This post originally appeared on BMA on December 20, 2005.
“There are amazing women musicians out there. But the industry signs acts based on marketing. It’s definitely a loop. There aren’t women out there doing well, because they haven’t been signed, so (the record) industry doesn’t sign any more, figuring they won’t do well.” - Jason Mraz

The explosion of music downloads in the late 1990s cut deeply into the cash coffers of record labels. As a result, record executives decided to cut back on promoting ‘unproven’ artists, and went from focusing on talented female artists, to looking for a marketing vehicle. Out with Lilith Fair, in with Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica. So as Gen Y helps prompt a change in the country’s musical tastes, this poses a very tough question for female artists whose last name isn’t Spears or Simpson: Do they try to reinvent themselves like Jewel did, or forge forward relying on their talent to win them fans?
And this isn’t a problem reserved for undiscovered artists. Some of Jewel’s contemporaries such as Sheryl Crow and Alanis have seen their album sales slide since their Lilith days. Many of today’s labels see a woman onstage with a guitar in her hands as a ‘marketing risk’. But musicians don’t have to reinvent themselves every few years simply because tastes temporarily change.

A perfect example is Sarah McLachlan. Her music is basically the same today as it was in 1989 when she released her first album, Touch. Touch sold over 500,000 copies, while Afterglow, which is her fifth and latest album of new material, currently has over 2 million in sales.

The best way for Jewel and other female rockers in her position to re-establish a strong bond with their fans could be, you guessed it, the internet. There are so many ways to reach out directly to fans. Artists can tap fan sites, mailing lists, MySpace, anything. Blogs are another obvious way for artists to reach their fans. Such viral efforts are already being used to launch the careers of female artists such as Missy Higgins, they could easily work for established stars. These moves are authetic, and fans will respond to any musician that reaches out to them in such a personal way.

While the current music climate has put a temporary crunch on some female artists, the ultimate loser here could be the record labels themselves. As the record companies make it harder and harder for emerging and existing female artists to make a name for themselves, these musicians are looking for other outlets to promote themselves. And the risk that labels run is, once these acts find a way to circumvent the current system, will they ever return?

“The major label system is broken, but I’m not crying. It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people.” said Carla DiSantis, editor of the magazine ROCKRGRL.

True Blue Fan (TBF)

Many artist & their bands can sing & play, but, they are amazed (sometimes mad) when the audiences fail to connect with them.  Artist and bands work on perfecting their play list of songs to sound like the studio version or the 'cover' version they hear. On stage, it's entertainment time!  If I go see a movie and it doesn't entertain, connect, excite me, then most of the time I actually take short naps.  Most artist/band never think about changing up a song to allow it to 'CONNECT' with their audience. And, if you don't connect and create special moments of memory, then, in most cases you will not have won over new fans & you certainly will not have what every artist should strive to have and that is:  TRUE BLUE FANS!  Yes, that is a KSE exclusive.  TRUE BLUE FAN OR TBF IS WHAT EVERY ARTIST MUST HAVE to create longevity as an INDIE touring band.  TBF are those people that will become the most important part of your TEAM.  In short, they are the ones that will show up for your shows with new fans & they are the ones that will buy tickets, merchandise, and leave tips in your tip jar.  As we all know most young inexperienced bands can only tour if they can meet expenses.

Developing into an entertainer takes time, much practice, money, and developing TRUE BLUE FANS!  It's like going from grade school, Jr. High, High School to getting your Bachelors, Masters and your PhD.  After you have completed those degrees, you need continuing updates and training....All Roads that lead to the STAGE must be incrementally improved each year, but, only after an artist has mastered all the baseline stages.  Once this is accomplished, an artist/band will forever be developing their passion for creative performances that make connecting memorial moments that last with their new fans that will change into TBF.

Fine line between self-promotion and the “me, me, me”

It’s really important to not overdose your fans or the press with your promotions. It can be taken the wrong way. Firstly, if you saturate everyone, no one will read your emails or promotions. Secondly, find a way to promote yourself but also add cool opportunities or interesting stores along the way. Then people won’t turn off if it’s just all about you. I love to read gig news emails if it starts with some funny anecdote about what the artist has been up to or a story they want to tell. It grabs me in. Then, in a subliminal way, I’m also fed great gig and music news. 

 It’s hard to be your own promoter, that’s for sure. But if you don’t have someone to do it for you, or you don’t want to use a pseudonym and write in the third person, then go for intimacy. Speak from you, colloquial, and let us into your world. Fans love to know the “real” artist! 

 Don’t’ be afraid to self-promote. It’s a new era, and you can do it. Just watch any language you use that might suggests a focus too much on yourself and please veer away from fancy words like ‘outstanding’, ‘the hottest performer ever’, or ‘ the new Madonna of Studio City’. Try not to compare yourself too much and be your own unique being! Being humble is also important. It’s nice to be glorified, but let others glorify you, not you.

Street Promotion

• Street teams are it! – gather people in cities you will tour, who are fans of yours to help promote you before you come to town. You’ll find that your fans will work twice as hard for you if you give them and their friends some free passes or maybe even CDs.

• Flyer handouts – hand out gig notices and CD release flyers to people on the street, outside other performances. If you play Brazilian music, find a hot Brazilian music concert and flyer away!

• Posters at venues – put up posters at venues you’re going to play at.

• Rallying fans – entice your fans to help you spread the word and offer cool merch, swag and CDs in return. They like to feel special. 

"A body can pretend to care; but they can't pretend to be there."

Indie Female Artist Must Consider, Daily, these Questions:

• Who Are You
• What is your style
• How Is It Special
• How is it Different from Other Artists
• Plans for the next 10 years; stepping stones to success. Need breaking down into 2 year specific increments.  Will need adjusting, dependent on your success and failures.
• Stage Presence
• Fans and True Blue Fans
• Music (Originals/Covers)
• Song Development ( How many do your and your band know; how many sets can you perform at each gig...must know 3-5 sets to get booked at a majority of venues)

These are but a few of the many areas a Indie Artist must know.

Music and Social Media Networking Events

Yes, they can help out a struggling INDIE artist as long as they realize most of these events are attending by establish social networking gurus.  Most of these gurus are there to 'protect' their turf against outsiders.  By this I mean, there are groups of well know music folks around America that do the 'scratch' my back and I'll 'scratch' your back routine.  Any new person or group with as good or better ideas is shunned on and talked about in 'negative' ways.  Many of these successful ones, forget at one time they needed help and were given help.  Yet, instead of being mentors, they choose to be obstructiveness.  

These so-called gurus, in the music industry, continue to try and impede anyone that encroaches on their so-call rights-of-passage turf.  Which, they will soon learn, as the major labels do, their obstructiveness will be steam rolled by the new and ever-growing music independents around the world.  INDIES that realize they and they alone are in charge of their success.  INDIES that by doing a lot of research can learn and do anything anyone can teach them, albeit taking longer, but, it can be done.

The last point  "thinking outside a music box."  Music industry networking events are all the same people with the same information, which can become rather boring and may even make you think: I am making no progress and these events are hardly worth my time. Finding a lack of respect and a lot of clatters in those music events, you decided to start going to non-music-related events, such as general social media networking events. Of course, you talked about your music to people there and ended up getting a great deal of attention from them. Getting peoples attention is the first step into acquiring True Blue Fans.  And, we all know, True Blue Fans, are the bottom line to have a successful and lasting music career. 

SUMMARY:  Looking back at those experiences, you point out a great advantage that you learned about how to effectively use social media "early." Also, you realized that all industries were related anyway. Your current goal is still to find things "early."  Early will help reduce your road's length to success!

--end

Branding

If you take the ‘e’ out of emotion, you’re left with a word that is synonymous with action. Small wonder then, that when it comes to human behavior, nearly all of the voluntary stuff is fueled by some sort of feeling that comes from within. Whether it’s a fist pump into the air or in someone’s face, our actions occur only in the presence of emotion.

When people fall in love with brands, they don’t fall in love with its face. They fall in love with what lives at the heart of the brand. And emotional appeals can’t be forced or contrived and be successful. When they come from the heart, people will respond in kind.

These days, successful brands have a set of attributes that include:

Human - Can people relate to your brand as though it were a person? What are the personality traits of your brand? If it were a movie character, what would it look like? Is it a man, woman or child? Is it young or old? And how do these traits reveal themselves in your marketing?

Engaging - How many ways are there for people to interact with your brand? Are you producing content that doesn’t look or sound like advertising? Are there ways you could be entertaining your customers? What kinds of experiences do you provide for your audience besides a buying experience?

Authenticity - Does your marketing accurately convey the spirit or soul of your company? What kind of promise do you make to your audience about the kind of experience you provide? Do you make good on that promise during all possible interactions with your audience?

Relevance - Who, specifically is your audience? How would you describe them in human terms? What is the purpose of your brand in the lives of these individuals? How does it fit into their every day existence. Does what you offer increase their likelihood to feel positive emotions toward your brand?

Tension - What kinds of ideas do you present to your audience that challenges their current thinking about the world? Is there enough drama in the content you put out into the world? Can you identify the audiences “enemy” and somehow insert your brand as a hero?

If you have covered all of these bases in the development of your marketing, you have established a strong foundation for building an emotionally charged brand with which people can identify on a deeper and more meaningful level.

Ideas for Booking More Gigs

As you've read numerous times if you've spent any time on this blog, gigs are the live-blood of a band, especially in this day and age. Regardless of your skill or place in the music business, you've got to play in front of people to stay musically fresh, improve your show skills and make money. 

I assume that you have strong songs plus a fantastic live show, here are a few simple things you can do to get more gigs:

1. Create a YouTube channel for your band.

Upload a live performance video on YouTube that represents your band at its best. Include a phone number and e-mail address too, so that anyone who wants to book you can contact you easily. Say something like “Contact ________ to book us for a live show.” To show professionalism and interest, try your best to respond to every inquiry within 48 hours.

2. Print up nice business cards

…with your band name, links to your music, live videos, and a phone number and e-mail address that can be reached for booking purposes. Also, include a link to your website so they can learn more about you. You’d be surprised how many bands STILL write down their phone numbers on dirty napkins and torn pieces of paper. Wherever you go, tell people who you are, how good you are, where you are playing next, and how easy it is for them to book you directly.

3. Go watch other bands that sound like you.

If there are any bands in your area with large followings, get out to a couple shows and become friends with other bands. Ask the bigger bands to let you open for them, maybe in exchange for some kind of help like designing a website, flyer, banner, etc. The harder you work for a band bigger than your band, and the more respectful you are to them and their efforts, the more likely they will consider you for an opening slot. Talk up how good your band is and why you are better than similar bands in the area.

4. Tell your fans how easy it is to book you.

Wherever you play - the street, house party, club or major venue, make sure your fans are aware that you’re willing to play anywhere. Use the Live Music Machine’s booking and calendar widget. Put it on your Facebook page, MySpace profile, personal web site, etc. and tell your fans to go there and book you for their private events, house parties, etc. After playing a gig, you should walk around the audience, engage people, ask them what they thought of the show, and let them know you are available to play live anywhere they want you too. Telling them that will definitely help you stand out from the pack.

5. Get guerilla.

Set up wherever there is a crowd of people who might like your music and play for them. Club, high school, venue, and stadium parking lots. How many tailgate parties do you think would love some free entertainment? Play outside clubs where bands are playing that fit in with your style of music. Those people waiting in line are going to be bored, so playing a spontaneous gig right on the spot will definitely make an unforgettable impression.

6. Don’t forget the old school.

Hand out flyers and post cards at events that have a link to free stuff and a way to book you for a gig.

7. Network with key industry people at events and conferences.

Radio PD’s and DJ’s, club owners, band managers, label executives, and others all attend music conferences quite regularly. Say hello to these people, maybe buy them a drink or dinner, but don’t make a nuisance of yourself. Respect their space and don’t try shoving a CD in their face two minutes after meeting them. Introduce yourself casually, let them know who you are and where they can see you play. If’s it’s a club owner, tell them you would love to come in during the day and do a free audition for a free gig. Just make sure you can get a place to sell your merchandise if you nab a gig. Offer to play at places that may not always host live music, like restaurants, coffee shops, stores, and malls.

8. Get creative.

Write up a proposal and present it to the appropriate person at your local school board, offering to do a series of free shows to raise money for the school athletic or band program. Ask to perform during a school assembly when they can provide you with a built-in audience.

9. Find places where bands similar to yours play.

Use ReverbNation’s “Gig Finder” to figure out where bands are getting booked in your area. However, e-mailing clubs with your RPK or EPK usually won’t get any results, because many of these venues have yet to claim their venue pages on ReverbNation. Instead, after finding some good places, print out your press kit and mail it to them, or better yet, personally drop it off it in a nice professional package along with a CD to any decision maker at the club. Follow up with a call within a couple of days so you stay fresh in their minds. If the decision maker has an assistant, get to know that person and you will find that it will be much easier to get in the door. If you email them anything at all, make it your MySpace link along with a concise paragraph stating why they should book you. For some reason, most clubs still feel most comfortable checking you out on MySpace, so play by their rules.

10. Do a gig swap!

If you have a respectable following or are an up and coming band, use sites like Indieonthemove.com and Splitgigs.com to trade and share gigs with other bands who might want to break into your market. Collaboration is key to success in today’s fragmented music industry.

11. Email Addresses

Everywhere you go, wherever you play, whomever you talk to about your band… collect as many e-mail addresses as you can. E-mail is still one of the best ways to communicate directly with your fan base, and develop long-lasting relationships. 

Giving It Your All

Working 24/7 is a given if your an Indie Artist/Musician.  Success = time + total commitment to becoming Indie/Independent. Most doors will be closed.  But, there is always one that will open if your pursuit is endless.

Be ready to work you tail off.  Through your work and efforts you will 'learn'.  You will learn about many new areas of the music business, because, for the Indie Artist, Music is a business...A REAL BUSINESS. 

As an Indie Artist you have total control and can't blame anyone else but yourself if things don't go right or don't get done. 

As a woman Indie artist, the effort required to become successful will require 3X the effort. 

All problems should be view as OPPORTUNITIES OF ABUNDANCE!

Flexibility means you must be patient, for patience is the key to Indie success.  Hone your craft until your music shines and your band is 'tight' on all songs. 

If what you are doing is not working, most likely it will not work until you discover other means to monetize you and your music.  To me that key is in building a base of True Blue Fans.  These are fans that promote you and your music 24/7 and they spend a minimum of $100 / year on you.

The stage is but one place where you connect with existing fans and make 'new' fans.  Failure to connect is opportunities lost to build your True Blue Fan base. 

Remember the only limit in music success, is YOU!

--end

File Sharing, Why It's Here & Not Going Away

The digital music consumption systems and technologies promote different ranges of social behavior in fans; it’s part of the ongoing evolution of social music. Traditional systems and tech encouraged certain conduct, such as the gradual development of musical tastes and the act of collecting music in the physical form—both of which the record industry profited handsomely from. A new age brings new systems, technologies, and behaviors, to think fans and business models are frozen in time—untouched by these changes—is a fool’s errand. So too, there’s more choices in music now than ever and discerning which adds the most value to one’s life isn’t easy. Such an overload leads fans to pursue coping mechanisms like file-sharing. And, when fans fail to make good decisions, they feel burned and look for ways to even the scorecard with the industry and artists that brought those choices. 

That fans are getting more cautious about their purchases is a result of having more risk pushed onto them. To protect themselves from buying something that they didn’t want—they file-share music to mitigate the added risk and are so willing to do so that they put themselves at great legal risk in the process.

Evolution of Music

Music 1.0 - the first generation of the music business where the product was vinyl records, the artist has no contact directly with the record buyer, radio was the primary source of promotion, the record labels were run by record people, and records were bought from retail stores.

Music 1.5 - the second generation of the music business where the product was primarily CDs, labels were owned and run by large conglomerates, MTV caused the labels to shift from artist development to image development, radio was still the major source of promotion, and CDs were purchased from retail stores.

Music 2.0 - the third generation of the music business that signaled the beginning of digital music, piracy ran rampant due to P2P networks but the industry took little notice as CD sales were still strong from radio promotion.

Music 2.5 - the fourth generation of the music business where digital music became monetized thanks to iTunes and later, others like Amazon MP3. CD sales dive, the music industry contracts and retail stores close.

Music 3.0 - the current generation of the music business where the artist can now communicate, interact, market and sell directly to the fan. Record labels, radio and television become mostly irrelevant and single songs are purchased instead of albums.

Attracting Fans Means Getting Over Your Self

There are a lot of musicians and groups that artistically want to stretch people’s minds and make people think, figure out and really dive deep in to the meanings of their songs, their name, their image, different elements of their marketing and other underlining elements that many artists think will add that hip or cool edge to them. The problem that can occur though is flat out confusion or actually deterring more people away from your music and you than helping bringing them to listen to you and want to find out more about you.

Don’t get me wrong, adding elements of stretching the mind and being creative is a great thing, but think about it as a later step or being placed a little deeper in your marketing rather than right there where people get their first impressions. Make it something that fans will have to dig in to as opposed to overly confusing the new listener or first time visitor to one of your social networking sites or website.

Wild stories, confusing bios, songs that make no sense or tie in to the more experimental side of you can be red lights for many people to not want to dig deeper. For example, if you are a grunge/industrial type band with fast loops, dirty guitars and in your face samples with brash harmonies and powerful hooks, having song sample number one on your site be one of the tunes that is least like your sound or one of your more experimental and say softer and more trancesque tune that you use right in between two powerhouse tracks, you may loose the interest right off the bat of the listener that happens to pop on to your website for a minute.

Get over yourself.

The reality is that when new people are visiting your website, your networking site or one of your song sample sites, most are only going to be there for a few seconds unless they are drawn in. There are 40 million Myspace music pages and that number continues to grow even as Myspace continues to go down in the rankings in the social networking world. People are being tossed links from spam emails, from friends, from strangers and from third parties everyday.

While every musician wants to think that people are spending a number of minutes listening to every sample, looking at every picture and reading every piece of text, the truth is the majority are only spending seconds and moving on very quickly. We are a nation of ADD, ADHD and every other acronym that points to the bulk of us having less and less of an attention span everyday.

These people have so many choices and so many options so it is up to you to grab them, wow them, explain and showcase to them and pull them in to want more. It is crucial just like having a fast pitch for industry professionals to also have that same fast pitch and grab for the fans and the masses.

Good Ideas vs Bad Ideas

A couple strong examples are the bands that have very fast loading webpages that immediately showcase the logo, the tagline, the image and information easily. Now on the other coin, there is a website for a band that actually has a small animal that walks around the page for some 10 seconds before the page opens and you cant skip it. This may be creative and cute for the band and for fans that know something about the reason behind the path and the creature but for a browsing new person, it just comes off as stupid. Another site has a band bio that is so small and so long with so many applications that have been added to their page that you are not sure who’s information is what, not to mention the slow load from having so much on the page.

Some of these websites or social networking sites where you are forced to scroll down or wait to find or fish out information is not helping you capture the new fans that are coming across your site. On the same side with the music samples. Instead of putting up total songs why not put up samples and a lot more of them?

Think about it, just as you should put together a small demo sample for any industry person so they can listen to the bulk of your songs with out the bulk of time it takes to listen to every song, you can do the same for your fans. Supply 20 to 30 seconds fade in and fade out samples that are clearly marked as samples with the time in the title. This way when a new fan sees the player or what ever you are using to present your music, they know right off the bat, they are getting samples and may just listen to them all.

This also gives you a chance to choose what they listen to and what you want to highlight in the song, instead of them flipping through and potentially just listening to the beginnings of all your tunes if they listen that far. Think of it like giving them a sample of everything and at that point making them want to dig deeper.

Conclusion

It is fine to go deep and make people think, make people have to search and challenge your fans but first get those fans through the door, interested in you and wanting to be challenged. Make sure you have created a crystal clear image that will demonstrate you, sell you and entice them to want more. It is a hard thing to sometimes separate what how you see something against how the bulk of the public will. Remember just cause you get it or it makes sense to you, it doesn’t mean it will to most people. You are the artist, you are right smack in the middle of it all and a big part of pulling in and creating the fan base is working on creating the right appearance and marketing to pull them in the audiences that are sifting through thousands of sites and turning them in to interested fans.

Also remember, with all the other bands on all the other sites and the over saturation of music and artists that are out there, it is crucial to pull them in to want to see more first. Make the first presentation easy, fast and simple so that people can get a clear idea of the overview of you, your music and what you are about, then you can start playing with the intricacies and extra details.

Becoming A Successful Tourning Artist/Entertainer

We all know there are several hundred great female country artist out there who get absolutely no consideration. Music is about much more than you and your songs.....it's about the TEAM of professionals you have around you. RIGHT NOW TEAM TAYLOR IS SMOKING! Either that, there is some fishy business going on with the voters, which I sincerely doubt.

If someone gave me $500 to go see my favorite nominee, I would have to pick Jennifer Nettles.....she makes a connection with me on most all her songs and how can you not see the passion on her face and hear it in her voice...but, that is just me.

Your music is like a circle....you're the center, but what completes your circle is how well your work all the pieces, large or small and how consistent you work them with your team members.

Most important, how you build your fan base of what I call True Blue Fans. Without them your career will remain stagnant. Some say you need 1,000 .... I say you need and want as many as you can connect with..... I ask all artist fans to recruit 1 new TBF / month. If this happens, your TBF base can be at 5,000 -10,000 within in 3-5 years. Data shows each new TBF will spend on average $100 / year on you. Which means 5,000 TBF generates $500,000 / year in gross income; 10,000 TBF generates $1,000,000 in gross sales / year. Either way, record deal or no record deal, in 3-5 years most any artist will become successful touring and earning a good living, not only for her, but members of her team. There are many ways to have TBF and have them become one of the most import parts of your circle (team). If you now have 1,000 TBF and each one brings 1 new TBF / month, in one year you have 12,000 and once you get to that level your career will explode. You may not ever be on the CMA awards, but, who cares if your making a wonderful living and having fun doing what you love to do. When you become a confide touring artist and are make it on your own, more than likely a label will show up and that's when you have the power to not give away your future and when you can make a deal or not, that will be a win/win for you and for the label.....many more details to this.

Anastasia Brown has written much about this as well as many others....spend your time working your career and keeping your fans informed and not so much as those who don't support you, your music, your shows, and your team.

Each Day, Do Certain Things

Hey, What Day is It? (Getting Into The Consumers Head)

Are you planning your music marketing according to specific days of the week? You should be? Check out this post for sure-fire ways to make the most of your online promotions.

Monday
It’s Monday! Do you know who’s watching you? Monday is considered the day of fresh information. Everything is new new new! Consider this: the average 9-5er arrives at his/her desk in the morning (please refer to obese man above), turns on the computer, and tunes into msn.com for the week’s political news, reviews on which movie did best at the weekend box office, and anything else that might be hot off the press. On Monday, people want to know what they’ve missed since Friday (though is probably not much).

Do you take Mondays seriously? Treat your music like a job. Try to have something new on your page each Monday. Whether it be a blog, new shows on your calendar, a quick news update, new photos from the weekend’s show, or new video. The options are limitless and its not like you have to revamp your page every week…just do a little at a time.

Rule of thumb: If you build it, they will come. Read more about this at Drawing Traffic to your Website(s)

Wednesday
In college, my Communications professor told me something I will never forget: most people open their email on Wednesdays. Yes, this has been mentioned on Grassrootsy before, but its worth mentioning again. Wednesday is a unique day. Because it finds itself smack dab in the middle of the week, its the one day that you’re least likely to get “Out of Office” replies. More people at their desk = more people reading their email = more people visiting your website. Optimize on this. Send your newsletter on Wednesday mornings or afternoons if possible. Stop by Email Marketing – Making Sure People Read What You Write for more tips.

Rule of thumb: Send emails on Wed…in the morn or after lunch. Check out Grassrootsy’s additional blogs on Email Marketing here.

Weekends
Stats prove that few erpeople read emails and surf the internet on the weekends, but the people who do are more likely to read through an entire email and will spend more time on your web page than they would on a weekday. For example, if you sent an email on Wednesday, you might get 100 people to open and they would spend an average of 45 second skimming through what you write. But on a Saturday, only 40 people might open up the email but spend a full 3 minutes reading it entirely.

So if you’re posting a blog or sending a weekend email, make sure it’s not time-sensitive. Perhaps you can post musings, and non-essential thoughts. Take it from msn.com: Their weekend news bits are usually reposts of information that that was already used earlier in the week.

Rule of thumb: Never send an email on the weekend that you would send on a Monday or Wednesday.

YOUR BAND

Having a connected tight band may be one of the most time consuming frustrating things an artist or manager has to do, even if you have good musicians. It has mostly to day with musician's egos. Egos that allow them to believe they know how to do everything better than anyone else & they are just too good to learn.

Then you have the trouble of them taking rehearsals seriously. Rehearsals are more like ‘goof off’ time. They only want to be serious/professional when they are on stage. Many new artist find themselves on very small stages, where a 4 or 5 piece band will barely fit, much less have space to move around.

Lastly, you have band members who believe their only job is to play & not be a team player. No matter how good a musician is, if they refuse to be a team member & work just as hard as everyone else; do yourself a favor & part ways. Sooner or later you most likely will any way. The song dictates stage energy at specified times from each band member. Some songs, everyone will be high energy. But no one should outshine the lead singer, unless it’s a part of the connecting moment within the song.

The Stage

I agree random wandering is not good, plus, it exhibits non professional, non-caring, ego fed intentions.

The catch 22 here is that some musicians want to be paid well, but, many do not want to be integral teams members. A great band will work to become a tight band that puts on connecting shows that create moments in each song with their paycheck: THEIR FANS! Fans are customers or potential customers. As most everyone should know without supportive fans, THERE IS NO ROAD TO THE STAGE.

The Power of 5, implemented properly, with see an artist/band's customer/fan based grow to 15,000+ in about 5-6 years. If they are TRUE BLUE FANS, as we call them, that will generate $1.5 million dollars in sales/year, which is not a bad living for getting to do what you want to do & as an INDIE ARTIST.

Tom Jackson's Productions services will be the best returns on your investments you will ever make. We believe a higher priority than recording a CD. Its imperative an artist/band become proficient learning & knowing:

ALL ROADS DO LEAD TO THE STAGE & WHILE YOU ARE THERE YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THE STAGE IS THE "SPOTLIGHT" TO EVERYONE'S FUTURE SUCCESS.

THE STAGE is where DREAMS BECOME REALITIES

THE STAGE IS WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD

THE STAGE IS WHERE ARTIST/BAND MUST CONNECT

THESES STAGE CONNECTIONS MUST CREATE MEMORABLE MOMENTS

FOR WHO?????????????

The audience who become CUSTOMERS, which means, the artist/band can enjoy a career of doing what they love: MUSIC.

A challenge to all bands: WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE IN 5 YEARS? If it's music, please discard your PLAN B, for Plan B's lead away from the stage.

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INNOVATIVE ADVERTISING

Oh advertising! Is it really worth it as a musician? Well, it depends. Where are you advertings? What are you advertising? And do you have money? Of course you want to try to get as much free publicity as possible. If you can do it for free, definitely go for that option!

When you do get the funds, check into these ideas. The great thing about the following options is that you can advertise at whatever price is affordable for you.

And in continuation to Monday’s blog, Finding Your Niche, the below suggestions allow you to advertise directly to your niche.

StumbleUpon
Its a great source for people who wanna find good things online. StumbleUpon doesn’t just focus on music. It exposes surfers to every type of website in the world. How does it work? Lets say you wanna get your myspace out to a unique type of listener (See yesterday’s post: Finding Your Niche). Click on StumbleUpon Advertising and create a campaign. As you create your campaign, you’ll see that you can choose what types of people you want to visit your website – everything from people who are history buffs to people who are vegetarian, to people who like kayaking. Tons of random categories.

So what if your music appeals most to men, maybe you’d want to pick people who fall into the following categories: home improvement, mens issues, video games. Or if you think your music has ambience that best fits the spiritual guru/yoga type crowd; you might want to pick people who fall in the following categories: yoga, self improvement, ambient music.

You’re also given the option of choosing age range, geographic location and other demographics. StumbleUpon only costs .05 cents per view. So you could spend $20 on advertising and that would expose your website to 400 people. Check out their short video tutorial.

Facebook (and Myspace)
Its much the same concept as Stumble Upon: i.e. target audiences, demographics and all that jazz. One thing I’ve noticed and like about Facebook ads is that it allows you to pay for impressions by the thousands. So that means, if you set your ad price as 20 cents per 1000 impressions, your ad will show up on the side panel of 1000 facebook pages. Whether 5 people or 500 people click the impression, you still only pay 20 cents per 1000. I’ve found that Facebook isn’t as straighforward as StumbleUpon and takes a little time to understand.

I haven’t tried Myspace advertising, so if you have experience, please comment below.

The Pizza Boy (ya, for real!)
During the week of his CD Release, Pittsburgh artist T. Mitchell Bell stopped into his local pizza store, and asked them if they would be able to distribute flyers for his CD release everytime they had to make a delivery. AWESOME idea! They let him do it for free b/c he was a very regular customer!

Stop into your local restaurant, whether it be a pizza store, or something else. Ask them if they’d be willing to do the same. You might have to pay a little something but its a great idea ( they’ll treat you better if they know you). It’s one of the best ideas I’ve heard lately and I think its probably effective.

House Concerts

Ever wanted to have a captive audience in an intimate setting where you could share your favorite songs, a few jokes and stories, make a few bucks for your efforts and do a little healthy self-promotion all in one evening, maybe without even leaving the comfort of your own home?

This sounds a little too good to be true but “house concerts” have been a growing trend, especially for acoustic artists over the last two decades. What works for the singer-songwriter can also provide good venue vibes for vocalists. Remember that you don’t need an elaborate performance to make an impression, you want to keep it simple to minimize potential headaches and glitches.

So what do you need to get started and pull things off without freaking out or having too many technicalities to overcome?

Setting The Scene

Obviously you need a staging area. This can be a rec room, sunroom, or large living room. It can be a porch or sundeck, a backyard, front yard or garden area. If you’re in the country it could be a barn or stables area. Near the river or ocean, it could be the sand in front of a beach house. You want an area that will be easy to set up, maintain and control traffic flow. You can ask people to bring chairs or lay out blankets and tablecloths to create a casual, picnic atmosphere.

If you don’t have a space of your own to perform in, check with a neighbor or friend who might have a space or get them to ask around. The first goal is to secure a spot for your concert so that you can get the word out and set up some future gigs. You might even ask around about who is holding yard sales and set up your house concert as entertainment for the neighborhood after a day’s hard work, sort of like a block party.

Dishes And Tip Jars

It’s also a great idea to have food available. It could be a potluck or simple finger foods and drinks. You might have an outdoor grill or pit for barbecue. Again, you want to keep it simple but satisfying for those who show up to hear you.

To be financially rewarded, you can set up a tip jar, pass the hat or a basket, or charge a flat admission fee. Just to be on the safe side, check with local zoning laws for the area where you’ll be performing. If it can be implied that the concert is a business venture you may have to comply with safety issues and permits. In most cases this will not be an issue.

Building Support

One of the reasons that house concerts can be a viable way of making some money and building a following is that people crave a sense of community. Music has a way of building bridges and bonding people together. It is a shared experience that is frankly good for the heart and soul. It’s also a good idea to include songs that lend themselves to audience participation on occasion. Just to make it a little more fun.

Self-Promote

House concerts are usually promoted via the Internet, fliers, and word of mouth. Ask each of your friends to bring two of their friends to the concert. This is one way to guarantee that you’ll have a relatively full house.
After your concert make a pitch for your availability. Have ready-made flyers or business cards available with contact info or even a CD with a few songs.

This is a great way to make a cozy connection between heart and home. It’s a connection that is naturally reinforced by the human voice engaged in song.

Creating True Blue Fans

Many artist & their bands can sing & play, but, they are amazed (sometimes mad) when the audiences fail to connect with them.  When, in reality, the artist and her band have failed to connect with the audience.

Artist and bands work on perfecting their play list of songs to sound like the studio version or the 'cover' version they hear. They throw in some comments; a few dance moves, differenct uses of the mic, etc.

Isn't that a 'Good Thing'?  To some degree, but when an artist and her band take the stage, their show becomes an experience that must entertain their audiences!  Everthing happening, on stage, is live.  There are no edits to make the show more entertaining.  What an audience sees & hears is what the artist and her band have created for them.  

If I go see a movie and it doesn't entertain, connect, or excite me, then most of the time I actually take short naps.  Do you want to look out, from the stage, and see many with their backs to you or sleeping or walking out the door during your first or second set?  Absolutely not....you want their attention focused on you and your band.

Most artist/bands never think about changing up a song to allow it to 'CONNECT' with their audience. And, if you don't connect and create special moments of memory, then, in most cases you will not have won over new fans & you certainly will not have what every artist should strive to have and that is:  

TRUE BLUE FANS!  Yes, that is a KSE exclusive.  TRUE BLUE FAN (TBF) are WHAT EVERY ARTIST MUST HAVE to sustain longevity as an INDIE touring band.  

TBF will become the most important part of your TEAM.  They will always be your biggest asset.  Without them, you're headed for a short lived career in music.  

TRUE BLUE FANS are fans that will show up for your shows with new fans. They are the ones that will buy tickets, merchandise, and leave tips in your tip jar, call radio stations, campaign daily for you.  They will create and help maintain a buzz about you. 

Most young inexperienced bands and some mature bands can only tour if they can meet expenses. To me there is nothing more boring than watching a talented band that never changes anything in their act except songs.  If you want to develop into a successful touring female artist, you and your band must have an everchanging show that makes audiences want to come out time and time again to feel and experience new memorable moments they feel connect you & them for a lifetime.  I assume all aspiring artist want to perform their music for a lifetime??

Developing into a "live" exciting and passionate entertainer takes time much practice, money, and developing TRUE BLUE FANS!  It's like going from grade, Jr. High, and High School to getting your Bachelors, Masters and your PhD.  After you have completed those degrees, you need continuing updates and training.  

All Roads lead to the STAGE must be incrementally & continually improved by mastering all the baseline stages.  Once this is accomplished, an artist & her band will forever be developing their passion into creative performances which make connecting moments that create lifetime memories that will change audiences into new fans.  These new fans will become lifetime TRUE BLUE FANS, which means SUCCESS,  for you, The Indie Female Touring Artist & Band.

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