Posts tagged with “music biz”
June 03
Myspace & Twitter, according to David Hooper
<p>David Hooper, self-described maestro of music marketing, <a href="http://www.musicmarketing.com/2008/06/myspace-is-dead.html" target="_blank">wrote this article</a>, outlining both the demise of Myspace's worth in music (and thus creative in-general) marketing (yay!), and the rise of Twitter in the same (boo!). </p><p>While I agree that yes, myspace, like any other technology or fad, will fade in its relevence (though who can say at this point what baseline of role-constancy it will hit), I do not agree that Twitter is the "next best thing". No insult to twitter, but it has always seemed to me to be just an annoying form of mass text-messaging. Yes, you can get a one-liner like "I'm hard-boiling eggs right now!" or, more functionally "I just posted a new free song." out to all your "friends" quickly, that's about all its good for. Yes, it seems twitter is the cool thing right now, and yes, that means that you can probably find some way to make it help you market yourself, but: </p><p>1) It's really not all that new. In fact, it's been abuzz in the tech world for over a year already. I might even venture to say it's past it's prime buzz already.</p><p>2) Unless you truly love the idea of being inundated with non-personal messages no longer than an IM line or a text message, then it's actually really annoying and will start making you cringe. </p><p>The point? Yes, like all web and non-web tools, Twitter and Myspace both have their uses, both will have their peak heyday that is the high watermark of their utility, and both could and should be used to market your creative self online...if you have the time to do it right. That's the key with any of this. Do not jump on every bandwagon in the hopes that just being on said bandwagon (no pun intended) will be enough to rocket you to infamy, but really look at what a tool does, and use it appropriately. Just being on Myspace is about as useful as printing a stack of fliers. They're nothing unless you do something with them. Same with Twitter. And I would venture a guess that any of these, if used really to their maximum, can do what you need of them, regardless of the need to catch it at its peak of cool-kid popularity. </p><p>Once again, good ideas David Hooper, but can you stop trying to be such a self-ascribed soothsayer?</p><p><a href="http://www.musicmarketing.com/2008/06/myspace-is-dead.html" target="_blank">» David Hooper's article</a></p> 08:47 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: music-biz, technology, articleMay 29
Oasis CD success story - Juno
<p>An inspirational sort of email I received from Oasis CD (specialize in cheap, quality, environmentally savvy CD manufacturing). From their leader...<span style="font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; color: #333333"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; color: #333333">Have I got a story for you!<br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.oasiscd.com/html_email/images/SunnyD.gif" border="0" alt="Juno" hspace="3" width="214" height="158" align="right" name="Cont_1" />It's about a fabulous Oasis client and how his song "All I Want is You" came to be the centerpiece of the opening sequence of the movie Juno (the extended, hand-animated sequence where she's walking along and drinking SunnyD).<br /> <br /> He's a singer-songwriter named Barry Louis Polisar. He is a very, very nice guy. More to the point, he's a great example of someone who doesn't wait for the world to give him a lucky break in the clichéd "I'm going to be a rock-star someday" style. Instead, he shows up for every gig on time, he tracks down every lead. He self-publishes. He performs at schools and libraries all the way from his hometown near Washington, DC to Fairbanks, Alaska. He really, truly, keeps himself open for opportunity to come his way. And it does.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; color: #333333"> <br /> <img src="http://www.oasiscd.com/html_email/images/JunoDVD.gif" border="0" alt="Juno DVD" hspace="2" vspace="4" width="110" height="150" align="left" name="Cont_2" />Now, after a lot of years in the business, he is suddenly, and on an impressive scale, truly an "overnight" success. Here's how it happened. <br /> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; color: #333333"><br /> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; color: #333333">Barry manufactured several CD titles in the Micah-running-things-out-of-his-basement days of Oasis. For each title he qualified, like all Oasis clients, for our <a name="11a360d722f5785c_Oasis_TOP" href="http://links.mkt845.com/ctt?kn=7&m=108738&r=NDAyMTMxNjYS1&b=0&j=NTI5NDg4NAS2&mt=1" target="_blank">Tools of Promotion</a> program: radio broadcast promotion, Brick & Mortar distribution, and more. But he was such an early client of Oasis, we hadn't added the iTunes/online component of the program yet.</span></p><p> </p> <p><span style="font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; color: #333333">When we did, and he heard about it, he sent us a nice note asking if he could get certificates for all his titles retroactively – the hand-embossed pieces of paper that, back then, we would have required to get into the online part of our program. <br /> <br /> Now a lot of people would just chalk their timing up to bad luck, and assume a company, even Oasis, would leave them in the lurch. But because Barry had faith and wrote us such a nice note, I went to the mailroom (AKA, my living room), got out the embosser, and hand-made five certificates for Barry and put them in the mail. <br /> <br /> Fast-forward 7 years... Jason Reitman, the director of the movie Juno, is trolling through iTunes, where Barry is featured, thanks to those retroactive Oasis Tools of Promotion certificates. Reitman mis-types the title of a song he thinks he wants for the film and hears Barry's song instead. He emails Barry and asks if he can use it for the film. One hit movie, 600,000 soundtrack copies, and a flood of worldwide licensing requests later, and there's your happy ending to this very nifty story.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; color: #333333"><br /> <img src="http://www.oasiscd.com/html_email/images/Micah.jpg" border="0" alt="Micah Solomon" vspace="6" width="76" height="103" name="Cont_4" /><br /> <strong>Micah Solomon </strong><br /> <em>President and Founder<br /> </em>Oasis Disc Manufacturing</span></p><p> </p> 04:57 PM | 3 Comments | Tags: article, music bizMay 22
Derek Severs - how to call attention to your music
This just came into my inbox from the founder of CDBaby, Derek Severs. If you're starting out in any creative/entertainment industry (though this document is targeted at music), or if you're wondering how to get to the next level, these are all great tips. <blockquote><p>From Derek's mouth: </p><p>In a quick light-hearted read, you will learn:<br /> * how to call attention to your music<br /> * how to get in Rolling Stone or play the biggest club in town<br /> * why persistence is polite<br /> * how to sell an average of 5 CDs per order<br /> * why marketing costs nothing<br /> * how two curious words can turn your career around<br /> * the biggest mistake most musicians make<br /> <br /> This is my best advice to help every musician sell more music, win more fans, and have the music business open its doors for you.<br /> <br /> I kept everything intentionally non-genre-specific, so the same tips apply to country, klezmer, and classical.<br /> <br /> I'm always trying to make it easier for musicians to make a living making music, so I hope this helps.</p></blockquote> 01:08 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: article, advice, music biz, publishingMay 15
Music-making articles by Derek Severs (CDBaby)
<p>Derek Severs, founder of CDBaby.com has been posting articles about navigating the music industry these days. He's always been very helpful and successful with other artists, so I'm sure they're worth a read. From his email: </p><p>Please click this link first (so it knows who you are)<br /> <a href="http://sivers.org/c/36085/IrzU" target="_blank">http://sivers.org/c/36085/IrzU</a><br /> <br />Whatever scares you or excites you, go do it<br /> <a href="http://sivers.org/scares-excites-do-it" target="_blank">http://sivers.org/scares-excites-do-it</a><br /> <br /> What's really keeping you from where you need to be? (It's not piracy.)<br /> <a href="http://sivers.org/pigs-sharks" target="_blank">http://sivers.org/pigs-sharks</a><br /> <br /> Never have a limit on your income<br /> <a href="http://sivers.org/nolimit" target="_blank">http://sivers.org/nolimit</a><br /> <br /> If I had a record label, would you be signed to it?<br /> <a href="http://sivers.org/label-list" target="_blank">http://sivers.org/label-list</a><br /> <br /> How would microcredit work for musicians?<br /> <a href="http://sivers.org/microcredit-q" target="_blank">http://sivers.org/microcredit-q</a></p> 01:42 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: article, advice, music bizApril 25