We regret to inform you that this will be Seth Werkheiser’s final piece of advice for bands to run on this blog. After over a year of contributions Seth is going to step away and focus on some other projects. We wish him the best and hope you will continue to support his writing moving forward.
Toyota sells cars, but they also do this:
Converse sells shoes, but here, they made this cool video:
Auto and footwear companies don’t really have compelling stories to tell. It’s a car. Or a shoe. Okay. But notice they rarely just post a photo of their wares with a “click here to buy” link. Why? Well, that’s what everyone else does.
You art is a story that needs to be told. Without any context your art is just noise competing with every other “BAND premieres SONG over at MEDIA OUTLET” marketing message. Have you noticed how that all blends together in 2016?
You don’t just record an album, you pour your heart and soul into it.
You don’t just hire anyone to design your album art, you hand pick a talented artist to work with.
You don’t just tour, you play 18 shows in 22 days, and that’s filled with drama and tension, packed with highs and lows.
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
It’s amazing the impact that Eleven (well, 011) from the Netflix show ’Stranger Things’ had made with so few lines. Played by Millie Bobby Brown, she said so much without using many words at all.
In a sea of online marketing tips and tactics, there is too much focus on frequent updates.
You should always be posting a photo, a link to a pre-order, and announcing upcoming shows. Post photos of new lyrics, and clips from the studio! Cross post to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and your Tumblr. Don’t forget Snapchat and your thrown together email list!
But what if your silence spoke volumes? In our current world of supply vs. demand, there is no shortage of “content” from countless bands and labels. Is your message like that of a someone on a street corner, shouting into a megaphone at people who are doing their best to ignore the noise?
When Eleven saved Mike from falling into the quarry, she had ONE word to say; “Go.” Yes, she broke the bullies arm with her mind which speaks many volumes, but there was no need for extra words. No speech. No long-winded talk. Just, “go.“
Is your music powerful enough to "break arms” without the need to constantly let everyone know, “hey, I can break arms!“
What about when Lucas Sinclair wanted he wanted to tell Mike’s mom? Forcefully closing a door with her mind was impressive. And again, another simple line. “No” was enough to get the rest of Eleven’s point across.
How impactful can your tour date announcements be if they’re cluttered with hashtags? That Instagram update auto-posted to Twitter saves you time, sure, but you know it looks like crap, right?
Again – it’s all about impact. A Nike commercial can show runners in various states of their workout, with no words, no narration, and then a simple tag-line at the end. “Just Do It” is iconic, of course, but that didn’t happen overnight. Heck, it took a minute for word to get out that Dillinger Escape Plan had a great live show (and they never had to Tweet about their “sick live show”).
If your updates look like, smell like, and are written like every other musical act out there, don’t be shocked when no one pays attention.
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
“No one is going to pick you,” wrote Seth Godin in 2011, “pick yourself.”
Yes, it’d be nice if a hip label person saw how great you were playing at 3am to five people and offered to sign you afterwards (that’s how it worked for Unsane after playing with Sonic Youth) but that doesn’t always happen. You still need to push through and make a bit of your own luck.
I spoke recently to bassist Andy Price from the UK band Conjurer. They were gigging plenty, and creating some buzz. They knocked on some label doors, but nothing hapened. Undeterred, they went into the studio to record an EP with no label behind them. They figured that’d show some labels they were serious, right? Selling some units themselves’ always looks good, after all. Then producer Lewis Johns offers to master their EP. He’s done a bit of work for Holy Roar, and has worked with bands like Funeral For a Friend, and Rolo Tomassi. Well, he passes Conurer’s EP along to Holy Roar, and they just put out ‘I’ in July.
Belgium’s Oathbreaker is another example. After releasing a 7” through a small label, they went into the studio to record a full length – except they didn’t have any label backing the effort. According to vocalist Caro Tanghe they, “weren’t signed yet, so we basically recorded it ourselves, paid for everything ourselves.” They had no guarantee that what they were working on would pay off, or that it would garner any sort of attention at all. It worked out, though, as they’re putting out their third LP in October on Deathwish.
Keep in mind – working with a label doesn’t mean mansions and exotic sports cars these days. "I still rent a room in a house and I live very frugally,” said Tommy Victor of Prong in an interview with From Hero to Zero, "and that’s the only way I could survive (while) keeping the band going. I’ve had to make those sacrifices.” Tommy’s played with Ministry and Glenn Danzig, and even he’s had to make sacrifices. He’s done it on his terms, and doesn’t need to be “picked” by a big label to keep making it, since "making it” for him means making enough to cover rent for the month.
Picking yourself means doing it on your way, without waiting for any outside acceptence or approval. Whether recording an album, making your own music video, or even starting your own label, your number one supporter should be yourself. And with that internal support, being your own #1 fan, who knows best on how to bring your artistic vision to life?
Pick yourself.
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
The first half of 2016 has burnt out everyone I know. Okay, not everyone, but a bunch of people I’ve spoken with have talked about the jobs that are gone, cruel bosses, dried up press opportunities, all while rents keep going up.
Facebook is changing their algorithms again (and Instagram, which they own), and Twitter is filled with countless tragedies – and we keep seeing “NEW SONG!” competing with that. Good luck with that.
Are we just going to refocus efforts on Snapchat? Get more into email marketing? Develop 16 cool new ways to reach music blog editors (all while we mourn the death of music blogs)?
People “binge watch” seasons of TV shows. Like, hour upon hour of staring at Netflix. They’re listening to more podcasts than ever. They’re watching Game 7 of the NBA finals. Heck, they’re in the streets staring at their phones while catching Pokemon.
Tweeting “check out our new song" worked in 2008 when not a lot of bands were on Twitter, but now every band and every label is on everything, everywhere, all the time.
So it’s fun seeing people deliberately move away from that. Shops that have ignored the allure of social media (and promoted posts), and instead focus soley on the people that walk through the door. Some bands aren’t even online but they still maintain a buzz. People have quit paid music industry jobs for simpler lives without the 24/7 grind. Life goes on even when we’re not trying to keep up with the never ending flurry of VEVO video, new songs, and the latest “gossip.“
But music can always make someone’s day, so it’s worth fighting for. Even if Spotify won’t compensate you fairly for it, find ways to present it in a way where it has more value. Think beyond a music video, think beyond albums. Create things people will find on their iPhones, then be so compelled to get their friends together and stream it on their Apple TV connected big screen. Just as strumming an acoustic guitar and singing a melody ain’t all that special these days, neither is a music video of four dudes playing a song in a room. That’s what led to bands like OKGO and Hollerado pushing the term “music video” to new heights.
Neither of those bands sat around waiting for their break, they just made fun stuff that went along with their music. Making that sort of magic doesn’t come from how-to guides, but from trial and error, and making it up as we go along. If there were a manual, a map, then everyone could do it, and even “hit song writers” don’t get it right 100% of the time. Put your slant on it, work with good people, and do the best you can. There’s magic in that.
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
If you’re interviewing bands, reviewing albums, or posting news on your blog, you need to have some sort of time-stamp on your piece.
See, other writers make posts and articles about bands and albums, and they might come across your website during their research. If your article has no time stamp, however, it’s damn near worthless.
If you interviewed someone but failed to include what YEAR the interview was conducted, how could I ever cite your article as a source? When did the interview take place? Last week? Last year? 2012?
Dates are important. When strung together, they create a narrative. The same band involved in two robberies in the same year – that’s a story. A band hinting at a new album on Facebook two years before the label sends a press release is news-worthy because of dates.
Think about it – if a band announces they kicked out their guitar player, and you have an interview from two years prior with that guitar player, you can now add something EXCLUSIVE to your news post. While everyone else is just reposting a press release, you’re able to say, “when I talked to that guitar player in 2013, she had this to say…"
Also, site owners: make sure you use the whole date. There was a time recently when Alternative Press didn’t include the YEAR in their published date. Just month and day. The year is pretty important when talking about something big, like say, former As I Lay dying vocalist Tim Lambesis doing an interview about his murder-for-hire trial (that was published in 2014, in case you were wondering). There’s no reason why any writer should have to email an outlet and ask, “hey, when was this published?”
This is music-blogging 101, folks. It ain’t rocket surgery.
So when you’re hacking away at your WordPress theme or whatever for your music blog, be sure to keep the time-stamps in there. They’re worth it not just for future reference, but for preserving the history of all this music media we work on every single day.
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
It’s hard enough to get people to click play, or Like, or Favorite, or whatever else, but to get someone to pay money for any album in 2015? Who does that? Ask any number of mid-level bands who are still managing to sell 5,000+ in first week sales. Great numbers compared for 2003? Of course not, but I’ll take 1,250 in sales than 72,000 “Likes” any day.
“You can’t transform the record buying public into a million clones of your mum, sadly, but you can still apply this lesson: People value music that they are personally connected to and such music is scarce – therefore it is not worthless … People who have no reason at all to pay anything for 45 minutes of generic recorded music have a host of reasons to pay for 45 minutes of music that they know will explore the happy side of a depression that they recognise in themselves recorded by that nice girl who played in their local, chats to them about Geordie Shore on twitter, wrote that great blog post about economics and such; and who seems like a nice person who you could approach if your download didn’t work properly.”
Can you know all 1,000 people who bought your album in the first week? No, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to have a few hundred of those emails. Probably a few of your followers on Twitter bought your album, and some even came to your show.
There’s no shortage of jerk-asses that get press everyday for stupid shit. But there are probably so many albums out there that people are crying to in their bedrooms at night, or screaming along to in their cars at night. Bands that aren’t just “music,” but they mean the world to some folks. Strive to make that sort of music first and foremost. Count your successes in the number of people who thank you after the show, or shoot you an email, not in magazine covers or music blog mentions.
Maybe “nobody” buys music in 2015, but if only one person buys your album this month make them feel like they’re somebody.
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
“So what’s the next big thing online to get the word out?”
The singer from a popular hardcore band asked me this recently. They’re no slouch, with 5+ albums and a few European tours under their belt. But most smart bands are always looking ahead, no matter how big they are.
Years ago Facebook worked great, but now they charge you to reach all your “Likes.” Twitter is fun, but have you looked at your analytics to see how many people who actually see your updates? Toss in Snapchat, WhatsApp, Vine, Instagram, YouTube – what works? What’s the easiest way to reach your audience? What will work next month?
Email. Email will work.
Two amazing statitiscs:
According to this report from the Radicati Group, “there are three times more email accounts than Twitter and Facebook accounts combined.”
Chances are 99% people of your last gig had an email address. Think that many people were on Twitter or Instagram?
When your main “getting the word out” message is via networks that some people – believe it or not – aren’t using, you’re talking to a brick wall. Telling your fans “Follow us on Twitter and Facebook!” means nothing to people who aren’t on either.
And from Campaign Monitor, “you are six times more likely to get a click-through from an email campaign than you are from a tweet.
Seriously – look at your analytics! Amongst the barrage of marketing messages, pleas for clicks and RTs and “share this” – this is 2015! It ain’t gonna get better in 2016, folks.
And yes, 10’s of thousands of social media followers looks great. But take a look at the Bit.ly links of some media outlets (by adding a + sign to the end of the URL); some have six-figure followers and can’t even get 1% of their audince to click a link. If less than 1% of your fans are clicking, what’s that make the other 99% of your followers?
If you’re looking to magically convert your 10,000 Twitter Followers and 50,000 Facebook "Likes” to email subscribers, good luck. Remember, if you’re “fortunate" to have 1% of your fans click on ANYTHING (let alone a link to join an email list), it’s going to take months to grow your list from your social media following.
But you should start doing that now. Remember, MySpace was the #1 music site online in 2006 and now it’s gone. Do you think we’ll still be talking about Twitter and Facebook in 2020? There’s a chance we might not, but you can be sure that email will still be around.
And those “Likes” may not be.
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
In the 90s it was all about getting your music into big box stores like Best Buy, Tower Records, and Circuit City. Distribution wins! But those stores didn’t really care about your music or your label or your scene. Sure, you sold a bunch of CDs through them in the 90s, but where does that leave you today? Who bought those albums?
Then the iTunes store comes along in 2003. Quick! Get your music on there, just like every other band and label. Upload your music, adjust your meta-data, sit back, and sell to people in parts of the world that you’ll never visit.
Again, iTunes doesn’t really care about your music – they just need to sell iPhones and watches at enormous profit. You’re a reference number in a database that gets cut a check every month. And for all those digital sales, Apple has a record of everyone who bought your album. That’d be nice list to see, right? Too bad.
Now we have streaming. And Apple Music! None of them really care about your band, either. They’re all busy are bolstering algorithms to suggest new music selections, all in the hopes of converting people to $10/mo subscribers. They’ve got lots of data (emails, listening habits, favorite albums) but none for you!
I got an email not too long ago from Ken MODE. Their singer emailed everyone who bought their last album on BandCamp, saying they had a new album out, and linked to their new album pre-order.
Imagine that, huh? Someone bought your old album, and when you had a new one available you sent them an email. Not just a Tweet (which gets lost in the noise of cat photos and political turmoil), not just a Facebook update (which might not even reach your fans because Facebook wants your $$$), but an email delivered to someone’s inbox.
It’s like when you had a show in your small town – you gave a flyer to your friends who were at your last show. You put up fliers in places where your friends would see them, like at record shops, and cafes.
So, you know who your ardent fans are, right? Point them to your own digital sales store (you can set one up using Big Cartel or Limited Run, or just use BandCamp). Sell direct to to your fan, then you’ll have their email address. Then the next time you have a release you’ll know who to reach contact (and not just a few dozen music blogs who are all copying and pasting 20 press releases every hour).
Of course that doesn’t mean stop uploading to iTunes and everywhere else (yet). I get it. But start selling direct to your biggest fans. Get their mailing address, then reward those fans after the sale with a free-shirt in the mail, or a sticker pack or something. In order to delight the people who love what you do, you have to make sure you can discover who those people are in the first place – and Apple, Spotify, and BestBuy sure ain’t going to help you build your email list.
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
This weekend I saw a Tweet from Verizon, linking to their article, ‘7 Best Practices for Blogging About Your Business.’ There it is, folks; the death of content marketing. I mean, this has been going on for awhile, but come on, it’s 2015.
A few years back you could get signed from your MySpace page, or break out from a few good music blog posts. Hardly the case today. What worked just a few years ago is dead in the water now. Remember, publicists; take me off your AOL Music email-blast list, they don’t exist anymore.
The best time to ask, “what’s next?” was three years ago. Or five. The second best time is today. In Sophie Benjamin’s Monthly Missive newsletter, she linked to, ‘How the compact disc lost its shine,’ about the time when CDs were selling like hot-cakes, and record execs were busy buying yachts instead of worrying about this “digital music” thing.
So to keep up you can read the many thousands of how-to articles about Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram, or how to use Periscope and SnapChat to get the word out about your next show that you can stream on Google Hangouts On-Air.
How many people do you know that have left (insert social media network here) in the past year? Right now the social media ecosystem sustains by putting as many updates in front of your eyeballs as often as possible, every day, every hour, every minute.
Is that really how we’re going to continue for the next decade? No way. Things are changing too quick.
So if we can’t predict exactly what’s next, what can we work on today? The basics.
A good live show will still get you places. Early in their career Unsane played a show at CBGB’s in NYC with Sonic Youth. At the show, after a few openers, Sonic Youth started playing. And playing. Long into the night.
Unsane hits the stage at 3am and played their hearts out to less than 10 people. But in attendance was, “Gerard Cosloy from Matador,” explains Chris Spence, “and that’s how we got a deal with them.”
That wouldn’t have happened if Unsane wrote mediocre songs. So do that. Write a bunch of good songs and record them. That “content” is a lot more, “sharable” than your grainy Instagram photo from your messy practice space. Good music played in front of people at shows is also a good strategy, so work on doing more of that, too.
You can be online 16 hours a day and still miss something. Instead, focus your work on writing a good song, putting on a memorable show, and having some decent conversations both online and off. Those things ain’t going away.
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
Yes, pitching editors and sending CDs to Pitchfork is important. But what about the CDs and shirts you’re mailing out to your customers? How do you treat the people who are actually putting money in your pocket? (HINT: I hope it’s more fun than what you’re sending to Pitchfork)
When you’re small you can go the extra mile. When you care, it doesn’t seem like extra effort. I’m talking hand written notes, or extra goodies tossed in with a paid order.
Some bands and labels treat this very “business class;” here’s your CD in a padded envelope. End of transaction. Meh.
In late 2013, one of my Skull Toaster readers ordered a CD from this doom band in Seattle, WA called Giza. They sent him an extra copy with a hand written note saying something like, “give it to a friend.“
So this reader got in touch with me and we did a give-away on Skull Toaster with that extra copy, exposing that band to a whole new audience that loves and appreciates that sort of music. And now they’re linked here, too. Funny how that can work, huh?
Johnny Cupcakes throws candy and other goodies into random orders. Why? Eh, why not?
I said something nice about MailChimp on Twitter awhile back and they sent me a t-shirt and a hat. Why? Again, why not? People love getting stuff in the mail, right?
If you can make someone feel special, do that. If you can add some delight to someone’s day, what the heck are you waiting for? Permission? There’s enough doom and gloom in everyone’s social media feeds. Why not put something unexpected and awesome in someone’s mailbox?
I recently took part in an online service with a company I used for the past few years. At the end of the survey they said they’d send me a shirt. Oh, fun!
Well, I got the shirt, but I noticed it was sent from a fulfillment company (the return address actually said fulfillment company). Instead of a hand-written note or stickers, there was a tiny "filler invoice,” with a literal $0.00 charge. No one at the company I did the survey with touched this. It was automated.
A team of unpaid interns can do something like that. There was no magic. Compare that to my friend Travis, who tells me all the time about ordering from a tiny label (kidding) called Dischord and the hand-written thank-you notes they include.
If anyone is too busy to write handwritten notes, it’s them. Delighting your mail order customers is like out-running bear; you only have to be faster than your friends (your competitors). In a world of me-too, copy-cat operations doing the bare-minumum to skate by, going just above and beyond isn’t really that much work.
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
