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!!

CES 2010 Something To Think About..

// January 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Music Marketing and promotion, The Music Industry, music marketing, music promotion, the music business

if you dont know about CES, its the consumer electronics show that happens every year in Vegas.

So whats this got to do with your music?

well -> at CES, they showcase the latest technology and alot of this technology is what people will be using to listen to, watch and engage with your music.

So far this year there is a huge emphasis on connecting the web to the TV.

This means devices that allow you to consume content direct from the internet on your TV.

Apple has already put this in our hands with Apple TV, but the landscape is constantly evolving.

So what you need to think about is this:
If people in the near future will be engaging more and more with your content through their TV,
what kind of content should you be making ?
And how can you make it for maximum impact through the TV??

Just something to think about …

Over and OUT!

Rage Against The Machine Are Ahead Of X Factor!

// December 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // How to sell music, Music Marketing and promotion, The Music Industry, music promotion, music recording

Rage are ahead of X Factor – >

Check out this blog post:

CLICK HERE

Incredible Fan Lead Rage Against The Machine Christmas Campaign

// December 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Music Marketing and promotion, music marketing, music promotion

Just got forwarded this by email – Cant wait to see what happens!!

LET’S GET RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE TO THE CHRISTMAS NO.1 SPOT THEN!

Q: So how do we do this then?
A: Take your pick(s) of the digital providers below. It should take you to the page where you can purchase your copy of KILLING IN THE NAME. in most cases it’s track#2 but check before you click!

DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT 6 OR 7 TIMES…IT’LL JUST GET ANNULLED IN THE CHART.

7DIGITAL – £1.19P – track #2
http://bit.ly/ratm-7digital

AMAZON – 29p – yes it will count
htpp://http://bit.ly/rage-amazon

TUNETRIBE – 49P – track #2 – LIVE version (yes it counts)
http://bit.ly/ratm-tunetribe

TESCO DIGITAL – 67p – track #2
http://bit.ly/ratm-tesco

HMV.COM – 79p (careful – this is track #1)
http://hmv.com/hmvweb
http://bit.ly/ratm-hmv

PLAY.COM – 70p – it’s the only track on the page
http://bit.ly/ratm-play

WE7 – £1.07p – track #2
http://bit.ly/ratm-we7

iTUNES – 99p – track #2
http://bit.ly/ratm-itunes

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.

Google Adwords And The Fleet Foxes

// November 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Music Marketing and promotion, music marketing, music promotion

Was at a meeting with  a music consultancy Im working with at the moment and just heard an amazing story about Google Adwords and the Fleetfoxes.

I dont have the exact story yet, but from what I can gather, they put together a whole list of words/phrases associated to Fleetfoxes and their core audience.

They then put these words up as Adwords and tracked the clicks.

This apparently lead them to promote the Fleetfoxes record in places that they never would have thought…

The main idea here being that taking a bunch of words and then seeing which ones people click on can start to give
you a real indication of who is actually out there and what they are interested in.

Basic obvious example: if you used the words “Gardening” and “Warfare” and displayed the ad “checkout the new fleetfoxes record”
More people clicking on “Gardening” would give you some indication about who is interested in Fleetfoxes..

Im going to dig into this to see if I can get some real concrete info on this, as so far its very rough.
So watch this space!

The story of Arctic Monkeys From their Label Boss

// November 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // How to sell music, Music Marketing and promotion, music promotion

watch this video of John Dyer from Domino records explaining the rise of the band Arctic Monkeys.

Note how they already had so much going on before they worked with any record companies….

Click here to watch the video

Courtesy of Music Ally.