How To Search The Entire Twitter Archive

Tweets are almost like listening to the NPR in your car while you're commuting. Something really interesting might be broadcasted, but once you've heard it, it's gone. Worse, if you don't have the radio on, you might miss the conversation completely. There's no way to go back. Same with tweets; once they're posted, they're gone.

Except now they're not. Social analytics company Topsy now has a new search tool that allows you to search the entire Twitter history going back to when the company first began in 2006. That's 435 billion tweets!

Not only that, you can now search all social history of a person or topic, or just the links, photos, videos and influencers. All you do is go to Topsy and put your keywords in the search box, and you'll have numerous views of the results.

Why would you want to do that? Although you might already use Google Alerts to tell you when you, your band, or a topic is mentioned online, Topsy shows you a much more intricate picture of how the keyword was used. It's great for doing research on just about any topic, including who mentioned you their posts.

Want to know what your fans really think about you? Just put your band's name in search box. How about the response to an album or video? How about a gig? Research about a venue? How about a hashtag? You can find out a lot from this great research tool.

Topsy also offers more advanced analytics and more precise search with their Pro version, but don't underestimate the power of the free search tool.

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Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Using The 8 Types Of Videos

When musicians think of videos they immediately think of the now-traditional produced music video where the picture helps tell the story of the song. There are many more types of videos available to musicians though. How many of these are you using?

1. The Produced Music Video: This can be expensive or relatively cheap, but it almost always takes some time to put together, which holds many artists and bands back if they think it's the only type of video.

2. The Gig or Concert Video: The latest thing is to do a live stream of a gig, but a video of a gig that's polished a bit in postproduction that shows an enthusiastic audience can be interesting as well.

3. Fan Generated Content: Do your fans shoot video of you? Have a contest to see who can create the best video to a song. How about a mashup of available footage to one of your songs?

4. Lyric Video: Lyric videos are the easiest way to release a video with the least amount of work. Sometimes they even get as many views as the produced music video. It just goes to show that it's really the music that counts in a music video.

5: Behind The Scenes: A day on tour, in the studio, at rehearsal or backstage can be a good way to treat fans to things they don't normally see without spending a lot of time and money.

6: Cover Songs: Many acts have gained large followings because people were introduced to them via a song they already knew. If you want to be really strategic about it, look at what's currently trending for an idea for a song to cover. It doesn't have to sound exactly like the record, and in fact, it's better if it isn't if you want to introduce potential fans to your sound and style.

7. Breaking News: Been named to a festival roster? Going on tour? How about an EP or album release? A quick trailer-length video (a minute or so) can give fans a heads up about the latest news.

8. Tutorial: Is there something on one of your songs that's particularly challenging to play? Do a tutorial to show how it's done. How about something that's basic that's overlooked (like the way you play to a click track)? Everyone has a slightly different way of doing the basic things, so why not show yours?

As you can see, not all videos have to be music videos, but they do have to be entertaining if you want people to watch. Finally, if you want to learn more about music video production, check out The Musician's Video Production Handbook.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

None Of My Teen Friends Use Facebook

Here's part of a guest commentary post on Mashable by Ruby Carp, a 13 year old from New York City who points out the various reasons why neither she nor her peers use Facebook.

This ultimately could be a problem for Facebook in that they need the next generation user in order to sustain, but those users are looking elsewhere for their social interaction. As you'll see, if you're trying to reach this demographic, Facebook isn't the way to do it.

"I’m a teen living in New York. All of my friends have social network— Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, etc. Facebook used to be all I could talk about when I was younger. “Mom, I want a Facebook!” and other whining only a mother could put up with. But now, at 13, I’ve been noticing something different. Facebook is losing teens lately, and I think I know why. 

Part of the reason Facebook is losing my generation's attention is the fact that there are other networks now. When I was 10, I wasn’t old enough to have a Facebook. But a magical thing called Instagram had just come out ... and our parents had no idea there was an age limit. Rapidly, all my friends got Instagrams. 

Now, when we are old enough to get Facebook, we don’t want it. By the time we could have Facebooks, we were already obsessed with Instagram. Facebook was just this thing all our parents seemed to have.  

This leads me into my next point: Although I do have a Facebook, none of my other friends do. My friends just thought it was a waste of time. I decided to get a Facebook just to see what it was all about. I soon discovered that Facebook is useless without friends. My only friend is, like, my grandma.  

Teens are followers. That’s just what we are. If all my friends are getting this cool new thing called Snapchat, I want it, too! We want what’s trending, and if Facebook isn’t “trending,” teens won’t care.  

All of our parents and parents' friends have Facebooks. It’s not just the fact that I occasionally get wall posts like, “Hello sweetie pie!” But my friends post photos that get me in trouble with those parents.  

Let's say I get invited to a party, and there’s underage drinking. I’m not drinking, but someone pulls out a camera. Even if I’m not carrying a red Solo cup, I could be photographed behind a girl doing shots. Later that week, the dumb-dumb decides to post photos from that “amazing” party. If my mom saw I was at a party with drinking, even if I wasn't participating, I’d be dead. This isn’t Facebook’s fault, but it happens there.  

Facebook is also a big source of bullying in middle school. Kids might comment something mean on a photo of you, or message you mean things. This isn’t Facebook's fault, but again, it does happen there. If my mom heard I was getting bullied on Facebook, she would tell me to quit right away.  

It also became a huge marketing mouthpiece. Facebook takes your interests based on what you’ve "liked" and put ads on your feed. No offense, but when I’m looking through my News Feed I don’t really care about Pantene’s new product. 

It wasn’t the Facebook it was when I was seven. It got complicated — it was just kind of like, "We liked it the way it was. Why are you changing it?"  

Is this an isolated case? Are your kids on Facebook? Read the entire post on Mashable.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Whole Foods Now Selling Vinyl

We know that vinyl is making a comeback, but this might be a sign that the trend has peaked. It seems that hipster food retailer Whole Foods has introduced a vinyl section in five of its 340 stores (all in Southern California) for a test run.

You'd have to wonder why this would be a match, since there's no way music could contribute much to the bottom line of a $12 billion retailer, except for the fact that the people who shop there have made a lifestyle choice, and a vinyl record sort of plays into that lifestyle.

It appears that there's around 150 records available, which is a pretty good selection, and it ranges from Eric Clapton, Daft Punk, Paramore, Bob Marley and CCR to even some of Pitchfork's best new music picks. As you'd suspect, hip hop and metal are not well represented.

Of course, there is some irony in the fact that they're selling a petroleum-based product that's pretty far away from green, but who knows, maybe there's some sort of biodegradable record on the way that we don't know about yet.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Most Important YouTube Metric

If you were to ask most people what they considered the most important YouTube metric, they'd probably say "views" without much hesitation. On the surface that seems like the right answer, but if you were to ask the experts, they'd all say that engagement, or the amount of time people spend watching the video, is the most important.

That's because views can be deceptive. People can watch your video because it's funny or cool, yet not connect with your music or product. A viral video, for instance, does not mean that you have a YouTube audience. It only means that a number of people have found something about your video interesting, but they won't necessarily watch any of your videos again or subscribe to your channel.

So here's the balancing act - you want a video that's interesting enough that people will watch it and be exposed to your music, but you don't want a video that overpowers the music so much that it becomes secondary. Remember, videos with a single static picture or the song lyrics get millions of views, because in the end, it's the music that counts.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.