Tuesday 2 March 2010
Thursday 28 January 2010
Tuesday 19 May 2009
Analog.Digital | Web Tips for Musicians #4
Lately, I've been asked by a few labels to help them set up and improve their online presence. Mainly, what they've been wanting is to get set up on some of the main music related social networks and integrate them to improve the effectiveness of their communications online.
While setting these up is neither rocket science nor limited to experienced pros, I've done it a few times now and I'd like to share some tips from my experiences. The good thing is that a lot of these social networks are now working to integrate themselves more effectively, and if you take some steps in the early stages, it can save you a lot of time down the line when it comes to getting your word out.
For the last label, I set them up the following: A Reverbnation account, a Twitter account, a lastFM account, an ilike account, and a Faceboook artists page affiliated with their already existing Facebook account.
Once these are done, I've found the following integration to be very effective.
Bulletins and status updates:
Use Ilike as your main control panel for general label updates and bulletins.
Using Ilike, Once you have posted a bulletin, you have an option to "Post To Myspace". Clicking this option and selecting to automatically post it to your myspace blog means that you will not have to also write a blog on myspace. You can also easily tell Reverbnation to pull in your Myspace blog into it's own blog section.
So from Ilike you can post a bulletin and update both your Myspace and Reverbnation blogs automatically.
In addition to posting your bulletins, Ilike provides an interface for sending out quick 140 character updates. This is simply like a little tweet - say for example something like "New XX remixes coming soon!". They have recently made it very easy to integrate this with your Twitter account with the click of a few buttons, so your status updates from Ilike will show up in Twitter.
Both reverbnation and Facebook now include the option to link to your Twitter account. So now, by sending out an update through Ilike, you are automatically sending the same information to your Reverbnation, Twitter, and Facebook accounts - making it a loss less time consuming and more far-reaching.
An additional function in Ilike is the option to put a "music" tab on your Facebook account. This will automatically update your facebook "music" page with new songs that you upload to Ilike, any bulletins or status updates etc.
As mentioned, you can use Ilike to automatically populate your Myspace and Reverbnation blogs from bulletin posts. Unfortunately, I haven't found this option for Facebook at the moment. So, for this I have set up a blog at blogger
It's then a few steps to have your blogger feed pulled into the notes section of your Facebook account.
Thus, with a few steps, you now can populate 5 sites - Reverbnation, Myspace, Facebook, Ilike and Blogger with your blog by posting it in two places (Ilike and Blogger).
I've mentioned Reverbnation a few times and I recommend that you sign up. Why?
Reverbnation provides for easy integration of a "My Band" tab into your Facebook page. An example of what this looks like is here. Essentially, the Reverbnation "My Band" feature allows for you to put all of your uploaded music, a mailing list sign up and more on your Facebook page and it integrates this with a bunch of very useful tools available at your Reverbnation control panel. These features include a newsletter template/ mass mailer service, and a fantastic selection of easy to use widgets to spread your music around the net. You'll see that I've included their music player widget in this blog with a few clicks. There are loads of very useful widgets that they provide and this service is FREE.
Reverbnation also provides great and easy to understand stats on how your promotion is going, and inlcudes a great "buzz tracker" that lets you quickly scan where you are being mentioned on the net. I can't really say enough about Reverbnation - for me it's one of the best tools on the web for independant artists.
A Note on Twitter.
As mentioned, you can use Ilike to send all of your quick updates and these will be automatically pulled into Twitter. Between that and using your phone to tweet you may feel you have little reason to log into Twitter to send messages. HOWEVER it is important that you start collecting a following on twitter. The best way to get followers is to log into Twitter start following some people that interest you. What comes around goes around. And, of course, you want to make your Twitter username obvious in your promotions etc so that people who are interested know where to follow you.
With regards to lastFM, there is bound to be debate on whether or not to upload your music as you probably aren't going to see a penny from their "royalty" programme.
This might be true but I look at it as a form of promotion - mainly it's a way for people to discover your music whilst listening to similar artists. You can set up links to your favorite online shops for all of your music that will show up on your lastFM label or artists page, so there's at least some incentive.
That's all for now. Of course, as mentioned, I am always happy to try and help if someone has a question, although I must state as usual that I am not claiming to be an expert.
Best,
Kelvin
While setting these up is neither rocket science nor limited to experienced pros, I've done it a few times now and I'd like to share some tips from my experiences. The good thing is that a lot of these social networks are now working to integrate themselves more effectively, and if you take some steps in the early stages, it can save you a lot of time down the line when it comes to getting your word out.
For the last label, I set them up the following: A Reverbnation account, a Twitter account, a lastFM account, an ilike account, and a Faceboook artists page affiliated with their already existing Facebook account.
Once these are done, I've found the following integration to be very effective.
Bulletins and status updates:
Use Ilike as your main control panel for general label updates and bulletins.
Using Ilike, Once you have posted a bulletin, you have an option to "Post To Myspace". Clicking this option and selecting to automatically post it to your myspace blog means that you will not have to also write a blog on myspace. You can also easily tell Reverbnation to pull in your Myspace blog into it's own blog section.
So from Ilike you can post a bulletin and update both your Myspace and Reverbnation blogs automatically.
In addition to posting your bulletins, Ilike provides an interface for sending out quick 140 character updates. This is simply like a little tweet - say for example something like "New XX remixes coming soon!". They have recently made it very easy to integrate this with your Twitter account with the click of a few buttons, so your status updates from Ilike will show up in Twitter.
Both reverbnation and Facebook now include the option to link to your Twitter account. So now, by sending out an update through Ilike, you are automatically sending the same information to your Reverbnation, Twitter, and Facebook accounts - making it a loss less time consuming and more far-reaching.
An additional function in Ilike is the option to put a "music" tab on your Facebook account. This will automatically update your facebook "music" page with new songs that you upload to Ilike, any bulletins or status updates etc.
As mentioned, you can use Ilike to automatically populate your Myspace and Reverbnation blogs from bulletin posts. Unfortunately, I haven't found this option for Facebook at the moment. So, for this I have set up a blog at blogger
It's then a few steps to have your blogger feed pulled into the notes section of your Facebook account.
Thus, with a few steps, you now can populate 5 sites - Reverbnation, Myspace, Facebook, Ilike and Blogger with your blog by posting it in two places (Ilike and Blogger).
I've mentioned Reverbnation a few times and I recommend that you sign up. Why?
Reverbnation provides for easy integration of a "My Band" tab into your Facebook page. An example of what this looks like is here. Essentially, the Reverbnation "My Band" feature allows for you to put all of your uploaded music, a mailing list sign up and more on your Facebook page and it integrates this with a bunch of very useful tools available at your Reverbnation control panel. These features include a newsletter template/ mass mailer service, and a fantastic selection of easy to use widgets to spread your music around the net. You'll see that I've included their music player widget in this blog with a few clicks. There are loads of very useful widgets that they provide and this service is FREE.
Reverbnation also provides great and easy to understand stats on how your promotion is going, and inlcudes a great "buzz tracker" that lets you quickly scan where you are being mentioned on the net. I can't really say enough about Reverbnation - for me it's one of the best tools on the web for independant artists.
A Note on Twitter.
As mentioned, you can use Ilike to send all of your quick updates and these will be automatically pulled into Twitter. Between that and using your phone to tweet you may feel you have little reason to log into Twitter to send messages. HOWEVER it is important that you start collecting a following on twitter. The best way to get followers is to log into Twitter start following some people that interest you. What comes around goes around. And, of course, you want to make your Twitter username obvious in your promotions etc so that people who are interested know where to follow you.
With regards to lastFM, there is bound to be debate on whether or not to upload your music as you probably aren't going to see a penny from their "royalty" programme.
This might be true but I look at it as a form of promotion - mainly it's a way for people to discover your music whilst listening to similar artists. You can set up links to your favorite online shops for all of your music that will show up on your lastFM label or artists page, so there's at least some incentive.
That's all for now. Of course, as mentioned, I am always happy to try and help if someone has a question, although I must state as usual that I am not claiming to be an expert.
Best,
Kelvin
Saturday 14 March 2009
Analog.Digital | Web Tips for Musicians #3
Hello again. Thanks to those of you who took a minute to get back to me on the usefulness of last week's post. It's nice to know that it was helpful.
As a continuation of the focus on ensuring that you are maximizing your returns on your music, I'd like to quickly touch on ISRC codes. As we move into an ever increasing digital format, these are important to all of you who are labels. If you are an artist who will be releasing on a digital label that uses a digital distributor (like IODA for example), it's worth finding out if they use ISRC codes. If they don't it's likely that they, and you, won't necessarily collect on every use of your music.
There are quite a few good resources already online about ISRC so I won't rehash everything. To sum it up in a nutshell, "the ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is the international identification system for sound recordings and music videorecordings. Each ISRC is a unique and permanent identifier for a specific recording which can be permanently encoded into a product as its digital fingerprint...an ISRC code is encoded into your track and identifies it as belonging to you, it makes the job of logging radio plays and royalty collection much easier for all concerned. You'll get your royalties quicker and you'll also be able to prove that you own the recording."
Now, if that's not good enough reason for you to be interested you might not want to be running a label! You will recall that last post I mentioned joining PPL as a performer or label so that you were set up to get performance rights royalties for the use of your music in public. If you are a record company, once PPL has confirmed your membership, you can then apply for your unique Registrant Code and list of numbers. As mentioned before, joining PPL and this process is FREE. I am not sure about non-UK performance rights societies but here is Wikipedia's list again. They should be able to tell you - I am sure the process is very similar.
Once you are supplied with a list of codes, you apply a unique code to each track during the master burning process. You just use something like Roxio Jam to simply embedd the code into the master file.
Here's a brief but good summary of the whole process - get to it.
That's it for this post.
On the personal front, I've done a new deep house mix if you are into that sort of thing. If you are a promoter, please check out my Press Pack. I am accepting booking inquiries for the next few months.
Send me your track
As a continuation of the focus on ensuring that you are maximizing your returns on your music, I'd like to quickly touch on ISRC codes. As we move into an ever increasing digital format, these are important to all of you who are labels. If you are an artist who will be releasing on a digital label that uses a digital distributor (like IODA for example), it's worth finding out if they use ISRC codes. If they don't it's likely that they, and you, won't necessarily collect on every use of your music.
There are quite a few good resources already online about ISRC so I won't rehash everything. To sum it up in a nutshell, "the ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is the international identification system for sound recordings and music videorecordings. Each ISRC is a unique and permanent identifier for a specific recording which can be permanently encoded into a product as its digital fingerprint...an ISRC code is encoded into your track and identifies it as belonging to you, it makes the job of logging radio plays and royalty collection much easier for all concerned. You'll get your royalties quicker and you'll also be able to prove that you own the recording."
Now, if that's not good enough reason for you to be interested you might not want to be running a label! You will recall that last post I mentioned joining PPL as a performer or label so that you were set up to get performance rights royalties for the use of your music in public. If you are a record company, once PPL has confirmed your membership, you can then apply for your unique Registrant Code and list of numbers. As mentioned before, joining PPL and this process is FREE. I am not sure about non-UK performance rights societies but here is Wikipedia's list again. They should be able to tell you - I am sure the process is very similar.
Once you are supplied with a list of codes, you apply a unique code to each track during the master burning process. You just use something like Roxio Jam to simply embedd the code into the master file.
Here's a brief but good summary of the whole process - get to it.
That's it for this post.
On the personal front, I've done a new deep house mix if you are into that sort of thing. If you are a promoter, please check out my Press Pack. I am accepting booking inquiries for the next few months.
Send me your track
Sunday 8 March 2009
Analog.Digital | Web Tips for Musicians #2
Hello again, I hope some of you found the last post helpful. If you missed it, I suggested some online tools that can be very useful for promoting yourself, your band or label.
Today I want to try and clear up some of the confusion surrounding royalties and how to ensure that you are getting credited as much as possible when your music is used in public (think radio play, advertisements, film etc). Part of what always confused me was simply the language around this, so I am going to try and simplify it and explain it in plain English. I should include this caveat - I am NOT an expert at any of this, just someone who has spent some time figuring things out. Hopefully, I can help you save some time I spent.
First - basically, there are essentially 4 main ways that you can receive royalties for music you have created:
1) You get direct royalties for sales of your music. The percentage you get from each sale is negotiated in your contract with the label and they should issue you statements (generally quarterly) showing what has sold and what you are entitled to receive.
2) You are the writer of the music and own the songwriters copyright. You are therefore entitled to Writers royalties. As the writer of the music, you are entitled to royalties when your music is used publicly (again think radio, clubs, pubs, tv, film etc).
3) You are the publisher of the music and own the publishing rights. Publishing basically refers to the right to mechanically re-produce and distribute the music (think CDs, vinyl, DVD, even digital download). NOTE - You don't have to be the writer of music to be entitled to its publishing royalties. In fact, in many cases when you sign something to a label, you entitle them to all or some of the publishing royalties because they are the ones who will manufacture and distribute your music. Most labels will have set themselves up as a music publisher, so in effect when you sign a contract with them you are giving them rights to publish your music (think make it available to other people). The way the publishing rights will be split between you and the label is specified in your contract, and if it is not, you should ask that it be included. Obvioulsy, if you don't have your own publishing set up, you won't be able to negotiate a publishing split with the label when you sign a contract.
Now, let's cover how to get the most out of #2 and #3. Obviously, the best way is to set YOURSELF up as an official music writer, and ALSO set up your own publishing so that you can negotiate a publishing split with the labels you sign your music too (often 50/50). If you are a label, you SHOULD already have your publishing set up so that you can collect publishing for yourself and your artists who may not have their own publishing.
So how do you get this set up? Well, I've set up my writer's account and publishing account through ASCAP but in the UK you are more likely to use MCPS-PRS. Membership to ASCAP is free, and there is a small fee for joining MCPS-PRS. There a quite a few similar agencies worldwide depending on your country of origin - BMI or SESAC also for the USA, Sacem in France, GEMA in Germany, SISAC international etc. Here's a link to wikidpedia's list for various countries .
The important thing is that you actually join one of these. They all have mutual agreements with eachother, so for example a Finnish one might collect some money for you from radio play of your music in Finland but it will pass this to your society, which will then pay you. As stated earlier, you can set yourself up for a writer's account or a publishers account, or preferably BOTH. Criteria for joining these soceities may slightly differ, but here's a general guide to see if you are eligible to join (in this case MCPS-PRS). Just visit your society of choice and look on their website. The important thing is, if you don't join you will not be set up to earn royalties when your music is performed, played or reproduced.
OK, so we've discussed how to set yourself up to get royalties for use of your music as a writer or publisher of your music.
4) There's also one more way to get royalties and this is simply for the public performance of your music (again, bars, clubs and the like). To ensure this happens, you want to set yourself up as a performer member, so that your performances (music) are listed in a large database and linked to you. As a performer (artist), this simply means signing up for FREE with PPL.
It's up to labels to submit all of their material to PPL so that it's listed in the database - so they and the artists can get royalties for public performance of the music. Each time, for example, your music is played on the radio, you are entitled to royalties for public performance. Radio stations have to follow a strict protocol of submitting playlists so that you are compensated for radio play. If you are a LABEL and you have not submitted your catalogue with associated artist information, you are doing yourself and the artists a disservice. Get paid! In most cases, it's not going to be a lot of money, but combined with writers royalties and publishing royalties, as your catalog grows as an artist or label, you are going to see increasing returns. Hey every little bit helps.
I hope some of you find this useful and begin the process of getting yourself set up. It may seem like a little more office work than your artistic side wants to stomach, but once you have it set up you are a big step forward in terms of laying the foundations for a more lucrative and professional creative career.
Finally - a little self promotion. My recent release the Full Circle EP is out now at Juno. It's a deep number with strong support from the likes of Jimpster, JT Donaldson, Charles Webster, Inland Knights, Josh Wink and Loco Dice. Digital versions to follow soon at Traxsource, Stompy and the like.
Next week - ISRC codes.
K
Send me your track
Today I want to try and clear up some of the confusion surrounding royalties and how to ensure that you are getting credited as much as possible when your music is used in public (think radio play, advertisements, film etc). Part of what always confused me was simply the language around this, so I am going to try and simplify it and explain it in plain English. I should include this caveat - I am NOT an expert at any of this, just someone who has spent some time figuring things out. Hopefully, I can help you save some time I spent.
First - basically, there are essentially 4 main ways that you can receive royalties for music you have created:
1) You get direct royalties for sales of your music. The percentage you get from each sale is negotiated in your contract with the label and they should issue you statements (generally quarterly) showing what has sold and what you are entitled to receive.
2) You are the writer of the music and own the songwriters copyright. You are therefore entitled to Writers royalties. As the writer of the music, you are entitled to royalties when your music is used publicly (again think radio, clubs, pubs, tv, film etc).
3) You are the publisher of the music and own the publishing rights. Publishing basically refers to the right to mechanically re-produce and distribute the music (think CDs, vinyl, DVD, even digital download). NOTE - You don't have to be the writer of music to be entitled to its publishing royalties. In fact, in many cases when you sign something to a label, you entitle them to all or some of the publishing royalties because they are the ones who will manufacture and distribute your music. Most labels will have set themselves up as a music publisher, so in effect when you sign a contract with them you are giving them rights to publish your music (think make it available to other people). The way the publishing rights will be split between you and the label is specified in your contract, and if it is not, you should ask that it be included. Obvioulsy, if you don't have your own publishing set up, you won't be able to negotiate a publishing split with the label when you sign a contract.
Now, let's cover how to get the most out of #2 and #3. Obviously, the best way is to set YOURSELF up as an official music writer, and ALSO set up your own publishing so that you can negotiate a publishing split with the labels you sign your music too (often 50/50). If you are a label, you SHOULD already have your publishing set up so that you can collect publishing for yourself and your artists who may not have their own publishing.
So how do you get this set up? Well, I've set up my writer's account and publishing account through ASCAP but in the UK you are more likely to use MCPS-PRS. Membership to ASCAP is free, and there is a small fee for joining MCPS-PRS. There a quite a few similar agencies worldwide depending on your country of origin - BMI or SESAC also for the USA, Sacem in France, GEMA in Germany, SISAC international etc. Here's a link to wikidpedia's list for various countries .
The important thing is that you actually join one of these. They all have mutual agreements with eachother, so for example a Finnish one might collect some money for you from radio play of your music in Finland but it will pass this to your society, which will then pay you. As stated earlier, you can set yourself up for a writer's account or a publishers account, or preferably BOTH. Criteria for joining these soceities may slightly differ, but here's a general guide to see if you are eligible to join (in this case MCPS-PRS). Just visit your society of choice and look on their website. The important thing is, if you don't join you will not be set up to earn royalties when your music is performed, played or reproduced.
OK, so we've discussed how to set yourself up to get royalties for use of your music as a writer or publisher of your music.
4) There's also one more way to get royalties and this is simply for the public performance of your music (again, bars, clubs and the like). To ensure this happens, you want to set yourself up as a performer member, so that your performances (music) are listed in a large database and linked to you. As a performer (artist), this simply means signing up for FREE with PPL.
It's up to labels to submit all of their material to PPL so that it's listed in the database - so they and the artists can get royalties for public performance of the music. Each time, for example, your music is played on the radio, you are entitled to royalties for public performance. Radio stations have to follow a strict protocol of submitting playlists so that you are compensated for radio play. If you are a LABEL and you have not submitted your catalogue with associated artist information, you are doing yourself and the artists a disservice. Get paid! In most cases, it's not going to be a lot of money, but combined with writers royalties and publishing royalties, as your catalog grows as an artist or label, you are going to see increasing returns. Hey every little bit helps.
I hope some of you find this useful and begin the process of getting yourself set up. It may seem like a little more office work than your artistic side wants to stomach, but once you have it set up you are a big step forward in terms of laying the foundations for a more lucrative and professional creative career.
Finally - a little self promotion. My recent release the Full Circle EP is out now at Juno. It's a deep number with strong support from the likes of Jimpster, JT Donaldson, Charles Webster, Inland Knights, Josh Wink and Loco Dice. Digital versions to follow soon at Traxsource, Stompy and the like.
Next week - ISRC codes.
K
Send me your track
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Analog.Digital | Web tips for Musicians
Hello blogg-osphere. This is my first post using Blogger. I hope to get things rolling and get some feedback over time. I am a dj/producer making House and some downtempo music who has also had experience working in web 2.0 and some music industry posts.
I will be using my blog primarily to talk about issues related to web 2.0 and ways it can be applied by small labels and independant artists. I don't claim to be an expert, just wanting to spread information that I have found useful in the hope that it might be useful to YOU. Who knows what else may creep in.
For a little more about me, visit my facebook or myspace and say hi.
First off, here's a link to a great set of tools that will be useful for most independant artists, whether you are a band, a label or a dj. Thanks to Mashable for the informaton!
http://mashable.com/2009/02/19/musician-marketing-tools/http://mashable.com/2009/02/19/musician-marketing-tools/
Finally, I hope you enjoy the music in the widget on the side (or just below, depending on how this displays to you). It's music I have released on various labels. Please feel free to share the widget.
Regards,
Kelvin K
I will be using my blog primarily to talk about issues related to web 2.0 and ways it can be applied by small labels and independant artists. I don't claim to be an expert, just wanting to spread information that I have found useful in the hope that it might be useful to YOU. Who knows what else may creep in.
For a little more about me, visit my facebook or myspace and say hi.
First off, here's a link to a great set of tools that will be useful for most independant artists, whether you are a band, a label or a dj. Thanks to Mashable for the informaton!
http://mashable.com/2009/02/19/musician-marketing-tools/http://mashable.com/2009/02/19/musician-marketing-tools/
Finally, I hope you enjoy the music in the widget on the side (or just below, depending on how this displays to you). It's music I have released on various labels. Please feel free to share the widget.
Regards,
Kelvin K
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