Navigating #SXSW: Advice from the Streets of Austin – Molly King and Madalyn Sklar
Music Marketers FAQ – Why Does Social Networking Take So Much Time?
I asked 5 of my favorite gods and goddesses of online marketing and Social Media promotion to share with me the top questions they get asked the most by musicians. Then I sent them around for all of us to answer. I’m going to kick off this installment with a question Bobby Owsinski often gets asked. Here’s the first one: It’s obvious and so simple! Why does social networking take so much time? Bobby Owsinski Even if you narrow your time spent to just Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, using those networks effectively can take up all of your time and leave nothing left for music. Add a newsletter, blog and website and it's a recipe for burning your brain to a crisp. The secret is efficiency and the best way to do that is to keep to a schedule and keep things short. If you know that you're going to post on Facebook every day at noon and on your blog every Thursday at 9:30, and tweet three times a day at 9AM, 1PM and 4PM, it becomes part of your daily life and you'll always have time to get it done or schedule it in advance (you can use a tool like Tweetdeck). You'll get better fan response too and they'll begin to rely on the schedule as well. By keeping every post, video, etc short and to the point, you won't burn out, you'll have more variety, and your fans will love it because it will be a quick and easy read. Read More READ MORE
I Wish That It Was Not Called Social “Media”
Have you ever been to a music conference or to a networking event and observed that artist or producer who treats everyone they meet like a “mark?” That's the same person who is blasting self-promotion on Facebook, I guarantee you. They gun up to you and are immediately shoving a CD in your face or talking about themselves before you even know their name. Have you ever been to a networking event and met the guy who is shoving a card in your face before you even find out whet he does? Have you ever been to a party and met the guy who starts endlessly talking about something you are not interested in at all? Read More READ MORE
On Being An Entrepreneur – Ariel Hyatt Interviews Derek Sivers
Being Derek Sivers’ best friend is a blessing. He’s my friend who: Helped me create Cyber PR® In fact the design of the Cyber PR® campaigns and software were his idea. Always cheers me up and talks me through whenever I think that I can’t do something Is the first call on my birthday This list can go on for pages but I will stop here and say Congratulations Derek on your new book! "Anything You Want - 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur" And speaking of Entrepreneur, I interviewed him in depth on just this subject… It’s long but it is a wonderful deep dive into all things Derek… Enjoy! See the book announcement here: http://sivers.org/ayw And the book page here: http://sivers.org/a Ariel Hyatt & Derek Sivers... On Being An Entrepreneur Derek Sivers. Derek founded CD Baby in 1997, and he invented what today is the distribution paradigm model for all independent musicians. Before CD Baby there was no way for independent musicians to get distribution without a record deal. Derek left CD Baby in 2008 to start a new business to help musicians called MuckWork. He had reached a point where he felt like CD Baby could function without him and he had this new idea that he could not hold at bay. Derek often speaks to musicians about the state of the music business, and how to sell and market themselves. This is a rare interview because it shows Derek’s business-owner side and it addresses thoughts for people who want to get into the business and not musicians. Entrepreneurs are by definition problem solvers and Derek had a double-sided good fortune. As a musician he was frustrated by the fact that he could not get distribution for his own CDs. Because of personal experience, he identified a few major problems and he solved them with CD Baby. Problem #1: Musicians could not get distributed anywhere unless they were signed. He solved this issue it by providing artists with an online distribution channel that allowed artists to accept credit cards Problem #2: Distributors were only paying their artists 2-4 times a year and holding up valuable capital that was necessary for artists to use to self-fund their own development. Derek created a system that paid artists once a week no matter how many or how fee CDs they had sold which was revolutionary for artists who were not used to getting paid so regularly and fast. Problem #3: Musicians are inherently lazy. Read More READ MORE
Learning How To Blog
One of the main things we encourage our clients to start is their own blogs and to blog regularly. The more regularly you create content for your site the better the odds are of getting visitors, because you create more keywords that people can find you with and search engines reward sites with fresh content – more on blogging in a moment. Websites are no longer billboards; they now function much more like news channels. Of course your blog can consist of band related activity but it is also useful to throw in a few posts about the bands personality which includes more personal posts about maybe your hobbies, charities you support, etc. Since the blogging is usually totally new to artists I’ve been on a hunt to nail down a thorough how-to on writing blogging posts and the main key points that should be in each post. I came across Conversify’s article written by Karen Woodward and found myself nodding to every point she made! Passing along this great article on How To Write a Blog Post. How do you write a good blog post? There is a skill in writing for the web – people tend to skim, so you want to present your facts and your writing in a skimmable-friendly fashion. I call this “Making a blog post bloggy.” Here are some tips to writing a bloggy blog post: Read More READ MOREMusician Marketing Basics: Your Newsletter, Your Product Line & Asking Your Fans What They Want
I’m just back from the mighty ASCAP Expo in Los Angeles where I spoke on a panel, did a book signing and sponsored. 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 No matter what side of the fence you are on. My friends who are managers and agents and club owners work just as hard as my artist friends. And, music industry professionals are getting laid off left and right. This game (if you choose to play it) is not for the meek! And now you, the artist are required to do a WHOLE LOT MORE than you might have 7, 8, 9 or 10 years ago (if you were lucky enough to have a label). But here’s the thing: The basic rules for success are still the same. They have always been the same and those artists who understand this succeed: To Increase Your Bottom Line (no matter how you define your bottom line) you MUST focus on your fans! The first step towards this is building rapport with everyone you come into contact with in person, social media and on your email list. Everyone always references the astonishing Amanda Palmer as the poster child for success in this paradigm – the woman focuses on her fans! You know how Amanda does this? She STAYS at the venue after each and every show signing every CD and piece of merch and scrap of paper put in front of her She STAYS until she has personally touched the last fan. Then she STAYS in touch with them long after she has left their town with her newsletter, her blog, her Facebook posts and her Twitter stream. She understands the rules of engagement. It’s not magic – its just hard work. You can have what she has too and here is how: Today we are going back to three very important basics (I’m not going to focus on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and all the social media that drives you bonkers this time – you can read many articles I wrote about social media on this blog) Your Newsletter Your Product Line Asking Your Fans What They Want Read More READ MORE
Michael Laskow of Taxi: Marketing + Entrepreneurial Skills = Music Business Success
I normally write articles and tips for musicians to help them with their online marketing, PR and community building. But there is another topic I feel deeply passionate about: Helping the next generation who want to make it in the music business understand what it takes to achieve that dream. To succeed in service to musicians you must ne willing to stand by your dreams and persever. And you must have great entrepreneurial instincts and marketing skills. This is the advice from one of the most successful people serving artists today: Michael Laskow, the founder of Taxi. As I type this I am flying back from the 13th annual Taxi Road Rally and I feel full of hope for what lies ahead of us all in the music business. Why? Because Taxi members are a unique group of artists who work TOGETHER to help each other get ahead. This was evident in every corner of the hotel, which was filled with artists networking, jamming, socializing and getting mentored by an outstanding group of industry professionals committed to helping them including Ralph Murphy, Steven Memel, Bob Baker, John & Joann Brahaeny, Debra Russell, Dude Mclean, Jay Frank, Carla Lynne Hall, Gilli Moon, and dozens more. I hung out with quite a few members many who told me that when they joined Taxi a few years ago they had no idea how to get their music placed in film & TV. With Taxi’s mentoring and feedback plus the power of the annual Road Rally, they learned and are experiencing success. By the time I was speaking on the main stage on the marketing panel when asked if this weekend had felt like a “life changing” event, hundreds of hands went up in the audience. Leading the charge is Michael, who has completely reinvented his company to stay relevant during these changing times and I give him major props. To keep thousands of artists coming back as he does means he’s doing it right. Here are some excerpts from an in-depth interview I’ve been saving for just this occasion: It’s for you: Our next generation who want to make it in the music business. Ariel Hyatt: Michael, How did you get into the music business? Michael Laskow: I’m a small-town Midwest kind of guy that saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show when I was nine years old and looked at my parents after the Beatles walked off the stage and said, “when I grow up, I want to be in the music business, I want to make records.” My parents just kind of looked at me a little bewildered and said, “yeah, okay, whatever”. I was passionate about music, an avid and rabid fan, and at 19 years old I was going to school in Miami, Florida, at the University of Miami and took a ride with a roommate of mine to Ace Music in North Miami, (which is kind of the equivalent of Guitar Center today). There, I overheard a delivery guy stating that he was going to Criteria Studios, which was a big famous studio, to drop off some gear. I talked him into taking me along. I sat in the lobby, trying to behave myself and be inconspicuous and at that moment the owner walked through the lobby and remarked to somebody else that they needed a new kid to sweep the floors and clean the toilets. I jumped up and down and acted like an idiot until the guy came over and said, “Who are you, are you here with the Eagles, are you here with the Bee Gees, are you here with Clapton?” I said no to all three. He said, “Then get out of my studio” and literally gave me a semi-polite shove out the front door. I found out his name and called him 25 times that week, five times a day for five days in a row, until Friday afternoon about 4:30 or 5:00, he came on the line and said, “you’re driving my receptionist nuts, if I promise to interview you for this job, which happens to be an internship and, of course, pays nothing and you don’t get it, do you swear you’ll never call here again as long as you live?” I agreed to his terms. I drove back there and interviewed and got the job. I swept floors, cleaned toilets, and did food runs and worked my way up, eventually to become an assistant engineer and then an engineer and eventually started producing. I’ve lived my dream. I think I worked on my first gold or platinum record by the age of 22. I have several of them on the wall. I got to work with many great artists, including Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, a lot of Neil Young stuff, Eric Clapton…. The list goes on. Anyway, so spent many years sitting behind a recording console and in between the big famous acts, would work with local talent that saved up enough money to go into a real studio and do a real but very expensive demo and frequently saw that they had no outlet for their music. After they did the demo, they had no way to get it to A&R people because they didn’t listen to unsolicited music. So made a note to self and that was sometime in the mid to late 70s and eventually walked away from making records because I had a family and didn’t want to work 20 hours a day. I was running large post-production companies, typically as a general manager, and one day just decided that wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life and thought, gee, what do I want to do with my life. I remembered that note to self from the mid-70s, that somebody had to create a way to help real talent get their music in the right hands. I went home and wrote a business plan in 48 hours. Literally had the whole concept for Taxi just kind of pop into my head. The business model was clear. The whole plan was clear and I just typed it out and was able to raise $70,000 from my oldest, dearest friend in the world who was a close friend in college and I started the company out of a one-bedroom apartment in 1992. Read More READ MORESo…what is a Facebook Fan Page called nowadays? A "Like" Page?
The ever-elusive Facebook Fan Page. Regardless of what you think about yours, you can't deny its power: the 'Suggest to Friends' link provides an unbelievable opportunity to spread your brand (especially if you persuade your contacts to do the same), the wall allows for a rich content experience unmatched by the likes of MySpace or Twitter, the lack of "friend cap" (see: Facebook personal profiles), etc. Recently, as if musicians needed more technological changes to deal with, the marriage between Facebook Brand Pages and Fans has extinguished. Users now only have the opportunity to "Like" a page. Please don't confuse this with the Facebook's traditional "like" function for pictures, comments, etc. I would have "liked" to see Facebook think about what they were doing semantically before giving two separate experiences on their website the same name, but nevertheless. Many people are complaining about the new Facebook Page changes, mainly because they don't understand them. Musicians, I believe that it is better for people to "Like" your page rather than "Become a Fan." To be a 'fan' of something is a big commitment; to just 'like' something is much more casual. In the real world, I personally like a multitude of things, but rarely consider myself a fanatic of a particular sports team or band. Over time, people will be much more likely to engage in this "Like" behavior, strictly based on language alone. Many artists have been complaining recently about the number of contacts on their pages dwindling. I've been getting emails from artists asking me, "Is there some type of Facebook virus? All of the fans on my page are disappearing." Read More READ MORE
Idol Thoughts: The 4 Key Factors That Michael Lynche Posseses That Make Him Not Only A Great American Idol But Also A Lifelong Artist
Yesterday, I guest lectured at NYU for a group of Music Business students. One of them asked me an excellent question: Is there a formula for success in today's music business? Read More READ MORE
