What is Record Label 2.0?

Courtney Says Work for 7-11 Instead Of Signing with Label

2009-09-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

So now as I get back to writing in this blog for you my readers and subscribers. I want to start off with a few posts about Courtney Loves' rant against the record industry in 2000. I was not a fan of Courtney then and still am not but this was one thing I love and respect that she did. So lets see if we can learn anything from this aspect of the past.

Now back in 2000 Napster was being burned at the stake for allowing music piracy on its P2P network. It was also the time when Metallica Drummer Lars Ulrich brought copyright infringement case against Napster. I remember hearing how some of their fans were downright pissed. Yes the times have changed now we have so many P2P networks out there the record industry can't shut them all down.

Now today we will share with you her "funny math" as she calls it. Its conclusion was that a band was better off working at a 7-11 then sign with a label. Now for a more accurate set of math from that time era check out "The Problem With Music". So our basis on the funny math then is a band who gets a 20% royalty and million dollar advance. This I think is all a dream that has never really happened. Though I would love to learn of a band that got a deal like that so I could study up on them.

Even though the advance is recoupable the bands manager, lawyer, and business manager all get a cut totaling $150,000. The album (remember this is both funny math and era 2000) cost $500,000 to record and get mastered. This then leaves about $180,000 for the band after taxes of course. Here is where I always think it is funny that advance is considered earnings even though it really is a debt. So you go into debt and everyone gets a piece because it is earnings sounds backwards to me. The band doesn't get another advance until the record is released and sales data starts to come in. How many members are in your band? Hmmm with a 4 man band that comes to $45,000 each for the whole year.

Of course we get a couple of singles and make videos for MTV. Well that has all changed in todays world but we are learning something here. Maybe not quite yet. Those videos then being all snazzy uped cost $500,000 each 50% recoupable. Next is of course that grand tour of the Arenas coming with $200,000 reoupable tour support 100% recoupable. $300,000 gets spent to place the music on the radio. This is one of the strongest reasons for making some of your music podsafe you then don't pay to get it listened to. At this time the band has racked up a debt of $2 million dollars owed to the label.

So going on with her math the album sells a million copies. Not something happening in todays world is it? I don't think it really happened all that often back then either though. Of course the band earned $2 per album (a bit more then that even in 2000) equaling $2 million dollars. Here looks like the band payed taxes on a total earnings of $0.00. While the label earned $6.6 million dollars net profit. I don't think labels are seeing anywhere near that kind of return anymore but the share ratio is still the same. They earn all the money and the artist lives a life of continuous debt, doesn't own the copyrights to their own music and it can be worse.

With that I am glad I write even if I decide to group some of these articles into a book. Hit up a publisher who might like it enough to give me an advance. I will always own the copyright because the publisher is only licensing the works for distribution. I think what we learned today is that the music industry needs to look into the book industry. This way artists can be treated as equal partners instead of slave labor. However lets not push that slavery off the artist and place it on the music fan. There is a better way it is called cooperation but how to do it?

Evolution Coop Refocus

2009-09-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

So today is supposed to be a #followfriday extended post. Nope we are interrupting your normal broadcast to bring you this special report. LOL. Today I am going to talk about Evolution Coop and some hard decisions I am making. As my regular readers and subscribers will know I was offline while back for almost 2 months. In fact I just moved a few days ago so am not supposed to be back online until next week.

While offline I learned that unlike at the turn of the century music fans aren't willing to promote great music. You may have read how MP3.com started New Music Army near the turn of the century. Well one of the things I learned when I joined that. Was how hard music fans were willing to spread the word about great music. So what has changed?

The record industry has tried to beat your fans into submission. Instead the music lovers have run into hiding. You see many of the same music lovers who download from P2P. Don't feel safe about talking about the great music except to their closest friends. Apparently the odds of getting caught as a pirate are thought to be slim to none. Where as if you start letting the world know, then you are more likely to get caught.

Now I disagree with this as I have seen tons of online conversations about songs that are available on P2P networks. So since being back online I wanted to get as much feedback on fans spreading the word as possible. Here we get a different response. It is felt that doing something like writing a review or telling people online about your great video has no effect. Since this won't help you the artist, your fans aren't motivated.

With these 2 basic thoughts being so prevalent I have had to rethink a few things. I feel that to run with the Evolution Coop Newsletter would be merely taking advantage of the half dozen artists who are interested. I want to do this to help musicians not personal gain. Now on the flip side our 1st E-Course "Write Music Reviews" has been doing fairly well IMO. We have had just shy of 10 students with 4 of them paying via our donation model. One of the things this shows me is that even for small unknown bands the "In Rainbows" pay what you want model will work. After all if it works for my E-Course it should work for your music.

So that is where our focus will be at this time. After all if the world isn't ready then we need to educate them and guide them to be ready. I almost decided to drop it altogether after all that is what I did in the beginning of this century. However something happened back then that was a defining moment for me. Though by the time I realized what I said no to it was too late. Of course I felt then just as I feel now that I know nothing about the music industry. So it was real easy for me to turn down the tech guys who also knew nothing. For me it would need the music industry to make it work. I feel with the number of industry people who are subscribed via E-Mail that we together can truly bring music fans and lovers back to spreading the word.

Of course this has had me make another hard choice. You see I have joined close to a dozen music communities where I felt I could be of value. If I am going to spend the time to move things further while going against the grain. Then I need to drop out of any community that takes my time and has no benefit in exchange. This also means all future communities I join will be based on rather I feel they can help or not. Of course anyplace I stay connected to I will continue to give freely any and all ideas and information I gain.

One of the things that needs to be improved is the fan funded model. Its current implementation is extremely flawed. Where the truly successful models are purely donation based. The ones that have half a chance of motivating your fans will go beyond donation. Where that beyond is I am not sure at this point. I felt that a revenue share arrangement was the way. After all "New Music Army" in essence was based on revenue share (only music sold via MP3.com). However those hundreds of fans who discussed ways to promote the great music. Were more focused on getting the music out there then earning anything from what amounted to an affiliate program.

We already know that I don't like the idea of giving your music away for free. Well one of the things I will be looking into is using P2P in your music strategy. Yes this means giving your music away, it also means getting those damn pirates attention. If we can get the pirates to at the minimum to promote your music then maybe we can get the rest of the world back on track. I want this digital generation to have something similar to my childhood experience. You know when you stood in line to get tickets to Metallica and talked with other fans without even knowing their names. Well if they can learn to share their love of music on these damn social networks they will get something close, different but close.

Well back to making my own decisions on where all this needs to go for me. I wonder if anything above has you thinking similar for yourself.

#follow friday 3 Great Teachers

2009-08-28T12:37:00.000-07:00

Last week we had the Kardashians for #followfriday. Well this week I want to give you 3 people on twitter who will improve your music career. If you follow these 3 be prepared to learn almost daily how to improve your music business.

@artistsedge
@carlalynnehall
@artistshouse

Of course these posts are a means to expand upon the already great idea of #followfriday so you need to be following these 2 blogs and subscribe to the Yahoo Answers RSS feed too. It is all about participation so as something comes up on any of these jump in with your own opinion.

The Lefsetz Letter - I would have to say that when it comes to talking about the music industry this is the person to listen to.

The Cyber Pr Blog - Learn to handle your music business by paying attention to what a music publicists has to say.

Answer questions about music producing - Hey maybe you don't know anything about music producing well then here you can look to see what answers are being given for this subject.

Now to stick with the dayof 3 for #followfriday I bring you 3 posts of my own to look over if you haven't done so yet.

Band Joint Ventures and P2P Works for You

When Live Shows is not Enough?

Comment to Others Gain New Fans

What you know this is the 2nd week and I actually managed to pull it off once again. I hope to have 3 more sets of 3 for you next week too.

Myspace Bulletins the Miley Cyrus Way

2009-08-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

I have failed to do the bulletin strategy properly too. Though I think I have now learned from one of the better Myspacers out there. In the Cubworld Social Guru series I mention the importance of building files to use for your bulletin strategies. These could also be used for your Twitter strategy too. Lets look at these for a moment.

File of general questions that could be fun to hear from our fans about.
File of more personal questions (not too personal) that we can leave as comments.
File of valid bulletins that have little to no expiration time
File of bulletins with a time limit.

Before moving on lets look at the Hannah Montana way of doing bulletins. Unless she is super busy, being a celeb this happens for days at a time, she will post at least 1 bulletin. I have never seen more then 5 - 7 in any one day. On the next day that she posts new bulletins she deletes the old ones, may re post one with fans comments edited into it. Some of the subjects that I have seen are

Telling her fans about another artist such as Selina Gomez, etc.
Letting her fans know about upcoming events but only being informative including others who are involved in it.
How do you use photoshop web-based version
Asking for help moderating her personal Meebo chat room
Mentioning something she and her friends enjoy doing at the same time asking for input from her fans regarding it.

So from that small list we can see that 15 yo Miley is busy connecting with her fans not selling to them. This is a very important aspect of your bulletin strategy, you want to inform not sell. The other aspect is what I want to call "cleaning up the house". Miley will send out only a few bulletins at a time but she cleans out the old ones at the same time. One of the things this does is creates a limited supply of information. So when her die hard fans sign into Myspace they will quickly look at the bulletins for her new ones as they may not be there later. This is almost the same as a call to action, and where I mess up the most.

So what is your bulletin strategy or tweeting strategy? Let us know.

Kardashian #Followfriday

2009-08-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

I have to say thanx to my 13 year old niece I have watched the "Catching up with the Kardashians" and I don't much care for the show. However when I came back from my offline hiatus and found Kim Kardashian following me on Friend Feed. I had to go through and follow the sisters on Twitter. I now am glad I did they are fun to follow.

So our #followfriday twitter suggestion is

@KimKardashian
@KourtneyKardash
@KhloeKardashian

So now I want to start expanding my #followfriday into the blogsphere so here are 3 blogs you should be reading.

The Sellaband knifelady - Really learn the dirt on Sellaband.com or just get a good idea of who is who regarding Sellaband artists.

Rock Star Life Lessons - Who do you want to turn to for your music advice? How about another musician who is succeeding and still learning. Follow one of my partners in crime as she blogs your way to success.

Answer questions about music publising - Hey maybe you don't know anything about music publishing well then here you can look to see what answers are being given for this subject.

Of course we have to get just a bit selfish for #followfriday so here are 3 of my own posts you should be reading.

The Expansion of Your Street Team

Artist Sponsors Little League

Create Your Promoter

Now I am hoping to do this weekly but still working on the pattern. Well off to tweet my #followfriday post.

Can Yahoo Answers Add New Content For Your Fans?

2009-08-15T04:07:00.000-07:00

How much content do you produce for your fans to interact with? I realize it can get tough to always think of a new song each day, week, or month. You may be just starting out and aren't getting the reviews to share with your fans. However while setting up your road map to success you need to learn to add more content. Here is an excerpt from one of the blogs I read "Each Content Posting Reminds People Your Brand Exists"

Every single time you post on your blog, upload a YouTube video, or tweet using Twitter, you are reminding people of your existence and your promise of value. Your readers or visitors will make a mental note that you are still in the conversation, actively participating by providing them (hopefully) something useful or entertaining or both.

Now earlier this week I shared with you my thoughts on adding more to what you are telling your fans. Doing this by sharing your own musical tastes. Today I want to show how you can use a combination of Yahoo answers, Youtube ("Start a Video Strategy " free report), and your own blog for more content. Basically we will start with what is already there and build into this fan interaction.

So get your Web-cam ready, sign up with Yahoo answers, and make sure you have a blog platform to work with. Now the 1st thing you want to do is let your fans know you will be answering questions from Yahoo Answers. The reason we are adding this is to expand where we are mentioned online. Right away you won't have questions on yahoo and yet you need to show that you are answering them. So how do you do this? Start by checking out questions being asked about other artists similar to you. I realize this is cheating but it should get the ball rolling. Once you have a few fans asking questions about you on Yahoo Answers you need to set-up your RSS reader.

As you get 5 - 9 questions available to answer, record a video of you answering them. Obviously I asked about your blog platform so that you could embed these videos. Posting the videos though is not enough. Every time you post a new video of you answering questions in your blog you need to place a call to action. This could be as simple as a cut and paste message "Please feel free to ask your questions on Yahoo Answers we read them regularly". Or even more elaborate by also mentioning those fans who asked the questions. Of course with the 1st few where you are taking from other bands questions you can 't mention the fans. Feel free to answer the questions on Yahoo Answers if you like or leave it for your fans to participate with each other.

So what ideas for adding new content for your fans to better interact with you can you share with us?

Is Free Music Building Trust? or Becoming Worthless

2009-08-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Eren Mckay left the following comment on the SparkPlugging blog I read. I felt there were a few things here to look at from the music industry perspective, what do you think?

I believe that there are things that should be free and others that should be payed for.
Things that will save us time, money, and headaches should definitely be paid for. I love free things and I love giving away free stuff too.
There are things though that are worth paying for and it’s all about figuring that out. If I trust someone that has given me something for free I will believe their sales letter and buy what they are recommending.
I definitely don’t remain subscribed to a newsletter if it’s not offering quality information. I may op tin at first through something free but what keeps me subscribed is whether I believe that person cares and is truly sending me good and useful information. My time is valuable so I’m very selective about the lists I’m subscribed to.

We already know I fall into the category of loving to give free stuff away. From this comment what I see is that giving your music away for free is the start of building trust with your fans. You really are saying here listen to this and if you think it is outstanding then buy my album. Right there though I wonder how often the follow through is being made to lead your fans to buy your album. If you have your own domain and web-site. Then the follow through can be as easy as a simple page listing a few places your music is for sale. Here I would list no more then 3 as you don't want to give too many options. In fact if I did this I would list only 2 Amazon and I-tunes.

Now lets look at the other aspect to this comment and that is how to keep your fans subscribed to your newsletter or following you online. Think about what you would consider to be quality content? Is it quality to only receive information about your live shows? Do you as a music fan only want to know where to buy the music? I assume you will answer no to both of these, but it is as easy as asking yourself that 1st question. What would you want from your favorite artist to be added to a newsletter? I have some basic ideas on what to add to your newsletter, but what would make it special is your own customized ideas.

So today lets think about some homework for you. Ask yourself the 1 simple question "what do you want to know about your fav artist?" Write down a list of 3 - 7 good ideas from this. Then really look at the newsletter you already put out. How can you implement these good ideas you came up with into your monthly newsletters.

Share Your Music Taste

2009-08-11T06:26:00.000-07:00

You enjoy music, as a musician I hope you do. Why not share with your fans the musical acts you appreciate. In fact while your more active fans or street team members will be writing reviews of your music. It could be well worth while to keep them in practice with other musical acts. Of course how do you get them to start writing reviews in the 1st place? Well I would let them know about our E-Course "Write Music Reviews" then you don't have to try and teach them.

The benefit of this is that you are not seen as a selfish musician obsessed with self promotion. If you keep your music reviewing fans updated with new music to review. They will be ready to review your new music as it comes out. Your fans will benefit and thank you over time for all the cool music you have turned them onto. In fact I think if your fans keep it up with the reviews and use my own "Amazon Affiliate Music Strategy" they may earn a few dollars to buy your music with.

If that is not enough of a benefit for you. Then think about what happens when other bands find out that they are getting new reviews because of you. You may wonder how this also benefits you? What will happen is that you will build a network of fellow musicians who may be able to help you get additional paying gigs on your next tour. Or for that matter when they are next touring in your city they may ask you to share the stage with them. And this is just for your live shows, think what else networking with other musicians, whose music you enjoy, can do for you.

Beyond the networking with other musicians I see another benefit to this. You want to keep your fans coming back. However if you are only releasing say 1 new song a month or 1 new album a year. Then your fans are moving on by the time you have something new to tell them. However by getting into the habit of sharing with your fans the great music you listen to. You will always have something new for them to look forward to. But why stop there? As your fans write reviews of both your music and other artist's share these too. This last tactic is 2 fold, not only does it give you something new to share with your fans but also you will be building community amongst your fans. This community as it grows will expand your own presence online without you having to do all the work yourself.

So share with us your own ideas on networking with other musicians and/or building your own fan community?

Evolution Coop Mission Statement

2009-08-10T05:32:00.000-07:00

Looking at a few of my goals for ending 2009. I noticed that setting up the mission statement for Evolution Coop had already been done. It gets stated in the welcome E-Mail sent out to everyone who takes one of our E-Courses. SO as such I decided to post that welcome message here so that rather you take 1 of our courses or not you can see our mission. Now you really want to pay attention to that 2nd paragraph it is there that my vision of the future music industry can be seen. This morning I see the major labels working together on a new music format, all 4 cooperating? Naturally I don't have any faith that this will go beyond the new format but cooperation is needed by all, in some way or other.

I am ecstatic that you have decided to take our E-Course this week. You will automagically be added to our mailing list and be notified as new E-Courses come out. If you wish to only take this one E-Course that you signed up for. Don't worry the day after the Course finishes you will receive an unsubscribe notice. This is just to remind you so as to reduce any unwanted E-Mails on your part. I know from my own Mail box how frustrating it is to get unwanted E-Mails.

Now why this E-Course and all future ones? Well I have a vision of “Record Label 2.0” or the future of the music industry. This vision is not one of competition but one of Cooperation. When I say cooperation I don't just mean between musicians or music professionals but also between music lovers too. Music fans are no longer tied down to what is being sold to them but now can become part of the new industry in so many ways. Record Label 2.0 I believe is the building up of options for music lovers to participate in.

If you enjoy this E-Course, you may be interested in the “Evolution Coop Newsletter”. Or join the “Music Evolution Network”. In fact I would suggest as the week goes by writing down any and all questions you may have. Then once the course is finished head on over to Music Evolution to post your questions in our group. Not only will this help you but it could add new E-Courses to help future music lovers too.As we are most interested in sharing this information you are free to forward these lessons to your friends. Post within any blog online so long as you link to the group on Music Evolution Network. Or even offer it to your own mailing list with a link to the E-Course offering page. Widgets coming soon to give you even more options to share with.

Oh and as new E-Courses go live they will be posted at Music Evolution Network E-Course Group.

Band Joint Ventures and P2P Works for You

2009-08-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

Well now that I have my 1st E-Course released I want to get back to some real blogging. After all we here on this blog are supposed to be learning what Record Label 2.0 is right? Now couple of years ago I wrote what just recently started out "Band Formation Strategy" free report. So lets look at the 1st section as it relates to Record Label 2.0.

I am told a typical garage band has one or two singers, one or two guitarists, a bass player, a drummer, and perhaps a keyboardist. I believe any group of musicians 2 or more working together on common musical goals should be considered a band. A theme I have recently seen and had in years past heard. Is what amounts to several bands and other musicians getting together under one name for short releases. As you grow in your music, you will come across other great ideas and options you may want to explore. Just as your other band mates will, none of you should feel cheated by joint ventures of the others. Being part of a band is about joining together as individuals to share some great joint masterpieces. Other great masterpieces can be made with others too though.

So as the music industry moves forward into the future, is it better to form a band that supposedly stays together? I like the idea of musicians getting together for short releases, even repeated releases. However I also have been thinking about the idea of musicians from different bands getting together for new creative projects. These projects with members from different bands could be used as promotional releases.

What I am thinking on the promotional release scenario is an agreed upon limited release. Each member then has an agreed upon allotment of physical cds to give away to street team members, or fan newsletter subscribers. By keeping these limited while at the same time having several bands talking about them. You may, hopefully, create at least a small demand. This demand will lead to the songs being placed on P2P networks. In fact I would look into setting up a 1 HTML page that promotes each band involved and release it yourselves on P2P. Zip the songs in this release with the promo page and let the world steal it, with your blessing.

I would love to hear more about how band mates can work with other bands to improve your own promotions? Or even how P2P rather then being the bad kid on the block can be turned to your advantage? So please chat it up at the local Pub and drop on by with your own ideas.

Start Working on Your Own E-Course Today

2009-08-08T04:26:00.001-07:00

I got a couple of E-Mails asking me if 1 subject or another will be covered in my upcoming E-Courses. I didn't realize I had talked about them that much, hopefully later today the 1st one "Review Your Fav Bands Today" (working title) will be released. But 1st I want to talk about advertising on this blog.

I will need to write up an actual advertise here post or page apparently. However the short of it is unless you have an affiliate program and/or have something of value to musicians forget about it. You see I really don't want any advertising at all, I would prefer not to have those banners. But other then a couple that are mine I believe in everything that gets advertised on this blog. In fact there are a few upcoming banners being added that I will earn $0.00 from. However I believe those services are so vital to a starting out musician or even one seeing success already that they will be added. Well now that is the basics I will someday write something a bit more detailed.

Now new ideas that you my readers or followers may have. I actually thought I would have to ask for these when the time came. I currently have 12 to release in the coming months. A few of these will lead to even more. Then of course I plan to go over my blog here and my Free Reports to insure I have my own thoughts on "Record Label 2.0" up to now put into E-Course form. However along the way once I have the back end of things completed. I do plan to work out the means for you to take your ideas and turn them into E-Courses that will be offered through Evolution Coop, Music Evolution, and other locales.

Naturally I really don't' know at this time how this will work. I do know though that you will need to follow the template I lay out. So I would suggest if you are interested in this when it rolls out that you take a couple of the E-Courses to see the template. Along with that I know that the donation model I am using you will have to agree to, and accept it running through me. Of course to earn from this model you will also need a Pay Pal account. They will of course have to be accepted by me or someone involved in the administration of Evolution Coop/Music Evolution. Beyond this I don't know exactly how I plan to operate your E-Courses through our educational services.

Currently I am thinking of keeping my focus on fan development. After all from what I am seeing of "Label 2.0" they will do a GREAT job on artist development. This is dependent on me taking the time to pay $49 and check out what they are offering. Due to the fact that not knowing for sure how well they are preparing tomorrows musical superstars (not even remotely the same as today's). It doesn't matter how much faith I have in them I will need to be positive. So if I don't take that time then I will put out a few artists development courses. I may even do that anyways and direct artists to Label 2.0 for more advanced education.

Now to end this post I have to ask have you checked out my newest free Report "Band Formation Strategy"? Takes you from getting your band started to organizing your initial strategies. I feel with this report alone you will find enough success to cut your day job in half.

Label 2.0 or the Evolution

2009-08-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

Evolver.com stopped by to let me know they are Record Label 2.0. I have actually been paying attention to this Label 2.0 that is starting up. The guys behind it are great and well worth the money (in fact if they had an affiliate program I would sign up).

Greg Rollett - Operates Gen-Y Rock Stars, to which I subscribe to. They are brilliant folks over there and if you listen you may increase your branding styles.

Eric Hebert - Operates Evolver.com another great blog I subscribe to. That combination in and of itself should make this a superb arrangement.

But is it Record Label 2.0? I am getting Evolution Coop started soon, I got some great ideas myself. Just looking over the label 2.0 site past couple of weeks. I can tell you that the 3 of us are thinking along similar lines with the E-Course idea. However it looks to me that we divergent thoughts on what the label of tomorrow should look like.

They are more looking at internet marketing techniques to help you connect with your fans more. I am looking at internet marketing techniques to help bring your fans in business with you. Very similar indeed, I will be watching them very closely. They have experience, I have none. They have knowledge, I have none. So the question is are the experts able to see the hidden paths. Or does it take someone who is willing to look in a new direction because they don't' know not to.

There is another difference and that is in the way we plan to operate. To join Label 2.0 you will have to pay $49/mo. I still say it is well worth it for you musicians to pay this. You will gain access to all the E-Courses plus some great additional tools. Evolution Coop on the other hand will be putting together 5 day E-courses via E-mail only (I am planning on homework too). You will be able to take these free of charge, in fact many of them will be designed to teach your fans what they can help you with. Thus you will be able to share these free E-Courses with your fans so that rather then you trying to figure out how to teach them you just send them to the class. Of course funding is in short supply so I will at the end of each E-Course be asking for donations. I am calling it the Rainbow/Trent E-course business plan (ROFLOL).

All kidding aside, I expect another difference is in there. I haven't seen it yet in the Label 2.0 set-up (maybe they will stop by and like the idea). Evolution Coop though is looking at the future music industry working cooperatively and not competitively. Thus not only are we working on these E-Courses to teach you and your fans to cooperate. But also we (if the funding can be found) are looking into building tools to bring musicians together in cooperative ways. Other industries are finding success with cooperative projects, and some are finding losses too. I believe the way forward can be found in the original goals of MP3.com. Rather then an army as they thought 10 years ago though we need a new way of thinking.

So what do you think Record Label 2.0 will look like when the dust settles?

Fans Earning from Reviewing Your Music

2009-08-03T04:38:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to put Twitter to use on deciding what to write about. This is easy with the search function. I entered "I want music" and from the list of results I got.

"I want to sit around and eat exotic fruits and listen to folk music. and I want to open my mailbox and have a nice residual check waiting." @paydad.

At a later time I will write about the different ways you can use this function to increase music sales. However for today we will talk about how Paydad can listen to folk music all day and still get a pay check in the mail. The first thing to realize is that it will take time (months or couple of years) to get to the point you want. But just as musicians with a dream need to not give up so then the music fan with a dream needs to do the same.

Getting started I would set-up a profile on any number of social networks sites such as Myspace (If you use facebook for this then build a fan page about folk music). Pick out 3 of your top folk music artists. Contact them regarding any widgets or graphics they may have for you to spice up your page. Don't go overboard on this one though. When choosing your social network look for bullitin and commenting ability. If the network you picked doesn't have a blog for you to use. Then you will need to sign up for one elsewhere (blogger, typepad, livejournal examples). Use the RSS feed to connect your blog to your social profile.

Now we need music to review in your blog. Obviously you have your own collection to start with so just plop in any cd and take notes while listening. Lets look at our initial income, search either amazon or Itunes for the album you just wrote notes about. Sign up as an affiliate for which ever one you find them on (might as well sign up to both). Now you need to start your music review strategy so grab a copy of my free Report "Amazon Affiliate Music Strategy". Turn your notes into a great review of the album.

With any start up there is some money you will need to spend. Here is where I tell you to get a Web-cam or video camera. Head on over to Youtube search for each song on the album you just reviewed. What you will be doing here is called "video commenting" on as many of the songs from the album as possible. In the description of each video you will want a link to your review. From this you should have at least 5 online content to tweet about. When tweeting links to your video comments you actually will want to link to the music video that you commented.

Well you will find with this alone that you still have to keep your day job. So lets add to this head on over to Netvalar.net and grab your own online store. Stay at the free level for now, you will work your way to paying $50/month. As you do more reviews contact each artist and let them know, ask for their input. This will help you improve on your own "Sit at Home Listening To Music Strategy". As you get more comfortable communicating with the artists themselves. Start asking them for input on allowing you to sell their albums in your online store. Build a list to get back to about the idea. Once you have a list large enough (up to you on this one) you will want to upgrade to gold level with your online store. Set-up a music department in your store, start adding the albums. Obviously you will need to get back with each artist on your list.

Now you have more to tweet about as you can tweet each album for sale from your own online store. However let me get a secret in here. You can have the artists themselves handle the delivery of each album (no inventory). The way to do this is each album you add will have the artists E-Mail address in the back-end. So then when they receive the E-Mail they send out the album. For this to work the artist needs to have set-aside enough copies to fulfill 100% of what you list as in inventory. If I did this with my own shop I would set the price at $9.99 keep $1 and send the rest to the artist.

The above post is really just the basics of getting started. Several subjects are planned to be placed into E-Courses coming out soo. So to end this I would suggest signing up to Evolution Coop newsletter and or subscribing to this blog. This way you will hear about the E-Courses once they get started.

Why Let Evolution Coop Manage your Band Newsletter

2009-08-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

Well I let a few people take a look at what I have so far for band newsletter template. This brought up a few questions and I will answer them here, but 1st lets talk about what my goal is with this.

If you are a subscriber then you may remember that I was looking into offering a free service to manage your newsletter. To be able to do this for the most number of artists I had to look at as much as possible. While keeping everything standard to reduce personal time spent. Along with that I needed to really find something that would help me too. This selfish aspect really was finding a way to offer this service for FREE!!!

What I came up with is placing a section into every newsletter handled by Evolution Coop (Music Evolution will be a subsidiary web-presence) offering E-Courses. These E-Courses will be offered for free/donation, so really not charging you or your fans anything. These E-Courses will be teaching my ideas of Record Label 2.0, how fans and musicians should and can work together. As such I strongly think many of them will be invaluable to your increasing fan interaction.

Now why would a band sign up for this service? Well I actually suggest that bands don't. Mainly as there is nothing there that they can't do themselves with only a few minutes of their time each month. However while talking about the importance of having a newsletter I keep hearing 1 excuse after another. All of these can be brought down to lack of motivation and or importance. The problem here is that even with your Myspace profile, Twitter, etc gaining followers daily. If you are not using a mailing list and newsletter you are losing out on 1 OF THE MOST IMPORTANT tools for your success.

Isn't a newsletter like so 20th century? LOL, yes it is but then so are magazines and newspapers. There is a gradual and ever increasing percent of the world population entering social networking. But there are still huge segments of your fans who want you to contact them not the other way around. They want to see postcards, receive phone calls, and yes E-Mails. Along with that your newsletter can have results from your street team. This may even bring in new members to your street team. After all many of your fans want to help you out but don't know how. This then brings us back to the E-Courses that will teach them how.

I like that template but I want to add/subtract something to it? Well here is the deal, if I am operating your newsletter then it is MY TEMPLATE that you will follow. However your are more then welcome to take my template and adjust to a custom fit for you. Of course this then means you will do what I STRONGLY suggest and operate your own newsletter. I really am offering this service to musicians who 1)don't think they have time 2)aren't ready yet to organize time 3)are interested in helping their fans but really have no clue. I do though expect to have clients who don't fit any of those 3, after all I can't predict every aspect of why you would accept my template and me running your newsletter.

I have my own newsletter and rarely miss a month can I offer your E-Courses sound great? Well since I really want anyone and everyone who is interested in music to get involved. Then YES you can, I would suggest you take the courses yourself as they come available. This way you can decide which ones you really want your fans to learn and which ones you want to forget even exist. In fact to be honest I would love it if this was the only thing that happens with this combination of services. Of course the E-courses came about because I wanted to offer the Newsletter service. But I believe the E-Courses as they come out will help you and your fans in so many ways.

Now obviously there was more information available to those who asked the above questions so I will provide a list of what I am currently looking at for E-Courses.

Hashtags, Twitter, and promoting your music
Why fan reviews are so important
Basic Twitter operations for success
Yahoo Answers and showing off your knowledge
Brand monitoring and promoting your bands
Music Video commenting
Fan made videos and going viral
Live show pics the whys and hows
Squidoo pages your fav bands want you to make

Obviously there are many more that I can and plan to bring out just on what I talk about here in this blog. My own research could be put into over 100 E-Courses too. But the above are what I currently am most focused on and these may change as they come out too.

New Expand Record Label 2.0 Blog

2009-07-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

I have come to 1 conclusion about Record Label 2.0, this has then led me to a new blogging format. Instead of accepting submissions to this blog. I want you to write your own blog post. Most social network sites such as Myspace.com, Bebo.com, etc comes with some form of blogging tool. You can also start your own blog on platforms such as blogger, typepad, live journal, etc. If for some reason you don't like any of those you are welcome to join "Music Evolution" and blog there.

The key is your post needs to have a permalink to it specifically. The way to get this on Myspace is after posting, view your blog and click the time stamp of your post. The URL then in your browser should be the permalink. If you have questions about getting your posts permalink join Music Evolution and ask in the forums. Along with the permalink you will need to leave me a comment on the unfinished list with your link.

Once a week I will post a thank you article for 5 posts linking to this blog. Of course any articles written for one of my incomplete list articles take precedence. As you help me complete these list posts I will not only link to your article but also tweet it too. Now lets make a list of these posts for you to quickly find what I need completed. I will do my best to keep this updated but I am only one person.

Needs to be finished, add your thoughts to cyberspace today. Feel free to comment below if you know of one that I don't have listed or is complete already.

The Expansion of Your Street Team

13 Questions Brought up by Seth Godin

12 Success Tips For Myspace

9 Things to Look Into Before Your Album Release

4 Professionals Still Needed in Today's Music Industry

6 Ways to Deliver Free

20 Great Music Business Tips

Finding Financing for Your Recordings

2009-07-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

Social networking sites have built many band's fan base without ever getting a paying gig. This brings us to a conundrum how to record their first album without any cash flow. With anywhere between 3 and 18 songs done it may be time for that first album. After finding out the recording studio is going to cost anywhere between $250-$1500 for 7 songs. That is only for the master then you will want $1200 for 1500 copies. Asking every family member and friend might bring in promises of $300. After paying the monthly bills you may be able to plop down another $100. No amount of Netvalar's creative thinking is going to help you out right.

First lets look at a different industry, land development. Sometimes smaller developers will have the finances for a big project but are unsure of over costs. So what do they do they find investors. Not for the company but for the project. A complicated project contract is written up where the investor either gets their money back with interest or an invested interest in the specific development. All over costs are now covered and the development can begin. Within a year of the completed project all investors are usually paid back.

What does this mean for your recording you ask. Lets look at it as a specific project instead. Your first album can be ran as an limited run project with all recording costs and replication costs factored in. When doing your numbers double the costs of replication and add in 50% of the costs for recording. You now will have a good figure to use in finding these potential financiers. Talk to a lawyer or draw up a sample contract and run it by a legal advisor.

I know you are asking "what are you talking about Netvalar?" Well you can now go back to your friends with a contract showing a much bigger sign of motivation. Offer your fans a chance to invest in your very first or maybe even second CD. Bankers, investment firms, or other professionals will see you as more serious and may be willing to invest.

But what do you have to offer? You can offer a basic return of money plus interest to be negotiated per individual. Or you can offer a cut of the proceeds from the sales of that specific project cue album. Maybe some few would be willing to invest on the terms of so many copies going to them for resale, obviously at a much lower price ($2. per cd sounds about right). Going this route though you will want to specify that the project is for physical copies only. Thus allowing you to continue to earn money from digital sales of the same album.

Once long ago I had such a contract on file in my laptop. My roommate at the time stole the laptop and pawned it. All contracts then saved therein were gone never to be seen again. I however know that a very simple 2 paragraph contract can cover everything needed for such an endeavor.

Final thoughts never say Netvalar can't creatively advise you when all seems lost.

Newsletter Content Ideas

2009-05-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last month I wrote Artist Newsletter Secrets, I don't consider these to be secrets at all really. Of course my favorite music publicity company Ariel Publicity recently wrote how to increase your fanbase. In it you will find 10 fail-safe ways to increase / engage with your fanbase by pulling from fans that you already know and have who trust and like you!

Well for Evolution Coop I am planning a monthly newsletter Issue 0 just moments ago went direct to the web. Today I will look over what I have set-up to see how it may help you out as an artist. But 1st let me talk about Evolution Coop.

As you may recall from the Artist Newsletter Secrets article I mentioned that Music Evolution wanted to help artists with their newsletter. Well along with that is my belief that all members of the music industry need to do more cooperative projects. These thoughts combined to form the basis of Evolution Coop. I have to say these things have a tendency to gain a mind of their own. However the basics is to build missions cooperatively with musicians, music lovers, and music networks. Along the way we would like to teach music lovers all of the joyous activities they are missing out on by not interacting fully with their favorite artist.

Now to Critique Evolution Coop Newsletter #0 I will only focus on those aspects I feel would fit within an artists own newsletter.

1)About this Newsletter - Great place to put your short bio or promotional pitch.

2)Issue 0 Free Music - Your newsletter fans are more then likely your strongest supporters. Why not give them at least 1 free song with each issue. You can then link to where they can buy more as a reminder that yes you need to earn a living too.
3)Issue 0 community review - I hear all the time the question how to get your fans more interactive. Well you need a call to action and this section does that quite well.
4)Issue 0 community video - Pick up a copy of "Start a Video Strategy" and learn the importance of having more videos. And what better way then to get your fans to make them.
5)Buy an album - This one actually goes well with 2 above.
6)Contact - You really should have at least 5 ways for your fans to follow or contact you. I know here I only put 3 but that will change in the future.

Now beyond those you want to have your live show dates, link to your EPK, along with any other customized aspect that is just you. You will notice I used tables in my newsletter (html). I think it looks fine online but not all E-Mail clients will see it the same. You may be better without using tables unless you have a professional newsletter designer working for you.

Obviously you will notice I placed this issue online, I plan to make each issue available online as an archive. This is something that I firmly believe would be beneficial to anyone doing newsletters, more content online for people to find you with. Of course this should come with some rules for instance if you give your subscribers free music then you need to take that out of your online archive. Oh make sure your online archive mentions the free music just don't have it available, unless it is available online elsewhere then just link to it. Also in the coming weeks you will see my online version morph into a web-page. This is how I would think you would want it to work for you, make it look as professional as possible.

Cubworld's Response to my Cubworld Series

2009-05-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

So back in March I did a 4 part series on what suggestions I would make as Cubworld's social media guru. This actually started out with an E-Mail exchange between me and Mandy (Cubworld's wife). In order to see how well I could help organize the chaos she was dealing with. After I wrote up the basic E-Mail suggestions and sent it off I decided that doing a blog post expanding upon that E-Mail would be worth doing.

Well as I wrote each part I placed them in a forum that all 3 of us participate in. Here is the response from them to either the E-Mail or the blog series or maybe both (I think it is both). You will notice having taken these from the forum in question that within their responses is asking for help too.

Mandy -

You are AMAZING!! So much to do!!! Thank you for helping us!! I am over whelmed by it all sometimes and would love love love some help!! The more Jake is out there gigging and practicing the more its my job to do all the social stuff. If someone is willing to run one of the social sites for us please let me know!! I think having a leader council is a great idea so everyone knows the important stuff happening on sites!! Thank you so much. Serious it actually feels like were getting organized and that is such a new feeling for me!! lol

Net!! You are sooo freaking awesome!!! i have so much work to do!! I still haven't gotten through it all but just wanted you to now right now how much I appreciate your input!! Wahoooo!!:D you can be our Guru anytime:D haha:D

Jake -

Hey Net. Thanks a lot for the above, your on it bro. You are right about needing help and feeling stretched thin. So many places to network, Amiestreet, bebo, hyves, reverbnation, talentcast etc etc and that's the start of a list of sites i don't revisit as often as I'd like. I have a couple sites up with great networking chances but like you said, i run thin doing this on my own so most of the time you will only catch me on facebook, myspace,youtube, and occasionally twitter. I'll for sure try to do the once a day thing. It's getting more and more popular too so no better time then now.

I'm always told i need management but to tell you the truth managers scare the crap out of me cause I've met some real shady dudes that are in this for the wrong person. I would love help with these online tools so if anyone is willing to offer any services please feel free to hit up Mandy or I.

Anyways, thanks Net for starting this and i look forward to more tips bro.

Aloha
Jake-CUB

Of course I have to wonder now who will be next will it be you or maybe someone you know?

Your Fan Economy

2009-05-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

From David Jennings blog we can see an example of fan interaction er um economy in action. If anyone knows of a site that will let you set up something similar to this points system mentioned let me know will you.

So while building up these fans in your new economical portfolio you will need to know what you stand for. Yes I hope one of those is great music, but what does your music really say? In this day of social interaction online and hopefully in real life you need to better understand your ideas and thoughts. I realize this will change over time but it will give you a great place to start with conversing on Twitter, Bebo, or any other social network. In fact part 3 of our Cubworld series we talk about files of questions to ask your fans from time to time. With a better understanding of where you currently stand in the world you will be better able to make these files, and update as your world view changes.

Obviously this brings us to interaction and building more content then just your music. Your fans are wanting more freebies today then any other time in history, they almost expect it. Well the best way to do this without giving all your music away is to record your live shows for all to see. While editing them for uploading to the cyberworld do a review of how you feel the night went. During the night ask your fans to send in any pictures, videos, or reviews of the show to you online. This kind of interaction will feed on itself eventually giving you plenty to converse with your fans about.

We all know that your fans will eventually get your music free if they try hard enough. Why not be the person who leaks it to your favorite bittorent site? In your regular newsletter then you can leave a link to where your free song is both hosted and torrented. You are giving your fans on your mailing list free music aren't you? So now keep the free music to only your newsletter members and those who want to search around for it. Your live shows will give everyone else all the free music they will want.

The main thing here is to create new content as often as possible and share it on almost a daily basis. While keeping as much of your earning potential in your hands. Appearances are everything if you look to be giving away tons of content then the fans will flock to your brand for more.

Gatekeepers, Where is the TIme

2009-04-29T03:15:00.000-07:00

The new music gatekeeper is you, your fans, and those who discover your music. This is great news because that means it all revolves around you right. Well no actually if you aren't out there getting your music heard by anyone then you aren't part of this new paradigm.

Bob Baker wrote "Gatekeepers & Music Promotion Overload: The Good New". Before I continue on to respond to that you might want to read my previous piece on being your own gatekeeper. You will notice the difference in the telling comes down to "DIY" do you go the "Do it all yourself" route or the "Decide it Yourself" route. Of course Bob Baker doesn't actually say do it all yourself and I am sure he will agree with me that finding people who can do what you can't is the best way to go. Just make sure that you know what is being done with your brand name at all times, be the BOSS! not the employee.

Now Bob wrote is piece due to the constant hammering that artists don't have the time, I hear this myself quite often. One way to gain the time you need to make the best music in 22 galaxies is to put together a team of trusted people similar to Britney Spears online team. Naturally if you are going to do that you will want to grow it organically or as you need it. I know trying to figure out who to trust with what is hard which is why in my gatekeeper post I said make sure you have access to all profiles and check up on them from time to time.

When I looked over the online presence of Cubworld I realized that I do a lot of talking about expanding your online presence but there comes a time to cut it back. After all the complaint of there is not enough time is a relevant complaint and you need to decide just how many social profiles is enough or too much. You can always expand further as you increase your army and find those leaders that are so important. This all important army you build will bring to the table those skills that you really don't have here is what Bob Baker says about the fittest artists.

It really comes down to a new "survival of the fittest" paradigm. Only a small percentage of artists have that rare combination of musical chops, stage presence, likeable qualities, marketing smarts, communication and social skills, discipline, drive, passion, etc.

I would hope that you have at least the musical chops, stage presence, and likable qualities to succeed. Maybe even a few of the other qualities Bob mentions, but where your weakness are is where you need to find leaders. It may be preferable to find these leaders from amongst your fans. When Miley Cyrus recently wanted a moderator for her personal chat room she went immediately to her die hard fans on her personal Myspace Private Profile, within hours she had volunteers willing to do it for free. I know you don't have the number of fans she does and rather then hours it may take days or weeks to fill in these empty spaces but they will get filled if you just take the time to ask.

Now comes the time to decide did you read this and not even take the time to read what Bob Baker had to say. Come on head on over there and read it then read my own gatekeeper post.

http://www.bob-baker.com/musicpromotionblog/2009/04/gatekeepers-music-promotion-overload.html

http://blog.evolutioncoop.com/2008/08/brand-marketing-for-your-band.html

Lead the Band

2009-04-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

Musician Wages a web-site that focuses on how to earn a living with your music, has a great post on leading a band. Very well layed out article for getting organized and setting the example. Here I will just give you the article sections and if you want to read the whole story head on over to

A Musician’s Guide to Middle Management, or Leading a Band

Have a Plan
Organize Your Material
Communication Breakdown
1. Find out how each person prefers to be contacted
2. Discuss each musician’s priorities and commitment to the band
3. Get confirmations
4. Use a shared calendar
Share some Responsibilities
Set the Example
Make the Tough Decisions

Yahoo Answers Finds New Fans for You

2009-04-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

This video shows you how to use Yahoo Answers efficiently. Where musicians can really work their magic is with the questions of people looking for great new music similar to other artists. So take that RSS trick mentioned in the video and think about what artists you may sound like to start your RSS reader love.

Give Your Album Away at Live Shows? NO

2009-04-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

As you may be aware this continued thought that to succeed today you need to be giving away all your music I feel is WRONG!. However I have to admit that the more musicians do this the harder it gets to be able to sell your own albums. So what to do?

Well I had the answer to this problem and didn't realize it in "Start a Video Strategy". Get someone to your shows with a video camera, and record your live shows. Make sure to show the fun your fans are having at these shows, and the energy you pull off on stage. Maybe even let your fans know that you will edit together any all submissions of your shows. Of course now there is even more reason to explode your videos online since you are now giving them away for free anyways.

These are then the music you can give away. Eventually you will be able to have 2 free DVDs at each show to give away. Great addition to your Merchandise table and entice people to see what else you have for sale such as your actual album. This is how you can be giving away your music at your live shows and still sell your album to your true fans willing to pay, maybe experiment with the set-your price theory to see if it works for you?

Now this is not to say that you should fight he inevitable release of your music via P2P. As your fans find where it is for free let them tell others. This can only build your fan base. Put your songs for sale and focus on letting your fans know right away where they can buy it.

Get More Videos Promoting Your Music

2009-04-11T05:12:00.000-07:00

When I wrote the EPK post I promised to tell you how to get videos done for you fairly easily. Wanting an example from the unsigned artist realm Evolution Coop has joined forces with Daniel Ward Murphy to show you an example. However the ever forward thinking Mysti Mayhem has another idea too.

In both of these examples the artist is turning to their fans to get more videos online. In the days of yore when MTV 1st came out it was rumored that video was killing the radio start. Then of course I begged the question was the internet killing the concert star? The conclusions in that post was that only the way the game was played had changed the start still remained.

Now though we have the video star back, only this time it is online where the viewers can watch anytime. Now in Mysti's request for fan participatin we are looking at something similar to what the Bare Naked Ladies did.

The street team level project being done currently by Evolution Coop and Daniel Ward Murphy. On the other hand is a bit different as it will get videos of people dancing to his music or talking about him and his music. This will show how other fans enjoy the great music of DWM.

Of course once these videos are completed what needs to be done with them? Pick up a copy of "Start a Video Strategy" and decide It Yourself (DIY). What ideas do you have along these lines to get more videos promoting your music?

Just How Many Social Networks is Enough?

2009-04-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

I notice that in various places online I can be found talking about the fact that artists need to expand their online presence. This is great advice as the majority of artists think that having a Myspace profile is enough. We can see in the Britney Spears series that even celebs can learn to expand.

However as we saw in the Cubworld series there is such a thing as too much. In that one I suggested dropping down to 3 - 5 social network profiles. This wasn't including Twitter, Revebnation, etc.

So how do you tell what the difference is? Well there are 3 types of social media sites.

Social Network - you need to be active on these and socialize with your fan base at least weekly.
Social Bookmarking - These sites are used only when you have or find something worth sharing with others. Days, Weeks, or even months can go by without using these.
Media Sharing - Musicians need as many of these as possible while staying organized. You can read "Start a Video Strategy" to learn to keep your video sites organized.

Now Social Book Marking sites can be easily organized with browser toolbars and buttons around the web. SocialMarker.com Is my favorite but there are plenty of others out there. With Media sharing sites my E-Report "Start a video Strategy" shows how to keep your video profiles organized there is something out there for Photos and graphics but alas I don't know where it is.

Now some sites are Social Network style but also more or less then real Social Networks and need to be looked at differently. I don't have a easy thought on these however 1 important factor to look into is are there widgets that can be used to keep your other sites updated? For instance not only is Twitter a great tool to stay up to date and keep your fans up to date it can also be integrated into most of your social network profiles.

The biggest things to really pay attention to when looking at expanding your online presence with social media sites are,

What can this site do that others can't?
How much time will this take and do I have that time now and in the future?
How does this site fit into my personal customized career strategy?
Will I look at this as work or fun?

I am sure there are other reasons to think about so why don't you chime in with your own thoughts please.