I’m trying to expand the content of this blog a bit and talk about different topics. You’ll see this in the upcoming weeks, but I wanted to get the ball rolling now by talking about an awesome conference coming up in NYC called BlogWorldExpo.

Now, normally this awesome conference takes place in Vegas. As I’ve never been to Vegas, this obviously means that I’ve had to lustfully watch the Twitter and blog chatter about all the awesome panels (and yes, the awesome “networking events”) too from the sidelines.

This year, however, they announced that the conference was coming to New York City. Three cheers for local conferences!

Unfortunately, due to work obligations, I’ll still be lustfully watching from the sidelines (though undoubtedly going to the events at night to catch up with people/do the networking thing).

Lucky for you, on top of some awesome panels planned around social media, content creation, legal issues surrounding all of this stuff, analytics, and other industry-type panels, there are a few music marketing panels planned!

If you’re around, I’d suggest checking any/all of them out. Even if they’re not directly related to what you’re doing right now, they’ll likely provide some good food-for-thought. If I’ve learned anything from attending conferences throughout the years it’s that you’ll never know when you need to use what you’ve learned, and you’ll also never stop being surprised by who you meet.

Without further ado, here are the music-related panels:

SXSW4Japan: A Case Study in Real Time, Iterative Development, Crisis Response, Crowd Sourcing and Social Good.

Why should you care? Because if you ever have wanted to support a charity, figure out how to motivate a group of people, understand how to organize people over long distances, or gather ideas from an audience, this case study is for you. I can think of a million ways a growing band could use these techniques to gain popularity and sell their music, but why don’t you attend and tell me what you think instead?

What Goes Into Growing a Music Blog

One would probably argue that I should attend this panel, but this blog is more of a marketing blog as opposed to a music review blog (OK, so it IS a marketing blog and ISN’T a music review blog – let’s make that clear). Nevertheless, I’ve learned that chatting with other bloggers is a great way to learn how to be a better blogger myself, so I’d suggest this panel for anyone that wants to learn about blogging.

College Music BlogWorld

Show of hands for who wants people to listen to their music? Oh, every one of you dear readers? That’s what I thought! This panel is all about how numerous acts have made it big by attracting attention from the college markets before the indies or the majors, and it’s a good lesson in how to start spreading your music far and wide. Go forth and… learn?

What if I can’t go?

Even if you can’t attend, the great people at Social Fresh (as well as numerous other blogs and Twitter folk) will be covering the content, so I suggest following along by using the Twitter hashtag #bweny (click on the link to see a Twitter search I set up for the hashtag) and paying attention to your favorite marketing and social media blogs for their takes on their talks or the sessions they attended.

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 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!

Man, I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook.  I think most people love and hate equal parts – the privacy concerns, the ever-changing user options, the user interface changes, the list goes on and on.

I wrote this just about a year ago and sadly, the problem has only gotten worse since then.

I’ll admit this upfront – this post is selfish.  I cannot count the number of times I’ve logged into Facebook and had an event invitation in my inbox for an event I couldn’t possibly attend.

You know what I mean. You log into Facebook and WHAMMO!, you have an invitation to an event that you’ll never attend because it’s 15 states away and a 2,000 mile drive. Or, even more outrageous, it’s across an ocean and a 5+ hour plane ride away.

It happens all the time, and unlike a year ago, there’s now a way to solve it without unfriending the offenders.

It’s a ridiculously simple process – hat tip to @mantywebdesigns for giving me the info.

Here’s how you do it:

First, go to your Account tab.  You’re looking for “privacy settings”, which is the 4th down in the list.

From there, go to the bottom of the screen and click where it says “block lists”.  I missed it the first few times around as I otherwise don’t have a reason to block people on Facebook, but bear with me!

It’s really easy from there on out – all you have to do is scroll down to “block event invites”, then add the worse offenders. They’ll still be your friends, but you won’t have to see their event invitations in your inbox anymore.

Problem? Solved!

In case you want to know more about Facebook, I encourage you to go and check out some other stellar posts I’ve found:

• 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
• How to change your Facebook Places privacy settings in 6 steps
• HOW TO: Set Up a Winning Facebook Fan Page

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!

In light of my post explaining how to start listening across the social web, I thought I’d run a test to see which bands already were listening.  Plus, I really needed some new music.

It all started with this tweet:

I repeated the tweet a bit later on with the hashtag of the day (#musicmonday) to see if people were following the hashtag, rather than searching for the generic terms of “band” or “new music”.

I then posted variations of the tweets above that got the most response once a day for the next 6 days.

You know what was surprising? Aside from a band @ replying me because someone else @ replied them telling them to do so, not one single band, producer, singer/songwriter, guitarist, drummer, or any other kind of musician responded to my query.

I was pointed in the direction of numerous bands my friends liked, which was great… but that wasn’t the point.

The point was to see if any musicians were using even a basic Twitter search (like, oh, #musicmonday, or “looking for new music”, or “looking for new bands”).

There, now you have 4 searches you can subscribe to (get the RSS feeds in your Google Reader). You’re welcome!

Is anyone else as flabbergasted as I am that this failed on such a spectacular level?

Photo credit: suchitra prints

I often am asked how to start monitoring the conversations happening on the web. How do you know what to look for? Where do you begin? How can you save time? How can this information be used to eventually spread the word about what you do??

Ask no more!

Before I begin, I want to state that I work for a social media monitoring company. But, I’m not here to pitch them. I’m here to provide advice for you, the musician who, in entrepreneurial terms, is “bootstrapping” it.

Define what you’re looking for

Why are you out there on the social web? Is it to get press? Keep up with industry news? Spread the word about who you are and what you play? Connect with other musicians?

The first step to successful listening is knowing WHY you’re listening. Figure that out first, and don’t be afraid to include more than one answer! Listening can have multiple purposes.

Find your Audience

Where do people go to connect? Do a basic search for some key terms that seem logical, stemming from your answers above. Perhaps search for names of your band, band members, perhaps groups you think are similar to you in sound or style. Socialmention.com is a great resource for a quick n dirty search, and it will let you search places like Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and blogs – all at once. Take note as to where conversations seen to be happening and remember that for later.

Find your Keywords

After you know what you’re looking for and where you should be looking for it, sit down and define your keywords. What do you want to go out looking for? As mentioned above – starting with your brand, any member names, people that sound similar, perhaps your location, or a combination thereof is a good start. Run some test searches and see what results come in. Are the results what you expect? Do you need to eliminate some results? Are there key words you can use (called exclusion keywords) to eliminate groups of irrelevant results?

Try, tweak, and try some more.

Behold the RSS Feed

Learn to love the RSS feed. Don’t know what one is? Learn here.

It works like this. Say you to go Twitter and plug in those lovely keywords you figured out earlier. Look at the results page for a button that looks like sound waves, or something that says something similar to “get an RSS feed of your results”. Click on that and add it to your preferred RSS reader (the way you read these things, sort of like a digest). I use Google Reader, but lots of options exist.

Add the search results via RSS feed to the reader and voilà, the search happens automatically and sends you new results! You now just have to go into the reader and check for them on a regular basis.

You can subscribe to all sorts of things like this. Blogs, Google search results, Twitter search results, etc.

Learn, automate, and manage your time.

So?

So now you’re out there, getting automatic results in on a regular basis for things you want to keep up with. Read them, comment if you feel like it, add people to your network where it makes sense, and enjoy!

Otherwise known as HOLY STATISTICS!

These summary stats were pulled from the Socialnomics site, so go there for the full statistical breakdown in written form. These are just the highlights!

1. By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers….96% of them have joined a social network
2. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
3. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
4. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
5. 80% of Twitter usage is outside of Twitter…people update anywhere, anytime…imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
6. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen
7. The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube
8. 54% = Number of bloggers who post content or tweet daily
9. 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
10. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
11. Only 14% trust advertisements
12. 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video…on their phone
13. 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
14. More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily.

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

I know, the life of a hustler is hard.

Let me help. Here are 6 great social tools to help your hustle along and create some buzz about your music.

Note: if your noise doesn’t qualify as wonderfully crafted, start here.

1. Twitter – No, it’s not just about what you had for lunch.  The pros? Setup costs are low (it’s free) and setup time is minimal (5 minutes, tops).  The cons? A bit of reading before you jump on would probably be a good thing, and tweeting takes time. Getting in the habit of sharing little details here and there also takes a bit to get used to. Just be sure not to be “that guy” on there, please.
2. Facebook – Yes, really! You can set up a page with pretty minimal time and effort and it’s completely OK to fill your Wall with your stuff, even multiple times per week! Go look at Alicia Keys’ page if you want an example of a successful Fan Page. Warning: Facebook likes to change things and delete things without warning, so don’t depend on this tool alone to get the word out.
3. Contxts – It’s a pretty simple concept. You meet someone, you tell them to text a number with a certain message, and in response they get a text back with your contact details. It’s free for everyone involved and pretty easy to configure to your liking.  Twentysomething in the Music Biz covers a few promotional ideas here (it’s well worth the short read). I use it as my “Oops, I ran out of business cards!” backup.
4. SoundCloud – Again with the free. Setup takes about 5 minutes and you can upload all sorts of things to the system. Start with a track or two, perhaps end up with an album or a mix. It’s up to you but it’s a great (and social) way for people to wander by and discover your music.  It’s also easy to embed into places like blogs (see my post here if you want an example) and profiles.
5. Blogger – For those lacking the funds to start a self-hosted website, Blogger provides a nice alternative.  You can write about what you’re up to, put a bit up about yourself, and link to your music all from one central area.  Bonus? You can set up your other sites to direct back to your blogger.com blog, providing a central “hub” for your efforts and a flexible place where you can update your fans and foes alike about what’s going on in the world of your musical creations.
6. YouTube – Set up a channel, record yourself practicing or performing, and share.  I have my own channel to share things like trips I take or concerts I go to, and I’m always surprised to see how many people view my videos.  You can link to your YouTube videos from any number of your social sites, and it’s a great place to share your music as a lot of people use YouTube as a discovery engine, a la “plug in a random search term and see what comes up”. You can also embed your videos in your blogger.com site, share them on Facebook or Tweet about them.

What tools did I miss? The comments are yours for the sharing!

Picture this…

A guy takes a girl out on a first date.  She’s dressed up, and he’s aiming to impress. They make polite conversation over a glass of wine while waiting for their food to arrive, and each feels a spark of hope for what may come. He gets up, as if to go to the bathroom, but instead bends down on one knee, revealing a ring inside a box and asking her to marry him.

Romantic, right?

She says no. She says it’s too soon, that she barely knows him, and she runs off – scared at how quickly he moved from an innocent conversation about where he was from, to asking her to spend the rest of her days by his side.

What Happened?

He moved too fast.  Yes, it’s romantic, and yes, the thought of skipping the arduous dating process and getting straight to “the point” is tempting, but she wasn’t ready.  She wanted to discover his quirks, she wanted to discover the dynamics of their relationship without the pressure of a looming wedding, and she wanted to savor the moments they had to come.  She wanted to take her time to decide, and he rushed her.

Um, So, Music, Hello?

How does this relate to music marketing, you ask? Simple.

Musicians ask for the sale before their fans have a chance to make up their mind.

Musicians rush the relationship, doing the music marketing equivalent of proposing on the first date.

So someone follows you on Twitter, great. Reach out and say “hello” or ask them how they found out about you. Start developing your relationship with them from there. Get to know them a bit, and let them get to know you. Jumping in to ask them to buy your latest single/t-shirt/concert ticket before you’ve ever shown that you care about them just defeats the purpose. They end up feeling like just another wallet and you end up seeming like just another self-centered, out to make a quick buck, musician.

So you have a Fan Page on Facebook. Great. Use it to show your fans what you’ve been up to. Don’t just post things and walk away – participate in the conversations taking place on a regular basis.

There’s a time and a place to ask for the sale. That time and place is not every day, nor is it during your first conversation with someone who has been kind enough to show interest in your work.

Give your fans and followers time. Respect the fact that building a relationships with a fan is the same in many ways as starting to date someone new.  There are surprises, there are common interests, there are laughs, and there is a bond that grows over time.

Making money from music isn’t about getting a bunch of people to buy your first album, then finding an entirely different group of people to attend your shows, then seeking an entirely new audience to buy your swag. Relationships aren’t about a bunch of first dates!

So, musicians. Don’t treat your fans like wallets with mouths and faces. Don’t propose to them on the first date.

I was invited by Mack Collier to co-host #blogchat (on Twitter) last Monday night (the 8th) and was blown away by the quality of participants and discussions taking place during the chat.

Before I get into my thoughts, let’s take a step back. For those that don’t know what #blogchat is, it’s a weekly chat happening on Twitter (check out tweetchat.com for more information on how).  Essentially, you pull up a Twitter search for #blogchat at the appropriate time, and start Tweeting with the people already participating. The key is to use the hashtag (#blogchat) in every tweet so that the conversations can be seen by all. If you’re wondering how to find the “appropriate time” a simple Twitter search will tell you if you search for the hashtag.

The topic of the week was how musicians could use blogging and social media to help them achieve their goals – whether they be ticket sales, music sales, or just connecting with their fans.

The full chat transcript can be found here, and Mack’s review post can be found here. Happy clicking!

About an hour and a half into the chat, Curt Smith (co-founder of Tears for Fears) jumped into the fray and spent the next 30ish minutes answering questions.  Part of the value (as a fan) of following artists on Twitter is the perception of personal connection you feel with the artist, their work, and their lives. Take the following exchange as an example:

Some of the other valuable music-related nuggets Tweeted during the chat:

• Blogging and using other SM tools is a great way to build a passionate community
• Communications should be authentic – no PR/marketing people tweeting “as” the artist
• Don’t be afraid to have a personality
• Many artists don’t see themselves as brands – that mind shift is necessary
• Twitter can be a great “first step” tool to drive fans to other places (like a Facebook Fan Page or a website)
• Offering up special incentives/announcements via SM is a great way to make your community in SM feel special (Ed note: as well as start to get an idea of the effectiveness of these tools!)
• Artists and companies need to start viewing fans as long-term assets, not just short-term pockets stuffed with cash. The key? Building a relationship with them.
• If you’re going to use SM, always consider what the fans want to read/might find interesting. The focus isn’t you as a person, per se – it’s about your brand and your work. Don’t be afraid to let personality shine through, but avoid excessive inane chatter.
• Location-based software could be a no-no if you get big enough to worry about “crazy people”. Safety first!
• Most agree a blog should be the “home base” in your digital efforts
• Don’t forget the fan to fan connections – they’re key!
• Before you can ever start to think about selling anything – you need to build a community who wants to buy.

What advice would you add? Leave it in the comments!

This post was pushed to the back burner this month in the midst of the craziness that is my life.  Over the course of the month it became “that thing” that all writers (or bloggers, in this case) think about. That Post That Must Be Written, to be specific.

First off, I do want to send a huge public thanks to a friend and a very talented web developer, Caroline Keim.  I wouldn’t have been able to go to this event had she not invited me, as I’m really just not cool enough to be invited on my own (really, I’m not).

On to the main event…. the event!

This event was put on by Billboard Live, and the concert (Alicia Keys & Friends) was livestreamed on their site and later archived.  The event was mainly “& Friends”, as I believe that Miss Keys played three songs (at most) the entire night.

Alicia opened up the evening with a moving performance of Empire State of Mind – Part II. In a venue as rich in history as The Apollo and in her very own neighborhood, this song really took on extra meaning. Plus, I have a big sentimental side, so there’s that.

Thanks to NYPOST.COM, I figured out who the other artists (“and friends”) were. Billboard – in the future a list of the “& friends” would be handy!

Raheem DeVaughn, Hope, Elle Varner, Marsha Ambrosious, Jermaine Paul and Melanie Fiona all performed a few songs each, with Alicia popping on and off the stage throughout the performances to either perform duets with the acts, or perform her own songs as transitions between the guests.

Two acts really stood out – Melanie Fiona and Elle Varner.

Elle Varner was up first, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when she stepped on stage.  It took about 30 seconds for me to figure out that while Elle may be young, and perhaps new to performing on a stage like The Apollo’s, she is mega-talented.  She’s on Twitter and was tweeting about the event before and after, and I went to her YouTube page to see what she had up there when I read through her stream.  Take a look at what I found below:

I wish she used YouTube more, but she does use MySpace, and keeps a bit info there.

Melody Fiona, the other standout of the night, on top of having a KILLER dress (seriously, I want to own that dress), also brought plenty of sass with a healthy serving of “Holy cow, that girl has PIPES” to the stage.

She was just nominated for a Grammy, and also performed on Jimmy Kimmel live shortly after her show at The Apollo.

At the risk of overwhelming this post with videos, I’ll leave my favorite song off of the video list – Ay Yo.  Click the link to go listen to her performance on Carson Daly’s Last Call.

In true Alicia fashion, she closed out the night with All Right – still one of my favorite songs so no complaints from me!

Now for the social marketing comments…

From a social media perspective, I think this event could have been better executed. There was a MySpace contest for fans to win tickets, but I didn’t see a lot across other social media sites (including Facebook, where she debuted her new album a short month before the event).  Also, Billboard’s site doesn’t provide a lot of interaction, and it’s hard to find the event, let alone watch the recording. I’ve done the digging for you here, but even knowing where to go it took me a few minutes to find it.

I also wish it was easier to find out about the “& friends” part of the show, if you couldn’t tell by my comments above.  I was sitting next to Xilla from Global Grind and between him, myself and Caroline, we were hard pressed to find the correct names of the performers using our ears (and our iPhones).  I spent a chunk of the next day double-checking my work, and figured out that we still had some of the names wrong!

Photos and video weren’t allowed at the event. Since Billboard was live-streaming the event I can see the logic in this, but at the same time, I’d rather show you all the video I shot and photos I took rather than have to point you to YouTube and Billboard’s websites as the sole source of information.  I can play devil’s advocate both ways on this, but with things like events – I’m a firm believer in the fact that fans should be able to record the experiences for themselves through photo and video, as long as they appropriately credit the source.

Overall, I’m happy to see Billboard do something like this, but think that little thought was put into the entire picture by all of the involved groups. The event was great, and fulfilled a long-standing want of mine to see Alicia Keys perform, but I still believe that it fell flat in terms of overall impact.  If companies in the music business are suffering so much, why don’t they put their full efforts into making events like this a true success? How can they appropriately gauge the effects of social media marketing if they’re only doing part of the work?

So. Go check out Alicia Keys’ new album, go check out the guest performers, and go check out the Billboard Live recording of the night.  It was a fun night full of great acts, and I really hope to see more events happening like this in the future. A great start, but there is more to do!

The word “listening” gets thrown around a lot in my world.  From the musicians, there are listening parties, spiritual

image provided by e-magic

experiences from listening to a great piece of music, listening to dubplates, listening for the meaning behind the music – the list goes on.

From the marketing side, I hear about listening to the marketplace, listening to your consumers, or listening for your brand across the web.

Listening is great, and it’s absolutely necessary. The challenge though, is to separate listening from merely hearing.

Listening is hearing with purpose.

In the examples above, “hearing” can be substituted for every instance of “listening”.  The challenge, is to not get stuck in that comfort zone of “yeah, I’m listening”.

The trick is, to never be able to say “Yeah, I hear you” as a throwaway.

Do you?

Are you listening to that dubplate, or merely hearing what you think should be there?

Are you listening to the new album at that listening party, or just waiting for the tracks to finish so you can weigh in with your support and comments?

Are you really listening to what the marketplace is saying, or are you sorting out the comments by “stuff we want to hear” and “stuff we know comes through, but we’ll qualify as unimportant and ignore”?

When you hear a piece of music, are you listening to it, or letting it pass you by?

Listening is a great skill, and a skill that takes a lot of work and patience. Just like learning to pay an instrument, listening takes practice. Listening is not passive.

For you musicians wondering how to listen as marketers, here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Subscribe to blogs of bands/artists similar to you via Google Reader
• Set up Google Alerts for your name and the name of your band
• Set up Google Alerts for acts similar to you
• Search on Twitter (search.twitter.com) for your name, as well as the names of your songs or albums
• Subscribe to the RSS feed of that Twitter search, and pull it into Google Reader
• Search for your name, the names of acts similar to you, or other terms on socialmention.com
• Subscribe to that RSS feed and pull it into Google Reader

What you end up with is a Google Reader (or any RSS reader of your choice) full of information about what’s being said. That’s step 1.

The value comes from going back through that information and absorbing it. Read the blog posts. Comment if appropriate. Go see who’s talking about you on Twitter, reply or send them a Direct Message (DM) if it makes sense.

Look for feedback, look for trends, look for opportunities to connect.

Turn the data that gets fed to you into information by listening.

I’ve been a fan of Alicia Keys since “Songs in A Minor” was released in 2001, and have continued to follow her career as my life, and the world, has evolved.

9 years later a hit new song with Jay-Z playing on radio stations and iPod’s everywhere, I’m now even more in love with her music.

Personal tastes aside, I have a lot of respect for the marketing going on around Alicia Key’s new album – “The Element of Freedom”.

She first debuted the album on Facebook, that’s right – Facebook.  To my knowledge – she’s the first major artist to do so (smart move!).

To do so, her marketing team got a company called Involver on board, which I admit is new to me (hey Involver, if you’re listening I’d love to pick your brain for a future post!).

You can check out her fan page here.

In addition to the Facebook album debut, Alicia and her team have also put together a “I think it’s going to be slightly insane in a great way” event happening tonight at the legendary Apollo Theatre. Actually, it’s happening now, and I’m there, and you can watch here. Full review coming tomorrow, of course!

Back on track…

That’s right – the entire concert is being livestreamed (thanks Billboard!), and straight from their article on the event, here are some juicy details:

The chart-topping singer/songwriter’s new album, “The Element of Freedom,” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in December, but Keys has enjoyed a pair of long-running No. 1′s on the singles charts. Her New York centric duet with Jay-Z, “Empire State of Mind,” — which the duo performed to much acclaim at Yankee Stadium during the World Series in October — rode the top of the Hot 100 for five weeks in November and December. Meanwhile over on the Latin Pop Songs chart, Alejandro Sanz’s track featuring Keys, “Looking For Paradise,” has been No. 1 for the last nine consecutive weeks.

Click to watch the concert here.

If you’re more of the “I like to watch the interviews” type, I included Billboard’s interview below. It’s a good watch!

I’m looking forward to seeing more major labels jump on the “let’s innovate!” train.  If you’ve seen any examples then by all means, please share them in the comments!

That’s right, someone (Jason Keath, to be exact) has invited me to participate in a panel on Social Media in the Music Industry as part of the Social Fresh Nashville conference.

I’m really excited to be participating, and even more excited to see what my fellow panelists have to say about their perspectives of how social media has impacted the music industry.

Panelists

Tessa Horehled, Senior Strategist – Social Media at THINK Interactive

Ben Bennett, Online Promotions and Mobile Marketing Manager at the Country Music Association (CMA)

Justin McIntosh, Manager of Web Services and Marketing at Big Machine Records
In advance of flying to Nashville for the conference, I’ve been connecting with people on the Social Fresh Community and reviewing some of my favorite blogs and videos.

In case you’re curious, I’m a particular fan of (in no particular order):

• Hypebot – Ridiculously quality articles about anything and everything related to music. Sometimes it’s practical, sometimes it’s more theoretical. All of it is good.
• Bass Music – I like my beats extra crispy, and this blog has a great selection of new tracks and music on a regular (more than daily) basis.
• The Future Buzz – I’m a recent fan of Adam Singer and keep wondering why I didn’t find out about him earlier. He’s a smart cookie and his blog shows that.
• Bit Rebels – I like these guys for all the nerdy techy stuff they write about, and the fact that their blog is a great source of music-related information makes it even better.
• Artists House Music – These guys help teach me about the pure music business side of things, which I find refreshing since I (by situation) tend to be more tech-oriented.
• Buzzsonic – A great resource for music trend roundups, tech information and other such quality articles.

I’d love to hear what you want us to answer during the panel. Leave your questions in the comments, or join the Social Fresh Community and leave them for us directly there.