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Entries in Getting To Know Your Audience (30)

Wednesday
Nov262014

SoundOut, TuneCore Track Smarts, ReverbNation Crowd Review, AudioKite, and Music Xray Compared

This is the story of a mediocre song. An objectively mediocre song. My song. Curse you, data!

If you’re looking for unbiased feedback on your latest track, you’ve got five options. Well, five-ish.

There’s SoundOut, which I wrote about way back in 2010.

Then there’s ReverbNation Crowd Review and TuneCore Track Smarts, both of which are powered by SoundOut.

Are all three SoundOut services the same? We’ll find out.

reviewed AudioKite earlier this year, gushingly. A new and improved version launched just this month.

Finally, Music Xray offers a diagnostics feature, which presents your track to 5 music professionals and 20 potential fans.

Which is right for you?

Time for a good old-fashioned market research shootout!

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
Jun032014

What Artists Should Know About AudioKite

Has this ever happened to you? You think you’ve written your best song yet, but an offhand remark from a friend plunges you into self-doubt. Wouldn’t it help to have feedback from music fans of your genre who have no incentive to sugar-coat their opinions?

Sure, you say! I’ll just use SoundOut, or ReverbNation Crowd Review (also powered by SoundOut). Unfortunately, my experience with SoundOut, and those of most of the commenters, left a lot to be desired. I’ve also received a mostly useless - but free - focus group from Music Xray, and even repurposed Jango aka Radio Airplay to create my own focus group.

AudioKite has built a better mousetrap. Here’s why:

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Nov062013

6 Ways to Get More People to Your Shows

Do you sometimes feel that your band’s draw is languishing? Are you tired of seeing the same people at your shows and want to play to a new crowd, even in your hometown?

If you’re like most musicians, you know that you absolutely can do better, that you have more fans out there than who actually show up at at the venue, and despite always receiving positive feedback, you don’t know why more people aren’t showing up. Here are some tips on building some momentum back into your tour dates so you can increase your band’s draw:

1. Find a Different Angle for The Show: It’s easier to get more people to show up if it’s your band’s first show, when you’re releasing a new album, it’s a tour kick off, or when it’s your final gig. Obviously, it’s because your fans realize those as special occasions and want to be there.

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Monday
Nov042013

MusicThinkTank.com | October's Most Popular Posts

MusicThinkTank.com takes great pride in being a renowned resource for all who comprise today’s music industry. We appreciate the conversations you start, the advice you share, the projects you promote, and the feedback you share and we want to encourage your continued efforts.

Thanks to our loyal readers and contributors, October was a great month for MusicThinkTank.com - so today, we’d like to share that success with you by highlighting October’s most popular posts. On behalf of MusicThinkTank.com, thank you for your support. We enjoy providing a unique platform where the music industry really can think out loud!

Laura Schneider, MusicThinkTank.com Community Manager

34,708   MTT (Journal)
4,685   MTT - 49 Ways to Get Free Music Promotion (Journal Entry)
4,606   MTT Open - 10 Awesome Independent Record Labels [LIST] (Journal Entry)
3,967   MTT - A&R Tips: The Art Of The Press Kit (Journal Entry)
3,755   MTT - Top 10 Rules For Better Songwriting (Journal Entry)

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Thursday
Aug222013

Copy and Waste: Personalizing Artist Outreach for your Business Should Not be Optional! 

Earlier this week I received a typical inquiry in my inbox. We’ve all received these copy and pasted emails - where some poor soul is blasting out to artists just hoping for anyone to reply! I get them a lot and I also delete them A LOT. I usually am not compelled to say a word. But this time I thought maybe I’ll just give my 2 cents… this poor girl has not replied so either she is a robot with very little email response capabilities OR she rolled her eyes and moved on. Probably the latter!

Click to read more ...

Monday
May062013

How Stuff Spreads – Gangnam Style vs. Harlem Shake

In a new study looking at ‘How Stuff Spreads’ Face has identified key components that make things go viral. Looking at the spread on Twitter of two global memes, Gangnam Style vs Harlem Shake, Face discovered eight common characteristics which it says led to them becoming viral phenomena, generating thousands of spin-off versions and billions of views.

The eight common characteristics are:

1. Bursts and Rises: There are 2 models of virality.

The Burstmodel is bottom-up:the variations are more powerful then the original seed and there’s no clear leadership or narrative. The meme relies on community relevance to spread.

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
Jun192012

What if your Band only had One Fan?

What if every band had only one fan? What if live music was no longer available? What if there was no fame or money involved with music? What would you do?

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Friday
Oct282011

How to Communicate With Fans So You Connect With Them (Instead of Bore Them to Tears)

In the same way that there is an art and craft to songwriting, there is also a craft to writing and using language in general. And these word-related skills can play a big part in how effectively you communicate with fans - especially online.

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Oct262011

Do's and Don't's of Social Networking - Know your fans to keep your fans!

So one of the main things I’ve had to learn this year with the rapid advance of social networking as a direct-connect to your fans is this:  DON’T make the mistake of overmarketing to them.

Fans become fans because they LIKE your music, but they are naturally curious about the person behind the music and the LOVE getting to know you even more than they like your music.  This is an incredibly important lesson to learn. Keep in mind that the same should be true for you in order for there to exist a genuine relationship between the two of you…be more interested in learning about and knowing your fans than SELLING to them.  They will buy your music if and only if you’ve established trust and interest with them as an independent artist.  Let’s face it - we’re not Taylor Swift or Beyonce who have had millions of dollars behind developing their brand that is mass-marketed to everyone.  We are independent artists with limited marketing budgets and time and genuine care will go a LONG way in your social networking strategies.

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Thursday
Sep292011

Why Artists Need More Than The Social Web To Obtain Sustainable Engagement

We like to think of the web as one big, endless, interconnected net of relationship fibers where a tug on a single fiber causes random ripples and pulls all across the entire net; that somehow a path will emerge, narrow as it may be, where a ripple can travel from one corner of the net to the other; and that if you - the music marketer - could only simultaneously pull enough social strings, your message would be riding on a magic carpet instead of a string.

However If the ripple effect worked on the social web, then how come artists with hundreds of thousands of followers and many thousands of fans have so much trouble creating sustainable engagement where the ripples are broad enough (to live upon) or at least endless?  Songs often don’t find their intended audiences, seats go unfilled, videos don’t go viral, and messages get quickly swallowed in a sea of social noise.  It happens every day; it happens to almost every artist on earth; and the exceptions are rarer than you think.

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Sep282011

The Right Mindframe for Acquiring Fans

The right mindframe is to “find fans” not to “make fans”. Let me explain.

Click to read more ...

Monday
May162011

3 Musician Marketing Basics: Newsletter, Products & Polls

I’m just back from the mighty ASCAP Expo in Los Angeles. I learned so much from the hundreds of artists I spoke to over the 3 days there and I boarded the plane with a whole new perspective on just how confronting marketing and social media is to 90% of artists. You guys REALLY hate this stuff. You hate it so much that I literally felt like I had been beaten up over the concerns, complaints and sheer confusion directed my way. So I will kick off with this: Making it in music is HARD

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Wednesday
Jan132010

Get Paid in 2010: Want To Increase Your Bottom Line? Focus On Your Fans!

Its here!  A whole new Decade :)

Paying attention to this article could be the difference between you making a little money off of your music in the New Year vs. making A LOT of money!

All of the current news surrounding the music business is still bad news.

But I think that this is a very exciting time to come up with some alternatives and some offerings for your core fanbase that could make you a lot more money.

The first step towards this is building rapport with your email list.

Which comes down to communicating regularly and consistently with your fanbase and then asking them for money only after you have built trust and rapport (when the time is right).

I have seen it thousands of times – artists that misuse their email lists and ONLY reach out to their fans when they have something to SELL them (a show, a new release etc.) but they never reach out to their fans for other reasons: to bond, share a funny story, or invite everyone out to the local bowling alley on a Tuesday night for a hang (I’m serious).

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Nov042009

What are music fans willing to pay for?

I’m not a musician. I’m a fan. And from my perspective, it’s clear that fans do want to support artists that they like. Here’s a list of things that fans will pay for, even if they can get your music for free:

Click to read more ...