Call Me On The Flo Guitar Enthusiasts Show Tonight

I'll be appearing on the Flo Guitar Enthusiasts radio show tonight at 8PM PST, so feel free to call in with any questions on the music business, social media for musicians, guitars or recording guitars. Also, enter to win a signed copy of my new Music 4.0 book. The call-in number is (323) 203-0815. You can find more info at floguitarenthusiasts.com.

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Dae Bogan On YouTube Video Optimization

We all want our videos to be seen by the most people, but many times some basic posting mistakes can sabotage all the effort that's put into producing the video in the first place. Luckily it just takes some thought and a little extra time to optimize your videos so that they're more easily found online.

Dae Bogan has considerable experience in both music and social media marketing, starting out in event production for major brands such as Chipotle, Dell, Blackberry, Virgin Mobile and Def Jam, then as vice-president of marketing for Shiekh shoes and their Shiekh music artists program. His current company, Chazbo Music, provides in-store video music entertainment services by programming custom-curated channels for businesses, music and lifestyle. In this excerpt from my new Music 4.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age (the 3rd and latest edition of my Music 3.0 book), Dae explains some basic strategies for making sure that your video is seen by the most people.

"Today you really have to do optimization for search or it’ll be buried with the other 700 million videos on YouTube at the moment. If I had to give some advice, I’d say song choice is number one. Choose songs [if you're doing a cover song] that are relevant today by using the Billboard charts as a guide. Select a song that’s on the top of the charts today, then post a really good cover, then make sure the video title is appropriate by posting the original artist’s name, the song name, then your name. Make sure it’s tagged with the original artist’s name, the song name, as well as the record label name and anything else about it. If it’s a love song or a pop song, put that descriptive tag in. Sometimes people just search for love songs, so they’ll come across your video that way. Finally, make sure the video description is complete. 

Also at the end of the video there should be all the information about your social media, then ask people to subscribe to your channel. Now with annotations you can also embed links in the video as well. Those are ways to optimize the video so that at least some information is carried along with it. What artists forget is that once someone shares that video that a lot of the meta information that you inserted is lost. The description and the tags don’t come with it and the title isn’t visible. The only thing that you can see is what’s inside the video player, so by using annotations there’s a way to make at least some of the information available to the viewer.

Finally, release it at the right time. YouTube shows in their analytics what time of day is best. Look at when you have the most viewers or followers."

To read additional excerpts from Music 4.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age and my other books, go to the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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

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

Was "Stairway To Heaven" Stolen?

Led Zeppelin is being sued for stealing parts of "Stairway To Heaven" from a song by Spirit called "Taurus" more than 44 years after the song was written. The estate of Spirit guitarist Randy California is preparing an injunction ahead of Zep's upcoming Led Zeppelin IV reissue.

All this stems from the fact that Zep opened for Spirit several times during their first tour of the States during which Spirit performed "Taurus" as part of their set, but why wait 40+ years to sue?

If you listen to the Spirit song below you'll hear some similarities to the intro of the song, but it's of a rather generic guitar pattern and nothing of the song's melody. I'd bet that this suit goes nowhere, but it does serve one purpose in that it got us talking about Spirit again, who were a great and very underrated band from way back when.

It's been estimated that "Stairway" has made the group $540 million over the years, so the 36 year old attorney for the plaintiff (who's younger than the song) is obviously hoping for a reasonable out of court settlement. The problem is that Zep obviously has deep pockets and it might not be as easy for that to happen as he believes.

So songwriters beware, there's nothing new under the sun given the 12 note scale that we use, so you're probably copying a previous song without even knowing it. That's enough to get you sued, but it's another story when it comes to actually winning in court.

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The Reasons Why Your Merch Doesn't Sell

All artists and bands today depend on merch sales for a good portion of their income, yet many find that the merch they depend upon doesn't sell like they expected. There are a number of common reasons this might happen, as outlined in the video below from my Selling Music Merchandise video course on Lynda.com.


Check out more videos from this course and my other Lynda.com video courses with a free 7 day subscription.

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Social Media Courses On Lynda.com

If your not hip to lynda.com yet, you should be, since it's one of the best learning resources out there for any software or app you can think of. The production standards are incredibly high, and they really hold their authors to a high standard, which is immediately evident in the video courses. As a result, you can learn a lot about almost any subject, and learn it fast.

I've been a part of the lynda family for a few years now with a number of courses on the audio side of things (recording, mixing, mastering, mastering for iTunes, acoustics), but now I'm pleased to announce a new series of social media video courses, specially designed for musicians, artists, bands, engineers, producers, songwriters, music execs, and anyone in the music industry.

These video courses are based around the Social Media Promotion For Musicians book, and give you an insight to everything that you need to market yourself, your band and your music online. The courses include:

Social Media Basics for Musicians and Bands 

Facebook for Musicians and Bands 

Twitter for Musicians and Bands 

YouTube for Musicians and Bands  

Website Management for Musicians and Bands (A sample video is below) 

Mailing List Management for Musicians and Bands 

Blogging Strategies for Musicians and Bands 

Google+  for Musicians and Bands 

Bookmarking Sites for Musicians and Bands 

Pinterest for Musicians and Bands

There's a lot to learn in each course, but you can click here to get 7 days of free unlimited access to lynda.com. Check the courses, and lynda.com out. You'll be glad you did.

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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 and Facebook 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 Social Media Promotion For Musicians Book Is Here

Bobby Owsinski's Social Media Promotion For Musicians, the manual for marketing yourself, your band and your music online, is finally available.

The book shows you how to stop just using social media and learn how to promote with it, as you’ll find a host of online insider tips and tricks that that will help you gain more fans and followers, increase your views, and grow your ticket and merch sales.

Social Media Promotion For Musicians shows artists, bands, engineers and producers the latest techniques and strategies to increase your online presence more effectively and efficiently than you ever thought possible. Best of all, anyone can do it!

In the book you’ll discover:

• How to increase your online exposure to increase your fan base
• How to have more time for creating by saving at least an hour every day on common social media operations
• Exclusive promotional tips that boost your views and followers
• How to uncover and develop your brand
• The secret behind successful tweets and posts
• Why a mailing list is the key to your ticket and merch sales
• 10 ways to make sure that fans, music critics and bloggers, bookers and promoters, and agents and managers always have your latest information
• Ways to optimize your YouTube channel and videos to maximize your views

and so much more.

Social Media Promotion For Musicians covers all aspects of a musician’s online presence on the most widely used platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, blogs, Pinterest, bookmarking sites, as well as personal and band websites and newsletters.

Check out the bobbyowsinski.com website, where can see the table of contents and read excerpts. The printed book is available from Amazon, as is the Kindle version.

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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 and Facebook 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.

Twitter To Kill The Music App Nobody Knew It Had

News is now leaking that Twitter is on the verge of killing its #Music app, as the company revamps its music strategy in preparation for its IPO. Some of you reading this are probably saying to yourselves, “I didn’t even know Twitter had a music app!”, and that’s the whole point. The company didn’t do much to promote it, which leads to some interesting speculation.

#Music was launched in April and actually had a reasonable first week or so, but usage dropped like a rock after that, getting no traction from the early adopters and no buzz to bring in other users as a result. The app was based upon the infrastructure of We Are Hunted, a company that Twitter acquired that specialized in new music discovery, which was to be the trademark of #Music. But sometimes things don’t work out as planned, as Twitter made two strategic mistakes with the app.

First of all was timing. Introducing #Music in April might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turned out to be a very flawed decision. While not knowing exactly what the corporate thinking was, it would seem that the plan was to get some action in music to spike their IPO a little (which was still unannounced at the time). By having a successful music product, the assumption might have been that it could’ve went to market with that additional feather in its tail and goosed its opening share price as a result. But would that really have mattered? I’ve read valuations of anywhere between $10 to 20 billion that are expected once the IPO is launched, so would a successful #Music really have added much more? 

In retrospect it would’ve been better to wait until after the IPO to launch a music app, as it could’ve ridden on the coattails of all the publicity already being generated. Plus, there would’ve been extra cash to invest in the project to flesh it out more if needed. Read more on Forbes.

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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 and Facebook 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.

Welcome To Music 3.0

This is a new blog I've started in order to discuss the new way the business of music is being done. Music 3.0 represents the most current of 5 generations of the music business, which is broken down as follows:

Music 1.0 - the first generation of the music business where the product was vinyl records, the artist has no contact directly with the record buyer, radio was the primary source of promotion, the record labels were run by record people, and records were bought from retail stores.

Music 1.5 - the second generation of the music business where the product was primarily CDs, labels were owned and run by large conglomerates, MTV caused the labels to shift from artist development to image development, radio was still the major source of promotion, and CDs were purchased from retail stores.

Music 2.0 - the third generation of the music business that signaled the beginning of digital music, piracy ran rampant due to P2P networks but the industry took little notice as CD sales were still strong from radio promotion.

Music 2.5 - the fourth generation of the music business where digital music became monetized thanks to iTunes and later, others like Amazon MP3. CD sales dive, the music industry contracts and retail stores close.

Music 3.0 - the current generation of the music business where the artist can now communicate, interact, market and sell directly to the fan. Record labels, radio and television become mostly irrelevant and single songs are purchased instead of albums.

The music business is undergoing a huge shift at such a fast pace that it's difficult to keep up with, and that's what the Music 3.0 book and this blog will be about. Alerting you to what those changes are and how we can take advantage of them.

In the meantime, you can click here to find out more about the Music 3.0 book, and here for my Bobby Owsinski blog, which covers a little bit of everything about producing music.