What’s the Value of a Concert to Your Audience?

One of the musicians I help on a frequent basis surprised me when he said that the band he’s been in for nearly three years, have recorded nearly every one of their live performances. Like the professionals they aspire to be, the band apparently reviews the recordings like they were game tapes, attempting to figure out what could be done to improve their performance and who screwed up where. While I had previously encouraged this band to post an open audio taping policy on their website, I’ve begun to consider something more sinister. (cue the notorious laughter)

While it’s great exposure for bands to get their live music heard by thousands, on free music torrent sites like DimeADozen.org (with their 100,000+ users (wow- I really downloaded nearly 2 terabytes of live audio & video?)) and TheTradersDen.com and etree’s live music archive (with over 3,300 bands), what if your band benefited from an open taping policy with one caveat?

Here’s the scenario;

You’re on stage in front of 600 screaming fans. You are 25 minutes into your set, in between songs, and the lead singer leans into the mic and announces, “Just so you know, we’re recording tonights show.  (Cheers)  If you want us to send you a link to download it free, put your address on the sheet by the t-shirt booth.”  That’s it.

The result? Depending on your performance, you’re likely to find a nice crowd of people surrounding your booth after the show.  Just drawing them to your booth is bound to help merch sales, because while waiting to put their name, email and zip code (ALWAYS get the zip/postal code!) down on your free concert recording list, they can’t help but stare at your cool t-shirts, CDs, 8-tracks, lunchboxes and what-have-you.  And how hard is it to create a printed form with a column for name, email and zip code?  Not hard, I just created one in 10 minutes (a PDF example is attached, but sign-up for my free SMMuG Email list off to the right and I’ll email you the Excel version so you can put in your own band logo). —> Make a dozen copies of your form, invest in a clipboard or two, and you are in business!

Now, the show is over, you dump your recording to the laptop, edit the tracks and compress to MP3.  Post the tracks up to your website using a unique path for each show; something like yourbandname.com/2009/pittsbrgmp3s/.  Email everyone on your new list, thank them for coming out, apologize for the exploding drummer and include the link to the mp3s.  You, my friend, have  just made a bunch of your people VERY happy!   And what do you have, beyond some great karma?  Well lookie there; you now have a list of fans/friends and followers who you can reach out to next time you’re coming to town! Or next time you’re releasing a new CD.  Or next time you’ve got a new t-shirt.  Or next time… You get the idea. Put that list in Excel, a database or better yet your favorite email campaign system, like MyEmma.  A few years from now you can send me a thank you card when you have 5,000 people in your system and can go just about anywhere and draw a crowd.

Now, how does this play with your taping recording policy that you’ve posted on your website? If you actually do tape all of your shows as my friend does, I would encourage the audio recording and free trading of your shows, but request a 30 day grace period before audience recorded live shows hit the trading networks.  This will increase the value for the people receiving the links to the bands mp3s since they will be the first recordings of that show available.  Not to mention that the band recordings will be from the soundboard and the other recordings are mostly audience mics. Keep in mind that tapers take their passion very seriously and it is not usual for them to get recordings from a live show up and available via bit torrents in the same day, which is why the 30 day grace period in critical to this process.    The other thing that this new process addresses are some venues who have strict policies against the audience carrying in mics, booms, laptops and harddrives to capture your show.

One last thing to consider, a lesson learned from prior Pearl Jam tours. Some of your audience members haven’t figured out how to download Mp3’s or use Torrents.  A few of your audience members haven’t figured out how to get music to their iPod. And some of your audience members would rather BUY a CD of the live show they attended, because of the convenience, or as a gift or because of the lossless quality of the music.  How easy would it be to offer that low price live CD option up to all of those who attended within the email notification to show goers? Easy. Easy money baby.

Let me now how it goes!

-pjc

I get emails from bands every week thanking me for the website and asking how they can contribute.  The best thing to do is post your comments, concerns, questions below and create a dialog with other bands and musicians.  Who knows, you might find a new collaboration amongst this little community!  Make sure your comment below has a link to your website or social media page (Myspace/Facebook/Twitter, etc.) otherwise it will not be approved.

Free Soundtracks – Getting Your Music Into The Movies

If history has influence on current events, musicians can rest assured that during difficult economic times, people will seek out entertainment to take their minds off of their troubles. Movies and Music are at the top of that list, so we shouldn’t be surprised to see an increase in awareness thanks to a combination of the economy, Guitar Hero, Rockband and the always popular American Idol (or insert your country HERE Idol).

While the former music industry crumbles into a slow, self-inflicted suicide stabbing of itself, there is an opportunity for independent musicians/bands to form alliances with independent filmmakers. Recently, I read a story in TechDirt about a independent movie production, for a movie called The Graduates, that was going to heed SEC Bad Boy Mark Cuban’s suggestion of giving away soundtracks to movie goers.  Being a big fan of both independent movies and indie music (not to mention Mark Cuban), I was really intrigued by the idea of attempting to give away 1,000,000 soundtracks to an independent movie.  So I contacted executive producer of The Graduates, Ryan Gielen, for an interview to better understand this process and how it might benefit both independent musicians and movies in the future.

SMMuG: For the bands and musicians who are not familiar with the movie making process, how do Executive Producers find music for their films?  Is there a directory, website, association or service that helps movie makers find specific types of music?

Ryan: Many films have music supervisors who seem to have an encyclopedic knowledge of music. They’re like a Cinematographer in a lot of ways- they interpret the story and the tone and the textures and pick out music that expresses those things. On The Graduates we asked bands I already knew and loved, and we put out a call on several websites and blogs for music submissions. The soundtrack is a mix of both.

All told, Matt (my producer/brother) and I received about 10,000 song submissions and whittled that down to 24 songs. I didn’t particularly care where or who the music came from, I just wanted to find the perfect song for a particular scene. There are so many incredible bands looking for exposure that it wasn’t difficult to find those songs.

Ryan Gielen

SMMuG: It’s clear that your Free Soundtrack promotion would be beneficial to the movie, but what are the specific benefits that musicians would receive by participating in your project?

SMMuG: There are some good examples of strong soundtracks drawing attention to a movie, but do you seek out independent bands that have large followings in order benefit from their fan base?  If so, how did you determine what kind of following each band might have?

Ryan: For The Graduates, I never looked at the bands’ followings, because the soundtrack is not the product. The film is the product, so I wanted songs that made the film stronger. I don’t think I’ve ever looked at the MySpace friends or whatever bands use to determine their fan base because I’m not a promoter or a booker, I was just looking for pieces that would help this scene or that scene.

SMMuG: What are your plans for marketing and promoting this very unique offer in the markets where your movie will be screened?  Do have street teams or what local promotional efforts are you using to raise the awareness for your film?  Are any of the bands involved in your promotional efforts?  Maybe brief concerts before or after the screening?

Ryan: When our release schedule is in place we’ll work with the bands to schedule the kinds of events you’re describing, but in the meantime we’re doing tons of grassroots outreach- emails, phone calls, blog articles. When we get close to screenings we’ll have our street teams in place along with articles and other local coverage. We’ve gotten pretty good at this- we’ve had 7 or 8 standing room only festival and sneak preview screenings in five different states. I hope we can carry that over into the release, I know we’re working our asses off to make that happen!

SMMuG: Frequently, I’ll purchase soundtracks to movies prior to actually seeing the movie – Mark Mothersbaugh’s musical influence with Wes Anderson movies are a prime example.  Watching the movie, the familiar soundtrack increases my appreciation of the movie.  Is there any discussion about getting ticket sales up front so that the soundtrack could be in possession of the movie goers prior to the screening?

Ryan: We hope the free soundtrack will have this effect. We’re giving away the soundtrack in order to generate buzz, sure, but most importantly we want people to see the quality and entertainment value of the film. We’re not just competing against $250,000 movies, we’re competing against all movies, so how does a little tiny indie like us get attention, and show off the goods? We think this is a start.

Plushgun

Plushgun is a great example. Dan Ingala was making music in his room, but he started putting it out there and playing a little in Brooklyn where he had a dedicated following, and then he let a small little web tv show use his song “Just Impolite.” They put the song in a video on the web, it got hot because it’s a great song and people could easily pass it around, I stumble on it and loved it and put it in the film. Around that time he gets invited to SXSW, later gets signed by Tommy Boy, and now he’s releasing his first full album in two weeks, and “Just Impolite” is featured in a long, critical sequence in The Graduates. But it all started with him making his great music available online for people to pass around.

Regarding directors- IMDb.com is a great place to start (the Internet Movie Database). If you pay $100 per year you can join IMDb Pro, which has contact information and production information for most people in film. Filmmakers update the status of their project and you can search for projects “in development” or “in production” or “in post production.” I would contact every single one of those filmmakers with a link to your myspace or iTunes pages and mention two songs they might dig. Make a quick mention of why the songs are good for the film: “saw this is a family drama, you might dig this acoustic track.” If you don’t want to pay the $100, chances are you have a friend or acquaintance who has IMDb Pro, I’m sure they’ll let you hop on for a good cause.

This is also why it’s smart to produce your own music videos. If you post a job on Mandy.com looking for a Director, and you do three or four videos a year, after three years you have ten to twelve young directors who know and like you and your music. Chances are these guys are going to try and make another short or feature at some point, and your music will end up in the score.

I would also put all these videos, even if it’s just concert footage, on Youtube and Blip.tv. Blip is amazing because it lets you submit to all online video sites with one click, including podcasting on iTunes. If your band recorded every concert on camera and with good audio through the soundboard, and uploaded that as a podcast to iTunes and other video sites, you would be pretty groundbreaking. And the only investment is a $500 HD camera and a couple cables to connect your laptop to the soundboard.

I think tracking down filmmakers is a lot like tracking down your audience- if you don’t put content out into the world, nobody’s going to find you… I think this is attributed to Cory Doctorow, but I completely agree: “The greatest threat to an artist is obscurity, not piracy.” There’s a reason The Dead let people tape their shows. They wanted people to hear them whether you could make the show or not. The bottom line is we all want that great distribution or record deal, but the reality is that it probably won’t happen. So artists really can’t afford to sit on their art, you have to put it out there.

—

Keyword: SMMUG

Beyond providing us with some great direction, inspiration and information, Ryan Gielen has also promised to give 100 SMMuG readers the full, 24 track soundtrack to The Graduates!  Visit the Graduates website. put the digital soundtrack in your cart and use the following code at check-out to get the whole thing for FREE: SMMUG.  Beyond getting the soundtrack for free, you’ll also be registering for an almost monthly SMMuG newsletter, from yours truly.

-pjc

Make Your Next Music Video for Just $3 – Animoto

In case you hadn’t noticed, online video is BIG deal these days.  Acorrding to this story posted in September 2008, by the CEO and Co-Founder of YouTube, the YouTube service alone receives 13 hours of video submission every MINUTE.   When I was doing some research for keywords on Google last week I noticed that the term “music video” was search 13.6 million times during the month of December. That was more that twice the average volume leading up to that month!

So if twice as many people are looking for music videos online where is yours?

Lucky for you, my broke but artistic friend, I have answer.  We just discovered Animoto this week and it’s actually pretty slick. You can try a 30 second clip for free, or you buy a credit for one song for $3 or, if you REALLY like it, you can get an all access pass for $30 for a year (which includes hosting). While this might be a tad more expensive than something like Blip.tv, there is a great feature, ideal for music videos.

After feeding your music track and a bunch of photos to Animoto, it looks at the sound of your music and creates a unique mix of your photos in time to your music, complete with effects! Where else can you take some still pix, your music and $3 and get a hosted video?  Nowhere – but Animoto.

Please give it a shot and then let us know what you think below. Better still, post the URLs to your new Animoto made videos!

-pjc

Paste Magazine Music Samplers Go Digital

When I first discovered Paste magazine, I thought that someone finally got it right.  For years I had pissed and moaned about how music magazines were missing the boat – why just READ about music, why not actually share the MUSIC? So I held my first issue of Paste with the same excitement that I held issue number one of Spin, issue number one of Wired and issue number one of Mondo 2000; THEY GET ME. But as usual, it doesn’t take too long before those good things come to an end.  Usually right after I subscribe, the magazine changes policy in an cost-cutting effort.

Paste was amazing in the early days because they provided both a music sampler CD and a video sampler DVD in the same issue.  The CD would almost always contain a few jems each month and the DVD would focus on music videos, live performances, movie trailers, some occasional shorts and usually a sponsor or two.  Where could you get more for a$5 investment beyond a CD, a DVD and a great read? Actually it was even cheaper when subscribing, so that’s exactly what I did. Just a few issues later, I got the notice that they were axing the DVD sampler. And now, a couple years later, the February 2009 issue will be the last newsstand issue with a CD sampler.

According to page 32 of that issue, Paste claims they ship more than 2,000,000 CDs each year. They surveyed their subscribers and discovered that most are ripping the CD to digital and tossing the disc. Subscribers can still opt-in to receiving the physical discs, but everyone else, especially newsstand purchasers will receive a special code in each issue to download their digital samplers.  I love the idea of a special printed code unique to each magazine/person, but I like the idea of a physical CD and DVD more.   But that’s likely just my prehistoric self showing a fondness for shinny objects…

SO, why should musicians and bands care about Paste?  Because they are clearly paying attention to the trends toward digital.  And while most music magazines are still struggling to figure out how to survive, Paste seems to have things well in-hand.  The Paste website, according to both traffic monitors Alexa and Compete, saw some of the highest traffic counts in their online history right towards the end of 2008.  And while Rolling Stone still has several hundred thousand more website visitors (and magazine readers) than paste, during 2008 the traffic to Paste’s website grew by 571% compared to Rolling Stone’s meager increase of 17% (according Compete.com).

Beyond the slick digital sampler code, Paste has also created a VIP club for just $3.95 per month that I’ll be joining very shortly as well.  Beyond a cool “Members Only” t-shirt, I will also score early access to the next 11 issues of Paste digitally, all the back issues digitally, 24 full albums (digital), 11 digital samplers, exclusive MP3’s and finally a handful of those DVD Samplers that I loved so much, so many years ago.  If you want to be as cool as I’m going to be, you can subscribe as well by visiting their VIP page.  Might be your best $4 music investment for the month.

In the meantime, here’s what you need to know to get your music to Paste magazine and to their monthly Paste Culture Club podcast:

Contact Nate Douglas at:
Paste Magazine
Attn: Reviews
PO Box 1606
Decatur, GA 30031

Once your stuff arrives, follow up with Nate by email or phone: 404-207-1182

For the Paste Culture Club Podcast, contact Kevin Keller by email or phone: 404-207-1190

I look forward to reading about your band, hearing your music and watching your vids, all on the new digital versions of Paste!

-pjc

Hype Machine Churns Out the Hits

Hype Machine is an amazingly simple website that answers one question very well;  Which tracks are being covered most by music blogs over the past three days?

The result is a very easy to understand and access set of charts that should put Billboard magazine to shame.

Beyond being an solid source for the popular music being covered by thousands of music bloggers, Hype Machine also has a player built into the bottom of their page which preloads with the song at the top of the particular chart you’ve selected.  Chart options include; Latest, Popular, Radio and Spy.  While Latest and Popular should be self-explanatory, Radio is actually monitoring songs beings played by online stations.  Spy is simply collecting random mp3 tracks from the music blogs being frequently checked – consider your “feeling lucky” option.

While I’ve only visited the Hype Machine a few times, most of the music I’ve heard has been heavy on the dance, remixes and mash-ups.  I will not claim to be an expert on current musical trends, but there may be some genres left out of their blog rotation.  One of the important elements that should be understood is the SEARCH function.  Type in an artist you know and not only will you find tracks available for both streaming and downloading, but you’ll also find references to other SIMILAR sounding artists.  A sound way to discover new sounds.

We will use this resource, along with other tools, to help us target the most popular music blogs to review.

-pjc

First Post – Promotional Resources for Musicians!

There are hundreds, potentially thousands, of websites dedicated toward helping musicians/bands promote their music in some way, shape or form.  Among the noise, there are like a few dozen that can truly provide SIGNIFICANT benefits to independent artists & musicians. We will attempt to provide reviews and feedback on those MOST important web resources for the promotion of your music.

-pjc