- 'Researchers Change Tune, Now Say P2P Has Negative Impact' @billboardbiz
http://bit.ly/dmqopw + PDF study:http://bit.ly/cyHmQQ # - RT @podcasting_news: RIAA Warns 1 Million Copyright Infringers a Year, Has Zero Effect http://tinyurl.com/2cuxlvs #
- Promote your music on Amazons Artist Central.
https://artistcentral.amazon.com/ # - RT @themusicslut: Download LOTS of tunes from previous Manic mp3 Mondays – http://bit.ly/dywckR #
- @epicenterblog '6 Mashups of Music and Artificial Intelligence' http://bit.ly/cbq289 #
- 'Best Album Art of All Time' http://bit.ly/asBfXU Wired.com #
- Captain Crawl. Music blog search engine http://bit.ly/1mZJNt #
- 'How to REALLY Get Your Music on Blogs: Finding the Best Blogs for Your Music' @cbracco on @musicthinktank http://bit.ly/ccuMJ3 #
- 'Mobile Apps: Bigger Than the Music Industry? ' http://bit.ly/atRQpJ #
- RT @gleonhard: ' Cognitive Surplus: Is creating and sharing always a more moral choice than consuming?' http://shar.es/m9OK7 #
- Linux Today. ' Editor's Note: Copying is Stealing' http://bit.ly/95tLY1 #
- NYT 'Heedlessly Highjacking Content' http://nyti.ms/cqj745 #
- RT @chromatic_x: "I really hate it when people conflate copying with stealing." http://bit.ly/bDoOC0 #
- Film. 'Peter Dekom on The Reality Of Creator/Distributor/Audience Relationship' http://bit.ly/bWl0An via @gleonhard #
- RT @gigaom: Hands On with mSpot, an iTunes in the Cloud http://dlvr.it/2HqgH #
- @helienne in the Guardian.' Thom Yorke Is Wrong to Write off the Music Industry'
http://bit.ly/ddwXJ3 # - 'How to Really Get Your Music on Blogs:Creating a Killer Pitch Letter' @cbracco
http://bit.ly/bj1tlZ for @musicthinktank # - 'How to Build an iPhone App Without Hiring a Developer' http://bit.ly/9v5axj #
Archive for the "Internet" Category
Apr21
Some Simple Branding Hacks To Supercharge Your Social Media URLs
Posted at 10:47 PM • One CommentI remember trying to design one of those flash pro-looking Twitter backgrounds where you list all your social media profiles in a box in the top left hand corner. You know, like all those MLM ‘gurus’ have. I gave up.
But it did bring attention to a couple of things for me. I noticed that not all my social media profiles are blessed with URLs that fit in with my ‘social profile’ (or, branding if you like) and my Facebook URL is particularly unruly. (As is everyone elses!)
So I took five minutes to login to my website management software and using the sub domain feature added a couple of new subdomains under buzzsonic.com. Then I pointed them to my social profiles. So……
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528551668 becomes www.facebook.buzzsonic.com and my Linkedin profile goes from www.linkedin.com/in/fusiarski to: www.linkedin.buzzsonic.com And so on. Typing in the shorter name takes you directly to the long one.
What you need. 1.Your own domain name 2. A webhosting account 3. A few minutes.
Its all done using a simple trick using sub-domains and URL re-directs.
When you get a webhosting account you’ll get an online control panel that goes along with it to admin things like file uploads, email accounts, database stuff, installs and other geeky stuff. I think the two most popular web control panels are probably Plesk and CPanel. If you use Plesk you probably hate CPanel and visa versa. Its kinda like the Mac vs PC thing but even more nerdy!
But anyway. CPanel is my weapon of choice. There are several other control panels you may use but they all kind of do the same thing. So these steps should be similar on any software.
To set-up a sub domain login to your control panel (and there’s a live demo of CPanel here if you want to check it out) and head for the subdomain area. First thing to do is to head for the sub-domain admin area. Its a simple task of adding your subdomain of choice.
So for example I added facebook.buzzsonic.com. Then added my lengthy default Facebook URL. So. What happens is simply that you (or anyone from now on!) types in your new shiny short Facebook and off it goes to the crappy URL that Facebook gives you!
Just follow the process for any URL you want to point to. I’ve actually seen people use one of those URL shortening services to hide their long Facebook URL. This looks way better.
Related Reading
URL Redirection (Wikipedia)
A Bloggers Guide to Branding With Social Media (ProBlogger)
100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media (ChrisBrogan.com)
I’ve touched on music distribution issues here before with Tunecore, Bit Torrent and even good old analogue vinyl but thought I’d dig around a bit deeper as there seems to be new distribution services springing up on a regular basis these days. Be they aggregator or ‘widget’ type tools. Ill be covering digital music aggregators here first and covering website widgets later in the week.
The Music Void – Denzyl Feigelson on MUZU
Things To Consider When Choosing Digital Music Distribution
With the Internet its easy to research background on companies these days. Thats what Google is for. Do it. Search around the distributors website. Look for the names of people running the company. Put a shout out on Twitter or music forums if you need user feedback on any service.
What is the distributors background, how long has the company been around? What is the revenue model ? Upfront yearly admin fee (like Tunecore) or a percentage of sales (CD Baby take 9%).
Which digital retailers do the aggregators distribute too? Also, check the distributors list of bands, artists and labels that are using their services. Always a good reference point. Its reassuring to know that Tunecore (who I use) also handle digital distribution for established artists such as NiN, David Byrne & Brian Eno and Jay Z and newer MP3 blog faves like MGMT.
Also you need to know that you wont be signing away rights to your music and that you wont be tied down to any lengthy fixed terms
Music industry scribe Moses Avalon has a good breakdown of distribution terms for a few aggregators on his website. Its a couple of years old and as such covers only the longer established companies but is still very relevant. Read the rest of this entry »
While I get my lazy ass into gear with two new posts over the weekend I thought I’d do a shameless piece of self plugging (which is very rare for me by the way!) and highlight a couple of posts on this blog from last year that have kinda got buried by more recent posts.
In more recent posts this year, by far the most popular (which surprised me) has been (with this months actual page views March 27th 8.25 est):
10 New Music Industry PDFs That’ll Make You An Expert (1130) followed by:
Resources To Help Get Your Music in Films ans TV (460)
200+ Music Industry, Marketing, Social Media and Tech Blogs That’ll Make You A Media Whore! (397)
Some Other Posts You Should Read…
How To Get Your Music Distributed on iTunes (And Keep Most Of The Money)
This is a year old now but never more relevant than today as the onus on digital distribution gathers pace.
Its Official, Vinyl Not Dead Shock
My defence of the vinyl format vs the iPod! Kind of.
How To Press Up a Vinyl Single and Add Instant Kudos to Your Release
A detailed look at how (and where) to get your vinyl records pressed. There will be an updated round-up of distributors shortly.
The Best Music Biz Book You’ve Never Heard Of
I hold the KLFs legendary book, ‘The Manual (How To Have A Number One The Easy Way)’ in high regard. I followed the instructions it lays out in simple terms and didn’t hit number one, but managed to get into the UK top 30. Others have followed suit. Whatever, its a great fun read which is how I wish all music industry books were written. They’re not.
More soon………….
Now I’ve used the word ‘music industry’ here to encompass anything connected to digital music stuff, music 2.0, social media, whatever you want to call it. Truth is, the keyword today is convergence.
But if you’re struggling to come to terms with new terminology, new technology and new services I did a comprehensive scan of resources you can print out on PDF that’ll really set you up with an information boost if you’re playing catch up and haven’t got the time to dig around.
There’s some fantastic resources out there and some inspirational writers like Seth Godin, Andrew Dubber, Gerd Leonhard, Derek Sivers and even digital distributors Tunecore all offer some brilliant insight and the best news is its all out there for you to grab free as a bird. And legal too!
Promotion
Music Industry Survival Guide. This compact guide from digital distributor Tunecore crams a lot into its 30 pages covering college radio promotion, iTunes promotion, street marketing, music discovery, mp3 blogs and press and media tips. Some people actually charge for this stuff. There’s seven PDF guides from Tunecore including a vinyl 101 for bands/artists wanting to press up vinyl records.
Their other guides cover mastering, publishing, copyright and mixing.
Mastering The Music Website Cycle. EasyB.com make e-commerce software for artists to sell music direct from their own websites. The handy 36 page guide goes into some detail on how to make and manage a successful music download website. They draw up a checklist of plans for structure, content and design. Again, some great pointers for many who may find the task a little daunting.
The Leading Question-Voice Of The Fans. This survey undertaken by UK digital music industry company Musically was aired at Midem this January. 1300 music fans were questioned across the USA, UK and France.
Being in a band, your time is very important. If you are an indie musician your day-to-day can possibly consist of a day job or school, then you need to make time for songwriting, recording, Myspace-ing, Tweeting, booking shows, editing video and fending off e-mails and other online networks. Knowing that your time is important, it is easy to brush off the fans, especially the ones that you do not see everyday, week, month, year or even, ever. That does not mean that they are not important.
Now more than even your fans are vital to your success. They are the ones that dictate your income. You NEED to keep them happy. There is no excuse, no communication gaps or barriers stopping you from developing relationships with every fan that wants one.
Feb15
Alternative Domain Name Tips For Music Websites, Bands and Labels
Posted at 5:09 PM • 2 CommentsWith all the hype about ‘music 2.0′ tools, hosts and websites for musicians, bands and artists, its quite possible that you could easily forget one of the most important aspects of having an online presence as a band/label/DJ/creative. Its strictly old school too. Its your own domain name.
I wrote about it last month here and this is just to expand on the advantages. OK, you have your MySpace sub domain name, one at iLike, Multiply, iMeem and all the other free social music sites. Great, but unless you’re paying for a premium service there’s a possibility that any of these services could disappear down a dotcom black hole. OK then, maybe not MySpace, but its a crowded marketplace and sites do go dark.
“Dec. 2, 2003 was doomsday for independent music. As of noon Tuesday, Mp3.com closed its server and deleted its roughly 750,000 files, marking the end of the largest catalogue of free Internet downloads from hundreds of thousands of unsigned bands..” (from the Eagle Online)
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
One of the best and most misused ‘quotes’ about the music industry, allegedly from Hunter S Thompson’s book “Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80s”
But David Emery at About.com dug around and sourced the correct quote from the book here:
“The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.”
Thanks David.
Google is broken this morning, EST 10.18am.
Was looking around for Pro Tools 8 M Boxed/LE prices this AM and headed to Google search to check the shopping comparison for the iLok USB key. Surprised to find that the manufacturers site had been tagged with the dreaded Google malware ‘kiss of death’ page. Searching around for other terms brought up the same results.
Even Google’s own paid shopping links were being redirected to the malware page. Last gasp try to search for my own music as 99th Floor Elevators. Every search result for that term got the malware redirect including the link to my video on YouTube.
Headed to Twitter to see what people are finding.
Breaking:What’s The Matter With Google? (Geekbrief.TV)
The Day Google Broke (The Next Web)
Google Broken (Google News Search)
I’ve been using Twitter ‘seriously’ (I’m not sure how you measure that) for a few months now but I was a slow starter as I previously mentioned here.
I think at first the problem for me is that it just seemed like it was going to be another web 2.0 novelty that’d I’d quickly tire of and abandon after a while. I did abandon my Twitter profile leaving myself hanging with less than ten followers and half a dozen posts.
Not for the first time, I was wrong. There are just so many tech and music people ‘twittering’ it kind of reminds you of all the Google euphoria when the search engine was so ubiquitous that ‘to Google’ became a verb.
What helped me a lot was seeking out the help of a bunch of people that did ‘get it’ by searching Google (as always). I thought I’d gather together a bunch of the best online blog posts and articles that I found in my research.
How To Use Twitter For Music Promotion (About.com) Twitter.
About.com Music Careers writer Heather McDonald is always very concise in her writing, unlike me. Once signing up for Twitter Heather recommends, “looking for fellow music types. Music fans, journalists, artists, labels, etc – these are the people you want to follow you.” She continues.
“Twitter can be a great way to not only keep fans informed about your news but it can also make them feel closer to the whole process when you tweet about things you’re working on as you’re doing them. The trick is not to go too far and overload people.”
