One example worth considering is the FANtastic4Bands music app builder. What I like about this tool is that you don’t need any computer coding skills to build your app and it’s really easy to use and update. And to top it off, it’s free.  It includes:

• Simple drag-and-drop design
• Tour schedule sharing
• Fan engagement through live Q&A chats and Twitter
• Direct-to-fan music sales
• Direct-to-fan merchandise sales

How is it free?  The app  includes embedded targeted ads and links – a fair compromise considering what a band gets.  A $49/year premium version offers a few premium features, and a $499/year premium version is ad-free and band-branded. Definitely an option worth trying out.  (By the way, they’re running a contest on their Facebook page where they’re giving away microphones.)

Start building a mobile experience for your fans today.  There are plenty of mobile apps to choose from.  Good luck!

***

Wheng Enojo is a writer, inspirer, and life-enhancer. Currently, she is exploring and enjoying the world of DIY mobile apps as her newest hobby.

How far a stretch is it?  Less than you think.  Much of what you’re doing now can easily translate into corporate social media bullshit buzz speak for your shiny, new resume.  And if you’ve been keeping up with the likes of Hypebot, Bob Baker, Sound Advice, and DIY Musician, you’re especially good to go.  Just add the letter “R” to “band” to create “brand”, polish the ol’ resume with a little smoke’n'mirror magic, and get ready to update your ‘corporate casual’ wardrobe.

Here are some helpful examples to help get you started:

“Dude, I manage my band’s Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Pinterest stuff” translates to:

“Manage  brand community monitoring, engagement, and expansion initiatives.”

“So, I sell CDs at the merch table and on CD Baby” translates to:

“Manage social distribution channels via integrated offline and online channels.”

“I stand outside of radio stations, faking “accidental” encounters with DJs leaving the building, sneaking thumb drives with our music into their pockets” translates to:

“Build strategic relationships with key influencers to extend brand reach and message.”

“I post pictures, videos, and updates from every party, gig, outing, arresting, and blackout we’ve ever been involved in” translates to:

“Manage content marketing program to drive word of mouth exposure to Brand assets and Brand message.”

Marketing is all about hype, buzz, translation, targeting, and spin.  You too can live the dream and wear dress pants every weekday of your life.   Just be careful what you wish for. ;)

Youtube is growing.  No, really FAST.

• YouTube now generates 4 billion views per day, a 30% increase in the past six months.
• It’s got 800m unique monthly users.
• 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute.

Youtube has new TOOLS for ARTISTS.

• Multiple new site templates are available to choose from.
• The new Youtube Merch Store plugs into 3rd party services such as iTunes, Google Music, Amazon, Songkick and Topspin among other services, to enable artists to sell, well, merch.

Youtube will be monitoring, managing, and MONETIZING consumer generated media more tightly.

• Youtube’s Audio ID / Content ID technology identifies videos that use other artists’ songs.  (Labels can pay to use it, and extract licensing revenues in doing so.)
• Youtube’s Melody ID technology can match “cover song” melodies to existing original songs.  (Again, Labels can pay to use it, and extract licensing revenues to do so.)
• Youtube recently acquired Rightsflow, a licensing and royalty service provider that enables artists and labels to secure rights to music for various media.

Youtube advice to artists…

• Make playlists.
• Shoot videos when touring.
• Video-announce news like tour dates and releases.
• Collaborate with other artists.
• Youtube’s algorithm rewards more frequent uploads, high volumes of likes/shares/comments/etc.  Keep this in mind when creating content.
• Professional quality does not necessarily mean success.  “Raw”, ‘honest’ video can to well when appropriate.

There you have it.  Progressive labels and artists are starting to dedicate entire departments to creating, deploying, sharing, promoting, monitoring, and engaging video content. How can you leverage these new tools to promote your music?

Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Gollum Pez dispenser heads in a box.  Tolkien would be pleased, I’m sure.  Now the question — open and eat, or store and hoard?

A ton of your potential fans consume music and video concurrently.  If your content focus is on digital downloads and albums only, you’re missing a huge opportunity to reach your fans in a unique (most bands don’t do this yet) and relevant (if your fans like video, you should be creating video) way.

Here’s a slice of an online music info graph from Grovo (a site that “teaches people how to use the internet”…one of the more lame and uninspired taglines I’ve seen in a while) that shares some evidence along these lines:

Be sure to ask yourself:  Am I creating the right content that’s reaching the right fans at the touch points most relevant to them?   If the answers is “yes”, please share what you’re doing below!  If the answer is ‘no’, spend some serious time with your bandmates brainstorming some ways you can.

The BIG question:  What should the name of the YouTube channel be?  (Pick 1 or 2)

The other big question:  Sure, it might be a fun endeavor for kicks.  But would any YouTuber care to watch?  Let me know what you think.

Why creating a Google+ (Plus) Page is a no-brainer:

• It’s way to early to predict whether or not Google+ will build up a critical mass of followers, but it’s Google.  Don’t ignore it.
• Google search results are likely to weigh Google+ profiles heavily in search engine results.  It’s an easy way to get your band, your band’s music, your band’s videos, and your band’s witticisms indexed immediately within Google.  (Google+ Direct Connect is a hint of what’s to come.)
• Google Plus enables you to actually communicate with your fans more directly and in more ways than does Facebook.
• Google Plus allows you to segment and organize your fan base into circles — friends, family, strangers, groupies, you name it.
• At the very least, it’s another opportunity to generate a free link to your other band properties for a little SEO love.
• It’ll take five minutes.  Step away from your preamp and create Google+ magic while you down a doughnut.

Why it’s semi-brain dead:

• There is currently no way to add your music to your Google+ page, which kind of defeats its usefulness for bands.  However, I’m sure all the big players (ReverbNation, SoundCloud, RouteNote, Nimbit, etc) are hard at work creating a Band App that will plugin.
• You can’t sync with your YouTube account. However, you CAN upload your music videos separately.
• Very few people are using it yet.  But again, it’s early — don’t hold it against Google just yet.

How to create your Google+ (Plus) Band Page:

1.  Pick a Google account to use. If you’re like me, you may have several.  For example, I have one for my personal self, and another for my GarageSpin alter ego.  Do I create a Google+ Band Page using my personal account, or my band account?  It’s a simple decision, but will impact 1) what contacts you’ll be able to easily import at the outset, 2) where email notifications regarding Band Page engagement will be sent, and 3) how many Google+ profiles you’ll be forced to manage.

Once you move forward, changing your mind will be a hassle, so choose what will work most conveniently for you.  (Creating a band page in Facebook required first creating a personal account, then using that account to create a Facebook Page. A slightly different process.)

Oh, and if you don’t have one yet, create a Google account here.

2. Go to to the Google+ Pages site. This is where Google+ (Plus) Pages can be created for businesses, products, celebrities (i.e. you), and all sorts of craziness.  Click on the “Create Your Google+ page” button once you’re there.

3.  Pick a Category. The “Arts, Entertainment, or Sports” category seems to be most relevant, currently.  Moving your mouse over the button reveals that the category is appropriate for “films, TV, music, books, sports, shows.”  “Band” isn’t listed, but “music” is.  Close enough.  Select it.

4.  Enter your Page Name. On the “Add Your Info” page, you’ll probably want to use your band’s name as the Page Name, unless you have some very creative, wacky, or unique name you’d like to insert instead.

5. Enter your Website Name. Enter the URL that serves as your band’s primary “home base”.  For me, it’s GarageSpin.com.  For you, it might be a social network site, or something else.  (Beware of entering your band’s Facebook band page, Google may not find that very funny.)

6.  Select a Sub Category. One of the options in the dropdown box is “Music Band”.  I’m not sure why Google thought it necessary to clarify a ‘music’ band as opposed to some other kind of band, but such is how their classification schema works.  Select “Music Band”.

7.  Check both check boxes, and click on Create. After reading the Terms of Service, of course.  (We all always do that, don’t we?  Not.)  Some day in the future, you may find it informative to check out the Google+ Pages Contest and Promotion Policies, which, if they’re anything like Facebook Pages’ promotion policies, they’ll change monthly.)

8.  Add a short tagline. Be brilliant in 10 words.  Or be lazy like me — I just recycled my blog’s tagline.

9.  Pick a profile photo. Your call.   Upload a band photo?  An album cover?  A cow?  Be unique and brilliant.  Or be like me, and use the web camera to snap a shot of your over-tired mugshot.

10.  You’re done.  Go forth and prosper. Google+ gives you an ugl,y non-vanity URL that’s impossible to remember.  (I now tell all my friends, “Hey, you can check out my Google Plus Band Page at https://plus.google.com/114814280998470069863!”).  That will hopefully change.

You can now 1) add a link or button to your Google+ (Plus) Band Page, 2) build your circles by spamming all your friends with circle invites, and 3) create “Hangouts” (very cool), and a bunch of other stuff Google is capable of.

Good luck, and have fun.  Be sure to connect with me at my GarageSpin Google+ Band Page.

If you can explain why — perhaps a Google algorithm change?  a once high-ranking post no longer carrying weight? — I will send you the first copy of my very next song to you for free.  (Perhaps posting less than once a month contributed to the drop..?)  Ah well.  I usually try not to think too much about traffic, SEO, and rankings, but yeesh, that’s the most dramatic dip I’ve seen since I launched the blog in 2005…  Onwards and upwards.

[UPDATE:  Here's one theory and another theory.  Many seem to be confused and bewildered as I am.]

I wouldn’t normally waste my time on such a boring post, but I’ve got a minute to kill, so hey.  MySpace occasionally sends email notifications alerting me every time someone sends me a message.  (But the email NEVER tells you what the message is, which is incredibly annoying.  99% of the time, it’s just a band using software to boost its friend base.  I no longer bother reading messages.)

So today, fed up, I finally decided to turn notifications off, and clicked on the link in the email titled:

“To turn off notifications, update your account settings.“

However, doing so takes you to a page that says:

The Occupy Wall Street movement is pretty impressive, growing from a mere 1,000 protesters in New York City to 15,000, plus thousands more in cities in over 25 different countries.  Cardboard boxes, pepper spray, celebrity visits, union participation, arrests, Reddit support, and lobbyist nightmares are all part of the story, and good stories inspire songs, some good, some bad.

Here are a couple Occupy Wall Street protest ditties circulating YouTube currently, answering the question WWBDD (What Would Bob Dylan Do).  Sort of.  What do you think?  Inspired and provocative or bandwagon-jumping and opportunistic?

“Occupy Wall Street” by Jeremy Gilchrist

This guy’s got a nice voice, and seems a little more serious about the issues…

“Occupy Wall Street Protest Song” by Remi

Remi always makes me laugh.  If you’re a “The Times They Are a-Changin’” fan, you may like this as well.

“Occupy Wall Street” by FacingMecca

Way to throw down, FM.

“Smile” by Jay Samel

Who’s the guy who keeps creepily whispering “the 99%”..?