How Are You Improving Your Music Career?

Posted on 30 July 2010 by gregrollett

If you are ecstatic its Friday, then you need to grind harder so that Friday is just another day. Just saying.

Every week for the past 2-3 years we have been posting 2-3 Mike Tyson Knockout posts a week that detail some way that you can improve your music business. On Twitter we share links, mention artists promoting great campaigns, videos, marketing and more. Through our email newsletters we get to talk to you, one-on-one with critical music business issues.

But what do you do with that information?

In February we launched the New Music Economy. We have sold hundreds of copies of this step-by-step course. And while I have gotten some of the coolest feedback, testimonials and seen some great sites, videos and landing pages – I know there are a handful more that never even watched all the videos.

In June we put out BandWPThemes. This was as exciting as Ari Gold being back on tv this summer, because within hours of launching it we already had sites online using our WordPress theme. But out of the 100+ sold, there are only 30-40 sites up.

This year, Gen-Y Rock Stars has generated more income than the last 3 entire years combined (but its not all MTV Cribs folks). All from the Internet and all from doing the exact same things I teach and have learned from  (read people, go meet people and attend every conference you can get your car to). We practice the hell out of what we preach. Give value, collect emails, be cool and teach good stuff, find great affiliate products, create your own products and get even more people excited. Rinse, repeat, lather.

So what needs to happen to STOP some of you from reading blogs, clicking on Twitter links and playing the same damn shows to the same group of friends every week?

Account-a-friggin-bility!

What if you had to answer to someone every week for your progress? Someone that wasn’t checking up on you for a grade, report card or some certification, but to ensure that you were growing your music business?

I was listening to an MP3 this morning while I was getting my jog on from Preston Ely. It was from his Red Pill course – his views on Lifestyle Optimization. While sweating my ass off in the Florida heat at 7:30am, one of the things that got me to stop thinking about how damn hot it was, was the accountability issues that we all have. He talked about adding a pain point to your goals.

If you wanted to lose weight, and didn’t tell anyone, you can skip out and eat some fries and a shake and you would only be cheating yourself. But if you had someone to report to every week, it would be more painful to admit you fucked up to them, than it would be to just skip the fries and grab a salad.

Or as a musician, say you were working with a producer that you were paying $100/hr, with an assigned block of time. If you missed that session due to being late, sleeping in, hanging with your boys, drinkin some beers or whatever lame excuse nearly every musician can come up with in a heartbeat – you are throwing money away – right down the drain. That is a pain point with accountability.

The NME Blueprint

Next week we are gearing up to release another product (relax, no pitch today). It’s seriously cool and will change everything about your current productivity in today’s messed up music business. During the week we will be releasing some killer content to everyone. That’s how these launches work.

I know not everyone will jump on board with the new training (in fact 95% of you won’t because it is limited to 25 kick ass musicians). So in order to make people take some serious action, whether they jump on board or not, we whipped up some Kool Aid that will make everyone’s heart skip a beat. Next week we’ll be dropping science on:

  • The New Music Economy Blueptint – an exact blueprint to start making money with your music and living that lifestyle you keep dreaming about in the shower
  • Case studies on how musicians have used the New Music Economy to build more fans and increase their income as a full time musician
  • How to shoot a squeeze page video, from the script to the camera to the reason why they work so well
  • A free squeeze page template with step-by-step instructions to install and customize
  • A video series with superstar Nick Nanton. This guy is a Grammy voter, award winning songwriter and television composer, author of at least 3 best sellers and is the number one celebrity branding lawyer on the planet. The videos we shot together are sick, seriously sick.
  • An opportunity to join the NME Blueprint.

In the NME Blueprint, you will have that accountability. And your business (and your life) will change. Anyway, it’s been a super exciting first 6-7 months of the year. I’ve met some great musicians, heard some sweet, sweet music and had a friggin blast in doing so. Looking forward to seeing you all on Monday.

Oh, btw – we started a Facebook Page. Yea, lame plug. What we decided to do is, instead of just feeding content over there, we are going to produce Facebook exclusive videos, links and stories. The first is a look at a new feature from the email platform FanBridge. Plus its a place where you can interact with us and other musicians who are using the concepts we talk about here and teach in the New Music Economy.

So, go holler at us over there or talk trash in the comments below. What are you doing, right now that is helping your music career? We’ll see you Monday. Who’s down for a quick surf?

-Greg

Top image by greinarr

How Roaming Royalty Outsourced Their WordPress Design

Posted on 28 July 2010 by gregrollett

Today I have another stellar guest post by Todd Dunnigam from Roaming Royalty. Todd is a BandWPThemes member and today he sent me an email stating that he did some outsourcing to tweak the theme. Friggin awesome I thought. So he sent over this step-by-step process for using oDesk to outsource some of your web and WordPress work.

How would you like an assistant, or even a team of assistants that do amazing work for you at a low price and only when you need it?

Do what all the Fortune 500 companies have been doing for years, outsource it. There are web designers, graphics people, tech nerds and every other kind of skilled person just waiting to work for you. Sounds great, and (in theory) it’s as easy as going to a website and sending out an e-mail with your job listing, you can go back to making music while some of this other tedious stuff gets done by someone else.

OK how easy is it really?

That’s what I set out to discover when I wanted to change up my WordPress site (built on BandWPThemes). I know a little html, a little css, I think the term is, I know enough to be dangerous, and the changes I wanted to make were beyond me. I’d read about outsourcing and fortunately I had a friend who was doing it so he was able to help me through the process. He recommended odesk.com ’cause he had tried some others and liked them best, and through odesk.com he had assembled a team of people from all over the world that he was really happy with.

step 1: sign up and post your job

Sign up is pretty easy, you have to fill out the usual information and you need to put a credit card on file which will be used to pay the people you hire. Next you’ll be asked if you’d like to post a job which takes you to a basic text editor where you describe the job you have.

Once the job is listed, people will start applying for your job. I put out an ad asking for a simple WordPress update and within about 8 hours I had 30 people apply for the job. Applicants came from all over the world. Some were part of big companies and some were independent contractors and they ranged in price from $3.33 per hour to over $30 per hour. I looked at some of the candidates and I was ready for the next step, but I hit a snag.

Odesk charges 2 small amounts to your credit card which you then find on your statement and you then go back to the website and plug in those amounts to verify your card. This is pretty common practice but the process took 3 days. When you’re used to things happening instantaneously, 3 days seemed insufferably slow.

Step 2: interview and hire someone

Out of the roughly 50 answers I got back I chose to interview 4 people. Odesk does a cool thing by matching keywords in your post to keywords in an applicants listing so you get a compatibility rating. Here’s a quick example listing:

I chose the 4 applicants based on 4 different criteria.

  • the lowest price
  • one recommended by my friend
  • one guy who was fairly new to the site and had almost no jobs, I figured he’d be hungry to do a good job
  • one who was pretty expensive but had lot’s of jobs and impeccable feedback

A quick note to potential job seekers on these sites: Look at Irnya’s headline in the pic above, that got my attention ’cause it stood out from all the other headlines, her pic didn’t hurt either.

Step 3: Put your new employee to work

So I hired my 3rd option, the guy with no track record or jobs, he was also cheap at $5.00 an hour. Imran Ali Shah contacted me and we exchanged a couple of e-mails. I did my best to explain to him what I was after, and included many links to other sites that had examples of what I wanted. I also asked him about the time frame and he said he could have it done over a weekend.

So when the weekend came around I went to our site and saw a couple of changes and I was pretty excited, Imran Ali Shah, was on the job! By the time the weekend was over, he had started to make a couple of the changes we had talked about and then seemed to abandon the project. I hit him up to see how it was going and I received a bill, granted it was only for $5.00 and some legit changes had been made but not even close to what I was thinking was going to happen.

Strike one. Lesson learned. The cheapest guy probably isn’t the best.

Step 4: Hire someone else.

So I went back and this time I hired Iryna, pictured in the ad above, she was more expensive but her feedback was stellar. Iryna contacted me within minutes of hiring her and after we had a couple of details worked out she said she would start in 30 minutes. My plans for that day were taking the kids to the waterpark so I wasn’t going to be near a computer all day, but I sent her the same instructions I had sent the previous applicant and told her to go for it. For the rest of the day I occasionally picked up my phone and e-mailed answers to any questions Iryna had, but within a few hours I had the changes I wanted made to my website for less than $40.

Step 5: Enjoy your life

I can’t tell you how happy I was spending a day in the sun with the kids vs. pouring over a css manual trying figure out WTF is wrong with my site. 40 bucks? Totally worth it. So all in all it wasn’t perfectly smooth, but now that I have Iryna I can go back to her whenever, she’s part of my team. Also, good people tend to know other good people so when I asked Iryna if she did graphic design, she said ‘no’ but she knew another person who also turned out to be fabulous. So go write a song, or do some surfing or spend some quality time with the family and leave the work to someone else.

Check out Todd’s site, RoamingRoyalty.com. Join his email list and download some of his tracks. Just don’t outsource the listening part.

Using Live Shows to Enhance Your Online and Offline Presence

Posted on 27 July 2010 by gregrollett

Today I have a killer guest post from Label 2.0 member and superstar Nashville indie DJ Quiet Entertainer. This guy has been creating killer content on his site for a few months now and I asked him to start reaching out and tapping into new audiences. So here he is today, talking about getting offline (gasp!) and connecting with your fans. I think a lot of you are going to be able to marinate to it.

Quiet Entertainer - Live at 12th and Porter 03/12/09

Hello to all my fellow ambitious, motivated genyrockstars! Let me just start by saying: I’m just like you. I was just the voice of one, crying in the wilderness. I had done a few EPs. Played some shows. I wasn’t really sure what I needed to do in order to keep this from being a hobby. Then I found this website and others like it. I joined Label 2.0. The community there gave me a lot of focus. I took a few months to go through a complete overhaul of everything I was doing online. I thought to myself, “I’m really building a following and the fans I get are sticking!”

Then, it happened.

I was out at a show; and one of my fans came up to me to say, “Oh, it’s great that you’re actually out and doing stuff again. I thought you had retired.”

What? Retired? Did he not know that I built a WordPress site & established my homebase on the web? Was he oblivious to my new blog, where I’ve spelled out in detail how I got my music on Pandora among other things? Did he miss that I took my latest EP and uploaded it to Bandcamp and as many other places I could think of?? Was he not paying attention to all the work I did to finally create a squeeze page to help build my new music business? What about the interviews I’ve done?

Short answers: No he didn’t; Yes he was; Yes he did; No he wasn’t; & What about them?

In all my efforts to build this online brand and eventually to build the kind of business that will allow me to quit my day job and play music, I had forgotten about the offline world. There is a huge disconnect between the offline and online world. Highly driven artists with laser focus and tunnel vision can sometimes forget about the world away from the cloud.

That’s what I did. This fan and other fans like him just wanted to know two things: Are you performing tonight? And if not, when is your next show? I should have recognized this. Even online, I’m always asked, “When are you coming to play a show in _________ ?”

We must bridge the gap between the online and offline world. A great way to do that as an artist and performer is to kill it with your live show! Your killer live show will accomplish a few things in building your OVERALL business.

What Having That Live Show Can Do For Your Music Business:

  • Create a Unique Fan Experience – You’re an artist. But your art is not just your music. It’s your performance. You’re creating experience art: the experience you create with your fan. Don’t underestimate how your fans feel when they come to see you. You are somewhat responsible for their good times! At least, you can be.
  • Generate Online and Offline Content – Did you read Bruce Warila’s post over at Music Think Tank? He was talking about how easy it is now for fans to create online content for you. I think he’s on point. Plus, if you have t-shirts, physical CDs, stickers, posters; you’re giving them tangible content as well!
  • Make You a Better Performer – The pressure of performing in front of your faithful ones who (hopefully) paid expecting to see something amazing, that will keep you sharp and hopefully humble.
  • Make You More Interesting – Well, it has to. It beats sitting at your computer 7 days a week. That’s what I was doing. But, I didn’t have anything to write about until I went out to shows and started engaging people. Maybe you’re doing that at shows, maybe conferences, Cracker Barrels, etc.

If you don’t have any shows upcoming, go book one! Find some kind of outlet. Yes, you’re using all the power and leverage of the internet like most musicians haven’t conceived of yet. Just don’t forget the live show!

What about you? Are you forgetting about the live and offline aspect of your music business? Sound off in the comments below.

Quiet Entertainer is a DJ & producer based in Nashville making ambient & electronic blended hip-hop. Click here to download his Machismo EP.”

BandWPThemes Version 1.5

Posted on 26 July 2010 by gregrollett

Woopty woop. Excited for this update to our wordpress theme. It’s the biggest update since we launched a few weeks back. Here is a video I shot with the changes and updates. You are going to dig it.

Updates In BandWPThemes

  • 14 background colors to choose from
  • One click Facebook Integration
  • Rebuilt sidebar with shadows, title changes and the ability to re-arrange the order.
  • Call to action on the email signup widget
  • New and user friendly dashboard
  • And more!!!
  • The other things to note…

BandWPThemes is now a one-time investment of $47. This will give you the theme, the Platinum Members area, the bonus videos, the training videos, lifetime upgrades and access to us for questions and ideas.

Head over to BandWPThemes to learn more and signup now. You can have your site up today, looking funky fresh and building your fan list.

-Greg

The New Music Seminar Meets David and Goliath

Posted on 24 July 2010 by gregrollett

Like I said yesterday, I missed out on attending the New Music Seminar this week in NYC, but I am in the middle of a 4-day intensive on Internet Marketing, which I think is really going to benefit you guys in the long run. But, I had some more eyes in the crowd that were taking notes and taking names. Today Carla Lynne Hall shares a David vs. Goliath marketing strategy that I think resonates with a lot of what is happening in the industry right now. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments.

New Music Seminar 2010

This week I attended the New Music Seminar in New York City. Because the New Music Seminar is supported mostly by current and former members of the old school music biz, I wasn’t expecting to learn anything ground-breaking – and I didn’t. BUT I did realize that indie musicians are much more powerful than they believe.

As a DIY musician, my favorite inspirational quote is “Goliath was the best thing that ever happened to David”. In this well-known story, a teenage boy steps up to battle a nine-foot giant.

I should also mention here that while armies of grown men were afraid to fight the giant Goliath, young David refused the unfamiliar battle armor, spear, and javelin offered to him by his King. Instead, David insisted on his simple shepherd’s tunic, slingshot, and a pouch of stones.

If you’re familiar with this story, you know that David won this battle. Because of the similarities, I’ve always viewed indie artists as “David”, and the traditional record industry as “Goliath”, and I remind myself of this story whenever I feel discouraged about the state of the music biz.

At NMS this week, “Direct to Fan” marketing was one of the major themes being discussed, and I couldn’t help but realize that this area is where indie artists have the advantage. While major labels use their large marketing budgets on massive scales, most indie artists fit into niches – and not only musical ones. There’s no way that you can outspend a label, but you can definitely reach the smaller niches that they can’t.

Create your own “David vs. Goliath” Music Marketing Strategy

Find Your Niches

Just like you, music fans have lives outside of music. Some of your fans are moms, pet owners, cigar smokers, etc – just like you. Take the time to get to know the other people in your various tribes. After making an authentic connection, let them know that you’re also a musician. Invite them to gigs and share your music. As “The Singing CPA”, accountant Steven Zelin books gigs at trade shows all-year-round, thanks to referrals from colleagues and clients. On Tax Day, April 15th, he has a standing gig performing at NYC’s Main Post Office. Who says that accounting is all math?

Build Your Email List

As Topspin Media recently announced, 30% of their artists’ music revenue – the largest piece of the pie – was driven by EMAIL. Not from Facebook, MySpace, Google, or other online sources, but simple email. Set up online and offline systems to give away mp3s in exchange for email addresses.

Regularly Connect with Your Fans

Even when you have a regular email newsletter that you send to your fans, PLEASE do not abuse them by only contacting them when you want them to come to a gig, buy your CD, help you win a contest, etc. Share fun happenings, videos, and stories, even when you don’t have a gig coming up. Share your gratitude by highlighting a different fan each month. “Me, Me, Me!” is boring, so aim to create an email newsletter that’s worth opening.

Perform and Publish Often

Offline, the best way to win new music fans is from the stage. Take the time and effort to create special moments during your live show, and your fans will spread the word.

Online, get a blog and share your music, photos, and personality. Update it regularly, and respond to comments. Be sure to visit other blogs, leave comments, and make friends with other bloggers.

Wield Social Media Like a Ninja

Facebook and Twitter status messages are not just for announcing your gigs and telling us what you’re up to. Use social media status messages to start conversations and ask questions.

Notice the folks who respond the most to you on your various social networks. Send these online BFFs messages on their Facebook Wall, just because. Fill your Twitter timeline with @messages to other people, not just your announcements.

So there are definitely things indie artists can do to build a fanbase that major labels can’t. Feel free to share some of your David vs. Goliath indie music marketing strategies that have worked for you below.

This post was written by Carla Lynne Hall, a NYC-based singer/songwriter and music marketing consultant. She blogs about the life of an indie musician at her Rock Star Life Lessons blog, and is launching a new podcast and video series for Fall 2010.