Should you wish to contact me, please do so, I’ll get back ASAP, which means hours, not seconds or weeks!

New look website too :-) xXx

@BandPromotion - tweeps

The Melody Muse Olga Polomoshnova

There used to be a goddess presiding over the online Magazine come blog, Rock Britain called Olga Polomoshnova; a Moscow based music writer and journalist, who caught my eye while I was talking with Wolf Club Lunar Society quite a while ago now. Very sadly Olga is giving Rock Britain a break! She luvs ice hockey.

I loved Polomoshnova’s article, Top 5 Bands To Watch Out For In 2014 - (My personal choice was Dead Sons (they cease to exist) - Gasoline (#3). They were the only band that made my desk shake when listening - Plus, they’ve got a powerful and ’sleazy’ rock sound, that was made mainstream by the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster & Kasabian; toned-down, radio-friendly with added metal and a mix of 21st century. They were unable to carry on the trend (and promise) of making even mightier music - pity). She luvs figure skating.

Rock Britain was a hand-crafted independent blog about British music, written with a genuine love and passion for music. I assume RockBritain.com has been going since around July 2011 - reading through archives has always been My Passion. Obviously the focus was on British rock music, we all know rock is a massive genre, Polomoshnova eloquently introduced her readers to artists, musicians and bands from underground to mainstream, from the indie rock scene to hardcore and thrash - Really hope Olga Polomoshnova is able to carry on sometime soon in the future. She luvs football.

UnsignedBandPromotion are always on the look out for interesting and serious music blogs I can recommend to my followers - Rock Britain definitely fitted into that category. From my point-of-view, it’s gratifying to Google a band, and find they have a write-up that answers a few questions.

For those who like their music British and real. She luvs music.

If you are in a band and need some free advice on your website promotion, just ask :-)

Please feel free to contact me, if you need any band website promotion help - I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Much Love to you all xXx

Over the past few weeks I’ve been helping an old and dear friend with her website promotion - Hilary runs and owns The Antiques Warehouse. The Antiques Warehouse (AW) is a ’small’ antiques business, and even though it’s been operating since 1995, Hilary hasn’t really fully embraced the social media. I’ve recently set up a Twitter page for her - I’ll encourage and help her to sort out a Facebook page later.

Since I started helping bands with their website promotion in 2004, I have found the differences between promoting a business website and a musician’s website extremely interesting - Independent artists, musicians and bands do need to put in a little more creative sales effort! On the other hand, small businesses need to become slightly less focused on selling and concentrate more on just connecting with people.

When I first created the AW Twitter page (@AntiquesFarnham) and started following other antique establishments, in the hope they would follow back, I began receiving direct messages from TrueTwit:
“@Bla-di-bla, uses TrueTwit validation service. To validate click here: TrueTwit.com/1234Link.”
I had discovered TrueTwit validation, and as I unfollowed them I thought, what a dreadful first impression, what a social media branding blunder, what utter nonsense. I advise you NOT to use TrueTwit, however, I’ve never met a musician that does and maybe that says something?

As a footnote, TrueTwit validation service is meant to stop Twitter spam, confirm people aren’t robots and save you time. I’ve found the opposite is true, and that the people who use TrueTwit are usually spammers, spamming their fucking eBay & Etsy websites.

Chris Seth Jackson of @HowToRunABand has written three extremely useful articles named: How To Create A Band Website With WordPress.

Seth is experimenting in music marketing with a real band, Shiplosion and he’s doing it from scratch. And along the way he’s blogging, podcasting, video-blogging… well, you name it he’s doing it, to inform and teach you all the tricks of how to run a band! Is he a Seattle Seahawks fan?

So, as I heartily recommend new bands to get themselves a WordPress blog/website, have a gander:

1. How To Create A Band Website With WordPress: Part 1: Domain, Hosting, and E-Mail
2. How To Create A Band Website With WordPress: Part 2: Installing WordPress
3. How To Create A Band Website With WordPress: Part 3: Themes

#LibreRock @LibreRocks The Open Source Independent Record Label - LibreRock Records Have Got Themselves a Fresh & Sweet New Look Website - I like it Matt :)

Your band’s Twitter account isn’t really the same as your personal Twitter account, it should be much more productive and engaging - You are entertainers.

This post is also about the people who you should follow (opposites, if you get my drift), and they should be friendly, interactive and informative tweeps.

• Unfollow everyone with a Verified Account (identified by a white tick on light blue rosette), like: https://twitter.com/JimiHendrix - They hardly ever follow back or interact - they are only interested in themselves.
• Unfollow everyone with Twitter’s own egg avatar, because they’re limp & lazy, like: https://twitter.com/WhiteStripe - No avatar, No follow. Also ignore the sexy girls in bikinis, if you can!
• Unfollow everyone without a Profile Bio, like: https://twitter.com/AtlBluesSociety - They’re not just lazy, they’re usually fake!
• Unfollow everyone with foreign or strange symbols in their Profile Bio, like: https://twitter.com/Rock_Bar_Garage - A contentious, politically correct issue? Maybe. But why would you follow someone who you do not understand? Also a sign of a spammer/ scammer/ Fake/Bot.
• Unfollow everyone with an odd, problematic and conflicting Username (@Moftyr369) and Profile Name (Mick Jagger) combination - If you don’t understand the connection between the two, then something is wrong. They’re a Fake/Bot.
• Unfollow everyone with an inactive account (less than 50 Tweets or hasn’t tweeted for 60 days) - they are lazy or defunct accounts. Watch out for new accounts!
• Unfollow everyone with a strange follower::following ratio. Usually there is a large disparity between who they follow (usually very low) and who follows them (usually very high), like: https://twitter.com/MercuryPrize - They’re not going to follow you, if they just did, they’ll unfollow! Also, zero (very low) followers, but following 2001 commonly indicates a fake account.
• Unfollow everyone with a strange tweet::follow ratio. Zero tweets, very bizarre - A repulsive and Fake account! Generally it’s the other way round with too many tweets.
• Unfollow everyone with unintelligible tweets::tweeting patterns. Genuine people who are worth following tend to follow a recognisable theme - People who are not worth following repeatedly tweet bollocks of the day.
• Unfollow everyone who tweets the same “reply” to @everybody Check out my music video and share: http://www.youtube.com/… - They’re Spammers.
• Unfollow everyone who doesn’t interact with other people. Typically it’s a “quote of the day” scenario, but equally it could be a too much automation and synchronisation with Facebook, YouTube or WordPress: fb.me/… youtu.be/… wp.me/… - The spammers are self-promoting and not using Twitter!
• Don’t be tempted to follow people who Favorite or Retweet your tweets but who don’t already follow you.

The duffers are easy to spot because they will frequently fall into more than one of the above categories. Of course there is a proviso… Some of these people who I’m telling you to unfollow may turn out to be your friends, and you really Do want to follow them. That’s okay. However, it may be a good idea for you to follow them from your own personal account, if you’ve got one!

When someone follows you, follow them back (unless you think they’re fake accounts) and try to keep some sort of parity between Followers and Following. And above all, endeavour to build real relationships with people :)

Resources - to keep track of what’s going on:

justunfollow.com - General Twitter tracking tool

unfollowers.me - General Twitter tracking tool

untweeps.com - Unfollow inactive Twitter users

Love it Andy :) x

On the album: Gypsies, Heroes, Pirates & Beggars: A Science Fiction Story

However, on reflection, I have got to decline the tempting invitation, because I haven’t got time to write for myself! Blogging, as informative content creation, is such a time consuming taskmaster. Sorry, but LibreRock Records and UnsignedBandPromotion must come first. Being independent means taking responsibility for yourself, and that’s what I’ve got to do!

Find, support and follow Chartburst on Twitter and Chartburst on Facebook - Good Luck Francis.

Anyway, How To Become A Successful Independent Recording Artist WAS destined for Chartburst; I’m sure Francis will be pleased that I posted it here instead.

“How do I become a successful independent recording artist?” is just the sort of puerile question a schoolboy would Google right after he had Googled, “How do I get a girlfriend?” I can hardly believe someone posed this innocent question so sincerely to me. But they did, and I can’t believe that I am actually going to genuinely bother to answer it. I’ll not over inflate the article with fluff, and as a convention, I’ll use “artist” meaning artist, musician, band, etc….

Firstly, at what point would you say, “I have become a successful indie artist?” Here are a couple of my favourite answers: 1. When I can jack in the day job and earn a living playing music. 2. When the mainstream media starts to take notice. I’m sure you’ve got your own individual answer, maybe it’s relative to the artist? Set your goals - and maybe that’s too unfluffy for you!

How good at doing it are you?

It’s my belief that if an artist wants to become a success on the music scene and make a living from their music, the most important area to get right is their musicianship and stage act (Music and Performance). This is The Core Essential and best indicator of whether you are going to make it or not.

Seek criticism and advice from an independent and qualified person whose opinion you value and trust. Then act on their advice and continue to seek their feedback for continuity. I am Not talking about crowd-sourced, public opinion here; I am talking about a qualified individual who can tell you the truth.

Do you have a Business Plan?

To make a money out of your music, you need a Business Plan - talent is sometimes (usually) not enough! Running a business is a big subject, too big for this blog post anyway; it includes: finances, technology, marketing & PR, sales, staff, regulations & legal stuff - and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, off the top of my head!

Being an independent artist doesn’t mean you that have to do everything yourself, you will need professional help and advice - maybe it’s an accountant or maybe it’s a website designer? Find the right professional for the job. There are a number of music industry pros. worth contacting, here’s a list: 22 champions of the independent music community - one should be able to set you on the right path. Personally, I’d start off by talking to a specialist music industry accountant.

How do you connect with people?

The third element in this trilogy is Connectivity. Actually it’s a subsection within business - Marketing and PR. It is how you connect with people and how you get them to take notice. It’s being on the same wavelength as the person with whom you are talking, it’s empathy and rapport. It’s marketing - bringing yourself to the attention and consciousness of your potential fans. Yet another massive subject, however, it’s a key factor in becoming a successful indie artist. Talk to LibreRock Records for some personalised information and help.

So there you have it, a simple, candid answer to a puerile question! The Three Core Essentials are: Music and Performance, Business and Connectivity - get them all right and you’ll do okay …even though in reality, the odds are set against you ;)