5 Things You Should Know When Designing Apps for Musicians

Took a two week tour of the West Coast with my band, The Shants, this summer (you can read our tour blog here). In between the long drives, loading gear in and out of the van, sleeping on hard floors, eating peanut butter sandwiches and lots of music-making… I was able to talk to many fellow musicians about the DIY world of touring and promotion. Here’s a handful of observations, about the environment that musicians thrive in, and what app creators must keep in mind when designing for this audience:

1. ZZZZZZzzzz: we are operating on no sleep, sub-par nutrition, and frayed nerves from long hours in the van. This makes us an irritable, un-even and over-stressed group of individuals.
2. We are short on patience, short on time. Related to #1, any piece of gear or new tool we acquire has to provide desired results instantly in a variety of pressurized scenarios, or we will move on.
3. We are early adopters. We are willing to explore new technologies, if they will help make the icky music business chores less cumbersome.
4. Cheap is good. Free is better!
5. We are individuals, just like everybody else. We are herd animals, to a point. We are happy when things get done through collaboration and knowledge sharing, but are most fulfilled when we can use the tools at hand to differentiate ourselves from the sea of under-appreciated artists.

Social Media tips for artists

Tailor your social media accounts to your specific needs as an artist, whether its to promote your live performances, or sell recordings. Identify why you are using social media and build your approach to meet those goals. An effective social media plan should include these elements:

1. Dialogue – Social media is a space for two way conversation.  Listening, inspiring conversation and eliciting feedback will give fans reason to share openly and engage frequently.
2. Brag & Solicit – Use social channels to tout accomplishments, press releases, and accolades. Just as importantly, allow your audience an equal opportunity to share their views.
3. Be Useful – Social channels are a natural place to offer exclusive content, show announcements, and new releases. Ensure there are resources available to help people find what they’re looking for: give them links to click or content to absorb.
4. Promote & Track – Use badges on your .com and other profiles to indicate your social presence across owned platforms. Track click-through with analytics (Google Analytics is free, and easy).
5. Monitor & Adapt – Determine how visitors are using the space, and give them more of what they want.
6. Link – make sure that all social media properties are linked to one another. Favorite/promote your fellow artists, share content between channels, i.e. Videos, images and status updates
7. Automate & Improvise – Create a content calendar so there’s always something interesting to say, but make sure to update authentically and spontaneously. If keeping your accounts synced is too much work for you, consider syncing one channel to update the other, such as sending Twitter updates directly to Facebook.

Tour Strategies: 5-pointed Star Regional touring

Here’s some pretty useful advice from the fella who wrote Tour:Smart… its called the 5 Pointed Star CRUSH! Essentially, before playing a show in a large market, your band should first play a few shows in smaller sub-markets nearby, in a roughly 50-mile radius. Once you feel you’ve gathered enough fans (and ideally they’ve added you on Facebook/Twitter/Myspace or have joined your email list), then focus on that big show in the Big City. Ask your new friends to meet you there!

5 Tips for Using Sonicbids

I have a love/hate relationship with Sonicbids. On the one hand, its a great tool for artists who need to create an effective electronic press kit (an essential weapon in your band’s arsenal) and a great way to browse for engagements that you may not come across through more traditional booking channels… such as song placement in films or on airline music channels. You can also submit your music to a variety of blogs and online magazines. My band has gotten some pretty cool press through this channel, thanks to a mention in FILTER Magazine.

On the other hand, there’s a lot of junk there. Not only are you competing with 245,000 other Sonicbids artists for the spotlight (what else is new?), but you also have to be discerning in your submissions: there’s a lot of slick, hollow pay-to-play showcases, and other “opportunities” that won’t really deliver. Still, there’s plenty of genuine engagements within their databases.

Now that Sonicbids has been acquired by ArtistData earlier this month, the submission process will soon get a lot easier. Instead of paying $5 to $20 a pop for submitting your EPK, soon many opportunities will be free. The larger gigs like SXSW will still charge, but it means that you’ll be able to release your profile to as many gigs as you like.

Here’s a few tips for what to look out for when scoping out opportunities on Sonicbids, but really these guidelines would apply to any event booking scenario:

1. Narrow It Down – I highly recommend using the filters (genre/category) on the Find Gigs interface. It’s the fastest way to sift through all the listings to find the one that works best for you.
2. Waste Not – Read the listing carefully. Is this is the right gig or placement for you? If the listing is for a blog that reviews country acts, don’t submit your music metal band. Its a waste of your time, and theirs.
3. Research – Check out any websites associated with the listing, or google the event’s organizer. This could give you an indication of how legit the gig is, or if its really right for you.
4. Personalize – If the submission allows a form for comments or a bio, be sure to address the event organizer (personally, if possible) and explain why your band is the best fit for the gig. Copying & pasting excerpts form your bio is fine, but make it easy for the reviewer to scan.
5. Don’t Whine – The folks who post these gigs have to review thousands of entries. They can’t always offer explanations to the other 999 artists they didn’t choose – so they often elect to send the denial form letter that Sonicbids provides. Don’t get bent out of shape if you’re not selected and post whiny comments on the gig’s listing. Its unprofessional, and there’s plenty of other fish in the sea.

Packing up

Next month I’m hitting the road with my band, The Shants. We’re traveling up and down the West Coast, and along the way I hope to talk to fellow musicians to get their touring tips.

I’ll ask them questions like:

• how do you usually keep track of your performance schedule?
• what tools do you use to book shows?
• what are some of the challenges you face as an independent musician?

I’ll be sure to post interesting findings here. Booking this tour has been a whole other project. Look for a whole series of posts soon concerning lessons learned from booking a regional tour like the one we’re taking. Stay tuned!

Until then, check out this great article that details 7 ways to keep your tour van from getting stolen!

Welcome

ROAD CASE is a collection of articles and inspirational links from the world of music tech, compiled by me as I do research and gather resources for my thesis project.