The 500 Club Celebration: We will match your $50!

We are excited to announce we now have 500 artists with mobile fan clubs.

In November (2009), we are offering a $50 match to the first 10 artists to sell their tickets and/or merchandise, and make $50 or more (not including shipping charges)
All you have to do is to setup tickets and/or merchandise up for sale on the artist portal, promote it to your fans, and let us know (if we don't contact you first) that you hit $50!

The only rule we make is that your $50 of sales need to be from 2 (or more) different transactions for different fans. For example, one completed sale of one item that costs $50 doesn't count, because we want you to try to promote it to many of your fans.

If you likes the experience, blog about it, tell your friends. If something didn't work for you, or can be improved, tell us.

If you have any questions, or comments, remember to tune into our interview on Tuesday Nov 3rd 7PM EST followed by a live Q&A session.

Celebrating 500 Artist on Adva Mobile Portal, With You!

Wow, it seems like only yesterday we've announced our 300^th artist to join, and here we are, celebrating our 500th artist to get their own free Mobile Fan Club, with Daphne Willis being the most recent artist to join!

It's been 10 months since we've launched our service, and we're humbled to have realized that through social media channels, like our Twitter feed, Facebook page, MySpace Page, this blog and your recommendations to one another, we've achieved this huge milestone, far sooner than we anticipated. We're thankful for positive reviews we received from the media and artists, as well as constructive feedback that helps us better our service to you daily.

Once again, we'd like to share with you one of our learnings from analyzing how you use our service: We've found that many of you see the value in promoting yourselves on your fans' mobile phones. There are certainly more shoutouts, the widget is posted and used more often and more fans are SMS'ing your keyword in. Perhaps the new behavior we're seeing recently is that some artists have started to make money with their Mobile Fan Club, which is very encouraging. Whether it is ticket sales or merchandise sales, the setup process is a breeze, the service charge is nowhere nearly comparable to other services, and the fan experience is optimal. Fans report that the checkout process is simple and they were happy with the experience.

One worthwhile lesson some artists shared with us is how to leverage the immediacy associated with the fans using their mobile phones to increase your sales: Make your offer seem attractive and time-bound, then send off an SMS-blast to your fans, or shoutout from stage. See, if you tell your fans there are limited amount T-Shirts available for 10% less during the next two hours, whether at or before the show, they are much more likely to purchase those. Once done, they recieve an SMS with the purchase details, they can walk over to the merch table, present the SMS, and walk away with the T-Shirt they just bought. Artists claim they got much better sales than putting up merch on their web properties, where it can stay forever.

From all of us at Adva Mobile, a big THANK YOU to everyone! If you're happy with us, share it with your friends, and if not, let us know!

Upgraded Artist Reports Portal: Knowledge is Power!

Hi Everyone,
Recently we've featured an important video from TopSpin's CEO talking about how important for an artist is the knowledge you can gather about your fans. We believe in that wholeheartedly, which is why we're very excited to launch our new reporting portal!

The new reporting portal provides you insight into the critical aspects of your activity on your Mobile Fan Club with your fans. For example, how Mobile Fan Club grows over time, where are my fans located, what's their age or gender, which pages or content my fans visit more, transactions reporting and much more.
We collect that data when your fans visit your mobile website, and the more specific data as they go to your exclusive content page and leave their details.

Using the new reporting tool you can make important decisions like:

• Planning your tour based on where most of your fans are
• Uploading (and selling) content and merch based on what sells best etc.
• Blast your fans about new shows based on where they are and what day they like to receive the blast 
• You could tell fans to find other fans in the same area
• Track the impact of your promotion efforts by how many new fans you get
• Determine if different merchandise sells better in different fan locations, gender and age

We encourage you to visit your new reporting portal, learn more about your fans on your Mobile Fan Club and make clever decisions with that knowledge!

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, we'd like to hear from you!

How many fans on my mobile Fan Club?

Where are my fans located?

Announcing: Adva Mobile Live on the Air with Brimstone Radio

We're very excited to announce our first interview on Internet Radio with Brimstone Radio. Tune in on Tuesday Nov 3rd at 7PM EST to hear Brad Simmons from Brimstone interview Jack Kelly, Adva's CEO about Adva Mobile, our service, how we see musicians best use it etc. You can listen to the show by clicking here and click on "Listen Now".

The interview will be followed by a live Q&A session where Jack and Brad will discuss and answer any questions artists and/or fans may have about our Mobile Marketing Service, features, Mobile Marketing etc.
There are several ways to ask questions:

• Prior to the Show:
• On your PC:
• Send an email to livetalk@advamobile.com
• Tweet your question using @BrimstoneRadio, @advaMobile or or #ablive
• On your phone
• Visit Brimstone's Mobile website (SMS "getbrimstone" to 88704) and tweet from their tweet page
• During the Show:
• Dial 1(347)989-1683 to join the conference call where you can listen to the session and press "1" to ask your question
• Join the talk room by clicking here
• You can follow the Twitter stream by clicking here
• After the Show you can still Tweet or Email us, we will respond to you directly

For those of you who can't make this time, we will post a recording of the interview as well as the follow up Q&A session both on Adva Mobile site and on Brimstone Radio's site.

Participation is FREE, but since participation in the Q&A session is limited, we'd like you to please register here.

Adva Mobile joins 'Talking Mobile' Startup index

We're excited and honored to be covered by of one of the leading and respected mobile technology blogs, Talking Mobile. Talking Mobile, led by Harel Shattenstein, gathered a group of technology journalists and telecom professionals and we aim to bring a deeper coverage using our insight and perspective.

Mobilize your gigs from JamBase on Your Mobile Fan Club

Hi Everyone,
We're excited to reveal the next partner in our integration strategy, JamBase. Artists on JamBase portal who sign up for our free Mobile Fan Club service can now automatically import their gigs from JamBase into their Mobile Fan Club daily.
This is another milestone in our strategic effort to reduce the effort required by the artist to manage their promotion channels. Artists should not need to enter their profile, show and merchandise information for every service they sign up for. Similarly, social services like Twitter, Facebook and others share information between them to the benefit of their constituents.
JamBase is a website for fans of live music. By providing the largest database of show listings and ticket information, authoritative content, community, and personalization tools for fans, JamBase connects music fans with the music they love and empowers them to go see live music.
JamBase launched their own iPhone app, delivering Music Fans Mobile Access to Its 70,000 Live Music Show Listings, clearly identifying the potential of reaching fans on their mobile phones.

The integration with JamBase follows after our initial integration with MySpace and ArtistData. We at Adva Mobile are motivated to provide a superior and simple experience for entertainers, and we're already working with the next partner!

How to mobilize your JamBase gigs

1. If you haven't signed up for your own FREE Mobile Fan Club, do it here.
2. On the artist portal, visit the 'Integrations' page.
3. In the 'Gigs' column, check the "JamBase" check box.
4. Click 'Update'

You're done!

Interview with Bobby Bishop

Our Spotlight Artist Bobby Bishop released his newest project "Everyday Man" last July on Chosen Records/Executive Music/Universal Music
Christian Group, and has been building his mobile fan club to help promote his music.
Over 20 fans responded to both his July 31 and September 13 shout outs, and his fan club has grown quickly to over 70 fans. We caught up with Bobby Bishop to talk about how he uses his
mobile fan club to get his message out...

Adva Mobile (AM): Hey Bobby, how is the new CD project Every Man going?
Bobby Bishop (BB): It's going great! It's my best project to date, and has been getting rave reviews, thankfully! The video for the single "Please" has been getting massive Youtube hits, as well as spins on The Gospel Music Channel, Steelroots, and BET Gospel. I'm always looking for creative ways to create awareness. I feel there's always more I can to promote an album. I'm always looking for new and different ways to utilize the tools out here to reach out to people.
AM: ...And that includes efforts to reach out to your fans on their mobile phones
BB: I am a social worker during the day and no matter what the economics are, every kid has a phone. They may not have the latest smart phones, but they all have a phone. My mobile efforts are close to the top of all the things I'm doing to reach out to my fans.
AM: You seem to attract new fans to your mobile fan club every time you're out doing a show. How do you do it?
BB: I have an easy time with my fans because I'm naturally social. You just have to keep it casual and be spontaneous. I now put the shoutout note right in my set list so I don't forget, and tell the fans to get their phones out and text to my fan club. After the show, I am over at the merch table, and lots of them talk to me about the mobile club.
Some of them get the text message but can't get to the site, mostly because they don't have mobile data plans, so I just send them to my site (adva.us/bobby). I'm sure soon everyone will have smart phones and data plans.
AM: What do you think about selling merchandise, music and tickets on fans' mobile phones?
BB: I have my music up for sale on my mobile site, and it's only a matter of time before fans start making purchases directly from their phones. You just have to tell your fans to do it.
AM: Anything else you want to see on your mobile fan club?
BB: It's a great way to attract fans and build up fan lists. And it's free! Ringtones would be cool, and I like the new icons, and can see that you guys are making strong efforts when it come to aestheics!
AM: Okay, that's cool. You know we are always trying to get better. Thanks for using your Mobile Fan Club, and good luck with the new album.

New changes and improvements to your Mobile Fan Club!

We're excited to announce exciting new changes to your Mobile Fan Club

• Changes to the Links on your Mobile Page Footer
  We've replaced the old links with new fun icons for your Gigs, Merch sales, News, Buzz and your Twitter pages.
• Your Keyword and Shortcode are changing
  
  
  
  
  As of Nov 1st, Your keyword is going to change from what it is today to be prefixed by "get". We found it to be much more intuitive to fans to remember "get"+the band name, "get" + the artist name etc. (if your keyword is "Santigold", it will become "GETSantigold". If it's "NBS", it will become "GETNBS". If it's "metal", it will become "GETmetal").
  Our shortcode is also changing from 43863 (GETME) to 88704. So, next time you do a shoutout, or in your mailing lists (if it's after Nov 1st), remember to tell your fans to text "get"+your existing keyword to 88704.
  
  
  
  

PS. If you want to change your keyword, you can always do that on the artist portal at AdvaMobile.com.

Introducing new partners: Brimstone and Hector

Adva Mobile welcomes two new partners to our mobile fan club program, with mobile sites designed specially for them and the Artists they serve.

Brimstone Radio is a Web Site and Internet Radio station with Music from the Underground....Way Underground!! Broadcasting 24/7 with 6 weekly shows that air live every week allowing you to hear undiscovered bands from the safety of your own home! Visit BrimstoneRadio.com to check out all of their our live broadcasts, cd reviews, personal profiles of other Brimstone Radio listeners, and of course to listen to the very best of the UNDERGROUND.
Their mobile site includes a a unique search function where fans can search for Brimstone supported Artists by by genre - Rock, Metal, Punk, and Blues. Text BRIMSTONE to 43863 to check these guys out. (GETBRIMSTONE to 88704 after Nov 1).


The Hector Fund conducts Artistfunding campaigns as a service to independent artists and administers the fulfillment of tangible goods to their fans. It’s simple; Fans donate money to support the creative endeavors of their favorite musicians in exchange for exclusive access and perks. Hector also provides Online Marketing Solutions and Mobile Sites with Mobile Shell Applications for iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, Blackberry, etc. Their mobile site lists, and links to, Artists with funding campaigns, and mobile is a key component of their fan interaction. To see what an Artist funding campaign looks like, text HECTOR to 43863 (GETHECTOR to 88704 after Nov 1).

It's time to choose your own password!

Hi all,
In the past we've had many people unhappy with the way we managed passwords when they signed up: previously, we would create a random password for you, and send it to your email. That method was far from perfect...what if we got the wrong email, or that email went into your junk mail...Even if you got the email, you would need to go and change your password on the portal.
Too many people had password issues! no more!

We've just introduced a new signup method, where you can enter whatever password you like. Like before, we will enter you right into the portal so you can start checking out the amazing features we have for you and we will send you the email reminding you of your username and password.
The facilities to recover your password and change it are obviously still there for you!

Hopefully this makes a lot of people happier =). Go sign up now...

In the Spotlight: Bobby Bishop

Bobby Bishop
Genre: Hip Hop / Christian / Rap
Hometown: Lynn, Massachusetts
Fans on Mobile Club:74
Keyword: Text bobby to GETME (43863) Until Nov 1st, GetBobby to 88704 after.


Bobby Bishop fell in love with hip-hop as a child. Raised in a quiet Boston suburb, it took some digging around and frequent trips to the city to wrap his head around the passion he heard from the mouths of his favorite emcees.
With the need to follow his own conviction, Bobby began serving teenagers as a youth minister in gritty Lynn, Massachusetts in 1996, and has been there ever since. He began writing and recording rap music as a teenager himself, and the fusion of his faith in God and a passion for rap was a natural one. He realized his experience as a youth mentor and minister gave him the opportunity to reach out using hip-hop, particularly as he discovered his knack for storytelling. A church plant ensued in 2001, with the vision of pursuing a neglected city, and rap demos and independent CD’s were penned in conjunction with his community experiences. Hip-hop’s pioneer’s birthed a sound expressing everyday life, struggle, determination, and redemption.
Bobby was adamant from the beginning not to forget hip-hop’s roots, but to offer the hope of Christ as life’s solution.

Topspin: Data is the future of the Music Biz

Topspin media CEO Ian Rogers gives advice on the value of fans, reaching out to them and collecting their information, and collecting and analyzing the data you get as an emerging artist.

It's a really great advice from Ian.

One note that caught my attention was the following note: "The small artists actually have the same behavior as the large artists in terms of conversion, what people are willing to spend...it's just a different scale. but if you're looking at it on a pure percentage, what percentage of people are willing to pay for the top tier item is the same. that's really good news. Just means the dynamics are the same, you just have a smaller fan base."

"Participate in anything where a fan can express interest in what you're doing and you can then communicate with them."

"The No. 1 reason people don't come to shows is because they don't know about them."

Watch it, I well recommend it!

For mobile Music-As-a-Service, How Soon is Now?

GigaOm's blog publishes this morning an interesting article by Paul Bonanos on the topic of recent mobile music applications success. (GigaOm's blog is covering new technology and marketing).

According to them, the new Raphsody iPhone app has been downloaded 330,000 times since it's launch in Sep 9, making it the 2nd music app in iTunes store. However, only a minority of Raphsody's web subscribers used the iPhone app to stream music.

The question asked is: "are users finally ready to pay a monthly fee for ubiquitous access to a massive library of music?" (ie. pay extra to listen to music on their phone).

Here's their take:

"The burst of interest in Rhapsody’s app certainly reveals pent-up demand for mobile streams. Some consumers will surely be willing to pay for the chance to hear what they want, when they want, wherever they are. But many would still rather own their music, and some will be content with more restrictive, but free, options. It’s possible that the success of mobile streaming apps will mean that the music-as-a-service model’s time has finally come. We’ll know it has when people stop experimenting, and start paying."

What's that mean to you?

Well, we think your fans are mobile today. They certainly come to your shows and listen to your music in any way they can. They are following you, and "owning" the music you play just makes them "better" fans. that means, more money to you. But, as you well know, nobody pays for music anymore. Those days are gone, so we all had better think of alternative ways to make money. What are some of those channels? Tickets to gigs, merchandise and more. Yes, fans do pay at the door or pre-purchase tickets to your shows. They do buy your CDs, T-Shirts etc.

If you agree that you can excite your fans at the show, and get them to buy something right there, then the way to make money is through their phone, which is exactly what we provide, for free, at Adva Mobile.

Now is the time to get your own free mobile fan club, get started here.

CNN: it's harder than ever for artists to make a living selling CDs

CNN's Matt Rosoff has this article about the reality of selling music:

"More than 115,000 new albums were released in the U.S. last year. Of those, 110 sold more than 250,000 copies in the U.S. last year--that's not such a surprise, as big stars have always been rare. But only 1,500 titles cracked the 10,000 mark, and fewer than 6,000 sold a paltry 1,000 copies.

..Selling 900 CDs at $12 a pop would gross almost $11,000, which would be enough to cover low-budget recording and manufacturing expenses and perhaps buy some new guitar pedals and drumheads. Nobody makes a living selling 1,000 CDs.

What about 10,000 discs? If you're just starting out, making over $100,000 from CD sales sounds like a dream. Of course, you have to split that money among the band members, and anybody else who gets a cut, like the producer and manager. And if you're signed to a label, you might already be that deep into the hole for your advance and recording expenses, so forget about royalties and just hope they'll pay you an advance for the next one. At 10,000 copies, you're probably getting a little radio play somewhere, so you might earn a few small paychecks from publishing royalties, and if you've got a good live act and are willing to tour endlessly, you might be able to sell more tickets than CDs over the course of a year. So perhaps 10,000 is the low-end baseline for making a living playing music. (AR- reminder, only 6,000 of those sold in the US last year).

Of the new titles released last year, almost 99 percent of them didn't sell enough copies to let their creators earn a living from CD sales, and almost 95 percent of them didn't sell enough copies to cover the most basic expenses involved in their recording.

For an unknown band just starting out? Better polish those chops and gas up the van, then get ready to live on ramen noodles for a couple years. And don't worry about devaluing your recordings by selling them cheap or giving them away--worry about getting enough fans to hear them so they'll be interested in coming to your shows, and dragging a few friends with them."

Say no more, Matt. We're with you 100% there.

Adva Mobile gives you a FREE marketing tool to engage your fans on their phones, get them involved, bring them to your shows, and sell to them your tickets and merchandise. That's the way forward.