How Do YOU Fit Into Culture? or... Content Marketing: Finding Your Niche

How Do You Fit Into Culture? Not your band. Not your music. YOU. The individual behind the music. You are unique. You have individual tastes, interests, passions, and hobbies. Now… think for a moment. If you were to talk about a diverse subject matter on your blog (rather than just your music), and in your videos, in your photos, and in your tweets… you can attract an entirely new audience, which you never thought you could have access to.

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Episode 7: The Music Biz Weekly Podcast E-Commerce Solutions For Bands

Here we go folks, another edition of our weekly podcast featuring Brian Thompson from Thorny Bleeder and Michael Brandvold from Michael Brandvold Marketing.

This week’s topic? E-Commerce Solutions for Bands. 

We discuss everything from getting your music up on iTunes and the Amazon MP3 Store, in addition to options on how to handle your merchandise sales and email marketing campaigns.

What platforms are you using to sell your band’s music and merch?

Be sure to follow Brian on Twitter here and Michael on Twitter here.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and share your own tips and tricks with us!

Brian Thompson

Thorny Bleeder

A Lesson in Music Industry Success Prevention.

If your ship came in, would you be smart and frugal enough to ship out on it or simply shit on it? Let’s keep in mind how hard it is to monetize music these days…

If a recording artist could invest $1000 to make between $10K and $70K in 4 months, would he turn it down? Even if you could invest $1000 for the following exposure for your debut CD, with no real guesstimates on download sales, would you turn it down?

Here’s one recording artist who did.

What would you have done if such an offer, like the one briefly described above, dropped out of the sky nine months after you:

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Ten Tips For Do-It-Yourself PR and Publicity For Bands

1. Learn how to sell yourself.  Want media coverage? Ask.  Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and ask to speak to the person in editorial who handles music or entertainment.

2. Be Creative.  News doesn’t happen.  News is created… and develop a sense of humor, especially about yourself.  If they’re laughing, they’re listening.  Let’s be real… you’re playing music, not curing cancer.  Try not to be so serious, but don’t be a buffoon either. 

3. Grammar. Learn how to spell and know the fundamentals of grammar.  (Use the spellchecker).

4. Proofread your work.  Then have someone else proofread your work… and then have someone else proofread your work.  Then let it ‘marinate’ for a few hours or overnight.  You’ll be amazed at how many spelling and/or grammatical errors will appear, as well as glaringly required edits, when you come back to it with fresh eyes.  Sloppy, incoherent press releases or introductory pitch letters will result in their instant deletion.  You only get one chance to make a first impression. 

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How NOT to Social Network

Myspace, as a medium for social networking, is useless. The signal to noise ratio has plummeted so low that there is essentially no point in trying to reach fans through MySpace. It’s all comment spam, automatic “friending” programs, and bots. Most myspace comment boards look like this:

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10 Essential Tips For Musicians To Improve Their Facebook Page

Facebook Pages are the most effective way for musicians to get their name out there. While each application has its own stand out features there can be some overlap between what each application offers. Choose the apps you use wisely, you don’t want to hit your fans with information overload and leave them overwhelmed and unlikely to return to your page. Whether you use one application - or a combination of a few of them - make sure your fan page stays well-organized and users can easily find what they’re looking for without searching through a bunch of clutter. After all, wasn’t that was wrong with a majority of MySpace pages?

1. Promote Outside Content

Your fan page is a great place to aggregate all the content you’ve created on the various social networks you belong to. Your fan page can be the ultimate destination for your fans to find your tweets, blog posts, and even other people who have acknowledged your work. 

Here are a few ways you can share your content with your fan base:

Sync your Twitter account with your Facebook page. This will save you the hassle of having to update Facebook AND Twitter. There are a few different options out there that will automatically update your Facebook page with your Tweets but one of the most popular is the official Twitter application. If you would like control over which Tweets are posted to Facebook try using Selective Twitter which will only upload Tweets to Facebook that end with “#fb”.

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Who Do We Reward More, The Best or The Most Visible?

Since you’ve been reading my blog and know how I roll, you can probably figure this one out. (Read this  fantastic post by Eric Barker for the science.)

The most visible are consistently more rewarded than their performance merits.

That’s why Nickleback has sold over 6 million albums. They’re everywhere, whether you like it or not. Magazines, blogs, radio, tv, etc. Pretty much everyone knows about them. Yuck.

So what’s going on here? Why is this? Is this a giant troll that the world is going to unveil in a few years? (a la Andy Kaufman’s style).

Nope. Once again the peculiar human brain is at work.

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Intriguing SXSW - Attaching Yourself to the Known

Got back home, a song repeating in my head so i head to my nearest music service, this being Youtube.  I type in the bands abbreviation[it’s a long band name], knowing that what i am after will come up.  I’ve been here before…

I see a familiar frame so click on said video.

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The Process of Innovation - Think Social!

This is an awesome topic that I love to share with people whenever I can.

Innovation is something that can be thought of in several different ways, however there are good ways, and then there are better ones.

Innovation can be basically anything that solves a problem that has not been previously solved, or it can be something that solves a problem that was previously solved, while solving other problems at the same time(these are the better ones).

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The invention of the Toolbox, and how it can save Music

What came first, the toolbox or the tool? This is not a trick question, it’s obviously the tool, and we have proof. However, with the emergence of more tools, and more applications for these tools, it became apparent that another tool, a tool’s tool, was needed: the Toolbox.

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MusicWithoutLabels.com Meets WXPN Pt 2

This time around we interviewed Bruce Warren, the Program Director for XPN in Philadelphia, one of the nation’s most widely acclaimed radio stations for the proliferation of independent artists. They were responsible for being the first to give artists like MIA and Kings of Leon a welcoming home on the radio. They continue to offer an array of amazing music everyday. Check out what Bruce has to say about how he selects the music for XPN and the nationally syndicated radio show, World Cafe Live, and hear his advice for up and coming artists.

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MWL Meets WXPN in Philly - Exclusive Interview

Check out this new Interview with XPN General Manager Roger LaMay. Hear what XPN has to offer indie artists, get advice, and find out what the radio station that broke MIA into the mainstream scene is doing right! Stay tuned for our next interview with Bruce Warren, XPN’s PD, for more info about how XPN selects their artists and how you can get involved!

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