How To Make A Living With Music Licensing

// August 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // musiclicensing

Hi All,
just did this interview with music licensing expert Aaron Davison.

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Aaron’s an interesting guy – (he actually lives and works out of Central America)..

Listen in to find out whats going on in the world of music licensing,
and also to learn how Aaron goes from the ‘making music’ stage to getting
music licensed for film, TV shows, websites etc.

Music licensing can provide some pretty good opportunities for
making money..clients and friends of mine have made some decent money
(eg 20k just for pitching!).

Aaron has some great free info for you,
Check it out here:
http://bit.ly/bCEqoh

He’s also offering 25 people the chance to work with him one-on-one
for 90 days straight.

If you are serious about getting your music licensed,
and want to make it happen go here now :
http://bit.ly/asy2Jp

I think it starts on august 23rd – so get in there early.

Hope the interview was useful – what are your thoughts?

Professor Green: 393,352 Facebook Fans & A Number 2 Album (Audio)

// August 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // music marketing, record label

professor green

Part 1

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Part 2

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Or to download, here are the links:
http://www.GetYourStage.com/ProGreen1.mp3
http://www.GetYourStage.com/ProGreen2.mp3

A good friend is over and we just saw a UK artist called
Professor Green came on TV.

He came from nowhere to go on to grow a huge fanbase
(393,352 fans on Facebook at time of writing), sell records,
get a publishing deal etc…

My friend is closely related to Professor Green,

so we recorded a quick chat for you on the
story of his success.

We got interrupted half way through…
but hopefully his story will come across..

I love this story because it highlights the power of scenes and niches,
and secondly because its just REAL!

Let me know your thoughts

Speak soon,

Hagop

Songwriting Tips From The Man Who Penned Over 70 Top 40 Hits

// July 5th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // SongWriting

Thats right, you can’t deny that this guy is doing something right!

When a friend was in town with her music buddy “Desmond”,
I was summoned to hang out.
Little did I know that this guy was the writer behind what many
consider to be classics – eg “Livin on a prayer” by Bon Jovi..

Whether you write “popular” music
or not, this guy has alot of science behind what he does.

I tried to delve in to some of that in my interview,
hope you like it:

**Listen to the interview here:**

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or right click HERE to download

BTW Niche Music System CLOSES on Thursday 8th July.
We only have a few spots left, so to get amazing insight
AND incredible interviews like this, go to
www.nichemusicsystem.com to claim your spot!

Any Qs – send me an email: hagopt@gmail.com

Music Blogger On How To Promote To Music Blogs

// June 30th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Music Marketing and promotion

A Music Blogger On How To Promote To Music Blogs

How To Get Featured On A Music Blog Audio Interview:

So no doubt, you have heard people going on about how important
blogs are and you may have even tried to send music to some.

Well – you are not alone – bloggers are now inundated with
requests to feature artists music.  I got on the phone with
Joe Sparrow from ANewBandADay.com so that he could tell
us how best to approach music bloggers so that they dont ignore us.

**Listen to the interview here:**

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or right click HERE to download

BTW Niche Music System opens on Thursday Noon Pacific (PST),
5pm EST and 8pm GMT.
You may have noticed that everyone is promoting it, and there are only
200 spots, so it will probably sell out pretty fast… If you want to join,
make sure you go to www.nichemusicsystem.com at that time and claim
your spot!
There is an early bird list – send me an email: hagopt@gmail.com
and I will put you on it so you get a heads up before it goes crazy…

How To Promote Music: Interview with Ariel Hyatt

// June 2nd, 2010 // 3 Comments » // DIY Music, How to sell music, music promotion

Listen to the interview here:

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or right click HERE to download

I recently asked all the subscribers what they wanted to know about
music PR/publicity and ways to promote music.

I then took the questions to music PR guru Ariel Hyatt.
Although she is best known for  ArielPublicity.com,
Ariel recently published a book that you can find out
about here:

http://www.musicsuccessinnineweeks.com

To me, the best thing about this interview is that Ariel
is the real deal – working with real clients, and shes been
doing it for a while….

Check it out:

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or right click HERE to download

And by the way – listen in to find out how to win a copy of her free book…

ps shout out to Scott for sorting out my Wordpress probs..
he is the man when it comes to anything wordpress.

Sell Your Music And Merchandise With Square

// May 14th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // DIY Music, How to sell music, music promotion

If you want to sell your music and merchandise,
one of the best times to do it is from the back of a show.

I first heard about this from my friend Andy Reynolds,
who has alot of experience in tour management and the live space.

He just published a really interesting piece on a service called Square
that lets you take credit and debit card payments via the Iphone, Ipad
or Android phone.

In my experience, less and less people are carrying cash,  and I expect that
having a service like this will fuel further merch sales.

They do charge a fee, of 2.75% plus 15 cents, but if you have ever had to go through
the hassles of taking cards, this is a no brainer.

The service uses a small plastic box with a jack that slots into your device and then
you use that to swipe the card.  You then punch in the amount, the person signs with
their finger, and enters their email address to be sent a receipt!

If you dont have the reader, you can also enter the card number in manually.

Here are some more features:  https://squareup.com/features
The app is available in the app store right now!

Im really hoping that Paypal will buy Square and then the whole thing can be integrated
into one seamless package!

Right now, its only available in the U.S. and here is a video explaining how it
works:

Andy has written a few books  – most recently, he wrote:
The Tour Book: How to Get Your Music on the Road,
So if you are interested in getting your music on the road,
check him out!

Unconvention

// May 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // DIY Music, How to sell music, Music Marketing and promotion, music marketing, music promotion

Have you been to any conferences recently?
I recently got invited to an event called Unconvention.
The Music Void website asked me to give them an update on how
it went, so I made a video….
Go here to check it out:

http://www.themusicvoid.com/2010/05/event-report-unconvention-music-pies-macclesfield/

Audio Interview With Gavin Bain & Free Book Give Away……

// April 25th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Live Music, Music Marketing and promotion, The Music Industry, music marketing, music promotion, record label, the music business

Audio Interview With Gavin Bain

Last week, subscriber’s to my premium service,
Niche Music System and I got to put our
questions to Gavin Bain who wrote the book
California Schemin’.

When told that rapping in his Scottish accent
wasn’t going to cut it, Gavin Bain and his co star Bill
reinvented themselves as two West Coast rappers
from California and ended up with a £250,000
record deal and a £70,000 management advance.

This interview also delves into the fascinating
depths of one mans incredible passion, drive,
persistence and good old fashioned hustle!
…SO GOOD ;p

Here is the interview:

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Let me know what you think….

Get This Book For FREE!!?

Im giving away my copy of the book to the
first person to join Niche Music System and tell me that
they heard the interview…(I’ll send it first class)!

BTW Pretending to be someone else is not why I wanted
to interview him. What drew me in was the extreme use of
“dramatic reality”.

So many artists miss what it is that their audience
really wants and in this extreme example,
Gavin and Bill (aka Silibil and Brains) hit the nail on the head.

In my own case, refining our concept really made it easy for
people to become fans and understand what we were doing
(ie got us way further…).

The converse of that would be doing things that make people
NOT interested in what you are doing!

What are you doing?  Repelling or attracting?!

The First 360° Fully Interactive Music Video Clip In History!

// April 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // DIY Music, Engagement, music marketing, music promotion

UK Band Pendulum have made the
“first fully interactive music video clip in history”.

The amazing interactivity is made possible
with Greek company Mativision’s technology.

If you haven’t seen their technology yet,
you should definitely check it out…

They have a system that allows recording/playback in full 360°.
The user is then allowed not only to  move the camera and
zoom whilst watching playback, but they can also switch to
viewing from another camera!
Its pretty amazing!

You can see the cameras dotted around the stage:

I first heard about it when I was asked to give some input
to a Magic Numbers campaign.  They had a whole show
fully recorded and it was amazing to change where I
was watching from in real time at the touch of a button!

According to Mativision’s website, the band Pendulum
have made the “First 360 fully interactive music video clip
in history”!

If you head on over to http://www.pendulum.com/360,
you can check out the video, or should I say “interact”
with the video?

I like how they put the sign up box for the free mp3 just underneath
the video.
ie engage and then call to action.. super!

If you have play around, let me know what you think!

Video Report:How Did She Get 1.2 Million Followers On Twitter?

// March 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // DIY Music, Engagement, Twitter promotion, music marketing

You may have heard recently about an artist called Noush Skaugan
who has 1.2 million followers on Twitter.

There was quite a bit of debate about the authenticity of her following.
If it wasn’t genuine, I wanted to know how it was done!!

My brief investigation took me to India, the USA, the UK and Japan,
as I spoke to various contacts about how it could have been done.
It was truly fascinating!

Heres my Video Report for you:

Part 1:

Part 2:

What are your thoughts? Gamed or not?

I first heard about her through 2 different industry friends.
They had both been approached by her for advice on
what to do with her Twitter audience.

THEN, a clever guy called Anthony Herron released an interesting blog post:

http://www.anthonyherron.co.uk/ignore-the-vanity-analytics

He basically showed that Muse had way more engagement with
their Twitter following and thats when Alarm bells started ringing in my head.

But you know what?
Whether it was gamed or not,
I think she deserves everything she can get!

An interesting link for you to check out:
http://twitterholic.com/Noushskaugen/

Be sure to watch the videos for some
super secret tricks…..