Digital Downloading
November 10, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
We?ve all done it, and we?re all guilty of it.
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Digital downloading has been made the (rightful) scapegoat in the overall drop in album sales over the globe - after all, if you aren?t buying music, then you?re stealing it, right?
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I?m a strong believer that there?s more to digital downloading than many would like to open their eyes to.
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With the popularity of YouTube, file-sharing websites, P2P connections and torrent servers, digital downloading has become easier and faster. While many in the industry might cry foul, let?s take a look at what GOOD digital downloading can bring to the music industry:
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Beyond Borders
Digital downloading allows anyone, anywhere in the world - well, maybe not in China or Iran - to get their hands on any music they want to listen to. This bridges the gap between the music and its intended audience: you. And if they can taste the music they love, wouldn?t they crave for more?
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Getting It Out
While there was a time when recording and circulating demo tapes was the norm, it?s much easier to create and share your music with the world. Places like MySpace are utilised by bands big or small - so why beat it when you can join in on the biggest musical revolution in recent years?
Editing Your MySpace Band Profile - Part 1
February 19, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
NOTE: If you haven’t set-up a profile, read this post to do it correctly.
Now I’m editing the profile of Superbar, my case study band on MySpace. This profile was created more than a year ago when I had no idea how to use MySpace properly, so if you follow the case study series you’ll probably learn shit loads of info.
Most of the profile options are already done, so lets take a look as what can be improved.
I can see that one of the band members have already uploaded a good picture of the band. If your profile is new make sure you get a good photo in there as soon as possible.
When you go to your profile manager page the first thing you’re likely to see is “Upcoming Shows”. You can ignore this until the rest of your profile has been set-up.
Here are the few things you need to edit:
- Listing - Make sure you select a few related genres for your band. If you’re not sure what to put, search for the band that you feel sounds the most like yours, and follow what they have chosen.
- What you choose here will ultimately decide where MySpace decides to place your music among the thousands of other bands.
- This ia also where you get to create the web address (URL) for your band. Do it carefully as you don’t want to change it later
- Manage Songs - This is where you get to list your songs for your visitors to stream / listen to. This will be covered more in Part 2.
- Band Details - This is perhaps one of the most important parts of creating a good profile page for your band. See Part 3 for more info.
- Basic Info - This is really simple, so please dude get this done. You just need to insert your band name and list where your band is from (country, zip etc).
See the other parts for detailed instructions.
MySpace Music Marketing Case Study
February 11, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
Until last Friday, I was still the lead guitarist for a band called Superbar.
But I quit.
I was a founding member of the band, but after three years of having very slow progress, and the fact that I feel I know better than all the band members about how to make money as a musician, I decided to leave the band. When people stop listening to you, it’s best that you let them do what they want to do, and go separate ways.
But I’m staying on as their “Online Marketing Manager”, a post that I created for myself. Online marketing is something I know very well, heck I do it for a full time living. So I’d rather put all my energy into something from which I can feel some amount of closure and satisfaction.
It also holds a better career prospect for me.
My loyalty as an online music marketer is not to Superbar. I see it as a client-customer relationship, but I will be using them as a case study since I need something to build on, and test to see if I really know what I’m talking about.
I’ll be using the MySpace Marketing Handbook as my initial guide, and I’ll be exploring more in-depth strategies as I try to take Superbar’s existing band profile from mediocrisity to the highest level of success they can hope for, based on their music.
If you have a band, and you want some feedback or to be included in my cases studies, please feel free to contact me.
As for my own music career, I think it’s time to get a music re-education and find other stuff to explore. The past three years have almost completely killed my drive and creativity as a musician.
Out with the old, in with the new.
[Update 22 Feb 07: After a round of talks with my band, I decided to give it abother try]
