professor green

Part 1
Part 2

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

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

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:

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 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!

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…..

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!!

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.

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!

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

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!