Pandora today launched a new Timeline app and site upgrades that make it easier to share music on Facebook. Pandora lusers can customize what they want to share (songs, radio, etc) with music activity appearing in the News Feed, Activity Log and Music section of timeline as determined by Facebook's ranking algorithms.
UPDATED: Facebook adoption and use by teens is flattening off, according to a new Pew Research study. But Twitter uses is slowly but steadily growing. Eight in ten online teens use some kind of social media, says Pew. Twitter is
still not in the same league as Facebook, which attracts 77% of online
teens. Still, 24% of online teens now use Twitter, a figure that is up
from 16% in 2011. 16% of online adults are Twitter users.
Iteration is today's music tech news theme as multiple startups continue to take solid steps forward most of which involve DIY music tools. SoundCloud offers another space to post Songkick concert dates. Piki takes its mobile music app to the desktop. Topspin offers a Dropbox integration and Google+ Hangouts introduced numerous improvements.
Calling all DIY artists: Kyle Bylin brings us an essay by Jay Frank that gives us some brilliant insight into the modern music industry. Exploring the significant roles of YouTube, Live Touring, and Sync Placement, the focus is placed on the bigger picture. See for yourself as the world of DIY success become demystified on Music Think Tank.
Yesterday's news that Yahoo is buying Tumblr is certainly big for musicians given the widespread usage of Tumblr for music blogs often as an adjunct to an official website. But it also overshadowed Yahoo's relaunch of Flickr, a fading giant making a comeback at a time that might be ideal for musicians who've taken to services like Instagram and/or who see the possiblities in content marketing via Creative Commons licensing.
Wondering how to get connected in the live music scene? Not sure where you should be focusing your promotion efforts? Jesse Cannon lists and exposits four resources you should know about on Music Think Tank.
Launching today, concert recording and sales app Lively offers a simple way to record and sell live recordings immediately after the show. Available for Android and iOS, Lively is led by startup veteran Dean Graziano.
You spend hours every week to craft the right tweets and Facebook posts. You're even pinning photos and graphics. But you're not getting results. One reason may be the time of day that you post. Every social media outlets has it's optimal posting times. Nothing replaces your own testing, but this infographic offers a great place to start.
Direct-to-fan marketing tools and services continue to hold a lot of promise. They enable artists to connect with their fan base and sell their products directly to them. But has the full potential of these tools and services been realized? Who is realizing it? What part of this potential has yet to be fulfilled? In this interview panel on direct-to-fan marketing, four influential executives in the music and tech industry weigh in on the potential of direct-to-fan.
The Unsigned Guide's newly released "A Start-Up Guide" includes tips on "sending your demos out successfully, how to get your music & videos featured on blogs and the basics on music publishing and how you could be earning money from it." The three short articles in Part 1 of this free digital zine cover some solid basics and make for a quick interesting read.
Are you looking to develop your own recording space, upgrade your current equipment, or simply want to get the most out of what you already have? Rajiv Agarwal outlines 10 helpful hints for maximizing the quality of your recordings on Music Think Tank.
Direct-to-fan tools can — when used to maximum effect — become the thinnest skin between the artist and fan. The full potential is possible and exists; but only a fraction of the artists and labels out there use it.
Music crowdfunding continues to work its way into the fabric of the music world. YouTube star Sam Tsui recently used Kickstarter to fund a debut album rather than signing with a label. Songkick Detour is expanding its concert crowdfunding borders. And the JOBS Act continues to suggest future possibilities for music companies such as record labels that are yet to be realized.
Heavy metal band As I Lay Dying has pulled out of their spot in the upcoming tour with Killswitch Engage, in the wake of As I Lay Dying's frontman being charged in an alleged murder for hire plot. As previously reported, police allege that frontman Tim Lambesis gave an undercover officer posing as a hitman $1,000, his wife address and the means to enter the home. He is currently in California's Vista Detention Facility, with bail set at $3 million dollars.
This is the preface for Divergent Streams, a collection of essays edited by Kyle Bylin (@sidewinderfm) and written by influential executives, startup founders, and thinkers in the music industry. Download a free copy of the e-book here.
I wanted something to read. Something that challenged me. Something that engaged me. Something that forced me to sit down and consider the writer’s
perspective. What I found instead were news stories about trivial developments, blog posts with big headlines but small insights, and numbered lists
lacking intellectual substance.
Music blogs are a huge part of how avid listeners discover music. Many of them check the same sites every day in hopes of finding new songs and artists. But how broad is the appeal of music blogs? Music blogs have certainly grown in readership, but have they surpassed a niche audience? If so, how? What cultural trends, heroic efforts, or music products have most helped music blogs reach a larger audience? In this interview panel on music blogs, four influential thinkers in the music and tech sector weigh in on whether they think music blogs have reached the mainstream market and what that might mean.
Mirror, mirror on the wall... do they notice me at all? How are you captivating your audience? Are you? If you're uncertain, so are your fans. Lukas Camenzind outlines 3 effective ways to get yourself, your brand, your band, and your music noticed on Music Think Tank.
So far we have explored the music blog landscape and how it has has changed in recent years, as well as whether music blogs have reached a mainstream audience. In this final interview panel on music blogs, David Greenwald and Nicole Cifani, two influential thinkers and tastemakers in the music industry, weigh in on how the way in which music blogs tell stories has evolved and whether they think music blogs have turned into record labels.
By Frank Woodworth (@GlacialConcepts), Director of Business Development at Thrillcall, a concert discovery and ticketing platform for web and mobile applications.
A major label is going to buy a DIY distributor, such as TuneCore or CD Baby. This is the next logical step in the roll up of distributors. In the past five years the independent distributors have been merged in much the same way that labels were merged over the past 20 years.
Just when you think you've got your Facebook page looking good, your privacy settings tweaked and you're posting startegy down, Facebook makes another major and unexpected change. Frustrating, isn't it? Extremely Decent, a sketch comedy group based in Los Angeles agrees and is created this "real life" video of a Facebook update.
By Virginie Berger (@virberg), founder and general manager of the creative and development agency DBTH.
To cut to the chase and get at the heart of the matter, the biggest apparent challenge that I can identify for direct-to-fan is that the music industry is broken and no one has yet discovered a practical model that will allow the typical independent, DIY musician to make money.
Exploring what it takes to be an entrepreneur in the music industry, Tommy Darker wraps up his three part series on how to successfully be what he calls a musicpreneur. Focusing intensely on the importance of developing your skills and approaching your endeavors with a trained mentality, if you're venturing out into the industry or already an active part of it, there is much to be gained by reading this series on Music Think Tank.
In Part 1 of Bandzoogle's “Tools of Music Fan Engagement” blog series, I discussed blogging.
Another important tool to use for fan engagement are email newsletters.
Having an email newsletter might sound a little old school, but the
reality is that it’s still proving to be the best way to keep in touch
with your fans over the long term. So when it comes to fan engagement,
having a newsletter should be high on your priority list of tools to
use.
Dave Cool on 05/14/2013 in D.I.Y. | Permalink
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