marketing budgets. Not today I’m afraid.

Today I’m going to challenge the other side of the coin and suggest that money is bad for your band.

To clarify that statement in more detail, my opinion is that focusing on short-term methods of monetising your music career too early on is counter-productive when trying to build a successful and sustainable music career. The classic example is that by selling your music exclusively on iTunes opposed to offering it to fans free of charge fewer people will consume and share your song. One of those people might have gone on to become a loyal monetisable fan, but by focusing on trying to squeeze a few pennies out of them in the short term, you lose the chance, or at least significantly limit the possibility of increasing your bands growth rate and financial value over the long run.

However, I see money as an enabler and a vital ingredient (to some extent) in accelerating a band towards a successful music career. So, in other words, I think your band should try to make money and operate as a business, but you shouldn’t let your perception of money get in the way. Ultimately, your value as a band is determined by the depth of the relationships you have with fans and the quantity of those relationships, neither of which can be bought directly.

Less money forces you to be smarter

In some ways, this statement would provide good reasoning for why most of the smartest marketing campaigns are coming from the lower budget indie artists / labels rather than the majors. Unfortunately I have no evidence for it, but it’s something I believe is true in this instance.

I’ll use myself as an example. I don’t come from a wealthy background nor do I have a big pot of cash, so when I want to make a design change to The Musician’s Guide that requires coding or design work beyond my knowledge, I learn how to do it myself because I know it will make me better at what I do in the long run – by having less money, I have become more valuable. The same principle applies for bands, sure - you can pay other people to do all your marketing, recording, management, and booking, but you won’t learn the valuable transferable skills.

I know, I know “but we don’t want to spread our selves too thin”, “shouldn’t we focus on just getting our songs as good as possible” – I’ve responded to some of the common counter arguments in a blog post about time management here, but what I’m getting at here is perception.

If you perceive that you need more money to help you market your band in bigger ways through radio promotion channels, TV adverts, and paid interviews, then find the nearest dripping wet salmon and have a friend slap you with it. You don’t need money for marketing – when I recently ran a blog series on ‘how would you spend a £500 song release budget’ music marketing gurus Jon Ostrow, Dave Huffman, Brian Hazard, and myself all failed to spend the full budget, simply because we all identified that the best marketing is funded by a combination of your time and passion, not money.

When you perceive money as being a non-essential item to your bands success, suddenly the pressure falls in the hands of song quality and marketing ideas. Both of which are free, of course.

I have a question to wrap this up. If two bands were hypothetically releasing an identical song and one was given £10,000 to market the song starting tomorrow, and the other band were given 10 days of brainstorming time and no money, who would you place your money on to come out with the more successful marketing strategy?

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This article was written by Marcus Taylor, author and founder of The Musician’s Guide, an artist development project that offers musicians resources on succeeding in the music industry, including downloadable music contracts, lists of music venues, and a variety of musician training materials.

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Take It Away

The lovely folks at Take It Away have featured us on their site and newsletter today!

Have a look at what they have to say here

Take It Away is an Arts Council initiative designed to help more people get involved in learning and playing music. Through take It Away, you can apply for a loan of up to £2,000 to purchase a musical instrument, and pay the loan back in nine, interest free monthly installments.

Check them out here!

The Importance Of Great Website Visuals

Original post from Hypebot.

"You've heard it before. Keep fans on your site. Visuals are important. The first is straightforward. Don't bring fans to your site and send them to Myspace. Your site is yours, while Myspace is not. Likewise, if fans find you on Myspace, give them a reason to visit your site. That way, you can take ownership the relationship and not lose out if anything ever happens to your Myspace page. Second, it's imperative to have good visuals.

Whether they be YouTube videos or otherwise, fans should have something to watch. It keeps them interested and gives them a reason to hang around your website longer than if they read your last news update and left. Good visuals also serve to solidify the image of an artist in the mind of new fans and help them further recognize what they look like. This brings us to the team behind the cinematic electro pop artist called Oh Land. Not to waste a first impression, they've launched a new website for their artist that features her music videos both as a background on the website and player that features four song selections.

This website redesign instantly exposes new fans to Oh Land's unique visuals and captivates them upon their arrival, giving them something to watch while they click around. View several of Oh Land's recent music videos below. As well, if you visit her new website here, you can look at the videos within the integrated player. In incorporating good visuals so deeply into the online experience, it also gives fans a reason to share the entire website over single videos."

An unavoidable point with regards to the impact of visuals made by Hypebot here. However, it is also worth considering the importance of website accessibility from mobile devices. More and more fans are logging on via smartphones, and websites designed in Flash like this one, simply don't work.

So, Arising Artist's verdict on this one is: Think hard about the best visuals for your website, but DON'T FORGET about making it mobile friendly!

Understanding Your Fans

Original post from Music Think Tank

It is common knowledge that establishing, building upon and maintaining a fan base is one of, if not the most important goal of any emerging artist who is looking to use their music to forge a sustainable career.

But in order to make sure that your efforts are maximized and your fan base grows properly, it is important that you understand that not all fans are equal.

‘Fan’ is a metric of measurement of a persons dedication to your music.

While everyone likes to say they are a HUGE fan, the reality is a little different: your fan base will range from the mildly engaged Listeners to the overly-dedicated Superfans.

Although creating legitimate and valuable relationships with fans is important, it is also extremely time consuming, especially as your fan base begins to grow. Therefore it is crucial that you understand who your fans are, in terms of dedication, so that as you invest more and more time into establishing and maintaining relationships with fans, you continue to see an increasingly beneficial return in terms of on and offline influence, engagement and sales (both music and ticket sales included).

Touring Tips

Some food for thought on touring, courtesy of Billboard's Touring Conference.

Touring executives sat down at Billboard's annual Touring Conference and Awards to give advice to up-and-coming artists about the basics of touring. Here are some excerpts from this afternoon's panel, How to Tour and Make Money (Even If No One Knows Who You Are).

-- "The oldest and truest trick in the touring business is for bands to start where they live. Be weary of creating a national audience from scratch." (Andrew Mains, VP of artist relations and marketing, Topspin Media)

Panos Panay, founder/CEO, Sonicbids, offered a counterpoint to that claim, saying, "Nowadays, with the Internet, audiences are becoming global. Maybe your biggest fan base isn't down the street -- maybe it's across the globe."

-- Many panelists noted that meeting agents and industry folks who will help you reach fans on tour is extremely important. Panay offered this insight: "The most important people for baby bands who are touring to meet are other bands. It's the surest way broaden a fanbase -- by swapping shows."

-- On the topic of smaller bands playing alternative venues, like house shows, CutMerch president Steve Gerstman said, "Rock clubs don't want to hear from a band if it can't being in at least 50 people."

-- "An intimate connection with fans in a young age group is invaluable. I encourage playing youth events and high schools -- you will find fans who will support you more than you'd believe." (recording artist Laura Warshauer)

-- When touring smaller markets, view it as an investment in the future. "Plan on going back to every place you had success, and figuratively, leave something of value behind," Mains said.

-- On the lack of tour support from record labels. "It is possible for a band to make it work on tour without tour support from a label -- all of our bands have done it." (John Chavez, agent, Ground Control Touring)

-- "More consumer brands are, in a way, stepping in to replace label funding," Panay said.

-- Tour merch. "Beyond making money on merch, you want someone to be a walking ad for your band," Panay said.

"Merch is two things: You need to make money, but on the other hand, it's important to create a bond between band and fan. Offer different kinds of merch for fans of all commitment levels," Gerstman said.

Original post

Albany Down Play Live at The Albany!

10 Merchandising Ideas for Bands

Original Post from Live Unsigned Blog

Merchandising, from T-Shirts to Posters to Notebooks is a vital income stream for bands, even more so in the age of free music. Give your audience an opportunity to support and promote you by giving them high quality things to buy.

1 – Use Cafe Press or Zazzle for small runs of merchandise. Both these services (and others) offer the opportunity to upload a design and get it printed onto a variety of items from t-shirts to hoodies to mugs and even babygrows. It works well for small runs and its a fast easy way to add merchandise to your website by creating your own custom Zazzle/Cafe Press store. You don’t have to keep items in stock as they are produced on a bespoke basis but the amount you get in commission from each sale is relatively low. Great for a new band looking to sell their first merchandise.

2 – Use a screen printer for large runs of garments. Zazzle etc are great for small runs but if you want to make money on merchandise sales over 20 units (i.e. for a tour) the only way to do it cost effectively is through a screen printing company. If you’re ordering in bulk you’ll save money, although you may need to reduce the amount of colours in your design as this will keep costs low. The main disadvantage is that if you order in bulk you will need to think carefully about the sizes and quantity of merchandise you will need, never easy in the early days of a band.

3 – Have a great logo (and keep it consistent across everywhere). When you think of the great T-Shirts – The Dead Kennedys logo, Grateful Dead, Exploited Skull, Motorhead England etc they are iconic. Is your design simple, effective and memorable?

...Read more here...

The Dos and Don'ts of Touring

The Guardian's indie professor is always a useful source of top tips for bands, this week, she gives 10 pieces of advice on what to do, and what not to do whilst on tour.

1) Pack light, but bring entertainment, as boredom is the true bane of touring. Have two books ready: one to impress journalists when they ask what you're reading (perhaps Proust or the winner of some recent prize for fiction), another that you really want to read, like Harry Potter or a band biography.

2) Use your phone wisely. Phones don't have breathalysers, so think before you dial. For you, 4am might be fine, but your loved ones who are about to go to work will not be amused. Never make a phone call on a hotel phone (unless you're in someone else's room): it'll cost more than most bands' collective monthly wage.

3) Speaking of wage, you'll be living on your per diem (which is Latin for "per day"). Usually it's just enough for a round of drinks or a meal. Choose wisely.