Second Life, More than a Promotional Tool for Artists: Interview with Grace Buford (A.K.A. Cylindrian)

For several months I've wanted to interview an artist or band successfully using Second Life. A couple of weeks ago, Timothy Moenk sent me a link about a podcast that Rusty Tanton and Amber Rhea recently created on the Georgia Podcast Network with Grace Buford, an Atlanta based singer/songwriter. During this artist interview, Grace, A.K.A. Cylindrian, talks about her experience as a musician using Second Life to market her music. Her insight on how Second Life is helping her connect with new fans and promote her music is helpful, and so, I edited the original podcast and distilled it down to 10 minutes of her comments about Second Life, which you can  listen to here.

Not only is Second Life providing a global, real-time platform for showcasing her music, but Grace is also building a world-wide virtual following. This virtual audience interaction is also convenient and profitable, as Grace can perform on-line as much or as little as she wants, and when she wants, without travel expenses like food, lodging and gas.

Grace is primarily using Second Life as a way to build her brand, get new gigs and for broadcasting, like her IRL live shows and rehearsals. When Grace mentioned this, it occurred to me that Second Life is a great way to publish content to a potential fan community, as well as engage in one-to-one relationships with your existing fans, deepening your fans' loyalty to you. It's also a great way to get feedback on your new songs before you even release them. Who knows, one of your fans may just give you some feedback that's the difference between your song being average, and becoming a hit.

Second Life could also be a good avenue for artists to connect with one another in different parts of the country, helping each other with gigs in geographic areas where they have not yet played. You could also use Second Life to tap into fans that have never heard of your band by visiting the existing virtual communities in Second Life where people gather to listen, see and chat about other artists in your genre.

Towards the end of  this interview, Grace raises a great question... If Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Second Life, etc. are not increasing an artist's fan base or revenue, is it worth it to spend the time managing these promotional tactics? My response is that good music always finds a way to rise to the top, and if one is spending a ton of time marketing their music with little return, than it might be time to pursue another career, because if people don't like your music than marketing it is not going to help you sell it.

If you're an artist and have Second Life successes you would like to share on this blog, please contact me as I would like to post your experiences.

Harry Fox Streamlines Digital License Service

The Harry Fox Agency just made managing mechanical licenses for cover songs that much easier with their announcement this week allowing artists to mange and re-order their existing mechanical licenses in just a few steps. This is a significant improvement, as before you essentially had to start from scratch each time you wanted to modify your license. For example, let's say you have a mechanical license for "I've Got A Feeling" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but it was only for digital distribution (Digital Phonerecord Delivery), and now you would like to have it on a compilation CD you're giving away for free at your shows as a way to promote your band. Previously, you would've had to login to your Songifle account and go through all the steps of creating a new license. Now, you just hit "reorder" and select the delivery medium, and a couple of other variables and you're ready to check-out, as the artist information, your account data, etc. is auto-populated. Wow, much faster HFA! Many thanks!

Now that HFA has some automation built-in, it will be interesting to see how fast artists renew their annual DPDs, as it was a chafe before. If you have any questions about their new service enhancements, you can reach them via 212-834-0100, or publisherservices@harryfox.com. Interesting side note, HFA's Songfile division also announced this week that they've now issued over 500,000 licenses since its inception in 1999. Since Songfile is primarily for indie artists, it shows the power the independent segment is having on the music industry.