“I promise to post blogs here, sharing some daily activities & the work I do to achieve my career goals, and especially, to give inspiration to all, whether you are – or are not – an artist yourself! And, when I do win that Grammy, YOU can say you followed me all the way! Enjoy, and SEIZE THE DAY!”

As I gather info on my European festivals campaign, I see how many of the summer festivals all over the world & even local summer music series are actually already booked now. I guess people who have been doing this a long time already knew this: “Book for your summer events in the previous fall & winter, and book for your fall & winter events in the previous winter & spring.” I am realizing that I am now looking at 2013 for lots of the festivals & concert series I am trying to get ABVC into. Wow. Some bands don’t even last more than a year.

I blogged about this over a year ago: A friend of mine was talking about his band falling apart, and he said to me, “Yeah, bands are only good for about two years anyway!” OMG… this is the wrong attitude!!! You’ll be lucky you get into a festival sometime in that first year!

My boyfriend works for a company that sells cutting edge equipment which helps to make pharmacies more efficient. He has been working for this company for over 2 years, knocking on these doors for over two years, and made very little sales in that first two years. But he has finally gained the trust of the people he has been calling on for two years, and is finally making real sales, finally making real progress selling products to big companies like Wal-Mart and Walgreens. It started with baby steps. The company sold one piece of equipment to one smaller store in the region, and in the meantime building relationships with companies all over the U.S. Then one day, two years later, BAM! The sales possibilities are literally endless. Is that how I need to look at the progress of ABVC “selling” what we have to offer? I am sure you know we’re not looking to play small clubs & dive bars for the next 10 years. So, is it possible to break into those big-time venues & festivals? Well, YES, provided your product is FANTASTIC, cutting edge, whatever you want to call it… it needs to stand out and be better than the rest.

Hence, the FIRST piece of the puzzle…….

My boyfriend’s company sells products that are superior to MUCH of what’s out there right now being used by pharmacies to improve workflow. They got the first part right.

Hone your skills. Here I echo Helen Hunt. When I had the opportunity to ask her for her one piece of advice for someone trying to make it as an actress, he said, “Study, study, and study more until you HATE it, and then study some more.” So I thank Hollywood Fred for cracking the whip on ABVC. His words: “Rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse some more.” I pray to God we stand out. (I think we sound tight.)

But even with superior product, you still have to give it a couple years. And you have to follow up and BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. My goal is to get on the radar screen of everyone I am targeting, so that they WILL book us, maybe not for 2012, but for 2013 and/or 2014.

See how far ahead I’m thinking? Does that seem ridiculous to you?

IMHO, one big reason why SO MANY bands never get anywhere is because they don’t give it enough time. Believe it or not, there seems to be a “6-month itch” for bands! If the band isn’t where they want to be, they get antsy and often this is when the band breaks up. Band members seek & find other “more promising” projects, and move on. Musicians, have YOU noticed this? I have. Every project that I’ve been in goes through it. 6 months! How the heck do you expect to do much of ANYTHING in 6 months. Baby steps. We have to remember how important those baby steps are. 2 YEARS worth of baby steps, perhaps!

Keep the Faith. Don’t give up. Set 1-Year and 2-Year Goals, and START WORKING on them. Knock on doors. If they don’t answer, knock again next week, or next month. Keep knocking until they say YES or NO. AND, if they say NO, knock again in 6 months with a new feature of your product. Maybe they’ll like your new feature. Either way, they’ll remember you, & if you were nice & respectful of them & their time & demands, they will give you another listen.

You’ll get what you want eventually. As long as you keep asking nice & offering something good, something they can use.

Also, ABVC is submitting for music festivals all over the U.S. & Europe! PLEASE “Like” ABVC on Facebook to help the band get into these festivals!

Help out also by visiting Wakarusa Festival’s Facebook page, “Like” this page, and post that you’d like to see Annie B & the Vagabond Company in the lineup this year!

Thanks for your support!

OMG, the plays on YouTube is freaking me out a little bit! Bugsy entered the 2nd Annie B. video he produced, “Over Me,” into a video contest and it went from under 3,000 views to over 15,000 in a week or less! Now our job is to get views for these videos in Europe. I found a list of European music video blogs and wish I had the time to start contacting those folks! I just posted for more interns for Annie B. Productions earlier this month.

Also had a nice long talk with Diana Lopez a few weeks ago and she gave me some great suggestions on our Europe campaign.

The Vox Concert Series last Friday was a great experience… The incredibly talented songbird Jackie Bristow flew up from Austin and we had a lot of fun hanging out all weekend, playing 3 shows together… The show at Best Place on Saturday night was a blast, and the show in Chicago on Sunday for the Chicago Acoustic Underground was also a lot of fun and I was happy with the HUGE turnout on a Sunday night!!! Lots of e-mails to add to my MailChimp list… I have been over 1,000 people on my fanlist for a few weeks now and that’s a good sign. I have heard more than once that the “magic number” you need in order to start seeing a good turnout at your shows is about 1,000. I can say that this seems to be correct.

The BIG job now is contacting all those European & US festivals that are in the database Carmen is working on… she seems to be making some pretty good headway quickly… Thanks, Carmen!!!

There were some videos taken for my shows this weekend and it’s ABOUT TIME I got some solo/acoustic videos up on the site! Enjoy!!!

Thanks again, David McGrath!!!!

You will learn a lot of the things Annie B has learned about the entertainment biz over a period of 19 years… instead of learning everything all on your own, you will benefit from this expertise and experience in order to move YOUR career forward faster than ever before!

Interested parties, please e-mail AnnieBBooking at gmail dot com with the following information:

1. What is your specific of interest? (visual art, music, artist marketing/promotions, acting, etc)
2. What is your experience in this area? (what have you done in this field so far?)
3. Are you available to commit to at least 6 hours/week during the following times: M-F 8am-7pm, and Saturday 10am-4pm? Can you commit up to 10 hours/week?
4. What time slots are you available from the above?
5. What are your career goals? (generally, like “making a living playing music” or “artist management”, etc)
6. Why would you make a good intern? (what are some qualities you possess that would make you an attractive candidate for this position?)
7. Do you have your own transportation?
8. Do you have a laptop that connects to WiFi? (This is a MUST.)
9. Do you know how many words per minute you can type? If yes, how many?
10. Would be able to commit to 6-10 hours/week for at least 3 months?
11. Are you looking for college credit? (College credit may be a possibility if we are able to set up a meeting with your academic department chair.)
12. Please include your name AND phone number!

Depending upon your performance, after 3-6 months, this position may turn into a paid position ($10/hour to start). Our location is in the (Northeast) Milwaukee area.

ALL ABOVE QUESTIONS MUST BE ANSWERED COMPLETELY. The best way to respond is to copy & paste the above into your email, and type in your answers right below each question.

We are unable to answer any questions about this position unless an e-mail is received from you with all the questions answered completely.

Again: Interested parties, please e-mail AnnieBBooking at gmail dot com with the above information!

Here’s a little commentary from Michael McGinley, WAMI President:
“Part of the wonderment of the Milwaukee Music Scene is how it continues to feature a robust talent pool that resists what seems to occur elsewhere — which is the rubbing off of resident styles on one another to a degree that the place is emblematic of a sound and vice-versa. Milwaukee has always been the kind of place where we see few reasons to be like anybody else including those closest to us. Today, amongst another generation of close-knit artists in our City is one, Annie B. who exemplifies the bandwidth of our artists and fans. She is doing it her way, and we are buying into her clever pop-hooks, deconstructed and made raw with what seems nearly a sense of disdain for the process of making music itself, and her lyrics that give us a delicious feeling of accidentally peeking into our best friend’s diary.”

WAMI is a volunteer organization whose purpose is to educate and recognize the achievements and accomplishments of individuals in the Wisconsin music industry. Since 1980, WAMI has worked to improve communication and interaction among members, present awards to honor and celebrate the accomplishments of the Wisconsin music industry, produce music industry/music business seminars and workshops, accumulate information for use within a comprehensive Wisconsin music industry directory, partner with other Wisconsin-based organizations with a shared mission, and encourage, promote and educate musicians.

ABVC is honored to be the January 2012 WAMI Featured Band! Thanks for having us, WAMI!!!

Bugsy [the videographer who taped & produced "You and Me (The Jennifer Song)" video] called me a few weeks ago telling me about this Christian network of over 3 million contacts. He said they gave him their list but there’s really no way to effectively utilize this huge list of contacts in any way that makes a lot of sense to me as this point. We don’t know how many of these e-mail addresses are outdated, and we have no contact manager to add to & e-mail everyone, without it costing lots of money. I wasn’t sure how to deal with this information, so I kind of decided that if he wanted to investigate further, he could, but I wouldn’t even know where to start, so I kind of dropped the idea of doing something with that contact list.

I called him a few days ago asking him about his contact in Florida who works to get U.S. bands over to Europe, and then he mentioned that The Jennifer Song has over 10,000 views. I have no idea how that happened, except it must be related to the fact that he does have over 5,000 subscribers on YouTube. I mentioned the 10,000 views to the girl in Florida, and she seemed impressed. According to the girl in FL, the thing to do now is try to get more views in Europe (vs. the U.S.) Not sure how to do that, but THIS is worth investigating.

Anyhow, any ideas anyone has about this, please contact me with your ideas (through the contact form on this website). I certainly have a few contacts in Europe, but not many.

Either way, your help is needed to make sure that number of views continues to increase, so please enjoy the video and SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

I found this interesting article about going viral. Granted it’s from 2 years ago, but I imagine things have not changed drastically since then… http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/webhead/2009/07/will_my_video_get_1_million_views_on_youtube.html

Thanks much and Happy Holidays!!!!!!!

Annie B.

Support for local bands here in Milwaukee is one of the really great things we have here that I am very thankful for. I’ve lived in & visited PLENTY of towns all over the U.S., and some of them do not have what we have here in Milwaukee… a great music scene with a lot of support from fans, venue owners, and GREAT radio stations like WMSE!!! Don’t forget, you can call WMSE anytime and request Annie B & the Vagabond Company, and the likelihood of the DJ playing one of our songs is great (depending upon the format of the show… for instance, don’t call when there is an old-school jazz show on the air!) Most of the afternoon programming on WMSE would fit our genre… call them at 414-799-1917 today!!!

So here is a BIG THANKS to all our fans & friends who have supported us in 2011!!!

ABVC was featured live on WMSE for our Oct. 14th CD Release Party, and we were very honored to be on the Local Live show! Here’s a message from WMSE asking for YOUR help to keep it alive for bands all over Milwaukee – Please help out with even a small donation today:

Hello all,

I just wanted to send out a reminder about WMSE’s “Keep Live Music on WMSE” Kickstarter campaign.

First of all, to all of you that have already donated, THANK YOU!!
To all those that have not yet donated, please consider doing what you can.

As I send this out there are only 13 days left to go and we have raised over $20,000 of the $30,000 goal.
Kickstarter is an all or nothing campaign. If we don’t reach the $30,000 goal by Dec. 22nd the project will NOT be funded and we will receive nothing.

Go to wmse.org for more information and to pledge your support today.
There are also some great businesses in town that have $1 and $5 pledge cards where you can also donate.
They will be there until Dec. 21st. Here is a list of those fine establishments:

Brewed Cafe
Comet
Honey Pie
McBobs
Club Garibaldi
Lo-Cash Live

Please do whatever you can and please pass the word.

Help WMSE Keep Live Music on WMSE!
Help Us Help Bands Move Forward!

Thank you so much for your continued support,

Billy Cicerelli
Recording Engineer/Producer
WMSE 91.7 FM Milwaukee

Yes, I got my invitation to the 54th Annual Grammy Awards (Feb. 12, 2012 in L.A.) in the mail today! The new ABVC CD Fancies of a Random Heart missed the deadline to make it into the preliminary ballot, but hopefully that means we can be on the preliminary ballot for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards!

Got some great news today about the January shows with Jackie Bristow: We should have some radio interviews surrounding these shows! Brian Sauer sent a message to Jackie last week about an interview for our Marshfield show, and Michael, the gent handling the tentative Chicago-Area house concert for Sunday Jan. 22nd, suggested we could have a radio interview. Pretty exciting!

The focus on original music opportunities continues to grow. Today, Jodie and I found a number of new SE WI venues to contact, and she talked to Matt over at Turner Hall, who “keeps Annie B in mind for upcoming dates.” I am hoping to open for a big national act or two in the next 6 months. I am feeling it, and so is Jodie. Let’s PUT THAT OUT THERE!!

We are now working with a new guitarist, Don, who is getting himself up to speed at quite the decent pace! Totally excited about that, and his attitude and energy is so very positive in a big way! We really put a lot of time into the new song Julie last night, and Don is bringing something pretty amazing to the table. It’s been a huge pleasure working with Daniel Nathan, but he is unable to commit (and he shouldn’t commit) due to the focus he needs to put on his own project, Well Informed Citizens. I only wish the very best for him…. he totally deserves all the success in the world! He’s the guy who first got me involved in the Academy when he invited me to their blues event over the summer.

This week looks pretty quiet overall. Still looking to fill those Thursday nights with work! A couple of my venues have been cancelling their Thursday night music due to the economy… UGH! Things were really steady there for several months and now it’s looking a little scary! No, Mom, don’t make me get a day job!!!!! Thinking about some creative ways to get work on these nights!!! Maybe I need to look at more out-of-town venues?

Keep smiling and creating your OWN rules!!!

Annie

Music Under Glass at the Mitchell Park Domes was totally fantastic, and I did the WAMI Fast Pitch event a few weeks ago and already got a decent cover gig for my cover band! I need to e-mail those contacts every week or so myself since I personally met them at this event. I also got into contact with folks from Chill on the Hill, State Fair, and Port Washington Fish Day – those are some great opportunities that I need to go after!

I guess I am feeling kind of lazy these days. It’s been such a busy and stressful year, and I still feel overwhelmed with everything even though we had such a great year. Now that the CD is out and we should be “done”, there is always a next step! Now we need to start contacting regional & festival booking agents, college booking agents, and I STILL want to get to Europe for a month in 2012.

I need to pick up the slack with the booking since Jodie is unable to commit to her 12 hours/week. Carmen is picking up some of her hours, but she can only do about 3 hours/week. I need to evaluate what is going on with the booking database and pinpoint more venues that will allow the original music to be the main focus. One third of my gigs need to be cover only and 2/3 should be “original-music-friendly” venues, even if I still play a lot of covers at those venues, I need to establish my original music around here as a force to be reckoned with. GB Leighton played at Shank Hall last night and I had no idea. Something is WRONG with this picture!

I am also focusing heavy on building up the ABVC mailing list. There is also a texting group thingy that I should investigate. Not sure if there is a monthly charge or if it’s worth it, but I need to check it out.

Mike and I are both sick today and I am just hoping to get more work done before the end of the night. Been working all day long but not sure on what? What did I accomplish today?

Milwaukee Artbeat stuff:
-updated website & FB page
-sent out a MailChimp*

Annie B & ABVC stuff:
-got a list of 5 or 6 venues in Appleton Area to contact
-website issues addressed (with Heather Acton)
-Jan 21st at Best Place is confirmed as of yesterday… Jackie Bristow sent me her info so I can start promotions
-FB activity, down to 94 friend requests* that I need to answer (UGH!)
-streamlining FB leads with a “lead capture” form being built by Heather

Why does that not seem like very much stuff for a day’s work? Probably because of all the “grunt work” involved in certain tasks… these have a “*” after them. One of my problems is that I don’t trust anyone do to my gruntwork. THAT is a huge problem. I have 2 options:

(1) I need to stop caring so much. That’s when I can trust others to do my gruntwork, because it WILL get done with errors if I let someone else do it. So I have to ask myself, what’s an acceptable rate of error?

(2) I have to automate as much of it as possible. Which costs money (like the lead capture form that I am having built). I need to start looking at list growth once the thing is built and decide if that was a good investment.

It’s no wonder artists supported by labels have such a huge edge over those who are not. All of the many time-consuming tasks being completed by the many components of the machine behind them are allowing them to focus on their music. For us indie artists, finding a balance of the creative side with the business side is difficult at best.

On that note, I’m going to get a snack & pet the kitty!