You Cannot Devalue Music

This from Tim Quirk, Head of Global Content Programming at Google Play. It was the topic of a speech he gave at the Future of Music Summit last week in Washington D.C. The full speech can be accessed from Digital Music News here.

I was standing up and cheering when I read the speech. Tim was pointing out that, even in the good old days, music was worth different things to different people at different times. The online / digital revolution has only made that position glaringly obvious.

He really gets to a point I've been trying to push since we started this Adva Mobile business. Who are your super fans. Your "1,000 true fans", or whatever. There will always be more fans who don't care about your music than there are fans that care about your music. And, Artists will always start at the bottom of the pyramid. The goal for every Artist is to climb the pyramid, where you have fewer and fewer listeners but those that remain are happy to give you more and more money. These fans will bu anything - alternate versions, deluxe editions, every show, etc.

There's a lot more in the speech, it's really worth the read. And he closes with insight and advice that we here at Adva Mobile also want to promote:

"Capturing people’s attention and holding on to it is the fundamental challenge for artists and labels and their managers in the 21st Century. ....

But if you want to embrace the new ability to engage different types of fans in different ways, people like are here to help however we can."

Amen.

Fan Data - How much is enough?

We were recently re-reading an older (Jan 2012) blog by music marketer  Jem Bahaijoub,  the founder of Imaginepr, about mobile marketing strategy for musicians and the need for fan data. She wrote:

In order to get any mobile marketing campaign off the ground, you need to own fan data (email addresses, zip codes, cell numbers, etc.). How much fan data is enough I hear you ask? Well this depends on your goal and tactic. If you want to launch a simple SMS campaign to promote an upcoming tour where you need to pull 30-50 people at each venue, then ensure you have at least double this amount in cell numbers in each geographical area. If you still need to work on your database then start collecting now! You can incentivize your fans via your existing marketing platforms. For example, the Black Eyed Peas collected cell numbers on a recent tour by asking fans to text shout-outs during a concert which Will.i.am then incorporated into an improvised rap. Genius. Be clever and creative but always remember to respect your fans’ privacy, and follow the golden rule of opting-in.

Helping Artists collect and manage fan data is one of the cornerstones of what we do here at Adva Mobile. When a fan texts in to you from your show, we collect their phone number, mobile carrier, and other info about their mobile phone. When you offer them exclusive content, we capture their email address, zip code, gender and age. Our fan records all tell you when they signed up, how many times they visit your site, whether they downloaded content or bought anything, the last time they were on your site, and other useful information that will help you understand your fans and target for your next show, purchase pitch, or news.

Having fan data, and tools that help you slice and dice and use the data to your best advantage, is critical if you are going to manage and grow your fan base and ask therm to support your art and your music career.

The three part article set by Jem is really good reading about why and what an Artist needs to think about as you prepare to run a mobile campaign. You can check it out here. 

Capture Fans in the Moment – an interview with Kole Hansen

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Kole Hansen of Kole Media http://kolemedia.com. She’s currently on tour with fellow Utah musician Melody Pulsipher, spreading, as her fan’s call her music, “emotionally charged music dripping with passion.” In the rare moments when Kole is not touring, she spends her time working as a consultant, booking agent, and social media strategist and has collaborated with major labels such as Warner Music Group and Atlantic Records. But her true passion is teaching up and coming artists how to get out on the road and take control over their careers through her company Kole Media.

Adva Mobile (AM): You’ve been out connecting with fans and playing music for quite a while now.

Kole Hansen (KH): That’s right. At one point I stopped playing music for 5 years but now I have been back playing since '09, touring 19 out if the last 24 months across the US 4 times, Canada, Europe, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Israel. I really like being back touring and helping Artists out through Kole Media.

AM: You’re up on the Adva Mobile Platform. How do you think it can help?

KH: We do a lot of house concerts, and I try to connect with everyone there – get their email, talk to them, get them to support my music. You really want to capture fans in the moment. It’s hard to do that, but the text feature should help. Fans can text in, and I can capture their contact info and reach out to them later.

AM: How would you do that?

KH: It would be great to get fans to download music, and then tell them they could get monthly downloads by signing up for like $2 / month. Or $20 / year. I think lots of fans would do that, and that extra income would be a big help to keep me touring, with everything else.

AM: We can do a lot of that now on the platform. Do you think Artists are thinking about mobile web Apps or native Apps?

KH: For a lot of Artists, it’s too early to worry about it. The most important thing for me is capturing fans “in the moment”, and getting them to support me through a small monthy payment for exclusive content.

AM: You do a weekly music show.

KH: That’s right. It’s on Blog Talk Radio about different topics in the music biz. We should do one together on mobile marketing for musicians!

AM: Sure, let’s go. Hey, thanks for taking the time to talk and share your stories.   

More about Kole:

If you’re an independent Artist and need help

·       Finding your fans

·       Choosing your tour route locally/nationally/internationally

·       Being your own agent

·       Building relationships with venues/promoters

·       Negotiating guarantees

·       Prioritizing costs /budget planning (allocating funds)

·       Raising money, crowd funding (kickstarter, pledgemusic)

·       Engaging your fans via social media: do’s and don’t’s

… then get in touch with Kole. Kole's experience in the music space has made her a sought after consultant, booking agent and social media strategist for both major labels and independent artists. And also check out her Episodes on Blog Talk Radio about the Music Business at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/musicbizsuccesscoaching#.UmNLFbzCaBc.email.

Mobile Money

How do we get the sales level? The goal of mobile marketing should always be to connect with fans along the pathway to purchase.

There are many options when it comes to mobile marketing, and these options drive brands - including Artists - towards experimentation. However, experimenting with mobile marketing is only truly valuable when working towards monetization.

We are no longer in a mobile-first world, but rather a mobile-only world.

Mobile offers a roadmap to engage four pillars of of marketing -reach, social media, impulse and loyalty. The thinking should always be along campaign creation that can actually can look at sales. Experimenting is great, but there's no reason to invest effort and money in the mobile channel if you're not going to learn what’s working and what’s not.

All kinds of different creative mobile campaigns can lead to more revenue.

Reach campaigns - asking your fan base to text in at a concert to join your mobile web App
Social Media Campaigns - Using Facebook and Twitter to drive fans to your mobile web App for a loyalty creating download, or new news
Impulse Campaigns - download a song in exchange for fan's email and location, or make a purchase with a time sensitive discount
Loyalty Campaigns - Engage fans in voting campaigns - their favorite encore song, or contests to win prizes

These all should be part of a program to drive fans to the store to make a purchase.

SMS Texts for Fan Connections

We haven’t written about SMS Texts for a while, what with 
everything else going on here at Adva Mobile. It remains one of the important marketing tools for you to use to help acquire, engage, and sell to your fans. There are two types you can use:

               Incoming: This is where you tell your fans to text in to you to join your App. So, at shows, from the stage, you shout out out “If you like that song, text get to 88704”.

               Outgoing: For all the fans that texted in (and we told them they were subbed in to your App) you can now send them a text, up to four times each month, with a link to your mobile web app.

We came across an article with really good insights into why you should consider using SMS Texts. It’s by Sandra Nichols Marcy, who runs The Social Jazz  http://thesocialjazz.blogspot.com/,( @pecangirl)
 and she provided this great list of why you should include SMS Text in your marketing mix. She writes:

·        You can reach your fans any time, day or night and – unlike email addresses that get forgotten or abandoned – you know they’ll get the message.

·        Somewhere around 94% of SMS messages are read – a higher percentage than email.

·        Because your fans carry their cellphone with them most of the time, you can reach them quickly no matter where they are.  If your gig tomorrow hasn’t sold as many tickets as you’d like, you can reach fans almost immediately.

·        Because they’ve chosen to give you their cellphone number, your fans are already highly engaged with you so you know they’re actively interested in what you have to say.

·        SMS messaging is very personal – make yours friendly and they’re more likely to do what you want them to do.  You can remind them of something they might have forgotten – an upcoming gig or EP release.

·        You can be spontaneous – it’s a great way of getting engagement with your audience before, during or after a gig and get their reactions then and there.

·        You can easily do free stuff – maybe a reduced ticket price to people who show the SMS on the door or quote the code when booking via email.  Subscribers expect exclusivity and they’re more likely to tell their friends about the good stuff they get because they subscribe.

·        Your fans are more likely to tell their friends or colleagues about your SMS when it appears on their phone – it extends your reach beyond the SMS recipient.  Word of mouth is your best advertising tool!

One word of caution – don’t go near SMS messaging unless you can be sure that subscribers who opt-out no longer hear from you  … nothing is more annoying than getting messages from someone you no longer want to hear from.

Sandra’s got a good point on the last one especially, but that’s where Adva Mobile comes in. The text messaging service we provide handles all the background rules of SMS – opting in fans, controlling the number of messages you send them, and opting out if they no longer want to connect with you on their mobile phones.

SMS Texting is a terrific tool to connect with fans and engage them on their phones. Contact us if you need any help or advice setting up your next campaign.

Apps Revisited

There's an interesting dynamic going on now in the world of Apps, and it's an important metric for musicians. The key takeaway is that it's more important to have a App your fans want to use than to have an App.

This applies to both Native Apps and Web Apps, although it's more critical in the Native App world because of the rating systems that are part of the App Stores. What's the point of having an App if it's only going to get a one star rating, or worse?

When Apps first really started to take off (remember, the iTunes App Store is only 5 years old!) there was tremendous pressure to build an App and get it on the App stores. It was like - if you didn't have an App, who were you? Now, those Apps are looking a little tired, a little all-the-same. And, the usage statistics are sobering - the 50 billionth App was downloaded this past May, however one in four Apps are downloaded and used once and then never used again, and 84 percent of iPhone owners use less than 20 Apps.

The effect of this is a new dynamic focused on making Apps useful and easy. Many organizations are replacing their initial Apps with new, focused designs and capabilities. And to a great extent, this dynamic plays out better for companies developing custom, vs prepackaged content based Apps. Of course, App development is still expensive, and a thorough strategy includes iPhone, Android and Mobile Web Apps. Whether a custom App for an Enterprise client or a platform App designed to meet the needs of an industry segment, apps must be beautiful, easy to use, and most importantly - useful.

The Artist Portal Message Board

The Artist Portal Message Board went live this week! 

We always wanted to create a dialog among the Artist community where you could ask questions, share insights, and let other Artists know what was working and what was a waste of time as you marketed your music to fans using the mobile ecosystem. When we were designing the Artist Portal Dashboard, we included a Message Board in the design so that you could see and join the conversations when you logged in.

The Message Board is at the bottom of the Dashboard page, right underneath the chart we present that shows your fan growth. For starters, it's a simple board where you can post and respond to messages. Later, if it gets too large, we'll expand it to deal with specific topics, like you see with the large Message Boards on other sites.

Adva Mobile will be monitoring the Message Board also, so you can ask us anything. It should be a great place to ask us questions about mobile campaigns, mobile best practices, new features you're looking for, how something works, etc.

Anything at all. Just ask - us, or your fellow musicians on Adva Mobile.