6 Things Your Band Should Be Doing on Facebook

14-Mar-2016 By Leave a Comment

Creating your online presence and growing your fan base is not as easy as some make it out to be. If you were creating your Facebook page for your music five years ago, this would have been a different story. Few artists had band pages, and it was less difficult to get lost in the shuffle of massive social media notifications.

Today, though, you need to have a well thought-out plan if you want to see yourself build a high-quality page with an actual engaged audience of your fans.

So how do you do this? Let’s look at this six step plan that will help get you up and running and off to gather those ‘likes’ :

Know your target market.

In business, you have to know your customer base before you go and open your doors. This also rings true as an artist for creating your Facebook fan base. There are nearly 1.5 billion users on Facebook. It is impossible for all of them to fall in love with your music. Even Taylor Swift has haters, and she’s seen as one of the most popular present-day musicians.

However, don’t discount everyone. You want to be specific, but you also want to be creative. What does this mean? While Taylor Swift’s fans may not be yours, it’s important to figure how to find more fans that will like your music. You can use Facebook ads to promote your music. When doing so, be sure to get specific on the types of people you’re targeting — not just age groups. What do they like? What do they dislike? Knowing little intricacies like this can help you expand your audience.

Now understand how to ‘speak’ to them.

Ok, you have your audience. Now you need to start engaging them with the content you add to your page. You’ll want to keep three things in mind each time you post:

Speak like your target audience – language is key.
Think like them – try to approach the topic from their perspective.
Act as they would act – research what causes and events are important to your fan base.

A great way to do this is by jumping in on a conversation or cause that your potential fans care about. Here’s an example (albeit a non-musical one): A business that sells used machinery lets their audience know that they care about heart health with a Facebook post. Since this topic is relevant to their audience, they create engagement. This human touch is what lets audiences know you’re worth their time.

You can also take a look at Facebook’s tip about how to create a two-way conversation. You want to garner a response from your audience and create dialogue. Comments move your content through the news feed more frequently so it is seen by more users.

Track which content engages the most people.

Not every post you’ll create will see the same response and engagement, so keep track of what types of posts seem to attract your audience more than others. It will be an important way for you to discover what works for your fans and what doesn’t. Some ideas to keep in mind:

Ask questions on your page. People love to answer easy yes/no inquiries or simple either/or choices. Just make sure it’s relevant to your fans.
Photos give your audience something to look at. Keep them interesting and people will keep coming back.
Fill-in-the-Blanks type posts help your audience easily weigh in, and keeps your content light and funny.
Hold an exclusive contest, like a drawing for two free concert tickets for sharing your page. Keep it simple and don’t do it too often.

Now, I’m not saying you should pull a Kanye West here, and tweet controversial things just to get engagement. Instead, put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and create and post information that your audience will truly want to read and see.

Content should be real, relaxed and relevant.

Keep your content relevant to your audience and relatable. You may not see results right away, but be patient. Don’t start spamming your page with promotional material. This will just annoy your users. You want to build a relationship that will last over time.

Make sure you foster that relationship with your fans by posting content that feels real to them. This will build trust, and they’re more likely to continue following and sharing. Once you’ve created this rapport, up your game and post more frequently about gigs and shows. If you’ve done it right, your audience will be hungry for more content.

Be prompt.

Don’t just post something here or there — like twice a day on Monday, nothing until Wednesday and then three times on Friday. This lack of scheduling won’t help your audience recognize when to look for new content from you. Create a schedule and hold to it.

Be creative with your scheduled posts. This will help create a rhyme and reason for them. For example, you could do a ‘Music Monday’ post that highlights what you’re listening to that day. It could be a favorite song, band, or album each week. Then poll your audience — ask them what they are playing on repeat.

This is an easy way to keep the beginning of the week light and funny — and your audience will be more likely to tune back in during the week for more serious topics. In order to help you stick to your post schedule and topics, make a list in your planner to help you stay organized and on task.

Be sure to measure and monitor your results.

You can’t make improvements or build off success if you don’t monitor how your content performs and measure its failures and successes. Be sure to look at your page insights and make notes. Know what kind of metrics, like negative feedback, you should be evaluating to improve your reach and engagement with your audience.

If you want Facebook to be successful for your band, you have to pay attention to what is being read, shared and commented on. If a post gets absolutely no engagement whatsoever, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad content. It just means you need to look at the types of adjustments needed to do better next time.

Now you have the tools to build and optimize your Facebook page successfully — so get out there and find your fans! It’ll take some hard work and dedication, but the little community you create will very much be worth the effort.

The Top 5 Ways to Build a Better DIY Music Scene According to “Salad Days”

26-Jul-2015 By 3 Comments

It’s not so much the unpaid gigs. That you can handle – for now, at least.

It’s more the lack of sustained recognition; the very real blood, sweat and tears channeled into creating and sharing your music, only to receive enthusiastic responses in fits and starts. Those silent pockets of time between gigs make you want to put your mic stand through the computer screen.

The struggle is real. Photo of The Faith by Jim Saah.

You know your music is good, your audience knows it’s good, but how on earth do you get – and keep – the kind of momentum you need to make this what you do for a living?

It’s no secret that a lot of people in your local music scene are distracted. Last year’s music report by information measurement bastion Nielsen showed that, despite access to unlimited sources of new music online, the radio is still the source of the majority of new music discovered by Americans.

It’s as if fans still want the industry to do the legwork for them, telling them who’s worth listening to and going to see live. And research shows little likelihood of this trend slowing.

It’s a result of what has been dubbed “the tyranny of choice”. Simply put, with so many options out there, it’s easier and less risky for listeners to follow and spend money on artists who they perceive to have already proven their popularity. And all a record label has to do to make you perceive an artist in this way is to spend millions of dollars on PR and marketing campaigns, along with relentless radio play – money and resources up-and-coming musicians simply don’t have.

The truth hurts. Minor Threat. Photo by Jim Saah.

Still, music scenes survive – even thrive – on their own, far from the bank accounts of corporate music institutions. Often, it’s these scenes, organically grown and self-sustaining, that catch the attention of label scouts, leading to the discovery of a wealth of musical talent. Think CBGB-era New York, or the grunge scene of 1990’s Seattle, which exploded into a pop culture force majeure.

Salad Days, A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC, is a documentary chronicling one of the most influential DIY music scenes in American history.

It’s a rousing, thorough journey through the hearts and minds of musicians in 1980’s Washington, DC, who, without support from major – or sometimes even minor – labels, set out to take control of their own exposure, making and distributing their own records, creating their own record labels, putting on their own gigs in any spaces they could, and self-promoting by way of independently made ‘zines, posters, and mail order setups.

Without directly preaching, the film has a lot to say about how you can (and really should!) build, strengthen, and work to sustain the music scene in your own town.

Embrace everyone. The next generation of music heroes are going to be inspired by what’s going on right now, so you want them in your audience.

Consider the power of all-ages shows.

These can be held in outdoor spaces or school gyms, auditoriums, or rec centers. If you’re playing at a bar or in an establishment which serves alcohol, talk with the owner or booking manager beforehand to find out what they’re willing to allow. Often, the solution to letting underage fans into bars and clubs is as simple as marking their hands with visible X’s, so that bar staff know not to serve them alcohol.

Play music because you want to. After this, your reasons for strumming that guitar or writing those lyrics are your own. There are no rules, and no forms to fill out. Every reason for playing is a valid one, even if all you want to do it is to try it out for the laugh. If you have a message, by all means, share it. If you don’t, don’t feel pressure to come up with one for the sake of it. Don’t let anyone stop you or make you feel like you should explain yourself. Just show up and play.

I don’t know what it is but I like it. Photo by Jim Saah.

Play music for each other (and support others who do) because it’s inherently human. Western culture has somehow managed to appropriate music as the specialty profession of a select few, which, in other parts of the world, is crazy, because in most other societies, making music is something everyone does. Don’t fall for the hype. You’ve got a right to play. Encouraging others to do the same leads to a super creative DIY music scene you’ll be proud to call your own.

Hook each other up. Maintaining a strong, convicted community is the only way this works. Whatever your skill or skill level, get involved.

Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson of Minor Threat, hard at work in the front porch/Dischord Records office.

Offer up any resources you might have. Got a car? Offer to drive bands to and from gigs. An empty space can be a spot for bands to play shows or hold practices. Have access to a printer or photocopier? Help make posters, album covers, and ‘zines.

Share your talents and skills. Everyone has something they can contribute. Write reviews. Take photos and let the zine guy use them. Draw some sweet cover art or cut and paste a rad collage for a poster. If you’re good at talking to people, offer to answer phones for small labels. Give bands crazy haircuts. The options are literally endless.

And, hey, while you’re at it, promote equality. Everyone should have a shot and a say.

Get off your butt. At the end of the day, none of the talent and support matters without a motivated, no-nonsense approach to getting things done.

A strong DIY music community is one where bands and fans come together, show up to each others’ gigs and events, and stay active. That means not waiting around for something to happen. No one will release your record? Do it yourself. Remember that just by doing stuff, you’re contributing to the history and substance of the DIY scene in your time and place, as well as the formation of new, exciting music to come.
And don’t wait for tomorrow. Mark Andersen (founder of Positive Force, an activist group that was instrumental in organizing music and social events within the DC scene) agrees. “(The time) is always now,” he insists. “So go. Make it real. NOW.”

Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat has a moment. Photo by Jim Saah.

Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat soaks in the moment. Photo by Jim Saah.

How to be a music superfan in 2015!

16-Jul-2015 By Leave a Comment

Hey there, you hot mess, it’s 2005, MySpace messaging you crunk peeps from the past with a totally hott message, so listen up.

If you’re a music lover in 2015 – and you’re here, reading this, so it’s safe to assume that you are, fo sheezy – then there are a few things you should know about your, ahem, current status.

First of all, you – yes you, the one reading this – are directly responsible for the absolute interplanetary, warp-drive, ‘let’s-tear-this-space-time-continuum-a-new-one’ success that most of the music superstars in your day are right this minute enjoying. In a freakish turn from expected events, the openness of the internet has not, as we here in 2005 were certain would happen, resulted in the dismantling of the Record Label as we know it, freeing the market and balancing the scales. Au contraire.

Dolla, dolla bills.

The bands and solo artists making the big bucks in the industry have only ended up making more money, getting more media attention, and becoming more popular, and thus immeasurably more valuable to the record companies representing them.

And. The same power you wield to bestow such wild, unbridled, never-before-witnessed prosperity upon those lucky few hundred entertainers has also resulted in the widening of the pay gap between them and, well, every other musician out there.

Seriously.

It’s a sizeable chasm of unprecedented size: MIDiA Research is one company that has been using analytics to track the progress of digital music, and a report released by them last year showed a staggering 77% of all the money in the industry gracing the bank accounts of the top one percent of global superstars.

In short, fancy future folk, you probably don’t realize how influential you are in this, the new music business battle royale.

“Well, I’ll be…”

It’s your choices: your likes and dislikes, your skips, saves and shares, that determine who makes it, and who flakes it. If you’re in any doubt about how true this is, take a look at viral victim/sensation Justin Bieber – discovered singing humble covers on youtube; promoted like there was no tomorrow – and you’ll see what I mean. What you are capable of.

Look at your eyes. You’re already drunk with power.

So how should you flaunt – I, ahem, mean, responsibly apply all this newfound sway?

Click (or swipe, or tap…) wisely. Intelligent analytics are scoping out every aspect of everything you do online, and there’s big money in being able to predict what people are going to want next. If you have a favorite unsigned band, follow them on social media, like their posts, and share their videos. Check in, tweet, Instagram and Snapchat from their gigs.

If they’re on Spotify, even better. Add favorite tracks to your shared playlists, that way other people can discover them on their own time, rather than caving in to your constant OMG ballyhoo.

“Premium or GTFO.”

Interaction is EVERYTHING. Websites like WeDemand allow you to act much like an old village council, telling venues and promoters what bands are wanted where. IndieGogo and other crowdfunding sites let you pitch in when it comes time for an artist to create something, like an album or a run of t-shirts. You can even help send them on tour. And there’s usually a sweet, VIP bonus for digging into your pockets and getting involved.

Other sites, such as Patreon, let you give them money – just because you like them.

One word: collabs. If you’re the creative type, why not get in touch with an artist you really like and offer to work together for mutual benefit? After all, they’re looking for fresh ideas and constant exposure as much as you are.

Are you an artist? Offer to design gig posters, t-shirts, or use your likeness in some rad graffiti somewhere strategically placed. If they like your work, they might end up asking you to design some album art, which would be dope AF.

Musician yourself? How about a remix or mashup? Heck, even a cleverly executed cover of one of their songs can be a great way to show support and appreciation for the work and inspiration of others in your genre or location. This can sometimes lead to working together – on a track, perhaps, or, if you have really good chemistry, an album, split seven- inch (yep, people still do this; vinyl is the top selling purchased music format after digital, and sales are up 54%!), or bill sharing at gigs and on tours.

Can you write? Offer to review songs or albums, then submit your work to blogs and websites that might publish your work as a guest blogger. Exposure for everybody!

Travel blogger? Seek out new bands in places you travel to and blog your heart out to your followers. Take photos and videos and show the rest of the world what they’re missing.

Surfer, skater, or parkour perfectionist? Ask for permission to feature a song in one of your promos. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a song while watching a surf video and Shazammed the crap out of it so that I could add it to my “How to Get Through This Workday Alive” Spotify playlist. This approach is equally great for animators, videographers, and anyone with a smartphone/GoPro and a vision.

The soundtrack of our lives.

Actually go to their gigs. I know it’s hard, but you can do it.

So what we’re saying is this: the millenial music lover has so much opportunity to be connected to the up and coming artists he or she loves. With all that say at your fingertips (literally), and no end in sight to the innovation which continues to break down walls between observer and observed, there’s never been a better time to have your say. Like a true music superfan.
Take it from me, your old pal, 2005, champion of MySpace, the one who started all this internet band business in the first place.

7 Ways to Make Your Email Newsletter Rock

28-May-2015 By Leave a Comment

7 Ways to Make Your Email Newsletter Rock

Ask a room full of marketers if they think that email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with fans—dollars to donuts nearly all of them do; ask a room full of music fans if they enjoy reading newsletters—you tell me how they’d respond.

How’s your Zen? Creating an email newsletter that people enjoy reading and that will serve you as a musician will involve a few counter-intuitive choices. As illustrated above, a good email newsletter is both a really powerful marketing tool and really hard to pull off.

You’ve got a challenge ahead of you, but once you’ve created a newsletter that people actually enjoy reading, you’ll pull your head way above the rest of the inbox-blockage. With that said, what are the top priorities?

1. Keep a 90 to 10 Ratio of Information to Promotion in Your Emails

I told you to get Zenned up. This tip comes from the marketing geniuses at Hubspot—the truth is, when you try really hard at something, quite often it will push back and the harder you try, the harder it will push back. The same is true for promotion: an email newsletter that’s mostly promotion will end up mostly in the trash. Because, honestly, who wants to read promotion?

Your priority is to give your readers enjoyment and build a relationship with them, very few people relate to purely promotional material. You need to market yourself, of course, but let this promotion consist of a few well-placed sections that fit with the theme of the email, rather than dominating it.

2. Calls to Action: Fewer is More

For readers who aren’t marketers (here’s why you may be both) a call to action (CTA) is the point in your email where you identify what you want your customer to read/buy/visit and give them a link to do so. So if your newsletter for a given week promotes a gig, the part where you link them to the box office is the CTA.

So, how many should you have per email? As many as possible? If you ask people to see your gig, check out your YouTube, follow you on Facebook and Twitter and check out your new Bandcamp page they’ll probably do nothing, if they ever make it to the end of the sentence.

The science is in on this one: according to Ubounce, when companies give people loads of choices, customers are actually less likely to buy than when given fewer choices. Ideally, you should have one main CTA to which you’re channeling readers and a couple of secondary ones—the fewer there are, the more they’ll stand out.

3. Write in Your Own Voice

Writing a newsletter that reads like a commercial is another way to send it straight to the trash; thanks to Go Forth Music for reminding us of this. Music fans are already bombarded with marketing copy—on their way to work, on television, on the internet—reading your email newsletter written in your normal voice will be a breath of fresh air by comparison.

It must be, of course, in snappy, standard conversational English, spellchecked and well-formatted, while keeping as much of your personal voice in there as possible. People signed up to your newsletter to keep in touch with you.

4. Nail those Subject Lines

These first three tips only really matter once your fans are actually reading your email, and the top way to get them to read it is a subject line that they can’t resist. Let me guess, you don’t want to to be sitting for 10 minutes picking at a subject trying to make it sound cool. This is why doing so will get your newsletter read, because it stands out against all the boring subject lines in your fan’s inbox sent by people who couldn’t be bothered to write good subject lines.

Venture Harbour observes how people love secrets, tips and other exclusive stuff. This is part of the reason why they subscribed, to learn more about you. So, in the headline, outline briefly what information your readers can access that isn’t available elsewhere, which of your secrets are you going to reveal? Beyond that, make those subjects short, descriptive, and start with the most important word.

5. Include Video

You should always use the tools and media that best suit your craft, and video is almost the perfect medium for music because of its ability to capture the impact of a performance. You can combine tip 4 with this one, too:

Take a high-quality video of your show or rehearsal and upload it to YouTube, but adjust the privacy settings so that it’s accessible only to people who have the link. Now your email newsletter can include an exclusive video, available only to people on your mailing list. Meanwhile, if your fans use Gmail, they’ll see a video embed when they read an email in which you include a YouTube link, so they can watch, listen and read all in one place.

Don’t worry, according to Brafton, 60% of people were using Gmail in 2012, and if your fans can’t see the embedded video, they can still follow the link.

6. Keep Your Audience in Mind

Know your audience and you will know how to make the best email newsletter for them—this will involve thinking like a marketer again, but don’t worry. Who listens to your music? If your audience is primarily teenagers who are always on their smartphones, try a stripped down format that lends itself to the small screen.

If your audience is older, chances are they’ll read your newsletter on their lunch break from the office. In this case, why not make it long form and send it off timed to give them something to read when they clock off.

Your artist page on Facebook can help you to access a lot of this information, such as age and location. With such a globalized market, it’s not unlikely for musicians to pick up fans around the world. Many EDM acts, for example, have plenty fans in Mexico City—why not write to them specifically, in their own language?

Your newsletter can even be a way, in itself, to learn about your audience. The popular and free email campaign tool Mail Chimp, for example, lets you see how many people opened your email and clicked on a link. This way, you can learn what works and what doesn’t and improve your craft with every issue.

7. Keep It above Board, Make It Easy to Subscribe and Easy to Unsubscribe

If you want to succeed, you have to get your newsletter out there: collect email addresses in return for free merch at shows, allow to people to sign up through your site, and so on. At the same time, make sure you don’t get yourself in trouble: though it may be tempting, don’t add people to your list if they haven’t explicitly signed up. Remember that really cool unsolicited newsletter you got last week? Yeah, me neither.

As Music Think Tank reminds us, you are legally required to have permission to add people to your mailing list and give them the option to unsubscribe. Make it easy to unsubscribe, too.

This may sound like a strange priority, but, put it this way: if someone’s tired of your newsletter and you let them unsubscribe easily (without searching the email for the right button or having to login to a website to update one of those retched ‘communication settings’ pages) you’ll part ways on good terms and they may even re-subscribe later on. You don’t want to annoy people or make them stay subscribed but just mentally black-hole your emails, which would be much worse.

This is how it’s done. Keep it Zen, genuine, above board and original, and you can add email to your armory of tools for building and maintaining your fan base.

Post by Oliver Cox.
Oliver Cox is a contributing writer for SplashFlood, a music promotion app. He writes freelance for a number of sites and brands, specializing in music. Coming from a musical family, Oliver loves to combine is interest in music with writing, to explore how the modern musician can find success.

Self release your music like CommonUnion59

09-Apr-2015 By Leave a Comment

What does it actually take to self release your music?

Well, lucky for us, one of our very own youbloom artists, CommonUnion59, released their second album, “Heartbeat Serenade” on February 11th of this year and were kind enough to share their experience with the youbloom community.

“The most important thing we learned is that the overall effort of putting an album out is probably half musical and half business. You have to come to terms with that fact when you plan your project,” Steve shared. And let’s face it; many musicians may be great at performing, but not so strong business-wise. That is why picking a solid team at the beginning of the project is vital to the quality of the finished album.

“It might help to think of yourself as kind of a general contractor who, when building a house, may do the carpentry but finds the plumber, the electrician, etc. because he just doesn’t have expertise (or the time) to do it all himself,” Steve said. Not only is it important to pick a qualified team of engineers, press agents, promoters, and musical contributors, it is also really important that you work well with these people and they understand your vision. “Go for quality over quantity and find the best studio you can afford.”

“We asked ourselves this simple question, how do the major labels do what they do?” Steve said. “First, they get the music created.” Steve advised to have as much of the music completed as possible when you get into the studio. This will save you time and money overall. On the same note, he suggested that you be flexible as well. There are always unforeseen surprises along the way, some of which may be beneficial to the outcome of your album, as CommonUnion59 experienced.

For example, Laura explained to us that the song, “Heartbeat Serenade” was one song that was unfinished when they got into the studio. They only had a few words written down as well as the basic melody. “We knew we wanted to have fun with it and give it a psychedelic vibe so it was almost like a side project that we kept coming back to as we recorded everything else.” Turns out, they loved what the song turned into so much, that it became the title track for the album.

Steve and Laura also learned the importance of being open to straying from the plan when they were recording their song, “It’s Alright.” Laura shared, “We did two versions… The first was a straight ahead rocking take which we liked a lot, but when we tried a more rock-a-billy feeling version, we really loved it, so it’s the one we ended up using. We hadn’t thought about doing that way in advance so it’s like a bit of unexpected studio magic that we embraced.” Though there may be some unforeseen hang-ups in the studio, there can also be some beautiful surprises along the way that might entirely transform the album.

After the music is created, Steve stressed the importance of making the final product relevant amongst the competition. One step in doing that is to have the music mastered after it is recorded and mixed. “It really does make a difference since you are being heard alongside so many other artists that do it too.”

Another step to meeting the competition is to gather reviews way before the release date. You want to have publicity growing for your album even before it is released. Sometimes doing this means hiring a publicity firm that has experience pushing albums to the people who need to hear them. Remember that there are tons of other musicians that will also be releasing albums the same month (and even the same day) as you.

The final step in matching your competition is to get airplay. The more you can be heard and in the more places, the better. “This part is not easy for sure since the majors have such a lock on most of radio, but it is still possible,” Steve shared. It is important to pull all of your resources and, once again, look into hiring someone that does this for a living. Also keep in mind non-traditional avenues of “airplay” such as social media, streaming radio, or YouTube to expose your audience to the new album.

It is also worthwhile to stress the importance of staying current with what is happening in the industry as well as being open to learning on a continual basis. One way that Steve and Laura did this was by attending youbloom@LA in November of last year. They shared with us that a lot of their experience at youbloom@LA helped them in their process with their album.

“If you’re anything like us, you’re writing songs, rehearsing, doing the business stuff, but you’re pretty much working in your own everyday environment. youbloom helps create a good sense of the big industry picture. To us, it seemed more about focus, inspiration, and motivation, reminding us that everything we do is important, good or bad. We take something positive from the lessons learned and keep moving forward.”

We hope that you find the experience of CommonUnion59 beneficial in your own album recording/releasing. Remember, it is important to plan from the beginning and get all of your pieces in place. “But, be relaxed and have fun with it too so that you love what you did later on,” Steve said. Recording an album is serious business, but let’s not forget that in order for the album to be a success, you must love the finished project. Steve adds, “It’s also important to play live as much as possible, it helps you remember why you’re doing it in the first place, and good things always happen along the way.”

“So get out there! Work hard, but have fun! We’d love to hear about your experiences as well!

If you want to learn more about the youbloom community follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and check out our new youbloomTV channel on YouTube.

CommonUnion59:
Steve McKenzie and Laura Malasig make up the singing/songwriting duo of CommonUnion59, blending blues, folk, and alternative country to create music that many say is reminiscent of the 60s. They weave introspective lyrics of love and life through powerful melodies, creating an emotional experience that gives the illusion that the music and the voice are one fluid sound. Listen to some of their music.