From youbloomLA to major management deal — Keith Cullen gets signed

21-Jul-2015 By Ciara Sheahan 1 Comment

It’s less than nine months since Dublin singer songwriter Keith Cullen graced the stage at youbloom LA last November. In that nine months Keith has been working the scene in Dublin, London and LA . He’s juggling time zones and body clocks to be in the right place at the right time. Thankfully, it all worked out. So far.

The big news from Keith is that he has signed a management deal with Phil Quartararo – Former CEO at Virgin records, Warner bros and EMI. Phil is credited with numerous musical legends like Madonna, Smashing Pumpkins, Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Eric Clapton, Red Hot chilli peppers. He was the guy who was instrumental in breaking U2 into the American market.

Keith managed to get double Grammy winner Bob Cutarella to produce his new album. Bob has worked with musical heroes like Chaka Khan, Michael Jackson, Sheena Easton, Air Supply, Melissa Manchester, Whitney Houston, Michael Henderson, Diana Ross, Deborah Allen, Dolly Parton, The Police, Elton John, REM, Culture Club, Human League, ABC, Linda Rondstadt, Frank Sinatra to name but a few. This heavy hitter has produced records with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Joss Stone, Sting, Billy Gibbons(ZZ TOP), Allison Krauss, Joe Perry (Aerosmith), John Rzeznik (The Goo Goo Dolls), Keith Richards and Cyndi Lauper He won two Grammys in 2005 and currently is soliciting music for American Idol, X Factor, and the Voice.

The KC dream team is ready. Keith, Bob, Phil and the woman behind it all Jennifer Cullen. Jennifer is Keith’s sister and manager. They both ran a highly successful commercial business back in the boom, they have both given it all up to follow the dream to see Keith succeed as an artist. Keith lists off his highlights since youbloom LA as having his song “ Say Something” placed into the film “High Strung”, signing the management deal with Phil, working with Bob and his longtime sonic companion JJ Daly and hanging with Hozier during Grammy season in LA.
“It’s really weird hearing your music on a film, like sitting there watching the movie, then your song comes on. It’s amazing, don’t get me wrong but it takes time to actually take it in, when it materialises. I still can’t believe it when I think about it”. Keith found himself in the artistic company of Jayne Seymour and “Inception” and “Batman” actor Andrew Pleavin, both of whom starred in the film.

2015 has been really productive for Keith so far, but it didn’t happen overnight. Keith has been chasing his musical ambitions since 2010. He quickly realised that the music scene in Ireland was too small for him to succeed. Controlled by a few key players with a significant challenge to get airtime on Irish radio, it’s a story many Irish artists will relate to. Keith and Jennifer began sussing out the scene in LA and London.

Funding trips to conventions, meetings and festivals they both networked every opportunity. Wading through the swamps of bullshit to eventually find key people and big chances to make an impression. The impression seems to be working, but as Keith will tell you “ we treated it like a business. We quickly understood who could deliver and who was bullshitting. You can bluff all day, but it’s the ones who deliver to make the grade”. And the grade has been made. There’s no big label news yet, but I get the feeling… it won’t be long now.

If you have a musical niggle that won’t go away, take a look at the apply to play form for #youbloomLA2015. You never know, it might be you we are writing about in 2016.

Keith with Hozier in L.A.

How to be a music superfan in 2015!

16-Jul-2015 By Shannon Duvall 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 Guest Blogger 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.

How a music conference can help your music career

16-May-2015 By Shannon Duvall Leave a Comment

So you heard a music conference is coming to town, did you?
If you’re into music at all, you’re probably curious, and considering bopping along to see what all the fuss is about. The words might seem familiar, but it might not be clear what really goes on at a conference for the music industry; who and what they’re for.

A music conference might sound like an intimidating experience; it’s chock full of big names, weighty topics, and technical talks. But it’s a forum which offers real insight into the world of music employment and all of the fascinating elements found within.

So who is it for?
Anyone with an involvement in, interest in, or healthy curiosity about how the music business works. The industry has changed dramatically over the years, never more so than in the last 10 years, yet music progresses on unimpeded; a truly unstoppable part of our human culture. With all of the different panels, talks, and masterful guests, the insights at any music conference stand to be outstandingly valuable.

What happens?
A guest usually books a ticket, allowing him access to the limited number of spots in whichever venue is hosting the conference.

The ticket allows a guest exclusive access to the speakers, members of the press, industry professionals, headhunters and scouts, and many more movers and shakers in the sphere of music.

The program will outline the times and topics for each slot, and the guest should then look for as many or as few of these as he or she is interested in attending. Refreshment breaks provide time to pause, and chat with other attendees. Hilarious interviews, insightful anecdotes, and group participation are all par for the music conference course.

Is it really boring?
What? No! If you’re interested in music, the day will fly by before you know it. There really is so much to learn, and when you get lots of music people together in one place, the buzz in the air is straight-up infectious! There’s no telling what could happen, really. Interviews with bands you like or artists who make you scratch your head in amazement; finding out what really happens behind the scenes; the chance to get hands-on and try out new technologies and advancements; rubbing elbows with the greats; it can all happen at a conference.

Do I have to know a lot to understand what’s going on?
Absolutely, categorically: no way. While knowing a little about the music industry might give you direction of interest, one of the coolest things about a conference is the wealth of unexpected and useful knowledge you’ll come away with. Since it’s an ever-evolving scene, there’s always something new to learn, wherever you are on the scale of knowledge, so sit back and enjoy.

What do I stand to gain from attending?
New experiences, new friends, new things to talk about at dinner, new ways to connect with just about anyone, new ideas and inspirations, new directions and informed career choices; it’s all up to you. The better question to ask yourself is what you stand to miss out on by neglecting the opportunity.

The next time one comes to your city, do yourself a favor and book in for the learning curve of a lifetime. And if you’re in and around Dublin on June 12-14 you should check out youbloom’s very own premier music fest. With over 60 bands and a full conference it’s an awesome opportunity you can’t miss! For more information click here and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Stop Worrying and Love the Bass Guitar

18-Apr-2015 By Eruch Kimball 1 Comment

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bass Guitar

Stepping off stage after a monster set of modal jazz I notice the fans and how they flocked. The sax, keys, and drummer are usually the first to be approached. The singer just as often. I, the bass player, seem to be able to navigate the crowd completely anonymously, not a single person inquiring about my destination. It’s rare to gain great public acclaim as a bass player, that’s just not our role.

The lead guitar player? Sure. The trumpet soloist? Absolutely. Bass? Ideally, you only notice it when it’s being played poorly. Otherwise it serves a function in music that is completely supportive. An odd mix of introvert and extrovert that personifies “support” in the best of ways. I believe that the core elements of music and the instruments that play them have something in common in their organizational and social cultures in relation to other instruments. Said plainly, the musician’s personality can and often does echo their instrument’s emotional role in music.

The role of the bass as a function of music is to support the melody, harmony, and rhythm of a piece. Any instrument performing the bass role has a musical duty to both lead and follow the other musical elements to keep them all in concert. The bass has implied harmony and obvious rhythm to its part and it is usually thought of as the second melody.

This is a great musical example of the potential dynamics of an individual’s role in a team. In the first few years of my bass playing I wanted to play fast and use complicated techniques to be really impressive on my instrument. During college I noticed that every other young bass player was trying to do the same thing as me and none of us were getting any gigs!

The guys who were getting gigs were simple, solid as a rock, supportive players. They were members of their teams and naturally assumed a type of leadership role that exists somewhere between being fully in charge and just being a silent partner for approval. Thinking about you’re role in whatever team you’re in, how are you supporting that relationship and how do you keep everyone on track in whatever project you’re working on?

The bass player in a band does a couple of key things that have become stereotypes over the years. They keep the drummer on track. This means the bassist has to agree with the drummer about the tempo and feel of a song and then work to maintain those musical elements. By providing the bass line, the bassist gives the whole band the core harmonic information. The key of the song and the chord progression. This helps the singer identify their pitch and keep soloists on track by giving them a reference to the form of the song.

At the end of the night, after I’ve packed up my bass and I’m ready to head home, I’m happy that I get to continue my role as a supporting musician. I never really wanted to be the stand-out, I’d rather just help everyone be the best they can be. It’s a great way to be in charge without needing credit for it. It’s that great mix between introvert and extrovert and I’ve come to develop respect for the supporting roles over time. I learned to stop worrying. I learned to love the bass guitar. I learned to love being a part of a team. And I’d love to talk to you after my set, but if you don’t want to, that’s fine too.