Ariel Publicity

“The In-Crowd” is an inside look at crowdfunding, with Ariel Publicity Artist Phil Putnam and RocketHub.com co-founder Brian Meece.  Each Monday, the boys are giving us an honest look at a crowdfunding project in action and dish on how things are going each week.

What is crowdfunding?  Find out here.

What does it look like?  See here.
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WEEK 7:

44 days in, 31 days remaining.  $3,753 raised (38% of the $10,000 goal), $6,247 needed.

Phil Says:

Songs About You is at a point that has felt far off and surreal up until this moment: there’s one month left until the deadline.  This snuck up on me, mostly because I’ve been thinking of the timeline in thirds and I know that the middle third always feels the longest and most difficult.  Well, it was difficult, but it just flew right by and now I’m on the precipice of the last leg of the journey.  I’ll be honest, there is a sense of relief due to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  This experience has worn on me more than I anticipated, in ways I didn’t imagine it would.  The relief isn’t the lone sentiment in my heart, though.  I’m excited by the possibility that this could still work, that all the money could be raised.  It feels like a long shot, but it’s still in the realm of reality.

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It happened a few weeks ago in Australia.  I was standing at the opening cocktail reception for APRA’s Song Summit Music Conference overlooking Darling Harbor in Sydney, and I was chatting with a perfect stranger (who it turns out is a very famous Australian musician with quite a few top 10 hits in Oz).  Noting my foreign accent he asks “What brings you here?” “I teach artists about online marketing and social media.”  I answer sheepishly, because this news is not always met with elated enthusiasm.

Him: Really?

Me: Yes

Him: You know one thing I have noticed about Social Media and marketing…

Me: What is that?

Him: I noticed that you don’t really have to be a great artist or well respected by your musician peers to succeed now a days – you just have to be really good at marketing and you get more success than you ever would have in the past.

Well, he’s right. I’m not saying that his point is fair and he only voiced what 99% of most musicians only think: That guy’s music really sucks but he got good at being pushy on Facebook and so he gets more people to his gigs than me, and he sells more than me.

Really? Is that what you think?

What I would say is: It doesn’t matter if you think that musician sucks. The POINT is that artist managed to identify and relate to enough people who think his music is great and his fans reward his efforts. So, stop judging others and worry about how to make a difference for yourself.

Why?  Because there are 500,000,000 people on Facebook to connect with.

And anyone can connect with a few hundred people, forge great relationships and then market music that those fans who want it and like it. Simple.

What is NOT simple is getting your judgments about yourself and other artists out of the way and just diving in.

So here I am to debunk a few of your (ahem) resistances and the aforementioned one is #1 on the list of….

Top Seven Reasons Why Artists Strongly Resist Social Media

#1: I don’t want to be pushy and over-hypey, like all those other artists that I hate. (or “I hate the way he markets and I don’t want to market like him!”)

OK – so talking about yourself is icky.  But having people love your music is wonderful. So my advice is: when you use Social Media, take the spotlight off of YOURSELFF and shine it on OTHERS (the people in your community/ fans / friends).

Share things that feel mundane. Don’t even think of marketing yourself or your music for a few months until you get the hang of it; and then after you do, use it to gently lead people to your newsletter sign-up, your website, and to help yourself with Google rankings.

Keep this in mind: 78% of people trust peer recommendations (i.e. the “Like” button on Facebook) for products and services that they BUY.  Only 14% trust TV/radio/print advertising (source: Socialnomics). You need to be one of the artists that peers are recommending.

#2. Promoting my music on Social Media won’t put any money in my pocket I’ve tried it and it just creates more work for me.

Here is what is true: Social media most probably won’t directly put money in your pocket in the short term. But when used in concert with traditional marketing and as part of a plan it can be integral in re-enforcing relationships between you and your fans which will down the line lead them to a point of purchase.

In a recent Top Spin training class I learned that being Googlicious (your Google rankings) and your email newsletter list are two vital components to putting money in your pocket and social media can help you strengthen both.

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Part 2: Your Three Communities – Community 2 – Engaged Fans

Last week I started my 3-part series called Your Three Communities and we started diving into how to connect with your superfans by making your live show as good as it can be. This week I will focus on how to energize and connect with Community 2 – Engaged Fans. These fans are your Active Online Audience. They are newsletter subscribers, blog readers, video watchers, RSS subscribers, active Social Media engagers who frequently comment & engage with you on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites you may be using. They’re engaged with you in what the New York Times brilliantly referred to as “ambient awareness.”  They know who you are but they may not know you very well (yet).  With this community, as with all three, engagement is critical, but here it will be different. In Community 2 contribution is critical but engagement is even more vital.

Brian Solis, the author of “Engage” and the co-author of “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations” has recently written a brilliant blog post on the reasons why creating content is a necessity in today’s social media landscape and it speaks DIRECTLY to your already engaged fans.

The Future of Marketing Starts with Publishing

http://www.briansolis.com/2010/04/the-future-of-marketing-starts-with-publishing-part-1/

This article is written for businesses and I have said this many times before: Your music is your business so it wont take much reading between the lines to decipher a plan for yourself in this domain.

Here are the two most amazing morsels:

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I’m just back from an amazing trip to Los Angeles where I attended and spoke at the ASCAP Expo. I also hosted a networking mixer at the house for 50 musicians from my community in Brooklyn and so I have been thinking a lot about community lately, and I have some thoughts:

Every artist has three separate communities.

Community #1: Your Super Fans

These are fans who are primarily Your Live Audience. You know them by name. If you play out live, they attend your shows regularly, and buy many things you offer (not just music). If you have a street team they are on it and they evangelize strongly on your behalf.

Community #2: Engaged Fans

These fans are your Active Online Audience. They are newsletter subscribers, blog readers, video watchers, RSS subscribers, active Social Media engagers who frequently comment & engage with you on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Community #3: Ambient Fans

These fans are your Passive Online Audience and they are your social media friends who are aware of you via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Last.fm, etc. but don’t actively communicate with you and may not have ever even heard your music (yet).

There are many different communities to tack on to this list but these are the primary three.

The problem is most artists have only one strategy for marketing and promoting to three totally separate groups.

The way you maintain your relationship with each of these communities requires a different strategy because you have varying degrees of engagement with each of them.

The way you create and develop your relationship with them should also take some careful consideration.

Yes, there will be overlap between them but not as much as you may think.

This article is broken up into three parts, one for each community.

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Yesterday, I guest lectured at NYU for a group of Music Business students. One of them asked me an excellent question:

Is there a formula for success in today’s music business?

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I had the honor and pleasure of speaking at NAMM last week about how to make money in the music business. Normally when I speak on panels it’s me and a few other Social Media,  Marketing, and PR peeps but this panel which was curated by Tony Van Veen of CD Baby / Discmakers was exceptional because it included an artist who is making it right now…  Brian Mazzaferri, the fearles leader of Chicago’s own I Fight Dragons had incredible insights to share about was his band is doing now to make money in the brave new world of “The old model isn’t quite totally dead yet, but the new model isn’t really proven either.”He took some time to really delve into his thoughts on the theroy and I’m delighted that he shared his insight with me and I know you will be too:

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