Increase Fan Participation with BackNoise

If you're looking to create on-line conversations on-the-fly that will enhance your band's live performances and build a stronger fan community, than check out BackNoise. Essentially, it's a free, ad-hoc backchannel service that allows you to create real-time conversations about anything in less than 5 seconds. All you do is either join a conversation already in progress or create one by typing out the name - it's that easy!

There are a number of ways to use this conversation app., from interviews to meetups and touring discussions, but here's an example of how to use it for your live performances:
1) Go to BackNoise and create your band's conversation. You can name it whatever you want, but it might be best to name it after your band to make it easier for your fans to find. For example,  http://backnoise.com/eels. Again, BackNoise does not require you to create an account, as the service is entirely anonymous, so this step should take less than 5 seconds to do.
2) Create an iFrame with your BackNoise URL and post it on your web site, blog, video streaming site, etc. so folks can access the conversation directly from your sites.
3) Send out an email with the URLs to your fan base letting them know you're going to have free, open conversations available during your shows for everyone watching online via sites like Synchronicity Live or Ustream. Also send them the RSS feed (e.g. backnoise.com/eels.rss), the iFrame code in case anyone wants to add the conversation on one of their own sites (nice viral aspect ), and for those attending the show, let them know that they can also access the conversation from their web enabled phone. That's it, but you may also want to remind your audience as you begin your show. Then watch the comments fly as anything goes in an anonymous no-login required environment.

Last week I used BackNoise at Startup Riot to discuss pitches that were being presented with others attending the event at the same time. It was a great way for us to interact, and I think you will see that BackNoise will give your fans something to talk about for days after one of your shows.

Calling Attention to your Music by Derek Sivers

Yesterday, Derek Sivers released his new FREE e-book for indie musicians, Calling Attention to your Music. Derek wrote it in the hopes of helping every musician sell more music, win more fans, and have more doors opened, enabling musicians to make a living making music. Topics include:

• how to get mentioned in Rolling Stone
• why persistence is polite
• how to sell an average of 5 CDs per order
• why marketing costs nothing
• how two curious words can turn your career around
• the biggest mistake most musicians make

And much, much more. Derek intentionally made the book non-genre-specific, so the same tips apply to country, klezmer, and classical. This is a must read for any indie artist and you can download it or read it online here.

Hats off to Derek for the time and devotion creating this work. He's the tireless champion for indie musicians, and his drive to help the entire community never ceases to amaze me. Thanks for the ebook and all you do Derek!

Indie Music Tech

And the winner is.... Indie Music Tech. While I received over 40 suggestions for last week's name contest, this was the only name that seemed to fit, and that was also an available domain. Unfortunately, no one suggested it. I came up with the name last night after trying to purchase IndieMusic.Org, which was suggested by Taylor McKnight, but that name had just been registered the day before. So, Indie Music Tech it is, for now.

Thanks to everyone that emailed in suggestions!
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I was listening to J.J. Cale when I wrote this post

I'll Pay You $100

That's right; I'll pay you $100 via PayPal if you can come up with a name for this blog, as Indie Music 2.0 was just a temporary place card. While it's evolved from DIY marketing and promotion tips for indie musicians, to a discovery resource about the Internet based products and services enabling indie artists, these two directions are not mutually exclusive. It would be great to find a name that somehow reflected both, but I'm open to just a good name :-)

So, all you have to do is come up with a name that not only I like, but is also an available domain name, and you'll get a C-Note! There are no deadlines. For more details, just send me an email.

Guitarati's Quest to Synthesize Music and Emotions

Have you ever wanted to find new music for the mood you're in? This is exactly the problem that recently launched Guitarati is trying to solve. Incorporating aspects of Color Psychology, Guitarati has developed a technology that correlates music styles and genres with a listener's emotions, expressing these relationships in a wide range of colors. Guitarati, suggests that for every mood, every state of mind, colors can more accurately represent the kind of music a listener wants to hear, as musical notes elicit emotions as diverse as the color spectrum, something that text based tagging is not able to achieve. Here's how it works: You pick the color that best represents your mood and Guitarati will automatically provide you with a list of songs representative of that color. If you listen to a few samples and the tracks are still not quite the style or genre you were looking for, you can then narrow the list down by selecting a darker or lighter shade of the color you selected, or even filter the results by only the genres of music you like.

Guitarati is a fascinating service with a great deal of promise if they can truly create the complex, psychological/sociological calculations that can predict musical preferences based on a listener's emotive response to colors, especially since color relationships are always in flux and will vary depending on age, ethnicity, gender, income, etc. However, the accuracy of Guitarati's music to color relationships will improve as their users assign colors to songs.

Guitarati's music catalog is still growing, as they just launched their beta, so if you're an indie artist, you may want to submit your music to Guitarati. You get to set your sales price and keep 75 percent of the revenue, and Guitarati also pays a small amount for plays.
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I was listening to Phish when I wrote this post

Promote your Music and Expand your Fans with idiomag

A couple of weeks ago I learned about idiomag, a personalized digital music magazine that keeps you in the loop with your favorite musicians/bands by aggregating various types of content about these artists in a centralized and interactive format. The content includes audio, articles, photos, gigs, videos and more. What's compelling about this service is that idiomag deploys an intelligent system which adapts to a reader's interests as he/she rates the appeal of the content they are viewing, helping to refine the viewer's preferences.

An interesting service, I see at least three ways indie artists could benefit from using idiomag:

1) Bands and musicians can submit their MySpace profile for inclusion in the magazine for FREE. Within 24 hours, your MySpace profile and information will be sent to idiomag subscribers and readers that like your genre of music, enabling you to reach new fans.

2) Artists can promote their music on idiomag to relevant viewers for as little as $10. To do so, just send idiomag an email.

3) You can submit your band's feed for inclusion in idiomag, and then create a personalized magazine focused on your band that you could also publish on your Facebook page. Here's an example of what it could look like: