#14 - How to get your stuff on the Radio

Hi,

Just thought I'd pass along some excellent ideas from Amanda Easton on how to get on the radio. It's a great blog you should definitely check it out....this is part one of a three part blog - visit the blog at  http://amandaeaston.blogspot.com.au/.

How to Get on the Radio, Part 1

Hi there,
Having worked with 100s of indie artists through PopTarts, and the independent release of three singles and two albums of my own, I often get asked for advice on what to do with an album once it's recorded. This is the first of a series of blogs that will hopefully give you some ideas. And please add any of your own ideas to the comments - it's all about community!

OK, you've poured your sweat, tears and bank balance into the creation of an original recording. You feel drained yet proud. Now the hard work begins - you actually have to sell the thing!

Radio is an important slice of your promotional pie. If you are a self-funded independent artist, there are still plenty of avenues open to you. Commercial radio in Australia (don't pack up and move, it's even harder in other countries!) is a very hard nut to crack for everyone, particularly indies. Nothing is impossible though and I will cover the options for commercial radio in another blog. But I wanted to start with something a little easier to achieve.





Community Radio Wants You

I've been a community broadcaster myself (2MCR, 2SER and TVS in Sydney) so I'll start there.

Community radio stations are largely run by volunteers, are not-for-profit and encourage community participation. Part of their charter is actually to promote the local arts - that means you! Community radio stations often have solid, dedicated listener bases and with enough of a groundswell, community radio airplay could even help lead tocommercial radio play.

One of your best friends should become the CBAA or the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia - the national body looking after 270+ community radio and TV stations throughout the country.

The CBAA have wonderful government-subsidised programs for indie artists. One is called:

'AMRAP' - CD Mailout

Amrap charges a small fee to distribute ‘radio ready’ CDs by Australian artists to community radio stations around the country. The good folk at Amrap actually listen to your CD and work out which stations are likely to play your style and distribute it accordingly. If you have a hip-hop record you want to promote with a tour through the East Coast, they will send out your CD to only those radio stations in the Eastern states who play hip-hop. Even though you pay a certain amount for this service, it is still cheaper and hugely more efficient than buying the padded bags and sending out CDs yourself. And their contact databases are comprehensive and up-to-date.

I've used this service quite a few times and managed to cultivate some fabulous community radio airplay and contacts as a result. Like anything in this indie game, the more work and time you are willing to put in, the more benefit you get. Amrap give you an invaluable report which includes contact info of all the radio stations to which they've distributed your CD. Use this to follow up!

When hosting and producing my own radio and TV shows I always appreciated artists getting in touch with me personally, keeping me in the loop with their upcoming gigs and releases, being available for phoner or in-person interviews and generally helping me provide interesting content for my shows. Never pester, but definitely get in touch. Community broadcasters are waaaay more accessible than their commercial counterparts. They will probably love hearing from you.

Amrap do mailouts every month but they are no longer a well-kept secret, so get in touch with them in plenty of time before you are ready to promote - they are popular! Their website is here.

Next week: How to get your music on the Digital Catalogue used by Community Radio.

#13 - Gigs and Clubs....

This is a great blog from Dave Goldberg, an LA based Jazz muso on the difficulties of gigs, bookings and dealing with venue management.

It's very timely and sadly applies everywhere.....

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78468650/La-Club-Owners

#12 - The artist 1-pager

Hi there,

Wow! It's been a while....

I saw this today at CDBaby and thought it was definitely worth a repost.... Subscribe to their newsletter - heaps and heaps of great info...

Check this out http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2011/07/how-to-make-an-effective-bandartist-one-sheet/?utm_source=DIYNews&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=072111

Cheers,
Simon

#11 - So you want to be a pop star?

Hi there and welcome to The Record Factory Blog,

Recently I received an email from an artist in Perth, WA who like a lot of us always seems to be one step short of making it big. She's experienced writing sessions with big stars and been promised a lot of opportunities which never quite eventuate.

I completely understand that this happens. If we all made a dollar for each of the 'if onlys' we wouldn't ever need work again!

Of course, every now and again one of these big opportunities will be the big break. It's a matter of having everything in place and being ready, so can you can take advantage of the opportunity.

Almost every overnight success, was in fact not actually an overnight success - it's something that people have been working hard at for years.

Overnight successes for the most part only happen in the movies. If they do happen in the real world, they won't last long as there's unlikely to be any substance.

So, please don't just sit there expecting a starmaker to knock on your front door and do all the work for you. Get out there and take control of you career yourself.

So what do you do..? Well there's a lot of things and I picked 3 of my favourites.

The Starmaker

I really think the age of the ‘starmaker’ is long gone – last year over 85% of music was independently released. Big record companies aren’t really putting money into unknown/developing artists, they’re struggling to survive themselves. So you have to do gigs, write material and put it out yourself.

It won’t be until you have tangible independent success that a record company will look at you. Josh Pyke is a great example of how it works.

Be Independent

I think the only way to go is to ensure that you have demos/recorded songs available online so people can hear you. Make sure you have a music profile online. Some great examples of this fiercely independent approach are www.amandaeaston.com, www.yolandathomas.com and www.heatherfrahn.com. Unless you’re doing a reasonably sized show a week and selling 500 CDs a week, a manager is unnecessary. Of course all managers work on percentage, so even if you do engage management, unless you are doing the shows and selling the CDs it’s unlikely you’ll get a good manager as the good ones won’t work for free.

Be Ready for 'The Opportunity'

While it’s always great to get songs placed in TV shows and opportunities like writing with a big star could break an artist, I think you have to have everything ready (i.e. gigging, releasing songs regularly) in order that you can really get the best out of these sorts of opportunities. The Idols who lasted beyond the TV show have had heaps of experience and have worked hard on making their music career work. Then of course after getting the Idol opportunity they really work it and don’t rely on the industry to hand it to them. Even after having a number one single and lots of Idol exposure, Casey Donovan is out there doing regular original acoustic pub gigs.

So that's all for now. Don't wait and expect things to happen, go make them happen yourself. When the great songwriter Albert Hammond moved to the US in the 1970s, despite having numerous worldwide hits as a songwriter he still needed to get out there and make things happen "you've got to hustle, no matter what you do. If you don't...[it won't happen]"

#3 – Bruce Michael Miller’s “Strategies for Promoting your music on the Internet”

Hi there and welcome to The Record Factory Blog
Every couple of weeks, I'll be publishing some tips and tricks to help you get what you want out of your music career. I hope you find the info useful... If you have any questions, or are looking to make a cd and would like some free help, advice and contacts, please email me.

In the last issue we spoke about Professionalism and Relationships and their benefits. This time here's something which was introduced to me by Zelda Sheldon from NSAI Australia (http://www.myspace.com/nsai_australia). It's a piece by Brice Michael Miller describing a range of strategies for promoting your music on the internet.

If you're interested to find out more about NSAI Australia, send Zelda a message via the MySpace site.

Cheers, Simon

Strategies for promoting your music on the internet
by Bruce Michael Miller

1. THE MUSIC BUSINESS

You need to know how the music business works if you want to be successful in it.

Good news about the music biz, is that it has changed dramatically over the past few years – and it continues to change. It has become more of a level playing field, which effects how music is heard, distributed and sold. Now regular people like us with a computer can get their music 'out there'.

It's a passion industry – your passion can take you further than any job you do just for money.

There's over 1.5 billion people on the internet.

The internet is not a magic pill, it is hard work, regularly an 8 – 14 hour a day job. The major powers and labels still hold the majority of the power to sell music – but there are many opportunities for independent music marketers like you and me.

The internet is now tailored to the buyer rather than the seller and we are in the age of the 'empowered music fan'. The days of radio DJs informing us of new acts is going...


2. INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERNET


Internet facts and figures

In 2008 the digital music business grew by 25%

In 2008 the digital music business grew to $3.7 billion. Projections for 2012 put it at $11 billion.

Singles drive the download market – 1.4 billion singles were downloaded in 2008.

Now is a great time to get into internet marketing of your music – it's not that old yet, it's still being developed and refined.

Illegal downloads are still a problem and this had eroded music business profits. It's free and easy. Interestingly research has found that 72% of those who illegally download said they would stop if they were asked by their ISP to stop illegally downloading.

It used to be a 'scarcity economy' – we were introduced to new books, music, film etc via the press, TV and retailers. All these avenues had their limitations, after all there's only so much air time, column inches and shelf space available. This led to a lopsided mentality – being limited by space. Only those titles deemed most popular by businesses were stocked and supported. Everything else was considered fringe and therefore not worth promoting.

Now we have online retailers (such as CD Baby, iTunes) who are not constrained by space or costly promotion exercises. As an example, let's compare some numbers...

An average book store holds 100,000 titles, Amazon holds 4 million.

An average DVD/Video store holds 3,000 titles, Netflix holds 60,000.

Walmart sells 55,000 titles or individual songs, Rhapsody hold 1.5 million.

40% of customers buy from Rhapsody, because they can't find it elsewhere.


3. WHAT YOU NEED TO GET STARTED

A computer
Fast internet provider
Web browser
Web host
Domain name
E-mail (remember to use a professional name)

4. YOUR WEBSITE
Make it easy to read
Online Press kit
Music available on your site
Digital downloads
Search engine registration
Optimise your site – sell you music/merch on the site, link to other places

5. SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social networking sites including MySpace, FaceBook and Twitter are widely used by entities and individuals including Presidents, Prime Ministers and major corporations who can afford to have their own websites. These entities now used social networking sites to reach out and keep in touch with their customers/followers. You can also use these tools to create a following for your music. Make sure to keep all the sites up to date. You could use a tool like www.ping.fm to update multiple sites at once.


6. FURTHER RESOURCES
CDBaby. (http://cdbaby.net)

Any artist can sell their songs via CD Baby. With a CD Baby membership, you not only get to sell your CD on the world's largest independent music store, you also can sell your downloads via retailers, including iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, and more. For just a $35 setup fee, CD Baby takes care of all the work and makes your music available to the world.

'The Long Tail' – Chris Anderson, all about 'selling less of more'

'Guerrilla Music Marketing' and 'The Buzz Factor' – Bob Baker www.bob-baker.com

Online Publishing companies
The way that music is found for TV, Film and advertising is also changing. If you have 'broadcast ready' tracks, you can upload you music and be paid licence fees and royalties as your music is used for a variety of channels such as online, TV, games or corporate clients.

www.musicsupervisor.com
www.crucialmusic.com
www.j2rmusic.com
www.musickitchen.com
www.songcatalog.com


The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) is now in Australia. Australian songwriters in any music genre and any level will benefit from being part of this vibrant songwriting community. NSAI consists of a body of creative minds, including songwriters from all genres of music, professional and amateur, who are committed to protecting the rights and future of the profession of songwriting, and to educate, elevate, and celebrate the songwriter and to act as a unifying force within the music community and the community at large.


What does NSAI do?
First and foremost, NSAI operates as a legislative advocacy group on behalf of songwriters. What does that mean? That means our organization FIGHTS for songwriter's rights - the right to be paid, to be taxed fairly, to be recognised and to protect the future profession of songwriting.

Second, NSAI teaches writers about the "craft" of writing. We teach you songwriting tips, provide songwriting tools, suggestions and ways to write the best song you possibly can. WE ALSO LISTEN TO YOUR SONGS

Third, NSAI teaches you about the Music Industry, how it works and how to position yourself and your song within the industry for the greatest possibility of achieving success.