Social Media | BandMark - Social Media - Online Marketing

BandMark’s New Media Toolkit Part 1!

Nowadays, artists and digital marketers in the music industry have a seemingly infinite supply of new media solutions at their disposal for managing direct-to-fan activities. While many of the companies pioneering these new technologies and techniques often fade away as fast as they have appeared, there are without a doubt a few innovators which have emerged as forerunners in direct-to-fan management solutions.

As of recent, both technological advances and the internet have brought about the ability, and the necessity, for marketers to track true performance metrics in real-time. Marketers are now able to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing initiatives based on data capture, sentiment, engagement and, most importantly, conversions. Access to this data helps marketers better define where to concentrate efforts, which is bringing a new precision to marketing in the digital music industry. Targeting is crucial, especially in the music industry, because artist marketing is all about being in touch with your fans.

With the right fan management platform you have all the tools you need to grow your fan-base, build relationships, and measure the impact of everything you do along the way. However, with such a wide range of companies providing digital marketing toolkits, how do you know which is the best technology to manage your fans online? BandMark picked 10 companies with momentum in the digital marketing toolkit space that you need to know about: Topspin, Bandcamp, Nimbit, Rockdex, Mozes, NextBigSound, Rootmusic, FanBridge, Buzzdeck, and Artistdata. Read on for a review of the first 5 companies, and then check back next week for part-two of this review.

www.topspinmedia.com

Topspin is a popular direct-to-fan marketing and retail software platform which gives musicians, as well as authors and filmmakers the ability to promote their art and connect with fans.

What can it do? Topspin allows users to effectively spread their content with the use of their multi-media players which stream high-quality audio and video that can be played and shared on websites, blogs, facebook feeds and mobile phones. In terms of direct-to-fan contact, Topspin provides users with the ability to reach their fans via email, FB & Twitter in exchange for free downloads. When sending emails, Topspin offers users the ability to target fans based on: geography, purchase history, social influence, or even how they found you originally. Topspin even allows artists to bundle their digital media with their physical merchandise, tickets and Fan Club/VIP access for the ultimate fan experience. Like most software platforms of this type, Topspin provides real-time fan data which allows for more targeted and cost-effective marketing initiatives.

Why use it? With integrated ecommerce and reporting functions, fan management, asset management, and ticketing tools in one software package, this platform is the whole shebang! Give it a try by creating a free account using the basic services for as little as 9.99$ a month. With musicians from Les Blanks to Arcade Fire and legendary Paul McCartney, all having run successful campaigns with Topspin, what do you have to lose in giving it a try?

www.bandcamp.com

Bandcamp is a service which provides musicians with a place to host, stream and then sell their music through personalized home pages. Although it sounds a lot like MySpace, what differentiates Bandcamp from sites like Myspace is its convenience and the ability to monetize efforts.

What can it do? Bandcamp offers a plug-and-play simplicity which jives with artists who are not web-savvy and up-starts who are just looking to sell or share their work. For the most part, Bandcamp takes care of the ‘nitty-gritty’ technical details, so that users can focus on producing and promoting their craft. Nevertheless, for those who wish to roll up their sleeves and delve into the world of digits, Bandcamp features an incredible array of statistical tools to help users learn more about their audience.

Why use it? In addition to convenience, the benefit of using Bandcamp is the freedom it gives artists in how they share their work. Unlike other platforms, Bandcamp’s user-defined pricing scheme empowers musicians to price and sell their work at their own discretion, in whichever digital format they prefer. Artists then pay a portion of their profits to the site. The one catch is to find a price that’s low enough to create conversions, yet high enough to cover the site’s commissions. Bottom-line: If you’re not an economist with a background in price optimization, you may want to avoid this hurdle altogether by releasing work for free. Either way, with Bandcamp, the choice is totally yours!

www.nimbit.com

Nimbit is another direct-to-fan platform created for fan-management activities in the music industry. Nimbit prides itself on providing an easy solution for self-managed artists, managers, and emerging labels to: grow and engage their fanbase; to sell their music online; and to sell tickets, VIP Bundles and all their merch online.

What can it do? Nimbit helps artists to connect with their fans through email marketing, twitter and facebook. With Nimbit’s platform, musicians can sell their digital music on nimbitmusic.com, facebook, in addition to their dedicated site. In fact with Nimbit, artists can sell just about anything, direct from everywhere, while Nimbit fulfills on the seller’s behalf. Nimbit also allows artists to offer free tracks for email sign-ups, create and share download cards, and to create customized promotions. In addition to allowing users to create their own fully customized store-front online, Nimbit offers a variety of reporting features which help artists to manage and optimize their business activities. Marketing analytics, real-time sales reports, tracking fan history, catalogue management and multi-artist dashboards are among some of the reporting features offered by Nimbit.

Why use it? Would you ask your plumber for medical advice? Probably not; that’s why Nimbit was made by musicians, for musicians. “We’re not just a bunch of tech heads trying to make a buck off musicians. We’re people with experience from all sides of the music business. We’ve seen the problems of the old-style music industry first hand and we’re here to change it.” Bonus: Nimbit runs an affiliate program for companies targeting similar audiences. Affiliate partners can place either a unique button or banner on their website, and earn commissions ranging from $10 – $20 per signup!

www.rockdex.com

Although Rockdex was originally created to be an extension of the Music Arsenal band management application, RockDex eventually grew into something much bigger: a full-fledged company. With the launch of its 1^st standalone version in 2009, Rockdex caught the attention of music professionals with its simple and visually intriguing social media metrics and insights.

What can it do? RockDex is a unique, B2B platform that tracks thousands of websites, collecting data for musicians from blogs, fan connections, pageviews, tweets, song plays and more. Rockdex then uses this data to provide artists with a high-level view of their online buzz, including a comprehensive picture of growth and scale. Using this revolutionary software, artists can explore actual conversations in order to understand what motivates fan behaviour and drives exposure. Rockdex can even spot viral trends and help artists track the progress of such trends over time through constantly updated charts, graphs and maps.

Why use it? No matter where you stand in the music industry, Rockdex has something for you. Record labels, Managers, Artists, Publicists, A&R Reps, and Booking Agents are all making use of Rockdex to stay ahead of the curve. With a free 15-day trial on all accounts, it’s worth checking into this platform to find out what all the buzz is about…literally!

www.mozes.com

Mozes Connect is a web-based platform that allows users to create and manage customized, targeted mobile marketing campaigns. As mobile marketing becomes increasingly important in the case of live events, Mozes’ mobile platform is an ideal new media technology for bands and other performing artists wishing to connect [with fans] at the point of inspiration.

What can it do? Mozes connect is a simple platform which allows companies to create mobile experiences in order to engage audiences at live events. With Mozes, users can run a variety of mobile campaigns including: contests, voting, trivia, fan generated content, or simply send out branded media. Mozes also offers users a variety of cool web widgets, and other proprietary tools, to boost campaign results. Most importantly, users can check the status of their campaigns in terms of participation, locations, poll results and much more, and then use this information to manage their mobile activities in real-time. The best part? Marketers have the option to easily change any campaign into a mobile and/or email list building engine so that marketers can keep the customer relationship going even after the event ends.

Why use it? Mozes Connect is the only platform solution focused exclusively on connecting companies with their audience via mobile phone – in particular at live performance venues, something which is extremely useful for bands and musicians.

The Future of the Vinyl Music Culture

When I think of vinyl records, I am instantly reminded of my youth and of listening to The Beatles on my dad’s wood-paneled stereo receiver. Now, almost two decades later, audio technology and the digital revolution have completely transformed the music industry. From cds to mp3s and streaming music services, the age of analog music is progressively being replaced by a digital era. In fact, with even the Beatles finally making their digital debut on iTunes this past May, it would seem that vinyls, along with 8 tracks and tapes, are a thing-of-the-past. Nevertheless, talk to any indie music collector or audiophile and you might be surprised to learn that these music fans believe vinyl is set to re-enter mainstream music…and they may not be wrong. In fact, as counterintuitive as it would seem in this age of ipods and digital downloads, vinyl sales are actually on the rise. According to a recent report by Nielsen News, since the beginning of 2011 vinyl sales have actually risen by 37% as compared to the same period in 2010[1]. With pressing plants increasing production of vinyl records, I can’t help but wonder where the demand for these records is coming from. With big labels and major music organizations like RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) resistant to the idea of a resurgence of vinyl, can anyone really agree on what the future holds in store for vinyl and the vinyl music culture? An investigation of the music industry reveals a gamut of opinions to this and the never-ending debate on the supposed superiority of vinyl to digital music.

Without a doubt, any vinyl purist will tell you that vinyls will be around years to come because the audio quality of a record trumps that of a CD or any other digital medium. In case you’re wondering, there are two reasons for vinyl’s supposed sonic superiority. Firstly, mastering houses generally compress the audio on CDs in order to make the sound as loud as possible; however unlike with CDs, the audio on vinyls cannot be compressed to those extremes. So despite the fact that CDs can have a wider dynamic range, LPs will generally have a more subtle sound to them. The second reason for vinyl’s superiority is that regardless of the sampling rate, digital recordings can never capture the complete sound wave present in an analog groove. For both of these two reasons, vinyl offer can offer a richer, warmer and more nuanced sound than CDS, and it’s often argued that cds and other digital mediums will never be able to reach the sound quality of vinyl. Nonetheless, modern-day music listeners and even most djs are predominantly choosing digital music over vinyl. Why is that? Most notably, the major appeal behind digital music is accessibility and portability. With the massive proliferation of ipods and other digital music player devices it appears that despite the fact that a record can sound better than digital mediums likes cds and mp3s, portability is so important to consumers today that we are ready to forfeit better sound quality for the benefit of being able to bring our music with us everywhere.

Nevertheless, we’re still seeing vinyl sales increase and it seems likely that those sales are driven by the fact that records provide an element of tangibility that digital music can never offer. Many people in the music industry that will tell you that for many, including the artists, “vinyl is the true version of the release…the size and presence of the artwork, the division into sides, the better sound quality, [and] above all the involvement and work the listener has to put in, all make it the format of choice for people who really care about music.”[2] Although big labels are resistant to the idea of a vinyl comeback, many vinyl record companies are staying competitive by recognizing the unique needs of music fans living in the 21st century. In catering to consumers’ desires for easy accessibility and portability of their music, many record labels are now including download codes in their record packaging which music fans can use to download MP3 versions of the songs. With many of the major record labels now including these download codes, is it possible that vinyl will not only survive in this digital age, but actually rival other digital formats such as cds and streaming music sites? Only time will tell. Speaking for myself however, vinyl records just don’t fit into my lifestyle. While I do miss the old days of flipping through cd inlets filled with album lyrics and artwork, as an avid music listener whose ipod is never more than a purse pocket or a jacket zipper away from me, digital music is the only way for me to experience music in the way which really moves me: on-the-go music pumping out the perpetual soundtrack to my life.

[1] http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/cue-the-music-driven-by-digital-music-sales-up-in-2011/

[2] http://bolesblues.com/2010/10/25/striking-out-on-the-dead-weather-triple-decker/

Which Newsletter Provider for Bands?

In today’s plugged-in world, where the ubiquity of the social media network reigns supreme, keeping in touch with your fans is paramount to success in the music industry. When I buy a new CD, I expect more from the band than the possibility of a secret bonus track; I expect the whole (online) user experience: a website, a music blog, a Facebook band page with Facebook band tabs to visit; a Twitter account to follow, and a band newsletter to subscribe to. So what does this mean for music artists trying to survive in this cut-throat industry? Simple, your fans want to hear from you – not just your music; fans want content, and one of the best ways to provide this content is by newsletter.

With a veritable cornucopia of email service providers to choose from, it’s no easy task to find the right provider, especially if you’re in the business of beat testing and not A/B testing. Nevertheless, despite how daunting the selection process might seem, and how tempting it may be to start emailing newsletters yourself, it’s highly recommended that you choose a web-based provider for distribution. Before you start your search however, it’s important to define what you’re looking for in an ESP. Once you’ve established all of your needs, we recommend that you base your choice on these critical factors:

Ease of Navigation and Use;
Deliverability & Reliability of Service;
Flexibility
Tracking

Here’s a review of four leading newsletter technology providers for bands…

MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com)

MailChimp is one of the newer email service providers in the context of this review. However from our research, Mail Chimp provides one of the best entry-level opportunities for small businesses (including up-and-coming music artists) as they offer: a good balance of pricing with a free plan for a mailing list of up to 2,000 subscribers; a good level of reliability; and a decent set of reporting metrics.

From a user standpoint, the interface is as simple and fun as its mascot. Most notably, contact list management is straightforward, and creating emails is a jiff with a wide selection of free HTML templates and their Design Genius editor to create your own designs. Inherent in the simplicity of its design however, is that it’s not quite as loaded with features as some of the competing email providers. For one, Mail Chimp does not allow users to compare message reports. Nonetheless, MailChimp has an add-on that lets you leverage certain Google Analytics data giving you insight on certain ROI data that wouldn’t be available otherwise. Finally, in addition to being fully integrated with PayPal and Google, Mail Chimp is also fully integrated with Twitter and Facebook to help you spread the word about your newsletter.

Super Band-bonus: With MailChimp you can create campaigns in several different email platforms (without even having to log in!). You can even use their i-phone app to manage your account making it perfect for use when you’re on tour and you can’t get to a computer! Just another reason why MailChimp is BandMark’s preferred ESP.

ExactTarget (www.exacttarget.com)

Exact Target is a global messaging platform which allows businesses and artists, to connect with their customers and fans via email marketing, social media marketing, mobile marketing, landing pages and dynamic sites. In our opinion, this platform is better-suited for medium to large e-businesses delivering complex interactive marketing campaign, rather than bands and music artists. In terms of user features, the Exact Target Design toolkit includes everything you need to create sophisticated HTML emails, and then some.

In terms of reliability, Exact Target claims to have an average system up-time of 99.99%; unfortunately, an audit of customer reviews of ExactTarget’s software paints a slightly less appealing image. Users claim that the software Exact Target is running is outdated, and there are many reports of bugs. Other users still complain about ET’s incomplete and poorly written documentation, in fact I couldn’t even find a price list for their services anywhere on their site!

Biggest Band-bummer: Although Exact Target’s complex software and reporting allows you to create those highly targeted, personalized communications required to cut through media clutter, engaging with your fans shouldn’t be this complicated, or time-consuming.

Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com)

Having been in business since 1996, Constant Contact is one of the oldest email marketing services around. In terms of ease of use, Constant Contact has a well-designed interface that is relatively easy to learn. For novices, Constant Contact is reputed as having excellent customer service and support, including online support communities and access to your own dedicated support agent. In terms of features, Constant Contact offers a wide range of standard email creation and sending features, as well as some neat optional features like the ability to archive emails and host them on a Constant Contact homepage.

Constant Contact email templates are simple to use and format-tested in all major email programs. Unfortunately, compared to other providers, the flexibility of their template designs is limited, and only available when using their in-house templates. Nevertheless, Constant Contact has a built a good name among the sea of providers, and with a 60-day free-trial you can see for yourself. The only downside is that this email service provider is on the more expensive side of email marketing service providers. On the other hand, in terms of deliverability and reliability, you get what you pay for with Constant Contact, which boasts a 97% inbox delivery rate.

Biggest Band-bummer: While Constant Contact offers a relatively standard tracking options, it does not allow for social media integration, conversion tracking, or integration with Google Analytics. So if you’re planning on selling your band merch through your newsletter, this newsletter technology is not for you.

Courrielleur (www.courrielleur.com)

Courrielleur is a French-Canadian ESP based in BandMark’s hometown of Montreal. In terms of ease of use, Courrielleur has the typical set of mailing list management and a fair share of automated features which take care of list management for you. Courrielleur also offers a decent selection of free newsletter templates that are format-tested in all major email programs. In terms of tracking and reporting, Courrielleur offers a pretty straight-forward dashboard and visuals to help you understand your campaign. Courrielleur is well-suited for use in all industries as evidenced by its diverse group of clients from agencies, companies and government bodies including: EDC, Dom Rebel, Lotto-Quebec, NVI and Ogilvy.

Super Band-bonus: In terms of the general administration of your account, one of the bonuses of Courrielleur is that it allows the possibility of multiple users per account, unlike Constant Contact. Courrielleur also offers the ability to make secure online payments. Both of these features are perfect for on-the-go musicians who want to spend more time making music.

Biggest Band-bummer: Although Courrielleur offers a free-trial, there’s a 99$ activation fee upon sign-up. Also, an all-French website means you better brush up on your 7^th grade French classes tout-de-suite!

Internet Streaming Radio Dogfight!

This week’s mission: A beginner’s rundown of four major Internet music streaming services: LAST.FM, GROOVESHARK, SLACKER and PANDORA.

Without further ado…

1. LAST.FM

Going in, I was already a big fan of last.fm, and that’s because I scrobble. No, it’s not as filthy as it sounds. To scrobble means that you let the last.fm service track the music you play on your computer or portable device, linking you to others who do the same, with comparisons of your tastes and suggested artists to check out. It’s beautiful in its simplicity.

There are even (unofficial) ways to scrobble data to last.fm from other services like Slacker and Pandora, should you care to. Well-played, last.fm. Well-played.

While revealing of your true self in the same way a Facebook drunk picture can be (Do I really listen to Corey Hart that much? you’ll ask yourself), it’s the scrobbles that give last.fm its power. No other site can match last.fm’s ability to unite fans of the most obscure possible acts from all over the globe. It’s a treasure trove of the underground, the underrated, the undiscovered and the antiquated.

I’ve been a last.fm user for almost three years, in which time I’ve scrobbled about 50,000 tracks from about 2,000 different artists, many discovered through the site itself. But I never touched their subscription radio feature even once, until so recently. I suppose the prospect of making a decision based on thirty entire tracks just wasn’t worth the bother. Thirty tracks on last.fm represents a couple hours of listening, at best. Costco booths give you bigger free samples than that!

But for purposes of this article, I listened. And I was exposed to roughly thirty awesome artists I’d never heard of before. Impressive, but not surprising considering what I know of last.fm Unlike the ‘listen to related artists’ features of other sites — dictated from the top down, by genre marketeers — last.fm’s choices of related artists are generated by the scrobbles of other users. And other users aren’t DJs. They don’t care about flow. They can be eccentric and eclectic. And they can surprise you in the best way.

And… now I’m out of tracks. Luckily, last.fm’s subscription service is very cheap (as advertised, it’s only $3.00 a month). Of all the pay services listed here, last.fm’s is the one I’m most likely to embrace. Call it brand loyalty, but the price is right, the interface is a breeze, and the musical selection is so far off the scale that they’ll have to start measuring in parsecs.

A related note: Where clunky old Myspace claims to be the arbiter of undiscovered basement bands and quirky DIY auteurs, last.fm actually provides, and then some. Take note, unsigned musicians — if you’re not on Last.fm, you’re nowhere. Perhaps literally. Get your tracks up there and join the party.

BEST FEATURE: Every band you can think of. And more. Much more.
WORST FEATURE: If you don’t at least have an open mind about listening to dudes playing theremins in their basements, you may as well not bother.
IDEAL FOR: People so indie that their favourite bands only play clubs in New Crobuzon.

2. GROOVESHARK

I’m new to Grooveshark and have yet to plumb its depths, but let me tell you — this thing packs a punch. Once you get past an initially off-putting interface — it’s iTunes, but yellow — you’ll find yourself in a deep delicious ocean of sound.

One thing I like about Grooveshark? Make that a few things: No signups or registrations to deal with. No limited number of track skips. No mid-song buffering. Freedom of interaction is a big positive: You can skip tracks forward and back, scan back and forth in a song if you want to hear a certain refrain again (just as you could on your own mp3 player) and treat the place like a big musical sandbox.

I’m not sure what Grooveshark’s subscription-based VIP service entails. How can you get better than Grooveshark’s free service? At this rate, I’m figuring it involves swimming in a pool of Cristal and then a trip to the mile-high club aboard a private space shuttle made of diamonds.

To save favourites, save tracklists and access the custom radio stations, you’ll have to register. This is entirely optional, and you can get to the music without it. Playlist creation is a little finicky at first — it’s easy to delete or scramble a listing by accident — but it’s also very powerful, with the ability, much like iTunes, to select multiple tracks in the conventional way, with a shift-click. I didn’t expect such a high level of interaction and navigability from a Flash interface, and I must say I’m impressed.

Grooveshark is a new discovery for me, but I anticipate going back to it very soon. Actually, I’m already there. And how sweet it is.

BEST FEATURE: Depth, selection, interactivity, speed, etc.
WORST FEATURE: Design cribs from iTunes, and iTunes isn’t that great to begin with.
IDEAL FOR: People with functioning ears.

3. SLACKER RADIO

Oookay. Slacker. Slacker doesn’t let you navigate inside of a song. It gives you a limited number of song skips. It requires registration that expires after thirty days, and there are loud and obnoxious pre-recorded DJs in between songs. It requires you to disable any script-blocking software just so their interface will work and the songs will load.

Yeah.

Okay, for the two of you still reading this section… I hope you like Top 40. Because that’s what you’re gonna get.

Seriously. Unlike the other services mentioned in this article, Slacker is heavily biased towards the mainstream. If you let Slacker do the work for you in constructing a playlist, it’ll load you up with all kinds of major-label crap that you’ve heard hundreds of times before on the radio, and probably didn’t enjoy much then, either. Their ‘related artists’ system is a bit of a joke in this regard. In Slacker’s nightmarish, dystopian world, all roads lead to Godsmack. Even roads that started at ambient electronic. Internet research tells me that Slacker is owned and programmed by former satellite radio operators. In terms of musical selection, this may be its chief problem. They should rename themselves ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Clear Channel’.

There is an upside. Potentially a fantastic upside. If you have the time and patience to program your own playlists (a bit of a daunting affair, full of micromanagement) you may end up building a real work of art — a playlist crafted by both human and algorithmic hands to feed you new and awesome music every track. Your range of options in this regard is actually quite powerful and easy to administrate, with the ability to choose or ban songs, artists or genres at will.

But Slacker — paradoxically, considering its name — assumes you have the patience and willpower to do this. Not everyone will. Slacker advertises having over 2 million songs at their disposal, but if they’re just going to heap steaming piles of Nickelback upon you anyway, what’s the point?

Slacker’s subscription service apparently features ABC News bites and unlimited song skip ability. Well, sound the vuvuzelas, it’s party time. Or not. In the end, Slacker is for less discerning, more mainstream listeners, and it serves them very well. But I’m not one of them. And those pre-recorded DJs can suck a donkey.

BEST FEATURE: It’s just like the radio.
WORST FEATURE: It’s just like the radio.
IDEAL FOR: People whose radios have just broken and it’s too late at night to hit up Wal-Mart in their H2s while chugging Smirnoff Ice.

4. PANDORA

Most Internet music goons will tell you that Pandora is the greatest overall choice for a personalized ‘Net radio stream with depth and breadth. I hear raves from friends, from blogs, from a lot of corners. Yet I’m unable to decide for myself, because of the blurb that glares at me with cold legal contempt every time I visit the site:

“We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative. “

BEST FEATURE: They are deeply, deeply sorry. And sad.
WORST FEATURE: Due to licensing constraints, they can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S.
IDEAL FOR: Presumably, people inside of the U.S. But I can’t be sure.

Well, that’s a fine to-hell-with-you. But, ‘no alternatives’? I don’t think so. For instance, I think I hear Grooveshark singing to me in soft, ethereal tones. Time to go listen closer.

10 steps to publishing social media

10 steps to publishing social media

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”

Social media & Japan’s music industry

Hey there! Sorry about the delay in Cool wave vids… our January was a lot to handle! A lot of new business and some interesting old business too. BandMark really feels good about 2010 and is in the process of signing some interesting partnership agreements and testing out some new social media services.

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.

Music Industry predictions for 2010!

O.k been reading up a ton on the music industry predictions for 2010 and have come up with a few, if I dare take a crack at this and by all means feel free to share your predictions or POV in the comments Thanks to the resources that have helped some of my research: Wired.com, Mashable.com, Headliner.fm, Alexa.com, Forrester.com

10 BandMark Music Industry predictions for 2010:

``I see... me and David Bowie having sushi! but more importantly...``

1. Venture capitalists and big named brands will further finance musicians

As record labels merge and swallow up partners, (Warner+EMI? Like when Polygram merged with Universal in the 80`s) marketing budgets will be slashed once again so the once 100k budget which got cut int0 50k last year, will likely be cut again to 25k. This wont be as tragic as it seems because big named brands and the film industry will gladly spot these artists with some nice budgets for appearances and brand vanity and smaller artists will opt for their own investors. This will force bands to be doing a lot of hands on marketing to stand out in what has become a huge sea of new music and very tough competition.

2. Fan clubs and street teams will come together as direct-to-fan platforms evolve

As a music fan, you can sign up to newsletters, fan-clubs, VIP offers, the record label store, Street teams, mobile alerts and the list goes on. Well with more and more artists selling directly to their fans, it is inevitable that a solution emerges that handles everything. Fan logs into the ultimate Direct-to-Fan club and specifies purchasing habits, street team activities, news alert delivery options etc… and everything after than is one cleverly marketed click away where fans interacts with band offerings, demand new versions and get rewarded with prime goodies like shout outs on stage for sharing content. I see the monthly and yearly subscription fee model popularize itself in these clubs as well as in on-line music stores.

3. Artists will make more music on demand

With more and more bonds being built via web 2.0 technologies, the artist and fan relationship will continue to grow and I predict that fans will start to create their own mini EPs by directing the artist to get re-mixed by producers they like, release acoustic and live versions and even integrate raw studio cuts and include tracks from talented fans as well. A sort of Choose-Your-Own-Audio venture with all the emerging remix and interactive technologies at the forefront. I`d like to see these mini EPs come in a digital bundle, return of the 45 vinyl and have basically 3 songs: fan made re-mix, fan demanded acoustic version and raw studio cut.

4. Music will be seen less on a CD rack and more in the clouds…

CD sales will continue their steady decline and the music population will turn into digital and vinyl heads for the most part. Watch as vinyl reach out to the hardcore fans who want the immediacy of digital AND the physical fix. Subscription based streaming music stores like Grooveshark and Spotify will become a serious business model for labels to consider. Grooveshark`s traffic has a really healthy up-and-to-the-right metric line and really if you think about it – it`s the perfect compromise for the majority of the digital music community. Faster than utorrent, cheaper than Itunes and trendier than Twilight, these subscription based stream stores are clearly making their mark in the music market place.

5. An artist`s database will turn into a fairly measurable currency with social metrics

The more time we spend on-line, the more valuable a musician`s database will become (users are expected to be spending EVEN more time in 2010). All artists will experience an increase of virtual fans simply by putting themselves out there but also the clever musician, management and label will be harvesting and analyzing fan data with the new social metrics coming out. The simple: enter email, tweet, share this for a track models will only amplify this virtual currency.

6. Interactive touch screens will start showing up at concerts

I don’t mean the kind you see at music festivals with SMS streams and the next band info with sponsors and ads. I mean a truly interactive experience where one can sign up to fan clubs, shop, join a contest request shout outs (I know I’m obsessed with shout outs and honestly think it’s the best way to reward and keep a fan loyal). In my perfect vision of the future, one that my inner geek truly adores, the interactive touch screens are so paper thin and huge and now after having seen AVATAR they are probably 3D as well!

7. MySpace will offer musicians a lot more options and will not go away

I was honestly laughing when respectable journalists were writing about “The Death of MySpace” ”Facebook will take over MySpace”. Look, no matter how much you have a hate on for Tom and no matter how fk* irritating that damn CSS is to code around – MySpace is still the #1 place online that music fans go to check out an artist’s music. If you don’t care about all that and you are just looking at the numbers, well their actual traffic has been pretty stable for the past 3 months (Oct-o9 to Dec-09). So although things look promising, we`ll have to check the numbers again in the next 3 months…

“Indie musicians now have a new way to make money online by adding their songs directly to MySpace Music in exchange for sharing in the ad revenue with the service.” Original post by Elliot Van Buskirk @ Wired.com click MORE for further information.

8. Facebook will release a highly customizable new version

I have to say that I am not impressed with the rate in which Face book releases new versions or fixes bugs… the only reason why I use Facebook (and I likely speak for most) is that everyone is on it and I really have little choice. At least MySpace has an excuse for it’s bugginess - it was built in the dinosaur era with some lame programming language. I am hoping that with a huge fan page community, Facebook steps up to the plate and actually pimps up the code a bit so that one can customize way more and turn their fan page into highly interactive music fan playgrounds of stuff to do, purchase and without error messages with apps not working. Recently, either the ilike app had a bug in it or the steps to add it to your fan page were totally convoluted cause almost every music client of mine was calling me about it! So Crackbook, I’m unliking you a bit until you impress me with a new version…

9. More street stars like G-Funk RED will be discovered

I think after over a decade of really wimpy commercial rap, hip hop and urban beats it’s time to get back to the simple stories and sounds of the untrained street songs BEFORE the musician has someone else writing their rhymes and picking their outfits. Who says teenagers need cheesy synthesized effects and big studio sound to make them happy? O.K well they sort of do BUT unlike our grandparents, kids are growing up on decades of classical, blues, rock, electronic and are totally into experiencing new stuff – although there will always be at the perfect age for pop. I was lucky, I had an older brother making sure between Madonna and Wham I had Led Belly, Chet Baker, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bob Marley, Iggy Pop… well tell u what, these kids have a realllly big brother called the internet allowing them to discover more music than ever before subjecting people like G-funk RED and others to get international exposure from sites like YouTube.

10. America will have a full year of discovering more oddities like Susan Boyle

It really doesn’t take a genius to figure out that after Susan Boyle, America’s Got Talent is going to experience both an increase in unusual auditions from older and oddball performers but will also be prioritizing them especially after seeing Susan`s popularity skyrocket and set new standards for discovery.

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