From Scratch – Adventures in Independent Music Making

Posts Tagged ‘Music Marketing’

With the digital revolution vastly changing the face of the music industry, as well as how fans encounter and use new music, it is imperative for artists to ‘keep up with the times’. And, with the convenience of the Internet and downloading, there has been an underlying push over the last few years to deliver fresh content to fans on a more frequent basis, in order to stay on their radar and satiate their desire to have more from the artist. But, is there a point where servitude becomes disadvantageous in the new music industry?

Last week, I read an article by Minh Chau called “The problem with releasing a single each month“. Chau’s reflections on whether it is better to give in to our convenience based society or take a ‘controlled inconvenience’ approach helped me settle the debate that has been on the back of my mind for quite some time now.

Singles are the reason for why many people bought albums in the past. They wanted one song, but had to purchase the entire album to get it. Today, no one needs to buy an entire album anymore… they don’t even have to pay for it because it is so easy to download music illegally. iTunes, artist websites, and other online retailers make it very easy to sample songs and only buy the ones you like.

So, if people are only buying one or two songs, why would an artist want to spend so much money recording a full album? Why not cater to the fans and give them a new single every month? Even with my own strong affinity for the romance of albums, this is something I had been considering doing for the sake of ‘keeping with the times’. The danger with this, I now see, is two-fold:

Firstly, it is difficult to create buzz and excitement around one single release every month (see Chau’s article). The time and money needed to properly promote my music as a whole would be wasted, because I would be moving on to the next release before the buzz from the first has run its full course. Also, there are more ways to promote an album (and the singles on it), which allow me to create new ways to engage fans each week/month while promoting a bigger body of my art.

Secondly, by becoming a servant to the fans … I become a servant to the fans… and I devalue my own work (see Herbert’s article). Don’t get me wrong, I want to be giving with my fans and serve a purpose in their lives, but that doesn’t mean I should make myself a slave to that effort. Fans value artists that they see as leaders, role models, and strong, inspiring individuals… not as pan handlers. I want to inspire, not beg.

Because people today expect to have free access to any kind of information or digital file at the touch of a finger, the things they can’t have on demand become more valuable (if the product is good). According to Wary Herbert‘s research, valuing something through a sense of scarcity may be part of our human nature. Antiques and diamonds are expensive and valuable because they’re not easy find. They are desired because of their inconvenience and limited supply.

As such, it still makes sense in the age of downloads to release a full album once every 1-2 years. Unless, of course, your artistic vision dictates otherwise. Sean T Wright is a good example of how a goal-oriented monthly release can challenge an artist and draw attention to one’s work.

In summary, I’d rather be a boat with oars and sails navigating my course on the moving waters, than a duck’s feather that floats (and gets pulled under) at the whim of the current. We are almost finished writing the next album and that is exactly how we will be releasing it :)

Until next week,

Meghan Morrison

www.meghanmorrison.com
@MegsMorrison

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Image “BSS 01” by Ana Gilbert courtesy of Buraka’s Black Diamond. License CC-BY-SA 2.0

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Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Facebook fan page, You Tube, Twit Pic, Flickr, Forums and the list goes on … there are SO MANY avenues for connecting with people online. It is both a burden and a blessing and for career musicians, whether we like it or not, it is an integral part of marketing in today’s world. Note that last word: “world”. Isn’t that what makes social media so exciting? It doesn’t matter if you have a label or management team and a big marketing budget, as a musician in this era you can literally connect with people (aka potential fans) all around the world… and the only investment you have to make is the cost of a computer and an internet connection (both of which can be used for free at the library). Limitless. That’s empowering. That being said, having a marketing team certainly would make your life A LOT easier and free up your time for improving your songwriting and stage performance.

Toward the end of this 4th week of Ariel Hyatt‘s Music Success in Nine Weeks blog challenge (Wave 3), I started feeling “the angst”. The ahhhh!-I-can’t-keep-up-with-all-of-this-and-be-committed-to-my-music-too! kind of pain that  suffocates you every now and then. I think it’s healthy though, it proves to me that I am still an artist under this business hat. That is a comfort in itself. Though I try not to get caught in the viscious cycle of complain-suffer-complain and burden my friends/family with that kind of negative energy, which really just keeps the problem alive instead of fixing it, I do think it is necessary to let the frustration out when it starts to rumble in your tummy. If you’re like me, it will be on your mind until it leaves your lips.

A few strategies I have adopted to cope with “the angst” and that have helped me complete the full 9 week challenge once (going on twice):

1. I tell someone … once. Then thank them for listening and tell them I’m moving on now (it usually gives rise to a chuckle). Telling them one idea for how I might be able to fix the problem also helps, because it gets my mind moving in a productive and positive direction. Did you know that if you ask yourself a question, your mind will keep looking for the answer subconsciously until it finds it? That’s why when you can’t think of the name of  a song it will come to you spontaneously hours or days later. I learned that during my training as a Cutco sales rep (oh yes, I once sold knives. I love those knives) and have found it to be a very useful tactic in approaching problem solving and creative endeavours.
2. Telling myself it’s okay to step away. Sometimes a break is as good as a vacation, right? Sometimes 5 or 15 minutes isn’t enough though and once I’ve given myself permission to abandon the project I tend to be happier coming back to it and often come back earlier than I planned because…
3. I remind myself that this is the Dip;  it takes as long as it takes, costs what it costs, and I’m going to do it regardless of the challenges, so I might as well enjoy the ride. If I’m feeling like I’m not enjoying it, then it probably means I have neglected something else that is important to me and I need to find a way to get my needs back in balance (or harmony, as I prefer to approach it).

And that is exactly how I came to write my blog tonight. I have absolutely no desire what-so-ever to write about social media this week, but this program is an important part of the long haul I’m in for, so I am determined to make some kind of step forward in this dip. What is my problem? So much of my time has been gobbled up over the past 13 weeks, trying to learn how to set up and use all these new programs, that I have felt a bit mechanical and my creative side has been neglected. I was expecting this. This is bootcamp and what Wave 2 was all about for me. It was about dedicating myself to my marketing project so that I could build a strong business foundation that I can be confident will support my creative pursuits and, eventually, lead me to a place where the house is capable of running itself without my constant supervision. I wanted Wave 3 to be about smoothing the integration so that I could focus more on music this time around. I don’t feel like I’m there yet. Thanks for listening, I’m going to move on now :)

A solution for my problem?  I wrote a lot about setting up social media sites during my Wave 2 Week 4 blog, so during this wave I want to satisfy my artistic need to reflect and write about the experience of using social media as an artist.

It has been AWESOME! Yes, it was a lot of work to set up and once you open a new social media application it never ends… but that’s a good thing. I can’t express how vitally important platforms like Twitter and Facebook have been in developing not only my online presence, but also my connection to the people who care about me and my music. My numbers suggest I don’t have a ton of followers at the moment, which is true, but those numbers are always growing; Especially with the webcast (84 visits to my website on the day of the last show. That’s huge for me!). With physical exercise, in order to maintain or improve upon the gains you achieve with all your hard work, you have to keep exercising. You don’t always have to be pushing your limits and comfort zone, but you do have to keep using those muscles and systems for them to continue functioning optimally, keeping your body healthy and efficient. Same thing with social media. If you stop using it all together, you will be forgotten and unfollowed. What I am trying to do now is find a way to blend it into my daily routine so that my social presence is alive and healthy, but not overwhelming me and taking all of my attention (if you only exercise your right bicep, it’s not going to help the strength of your left arm).

One major thing that has helped with this is … a team. Having other people on board that are actually keen to help out with social media and marketing has been a major asset in integrating social media into my life in a more manageable way over the last few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I tweet my own tweets and post on people’s walls myself, but I do have a couple people now that can help with setting up and optimizing profiles on new sites (Addie), desiging/managing event pages and booking gigs (Leandra), and other tasks that don’t require an authentic artist interaction. You’d be surprised how much time it takes to upload music, pictures, etc. and design profiles when you’re trying to be everywhere on the net.

The team is still pretty new though, so it doesn’t always run smoothly yet and there have  been challenges in communicating my vision to others and we have all made mistakes along the way. For example, team members forgetting to sign out of my facebook profile before commenting on something on my wall … which makes me look like I’m having a conversation with myself or attempting super cheesy promotional tactics. While this is kind of funny in some ways, it’s also really serious. I don’t want to lose my fans/friends’ trust. If they have reason to believe that someone else is posting for me, they will have no reason to believe that I’m the one responding to them and may stop following.

Something that surprised me in a pleasant way was that even though I have my facebook fan page linked everywhere, there are waaay more people finding me and adding me as a friend with my personal account than liking my fan page. Though it doesn’t look particularly good for me as a musician, I think this is far more exciting. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that people I meet at shows and online are genuinely interested in getting to know me, not just my music. I’ve never used the “suggest to friends” function before, so I’m going to try that this week when Addie comes over.

Addie is a Fanshawe graduate who is really keen on getting into music marketing, especially social media. I recruited her by contacting her program director at the college (who was very eager to help me  and recognized the value of real-life experience for their students). I sent him a list of ‘available opportunities’ and he forwarded it to all the students in their Music Industry Arts program. Addie responded with a resume, came in for a semi-formal interview, and got the job! She has been coming over once a week for what we are calling “office hours” and has been a major asset in helping me cope with the demands of social media.

Leandra is a Harris Institute graduate who seriously wants to get into booking. She has scored me some pretty big gigs and free recording sessions and I am very grateful for her firey ambition. I met her at the NXNE conference this year through a mutual friend (who I met at a CIMA talk). When the arrangement she had with the band she was representing didn’t work out, she contacted me and asked if I was looking for management help. Indeed I was, so she came out to a show and interviewed me. We discussed our visions, goals, and work ethic and have been learning a lot together ever since.

I want these ladies to feel like the professionals they are and I want my business to operate like a real business, so they both have contracts (I got a package of music industry contract templates from Indie Artists Alliance) that are open to renewal and renegotiating. They also get paid. Not much, because we’re not bringing in much yet, but by offering to pay them something instead of asking them to work as unpaid interns (which is very common in this industry) they know that I respect them, apprecaite their work, and want them to be compensated. They know that the better we all do as a team, the more I will be able to give them.

If you want to build a team around you, I’m not an expert, but here is my suggestion: don’t give up on the idea when the first person doesn’t work out (because it probably won’t) … or the third person … or the tenth. Addie wasn’t the first person to send in a resume and be invited to join the team and I’ve gone through a number of people who tried acting as my manager or  booking agent, but in the end couldn’t commit to it. It has to be the right fit for everyone or it won’t work. Don’t take it personally and don’t blame the others for not following through if it’s not the right gig for them. It sucks to deal with turn-over, but it will give you the momentum you need to eventually get the right people on board. When you can advertise that you’ve got a booking agent, for example, that gives you credibility. People will take you more seriously and that will help attract other people who are interested in this kind of work.

It’s all stepping stones until you get to the other side of the river. Much like this week was for me. I don’t have my entire social media network all together and I haven’t quite figured out the best way to integrate it into my daily life, but I’m getting closer! (TweetDeck has been a BIG help with keeping updates regular, even when I can’t be at a computer for  a while. And the Pomodoro Technique has helped me make better use of my social media time when I am at the computer -thank you for blogging about it Ethan Waldman. I typically arrange for 1 “pomodoro” to check my tweets and schedule replies at the beginning of the day. I’ll also schedule retweets of things I think other people will find interesting. During the rest of the day, I send my own personal updates from my phone and catch up with the replies the next morning. I generally dedicate 1 – 2 “pomodoros” to check and respond to stuff on facebook before I go to bed. Since some of my tweets are set up to go through as facebook updates, this gives people time to comment on the posts and start discussions before I sit down to interact and catch up.

If you’re an artist going through “the angst” I hope this blog may have provided some coping strategies for you :) Feel free to forward it on to other social media sufferers :)

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Eternal Clock, available for use under a Creative Commons 2.0 License, by Robbert van der Steeg

I just got back from dropping off my Creators and Composers Grant application to the Toronto Arts Council (… fingers crossed for a successful outcome). It seems the more I take on, the more I take on, the more I take on… and, being a perfectionist, the more I edit, the more I edit, the more I edit. Alas, for the first time in these 9 weeks of the blog challenge, my Music Success in Nine Weeks blog is being written late (on Monday instead of Sunday). Four weeks ago I would have beaten myself up over this: “I should have planned things better”; “I shouldn’t have taken on so much”; “I can’t do this all on my own”. Now I’m able to look back and say “Balls! That sucks. I really like getting things done on time, but look at everything I DID accomplish to keep me from getting my blog done on time! I bought a house, set up the utilities, packed everything, moved in, met with contractors, cleaned the house before helping roommates move in the next day, started setting up the studio in the basement; I put in 3 solid days at the vocal school, had office hours with Addie (my volunteer online promotions teammate) to draw up her contract, hours, and action plan; Overcame the challenge of  “Surprise! No Internet Today!” by finding an alternate venue for my webcast and making sure all the guests knew about the changes and where to go … then ran the webcast; Finished a grant application, press kit and log book with my manager; Went to investigate button making machines for my Continuum Program and created a first draft of ideas for said continuum program (see below); Had a decent rehearsal and started writing a new song; Went to see my friends play their last Canadian tour gig and revelled in the magic of Nuit Blanche“.

I think I’ll forgive myself for being late this time … and anytime, for that matter, because it’s still moving forward, even if it’s not on time.

Directly, the experience of going through this 9 week blog challenge has taught me an incredible amount about marketing my music. Indirectly, it has taught me how to survive. The last two years, after giving up my academic life in pursuit of my artistic life, have been an emotional rollercoaster to say the least: Excited for the ride, but also scared as hell; Not knowing how fast it’s going to go or if I have the strength to hold on if my seat belt breaks; Just knowing I’m on board and trusting the instincts that told me to get on the ride in the first place … it is frightening and blissful at the same time. You know, something only crazy people get themselves into. I’m a little less of a madman now, because I no longer feel like I am precariously juggling life, business, and art (trying not to let one or all of them drop). Rather, all the facets of my passion have become stripes on a beach ball; one cohesive unit that has clearly distinguished parts that are sewn together, bringing me a sense of balance and strength when I’m being bounced around.

As romantic as the craziness was (and still is), I did want some semblance of structure -a way to know I was doing everything I could do to keep the tracks maintained. Ariel’s program was just that. Being involved in this blog challenge has helped me develop the framework I need to really turn my music into a career instead of a sideshow. Now I am more confident than ever that I can and will pull it off, but also know that if I’m in this for the long haul, it will always be a process, it will always take time, so why not let myself enjoy it now? Industries and times change and, because I am an artist, I also change and grow with time and so should my business. Now that I’m a little further up the slope, I can finally take a look back, take a breath and think it through. Then make a plan and build the wall again, each time reusing the pieces that worked well and putting the others off to the side for other projects or perhaps future use later down the road. Lather, rinse, repeat. It’s not starting from scratch, not really. It’s a healthy cycle of repairing and reviving. So there is no need for me to panic and get frustrated anymore. That is why I decided to sign up for the third wave of Ariel’s blog challenge. This time my challenge isn’t going to be whether or not I can accomplish everything that’s in the book (admittedly, there are some things I need to catch up on), but rather how much I can surprise myself with ways to build from it now that I have a strong foundation, a clearer vision, and a bigger team to help me. Third wave starts October 11th, if you want to join me.

As for concluding my marketing plan for this wave, Week 9 involved designing a continuum program. Basically, a way to make money off of all the work I have done in the previous 8 weeks and will continue to do in the future. Ariel suggests creating your program by visualizing it as a funnel (or upside down pyramid). At the top of the funn-amid, you have smaller (or free) purchases that many people will be likely to snag, like free downloads with a sign up for your newsletter. As the funnel gets smaller, so does the number of customers, but the price gets higher and these are the items you offer to the true blue fans that want to support you and your art, regardless of the amount of money. Everywhere in between are a variety of services and items that you can create for all the fans who are in between (weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down! … where did that come from? The easily distracted mind never rests).

I have decided to start with a small funnel for this wave of the blog challenge, with my focus on getting the button making project together. Critical Buttons in Toronto sells and rents the machines (and also just buttons if you don’t want to make them yourself). Because we do an art project during every webcast (the pieces are going to be auctioned off for charity at the end of the year), I thought it would make sense to start making buttons out of the art pieces. Half of the proceeds will go to the charity (yet to be decided) and half to the artists.  Plus, this way I can make my own buttons or even buttons for other artists/bands. Then I’ll start a button of the month club where people can subscribe to receive either that month’s featured button, or a button that I choose at random… haven’t fully decided yet. Maybe it will be both. The rest of the funnel will include CD packages. I have decided to do some remixes of the DTour songs (the album is a limited quantity and I will not be making more of them) and plan to package those with a copy of the CD my brother and I made with our old band (Purl of Surf). Then at the bottom of the funnel, I will offer to create and record (at home) a custom song for anyone who wants one. I’ve done a few of these as gifts this year and really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to getting the “store” up and really running.

Well, that’s all for now, but I guess there are no sad soppy so-longs because I’ll see you again next week in Wave 3! Kudos to everyone who stuck it through these 9 weeks and beyond. It was great to read your blogs and learn alongside you.

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