Musicadium Blog

This weekend just past saw me (Tim) travel to Rockhampton to play at the largest annual All Ages event in the region, Rockfest, which in the past has been headlined by The Butterfly Effect, Kisschasy, Youth Group and Gyroscope - this year’s was headlined by the amazing Dead Letter Circus.  I played drums with The Origin Complex, the band who I played for before I moved to Brisbane.  Musicadium Artists The Short Fall and Epidemic…Over also played at this event.

I also do some “pseudo-management” for The Origin Complex, so in the lead up to the event, I was thinking in terms of online presence.  The Origin Complex already has a MySpace page and a Facebook page, but not a twitter account.

My first impulse was to not bother using Twitter for this purpose, as after a few searches via search.twitter.com, did not show up too many different tweeters in the Rockhampton region. Further research using location-based searches (rather than keyword searches) dug up quite a few more.

I saw this as an opportunity to perform an experiment on the takeup of twitter in a regional area.  I signed the band up for a twitter account and with the help of the internet and an iPhone with the twitterific application, I was able to twitter my entire Rockfest experience.  I have always said that there is no point to using Twitter without a purpose.  You need to decide exactly why you are using Twitter - this then determines the people you actively go to follow and also your “voice” when interacting with other tweeters.  I decided that the purpose of The Origin Complex’ use of Twitter was to spread the word about bands/artists making connections with fans and also to get more people in Rockhampton listen to our music and become fans.  A secondary goal was to make people aware of Rockfest in the upcoming week.  As the use of the twitter account will be ongoing, this was only a temporary goal.

The Origin Complex can be followed on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/origincomplex.

To maximise the fan connection, I wanted to avoid having any standard avatars (the logo next to your twitter name) or backgrounds.  I began by creating a background that included a picture of the singer, Glenn, and the band name and MySpace URL for the band.  I used a photo of the four members of the band as the avatar.  I wanted fans to see who the members of the band were.

Next, I used twitter’s search function to find people talking about Rockhampton.  I found numerous conversations about things going on in Rockhampton, including the local newspaper (The Morning Bulletin) and a radio station (ABC Capricornia - who, ironically, have a 40+ age group demographic and yet, are the only radio station in the region to use twitter - come on, commercial stations, you are already behind the times, please join us in the 21st century - you claim to be “down with the kids”.  From these connections, I leveraged a story (that I had to write) in the newspaper and a quick pre-record on the radio station, which aired on Friday April 3rd.  As it is a new technology and a new way of approaching promotion in the regional Queensland city, it was certainly a different spin on the other press releases, so it got a run in the local media.

I followed as many people as I could find from the local area, including Yeppoon, Rockhampton and Gladstone.  I got a few follows back, but the takeup was not massive, though still worth it!  Those who did follow the feed connected well with the band, asking questions and wishing us luck on stage.

I offered links to our various social networking sites, so there was opportunities for people to check out our tracks.  It would have been better leveraged with some more time and planning, such as the ability to give away tracks in exchange for email addresses at a website, for example.

I cannot say for certain that this is the case for all regional areas, but certainly the findings from my experience tweeting Rockfest has shown that there is a place for Twitter in creating genuine band-fan connections.

Read some post event press here: http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2009/04/06/thousands-turn-rock-out-and-mosh-music-bowl/

Reading through the oceans of music industry blogs and through forests of tweets everyday about the music industry (read: across the board - live, distribution, marketing, online, merchandise, royalties etc), you’d be forgiven for being confused.

Now, it seems this way to me.  I could be wrong, but I am exposed to a lot of writers’ opinions on the internet, so I feel I have read a lot of these blog posts/tweets and have seen a trend here.

There are two parties/factions - those who believe that the sky is falling and those who believe that the sky is the limit.

I found these words in an article at Techdirt about Rhodri Marsden saying that there is no new business model for the music industry to adopt and that none of them work. Mike Masnick wrote this:

Every single aspect of the business is way up — except for the part that’s about selling plastic discs. The plastic discs with music on them business is in decline, but that’s not “the music business.”

It seems to me that the two factions could be split up in the following way as well.  Sky is falling = old school music industry thought vs Sky is the limit = new school/digital/web 2.0 thought/business model.

Now, you might say that this is a very simplistic way of thinking about the whole system, but the divide really does seem to sit there.

The biggest example of this is the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger in the United States.  The entire merger is currently being debated in the US senate, due to the fact that the company (and it’s subsidiary re-sellers) will effectively create a monopoly on the concert ticket market and drive ticket sales up, in a time of financial hardship.  This ticketing system only benefits large-scale acts whose stadium gigs’ tickets are hot commodities and will be re-sold.  Through Ticketmaster’s secondary companies.  At higher prices.  I saw an article recently that was basically about how house shows are becoming a much more viable option for independent and smaller touring artists.  These shows are great, but in today’s industry, when an artist can self-promote, can manage themselves, can self-record, why can they not book shows at quality venues and ticket them through a reputable company without someone exploiting that to the nth degree through practices like re-selling and increasing prices (and artists not seeing a cent of the increased price)?

And then, have artists come on board and sing their praises after Bruce Springsteen criticises them?  The artists all rushing to the “aid” of the company are all agents of the old school too.  Artists who have failed to disclose that they have relationships/interests in the company.  Artists who have seen commercial success during the CD/MTV era (read: the 80’s and 90’s).  From HypeBot:

Eddie Van Halen, Seal, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins and the four members of the band Journey  have signed individual letters supporting the merger. Each is managed or co-managed by Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff and his Front Line Management. Azoff is also slated to hold one of the top three positions in the new merged company.

This type of large company, major labels, management houses and organisations are all now the ones who are crying foul at the fact that their CD sales are drying up and their profit margins are dwindling.  These are the sky is falling people.

The web 2.0 people are the sky is the limit people.  They are the hunters, the ones who are the early adopters of new technology, the ones who take up on the new opportunities as they come up.

After coming back from a coffee meeting with Dave Carter, a Lecturer in Music Technology from Griffith University this afternoon, I am reminded moreso of the divide between these sky is falling people and the sky is the limit people.

Dave’s experience is from his travel and works within the music sector all over the world.  Just listening to him talk about the way that different countries approach the piracy/distribution/mediums was fascinating.  Definitely a case of a Sky is the limit person.

We believe that the music industry is booming.  There is so much room for improvement, but it’s certainly not the picture of doom and gloom stated by some.  Let’s get on with finding ways of benefitting everyone!

Well, this just about completes the circle.  This post really will seem like an advertisement for the iPhone, but the product really is blowing my mind and what people the world over are able to do with them. Although iPhones have been around for quite a while now and apps for the iPhone as well, I have come to the conclusion that Apple really has created something that Musicians can use to promote themselves and now also to actually play their gigs as well.

I found this video from a link on Hypebot - an indie band called The Mentalists - 4 girls, play a cover of MGMT’s Kids using four apps purchased from the iPhone app store.

It seems as though it really will not be long before we see complete original “iPhone bands” using iPhones as synths, drum loop machines and wind instruments as seen in the clip.

So now, we see a tool that is able to be a part of the on and off stage world of a musician/artist.  A mobile device that can play and record music, as well as be a promotion tool.

In terms of promotion for a band, the iPhone is a one-stop shop too. Apart from being able to text your friends to let them know about your gigs, you can access all of your social networks - including twitter, facebook, myspace and more or you can also film your practices or gigs and upload them to youtube on the spot.

On the other end of the spectrum, bands such as The Presidents of the USA and Death Cab for Cutie have embraced the iPhone app and developed applications for fans to hear their entire catalogue, or find out gig info or to discover new music/watch video.

Obviously, it’s not within every band’s reach to develop iPhone apps for their band, but this interesting article on MediaFuturist about software being the next music medium seems to think that bands offering their entire catalogue as an application or as software for mobile devices is the way of the future.

From the MediaFuturist blog:

This is clearly a very cool idea, and something I have been looking at for quite some time: in the dawning age of rapidly exploding mobile app stores, on 5+ platforms, and with something like 2 Billion always-on smart phone users, we can now start selling music as software packages, i.e. in any UI/UX, multimedia, online/offline format that fits the artists’ specific users and locations. Bands and artists, their managers, agents or labels and even publishers can select any combination of audio, video, pictures, texts, news feeds, games, twitter updates and social media ‘rivers’ to update the bands fans at any time, anywhere in the world.

Is the iPhone the ultimate in artist tools, can it help your band on and off stage?  Comment here with your thoughts.  Where to from here?  Do you REALLY want to see iPhone only bands - cool or corny?

On Hypebot this morning, I found out about this GREAT website called Bandcamp.  This video tells it all about the website and what it can do for you as a musician.  VERY powerful tool!

On Wednesday, February 25 the Songs of Applewood documentary will be uploaded to the official Songs of Applewood website for worldwide preview. Please visit: http://www.songsofapplewood.com

Shot on location at Fernvale by Brandon Specht and Ken Weston during August 15 to August 18, 2008, the documentary captures a warmth and camaraderie between the songwriters during the retreat. It features footage and interviews with the artists before, during and after the songwriting and recording process.

It features appearances from: Dom Miller (Rocketsmiths), Sabrina Lawrie (Little Vegas and the Fuzz Parade), Stacey Coleman (Butcher Birds), Amandah Wilkinson (Operator Please), Isaac Emmanuel (Flamingo Crash), Edward Guglielmino, Kristy London, David McCormack, Kellie Lloyd (Screamfeeder), Steve Grady, Sarah Archer, Cameron Mckenzie (Ranger), Mardi Lumdsden, Eddie Jacobson (Butterfingers), Yeo, Scott Spark, Terry Devantier, Benjamin Thompson (the Rational Academy), Adele Pickvance (the Robert Forster Band, Go-Betweens, Far Out Corporation), Robin Waters (the Boat People), David Orr (Numbers Radio).

1. Tell us about the Applewood concept. How did the idea come about, and how does it all work?

Myself, my husband Magoo, Jeff Lovejoy and a representative each form APRA and Q Music, decide on a list of songwriters who might work well together.  The songwriters are teamed into pairs and asked to co-write and record a song in one day during a retreat at our home Applewood, West of Brisbane.  The music is recorded in one of either the two demo studios set up Magoo and Jeff Lovejoy who are Brisbane producer/engineers and owners of Black Box Recording.

Basically our aim is to try and look after everyone and make sure they are accommodated and fed, etc so that they can focus on the art of writing and recording. In order to hold Songs of Applewood I have relied on precious grants from from APRA and Arts Queensland and some inkind support from Q Music. It is an invitation only event.

The idea came about when Magoo and I moved to Applewood a little under 2 years ago and we thought Applewood would be a great place to make music. I had also attended the Mushroom Writers bloc Series as a published artist many years ago and really wanted to give songwriters in this part of Australia the same experience without necessarily having to be signed.  I also wanted to make sure that support was given to artists who needed to connect with others doing the same thing.

Additionally, I have also not been able to do as much music as I would like the last few years because I am a stay at home Mum so I have invented this as an excuse to be around other songwriters.  I love the whole process and the quick results achieved. From an artistic point of view, it can be really energising because of the pace.

2. Does everyone generally get along quite well or have there been a few sticky situations with so many musos getting around?

We really try to invite compatible personalities from different scenes but still make it as diverse as possible so that people get a broad understanding of what’s happening to each other. I feel that if people are familiar with each other, they are more inclined to create a supportive dynamic in their community.

There may have been a couple of pairs which were odd but basically it’s an “experience “ that each writer can take away with them.  On the whole, there have been some good friendships reinforced and that makes me really happy.

3. Have there been any partnerships that have continued after meeting at Applewood?

I believe Seja Vogel and Ross Hope have performed German Depression Dolls and Yeo and Eddie Jacobson have performed We Can Do This.  I have been told that Amandah Wilkinson and Isaac Emmanuel’s song may hopefully be recorded or released sometime next year.  That would be nice because those guys had such a good time working together.

4. Any funny stories to share with us?

Looking back the funny stories somehow involve these people: From 2008: David McCormack, Cameron McKenzie, and Kellie Lloyd.  From 2007: Jackie Marshall and Andrew Morris. But that’s as far as I’ll go.  They know what they did…or perhaps, they didn’t?

5. If you could pair up two musicians for a day (alive or dead) who would it be?

I asked Magoo about this because traditionally he usually has the final say on pairings. His dream combination would be Lennon and McCartney……still………!   He is so Beatles crazy!  Jeff would say Jagger and Richards no doubt as he is a Stones man.

7. What are the plans for Applewood 2009?

If we are allowed to do it again, I would like to go to offer invitations for national guests to come and write with some of our Brisbane/Queensland writers.

I would love to host a summer Songs of Applewood. Last year’s retreat was held in the middle of winter.  The temperatures were -2 at night and this had a huge impact on the music written.

If writers wrote in the summer, who knows what would happen.  We might end up with a tropical nightmare!  Musicians wearing shorts and thongs….. I am sure that would push them all over the edge and make for a good experiment.

We here at Musicadium know that it is the job of the artist to CREATE and PERFORM, but it is vitally important that you are aware of what is going on in the industry and the tools that will help you navigate the trappings of the industry.

I do a lot of reading here in the office - blogs, industry websites and e-mails, so here is a helpful guide to some of the cooler things on the web to help you and your band.  If you can think of any others that are great and make your industry experience just that little bit easier, feel free to comment them here!

Here are a few websites that may make your day and get you thinking about the next step (or few steps) in your music career/pathway.

HypeBot

Hypebot is an industry news and information site.  There is a large focus on the digital world on HypeBot, but all aspects of the music industry are covered here.  News on how Music-related stocks is listed here, as well as information about helpful websites and tools.  It is pretty much the website I check EVERYDAY for the latest in industry news. They can also be followed on twitter - @hypebot.

MySpace

MySpace personal profiles may seem a little 2006 right now, but the MySpace Music Profiles are still the best way for people to experience your band’s music and to discover bands you may be able to tour with.  It’s an EPK and a social media website all in one.  You will need a little experience with HTML to get the most out of MySpace.

Facebook

Facebook is the social networking giant at the moment.  Facebook and Twitter seem to be the one-two punch for bands at the moment.  (Actually, truth be told, the ultimate street fighter combo for bands is very much: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and a well-written blog, hosted on WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr or other blogsite.)  Facebook have Pages for all sorts of artists and businesses - very easy to share your band’s content with all of your friends and people can be “fans” of your band.  If you would like to know more about how to use and set up a Facebook Page for your band, check out our blog article on it, How to use Facebook for your b(r)and.

Twitter

Twitter is the emerging underground phenomonon - Musicadium’s twitter is @musicadium, follow us! - Twitter is a “micro-blogging” (accessible from the web and most mobile services) service that basically gives you 140 characters to “tweet” about anything you want.  Twitter really does lend itself to tweeting for a particular purpose - though definitely about making direct sales.  It does not lend itself to tweeting about mundane aspects of life - i.e. “I am on the bus.” “Just got off the bus.”  Look at @thegrates for a great example of how to use twitter as a band.  Check out all of the great twitter applications like tweetdeck and twitpic.  This is a fantastic article about how to use Twitter as a band - read it and get tweeting!

Digital Music News

Digital Music News is the other website I use to see what is going on with the financial side of the digital music industry.  Digital Music news has a lot of information about how large companies who are floated on the stock market are doing, as well as company mergers and bankruptcies.  It is a very interesting website to observe what is happening in the industry on a wider scale.

Audiolife

Audiolife is currently only available in the United States, but it will more widely available very soon.

Basically, Audiolife is a press-on-demand service who provides users with an online store via a widget to sell MP3s, Physical CDs and T-shirts and Hoodies that you can set the price and sell direct from Audiolife.  They set a minimum price (which is their cut) and you make the profit from the sale.  No more upfront fees for buying thousands of products and having them sit around in boxes in your garage.

whothehell

Who The Bloody Hell are They? is the best Australian music discovery site there is, bar none.

Every few days there are reviews of bands’ music who you may or may not hae heard of, but regardless, this is surely one of the best quality filters available to you.  It’s amazing how many tastemakers must read the site, because the bands featured almost without fail, go on to do some really great stuff.  Who the Hell are basically all over it before everyone else.

PressPlay

PressPlay Media is a Music Marketing company based in Brisbane Queensland, Australia.  Pressplay seeks out the best talent from around the world in an Independent market and provides a way for their songs to be licensed. They are a “boutique” agency, keeping their service personal. Pressplay Media connects Music Owners with Music Users. In doing so, they provide a means of licensing music whereby the Music Owner has no loss of ownership and the Music User is guaranteed a great song!

APRA

The Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) collects and distributes licence fees for the public performance and communication of their members’ musical works. The Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) collects and distributes mechanical royalties for the reproduction of their members’ musical works.

Hopefully this has been helpful.  Please leave a comment and leave details of other helpful websites - obviously this isn’t all of them!

Yes and No.

It really depends on (and this goes for general users too, people who don’t have bands) what you want out of Twitter.

According to James R. Dickey and his 10 commandments of Twitter, the number 1 Commandment is decide what your goal is with using Twitter.

Before we get into the thick of what you can do with Twitter, here is a run-down of what Twitter is, from Wikipeda.org:

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, or through applications such as TwitterMobile, Tweetie, Twinkle, Twitterrific, Feedalizr, Facebook, and Twidget, a widget application. Four gateway numbers are currently available for SMS: short codes for the United States, Canada, and India, and a United Kingdom-based number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email. Twitter had by one measure over 3 million accounts and, by another, well over 5 million visitors in September 2008, a fivefold increase in a month.

Twitter is a great networking tool, provided you know exactly what you want to get out of it.  Are you doing it to make fans or talk to fans, learn more about the industry/make contacts, establish your band as someone who helps other bands/knows a lot about the industry or is it just to post pictures from backstage so fans can see what you got up before and after the show?

One band who does it (tweets) well is The Grates (@thegrates).  They always post interesting content - now, this could be because they have an interesting tour schedule, always playing shows at larger festivals, but they also post interesting content (using twitpic) in their downtime of things they observe when living their daily (read: not music-related) lives.  It also appeals because it comes from THE BAND themselves, not someone else.  The fans get a peek behind the curtain, if you will.

Twitter is not the same as having a MySpace or a Facebook account in that the amount of “friends” or followers, as they are called in the twitterverse, you have.  In fact, if you had a lot of followers, you are more disadvantaged.  Your feed of posts would be far too hard to trawl through and find quality content to read.  In fact, the optimum goal of Twitter is to have a manageable (read: small) amount of quality followers and people you are following. This way, you know that the sources you are getting links and content from are trusted and are of a certain quality.

If you are unfamiliar with the etiquette of Twitter, basically, you have 140 characters or less with which to play.  When you see another tweeter’s post that you would like to reply to, you start your post with @username, which the user can then see in their @replies section in their profile.  If you want to see the rest of the commands to be used in Twitter, check out this list here.

Comment here if you have a twitter account with your account name (@username).  Has it been worthwhile for you?  Are you making great connections?  Has it been a waste of time?

If you would like to follow Musicadium, check us out @musicadium.

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

Lately, I am becoming more and more convinced that Facebook is more efficient and has a wider market and appeal than MySpace.

While it doesn’t have as bigger band volume as MySpace, I find that Facebook’s fan pages are a great way (and I would venture to say, almost certainly easier to make GENUINE connections with fans - talking WITH them, not TO them) of letting people know about your music, your shows and your merchandise and how to purchase tickets/hoodies/CDs or MP3s.

If you haven’t checked out fan pages, check them out here.  If you haven’t got a personal page yet, you can sign up here.  You need to have a personal account to create fan pages - this will then be linked to your fan page as an administrator - you can add tracks, add events (which you can then easily invite your fans and personal friends to), videos, apps, syndicate your myspace or other blog.  However, if the rest of your band mates are on Facebook, you can add them as administrators as well, sharing the work - they can provide content and invite people to shows as well!

This makes it VERY easy to invite a wide selection and large amount of people to become fans of your band.  Each member of the band (who also obviously will be fans of the band) can invite people from their friend lists to become fans.  From there, fans of the band can then invite THEIR friends and so on and so forth.  This is all easily manageable and easy to blast information toyour fans with the update fans tool.  This allows the band to do a localised facebook e-mail marketing campaign to people who are already interested in your band.  It also allows you to implement “Invite a friend to be a fan” type of marketing campaigns.

If you are interested in marketing to specific groups or locales as well, you can also create lists.  Your list could be drilled down to ages, genders, locations, interests or anything you wanted to target.  This allows you to specifically give/disallow information to groups of people in one hit.  Remember promoting a show on MySpace - go to your friend list, open each fan, page by page, click comment, paste image code for the poster, click send, enter captcha code, click submit, repeat.  As long as your list has less than 100 people, you can send information to your target group in 1-2 clicks.

You can use your personal account to become a trusted content provider (not annoyingly so, though!! Don’t spam people) - giving links to your friends for new bands or videos or relevant information, or blogging about new bands etc.  This can position you to your facebook friends as a trusted source of information and more likely to follow your band and be a fan.

The Facebook Fan Page also allows the band to add applications to their page to enhance the fan’s experience.  The default apps on the page are: Information, Events, Discussion Board, Wall, Photos, Videos, Music Player, Fans and Mini-Feed.  The Photos and Videos sections also allow fans to upload their own content about the band.  As well as these apps, bands can also add their own apps, such as the ability to RSS feed your blog (from MySpace or another blog website, such as wordpress, tumblr or blogger.  There are numerous apps for each purpose, too - there are extra music players which have added functionality, such as the ability to add iTunes links to purchase your tracks.  Obviously, one would remove the original music player and add the upgraded one in this case.

Here is a list of the best 30 Facebook applications for bands - as listed by HypeBot! As well as this, here is a list of the best business and self-promotion applications on Facebook from mashable.

I have been implementing these fan pages with two bands, The Origin Complex and Epidemic…Over (who is a Musicadium artist - check them out on iTunes!!) - so far, marginal results, but for only two day’s work, I am confident that this is a much more expandable, easily maintained and updateable service than MySpace.  Don’t get me wrong. Both of these bands have and will continue to have a MySpace and update it, but I envision a lot more bands will be using this service in conjunction with their MySpace account.

Hopefully this has been helpful to you.  If you want to know any more information about how to use your Facebook to your band’s advantage, please don’t hesitate to comment this blog or send an email to info@musicadium.com.

This is something I found on hypebot today.  This model needs to be implemented in territories other than the United States, ASAP, in our opinion!

The idea that bands can get their CDs and merchandise without having to buy it on consignment (buying a minimum amount of CDs or physical product) is such a godsend.  Buying even a small amount of CDs for really, quite a high price is sometimes a very big ask, considering bands spend so much on recording studio time.

This model means that you as an artist can join for free and set up your account to sell digital tracks (MP3s), Physical CDs and merchandise (T-shirts and Hoodies) through a widget that you can embed on your MySpace, Facebook, blog or website.  You can even set your own price for these items.

It’s called Audiolife - the website’s says that users can “Use our free tools to custom design your Merchandise, CDs, Ringtones and Downloads. Post your store to any website, blog or social network. We’ll manufacture and distribute all of your products when they’re purchased!”

Audiolife makes money by setting a minimum price, Audiolife’s Cut per se.  This means you can set it at the minimum, but you won’t make any money - however, you can set prices accordingly to what you believe your fans will pay. See the pricing options here.

These types of websites are exactly what are needed for the artists of the world to actually stop stressing about the myriad of things involved with managing their band and concentrate on creating!