6 ways to create more consistent content.

As someone who’s been writing both songs and articles since January of this year — and moved halfway across the country, and survived a shooting, and started working twice as many hours — I have discovered the wonders of burnout.

 

Lately, I just haven’t felt inspired. Only a few days since I have been in Boulder have I had an influx of ideas that I vomited onto the computer screen. So much has happened since March, yet my Muse idly sits in the grass, unwilling to budge.

 

Any creative will become intimate with burnout. The creative process reaches a plateau similar to what Seth Godin calls “The Dip,” and everything begins to feel stagnant and tiring. The office cubicle you longed to escape becomes the creative rut you long to escape.

Click to read more ...

The Music Industry’s Guide To Content Marketing

Many marketers are calling 2016 the year of Content Marketing. It’s the hottest conversation starter amongst media folks. But is the music industry plugged into this chatter? With the Content Marketing industry expected to balloon to over $5 Billion in 2016, the answer should be definitively ‘yes’. Unfortunately, the Music industry tends to fall behind the curve of innovative digital trends. Don’t know where to begin? Check out these tips below to jumpstart your content strategy and stay ahead of the game.

Click to read more ...

The 5 Most Annoying, Ineffective Ways That Bands Seem to Always Promote Their Music

This article originally appeared on the Sonicbids blog.

We wholly recommend promoting your band on social media (duh). It’s easily the best way to maintain and grow your following, and it’s arguably eclipsed flyering as the most reliable way to announce a show and reel in a crowd. What we can’t advocate, however, is being obnoxious about it. We’ve all had our nerves grated by someone’s promo. No matter how alluring or special the artwork, there are certain marketing moves you just shouldn’t make online.

Click to read more ...

Why Email Newsletters Are Still a Vital Marketing Tool for Musicians

This post originally appeared on the Bandzoogle blog. Dave Cool is the Director of Artist Relations for musician website & marketing platform Bandzoogle. Twitter: @Bandzoogle | @dave_cool

“Email newsletters, an old-school artifact of the web that was supposed to die along with dial-up connections, are not only still around, but very much on the march.”

That quote is from a recent New York Times article “For Email Newsletters, a Death Greatly Exaggerated”. We thought it was a good time to reiterate why we think email newsletters are still one of the most effective promotional tools for musicians today, which is also why Bandzoogle continues to offer a mailing list tool with all of our plans:

5 Solid Reasons to Use Email Newsletters

1) You own the list

For bands that have been around since MySpace was still a thing, remember all those fans you had? Well, MySpace owned their data, not you. If you didn’t get them signed-up to your mailing list, chances are you lost contact with many of them when you had to start over on Facebook.

Click to read more ...

Why You Should Get Partners Instead of Sponsors

When most people who want sponsorships think about their ultimate goal, it involves money. They’re looking for someone to fund their event, to pay for their tour, to raise money for their charity, and so on. When many business think about sponsoring someone, it ultimately involves money as well: even if it is an incredible cause, at the end of the day, they want to know how sponsoring will help them get more customers. Each party treats the sponsorship as a transaction. However, I believe it is important to shift the definition from “a cash and/or in-kind fee paid to a property (typically sports entertainment, non-profit event, or organization) in return for access to the exploitable, commercial potential associated with that property” (IEG, 2000) to something more equitable: a partnership.

Click to read more ...

Blogging Sucks

Some artists are just good at Social Media, and some artists even love interacting with other people. In my lectures & panels around the world I have always told musicians Twitter is a medium which works best for an artist who enjoys going to the merch table at the end of a show, shaking hands (a bottle of anti-bac in pocket) and signing vinyl, possibly even breasts. But for creative introverts, Social Media is a dish best served cold.

For those who don’t reside in the digital media bubble, blogging is still an abstract verb looming over the undercurrent of social media nuisances interrupting the daily routine of an otherwise productive artist.

Click to read more ...

The Music Marketing Manifesto. Ten Principles For Success

1. Write, record and play high quality music

It seems like an obvious thing to say, but everything starts & ends with the music. If the songs are poor, the recording is bad, and the live show is dull don’t expect to make a living from music.

2. Continue to only deal in high quality

Some of the best new bands and artists are let down by terrible videos, bad photography and shocking design. Yes it is fickle, but judging a book by it’s cover is a reality. When you are choosing which artist to review, book, or even sign you are invariably drawn to the most attractive presentation. So why not increase your chances of being heard? Remember, you can have the best music in the world but if nobody listens ,you get nowhere.

Click to read more ...

6 Key Tactics For Organic Success on Youtube From Hip-Hop Artist Rob Scott

This article was written by our intern Benjy Jean Baptiste about his own experience as an artist manager.

For independent artists, Youtube can be one of the most powerful platforms available for promotion and exposure. Of course, it is also one of the most difficult platforms to garner any significant growth and attention.

This challenge was no different for 23 year old hip-hip artist, and Brooklyn native Rob Scott.

As his manager, it was my job to figure out how to bring his dream to fruition. Without any assistance from record labels, we began to effectively use YouTube as a platform to get Rob Scott noticed.

Within the first couple of months, it was painful to notice that his long nights in the studio would only result in his songs receiving 11 views. To make matters worst, the 11 views I am speaking about came from the friends and family that was in the studio with him.

Click to read more ...

Nagivating #SXSW: Advice from the Streets of Austin - RECAP + More

This SXSW series was put together by Jon Ostrow (@jon_ostrow), Campaigns Director of Cyber PR.

Though our time in Austin has come to an end, we still have a bit more to share… 

Our final day at SXSW was once again packed with top notch events, showcases and of course people, all the while grabbing nuggets of advice along the way. 

Click to read more ...

YouTube's Dirty Little Secret

Ever spotted a terrible video on YouTube with an inconceivably high view count? Of course you have. Would it make you feel better knowing that most of those “views” were completely automated and only lasted 30 seconds with the sound turned off?

Click to read more ...

The Ultimate Musician's Guide to Tumblr

I’ve briefly touched on the importance of Tumblr in other posts, but I’ve yet to dive into what exactly Tumblr can do for your band’s promotion efforts. This ultimate guide will hold your hand through the sign-up process and take you all the way through to a point where you can use Tumblr DAILY to promote your music and gain new fans. Before you know it, your micro-blogging platform will be a major part of your promotion efforts.

Click to read more ...

Building Context for Your Creative Work

Why do you make music? Write books? Make films? You might know, you might not. Either way, you do it for a specific reason. Maybe it’s to explore. Maybe it’s to affect other people. Maybe it’s to inject a little fun and excitement into your life.

That reason gives your creative work context. So does your interest in sharing what you do. If you share your work with your family, that’s context. If you share it with your friends and acquaintances, that’s context, too. If you share it with everyone you can, every chance you get, like an Energizer Bunny of sharing, that’s context, as well. And if you keep it to yourself? That is a context all its own.

Click to read more ...

Boosting Views on Your Videos and Engagement with Your Fans

I’m about to leave for tour with my band . However, I thought I’d share my newest idea for boosting traffic on videos and increasing engagement with fans. Specifically, I’m talking about the videos that our band creates while we’re on tour. In the past, we’ve had a partner sponsor our tour video blogs: we would do shout-out’s, promote their brand, they would get a link with every video, etc. This tour, we’re trying something different.

On this upcoming tour, our band is going to sponsor a different non-profit organization, charity, or Kickstarter project with every video. Here’s a step-by-step to what we’re doing:

Click to read more ...

How To Make Your Facebook Timeline POP!

There is a fabulous feature that will help you highlight the things that happen throughout your life an career that you would like to post onto your Facebook Page.

This is a phenomenal tool for going back in time and recording important things in the history of your personal life, your band life, or anything you would like to have highlighted.

For artists that have histories with other bands this is doubly amazing because you can go back and create milestones for practically anything, and really build your story.

Click to read more ...