Industry Thoughts

I recently did an interview with Chris from Bandzoogle, one of our content partners, about social networking tips for musicians. You can read the whole interview on Bandzoogle's blog. Some excerpts are below:

Can you share some tips for how musicians can best use social networks (and ArtistData) to engage their fans?

(Readers, I swear that I wasn't paid by Bandzoogle to say this.) I think the most effective use of social media right now in the current landscape is to go to where the fans are (Facebook, Twitter) and engage them there in a way where you can bring them back to your website, where you can make them a real fan by capturing their email address and engaging them on a deeper level. Post news on Twitter that a new track is available for listening on your website, not your MySpace page. Drive people to the property you own, not someone else's network. Post part of a blog on Facebook that links back to your site for the complete version.

As far as how to capture them when they're on your site, the best way is give them something for free in exchange for additionally loyalty (that could mean for them to tell their friends about you, give you their email address, etc...). It's okay to give away a few tracks. You need to give them something to chew on. When they're more interested, you can monetize them through buying more music, merch, and concert tickets.

This doesn't mean you can't spend time nurturing audiences on these social networks. Artists should spend time on there meeting fans, posting gigs, encouraging fans to share information to their friends and followers, etc... The connection is made on these networks because that's where the fans are and they're already talking. But when the time is right, take that next step and get them to connect with you outside the walls of the networks.

Oh, and one other piece of advice. Only do what you want to do. Some musicians don't like the concept of Twitter and have no interest sharing more about themselves. If that's how you are, don't do it! Don't fake it, don't ask someone to tweet for you, etc... It's important that the musicians are real on these channels. If they try to fake it, it'll do more harm than good.

Read the whole interview on Bandzoogle's blog

As the guy running ArtistData, I hear a lot of new music. About two months ago, I heard a track that stuck out by a band that I won't name. I listened to more on MySpace and was really impressed. They seemed to have a good following, a bunch of upcoming shows, and thoughtful branding (by that I mean it looked like they cared about their CD artwork, site design, etc...).

After listening on and off for a few weeks, I decided to do something I rarely do: I emailed friends at labels and agencies recommending the band. It isn't often that I hear an artist that I'd promote to my network, but this band stuck out. So I tried to help.

Before I emailed my network, I asked them for permission to pass along their music, as well as confirm they wanted to build a team. Their email response: "We're actually looking for an agent number one, possibly a manager. Our main goal right now is just playing more shows ... so an agent would really help."

Read on to see what happened ...

There was big news from the folks over at iLike this week about a new feature they offer allowing bands to create their own iPhone apps (some of iLike's services compete with ArtistData, but I still think iLike is cool).

Months before iLike added this feature, a company called MobileRoadie released the same thing. They didn't get nearly the same press for it, but they launched a very slick dashboard that enabled bands to make custom iPhone apps. The apps are more customizable than iLike's offering, and while I applaud both companies for creating great solutions for artist iPhone app creation, I just don't see it.

I have been an iPhone user since the device came out, and I value it more than my laptop. There really is an app for almost everything and I'm amazed weekly about how much more useful the device gradually becomes (example: this week I bought Buster, an arrival tracker for Chicago buses. I use it every day and it's the reason I'm dry right now). But there's also tens of thousands of apps which had little ongoing purpose. On my phone, I have ~60 apps but only really use about 10.

So here's my problem with iPhone Apps for bands ...