My wife tells me I should be more proactive when it comes to self-promotion, so here  it is: I’m in an article in this month’s (July 2010) Black Enterprise talking about digital marketing along with TC Coleman (I think she’s a fellow Hamptonian) and Mary Spio. I hope we provided some helpful info. Pick the new issue up (it’s on newsstands now) or check out digital versions through the links below:

“Marketing In The Digital World”

“Social Media: Things That Make You Go Oops” (I contributed the “Biggest Mistakes In Online Marketing” section.

So far in the How Much Is Your Music Worth? series we’ve determined that music has different values to different types of listeners, classified three kinds of listeners/fans, and examined how to get your music into the ears of people who haven’t heard you. Today, we’ll look at getting those casual listeners to be real fans of your music.

There are three components that go into converting listeners into fans: Communication, Inclusion, and Incentive.

Communication: Ideally, after you make it easy for listeners to access your music for the first time (streaming, free downloads, etc. discussed in Part 2) they’ll give you permission to contact them via email or social network (i.e. Facebook or Twitter). Now’s the time to cash in on your database.  Use these communication tools to keep your fans informed about upcoming shows, music releases, and special events such as contests. Get into a routine of when and how often you’ll send updates, as well as what method you use to send particular updates.  For example, you might decide to send a weekly email newsletter that gives a general overview of upcoming events, make spontaneous and last minute announcements on Twitter, and send segmented messages via Facebook and text message (i.e. use the geographic filtering capabilities on tools like Facebook and Fanbridge [a great email and text messaging client for bands] to tell your fans in Atlanta, and ONLY your fans in Atlanta, that you have a show at Apache Cafe next week). The key here is to provide relevant information to fans so that they know what’s going on without engaging in information overkill.  I hate to get a Facebook message or text from a band saying they have a show 450 miles away from me that night.  If a band sends too many irrelevant messages, I unsubscribe from their fan list… I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

Inclusion: Make your casual listeners feel like they’re part of the family.  Get personal with them through live chats.  Answer their Twitter @ replies (make sure YOU answer them, not your rep).  Show them that you value the fact that they gave you permission to communicate with them and that you take the time to listen to them, just like they take the time to listen to you. A personal touch goes a long way.  When you’re in their area for a show, “personally” invite them by shouting them out on Twitter (hey, @myfan and @myfan2, and I have a show tonight at B.B. King’s. Let me know if you’re coming through!).  Note: If you want to do stuff based on geography, make sure you create ZIP Code, Area Code, City, and State fields on your email sign-up form.  A lot of email/text clients will let you filter specific fans based on that info. A couple of days before a show, run a filter on your database and make contact with your fans.

Incentive: Reward your casual listeners for engaging in “fan activity”.  As mentioned in Part 2, NoiseTrade offers fans a free copy of your music in exchange for submitting three of their friends’ email addresses to your list.  Create contests that offer some type of exclusive access (lunch/dinner with you and the band before a show, backstage pass, invitation to a recording session) or valuable prize (iPod, Flip camera, etc.).  Just get people engaged in your community.  They’ll start to connect with you and your music. Then the foundation will be set for a relationship that can lead to them being hardcore fans!

Make sure to subscribe to BeingAKB updates via email or RSS.

In How Much Is Your Music Worth?: Part 1 we talked about an issue many independent musicians face: placing a value on their music.  In short we determined that music’s value differs among different fan audiences and that these audiences can be categorized into three distinct groups: a) People Who’ve Never Heard of You, b) Casual Fans, and c) Hardcore Fans.

Today we’ll concentrate on how to get people who’ve never heard of you to listen.

Make It Free and Easy: I’m not just talking about money.  Make it free from commitment and free of hassle.  Upload an .mp3 file to a service like zShare or Supload and make the link available to stream and download. Stream the song on your website.  Don’t ask the fans for anything like money or an email address for the privilege to listen/download…just give them access to the music.  If they don’t like it, they can go away and be done with it.  If they do like it, they’ll want to know how to get more music.  This is the point where you’ll direct them to sign up for your email list and/or visit your website.  It doesn’t take anything complex. Just a simple message like “Like what you heard? Sign up for my email list for updates on new music and performances at http://……”. The object is to keep the listener engaged and to make getting to know you as easy as possible.  Who’s going to pass up a free listen?

Leverage Your Fans: Unless your fan list only consists of hermits and sociopaths, it’s safe to say that all of your fans have friends with similar interests.  Of these interests, I’m willing to bet that music is one of the most common shared among them. Connect with your fans and have them spread the word about your music through a resource like Noisetrade, a tool that gives fans free music for telling people about you (for a full profile on Noisetrade, check back this Wednesday). Start an affiliate program that rewards your fans for spreading the word about your new music.  Start a street team (online or traditional). This way you’re making current fans happy and getting your music into new ears. You want to create VALUE for all parties involved.

Don’t Beg: Don’t beg people to listen to your music. It’s annoying and it makes people skeptical of your talent (Think about it…if you were asking someone on a date and resorted to begging, something’s wrong. Same concept here.).

Don’t Spam People: Email and social networks like Twitter and Facebook make it easy to get your message to the masses. It also makes it easier to get your message to people who could care less what you have to say.  Spamming people won’t get you a lot of listens, but it WILL blacklist you from a lot of potentials fans. Instead of sending random messages to people you don’t really know on social networks, leverage your current fans (as described above) and get THEM to spread the word about you.

Tomorrow we’ll look at keeping your casual fans happy and how you can make them hardcore fans. Until then, here’s a question for you: What are some creative ways you’ve gotten people to listen to your music? You can answer in the comments section below!

Make sure to subscribe to BeingAKB updates via email or RSS so you don’t miss the rest of the “How Much Is Your Music Worth” series!

“Smart businesspeople focus on the things they have the power to change, not whining about the things they don’t.” – Seth Godin

Seth Godin is great at putting things into perspective, especially when it comes to industry change and the need to adapt to what customers want instead trying to dictate what they can get.

His latest blog post, You Don’t Have the Power, is a case in point. He sums up the problem plaguing many business sectors, including the music industry: Businesses can no longer control consumers. The blog post was a great way to end the week on BeingAKB, as I’ve written posts about fans’ consumer power and how fans value music.

Today’s consumers, i.e. your fans, are empowered to get your music how they want and, given the ease of use, value your music differently than they would 10 years ago. It’s going to take more on your part to keep them happy and buying your music/concert tickets/live show DVDs/etc.

As you prepare to get into the “How Much Is Your Music Worth” series on Monday, take a few minutes to read Seth’s post.  It will really bring some clarity to how you approach your digital music strategies, especially when it comes to fan recruitment and retention.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be posting about some resources and techniques that will help you reach each level of listener effectively.  Make sure to subscribe to BeingAKB updates via email or RSS so you don’t miss the rest of the “How Much Is Your Music Worth” series or the Digital Music Strategy Basics series starting on January 4, 2010!

How much is your music worth?

I didn’t ask how much you think it should be worth or how much you want it to be worth.  How much is your music actually worth?

Truth is, there isn’t a clear cut answer to this question.  Your music is worth different things to different people.  Someone who’s never heard of you might download a song or mixtape for free, but I doubt they’d pay $9.99 for an album. On the other hand, a hardcore fan might pay $25.00/year for an all-access pass to your exclusive online fan club in addition to paying for a $14.99 autographed copy of your album and a $10.00 concert ticket.  Different levels of listeners/fans value your music at different levels.

You might not know exactly how much your music is worth to each individual you come across, but you have a lot of advantages that will help you create value to different levels of listeners. In doing so, think of three levels of listener (Tommy Boy’s Tom Silverman came up with the concept of the Fan Relationship Pyramid, but you have to go to the New Music Seminar to get that info.  It’s geared more towards managing your creativity flow to different levels of fans. This is a loose adaptation based on using the resources you have available to create value and relationships with your listeners.):

The Person Who’s Never Heard of You -  This person is the least likely to pay for anything you offer.  They don’t want to buy your CD/digital album for $10.  Maybe they’ll buy a single for $0.99 cents, but the best strategy would be to give them something for free like a download of your latest mixtape or buzz single.  The key is to introduce yourself and build trust with them.  If they don’t like your music, you haven’t really lost anything (it didn’t cost you anything extra to upload the single to zshare) and at most they’ve lost 3:30 of their time for listening.  If they like what they hear, they just might be compelled to go to your website and view your YouTube videos, maybe even buy a single or the album.  You don’t want the sale at this point, you just want their attention.

The Casual Fan – This person checks up on you on a periodic basis. You’ve built some trust with them, so they value your music enough to support you.  They’ll probably buy the album and they might even get a ticket to your show when you come into town. At this point, your goal is to continue to build trust with them and make sure you provide more value to their experience.  Give them a free EP of remixes or a 10% discount on concert tickets for joining your email list.  Show them that you appreciate their attention and that you will go above and beyond to make sure they have the best experience when listening to your music or attending a show. Your goal is to convert them into the Hardcore Fan.

The Hardcore Fan – The Hardcore fan buys everything your put out.  Album, apparel, fan club membership, concert tickets…they’ve got them all.  At this point, your responsibility as the artist is to make sure their experience exceeds their expectations.  Give members of your paid fan club early access and discounts to tickets, exclusive merchandise offers, and access to meet-and-greets.  Doing so will make them your ambassadors.  They’ll tell everyone how great of an artist and person you are.

You NEED your hardcore fan to become your ambassador.  Your music and the experience you provide to them can be worth so much at this point that you can leverage it to get more fans (and in turn, more revenue).  For example, I love the way PJ Morton leverages the value his fans place on his music.  He’s recently been having meet-and-greets across the country, organized by his fans living in the area he visits.  Every Hardcore Fan has a Person Who’s Never Heard of You. PJ’s Hardcore fans are telling their non-fan friends to come out and have a good time with a great artist.  I’m sure some of these non-fans leave these events with a casual fan’s curiosity.

Keep this kind of stuff in mind when you’re selling music or tickets to your next show. Put yourself in the potential consumer’s shoes. How much do they know you? Do they deserve to get a sample before they buy the whole album?  Or have they heard everything you’ve put out, fallen in love with your work, and now want an all-access experience.  Answering questions like that can make sure both you and the listener are getting the most out of your experiences and prevent you from under- or over-pricing your music.

Monday and Tuesday I’ll be posting about some resources and techniques that will help you reach each level of listener effectively.  Make sure to subscribe to BeingAKB updates via email or RSS so you don’t miss the rest of the “How Much Is Your Music Worth” series!

2010 is going to be a big year, and I plan to kick it off with a series (hopefully one you’ll find helpful).

“Digital Music Strategy Basics”, a 7-part series” will kick off on January 4, 2010.  Based on my thesis, I’ll be looking at the components needed to create a successful digital music strategy. The one-size-fits-all plans that are being passed off as strategies aren’t going to make you money as a musician/music entrepreneur anymore.  I’m not going to tell you that you have to hop on the YouTube or the next big social network to blow up online. Instead, we’ll be exploring the theory behind what makes a digital music strategy work. We’ll be looking at components like authenticity, originality, and creating experiences for your fans.

In addition to the planned content, I’d like to answer as many of your questions about digital music strategy as possible with this series.  Need clarification on how a certain resource works? Not quite sure what to make of email lists, fan relationship management, and music content/distribution aggregators?  Ask your questions below:

I’m looking forward to getting your questions.  Make sure to subscribe to BeingAKB updates via email or RSS so  you don’t miss the series!

- AKB

I’ve been looking for a way to evaluate my Twitter experience.  Last week, I found it in a tool named Klout.

Simply put, Klout measures a person’s sphere of influence on Twitter using a simple algorithm.  Users get a score between 0-100 that represents the size and strength of their Twitter experience.

Klout can be particularly helpful to musicians on Twitter because it measures important components like @ replies, link clicks, how many of your messages were retweeted, and who retweeted them. All of this information is great to know if you want to know who your core audience is and would like to form deeper relationships with your most active fans.

Check the service out at http://www.klout.com.

——-

Like what you see on BeingAKB? Sign up for a daily email summary of posts here.

Billboard’s annual year-end double issue showed up in my mailbox today and, in true nerd fashion, I’m amped.  I was just flipping through it on the way from my mailbox to my apartment and a quote jumped out at me:

“If the consumer wants their music delivered a particular way, then the consumer has, in this age, the ability to achieve that. As an industry and company you have to be focused on what the consumer wants, not just what you want to give them.  In the old world there was a limited pathway to the consumers, so therefore the consumer had less choice and less ability to decide how and what they wanted, and how to get what they wanted and what it was that they wanted. Technology has empowered the consumer to make these choices.” Roger Faxon, Chairman/CEO EMI Music Publishing

That pretty much sums up the musician’s challenge in a nutshell.  How can we figure out how to leverage all the technology available to give fans what they want? How do we know what we should offer as a free download, what social networks we should use, how we should distribute our album, etc.?

By now, the fact that major labels messed up their chance to harness the power of the industry-changing technology has been driven in the ground by journalists, musicians, and fans.  Their trying to come around with “innovations” like Vevo, but in the end its just a way for them to make more money. The fan experience hasn’t changed THAT much.

Independent artists, however, still have a chance to break new ground with their fans using technology.  Keeping the above quote in mind, artists should focus on using technology to ADD VALUE to their fans’ experiences.  They’ll get your music if they like it…it’s up to you as an artist/artist team member to encourage them to get it from you. Not by pleading “please don’t pirate my music” or spamming them with self-serving emails or tweets. Not by joining every social network as soon as it pops up.  Instead, artists can form real relationships with their fans by paying attention to their preferred social networks and communicating there, or checking out how they actually consume their music (iTunes? YouTube videos? Streaming service?).

Know how your fans get their music, use that medium, and give them incentives to get the music straight from the source (exclusive access to tracks, advance ticket sales, behind-the-scenes footage…). It works out for everyone involved.

I’ll be back with more commentary about the year-end issue (album of the year/decade, more quotes from industry executives), but I had to get this point across.

How are YOU helping your fans experience your music?

Short answer…”Working.”

It’s not a bad thing. I like the simple things in life, like eating and being able to pay rent.  Working facilitates these things quite nicely.

Equally importance, I’ve been working with some pretty cool people.  In addition to the working as a recording engineer, I’ve had the privilege/pleasure/honor of working with the talent Leah Smith on her digital marketing/social media strategy.  She just released her EP “Beautifully Made” and it’s one of the most refreshing albums I’ve heard all year (and I’m not just saying that because she’s a client….she’s simply and awesome talent).

I’ve also been making a lot of plans for 2010.  The blog will be more active, starting up a newsletter soon, and writing a couple of whitepapers/e-books that I hope you’ll enjoy.  More info in the days to come. In the meantime, enjoy some music from Leah Smith and buy the EP as a Christmas gift for someone you love.

Bruce Houghton wrote this insightful article today on Hypebot. Entitled I‘m Sorry, But It Was Never Just About The Music, the article challenges the beliefs that a) musicians should only focus on their musical talents, b) the music makes the star, and c) spending time to properly learn and utilize digital/social media tools is a waste of time that could better be used practicing/performing.  He does a great job likening what artists are doing now to what artists like Frank Sinatra did with their acting. Says Houghton:

Frank Sinatra made movies to reach a bigger fan base.  Elvis’s hips and haircut were as much a part of his success as his recordings were. David Bowie learned that image and imagery could propel him to greater heights. After Saturday Night Fever, dance steps helped propel many live shows and for a time MTV made being visual an important component of success.

In other words, each generation’s megastars usually have that “extra something” that makes them stand out.  The tools available to artists, especially social media, make it easier for artists to find that something special and get it out to their fans. While I don’t believe artists should have to spend tons of time learning how to use the technology (I think they build a competent team around them to help with this…*clears throat*…check out the Digital Music Consultation page), I do think that they should take the time to find out what technology they can use to connect to fans effectively.

Social media and digital technology make it easier than ever to make the fan-artist connection.  Artists don’t need to get movie deals with major studios to reach a wide audience anymore. A well-executed series of webisodes can reach a broad audience on YouTube and Facebook.  Press conferences? Nah…just answer your fans questions on Twitter.  Houghton was right, it’s not just about the music.  It’s about effectively connecting with your fan base. It’s about showing people that you’re really authentic.

So here’s my question: Artists, how are you using digital technology and/or social media to connect to your fans. If you’re a music fan, what are some things your favorite musicians have used to reach out to you through social media? Answer in the comments below.