February 28th, 2011

Squats with live music in Berlin – Kirche Von Unten

KVU has a history as a community that stretches back to 24 June 1987, a date celebrated annually in their summer festival. Typically enough, with the organised chaos that surrounds non-hierarchical venture like this, I’ve not been able to determine how long they’ve had their present form as a well organised, cheap and popular venue. Reputed to be frequented by several well-known artists and musicians, they are very much a music lover’s venue, although I’ve heard they have a good quality range of alcoholic beverages too and serve VOKÜ every Thursday.

Style of music

Mainly punk, but open minded

Atmosphere

KVU’s decor has been described as ‘unique’: the DIY aesthetic of squatted or ex-squat venues has some unifying threads, but the main one is creative diversity!  Admission to gigs is €3, with no concessions (unlikely to be a problem at that price). A friendly, welcoming atmosphere, and regular sightings of punks (‘vivid representatives of this species have been repeatedly observed at various events at KVU’ as the website has it) are key characteristics.

How to get a gig there

Contact for booking is by webform in the first instance (on the ‘Kontakt’ page of their website): prospective bands need to submit a demo to the ‘Bandrat’, a committee which is responsible for bookings.  If you’re not German I’d advise getting a German speaker to help you compose the email as I got no response back when writing in English for more information.

Their standard gig rates are €50 plus €5 ‘per nose’, which I guess means per person, plus a case of beer. If you’re coming from outside Berlin they will pay €0.14/km travelling expenses. Bands need to bring drums and backline, PA and sound engineering is provided by KVU.

Website: www.kvu-berlin.de

Live Unsigned Listing:

http://www.liveunsigned.com/venue/438-mitte/1834-kirche-von-unten-kvu?page=&s=KVU

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February 25th, 2011

When will the band start making money?

Many musicians refuse to do anything unless they are paid. This is completely understandable if you are playing covers, doing sessions or TV work etc. However if you are looking to build an audience this approach will slow you down. Ian from Topspin Media (who has worked with David Byrne, Moby etc) recently said:

“Our advice to artists is to not attempt to sell ANYTHING until you have at least a couple of thousand people on your email list.”

Picture by Paul Linus Claassen

You can’t make money from an audience you don’t have (and as we have said before an email list is essential) . You probably also need at least several thousand connections across a few social networks (not Myspace, social networks that work) that you are actively engaged with. This will most likely take years, so it requires a serious investment of time and hard work to build this literally one person at a time.

Now we’re not saying play the local pub to two people for nothing or give away your music for TV. It’s about using strategic steps to build an audience you can effectively monetize later.  So giving away a track or EP or album in exchange for an email is a good idea. Doing a gig with another band or festival (listed on Live Unsigned) where you can collect emails has a value. If you were to use magazines or pay per click advertising to get these emails you’d be looking at a considerable spend. Use your social network to direct people at free downloads but don’t do it too often, remember social networks are not there for you to self promote, its about people having a conversation. Perhaps only self promoting with links to product once or twice a week is a good idea.

The more money you charge the more barriers you put up between you and a potential fan. When you see a label charging £10 for a CD they are spending a lot money on advertising and promotion and they often make a loss. They are gambling on potential future revenue available once an audience is built. As an unsigned artist you can’t hope to compete with a promotional spend on that level, so by giving away some of your music/time/energy you can start to build that audience. You need to think like a low cost tech start-up, sites like Google and Twitter didn’t attempt to make money until they had a loyal audience.

Every fan email/social network connection you make has a real cash value if you can create great music and products. So once that audience is there you can start to sell tiered products of a higher value such as T-Shirts, Tickets, Box Sets, House Concerts etc. This is where the real money is, not in a one off sale. Last month the Grateful Dead made 3.5 million dollars on the sale of 7200 units of a 65 CD set. Although this is an extreme example it illustrates how much you can make from a loyal fanbase. They made more cash in that week than anyone in the US charts (source Bob Lefsetz).

Think of your long term strategy. Are you looking for a small amount in the short term or do you want to potentially make a living by having an audience? The answer to this will vary from band to band.

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February 22nd, 2011

When do you need a manager?

A lot of artists are looking to get someone else to take over the business side of things allowing them get on with the music. Often they want a manager to “take them to the next level”, but this isn’t really how it works. It is useful to have a manager in the sense of someone speaking on your behalf, to help push your career through interactions with the industry, but only if they are the right one. You only need a manager once you are ready, when your product is good enough and you are a great band with a decent fan base. You still need to be hard working and interacting with your audience through social media, this is expected of all musicians now.

Picture by Paul Linus Claassen

The way to get a good manager is to keep doing what you are doing, building a grass routes fan base online and through playing gigs (promoted on Live Unsigned). Building an audience one person at a time. Eventually you will hit the point where you will be approached, as long as your name is in the right blogs and print press and you are playing the right gigs. Try and keep doing as much as possible yourself for as long as you can, the more well known you are and the larger your fan base the more chance you have of getting decent management.

When you are approached by a manager its very tempting to sign to them straight away, but don’t. Once you have one manager interested others are likely to follow. Always remember to get any contracts reviewed by an industry lawyer and be careful if they also offer a record, merchandising and publishing deal all in one. This is called a 360 deal and will give the management too much control. Avoid. Ask some questions before agreeing to anything like:

  • How much commission will they take? Does this amount change for any reason?
  • How many other acts are they managing? Are you a priority?
  • Does the management want to be involved in the creative part of the process?
  • Whats the long term plan for your career?
  • What new acts have they broken recently? The music industry has changed a lot in the last few years and they need to be up with current trends.
  • Whats the plan for playing live, is it small tours, supports or even house concerts?
  • Will you build a following through DIY methods or look for an old style recording/publishing deal?
  • Whats their social media strategy?
  • How long is the contract for? What happens if things don’t work out?
  • How much will they put into the band in cash/time terms?
  • Who exactly do they know? Can they prove it? Have they a proven track record?
  • Do they understand your genre and have contacts that are relevant?

Before moving forward get a detailed proposal of what the manager can do for you in the short term and over the course of the next few years.  Really the best way to find a manager is through people you trust. The people you have met through building your network of contacts using the techniques in the previous few Live Unsigned blog posts are very useful here. Anyone can say they are a manager, it doesn’t mean they can get you the best deals or know the best contacts. Be very careful as mistakes at this point can be very expensive later on.

You and your management must share the same vision for your future career. If not things can get very messy, especially once lawyers are involved.

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February 21st, 2011

Tunebreaker – New Music Award Launched

Tunebreaker.co is a new site that seeks to connect musicians with fans, and also raise money for the charity Warchild.

Tunebreaker New Music Award

The site allows you to discover new artists and listen to them via their players on the relevant social media platforms. You can vote for artists to win the TuneBreaker New Music Award (with a £10,000 prize!) using a method called Sales Led Voting. When you purchase a download from the site you also vote for the artist in the award. 50% of the net profits go to the artists, a percentage of the remainder goes to support the charity Warchild the rest goes to covering costs at Tunebreaker.

The idea is fans discover new music, the band’s audience grows and money is raised for Warchild in the process. You can search for artists by genre or location. As they say themselves “we want to help to build a “new industry of music” that is based on the four pillars of respect, trust, worth and value”. Anything that gets people talking about your music is a good thing and if Tunebreaker does that and raises money for a good cause its good for everyone.

Tunebreaker has just launched registration for its first Monthly Live Chart Award for unsigned artists worldwide at www.tunebreaker.co. It is free to enter. Tunebreaker have lots plans for the future including meet ups for fans and a TuneBreaker Live Chart, all tied in across the various social networks. Artists and Fans can download badges and flyers at www.tunebreaker.co/goodies.php .This is another opportunity to get yourself heard and it will be interesting to see how Tunebreaker develops in the coming months.

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February 17th, 2011

Using an email list to connect with fans

A lot of people will tell you that its all about social networking now but one thing we have learned in the last few years from sites like Bebo and Myspace is that these networks have a limited life span. An email list is still a very important way for bands to stay in touch with their audience and its still going to be there when the social networks change/disappear.

Picture by Paul Linus Claassen

Services such as Mail Chimp and Fanbridge allow you to manage your list easily and professionally. Some do charge for the service, especially if your email list runs into the thousands. Ensure all the people on your list have actually opted in and want to be on the list, spamming people via email is illegal and bad for your reputation. Its about gaining permission to market to people through great music, not adding to the spam deluge. Be careful.

Building your list takes time. Ask friends and fans if they would like to join the list first, then ensure you collect emails at your gigs (this is a good way to get talking to and making friends with the crowd). Have some kind of email collector on your site, ideally on every page in the form of a widget. Offer free songs (perhaps an entire album/live EP) in exchange for an email address. This act of generosity allows you to open a channel of communication via email. With so many bands out there trying to build an audience this is really important.

Once your have your list set up and have a few people on it you can start to send messages out. Its best not to send emails too often, maybe once or twice a month perhaps, unless you have some really exciting news. Emailing out too often when you have very little happening will just annoy your fans and you will loose people.  Try subscribing to the email lists of bands you like so you can see how it is done, you will notice the number of emails increases as the band head towards major activity such as a tour or an album release. Even if the band is between releases its still worth staying in touch so that you don’t loose that contact with your fans.

Think about how you will structure your emails and ensure the tone is appropriate for your band and genre. Always have one specific “call to action”, this is the one thing you definitely want your audience to do – download your new album, attend a gig listed on Live Unsigned or become a fan on a social network. Make this the first paragraph on the email. Think of what you want your fans to do before you even consider sending an email.

Once you have your specific call to action in place you may want to talk about a few other less important bits of news. I’d always recommend starting by asking how your fans are (its about them, not you) and ensure you say thank you for their support. Other than that don’t try and say too much and don’t be too formal, be yourself. Always ask your fans to tell their friends about your music, word of mouth is a very powerful thing. Perhaps around three different subjects is enough for each email, don’t overload people. Too much text will mean its too much effort to read. Also continue to reward the people on your list by giving them advance access to tickets, downloads, pre-orders etc. Make them feel special.

Used effectively a good email list is a vital part of maintaining your relationship with your audience, as long as you treat your fans with the respect they deserve.

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February 15th, 2011

Be the best in a field of one

Now is a wonderful time to be a musician, there are so many tools and sites for musicians. The only problem is that when everyone has access to the same tools its hard to get heard when everyone is shouting at each other via social networks. What ends up happening is bands promoting their music to each other and no one else is listening (the worst case of this is what happened to Myspace). Often everything gets so bunged up with spam even the good stuff doesn’t get heard.

The only way is to be the best in a field of one and you have to being doing something really great. You have to be the only band that does what you do. Are you the only Hardcore band that only plays waltzes? Reggae/Grindcore played on a Kazoo?

Metal Folk Ballet by Paul Linus Claassen

People will always remember and talk about music that is unusual/original/exceptional/weird. Remember when the White Stripes came through? The only brother/sister/husband/wife no bass player duo. You remembered them, they were different. Even though there is a lot of talk of the old gatekeepers disappearing (the labels and print press), new gatekeepers have risen up through the social web – the influential Bloggers and Podcasters. The only way to stand is to be completely unique, different, special, too good to ignore. The best of the best.

Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. Everyone else on social media? Try advertising on Google Ads for £2 a day or handing out fliers at gigs of bands within your genre or focusing on print press. Use Live Unsigned and fly posting and guerilla gigs.  Be the “go to band”, when a band drops out of a gig at 6pm in another city you’ll be on stage covering the slot at 8pm. Start a Fanzine/Blog/Podcast/Pirate Radio Show. Be the hub of your scene, the linchpin and instigator. The exceptional. If you don’t like the music industry the way it is make your own.

Aiming for a mythical mainstream audience is a waste of time, you’re competing with vast amounts of companies from car manufacturers to major labels. Go for the road less traveled and connect with the audience outside of the mainstream, the ones looking for new/innovative/weird music. These people are the earlier adopters and the more unusual/special your music is, the more chance you have of connecting with them. The theory is that these people are the ones who tell the world, as Malcolm Gladwell refers to them (in his book Tipping Point) mavens. These mavens then tell others and you develop that word of mouth buzz that is amplified so well by social media.

If you know who your audience are and where they hang out, do something original they can’t get anywhere else. Make the connection using every tool you can think of, from Live Unsigned to social media to adverts in the press. Take control yourself and make it happen, now is the most exciting time ever to be doing music.

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February 11th, 2011

What should bands blog about?

Everyone tells bands they need a blog, but its not always obvious what to write about. The blog should be your opportunity to engage with the fans and develop your relationship with them.  Keyword your blogs correctly and write about things others are interested in. A great blog post will come up in search results on Google and be shared across social networks.

Picture by Paul Linus Claassen

Here are a few ideas for things to blog about:

  • Blog about a cause – something you are passionate about, political or silly. As long as its honest and from the heart its all good. Sure you’ll loose some people if you are really passionate about an issue but you are likely to gain people who agree with your world view.  Its far better to stand out.
  • Read what your favorite artists blog about and get some ideas there. What would you like to know about your favorite artist?
  • Write about a long term project and get the audience involved every step of the way. This could include the months of writing and recording an album or preparing a new live show. Get your audience to cheer you on and be part of the process.
  • Talk about your gigs, who you have met, the highs and lows. Share some behind the scenes gossip and try and be funny or interesting (but avoid litigation).
  • Share your photos or videos on your blog (you can use flickr etc to embed the HTML). This is really useful for bands that don’t enjoy writing. If you enjoy expressing yourself visually this a really good way to create blog content. You’re far more likely to keep a blog going if you enjoy writing it.
  • Equipment. I know this sounds dull but if you’re into gear talk about it on your blog.  Often people are searching for gear reviews online and will find your blog (and hopefully your music) through this.
  • Demystify the process. Tell them how you came up with a song, made a video or built a 5 neck guitar. People like “how to” content, that shows how to emulate what you do. Teach, share and be helpful. If you solve a problem for someone through a blog post they are more likely to share it on Twitter etc.
  • Write about other bands. Write about the music that moves you, you are passionate about and enjoy. You’ll often find that fans of that band will find and share your post. This gives you permission to engage and build an non-spammy relationship with a whole other group of fans. You could even do a playlist using Youtube embeds of artists you love to share with the world.
  • Collect links – got something brilliant to recommend? A great guitar, brand of chewing gum or even a live gigs listings site? Tell the world about what cool stuff you’ve found online. This was the original purpose of weblogs.
  • Let your fans into your life. This is difficult to balance, it depends on how much you want to share. For instance Amanda Palmer used to share everything with fans in intimate detail but even she is holding back now after marrying Neil Gaiman who didn’t want to be part of the ongoing dialogue with fans to that extent. Remember to ask questions of your audience so it becomes a conversation (remember its called social media for a reason). How much you share is up to you but please be aware there are lots of strange people out there, don’t give out where you live or times you are going to be in certain places unless you want people to come find you. Be careful.

A blog audience can take a while to build, but once it is there its a brilliant way to connect with your audience.

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February 10th, 2011

Squats with live music in Berlin – Arcanoa

Our ongoing tour of the squat or ex-squat venues of Berlin continues with Arcanoa.

Arcanoa existed as a squat for around ten years, but was shut down in 1998: the current venue was opened up in a bar nearby by refugees from the squat, bringing what equipment they could salvage. Its promotional tagline is ‘the bar with a river in the counter’, and there is indeed a water feature running the length of the bar. The entire place is a labour of love, and is artistically decorated with the DIY aesthetic you might expect in a venue with Arcanoa’s background. The toilets are so beautifully tiled that there’s a picture of them on the front page of their website!

Style of music

Arcanoa puts on shows from a wide variety of artists: punk, rock, folk, blues, ska, reggae, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and indie are all mentioned in their gig listing for January 2011. On Mondays they have a singer-songwriter session and open stage, which has an ad hoc format, and by all accounts often evolves into a jam session. Arcanoa is also a venue for medieval music, with a minstrel session every Wednesday.

Atmosphere

Arcanoa’s reputation is as a cozy, intimate and friendly venue, with an appealingly rough-round-the-edges feel to it. One customer review I found reads: ‘one of the most scurrilous places Berlin has to offer, give it a try!’ From watching performance videos recorded here I can tell that bands can find the right kind of audience, whether that’s enthusiastically bouncy for a punk gig, or keenly attentive for an acoustic performance.

Getting a gig there

Email info@arcanoa.de in the first instance. They don’t give any special instructions on their website.

As always, we would love to hear from anyone who has played here, or attended a gig here, please email: oli@liveunsigned.com

Website: http://www.arcanoa.de/

Live Unsigned listing:
http://www.liveunsigned.com/venue/439-kreuzberg/284-arcanoa?page=&s=Arcanoa

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February 8th, 2011

Squats with live music in Berlin – Supamolly

Next up in our series on Squats, we visit Supamolly. Supamolly (or Supamolli) is a major Berlin squat that has been open since the early 90s. As well as providing a home to all kinds of interesting people, it also sports a theatre, a bar, and a venue which hosts a regular comedy night and lots of music on Fridays and Saturdays. By all accounts Supamolly is a warren of alleys and passageways.

Supamolly

Style of music

Extremely varied: ‘from punk to classical, techno to whatever’ (roughly translated) is what it says on the website, and a quick glance at the gigs coming up shows such genres as ska, techno, experimental pop, Hungarian speedfolk, brasscore, Malwonian night-hop, and ‘HippiekrautartnGothicnrollfunk’!

Atmosphere

Finding the music venue can be an adventure in itself, one regular reporting ‘you might feel as if you missed the spot because to get to the concert area you have to go through a small bar at first.’ Once there, the atmosphere is relaxed and welcoming, with a touch of cyberpunk about it: ‘a healthy mix of young and ageing punks, unemployed activists and music-lovers of all types’, and ‘everyone is relaxed and there to have fun.’ Apparently, it’s worth making use of the toilets in the bar, rather than the ones in the venue itself…

How to go about getting a gig

There is a contact webform on the (all Flash) website, and also a selection of email adresses for booking enquiries. A friend’s experience of trying to get a gig there was reportedly quite arduous – as a foreign unknown unsigned band. She and a her bandmates under advice from the doorman went along to the squat committee meeting on Monday night and had to sit through and wait till the end of the meeting then submit a cd for approval to the board to be told that they should chase up in a couple of weeks time. I’d be glad to hear other people’s experiences – if you can help with information please email me: oli@liveunsigned.com.

Website: http://www.supamolly.de

Live Unsigned listing:
http://www.liveunsigned.com/venue/442-friedrichshain/395-supamolly?page=&s=supamolly

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February 7th, 2011

When should you quit your day job?

A lot of us want to be full time musicians, doing what we love all the time. However keeping your day job is often vital as the money and other benefits are really useful for musicians. Here are a few reasons to keep your day job, at least for a while:

Picture by Paul Claassen

  • You have complete artistic freedom if you have a day job. Its easier to experiment and make mistakes when you aren’t reliant on music for an income, you can find yourself musically with the safety net of knowing there is a wage coming in.
  • Use your work facilities to build your music career. Stay behind after work or during lunch and use the free office space and web access(make an excuse). Here you can contact bloggers, podcasters and promoters online, its often easier to focus at a desk than at home.
  • If you can, try and do a day job that relates to your music career. There are often cases of artists who work in web design, social media or for a booking agent and gain skills to further their career. Think about where you want to get to in your music career and what skills you’ll need to get there.
  • You meet people in your job that can come to gigs, inspire songs and learn from. A lot of doing well in the music industry is about gaining people skills, its completely about who you know. You never know who you’ll meet, often a great contact comes through a chance meeting in a shop or office or even online during working hours.
  • Day jobs allow you to save. It might not be very rock n roll but if you are considering becoming a professional musician there will be periods when you have less cash, between albums and tours. This is when savings are very useful.
  • Use the money you earn to invest in your career. Promote a gig yourself (and list it on Live Unsigned), advertise in a niche magazine relevant to your genre, play a concert in another country or hire someone to plug your album to some major industry players. Money is very useful to break your band, music industry people take you more seriously if you put in your own money to make things happen as it shows you are serious about what you do. Obviously be careful how you spend your hard earned cash, there are lots of people ready to rip off musicians, charging them to play gigs and other dubious “opportunities”. Be careful.
  • Being poor slows down your career. Can you afford to drink in the bars where the people in your scene go without any money? Can you go into the studio and make a great record or even rehearse? If you are stressed due to lack of income it may inspire a few songs but its not good for you in the long term.

Only you will be able decide when to quit your day job, on the basis of your savings and outgoings, some say do it when you earn over half the income of your day job salary. Many people in even quite well known bands either have a day job or some kind of other income. There is nothing wrong with this, if anything it allows you to take more chances and be more interesting artistically if you don’t have to worry about keeping your audience happy for your financial stability.

The life of a professional musician is not an opportunity to do your hobby all day, you still have to get to meetings, you still have to perform on a high level. Its a stressful way to earn a living, their isn’t a stable income to rely on and you are only as good as your last album or gig you played. But when it all works its incredibly rewarding and there is nothing like the feeling you get when your music connects with an audience.

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