The Press Section Of Your Website

I'm constantly amazed at the number of brands (which includes artists and bands as well as companies) that don't have a proper "Press" section on their website that contains all the information that a journalist or blogger might need when writing a story. I speak from personal experience as a writer in that I'm always surprised with I can't find on a typical site, instead of what I can.

Many brands think that just having a list of press releases is enough, but they're sadly mistaken (especially when the releases are not well organized to begin with, which is so sadly typical). You have to make available anything about your brand that you think might be needed, no matter how mundane, because sometimes the smallest item can make the biggest difference in how the article is written.

I've talked a lot about the website press section in my books Music 3.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age and The Musician's Video Handbook, so here are some of the essential items that every website press section should have:

• High resolution color and black and white photos that can be used for print. Yes, print is dying, but it's still with us and can have a huge impact. You never know when you or your product will get a mention in a newspaper, magazine or book.

• Low resolution color photos and graphics for websites and blogs. A picture says a thousand words and you'd rather someone use one of yours on their blog or website than just supplying a link. Make it easy for them, but giving them a variety to choose from.

• Your logo. It's surprising how often this is overlooked, but it's just as important as your photos and other graphics.

• A biography. Maybe you have an "About Us" or "About Me" section on the website or blog, but a more complete bio, or even a link to it from the press section, makes finding background info about you, your band or company a lot easier for the writer. The easier it is, the more likely it will be used.

• Quotes from the media. Great quotes about you or your product are also big with writers, since it adds credibility. Limit the quotes to those that are unique though. 10 quotes that all say the same, "You're the greatest," have a lot less impact than one, but it's OK to use it if it says the same thing in a unique way.

• Links to any interviews. No need to have the entire interview on your site as a writer will probably not read it unless he needs some additional facts that he can't find anywhere else.

• Scans of just 3 or 4 of your best press clippings. Once again, less is more. 10 press clippings that say the same thing tends to actually diminish credibility. 3 or 4 seems about the right number to add to give the writer sufficient information.

• PDF of adverts, promo flyers and posters. This has a dual purpose in that its additional info for the writer but can also be used virally by fans. Many "superfans" will print these out and distribute in their area if asked (more on this in an upcoming post).

• Web ready graphics and banners in a variety of sizes. If you're doing any online campaigns (either advertising or fan-based viral), these can make it quite easy to be up and running in no time since everything is readily available.

• Press releases. These are only helpful for a writer if they contain enough background information on a subject so details are important. It's also easier for a writer if they're grouped by type (personnel, products, events, etc.) instead of by date.

It’s a fact that the easier you make it for a writer or an editor, the more likely you’ll get covered. Having these tools easily available will increase your chances of getting media coverage.

By the way, I don't believe in making this info only available to writers approved by management. Make it available to everyone as it can lead to unforeseen viral opportunities. Just keep it up to date (I know how difficult that is, but you've got to try), and your press section is good to go.

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8 Tips To Start Marketing On Google+

Google+ has become the hot new girl in school and everybody wants to be her friend. It's getting traction because it's a Google product, but only to a very small degree. Google has had other products die before (Google Video, Google Buzz, Google Wave) despite their reach, but this one is different. Something just feels so right about it that people seem to be flocking to something they really didn't want or need - another social network.

That being said, it's still too early to put up anything but a personal page, since Google has informed everyone that current artist, band or brand profiles will deleted when they introduce their official brand profiles sometime in the near future (take that as a warning - don't do it yet).

That being said, there's no time like the present to begin planning your Google+ marketing. PRNewser offered these 8 marketing tips. Some are a bit lame, but worth a quick read anyway.

1. Be prepared. Have your brand’s profile ready and put up as soon as permitted.

2. Update your content on various media sites. Google+ has a smoother design to integrate feeds from multiple sources, so review your content on YouTube, Twitter, and other social sites. It should be up-to-date and relevant.

3. Keep an open mind. It may seem like just another task on a lengthy to-do list, but Google+ can prove valuable in new ways. Don’t begin by thinking in the Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn mindset.

4. Take advantage of improved editing control. Facebook’s limited status editing, which only offers deletion, is expanded on Google+, to allow changes to updates once posted.

5. Get your brand’s name out there now while everyone is in love with the site. Once glitches or aggravations come about, the public will be loud and vocal about Google’s failings.

6. Make your name as a Google+ pioneer. Just as Ford Motor Company has been heralded as the first company on Google+, use early adoption as proof of your social media credibility.

7. Add rapidly to your circles. People who are using Google+ are spending a lot of time on the network to get better acquainted. Search for those you know, and don’t know, to follow.

8. Finally, enjoy the process. This tool is in its infancy, so use other’s mistakes to learn the best practices, and have fun while you are at it.

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An Instant Band Page With Onesheet

For a new artist or band, not only is it important to get your music together, but your online presence is equally important as well. If you have the dough you can hire a company to integrate all of your social media on to a new custom website, but that takes time. Most artists couldn't be bothered with programming their own site, and even if they could, that takes time as well. Time which could be better spent creating great music.

Now comes Onesheet, a site that can get your artist page up and running in literally only a couple of minutes. The brainchild of Artistdata founder Brenden Mulligan, Onesheet sucks in all of your social media data from services such as Songkick, Twitter, FanBridge, SoundCloud, Moontoast, Sonicbids, Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook and more and displays it on tabs on the page. You can then upload a picture as a background, then easily tweak the layout and info box to give you an instant band page. The best part about Onesheet is that once you set it up, you don’t need to update it because it’s  fed by your other social media sites. When you update them they update Onesheet to keep it up to date.

There are a couple of downsides that I see with the service, but they're minor considering the positives. First of all, your URL is a subdomain of Onesheet. In other words, it's "onesheet.com/yourname" instead of your own custom "myname.com" URL. The other is that the layouts are all the same except for the background image. Still, if you need something online right now, and I mean RIGHT NOW, this is the one service that will do it quickly and extremely easily. Oh, and it's free too, at least for now.

There's more info on Onesheet in the short video below.

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The Anatomy Of A Hit - Old School

Here's something I caught on Hypebot today. It's basically a promo piece for The Band Perry that was sent out by Universal Republic Records with the deceptive name "The Anatomy of a Hit Record." Now I can't say I've ever heard of the band (although they've had 3 hit singles and a 2x platinum album) but I don't keep on top of country music.

But that's the not the point. What this promo shows is how little has changed in the major label music world. Look at what they talk about - lots of radio adds, and Grammy and award show nominations. There's nothing here about social media except for the number of video views they received, of which most of them came from the label owned Vevo. Nothing about blogs, Twitter or Facebook followers, just more of the same thinking that major labels have had for 50 years. This could just as easily been sent out in 1979 as today.

The fact is that The Band Perry was a total inside job from the beginning as they were discovered by Garth Brooks management and immediately injected into the major label system. I wonder how much promotion money Universal spent on them buying all those radio adds?

Nothing against the band as I hope they have continued success, but you just hope to see at least some evidence of Music 3.0 thinking at a major label once in a while.

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Why No One Is Reading Your Newsletter

MicControl is one of my favorite blogs as it's always filled with useful articles to help musicians navigate the social world. A recent article posted by Brian Franke called "Why No One Is Reading Your Newsletter" especially caught my eye. Here are a few of the common mistakes that artists make with their newsletters that Brian listed.

• “Come to my show” is too Predictable: When I see an email from a musician, I know they’re a musician.  I’ve grown tired of emails that focus only on a bands shows–because I already know you’re going to play live somewhere.  There is more to your career and to YOU as an artist, so start sharing that.  It’s cool to announce an important show, but I get bored if all you talk about is where you’re playing and how great a show it will be and that you’d love to see me there.  It’s boring.  And I won’t go to your show.

• Newsletter is sent Sporadically or too often: Once I got a newsletter from a band I really enjoyed.  And then I didn’t get another update for a few months, at which point I sorta forgot who they were and actually didn’t know much about who they were as a band since so much time had passed.  Rarely do bands do the opposite in sending emails too often.  In both cases though, folks are likely to unsubscribe or to never read your newsletter because you’re either too in their faces or not in their face enough.

• WAAAAAAAYYYYY Too long: I have a good friend who goes on and on and on in his newsletter.  Time is your enemy in a newsletter–the longer it takes to read, the less one wants to read.  It’s not that your fans don’t care, it’s just that their time is short and they have other life things going on.  And if your newsletter is just all text, it isn’t visually appealing by the way.

• Gain their trust before selling anything: I’ve seen newsletters that read like a commercial every time asking folks to buy stuff.  If that’s all you do in your newsletter, it comes across as selfish or gives the perception that you just want someone’s money.

• The one-sided conversation: The best newsletters are the ones that ask the recipient to get involved. Ariel Hyatt calls this giving your fans a call to action.  Don’t just send a message, start a conversation!  If you don’t, you won’t know what people think of the newsletter.  I have some ideas at the bottom on what could work.

There's a lot more great advice in the article, which you can read in its entirety here.

Also, MicControl has just announced MicControl Consulting, and they're having their first webinar entitled "Get Your Music Featured On The Right Blogs" on August 2nd. You can register and get more info here.

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

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

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China's Baidu Makes A Music Deal We Can't Refuse

If you're an artist or songwriter who's not from China, the name Baidu probably doesn't mean anything to you, but it should. Baidu is the Google of China, being the dominant search engine in that part of the world with over 450 million users, and servicing more than 75% of Chinese users. It's also been one of the main sources for pirated content, just a part of the haven for illegal content that China has become during just about all of the digital music age.

That could be changing soon, because as China becomes more and more sophisticated business-wise, it's finally also becoming a lot more sensitive to intellectual property rights as well. Nowhere is this more apparent than on Tuesday when Baidu announced a major licensing deal with Universal Music Group, the Warner Music Group and Sony BMG, which would allow Chinese Web users to finally legally download and stream hundreds of thousands of songs free.

According to the New York Times, "Under the two-year deal between Baidu and One-Stop China, the three music labels will license over 500,000 songs, about 10 percent of them in Mandarin and Cantonese, which will be stored on Baidu’s servers and available for free streaming and download on the site’s ad-supported MP3 search page and social music platform, Ting."

How much will artists and songwriters actually see from this deal? Probably not much right now, but it does set in motion at least another income stream for the future. Music 3.0 means that even though the major sources of income are smaller, there are more of them, and any new ones, however small, are found money nonetheless. 

Read the full text of the NYT article here.

Music Subscription Faceoff

Thanks to Ken Rutkowski for pointing out this infographic from Mashable that provides the best overview yet of the current music subscription services. Expect these numbers to be quite different in six months if the initial buzz from Spotify continues to carry on though. It shouldn't take long before they're the new king of the hill.

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Why Free Is So Misunderstood

Every musician wants to be paid for their "art," and there's an understandable reluctance to give it away, regardless if it's being pirated or not. Sometimes giving it away is one of the best marketing tools you have at your disposal though, even though it might seem counter-intuitive. We see a form of this every day in supermarkets and department stores with "loss leaders" at prices below cost to get customers in the door to buy products at regular price.

One of the basic tenants of Music 3.0 is a business theory called “The Economics of Free” (or EoF). In M3.0, EoF encourages content owners to give some of their products away for free because, if done correctly, you can increase your market size greatly. This theory is very misunderstood, since there's more to it than simply giving your music away though. In this excerpt from Music 3.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age, you can see how and why EoF works.
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"You, the artist, have two types of products: infinite products and scarce products. Infinite products would be your music, especially in digital form. Physical products like CDs don’t fit in here, because it actually costs you money to produce them (the CDs, not the music on them). Digital music is easy to copy and steal, and just as easy to give away.

Scarce products are tickets to live shows, access to musicians, signed merchandise, backstage passes, private concerts, custom CDs, CD box sets, time spent with you, writing a song for a fan willing to pay for it, and anything else that has a limited supply.

So to take advantage of the Economics of Free, the artist must do the following:

1. Set the infinite products (or just some of them) free. Put them on a Torrent site, Facebook, YouTube, and anywhere you can. The more you get it out there, the greater the publicity and the wider the visibility. This makes the scarce products more valuable.


2. Because of the free infinite products, you can now charge more for the scarce products. Before Number 1 is implemented, access to the artist or backstage passes might not be worth anything, but now they are. Before Number 1, maybe no one wanted your CDs or vinyl albums, but now they’re valuable as a collector’s item, as are the box sets.

Setting your infinite products (your music) free expands your tribe. As your tribe expands, the demand for your scarce products grows. In M3.0, an artist that sticks to the ways of M1.0 through 2.5 will be relegated to a small audience forever."

For additional excerpts from this book and others, check out my website.

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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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6 Tips For Marketing To Teens

A recent REELSEO article about marketing to teens posted that they discovered a number of items that I think we all already intrinsically knew already. In fact, you can say that marketing to teens isn't all that different from anyone else, except that each point is a bit more extreme than with adults. Here's what they found.


1) Teenagers love video and they especially love to share it with their friends. Always make sure that there are sharing buttons right next to the video for Facebook, Twitter, email, even video messaging for smartphones. The difference between a video with a couple hundred thousand views and a video that spreads like wildfire with a hundred million views depends upon how sharable it is. Presenting the viewer with easy, immediate ways of sharing will make it even more probable that it will spread quicker and wider.

2) Humor is the most important factor when trying to catch the attention of teens. They love videos that are funny, original, memorable, or spoofs riding on the coattails of other popular content. If it’s hilarious, it’s more likely to be shared between peers than any other type of video.

3) Gossip and spreading things like wildfire, social networking, communicating, and watching online videos is what teens do best. Throw the right video to the right crowd in the right place, and the rest is history.

4) Teens can be watching and talking about your video, but only for a short period of time. How short? Maybe days, but maybe only hours, so don't plan for a long campaign. It's best to have a follow up plan for when the viewing stops.

5) Put a lot of thought into the keywords in the title of your videos. Teens are very responsive to keywords, as well as the very first few words in the title and the paragraph. The first sentence of descriptive text around the video makes them want to read the rest of the paragraph.

6) Teens find new platforms first. Many teens are now getting formspring accounts, and 27% of formspring’s users are under the age of 21 according to Quantcast.  The network currently has over 25 million accounts and 3.5 million unique visitors every day, even though the site is only 18 months old! The average user spends over 11 minutes on the site and answers 10 questions per day, so it’s not only getting a lot of views, but lots of engagement. The best way to take advantage of formspring is by holding Q&A sessions about your brand, music, or products, then pointing them to videos for community review.

Keeping these tips in mind can guarantee an instant viral success with teens, but it sure can help.

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Where Are The Most Concerts?

A new survey by the ticket search company Seat Geek has revealed some very interesting information regarding where concerts are being held in the United States this summer.

As you can see from the chart:

1) Las Vegas is now the mecca of concerts, which is no surprise, followed by Washington DC and Missouri, which are both huge surprises.

2) The South has the least concerts per capita while the NorthEast has the most, but more surprising is that California is one of the those states with a lesser concert density than others.

3) To bad if you live in Alaska. There are no concerts scheduled there this summer!

Now what qualifies as a concert hasn't been specified, but it seems to be major touring acts. Nonetheless, doesn't it seem like some markets are under-served here? It seems to me that artists, managers, agents and promoters are leaving some money on the table here.

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A Comparison Of Social Media Networks

Valleyarm, a digital distributor based in Australia and serving the Pacific Rim, posted an interesting comparison of social media services the other day. Here's what they think are the advantages and disadvantages of the major ones. You can see a few others when you read the article.

Facebook Artist Pages

• Details:
  • Facebook artist pages contain a whole plethora of information about your band – your songs, your tour history, your contact details etc. You’re also provided with a wall that allows your fans to chat not only to you but to one another as well.
• Advantages:
  • Facebook is incredibly popular. It allows direct contact with fans in a medium that they’re extremely comfortable using. People can comment and interact with you very easily allowing greater fan penetration.
  • Clean interface that provides all the information that music professionals and fans could want to know about you.
  • All of your shows can be created as Facebook events making people more likely to come.
  • Interfaces well with other social media platforms, which allows you to access your fans across many mediums easily.
  • Can augment your page with tabs – customisable ‘pages’ within your artist page – which allows you a reasonable degree of customization. Tabs are often used to allow fans to listen to your music directly from your Facebook page.
• Disadvantages:
  • Facebook doesn’t allow you to upload music directly, you have to either embed your music (via Soundcloud or similar) or use a tab like that provided by Reverbnation.
  • You can’t directly message your fans, though you can post status updates that will show up in their newsfeed.
  • It’s nowhere near as customisable as an individual page, though it does cover most of the functions you’d require from a band website.
  • Facebook is blocked in some countries, reducing your penetration overseas.
• How to:
  • Go to www.facebook.com and click ‘create a page’ in the bottom right hand corner, just beneath ‘sign up’.

YouTube

• Details:
  • YouTube allows you to upload video (and audio) clips for fans to access, share and comment on.
• Advantages:
  • YouTube is insanely popular.
  • Is a one-stop-shop for people to view all of your official videos, music and information as well as unofficial (fan) videos.
  • It is one of the best places to view video and will usually be the first result in search engines or the first port of call for people looking for footage of your band.
  • Allows you to interact with your fans directly (via replying to comments they may make on your clips) and to also reach fans of similar bands by commenting on their videos – indirectly linking them back to your music.
• Disadvantages:
  • If you want to upload audio you’ll have to pair it with a video clip, whether that’s an actual clip or a static image. Doing so isn’t difficult but requires slightly more work than just uploading an MP3.
  • Many viewers of YouTube are passive in that they don’t have an account, which means you can’t easily interact with them. This is slowly changing as YouTube now allows you to log in with your Google account.

Myspace

• Details:
  • Myspace is the original social networking site that spurred the entire social media age. It allows bands to upload and stream media, display bios and gig information as well as interact with fans.
• Advantages:
  • They have an active chart system and emphasis on music promotion – they review and try to expose unsigned bands.
  • Instant recognition – Myspace is still a household name even though people are leaving in droves.
  • Can customise pages pretty heavily in order to present a cohesive band image – though this can be both a blessing and a curse. Many people make horrible customisations that are either insulting to the senses or slow the entire thing to a crawl – which discourages people from going to Myspace at all.
• Disadvantages:
  • Audio quality is poor. Myspace reduce the quality in order to make music stream faster, but given that almost everyone has broadband these days there is no point in taking the significant quality hit.
  • Rapidly decreasing user count. Few people use it anymore, especially for social networking – which means that you’ll find it hard to connect with your fans except in a passive ‘here is our music’ way. The whole reason anyone uses social media in the first place is to create stronger connections with fans – so it’s really a waste of time. 

Twitter

• Details:
  • Twitter is a service that allows you to send short 140 character messages (tweets) as broadcasts. Anybody who ‘follows’ you on Twitter sees those messages and can reply using their own tweets directed at you (and others simultaneously if they wish). You can also use your messages to send links, such as to a press release or album download.
• Advantages:
  • Is very fast and succinct which allows you to communicate with your followers in a rapid way without overburdening them with information. Is basically like text messaging en masse.
  • Can interact with other Tweeters easily – your replies are seen by anyone looking at their Twitter page – which is a great way to get your voice heard over a large area.
  • You can also follow all your favourite bands, magazines and blogs in order to receive up to date information and links.
  • Best used as part of a larger social media effort – fulfils a specific role – of complementing and reinforcing your other social media.
  • Very good for doing personal little updates at gigs/rehearsal/studios etc. to keep your fans engaged.
• Disadvantages:
  • Only a small volume of information can be communicated at any one time – which is the point. It is a niche medium that is best used as a strategic reinforcer to your other efforts.

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

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

Check out my Big Picture blog for daily discussion of music, recording, and production tips and tricks.

The Pitfalls Of Social Media For Musicians

While this blog and a lot of others try to show artists, musicians and bands how to use social media to their advantage, there's a number of big downsides as well:

1) It takes a fair amount of skill and a well-thought out strategy to use social media for promotion and branding.

2) The amount of time it takes can be just too much as it takes away from the time normally spent on creating.

John Mayer has come up with another one though; the Twitter mentality actually caused him to be unable to write songs.

JM just gave a terrific lecture at Berklee (you can read about it here - it's worth it) where he stated:

"You’re coming up with 140-character zingers, and the song is still 4 minutes long. I realized about a year ago that I couldn’t have a complete thought anymore. And I was a tweetaholic. I had four million twitter followers, and I was always writing on it. And I stopped using Twitter as an outlet and I started using Twitter as the instrument to riff on, and it started to make my mind smaller and smaller and smaller. And I couldn’t write a song.”

That's what happens when you get caught up in the personal aspects of social media. It becomes an obsession and it's no longer a tool for promotion. You've got to keep social media in perspective. If you're promoting yourself and your music, you've got to keep your interaction via social media mostly professional. Sure, you can let your guard down occasionally and get personal, and your fans will love you for it. But there's a limit, and JM never knew what that was. All you had to do was follow him for a short time to see that (or read his Playboy interview).

Remember, your online presence is more than just Twitter or Facebook. It's your blog (if you have one), your mailing list, your YouTube channel and your website (and shortly Google+). Yes, it takes a lot of work to keep it all in play. Yes, you should get some help if you feel overwhelmed. No, you shouldn't spend more time on one aspect or network instead of the others. Otherwise you'll wind up just like John Mayer.

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

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

Check out my Big Picture blog for daily discussion of music, recording, and production tips and tricks.