Now that the audience for Audible Hype has grown, I’d like to spark a few conversations. I’ve been amazed by the folks who have dropped comments and gotten in contact with me, and I’ve got 5 Big Questions. I’m not asking you to answer them all, but if you can speak on any of them...please do. It’s going to be a long, cold winter and we’ve gotta figure out how to build art into income. Join the cipher.
1. What’s the one single website or social network that’s given you the highest return on investment and the best results?
Where do you concentrate your time, and how do you reach the most people? How much has your daily Internets routine changed in the past 12 months? Is Myspace still useful for promotion? And finally, the question I ask in nearly every interview I’ve done: what tools have you found to help you stay organized?
2. What are the best countries in the world for hip hop?
Wikipedia can get you up to speed on the big picture, but it’s the details that interest me. Sure, France makes up around 6% of the global music industry, but that information is only useful to me if I’m running a major label big enough to have aggregated content. Since I’m just running a small hip hop label, my questions are way more specific, and it’s all about hip hop. Who has the most hip hop fans per capita? Where are the album sales shockingly strong for hip hop, overseas? Why is it so hard to get ahold of useful data in the Information Age? Should Nielsen be adding their demographic data to Wikipedia and going open source to stay relevant?
3. Are blogs about to be the dominant source of new music?
Commercial radio reaches way too many people to argue this yet, but in the near future, I can see blogs evolving into a major source for new music. Content-wise, the vast majority of hip hop blogs are identical Wordpress projects, and most of folks running hip hop blogs reach a small audience and mostly function as an echo chamber or relay system for the big dogs. A handful of major players debut content that then filters out to (many) thousands of smaller fish.
Being a weirdo, I’m interested in a different kind of content revolution. Hip hop blogging could (and should) be a wide open format with room for hundreds of unique approaches. Yet aside from very dope exceptions like T.R.O.Y. Blog, the template is exactly the same for 99.9% of these sites: regularly posting links to download new tracks. In the age of Google Analytics, all that economics horseshit about the Invisible Hand of the Markets has never been more true than our Attention Economy. Everyone’s doing the same thing because it works for bringing in traffic. These kids are not superstitious lemmings, they’re watching their numbers, seeing results and going with what works.
I don’t think blogs will ever be mainstream like FM radio. But I do see blogs being the dominant players in the future of whatever digital, streaming solution replaces FM for good. The audience demand for new music is much greater than the audience demand for opinions about hip hop. People will look to reliable brands, content cultivators who have similar taste and always dig deep for new dope. I could see Nah Right being way more successful as a podcast, despite the fact they get comments into the triple digits on every post they’ve made this year. (For another great example of blogs scaling up, check out Indiefeed Hop Hop.)
4. Do we need fewer options and less choice?
The worst part about filling out a sign-up page is, it’s been the same damn form, every time. The same information is requested by pretty much every web app, social network, music service, terrorist cell and online store I’ve been a part of. I have a “Skeleton Key” document containing all the user/pass combos I need to keep track of for World Around day-to-day, and it’s got 62 lines. That’s just stupid.
Because of this sad state, most of my thinking in 2009 has been about eliminating wasted time and doing more with less. One of my hidden projects has been rebuilding the Audible Hype $0 Promotion Plan, which is too complicated and concrete. It also doesn’t reflect the fact that $0 is not cheap—there’s a serious time commitment to online promotion.
Since I’m irresponsible, I mostly advise artists to keep things simple, ignore the major networks, and establish only a hosted Wordpress/Google/Tumblr blog and a Bandcamp page. (That’s the short version. I explain in more detail here.)
You can also consider this same question from a consumer perspective: is the average hip hop fan overwhelmed and burned out by the sheer number of new artists and releases? This is something I talked about in Year of the Glut—and Refe from Creative Deconstruction has a good thinkpiece about the Paradox of Choice.
5. Who’s going to jump on the next 10,000 MTV’s?
From a recent NPR report that jumped out at me like Natalie Portman:
“One commercial broadcaster in California has found an innovative use for his extra airwaves. Gary Cocola owns about 30 low- and full-power TV stations in California and Idaho. He’s decided to rent airtime on his new digital channels for $5,000 a month. So far, he’s had one taker: the Vietnamese Broadcasting Service, based in Southern California.
“One of the things that I’ve found is that there are many local people within the community that have never had the ability to have their own TV channel. I believe that’s really where the ideas have come from,” Cocola says, adding that he has other deals in the works.”
Yeah, $5000 is not cheap...but yeah, it sure is cheap for California. That’s Fish In A Barrel type population density, and equal footing with Murdoch. Owning a TV station has great value beyond just advertising revenue. I think it’s also important to think about your long-term operation and how you will give back to your community once you’re in a position to do so. Building up a real public television platform for education and communication seems like a valuable step to me, at least.
Now, I’m not trying to convince you that it’s time to get your money up and start doing a Ted Turner. Don’t worry about all that noise. The opportunity exists and thousands of men and women who really are as crazy as Ted are already getting to work right now. Not all of these people are likable or honest, but all of them will need content to fill their stations with.
Normally, I’d close off by asking you folks what’s on your minds, but that’s too much noise for this project. I’ve got 5 Big Questions I’ve been meaning to ask for a long time, and I’m curious what people have to say. Let a mammal know.
23 responses to "Hip Hop 2009: 5 Big Open Questions"
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Sep 08, 2009 at 10:45 AM
Vertical Paul
1. Hated twitter, hated Facebook, hated Myspace. Tumblr is dope, Soundcloud is dope. Last.fm is dope. Bandcamp is definitely dope, I like the fact it just PAYS ME.
2. I know that piracy is really big in the more networked Socialist Utopias way up North, but they love hip hop. Hip Hop Kemp is bigger than Woodstock and it’s allllll rappers. We all know the Wu get love in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, etc. Do Vikings buy vinyl?
3. Blogs will never be big like that. Blogs think they’re way more important than they are. We’re just a bunch of nerds who spend too much time online. If you got Air Force Ones on and get hundreds of comments, that doesn’t change anything. Hundreds of comments equals literally hundreds of people. That whole slaughterhouse thing you wrote about is proof of how little blogging adds up to.
4. I have no idea what to think about that shit. Sounds more like philosophy than business, dude.
5. I tell you what, that Lil’ Fats kid who runs the whole Coast 2 Coast empire should JUMP on this shit. I can see kids like him doing it. I can see Rhymesayers pooling money with other MPLS local businesses and doing this. I think the Blue Scholars alliance with that coffee company is a step towards building up enough capitol to do this. I think you’re onto something.
6. When does Q-Tip’s book about music industry bullshit come out?
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Sep 08, 2009 at 1:40 PM
Infinitez
#2 is interesting. If albums sales are no longer the end goal, that makes their charts less relevant. I know that historically, Nielsen’s methods for collecting data were less than scientific and kinda fraudulent. I doubt that’s changed in 2009, any number that exists online can be manipulated and gamed.
Also, my mentors talk very matter-of-fact about majors like Universal buying huge numbers of copies of their own albums to inflate first week numbers. HUGE, like 20 to 50 thousand copies. If so, that makes Nielsen less relevant, too.
Still, at least it’s something. That’s the real value of all these charts, none of them are perfect. I’d like to see a web 2.0 mashup that collects Soundscan, iTunes, Amazon and Big Champagne figures all in one place.
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Sep 08, 2009 at 3:20 PM
Chris
1)I concentrate my time between MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and our band website. Used to be concerned with Reverb Nation (not for the social networking aspects, but the backend and widgets) till I noticed that their “one-size-fits-all” model does a marginal job of anything. iLike is a hunk of shit. Bandcamp I’m starting to put more focus onto, to see if I can monetize it (Bandcamp claims it moves albums as opposed to single downloads 2 to 1).
MySpace used to be the majority of my time. Facebook has fast become a large part of my band’s online interaction. Though MySpace isn’t anything to scoff at either (yet). We went through a giant MySpace redesign, with a mailing list sign-up plus incentive banner next to the player. We had one of those Reverb Nation widgets that grabs email addresses, and maybe claimed 6 sign-ups in 6 months. With our new sign up form, which asks for not only email, but name, address, - the whole nine! (a big online marketing no-no) - we’ve had 6 sign-ups in 5 days. Which goes to show that incentives really are the deal maker. Now I know EXACTLY where our fans are, and can even physically mail promotional material regarding tours/records.
MySpace strikes me as over-saturated. But has more direct contact than Facebook (you can’t personally message/comment on Facebook). But Facebook spreads your news/updates more naturally without you invading fans’ personal space. Twitter I’m not entirely sold on, or haven’t figured out the flow yet to make the best of it yet.
The most invaluable tool I’ve found to stay organized time and again is Google’s innumerable applications. From Gmail to Documents, Reader to Photo. It’s all located in one profile, you can set up spreadsheets and easily access them, and Gmail is so useful. All the Bandize’s in the world can’t touch it.
Blackberry keeps me on top when out on tour in the middle of West Virginia, when nothing remotely wi-fi is available (or even two cans tied to a string). Spongecell (http://www.spongecell.com) is an amazing events calendar that you can plug into all your various profiles and update from one central point.
3) I don’t feel that blogs are all that they’re being blown up to be. Most blogs (in my genre of music) don’t even come close to being “taste makers”. Their readership barely scratches the surface. I’ll still send them the link to my EPK and try to get some words written for the sake of getting as much press-wise as possible (I am a firm believer in internet hype. Not one blogger or two yelling your name, but everywhere you turn everyone is touting your act). But the big sites still take the cake in my opinion. Print media is pretty close to worthless (depending, again, on your genre).
4)Referring to the glut, everyone is overwhelmed with the options we have. That’s why I think you have to make the jump and put some cash into your design, records, and over-all presentation. It sucks spending money on design for websites and MySpace. Mixing your own record may save a dime. But if you suck it up and try to really go for above-average with presentation (and then try to back it up with a constant flow of content - not friend request spamming and “Buy my album!"), you stand out from the 10000 other shmucks out there. People still buy (even if just attention) with their eyes.
Work on your publicity campaign too. Get write-ups, reviews and interviews at the big stops for your genre of music. It’s called something along the lines of the “6 touches of publicity”. After around six times of people hearing your name, they develop familiarity and start paying attention.
I went the “scale back and try to do everything for free” route. There’s a lot of free services out there online, and you don’t want to bleed yourself dry. But spending cash on the things that count is not in vain.
To end off, check out Spongecell (http://www.spongecell.com), Drop.io (http://drop.io) for your EPKs (fuck Sonicbid. You can develop a a fully tailored EPK - passwords for access, mp3s, pdfs, backgrounds and all - without even having to sign up for an account), Gmail, HootSuite (http://www.hootsuite.com) and RSS to feed your blog to Twitter and Facebook, and Mail Chimp (http://www.mailchimp.com) for customizable mailings, and detailed stats on open rates, etc.
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Sep 08, 2009 at 6:31 PM
S. Pettigrew
I definitely don’t think Question number 3 will ever come to pass. I also disagree that bloggers are sophisticated data watchers, or even rational human beings. I see it more as a popularity contest and really, most of them are too dumb to make any serious income off the amount of traffic they get, and especially, off the amount of work they put in.
It’s an attention economy, all right, but they’re competing for cool points. Most of those blogs just eat out of the PR hands that feed them. It’s programmed content just like TV. The irony is that they’re costing artists money, too, when they leak albums. Here on the internet, I understand that’s called a “FAIL” right? Not exactly the future of music economy.
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Sep 08, 2009 at 6:55 PM
0m
sup justin. these are very good questions. these might not be very solid answers, but i got inspired to share my two cents, so here they are.
1. i think the answer to this question is pretty ambiguous, actually. it depends on how much time a specific artist or band spends on any given social networking site, and which one most efficiently enables them to apply the strategies they’ve devised. personally, i think myspace is one of the best, even if a lot of people have resorted to blocking friend adds from bands because of drowning in the midst of so many horrible ones trying desperately to get some attention. i read a statistic somewhere that said that if myspace were a country, it would be the 5th largest country in the world, with over 200 million users. with access to such an enormous portion of the global population, i think you’re far more likely to reach out to far more people by using it. but, obviously, i could be wrong.
also, i really believe that youtube is a great tool, as well. think about how many bored people out there surf youtube for cool videos every day. think about how quickly cool videos spread on that site, how many people send all their friends a link if it’s cool enough. you make a rockin’ tune, and make a simple yet effective video to go along with it, and you could end up getting some really good exposure. but like i said, it’s more a matter of what the artist or band is looking for, or what tools they deem to be the most efficient for spreading their sound. is it more important to have a profile on a site like bandcamp that lets your fans buy the album and download it in whatever format they want, if only like 30 people a year are gonna visit your page, and of that 30, only 2 will buy the cd? or better to conduct some viral marketing on much bigger sites like facebook or myspace or youtube? is it better to focus on just one, or on all social networking sites at once? i don’t think there will ever be a unanimous answer to those questions.
2. im not really sure about this one, but i’m very interested in figuring it out, it’d be good to know.
3. i’m really not sure about this one either. everything is evolving so fucking fast it’s hard to know whether or not all the mediums we use to promote and interact will even still exist in the next 10 or even 5 years. things tend to start out small, spread out into thousands of different versions and become extremely complex, and then condense into a far more simplified, minimal yet effective form. with this in mind, i feel like all these things we use today - myspace, twitter, facebook, blogging, etc, etc, etc - will someday all be condensed into a single thing, one site where you can do all of these things, one place that has a combination of all the features that all the other websites once had, and with far more features, better and more useful ones that will enthrall us. think about portable media players, for example. it started out with the walkman, then there was discman, then micro cd players, then minidisc, then mp3 player. then there are portable dvd players, then there are cell phones. nowadays, there are phones and other gadgets that do ALL of the things that all those other things once did, and little by little, the older models are all getting phased out. it’s escalating towards a future in which we’ll all carry with us one gadget, a combination mp3 player/ voice recorder / internet browser / cell phone / movie player / digital camera / video game console / step sequencer /whatever thing that we’ll have with us forever. i see the means through which we promote our art becoming a lot more versatile and simple in the future, and i think blogging might be a part of it, but there are so many other influential mediums nowadays that it’s hard to say which direction it’ll all move in. maybe there are inventions on the horizon that we hadn’t even imagined yet, that will completely revolutionize the music industry even further. the most important thing we can do is just keep making more awesome music, and wait for the right time and the right approach to getting it heard.
aside from all that, i still think one of the most efficient ways of becoming known is adhering to a rigorous touring schedule. if you play awesome live and start playin out with bigger and bigger names, little by little people will catch on, and the internet marketing will work itself out because people around the country will be in demand for your work. but again, i could be wrong, just speculating.
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Sep 08, 2009 at 10:55 PM
0m
(continued)
4. simply put, YES, WE DO. i kinda already went over this topic in my other answers. to answer this “from the consumer perspective”, it’s the opposite, however. we as artists need fewer mediums through which to channel our music to the masses, but the fans probably enjoy having so much choice and versatility in music. think about all the amazing emcees out there in the 80’s and 90’s that nobody ever heard about, local legends that never got the exposure they deserved because only major labels were running the show back then, and they were looking for a specific kind of sound they could sell. well nowadays, even the poorest underdog can have a shot at reaching out to a lot of people, which to me, is the coolest thing about the music industry these days. if you make awesome music and promote it effectively, there are people out there who are desperately waiting to hear it. as a hip hop fan, i like being able to hear all different kinds of new artists, hip hop or any other style, even though most of them are crap, every now and then you find some true gems that can inspire and move you, and that’s a sensation rarely matched.
5. i have no idea about this one. i don’t live in america, and i never watch tv. but your idea for starting a public television platform is definitely an intriguing one.
i think that at the core of it all is to just keep putting out awesome music, and focus primarily on evolving as an artist. study the industry, read the statistics, promote online if you can, but it’s most important to have a big discography of great tunes. because in the end, that’s what makes artists popular, and that’s what will inspire people to buy any artist’s material. all the internet promotion and shit should be secondary, i think. first just make bangin music, get out there and perform live as much as you can and spread the love, work on 3 or 4 solid albums, then work on a couple simple and catchy youtube videos, start uploading your albums to a service like tunecore to have for sale in different shops, and take it from there. but then again, there are tons of different approaches to this whole situation, and many different bands have gained worldwide popularity by using very different combinations of some or all of these mediums, or other mediums altogether. do something unique, something that makes you stand out from all the rest, take advantage of the resources we have today and wow people with your personality and professionalism.
thanks for the great questions to ponder.
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Sep 09, 2009 at 6:04 AM
Drewski
Thanks for the heads up on Bandcamp. Their video and site were persuasive, I’m gonna check that out. Is there any tutorial content you can point me towards on using Bandcamp and getting set up?
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Sep 09, 2009 at 6:11 AM
Tyler Meagher
I’d like to drop a Big Question of my own: WHO DO YOU TRUST IN 2009???
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Sep 09, 2009 at 10:44 AM
Justin Boland
I trust Wendy Day, Andrew Dubber, Bruce Warila, TJ Chapman, Greg Rollett, Derek Sivers, Dart Adams, Hex Murda, Sha Money XL, and the RZA.
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Sep 09, 2009 at 10:53 AM
Justin Boland
@Mr. Piven
I stay up late, get stoned, and do google image searches. I keep what I find in a folder and chop that up later on, so...I have no idea what comic that came from. Probably the same issue where Tony Starks finds out his kid is buying coke from Ghostface.
@Chris and Om
Thank you. Those were awesome answers and it’s very appreciated.
@Infinitez
You always drop interesting comments. I haven’t seen a webpage like what you’re envisioning but damn, yeah, that would be dope. I go to HiphopDX for billboard rap charts, but a central source for everything = fuck yes.
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Sep 09, 2009 at 2:11 PM
Alex
1. I’ve got a very very small fanbase, as I’m barely starting out, but Facebook has easily gotten me new fans (because of existing social networks) whereas Myspace gave me almost none, and I had to ask people personally to add me—something that seems like horrible marketing to me. Facebook is where people spend their time and live their virtual lives, and because of the construction of the site, one can seamlessly integrate into pre-existing social networks without being rude.
2. Why is it so hard to get ahold of useful data in the Information Age?
Because knowledge is power, and holding onto useful data allows only you to take advantage of it.Should Nielsen be adding their demographic data to Wikipedia and going open source to stay relevant?
Is open-source the future? Hard to say exactly. It requires peer-based cooperation and not top-down production, so it seems that the answer is probably no while existing systems remain in their current state.3. Are blogs about to be the dominant source of new music?
They’re definitely making an impact. Depends on your audience, I think. The people who are passionate about music tend to seek it out through blogs as much as possible, while the majority of people listen to the radio and what they hear at the club and watch on MTV (as if it plays music) to tell them what to like.Immersion marketing (I mean flooding all channels with content—not advertising) seems to be the best way to get immediate attention, but what about three years from now? Will those same people even remember you? Depends, I suppose, on the impact you make.
4. Do we need fewer options and less choice?
There are two parts to this:For promotion/social networking, it seems that it would be nicer to have one big system just because it’s easier to work on from our side of things. Yet, I don’t think that’s how it’s going to work. Most people I know don’t really use the internet very much. They use their phones. So, Twitter and Facebook become immediately important. Any successful business model will inspire clones, so no matter what the mainstream choice, there will always be a few others to catch the strays. Would it be better? Depends on what you’re looking for. I think in ONE BIG SYSTEM, inc., it would be harder to promote yourselves because of the flood of major entities. Smaller groups mean your two cents work for more. Hence the reason I’m writing here—people will actually hear me.
5. Who’s going to jump on the next 10,000 MTV’s?
Can’t answer that for you, but I really hope some punk/alternative/etc people jump on and start culture-jamming.---------
As an end-note, I think there are two very important things to watch.
1) Major labels are dying because of the internet, partially because people can now specialize their musical tastes much more, and partially because people download music for free. This is simply fact and I’m not going to call it good or bad. This means more market-share for independents/smaller labels.
2) Remember the lesson of Metallica: a large portion of their fanbase was very upset when they publicized their stance on file-sharing. These free downloads aren’t a loss of sales, they’re a gain in publicity. They’re free advertising. I think this trend will continue even more.
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Sep 09, 2009 at 8:35 PM
Chris
@Justin - Thank you for maintaining the most useful music business blog around. I dig Andrew Dubber and Bruce Warila once in a while. But I feel their material is far too theoretical/academic, making mostly moot points. Audible Hype produces the most honest point of view regarding the music biz, and offers actual techniques and ideas to utilize in real time.
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Sep 10, 2009 at 12:01 AM
Wesley Verhoeve
great post Justin. All food for thought. I think the main point indeed is to focus your attention to only a handful of destinations, have clear goals to strive for, and to put in your time. Dont try to do everything but half-assed, do a few things really well.
I’m working on plans with the artists I manage right now that make some tough choices about their web presence. I’ll report later on this.
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Sep 11, 2009 at 4:16 PM
Ele
I’m just going to address tools to help keep artists organized because these tools alone will change your life forever...
1. ArtistData.com: updates SEVERAL social networking sites at once, esp. for adding events/ show info.
2. TuneMogul.com: distributes videos to SEVERAL sites at once and offers metric info.
3. Google’s Reader Feature: Helps me organize all my blog subsriptions AND gives metrics on the blogs such as subscribers to these blogs.
4. Box.net: organizes uploads differently so you can give a download link to SEVERAL files in one folder.
5. BandMetrics.com: Gives metric data on your social media campaigns.
6. Whostalkin.com: tracks buzz online so you can keep track of press and posts as well as tweets and any minor or major mention. -
Sep 15, 2009 at 5:59 PM
Mario Mendoza
Once again, food for the musically minded. I wish I had better answers to these as well.
1.Social networks I realized are going to be like fads in many aspects. For Fried Roots, Twitter has been great. Myspace is still alive for us but is more of a landing page for albums and blogs. The fad part is not a bad thing, its a matter of musicians jumping on them early and using whats hot. I like using Techcrunch and Mashable to keep up with the zillions of new social networks in beta.
2. Best countries in the world for Hip Hop is a good one. From our web analytics, Spain and Germany are hitting us huge. Our mix is now bridging that gap. How can we capitalize? Its a learning experience. I have to connect with people in that market, find the best places to reach that audience and make myself as visible as possible.
3.Blogs are definitely a dominant source for new music. I don’t know if it will replace radio importance but I know if I’m looking for new music Im going to a blog before I even think about a radio station. I am a huge believer in its importance for a band. Its a representation of your identity, a communication tool, and a research tool that will allow you to plan out better strategies.
I feel you on the “content revolution” going on with Hip Hop and I’m loving it. It allows different voices to promote and reach different audiences, whether big or small(or annoying). I used to work for an content creation company and they preached content is “internet real estate”. These new voices can help the cause.
4. Less options seems boring to me. The more the better. The key thing here is to make up your damn mind and use what works. I learned my lesson.
Audible Hype always keeping me on my toes.
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Sep 18, 2009 at 6:29 AM
Gloss
We really appreciate the kind words. Continued success homie.
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Sep 23, 2009 at 6:52 AM
Infinitez
daaaaaaamn the comments section got good. excellent stuff, big thank you to everybody who is adding to the conversation here. there’s been a lot of great talks going on at Hypebot and MTT lately, too.
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Sep 29, 2009 at 8:17 AM
Metajake
Good think tank.
Thank you.
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Sep 29, 2009 at 11:15 AM
MattNZ
1: What’s working now? Google? Both paid for and the normal one. Old school. But not a Social Network, huh? I took my biz to the next level spamming myspace from ‘05 to ‘07 and I just don’t see how that opportunity, that golden age, will repeat itself. Facebook seems alright but it takes y’know, work. Ugh. Hate that shit. I am incredibly disorganised the best tool I have found is money. Basically I pay to make problems go away all the time now and it’s been going great.
2: Hip Hip is not my specialty area but I never advise forsaking strong home support. There’s usually a reason you can’t make it locally. If it’s because you’re like me and you can’t stand idiots, then by all means cast your eyes further afield. Worked for me afterall. I concentrated on where they had the most favourable economic conditions - US, Western and Northern Europe.
3: For cool kids, which may mean underground hip hop, well, mainly underground and progressive music. The point is it’s not financially progressive. It doesn’t inspire vast business opportunities as far as I can see other than launching pads for brands. A stepping stone.
4: Mine is not to ask whether it should be this way or that. It’s about exploiting the market. It’s about as you say, what works. Myspace worked, then it didn’t, blogs are all good if you don’t mind work, otherwise ppc it. The pain I see is too many amateurs, too many unstructured business models, too much echo, all that creates opportunities for the cream to rise.
5: The last one really suprised me . . . running a terrestrial tv station? That’s crazy, that’s like when I hear dudes talking about setting up in physical retail doing vinyl or whatever I just think . . . Overheads? now I KNOW you must be allergic to money. I dunno, I guess I just go back to my mantra.
You need someone who knows business in your sphere. Greedy, money grabbing little fucks like me may not be that inspiring to anyone, but we certainly have a role to perform.
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Sep 30, 2009 at 10:58 PM
mp3s killed hip hop
Thank you! Excellent post! Comments too!
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Nov 05, 2009 at 5:11 AM
Verta Britt
1. I hate Facebook, but FB referral links have been huge contributors to site traffic for ALL the artists I manage. Every genre, across the board. And I still hate Facebook.
In the past two years, I have created profiles on easily HUNDREDS of small-time to mid-level social networks and pretty much all of them have been a bust. We’ve had limited success with Ning networks for several artists but despite our best engagement efforts, we’re seeing active users drop off pretty hard for most of this year.
For tools, the whole Google suite is where it’s at. Is there a better free solution? There’s not even very many better PAID solutions.
2. Absolutely, The United States of America. This is the best spot, I think it’s a myth about Europe being any bigger/better as a market. They’re just MORE STARVED FOR AUTHENTIC AMERICAN RAP ARTISTS. So they get a better reception, smoke some amazing marijuana, and get head from girls with cute accents. Then they return to the US and talk up the EU like it was Heaven on Earth. Reality: you won’t make ANY money in the EU until you’re on here in the US first.
3. No, definitely not, but they are a symptom of the real driving force: word of mouth social networks. There’s a lot of BS hype written about this from people who haven’t really studied it. Anyone who has will tell you we still know very little about this, and most of the good data is in the hands of private marketing companies who treat it like the essential competitive intelligence that it is. Malcolm Gladwell looks neat and speaks well and gets tons of attention and praise, but his books are shallow pop entertainment.
4. This is an interesting question, but pretty meaningless because that’s not an option and never will be again, sorry.
5. I agree with Matt. Another odd question. Taking on the overhead of a TV station is deeply dumb, from a business POV. You’re young and you’re funny so I forgive you.
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Nov 08, 2009 at 9:00 PM
MusicBizGuy
Artists need to focus on the tools to make money and stop wasting their time running around the Internet like chickens with their heads cut off getting nowhere but frustrated. Here’s what you do:
1. Facebook is the best place to work on building a fan base. Don’t just talk to fans, talk to other bands on FB and MS and offer to swap gigs or open for free for them. Check out the gig swapping sites and get on board. The more you play live the more you can sell.
2. MySpace is necessary only because the world knows they can find you and your music there. Don’t waste any time friending people. Check your MySpace internal messages in case a fan wants to make a real connection. Message them back ASAP and get their contact info and put it into your artist data base immediately. They are a “true” fan. My partner and I designed a MySpace page geared to making money. Conceptually, it can work as a template for any artist profile you have. Its simple, direct and has a seamless user interface. Email me at and I will send a copy of the comp to anybody who wants one.
3. Use Bandcamp to post and sell your music but do so in conjunction with either Tunecore or Reverbnation’s music distribution platforms. Make sure your music is for sale everywhere it can be so anybody can buy it at any time. Sell individual cuts. Sell albums if you think that’s the solution for you. Bundles songs with merchandise, photos, videos or tickets to your shows. Get creative and make products that speak to your fans and make them BUY, BUY, BUY !!!
4. Design cool merchandise and have it readily available for sale. It should be front and center wherever you have a web presence. Maybe people won’t buy your music but love the fashion sense of your merch and will buy that. Come up with a gimmicky but cool tag line and work it into a fashionable female appeal design. Women control most of the money spent in the music space. Don’t be stupid, cater to their needs and interests. If you really want to make money, produce your own merchandise. It will be way cheaper than using one off services. You have to spend money to make money, NEVER FORGET THIS.
5. Use my new user generated music booking widget found at http://www.livemusicmachine.com. You can put it anywhere and anybody can book you anytime they want. Check out its default calendaring system from which you can be directly booked. Whenever you play live tell your fans that they can book you easily on LiveMusicMachine. Wherever you promote yourselves, promote where people can book you, buy your music and buy your merchandise. Sell advance tickets to your own gigs. Ask your clubs to give you a commission for every advance ticket you sell. It truly amazes me how artists don’t concentrate on aggressively promoting themselves to their fans for bookings. Everyone wants an agent and dates in the best clubs in their region. This is pie in the sky thinking. All it takes is one fan who loves you with some cash and you can be booked at a house party, private concert or any cool event that a fan can think up. Besides a fan will ALWAYS pay you more than any club or venue will. Don’t waste your time sending EPK’s to every club on the planet. They already know who they want to book or who they will listen to about new artists to book. Here is the place where you want to build personal relationships. These relationships will eventually turn into gigs and more cash.
6. Set up an ArtistData profile immediately. If you insist upon maintaining a billion profiles, any change you make to your ArtistData profile will be also be changed on every profile or event calendar you have on the Web.
7. If you really want to see what people who are really into music think about your music get involved in the process on http://www.thesixtyone.com.
8. Ask people to donate money to you for lots of reasons. At gigs have a tip jar and if the gig went well personally walk around and ask for donations. Need money for your next recording, raise it on Kickstarter.com or Sellaband.com. Make up special songs for special occasions for husbands, wives and lovers. Give away exclusive content to get your fans more engaged. But whatever your do, whenever you give something away to your fans ALWAYS get their email address and any other contact information they are willing to give to you. Ask and ye shall receive. Information is power and money.
9. You can easily see that all of the above suggestions are focused on making money for you as an artist. Your level of success is directly correlated to the amount of work you put into your business. Work smart so when you work hard it really pays off. Wherever you happen to be on the planet always remember you are an ambassador of goodwill for yourself as an artist. Serve your fans and your customers well. Address them by name. Show them you care and they will show you their cash.
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My name is Justin Boland and I work for
Sep 08, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Mister Piven