Sunday, November 14, 2010
Here to There and Back Again: Interview with Chris Trapper
Great interview with Chris Trapper of the Push Stars, who is now a solo musician touring the country.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Erin McKeown Rocks for the Open Internet! | Future of Music Coalition
Click here to read the article by Future of Music Coalition And Watch the video of Erin singing an amazing cover of "Who's Watching the Watcher" by LaBelle.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Tired of Talking About Yourself Yet? No? Your Fans Might Be...
Your fans may very well be tired of you... talking about you!
Here's an idea, talk about other bands....
Good ways to tweet and post on Facebook is to talk about some of your favorite musicians, what they are up to, their new cd, why you like their music. Ask your fans what their favorite new (old) finds are.
Go ahead and plug a show for your fave band in your area, or if they are playing your favorite venue. When it shows up in that bands feed, they are sure to return the favor! Great way to grow your twitter followers.
Have conversations on Facebook and twitter with other bands/musicians, ask them how their gig was...do they like that venue... If you're heading to that city, ask them if they found a good coffee spot with free wireless. Congratulate them on their new release etc etc. "TAV" Takes a Village folks! work together with other musicians to help build awareness about each other. Instead of DIY... think of DIT ... Doing it together!
Is there an art exhibit/movie you've been wanting to check out? Ask fans if they have seen it and ask them to give their impressions, great conversation piece for fans to easily participate in. If you just start the conversation they will do the rest on their own.
Write a song with your fans via the Facebook and Twitter feed. then post a video of yourself performing the final song you came up with based on their contributions.
When you're cruising Youtube at the wee hours of the morning and you find a video you like (not of you!)... simply press the "share" button then the twitter button and add a message. So easy to use social media for much more than promoting your shows... which actually makes promoting your shows more effective in the long run.
Are you opening for someone? Post links to their music each day as a count down of starting the tour. Get your fans engaging and talking about the other band so they will be excited and cross pollinate. If the headline band/management see what you are doing, they are likely to help out. Might even win you more spots on their tour if they see how active you are at promoting their shows.
Got a cause you care about? Or a non-prof org that is doing great work... tell your fans about it.
Find out when your fave non-comm/community radio station fund drive is and ask your fans and followers to support them. Comment on your own wall, and the wall of the radio station as well. Tis the season.
You don't need to take hours to do any of this. spend 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening to get in touch and post a simple comment or observation. The more genuine it is the more likely your fans are to participate. They can smell fake from a mile away!
P.S. need some twitter advice? connect with @drpants... he's managed to wrangle in over 5000 Twitter followers. They may not all be loyal fans or even active for that matter... but he has greatly increased the odds of getting people out to shows and buying stuff, and it's free marketing.
Just a few thoughts for the road. Safe journeys to all my touring friends!
Here's an idea, talk about other bands....
Good ways to tweet and post on Facebook is to talk about some of your favorite musicians, what they are up to, their new cd, why you like their music. Ask your fans what their favorite new (old) finds are.
Go ahead and plug a show for your fave band in your area, or if they are playing your favorite venue. When it shows up in that bands feed, they are sure to return the favor! Great way to grow your twitter followers.
Have conversations on Facebook and twitter with other bands/musicians, ask them how their gig was...do they like that venue... If you're heading to that city, ask them if they found a good coffee spot with free wireless. Congratulate them on their new release etc etc. "TAV" Takes a Village folks! work together with other musicians to help build awareness about each other. Instead of DIY... think of DIT ... Doing it together!
Is there an art exhibit/movie you've been wanting to check out? Ask fans if they have seen it and ask them to give their impressions, great conversation piece for fans to easily participate in. If you just start the conversation they will do the rest on their own.
Write a song with your fans via the Facebook and Twitter feed. then post a video of yourself performing the final song you came up with based on their contributions.
When you're cruising Youtube at the wee hours of the morning and you find a video you like (not of you!)... simply press the "share" button then the twitter button and add a message. So easy to use social media for much more than promoting your shows... which actually makes promoting your shows more effective in the long run.
Are you opening for someone? Post links to their music each day as a count down of starting the tour. Get your fans engaging and talking about the other band so they will be excited and cross pollinate. If the headline band/management see what you are doing, they are likely to help out. Might even win you more spots on their tour if they see how active you are at promoting their shows.
Got a cause you care about? Or a non-prof org that is doing great work... tell your fans about it.
Find out when your fave non-comm/community radio station fund drive is and ask your fans and followers to support them. Comment on your own wall, and the wall of the radio station as well. Tis the season.
You don't need to take hours to do any of this. spend 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening to get in touch and post a simple comment or observation. The more genuine it is the more likely your fans are to participate. They can smell fake from a mile away!
P.S. need some twitter advice? connect with @drpants... he's managed to wrangle in over 5000 Twitter followers. They may not all be loyal fans or even active for that matter... but he has greatly increased the odds of getting people out to shows and buying stuff, and it's free marketing.
Just a few thoughts for the road. Safe journeys to all my touring friends!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Creative Begging-Promote Your Shows Effectively
It's not easy as a touring musician when you have 100-200 shows a year. Promoting these shows are time consuming, and exhaustive. But, it's a part of running your business and it's a part of making your touring more rewarding and successful while increasing your exposure, fan base, and hopefully your profits.
Whether you have a manager, a street team or it's only you and the bass player... You have to promote shows. My goal is to help break it up for you and show you some examples of what other artists have done to create fun and effective promotions.
The best way to garner attention from both fans and media is to have a story. The story should be something that defines you and also explains why you, or what you are doing is unique. The goal is to achieve three things:
1.) Reach and engage your fans: Create a fun and unique way to interact and communicate so they are compelled to participate or comment. They will organically spread the word and keep the experience going for you.
2.) Reach Media: You have to appear to be doing something that is different than the other 100 bands they heard from that week. Your music needs to be good, but even great songs get lost in the crowd if you cannot grasp the attention of tastemakers that will help you to spread the word.
3.) Reach the industry: right now there are so many industry people that are exploring new ways to connect with fans and media. They are talking about other managers, bands, promotions companies, etc. that are thinking outside the box.
(EX: Arcade Fire’s current release was announced with a highly interactive and technically advanced video. It is so compelling and it’s pretty cool. But mostly, it’s different and it helped fuel the story of their release. Essentially, the release became secondary to the innovative, interactive video. What they achieved is reaching the ears and eyes of people who have never heard of them. Thus, increasing their fanbase and exposure.)
If you want your fans, bloggers, venues and media to get involved, you need to ask. The venues/promoters are busy and don't want to think about it, but if you present them with an idea that they can easily execute from their website/Facebook /Twitter they are likely to do it. Remember, they want your night to be a success as well. This goes for your fans also, create a tool for them to easily tell others about your music and shows. I always recommend including a musical component as that is why you are marketing to them. Just sending a poster for them to post to their Facebook page is not as good of a marketing tool as the actual music.
Example: Market Monkey's recently helped to promote the "Zukerman Bros. Tour". Natalia Zukerman, John Fullbright and Sam Baker toured together for the first time. The show was presented as in the round, but they all learned and played on each other’s songs. This was new for the three of them and really exciting, what a great opportunity to cross promote to each other’s fan base. Here is a page created by Market Monkeys with info about the artists and a free download sampler. CLICK HERE FOR TOUR INFO AND FREE DOWNLOAD T he venues were asked to post this to their website with the show listing. Also, it was sent out to everyone's email lists/Facebook and Twitter, as well as radio stations, press and bloggers. This made it easy to introduce all three musicians to everyone as well as collect emails from the downloads and reach out to people that have never heard of the artists. Radio stations and bloggers were given the opportunity to reach out to their listeners and readers with a free music giveaway.
Example: Here is an example of what I did with Ellis Paul for the pre-release of his new album.
Part of the artwork for the album is him jumping off a dock into a lake with an electric guitar. He knew everyone would think it was photoshopped, so he shot video for the proof that he really did it. Instead of just posting the video to get a laugh, I created this into a promotional piece to get people excited about the release. We collected several thousand email addresses by giving away the free song. Thus, getting more people on the email list to announce the on sale of the CD and his upcoming tour dates.
Example: Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers
This is a hilarious video they did to tell people they will be on the Chips and Dips Cruise. Now, I have never heard of this cruise... the only thing missing from this video is information for me to take action! A website to click on, or a way for me to buy tickets. Perhaps it was intentional, but I recommend leading people by the hand to the next step, otherwise you risk losing a sale. I have passed this on to many people even if they are not fans it will make them laugh... maybe become a fan. This will not be a YouTube phenom but SK6ERS handed their fans a marketing tool that will help gain fans, sell music, and get new people to check out their music.
Example: I just started to work on with Erin McKeown for her Distillation 10th Anniversary Tour
This is just the first step(the announcement)of a fun interactive two month Facebook and Twitter campaign spread out over the whole tour. The idea is to encourage fans to reminisce with Erin as she talks about the past ten years of touring and recording. We are asking the fans to send in their 10 year old photos, pictures of them at shows over the years, and their memories of Distillation (Erin's debut CD),how they were turned on to it, etc.
IN SUMMARY
Be creative with your marketing and your communication to your fans; make it engaging, fun, interesting, and INTERACTIVE. People want to be entertained by their music hero’s on Facebook... but all you need to do is post something creative to get it started and they do the rest by commenting, passing it on, sharing and engaging with each other. This is how you create your tribe. Nothing creates a crowd like a crowd… the more people participating with you on line the more people will join in on the conversation off line as well!
Include videos (Youtube is the #1 music discovery site), links to download free music, and always direct it somewhere that you can capture an email address. (nimbit.com has great marketing tools for you to easily set-up promotions of this nature.)
Come up with clever ideas using Twitter/Facebook/your blog/your website/your music, to engage people; I can’t say it enough… ENGAGE, ENGAGE, ENGAGE.
Create news. Create a headline. Create a buzz and reason to chat about you, It's the only way you'll cut through the clutter of other bands who are posting and asking people to buy their cd's and come to their shows. Think outside the box, think big, think crazy. Always be yourself, always be honest with your communications and that it is your voice.
The internet is free... to not take full advantage any way you can is a crime. The internet is also global, so even if you are targeting to your fan base in Cleveland for a particular show, someone in Boston and London are also possibly discovering you. Set yourself up for being discovered by music fans on the internet. Building a loyal fan base is like building the Pyramids. Take note and celebrate your small successes along the way. If you gain one Super fan a day you’re on the right track!
P.S.
Musicians, managers, street teamers please feel free to submit the promotions you have done. If I they fit into any of my writing categories and it looks like you did something cool, I would love to feature you.
I am also looking to feature venues/promoters that are doing a kick ass job at helping musicians promote their shows. If you know a venue/promoter that is doing cool creative stuff to get people through the doors please let me know about them so I can feature their venue and their efforts.
Whether you have a manager, a street team or it's only you and the bass player... You have to promote shows. My goal is to help break it up for you and show you some examples of what other artists have done to create fun and effective promotions.
CREATE A STORY AND MAKE A PLAN THAT CAN BE EXECUTED OVER TIME
The best way to garner attention from both fans and media is to have a story. The story should be something that defines you and also explains why you, or what you are doing is unique. The goal is to achieve three things:
1.) Reach and engage your fans: Create a fun and unique way to interact and communicate so they are compelled to participate or comment. They will organically spread the word and keep the experience going for you.
2.) Reach Media: You have to appear to be doing something that is different than the other 100 bands they heard from that week. Your music needs to be good, but even great songs get lost in the crowd if you cannot grasp the attention of tastemakers that will help you to spread the word.
3.) Reach the industry: right now there are so many industry people that are exploring new ways to connect with fans and media. They are talking about other managers, bands, promotions companies, etc. that are thinking outside the box.
(EX: Arcade Fire’s current release was announced with a highly interactive and technically advanced video. It is so compelling and it’s pretty cool. But mostly, it’s different and it helped fuel the story of their release. Essentially, the release became secondary to the innovative, interactive video. What they achieved is reaching the ears and eyes of people who have never heard of them. Thus, increasing their fanbase and exposure.)
CREATE TOOLS FOR YOUR FANS TO SHARE
AND THEY DO THE MARKETING FOR YOU
If you want your fans, bloggers, venues and media to get involved, you need to ask. The venues/promoters are busy and don't want to think about it, but if you present them with an idea that they can easily execute from their website/Facebook /Twitter they are likely to do it. Remember, they want your night to be a success as well. This goes for your fans also, create a tool for them to easily tell others about your music and shows. I always recommend including a musical component as that is why you are marketing to them. Just sending a poster for them to post to their Facebook page is not as good of a marketing tool as the actual music.
Example: Market Monkey's recently helped to promote the "Zukerman Bros. Tour". Natalia Zukerman, John Fullbright and Sam Baker toured together for the first time. The show was presented as in the round, but they all learned and played on each other’s songs. This was new for the three of them and really exciting, what a great opportunity to cross promote to each other’s fan base. Here is a page created by Market Monkeys with info about the artists and a free download sampler. CLICK HERE FOR TOUR INFO AND FREE DOWNLOAD T he venues were asked to post this to their website with the show listing. Also, it was sent out to everyone's email lists/Facebook and Twitter, as well as radio stations, press and bloggers. This made it easy to introduce all three musicians to everyone as well as collect emails from the downloads and reach out to people that have never heard of the artists. Radio stations and bloggers were given the opportunity to reach out to their listeners and readers with a free music giveaway.
Example: Here is an example of what I did with Ellis Paul for the pre-release of his new album.
Part of the artwork for the album is him jumping off a dock into a lake with an electric guitar. He knew everyone would think it was photoshopped, so he shot video for the proof that he really did it. Instead of just posting the video to get a laugh, I created this into a promotional piece to get people excited about the release. We collected several thousand email addresses by giving away the free song. Thus, getting more people on the email list to announce the on sale of the CD and his upcoming tour dates.
Example: Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers
This is a hilarious video they did to tell people they will be on the Chips and Dips Cruise. Now, I have never heard of this cruise... the only thing missing from this video is information for me to take action! A website to click on, or a way for me to buy tickets. Perhaps it was intentional, but I recommend leading people by the hand to the next step, otherwise you risk losing a sale. I have passed this on to many people even if they are not fans it will make them laugh... maybe become a fan. This will not be a YouTube phenom but SK6ERS handed their fans a marketing tool that will help gain fans, sell music, and get new people to check out their music.
Example: I just started to work on with Erin McKeown for her Distillation 10th Anniversary Tour
This is just the first step(the announcement)of a fun interactive two month Facebook and Twitter campaign spread out over the whole tour. The idea is to encourage fans to reminisce with Erin as she talks about the past ten years of touring and recording. We are asking the fans to send in their 10 year old photos, pictures of them at shows over the years, and their memories of Distillation (Erin's debut CD),how they were turned on to it, etc.
IN SUMMARY
Be creative with your marketing and your communication to your fans; make it engaging, fun, interesting, and INTERACTIVE. People want to be entertained by their music hero’s on Facebook... but all you need to do is post something creative to get it started and they do the rest by commenting, passing it on, sharing and engaging with each other. This is how you create your tribe. Nothing creates a crowd like a crowd… the more people participating with you on line the more people will join in on the conversation off line as well!
Include videos (Youtube is the #1 music discovery site), links to download free music, and always direct it somewhere that you can capture an email address. (nimbit.com has great marketing tools for you to easily set-up promotions of this nature.)
Come up with clever ideas using Twitter/Facebook/your blog/your website/your music, to engage people; I can’t say it enough… ENGAGE, ENGAGE, ENGAGE.
Create news. Create a headline. Create a buzz and reason to chat about you, It's the only way you'll cut through the clutter of other bands who are posting and asking people to buy their cd's and come to their shows. Think outside the box, think big, think crazy. Always be yourself, always be honest with your communications and that it is your voice.
The internet is free... to not take full advantage any way you can is a crime. The internet is also global, so even if you are targeting to your fan base in Cleveland for a particular show, someone in Boston and London are also possibly discovering you. Set yourself up for being discovered by music fans on the internet. Building a loyal fan base is like building the Pyramids. Take note and celebrate your small successes along the way. If you gain one Super fan a day you’re on the right track!
P.S.
Musicians, managers, street teamers please feel free to submit the promotions you have done. If I they fit into any of my writing categories and it looks like you did something cool, I would love to feature you.
I am also looking to feature venues/promoters that are doing a kick ass job at helping musicians promote their shows. If you know a venue/promoter that is doing cool creative stuff to get people through the doors please let me know about them so I can feature their venue and their efforts.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)