Dave Huffman is a musician and author of The Indie Launch Pad blog where he uses the insight he gained as a full time indie to share thoughts and advice for those wanting to enjoy an indie career in music as well. Follow him on twitter:@davemhuffman

So, you’re doing a lot of things right – you’re show is tight, you’re giving out some free tunes and encouraging people to share, you’re building up your mailing list and nurturing it with content, you understand social media.

You’re building fans.

Now what?

Keep repeating what you are doing?  Yep.

But what else? 

Ever thought about taking your existing fans and then connecting them with each other?

Think of it like a spider web or an offline version of twitter.  You connect person A and his friends with person B and their friends – those two groups come together, and networks expand – but more importantly, the infrastructure of your fanbase strengthens.

How?

Because everyone starts to become more of a family.  Or pretty good friends at the very least.

Then you’re shows have one more hook to grab people.  Great music, great atmosphere, GREAT PEOPLE.  Person A may now come to the show just to see Person B and so on.

Think about the promotional benefits too.  By doing this you are actually forming a REAL street team, not just some online “Hey, do this for us and we’ll do this for you” type street team.  I’m talking about real friends of the band that are friends with each other – that will join up and spread the good word about ya.

Anyways, enough of the anecdotal stuff.  Here are some ways you can work on this:

1.    Connect the Connectors with the Connectors (insert link)

Read Gladwell’s The Tipping Point?  Connectors are people in the community who know large numbers of people and have made a habit of making introductions.  You already know a few and they’re easy to spot.  Find the “connectors” in your group and introduce them to each other. 

2.    Encourage Social Media following a’ la Follow Friday on Twitter, etc.

This is why I LOVE twitter.  It’s seriously like a 24/7 networking event.  And in real-time too – not like email where you shoot someone a message and CC the other person, etc.  Hand pick people in your fanbase that have started to become friends and introduce them to each other through Social Media.  Twitter’s Follow Friday (#FF) is a great way to do this.  Be sure to give a good reason to follow as opposed to listing a bunch of names. Quality over quantity. 

Throw a festival around your band’s name and vibe

Typical concerts and shows only last a few hours.  Give your fans more of an opportunity to create memories and meet each other by throwing a multi-day festival.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a jam band to throw a festival.  Just make sure the fest atmosphere matches the vibe of your band and you’re good.  Throwing a festival also builds an entire cultural experience around your band, which can be a completely different topic – but my main point here is it gives your fans more opportunities to meet, connect, and build memories that involve your music.

Play house parties

I wish I would have set up more house shows as we were touring.  The small number I did play really generated more for us than any opening opportunity or high paying show ever did as they give you a opportunity to really get close and meet people and then introduce person A to person B.

5.    Show up at non-music events

I can’t tell you how crucial this is.  This makes you a REAL person, not just some schlub trying to hock his music on everyone.  If you’re going to be a REAL indie, you have to be a real person.  It’s just like owning a small business.  The more friends you have, the kinder you are, the more helpful you are, the better off you’ll be.  Just show up, provide support, genuinely network.  Which means, using YOUR network to help more than you rely on others’ networks to help you.

Michael Zapruder is an award-winning musician who serves as Music Curator for Pandora , the Oakland-based internet radio service based on the Music Genome Project. As curator, he directs all aspects of music collection, curation, and cataloging for Pandora's stations. Zapruder has been with Pandora nearly since the inception of the Music Genome Project and was appointed as Pandora's music curator in 2004.

There are any number of ways to get your music on Pandora. We're always looking for new music to play for our listeners, so we watch all kinds of blogs, radio stations, show listings, charts and things like that. And while we don't automatically add everything we see in those places, when an artist reaches a certain level of visibility we like to try our best to make that music available on Pandora.

So that’s the first thing you need to know. If you are connecting with an audience or community in a strong way; if you're playing good rooms and getting attention, you will have a fine chance of getting into our collection.

We know we can't find everything, though, so for the many deserving bands that we miss for one reason or another (and for bands that are just starting out), we offer a web-based music submission process that is free and open to everyone.

Here's how it works:

1.    Register for Pandora (the submission process is connected to listener accounts, so you can use your existing account if you have one).

2.    Go to http://submitmusic.pandora.com and follow the directions for submitting.

3.    If your CD meets the requirements for submission (you have to have a valid UPC code and the record has to be for sale in the Amazon CD store), you'll be prompted to upload two songs along with any biographical or press information and any links you'd like us to know about.

4.    When we get to your submission, we listen and make a decision about whether your submission is right for us.  (This takes time, so be patient.)

5.    If you're accepted, we send you an email with a customized mailing label that you'll use to send us your record. If we pass on your record we let you know on your submission page and we encourage you to keep us posted on your future work.

Lots of people ask us about the Amazon requirements, so here's the skinny:

We use UPC codes as identifiers to display the right artist information and album art when something plays on Pandora. We want to be able to show as much information about the artists we play as we can, and UPC codes make that possible.

Requiring albums to be available in the Amazon CD store guarantees that we will have usable metadata for every album we accept, which in turn frees us up to spend our time listening to your submissions instead of entering song titles and such. It also means that interested listeners will be able to find and buy your music by clicking the Amazon link in the Pandora tuner.

You can get your music into the Amazon CD store for free using a service called CreateSpace. They press on-demand CDs for Amazon purchases. For people who have CDs for sale already, there is a vendor program that Amazon offers that charges an annual fee as well (and in case you're wondering, we don't have any financial stake in the above services).

So, what are we listening for when we get to your submission?

Well, for unknown bands the fundamental question we have to answer is: will fans of this kind of music be excited to discover this on Pandora stations?

We also consider how the submission might add to our existing collection. We may have more of a need for Black Metal, a less visible genre, than for something more common like Indie Rock (that's not to say that we close the door on any genres, but the state of our collection sometimes comes into play).

We have a few basic internal guidelines for listening to every submission.

For one thing, our reviewers never have to give a reason for accepting music, but they always have to explain their decision if they are rejecting something. This only seems fair to us.

Also, we try to keep our personal musical preferences out of the decision-making process. The fact that a reviewer may not enjoy Darkwave or East Coast Hip hop or anything else really has no place in the decision about whether our listeners would embrace that music.

We are looking for excellence. Tim, Pandora's founder, often says: "You have to earn your way into Pandora." We try to make good decisions about whether the music lives up to that high standard.

When it's all said and done, though, we know that with music and art we can't ever be 100% sure we're making the right call. We can never completely transcend our own subjectivity. Our way around that is to keep it simple: we try as hard as we can to give your music a fair hearing. We do our best to be conscientious with your work.

If we do get it wrong (and we do sometimes), we'll find out about it; and when we see your music being reviewed or appearing on a chart somewhere, or when you're playing the Fox Theater here in Oakland, we'll make sure to get it into the collection right away!

Best of luck to everyone who is considering submitting their music or has already done so, and thanks from all the reviewers here for your interest in being a part of Pandora.

Rick Goetz is a Musician Coach and Music Consultant by way of a fifteen year career as a Major label A&R executive at Atlantic and Elektra Records a musician and a music supervisor. Throughout his career he has played bass for members of the Cult and Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings and on the industry side has worked with artists like Kid Rock, Matchbox 20, Sugar Ray and Damage Plan. His current client list ranges from Grammy award winners to people just looking to get their foot in the door. You can check out Rick at www.MusicianCoaching.com or twitter.com/musiccoaching

 

I am sitting at the edge of the Grand Canyon with a teaspoon trying to fill it in. That’s what marketing and self-promotion can feel like in the digital age or at least, that’s the way it feels to me.

I walked into a cavernous Barnes and Noble last night. They just opened another location by me on East 86th street in New York. I can’t begin to describe how big it is. I’ve lived in Manhattan my entire adult life so I do a double take when I see wasted space- but this? This place is ridiculous. It completely freaked me out. I felt a primal fear that I haven’t felt since Sylvia Rhone (former CEO of Elektra) used to scream at me but that’s a whole other blog post. I’ve spent considerably more time than I originally thought I would writing and creating content for this website and to realize that this one store contained a million or more books and these were just the books that were deemed the best by major publishers meaning the total volume of writing out there is… staggering.

What could I possibly have to offer that wasn’t already written somewhere?

It made me think about the quality of what I write and the quality of my coaching.  You really have to be exceptional to make it these days.  It reminded me of a conversation I had with my friend Mark Hermann recently about “just because you can – should you?”

We were talking about music and how there were no more barriers to entry and how on the one hand – what a wonderful freedom! On the other hand – how can we hear any one thing if we are in a stadium full of people screaming and demanding to be heard? Would we know if one of these voices was the next Beatles? Probably not. I love that image and wish I could claim it as my own but it belongs to Mark and I think he’s right on. One of the larger music management companies in New York has a sign on the door that reads “It’s about the music, stupid.” I think we are very quick to forget that these days.

I have been consulting and coaching artists informally for years but have only really begun Musician Coaching as a business in the last month which is when this site went live. I help people make sure they are in all of the right places online and to make sure that their website accomplishes what it needs to accomplish. I help people by providing a critique of their audio and video materials and their marketing efforts, their live show and the way they approach the people who sit behind one of the many desks where dreams go to die that stand between them and opportunity.

Sometimes I need to spend more time telling people to continue to develop their product and how best to do that because it can be worth the wait. The Beatles wrote a hundred songs before you ever heard note one of their first record and had played covers for several years. R.E.M played pizza joints in Athens Georgia in complete obscurity for a long time. Peter Frampton toured non-stop for three years before recording Frampton comes alive.

I can wake up tomorrow, write and record a song and have it up on MySpace tomorrow but should I? I’m not saying there is anything wrong with doing so but I do think if you are just starting out you should have realistic expectations of your abilities and the level at which you expect people to respond.

Why doesn’t anyone care anymore? It is simply because there is too much mediocrity out there. I say this often “There is no one in the audience because everyone is on the stage.” Cheap recording gear and low or no cost international distribution are now tools that are in everyone’s hands. The music business is no longer an exclusive club – if you’ve got an Internet connection and a mic in jack you can now be considered a member.

“It’s about the music, stupid.” It’s a great reminder. All I am suggesting is write 100 songs and put the best one of those 100 out for people to hear. I am suggesting that if you have to cut your teeth playing live and are struggling making it solo- try to do it as a sideman or a hired gun. 99% of the “overnight success” stories you hear involve someone working their ass off behind the scenes for a long long time before they broke. If you want a good read- check out the Hendrix book “Room Full of mirrors” – Jimmy played 2nd fiddle to a ton of people before going out on his own.

In America there seems to be this feeling that everyone gets their 15 minutes or worse yet- everyone deserves their 15 minutes. We have been sold this vision that at any moment fame and wealth may strike without working for it. There is something tattooed on the back of our brains that somewhere out there Ed McMahon is looking for each and every one of us with an over-sized check and that the rest of our lives will be taken care of from that moment on… I’m all for the Lotto slogan “Hey, you never know” but I’m sure as hell not depending on it.

What is my point? My point is, and I don’t exclude myself, we have to spend less time on marketing and more time making sure we have products that are worth marketing. There is more music out there than ever before- everyone you know is a “musician” or at least a hobbyist and consumers are very jaded. Before shotgunning your product out there and whipping your fans into a frenzy about your new release you had better make damn sure that you have a product that is not only competitive but stronger than most of the stuff you see and hear or it’s over before it starts.

Kevin Cole is the Senior Director of Programming at KEXP 90.3 FM in Seattle, and KEXP.ORG worldwide.  He is also the host of “The Afternoon Show” on KEXP, and the host for “Wake Up” on Radio New York, 91.5 FM in New York.  Kevin's musical experience extends back to being the in-house DJ at Minneapolis's legendary First Avenue/7th Street Entry nightclub, working as the Music Director at one of the nation's first commercial alternative stations (KJ104), launching Revolution Radio (Rev 105), and serving as the Senior Music Editor at Amazon.com.

 

KEXP is an unusual radio station.  Our DJs have the freedom to play anything they want along with the privilege and responsibility to curate their own shows.  While we have a rotation for our variety freeform mix, our DJs aren’t forced to play anything they don’t want from rotation.  

 

KEXP is also rare in that we'll play demos and unsigned bands.  Vampire Weekend gave our morning show DJ John Richards a burned CDR demo of their songs.  We liked it so much, we added it into rotation, and it became our number one record.  Before we knew it, Vampire Weekend were getting signed to a major label, landing the cover of Spin Magazine, and playing Saturday Night Live.

 

About 75% of KEXP’s programming is freeform/variety shows.  The other 25% genre specific specialty shows—14 of them, covering modern global, roots, reggae, electronic, hard-core country twang, hip-hop, jazz, punk rock, avant garde noise — pretty much everything but classical/opera.

KEXP has over 40 DJs, a blog editor, blog writers and contributors, as well as volunteers and staff, from the person at the front door to our underwriters, admin folks, and bean counters, all dedicated to finding and sharing music they love, not to mention a community of thousands of listeners, bound by their enthusiasm for music, who play a role in getting music played on the air as well. Finding and sharing great music is our daily quest.  KEXP’s mission is to enrich the lives of our listeners by championing music and discovery.  I believe, that if your music is great, we’ll find it, and it’ll get played. Help us find it!

 

The Basics: get us your music!

 

There are lots of ways to get your music out there.  I’d recommend using them all. You never know how someone is going to connect with your music!

 

CDs: At present, we still prefer CDs.  Send with full artwork, if you have it. Include a  "one sheet" designed to outline what you're sending and why it should be listened to.  That’s a one sheet, not a two or three sheet!  Avoid cramming it with too much info, but include the following essential information:

• A list of any songs the FCC wouldn't like, such as those with obscene language.
• Recommended tracks (3-5 of your strongest)
• A description of what your music sounds like, or the genre of music
• Information on when and how the music will be available to consumers.

If you send a CDR, make sure you put your band name/contact info on the CD.  Every couple of months we have to throw out hundreds of unmarked CDs that have long since been separated from their packaging.  Seriously.  I’m very happy Vampire Weekend put their name on their CDR.

 

MP3s: e-mail MP3s or links to your MP3s, with the basic “one sheet” information. I listen to lots of MP3s as a quick, effective way to review music.  One thing to consider, though, is that most MP3s tend to be smaller files with inferior sound quality, and you want your music to sound as good as possible, right?

 

Post your music on your website, blogs, and social networking sites (MySpace, facebook, etc.).  Also, get your music to key blogs.  In fact, get it to anyone you think would like it.  We started playing what became our biggest album of 2004, the Arcade Fire’s “Funeral,” after listeners started requesting it and e-mailed us songs before we even got promotional copies from the band! I tend to play a couple of songs on my show each day from MP3s I downloaded the night before in a music safari.

 

Things Not To Send: 

Don’t bother sending promotional knickknacks or other items intended to get attention.  If your band name is The Hot Dogs, don’t send a promotional package with a hot dog in it.  This actually happened to John.  He was on vacation.  The smell sure got his attention when he got back.  A yo-yo won’t make your music sound any better.  Trust me.  Save your money and invest in your music.

 

Who To Send Your Music To:

 

• Get copies to our music director, Don Yates. Don listens to music all day for KEXP airplay consideration.  Not only does Don have one of the best jobs in the world — he also has some of the best ears as well.  The CDs Don can’t get to he distributes to a staff of volunteers for review.

 

• Get copies to our key weekday variety mix DJs (or all our DJs if possible): John Richards, Cheryl Waters, and yours truly (Kevin Cole).

 

• Get copies to our specialty show hosts that make sense for the type of music you’re creating.  We have 14 different specialty shows featuring almost every  type of independent music from jug bands to punk rock created by jugheads.  Check out the program guide here. 

 

Send music to Jim Beckman, who edits the KEXP blog and helps coordinate the content for our podcasts (jim@kexp.org).

 

What Next?:

 

Once you’ve sent in your music, following up is a good thing.  And, patience is a virtue, for all concerned.

 

Follow Up:

Most music directors have call hours a couple of hours each week devoted to stepping away from listening to music and actually talking to people. Feel free to call Don during his call times, Wednesdays from 10am-Noon, though it's easier to just email: don@kexp.org. Follow up via e-mail as well, and don’t take it personally if you don’t get a response.  I currently get several hundred e-mails a day.  I look at them all, but can’t respond to all of them.

 

Patience: 

Kurt Cobain once brought a demo of his band Nirvana down to the station — He dropped it off to the late night DJ and called a couple hours later wondering why he hadn’t heard it yet.  So, even Kurt had to wait and give the DJ time to check out the CD.  A couple of weeks is usually a good time frame.

 

In Closing:

The basic formula for getting airplay starts with creating great music—after that it’s getting someone at the station to hear it and champion it.  And that can happen in many different ways, from formally submitting music via our Music Director, to getting CDS to all the right DJs, posting your music online, working with promotion companies, and having listeners e-mail in MP3s.  Every avenue you take increases the chance of getting airplay.  Be persistent, have patience, stay positive, trust it’s going to happen, and keep making great music!!!

 

For more information about getting airplay, check out a piece on our site John wrote that includes some useful information on promotional companies. 

 

 

 

 

 

Rick Goetz is a Musician Coach and Music Consultant by way of a fifteen year career as a Major label A&R executive at Atlantic and Elektra Records a musician and a music supervisor. Throughout his career he has played bass for members of the Cult and Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings and on the industry side has worked with artists like Kid Rock, Matchbox 20, Sugar Ray and Damage Plan. His current client list ranges from Grammy award winners to people just looking to get their foot in the door. You can check out Rick at www.MusicianCoaching.com or twitter.com/musiccoaching.

 

Ever gone ego surfing?  If not, it’s time to start.  Sure it may seem self centered and masturbatory but probably not less than anything else about the quest to make sounds for a living.  If you haven’t tried it – it’s simple.  Enter your name or your band name into Google and see what comes back.

Why Google?  Well according to the February Search results posted by Silicone Alley Insider In February of 2010 Google domestic core search volume was 65.5% vs. 16.8% for Yahoo and %11.5 for Bing.   Google is the 800 lbs. Gorilla.  The reason want control over where you come up in search Engine results?  According to a recent study by icrossing - roughly 95% of all clicks for what people are searching for come from the top page of results across the big three search engines.  I’m going to guess you are coming along with me on this ride and see where this is going – you have to be able to be found when someone is looking for you and preferably they should find you through a destination page that you have 100% control over.

A word about websites in general – if you don’t have one – get one.  MySpace and ReverbNation are fantastic tools but they are only tools at the end of the day.  For perception alone it is required that you have a website – it makes you appear considerably less fly-by-night than the bands who only use social network profiles.  It sends the not so subtle message that yes – I make music for a living and yes- I am serious about my job.   A website does not need to be complicated and does not need not be expensive to do what it is supposed to do.  A website is to get people looking for you to be able to find you and to listen to your music and your message when they arrive there – that’s it.

I often hear that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can’t be done for art or for music.  There is some truth to this in that unless you are making music for a certain purpose like “Music for Meditation” or “Music for Halloween” it is very hard to determine exactly what keywords (words people enter into a search engine) would lead people who are fans of what you do to your homepage.  On the other hand, a well-optimized site can ensure that your most important keywords (your band name, the name of your last album, the name of your single / song in a recent TV commercial) can be found.  It is best to have your site set up to be found just in case your promotion and marketing activities get you some placement where people would know your song but not your band name (TV placement, radio play, opening slot on a tour – whatever it happens to be).

Here are some very basic things to consider about SEO.

1)    Your band name.  If you have a simple ordinary one-word band name that is a commonly used word – you might be in trouble.  The more people who search for that word – the harder it is for you to manipulate the search engine algorithm to ensure you come up in the top positions on a search Engine Results Page.  In this instance an Artist like DeadMau5  or Deadmaus would do really well  because of the deliberate misspelling and a band like Stand for Dublin are going to have trouble coming up for a search for their name alone.  If you are just starting out and haven’t really branded yourself yet take a moment to consider whether or not people will find you based on your name.  If you don’t know how often people are looking for a given word or phrase give the Google Adwords Keyword Tool a try.

2)    Your Website Text.  Search Engines read a webpage from top to bottom, left to right.  This is why owning the domain name that is your band or performing name is very important.- so important that people will pay lots of money for domains that get lots of traffic.  Owning the domain name with your biggest keywords (usually band name) is the biggest single advantage you can have in showing up first in results.  Also along those lines dot COMs seem to rank better than dot NETS and any other suffix for your desired keywords (by way of example – radiohead.com) except for dot EDUs which are not available to the general public.  It is also important that your home page have real text on it rather than flash or a photo.  I can’t tell you how many people ask me why they aren’t coming up in results only to look at their website and see that the “text” on their homepage is actually part of an image file and therefore not helping your case with search.

3)    Tags.  Header tags, Meta tags and title tags.  Learn what these are and make sure your web designer has these filled with keyword heavy descriptions including the band name – i.e. “The Righteous Dudes – polka music from Plymouth”

4)    Breadcrumbs.    Also called external links.  The more sites that link back to yours the more search engines think your website is worth.  The caliber and quality of these sites that link to yours are also important because people who overdue the gaming of their external links tend to wind up on sites called link farms that can actually negatively impact your SEO.  All that said make sure that all of your social network profiles – Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, ReverbNation, Linkedin etc point back to your site.  Search Engines also value sites that link to themselves even if it is just from one page of your site to another.

5)    Anchor Text.  The words that are highlighted on what is usually a blue underlined link to another page are called Anchor text.  What those words are can help determine how well you show up in results for those words.  You never want to highlight the word or words “here” or “click here” when you have the option to use anchor text.  Use your band name or whatever keywords you think will help potential fans arrive at your site.  I run a site called musiciancoaching.com but lately I have been trying to boost my search results for the words Music Consultant.  ß--- That should help.

6)    Frequency and Consistency.  Do you know why the most boring businesses out there blog about their products?  I assure you it is not because they enjoy it but rather because search engines favor sites that are regularly updated with new content.  As an artist you should make sure that your shows, new albums, press releases etc are online regularly anyway and if you use rich media (photos, mp3s, videos etc) make sure that all of the files are tagged with the words you want people to find you with…

There is much,  much more to ranking in search engines but if you weren’t at all familiar I hope that was a bit of help to you.  If you set up your website correctly to begin with you won’t have to scramble to make sure that people can find you when your promotion efforts begin to bear fruit or when people have heard about your band and just want to see what you are all about by entering your name into their favorite search engine.  Specifically try making Amazon album lists including yours, iTunes iMixes and post on the message boards and blogs of artists who have fans that you think will like you.  If you do it in a non spammy way and you have a good product these things will help you tremendously.  As always though a good product is always worth more than good product development.

Dave Kusek is the Founder and CEO of Music Power Network and Vice President at Berklee College of Music.  He is also the co-author of the best selling music business book, The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution.

Here are 10 recommendations for strategies that can lead to success in music, and in life. Take them with a grain of salt. With this new decade comes the promise of digital music, the power of the entrepreneur and the tools to connect with an audience and deliver the goods. Here are 10 Strategies for Success in Music from Music Power Network.

1. Living a life in music is a privilege. Earn it.

There is very little more satisfying then spending time making music. If you make this your life's work, then you can be truly joyful. However, the chances of being successful are extremely low and the only people who are going to get there are going to have to work hard and earn the right to be a musician. Respect the privilege of being free enough to have this choice (if you do) and honor the opportunity.

2. No one is in charge of your muse but you. Be happy and positive.

People can be their own worst enemy. Countless times I have heard artists tell me the reasons why their career is not working out. Most of the time they are putting blocks in their way and pointing fingers at people and things that are holding them back. Stop whining and blaming other people and make the conscious decision that you are going to be successful and that things are going to work out in your favor. You are creating your own reality every day, so make it a good one and excel.

3. Practice, practice, practice - then go for it. Over prepare.

You can never be ready enough for opportunity. Your live shows can always be better, your songs can be more amazing, and your playing can only improve. As the CEO of your own musician business, you can learn how to run the company more effectively, reach out to more fans and be an more effective social media marketer. Don't hold yourself back by not being ready. Be a professional.

4. If you suck, you will never make it. Find a way to be great.

Lets face it, it is really hard to be amazing. Some people have the natural talent and you can see it in the first 5 seconds of meeting them. They are truly blessed. The rest of us have to find our niche, our passion, our calling and then reach for it. Ask people around you for feedback. Find what you are good at and focus on that. Get other people to help you. If you don't stand out and rise above the pack, you will struggle forever. Be amazing.

5. Learn how to breathe and keep your focus. Stay calm.

There is nothing more pleasant than working with someone who knows who they are and what their goal is. Remember the old adages of thinking before you speak, and taking a deep breath before you lay into someone. Most of us have a lot going on in our lives and we can all benefit from staying focused on our goals and remaining calm in most situations. Learn yoga, exercise, run, meditate, sit still, breathe, learn who you are.

6. Don't take yourself too seriously, no one else does. Have fun.

I am amazed at how many people spend so much time looking backwards and trying to understand what people think of them. This is worrying about the past and not embracing the future. Reviews are important, but don't run to them or let them ruin your day. Not everyone is going to like you, but more people will if you are having a good time.

7. No matter how difficult things get, move forward. Don’t give up.

The only thing that will help your career take off is forward momentum. That is how you are going to reach your goals. A lot of people are stuck in their own mud. Take action, make a move and then see what happens. Don't spend time procrastinating or worrying about how hard it is, just do something positive to advance your cause. You will feel much better by acting instead of waiting or worrying.

8. Find a way to make money. Start small and grow. Avoid being in debt.

This is probably the most important strategy of them all and why so many artists have gotten into trouble in the past by taking label advances. All that is, is a big loan. Get some kind of cash flow happening right away, no matter how small. Sell merch, play for the door, license your songs, play sessions, teach, write, start your musician business. The biggest mistake you can make is to borrow a lot of money and then spend it on things that don't matter.

9. Be unique and true to your vision. Say something.

The people that we remember are the ones that are unique, exciting, special, provocative, fascinating, original, inventive, interesting. Music is a basic form of communication. The really successful artists have something to say and work on delivering their message. Your chances of success go up exponentially if you have a unique position and message and create a following of fans who really listen to you because you have something important to say.

10. Work and play with people you like every day. Collaborate Often.

Music is a tribal experience. You cannot make great music alone. Surround yourself with talented people, write together, play together, try new things. Bounce inspiration off of each other and learn. Listen to each other and let the music weave it's way around you. Find a producer, songwriting partner, other musicians and dive in together. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Wonderful things are waiting to happen to you.

Learn more at Music Power Network

E-commerce pioneer, lifelong musician, and technological guru, Patrick Faucher is the CEO and Co-founder of Nimbit . Patrick graduated with honors from Berklee College of Music with a background in computer science and database architecture. Preceding the web’s explosion as a commercial marketplace, Patrick helped launch some of the very first e-commerce websites for renowned artists such as Aerosmith and Phish. In the late nineties, he led the development of BuyItOnline.com, an online shopping mall, which was sold for $60 million in 2000.

Background:  Formed in 1983, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones are often credited with the creation of the ska-core genre, a form of music that mixes elements of third wave ska and hardcore punk. The band released seven full-length albums, three EPs and a live album while touring continuously before their announcement of a hiatus in December 2003. They reunited in the fall of 2007 and performed at Cambridge’s Middle East club.

At the beginning of this project, the Bosstones had no fan database, an inactive (fan run) Facebook page, and had not released an album in seven years. 

Campaign Goals:  

• Recapture fans and build contact database
• Sell 500 VIP ticket bundles
• Market new album release to U.S. fanbase, sell 10,000 units
• Create a basis for future touring, merchandising, and promotion
• Sell out venue for Hometown Throwdown concert series

 

Strategy: 

Step 1 - (re)Engage Fans:Create multiple entry points for fans to receive free MMB tracks in exchange for offering new/updated contact info.  Provide opportunity to join "VIP" list with exclusive access to pre-sale Hometown Throwdown tickets. 

Step 2 - Reasons to buy:  Place pre-sale bundles (including tickets and merch) in VIP-only storefront on MMB’s new website.  Bundles have multiple offers/price points:  single ticket, ticket plus CD & vinyl, ticket to 3 shows plus CD & vinyl, t-shirt plus CD & vinyl.  

Timeline:

October 2009

• Start promoting via Facebook, MySpace and website, offering free track of a new song, and teasing the new album.
• Use redemption codes to track three different giveaway campaigns (via email and download cards).
• Start recapturing fan contacts through website and Facebook.
• Set up VIP offer to hard core fans for special presale bundle of new album with ticket to upcoming holiday shows in Boston ($50-$100 price point).
• Oct 31 (Midnight) – Message sent to “VIP” list.  Ticket presale bundles up for sale on website for three Hometown Throwdown shows. 

November 2009

• Nov 1^st – General ticket sales for HOB shows go on sale.
• Public pre-sale of new album available at website and on Facebook MyStore.
• Added a 4th show after original three sell out, blast to email list and Facebook.

 

December 2009

• New album ships to major retail outlets.
• Special bundles with vinyl album offered exclusively on website.
• Appearance on Jimmy Kimmel live.
• Shows at House of Blues and Middle East in Boston.  Over 8,000 people attend.

 

Results:

• 600 VIP ticket/album bundles sold in 25 min. from MMB’s website.  Average price:  $40.00
• 2,800 fans redeemed promotional codes for free music
• 7,000 new Facebook fans added (100% increase)
• 5,000 new contacts added to fan list including sales and demographic info
• 4,000+ units sold of new album

 

Nimbit Platform tools used:  Nimbit MyStore for Facebook, nimbitSkin storefront, download cards, promo codes, redemption widget, print and manufacturing services, nimbitRetail+ account ($20/month)

Martin Atkins has a 30 year career in the music business that includes touring with the bands Public Image Limited, Killing Joke, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Pigface, owning an independent record label celebrating its 20th anniversary with over 350 releases, and is an instructor at Columbia College Chicago teaching The Business of Touring, Applied Marketing, and Indie Label Management. He is also the author of the book Tour:Smart.

 

Martin Atkins' experience from a recent Tour:Smart event:

A guy came up to me after my Tour:Smart event in Traverse City.  He plays on his own, without a band, has a CD, etc.  He's trying to expand his base outside of Traverse City which is, literally, the end of the line in upper Michigan. He had a GREAT idea to tell the local bars, "I'll play for free!" That’s always going to get a good response; but then, even as he told me the next part of his 'pitch' he realized (maybe he could see my face contorting) that the last part screwed it all up "then next time you can pay me $100." I'm sure all the club owners heard was "$100, $100, $100."  Even just spoken aloud to me it sounded like a contract.

Part of his 'getting the hell out of Dodge' strategy had to do with finding a place, any place, to play.  He told me that when he does play people like him and that bars during the tourist season up there are PACKED. I gave him the following strategy (which is a variation of the car park strategy where you flyer the car park of a larger similar genre event and manage to hit everyone within a 50 mile radius, rather than YOU driving all over the 50 mile radius - your target audience has been magnetized to you!) - use it!

Because Traverse City IS a vacation destination, punters (your audience) are traveling there from various parts of the country.  I suggested that he play for FREE everywhere he could, including busking at any busy location (or close to one) BUT to make sure that he collects e-mail information in exchange for a free CD, download code, t-shirt WHATEVER.  The important thing is for him to get as many  legitimate contacts as possible, THEN, wait for the tipping point when a cluster of fans that have seen him in Traverse City appear in, Florida, Detroit, or, shit, a town 50 miles south .......wait to see the data then strategize how you are going to make use of it.  The good news is that because he is only one person he will be able to travel cost effectively to pour some gasoline on those sparks. Also, he knows one more thing about the people from out of town who have picked up his music - they have money to travel out of town and entertain themselves!

A similar strategy could work very well if you live in the Austin TX area. USE SXSW as a built in free world wide trawling for fans and contacts party!   Strategize a cool way to get e-mail addresses, provide a service, and take it from there.  IF all of your connections weirdly end up to be in Norway or Brazil - go there!

For more strategies like this one, attend Martin’s Tour:Smart PLUS 3 day seminar Jan 29 – 31 in Chicago.  Enter code “2for1” for a FREE pass for a friend. 

Also, check out Martin’s talk on the road .  He’s hitting the west coast, UK, and Norway in February. 

 Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - Los Angeles, CA     

    8:00am: New Music Seminar- Henry Fonda Theatre 6126 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA

    RSVP: http://lanewmusicseminar.eventbrite.com

Thursday, February 4, 2010 - Portland, OR

    7:00pm: Tour:Smart seminar at The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel 1022 Southwest Stark Street Portland, OR 97205

    RSVP: http://tstourthecleaners.eventbrite.com/

Saturday, February 6, 2010 - Sacramento, CA   

   3:00pm: Tour:Smart seminar at Marilyn's - 1107 9th Street, Suite T-100 Sacramento, CA 95811

   RSVP: http://toursmartsacramento.eventbrite.com/

Sunday, February 7, 2010 - San Francisco, CA

 

   6:30PM: Tour:Smart seminar at The Union Room at Biscuits and Blues - 401 Mason St. 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94102

   RSVP: http://tssanfran.eventbrite.com/

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - USC La Crescenta, CA 

    2:00pm: Guest Lecture at USC 2820 Manhattan Ave La Crescenta, CA 91214 United States

Thursday, February 11, 2010 - Pomona, CA

    12:00pm: Guest Lecture at Cal Poly (3801 W. Temple Ave. Pomona, CA 91768)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - Saturday, March 13, 2010 - Toronto, Canada

Canadian Music Week - Conference, Panel, Speaker. Times to TBD

  Thursday, March 18, 2010 - Austin, TX

12:30pm: Welcome to the Music Business-You're Fucked Speaking at SXSW (Austin Convention Center Austin, TX)

Carla Lynne Hall is a singer, guitarist, and music marketing consultant based in New York City. Her mission is to make music, and share her knowledge with other musicians. As a singer/songwriter, her musical style has been described as "Norah Jones meets Sade for tea on their way to visit The Beatles". For almost twenty years, she has toured the globe as a singer/songwriter, and professional vocalist.

Carla has has spent a number of years behind the scenes in the music industry, in music publishing, management, publicity, and radio promotion. She is the author of The DIY Guide to the Music Biz and Twitter for Musicians. Carla also writes a monthly newsletter, The Soulflower .

To be an indie musician requires an entrepreneurial mindset, and the latest edition of Ariel Hyatt’s Music Success in Nine Weeks promises to “supercharge your PR, build your fanbase and earn more money”. As that may sound like a fabulous claim, many indie musicians may wonder if the book can live up to its promise.

In my own career as an indie musician, I have learned to be mindful of my business goals. To stay on the top of my game, I read A LOT of books on the music business. While some music biz books are filled with contract mumbo jumbo that require translation, others are total fluff, offering pie-in-the-sky promises that don’t show the reader how to get results. Thankfully, Hyatt’s Music Success in Nine Weeks teaches actual strategies that can be put into use immediately.

As the founder of Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR, Ms. Hyatt could easily have written a thinly-veiled promotion piece for her music publicity services. Instead, her book is an easy-to follow nine-week program that teaches musicians how to promote themselves, without any self-promotion hype.

Week 1: Getting Mentally Prepared

Before jumping into the program, the first chapter of Music Success in Nine Weeks program is all about setting goals, and getting into the right mindset. Ariel acknowledges that the music business is not for the lazy or weak-hearted, and that creating realistic goals will create the correct mindset for success.

 Week 2: Your Perfect Pitch

Week 2 teaches how to create an elevator pitch: a description of your music that you can easily repeat in the time it takes to travel one floor of an elevator to another. The best music pitch is easily memorable, and can be used again and again.

Week 3: Optimizing Your Website

In order to attract new fans, a bands’ website must do more than simply play music clips and advertise the next gig. The best music websites compel fans to join your fanbase. Week 3 offers practical suggestions for how your website can become a marketing machine.

 Week 4: Social Media For Musicians

As Ariel herself coined the phrase “Cyber PR”, her expertise of using social networking sites to connect with music fans is obvious. The power that sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter hold to build a global audience has grown exponentially. Week 4 of Music Success in Nine Weeks defines "Web 2.0", and shows you which social media sites a musician needs to create an online presence.

Week 5: Blogging

When the internet first gained popularity, having a static website containing your music, photo, and bio was enough. These days, having a blog on your website enables you to show your personality, connect with other bloggers, and also be found by search engines. Week 5 explains the importance of having a website that updates frequently so that your fans can return to your site, and connect with you.

Week 6: Connecting with Fans Via Your Newsletter List and Conducting Surveys

In my opinion, most band newsletters are selfish, self-promotion emails that aren’t worth opening. Because of this, Week 6 stresses that a band newsletter should be used for more than blasting out the dates for your next gig. Instead, your newsletter can be used to nurture your relationship with your fans. Once your have their trust, you can also reach out to them to ask them what they want from you. It's a lot better than guessing.

Week 7: How to Build Your Mailing List

Once you have an email list, it's also important to add more names each month. Week 7 shows you tips and tricks to grow a healthy fan email list.

Week 8: Real Live Networking Tips

In addition to having an online presence, it is still important for musicians to meet people offline, and make connections with them. Week 8 teaches you how to make an authentic connection in person.

Week 9: Creating a Continuum Program

As enlightening as the rest of this book is, in my opinion, Week 9 of Music Success in Nine Weeks is the high point of the book. Once you build your fanbase, and have permission to contact them regularly, it's time to get your fans to purchase merch from you on a regular basis. Whether it's CDs, t-shirts, or any other kind of band swag, creating a product line will make the difference in your band's bottom line.

Another bonus of purchasing Ariel Hyatt's Music Success in Nine Weeks is that you get free lifetime membership to Ariel's closed online Mastermind Forum. In the forum you meet other musicians like yourself who are working the program, and you have the added support of Ariel and her staff.

There is no lack of book titles in the indie music business help section, as well as the musicians who buy them. However, in the case of Ariel Hyatt's Music Success in Nine Weeks, this book’s true power is teaching you that you can increase the level of your success.

But it’s up to you to follow through.

The goal of the Indie Artist X Project is to develop a basic, actionable music marketing plan designed around simple strategy, prioritization of tactics, easy to use tools, and a reasonable budget that can be implemented by any artist who has the inclination to follow it. About.com Music Careers, Artists House Music, Hypebot, KnowTheMusicBiz.com, MusicianWages.com and Revolution Number 3 have banded together to create this community based music marketing plan.  We will be working with one anonymous artist to design and implement this music marketing plan then track and report the actual results over a four month period.

 

Today marks the wrap up date for the 4 month long Indie Artist X Project. I posted a blog at Hypebot today with an overall IAXP wrap up and summary.

The majority of the inquiries and questions I received during the Indie Artist X Project where about the identity of the anonymous artist who was participating in the project and how that artist was selected. Now that the project has officially wrapped up I can finally announce that the artist who participated in the project is Austin Collins from the band Austin Collins and The Rainbirds.

Background

I first stumbled upon Austin and his band by accident at the 2008 South by Southwest Festival. While I was at SXSW I attended a show case event to see a friend of mine’s band play and Austin’s band just happened to come on stage next. I was immediately impressed with the set Austin and the Rainbirds performed. After the show I briefly met the band and picked up a copy of their latest CD, Roses are Black.

Once I got home from SXSW I began listening to all the CD’s I’d brought home with me and after a few listens I decided Roses are Black was a damn fine record. After many, many more listens I decided Roses are Black was my favorite record of 2008.

At the end of the year I was one of the people who blogged about my “Five Favorite Things”  in About.com’s 2008 Music Wrap Up feature. Soon afterwards Austin contacted me to say thank you for mentioning Roses are Black was my favorite release of 2008. ‘I kept Austin’s contact information but we didn’t communicate past his initial email.

SXSW 2009

Two weeks before I was to depart for South by Southwest this past spring I found out my housing plans had fallen through. Anyone who has been to SXSW can tell you there are no hotel rooms available anywhere near Austin, TX two weeks prior to the event.

In an attempt to try and salvage my trip I pulled a list of everyone in my contacts that lived in Austin, TX and sent out an email asking if anyone knew a place where I might be able to crash during SXSW. Almost immediately Austin replied back to my email saying I could stay at his house. Problem solved!

When I arrived in town Austin and I agreed to meet up at the Guitar Town party after the day’s panels had concluded.  I learned several interesting things hanging out with Austin that first night. He has great taste in music, a wide circle of friends, strong interpersonal skills and a degree in Finance from the University of Texas. When I introduced Austin to Rob Miller from Bloodshot Records I was impressed with how easily Austin fell into my conversation with Rob (and didn’t immediately fall all over himself pitching his band).

The Deal

Austin was very interested in getting my take on music marketing and the music business in general and had a lot of good questions. We found it difficult to talk at the evening parties and showcases so we arranged to talk over breakfast on my last day in town. At breakfast we covered a wide range of music business related topics, online marketing, distribution, licensing, etc. while Austin made furious notes of everything we discussed.

I really liked Austin’s music and found him to be very motivated and driven so I made him a deal that morning. I told Austin I would help him pull together a music marketing / music business plan without compensation but I would only put as much effort into building his music career as he was. I have tried to help a few musicians with their business / marketing efforts in the past but always grew frustrated at their lack of follow through and execution.

We setup a Google Docs page to help us get Austin’s marketing efforts organized and to assign key tasks and due dates. I quickly found out that Austin always follows though. I can’t think of a single time that I even casually suggested an idea to Austin he didn’t have it done before our next weekly phone call.

The IAXP is Born

I initially thought I could pull together a fairly comprehensive outline for a music marketing plan easily enough but found it to be a pretty huge task. I started reaching out to other folks I know and respect to get their input on ideas for Austin’s marketing plan.

While talking to Cameron Mizell from MusicianWages.com one day we stumbled upon the idea of blogging about the creation of Austin’s marketing plan and the results it generated.  We discussed the need for Austin’s name to be withheld so it wouldn't provide him with free publicity during the project and in turn skew any results he might see.

After phone calls to some smart, forward thinking, indie focused music business blogging peers the Indie Artist X Project was born. Hopefully a few musicians will find the music marketing plan we created useful in developing their own plan and furthering their own music career.

What’s Next for Mr. Indie Artist X?

As the IAXP was preparing to kick off Austin won the 2009 AirPlay Direct “All Things Americana” artist contest. Austin is using the $35,000 contest prize package to self release his third studio record, due out in February 2010.

Moving forward you can follow Austin’s progress on his website, Facebook and / or Twitter.