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Wednesday, November 30, 2016
How to Promote Your Band Online To Music Venues and Festivals
For independent artists looking to promote their music online to venues and festivals, the sheer variety of choices can often make it challenging for artists to know how to best channel their online presence for positive results. Here we examine how determine which yes the most success.
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Guest post by Vincent Hill
When promoting music on the internet, there are many apps, channels, communities, forums, networks and platforms that musicians can take advantage of. These apps can help you to have an online presence.
However, instead of attempting the impossible, you can concentrate your labors on some that are probably to give positive results. But how will you know which of these platforms can generate success on your part?
Well, there is no single answer to this, and it is certain to involve a couple of trial and errors. However, there are some questions that you can ask to yourself which can help you know your best choices. These may include:
Who are your fans?
Where do your fans spend most of their time online?
Where do other bands of your genre spend their time to actively engage with their fans online?
What kind of contents are these bands focused on?
Answering the above questions is an ideal way to begin your journey to promoting your band online. So, now what are the ways to follow in promoting music online? Here are some:
Start a covers and function band
Starting a covers and function band can be a perfect way to get shows. A function band can introduce you to wedding and corporate markets, and there are plenty of those kinds of gigs around.
If you play mostly original songs, you may think of starting to play cover songs and perform as covers band. What you only need to do is to practice playing new songs and you will surely attract some people who will pay you good fees to hear you at parties, corporate functions and wedding.
Create a Soundcloud
The same with YouTube, Soundcloud provides a remarkably easy ways for followers to share your music on many platforms. Also, there are several communities of regular curators and users on the platforms, hence integrating your music there can be an ideal way for your songs to obtain newfound visibility.
Another good thing about Soundcloud is that the songs uploaded to it can be simply embedded and synced with the many social media sites, therefore making it a very effective tool to promote your music to a bigger audience.
Tours Abroad
Having gigs overseas can also be a perfect way to obtain additional gigs.It is no longer expensive to go to various countries and play your music there. Touring abroad can open many opportunities for a musician like you.
Play Lots of Shows!
Regardless if it is a small venue, you still need not pass that opportunity to play there. Even if you will earn only a small amount from playing in a smaller gig, the important thing is you get exposure. Being exposed to different audiences, big or small, is another way of promoting your music.
FB Event invites
In all the shows that you are going to make, be sure to send FB Event invites, and ask those you have invited to pass your invitation to their friends.
Blog Posts
Another way of getting your songs to the ears of other people is to post about your music on a blog, not on your blog but on other people’s. Seeking chance for guest blogging, music reviews from Musicskanner, interviews, and others is a good start.
Press Outlets
The player that can be embedded is actually a great advantage to pass along to press outlets that cover your songs. You simply need to send the HTML code that can be found in the feature’s Share portion, and the embeddable player will show right in the published posts.
Music Venues
The same with the press outlets make sure to send the code of the embeddable music players to venues where you will have your gigs. That way, your audience will be able to post your music on their own websites when promoting or listing your shows.
Conferences & Festivals
Are you performing at a music festival or conference? When sending your biography and photo, be sure to include the embedded code of your latest single. The reason for this is to include your new single on their website.
Online Forums
Online forums are also rampant nowadays. Look for forums that tackle topics on music, particularly on your genres, and join in their conversation. While in the forum, you can talk about your music and promote your show as well.
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Ray Wadell Exits Billboard After 30 Years, But He's Not Retiring
Long time Billboard writer, Ray Waddell is leaving the trade magazine to work with Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff at their recently launched Oak View Group. Wadell has covered live touring for Billboard for 30 years, and his departure will leave a gaping whole in Billboard's coverage of the sector.
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By Dave Brooks of touring trade Amplify.
Ray Waddell is leaving Billboard to work with Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff at the Oak View Group.
The Executive Director of Content and Programming for Touring at Billboard is leaving the industry publication after 30 years to accept a position with Leiweke’s growing company as it looks to expand in the trade media and conference world. Today is Waddell’s last day at Billboard.
Waddell will help Leiweke grow the company’s media presence and develop a new industry event for sports and live music professionals, drawing on his own success with the Billboard Touring Conference, which has consistently sold out for the last four years.
No word yet on who will replace Waddell at Billboard.
Waddell is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and came to Billboard via Amusement Business. Over the decades, Waddell has proven himself to be the top reporter and editor in the live music space, consistently breaking big stories including Live Nation’s decision to purchase C3 Presents, Guns N’ Roses headliner slot at the 2016 Coachella and the impending sale of Bowery Presents to AEG Live.
Waddell currently lives near Nashville. No word yet on when he starts his new position at Leiweke and Azoff’s new company.
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Music's Role In A Transhumanist Future [Bas Grasmayer]
Wil we all be musical cyborgs one day? In this edition of Projecting Trends, Bas Grasmayer explores how music will likely fit in to a transhumanist future, as technology's development continues to rapidly accelerate, bringing music along with it.
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Guest post by Bas Grasmayer on Synchblog
Throughout the last 50 years music has become increasingly personal. It shifted from family piano to bedroom record player, and then from bringing albums in your Walkman to your own personal playlist on your smartphone.
The increased personalization and portability of music has given many people a utilitarian orientation towards music. When we need to focus, we tune into a playlist with light classical music and no vocals. When it’s the end of the week, we listen to more energetic music to get us into the mood for social events.
We have started using music to augment our everyday lives. The convenience and effectiveness of enhancing situations has increased tremendously in the era of smart devices and all-you-can-eat streaming services. Parallels can be found in unexpected places: from personalized drugs, artificial intelligence, and the creation of extra senses through technology.
Transhumanism
With technological development's rapid acceleration, it doesn’t seem unlikely that the next step in human evolution will be enabled by tech, rather than aeons of natural selection. Since the invention of the computer, the trend has been to make it smaller and bring it closer to us. Once on our desks, then in our pockets, now as wearables, with the next step being implantables.
Given developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence, we’ll likely see the day where we can create a link between our brains and interconnected supercomputers that each have a greater calculative capacity than all of humanity combined.
There are many things that need to be figured out before then, besides the obvious privacy concerns of being completely linked in.
But this piece will focus on the path there - the developing trend, and music’s place in that development.
Smart drugs, productivity & music
Over the past years, there’s been a spike in media reports about professionals in Silicon Valley using smart drugs called nootropics to enhance their professional performance. These substances, which enhance cognitive functioning, are supposedly safe and non-addictive in order to be labeled nootropics. They let people alter their chemical balance in order to do better at their specific function.
One method of achieving greater focus through music is through so-called binaural beats. They provide listeners with an auditory illusion by playing frequencies to each ear which slightly differ. Because of this slight difference in frequency, the listener will perceive a third tone, the binaural beat, which doesn’t actually exist. This third perceived frequency is designed to match the frequency of brainwaves, and has been shown to reduce patients’ anxiety prior to an operation (PDF).
Moreover, music triggers dopamine releases, which comes from the brain’s reward center. This has been found to have benefits such as stress reduction, greater concentration and increased creativity.
Increasing music’s personalization through AI
There are currently already a number of services which generate personalized music or soundscapes, based on your environment and activities (also referred to as ‘context’). One of these is Melomics, which describes itself as capable of composing contemporary classical music without human aid.
Then there are adaptive music apps that feed back your environment’s sounds into the music, as discussed in a recent Projecting Trends piece.
Through machine learning, these algorithms can get smarter over time. Take Google Music’s recent update for example. Their goal is to deliver the most relevant soundtrack for each moment. They can do this by having a lot of data about their users, and then interpreting that data to make guesses about what a user is up to. The user’s interaction with those playlists (or lack of interaction) also generates data and may show when an assumption was wrong. Now, through machine learning, or what’s sometimes referred to as artificial intelligence, algorithms can learn from this feedback and improve themselves.
This means that over time, Google Music will get better at recommending the right music. And if we’re going into a future where we use music to augment our experiences and have our own personal soundtracks, then these algorithms will get increasingly apt at composing exactly the right soundtracks to boost our performance. In that sense, music may function as a type of precision medicine.
Developing new senses
While we’re born with a certain number of senses, new senses can already be developed. For instance, some people have chosen to get magnetic implants in their fingertips in order to develop more awareness of magnetic fields that can be caused by electricity. “In time, bits of my laptop became familiar as tingles and buzzes.”
Colour blind artist Neil Harbisson worked with scientists to develop his own sense: the ability to hear colours. He has an antenna on his head with a camera, connected to a chip which creates sounds based on the camera’s input. While he sees the world in grey tones, he gets the information of colours translated to him through sound frequencies.Having technology implanted may seem extreme, but it’s more common than you’d think: consider the amount of people with pacemakers or pressure sensors. In one case, researchers found a way to recharge the battery of pressure sensors through the vibrations caused by low frequencies in rap music.
Music creation
Artists are often among the first to play with new technologies and see what they can do with them. As new technologies are developed, new interfaces are explored, like the Mimu gloves. In designing instruments, one always has to consider the human body and its limits.
This means that as it gradually becomes more normal to integrate technology with our bodies, so will it become more normal to be able to interact with instruments through this embedded technology.
So, will we all be musical cyborgs one day? It’s hard to say what the future will actually look like.
But certain is this: scientists and artists both have an important role to play in shaping it.
Writing process augmented by this Spotify playlist.
Our 'Projecting Trends' series is created by digital strategist Bas Grasmayer, who runs the MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE digital strategy agency and newsletter.
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Spotify Adds Specially Recorded 2 Song "Singles" From John Legend, Tove Lo, Local Natives, D.R.A.M., Juanes, 15 More
Spotify continues to add original programming and promote its own playlists (if you can call two songs a playlist) with the launch of weekly "Singles" that include a track from a hit artist and their cover of a popular song. The music streamer is also planning a new series called "Live".
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Every Wednesday, starting today, Spotify will release “Singles” - a 2 song playlist consisting of an “A” Side featuring an artist’s own track, and a “B” side of a specially recorded cover of a past or present hit.
“Singles” launches with songs from over 20 artists including John Legend, Tove Lo, Local Natives, Grouplove, D.R.A.M. and Juanes, who recorded the special tracks in Spotify’s new, recording studio at its New York office. John Legend paired “Love Me Now” with his take on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”.
The music streamer says it will add 100+ “Singles” in the next year. In addition to the original content, “Singles” will feature custom artwork created just for Spotify.
Spotify "Live"
Spotify will capture live performance recordings called “Live." Superfans, identified by their listening behavior on Spotify will be invited to attend these performances, creating another way for artists to connect with fans. A live photo taken during the performance will be used as the cover art for each recording.
“Singles” and “Live” will live in their own Category in Browse.
Here are some example of Singles launched today.
John Legend
Juanes
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