Photo credit: Ritesh Patel

Coachella was high-tech this year. The wristbands had RFID chips in them to record attendees comings and goings, the iPhone app had the lineup and a GPS-based friend-finder (that if you were on Verizon, worked… AT&T… not so much). You could pick your bands on Coachooser and shoot them out to your social networks, and keep everything handy on your phone while you were there.

BUT – one big thing that Coachella was missing was mobile payments for food + merch. They had numerous ATM’s on-site, and I saw lines at them all day every day. Why couldn’t they set up a wireless network (NOT using AT&T’s service) and hook their vendors and merch people up with Squareor something similar? Not having to take cash out would have been awesome, and I know that I was much more hesitant to spend money on food & drinks knowing that I didn’t want to have to take a trip to the ATM at the end of the night.

Aside from DJ Shadow, has anyone else moved to using mobile payment platforms like Square for merch? Is it still “too high-tech”, or do people just assume that cash is the way to go?

We’ve all seen this happen before. You buy tickets to an event, and the artist gets sick (or the venue loses it’s license, or the tour manager quits, or the date is re-scheduled because Venus is in Saturn’s path and their stars aren’t aligned).

If this was 1990, you would call the ticketing company or stop by the venue and get a re-issued ticket.

If this was 1999, you’d likely get an email about the change with notes on how to claim your ticket for the rescheduled event.

In 2011, you might find out about the show from a Facebook status update from your friend who is going with you, an email, or a Tweet from the artist or venue.

Either way, you’re likely going to re-post to share with other people that are also going to the show, and the communication chain unfolds online.

The Point?

People have the expectation of to-the-minute communication in today’s world. If I’m going to a concert (in this case, a festival), it’s all well and good that I can choose which artists I want to keep an eye on months ahead of time…. but if I’m still wondering about set times 3 days before the event starts, I’m going to wonder why and want someone, somewhere, to say something!

Coachella is all over the social web – kudos to them! But, if you’re not actively participating and monitoring the conversations and key questions from people reaching out to you, you’re only halfway there.

Part of being present on the social web in this case is using it as Q&A tool (as one example). What are people talking about? What are they asking questions about? How can I help get them answered? It’s online customer service… nothing too fancy or groundbreaking!

Right now, I don’t so much care about H&M’s thing at Coachella… what I want to know is who I’m going to see play and when!

I also don’t care about (what’s likely a virus), clicking on some girl’s photo to help her win a trip or something or other. Coachella – use the moderation tools available to you and pay attention!

So perhaps this is a bit of a selfish plea for Coachella to either release the set times, or tell people why they’re taking so long.

But perhaps it’s also a lesson about making sure you have the resources and time to dedicate to both the posting and the responding to content online, especially if social media is a part of your marketing mix.

Facebook SPAM.  It’s awfully pervasive for such a closed network! I mean, everyone expected MySpace SPAM – that’s what you get when you add people you don’t know and the social norm is self-promotion. But Facebook? I don’t think that a lot of people saw that one coming!  Nevertheless, it’s there, and it’s annoying.  Here are some of my personal top tips to avoid it!

1. Don’t friend people you don’t know. If you’re an artist and want to use Facebook for marketing purposes, build yourself a Fan Page!  There is no doubt that there will be some overlap between your personal Facebook account and your Fan Page, sure, but if you put some measure of separation between the two you’ll receive a heck of a lot less SPAM on your personal Wall and personal Inbox.  Remember folks, Twitter is for people you want to know and Facebook is for people you already know (at least, for your personal account).
2. Use Friend Lists liberally. I know, there may not be any way to avoid adding people who you’re related to business-wise to your personal account.  That’s fine – as very few people have a 100% separation between their professional and personal lives anyway, no matter what industry they’re in.  This is where Friend Lists come in handy.  Add your business people (and/or fans) to a list and limit access to the items that you want to remain publicly available.  Don’t want them seeing your Las Vegas escapades with your bros from college? Limit their access so they can’t see your tagged photos!
3. Adjust your privacy settings. Facebook, for better or worse, has a bevvy of privacy options for you to adjust.  These settings are for the network-wide parts of your profile or actions that you want to show/hide.  Don’t want people knowing where you are? Block other people from checking you in via Facebook Places! Don’t want to be found by would-be stalkers? Make sure that only the very basic information about yourself is available to people that aren’t your friends (or in your 2nd- or 3rd-degree network, whatever you choose).  Learn them, love them!
4. Block the annoying ones. Once you’ve adjusted and updated everything, go through your activities and see if anyone else still has the power to SPAM.  Chances are, you’ll have more than a few rogue promoters who invite everyone and everyone to their events (even when you live 2000 miles away!) that will need to be taken care of.  Enter, block lists! You can block annoying apps (Farmville, anyone?), people, or just event invitations from certain individuals.
5. Ask to be removed. When all else fails, respond to their message or event invite with a request to be removed from their lists.  Some people will, some people won’t, but every little bit helps!

Do you have any other tips or tricks you’ve found useful? Share them in the comments!

This is a story about a little festival that could.

They could produce a stellar lineup. They could sell out within a week. They could promise to be one of the best festivals of the year, if not the past few combined.

This little festival that could did put together a stellar lineup, did sell out within a week, and does promise to be one of the best festivals of the year – if not the past few combined.

This not-so-little festival can also be rude, as seen above.

If you haven’t been paying attention, there’s been a lot of chatter about Coachella over the past few weeks. First, there was the excitement over the lineup (summary: “HOLY COW IT’S AMAZING!”), then there was the chatter about tickets going on sale (summary: “YAY! I HAVE MY TICKET AND I’M SO EXCITED!). Then tickets sold out, Coachella posted their “kthxbye” Tweet was posted and we saw the following:

I get being sassy. I understand that a music festival (or an artist, or a producer, or a disc jockey) may have a bit more leeway than your standard corporate account on Twitter. I even get that humor (in this case, trying to use lolcat humor) can be witty and funny.  However, in this instance, the tweet was just plain rude.

Tickets were going for $1,000+ at the point that the tweet was posted, and the festival and the 75,000 tickets offered sold out within 6 days.  6 days!  Many people were waiting on paychecks to come in, or waiting to get vacation time approved at work.  I know quite a few people myself that had booked accommodation and airfare, but were waiting on buying tickets until they got paid again (just like they did in years before).

Knowing that people are spending a lot of money to go to this festival, and knowing that tickets sold out much more quickly than in years previous, the least that @Coachella could do was show a bit of sympathy, or even thank the people who purchased tickets, when they ran out.

A few examples of tweets that would have worked better than their rude tweet:

“Overwhelming response to ticket sales! We’re sold out already!”

“Thanks to all that bought tickets for this years festival – we just sold out in record time!”

No, it wouldn’t have solved all of the complaints. But, what tweets like the one above would have done was remove the sassy and rude aspect of their current tweet, as well as show appreciation for people that bought the tickets.

Sometimes using humor goes a bit too far, and the fact that people are still talking about that tweet 2 days later shows that this time, it did indeed cross that line.

Coachella – in the future, put yourself in the shoes of the people you’re talking to and ask yourself how they would feel before you tweet. Humor doesn’t always translate well online, especially on Twitter.

At first blush, yoga and music don’t have a ton in common – aside from the fact that music is usually playing during a yoga class, of course.

I was willingly having my ass kicked by a great yoga instructor at my gym last night when the strikingly simple analogy hit me – yoga is just like practicing a musical instrument. Bear with me here…

The basics of practicing seem simple – you play a piece over and over and over until you get it right.  But look deeper, and you notice the nuances.  Are your fingers correctly placed on the violin so that your notes come out on pitch, as opposed to sharp or flat? Are you moving them at the right time for the runs? When you’re drumming, how is the tension in your arms and wrist affecting how you strike the drum? Where are you holding the tension? Where should you be relaxing?

The most simple of techniques, rudiments, fundamentals or poses can take on a completely different light when you analyze them and pay attention to the action of doing them, not just the getting through them to the next phrase or pose.

Enter – the mountain pose.  It’s literally what you see above – standing with your feet together and arms at your side, palms facing forward.  How deceptively simple! “Standing up, I do that all day!”

Right – but how often do you pay attention to how you’re standing? How often do you pay attention to if your toes are spread or together – to how your feet are grounded on the floor? How often do you think of where your hips are in relation to your shoulders, or how your neck is aligned with everything else?

You don’t. Just like you might not pay attention to how you’re striking the drum or if your fingers are placed in exactly the right place on your violin at exactly the right moment.  These little details escape us as we rush through our lives and through our practice… we often get through them just to get to the next point.

The lesson I took away from yoga last night was this – before you move onto the advanced stuff (running a Twitter contest for tickets, or developing a strategy for increasing the engagement on your Facebook Fan Page), make sure you have the basics down (like Tweeting things that people are interested in, or getting fans on your Fan Page).  Start from the beginning and apply thought and a good dose of awareness to everything you do before moving forward.

Doesn’t the saying go “Perfect practice makes perfect”? Start small, get the basics right, then move forward.

Oh – and the soundtrack to this post? The Facebook soundtrack – fitting, eh?

It’s funny.  In certain circles, weird looks cross faces when I mention speaking to people for years without ever meeting them.  In other circles, it’s completely normal. It’s been this way for about 10 years now, at least as I remember it.

Ever since my teenage years, I’ve seen the Internet as a tool to connect with people.  At first it was old friends – people that had moved or that I’d lost contact with for one way other other.  Later, I got into WGI (the link is an MP3 to the last show I played, the Overture to Candide played from finish to start, then from start to finish – in case you’re wondering).  I also joined LiveJournal around the same time and started to see things changing.  All of a sudden, the Internet became a place for me to chat with people about upcoming shows, connect with members of other drumlines before we ran into them at a competition, capture my thoughts and feelings as I had them, and ultimately meet new people.

All in all, this seemed pretty natural.  I’d be meeting these people in person a short time later – and many of them I’d already met in passing – we just didn’t have the luxury of time to talk.  In that social circle, connecting online was normal.  Mention this to people I went to school with though and I got a completely different reaction – it clearly wasn’t normal to them and in fact, was really, really strange.

Jump forward a decade and these days, I’m hard-pressed to count friends and acquaintances that I haven’t met online on two hands – part of this is work-related (I work in marketing/social media as a job), and part of this is lifestyle related, seeing as I’m into music with a really strong online presence and community (drum and bass, dubstep, WGI/DCI, etc).

I spent Thanksgiving in the UK and got to thinking about it on the plane ride back.

The friend who let me crash at their place? I met them in person, but through someone I met online.  We’ve kept in contact for 5ish years exclusively online, and kept up online by and large even when I lived in the UK.

The offices I visited when I arrived, to catch up with people I’ve previously worked with? I met them at an event in NYC, but only because I saw a Tweet that they’d be in town and arranged to meet up.  I knew them online first and have kept in contact online ever since (over a year and a half now).

The old friend I caught drinks/dinner with and my old flatmate who came into town to see me? I met one online and one through well, living together, but we’ve all kept in contact online for the past year and a half and 5+ (respectively).

These are just a few examples, but in each one, the relationship wouldn’t have happened or be maintained without the use of the Internet.  Nowadays I find it normal to keep in contact with people all over the world and feel like I actually know what’s going on in their lives – even if we haven’t seen each other in person for years.

What’s this mean for you? It means that you shouldn’t overlook the power of the Internet as a medium – not only to promote your own stuff, but to discover new people and new opportunities, as well as maintain the ones you have.

Pretty simple. huh?

I’ve been following Hypebot’s 3-part series (so far) about DJ Shadow’s marketing plan for his current tour, Shadowsphere.  If you haven’t read it, it’s a great series.

Overall, the thing that sticks with me throughout the series is the attention to detail that Shadow’s Marketing Manager (Michael – and make that “Project, Marketing and Merchandise Manager“) has used to build out their strategy and tactics for managing the tour.  Instead of trying to find one solution for all aspects of the tour promotion, Michael’s using many different tools, each designed to do one thing very well.

For event-based marketing, Michael’s lined up the following arsenal:

• Facebook (yeah, more on this in a bit)
• iPhone app (with geo-targeted push notifications!)
• Square at merchandise tables
• Street team
• Buttons (yeah really, buttons!)
• Merchandise (with multiple price points)

Now, for the more long-term aspect of marketing DJ Shadow for this tour (and after), Michael and Shadow are all over the place – in a good way!

• djshadow.com
• DJ Shadow iPhone app (including a merchandise section within the app)
• SMS text campaign for a free download
• Email marketing (with signup at the merchandise table)
• Facebook
• Twitter
• MySpace
• iLike
• Reverbnation

Seriously, they’re everywhere! Wait, did you miss that? That’s the point!

Let me explain.  A lot of people (businesses included, not just musicians!) take the approach of only marketing themselves where they feel comfortable doing so.  This means that if they’ve not used Reverbnation or iLike before, they’re not going to look at it in terms of what marketing potential it holds.  Starting from where you feel comfortable is the opposite approach that you should be taking, as it’s really not about you. It’s about your customers/fans and where they are and where they want to connect with you.

Now, getting back to Facebook! I’d like to highlight this gem:

Bottom line: Facebook works because they figured out the ultimate formula for data portability.  The fact that I can post a geo-targeted update on Facebook, and that update will post to users within a specific geographic location, who can then share it with their entire network, is marketing gold.  When I update Shadow fans about a show, I only want to update the fans in the region of where that show is.  The beauty is, those people can then go and share it with ALL of their friends, wherever they may be, who in turn may click the link, and be redirected to the Shadow Facebook, or better yet, DJShadow.com.  This takes away the problem of mass-marketing a show for a specific region, but gives it the ability to go viral on a wider level than just the region targeted.  This also creates the ability for 1 show to begin an online buzz for the entire tour.

I’ve posted about my annoyance with people that do what Michael is referring to above – the lack of geo-targeting with event invites. I LOVE the fact that they’re taking this into account and putting the power in their fans hands to promote the event for them, without over-saturating them to the point of annoyance with invitations to events they can’t attend.

For the email marketing, the merch table with multiple price points and the street team – my lesson is this.  Don’t abandon the basics.

If you have a well-kept email list, use it! People are going to want to by souvenirs from the concert, so give them options! If you have people who want to marketing for you on the streets, use them to get the word out the “old fashioned” way. Don’t throw away everything you’ve done in the past for something that seems the shiny new object – you’ll just end up seeing scattered and cause your fans to be in a perpetual state of confusion over where they can find you.

Kudos to DJ Shadow and Michael for putting together a solid marketing plan for the tour!

I’m curious about why people use Facebook.

More specifically, I’m curious about how people use Facebook.  The network itself has an interesting past – from starting out as a purely social networking site limited to certain universities (which is when I joined), to becoming a behemoth marketing tool complete with targeted ads, Fan Pages and Groups (so, ads, small versions of microsites and something akin to a listserv, but on steroids).

I ran across this article today which caused a pretty instant “WTF ARE THEY SMOKING?!” reaction upon reading this line (emphasis mine):

It takes an incredible commitment to cultivate a personal brand.  To go from three Facebook friends to 3,000 is no small feat; same goes for Twitter — to grow a personal fan base requires a savvy combination of content creation, curation, promotion and cool.

For me, going from “three Facebook friends to 3,000″ would literally mean that I met 2,997 new people.  I use Facebook much the same as I have for the past 6ish years – as a way to aggregate everyone I’ve ever met in my life.  I don’t add people who just happen to know my friends, and only rarely add people that I haven’t met in real life (though, due to my Internet-heavy life, there are a few exceptions).

The rest of the article is remarkably on point though – if you’re interested in the corporate brand/personal brand discussion at all then I’d suggest that you go here and read it.

But, getting back to my original question… how do you use Facebook?

I’ve been doing some thinking and see a pretty clear breakout for artists/musicians/people that care to have a visible brand of any sort:

• Personal Page For friends, family, acquaintances, people they know. It contains details about who they are, not just the brand they present to the world. There are probably varying levels of access (via friends list/privacy settings)
• Fan Page For fans and friends/family/acquaintances that want to keep in touch with what you’re doing professionally. There aren’t varying levels of access, but the content is designed to be used as a marketing tool.
• Group I don’t think that many musicians have jumped on Groups yet, but I see a lot of useful applications of them.  This is more of an unstructured conversation than your Fan Page, but may have a lot of the same people involved.  This is also used as a marketing tool, but it may be a value-added one, as you can make groups private.

So – how do you use Facebook? Do you have a personal page and a Fan Page? Do you market yourself through your personal page (and things like event invites, etc)?

Oh, and speaking of event invites – here’s how to block the people that keep spamming you with them.

Tell me in the comments, please! I halfway think that I’m missing the boat with Facebook and if so, I’d love to know why/how.

I’ve been a big fan of Behringer products for years.  They produce quite the extensive line of DJ, sound and other music-related products, and I’ve always had great experiences.  That being said, they were pretty much out of sight, out of mind for years. I stopped DJin’g and just didn’t have a need to keep up with what they were doing.  I’ve been paying attention to them again lately though, mainly due to their Twitter stream.

I took a look around their social presence and really like what I saw.  So much so that I decided to write an entire blog post about it – not bad, eh?

I’ll start with the website:

The clean style really showcases both the products they want to feature (rotating in the center), as well as a larger portion of their product line and their social outposts, all without being crowded or poorly-designed.

Great, but their Twitter stream is really what caught my eye.  Let’s take a look!

I LOVE the fact that they’re on top of responses.  A lot of people/companies who are just jumping into social media seem to forget the “social” aspect and just use their accounts to push our news about their company.  Behringer does post updates about their products, but they also feature weird musical instruments, ask questions and have conversations with people that respond to them. It’s a really great combination of interesting information and interaction, and I regularly go check the account just to see what I’ve missed from them. Really.

I hopped over to Facebook next and really, the only negative thing I have to say here is that I wish they had a better avatar. It is consistent with their other profiles (like Twitter above), but just a bit too long for the space.  Still – if I’m just pointing out the avatar and not the actual content, I consider that a huge win.  Make no mistake, the content is really good! Take a look for yourself.

Behringer does cross-post content from Twitter to Facebook (or vice versa, more likely), and I like that they do this.  They don’t try and shove people back and forth between the platforms, yet they make sure that if you’re on Twitter, you’ll see the much the same information as you’d see on Facebook.  They also reply to comments on Facebook which is unique! You’d be surprised how many companies post something then just leave it.  Questions go unanswered, kudos go unthanked and opportunities to, you know, be social, go unrecognized.

As if that wasn’t enough, they’re also on YouTube and Flickr – both give you a good “behind the scenes” view of what’s up at Behringer, including shows they’re at and videos they’re making (even just for fun).  The videos are fun to watch and the photos are a combination of company photos and fan submissions – I really enjoyed looking through both sites and seeing some of the faces and personalities.

So – some takeaways:

• Interaction is good. Don’t be afraid to use @ replies, DM’s or comments to respond to questions, thank people for their support or offer help.  Sometimes all people want is to be heard.
• Consistency is good. Use the tools you’ve selected to their full potential! Cross-post content and encourage people to connect with you where they feel most comfortable doing so – not where you want them to do so.  You don’t have to copy everything (and in fact, you probably shouldn’t), but posting key pieces of content on multiple sites isn’t always a bad thing!
• Design matters. It may seem completely obvious, but web design matters! I was encouraged to poke around Behringer’s site simply because it was easy to use.  Don’t be afraid to change things up or invest some serious time and resources to make your website more effective.  Websites are still important!

What other companies do you like in the social space? Share your favorites in the comments!

This blog has taken a bit of a turn lately.  In the beginning, I wrote quite a few posts about my pet peeves, glaring annoyances and how-to’s for this tool over that tool.  Easy stuff that, quite frankly, my friends were sick and tired of hearing about.  However, like most things, my mind has wandered down a different path as time has gone by.

These days I think more about the big picture – what everything looks like put together.  I think more about that one over-arching goal, and how all the little stuff fits into supporting that goal and making it actually happen.

Working on a dream is tough. There are roadblocks and setbacks, and there are triumphs and changes. It’s often hard to remember what that big picture looks like when you’re caught up in the daily grind, but often even harder to start breaking down your goal into things you can accomplish today, then tomorrow, then next month, then next year.

So, how do you get started? I’ll use something very non-music related as my example – my own move to NYC a few years ago.

Write It Down

It may sound simple, but write down your dream.  Nothing elaborate, just a statement. My dream literally was “Move to NYC” – that’s where it all began.

I’m a big list fan, so I started there.  Then I started asking questions:

• How will I move my things?
• Where will I live?
• What will I do for work?
• How much money will it cost me to live there?

If that’s not enough to freak you out, then I commend you. I think I sat there staring at my list of questions for a good few hours going “Well… shoot – I don’t know!”

But I moved on, and you must move past the “Oh shoot!” stage if you’re ever going to really start making your dream happen. So get freaked out, think that your dream may be impossible, get scared, get intimidated, go and cry at the sheer massiveness of what you want to do… and then get to doing it.

Start Small

My dream and my questions all required work.  But, before beginning anything I wanted to make sure I was focusing on the right stuff without leaving anything else.

I started small.  In my case, this meant looking up rental rates of moving vans and doing a Google search to see if there were any options (there were) to get my belongings up to NYC for less than an arm and a leg. There were, and I think I found them all during my search.

Big dreams often start small. You want to play at Madison Square Garden? Great, see if you can sell out the back garden of your neighborhood bar first.

Make a list of everything you’ll have to do to get to your big goal. Then, ist out all of those intermediary steps like getting an agent, getting signed to a record label or selling your first Platinum record. Those all become your intermediate goals, your mile markers, if you will.

Break down your big goal into as many smaller goals as you need to or can.  Then, concentrate on one small goal at a time.  What do you need to do to sell out the backyard of your neighborhood bar? How many people need to be there? What does your set list need to look like? What if you don’t sell it out the first time – can you do it the 2nd time around?

Celebrate

This may sound cliche, but don’t forget to stop and smell the roses.  Did you sell out your neighborhood bar? Stop and congratulate yourself before moving on to your next challenge.

It’s always good to evaluate things on a regular basis – see what’s changed, see what you have coming up.  Make celebrating your smaller victories a part of that regular evaluation and truly mean them! Setbacks will happen and roadblocks will appear, so make sure to take time to really celebrate how far you’ve come and appreciate everything that went into your accomplishment.

How do you make sure you’re on track with your goals? Share your tips in the comments!

*Photo credit: angietorres

I’m not an expert blogger, but I do spend a good majority of my day reading and commenting on blogs.  A lot goes into writing a blog, even if it doesn’t seem that way on the surface.  Wondering how to get started? Here’s my take on the top 3 things you should keep in mind.

Content, Content, Content

It may be all about the Benjamin’s in your world, but it’s all about the content in mine.  Make your blog interesting and I’ll keep coming back. I don’t want to read a million posts talking about how fabulous you are, but I do want to read a million posts about your creative process, the work that goes into marketing your work, inspiration you find throughout your daily life, or other artists you’ve been digging lately.

Blog posts don’t have to be epic tomes! Length isn’t necessarily an important factor here. It’s more about the point you’re trying to get across – a good story will keep me reading far longer than the shorter version of the same story that lacks substance.

Looks Are Important

I may not know what you look like on stage, but I do know what you look on the Internets.  Your blog can be pink, purple, orange, green or blue – just make it easy to navigate and I’ll keep coming back.  If you’re wondering if your site looks like to an outsider, ask someone that has never visited before and see what they say they like or dislike.

Highlight what you want your reader to pay attention to first. If it’s your content and your videos, make sure you give them equal real estate.  There was a big discussion about sidebars on the last #blogchat, and it seemed like the overwhelming conclusion was that your sidebar has to be useful. If you’re active on other sites, provide an easy way for people to find you there. If your posts leave a lot of room for follow-up, or if you just want people to email you and make you feel loved, make sure a link is prominently featured.  You figure out what’s useful by first figuring out your goals.  If you think your sidebar is getting too long, try creating new pages on your website to hold some of that content. A site shouldn’t be overwhelming to a new visitor!

Know Your Audience

There are a ton of ways to figure out what your readers enjoy.  I use Google Analytics to see which posts get the most traffic, and Google Webmaster to figure out how people end up on the site.  I keep an eye on which posts get Tweeted the most, and see who likes or comments on my posts that are shared on Facebook.

When all else fails – ask people what they want to read.  Ask them what questions they have for you and see what they say!

Want more? Check out Pro Blogger for some GREAT blogging tips. Also, don’t be afraid to emulate – if you like a blog, watch and see how they do things. See if you can adopt their practices for yours!

Do you have tips to share? Any lessons you’ve learned along the way? Share them in the comments!

This may come as a shock, but “making it” in the music business isn’t just about having a lot of talent.

Some would even ay that talent has completely gone out of the window, if they were to judge the talent of the industry as a whole by the stuff that takes over the radio airwaves.

So, if it’s not dependent upon your incredible talent, what does determine your success?

Part of it is luck – the whole “being in the right place at the right time” thing. But that’s a small part – something akin to the little midget slice of pizza when you’re looking at the pie – it sticks out, but it doesn’t really contribute to the whole in a significant way.

What about basic business skills? Simple things like how to write an email without sounding like someone in primary school, showing up to gigs on time, following up or following through when you give your word, respecting people’s time. How far will those get you? Pretty darn far!

There’s no wonder that some of the most successful musicians have strong business minds (Lady GaGa, The Roots). They realize that business skills, even something as simple as basic professionalism, matter. They matter to the engineer that masters your upcoming release. They matter to the web designer who works their magic with your website. They matter to the event organizers who book you to ply their event, and they matter to the agency you’re pitching to represent you.

Basic professionalism can make you or break you, especially when you’re just starting out.

Never ever underestimate how valuable someone’s time is to them, as its the surest thing you can do to wreck your relationship by ignoring it. From late-notice requests, mis-spelled pitches, no call no show cancellation notices, to failing to return an email or give someone a ring back to confirm a project – remember to mind your manners.

Treat the people you work with like you want them to treat you – with respect, and as someone that’s trying to make a living off of what they do. It’s the golden rule that many people seem to forget.

Have any experience to share? I’d love to hear your stories – for better or worse. Leave them in the comments!

* Photo provided by Purple Phoenix

I <3 Evernote. There, I said it.  Like all great loves I wasn’t quite sure at first – but I quickly found feature after feature after feature that won me over.  For those that don’t know what Evernote is, it’s a way to “remember everything”, or “Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer, phone or device you use. For free.” That sounds kind of daunting, but I’ve broken it down into 5 reasons why every artist should <3 Evernote in hopes of simplifying the usefulness.

1. Simplify creative process This blog post was written with assistance from Evernote, as I had the spark of an idea in the midst of doing other things.  What did I do? I went over to my “Blog Posts” notebook and jotted down a note – saying: I saved it for later reference and left it alone until I had time to sit down and actually write the blog post. As you can see, I tend to not worry about spell-check in my Evernote notes as (usually), they’re for my reference only. It’s a huge help when I’m struck by inspiration as I’m walking down the street or on a conference call, and it allows me to come back to the idea when I have time – without forgetting the idea itself.
2. Collaboration – they got that! Amber Naslund recently wrote about using Evernote over on Brass Tack Thinking and did a wonderful job of spelling out exactly how Evernote can help you get organized. If Amber and I wanted to collaborate, using Evernote to do so would be as simple as going into the notebook settings and putting in her email address. It’s a 3-click process.
3. Removing the chains I travel a decent amount for my job and often find myself writing blog posts or answering emails from my phone, computer, or iPad.  Some combination of these devices are with me at all times, and I’ve been known to work from places like bars, restaurants, coffee shops, airport gates, parks, co-working spaces, planes, trains, automobiles… you get the picture.  Evernote syncs with every single one of my devices and allows me to keep my notes, all my notes, on me at all times. That’s critical to my life as I’m so rarely in one place for an extended period of time – not unlike a touring musician.
4. Connecting the dots I sometimes think of Evernote as a digital supply of post-its. I can jot down an idea, put it into the appropriate notebook (food, blog posts to read, blog posts to write, work stuff, etc) and leave it sitting there for however long I want. Sometimes I’ll shuffle through the notes and see patterns – combining this note with that one over there to form a more complete thought, or help flesh out a topic.  I used to use post-its for this exact use, but now that I’ve made the transition to Evernote it’s even easier to see the logic behind my thoughts and rearrange as necessary.
5. Media neutrality It took me a bit to get used to the fact that I could clip a website and save it to Evernote instead of bookmarking it, but once I did I didn’t look back. I’ve saved blog posts, recipes, images I like, audio clips, video clips using my built-in laptop camera – you name it. Evernote is extremely flexible and integrates with scanners, printers, Twitter services, to-do lists – really, the list is extensive. If you wonder if you can save it to Evernote the answer is generally yes, and they don’t seem to care if it’s a song, a photo, or some written words that you want to remember.

I’m curious if anyone else is as into Evernote as I am. Do you use it? What has your experience been like?

After living in NYC for well over a year, I finally ventured out to Governors Island to catch an outdoor concert.  In my usual “my weekend plans are to have no set plans” style, this was totally last minute and I found myself hopping on the quickest subway train from Herald Square to South Street Seaport I could find (it was the 2,3 – in case you were wondering).

The concert was a 2-stage multi-act shindig, and my group had high hopes for not only the opening acts, but the headliner, M.I.A. – one of my favorite acts.

Karri totally blogged about the concert and her post is worth a read, especially if you’re into Ali G turned South African hip hop (for the record, I totally am – and they’re called Die Antwoord). Aside from personal favorites Skream and Benga, these guys totally stole the show.

Really, who doesn’t love songs about ninjas?

Then comes M.I.A. – aka: the lady I’ve been waiting in the sticky “holy cow it’s still 85 degrees and it’s almost midnight!” heat to see. Since way before “almost midnight”.

To put it plainly? She blew.

Blew out my ears.

Sounded like she was going to blow out the speakers.

Blew me from my spot sort of close to the stage to back by the food vendors.

Blew me all the way out to the ferry, with hundreds of other fans.

Two. Songs. In.

Now, I’m going to go on record here and say that I don’t actually think that she was the problem. I think that it was the lack of a soundcheck that was the problem here.  Die Antwoord stopped mid-song to ask the sound guys to turn their monitors up, and they sounded crisp and clean. Even Skeam and Benga sounded clear, and their music is full of bass and sub bass. The bass is what makes dubstep, dubstep!

M.I.A. on the other hand… wow. She sounded like she was close to a half a beat behind, she had a wicked reverb on her mic, she kept getting feedback from the speakers, and the bass was so muddy that it all sounded like one big “boom” instead of music.

What in the heck happened to the soundcheck?!

Really, that’s all I want to know.  I know that I wasn’t the only disappointed fan judging by the hundreds that left with me on the ferry back to Manhattan less than 2 songs in. That’s for sure.  But I am inquisitive, and I really want to know how the sound can go from crisp and clean in one set, to so awful I pick up and leave while barely into the set in the next moment. Especially because she was the headliner!

Us fans, we may act impatient, but we’re really, honestly and truly, willing to wait for the crew to perform a soundcheck if it’s going to mean that we get to enjoy the music we paid (in this case $50 and up) to see.

Performance quality still matters people – and it often starts with the basics – like the soundcheck.

Before getting into this post, I’d like to repeat my disclaimer, as MySpace happens to be a client of the company I work for – and I want to be clear that the post below expresses opinions that are mine and mine alone (or… mine, all mine!).

This blog expresses my personal opinions and not the opinions of anyone else… unless they’re being interviewed or I’m summarizing something they said – then it does.  I welcome comments and discussions, though do reserve the right to remove offensive or inflammatory comments if necessary.

My blog may come across as slightly sarcastic at times. That’s because I’m slightly sarcastic at times. Again, this is me, not my employer, my family, my friends or my favorite cactus talking.

Now that the disclaimer bit is over, let me explain my thoughts about MySpace and the wider online music world.

Think back to the early 2000′s. As far as social networking goes, it was just a baby. You had Friendster and MySpace, but not much else. As a musician, it made sense to put your efforts into MySpace, as it was quickly gaining popularity and had a very large audience. It was a great place to put press photos, music, information about your band members/your band, tour information, etc.

It had the magic duo – the functionality and the audience.

Jump forward to 2010 and the situation has changed dramatically. I still have a MySpace account and still go there to look at new music and check out what the bands I like are up to, but I’d be lying if I said that I used MySpace as frequently as I used Facebook or Twitter, for example.  Some of that is due to my job, as a good part of what I do requires me to pay attention to Twitter and Facebook on a daily basis, but it’s also due to personal preferences; my friends have mainly migrated away from MySpace, so it’s usefuless has gone from a “catch up with everyone”, to a “see new music/catch up with bands”.

Now, MySpace has been taking some great steps recently to fix some of the things that their users were talking about – such as a redesigned look and feel. That’s fabulous, and as a user I really appreciate the change (hey there, MySpace – thanks!).

What does this mean for bands?

It means that your audience is no longer in one central place.  If you audience isn’t in one central place, what sense does it make for you to only exist in that “no longer central” place?

Think of it this way.

Let’s say you lived in a small town and you only had one grocery store. Suddenly there was a population boom and 3 more stores opened. If you were selling a product at that one grocery store, wouldn’t you want to get your product into the other new stores? Your former customers could start wanting to go to one of the new stores for any number of reasons, but you still want to get your product in front of them. True? Absolutely.

Diversify

No, this isn’t a post saying that MySpace is useless (it’s still quite useful), and I’m also not telling you delete your band page off of MySpace (keep it!).

This is a post telling you to look beyond the single grocery store.

• Look at places like soundcloud to post your tracks/give your fans the ability to download mixes.
• Look at Facebook to maintain a basic presence for people that use that social network as their first port of call (they do have 500 million users).
• Look at Twitter to chat with your fans and expose your music to potential new fans.
• Look at flavors.me to aggregate all of these outposts onto one central page.

All of these places provide an easy way for you to be found on a Google search, and even if you prefer going to MySpace, it doesn’t really matter if your fans/potential fans don’t.

The best part? They’re all free (like MySpace), and don’t require any knowledge of HTML to set up.

Note: flavors.me does charge $20/year if you want to make your URL bandname.com instead of flavors.me/bandname. You can set it up and keep the original URL for free though.

So – bands/musicians/producers/DJ’s – I’m curious! What do you think? Have you tried any of the above? Did they work for you? Why or why not?