GetYourStage.com

Launch Delay And Getting Blinded By A Squash Ball..

// March 9th, 2010 // 5 Comments » // DIY Music, How to sell music, Music Marketing and promotion

We are in the middle of launching a new training program,
and are having major problems!

Part 1 of the video series was sent out on thursday,
and Parts 2 and 3 were meant to be on their way by now,
but unfortunately I had a little accident…..

Some of you know that I love to play squash,
and usually play every Friday night.

Unfortunately on Friday, the guy I was playing
decided to hit the ball very hard- straight into my left eye!

I was immediately blinded, and blood started to
pour down my face.

People rushed to help and called the ambulance ->
I was going in to shock  – shaking/nausea/wanting to fall asleep..

Eventually the ambulance came and we were on our way to the hospital.

As they operate a triage system, we ended up having to wait to see the doctor,
and during this time, as the adrenaline started to subside, the pain began to
take over and it started to become unbearable!
It was like someone was poking a stick into my eye repeatedly!

Finally I was able to see the doc, and get some x-rays done.

The eyeball had sustained some major damage and
also it looked like I had fractured the socket of my eye!

At 2am, they referred me to another hospital to get the
fracture checked out..

I didnt get to bed until 7am, and then had to go to see another
specialist a few hours later to check out the eye ball damage…
This guy confirmed that I had  a huge, in his words “Star Ship Enterprise”
shaped scracth on my eyeball, and also had severe bruising to the back of
the eyeball and also some blood around the front!

Im currently waiting for it all to heal and am applying
various ointments and drops.

Its very difficult to use a computer and to read anything.

My left eye lid keeps itself shut, and so the right eye has to work extra hard
to compensate, but even just moving the right eye makes the left eye move,
and then Im again in agony!!

It looks like I will get better and should make a full recovery,
but probably will delay the launch videos a bit.

Its great that so many people have emailed asking for the next videos,
so thanks very much for that!

(if you havent seen part1, go here to see it:http://nichemusicsystem.com )

As soon as I can get things up and running and out to You All,
I will!

Im so grateful that I am not blind!  The Doc said I was VERY lucky.

Sorry for the delay and I will speak to you very soon.

All the best,

Hagop.

YOU ARE THE CONTENT, repeat You ARE THE CONTENT

// January 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // DIY Music, Music Marketing and promotion, music marketing, music promotion

This article presents research that one third of all US internet users
post on social networks like Facebook and Twitter at once per week.

What does this mean for music promotion?

People are sharing music that they like via posting links,
People are letting others know that they will be attending xyz concert/show.
People are posting up their own pictures and videos whilst at events.

As the Music Maker, remember – YOU ARE THE CONTENT!!

Its your responsibility to make sure that people can find you,
share you, follow you, comment on you etc..

So take a good hard look at your next campaign or promotion -
is this something that your fans would love to tell others about?

Make it easy for them, give a reason for them to share,
create incredible events…..
IS it great content?
Would you want to share it?
Would others?

Depending on where you live, there maybe a local social network of choice.

But whatever it is, get on the top social networks, and start presenting
great content.

Make an engagement plan and roll it out!

if you want help with this – get in touch with me at:

http://getyourstage.com/contact-us

DO IT NOW!!

The Top U.S. Music Services On The Web

// January 14th, 2010 // No Comments » // DIY Music, music marketing, music promotion

Was just looking through this and assessing the impact for people who
want to be succesful with their music.

Here is the list for December:

Top U.S. Music Services On The Web (in unique visitors, December, 2009)

1. Vevo: 35.4 million
2. MySpace Music: 33.1 million
3. AOL Music: 29.0 million
4. Warner Music: 23.3 million
5. MTV Networks Music: 17.6 million
6. Yahoo! Music: 16.4 million
7. Jango Music Network: 9.6 million
8. ToneFuse Music Network: 8.3 million
9. MSN Music: 6.6 million
10. Rhapsody: 6.5 million

To see the full article, go here

So it makes sense that if you want to give your music some exposure,
you probably want to get it on some of these sites.

Interesting to note though is that the number one site, Vevo,
is actually a joint venture involving Google and that its main source
of visitors is Youtube.

Engagement Plans

// December 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // DIY Music, Music Marketing and promotion, music marketing, music promotion, the music business

NO,

not that kind of engagement!

Im talking about engaging your fans.!

So recently, I have been interviewing many many people from record companies,
publishing companies, and promoters.

The subject:  Digital Marketing.

We are doing a worldwide survey and Im learning some fascinating things.

Here is a good idea for engagement:

So in your career, you will have 4 different phases:

1. Recording
2. Releasing music
3. Touring
4. Doing nothing.

For each phase, pretty much everyone I speak to in record companies big and small has a 6-12 month engagement plan.

That means that they map out exactly what they will be doing and then create content to keep the interest and heighten it around significant events.

Many report that around the times of doing nothing, they post up content maybe once a month.

But in the build up to a major event or release, they ramp it up to weekly and sometimes even more frequent communication.

BTW Im not talking about micro blogging here, here is what I mean by engagement content:

• Video
• Audio
• Images
• Text

Video doesnt have to be music video.  It can be:
interview, live footage, rare footage, behind the scenes etc.

Audio:  Remixes, special collaborations, live versions, old rare tracks, cover versions.

Images and text – you can get very creative with this – It depends what fits your band or act.
Radiohead released a song and a pdf some time back that had several images that they wanted you to
print on tracing paper…

So once you have all your rough dates and the amount of content you need, start making and assembling it..

Then you just have to drip feed it whilst you are getting on with the “real” work of writing, recording and playing!

Get to it!

A “resourceful” band

// November 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // DIY Music, Music Marketing and promotion, music recording, record label

Band Turn Local Music Shop into Recording Studio!

UK band Georgia Wonder got their local music store to help them to record their new album…

Recording studio

Financing recording when you dont have a label can be challenging.
Although the band had recorded their first two EPs in their home studio,
they felt that wanted to take it up a notch – not just with recording,
but also with quality instruments and machinery…

The band emailed their local store, to ask if they could use the shop to record their next record.
Surprisingly, Mike Devereux, of Nevada Music, was into the idea and gave them free reign to
use the shop for six months.

Georgia Wonder will video blog the whole thing on Muzu.tv and YouTube.

You can check it out here:

http://gwonder.com/madeinnevada

Using Stories & Communities For Understanding and Promoting Your Music With UberVu

// November 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // DIY Music, Music Marketing and promotion, music marketing, music promotion

Keeping tabs on whats going on online can help when you are trying to find interesting ways to promote your music
and also for just understanding whats going on in your musical niche (see the Core Audience program…)

Stories you read on the web don’t show you the whole picture -  the conversation around them is missing!

Enter UberVu:

http://www.ubervu.com/

Gona paraphrase a few things from their site:
Ubervu takes insights and analytics from blogs, comments, Twitter, Friendfeed, Digg (and many more sites),
and shows you what people are saying about brands, stories or events etc…
It also lets you follow comments all over the web.

For Example: Heres the link for a for the term “Arcade Fire”

http://www.ubervu.com/search/?q=arcade+fire

If you click it, you can follow along -

Here are some of the insights we get:

My search tells me that 910 people shared or commented on stories on Arcade Fire so far this month.

The spike on November 12th is in response to Peter Gabriel announcing he will cover Arcade Fire.

On the right, its telling us which platforms had the most reactions  – and Twitter is leading the pack.

So if your band is similar to Arcade Fire, you can start finding some “vocal” people online who are actually conversing about Arcade Fire and may be interested in what you are doing…

You can use it to talk back so you can join the conversation and interact -
reply to comments from inside uberVU and they will send your comments back to the original platforms.

Also -you can install their “Reaction Count Badge” -this will tell you how many times and where a post you make has been shared on the web…
GREAT!

What are some other ideas on using this service to help promote and market your music?

I spent quite a bit of time working with a hip hop artist some time back.

He developed good interest by making videos and songs
that were reactions to big events in the world, and then put them all over the web.

Eventually, he made his own show that had alot of viewers per month online,
and he then went on to attract some significant investment…

You could use it to dig away the top soil to uncover where potential fans are gathering and what they are talking about.
SO powerful
You may even just use it out of curiosity!
check it out, its pretty cool..the only limit is your imagination…

Hope you found this useful =>

Speak soon,

Hagop.

Is it true that if you do what you love, the money will follow? And Nov 5th…

// October 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // DIY Music, Music Marketing and promotion, music marketing, music promotion

People tell me all the time that they want to quit their job and follow their bliss.

Im sure you’ve heard people say:

“Do what you love and the money will follow”

Well, there is something they aren’t telling you!

Its true that the money will follow, but here’s the thing:

You need to serve a lot of people doing the thing you
love for the money to follow!

ie people have to be interested in what you love to do.

When I was playing to no one, I wasn’t making any money!

Why was I playing to no one?

Because nobody cared.

Nobody perceived what I was doing as valuable.
ie “having value”, so they werent going to pay me anything.

It wasnt until i had some major understandings that things started to change.

Before I would have promoted myself and my music to anyone -
just in case they liked it or knew someone who could help me.

*(here’s the Nov 5th link!)

But then, I realized that i had to drill down and start a little fire on my own -
with the most flammable firewood!

“Flammable Firewood??”

What on earth am i talking about ?

Here’s what i mean:

i was wasting so much time trying to get things going with random “generic” gigs and people.
ie non flammable wood..

Once the focus was shifted onto a particular type of audience and shows etc,
things just started moving.

Taking the fire analogy, i had a match and at first was trying to light a big thick wet log.

I then shifted that to lighting paper, small dry twigs and other very flammable material.

So stop wasting time and money promoting to those who dont care (yet).

Do your research, find the niche and then try doing what you love…

* in the UK on Nov 5th: they light bonfires, set off fireworks and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes..
picture by: http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/4657