ArtistDish Releases Podcast #5

The ArtistDish released its 5th podcast today about some of the shifts and trends in print and digital media, gatekeepers, fandom, the gaming industry and more. It's our longest episode to date (1 full hour), and we are joined by music industry veteran, Barney Kilpatrick of Rattlesby Records, and one of our advisors, who provides a great deal of insight and sage advice, so if you’re an artist, you definitely want to listen to this episode.

Special thanks to Montana Skies for providing the intro music with their song, Gringo Flamenco.

Bandsintown

I've been using Bandsintown a bit more recently to discover upcoming shows, and I've become a fan of this service. It's intuitive, fast and they've made some nice improvements since I first experimented with it back in May. Not to mention, their list of artists has grown exponentially since then. One of the features I especially like are the sliders for filtering your search results by show date, price and distance to your location, and the ability for users to add shows and venues. Expect even more features and improvements from Bandsintown. Something I'd like to see would be a Bandsintown Facebook application that would allow users to create concert biographies and share their show experiences with other users. I started to develop a similar Facebook application with Greg Rollett this past summer, but we were both too buried with our own projects.

Live Music Archive Revisited

Over the weekend, I re-explored archive.org and their Live Music Archive for the first time in over a year. I was impressed with some of the changes they've incorporated through their integration with etree.org (a lossless live show repository I've been using since 2000). For example, you can now stream most live concerts that have been uploaded, or even embed them on your site. That's a great free widget for bands trying to build a following, as you can introduce potential new fans to your live music directly on your blog with ease. Here's an example of a show from Gomez:



Your fans can also sign-up to receive RSS alerts for newly added recordings of your live shows by other fans. Here's an example for Ween (located under their photo). It's also a great way to see what your fans think about your live shows, like Jack Johnson's recent performance at Bonnaroo (scroll down to the bottom of the page).

There has certainly been a great deal of discussion about free music and the potential benefits it has on generating new listeners and larger audience attendance. For some bands, it does seem to have a positive impact, for others, little to none. So my only suggestion to Archive is that they allow an option for bands to sell their downloads if they like. But until that happens, Maybe the Live Music Archive is where you allow your fans to freely exchange your live shows, but not your studio work or commercial recordings - there are scores of bands on Archive doing just that. Not to mention, most recordings are in high-quality lossless formats like SHN or FLAC, even 24-bit FLAC, and most bands have MP3 files as well, so this should suit everyone from the general music enthusiast to the audiophile. However, with any music repository, there are some potential licensing issues to consider, so you may want to seek guidance from an attorney first.

To get started allowing your fans to record and upload your live shows, just send archive.org an email. To learn how to upload music, go here, or if you have additional questions check out their FAQ.

Separately, from a consumer's perspective, there are literally thousands of live shows from hundreds of bands you can download. Chances are, one of your favorite artists has a show there for you to download.

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.

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.

Make Free Calls While Touring

There's a new mobile companion service called RingBranch that I think could help reduce road expenses for many touring musicians, but, to be as transparent as possible, I work for RingBranch so this post is a plug for the company as well. But, I wouldn't write about it here if I didn't think it could legitimately help some musicians - here's how:

Both T-Mobile and Alltel offer mobile calling plans that allow unlimited any network calling. For example, under T-Mobile's MyFaves™ plan, you can make and receive an unlimited amount of phone calls for free with up to 5 of your friends, family members or colleagues, regardless of the phone service these 5 contacts use. Alltel has a similar service called My Circle® that allows up to 20 contacts.

With RingBranch, if you are using either T-Mobile's MyFaves™ plan, Alltel's My Circle® or another similar kind of wireless plan, you can effectively expand the total number of contacts you are able to call to as many as 100. What this means for you is that while you are on the road touring, and if you are using a service like T-Mobile's MyFaves™ plan, you could essentially expand your contact list beyond just your friends, but to also include venue numbers, booking agencies, sound and lighting rental companies, indie record stores, crash pads, numbers for points of contacts with opening acts, headlining acts, etc. So, by using RingBranch in conjunction with your MyFaves™ plan, you could call any of these kinds of numbers and talk for up to an additional 1,000 minutes per month for free, no matter what mobile network you are calling, if the number is a landline or mobile number, or where they are located in the continental United States. You could even reduce your monthly mobile service costs as well.

To get started, just signup for a free RingBranch beta account and get your free dedicated unique telephone number. It's a standard phone number (area code)-xxx-xxxx that could even be used as your band's main contact number. Then, add your contacts into your RingBranch virtual telephone directory - up to 100. Next, add your RingBranch number with your MyFaves™ or My Circle® plan via their websites. Once that's completed, you will then call into your RingBranch number from your wireless phone, such as T-Mobile, and then select the person you want to speak with from your virtual telephone directory. RingBranch will then route your call to that person, and because a call into your RingBranch number is treated as a free call under the MyFaves™ , My Circle® or other similar plans, you should not be charged for airtime. Additionally, you could give your music biz contacts your RingBranch number, and the call will automatically forward to the mobile phone you choose utilizing a calling plan like MyFaves™ or My Circle®. As a bonus, when they call into your RingBranch number you should be able to talk for up to an additional 1,000 minutes per month for free because it's listed in your MyFaves™ or My Circle® plan.

It's free to try out, so why not? For more information, visit the RingBranch web site. Btw, the 1,000 additional free minutes per month is how much talk-time RingBranch provides in addition to your monthly calling plan.
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I was listening to: Albert King via FoxyTunes when i wrote this post.