This looks pretty good. CDBaby is a great distribution platform for DIY musicians (CD’s as well as digital), and has great informational resources, too. They’ve just released this free guide to YouTube promotions, and I encourage everyone to take a look!
http://members.cdbaby.com/campaigns/request-youtube-guide.aspx
This looks cool — Onesheet. It’s a landing page (or portal) for your band that pulls in all your activity around the web into one….er, sheet. It’s like About.me for bands if you’re familiar with that service. Send your fans to your Onesheet page and they’ll have instant access to your uber web presence whether it’s Facebook, your Twitter feed, concert information from Reverbnation, etc., songs from the Reverbnation player and others, photos, etc., etc.
After an easy setup, Onesheet updates information automatically so there’s no maintenance required. So how does this fit in to a band’s online marketing strategy? If you’ve already got a website, most of the Onesheet information will be duplicated, but in today’s online world that’s not a bad thing. As a band, you want as many links as possible popping up in the Search Engines — your Facebook page, Twitter feed, YouTube page, website and now, your Onesheet.
They’re in beta now but you can reserve your name. It’s free, register here.
Our panel of band promotion experts went deep into the minds of musicians and the world they live in to find out what it’s really like to be in a band. In the handy Infographic below, you’ll find out — among other fascinating facts — what band members really think of each other, why they die and what they make. And guess what the most popular word in band names was at 2011 SXSW? Read on, rockers.
Add this Infographic to Your Website: Simply copy the code below and paste it into the HTML of your blog, website, or Static FBML box on Facebook.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Add this Infographic to Your Website: Simply copy the code below and paste it into the HTML of your blog, website, or Static FBML box on Facebook.
f you’re a savvy band marketing guru, you’re always on the hunt for websites to drop a link on and leave some information about your band. We’ve made it easy!
Head over to our guestbook page were we actually encourage you to self-promote, leave a link and otherwise spam the shit out of our beautiful site. Why? Because we love bands! So get over there and tell us all about your fantastic lineup, what release you’ve got coming out, where you’re from and why we should love you.
I love reading about legendary music promoters, and how they did what they did. I came across this Malcolm McLarens obit, the infamous Sex Pistols manager . In it are some gems about the genesis of The Sex Pistols (lead signer auditions included Midge Ure, later of Ultravox fame –and Kevin Rowland, who became singer of the band-I-hate-most Dexy’s Midnight Runners), as well as the machinations and manipulations around his next 2 projects, Adam Ant and Bow Wow Wow. Did you know McLarens stole Adam’s “ants” and turned them into Bow Wow Wow? Me either.
McLarens had no shame about picking a sound and look for a band, then building everything around that theme. “I used people like a sculptor sculpting clay” is how he put it. Bruised feelings and egos aside, you have to give the guy credit for vision and execution. And maybe he wasn’t quite so cold. In “Exit Through the Gift Shop”, that great Banksy film, the DVD extras feature part of Mr. Brainwash’s film “Life Remote Control”. There’s a taxi ride interview with MBW and McLarens where Malcolm expresses regret about Sid’s early demise. Or maybe he was just sad the money train ended too soon :)
What do you think? Was Malcolm McLarens a genius promoter or a shameless manipulator of popular culture?
Some of you may be familiar with the (now famous) video from Peter Malkin titled “Mgmt. in the New Digital World”. If not, here it is for your education and enjoyment.
Embed This Video:
Is MySpace closing? Not just yet, although their CEO did admit to a looming layoff of half the workforce. Whether or not MySpace survives is a question to consider if you’re a band or artist who has a presence there. But the bigger lesson in MySpace’s announcement is this: in today’s quickly morphing webscape, having a single online presence won’t cut it anymore — you need to be everywhere! The obvious reason is to protect against the dreaded “single point of failure”. If you were only on MySpace, and they went away — then what? But if you have profiles, pictures, music and videos on MySpace, BandCamp, ReverbNation, Facebook, etc. losing one of those properties is a lot less painful.
There’s another good reason to be everywhere: Google will reward you for it. The SEO folks have been talking about this for a while, and you can expect that having a “large social footprint” will become even more important in 2011.
So what does that mean? The more content and content locations you create, the higher the likelihood your content will get discovered and ranked in Google. That means cultivating a presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr — it also means starting a blog a posting to it regularly. And don’t forget to push your blog to Facebook and let your Twitter followers know you’ve posted something new!
If you’ve got a blog or Facebook page or video, and you want us to give you a shout out, get in touch. We may feature your bad ass right here!
There’s a great article in the Wall Street Journal written by Damian Kulush from OK Go you should read that talks about what “success” is in today’s record biz. He makes the point (which was also echoed in a recent NYT magazine interview with Mick Jagger) that the traditional idea of success — getting signed to a major label — is really just a new convention in musical history that’s been around for only a few decades. Those days are nearly over, and despite what the record industry would have you believe, they’re not coming back. The Internet has turned the conventional music model on its head and today’s artists are finding novel ways to make a living.
The bar is lower than ever for bands and musicians to make a mark, and technology has enabled all of us to market our music on our own terms. The new measure isn’t record sales, it’s fan engagement. We’re selling more than just recordings, we’re selling an experience and a personality. Read the article and think about your own band promotion efforts. Are you chasing success in the old paradigm, or are you forging a new path?
Hey everyone and welcome to BandPromo.me. We’re here to help you — the Indie/DIY band or musician — promote your music more effectively online. I created this site after slaving away promoting my own albums online and realizing there weren’t any great resources out there that told you — step-by-step — how to build and execute an online promotion. Sure, everyone tells you to get on Facebook, or on a free music site, or write to music blogs and promote your songs! but no one spells out how to do it.
This site will tell you how. It spells out the steps you need to take _before_ you start promoting. We tell you the sites to be on. We guide you through creating an action plan. We tell you how to contact a music blog and what to say. How to build your Facebook fan page correctly and how to advertise it and get a massive amount of fans. You’ll even learn how to create a band toolbar you can give away to all your fans (and get paid for doing so).
I’ll have frequent updates here, and one of the first topics I’m going to cover is SEO (search engine optimization). That’s important for anyone who has or is building their own website — and it’s also critical for bands who don’t have their own site.
If there are topics you’d like to see more of, or areas where you’d like a little more explanation, please let me know. We’re looking forward to sharing our collective knowledge with everyone out there, and look forward to hearing your ideas too.
This is a great time to be making music, let’s have some fun!
BPM
The best Portland Cover Band around, hands down. I love these guys, maybe because I’m their drummer. Forget the tired old Classic Rock bands. This is what cover bands are supposed to be — great rock from the 80’s, 90’s and today (tons of cool 90’s rock, which IMO was the best decade for rock after the 60’s). A killer set list. The Cure, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, The Pixies — yes! Good stuff.
If your a Portlander, look for them at the Dublin Pub or Thirsty Lion!