Why Social Media Needs the Music Industry

The music industry has become increasingly reliant on the social media. Twitter, Facebook and other services such as YouTube with a strong social element have frequently overtaken the press, television and radio as the primary means of promotion

What is perhaps less often reported is how dependent social networks are on music fans for growth. It is not politicians, sports, television or movie stars who dominate the social media leader boards, but representatives of the recording industry. Music and social media just seem to go together.

For instance, 50% of Twitter users follow at least one musician. The top five most followed accounts on Twitter are all musicians. In fact there are only two people in the current top ten most-followed Twitter accounts who are not musicians, one is President Barack Obama, and this is election year, the other is the reality star Kim Kardashian. And the top five trends of last year were all music-related, according to Tatiana Simonian, head of music industry relations for Twitter.

Ms. Simonian was brought from Disney Music Group to the micro-blogging social network last October at about the same time as it launched Twitter music. “It now has more followers than almost any other channel on Twitter,” she said “The media team I’m on is there just to get more dynamic content on Twitter.”

She was talking at the International Music Summit in Ibiza, Spain, last week, an industry event where social media now dominate the business sessions. Their representatives are every bit as keen to address the recording industry as the music business is to listen,

In the fragmented world of music, the summit is the primary industry event for electronic dance music. Recently that has become shortened to “EDM” perhaps, Ms. Simonian suggested, as a result of Twitter users’ need to abbreviate. “The hashtag EDM is now used up to 3,000 times a day,” she said. “It is the fastest growing genre on Twitter.”

It is a segment, however, which has been focused almost entirely on Europe until the last couple of years. Now it is enjoying a surge of popularity in the U.S. The industry’s poster boy for this success is producer and DJ David Guetta.

His main fan page on Facebook is approaching 33m Likes. This puts him just outside the top 10 of this chart, which is almost as dominated by musicians as Twitter’s. But it is not simply the figure for the number of fans who have clicked on a button which impresses his industry, it is what he has done with it. He has developed a series of brand partnerships notably with Coca-Cola’s Burn energy drink and car manufacturer Renault from his native France.

By monetizing his personal brand, quantifiable thanks to social networks, he is showing how a new business model works successfully for the music industry, although there are plenty who dislike his overt commercialism. The point is he is making money after the probably permanent destruction of the industry’s traditional business model.

For decades that model was quite straightforward. Sell records. Everything else was subservient to that goal. Touring, merchandising, radio airplay and everything else could make a loss provided they led to sufficient sales of vinyl and later CDs.

The rise of digital media and file sharing has drastically reduced the importance of recorded music sales to the industry. As a result, what were ancillary activities before are now potentially the most important revenue streams.

Merchandising has moved way beyond the sale of tour t-shirts and now encompasses complete clothing ranges, designer headphones and, in fact, anything that can have a logo put on it. And recorded music frequently exists to promote live performances rather than, as used to be, the other way round.

This explains why another less obvious social network was making an appearance at the International Music Summit. Location-based Foursquare made clear how important music audience was to it about six months ago when it signed a deal with London-based live music listing service Songkick.

Omid Ashtari, Foursquare’s director for business development, explained that, before it got access to Songkick’s database, it was only possible to check into a venue. Given that a different promoter might take over the place each night, that is not an attractive proposition for either artists or fans.

“Now through Foursquare you can not only check into the location, but also into the event,” he said.

“Artists can offer rewards vouchers, perhaps providing discounts on merchandise, ticket upgrades or meet-and-greets. They can also offer ‘swarm specials’ which means you define a threshold and if more than that many people check in, you can do something like a double encore.”

And, of course, these activities provide a foundation for Foursquare’s growth. “I think there’s a an overlap between electronic music and social media savvy people,” he said. (via WSJ)

Debate: Whether or Not to Give Your Music Away for Free

We’re not going to resolve or provide the solution to this annual question in the ever-evolving industry, but we can say: yes and no. Music Think Tank goes ahead to say if you set a precedent of giving your music away for free, you won’t be able to turn your fan base into loyal paying customers. Is that totally true? Not entirely.

First off, whatever used to be true when it comes to selling music (pre-Napster) is out the window and needs to be wiped clean. Second of all, you have to believe that, regardless, your music isn’t completely safe from pirates and that’s probably not going to change. Third of all, “selling music” has been redefined and shrunken down into a “please fund my band so we can keep making music” line of thinking. DIY musicians can’t have the mindset of a capitalist and need to get smarter and thinking of their music as a way to build a community. That’s where free music comes in.

However, regardless of the size or type of musicians, giving a whole album away for free usually is pretty reckless and provides little results. Bands are better off give away a sample size rather than a whole mixtape for marketing purposes. If you’re The Weeknd, for example, then you can get away with that kind of a move. You have that flexibility if you have a strong base, but every other scenario, only give the people the crumbs. In the end, your music is your whole deck of cards.

Breaking Down the Album Launch

When you think about it, 70 percent of what bands do revolves around the LP launch. Especially in the chaotic digital marketing world, there’s really no room for a screw up when picking the timing and strategies a band employs during it’s 3-4 months launch campaign. The best album launch needs to be the perfect storm. Music Think Tank put together a pretty succint timeline for how the average album launch plays out, but we wanted to throw a few wrenches into the mix to make it even better. 

Two Months Before Release: Release a single, a great way to get the fans excited and also to get some current press quotes to include when contacting press about the full length album - Announce to your fans that tickets are for sale for the CD release show.

Very solid, however we can’t forget new bands working on an EP before ramping up the LP which, more often than not, gets released a year later. For the lucky bands, a red hot EP does most of the leg work for the LP to follow. We like the CD release show idea too. Also good is sharing some photos from the studio and leaking 20 second cuts of a song to titillate the fan base, maybe just the beats and not the lyrics.

One Month Before Release - Press campaign begins for new album - Announce pre-sale campaign through your newsletter, and social networks including Facebook and Twitter - Set up a Facebook invite for the new release, send it to all your Facebook friends and post on your Fan Page

This is a good place to release a music video for the single released a month ago. The speed is picking up faster and buzz should be at it’s peak.

Two Weeks Before Release - Keep the excitement going, hold a contest to win a copy of the new album or tickets to CD release show

The CD release show was used back at 2-month prior mark, but this is a good spot to share the album artwork and track list. You could also package together an add-on discount deal where the fan can get a t-shirt with the LP for a little extra cost.

Release Day Activities - Write a news post about the release on your official website - Send out a Newsletter to mailing list - Update Twitter and Facebook with an “album out now” post and link to where they can purchase it.

Basic stuff, but we would go further and do an incentive-laden retweet strategy to give it a little extra oomph. This could be a spot for a surprise show somewhere in a public area and live stream it.

One Month After The Release - Service press with official music video and announce tour dates. Again, the more activities you can plan leading up to the release will help build the excitement with your fans, and the more press points you can arrange for after a release will enable you to keep contacting press with new content, while at the same time reminding them about the new album. Also, don’t forget to ask your family, friends, and fans to write reviews of your new album on iTunes and other digital retailers the minute it becomes available. Studies have shown that albums that are reviewed at iTunes actually sell more than albums with little to no reviews posted. In the next and final post, I will talk about supplying content while you’re in between album cycles, as a means to stay relevant and fresh with your current fans, and to increase your fanbase as well.

The tour usually does the footwork here, but the iTunes reviews idea is smart. Other than that, you just got to keep pushing the press and keep working your ass off prior to the release. The job never lets up.

5Q: Fleeting Circus

We’ve pitched some strange alternative marketing tips, but we bet you’ve never considered building a circus event around your live shows. That’s what Fleeting Circus from Rio de Janeiro did, and they’re making moves and building a strong following. Fleeting Circus took the time to chat with us to provide some interesting insight about the now-emerging digital music culture in Brazil and greater Latin America.

DOWNLOAD: Dream World of Magic

Can you explain more about why you perform in circuses? Describe the genesis.

First of all, we’d like to give our thanks for this opportunity. We are big fans of ONErpm.

The project Unicirco Rock Show began about nine months ago when the brazilian director Jorge Fernando got hold of the Dream World Of Magic EP and became an instant fan. Soon afterwards, he came to us with the idea of creating a circus show around the band, mixing an environmental message and a folk story with the original soundtrack we would create and perform live.

We headed to the studio and created the majority of the soundtrack, creating the rest up on the stage as we rehearsed for the premiere in the circus. During the pre-production process, the trickiest part was synchronizing with the artists actions on stage, but eventually it all flowed perfectly and the results have been incredibly satisfying.

How does a circus audience react to music? What’s your history with the circus?

That is a very interesting question. Since we are dealing with an audience that comprises all ages and all financial classes, their musical taste can be quite varied. The good thing is that two members of the band worked as cameramen at the circus and knew the audience well, so we worked on making an instrumental soundtrack that would not be too soft or too hard, while retaining our own style.

Since its premiere at March 30th, more than 25,000 people went in to see the show and came out stoked. It seems our efforts were not in vain as we have been told by many goers that the music is the tone, flavor and soul of the show. A couple of weeks ago, even the artists told us they never want to perform on recorded sound ever again.  

How long does it take a culture like Brazil’s to adapt to digital music?

Brazil has been taking big steps towards an all digital culture in the past years, and our youth is growing exponentially on the social networks as a big sign of it. We are fascinated by technology and embrace those advances with more ease than one would expect from a tropical country. It’s impossible to ignore that piracy is still a big issue here, but if you are giving what your audience wants, you get their support nonetheless.

Be it physical or digital, there is a universal law that marks the difference between listener and fan: When someone hears about a band, looks them up on google, finds a torrent and downloads the band’s latest album, he is a listener.

When someone buys a record, he or she is taking this relationship to the next level, making a commitment that he is part of something, a statement that he supports what he hears and wants to help fund the creation of more of it, he is a fan.

What’s the most surprising marketing technique you’ve learned along the way?

 Never underestimate the power of sweepstakes. In an effort to increase our fan engagement on twitter, we started a weekly draw for promotional copies of our EP and in turn ended up greatly increasing our fan base at the network. Also, sending out messages promoting your band only works if it’s personally written, not copied. 

What’s the most popular form of music discovery in Rio?

Personally, we mainly use the internet to enhance our musical knowledge and hear some new stuff, but in a more general manner, I’d say the most popular form of music discovery in Brazil is definitely television. 

To the bands looking for new opportunities to market their sound, I would highly recommend licensing for TV over here, if you get placed, your fanbase can grow very rapidly and you will be making that killer show you always wanted to on an international route in no time.

iHeart Radio just crossed the 10 million users threshold faster than Facebook or Twitter! Artists should take advantage and upload their music to that network. It only costs $1.99 through us!

Marketing Tip: Don’t Spread Yourself Too Thin

It may be one the most volatile and exciting times to be in the music industry, but it also demands a lot from the vying DIY artist trying to build a web presence. Music tech is booming and hundreds of start-ups are pulling and tugging at every single artist that has a Facebook page trying to get them to use their service. While it’s an encouraging feeling to have some innovative tools at one’s disposable, it can be detrimental spending too much time on a new account for the latest Onesheet copy cat. As an artist, it’s tempting to test drive a zillion different free/paid services because you’re desperate to take advantage of any way to make some noise and gain new followers. Not to be too cliche, but it’s necessary here: it’s all about quality versus quantity.

Your fans don’t give a damn if you 10 different social network profiles and you only dedicate a minute or two to a few and ignore the rest. The only way to make an impact on the web is to first of all make the music come first. Make sure you’ve devoted blood, sweat and tears into your debut EP before you start thinking about launching your Tumblr account. When the music is ready, do research first and make accounts for the essential sites like Facebook and Twitter, and after that, keep it simple and choose the tools that fit the best and don’t commit to something that you’re only going to half-ass.

Artists complain to us everyday it’s impossible to keep up with everything and the music tech industry is as noisy as ever, so keep your message less fuzzy and more focused. 

Timing can be everything in the music industry, and musicians shouldn’t waste it on a Pinterest account if it doesn’t fit their demographic.

10 Promotional Strategies for DIY Musicians

(via Discmakers)

Take it for what you will.

Standing-Out

Instead of targeting music publications for reviews, where you’re competing with lots of other musicians, try starting with publications that focus on a theme to which your music relates. You’ll stick out from their usual submissions and, if they write about your music, you have a hook to catch the attention of music publications.

Piggybacking

Connecting your work to established artists or popular events is a way to get attention. This can be as simple as covering a popular song or as complex as creating new music based on a current craze. Of course, you’ll then need to publicize your work to piggyback on related news.

The Agent

Find someone to promote you since some people will then take you more seriously.

Multitasking

Go beyond single channel activites and the normal combination of touring, albums and merchandise to have a presence in other channels such as podcasts and publications.

The Long-Haul

Don’t focus on getting a single hit to grab attention. Instead, methodically build from one success to another, getting more attention at each stage of development.

The Street Team

Ask your fans to spread the word for you. Traditional street teams have to get out and put in lots of time posting flyers and the like but now with the help of social media your fans should be happy to tell their friends if you simply ask.

Engage Your Audience

Instead of getting wrapped up in social media trivia, try sharing photos, video clips and backstage stories to feed your fans and give them something to talk about.

Keep On Truckin’

Play live, play live, play live.

Alternative Gigs

Explore performance venues other than clubs and concert halls such as house concerts and Google Hangouts.

Stay-Tuned

When you have people’s attention for what you’re doing now be sure to let them know what you’re doing next to build anticipation.

Yeah, Facebook Shouldn’t Be Your Hub for Everything, But…

It’s a royal pain in the ass for a musician to do the creative work and the marketing work on the side. This explains why a lot of bands appear only to do the bare minimum by maintaining a Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook, and that works to some extent.

Facebook, is largely used as the mothership for a lot of bands, but it’s argued that bands need to have their own website. This is true. These social channels should be attachments to your website, arms if you, and not the other way around. Having your own website matters on a brand level, and that’s half the game. 

With that said, while it’s always fashionable to sneer at Facebook and its constant design updates, it still remains the biggest online community in the world. It’s vital to have a Facebook band page with a store and all the other apps needed. You just need the website too. Sites like StageBloc and One Sheet want bands to skip the step of creating their own websites, but let’s not kid ourselves.