Musicadium Blog

Using Facebook Advertising to Boost Digital Sales

Getting your music on iTunes, Amazon, eMusic or another online superstore is a big deal. When you first saw your tunes up in the Apple store you probably called your friends, your girlfriend, maybe even your mom. I swear, I hear musicians call their moms all the time. Anyway, the point is that once you get your music distributed and playing with the big boys, you need to market the shit (crap if you don’t want the cursing) out of your pages, your store and links in order to make any sales.

As with most products these days, building it will not cause people to buy it, so forget what Kevin Costner was saying in Field of Dreams. So how do you promote your digital tunes?

Obvious answers:
•    Myspace bulletins
•    Links on your profile pages
•    Blog posts
•    Get reviewed by music critics
•    Send an e-mail to your mailing list
•    Text everyone in your phone and begging and pleading with them to buy something
•    So on and so on.

There are other options to turn on new fans and create sales without being pushy and intrusive (spam messages, comments, unwanted texts, etc). You can do this by advertising!

I know, I know – advertising is like a blacklisted word for indie musicians. The reality is that with targeted messages, in places that people who like your style of music hang out, with a set budget and timeframe can increase your fan base, drive brand awareness and convert passersby into customers.

Today I am going to chat about the Facebook Advertising Platform and how you can target your ads to boost awareness and desire.

Facebook Advertising
The Facebook Advertising Platform is very simple and allows you to quickly target potential fans by a multitude of categories. The thing to note is that with online advertising, we are NOT trying to get in front of millions of people and get a tiny fraction to convert. We ARE trying to get in front of a small, but highly target audience and get a higher percentage to convert.

The first step to creating an ad is to design the ad. Facebook walks you through this process and shows you your ad as you build it.

Tips For Designing Your Ad

• The title needs to stand out and tell your audience who you are and what you are doing interrupting their Facebook time with friends. You are limited to 25 characters, so be creative and use strong keywords like your band’s name, location and something about your album being available. It’s tough to fit a whole sentence, so the key is to grab attention and state your purpose.
• The body has more room to play with. Be sure to include a call to action such as, “Click here to Buy our album now” or the more subtle “Click here to preview tracks.”
• The image needs to pop off the page. Be sure to use a strong graphic with colors that work well with Facebook’s plain Blue and White template. The image will be resized to 110×80 and it is a good idea to design something that is that size so you do not lose any resolution.
• The destination URL is where you will be sending the person when they click. My suggestion is to create a landing page on your own site where people can listen to and preview your tracks, learn more about your band, subscribe to your e-mail list and obviously have links to iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody and other online stores.

The 2nd step is to target your ad.
Facebook gives you plenty of parameters I which to take a really large number of users (175 million +) to a small manageable number. Check out my quick example below:

Here is what I did broken down for you:

• In my example I broke down my ad to Orlando, FL – so I only show my ads to people in my hometown.
• Next I wanted to get into the lucrative Gen-Y and youth crowd so I am only showing my ad to people who are 16-24 years old.
• In the keyword box I suggest that you pick a band that you sound similar to. What happens next is everyone who listed this band a one of their favs will be included in your marketing efforts. The great thing is that you are NOT putting ads onto pages where people who dislike your genre of music hang out. It’s a great feature that can be explored well beyond just a band name. You can go as far as red trucks who read Tim Ferriss who listen to Metallica whose favor color is teal. Powerful stuff.
• I know that most of my customers are male hip-hop fans so I axe the ladies (so, so hard to do).
• I left education blank, not a big deal with this demo.
• Next I went for single guys as they have more expendable income than guys in a relationship.

The end result is that there are 320 guys between the ages of 16 and 24 who are single in Orlando who like Fall Out Boy. How’s that for breaking down 175 million to 300+.

The Last Phase is Campaigns and Pricing.
You will want to title your ad so you can find and identify it later on. Next you set your budget. The budget is broken down per day. So if you have $60 to spend for the month, your daily budget would be $2.00. You can always change this as money comes in (or goes out). For scheduling you can runs your ads at all times or you can set specific dates (works great for release promotions or days leading up to live shows, festivals, etc).

The last number is one that tricks many bands. You can choose whether you want to pay per impression (CPM), which means that you pay a set amount every time your ad is shown 1,000 times regardless if someone clicked on it or not.

I am a big fan of pay-per-click (PPC) where you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. This number is usually a little higher but I am believer that your return will be greater. One suggestion is to note what your cost per click is and how that relates to how much a fan is worth to you vs. how many visitors convert on your site. This is a long topic in itself but breaks down to:

If 1 in 4 people subscribe to your email list and 1 in 4 of them buys your digital album that you profit 6 bucks on, it takes 8 fans to make that $6. Thus each fan can cost up to $1.33 and you won’t lose money (8 fans divided by $6). Hope that makes sense.

Lastly you will confirm, give your payment info and boom your account is online and new fans will be clicking away learning about your band, listening to tunes and making you some money from your digital distribution.

See, advertising isn’t that hard, and its not that expensive if you can break down your niche, your sound and your fans. I’d love to know how your experiments with Facebook Ads go and how you tweaked them to get your band more fans, plays and sales.

(This post was written by Greg Rollett from Gen-Y Rock Stars, a resource community for indie musicians. Check out their free Gen-Y Rock Star Tool Kit or email Greg for more information.)

I have been thinking more and more about just EXACTLY how far we have come in the past 13 years. Not just in Music, but everything.  But we are all about music, so seriously, just how far have we come? 

This served as a bookend reminder for me.

I see articles about The Presidents of the United States getting in on the iPhone market - people can now stream their 4 album discography on their iPhones for $3 USD unlimited access.

I have been around for the handover from Vinyl records to Cassette Tapes, to Compact Discs and now on to digital medium.  No other generation has seen that amount of change ever in terms of sound recordings.

My journey of listening to music began as a 13 year old in Rockhampton, Queensland - 1996. The Presidents of the United States’s self-titled album was one of the very first albums I ever purchased.  My experience with music began with the radio.  I started out listening to the local FM station, which failed to connect me to any music that I can remember.  One day, I decided to move the dial over to Triple J, Australia’s youth network.  Now, it just happened to be Aus Music Month at the time.  I was suddenly filled with the amazing sounds of bands like The Living End, Regurgitator, Custard, The Superjesus, Tumbleweed, Silverchair, Spiderbait and more.  This was my only method of finding out about new bands and music, as well as analogue methods - magazines and friends.  No computer connected to the internet to even think about that.  The Internet was invented, but nowhere within my reach.

Progress 2 years ahead.  I am still listening to Triple J.  I get my first modem - a 33.6kbps modem that pings and whistles and screams at me to connect, albeit slowly.  Fantastic times were had looking at pictures (no, not dirty ones) on the internet - ooooo! aaaaaaaaaahhh!  Multimedia!  The music industry was very much still in the major record label mode of find band, make hit, become rockstars!  MP3s were not an enemy yet - little did they know…

2 years later, 1999.  It’s official.  I have decided that Music is my life.  I am 16 and I have begun to learn the drums.  I am still listening to TripleJ, I am reading about my favourite bands on the internet, but there are still no real gatekeepers to filter good stuff down to punters!  Napster really has it’s claws into internet users.  Other P2P software such as Limewire, KaZaa, Audiogalaxy and Morpheus crop up after Lars Ulrich from Metallica whinges a lot about Napster and it gets shut down.

1999 through 2004 - The awkward years of music and internet - a lot of development going on, but the internet and the music industries really had not learnt how to work together yet/didn’t know how to exploit each other for mutual gain.  The Dark ages, really - the music industry really doesn’t know what to do with itself and was still smarting from the P2P fiasco.  Majors start merging as they can’t sustain themselves anymore due to P2P.  I am playing in bands, finding out about bands via TV shows and Movies, as labels start pushing their bands to get their music synced as another revenue stream.  Savvy independent bands and bands on Indie labels start to rise to the top as they take up on this internet thing as a promtional tool.  I start a localised Rockhampton internet forum, called Hoist Rocky Online.  Never thought it would be anything more than a few people in Rockhampton coming together to talk about a few bands.  P2P goes to next level and “Torrenting” of whole albums, TV shows, software and movies becomes more prevalent, it’s popularity running concurrently with the advent of affordable broadband internet access.

2004-Present - High speed broadband internet access, iTunes, MySpace, Facebook, Youtube, iPhones, Bluetooth, Twitter, Social Media Marketing.  Convergence and Web 2.0.  Social Media marketing is on the rise, Radio and TV advertising budgets on the decline. I began to put on shows in Rockhampton, using MySpace and the web forum - loads of success!  I move to Brisbane and get a job at Musicadium!  CD Sales are down, WAY down.  Traditional record label models dying rapidly.  Major marketing money still working, though no longer as effective.  Music consumers spoiled for choice.  P2P still a problem, though frowned upon. Bands are making massive amounts of sales in territories they have never played live in, via marketing themselves on social media sites and by being written about by blogs.  Niche markets are not so unreachable any more. Digital Distribution comes to the fore - allows artists to take control of their own royalties and earn money for themselves and market themselves!

I don’t think that we as a society realise what a revolution we are going through at the moment.  When artists can manage their own royalties and make a decent living from organising their own bands and make their own fans, sans record label.  The internet and convergence of technology has changed, within 15 years, the way that we interact with the world.  Environmentalism has meant that more people are turning to the internet for news instead of newspapers and magazines, so as to prevent unnecessary destruction of trees and larger carbon footprint.

Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way as a band.  Be an early adopter - if you aren’t reading blogs, writing blogs, using MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and searching for new ways to benefit your band through the internet, you really need to catch up!!  We aren’t in flying cars just yet, but who wants to be that band left in the dark ages and who hasn’t embraced the new culture and models of the music industry?  Hell, this guy believes bloggers will become what ‘used to be’ called record labels.

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!!

One of our talented Musicadium Artists, Pluto Goneski has won himself a performance at Sydney’s Tropfest this Sunday at 6.20pm in The Domain!

The reason for this is that a one of his songs, “Same Perfume” has been announced as the winner of Tropscore 2009. Tropscore is a sub-competition of Tropfest this year, open to anyone around the country, where you had to write music to a silent short film you downloaded from online. You can check out the score at:
http://www.maxtv.com.au/tropscore/finalists_top_3.php?show=1343.

As the winner, he gets to play the score LIVE with a string quartet (in addition to his usual 3-piece band) on Tropfest night in Sydney in front of an expected 150,000 people!! He will be performing at least one other Pluto Goneski song besides the Tropscore song! Remember, get a good spot with the picnic rug early because Pluto Goneski starts playing before the films at 6.20pm in The Domain.

Go to myspace.com/plutogoneski if you’d like to hear more or check out his music on

In my travels on Twitter today, I came across a tweet about this great website, about helping Gen Y musicians navigate their way to Rock Stardom.

http://www.genyrockstars.com/

The two things that I found particularly helpful were these two documents.

You have to exchange your email address for these two PDF files, but they are some of the best lists and guides for being a musician in the digital age.

http://www.genyrockstars.com/2008/10/100-social-media-resources-for.html

http://www.genyrockstars.com/2009/02/gen-y-rock-stars-tool-kit.html

Also, follow the author on Twitter - a very dedicated guy who sounds like he only has young artists’ best interests at heart - http://twitter.com/g_ro

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!

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!

We love our new MySpace profile page!

Our MySpace page is one of the best marketing tools we have.  We are proud to show you the new and improved page, with our embedded Flickr and Twitter feed, as well as RSS Feed from this very blog!

Check it out here at http://www.myspace.com/musicadium

We hope you love it as much as we do!

This week it’s Sons of Abraham who want you to check out track 5, Ashes, from their EP, The Pushing Foreword.

If you like this track…

1. Leave a comment here!
2. Check out their MySpace!
3. Buy their EP, The Pushing Foreword, on