(This is the first in hopefully many wonder cross-post contributions from Me and the Machine Records. - mdave)
by Josh Preston
You just spent who knows how long writing, recording, mixing, mastering (and whatever else to your music) and you're ready to share it with the world! But before you do, think about this: If you were given the choice between a handwritten CD-R paper cover or a glossy full-color CD case, which would you prefer? Not that we think everything has to be shiny (though shiny things TOTALLY entertain us), but there is something to be said about packaging your music in a visually attractive way. Make it look as great as it sounds!
We know. Just because you're an artist, that doesn't mean you're an "Artist". Below is MATM's Top 10 Tips for Album Art Creation and hopefully they'll make the whole process a little easier.
We hope that these tips have been helpful! After all, our mission is only to make the world a little more beautiful, one album cover/website/t-shirt/sticker/etc. at a time! Also, don't forget to check out some of our designs at Me and the Machine Creative!
technorati tags: me and the machine records josh preston music business nashville album design
Your Music Website is Important but Your Data is More Important. Getting your data out is very important don't get screwed like Echo people did.
For years I'm been harping that an artist should have their own website because you own the content and data. Slowly but surly music artists have been moving their main web presence from MySpace or Facebook to their own domain aka website. Hosting and management tools are getting less expensive or even free so the shift has become less painful.
An article (darknet: echo artist clients face imminent web shut-down) on String Theory Media last week touched another aspect of having your own website. It's the data and content you put on there.
Echo Music emerged from the vast array of web design firms in Nashville becoming the dominate player building and hosting artist websites. They build their own system tailored specifically for the music artist for which they had some of the largest using including Dierks Bently, Rascal Flatts, Alicia Keys and more. So Echo eventually got bought for $25 million by Ticketmaster for which inside sources said they were going to leave it be on it's own. Yeah right....so earlier in 2009 the announcement came that Echo was moving to the west coast and most of the Nashville staff would be let go. The other shoe dropped mid-May when 200-300 smaller Echo artist clients would be dropped and their sites would go dark, the top 20-30 will still have a home on the Echo system. Here is the key item to the story, the Echo system is proprietary and there is no build function in their system to export the content. Meaning all the blogs, photos and other items that you uploaded to the Echo system cannot be moved to another website without some major work being done.
So that's the back-story. Lot's of artists who spent lot's of time, resources and money got dumped because they didn't make enough money for Ticketmaster. All the wonderful things the Echo system did in one place had now has to be moved and reproduced elsewhere.
So the lesson learned is that having a website is not enough anymore even if it does wonderful things all in one place, you need to make sure you can get your content aka stuff out. The internet moves at the speed of light where companies appear and disappear almost as fast. What would happen if Google decided to shut down YouTube tomorrow. Do you have copies of all the videos you have uploaded over the years? If not do you know how to get them out?
If you are an dropped Echo artist looking for a new website don't just jump in with anybody who says they can get you up and running. You'll have a website again and probably spend a pile of money but is there a way you can get your information back out if something happens.
Many agree Web 2.0 was the generation of Social Media, I believe that Web 3.0 will be the age of interchangeable data. You're website have have the pages people visit but all the content (pictures, video, blogs, etc.) will live on another computer where you can move to another company easily. Echo Music is a lesson in why you should care about Web 3.0 and interchangeable data.
Further Reading:
Technorati Tags: string theory media, echo music, music business, web 3.0, nashville
Tools are a plenty online for a artist starting up and doing it on his/her/their own. My friends over at Me and the Machine Records have put a list of the top 25 necessary music sites. I consider them web apps since they’re are tools to get things done easier and more quickly. There’s no better advice than from the people who use them so check out the article.
Further Reading:
technorati tags: me and the machine records, music business, promotion tools
The Nashville Scene has a great article the Music Business workings in Nashville. It used to be a Nashville artist (non-country) couldn’t get a record deal but now they get deals and still screws the artists in the long run.
It’s a long article but shows how some of our most talented artists (DeNovo Dahl one of our local favorites. Podcast #2) go through the grinder and end up as little pieces of meat at the other end. Best quote of the whole piece is the last paragraph:
" 'Look, this has nothing to do with your band,' " Gold remembers his lawyer telling him after the deal was dead. " 'These are just oceans moving in a huge multinational corporation. You are just a pimple on the back of an elephant.' "
The lesson learned that getting a deal isn’t the “we made it” moment but the beginning of a long painful process. Remember you’re just a pimple on an elephant.
I still think that an artist can make it on your own, you won’t be a multimillion but you can make a living doing what you love. Just like any other job climbing the ladder won’t be easy but with persistence and time you can do it…. slowly and organically.
I highly suggest you read this article.
Further Reading:
CMA Music Festival kicks off officially on Thursday and some start on Wednesday but most people start today. They are attending fan club parties, sight seeing and doing the basic tourist thing. As an artist what are you doing to take advantage of the influx of Country Music fans?
Last week I posted on how to take advantage of this event with out actually being at the event. Now it might be to late to plan and implement so what do you do if you’re a procrastinator that wants to do something?
You can still go social but far fewer of your fans are going to be in front of their computers and some will be on mobile. The Country Music fan tends to be a little be behind on this whole technology things. It doesn’t mean you can’t try to connect to those who are.
Viral might be your best bet to get things rolling but if not implemented correctly or the pay-off falls flat you are going to look foolish.
What to do? It really is different for everybody. First thing I’d do is find a place to play. I know through a source that the Wild Beaver Saloon downtown might have open spots but you’ll have to check with them. Looking at their schedule it looks pretty booked up.
Next figure out a way to promote the show online and off. I say figure out a way to make it a surprise. Leave some mystery, let people hunt a little, don’t mis-represent who is playing by making people think its some huge artist. Because when they show up and it’s you and not lets say Kenny Chesney the fans will be irritated and even pissed.
One idea is partner with a bar to offer a discount. Say $1 off a special drink during your show. Course bars make a killing during the festival so getting someone to offer a discount is nill. If you have the budget you could pay the discount to the bar for a certain number of drinks.
Key things to do is play out and offer your products at a reasonable price. You’re there to make new fans not a killing on selling CDs.
Further Reading:
The CMA Music Festival is coming around again and the CMA’s focus is big artists for big ratings and ticket sales. So what does a small artist do to take advantage of the extra exposure to grow his/her/their fan base?
Unless you’re an A and B level signed artist don’t waste your time trying to play one of the main stages. It’s all about money and who can bring the most people in. Nothing against you but it’s a business and has little do about your music or the fans.
First of all poll your fans. Find out how many are coming to the festival, if at all. It’s harder to play to a crowd when you know that they haven’t heard of you before.
Next make sure you are playing somewhere, preferably free admission. I can’t help you with booking since that’s not my area of experience. If you have a manager he should already be on top of it. We’re two weeks out and venues to play are getting slim I would suspect.
Once you know who’s coming do something to embrace and thank them for their support. Impromptu fan only show for those who responded to your poll sort of like a fan club party but only them. Or if you are having an open fan club party, create a special area just for them. What you are doing is re-enforcing that the information they provided is valuable to you hence they are. You will be stupid if you didn’t value your fans, they provide you with a career.
Harness the powers of your fans. Turn them into an un-official street team, or create an official one. This can be done either online or in person.
Online: Now that you know which fans are attending, create a one side 8 ½ by 11 flyer promoting your show during the festival. Convert it to a PDF and email it out to your list. Ask your fans to print it out then post them or hand out to other people that should know about you.
Off-line: Same as online first step but you accrue the printing costs. Now that you know which fans are attending, create a one side 8 ½ by 11 flyer promoting your show during the festival. Go to your local printer and print the flyers out. Then hand out stacks to your fans at your fan club party. Then again ask them to hand out the flyers or post them around town. Please note this only works if you have booked a show after the party.
Finally make sure you’re accessible which includes your produces for purchase. This isn’t to make fat cash but expand your fan base. Make your products an impulse buy, if you can sell a CD for $5, do it. Create “new fan specials” combos for example CD, fan club membership and t-shirt $20.
It’s a 5-day marathon so pace yourself and have fun.
If you need any help with any of this process I am available for consulting, design and project management work leading up and during the festival. Contact me at davidberonja.com.
technorati tags: cma music festival, music business, nashville, music marketing
Does an artist keep moving or just add on?
First there was Friendster where you could connect to each other, and then MySpace replaced it where you could do the same but music artists could get in on the action. It was a real first way for artists to connect to their fan base other than a website and email list. MySpace grew and it was great for artists but then it became like a un-attended garden. Weeds (spammers) everywhere, fake porn and the un-relenting “friend” requests from people you didn’t care about nor knew. It was a great outlet for new music but the more people on your “friends” list the less useful it became to everybody. Facebook opened up to everybody; it was clean and more useful to some. It became the “hip kid” on the Internet block. They seem to be doing things right and releasing new features regularly. It had everything MySpace did and avoiding the things that turned people off. Facebook is still the “cool kid” but is now trying to compete with the latest “hip” social website Twitter. In my opinion, this was the first mistake that MySpace made, trying to keep up with the new trends instead of make what they have more solid. Twitter is a simple micro-blogging concept. “What are you doing now?” you’re limited to 140 characters explaining it.
I haven’t even gone into other social networks like iLike, Bebo, DigitalRodeo, etc. So the question is does an artist add or move on? It really comes down to two things: time and where your fans are.
Do you have the time to do to maintain all the properties you create? There are tools to help out but it’s still a lot of work. You still have to respond to your fans on all those networks for which there are not tools to manage a of yet.
Second is you should know where your fans are. If they are MySpace you probably should be on MySpace even though the rest of the Internet are talking about its demise.
The worst thing to do is create a social property for your band or self and then abandon it. I’m guilty of that with the Nashville Feed website because I didn’t have the time to dedicate. Lesson learned.
Overview:
music marketing
