First up we have The Unsettlers, who came to our attention during their recent performance at Osheaga 2010. Though Osheaga featured such luminaries as The Arcade Fire, Metric, Weezer and other favourites of the Pitchfork crowd, The Unsettlers couldn’t be further away from the slick hipster rock of those acts. Occupying the Trees Stage while The Arcade Fire set up on the main stage, The Unsetters’ act was unjustly ignored at Osheaga. Well, we can’t turn back time, but we can turn up the volume on this awesome band. They deserve it.

According to the Unsettlers’ blurb on their MySpace, the 11-piece ensemble “specialize in funeral dirges for the living, dark polkas, menacing waltzes and horse-drawn lullabies, all filtered through the creaking floorboards of a whiskey soaked saloon.” Sounds good, right?

In practice, the band crosses genres at a whim, and their sound can’t be easily pegged — a fascination for early 20th century music is in evidence, mixing everything from Appalachian mountain folk to Weimar cabaret to the Depression-era dust bowl countryside. While it might sound gimmicky on paper, The Unsettlers bring genuine pathos and atmosphere to their lurching, Vaudeville-broke-down sound. The gruff vocals of B.W. Brandes, channeling Tom Waits, barks and howls while pretty female voices warble in the background (in shades of Decemberists). Clattering ragtime pianos, clarinets, trumpets, glockenspeils… all festive yet melancholy, like a square-dance at a funeral.

The Unsettlers are becoming known for their live shows, which feature sword-swallowers and other carnival-esque antics. It’s only a matter of time before these guys blow up big — better enjoy their small, local club concerts while you can!

Check out the Unsettlers’ Myspace, enjoy their twisted tunes, and be sure to scout out their debut album, available in certain forward-thinking record shops.

Share it!

When publishing social media, we must make sure that there are no errors in the text, that the text is not too shocking or irrelevant to your customers and that this piece of information is engaging. Posting about your crazy Vegas week-end or that you bought a new pen is not what your customers want to hear… Social media friends and followers wants micro-news, funny shares, tips, the inside story… think about what makes you say “hmm, this I SHOULD FORWARD”.

Step 1 to publishing social media -Don’t over clone!

As convenient as it is, to link up all your vehicles (facebook, Twitter, MySpace, youtube) this makes a very boring newsfeed for your database. Try not to connect more than 2 of these accounts which will have a duplicate status. (Myspace and Twitter we feel are most compatible as youtube tends to be more video-centric and Facebook allows you to post heavier content than Twitter.

Step 2 to publishing social media content – Track it!

Now that you have all your vehicles in mind and your news, you want to make sure if possible – you can track it. SocialTalk, Bit.ly and others social trackers permit you to track your every post and the success of it’s distribution. You don’t need to track each one, but it’s good to do a weekly track to see how the click-through is doing.

Let’s say you are trying to promote a video. You would paste the video link in your Facebook profile, page and group. Ideally, you would use a thumbnail choice from YouTube and post a little title before the video so people know what they are watching. We will use one of our client’s videos to demonstrate: the video in question is titled “Sexy Girl Undressing” clearly a catchy title  We wouldn’t link our official website because one is better of doing this inside the YouTube description of the video itself. This is more discreet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8uo7V6W3aU This is what the complete link will look like. As you can see it’s pretty long – so for Twitter you may want to shorten it with Bit.ly a shorten-and-track app to: http://bit.ly/bQeO8x which will take up less room. This is also a good way to get people to click on a surprise if you only want them to see the content, once clicked like “Click here to get a sneak peak at our…”

(the actual video embed, should look similar… with title and thumbnail or in a hyperlink for emails)

Sexy Girl Undressing <—hyperlink and embed right below

You would post the video link or the shortened link in your MySpace status and your MySpace bulletin too (assuming those are active profiles). If you have any social bookmarking accounts like DIGG or de.licious, you would post there too. Really you will post anywhere you can. In your actual Youtube account, simply showcasing it in your channel, updating your subscribers with a little bulletin and favorite-ting (and thumbs up) in your account will drive organic traffic within your community outward.  As for comments, only allow yourself 1 comment about your own video and it can’t be the first you can make as many replies as you want though by using @ just like in Twitter…

Step 4 to publishing social media content – A small reminder is not spamming

Then you will post to your members directly the next time you have a larger piece of news or a monthly newsletter. This post should be no more than a week away, more of a reminder post like “Hey, don’t forget we have our annual BBQ this Thursday and for those who haven’t see our latest video: “Sexy Girl Undressing...” here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8uo7V6W3aU

Step 5 to publishing social media content – The personal touch

This is key. Pick 1 very small number of friends like a dozen and email them directly in a small CC or BCC the link. Explain that you produced this video and how proud you are of it and that you thought they would find it interesting. You may think sending the email to you mom goes nowhere but what if she was in the mood to share it with a friend that day who shared it to her son, who has a crazy popular blog and will blog about it that day? You never know how far word of mouth can go so don’t be shy to share Sharing btw is not WALLING 100 0 people’s MySpace comments saying “Watch my video NOW” this is obviously not personal… the only spam you should be, if any, to your own news-feed… Picking out a few FB friends and putting on their wall “Hey Jenn, this is the vid I was telling you about is fine, if those friends don’t mind to be used a promo vehicle, because believe me, when you are in marketing everyone feels they are a vehicle to you.

Step 6  to publishing social media content - knowing when to post

Here’s a trick our buddy Marco shared with us. For Facebook, check to see when lots of people are on-line in your chat window (you can do this for MySpace too) this is a good indication of a popular on-line time. Do your posts then. It’s really not rocket science, just put yourself in your target market’s mind and try to think of how they want to be delivered content.

Step 7  to publishing social media content – when in doubt, do not SHOUT

this is out little motto at BandMark. If you are wondering weather re-posting is too soon or if your communication might be too aggressive, turn it down a notch. It is always better to quietly promote than scream.

Step 8  to publishing social media content -Sneak it in!

If you wish to make a third posting in 1 week and it is not a reminder post, your only choice is to sneak it into an engagement or existing thread. Adding inside a string of relevant comments, a forum post, blog reply can be the way to do that but do this sparingly and please don’t duplicate the content!

Step 9  to publishing social media content – YOUR company isn’t the only interesting thing out there!

There is brand awareness and there is brand overkill. Do not drown people in constant updates about your brand or band.  1/3 of your updates should be about non-work related stuff, current news, other people’s news, small talk. AGAIN, this doesn’t mean “Boy are we hung over from that VEGAS bender and woooo those strippers were fine” It means “Company name, had a blast at the Vegas conference, the mirror titled horse at the BELLAGIO hotel is pretty cool…”  If you don’t have a creative bone in your body but you are nevertheless in charge of managing social media brand awareness, check out what is trending on Twitter, viralling on YouTube, MSN news highlights, Associated Press… Sign-up to some cool blog feeds in your industry and let other news inspire you.

Step 9  to publishing social media content – Pay it forward, 100% selfless promo for someone else

That’s right, share other people’s news, promotions, causes for no reason other than helping someone else out or showing appreciation for their little micro topics. First of all this kind of kindness can only make you friends, who may in turn re-post but even if they don’t – consider it good virtual karma What are the kind of things you can post?

• Other people’s tweets in the form of a RT (Re-tweet) this helps you also on days where you are having a writer’s block…
• A good cause you like. If you believe tax payers should force their government to be part of a public audit, post-it
• Someone’s birthday like a good friend. That friend who sees you as a marketing shark sees a sweeter side today n’est-ce-pas?
• Some really nice art you saw on-line and feel the artist could use some eye shots
• An event you feel is worth everyone attending, even if it isn’t your event like “turn off your power for an hour day”

Forget all the rumors about Myspace being dead: until we find a real replacement, Myspace is still the go-to site for fans and bands to connect. Unfortunately we have all seen our share of ugly myspace pages…you know, the ones where people try to cram EVERYTHING into a single page – AND make it flash, ouch!

http://www.myspace.com/beautifulsqaurdon Not only was this Myspace showcased on a popular Zefrank post called “I know me, some ugly Myspace“ but it was pretty easy to locate in most social bookmarking sites as well! It is so unbelievably ugly that one can consider that this was the intent, but really – why is having a very ugly Myspace an important goal for you?!

BandMark recommends Myspace to our clients – it’s a powerful tool for sharing your music and your tour dates with potential fans. Just take a moment to look at your Myspace and ask yourself these TOUGH questions:

Is my Myspace hard to read?

Glitter text and flashing gifs make your text difficult to decipher. Too much stuff on the page can overwhelm your fans. If they can’t find your tour dates they won’t show up at your club show! Decide what you want to showcase and keep it simple. Make sure your font (style and color) is readable against your background image.

Is  my Myspace slow to load?

Animations and movies take longer to load – and some of those crazy backgrounds can take FOREVER! Your fans may have slower access than you do (some people still have dialup, right?). If a page takes too long to load, impatient fans will not wait. Swap out that crazy background for something simpler. If you have a lot of video content try showcasing different videos every month.

Is my Myspace cross-browser compatible?

You don’t need to get super technical to insure your site works for most of your fans. IE and Firefox are the most popular browsers, but Google Chrome and Safari are close behind. Ask your friends and family what browser they use, and get some volunteers to check your page. Try logging in from public libraries and internet cafes to see how your site works.

Is my Myspace ugly?

Ok, so, this is more of a judgement call, but seriously: after spending so much time on your site layout, it is probably tough for you to see it critically. Send your link to some friends whose style you like, and ask for their (honest) feedback. You don’t necessarily need to make all the changes they recommend, but if more than one person mentions a particular issue, you should really consider making a change.

Myspace is a great way to get the word out about your band, your shows, your latest EP and your videos. Answering these questions will help you keep your MESSAGE on top of the all the noise.

You have to place yourself in the mind or technical prowess of the YouTube search engine. Like any search engine, the YouTube search engine does not care how well produced your video is or how many friends of yours liked it. It’s only job is to populate search results with the most relevant content PERIOD. This is why you need to title your video after your song AND band name to allow fans who are searching for either, to find it.

Here is a video we are promoting and the artist is VENUS VIRUS, her video is Indecence. In the description, notice how there is a quick link to both where to buy the album and to her website.  If you do not have a link in the first line of description, your audience will likely not go to your YouTube channel to find it. In the event that your label or video company has produced the video, simply ask them if they can adjust this for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q50DVZs2YUg notice how her title contains her album and song with her quick links in description there too.

Promoting your band videos on YouTube Tip #2 – Tag tag tagging!

These are very important. Your ability to get high rankings in the search display, greatly depends on how well you tag your YouTube video. If at all possible, the tags, video title and video description should have some repeat words. In a band’s case, the name of the band and song should be in all 3. You are aloud to put quite a few tags in YouTube, so only laziness stops you from really pimping up the keyword section Below is an example of  one of our BandMark  Ad spots and how we have tagged the video.  If you want to see how well the tags work, type “social media for bands” in the YouTube search box and see who comes up 1st…It is possible we are not #1 at the time of this blog read but we are now (May 9th 2010 and have been since launch mid April)

http://www.youtube.com/user/foxyleemac#p/a/u/0/2qf11wBsH_A

Promoting your band videos on YouTube Tip #3 – Understanding how a video goes viral

A video goes viral in the same way anything gets popular FAST. A person’s sudden rise into the lime lite or at a tipping point, like a virus gone mad happens in pretty much the same way. One or many connections created a ripple or snowball effect which compounded the initial exposure. For this example, we will talk about music videos only. There are 2 things that really have to happen for your video to go viral (assuming you already took care of properly naming and tagging it etc.) and when we are talking about YouTube, if you get asked to be a revenue sharing partner – it’s because your video has gone viral, this is a good indicator. Generally YouTube will ask you this if you have at least 10,000 views and a steady daily organic growth. What makes this happen?

1. Lots of early activity – this means views, comments, ratings and thumbs or flags up. This is why many unknown bands will pay a social media marketing company (like us) to help them spike up their videos early because the higher ranked you get, the less chance there is of you dropping down the ranks later. It is much harder to fight for tags late in the race, so it is important to get as many views as you can early. What most people do is they let their vid viral on it’s own and then when they see the numbers slowing down they start a campaign. It is possible that your video goes viral early and you never need to do anything but watch the views rise substantially. However, this is rare unless you are already famous.
2. It has to be good enough for people to want to share it. There are millions of music videos out there which are well produced, funny, clever, filled with sexy people, great music etc… why is yours worth sharing? Even the best marketing company can only give you a push – the YouTube community and even YouTube content managers, (in this case YouTube music video managers) need to actually believe your video is worth showcasing. Short of having a friend at YouTube, getting a lot of views on a quality video is often enough to get their attention.

The band OWL CITY got famous making this video in his basement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4

First off, we went down to NYC for a TOPSPIN training. (Topspin for those who don’t know is the coolest Direct-2-fan platform in the universe! It is the most complete technology platform for bands who wish to create their own retail channel, effectively promote their music and connect directly with their fans.)  That went super well. The training was in DUMBO Brooklyn, a really cool part of town! It felt like we never left home cause our loft is on the industrial side of Old Montreal and the resemblance was uncanny. Lots of big old factory syle lofts, water and quaint little cafes lined the old – somewhat run down neighborhood.  Adam Bates, was our pilot for the day and flew us threw the many things that the TOPSPIN platform has to offer from management to metrics and of course METRIC! They took us out to lunch at rebar and I have a photo just so you can see how neat this place is. Really old school brick loft with a  lot of nice varnished wood and amazing sandwiches! We launched our TOPSPIN section and are eager to get started with our first lucky band here.

The rest of the week-end was spent with stuffy types at the infamous Bowery hotel, good old Canal street shopping and walks through the times square. When we got back, piles and piles of work to be done! Speaking of work – one campaign we are working on is for a really great cause.  It is the Butmob campaign from the Colo-rectal Cancer Association of Canada. Due to the somewhat embarassing nature of the screening process (Basically a tiny camera up your backside!) a lot of people don’t get screened which is a shame because this type of cancer is 90% totally curable when detected early.  In order to spread awareness for the screening, a funny campaign of buts all over the city was implemented (posters, the back of busses into bums etc) and this really funny social site:

http://www.getyourbuttseen.ca/ where one can pick a but for their face book!

Here is the FB page too: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103611856344452&ref=mf

While we were not working on our client’s campaigns and hitting the winter music fests we had a peak into some of the things that are really making Japan’s music industry a fruitful avenue for North American bands trying to get a slice of the Yen. In particular, their trendy mobile technology is starting to pick up elsewhere in the world and as the worldwide web brings foreign industries closer and closer together, we think 2010 will be the year that getting distribution deals, bookings and press from our Japanese friends will be easier than you can imagine…

How to get BIG IN JAPAN? I think we’ve cracked it here:

With websites like TOPMUSICJAPAN allowing one to quickly get a .jp music page and promo package, bands can try their luck at selling both music and merch to the Japanese music fan market place.

Japan is enormous, with over 127,704,000 people living there, and a huge entertainment industry, you can imagine how many music fans there are.  It seems like they have really mastered interactive advertising as well and if you think Facebook is the web’s biggest playground think again! In Japan – MIXI is their virtual hang-out and home to over 25 million users and if their steady growth continues we’ll have reached 31 million users by 2011.

Music magazines! This is a great way to get your band out there. In Japan, they are genre obsessed and instead of having a few magazine that cover mostly pop music, they have hundreds of magazines for many many genres of music and styles. The easiest way to find some reliable agencies is asking the new media buyer of a popular major like SONY JAPAN. If you are are fluent in Japanese, go ahead and call the magazines yourself!  Some genres do particularely well in Japan like :Metal, Visual Kei and electronica.  If you have a glam-rock style band SHOXX would be a good mag to advertise in.

Poster downloads and concert promo! if you are touring in Japan you will not be able to resist this service. It enables the mobile population to literally get free downloads and concert info off of a poster via bar codes, augmented reality symbols and what is known as air tagging! (visuals that are linked to your GPS allowing users to seek wireless hot spots, cool new restos, clothing specials and of course concerts!

Before creating your plan of action, study the country and the culture, read some blogs, Google is your friend! Below are some of my favorite Japanese videos that will hopefully help you get a feel for this bustling stylish & entertaining Metropolis and how bands can make it BIG IN JAPAN!

“Japan” from Felix Urbauer on Vimeo.