From If to How Much

We recently attended a mobile event in Boston where Jumptap CEO Dan Olschwang was asked about how brands view mobile advertising - the market of Jumptap. Referencing the recent acquisitions of Admob by Google and Quattro Wireless by Apple, he said "One billion dollars moves a market. Their attitude is no longer if, but how much." So brands have moved from asking themselves if they should be advertising more on mobile phones to how much they should be advertising on mobile phones. They see value.

I was thinking of this and how it applied to mobile marketing for music artists. Will it take a watershed event like the movement of a billion dollars for artists to move from "if you should be connecting with fans on mobile phones" to "how much should you be connecting with fans on mobile phones"? When will the value of mobile marketing be apparent to you?

We ask ourselves about value here at Adva Mobile all the time, especially about services that you, the artist, find valuable enough to pay for. The text messages we send out to fans, in particular, cost us, but reaching fans on their phones - that's valuable. Some of you are building large fan clubs so we'll need to begin to charge for those. Other services, like location targeted text alerts, also provide a valuable service to you that we believe you'll pay for. As your fans increasingly appreciate text messages and mobile web connection to you, you'll no longer ask if you should reach out to them on their phones, but how much.

Mobile is to internet like TV is to radio

This post is based on an article by Allan Moore, bestselling author and the CEO of SMLXL.

Image Attribute: BBC

Mobile is to internet like TV is to radio. Mobile is as much superior to the internet, as TV is to radio. Today at 2.7 billion mobile phone users, there are three times as many mobile phones as personal computers (and over a quarter of all internet access is already from mobile phones). There are nearly twice as many mobile phones as TV sets. Twice as many people use messaging on a phone (SMS text messaging) as use e-mail on the web. In this article, (including key quotes from Alan Moore's article with the original headline) we'll discuss what makes mobile so effective channel to your audience, and why you should include it in your marketing plan.

I often hear various internet experts talk about how limiting the mobile phone is for internet consumption. That there are problems with scrolling, and the keypad entry is cumbersome, and we lack a mouse on the phone. This is as stupid as the TV experts. We should NOT try to replicate the existing internet onto the mobile. Mobile is not a "small internet", it is a NEW mass media. As different from the internet as TV is from radio. We can do so much MORE on the phone that cannot be done on the internet.

Allan highlights 5 unique elements that distinguish Mobile: Personal, The first always-on mass media, the first always-carried mass media, the first mass media with a built-in payment mechanism and uniquely offers the media audience the input tool, at the point of creative impulse.

Our service enables you to build your community and reach your fans on a recurring basis with rich-media, engaging experiences we power. Take advantage of the unique ability to engage your fans in the right context. Get started now.

Reblogged: Music Festivals Offer Unique Marketing Opportunity

How to get part of that crowd to join your team.

"One of the biggest problems for every act is building your base from 0-5000. And it used to be, you'd be all alone (or have to spend an arm and a leg) to build a following.

But think about this -- a festival isn't just another gig, it's a marketing opportunity, a huge vehicle you can use to build your following. As festival season approaches, get your strategy together to figure out how to get part of that crowd to join your team."

Check out this insightful post from Scott Perry. With his great free email newsletter and web site, the New Music Tipsheet keeps the industry informed of new releases as well as commenting on trends and sharing industry news.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What will music fans pay for?

Note: Our 'Expert Insight' this month comes from Debbie Chachra, and was featured on the Hypebot. Debbie Chachra is a Cambridge, MA-based academic, music fan, and geek, not always in that order. She runs the music, culture and technology blog zed equals zee, and you can also follow her on Twitter.

This Debcha's article is one of many insightful posts you can read on her blog. We specifically recommend that you pay attention to the 'relationship' and  'experience' notes. Enjoy reading!

Image Courtesy: Richard Stevens III

Earlier this week, I talked about how NPR and webcomics have a business model that’s predicated on the primary work (the radio broadcast and the webcomics themselves, respectively) being available for free; once the overhead is covered, the incremental cost of additional readers or listeners is approximately zero. I pointed out that music has historically been very different: the business model for music is based on people paying for the music itself. But now that music can be transmitted digitally it also has, not coincidentally, an incremental cost of zero. And unlike NPR, you don’t need a radio transmitter to share it with your friends.
I know that there is ideology on both sides: people who feel that all music should be free, and people who feel that downloading any music you didn’t pay for is theft. But how you feel about the issue doesn’t change the facts: listeners have the option of not paying for music. And, as Cory Doctorow has pointed out, it’s never going to get harder to move bits around than it is right now. So it might be time to think about a business model that reflects this.
I’m not a musician. I’m a fan. And from my perspective, it’s clear that fans do want to support artists that they like. Taking a page from NPR’s book, here’s a list of things that fans will pay for, even if they can get your music for free:


The music. First and foremost, many people will (and do) pay for digital music, even if they don’t have to. This might be because it’s easier to use iTunes than BitTorrent. Or it might be because they want to support the artist. Or both.


CDs and merch. Atoms, not bits. Do you pledge money to NPR to support the programming, or for the This American Life DVD? I’ve bought merchandise even when there was no rational reason for me to, simply because it was a way to support an artist I love. I buy CDs at concerts, because I know the money goes directly to the artists (and because I can listen to them in my car).


Relationships. Anything signed or limited-edition is not just about the article itself—it’s about expressing a relationship with the artist. And relationships aren’t fungible. Jonathan Coulton and Amanda Palmer are two excellent artists who have close relationships with their fans, who in turn support them.


An experience. The canonical example of this is, of course, the concert – whether it’s $5 to see your favorite local band or hundreds of dollars for an arena show. But this also includes things like doing ’shrooms in a Lamborghini with your favorite drummer.


Something unique. The illustration at the top of this post is a commissioned portrait (“Portrait of the Blogger, with Johnny Toaster,” by rstevens). Definitely worth paying for.


A narrative. What’s a story worth? Apparently, quite a bit. The Significant Objects art project posts thrift-store finds for auction on eBay, along with the back stories. But the back stories are fictional, and are described as such. Nevertheless,  the items go for substantially more than their market value.


What are you willing to pay for? What have you offered to your fans? Other thoughts?

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!

A Lesson In Building Community (Or A Love Letter To Rob Gordon & What Are Records?)

Note: This blog is reprinted from Ariel Cyber PR. Ariel Hyatt is one of our favorite resources for musicians to help you understand how to market your music. You can find her at http://www.arielpublicity.com.

Hello from the Rocky Mountains!
I am in Colorado this week taking some time to reflect on the whirlwind that has been my life for the past two years. I lived here for seven years and founded Ariel Publicity here. And lost of great memories have come flooding back.
I have been spending time with Rob Gordon – my first boss at the only record label I ever worked at What Are Records? What I learned at What Are Records? has set me up for a successful career in the new music business and that is because of Rob’s genius around building community.
Rob Gordon had an uncanny knack for understanding it before many in the record business caught on and I continue to operate Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR campaigns based on his teachings. What I learned from What Are Records? is understand the value of community and connectivity and harness it to grow.
What Rob knew was: Observing and staying in constant contact with a rabid fan base, and nurturing them was the ultimate way to earn money in the music business.

Here’s what Rob Gordon did:
Harness Energy and Enthusiasm way before the Internet was used daily in the business Rob found a bound called The Samples and saw a phenomenon that was in the process of happening. Every show they played was packed with college students, screaming along to every song from coast to coast, the word was spreading and the crowds were growing each show. The incredible part was The Samples had been dropped from their major label deal. Rob signed them and started recording their new album and at the same time negotiated their major label album back so he could re-release it on his label.

Go Team
Rob assembled a team of young ambitious employees who were dying to make a mark in the music industry (myself included), and he showed us exactly how to build a record label. We all worked in one big room so we could each hear what every single dept at the label did.

Think About The Flow Of Money
Rob put his own distribution channels in place. A tracking system was used that he built from scratch. We mailed the albums directly to the stores and tracked the sales, cutting out the need a distribution company, and directing the profits back to the band and the label. This, at the time, was completely unheard of.


Keeping Us All in Community
We moved our offices from New York City to The Samples hometown, Boulder, CO. This put us in direct community with the band, who stopped by the offices when they were off the road and hung out with us socially. This move also put us in community with many of the core fans, promoters, managers and team who were spreading the gospel of The Sample from the band’s home base. It was not unusual to drive around town and hear The Samples blasting from car windows, frat houses and in bars and restaurants. It was an exciting reminder of our mission.

Communicating with Fans
Through physical mailing lists, postcards, letters, and catalogs and we began to communicate with fans in a ways that artists rarely utilized. In this day and age we can use E Newsletters, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to talk to thousands of fans at once but back then it was rare. (And now with Mobile Fan Clubs! JK)

Build The Funnel - Continually Put Out Products to Satisfy the Fans
We gave the fans what they wanted. Rob Gordon understood from the very, very early time when people were only selling records that it was about having a product funnel. The Samples not only sold CDs and tapes. They also sold T-shirts, hats, hoodies, sweatshirts, CD carrying cases and VHS videos of the band having a blast on the road in their wonderful movie Ten Wheels. We had great products and they sold well both at shows and through the catalogs.

Keep Them Ignited and Excited
Rob Gordon also learned that if you could keep a fan base ignited and excited that they would come back and continue to buy more. He listened to the fans, and he put out exactly what it was they wanted. In every album, there was a pamphlet that allowed artists to write back to the record label and request whatever it is that they wanted to have.

Sharing & Rewarding Those That Help
After a year with What Are Records I got a job opportunity that was too good to pass up. On my last day, Rob Gordon did something that I could not believe. He gave me the label’s entire press database of writers, and journalists, and he said since you helped to build this, I’m giving it to you as a gift. It was this database that helped me build my company and later it became the backbone of Ariel Publicity.

Rob understood that sharing information would be the only way that we could all succeed. Years later I traded databases with Rob again so we could both benefit and I now share as much information as I can through my newsletter http://www.soundadviceezine.com
So, Rob, as I mark my 13th year as the owner of my own music PR firm, I thank you for being the ultimate teacher. And thank you for showing us that the future of the music business has to be based on community, sharing and open source information.

Here's the original article.

The Time is Right for Direct-To-Fan Marketing of Music

By Jason Feinberg, June 24, 2009

As the music industry continues to evolve and search for a sustainable and profitable business model, the direct-to-fan (D2F) approach is making great advances, from artists just starting their career up to superstars with massive fan bases.

Artists marketing and selling directly to their audience is not necessarily a new or revolutionary concept -- one can find examples of artists offering their products to customers directly in every generation of music. For established artists, it is used as a way to inexpensively leverage all the awareness they have amassed. For evolving artists, it is often a necessity. Without a label and distributor, the usual options for new artists have been selling music at live shows, selling through fan clubs or sympathetic indie record stores -- or sometimes just selling out of the trunk of a car (which is how N.W.A. got started). But today, advances in technology have opened up exciting new avenues for direct-to-fan sales.

SUCCESSES IN THE DIRECT-TO-FAN MARKET

Direct-to-fan sales and marketing have seen a significant spike in recent years thanks to a number of factors. First, technology has given artists at all levels the opportunity to sell and market to their fans in a clear, inexpensive, engaging fashion online. Second, many emerging artists see less value in signing to a label and instead choose to steer clear of entangling contractual obligations. Finally, established artists are choosing not to renew their label contracts at a record pace, realizing that the brand they have developed can be leveraged without a label. All of these situations benefit greatly from direct-to-fan initiatives.

Read More...

This article originally appeared in MediaShift , a blog by Jason Feinberg

Quarter Inch Holes

I could wax poetic for years about Ted Leavitt, marketing professor at Harvard. The hundreds of business books written over the last 25 years, in my opinion, merely restate the insights he provided in the 50's and 60's. While musing about people's buying habits, he famously said. "People don't want quarter inch drill bits. They want quarter inch holes."

Hard man, there, Mr. Leavitt. The movement of money from one pocket to another is reduced to understanding and fulfilling a need.

It's worth the effort to think about what job people are trying to get done when they hire out your 3:30 song. I recently read of a market researcher who was seeking to understand the jobs that customers were trying to get done when they hired a milk shake, so it's not a foolish effort. Music fans don't want recordings, they want the experience of feeling the way they do when they're moved by your music. And that experience is wrapped up into much more than your music (although that's where it starts). The totality of their relationship with you drives them to choose your sound when they want that experience. Wrap your music around an artist - fan relationship and the impact of your music will grow stronger.

Investing in artists - the human part of the capital attraction equation...

Bruce Warila | Mon, November 10, 2008

More and more artists are seeking advice on how to obtain a substantial investment ($50,000 to $250,000), and artists around the globe are structuring their organizations as small businesses that will generate a return on investment for investors (for fans and for brands that invest in artists).
Prior to writing more about the legal or business things you need to do to obtain an investment, I wanted to touch on the human part of the capital attraction equation.

After reading this list you may say to yourself "WTF, do I have to be a saint to raise money?" The answer is no, maybe you don't. This is my investment checklist, and I believe it's necessary to keep every business option open, especially in the music industry. When an investor is investing in more than a single song (a person or a band), he or she is probably looking for someone that MOST consumer-facing brands would also be comfortable promoting.

More...


This article originally appeared in Unsprung Media, a blog by Bruce Warilla.

Band to Fan Relationships Drive New Music Business Models

Lots of us have been intrigued by Kevin Kelly’s (no relation!) dissertation on 1,000 True Fans and his premise that you can make a decent living by cultivating 1,000 true fans who will pay you for your craft much easier than trying to make music that satisfies the craving of 6 billion people. These 1000 true fans will buy everything you produce and drive hundreds of miles to see your concerts. But in the digital world, you need to find new things to sell them besides T-shirts and concert tickets to make this work. That's where leveraging the relationship that fans want with you comes into play, and a number of artists, including some using our mobile fan club service, are inventing innovative, relationship-based “products” that provide real value to their true fans.

UK Folk Legend Linda Thompson recognizes the unique bond between her creativity and her audience desire for closer relations. Together with Artist Funding Agents The Hector Fund, she has recently begun a campaign to raise $50K to finance her new album direct from her fans and has partnered with Adva to take it mobile. Fans can donate anywhere between $10 and $100K, and at the higher levels, some really unique access to a music icon. Below is an example of her $20K offering:

$20,000 Magna Carta Level: The album, the limited poster, the visit to the studio, the Executive Producer credit, the VIP invite, the dinner with me and Teddy and a song written specifically for you or that special someone and recorded and performed by myself, Teddy, my daughter Kami and grandson Zak (soon to be heard of) Hobbs.

Josh Freese, ex Nine Inch Nails drummer, has a new album you can download for $7. But for $10,000, you get:

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Signed DW snare drum from A Perfect Circle’s 2003 tour
* Josh gives you a private drum lesson OR his and hers foot/back massage (couples welcome, discreet parking)
* Twiggy from Marilyn Manson’s band and Josh take you and a guest to Roscoe’s Chicken ‘n’ Waffles in Long Beach for dinner
* Josh takes you and a guest to Club 33 (the super-duper exclusive and private restaurant at Disneyland located above Pirates of the Caribbean) and then hit a couple rides afterward (preferably the Tiki Room, the Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror)
* At the end of the day at Disneyland, drive away in Josh’s Volvo station wagon. It’s all yours … take it. Just drop him off on your way home, though, please

Some of it tongue-in-cheek, maybe, but there's a limit of one of these prizes, and so some fan will have a unique experience with Josh that presumably no one else will have.

There’s a terrific opportunity to tie fans desire for digital goods (which can be duplicated ad infinitum) to scarce goods (merch, collector’s items, signed items, etc) to engage their favorite bands and to choose how much they’re willing to spend and get unique relationship with the artist for their money. Mobile can help, but it’s the concept that has me spinning.

To experiment with adding merchandise to your mobile fan club click here.

Jack Kelly, CEO

Expert Insight: The value of a Mobile Promotion Component

Effective music promotion used to be a costly campaign that was best left to be handled by the major labels. Now, with the emergence of social networking websites, text and voicemail messaging along with mobile websites, music promotion is easier and more effective than ever. Internet and mobile promotions gives unsigned artists, independent artists and musicians the ability to achieve a level of success that has not been seen in the past decades without the help of major labels. A “Record Deal”, may no longer be necessary to experience the success of having a large fan base to purchase music, tickets or merchandise. The self-promoted artist and independent label now have an avenue where they can promote and sell their music on a global scale.

One of the greatest tools to come available to the independent and self-promoted artist and musicians is mobile media. With the cell phone transforming into the multimedia personal communication device, thanks to the third generation (3G) and now the fourth generation (4G) handsets, it is easier to reach and keep your fan based informed and up-to-date. Mobile web access is a platform that is growing in popularity on a daily basis. Giving your fans the ability to access a mobile website via their Blackberry, iPhone, Sidekick or other handheld device to stay updated on your tour schedule, new recordings and blogs is an incredible tool for promoting you the artist or band. Utilizing Mobile media gives the artist the opportunity to take advantage of proximity marketing. Picture this, as an independent artist, you are at a gig playing to a packed house. Proximity marketing gives you the ability to send every fan with a cell phone, or multimedia device, a text message that gives them a link to your mobile website. Once they access the mobile website, they can click on a link for a free download of the song you just played, or a special offer or some kind of promotion specially designed for those fans in attendance. This, of course, is only if the customer or fan has the equipment needed to receive and has agreed to accept marketing messages. This type of promotions is not only relevant and interactive it also entertains and advertises.

For artists who want to be ahead of the game, creating a mobile (“mobi”) website may increase marketing success with a small investment as well as generate sales and expand your fan base. Artists and musicians can send a message to fans that drives them to the artist’s mobile site where fans can buy music, check out the new dates added to the tour schedule or even enter contests. Every artist that we sign to our management company, VIP Entertainment Group, will definitely have a mobile website as we feel that it is a vital part to their marketing and promotions campaign as well as keeping their fan base connected.

Rodney Lambert 
Owner/ Artist Manager 
VIP Entertainment Group 
www.vipentertainment.biz

About VIP Entertainment Group 

VIP Entertainment Group is a personal management company based out of Southern California. As personal managers, we make sure to represent our clients with honesty, integrity and professionalism. It is our goal to treat every artist that signs on with us like a V.I.P. 
 
As personal managers, we are responsible for every part of the artist’s career. It involves making decisions we and our artist can live with and developing a trusting relationship. A relationship that matures over time and grows out of mutual respect. It's understanding that the artist’s opinion is an integral part of the decision making process and growth of his or her career.

Founded by Rodney Lambert and Ray Anderson, VIP Entertainment Group manages independent and unsigned artists from various career stages. We specialize in preparing artist packages and presenting them to the industry. We effectively implement marketing strategies and online campaigns to build the artist fan base and create the much needed buzz.

What's the Value of a Fan?

Artists and labels have a new way to strengthen ties with fans and make them buy more music - their mobile phone. Whether you think ringtone stores, iPhone Apps, or your own mobile web presence is the way to connect with your fans, the mobile phones' versatility gives bands a way to draw your fans closer. So use it!

Mobile phones are becoming a viable platform for the promotion and distribution of music. Songs, images, news, videos and other content can be distributed for free directly to fans, and your mobile web pages can contain 'buy' links to your favorite music store, ticket purchases, and merchandise sales. If my favorite band has a mobile fan club and I have a phone that can play music & videos and surf the web, I'm going to join. At that point, the band has a friendly, band-branded Trojan horse on my phone to import whatever content it wants me to have, as well as an easy way to convert renewed interest into sales.

And, the mobile fan club lets the band reach out to me. You don't have to wait around for me to run into you on MySpace. It's very cool to get texts from my favorite bands. Adding regular texts to my mobile music activities keeps me up to date with relevant info. But the band has to get me to sign up before I can get these texts. So sign me up!

The tools are only as good as your use of them. Building your mobile fan club has to be a strategy for you if you want to reach your fans with new music, merch, gigs. We''ll reward you with loyalty and more sales.

"In the current economy, it's better to think niche and build a direct relationship with fans that can translate into multiple small revenue streams"

More people make the connection between having direct fan relations and the "success" of a musician:

"...At panel discussions in the Austin Convention Center, managers, record-label executives and technology experts discussed marketing strategies for breaking bands and making money at a time when sales of recorded music are plunging. Among the conclusions: Bands need to build small, flexible support teams that will play the role that stodgier, wealthier corporations used to occupy. In the current economy, it's better to think niche and build a direct relationship with fans that can translate into multiple small revenue streams." read the full post.
Greg Knott at Chicago Tribune writes about SXSW "South by Southwest: Festival is more than music"

Going Mobile - The Future Of Marketing For Musicians

How can you be effective and proactive in your music promotion to your fans? Get very close to them...on their mobile phones.

Our first featured article comes from two distinguished thought leaders in Music promotion and Mobile Marketing Ariel Hyatt and Helen Keegan.

How Can Musicians Effectively Use Mobile For Marketing? - 7 Questions For Helen Keegan of Beep Marketing

Using mobile phones is now integral to our lives. Artists should be thinking about who their audience is and how to build it - whatever ways are relevant. And that has to include mobile today. Young audiences in particular are technology agnostic and want instant gratification and will use the nearest device or service available to them whether that’s their phone, their laptop, the TV, their iPod, their PSP, whatever. Read the complete article.

Ariel Hyatt is the founder of Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR a New York based digital firm that connects artists to blogs, podcasts, Internet radio stations and social media sites. Over the past 12 years her firm has represented over 1,400 musicians of all genres. Teaching and educating musicians is her passion and her philosophy is: combine social networking with Internet marketing to help artists grow their fanbases and increase their income.

Ariel has written dozens of articles on how to navigate the “new” music business and her book: Music Success in Nine Weeks is available at Amazon. She is a contributing blogger to New Music Ideas, and Music Think Tank, and she has spoken at countless music conferences over the years including SXSW, FMC, ECMAs & OCFF (Canada), A2A (Amsterdam),CMJ, BMI Music Panel Series, and NARAS.

Sign up for her musicians Tips Newsletter Sound Advice at http://www.arielpublicity.com

A marketing and communications professional with over 20 years work experience, Helen has specialised in mobile marketing, advertising and media for the past 9 years. Helen was Head of Customer Experience at ZagMe, the location based mobile marketing pioneer back in 2000/1 and since then Helen has been consulting in mobile marketing, advertising and media consultancy,for clients including the BBC, NewsCorp, SonyEricsson, the English National Opera and Danone.
She runs the popular mobile networking event, Swedish Beers and also organises the Mobile Monday London events. She is a founder member of the Women in Mobile Data Association and blogs about mobile marketing and media over at technokitten.com and is a regular on the conference speaker circuit. Helen was recently voted in as one of the top 50 women in mobile content globally for Mobile Entertainment Magazine.