Musicadium Blog

The good news is in - there is still room for innovation and being an independent musician and getting your music to the world.

Earlier this year, we wrote about The Boxer Rebellion, an independent band from the UK, who had gone out on their own after a rocky debut release on a label.  Their digital release of their new album Union was lucky enough to score great promotion in the form of an iTunes front page tile, the free single of the week.  No money was spent on marketing.  From the single of the week promotion, the album sold an amazing 560,000 downloads in the first week.  The band had a direct deal with iTunes UK, but the single of the week tile can be achieved by any artist with a great song and great promotional material to support it.

Now, on to the good news from Behind the Music - The Boxer Rebellion boys have not bowed to the old school industry and have instead decided to keep on blazing a trail of their own.  Obviously, after they made such amazing sales, they fielded numerous offers of label deals - but turned them down.  When demands for their music started to come in from physical stores (taking a call from HMV in Canada), they were honest and thought outside of the box.  They told them that, as an independent band, they didn’t have the money to fund the volume of discs HMV were asking for.  They then cut a deal with HMV directly, where HMV funded the production of the discs for a cut of the sales and a promise of travelling to Canada to perform in-store across the country - certainly beneficial for both parties.  This quickly followed in the UK.

The takeaway message from this is that there is a lot of room for a band with good songs to rock the boat and use the industry to their advantage, not just feel down-trodden by the (old-school) systems already in place.

Follow this with Amanda Palmer’s latest twitter achievement, her planned-in-20-minutes, flash-mob sourced, ultra-cheap video of a cover of Cat Steven’s “If you want to sing out” and you have two artists really changing the face of how musicians interact with the industry they work in (around?).

The question is - how are you thinking outside the box?  The first step is understanding what is already going on in the box, so you can step out of it. Reading industry blogs and contributing to these forums as well as listening to others working in the industry will give you a great idea of what is going on and will allow you to take your own (informed) position on it.

So, start building a team of lateral thinkers around your band - who can help you blaze a new trail in the industry?  If you aren’t particularly good with the business side of the industry, who can help you with that?

Last night, Musicadium attended Reload Media and Traffika’s seminar covering the topics of Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Optimisation.

It was a great evening, one that was super informative.  I found myself thinking about the way that bands can use these sort of strategies to position themselves in the often-crowded online marketplace of bands, music industry and music fans.

I don’t want to go into too much detail about the search engine optimisation and search engine marketing here, that’s for another post and a large bag of tips and tricks for when you are setting up your website.  Chances are, if you have any of the following set up well, a search engine query for your band name should return your Wikipedia page (if you have one) first, MySpace second, Facebook page (hopefully you have snagged a vanity URL because you have more than 100 fans), YouTube channel, Flickr Albums and Twitter page after that.  Having a website can go a long way to getting a fan over the line to purchasing items online, but ensuring that people can find it from a search engine from a generic search query is an art all of it’s own.

There are some great ways to track/measure your social media presence and prior to that, ensure that you have a great presence on these social media (facebook, myspace, twitter, flickr, youtube.) The beauty of Social Media is that is, by very definition, viral.  Great ideas and music can spread like wildfire, so make sure you contribute to the ideas-sharing and the content-creation that goes on in the social media web.  Here are a few tips to get yourself using web 2.0 tools successfully.  Let’s turn some strangers into acquaintances, to friends, then customers!

Twitter success is measured by the ratio of followers to following and also the quality of your tweets.  This means that you need to have more followers than the number of people you are following.  Obviously, this is hard to do in the beginning.  This will happen a lot quicker if you are already known and people you follow will tell others to follow you, therefore going viral a lot quicker.  But for those who are either just starting their band or need to build their fanbase using Twitter, it really does mean creating and sharing content, engaging users in conversation by “atting” them (@Username) and re-tweeting others’ posts (e.g RT @username - tweet details).

The best and most powerful tool to use in conjunction with your Twitter account is that of the search function.  A real-time search engine, it can be found at http://search.twitter.com.  The Search function captures any mention of your band’s name, even if it’s not been “atted”.  Another tip is to get your followers to use a hashtag (e.g. #musicadium) whenever they talk about you.  It could be anything - your album name, your band name, a song name etc. Auto-followers (Twitter add-ons that scour Twitter for keywords and follow the users who have talked about those keywords) miss the point of Twitter, so don’t fall for the perceived ease of gaining followers.  Twitter is about active engagement with your fans.  If you have not set up your keywords well using an Auto-Follower, it can pick up users who have spoken about those keywords but potentially used in a different context, hence picking up irrelevant followers and an uninterested audience.

I also read this article on HypeBot this morning re: Facebook. It has now hit 250 Million users worldwide and (a statistic quoted at the SEO seminar last night) now would rank as the world’s 5th largest country.  My thinking is that it definitely now has to rank with you as being a place for you as a b(r)and to find an audience and turn them into fans. If you haven’t got a page for your band yet, it is becoming as important as a MySpace page! Facebook Pages have an inbuilt analytics function, which allows you to view the number of people viewing, commenting and sharing links.  They are call Facebook Insights and they can be segmented down to gender, age and location.  Again, the Facebook ratings that you can see on the left hand side of your Facebook page depend upon the quality and the frequency of the posting of both you and the fans of your page. Spend the time and submit a photo of your Australian driver’s licence so that you can have the music player as a box on your Facebook Page, you can specify your own buy it now links and insert the iTunes URL you can get if you have your music for sale online.

Create Events for each gig you have and target friends and fans you have in the area you are playing.  Do not do a blanket invite of people to every gig you have.  If a person does not live in that region, do not ask them to come to a gig they cannot possibly attend, it will increase the possibility that they will leave your fan page.  Also, try not to be too spam-my with the amount of updates you send to fans.  Interact well with the fans you have and ask each member of the band to invite their Facebook friends to join the page by clicking the “Share with Friends” option.

The HypeBot Article still represents that MySpace is still important to have as an artist, but it really has shifted in terms of how artists are using it to market themselves.  No longer is the over 18 market on MySpace, it seems to be users under 18 and bands who are still using this social network.  So, definitely still useful if you are A) a band who plays a lot of all ages shows or B) using MySpace as an Electronic Press Kit.

Are there any other tips that you have that work well for ensuring that 1) your social media interactions are worthwhile and are gaining fans all the time and 2) giving your fans a sneak peek behind the creative curtain of your band??

You can follow Musicadium on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/musicadium, become a fan of Musicadium on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/musicadium or check out Musicadium on MySpace @ http://www.myspace.com/musicadium.

Streamer Bendy are a fantastic addition to the Musicadium Family, we were alerted to their music a little while ago now by Who The Hell Contributor, Sophie Benjamin, and we loved it straight away.  Since then, they have been getting a nice run of radio play on Triple J, but as yet, have not played any live shows.  Well, all that is about to change, as they will take the stage for the first time at our WITH DIGITAL LOVE Showcase June 10th at Brisbane’s BarSoma, with The Gallant and Moonjog!

Sarah and I (Tim) had a chat with front-rock-chick, Erinn Swan about Streamer Bendy, so far…

What’s the name of your band? What’s the origin of that name? Who came up with it?

Streamer Bendy was the name of my imaginary friend when I was little (Erinn).  From what I remember she had ribbons in her hair and sometimes she was in the mirror with me.  I think I may have been a strange child.

You have all been in bands in the past that have had great followings.  Do you feel like the combination of the members in the band has formed a creative Voltron, so to speak? As in, strong individually, but when combined, form an unstoppable force? Do you have a Blazing sword? (i.e. a secret weapon?)

Oh we are unstoppable!! We’re all really excited about Streamer Bendy, it’s so fresh still which is great fun because we haven’t been sitting in a van together for weeks on end and we don’t hate each other…yet.  Dane (drums) is definitely our secret weapon.  It’s his hair. Constantly changing colours, always looks good, blows about seductively when he plays..he’s a people magnet.

What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune?

Like most musicians we’d just like to be able to keep doing this and get paid for it.  We all share a love for writing great songs and performing them live.  We just want to be able to sustain ourselves to continue doing that.  I personally love the reaction I get from someone who really identifies with something I have written.  It makes me feel in some strange way like I’ve made a small difference to the world.  If I can keep doing that, having that be my focus, I’ll be extremely happy.

Which songs do you perform most frequently? Do you ever play any covers? Do you have a set play list?

Streamer Bendy have never played a show!! We are six months old.  We’ve all been in bands that have toured their asses off over the last few years and we decided we were going to be very selective about what and where we play.  So stay tuned!! In answer to your question regarding covers however, both Matt and Travis play in the Queen tribute band - they’re currently in canada, so in fact, they’re playing covers RIGHT NOW!!

You are about to record an album - Any new influences that you will be drawing into your next release?

Yes, definitely.  Matt and I have just been in Sweden writing music, and we learnt a lot from the producers we worked with over there, so we’ll definitely bring a lot of that to the record.  Matt discovered ’snus’ when he was in Sweden, I expect that will be a major influence (snus is tobacco in a little packet that you stick on your gum and absorb into your blood stream.  it’s completely legal but addictive and made me so dizzy i almost passed out).  We’re also very into ‘The Temper Trap’ at the moment we saw them play at sxsw.

What are your rehearsals generally like? Do you have a set time each week in which you practice or are rehearsals more spontaneous?
They’ve been a bit spontaneous actually as we’ve all been in and out of the country so regularly.  They range from Matt and I in a room, to Matt and I on skype with Damon, to everyone in a room jamming it all out.  I hope we’ll fall into a routine but you know how these things go…

What inspires you? What makes you wake up and think “Wow! That really matters!” What makes you want to write songs that make people sit down and think?
I’m fairly political, and I like to comment when I think certain areas of society aren’t getting a good enough go, or are being taken advantage of.  I don’t think many young people take an interest in politics and the world around them and I’m keen to inspire them to do so.  Mostly though, I’m also a hopeless romantic, and the slightest romantic thought i have is a great place to start a song.  I’ve been having some crazy dreams lately, and I”m not sure how much they MATTER, but they’re great places to start writing a song from.

How do you promote your music that you have for sale in the digital outlets?
We will promote on myspace, triple j unearthed, and speak to various networks of kids we have about blog sites etc.

Streamer Bendy’s EP will be available on iTunes very soon and they will be playing at the Musicadium showcase June 10th!  Their Myspace is http://www.myspace.com/streamerbendy!

This, to me, seems like a very interesting topic within the music community.  I have been meeting and playing music with a lot of bands lately.  All of whom I question endlessly about the way their band operates - how do they promote themselves, who does the work within the band, what services do they use to promote their band, how did they come up with the “image” of the band etc.

One thing that comes up in my mind is…what if the music doesn’t achieve the dizzying heights you imagined in the first band meeting you had?

What if sales aren’t rolling in?  What if the phone isn’t ringing? What if MySpace friend requests aren’t clogging up your email inbox? What if no-one is turning up to your shows, despite the amount of promotion you are doing?  You’ve tried everything.  You are becoming frustrated.  WHAT THEN?

What do you do? Do you gather the band, have a meeting, re-rally around the current band and try some new promotion methods and keep plugging away at the current band and trying to connect with people and turning them into fans?

OR…

Do you swallow your pride/”sell out”, have a band meeting, re-assess the influences in your bands, change the sound and image of your band (not necessarily to a more “pop” sound, just something different to what it was before)?

What can happen?  What are the pros and cons of such a move?

Here’s a few examples of the benefits and pitfalls of changing the band name/look/sound of your band….

Glasshouse/Drawn from Bees - A Brisbane band (of whom I am a big fan) who, after playing for numerousyears under the guise Glasshouse, decided that, as much as they loved their band and their music, it had gone as far as it could go - new releases did not gain any more momentum than the last and fan numbers were not increasing. The band decided to disappear for a little while, write, record and re-invent themselves as Drawn from Bees.  The original members remained, the ideologies remained, the sound shifted only slightly, if not a little more catchy and a touch les progg-y.  All promo released about the band and their releases did not mention Glasshouse or any of their previous efforts.  They were treated as an entirely new band and things have been rosy for the band ever since, attracting high rotation on Triple J for their song Long Tooth Setting Sun, they have been playing support for many touring bands, such as The Devoted Few, They played at VFestival earlier in 2009 and they attracted the attention of Brisbane Management/Publicity business Mucho Bravado. They are recording their next release - their goal, to write, record and release an EP every 6 months.

De Jah Dan Dah/Astralaliens - Originally from Brisbane, De Jah Dan Dah featured two brothers, Jake and Mablo Fehres.  They decided to export the band to Los Angeles, after attracting attention from Robie Porter. Once there, they found that the Martial arts and other parts of the band were not connecting with audiences in the way they hoped, reinventing themselves, with new band members as Astralaliens.  They stripped back their show to playing great rock and roll music and integrated a very choreographed stage show.  They embraced their webs presence, utilising their MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts. Since then, they have been playing at various prestigious venues in the LA scene, such as the Viper Room and Whiskey-a-Go-Go. They have won many band competitions in the LA area and their fandom has risen across the board.

Evermore/New Look Evermore - One example of how changing the look of the band may work monetarily, but doesn’t feel right, is Evermore’s new look and shift (sonically and in their image).  Check the links to see just how much their new album has changed their look.  It screams of their Record Label or Management telling the band that they should implement these changes to increase sales, not necessarily for the good of the band or their further career in the music industry.  A drastic shift such as this for “instant hits” and “truckloads” of money may serve a band well in the interim, but destroys credibility in the long run and can scuttle a band’s career.

Are there any interesting shifts in bands’ sounds/images that you can think of that are worth discussing?  More to the point, is it “selling out” to change your band’s image or sound or name?  Let us know.  We don’t think that there is anything wrong with it, as long as it is handled well, with respect to fans and with a very specific point in mind of how the “new” band will be portrayed and how the credibility of the band will be handled.

Thanks to QMusic for this great information about a fantastic opportunity to have your music featured to new audiences!

Jim Beam Racing (also known as Dick Johnson Racing) is looking for local Brisbane/Gold Coast bands to feature in their new YouTube Channel, DickJohnsonRacing - www.youtube.com/profile?user=DickJohnsonRacing. For those not familiar with the team, Jim Beam Racing – JimBeamRacing.com.au - is a Gold Coast based V8 Supercars team headed up by Australian motorsport legend and Brisbane boy, Dick Johnson.

Specifically, the team are looking for local bands with an edgy rock pop/ punk pop flavour to feature in their YouTube videos. Their videos deal with a range of subject matter – everything from race reports from Dick himself to outtakes with Grant Denyer, one of our drivers, to a fly-on-the-wall look at the race team in action.

In return for the use of their music, Jim Beam Racing will include the band’s name and contact details in the credit section of the video. There is no money on offer, but there is an opportunity for your band to be connected with one of the most well respected and longest established brands in Australian motorsport. Please forward all enquiries or expressions of interest to Karah Edwards on kedwards@djr.com.au.

Brisbane’s own Digital Music Distributor, Musicadium and Bar Soma are teaming up for another WITH DIGITAL LOVE industry showcase - on Thursday 19th March at 7:30PM 2009.

It’s all because Musicadium are turning one!  Musicadium has been operating for just over a year and they are want to celebrating their first year’s signups including Gotye, Kisschasy, Clare Bowditch, Ellington and more, as well as establishing a great market position as Australia’s leading digital distributor.

Headlining the night is Melbourne’s Foxx on Fire (http://www.myspace.com/foxxonfire), described by Inpress magazine as …the big label A&R’s wet dream.” They have supported acts such as John Foxx (UK), Midnight Juggernauts, Felix Cartal (France), Lost Valentinos, Mercy Arms, Grafton Primary, Damn Arms, Sweet Machine (Germany) and Dukes of Windsor. Their video clip for their new single, ‘Mission Abort’ was recently indie clip of the week on ABC TV’s Rage.

Supporting Foxx on Fire is brand-new Brisbane electro act Spider8 (http://www.spider8.com.au) and Gold Coast’s own dance duo The Cityscape Riot (http://www.myspace.com/thecityscaperiot).

The Cityscape Riot’s music has been described as being “Inside a computer game where you’re dressed in a fluoro suit, driving a fast car and fighting for your life”.  They were featured in the February 08 J-Mag as one of the most exciting up and coming electro bands in Australia. The Cityscape Riot released their debut E.P ‘Technodome Nights’ in July 2008.

Spider8 are a local Brisbane trio, Justyn O’Sullivan, Cam Mackay and Seal Chong Wa, along with their synthesisers and live drummer, Tim Price.  Spider8 are most easily described as a mix of The Presets and a ‘dirtier’ version of Sneaky Sound System.

Musicadium are a digital aggregator, the vital link between artists and digital outlets such as iTunes.
Musicadium sponsored the new/digital music category in the 2008 QMusic QSong awards, held at the iconic Tivoli Theatre.

The bands will kick off at BarSoma on Constance St, 8:00PM, with doors at 7:30PM. 19th March.  Entry is $8.00 and it is an 18+ Event.

Check out the FACEBOOK Event Invite and invite your mates!!

Melbourne’s Hi-Fi Bar has been one of the most iconic live music venues in Australia for many years now.

They are coming to Brisbane - The Hi-Fi Bar will open on April 29th, 2009, where the Pavilion used to be on Boundary road.

What’s the point you ask?  You could be supporting the acts who play there.  So far, there are names such as Little Birdy, The Drones, Cog, Concord Dawn and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.  And that’s only the first two months.

If you would like the opportunity to be a support act for any of the artists they have playing there, you have to be in it to win it.  You can enter your band by going to their website and registering as a member.  After that you need to enter your band’s MySpace address and genre.  Too easy!

As part of National Youth Week, Visible Ink and Library Services are putting on a youth arts showcase and enterprise market day on Saturday 4 April 2009 11-5pm. There will be three venues - the Brisbane Square Library, Reddacliffe Place, and the Queen St Mall.

If people have questions you can contact Gerard Dowling or James Douglas (34030136) who will be filling in for me over the next two weeks.

Unfortunately there is no budget to pay performers, but it is a fantastic opportunity to get yourself in front of a large audience!

Check out the application form here!  National Youth Week Performer EOI

Well, Christmas isn’t even here yet, but we are already thinking about what our New Year’s Resolutions will be.

Here is our wish list of what we want to ensure we provide in 2009!

• Do heaps more Musicadium showcase gigs to help promote artists and their digital content - the two shows at Barsoma so far have rocked really hard and have been massively successful.  We want to take these to the next level very soon and be actively implementing ideas like the bluetooth distribution of an artist’s track on the night in more depth.  Look for us to have interstate Australian Musicadium-distributed artists on the lineups in the future as well!  (P.S. if you are interested in playing one of these gigs, comment or e-mail tim@musicadium.com)
• We will be adding more outlets to our distribution list in the near future.  One new outlet will come up very early in the new year, with hopefully, a few new exciting outlets during the year - these will hopefully come with some special deals for bands already distributing with us!
• Keeping you informed about the goings-on of the digital distribution game at large by scouring the net for information and being active in digital music forums.  We will be bringing you another e-book during 2009 to further what “9 Ways to ride the digital wave” started, as well as bringing you information through our blog and email newsletter.
• Keep up with new technologies/online services that will aid artists in their search for the elusive 1000 true fans (who can possibly provide you with that income stream to continue making your art).  We want to endeavour to let you know about one new online tool to try out every month.
• Provide great service to you, the artists.  We already have a great model (in that you get 100% of your earnings from the outlets) in place, but we want to make sure that you get a great experience with us as well.  Feel free to e-mail us when you have something exciting that you want us to blog about or put in our email newsletter, or e-mail us with any questions or just to say Hi!
• Upgrade our online facilities.  We have plans for some exciting new features coming soon, that will streamline the entire adding an album process.  Definitely watch this space!
• Speak and present at more industry conferences and training/education facilities for a few purposes - to find more volunteers to help us out and also to spread th word about Musicadium! We had representation at Big Sound, Sydney Song Summit, AIR Awards, QUT, TAFE and at various Q-Music workshops this year, we hope to get to all of these plus more in 2009!  We would like to speak at more peak industry bodies’ presentations! Get in contact with us if you would like us to speak at your conference, business or institution!
• We would love to do a tour, where we travel to various towns, working in conjunction with local music industry bodies to speak at a gathering of artists to inform them about digital distribution! Queensland first, then the rest of Australia, perhaps!
• We distribute for thousands of indie artists!!  We’d like to help more indie artists get their music out there. Obviously, we have a lot of Australian artists, but we also distribute for many international acts and would like to expand our reach to different countries!
  

Is there anything that you would like to see from Musicadium in 2009 for us to consider?

I came across this on Hype Bot a few days ago. It’s about this website, Bopaboo, who are claiming that, if you do not want a MP3 anymore, you can put it back up (upload it) on the site and re-sell it.  Basically, a pawn shop for used MP3s.

From Hype Bot: Still in private beta, bopaboo provides a simple marketplace to buy and sell mp3’s and potentially other digital content. In a test, I was able to upload a random mp3 and have it on sale for 45 cents (a typical price) in seconds. Using a bopaboo provided $1 credit, I bought another mp3 and downloaded it easily.  Seconds later, since it was still in my online locker (bopabox) as well as on my computer, I had the same track back up for sale.

As brought up by Hype Bot, does the website confirm the origin of the “used” MP3?  The track could be illegally downloaded via P2P channels or torrented. Essentially, this allows people to make 100% profit on something they did not own in the first place, let alone consider or pay the original artist. The website states on its blog that they do have the copyright holder’s interests at heart, but how is this true?

From Bopaboo Blog: Importantly, bopaboo is not ignoring the right of the copyright-holders. We had always envisioned that our model would include an appropriate arrangement with copyright holders. We are encouraged by our meetings with content providers so far and look forward to completing those arrangements. Look for further announcements relating to our experienced management team and advisors, as well as partnerships with key content providers!

Rather than fix the problem of illegal P2P file sharing, does this not take it one step further??

We at Musicadium are very apprehensive about this.  The idea of a “used MP3″ store where a user can essentially strip the artist of all of their copyrights seems highly unethical to us, not to mention illegal, though, somehow, the site seems to be getting off the ground.

In our minds, there is no way in the world that EVERY copyright holder in the world can be considered in this arrangement.  They say they are putting the consumer first and are trying to provide a legal alternative to P2P sharing. If users in large numbers are uploading, ala youtube, there is no way to check every file at the upload stage, unless you had a warehouse of people checking files around the clock as they were added.  A user could obviously flag a copyright infringement, but that may be way too late for a user, whose song has just been distributed, possibly to hundreds, if not thousands of people and not seen a cent for it.

Hype Bot are posting an interview with the Bopaboo people very soon, it will be very interesting to see what their response is.

I also found this great blog, LockerGnome, who brought up this great point.

I also spent some time reading over the terms of service. You, more or less, are promising your uploads are legal. You are assuming responsibility. That should not surprise anyone. Is that enough though? Will that protect bopaboo from any liability if it is not a legal “used” mp3?

What do you think?  Leave a comment below.