TalkMusicBiz, Music Promotions & Using Social Media Site YouTube

I know my readers yearn for tips on getting there music heard, so I went to one of my favorite social media sites and video-sharing sites, YouTube, and subscribed to TalkMusicBiz because they always upload videos geared towards the music business and give proven to be successful ideas on how to market your business or just some new twists on music promotions.  In this new video that I’m going to talk about today, the speaker George discusses social media skills along with music marketing and other “geo-tagged methods” one can adapt to on YouTube. I wanted to share these tips he used for a band with you, my readers, because they will beneficial and advantageous to you and your music exposure. 

It was nice that he brought up keyword threading and how important that is for promoting music on social media networks and indeed, your choice of keywords are of the upmost importance in any social media campaign and for social media optimization, but that I will save for another blog post. He began to talk about this local Hawaiian band called Kapala that he only did a slideshow for because at the time they could not afford a video. They were a brand new band and he promoted their song on YouTube by using demo description type keywords that were Hawaiian related. For example, in the subject title for the slideshow, he included the title of their song, their name, and Hawaiian music, all in the same title. And then in the description box, he put Hawaiian music, their location and zip code, and clubs they had played at, both recently and awhile back.

(youtube.com)

George even created tags with Hawaiian keywords and that helped boost their views up to 1,200 on the first two days of the upload! He made a good point in that the title of your YouTube video should have included in it the style of your music and perhaps the sub culture group within that style because that will help people find you. I agree that you should always take time and put information in the description box because I do notice that people forget to fill that out and it is a decisive move that can help get your video placed well in a search engine query. Another tip he suggested was to put your performance list and what town you are from in your description box. All of these YouTube promotional tips can bring in large audiences that may otherwise skip over your video while searching for music without these extra keywords or added descriptions.

Adding your url with the whole protocol, and the http, is always smart to have completed for any online promotion when using social media. You must also have an active url so people can actually see and hear your music or videos when they click on the link! Thank you George and TalkMusicBiz for these great music promotions tips and I will be giving more disserts about this channel and their tips very soon for you guys so join my mailing list so you don’t ever miss out!

Source: http://youtu.be/xLkh-JCYqNE

Financing...Major Publisher...Good Venture Move

I recently went back to visit one of my favorite company sites, ascap.com, and saw a brief article about getting financing for your music publishing company and I happen to know a few entrepreneurs with young companies in the music industry who themselves are trying to decide on whether or not to sign a deal with a major publisher in order to guarantee success.  Most of these companies are new record companies, including my own that I am in the process of developing. Some people I have spoken with are up and coming producers/songwriters like myself who are unsure of starting their own small publishing company or not let alone where to get financing for one.  The title of this article is called “ Getting Financing For Your Music Publishing Company”, a fitting and simple title that helps searchers in their quest for knowledge on the topic.

            I am a fan of making joint alliances with other companies, my company itself will be a partnership and joint venture, so I am in support of signing co-ventures, as long as things remain fair and equal! The article talked about the advantages that major music publishers gain from adding on a record company and that includes their “creative expertise” that they would have otherwise lost out on if they didn’t sign with them. This may help them tap into undiscovered talent and boost their own revenues. It is also an advantage for the small record company, producer or songwriter because this venture will help decrease their financial and administrative worries while allowing them to focus on their creative side and business goals. That is a big burden lifted! Later on the article brings up the topic of song financing and ownership and how signing with a major publisher usually means they [major publisher] will pay a certain amount of financing on an annual basis which in turn will be used to sign songwriters that is selected by the new partner. Both companies will then own the copyrights to songs written by their signed writers, and I see this as a very beneficial move for a company without the financial backing or industry connects at first and for its roster of writers, producers, etc.

            I also learned from reading that sometimes both partners will co-pay the advance although its usually the major publisher who funds all the advance money that is due to the writers. I love advance money and I wish there were more ways to obtaining advances, but as a fresh artist or songwriter or producer, one needs to know advanced money is on the brink of distinction and is not handed out like it used to be to a newly signed artist or writer or whoever. In terms of sharing income for these songs, net income could be split in an equal amount between both companies but can be shared solely based on how much each party pitched in to the advances to their signed writers in their co-venture. I really liked what I “heard” from this article and this isn’t a bad direction to head in as a new indie record label by any means…great way to get yourself and your clients ahead in this tough game from a music publishing POV. 

http://www.ascap.com/music-career/articles-advice/ascapcorner/corner5.aspx 

Project Budgeting for a Singer-Songwriter

As I was exploring the internet searching for articles to catch my eye, one popped out from Blue Cup Magazine called “Project Budgeting” under a section titled “Tools for Songwriters” and I said wow, this is good to know information for any singer-songwriter working on their first project in the studio! It started off talking about how most artists nowadays self-produce their own albums and is responsible for budgeting and scheduling themselves, compared to the record labels having these responsibilities. It is true that an artist has to be educated about the recording process and research and understand about how much money and time will be needed to record their projects. The article begins with the six stages of album recording and these are key in trying to “avoid costly mistakes and/or delays” (Ferguson, n.d) in the recording process.

            Briefly, the first step is Preproduction, where artists write and record, along with rehearse and practice songs in advance before actually recording them for a cost. Second, Tracking, is very important because this step helps give the feel and tempo of a record and are the basic tracks that are later used in the overdubbing stage. Next in the recording process is step three, Overdubbing, a time when artists and producers can experiment with sounds and layering on top of those basic tracks I mentioned earlier. Fourth comes Editing, Comping, and Tuning, where you can improve on your recordings. The fifth step is Mixing and this is done after everything has been recorded and this “is the process of combining all of the individual elements into a single stereo mix”(Ferguson, n.d.). Mastering is the sixth and final step and the individual song mixes are fixed up to sound better with equalization, compression etc and sequenced in their final order to later be sent out on a special disc to a replication plant for mass production and mastering should be done in a studio built just for this final stage. 

(fotosearch.com)

            The bulk of the remainder of the article delves into studio budgeting for a project because that is the most expensive element in recording an album and gives tips on what to do once you approach each of the six stages I previously mentioned.  It gives thought to whether a singer-songwriter could possibly get away with recording an entire project at home or does some steps require a professional studio and my answer is yes to utilizing both. The author (who is an engineer and artist himself), talks about when to use outside engineers and when to pay for help and deciding if your album even needs to be mastered, a possible huge money-saver until the time is needed to do so! The author repeatedly mentions that recoding a project will take longer than you may originally think and to be prepared because mistakes can happen or you can run out of money to give a few examples.  He uses a spreadsheet displaying an example of an “”imagined indie budget” for a singer-songwriter and it gives great illustrations on how to look at costs and time of a project and helps one calculate these figures more efficiently if any changes should occur.

Great source of information, please read…you will save money and in this recession, any extra change in a songwriter’s pocket is a blessing! Happy Thanksgiving :)

http://www.bluecupmusic.com/Project%20Budgeting.pdf

Simple Tips When There is No Music!

I just came across a random article about tips for how to write a song without music and I just wanted to see how the instructor was going to break it down into layman's terms. I knew it would have to be something brief particularly if the audience you are aiming for are new, struggling lyricists and possibly even those who have been in the game for awhile. This lesson was on a guitar lessons website so I was even more curious to see if there really was much difference between writing a song that would later be accompanied by an acoustic instrument or not and it appeared not to be the case with this quick lesson.

First, she talks about how one can use a beat and drum track to help one write and this is true whether you have a melody in your head or not. You don't have to record and edit right away, just jot down and brainstorm to the drum track. In future articles I will revisit this in more detail but for now I am just responding to the simple tips I saw in this lesson. Next she talks about melody and how one can just mumble nonsense over the beat and later build on that. I think even the mumbling has to make sense at some point! You can create a melody without having a music theory background but it does take some music knowledge about pitch, rhythm, and tone to help get your point across through chanting or singing.

The instructor then points out lyrics and structure and recommends to listen to how other artists in your genre structure lyrics, what a chorus is, and if you want to sell commercial music to keep the lengths of your songs at three minutes. Its true that one of the best ways to learn how to write in any genre is to follow other successful formats and structures from that genre and because of radio formatting, songs cannot be more than four minutes long on the radio. I will talk about this and the value of a chorus in future articles. These tips were very useful as one person commented and are a good starting point for any writer but of course one needs to really research this topic some more and practice writing without music to make that smash hit before the music arrives!
(In this photo, Luciana Segovia, Singing Instructor for GMC Staff)

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=13163