Tag: Andrew Jones

Categories
News

Two New(ish) Facebook Tricks To Help Bands Reach Their Fans

What would we do without Andrew Jones? The mastermind behind Checkered Owl, Andrew has been contributing to our blog for well over a year at this point. His day job involves being hands-on with promising new talent, and through his posts on this site he hopes to extend his reach to artists big and small around the globe. Enjoy.

Facebook is ever changing, and that means your strategies on Facebook need to be ever changing. In fact a blog I wrote only a few months ago encouraged using graph search heavily when inviting your fans & friends to events, but graph search seems to have been dropped by Facebook since then. Luckily this first tip fixes that issue, but it does require a slightly new approach.

TIP #1: Inviting Targeting Fans

First, I have to give credit where created is due, this tip was passed on to me by the very excellent Alberta band Boreal Sons (www.borealsons.com), so try it out and then with the time you save go check out one of their excellent music videos.

As I pointed out in the aforementioned article (One Great Way Artists Can (Not) Annoy Friends And Facebook Followers!), there are few things more annoying on Facebook than constantly getting invited to shows all over the world that I’m clearly not going to unless the artist is also buying flights. I’m sure the problem is more rampant among people who are friends with lots of artists, but either way you don’t want to clog up your friends notifications with shows in Amarillo when they live in Kelowna. However if you have 1400 friends it can be a pain to go through the list and try to remember where all of those people live; here is a sneaky way around that.

Step 1: Make “where you live” private
Step 2: Change what city Facebook thinks you live in to wherever your big event is.
Step 3:  Now, when you go to “invite friends” one of the auto-select options will be the city Facebook thinks you live in. Select them all and you will be good to go!

TIP #2: Inviting More Likes

This one is less of a “hack” and more of a WAY under-used feature that can make a BIG difference to your stats, and it’s super simple! Facebook allows you to invite anyone who “likes” one of your posts to come “like” your page! This is great for converting people who are interacting with your content but haven’t yet “liked” your page; it also can make posts that you have payed to promote noticeably more effective!

Step 1: Find a post that enough people have “liked” that Facebook says “_________, ___________, and ___ others like this”
Step 2: Click on that message
Step 3: You will get a pop-up with all the profiles that have “liked” your post. Click invite on any of the names that have a clickable button

Thats it! Let me know what are some of your new favourite tips in the comments

Categories
News

Fan Voting Contests: Friend or Foe?

Longtime contributor Andrew Jones has some wonderful insight on the world of fan voting contests and what, if any, help they can be to artists. If you enjoy Andrew’s work and you want to learn more about his life in the music business, please make it a point to spend time on Checkered Owl every single week for the rest of your life. Thanks!

I started this post awhile ago, before my site was attacked and subsequently taken through an overhaul. At the time we were just headed into “Searchlight” season, in which your Facebook feed fills with friends who need votes for their entry in popular the CBC contest. The contest is driven almost exclusively by fan voting, which means that the battle rages again. People who love it, people how hate it. People encouraging you to vote for their band, people who don’t want to participate in something that feels disingenuous, or “not about the music”.

The core argument against was well put by my friend Steve of the band Barefoot Caravan:

“Music isn’t a sport, it’s not supposed to be about competition, I believe more emphasis should be about collaboration… Let’s have a competition on which band contributes most to their respective music scenes and touches the lives of those around them…Everyone is best at making their own music“

I can understand this perspective. Collaboration is one of the cornerstones of great art. Do these contests drive us apart rather than bring us together?

On the other hand my friend Lauren Mann (who won last year’s Searchlight contest) had this to say to the “PRO” camp:

“Artists generally aren’t inclined to self-promote and ask their fans for much. But since we rely on people listening to and purchasing our music and coming to shows in order for us to continue doing what we do, we have to find ways to creatively engage people so that they want to be a part of all the things we have going on. Voting contests such as the CBC Searchlight competition can put a negative taste in some people’s mouth because of the constant appeals to their fans for votes, but I think that with the right perspective, it can be a great opportunity to strengthen your fanbase. The key is to find creative ways to engage your fans and get them excited about what you’re doing.”

At the end of this cycle and watching many other fan-vote driven contests cross through my bandwidth, I am left at a loss.

At these contests best I completely agree with Lauren, they can and should be a chance for bands to engage their fans and get them excited, and at one time it was…but now I wonder. Let’s strip it down here are some thoughts and advice for fans, sponsors and artists:

FANS: The reality is, I in principle I love fan voting. I love it as a fan of bands, if I can in someway help determine that fame and fortune goes to the “good guys”. I like that and you should too. I promise you, you have no idea how much these votes can matter to an artist you support, it’s worth your time, your 10 seconds can honestly be a game changer.

SPONSORS: The problem arises when you want too much from these contests (and end up getting less because of it). More and more sponsors demand that the contest goes on for too long, that fans have to vote every day, that you have to sign up for their mailing list…etc. The cart has again gone before the horse.

Let people get excited and share. I promise you, if you are supporting their favourite bands, people will know and appreciate it. I get it! You need obvious turnaround from your ad investment and prize money, but there are better ways than making artists send people to your website every day. I suggest checking out The Peak Performance project, there is a little voting, but it’s tasteful and only a portion of the project. and trust me EVERYONE in Western Canada who loves independent music LOVES The Peak, their name comes up plenty on it’s own organically the excitement of the contest itself.

ARTISTS: Ultimately, you are in the tricky position. You don’t want to cram your newsfeed and emails with content pleas, but you need the prizes. I get it. If the contest really fits you, go for it! If you can build new community of musicians go for it! But be careful, read all of the terms and conditions, make sure you understand the timelines and ONLY enter if you are really going to go for it, don’t waste your favours.

Categories
News

How To Give Away Your Music (7 Methods Reviewed)

Longtime Haulix contributor Andrew Jones has done a ton of research regarding the best methods of giving away music for free so you could read his work and get back to creating your art. If you love the article below, please check out Andrew’s own website and consider hiring him for your future management needs.

Free music giveaways can be an important part of a marketing strategy these days. However if you go this route you are going to want to think through your options carefully. The first step is to determine your goals. Are you looking to:

a) Give a gift to your fans
b) Expand your e-mail list
c) Grow your exposure
d) Get some revenue via tips
e) Other

Depending what you are looking for there are several options. After some research here are all the “major” options I have come across. There may be others, but remember the more you have to teach your fans, the fewer of them are going to convert to actual downloads. If you know of any other great options, I’d love to hear about them!

NoiseTrade

If you have followed this blog for long you will know I am a big fan of Noisetrade. The system works nearly perfectly. You give out a URL when your fans follow it they get a really pro looking page. Hit download, enter their e-mail and postal code and are immediately sent an email with a download link.Fans are also given the option to “tip” you for your music which you can keep or give away to charity from their system.

Added Pros:

  • You get an e-mail address and postal/zip code with every download. If you are smart about adding them to your e-mail list and tracking postal codes, this is invaluable to your tour marketing.
  • An added bonus is that they have a chart on the front of their page (which is quite popular) which gets additional exposure across the world.
  • It’s incredibly easy for fans to share the page to other potential downloaders
  • There are nice looking embeddable widgets

Cons:

  • At this time there is not a great discovery system on Noisetrade. There are several curated albums featured every week, but there I feel there could be a stronger “related artists system” especially since they have now added fan accounts.

Bandcamp

Bandcamp is essentially built around sales, however they do have a free download option as well. Again in exchange for an email. You give out a URL when fans follow it they are taken to a page with a “buy now” link and asked to name their price (if you set it up as pay-what-you-want). After that thy are directed through a shopping cart and soon receive the files via e-mail.

Added Pros:

  • The “pay what you want” language generally leads to better sales.
  • They have a robust charting system
  • It’s easy to re-direct fans to other albums
  • Lots of high quality file options

Cons:

  • The charts aren’t featured very prominently.
  • I don’t feel like the system encourages fans to share as much as it could

Soundcloud

One of the biggest music sites on the planet that allows both streaming and downloads. It requires very little from the customer. The site is reasonable intuitive, though there are lots of buttons like repost, add to playlist, etc. that could distract from the download. Again it’s a simple URL to send out. They click the button and receive instant MP3 download.

Added Pros:

  • Soundcloud is a social network in and of itself with a MASSIVE following, especially in the hip-hop and EDM worlds.
  • Many people look at Soundcloud stats as an indicator of a band’s popularity.
  • It’s easy to include a large catalogue of material.
  • Great looking embed options.

Cons:

  • There is no direct way to convert those downloads into sales.
  • You receive no fan data (such as emails, location, etc.) without a pro account, and even then it’s fairly limited.
  • You cannot set up to allow fans to download a full album, each track needs to be clicked on separately.

ReverbNation

The download process on ReverbNation is a little different than the URL you give out will lead to your artist page not individual downloadable music. Then they see a list of songs (no album differentiation) and a bunch of them have a Download button. They can click on each song individually to download.

Added Pros:

  • ReverbNation rankings can give you a warm feeling in your belly
  • There is certainly a crowd who routinely finds their new music through ReverbNation

Cons:

  • Very few professionals consider ReverbNation stats a major factor.
  • For people who aren’t used to the site all the buttons and dongles can distract them from the download options
  • You cannot set up to allow fans to download a full album, each track needs to be clicked on separately.

BitTorrent

Thom Yorke (of Radiohead) made headlines last year distributing his album through BitTorrent. I think there is a TON of potential for other artists to grow in this area, but for this style of promotion I think the torrenting process is still a little above the average consumer. It requires downloading a torrent link, using a separate torrent client software…etc.

Added Pros:

  • You can also add pay gates to packages
  • If the torrenting community really embraces you…you are gold.
  • You are not limited in what goes into your package. Bio, video, music, whatever you want!
  • I’ve heard nothing but great things about working with the BitTorrent team.

Cons:

  • Many people aren’t familiar with torrenting and may get lost in the process.

Dropbox

Hypothetically, you could give away an album out through Dropbox. Fans would receive the (complicated) link (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/j43qv1p9vuivcjy/AADgyC1mMv8UAr0VDhWxUOEQb), they hit download. They now have a zip file with the album.

Added Pros:

  • Most people have heard of dropbox.
  • You can add anything in that folder

Cons:

  • As Dropbox wasn’t created for this type of function you may run into troubles with files/bandwidth/crashes etc.
  • You receive no fan data (such as emails, location, etc.)
  • There is no direct way to convert those downloads into sales. Or allow fans to tip etc.

Self Hosted ZIP

On your own website you can easily host a download link. If you have fairly basic knowledge of website building you can easily add something to the backend of your own site to direct fans to when they went there they would get a nice splash page with a download button. They click on it, and get an instant download.

Added Pros:

  • Get people to your own site as opposed to some “rented” space
  • Complete flexibility. Make it password protected for your fan club, give it away to everyone. Stick it in your blog. Put it on a page with all your tour dates, create a re-direct to your sales page after they download…whatever you want!
  • Add whatever you want to that folder

Cons:

  • Depending on the size of your band/bandwidth limits etc. you may need to be careful
  • You do need to understand how your website, servers etc. work or hire someone who does.

Conclusion

Personally I feel like Noisetrade or a self-hosted ZIP are the best two options. Both allow for simple professional branding that can prominently display/and build your relationship with the downloader.Noisetrade edges self-hosted for me, primarily due to the potential front page placements on the chart, simplicity, recognition within the industry and the simple share functions that are so effective.However, at the end of the day, it all depends what your goals are.

This post was written by Andrew Jones, editor of Checkered Owl. It originally ran on his blog, but we loved it so much we felt it deserved to shared once more on ours. If you like his work and want to read more of his writing, or if you want to be super cool and offer him full time industry employment, reach out and connect with him on Twitter.

Categories
News

Advice: Don’t Be Afraid To Try Something Old

Hey there, everyone. We are thrilled to learn you chose to spend a few minutes of your day browsing our blog. The post you’re about to enjoy was written by our friend Andrew Jones, founder of The Checkered Owl, and it’s something both artists and writers alike can learn from.

This site exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found onTwitter and Facebook.

The music industry, like much of our society, can become obsessed with what is new: The new better way to sell music, the new way to connect with fans, the new DAW to record your new album. Many blogs are written, podcasts recorded and conferences held about the newest and most promising options; and this, in large part, is good. In fact you will notice if you look back at the Checkered Owl blog we write often about new tech and strategies. But if you pay attention to culture and society, you will notice a shift…

People are beginning to embrace old. Vinyl records, knitting, film cameras, pot lucks, gardening, simpler vacations, local foods, house concerts, they are all making a resurgence. But why?

I believe, in many ways people are wanting to return to something simpler. To personal connections, to a time with a moral compass, when people knew what was expected of them. We look back to our grandparents and great-grandparents and realize maybe with all our steps forward, we may have left somethings behind.

But what does this have to do with your music? Am I suggesting that you return to recording mono on a 4-track recorder? Probably not, however I think there are many lessons from the past young musicians could learn from, certain things no Facebook analytics can teach you.

Look back. Read about how musicians in the 50’s cut and sold records on the cheap before there was a large established industry. Learn about how labels like Motown and Chess built a community. Understand why U2 intentionally toured in too small of venues for many of their early US tours. Try to get your mind around the psychology of the KISS army. Study why Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins & Johnny Cash would all head out on tours together instead of going it alone. Find out WHY Van Halen’s rider famously asked for all the brown M&Ms to be removed.

Pay attention to new ideas and tech, you need to. But if you are really interested in building a great career, look at those who have already done it…you just might learn something.

This post was written by Andrew Jones, editor of Checkered Owl. It originally ran on his blog, but we loved it so much we felt it deserved to shared once more on ours. If you like his work and want to read more of his writing, or if you want to be super cool and offer him full time industry employment, reach out and connect with him on Twitter.

Categories
News

TESTS: Facebook Video Vs. YouTube

Hey there, everyone. Thanks for taking a few moments out of your busy schedule to browse the Haulix blog. The post you’re about to enjoy was created by friend and longtime contributor Andrew Jones, founder of The Checkered Owl. If you enjoy what you read, please make it a point to support Andrew and his ongoing efforts when time allows.

This blog exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

As you may be aware, Facebook has decided to make a major play for the online video market and it has the potential to shake things up considerably. They have certainly given MUCH more priority to their video than external links, but does that make much of an impact? Can they defeat the mighty YouTube? As this heats up I decided to run some simple tests to see how things shake out. There is no 1 simple way to test engagement so I tried a number of things with different pages (of varying sizes and engagement), after describing the tests, I’ll share some conclusions:

TEST 1 – Lyric Video:

First I posted this video on YouTube, I spread the word through all the usual ways: tweets, e-mail blast, facebook posts, etc. The FB post alone ended up being exposed to almost 2,500 people, however the video sits on YouTube with just under 200 views…not massive by any stretch.

Next I posted the same video on Facebook (keep in mind we have already shared this once before), The post reached a little over 1500 people. This is where Facebook’s data gets a little confusing, the stat they love to show is that the video received approx. 600 views. HOWEVER this is just anyone who saw some tiny part of your video (and includes as far as I can tell, silent auto-play), the drop off rate is REALLY high, as in only 139 people watched after 30 seconds. I would guess those are around the same 90 people who actually clicked to watch and heard the audio. Compare that to the 80% of people who were still engaged long after 30 seconds on YouTube.

TL;DR: Facebook video views look good, but are inflated.

TEST 2 – Live Perfomance Video:

New Page. I posted a fairly simple 2 angle video of live song, didn’t post on YouTube, kept it exclusive. Was happy to discover I could embed the FB post in wordpress, less impressed to discover I couldn’t use the embed code in Mailchimp. So the sharing options were pretty much limited to FB, website and places you could post a straight link like Reddit (as compared to YouTube that you can embed ANYWHERE). 30 shares and 7000 organic reach later, I’m ready to confirm FB is favouring their native video in people’s newsfeeds.

So let’s dig in and check out what percentage is jus un-clicked auto-play. Of the 3,500 views Facebook reports, 900 or so appear to be actual engagement (sticking for longer than 30 seconds), but the drop off rates are still really high compared to YouTube videos. To compare, a similar video by the same band on YouTube has about 400 views with an Audience retention of 80% at 0:30

TL;DR: Facebook does spread videos far and wide, but be wary of the stats

Test #3 – Full Music Video

New artist again. I recently directed a music video for a brand new artist with a fairly limited fan base (approx 1000 FB fans at the time of launch). The artist is still developing their channels, so sharing was pretty much limited to FB, however people really got behind the video. Over 200 shares later, the post had an organic reach of over 30,000 and has brought in a lot of new facebook fans. The views on YouTube are a little north of 3000 with an audience retention of over 90% at the 0:30 mark.

TL;DR: We are safe to say YouTube videos can still be effective on Facebook and elsewhere

CONCLUSIONS

After these and a few other small experiments, I can safely say…we don’t yet know how this will play out. Facebook is certainly ranking their content higher and make it SEEM like they are getting tons more views (see their recent 1 billion views stat), however the majority of these are scrolled by auto-plays. They have some new features coming to their video pages soon (featured videos, playlists, etc.) that may change things, but for now the posts are still very time-sensitive and nothing that is likely to suddenly get new attention in 6 months (which YouTube videos do regularly).

You can’t ignore FB video. It’s coming aggressively, but at this point…I’d lead with your best stuff on YouTube, and post little fan engagement teasers on FB

This post was written by Andrew Jones, editor of Checkered Owl. It originally ran on his blog, but we loved it so much we felt it deserved to shared once more on ours. If you like his work and want to read more of his writing, or if you want to be super cool and offer him full time industry employment, reach out and connect with him on Twitter.

Categories
News

6 Essential Tools For Booking a Tour

Hello, everyone! We hope your final week before Christmas is going well. The post your about to enjoy is actually a guest piece from our friend Andrew Jones, founder of Checkered Owl Media. He helps us out from time to time, and in turn we hope you’ll check out his work. He’s quite possibly our favorite Canadian.

This site exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

No matter how you slice it booking a tour, is a lot of hard work. It requires time and dedication. However, there are certainly things you can do to make it a little easier on yourself. Here are 6 tools I use on every tour I book:

1. Spreadsheet
Adding a spreadsheet to my workflow has been one of the most helpful things I have ever done for increasing efficiency on booking a tour.  Many computers have software built in, if yours doesn’t you can always grab “Open Office” for free. I personally use “Numbers” from the Apple iWork suite.

I have 10 columns in mine: Date, Weekday, City, Venue, Promoter, Style (club, coffee shop, church, theatre, etc.), Pay, Confirmed (yes or no), Notes, Media Contacted

It is such a huge help to have that all sitting on one sheet.

2. Google maps

This may sound obvious but Google Maps takes an ENORMOUS amount of hassle our of routing a tour. Put in your target markets, check the distances between them if it’s over 6 or so hours, zoom in look for markets in between your targets, re-arrange until you find a solid route, use that as your template. https://maps.google.com/

3. Indie On The Move

This has probably become my most indispensable tool for booking a tour (US only). It’s super simple to search any decently sized city in the US; when you do, you’ll see a bunch of venues, click into them, see their calendar, contact info and even ratings from other bands. You can even e-mail the talent buyer right from inside their site. I can’t recommend this site enough; check it out! http://www.indieonthemove.com/

4. The Indie Venue Bible

This has long been a favourite of mine and have built several circuits from it. It requires a little more effort than Indie on the move, but includes Canada, it also costs you a few dollars. However you get a GREAT pdf directory organized by state (or province) of a ton of venues, with a small guide to what genres they book. Click on the venue and you are taken either to their web page or contact info. Make the phone calls, and make it happen. http://www.indievenuebible.com/

5. Database

Once you have interested contacts, you don’t want to lose them. A database lets you keep all your contacts well organized for future contact. Some people use the spreadsheet for this, but I find a database to be much more robust. I personally use Bento, everything goes in there, from show evaluations, to promoters, to media contacts, I even print my contracts from Bento. I think it’s well worth adding to your arsenal.

6. Hustle

Ultimately it all comes down to this, if you want to book a tour, get ready for more phone calls and emails than you have made before, don’t give up. Hustle is what separates the pros from the garage bands. If you want this, work harder than everyone else.

This post was written by Andrew Jones, editor of Checkered Owl. It originally ran on his blog, but we loved it so much we felt it deserved to shared once more on ours. If you like his work and want to read more of his writing, or if you want to be super cool and offer him full time industry employment, reach out and connect with him on Twitter.

Categories
News

One Great Way Artists Can Avoid Annoying Friends And Facebook Followers!

Hello. Thank you for finding time in your schedule to browse our site. You can go just about anywhere on the web without fear of government issued vehicles raiding your house, so we’re thankful you have chosen to spend your precious time here. The post you’re about to read is aimed at improving the social networking efforts of musicians on the rise, but in reality the tips provided can be applied to almost any individual or small business hoping to further their digital impact.

This site exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

If you work in the live music industry, you spend a lot of time inviting people to concerts. Hopefully you are inviting them with a variety of methods, Facebook events being one. Which is great as long as you do it properly.

I get invited to a TON of shows, that the glorious nature of being friends with so many bands and promoters, there is always something going on, there is always too much going on really. The byproduct is that you receive a lot of Facebook event invites, which is great, great FB events get you all the details and can be a perfect way to get show info HOWEVER there is one kind of invite that becomes REALLY tiresome:

Invites to shows that are nowhere near me.

Now, every once and a while someone may be genuinely confused, maybe they met me in Calgary and keep inviting me to Calgary shows, no biggie, I may reach out to let you know but we all get confused sometimes. The thing that will get under your fans skin is the generic shotgun blast invite everyone to everything. I am obviously not got to come to your shows in Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Boston, Portland, Vancouver and Calgary, so don’t invite me, this isn’t confusion it’s laziness.

It only makes your invites less effective.

When you keep seeing the same basic information over and over that doesn’t apply to you, pretty soon you brain stops really taking in that information. Our brains know that they can’t handle every little detail they see in a day, so it categorizes things in order of importance, when your event is continually irrelevant to your listeners, pretty soon…it goes into the wrong bin, it’s irrelevant.

But it’s hard work to invite everyone! It’s slow! I can’t possibly know where all 2700 of these people are from!

Yes, it is harder, but if it’s more effective. It is a bit slow, BUT Facebook has given you the tools to make it not so very painful AND to make sure you can find the right people AND it’s free! If you don’t know about Graph search yet, you are missing out. Here is how it works:

In the search bar you type: My friends who live in __________A better way to make sure you invite the right friends to your Facebook event

Facebook will then display a list of all your friends who live in that city. Killer.

Now, open up a separate window.

You could use a tab, but having two windows side-by-side will make this go much faster. As you go down the list simply type the name of the person and invite. I takes time but it’s really not bad at all.  And that’s just the beginning of how musicians can take advantage of graph search…but that’s for another post!

This post was written by Andrew Jones, editor of Checkered Owl. It originally ran on his blog, but we loved it so much we felt it deserved to shared once more on ours. If you like his work and want to read more of his writing, or if you want to be super cool and offer him full time industry employment, reach out and connect with him on Twitter.

Categories
News

What Exactly Does An Artist Manager Do?

We have become big fans of Andrew Jones’ work in recent months, and every week or so we like to share some of his unique industry insight on our blog in order to provide a different perspective on this crazy place we call the entertainment business. Today’s post is a little sillier than the others, but it still has a good message to share.

This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

“So, what do you exactly do all day?”

As an artist manager people ask me this all the time, and it’s always a little complicated to answer. There are a variety of answers to this question, and honestly every manager is different. Even one manager may handle slightly different tasks for different clients or handle something for one season but hire a third party for another.

However to me being a manager ultimately means doing whatever it takes to break your artist. Whatever.

To that effect here are a few of the things I have done as an artist manager:

1. Network
2. Encourage artists
3. Route tours
4. Try to get bands on large tours
5. Invite other bands onto tours
6. Help pick singles
7. Give notes on demos
8. Give notes on mixes
9. Help determine track order
10. Record video
11. Edit video
12. Design websites
13. Consult on social media strategy
14. Apply for grants
15. Deign posters
16. Design merch
17. Book dates (don’t do this if you live in California or New York…)
18. Find sponsors
19. Speak into band conflict
20. Talk to publishers
21. Take songs to music supervisors
22. Find publicists
23. Work with publicists
24. Track songs to radio
25. Stall for time
26. Negotiate into a record deal
27. Negotiate out of a record deal
28. Buy digital advertising
29. Chase down money from promoters
30. Design webpages
31. Find local bands to join bills
32. Work with promoters on advertising
33. Line up radio station visits
34. Line up newspaper interviews
35. Blog
36. Maintain email lists
37. Write email blasts
38. Pitch to agencies
39. Write bios
40. Create presskits
41. Create riders
42. Go to conferences
43. Submit music to podcasts
44. Stay on top of digital trends
45. Edit press releases
46. Write press releases
47. Solicit album reviews
48. Set-up photo sessions
49. Approve photos
50. Approve album artwork
51. Upload music to all platforms
52. Find sponsors
53. Track stats
54. Fill and update calendars
55. Set-up interviews
56. Promote local shows
57. Fill showcases
58. Take the blame
59. Text a lot
60. Increase Hype
61. Build a street team
62. Write letters
63. Work with charities
64. Create pre-order packages

…And most importantly….

65. WHATEVER IT TAKES

This post was written by Andrew Jones, editor of Checkered Owl. It originally ran on his blog, but we loved it so much we felt it deserved to shared once more on ours. If you like his work and want to read more of his writing, or if you want to be super cool and offer him full time industry employment, reach out and connect with him on Twitter.

Categories
News

The Future Of Music Is Friendship

Greetings, everyone! We are thrilled that you were able to find time in your busy schedule to browse our blog. We typically run podcasts on Thursday, but ‘Inside Music’ is taking a break this week. Instead of letting the day pass by without an update, we decided to share a guest piece from our dear friend Andrew Jones of Checkered Owl.

This blog exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

A lot of digital ink is spilled everyday on the “future of music”. Streaming vs. downloads, could Google+ ever matter, will EDM eat itself, can crowd funding last…etc. Quite frankly, I am a big fan of these discussions and I think there should be at least one person on every artist’s team who cares about, and participates in them. However, when we talk tech, engagement, and future; we often miss the one of the most critical pieces of the puzzle.

Making friends with other artists.

We all want to be in a community. Your fans want to be a part of a community. Real fans don’t just want to like a band’s music, they want to hang out with the band, to know their friends, their influences, what they are listening to. If you can invite them into some of that, by showing support for another artist, your fans will fall in deeper love with both. We all want to be a part of something larger; and feeling welcomed into a friendship between two rad bands fits that bill. It gives us a circle of belonging.

I can give a thousand examples, but here is one. When I was in Jr. High, I came across a band by the name of Five Iron Frenzy. It was my first exposure to Ska, and I immediately became a huge fan. As I dug up everything I could on the band I saw that they often toured with a new band called The W’s. So I grabbed their record as well, cool stuff, silly neo-swing that met me right where my little grade 8 head was at. Much to my delight, there was a hidden track (oh the forgotten joy of secret songs) called “Five Iron Frenzy”! Instantly I was a much greater fan of both bands. They were my favourites. Why? Because they liked each other and in some small way, I became a part of that relationship.

But why would I say this is the future of music? Isn’t wearing another band’s t-shirt a pretty old concept? Yes. But in an increasingly crowded noisy world, music fans get tired of self-promotional noise; however as soon as you say “You guys gotta check out ________, we played a show with them last night and they KILLED IT!” people’s ears will perk up.

Bands that support bands WILL shine out in this overly crowded market. People want to know what to listen to next, point them towards your friends, you’ll both be richer for it, and I guarantee it’ll stand out more than merely another post about yourself.

This post was written by Andrew Jones, editor of Checkered Owl. It originally ran on his blog, but we loved it so much we felt it deserved to shared once more on ours. If you like his work and want to read more of his writing, or if you want to be super cool and offer him full time industry employment, reach out and connect with him on Twitter.

Categories
News

The One Thing I Disagree With Most E-mail Marketers About

Hello, everyone. Thank you for finding time in your busy life to spend a few minutes discussing music marketing with us. The post you’re about to read was written by Andrew Jones, founder of Checkered Owl. The contents highlight common mistakes found in many email marketing campaigns, as well as what you can do to improve your messaging. If you have any questions, please leave us a comment at the end of this post.

This blog exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you would like more information on the content in this article, or if you know of an industry pro you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Everyone should know at this point that e-mail better be a part of your online marketing strategy. While social media sites  can suddenly change their terms of service, re-evaluate their algorithms or lose they user base, e-mail is always there. Not to mention the fact that WAY more people actually BUY things from e-mail than any social media site.

There is a ton of great advice out there for e-mail lists so I don’t feel the need to write “TOP 8 E-MAIL TIPS MARKETERS DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW”. My main two pieces of advice are simple:

#1. Use Mailchimp to blast out your e-mails. They make your life so easy AND IT’S FREE until you have over 2000 subscribers!

#2. Speak genuinely. People want to connect with you not just get a flyer.

Which brings me to my third piece of advice. Something a little different than most of the articles I have read recommend.

#3. Don’t “personalize” the “to” field

On any decent e-mail service there is a section to “personalize” the e-mail with a tag, so you type in “Hey [FNAME]!” (or something similar) and the person opening it sees: “Hey Andrew!”.

Sounds great right? Here is the problem, EVERYONE KNOWS IT’S FAKE! It’s like those sweepstake letters you get in the mail, you know the ones; they have your name on them, they look like they were written in blue pen from the desk of the CEO, occasionally they will even use non-glossy paper or even pretend to cross out a word. But…they don’t make you want to enter.

Instead, at least for me, they turn me off, they are laughable.

If you want to be personal, be personal.

Write me a personal e-mail, I appreciate that. OR Fire me a nice looking HTML update that goes to 500 people and say “Hey Everyone!”.

I’m not offended that your band (or brand) doesn’t write me a personal letter every month, who has time for that? What does bother me is seeing something that says “Hey Andrew” and I think I have gotten a personal note only to discover it’s a mass blast. Just be honest.

Make the personal personal, make the e-mail blasts communal.

A communal blast has it’s advantages too! It (if executed well) can help begin to form a community, talk to everyone, together, as a unit. The KISS army approach works! Let people join your tribe!

And then when a key moment hits that’s worth a personal message, send that, personally. There are no shortcuts to relationships.

This post was written by Andrew Jones, editor of Checkered Owl. It originally ran on his blog, but we loved it so much we felt it deserved to shared once more on ours. If you like his work and want to read more of his writing, or if you want to be super cool and offer him full time industry employment, reach out and connect with him on Twitter.

Exit mobile version