May 18th, 2012

How did Amanda Palmer raise over half a million dollars from her fans in under a week?

Well known social media user and musician Amanda Palmer recently started a campaign using Kickstarter. Kickstarter is the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects, allowing fans to help fund artists. She raised over half a million dollars in the first week alone, $100,000 in the first seven hours. Her fans are really, really loyal. Imagine trying to get that from a record company! How did she do it and how can you do the same? Unfortunately it is not easy but here are some ideas:

 

  • Have a great video pitch – This is the first section most people look at on a Kickstarter so you really need something that grabs your fans attention and gets them involved. Be interesting and don’t be afraid to ask for the money and let them know how you’ll be spending it. If you don’t ask you won’t get!
  • The funding is the pay off for years of interaction –  In a recent interview on Techdirt Amanda Palmer said “Every person I talk to at a signing, every exchange I have online (sometimes dozens a day), every random music video or art gallery link sent to me by a fan that I curiously follow, every strange bed I’ve crashed on…all of that real human connecting has led to this moment, where I came back around, asking for direct help with a record”. It’s not about the campaign it’s about the years of touring and interacting with your fanbase, this gives you permission to ask. If you don’t already have a decent, loyal connected fanbase maybe Kickstarter isn’t for you at the moment.
  • Bands who have benefited from labels/marketing/touring tend to do better –  Sad to say but you need a fanbase to make crowd funding work for you and your music. Ex-label bands often seem to do well thanks to the benefits of the marketing spend they have received (Marillion are a classic example of this).  You still need to have some kind of spend on marketing to build that audience, even if you are totally DIY. You can build it gradually and organically but this only really works for niche bands and takes a long time. This way takes years not months.
  • Make the things fans pledge for exciting – The more personalised and individual to your band the better. Think beyond the traditional signed items and offer something truly special. Amanda has a “{BACKER-EXCLUSIVE SIGNED ART BOOK} a copy of the forthcoming heavyweight art book/album companion…SIGNED BY YOURS TRULY, AFP. includes over 70 pieces of artwork created by over 30 artists inspired by songs on the album, along with photographs, writings, lyrics, musings, meet-the-artist bios, and interviews. PLUS digital download of the record & thank-you card.” This is just one of her ideas, she really went the extra mile on this Kickstarter campaign.

Amanda Palmer’s example shows that if you can build a real relationships with your fans they will support you in your creative endeavours. Make sure you are building your audience one person at a time and one day you could be doing the same. It takes a long time but it is worth it.

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May 2nd, 2012

What separates the bands that make it from the ones that don’t?

The very idea of “making it” in music has changed in the last few years. Previously the only way of making a living from music (outside of covers and more esoteric pursuits) was to sign to a label. Now many musicians make a living from a small number of fans, artists like Steve Lawson to Jonathan Coulton.

However, you need to have certain qualities to gain an audience for example:

Great songs/music
A great live show
Experience
Originality
An interesting image (or one people can relate to)
A consistent brand
People/Business skills
Perseverance and a hard work ethic (and many other skills)

Perserverance is the one that sometimes people miss. In his book Outliers Malcolm Gladwell talks about people putting in 10,000 hours of time to achieve a level of skill to be able to hit the top level of any activity. For example The Beatles performed live in Hamburg over 1200 times amassing more than 10,000 hours of playing time, this experience gave them the skills that made them world famous. Many bands are performing and playing for years before finding their audience. Also some of the best bands give up before they even start because they don’t have the required work ethic. Here are some examples of how bands have persevered and managed to build a career:

Radiohead – They formed in 1985 but didn’t release a record until 1992. How many other bands would have given up in those first seven years?

Pulp – They formed in 1978 and did a Peel session in the early 80s but didn’t gain an audience until the mid nineties. The music industry and fans finally came round to their sound in the end.

Elbow – Formed in 1990 they changed their sound numerous times until they finally released their debut album in 2001.

Seasick Steve – Born in 1941 Steve didn’t release his debut record until 2001 and won the MOJO award for best breakthrough act in 2007!

So much so called “success” in music is really just keeping going, doing what you believe in until you find your audience or you get so good people can no longer ignore you. Listen for feedback from others, if people outside of your circle of friends say you are doing something good then keep going. This perseverance will eventually pay off if your music is good enough.

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April 9th, 2012

How do you get influential people interested in your music?

When you see bands with thousands of Facebook likes or Twitter followers it can seem really intimidating and it is easy to feel that as a new artist you will never be able to build that kind of audience. Building a fan base takes time and most people with lots of fans and followers don’t actually interact with them. What you actually need to do is find influential people you can build relationships with, that will champion your music. For example a DJ with a loyal audience who plays your music regularly. Whether these people are DJs or Bloggers, Podcasters or Journalists you need these people on side.

It is not about spamming thousands of people, it is about getting a few influential people interested in what you do. In the music industry it is so often about who you know, luckily we now live in an age where you can get to know the people that can help to advance your career online via social media. So how do you do this? Here are a few ideas:

  • Don’t make it all about you – If you go up to someone in the industry and try and sell to them you are going to have a tough time. Everyone else is trying to do that. No one wants to hear your sales pitch about how wonderful your band is. If you talk to people about their lives and what they do, you may get the chance to mention your band later on when you have developed a relationship, even this is weeks or months down the line. No one likes a hard sell, it is all about building a long term relationship.
  • Talk to them – Comment on their blogs and email in to their radio shows. Show you are interested in what they are doing, social media gives you the opportunity to get talking to people and brings down the barriers, Twitter is especially good for this.
  • Hang out where they go – If you know all the influential bloggers hang out at a particular club night and it is close to you, make sure you go there. Make the effort to talk to people, this is really hard but what you will find is that as you get to know a few people it will become a lot easier. One contact can open up an entire social scene. Most music scenes are very, very small with just a few key influential people and everyone will know everyone else from promoters to magazine editors to record company people. If there is a buzz about your band people will soon know about you. Make sure you don’t drink heavily and make a fool of yourself in these situations, word travels fast, especially when it is less than positive.
  • Be interesting – Give people something to talk about. “Local band releases demo” won’t cut it, it is not a magazine headline. “Guitarist Electrocuted On Stage” is a headline (even if it is less than true and no one got hurt). You need to be remarkable, interesting or even just a bit weird. Think about acts like Lady Gaga or Jack White, eccentricity creates buzz and gets people talking.
  • Write amazing songs and be great live – You can know all the right people and hang out at all the right places but if the songs aren’t there then you are wasting your time. The music and the live act need to be amazing or none of the rest will work.

Once you have a few people with some influence on your side, others will gradually start to come round to what you do. Be patient, it will always happen more slowly than you actually want it to….

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March 10th, 2012

How do musicians really earn a living?

It used to be relatively simple to work out how successful musicians got paid, you signed to a record label, put out an album and toured in support of it. If you made a profit after paying back your advance and all associated costs you got paid. This is called recouping (most bands failed to do this though). Now things are less clear, many musicians make their living in far less conventional ways. In a recent blog on the Huffington Post, MC Lars (a successful rapper) explained how he made a living:

“47% of my income comes from merchandise, 40% from ticket sales, and 13% comes from iTunes, Spotify or other paid music services through the internet. I used a crowdsourced funding site called Kickstarter to produce my last album, with added bonuses of drawings and personalized songs to the highest contributors….. A primary means of distribution in 2011 was my USB robot, a two-gigabyte hard drive keychain that housed all of my albums digitally. I also sell t-shirts with cartoon characters I draw myself and I try to print on shirts manufactured domestically when I can.”

 

Notice only a small amount of the money came from iTunes sales. This is why record companies are now trying to get bands to sign away merchandising rights as part of the “360 record deal”. The more rights you can retain the more chance you have of actually making enough money to survive. So for MC Lars selling T-Shirts and live concerts are his principal income stream, playing live is now more important than ever. Where your income comes from will be different depending on who your fans are, how your music is exploited commercially and numerous other factors. Here are some other examples of how your band can earn a living these days:

  • Give the music away free online, but make the money from gigs and merchandise – You can sell lots of different types of original and interesting items with your logo on if you put your mind to it, from the obvious to the weird. There a lots of ideas for merchandise here. To make this work you’ll need to tour really extensively for many years to build the audience. Be prepared to sleep on floors and not make a lot of money in the early days. Don’t forget to list your gigs on Live Unsigned and across your various social media channels.
  • Charge for the music and play live for free – You charge a premium for the music and play live for free or for costs. You may have to think seriously about limited edition items to sell to your fans to make this work (box sets, live albums, vinyl etc)
  • Licensing the music – If this works it’s great but licensing for TV and film is hard to get into. There is lots of info on licensing your music here.
  • Having multiple projects – By playing in numerous bands (even covers bands) you have more chance of making a living, it does get really hard to juggle multiple projects. Make sure you are realistic and don’t take on too much and let people down.
  • Teaching music on the side – Teaching private lessons can often give you a stable income in the early days of your musical career. The stability of having regular students can be very useful between gigs.
  • Having a freelance career that you can work at when off the road – Many bands have another skill to fall back on. One very well known metal band are roofers while not on the road! A musician we spoke to highly recommend some sort of freelance trade such as plumbing or gas fitting as useful skills to have in case of a quiet time between gigs.
  • Some bands work a day job and build their audience over time – By keeping the day job you can reinvest the money made back into the band, sometimes it is good to play the long game.

How you earn a living will most likely be a mix of the above or various other ways of paying the bills. It’s rarely as simple as just releasing your music and playing a few gigs, it takes real thought to be able to make a career as a musician. Try and get as many income streams as possible going and you will have more of a chance. It is not easy but it can be done.

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March 2nd, 2012

How can your band benefit from piracy?

Many musicians are looking to stop piracy but some bands are finding ways to use free music, illegal downloading and so called “piracy” to grow their audience. In a recent interview on Forbes.com Joy Williams from successful indie band The Civil Wars said:

“Sure, piracy has its drawbacks, but it also has positives, we’ve had people admit to us before that they were given a burned CD of our record from a friend. They’d go on to say that, once they heard the music, they bought tickets to the nearest show. And there, standing in line afterward to say hi – wearing a band shirt they bought that night – they recounted how many friends they’d turned on to our music. In short, we try not to be curmudgeons about piracy, but to embrace this shift in culture.”

Even veteran musician Neil Young recently said:

“It doesn’t affect me because I look at the internet as the new radio. I look at the radio as gone. Piracy is the new radio. That’s how music gets around. That’s the radio”

These artists realise that there are benefits to piracy as well as negatives. The problem at the moment is getting heard above the noise online, all the other bands that are desperate to be heard. Here are some benefits to people torrenting and sharing your music online:

  • You sell more gig tickets – If people hear your music online and like it then they will generally want to see you play live. The Grateful Dead used to allow fans to tape gigs for non commercial use, trading of these tapes helped the band to grow their audience. Torrenting is the digital equivalent of this. One musician who didn’t want to be named said on Twitter “It never hurt us as far as we could tell and helped get us some amazing international gigs.”.
  • You sell more merchandise and high value products – If someone likes your album then buys a t-shirt or a signed limited edition item, you can benefit from this fan for years to come. In time hardcore fans can spend £1000s on bands! You sometimes need to play the long game.
  • It is free marketing – A fan on twitter said “I have bought albums I never would have known about had tracks not been included in torrents I’ve acquired.” Another fan said “I’ve bought loads of albums and discovered bands I’ve spent cash on after first ‘acquiring’ their stuff via torrents”. Do all people downloading music illegally spend money as well? Probably not but if torrenting gets your music heard that has to be a good thing, surely?
  • Pirated copies cost nothing to make – Are you gaining fans or losing sales? If you put out your album via a label how many free copies of your album will they give away? Probably hundreds. Sometimes it’s better to look at “illegal” downloads as free promotion.

Obscurity is the enemy, not piracy. Fans only share music they love and you can’t monetize an audience you do not have. Once you have an audience it may be worth worrying about piracy but in the initial stages of your career when you are trying to gain the first 1000 or 10,000 fans then it is a really useful marketing tool.

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February 24th, 2012

How do you define success as a musician?

As a musician you often feel that what you are doing with your musical career doesn’t compare to what others are achieving. Other bands often seem to gain fans more quickly, get better gigs and get more attention from the press. It’s very easy to lose your motivation.  One thing to bear in mind is that so much success in the music industry is down to sheer perseverance and not giving up whatever happens. Here are some ways of thinking about what success is for musicians that should help to keep you motivated:

  • Don’t judge your own success by the standards of others – Worrying what other bands are doing is a guaranteed way to demotivate yourself. If you see another band gaining more fans and getting better gigs don’t get depressed about it. Follow your own path and build your own audience, don’t worry what others are doing, you don’t have time to waste on that.
  • Be realistic – Is your ambient death/prog album really going to outsell Lady Gaga? The world would probably be a better place if it did but if the music you play is only destined for a small audience don’t be dissapointed when this is what happens. Sometimes remarkable things can happen and odd and interesting music does end up in the mainstream (see the recent case of Jon Gomm), just don’t expect it.
  • Make a plan – Write down some goals and put together a bit of a plan, some things you can make happen. Tick them off as you achieve them, at least this way you can see you are making progress.
  • Don’t do it for the money – The music industry is a poor way of earning serious money, the effort you have to put in versus the amount you make is really high in the early days and there are no guarantees you’ll make anything decent financially. If you don’t love the music you are unlikely to have the passion to put the work in to make it, it’s really hard work. People can tell if you are motivated just by cash, fans aren’t idiots.
  • Set small goals but make them time bound – So perhaps aim for an extra 20 Facebook fans a month or an extra 100 Twitter followers a month. Achieving small goals reguarly will keep you motivated rather than trying to change the world overnight.
  • What is success to some is failure to others – It’s all about context. A massive seller for an underground band would be the same as a disaster for a pop act. Selling a few thousand records can be an album of the year in some genres.

Great music, hard work and a great live show will pay off in the end, even if you sometimes feel nothing is happening. Keep going and eventually you will find your audience.

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February 13th, 2012

Can your band achieve mainstream success via social media?

Recently we highlighted the story of Jon Gomm’s viral video hit Passionflower and the how it received over a million views thanks to Reddit and social media. Many people see viral hits as useful but can’t see that they cross over into the mainstream press and TV. It depends who is talking about your music and how influential they are. This is how Jon Gomm went from posting a video on Youtube to playing live on BBC news after the video had already gone viral online:

  • First Stephen Fry tweeted about the video –  His tweet simply read “WOW” with a link to the video. Although we don’t know how he found the video this caused many thousands more hits to the video, which was already on well over a million hits. This then gets shared and this causes it to achieve more viral success. This is after the events in our original blog post.
  • The press picked up on the story – Once Mr Fry’s celebrity name became attached the story becomes “Stephen Fry tweets about Jon Gomm and it goes viral” (even thou it was already over a million views before Stephen Fry was involved!). The national press started to get interested. “A one-word tweet from author Stephen Fry has boosted the career of an aspiring singer – after it increased traffic to his latest video by one million hits.” was a typical quote from The Telegraph.
  • TV companies get involved – Once the story becomes about Stephen Fry discovering an obscure musician it is of interest to the television. Jon appears on BBC Breakfast TV and his video is featured on prime time TV’s The One Show as part of an interview with Stephen Fry. Here is a video of Jon on BBC Breakfast:

  • David Crosby gets in touch – All this brings Jon’s music to the attention of the legendary David Crosby of Crosby, Still and Nash fame. Another celebrity name attached to the story does it no harm at all and the buzz continues.

Through all this interest Jon has continued to stay 100% independent and refused all record company offers. Many people in the media seemed shocked he wasn’t interested in working with a record company. His music is selling well and his gigs are selling out. It is all without any PR company, direct to fan. It shows that if you have a story (especially one with a celebrity involved like Stephen Fry) you can get the mainstream media involved.

It is great to see Jon Gomm reaching a larger audience but all this came about because Jon’s music is genuinely great and he worked for years on the live circuit and online gradually building an audience. On this occasion he got a lucky break but the more hard work you put in playing live and making friends the more chance you have of eventually connecting with someone of influence such as Stephen Fry. It’s important to remember that the video had already gone viral before any of this happened

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February 4th, 2012

How much does it cost to “make it” in music?

On the Time magazine website there is an article by an obscure indie rock band called Two Lights talking about how expensive it is to become a rock star. It is always a bad idea to complain in public. GQ called them “Hapless poster-bros for self-importance…full of whiny self-entitlement” and across the web people are ridiculing the band. There is such a thing as bad publicity. Here are some things Two Lights could do that will actually help them to build an audience:

  • Stop complaining and start investing your time in your music – It’s not easy to build a fan base. It’s hard work to build it up but if you put the time in and build real relationships it works. This blog is full of ideas to build your audience and many of them are free or just require some hard work.
  • You don’t need to be in New York (or another major city) – You can save money and make records anywhere. If you want a career in music it’s a good idea to think of ways of reducing costs and living cheaply. It can be great to hang out and meet people if you live in a big city but this is not essential, building it up online does the job just as well. Tools like Youtube, Twitter and Live Unsigned can make all the difference.
  • Credibility and fans don’t come from an article in Time – Currently Two Lights have less than two hundred fans on Facebook and Twitter. The article didn’t help them, it made them a laughing stock. Not all press is good, before you consider doing anything think about if it will add to your credibility or take away from it.
  • Don’t wait for the record company – Two Lights say they are “Waiting for that blank check!”. You can do so much yourselves now, start building an audience and let the labels come to you. Once you have sold a few thousand downloads this will start to happen and you will be in a position to negotiate a better record deal.
  • It’s not about the money - ”we’ll soon be earning a lot more money than even doctors and lawyers.” Don’t go into it for the money, people will see through it, you need to make music because you need to, because it’s your passion.
  • The music industry isn’t glamorous – “What meets me backstage is nothing like what I pictured. No fountains of champagne, no elegant lounges. It’s just as dingy as the venue itself, with a printed sign taped to the star’s dressing room door. ” It’s show business, back stage is the servants quarters, it’s not cool or exciting, it’s the staff room.
  • You do have to invest your own money – Until you have an audience music is an expensive hobby. You do have to pay for rehearsals and recording yourself, it’s just the way it is. If you do it because you love it you won’t mind the investment.
  • Make the music so good people will share it – Look at the recent success of guitar master Jon Gomm, if you make great music people will share it. Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising.
  • Email blasts won’t work – You’re better off investing in a PR company that wants to work with you, not someone doing a random email blast. Work with a PR firm that are enthusiastic about your music, know the niche you work in, have a proven track record for breaking new bands and have real relationships with relevant bloggers and magazines in that scene.
  • Make the most of every gig – Every time you are on stage (even if it is in front of 3 people) get up there and give the full show, shake hands with the audience and build relationships. You build your audience one person at a time.
  • Spend money in the places it will have the most impact – $100,000 spent on PR, marketing and touring will have a big impact but only if you know who your audience is. Perhaps a decent recording is a good investment, as is a decent website.

Spending money won’t get you anywhere unless the music is good and people choose to support you. If there was a formula that would make you a rock star by investing a particular amount of cash more people would do it. Focus on building your audience gradually, it takes time but it does work.

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January 26th, 2012

How do you make the most of music industry showcase gigs?

On this blog we often talk about building the audience first and letting the music industry come to you, this will happen as soon as they see you playing large venues, selling thousands of CDs and bringing a crowd. The other way is to play music industry showcase gigs, often at conferences, sometimes in front of a panel of people in the music industry including managers, PR people and A & R people. It can feel a bit like the X Factor. Approval from these people can make a massive difference to your career, but how can you best take advantage of this opportunity? Here are a few ideas:

  • Make sure it really is an industry showcase – Many so called music industry showcase gigs are an excuse to get bands in to play for nothing. If there isn’t a guaranteed industry audience then it is not a showcase, be careful and research who is going to be there.
  • Have business cards, CDs and information that you can give to the panel – Make sure you have something with all your contact details on. Include an email address, a phone number and your website URL. If you are getting business cards get ones with nothing on the back so people on the panel can write notes on the back. QR codes that link to your website are good on anything. Little details make a difference so make sure anything you have to hand out looks professional.
  • Make an effort to talk to the panel – Not just when they are talking to you, shake hands and thank them for the advice. Ask for their business cards and email them later on to stay in touch. If you want people to remember you make an effort to connect with them. Be polite and take any criticism well (avoid getting drunk and telling them what you really think!).
  • Be prepared – Every detail makes a difference. Make sure every detail from batteries in your pedals to the perfect setlist is right. You only get one chance to make a first impression, if a panel is seeing twenty bands over the course of a few hours you really need to make an effort to stand out.
  • They see you before they hear you – Consider carefully what you wear, make sure you all look like you are in the same band and that your image is consistent with your music. If you look like Slayer but sound like the Kings Of Leon it is going to be hard for people to take you seriously. It should be all about the music but your image does make a big difference.
  • Get your fans to come – If possible try and get your fans along, show that there are people who already love your music. Post the dates on Live Unsigned, to your email list and across social media.
  • Give them the full show – Even if it’s a private showcase (just you and a panel) still give them the full show. Sometimes it will be a situation where all the bands have to share a back line, play one or two songs then get feedback from the panel. This is a very difficult situation and there can be metal then hip hop then punk all together. You need to get up there and really go for it. Make eye contact and play like it’s the encore in front of 700 people.
  • Play your best material – Spend some time really working on your best songs. It’s all about making the most of the tiny amount of time you have so get them so tight you can play them without thinking. Then you can focus on really performing. It may sound cheesy but practice stage moves in advance, think about what you’d like to see when watching a band and remember how bands have performed at the best concerts you have attended.

Making a good impression at a showcase can really help your career. Industry people may not want to sign you to a label or management deal straight away but may want you to stay in touch and send them new material when it is available. If they ask you to do this make sure you continue to send new recordings and information through, these contacts can really pay off in the long term. Signing to a label or management deal may not be the right thing for your band, remaining 100% DIY can also be an option that can potentially be equally rewarding. You don’t have to sign away any of your rights to build an audience and have a successful career in the music industry, there are other options.

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January 12th, 2012

Can your archive music and videos make you revenue and help grow your audience?

Most musicians create valuable content without even realising it. Recently Fugazi published on their web site an archive of live performances from their entire career that you can download and pay any amount for, from $1. When Fugazi were recording shows in the 80′s it is unlikely that they thought one day they would all be available, but throughout their career they were creating valuable content. Bands from Metallica to Grateful Dead and Phish are all doing the same, taking the content from the vaults and selling it to the hardcore fans. This is especially vital now there is not the large income from sales of new albums. It’s all about making the most from the fan base you have.

As a new DIY artist you may not have years of out takes and live recordings, but you most likely have a trail of content on your old hard drives, in note books and perhaps even on cassettes. You can use this content to help connect you to your audience and create an additional revenue stream. Here are a few ideas to turn your archive into something that will help advance your career:

  • Demos – These are always of interest to fans, even if you don’t think they are up to much. Alternative and early versions of songs help tell the story of you and your music, free up this content to your fans. Using sites like Bandcamp you can sell these tracks and create another income stream or use them to exchange for a fan’s email address to develop a long term relationship. Remember that once you have an email address you can earn revenue from that fan over the coming years in merchandise sales, live concerts and numerous other ways.
  • Live recordings – Recordings of gigs and practice sessions can be turned into downloads you can sell or swop for email addresses via sites such as Bandcamp. You can even rip MP3′s off fan shot Youtube videos if they have decent sound and offer these as downloads.
  • Videos – Anything you have on video is potential content you can post for your fans, whether its a live gig or you’re just messing about. Always think about if you are adding to or taking away from your legacy and public image with everything you post.
  • PDFs – You may have written a book without even thinking about it. Sites like Zinepal allow you to create a PDF book from your blog posts that you can make available from your site. Have you got any essays, music notation or interviews that fans may be interested in? Turn them into PDF’s and allow fans to download them. Create a zip file at one of the sharing sites (like megaupload) and let people download the content, what have you got to lose?
  • Interviews and spoken word content – MP3′s don’t just have to be music. Artists such as Amanda Palmer have successfully sold spoken word, interviews and even podcasts. Keep any audio recorded when you’re out on the road or at practice and see what interesting content you have created. One band we know recorded their funny discussions on the way to gigs and sold them to fans. See what you can come up with.
  • Old artwork/photos/press clippings/scanned postcards/photos of old tour t-shirts – These can all be turned into PDFs for fans to download. The weirder and more engaging and funny the better! The scanner is your friend, scan every piece of print press, you can then posts these cuttings on your site.
  • Anything else digital, free and individual to you – look through your old files and see what you have from short stories to tapes of you talking when you were at school or board games that you print out from a PDF. See what you have and what can be turned into content that you can give away to fans.

Have a good look through your digital archives and see what you have, you never know what will help create a revenue stream and connect you to your fans. You will most likely find you have far more content than you expected.

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