Guest List Do's And Don'ts

The guest list is something that every gigging musician faces, regardless of how big or small the gig is if there's a door charge. Not many of us think much about it, but there's a definite etiquette involved, and a post I spotted on about.com seemed to cover it pretty well. You can read their entire post, but I've paraphrased my version here.

Guest List Dos:
1. Find out how many guest list spaces are available as far before the gig as you can so there's no last minute confusion.

2. Make sure that VIPs that can help your career, like agents, managers and label execs, make it on the list before friends and family.

3. Be upfront with people about the likelihood of getting on the list. Some people get seriously offended if they come to the show and find they're not included.

4. Consider other options like discounted tickets before placing someone on the guest list, especially when the list is limited.

5. Make sure that one person and one person only in the band is responsible for the list to help keep everything straight.

Guest List Don'ts:
1. Don't push a promoter for extra guest list spaces, especially if you're a support band.

2. Don't feel like you have to give everyone on the list a plus one. You'll eat up spaces that you can use for someone more important rather than someone you don't know.

3. You don't owe someone a backstage pass just because they're on the guest list. They're two different animals.

4. Don't have a guest list for a charity show. It's bad form, and you have the perfect out in that the show is raising money for a good cause.

5. Don't trade guest list spots with other bands. It takes up too much energy trying to remember who's owed what later.

This is a good place to start. Anybody have any additions?

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YouTube Copyright Explained By Puppets

Copyright can be confusing, especially when it comes to YouTube. Most people who post videos use someone else's music, which they usually don't own or pay for, and are later surprised when they're presented with a takedown notice. That's not the end of it though, as copyright has a number of additional aspects to it that attempts to make it easy for all parties to come away satisfied.

Here's a set of copyright rules for YouTube courtesy of reelseo that also has some great links to more detail, if needed. Below that is a movie by Glove And Boots that attempts to simplify the rules with a bit of humor.

Here's the set of rules:

• If you upload original content on YouTube, you're protected by copyright.  If you upload another creator's content, they're protected by copyright.
• If your original content is stolen by someone else, YouTube has a takedown notice policy.  All you have to do is send a copyright infringement notice.
• ContentID is triggered automatically when you upload content that has audio or video that has been claimed by another copyright owner.  So while the video is processing, ContentID is already working on the video to make sure it's completely original content.
• In some cases, the uploader has paid money for the rights to show copyrighted content, and in that case, people can file a dispute.  The process can start straight from your YouTube Video Manager.
• There are two ways a video can be removed or blocked: the takedown notice and the ContentID match.  To see the difference between the two, click here.
• Sometimes, though, the takedown notice is in error, or malicious.  In that case, you can use a counter takedown notice.  Under Fair Use, you are commenting, remixing, or criticizing (and a few other "ings") copyrighted content.

Thanks, Glove & Boots, for making this boring topic fun to watch!

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The Secret To Getting Booked

Here's an excerpt from How To Make Your Band Sound Great that talks about the secret to getting your band booked. The part I'm quoting was not written by me, but by a long-time club booker/musician in Memphis, who's seen it all.

"The following was in a widely circulated email that went around the music community. It’s from Memphis promoter Chris Walker who explains both how to get gigs, and more importantly, how not to get them. If you want the hard cold facts about club gigs for acts with original music, read on.

-----

'From a 17 year vet: How to not get your band booked! 

I've had many many jobs in my life, from removing asbestos to strip club DJ to pizza delivery to unloading aircraft, but the one thing I've done and never stopped doing was booking concerts. When I say "job," that would infer that I get paid to do that "job.” 

Booking concerts very infrequently pays but I'm addicted to music and have been ever since my big brother gave me my first record, Destroyer by Kiss. I learned a long time ago that if I don't book the bands I like...they ain't coming. Over one thousand concerts and 17 years later of bringing bands to Memphis, I'd say I know EXACTLY how to get a band booked into any venue in the world. I didn't say I could get people to show up...I just said I could get it booked. 

I've been on all sides of the live concert equation. I've been the promoter. I've been in the local band. I've been in the touring band. I've been the patron. I've been the sound guy. I've been the bartender. I've been the door guy. I've been the janitor. I've even been the groupie. So there isn't an angle I haven't seen. 

Now...

You've got a band. You've got 30-60 minutes of music to play live and you want to hit the stage. Any stage. Hell, a floor. As long as it's a public place and you can get away with charging people to hear live music. Getting a show in your hometown isn't all that difficult. Most venues know that as long as you're local and especially if it's your first show, all your band members girlfriends, friends, and family will probably show up for your first show. I've booked plenty of kids bands on their first show and they usually draw well with decent bar sales. If you're worth a shit, they'll continue to come out. If not, those friends and family will drop like flies to future performances. 

Now about playing shows out of town.... 

Allow me to put things in the venue's point of view. When you're trying to book your band out of town, ask yourself this very very very very very very (x100) important question: 

HOW MUCH MONEY WILL THE VENUE MAKE IF WE PLAY THERE?????? 

Musicians hate that money actually comes into the equation.  In major markets, there are venues that make unproven bands buy 'x' amount of tickets to get a show. The band in turn then sells the tickets to their friends, family, whoever. The Milwaukee Metal Fest survived for years doing this. The response is: "Pay to play sucks, dude. It's bullshit." What no one seems to realize is that live music is always a pay to play proposition. It's just that it’s the venue that has to pay. A mid-size music-only venue in Memphis usually has a nut of about $3K to $5K to cover monthly. I will not list the expenses here but the fact that it's a long list should prove my point. Almost all of the venues in Memphis that I know of don't take anything out of the door for the venue itself except to pay the door guy and sound guy and maybe security if necessary, so that leaves the bar to cover that monthly nut. Risky business, eh?

Truth be told...if your band isn't on a record label, the best way you're going to get a gig out of town is to trade shows with some band in whatever city you're looking to play. MySpace is perfect for this. However, make sure that the out of town band you're trying to contact sets up said show for you. Odds are that band already knows people at the venue and has already played there a few times. 

Here's some perspective. The following bands have drawn right at or less than 100 people in Memphis: 

Queens Of The Stone Age (this was after their 2nd major label release with massive radio airplay complete with commercial spots that we bought. The station gave away 20 tickets....3 of the 20 showed up.) 

Morbid Angel 

Jeff Buckley 

Deicide 

Southern 

Culture On The Skids 

There are a ton more, but you get the idea. Why do you think, if these bands can't even break 100 people, you can make it worth the venues time to book you?'

That email is an eye-opener.  If you’re a band with original material, heed what it says and you’ll find you’ll get a lot more gigs.  If you’re a cover band, many of the same things apply but remember the big one - bring some people so the club can make money."

The email goes on for quite a bit longer and has lots of great information. There's actually an additional excerpt today over on my Big Picture music production blog today.

If you want to read more excerpts from How To Make Your Band Sound Great and other books, check out the excerpts page at bobbyowsinski.com.

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So You're Playing A Festival

I have a lot of friends that play festivals this time of year. Some of them play with major touring acts and others are on the lower rungs of touring, so they're only too happy for the chance to get in front of a lot of people.

One of the things I've noticed is that acts that are playing a festival in the support positions usually don't adequately take advantage of the situation though, and an article on the CD Baby DIY Musician blog goes into some detail on this.

While you can read the original post, I've excerpted a few points that caught my eye and included my own explanations.

• Provide a good publicity photo. It's hard to believe that many acts don't have a great photo for situations like this. You can read some other posts on photos on this blog about it, but the big thing is that you can't expect that you friend with an iPhone or a cheap DLSR camera is going to get the same results as a pro. Spend the money for a great photo; it's worth it, especially when it comes to the free publicity that you'll get from a festival.

• Provide a strong bio. Bios for artists and bands can be tough if they have no history. One thing that many artists do is focus on either the stars they've opened for, are friends with, have worked with, or know. While it might be okay to use this info in passing, the bio is supposed to be about you. These things may be a validation in your mind, but not to someone who's reading it. Find what's unique about yourself or your music as the focal point.

• Focus on how great you are live. Everyone knows that recordings are polished and may not be a true indication of how well you perform. That's why it's important to focus on how great you are live in a bio. After all, that's what the festival is all about.

• Actively promote your appearance. Playing a festival is a noteworthy achievement and is worth promoting, both to help you with other bookings, and to get your fans to the festival. It's always great to play in front of friendly faces, and your fans enthusiasm can be contagious. My friends in SNEW go as far as to take out targeted television ads to announce that they're playing a festival.

Playing a festival is a very cool thing. Make the most of it, by taking a little time to prepare beforehand.

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Just What The World Needs: An EDM Award Show

As if we don't have enough awards shows already, electronic dance music will soon be getting one of their own. The yet unnamed awards show will be produced by festival promotoer Insomniac and Dick Clark Productions and will be held in Las Vegas during Electric Daisy Carnival week next summer.

The show is apparently a backlash to the Grammy's nominating little known DJ Al Walser last year in the "Best Dance Single" category. Walser managed to game the system with a social media and email campaign directed at Grammy voters, and it worked, despite the fact that no one had heard of him before. It also revealed the lack of sophistication in EDM by the Grammy voters, which helped bring about the EDM industry's own set of awards.

This is a natural for Dick Clark Production, already a veteran of awards shows producing the Golden Globes and American Music Awards, but it also begs the question "Do we need another awards show?", especially one on television. These shows are already plenty boring, thanks to lots of lip synching, canned music, and productions designed to upstage the thing the shows are celebrating - the music. I can't image it can be much better with live or canned performances by DJs, who tend to come off even worse than musical artists on television.

This is another sign that EDM is going mainstream, of course, which is good for making money but bad for the creativity. The clock is now officially ticking until the world moves on to the next trend.

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From A Rock Star To Living In A Van Down By The River.

Here's my most recent post over on the Forbes blog about Sly Stone's legal problems and how his troubles relate to all musicians.

"We so revere our heros, especially the ones that helped us through our formative stages of youth. It’s difficult to imagine that anyone with a song played on the radio then or now is living anything less than the American dream of fame and fortune. After living in Los Angeles for more than half of my life and meeting many of my musical heros, I can tell you that perception is so far from the truth it’s laughable. Take the case of one the masters of 60s funkiness, Sly Stone."

To read more, go to Forbes.

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Twitter Tip: Clicktotweet.com

Twitter is a great promotional tool once you get the hang of it, and one of the cooler new tools for promotion is something called Clicktotweet.

It's a free service that gets people to share something that you want shared with very little effort on their part. The way it works is that you write the message that you want shared in the box on the site, click the "Generate" button to create a custom link, then simply share the link.

You can say something as simple as "Please share this link by clicking here" with the link, and you're done.

Clicktotweet is free, and even though it's in beta, it still works pretty well. And don't forget those hashtags!

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The Average iTunes Listener Spending Less

Last week Apple announced that it currently has 575 million iTunes accounts, each with a credit card on file. This is significant in that it's up from 100 million just 4 years ago in 2009. What it didn't say during this announcement is that the average yearly spend is significantly down.

In September 2009 the average iTunes user spent around $74 per year. Today that figure is down to around $40, according to a recent article in Billboard. If you do the math, that still comes out to a big payday of around $23 billion a year. Just to understand, this spend is for the entire iTunes store world-wide, including movies, videos, and books, not just music.

While the declines look ominous, keep in the mind that part of the reason is that iTunes has expanded into countries that are much poorer than the countries serviced previously, like Russia, India and Latin America. Also, there's some attrition from the early adopter countries like the US, South Korea and Germany, who've moved onto streaming while some of the world is only now becoming familiar with digital downloads.

Either way, if you look at the new addition of iTunes Radio to the already impressive lineup, streaming music is now about to take the next step into the everyday consciousness of the music listener, thanks to the huge installed user base of iTunes. And it's a user base that isn't afraid to spend money, even if it's less than before.

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Enter The Micro-License

One thing that music publishers aren't good at is making their songs available to anything less than major music business entities. If you're Paramount Pictures looking for a title song for a movie, you'll have no problem, but if you're an indie video maker trying to do the right thing and license a song for a video, you're out of luck. Not only are you probably stifled by the process, but you probably can't even easily find the song you want. Believe it or not, most publishers don't even have a publicly searchable index of their catalog.

The National Music Publishers Association and the RIAA are out to change that though, as they recently announced a move to institute "micro-licensing" platforms to make finding and licensing songs much easier. A micro-license is a new kind of business model that allows producers to use the Internet to find the songs they need and do the licensing deal online, without expensive attorneys or negotiations.

Right now most producers might just take a chance on using the music and waiting to see if a cease and desist letter pops up later, or on YouTube, a take-down notice. Let's face it, if it's for a wedding video, the chances of getting caught are pretty small, and if it's something distributed on YouTube, you have the option of either taking the video down or allowing commercials to be inserted in it if the copyright owner discovers you're using it illegally.

But if the process were streamlined, that's a great deal of fairly passive income that would flow into the hands of labels, artists, publishers and songwriters.

You have to look at this announcement in amazement and think, "What took them so long?" Of course, the truth is that for so long there was so much money in publishing that the revenue from micro-licensing seemed insignificant to most publishers. Those days are over though, as a new financial reality seeps into the business.

That can only be good for both artists and songwriters, who need all the revenue streams they can get these days, no matter how small. As we've seen from digital music distribution, it all adds up.

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MySpace Tries It Again

We've been hearing about it ever since Justin Timberlake bought in 2011, but the new MySpace is now out of beta and open to the general public. The company has a significant marketing war chest, with $20 million for both digital and television campaigns to raise awareness. If its first commercial (see below) is any indication of what that campaign will be like, it's in for a rough ride.

MySpace now has a nice clean modern look and feel and is keeping its legacy as a music streaming and discovery site alive by keeping that at the forefront of the site, rather than social networking. This may or may not be a mistake, only time will tell, as it remains to be seen just who its users will be.

I personally think the company made a big mistake by not taking advantage of the last Timberlake release in March. Piggybacking on the huge marketing effort would have brought much more awareness than the $20 mil they're about to spend. It's hard to believe that Timberlake didn't insist upon it back then. Yes, the service wasn't ready yet, but the fact of the matter was that it was already in beta, so it wasn't like there wasn't anything to show. Opportunity lost.

It's a much larger music world now than the first time around in 2003 for MySpace. Even with its current 25 million or so users, it has a very uphill climb as a result.

Check out the first commercial.

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The New Music Grammar Guide

Most industry pros now agree that metadata on digital tracks is way more important than the average artist realizes. After all, it's there to help listeners find your track, and to provide the digital equivalent of liner notes to the song. Now the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) have released a sort of "style guide" to help artists and labels alike avoid problems with all the meta data required on a digital track.

One of the problems is that poor meta data, which includes the title, can be a reason that a song isn't easily discovered, or even worse, rejected by a music distributor like iTunes (always known to be picky about these things).

So what are some of these rules? A big one is proper capitalization of a title, since some artists get a bit too clever for their own good. "In da House" and "It's fo; Realz" get good marks, according to the guide, despite the intentional misspellings. "Intentionally misspelled words must respect the same title casing rules" as those spelled normally, states the guide. Random capitalization (like "a TIMe to love") violates the guideline, however.

Another one is to not use ampersands (the "&" symbol) when two artists collaborate unless they are inseparable as an act (like Hootie & The Blowfish). Yet another is using an excessive description when identifying an artist (like "Jeff Beck (Guitarist)").

Perhaps the most egregious act is to randomly include the name of a superstar in the meta data of a track where he may not belong in order to sell more product. That's not a good idea on many levels, the least is the fact that the people it attracts probably will get angry when they're favorite star isn't actually involved of what they're listening to.

If you're going to be making digital music and you want to give it the best chance of being discovered, it's probably a good idea to take a look at the guide. Rules are made to be broken, but you have to know what they are first.

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Facebook Introduces Hashtags

In a sign that the company could be changing direction, Facebook announced that it will introduce clickable hashtags on the site. Most other social sites such as Twitter (the originator), Tumblr, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram have incorporated hashtags already. On the surface this may not seem to be such a big deal, but there's more to this announcement than meets the eye.

Up until now Facebook was all about the friends you know electronically banding together to share insights on their lives. It was intimate, and kept that way by the fact that in order to friend someone, both party's had to agree to it. Want to cut someone out of your Facebook life? Just unfriend him. Want to narrow the list of who could see certain posts? Put them on a list.

Hashtags change that dynamic by making whatever you post a broadcast to the world where someone can find your topic with the click of the keyword that your hashtag uses. This means that the emphasis of the network is gravitating more towards public conversation and interaction than private, a change that many already disgruntled Facebook users may not embrace.

It will be interesting to see if this leads to those disenchanted with FB to find another service. The only one that's presenting much of a challenge at the moment is Google+, and even though it also incorporates hashtags, it also provides more personal intercommunication with its Circles feature.

Facebook keeps on adapting, which you have to admire them for, but as far as many users are concerned, it's not always for the better. It still remains the 800 pound gorilla of social networking with over a billion active users, so the company isn't always be wrong. We'll see how hashtags play out in the coming months.

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