Archive for the ‘Music News’ Category

I wanted to stick up a very quick post to bring hope to aspiring artists, yet also hammer home once again our core argument.

Maybe we’re finally getting to the time where a few artists really can break ‘big time’ without the record company machine, thanks to their own online efforts. Maybe.

Adam Young – he is Owl City – is an inspiration to the DIY musician using MySpace (still….) as their primary marketing tool. The story goes that Adam started recording in his basement and posting material to his MySpace profile with no real plan to speak of. (I’d heard the buzz and then Bob Lefsetz mentioned him today – and I got to thinking!)

Soon enough, people began to take notice and word spread – in the viral and natural way that online music discovery has long promised and only occasionally delivered. Two self-released albums and mammoth MySpace attention led to the moment of truth, and Adam, understandably, went for the old-school record deal with Universal.

Did he need to?

I think we’re still at the point in time that an international Major record company can push an artist with a groundswell of support far more successfully than they can on their own. Whilst the internet was fundamental to his early success and awareness, the world remains a big place in which to ship physical stock (and more than half the people still want CD’s!) and to drive radio and TV exposure. Sure, a lot of kids find new music on the web, but many don’t and all sorts of people still rely on the mainstream media to push things at them rather than discovering for themselves. Add to that, ‘offline buzz’ and personal recommendation, both of which can be amplified by the cash injection and expertise offered by those dinosaur record companies.

My view – they still have a lot to offer.

On the other hand, what he was doing to get noticed by those companies is exactly the same stuff that needs to be done to build the online buzz about your band and build a real fanbase – so do it anyway.

What can we learn from his experience?

1. He’s very talented and his material is great – you know we bang on about this a lot, but all the web promotion and Social Networking in the world is pointless if your material is crap. Study your craft, hone your skills and then present to the world.

2. He’s very prolific – Owl City was the third or fourth project that he had worked on. And he didn’t just sit there and do it half-heartedly. He finished songs, finished recordings, put them on the web. All the time perfecting his art and learning skills to promote himself – through experience.

3. He engaged with the feedback that he got – honestly and openly. If you’re seeking to build a following these days, you need to be available to your fans in a way that old school stars never were. It’s a mutually beneficial journey now – not you and the fan divided by awe. Look at how Imogen Heap talks to her artists and revels in their intense feedback.

4. Now that he is signed to Universal, they have amplified his web-presence with a light but skilled touch. Have a good look around his official site and see what they now offer – loads of information, his personal blog, streamed music, buy links, radio request telephone numbers, links to all his Social Networks, Street Team sign-up, mailing list, a forum, wallpapers and banners…… The site is a lesson in how to do it right. Not too flash, just nicely designed and stuffed with content that shouts out his appreciation of his fans. The only thing I’d add is a dedicated YouTube channel and Flickr page.

So, look & learn – be great at your art, push it out there, communicate and climb higher. If you do and the Major record label A&R guy comes calling, it might be the right thing to do, or, maybe, just maybe, you’ll decide to keep going it alone – and soon that really will be an option.

Read about Adam Young and Owl City below:

Owl City Official Site

Owl City Wiki

Star Tribune – article on Owl City success

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We love Nimbit.

It’s been around a while offering all sorts of amazing ‘direct-to-fan’ marketing tools (email list capture, analytics, social media tools etc) and ‘direct-to-fan’ selling tools (widgets that allow you to sell all types of stuff from all sorts of places). In fact, we’ve been recommending it to our clients for a very long time and many have chosen to use it for it’s ‘all-in-one’ ease of use.

And now, they’ve moved the game on and managed to bring their functionality to facebook.

It’s important to realise what a powerful tool Nimbit is before you can really see what their new extra tools for facebook can mean for you as a do-it-yourself artist.

Nimbit allows you to manage your direct-to-fan activity pretty much all from within Nimbit’s site. Meaning, for the most part, that you can deal with all your Social Networking pages and your own blog all from one place.

And what can you do with it?

You can:

• build your fan mailing list, find out more information about your fans, mail them in loads of cool ways
• sell pretty much anything direct to fans – digital tracks, merchandise, CD’s, tickets
• sell that stuff from loads of different places where you can drop their widget – MySpace, your blog etc
• control your Social Network presence from one place and build your ‘music brand’

But that’s not all – they’ll also get your digital tracks for sale on all the major sites, such as iTunes and Amazon.

So, why is this update to what Nimbit can do on facebook a big deal? – because it has all their functionality in one easy to switch on App! It’s so simple – literally switch it on and you are selling to your fans on facebook.

What does it cost?

Well, maybe nothing!

In order to have the MyStore application running on your facebook page, you have to have a Nimbit account – but it can be the basic free Nimbit account. There are limitations on what you can use it to do, but you get most of the facebook App functionality for free.

In truth, if you get it, you’ll probably end up falling in love with how easy Nimbit can make your music marketing and to get all the functions you’ll have to upgrade to one of their two membership levels – either $9.95 or $19.95 per month.

But, it’s well worth it.

Click here to go to Nimbit and have a look at the MyStore App.

Or, watch the video about MyStore below.

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You can’t argue that when Radiohead announced the release of ‘In Rainbows’ a matter of days after it had been completed and just days before it was made available and announced that fans would be able to get the mp3 download for whatever they wanted to pay, they sent shockwaves right through the recorded music part of the industry.

It was groundbreaking in two ways – obviously the choosable pricing was a first, and headline grabbing, but time will perhaps show that the fast turnaround from album completion to being made available to fans might yet be the bigger revelation. The band made much of it at the time – wanting to be able to get their music to fans as soon as they had created it rather than going through a 6 to 12 month build up in an old school label approach before release.

Nonetheless, the pricing initiative turned out to be very profitable for the band, but, of course, they were already a world class act with a massive and rabid fanbase – would that approach work for you?

Well, now there’s a new service that will allow you to find out – anjuno.

If you know how the Radiohead release worked, then you pretty much know how anjuno works.

It’s free to join and anjuno then takes a percentage of any income from sales of downloads. You upload your stuff (I say stuff, because the system works for music or ebooks – so how about doing a tab book or lyric book for your fans at the same time?) and then set the system to accept payment at a level that a fan wants to pay – including free.

It’s brand new, and who knows how this is going to work for new artists. Personally, I think it’s a great idea and I’d follow the Radiohead model and use anjuno for an early release blitz followed up by a physical release  (with superior packaging or otherwise of collectable value) and continued availability on itunes etc.

Of course, you’re going to get some people going for the free option, but as the Radiohead release showed, faith in human nature will pay off and a record will find a natural price level if its good enough!

What do you think – do you like the idea? Let us know.

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Heads Up!

You may or may not be aware of this already, and you might agree with the policy change or not – opinion seems divided. But, whichever side of the fence you’re on, this is a critical opportunity for all facebook users, which will apply particularly to bands and artists.

This Saturday at 12.01 Eastern Daylight Time (That’s 5.01 PM for Brits), you will be able to register for a user name on facebook for your existing account – for the first time ever – and they will be dished out on a first come first served basis!

Some people hate the idea as too much like MySpace, but whether you like it or not, you want to be ready to get there and get your band name. I’m not quite sure how much SEO benefit there might be to it, but I know it’ll look better and be easier to remember and therefore direct people to.

You will have the option of all alphanumeric characters and a full stop (period for the US readers!) but that’s about it. So mine will read, if I get it, www.facebook.com/ianclifford. You could also just use your band name followed by’.com’ if that’s your usual web address.

There is obviously going to be a major rush to get names and facebook will have a disputes process, but the best advice is get there and get your name bagged.

Everything you need to know is covered here at facebook – http://www.facebook.com/username/

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Last week in the UK, the International Live Music Conference took place, at which 1000 attendees from 57 countries debated the health of the live sector. It is, as it turns out, in very rude health.

One speaker delivered an amazing fact, something that we all probably thought was coming. Live music revenues in the UK outstripped revenue from recorded music sales for the first time ever. £1.28bn in live income versus £1.24bn in record and digital sales. You would be safe to assume that the same division of income is now applying the world over, or soon will be.

So, what does this mean for you, the aspiring artist?

Well, it would be very easy to crow about the shift of power away from the record companies and into the hands of promoters, agents, managers and artists, which is undoubtedly happening. But, don’t forget that the majority of the acts who are benefitting from this swing towards increased live income are the very ones who have also benefitted from the long term investment of vast sums from the major record companies over the last ten to thirty years. That investment is what has made these acts globally attractive as a live draw.

No wonder that the record companies are desperate to find a way to share in this revenue in their new so-called ‘360 deals’.

But would you sign to a major record company now under those terms (which would be a share for the record label in all your streams of income – live, merchandising, publishing, sponsorship etc)? The answer depends on how events play out for you and where offers and opportunity come from. But it also depends on what you want from this business – do you want the global superstardom or would you prefer the DIY ethic and lesser success?

Both are still available to you, but now, the source of the investment money may come from a variety of sources – your manager (perhaps!), a venture capital firm, a promoter or agency, or even a brand.

When you get your act to the point that you are good enough to appeal to a mass audience, you now get to choose whether you want to do that through a record company, or whether you want to make your own way. The record company still does have appeal – many years of experience and experienced staff, connections, and cash, just for starters.

If you choose to go your own way, you can buy in the expertise and you can far more easily play outside the rules. You would find inside a record deal that some forward thinking strategies and ideas that you might want to employ (such as giving away music for free to get people interested in your band) wouldn’t wash with them. If, on the other hand, you own all your rights, you can do what you like.

Many managers that I speak to regularly are convinced that they have done their last deals with major record companies and that the future is brightest for those that can embrace the web and the opportunities that ‘direct to fan’ marketing through modern technology offers.

My final comment has to be that you should take great heart from this piece of news. The fact that the average music fan is happy to spend significant sums on seeing their favourite band means that the music industry, and therefore your dreams and your shot, are very much alive. Maybe not how you had envisaged, but the opportunities to succeed are there – just make sure you have learnt how to perform!

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