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Posts Tagged ‘musicians’
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Album finished? Check. Tour dates? Check. Press photos? Check. Press release? Check. Biography? Urgh!
If you’re not a spectacular storyteller or wondrous wordsmith, then the task of writing or updating your biography can seem like an arduous task. However, a biography is an essential item in any musicians marketing tool kit. It positions your brand identity, communicates your key achievements and provides background info to fans and media alike. Here are a few pointers to help you on your way…..
Interview Yourself
If you’ve not yet put pen to paper, the best thing to do is put yourself in the position of a journalist. Devise a list of questions covering your career and interview yourself. Gain ideas and angles by reading up on blog Q&As, or identify interview questions you would ask a favorite band or artist. This will make the process of gathering your bio content a lot easier. While you are interviewing yourself, write down as much info as possible. You can edit this all later.
Plan Your Structure
Mumford and Sons
Your bio is not your life story. It’s a concise and well structured overview of your music career. This is why planning the format is key. Think carefully about what you want to include in each paragraph and keep the following in mind:
1. Define your key achievements. If you have performed with well-known artists or received awards or accolades, then now is the time to rave about them. List them according to their newsworthiness.
2. Your bio does not need to be chronological. In fact the first couple of paragraphs are often the most important as they’ll determine whether a journalist or fan will read on. Ensure that the beginning of your bio provides an effective summary of your sound. For example, the Mumford and Sons bio conjures an image of their offering from the outset.
3. If you’re in a band, stick to writing about the band’s overall story, rather than each individual member in detail. It’s okay to dedicate some space to each member as long as the bio starts and ends with the band. Don’t kill the reader with detail – keep it focused.
Find Your Narrative Style
Adele
If you’re not a naturally gifted writer, than discovering your “writer’s voice” is one of the most difficult tasks. But don’t panic! If you write with passion and personality, you are halfway there. If you get stuck, utilize press quotes or even quote yourself. Adele’s biography is a good example of this.
Alternatively ask your friends and family to provide descriptors, and get feedback from them on your writing style. If in doubt, keep it short and simple. Balance style with substance.
Create a Work In Progress
Make life easy for yourself and write a biography that is easy to update on a regular basis. Adopt a style and format that is timeless and easy to add additional information to as your career progresses. Keep your bio as concise as possible — make every word count. If you struggle fitting all relevant information into one page, create both a short and long version that can be used accordingly.
Now get cracking….it won’t write itself.
Tags: advice, marketing, Music Industry, musicians, tips
Posted in Music Industry, advice, marketing, music, musicians | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
 It’s easy to forget the importance of good old traditional human contact. With all the hype over Facebook, Twitter, Foursquares and now Google+, most musicians are under pressure to be online 24 hours a day. However, one of the most effective ways to network is still face-to-face. Remind yourself of these following five principles when you go on your next schmoozathon and you’ll be good to go -
Quality Not Quantity
Networking at industry events should never be viewed as a numbers game. Musicians and industry professionals who race around trying to gather as many business cards as possible are forgetting the most important aspect of networking – good conversation. I strongly believe that establishing a genuine connection with a handful of people (even just one) will make you much more memorable than getting into the face of dozens.
Think of it as similar to dating – ask questions, listen and get to know your colleagues or potential fans. You may not gel with everyone. That’s okay. You don’t always have to aggressively target the people you feel you “should” know. Being relaxed, friendly and genuine will make you much more memorable.
Giving Not Getting
When I first moved to the US, I was really touched by a handful of people I met at events who went out of their way to help me for no reason at all. They either introduced me to friends of theirs or sent me information about a topic of conversation we were discussing. They asked for nothing in return, and as a result instantly stuck in my mind. This made me realize that by focusing on what you can give, rather than what you can get will lead to more valuable relationships in the long-run.
Everyone is Equal
We’ve all seen it hundreds of times before – those people whose eyes glaze over when they realize that the person they are talking to is “not important enough”. We all have agendas, and time is money, but mental hierarchies are presumptuous and arrogant. You should always view everyone as equally valuable. Remember the proverb “great oaks from little acorns grow’.
Be Prepared
No one likes a musician who aggressively shoves a CD in your face. However, being prepared with CDs, business cards and flyers is a must. You just need to ensure that your timing is right. Use your judgement, be courteous, humble and realistic. Always remember the basics too – label your CDs with contact details, and ensure that your business cards and flyers are striking, brand-consistent, and readable.
The Art of The Follow Up
We all know how important it is to follow up. You just need to think carefully about how you are going to do it. I hate it when someone tries to friend me on Facebook without as much as a message to say hello again. Try to make it as personal as possible – a chatty email re-introducing yourself or a shout-out on Twitter. Even better, send a hand-written note or put in a phone call. Think it through and make it worthwhile.
With all this in mind, get networking!
*This post was originally published on MicControl.com
Tags: advice, marketing, Music Industry, musicians, networking
Posted in Music Industry, Uncategorized, marketing, music | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
I’ve been noticing more and more that some musicians are sticking to their personal Facebook page to promote their music rather than opting for a Facebook fan page. I think it’s extremely important for every musician to have a Facebook fan page for the following reasons:
1. It strengthens your online brand instantly by keeping the personal and professional separate.
2. It’s automatically set as a public page so it’s more effective for search engine indexing and viral marketing.
3. It offers the “insight tools” function which provides information on how fans interact with your page. You can view traffic and fan demographics. You can also export your data into an excel sheet.
4. You can send messages to fans according to their geographical location and demography. Therefore your marketing becomes targeted.
5. You can exploit the power of indirect connections to boost your fan base. For example you can ask your fan base to recommend your page to their friends.
A great book on Facebook marketing is ‘3,000 fans in 30 Days’ by the New Media School. I thoroughly recommend it!
Tags: Facebook, music marketing, musicians, Social media
Posted in Music Industry, Social media, marketing, music | 14 Comments »
Monday, October 12th, 2009
I was at the lovely Dewey Beach Festival last weekend and had the pleasure of meeting Madalyn Sklar, the founder of GoGirlsMusic.com and Social Networks For Musicians. As a social media expert and all-round supporter of musicians, Madalyn was kind enough to answer some quick fire questions for me;
1. What do you think are the Top 5 most effective social networking sites that ALL musicians should be on?
MS: My top five would be MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Reverbnation and GoGirlsMusic.com. Despite all the talk about the “death of Myspace”, Myspace is still a great promotional tool for musicians. Reverbnation, on the other hand, offers a complete fan management solution for musicians. If you are a female musicians then GoGirlsMusic.com is a very personal service providing both online and offline networking opportunities.
2. What are the best tools for managing social networking sites out there today?
MS: My two favorites are Ping.fm and ArtistData. With Ping.fm you can send one status entry to all your social networking sites in one shot, which cuts down on the time you spend updating your social network status one by one. ArtistData, on the other hand, is geared specifically towards musicians and works in a similar way to ping.fm. However it also updates ALL the information in your social networking sites, including tour dates, in one easy step.
3. What is the biggest mistake musicians tend to make with social networking sites?
MS: The biggest mistake is when a musician doesn’t have a plan. Social networking is not just about building your sites, it’s also about maintaining them. You need to have goals and work out what you are trying to achieve. My motto is “work smarter, not harder”.
4. What band do you know that have used social networking sites really effectively?
MS: There’s the GoGirlsMusic.com group 3Kisses, who have managed to effectively maintain a great online presence. They work both MySpace and Reverbnation heavily. For example, they went on tour from Texas to Florida recently, and divided social networking tasks up between each band members. They worked every day to reach out personally to fans in each of the cities they were performing at, having one on one conversations and making personal connections. In the end, they managed to get more people to their shows than any of their local shows and also got signed to an indie label. They just worked it right.
About GoGirlsMusic.com
GoGirlsMusic.com is the oldest and largest community of female indie musicians in all music genres. The organization works tirelessly to help artists through education, networking and events like the GoGirlsMusicFest, Invasion of GoGirls, Songwriter Competition and more. Artists who become involved have the opportunity to perform, have their work reviewed, and get involved with a hardworking group of women who “get things done” in the music scene.
About Social Networks for Musicians
Social Networks For Musicians is a company which helps musicians and music businesses effectively create and manage their social networks with the most innovative web marketing solutions for Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and many more.
Tags: marketing, Music Industry, musicians, social networks
Posted in Music Industry, marketing | 5 Comments »
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