Music 3.0 - The Blog Behind The Book

Brands And Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:30:00 +0000

As I've posted here before, your brand is important is to your success as an artist. So what is a brand exactly? It's a combination of your image and your sound. Stray too far from either and you lose your brand identity.

Assuming that you maintain your brand integrity, here are few interesting facts from Atym Marketing Reseach about how social media plays into building that brand.

29% of Twitter users follow a brand.

39% have tweeted about a brand.

29% have retweeted about a brand.

58% of Facebook users have liked a brand.

42% have mentioned a brand in a status update.

41% have shared a link, video or story about a brand.

66% of people who have liked a brand have 100 or more Facebook friends.

84% are active daily.

How do your followers prefer to be communicated with?

32% prefer to get short updates from the brand they follow.

27% prefer emails.

5% prefer blogs or press releases.

5% videos

1% audio podcasts.

The point of the stats above is that people who like brands are very active on social media and greatly influence others. That's why social media should always be a main part of your overall marketing strategy.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

5 Questions To Ask Your Fanbase

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:05:00 +0000

In Music 3.0, your fanbase is a living, breathing thing that needs your attention not only in order to grow, but to keep from dissipating. Marketing guru Seth Godin calls your core fans your "tribe," which needs a leader to keep the group active. The leader can either be the artist himself, someone designated by the artist, or even someone very vocal within the group. Either way, it's the leader's job to constantly check the pulse of the tribe to keep it healthy. Here's an excerpt from the Music 3.0 Guidebook that explains that process, as well as 5 things to ask your fans to gauge their interest.
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"The leader must constantly check the pulse of the tribe to hear what the members are feeling and thinking. This can be helpful in determining just what the tribe likes and dislikes about you and your music. Maybe there’s a direction that you briefly touched upon on your last record that drove the tribe wild, or maybe one that they hated? You might choose to follow your musical instincts instead of listening to tribal feedback, but at least you won’t be surprised by the resulting reaction.

Taking the tribe’s pulse also lifts the mood of its members, since interaction with the leader is always appreciated and results in more participation. Showing your appreciation for their participation fosters even greater loyalty and participation and gets them invested emotionally and intellectually.

So how do you take the tribe’s pulse? You ask them questions or ask them to help you. For instance, you can:

1. Ask them which piece of merch they prefer.

2. Ask them about the best venues in their area, why they like them, and if they’d prefer to see you there.

3. Ask them what song they’d love to hear you cover.

4. Ask them who their favorite artists are (this answer is great for other elements of social marketing as well).

5. Ask them to judge the artwork on your next release. Then, when they respond, reward them. Give a free T-shirt to the first ten people who respond. Send them a secret link to download a track that’s available only to them. Give a personal shout out to some of the best responses.

All of the above makes them feel special and great about belonging, and keeps the interest in the tribe high."

You can read more excerpts from Music 3.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age, or my other books at bobbyowsinski.com.

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

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

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Entertainment Sky Is Rising

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:30:00 +0000

If you read this blog with any kind of regularity, you know that I'm one who is quite optimistic about the entertainment business, and the music business in particular. You hear a lot of doom and gloom and rather bold "sky is falling" statements in the media, but most of them are from the old guard of the business who's business is under attack.

It's quite true that things are different fiscally than they've ever been before, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. All it means is that the entertainment world as we know it is morphing, shifting and evolving to a new model. If you're part of the old school, the last thing you want is this change because things were so comfortable as they were, but it's too late - we're in the middle of something completely new. It's Music 3.0.

Here's a great inforgraphic from Techdirt by way of the great Hypebot blog that explains how the entertainment sky is rising rather than falling.

You can find a nice presentation of the full report over at Hypbot.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Royalty And Fee Sources For Songwriters

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Here's a great post from the Songtrust blog that comes by way of Ariel Hyatt's Cyber PR. It lists 30 possible sources of income for songwriters. Here are just two of the categories:

Performance Royalties

1. TV (royalties are paid by the TV station for the broadcast of a show, film or commercial with your music on it. This is not to be confused with the actual placement of your songs in TV, film or commercials which is a sync royalty.)

2. Radio

3. Live venues

4. Restaurants

5. Bars

6. Movie theaters

7. Elevator music services

8. Supermarkets

9. Clothing stores

10. Gyms

11. When your music is sampled

12. Jukebox

Mechanical Royalties

13. Ringtones / ringbacks

14. Recorded cover songs

15. Record sales

16. Film soundtracks

17. Karaoke recordings

18. Greeting cards

You can see the other 3 categories of songwriter income by going directly to the article on the Songtrust blog.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Fun Twitter Facts

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Here are some fun Twitter facts that go to show just how powerful the platform has become, and it's future potential. The stats come from Mashable and cover to the end of 2011.

81% of users follow less than 100 people

42.3% of users are between 30 and 49.

47% of Twitter users have children.

30% have an annual household income of over $100,000.

Males are most likely to use Twitter for work-related research and news.

Females are most likely to use Twitter to keep in touch with friends and post status updates.

1 billion tweets post every 5 days.

5 percent of the users create 75% of the content.

20% of Twitter accounts are empty and unused.

Tweets on Hurricane Irene outnumbered the war in Libya by 36 to 1.

The 10 most followed Twitter accounts are mainstream celebrities. They are:

1. Lady Gaga - 13.8 million followers

2. Justin Beiber - 12.9 million

3. Barack Obama - 10.3 million

4. Katy Perry - 10.1 million

5. Kim Kardashian - 10 million

6. Britney Spears - 9.7 million

7. Shakira - 8.7 million

8. Taylor Swift - 8.1 million

9. Ashton Kutcher - 7.7 million

10. Rhianna - 7.6 million

As you can see, Twitter is a platform that's still growing and can be an extremely powerful promotional tool. Overlook it at your own social peril.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Rise Of The QR Code

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

QR Codes have slowly but surely become a hot item to increase fan engagement for many artists, bands, brands and companies these days, as their use in every day marketing continues to rise. If you don't know what QR code is, take a look on the left to see an example (it's from Starbucks).

So what is it? The Quick Response (or QR for short) code is actually a 2D matrix bar code capable of storing up to 4,296 alphanumeric or 7,089 numeric characters. It can be thought of as a physical, analog hyperlink, since if you scan it with an app in your phone, it will take you to a web page on your browser.

The QR code was created in 1994 by the Denso Wave company in Japan as a means for tracking vehicle parts during manufacturing. It worked especially well at this function because a code can be detected and read at high speed, and although the popular use embeds a URL link, it's still used in a variety of rather mundane industrial tracking applications.

Okay, ready for some interesting QR code stats from JumpScan.com? How about:

52% of people say they've seen or head about QR codes, and 28% have actually scanned one.

57% of Facebook and Twitter users say they've scanned a QR code in the past year, and 40% say they've done so at least 5 times.

Of the people who regularly scan codes, 68% are Apple users, 26% Android and 4% Blackberry.

Starbucks are starting to use QR codes for payment.

Top brands like Ford, Audi, Pepsi, Ralph Lauren, McDonald's and Best Buy already use QR codes in their advertising.

Many authors are including QR codes in their books to take readers to updates and extras (something I'll be doing in the future myself).

So how do you get started? If you're a user, go online or to one of the app stores and download a free QR code scanner (I like Bee Tagg). The next time you see a code, give it a scan and it will automatically take you to a website on your browser. As long as you get a good scan (actually you're just taking a temporary picture with your phone camera and the app is translating the code), you're in business.

If you'd like to begin to use QR codes in your promotion, there are a variety of code generators available online. You can go here to see 14 of them, and get lots of useful code info as well. Also check out my previous posts, 10 Ways Musicians Can Use QR Codes and 5 Big QR Code Mistakes, for some additional ideas and tips on their use.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Science Of Email Timing

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

As I've posted here many times before, your email list is one of the most powerful marketing tools that an artist or band (or a business or brand) can have. Recently some data courtesy of Dan Zarrella and Pure360 have shown that there is a definite science behind the timing of sending your emails. Remember that all times are Eastern Standard Time.

Before sending an email, consider:
6AM to 10AM: The second most prevalent email opening time is at the the beginning of the working day.

10AM to Noon: Consumers are not opening marketing emails, choosing instead to focus on work.

Noon to 2PM: Consumers are unlikely to open emails during their lunch break, choosing instead to spend their time on news and magazine alerts.

2PM to 3PM: Right after lunch consumers remain focused on work, responding mostly to email offers related to financial services.

3PM to 5PM: Consumers start thinking about their personal situation and as a result, more emails relating to property and financial services are opened during this time period than any other.

5PM to 7PM: Consumers tend to open business to business (B2B) promotions during this period, but also open more holiday-type promotions during this period than any other.

7PM to 10PM: The time period when recipients are most likely to respond to consumer promotions is when they get off work.

10PM to 6AM: This is an email dead zone, as most sent during this period are ineffective.

Here are a few other timing issues to consider:

Bounce rates are highest in the morning.

Open rates are highest during the weekend by 45%.

Open rates are 53% higher in the morning.

Click rates are 10% higher on the weekend and early morning.

The most effective sending frequency is 1 to 4 per month.

Conversely, the unsubscribe rate is higher at 1 to 4 per month, but levels off at 8 to 31 per month.

The highest unsubscription rate occurs among those who have been subscribers for less than 10 days.

The highest click-through-rate (CTR) is with those who have been subscribers for less than 10 days.

To sum things up, don't send those promotional emails out without first thinking about the timing. It could mean the difference between your finds reading it or not.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

A Look At Digital Piracy

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Here's an infographic from WebpageFX that uses RIAA and IFPI info to look at the state of digital music piracy since 2004.

Let's face it, if we use figures from industry sources then the piracy numbers are always going to be inflated. I've seen stats that say that for every one digital download purchased, at least 20 are pirated, but that seems way beyond the realm of reason. Piracy has always been a fact of life to the music business, even as far back as the late 60's when consumer reel to reel tape machines first came on the market. The major labels figured that they were losing about 20% to piracy then, and I don't see any reason why that figure should be higher than that today. That said, as we approach widespread adoption of subscription music, look for that figure to drop like a rock. Why illegally download when you can get whatever you want so easily?

This infographic actually makes the case that digital sales are up because of piracy, and you can easily make a case that that's true. As I say multiple times in my Music 3.0 book, "your music is your marketing." The more exposure it has, the more likely people are to buy it.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

What Is Pinterest?

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

You may have heard about a new social site called Pinterest, which has exploded from 1.2 million to 4 million users in about 6 months. Pinterest is a place to organize and share online images that you find interesting. Once they're uploaded or shared on Pinterest, these images become known as Pins, which the user can place on customized themed Boards, which can be for any topic imaginable, from cats to classic cars to cats driving classic cars.

While most people will use this for their main topic of interest, artists and bands might use it as a place for fans to pin pictures of a tour, or for behind-the-scenes pictures when in the studio, or as a place to gather artwork for an album.

Pinning is easy with the official Pin It Button, which is a simple drag-and-drop browser extension. When you come across an image you like, just click the button and select the corresponding picture, then assign the pin to a Board and add some identifying text. If the Pin is something you want to buy, include the price in the description and it will attach to the Pin for easy reference. You can also take a picture with your iPhone and add it to your Boards with the mobile app (there's no Android support yet).

The social part of Pinterest is that you can share pins on Facebook to help expand your network, and you can check out the Popular button to see what pins are trending at the moment, which is a way to find new content or Pinners who share your interests. Share a Pin with another Pinner by using an @mention in the description, just like you do on other social sites and they’ll get an email to let them know they’ve been mentioned. While most Pins are photos, you can also pin videos by hitting the Videos button at the top of the page, which allows you to see all the available videos as well.

One of the problems with Pinterest is that it's currently not open to everyone so you have to be invited. You can sign up on their website, or get an invite to someone who's already a Pinner. Either way, Pinterest looks like it might be the next hot social network.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Center Of Your Online Universe

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Here's another excerpt from the 2nd edition of my Music 3.0 book, this time about how to keep your online life from overwhelming you, as well as making it more efficient as well. This is called "social media management," and is a big part of the book, but you can get the general concept from this excerpt
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"So many areas of social media require attention that it can get a bit overwhelming at times, and that’s when you need a social-media management strategy.

A common mistake that artists who manage their own social-media assets make is to have too many focal points (like YouTube, their Website, their blog, Twitter, and Reverb Nation, for example) all residing in different places and requiring separate updates. You can imagine how tough it is to keep every one of those sites updated regularly! Worse is the fact that it’s confusing for the fan, who just wants a single place to visit. Yet another problem is that you may be collecting email addresses from each site and they may all be going on different mailing lists.

The solution is to use one site (usually your Website) as a your main focal site and use that to feed daily updates and info to all the others via RSS or social-media broadcast tools like Dijit (dijit.com) or Ping (ping.fm). This means that you only need to do the work of updating a single site, with all the others getting updated at the same time.

The second component of this management strategy would be to have all of your satellite sites (blog, Facebook, and so on) designed in such a way to feed your social media viewers into your website (see the graphic on the left). At a bare minimum, the email registration of each satellite site should feed into the same list as your main site.

At some point social-media management gets too complex for the artist to maintain, and third-party help is needed. This is usually a good thing, since you’ve progressed to a point that things are so massive that you need help. Furthermore, a company that specializes in social-media management can keep you current with new tools and techniques that you might not be aware of. Even when outside help arrives, remember that you are still the one that drives the bus. Be sure to take part in all strategy discussions, but leave the actual facilitation to the company you’ve hired.

So to summarize, here are 6 ways that you can keep your online life from getting too complicated.

1. Keep a single site as your main focal point.

2. Feed all your updates from your main site via RSS or social media broadcast apps.

3. Develop your satellite sites so they all feed viewers into your main site.

4. Email list subscribers from all sites should go to same master list.

5. Get 3^rd party help when you get overwhelmed.

6. Keep driving the bus!"

To read additional excerpts from Music 3.0 and my other books, visit bobbyowsinski.com.

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

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

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

6 Ways To Increase Your Facebook Fan Engagement

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Carl Jacobson, Nimbit's Vice President of Marketing, recently posted some great advice about how to increase your Facebook fan engagement. Nimbit's new MyStore for Facebook lets you capture the fan's information, reward them, and makes it easy to sell them music, merch, and tickets, but you still have to have a strategy to go with any tool that you use.

"IDEA 1 - Be Ready to Sell Today!

When is the best time to make a sale? When a fan is excited.
When is a fan excited? When they discover your music.
Where's the best place to make a sale? Exactly where your fan is when they are excited.

That means you've got to be ready NOW to make a sale from your Facebook page. You can't rely on fans going somewhere else to find your music, and the last thing you want to do is ask them to go somewhere else.

IDEA 2 - Engage...Don't Advertise

When you see updates like the following on Facebook, you tune out…right? Your fans will too.

"BUY MY NEW ALBUM!"

Try asking questions instead:

"Hey everyone, we just put up our new album. We're trying to decide on the next single. Please a listen and leave a comment about your favorite tracks. [link to your album on your store]"

The key to success with your fans on Facebook is all about engagement. And asking questions, or asking for their support is one of the best ways to do that.
The example above is a soft sell, and has additional promotional benefits:

You're inviting people to share their opinions
You're asking them to try before they buy
They'll see they can purchase the album or other items in your store
When they leave a comment/review, it will appear on their friends' newsfeeds making more people aware of your music.
Earlier this year, Forbes reported that people were much more likely to buy after online recommendations from friends.

IDEA 3 - The Virtual High-Five
Any time a fan leaves a comment like this, or any comment for that matter, it's important to be responsive. At the very least "Like" their comment. If it's warranted, make sure you respond. And lastly, if it's particularly great, share their comment with a thank you / shout out on your wall. This is the online equivalent of a high-five from the stage. A like, response, thank you, or shout out is a subtle way to reward your fans. When they see a status update from you, they'll be thrilled, they may even share it again.

IDEA 4 - Reward Fans Then Ask Them to Reward Their Friends
Free tracks are a great way to reward your fans, and they aren't really "free" when you capture the fan's information, or get them to Share it with their friends, which increases your reach by hitting all of their friends Facebook Tickers.

Once you capture the fan's info, you can then build the relationship. Many times, they'll later reciprocate with a purchase or by attending a live show. In a recent Nimbit promotion, Suzanne Vega teased her fans with a free download, and later found that 61% who later made a purchase also received that free download.

Don't you love turning a friend onto a really amazing artist or song? Your fans do too. So when you give that free track away, always ask your fans to share it with their friends. You can either set the song's price to Free or use a promo code that people will need to redeem.
Here's how to get started:

Start by sharing a song from your store. It's as easy as clicking the share button next to a track in your Nimbit store.

When you send it, include a personal message like this:

Hey everyone, I'm pretty excited about this new track, and I'd like you to check it out. Take a listen. If you like it, get it for free by clicking the link. If you really like it, click Share to also send it to your friends.

We've seen a few artists using this approach and when they have an established and active fanbase, it spreads like wildfire.

IDEA 5 - Advertise Yourself to Fans of Similar Artists
Once you have your Musician/Band page set up, Facebook makes it incredibly easy and affordable to create an ad that's perfectly targeted to your demographic. I know, you're a songwriter, not an advertising agent, but this is a lot easier than you think.

The steps are fairly straightforward, but here are some key tips for you to consider.

To reach the right people, type in names of similar artists in the "Precise Interests" field. That will target your ad to people who entered that artist as music they listen to. Completely original? Then enter your influences.
Pick a geographic region that makes sense. If you're a touring musician, only select the areas you play or want to play.
Start Small - Set your daily budget low, Select Pay for Clicks (not impressions), and set your Bid way below what they select. If you set a low bid, you'll pick up ads on off hours, or when other campaigns end.
Fine Tune your ad as you go along. Set it up, check back to see how it's doing, then change your settings to see if you can increase your reach

IDEA 6 - Get Creative
These are just a few ideas of how you can engage your fans and increase your sales and promotion on Facebook. There are as many ways to succeed with your fans on Facebook as there are songwriters signed to ASCAP (maybe more). So find your voice, and try things out. The nice thing about the Facebook, is if you try one promotion, and it doesn't work you can quickly switch to another."

These are great ideas, and something that you should consider, since Facebook is one of the most powerful social media tools at your disposal.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

How To Pick The Right Band Name

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Here's a great article from Mashable about ideas for that perfect company name. Okay, we're not talking company here, but the principles are the same when it comes to a band, so I've changed some of the language to better reflect the music business.

"1. Set the tone. Your band name sets the tone for all that follows. What’s the first thing you want a fan to think in regard to your band? The tone of your name can be playful or academic, edgy or professional. Just make sure it reflects what your band is and what you want it to be in the future.

2. Simple is strong. A powerful name is easy to spell, pronounce and remember. After all, what good is word-of-mouth if your fan tells a friend, “You really should check this band out. I think their name begins with an A…”

3. Do not use initials! We all know the business landscape has an affinity for acronyms, but try to avoid using initials for your band name. A random collection of letters doesn’t inspire an emotional connection. And you can run into legal and branding headaches by juggling two different business names (the initials and the name spelled out).

4. Watch out for language pitfalls. A word in English may have a negative meaning in another language or culture. And enthusiastic bandmates can be blind to awkward puns and double entendres. The best way to avoid creating an embarrassing or damaging brand situation is to test your name on your target audiences; they may see something you missed.

5. Give any new name time to sink in. It can take some time for a new name to feel right, and you may need to use your name for several months before it starts to feel natural. This is particularly true when a name is off the beaten path, which is often the case for some the industry’s most memorable and impactful names. Just imagine the initial reaction to the name “Google” or "LMFAO." That said, a strong product can overcome a potentially ill-conceived name.

6. Don’t finalize too soon. The most important lesson is not to get too attached to any one name during the brainstorming process. When inspiration strikes, it’s all too tempting to start envisioning your logo, web design, album artwork, etc. But you’ve got to make sure that perfect name is legally available for you to use — no one wants to be on the wrong end of a trademark dispute."

By the way, if you're still stuck for a name, try the following band name generators here and here.

You can read the entire article with a business slant 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.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Social Media Tips From The Roxy In Hollywood

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

The Roxy Theater on Hollywood's famed Sunset Strip has long been a prime venue for acts of all sizes and genres, regardless of their level of success. But like so many other venues, it met with some challenges during the tough years of the financial crisis. Owner Nic Adler decided to turn to social networking to breathe some new live into the club, and did so with resounding success.

Lydia Dishma interviewed Nic Adler for Fast Company and he revealed his tips for using social media. I found this part of the interview on the ever excellent Hypebot blog.

(1) Be Early To Be Influential

"It is this land grab that's happening. If you are on early you can move your base. By the time it becomes an awesome network to be on, you are already at 20K followers."

(2) Keep Moving

"If you miss a beat they've passed you by, so be everywhere. That is why we find ourselves in so many different networks. If we were just on Myspace we'd only be talking to a small group. If we spread out we have a better opportunity to reach more people."

(3) Forget Search. Discover

"I go on Pinterest without anything in mind, I'm just looking and discovering in this different mode...So say you are a business and you have this idea to find the best 20 beers, so you ask your fans. Then you build a new board of your followers' favorite beers and turn around and tweet that out. Your fans are then going to a place where all their ideas are visually placed with links."

(4) Be Generous

"It's about watching that feed and seeing someone tweet, 'Hey I'm broke but I wish I could go to that show,' and I'll turn around and say, 'Hey you are on the list plus one.'...It's better than a contest. It's not something we do every day but the response is amazing."

(5) Be Authentic

"Being authentic and organic are the two biggest things we talk about at The Roxy. It's about a slow build and being honest, and if we are wrong we are honest about that, too. When we are wrong and we make it right, those are almost the most important marketing moments we have at The Roxy."

(6) Change The Way You Think About ROI

"For us, Facebook is more about communication and awareness than trying to get people in the door. People use Facebook as this tool for selling, but more of our content is about music, food, TV...More than 50% of fans might not ever come to The Roxy but we all have this interest in music and pop culture in common."

As with all social media promotion, what works for The Roxy might not work for you, but then again it just might. Especially take note of #6. Too many times we try to measure our promotion by the amount of sales, but sometimes it's more about communication to your fanbase that's important.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

What Do Artists Earn Online?

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Okay, ready to have your mind blown? Here's an infographic that describes just how much you have to sell to earn the US monthly minimum wage of $1,160. On the right is the percentage of sale that you actually make. The graphic comes from informationisbeautiful.net.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Ins And Outs Of House Concerts

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

House concerts are gaining popularity as a legitimate way to tour, but there's a lot more to it than just singing some songs in a friends home. Although I've been to a number of house concerts, I wasn't aware of just how sophisticated this whole scene has become. Fran Snyder, the founder of ConcertsInYourHome.com, DinnerAndSong.com, and ListeningRoomNetwork.com, recently wrote a great post that includes just about everything you'd want to know about playing or hosting a house concert. Here are a couple of excerpts.

"Different Formats

There are different formats available for house concerts, and each can be tailored not only to the needs of the artist, but to the tastes and comfort level of the host. Using the different options like DinnerAndSong is a great way to introduce new people to hosting, and to create opportunities during the week.

Traditional Format - two, 40-minute sets, preceded by meet and greet and/or potluck. 20-50 guests or more.
Dinner And Song - 8-10 guests, 35-minute, simple dinner with artist, 35-minute unplugged performance.
Dessert And Song - 10-20 guests, 15-minute dessert and meet and greet, followed by 40-minute concert.
Breakfast And Song - 10-30 guests, 30-minute buffet-style breakfast/brunch, 35-minute concert."

"How To Find House Concert Hosts

#1 Resource? Your Fans - Even the most experienced and in-demand artists will tell you that a growing fanbase is the best resource to book house concerts. Consistently provide your fans with the inspiration and tools they need to help you fill the gaps in your tour.
Search engines - The challenge with search engine results for house concerts, is that those who show up in the results are typically hosts with a long reputation for hosting great shows. This gives you a list of hosts who are least likely to have available dates in the next 12 months, and are unlikely to book an artist they don't know.
Facebook/Myspace - Cumbersome to connect to house concerts this way, but people do it all the time.
Other sites include: http://houseconcerthub.ning.com (europe), http://houseconcertsaustralia.ning.com, http://www.houseconcerts.us"

Check out Fran's post as it has the most comprehensive info on house concerts I've ever seen.

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More People Own TVs Than Cellphones

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

It's been estimated that out of the 7 billion people on this planet, 2 billion of them own cell phones. But in the US, the cell phone still is not as popular as the one common object statistically found in every household - the television.

According to Nielsen, 290 million Americans in 114.7 million households own at least one TV. If you compare that with the 234 million cellphone owners, the 211 million Americans who are online, and the 116 million (ages 13 and up) who surf the mobile web, television is still the medium of choice for most people of all ages.

Want some more stats? Nearly one-third (35.9 million) of TV-owning households have four or more televisions (wow!), and only 17.5 million households have exactly one television.

So what do these figures mean? First of all, cellphones are still a growth market. We keep hearing that mobile is the future, and it surely is for audio, picture and the Internet. There may come a time when most of our consumption may be on handheld devices, but that time is not now. Of course, if the new OLED televisions as thin as wallpaper come down in price, all bets are off.

But more than anything, these statistics tell us that television is still the major media consumption device in our lives, bar none. Sure, it's losing it's power to other devices, but that's because we're becoming a multi-device culture. But don't underestimate the TV's power, because it's still there and will continue flexing its muscles for a long time.

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Music Business Is Not Dying

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

As all the various research and trade organizations begin releasing their 2011 sales figures, a number of them have jumped out for perfectly defining the state of the music industry today. Check this out:

US album sales were up 1.3% last year, the first year since 2005 that's happened. 66% of these sales were CDs.

There were 249 million albums sold in the US last year. People will tell you that the music industry is dying, but 249 million of anything is still a huge number.

75% of all CD sales were made offline. That means that people physically purchased the CD at a brick and mortar store or an event.

40% of all CD buyers are over the age of 45, which means that the demo that mostly grew up with CDs are the ones still buying them.

Vinyl sales increased 37 percent in 2011, but only accounted for 1.2 percent of all physical sales. That doesn't mean that people who buy vinyl actually listen to it. Just like the old days, many still buy it for the cover and the artwork, and the trendiness (which is new).

Rock is the most popular genre of music, with 32 percent album share, while pop music represents 40 percent of all current digital tracks sold. Ninety-three of the 100 best selling vinyl albums in 2011 fall within the Rock or Alternative genres. I guess that means that the hip-hop and rap trend has run it's course.

People who live in New York or LA buy more country records than those who live in Nashville by almost 2 to 1. Having just come from a speaking tour in Nashville, I can tell you first-hand that it's a very cosmopolitan music town, with country no longer the major part of the industry as it once was. That said, country music represents 13% of the total album sales.

Digital country music sales are up 31% over last year. While it might have been true that country music lovers were slow to get into digital music, that's obviously no longer the case.

Acts that perform at halftime during the Superbowl get an average sales bump of 555%. Critics may pan them and you might hate them, but you still buy them.

All these numbers (which mostly come from Nielsen Soundscan and the IFPI) show that the music business is still huge, is still extremely diverse, and is still as quirky as ever. It is changing, morphing, shifting, and evolving, but it is not dying.

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Square Expands It's Features

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Square has been mentioned on this blog many times before and with good reason. It's a disruptive force in the financial business and a boon to concert merchandisers everywhere. If you're not yet familiar with Square, it's a way of doing financial transactions (like accepting credit cards) without using a traditional bank and paying their transaction fees. Square provides you with a credit card reader that attaches to your iPhone or iPad which makes these transactions a snap, especially on the road.

The Square card reader is already available at Apple stores, Wal-mark, Best Buy, Radio Shack and Target, and soon at OfficeMax and UPS stores, for only $9.99, but each purchaser can redeem a $10 credit to their bank account, so it really costs you nothing. Over a million merchants already use Square, which is impressive because there are only 8 million merchants that accept credit cards in the United States in the first place.

This year Square is rolling out new features like adding in-depth merchant analytics to its iPad experience, allowing merchants to access information about which inventory is selling well, and what they can do to help make more money. Square is also trying to upgrade the experience of running a business on just an iPad with their new iPad app Square Register, which is designed to be a point of sale replacement for cash registers and terminals.

While all that's cool for artists and bands trying to make a buck out there on the road, a new feature might be even better for consumers. Card Case, which is a virtual wallet that consumers fill with the info of all the merchants they visit and buy from who accept Square. These mobile cards include locations, merchant contact info, coupons, order and purchase history and more. Users can also use Card Case to ‘pay with their name’ and even enable hands-free payments. That means that the purchasing experience is easier than ever, which is something that everyone likes.

So if you're about to do some shows and want to sell some merch, check out Square. It's a service that you can't do without.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

CDs Still Dominate Album Sales

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Here's something that might take you by surprise. According to Nielsen Soundscan, more than two-thirds of all albums purchased in the US in 2011 were physical CDs. That means that out of a total of 330.6 million albums sold during the year, 223.5 million of them were discs, or 67.6 percent.
That said, a few days ago the UK's BPI stated that 76.1 percent of all albums purchased last year were CDs, so they're still somewhat behind on the digital transition.

Want some good news about music sales? In the US, album unit sales were actually up by 1.3 percent last year, while the sales of CDs slumped 5.7 percent. Digital albums also gained a healthy 19.5 percent to reach a record 103.1 million units. But the big winner was vinyl, which was up by 36.3 percent to nearly 4 million units. Will 2012 show the same results?

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The State Of Music In Gaming

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Gaming was a huge new source of income for the music business a few years ago, but it seems like the Rock Band and Guitar Hero fads are now long past. That said, a number of new opportunities will soon be available in gaming, as you'll see in this interview excerpt with Thom Kozik. The interview comes from the 2nd edition of Music 3.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age.

"A seasoned tech-industry executive of more than 25 years, Thom Kozik has spent most of that time on the gaming side of the tech industry, having served as president of gaming search engines Wazap and All-Seeing Eye (which he sold to Yahoo in 2004), before he became director of business development for Yahoo’s Media group, then Executive Vice President of Online Gaming at Atari. He is now president of Nüko Games.

What’s changed in gaming in the last couple of years?
There are two big things that have changed; the explosion of online gaming in the Western markets (predominantly driven through Facebook), and the music games that we were talking about two years ago have sunsetted with the change in appetite among gamers.

As far as console games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, there’s a feeling by video game publishers that they’ve milked that cow as far as they could and can no longer sell tracks endlessly into those franchises. They haven’t turned them off completely and there’s still an effort to continue to sell into their installed base, but we’re not going to see another Beatle’s Rock Band on the horizon. The economics just aren’t there.

For an artist who wants to produce for this space, I think there’s actually more opportunity than there was a couple of years ago. Back then the focus was on the music games, but the publishers really didn’t worry about new music at all. They just wanted old back catalog to throw into the channel.

Now browser-based and mobile gaming (which I still consider to be online gaming) is where the action is. The truth is that the biggest growth area is based around games that depend upon and live via an online connection. In mobile games in particular, most of the early games in this area were self-contained experiences where titles like Angry Birds and Doodle Jump had the audio assets for the entire experience, along with all other elements, in the download package that the consumer purchased from an App Store. That’s shifting quickly to games like Infinity Blade, which uses a traditional console gaming engine and has taken the iPhone and iPad markets by storm. No one expected to see a game of this breadth and quality on a mobile device. It wasn’t because of the limitation of the device, but more about the nature of the product being released by the game developers. What’s most important about a game like Infinity Blade and those that are going to follow is that they’re structurally more like console games in that different levels load dynamically as the player progresses. What’s important for musicians is that there’s a need for more soundtracks and audio assets as the publishers continue to sell and ship those new levels to players. This trend in mobile gaming is much bigger than the equivalent of “map packs” that publishers put out for console and PC games in years past.

From a creative standpoint, now you have a few leading indicators of what can really be done on these mobile platforms. We’re opening up a really cool opportunity for the composer, artist or publisher to do the same kind of grand scoring and creative expression of music on a mobile device that they would have done on a console as recently as a couple of years ago. That’s a big opportunity.

On the browser game side, one of the things that we’re going to see is that the game developers and studios have had their eyes opened to what can be done in a web browser, so the games are getting much bigger in scope. What’s important is that in the Angry Birds or Doodle Jump world, the ability to create a score or the amount of music available in the game is fairly limited. Contrast that to the kind of games we’re used to seeing on consoles or PCs or massive multiplayer games like World Of Warcraft. The music is epic -- it’s a lot more than some catchy loops.

It’s soon going to be easier to have great epic scores on mobile games than on the browser because of the nature of the way that a browser talks to the Internet. There is technology out there that can make it easier on a browser, but it will be a question of how smart the game developers are with this."

You can read more from this and my other books at bobbyowsinski.com.

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

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

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Website Performance Metrics

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

One of the things about Music 3.0 is that we can finally measure exactly what the buzz is. Here's a way to interpret your Google Analytics data to see just how successful you website really is. Thanks to Hubspot for the definitions.

1. Unique Visitors - That's the total number of individual visitors to your site during a specific period of time, not counting repeat visits by the same individual. Obviously, if this number continues to increase, you're doing well.

2. New versus Repeat Visitors - This is a comparison of your unique visitors vs. the number of visitors who came back more than once. Although it's great to have repeat visitors (and you really need them), a rate higher than 30% means that you're probably not growing your audience quickly enough.

3. Traffic Sources - This is a breakdown of the specific sources of traffic to your website. There are two - Organic traffic comes from a link found on a search engine results page. Referral traffic comes from a link on another website. This tells you how well your search engine optimization is doing. A referral level of about 30% is what you're looking for.

4. Referring URLs - This is the specific, non-search engine URLs that send traffic directly to your site. They represent the inbound links that are crucial for boosting your site’s search engine rankings and tells you which sites or bloggers are linking to your site and what type of content they tend to like.

5. Most/Least Popular Pages - This is a comparison of the pages on your site that receive the most and least traffic that tells you which kind of content your visitors prefers.

6. Conversion Rate - This is the percentage of visitors to your site who take a desired action, such as purchasing a product or filling out a lead generation form. This tells you how well you're converting leads into fans or customers.

7. Bounce Rate - This is the percentage of new visitors who leave your site almost immediately after arriving, with no other interactions. A high bounce rate means that your visitors don't find your pages particularly compelling.

Interpreting the above metrics should give you some idea of just how well your site is performing. Hubspot has a bit more on all of these points, plus a few more, if you're interested.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Optimizing Video For Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

ReelSEO recently posted a video called "5 Tips For Optimizing Video For Mobile Users" that had a number of good points. I'm going to save you the 6 minutes it takes to watch it by giving you the tips below.

As my recent post about mobile video engagement indicated, viewers watch videos a lot longer than they do on their desktops. In order to maintain their attention, take note of the following:

1. Avoid using tiny text. Make sure any text you use is readable on any screen that the video might be viewed on.

2. Make sure the audio is clear. Great audio is always a plus, but even more so when viewing on a phone. Remember that the speakers are small, so you're not going to hear a lot of bass, but that's okay as long as everything is intelligible. Also remember that there's lots of ambient noise so make sure the audio is able to cut through it.

3. Make sure to include links in the video description. A video without links to your site is an opportunity wasted. You want them to continue as a fan, so be sure it's easy for them by including a link.

4. Use lots of close-ups. Close-up shots work great on small screens - wide shots don't.

5. Test the video on your own phone before you upload it. What good is it if it doesn't get the point across? The only way that you'll know for sure is if you test it.

Good tips to keep in mind the next time you make a video. Remember that it's more than likely that a great number of your viewers will be watching on their phone. You can watch the entire clip on ReelSEO.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

3 Features Of Google+ Especially For Artists

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Many Facebook users are still doubters about Google+, but the network is growing like a weed so if you're an artist or a band, you just can't ignore it any more. While Facebook still dwarfs it by a factor of 10, remember that it was only introduced 6 months ago, and at the rate Plus is growing, it won't take long for it to catch up. As a matter of fact, estimates that just came out today that expect it to grow to 400 million users by the end of 2012, which is about half of that of Facebook in only 18 months (it took Facebook 4 years to get to Plus's current numbers).

That said, Cyber PR maven Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity wrote an excellent article on Music Think Tank about why Google+ is now a must for any band or artist. Here's an excerpt.

"The Band Page
This is the quintessential feature that you all must be familiar with. A Google + Band Page is a page that you can make, just like a Facebook Fan Page, that caters directly to musicians.

It is crucial that you sign up for a band page as soon as possible so that you can solidify the URL and Band Page name to remain consistent with the rest of your social presence. This process is very simple:
Once you sign up for a Google + account, you will see a link to ‘create a page ’ on the right side bar towards the bottom of your profile.
From here, all you need to do is select the ‘Arts, Entertainment and Sports’ option and create the page!

It is truly that easy and will make a HUGE difference in your overall online visibility. Of course, you want to make sure you complete your Google + Band Page with a Bio, Hi-Res pictures of yourself or your band. Unfortunately at this point in time, Google+ Band Pages still don’t have a way for you to upload music directly to the page, so you’ll want to use this page primarily to engage your fans.

Circles

Google +’s Circles are THE core function of the website and is how Google + positioned itself as a unique competitor in the social networking market.

As far as you need to be concerned, Circles are really just lists. See, Google + functions similarly to Twitter in that you can simply follow anyone you’d like without needing their approval by adding them to a Circle. The Benefit of this is that you can create separate Circles for all of the different people and resources that you need to stay on top of. Here are a few types of Circles that I suggest you create:

Venues

Similar Bands

Fans (create a new circle for each major market or region where your fans exist. Great for upcoming show!)

Blogs that you follow

Music Industry Resources

So what is Google Hangout? Simply put, Google +’s hangouts is a free and easy to use video conferencing service similar to Skype (actually, Facebook’s introduction of Skype video chatting was a response to Google +’s introduction of Hangouts). The reason this service is so important for emerging musicians is because it allows you expand the face-to-face time with fans to beyond just live events.

+1
Before Google+ was in the running for the social media contender, Google introduced it’s own form of a Facebook Like button called the ‘+1 button’. Then, when Google+ was launched, the +1 button became a fully integrated engagement marketing tool, allowing anyone to ‘+1” any page with the button, which not only acts to help the page rank higher in Google searches, but it now also appears on that person’s Google + profile.

So what does this mean? Well, it doesn’t mean much in terms of how you use Google +. But it does mean that the +1 Button is now an absolute must, along with the Facebook Like button, on your website and blog! Including this will turn your website into an easily sharable, highly visible site on Google +."

You can read the entire article here. Ariel has also posted a number of helpful videos from Google as well.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

People Watch Longer On Tablets

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Here's a number that shouldn't come as a shock - tablet users have a longer video engagement than desktop or phone users. A company named Ooyala recently completed a study that determined that tablet users watched 28 percent longer than the desktop average.

They also found that tablet viewers are more than twice as likely to finish a video than on a desktop, which was about 30 percent higher than that of mobile devices.

The study also found that desktops and laptops are more likely to be used for short video clips, whereas videos that are 10 minutes or longer make up 30 percent of the hours watched on mobile devices, 42 percent on tablets, and nearly 75 percent on connected TV devices and game consoles.

It also determined that Android and iOS devices make up 90 percent of the video hours for tablets and mobile devices, where the iPad is king, at least for now. iPads were responsible for 99.4 percent of displays, 97.7 percent of total plays, and 95.7 percent of total hours streamed.

In a bit of a surprise, Facebook has jumped into third place among the biggest video platforms, with an estimated 51.6 million people watching videos on Facebook in July when the study was done. Ooyala also found that Facebook is across the board a more popular means of sharing video than its social media rival, Twitter. In the U.S., for every one video shared on Twitter, over eight are shared on Facebook, but that varies widely depending on the region. In Japan, there’s a 1:1 ratio, whereas in Italy Facebook is 17 times more popular.

To read the full Ooyala’s study, download it out here.

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

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

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

Pixie's Manager Richard Jones Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

We're going to start the new year off with a clip from Topspin CEO Ian Rogers' excellent web show This Week In Music. This is with Richard Jones, the manager of The Pixies, who discusses DIY even for a band with international visibility.

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.