1. Ability to share high quality files, fast and cheap.

Trying to share those newly mastered tracks usually requires uploading them to file sharing services like Rapidshare, which can at times be a pain in the ass to wait to download. And unless you actually know how to set-up a torrent (not every musician is a techno-wiz), you have few other options. Upload your tracks to Reverb and copy/paste the download links for quick track sharing (and every download is tracked!)

Download Azeem “Don’t Quote Me”

2. Best Music Players. Period.

What do most bands do as soon as they have something for the world to listen to? They set up a MySpace page, because, that’s like the only place to stream music for free right? Wrong – ReverbNation has a ton of cool widget players that let you stream songs from anywhere on the ‘Net. And unlike MySpace’s crappy, bulky player, Reverb’s player streams in some of the highest quality sound found in a music player anywhere online.

3. Fan Contact Management

Are you still using the ole’ notebook to gather email addresses at shows, and firing off emails through Hotmail with a ridiculous looking copy and paste system? Get with the times if you really want to get the message across about that upcoming show – get an email solutions provider. And while the thought of that might seem daunting, ReverbNation let’s you set one up rather quickly and will have you sending out quality-looking emails that rival a major label’s efforts.

4. Widgets!

Yeah, we already mentioned the gnarly music players that you can copy and paste, but there’s a whole toolbox of different widgets you can paste into your website or MySpace page that offers all sorts of different content to your fans – touring schedule (complete with Yahoo Maps), Video widget, press widget, retail store links – pretty much anything you want to get across to someone stumbling over to your website.

5. Robust Stats

When an artist thinks of promotion, they’re used to thinking about making some cool posters and hanging them up all over town, getting their loser friends to come fill up space, and maybe getting a shout out on the local college radio station. Things is, you can’t track any of those things to see which worked better. With ReverbNation, all your actions using their different tools and services are tracked using big-boy web analytics that show you your progress, all in pretty charts and graphs that would get your hard-nosed businessman dad excited.

6. Be your own booking agent

With the ReverbNation GigFinder and RPK service, there’s no reason why you should have to play the same crappy bar night in and night out. Their database of thousands of venues across the land provide you with the ability to search within your area for places that book musical acts on a regular basis. Send them your RPK and let the venues check out your Reverb stats to decide if you’re the right fit or not.

7. Digital Distribution

Everyone and their mom uses iTunes and Rhapsody these days to discover and purchase new music, so how do you go about getting your own tunes on those services? If you don’t feel like filling out all the boring paperwork yourself, then you’re in luck – ReverbNation will do all the work for you for an annual fee, and provide you with stats much faster then some of the rival submission services.

8. Sell merch direct to fans

In addition to selling digital downloads directly from your ReverbNation account (through your profile or a Reverb Store widget), you can also set up an on-demand merch store through their partnership with Audiolife. Upload your custom art and images, set up pricing, and bam!, instant merch store with no overhead. You can even buy merch in bulk so you have some on hand to hawk at shows.

9. Artist resources

Need help setting up your Reverb profile? Looking for industry professionals to push your latest album release? Need health insurance? Reverb is constantly providing their members with information and guidance for all facets of a musicians career, holding their hands along the way to make sure they get the best opportunities available to boost their career.

10. Facebook Application

Whoa – what? Don’t I need to hire a $90 an hour programmer to build a Facebook app? Nah, son, ReverbNation has you covered. I know it seems I’m kissing their ass here a little, but when you factor in that their “My Band” app has over a million users (and it gets your tracks in front of your Facebook friend’s faces), it’s hard to not see how much that kicks ass.

11. Twitter integration

Being a musician is rough these days. Not only do you have the entire industry being turned upside down on its head with file sharing, labels dishing out less money to sign new talent, and a rush of so-called “musicians” to compete with, but you also have to keep in touch with your fans through new web fads like Twitter. Luckily, you can update your Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook status’ all at the same time through the ReverbNation control panel.

12. Hosted Banners

Most bands operate their Street Teams like this: email a bunch of friends some banners and ask them to post them to their MySpace pages. Who has the time to find a hosting service and to code that in their page? Cut out all the dirty work and provide you Street Team with the code already, and they’ll be much more inclined to just copy and paste it (plus it’s all tracked through the stats!)

13. Street Team Management

Speaking of street teams, actually MOTIVATING those supposed street teamers is a lot harder than you think it is. Why not try motivating them with a contest? Give away an autographed guitar to your top promoters, and track them all using the ReverbNation street team leaderboard. The one who does the most work will be noticed and given the top prize for his or her dedication.

14. Advertising Sharing and Opportunities

So yes, as most people believe, ReverbNation is also a social network with millions viewing their artists profiles every month. And yes, Reverb also runs ads on these pages just like any other network. What separates them from the competition? They split this ad revenue in HALF with each artist. Consider it extra beer money every month. Plus, they’ve been hooking artists up with some big advertisers for cross-promotions and plan on doing more in the near future.

15. Build your website for you

No need to understand HTML, use one of their hundreds of professional templates, and even get your own .com web address, all for a nominal monthly fee. Let’s be real, not every band is gonna be able to build their own site (even if I tell them how to a million times over). Dump the expensive flash site and update your site in a jiffy with their easy to use site builder tool.

16. Most of the shit is FREE!

That’s right – FREE! While some of the tools and services (site builder and RPK) do cost money, most are out of the box free to use. Some of the services (email and song storage) and free for new users who don’t need a ton of capabilities and can be upgraded at a later date to receive their full features. Their simply is no body else in the digital music space that offers as much value in their Free tools as ReverbNation does. If you’re not an artist using them, you’re probably a fool doing all the wrong things. And even if you’re not a musician, you should be visiting the site daily to discover new music (a lot of which is also FREE!)

Post from: Evolvor Media

16 Ways ReverbNation is Changing the Digital Music Landscape

Nirvana was at it’s peak when they headlined the legendary Reading Festival. Their major label debut had found it’s way into the homes of millions of fans. If their was any indication on how big Nevermind truly was, it would be that it even dethroned the King of Pop’s Dangerous earlier in the year.

The road to the Reading Festival was a bumpy one for the band. While Nevermind was riding high on the charts, Kurt Cobain was going through some growing pains.

For some reason he married Courtney Love. A few days before Reading, they gave birth to their only child Francis Bean. But overshadowing all of his personal and professional accomplishments, Kurt, as we all know, struggled with heroine.

Fans, critics, and even the other members of the band, were concerned that Nirvana’s headlining slot would be a disaster, due to Kurt’s addiction.

Playing on the rumors that the band was splitting and that Kurt had some serious health issues, Kurt was unforgettably wheeled onto the stage in a wheelchair. When he joined the band, their tore through their landmark performance.

For years the performance was talked about, hyped and bootlegged. It was something that fans had to have. This was Nirvana’s finest moment. I would like to think for our generation, that this was like when the Beatles conquered Shea Stadium.

17 years later fans can finally have a clean copy of the legendary performance, all in 5.1 surround, which was mixed from the original multitrack master tapes. Also, the 90 minute plus footage will contain previously unreleased clips of performances covering Nirvana’s entire catalog.

On November 3 you can snag a copy for yourself. Live at Reading will come in three formats. A limited edition CD/DVD combo, a DVD only version, or a lone CD configuration.

On November 17, 2009 a 2LP version will hit shelves for the die hard fans.

Live at Reading tracklisting:

1. Breed
2. Drain You
3. Aneurysm
4. School
5. Sliver
6. In Bloom
7. Come As You Are
8. Lithium
9. About A Girl
10. Tourette’s
11. Polly
12. Lounge Act
13. Smells Like Teen Spirit
14. On A Plain
15. Negative Creep
16. Been A Son
17. All Apologies
18. Blew
19. Dumb
20. Stay Away
21. Spank Thru
22. Love Buzz*
23. The Money Will Roll Right In (Fang cover)
24. D-7 (Wipers cover)
25. Territorial Pissings

* not included on CD

Post from: Evolvor Media

Nirvana’s Greatest Performace Finally Released

What is your Label doing to market your new album?

They’ve always been on top of the game as far as radio/internet go, and I know that they’re putting ads in the magazines of our genre. They also got us a $3.99 price for the album on the release date through Amazon, so make sure and buy it then!

How has the web changed the way you interact with your fans?

I just makes the world instantaneous. It allows us to communicate with fans, or fans to communicate with us in ways that we’d never have dreamed of when this band started. The main thing the web changed, and this is the part that I think affected the music industry the most… it made fans HUNGRY. Bands/labels are having to think of new and creative ways to keep their fans excited and interested.

What are your thoughts on file sharing and giving away music for free?

Sadly, bands still need record sales and numbers for labels to keep interest in them, and it’s the that labels pay for more albums to be made.. so, see where it’s slightly damaging? I think it’s fantastic what bands like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are doing with the free/donation type albums, but most bands still aren’t in the position to give away their music completely free. I’m all about getting music from friends, and even from time to time downloading a record, but I always go and buy what I like.

In what ways have you taken the Atreyu live experience and used that has a way to build a strong fanbase AWAY from the actual show?

We try to put everything we have into our shows, and I think that is apparent when you see us live. Our shows have become just a big group hang, less of us on the stage and more of just a bunch of friends in a venue/arena/parking lot hanging out together and enjoying music. That’s contagious and people spread the good word, next time more people come.

Have you done any kind of “behind the scenes” of the new album and in what ways are you promoting it?

Our good friends Tyler Trauman and Sean Stiegemeier were filming throughout most the recording process. We’ve been putting some webisodes online for the past few weeks but we wanted this to be different than the last few records behind the scenes. Maybe we’ll come out w/ a DVD w/ some sort of behind the scenes after school Atreyu special? Who knows…

Post from: Evolvor Media

Interview With Atreyu About Marketing the New Album Congreation of the Damned

The speech got a lot of hype because Genachowski used Bruce Springsteen titles to explain what was going on. But lost in the flood -see, I can do it too- of Boss references were a couple of very interesting points.

• Genachowski name dropped Merge Records, an indie label that hosts acts like Spoon and Arcade Fire, and their ability to use the internet to gain recognition, as opposed to, traditional means like the old FM dial.
• He also praised acts like R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Wilco, and OK Go for their public support of Net Neutrality.

I immediately thought that someone at the FCC finally connected the dots between the internet and music promotion. Suddenly, the FCC seems like the cool parent that buys you alcohol and not the overbearing parent that locked you in a room to shelter you from the naughty outside world.

Well it looks like that FCC wasn’t all talk when it comes to Net Neutrality.

The Feds are eying up procedures that would pave the way for regulations which will protect costumers from cable and phone companies from favoring/discriminating against certain sites. Providers have been known to intentionally block or slow down sites because they use large amounts of bandwidth.

Google, Facebook and Amazon are all supporters, while providers like AT&T are against it.

It makes sense that Google, YouTube, etc, would want Net Neutrality. It would allow them unrestricted access to networks, despite the amount of data coming through.

AT&T, on the other hand, would obviously lose some of it’s power over the net. They will obviously be lobbying against Net Neutrality, and because of that, the regulations sought by the FCC could be shot down by the money grubbing politicians.

The idea of having the Feds oversee Net Neutrality is really just common sense.

Without regulations AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, can do what they want. They sure aren’t going to regulate themselves. So, there’s only one person to handle the task. The feds.

One concern that will be addressed, which I think is erroneous, will be that the regulations should be applied to everyone, like Google, and not just providers, like AT&T. The thing is that they are completely different entities. Despite it’s size, Google isn’t controlling bandwidths, AT&T is.

Musicians and music fans should keep an eye out for what develops.

Net Neutrality is a big deal for the music biz, since it will allow unblocked streaming of songs and videos for fans to reach at full capabilities. I’m rather impressed that the FCC is one board and hope that this works out.

Post from: Evolvor Media

FCC Working on Net Neutrality Regulations

It was probably only a matter of time before Facebook and Google jumped on board the online music store bandwagon.

Facebook will be adding songs to it’s store, where users have a number of different sharing options. You can either pay a dime for a track, which will allow you to send it to friends, but they can only listen to it online, or pay ninety cents to send a copy that can be downloaded.

Google, in the meantime, looks like it’s going after iTunes.

They’ve teamed up with Lala and iLike, and possibly Imeem, for a project dubbed One Box.

The plan is that when you Google a song title, it will take you to the mentioned partner sites to stream it and then purchase the tracks.

The new Google music page will also feature musician news, pics, lyrics and videos opposed to sending you off to an artists site, YouTube, etc. Which is all a plot to keep people on Google longer.

One Box should be launched on October 28, so it could be worthwhile to check it out.

There’s also speculation that Google would be working on a music store modeled after iTunes, but since Google is a search provider and not a content provider, it seems like it a big no.

The Facebook idea is a pretty simple concept and I think it’s a great way to share music with your friends. But, will people shelve out any sort of cash, even if it’s only a dime, when they can send music for free?

The Google concept seems very intriguing. It could be a convenient way in finding everything you want from a band.

It sounds like a one stop music shop. But, I don’t like the idea that it’s just a ploy to keep you on Google. I can see some backlash with that idea. Besides, can anyone, even Google, really compete with Apple?

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Post from: Evolvor Media

Facebook and Google Offer Music Sales

Not so. Over the past few weeks, ReverbNation has added several new things into their artist “Resources” section of their control panel, including information about several well known music industry consulting groups for bands to contact should they want outside promotion.

And as of last Thursday, ReverbNation unveiled the free “Advanced Tips” training module for users to learn how to fully utilize their ReverbNation memberships.

The module was prepared by yours truly, and is also part of our Label 2.0 membership program. After using the ReverbNation console for over two years, I noticed there is just SO much that can be done with all the different (mostly free) ReverbNation tools and services that many bands don’t fully utilize.

For example, file sharing is a cinch with the ReverbNation music tools. Not only do you have the ability to embed widgets all across the web to offer downloads of your tracks, but you can easily just copy the link location of a track to send via email or IM. No need to use annoying file-sharing services or zip files.

It’s little tips and tricks like this that I feel are often overlooked but provide a ton of value to the indie musician. ReverbNation really is your one-stop shop for almost all of your digital marketing needs. Any band can use these tools and services to get their music in front of people, build their email list, and put together tours. Years ago it would have cost a TON of money and manpower to do what ReverbNation can provide, and I’m happy to provide you with the knowledge to know how to leverage everything in the proper way.

To start off, there are 8 chapters in the Advanced module, including the basics of getting started using ReverbNation, all the way through some advanced analysis of using the Widgets, Stats, and the Street Team features.

Every couple of weeks we will be updating the module with even more advanced stuff, including using some of the newer features like the Direct-to-Fan store and how to build the ultimate website using Wordpress and ReverbNation.

If you’re a current ReverbNation member, you can access this awesome and informative training module in your artist Control Panel; just look for the “Resources” tab and click “ReverbNation Advanced Tips”.

If you’re a Label 2.0 member, we hope you see the value in this partnership with one of the best digital music communities on the web, and hope that having them on board supporting us will see our membership grow with the right kind of musician mindset – those who are embracing the digital music age and learning how to take advantage of it. This module is the ONLY training module you’ll see outside of Label 2.0, and of course, only our members will have access to the user forums.

Post from: Evolvor Media

ReverbNation Teams Up With Label 2.0 to Provide Free Training to Indie Musicians

Even though the internet has opened the doors wide open, up until recently it still has been difficult for the non-tech-savvy musicians to sell their music directly to the fan – that is, without a middle man.

Unless your paid for a developer to have your website set up to configure the sales process and had a back-end area for fans to download purchase tracks, you had to rely on channels like iTunes to take care of the distribution process.

Of course, while iTunes is absolutely necessary to have your music available on because of their convenience and large user base, the profits you receive from them are split and gathering sales data (and getting your check) takes time. If you think about it, selling a digital file shouldn’t be that hard to do.

Luckily, services have popped up that offer the artist the ability to sell tracks directly from their websites and social networking pages with ease. Nimbit jumped on the scene a few months back, and recently ReverbNation announced a partnership with Audiolife to offer a similar service.

The Reverb Store is a customizable, re-brandable, ‘official store’ that empowers the Artist to create unlimited virtual t-shirts, CDs, Downloads, and Ringtones with no out-of-pocket expense, and to sell those goods on homepages, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs directly to their fans. In addition, Artists can order customized items for sale at their shows, at wholesale or bulk prices.

But the Reverb Store is more than just an e-commerce tool. Its integrated into the very DNA of the ReverbNation marketing and promotion platform so that Artists have the tools to drive potential customers to the stores.

Direct-to-Fan represents an important piece of the revenue puzzle, and ReverbNation and Audiolife have created the most powerful solution to date for Artists/Labels big and small.

Now, fans have a plethora of options to purchase music directly from the artist, and setting this system up is becoming easier to implement.

What does this mean for the artist? It means that musicians can now focus their marketing efforts on getting people to their website and taking advantage of those visitors by offering the album right there and then. One less hoop for the fan to jump through should see and increase in download sales, and because there’s no middleman, and increase in profits as well.

Post from: Evolvor Media

Direct-to-Fan Distribution Options Grow for the Indie Musican

The record deal that rapper Drake landed with Cash Money/Young Money/Universal is a great example of the seismic shift happening in the music industry. In his deal Drake retains the publishing rights to his songs and only pays 25% of his music sales to his labels as a “distribution fee.”

In essence, Drake hired his record labels to distribute and promote his music. As long as artists can find and connect with a fan base, engage that fan base on a regular basis, and feed that fan base with music and other products that they have expressed a desire to purchase, success in the indie music sector is limitless.

Digital mixtapes will explode in popularity and they will most likely crossover from primarily rap music to R&B, rock, and pop once everyone catches on to the immense marketing potential of mixtapes online.

The significance of free in music promotion isn’t going away so artists should seriously consider giving out free digital music as a prelude to their retail music offerings. Drake and Lil Wayne are two artists who can attest to the marketing power of distributing free mixtapes.

I advise indie artists to do as much research as possible about web 2.0 tools for marketing, fan engagement, and direct-to-fan sales. Using these tools in your career is the best way to leverage the Internet in building and monetizing a fan base.

Virtual live performance is likely to play a big role in the live music industry in the future. I would like to see more indie musicians take advantage of this arena. It will be interesting to watch the innovations that will unfold.

Here’s an insightful discussion forum comment from Michael that I agree with:

“The music industry will need to market the ‘music experience’. Live performances, licensing (advertising, performance, streaming, etc…), and merchandising (non-music products) will offer greater revenue opportunities.

The dollars saved on manufacturing can then be better spent marketing to specific customer niches. Narrowing the marketing efforts to more clearly defined (more receptive) market segments will be far more cost effective than chasing hits.”

Like Michael suggests, niche markets will be crucial. Massive mainstream success (think: the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears…) is going the way of the dodo bird. Music fans/consumers are splintering off into various niches with razor-sharp taste preferences. As a result, exploiting niche markets will soon become the norm in the music business.

In 2011, music licensing revenues will out-perform physical and digital retail sales and become one of the biggest sources of revenue in the music business. If you’ve never considered it before then now would be a good time to start thinking about becoming a music publisher. Publishing is where the money is, trust me.

What are your thoughts about the future of the music business?

About the author:

Dexter Bryant Jr. (d.BRYJ) is a dance/rock producer and electro-urban singer/songwriter. Dexter writes articles, reports, and e-books to educate entrepreneurs and indie musicians on music marketing, new media, and e-business. Dexter provides music business and marketing consulting services through DbryJ Music Media Group. Read Dexter’s music business blog The Hit Music Academy at http://hitmusicacademy.wordpress.com

Post from: Evolvor Media

The Music Business in 2011: Licensing to Take Over?

If you’re a regular reader here then you may have heard me mention them before, if not, here’s your chance to discover something new.

The Black Keys are a duo out of Akron, OH, who for obvious reasons, have been compared to the White Stripes, but are way more blues infused. They’ve pumped out six albums since their 2002 debut The Big Come Up and seem to always be on the road – I’ve seen them once and they were spectacular, in case you wanted to know. It was their last album (2008’s Attack & Release) that turned heads because it was produced by one Danger Mouse.

Now if you watch lots of HBO then you’ve heard their music before. “I’ll Be Your Man” is the opening music for the Thomas Jane show Hung. The track “Lies” was used in promos for Big Love. Their music has also been heard on Entourage and the boxing reality series 24/7: Pacquiao-Hatton.

OK, now that you know a little bit more about the Black Keys, I wanted to tell you about their new project entitled BlakRoc.

The 11 track album finds the band teaming up with some of the biggest names in R&B/Hip Hop. Names like Mos Def, Q-Tip, RZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard (I guess they used material he had already recorded), Raekwon, Ludacris, Pharoahe Monch, Jim Jones, NOE, Nicole Wray and Billy Danze.

The album was recorded in Brooklyn in just 11 days and will be released on November 27, aka, Black Friday.

Every Friday there will be new content uploaded on blacroc.com until the album is released.

There’s already some cool things on the site. There’s a trailer, a short and long, that gives you the jest of the album. There’s some behind the scenes video and photos, as well as, a little bio on each artist involved on the homepage.

This is a very interesting collaboration that I can’t wait to get my hands on. The Black Keys haven’t done any wrong in my book and are constantly testing the boundaries of rock ‘n’ roll.

I should also say that I dig the little gimmick of promoting the album. Having a band named the Black Keys releasing an album entitled BlakRok and releasing it on Black Friday and adding new content to the site every Friday is kinda tacky, but easy to remember.

Post from: Evolvor Media

BlakRoc Featuring: The Black Keys, Mos Def, QTip, Ludacris and More

It’s been a long time since Foo Fighters announced a greatest hits package. In fact, if I recall correctly, it was even before Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace was released two years ago.

It seemed that maybe the band was just talking with a hole in their mouth about such a thing, but alas, details, and a release date, have been confirmed.

The compilation will come in two editions, a standard and a deluxe.

The standard edition will include 13 classic Foo hits, as well as, two new tracks and the acoustic version of “Everlong”.

The deluxe package will come with the album, a 28 page booklet of photos and a DVD of the band’s videos and recent live performances. Which sounds exactly like the ones released by STP and RHCP way back in 2003.

The band seems to be playing it pretty safe with this release. Nothing that is really pushing the limits, like maybe a second disc of B-sides or unreleased goodies, which is also a tad cliche.

Even the simplistic title, Greatest Hits, is a little too timid for me. Couldn’t the band have chosen something more clever like Foo-out The Years, or even any appropriate song title like “All My Life,” “Times Like These,” or “Best of You” to dub the package.

But I digress.

Anywho, the band just released a fresh video for the new track “Wheels”.

It’s a mild video when compared to the comedic takes of “Big Me” or “Long Road To Ruin”. But it’s wonderfully shot and matches the track rather well. It was directed by Sam Brown, who previously directed “The Pretender”.

“Wheels” itself has a country-alt swang to it, that is a perfect match for the transition between summer and fall. While it will probably become a forgotten Foo track, something that would have been overlooked on an album, it’s still great to have some Fresh Fighters.

Look for Foo Fighters: Greatest Hits on November 3, which I hope is a ploy into fulfilling a label contract and not to make a quick buck.

Track-listing:

01 – All My Life
02 – Best Of You
03 – Everlong
04 – The Pretender
05 – My Hero
06 – Learn To Fly
07 – Times Like These
08 – Monkey Wrench
09 – Big Me
10 – Breakout
11 – Long Road To Ruin
12 – This is a Call
13 – Skin and Bones
14 – Wheels (new)
15 – Word Forward (new)
16 – Everlong (acoustic)

Post from: Evolvor Media

Foo Fighters Debut “Wheels” Video for Greatest Hits