When we first checked in on singer Michelle Shaprow, she was getting big in Japan while struggling with how best to maintain personal contact with her growing fanbase on Facebook. Since then she’s continued to build her Facebook following while developing business contacts facilitated by her Facebook activities and expanding her activities to other countries.  She most recently signed to a worldwide publishing deal with BMG.

Michelle Shaprow - Thank you to my Facebook Friends

Though Michelle Shaprow hasn’t completely solved her dilemma regarding her desire to maintain direct, personal contact with her fans on Facebook, she has found a few solutions while also using Facebook to develop her team and establish business relationships. In fact, she now views her Facebook friends as an important part of her team.

To some degree, Michelle’s solutions to connecting with her fans via her Facebook Page and maxed out personal account is what one would expect. She now reluctantly accepts that she cannot respond to all personal messages and focuses on interacting on public posts on her wall as well as posting more general shoutouts.

However, she’s been able to maintain her personal touch as I feel she demonstrates in the above thank you message to her fans marking the latest milestone in her blossoming career, signing a publishing deal with BMG. This video is also scheduled for posting today at Music on Facebook, a nice touch given how instrumental Facebook has been as a tool for building her career to date.

Because Michelle has been focusing on international label deals, introducing her music to the world country by country with the assistance of national labels, signing a worldwide publishing deal with BMG allows that process to continue while offering her support with licensing, music placements and connections with sponsors.

Michelle has found that, due to the strength of her fanbase on Facebook and her growing international presence, she’s able to work with a major company like BMG based on proven appeal. For example, they can see that she is reaching a much broader demographic than one might expect for her music and so she is able to avoid approaches that target only populations that might seem the most obvious fit.

This flexibility has also allowed her to continue working with labels in such countries as Japan, Korea and the Netherlands to tailor her approach to each territory. These deals are being developed by her manager, Dominique Trenier, with whom she had mutual friends but who first listened to her music video on Facebook and then established direct contact. Oddly enough, the two have yet to meet face-to-face!

In addition to developing such traditional business contacts with the help of Facebook, Michelle also now considers her Facebook friends to be part of the team. For example, fans have recommended particular blogs with which she was previously unfamiliar that have been receptive to her music. Fans have also connected her to business opportunities including, for example, getting her music on radio in Botswana.

Though she expects to eventually sign a U.S. label deal, she is biding her time and working from a position of strength enabled, in part, through Facebook. She also recognizes that one day she will have to find a helper for some of her Facebook activities but such a person will need to be closely aligned with Michelle’s philosophy of music and life to become a solid part of the team.

Though some elements of Michelle Shaprow’s use of Facebook are similar to previous success stories, other aspects seem rather unique and serve as a strong reminder that social media-facilitated success can take many forms. Given that good things come in threes, I imagine we’ll be doing a future followup regarding Ms. Shaprow bringing it all back home to the States.

Article originally appeared on Hypebot (http://www.hypebot.com) and was written by Clyde Smith.

Facebook has yet to create an easy and obvious way for users to Like the Pages of musicians they listen to, costing artists significant marketing opportunities. Since the listening activity of Spotify, Rdio, and other music service users began being automatically shared to the social network late last month, Facebook Pages of musicians have not been gaining fans any faster.

Musical artists and record labels should push Facebook to implement a better retention mechanism that helps them convert listeners into fans who they can then reach with marketing updates through the news feed. This could come in the form of a Like button for an artist’s Page on feed stories about users listening to them, or a a “Recommended Musicians” panel that suggests users Like the artists they listen to most.

Until then, Facebook is gaining compelling feed stories about listening habits and data it can monetize through ad targeting without returning the favor to musicians.

Musicians Need Likes, Not Listens, to Make Money

Currently, to Like an artist they have been listening to, users have to find a story about their listening activity in the news feed, Ticker, or Timeline. The use can then click through the artist’s name to visit their Page and Like them. A lesser known method is to hover over the artist’s name and use the Like button in the hover card. The hidden buttons and high friction flows mean only users already intent on Liking an artist will become fans.

Facebook’s music partnerships are making some money for musicians by driving usage of streaming services that pay out royalties when an artist’s songs are streamed. However, these royalties can be just a fraction of a cent per listen. Artists depend on concert ticket and merchandise sales that Facebook’s music apps aren’t helping them increase directly.

Many artists use their Facebook Pages to promote their tours and merchandise lines in the news feed, but only fans receive these updates — not listeners. However, the 20 most popular musician Facebook Pages and the Pages of a dozen smaller artists we checked showed no increase in the rate of new Likes starting on September 22nd when the music partnerships launched. Therefore, it’s important that Facebook make it easier for users to Like the artists listen to.

Article originally appeared on Hypebot (http://www.hypebot.com) and was written by Josh Constine.

A general rule of commerce is this: You cannot demand money until you have generated demand, or at the very least, the perception of demand. And a sure way to generate demand is by using a loss leader. 

Your music is your business. And in business, in order to spike sales and increase the bottom line, you have to pick and put into play a loss leader. A loss leader is a part of your whole product offering that you will lose money on (or not make money on) in order to get potential customers through the door. Once they are in, their experience with your “brand” should cause them to buy other products you also offer as well as become repeat customers. This adds to your bottom line. This is what a loss leader does. 

In our industry, there’s been a great deal of debate regarding the giving away of music for free. Many emerging acts have opted to give away their entire body of work for free through services like Bandcamp (with some using the pay-what-you-want or donate option). Most of us do this in hopes that it will generate more demand for our music and that, eventually, we’d get paid somehow. Whatever we decide to do, I think it’s important that we understand how a loss leader works and how to rightly choose one. We should make decisions with a clear understanding of a matter and not because it’s trending or something everyone is doing. Think for yourself. Think objectively. Because if we don’t, we wont have a sustainable career in music. Here are some thoughts for your consideration. Please eat the fish and spit out the bones. 

The loss leader should only be a part of your entire offering. This is common sense. There’s an old adage: Business is common sense. If you give everything away for free or if you lose money on everything, you wont have a business. You cannot build a business nor can you sustain a business that way. You risk devaluing yourself when you give everything away. It’s a serious risk. Also consider that the only way that you can succeed these days is by standing out. People share things they’re excited about. And their perception of you is what drives that excitement. It’s not just your music. It’s an idea about you that they have to buy into. And when you give everything away, you set up for yourself two public perceptions that will hurt you:

1. You look like you’re not worth anything and desperate for attention. This is not romantic for the music lover/buyer. This doesn’t make you stand out. They want to buy into something cool, not something perceived as worthless and desperate. Giving away everything for free says on a subconscious level that no one wants you. 

2. You look like you don’t have much demand at all. Hence, you’re giving everything away. This doesn’t help generate demand because it doesn’t excite people. People are excited about things they think others are excited about (or even the possibility that others are excited about it). You need to look like you have some demand while generating demand. Giving away everything for free doesn’t help that at all. 

Making your entire product offering a loss leader can only lead to one thing - devaluation. And devaluation leads to demise. However, when your loss leader is only a part of your entire offering, it simply says to potential customers that you want them to give you a try without creating the perception that you are worthless, unwanted, and desperate. You can build a business on that.  Remember that the point of a loss leader isn’t to lose money, but to gain money through controlled loss.  Try offering a song or two in exchange for an email address. I recommend using ONErpm, who recently added a storefront application on Facebook with a download-for-email component (which actually boost sign-ups and get you more useful data of those who sign up).  You may not sell your other songs at first, but that’s not the point. The point is to maintain a certain positive perception while you’re working to generate demand. Be patient and keep working. 

The loss leader has to be worth it to potential customers. This goes without saying. Give away something good and valuable. Don’t pull a fast one on potential customers. It may seem counter-intuitive to let go of what you think is your best song. But, it’ll challenge you to create other amazing songs they’ll want to get. Plus, in my experience, they usually find something else as their favorite that you have. 

The loss leader always exists, but is never constant. In retail, there is always a special sale. There are discounts throughout the year, but under different names/campaigns. Consider this effective approach. What it does is maintain excitement, which is key to generating demand. They also rotate products as the loss leader. I used to work for a large jewelry store chain. The sales ran into each other and each one would offer a different inexpensive piece of jewelry as the center of that sales campaign. They didn’t really make money on these pieces, but they almost always sell more things to the client. If nothing, they’ll have repeat customers for their stores and deepened market share. Try having a special name for the duration of time you are offering a certain song for free download, like a campaign. Or, try offering the old album for free right before you offer the new album for sale. This is done in retail all the time and it works. 

Lastly, the loss leader needs to bring potential customers into a brand experience. For stores, the point of a loss leader is to get customers through the door, where they’ll end up buying more products and come back because they enjoyed their experience. For music, the point of a loss leader is to get people to experience you personally so you can build a connection with them, after which they’ll begin to buy your music and actually pay to see you play. This is debatable. But, aside from giving a song or two for free in exchange for an email online, I think that doing free shows is the most effective loss leader for emerging artists. The reason being is that people are brought into a real world experience with you. And nothing generates demand for music better than real world engagement. Everyone’s online! So, to stand out, do something special in the real world. It seems to me that in this new music era, we’ll be forced to revert back to the old days when acts have to work hard and build a real-world following in order to have a sustainable and influential career. 

It goes without saying that you need to open for other acts for free as you are starting out. Play everywhere you can, but only in a specific market (city/region). But not too much as to become common. Remember, you must maintain excitement for your music. Once you’ve built a following and generated enough demand for your music, you’ll find more people willing to pay for your music and to see you perform. 

Article originally appeared on Music Think Tank (http://www.musicthinktank.com/) and was written by Minh Chau.