A Musician’s Guide To MailChimp

A Musician's Guide To MailChimp MailChimp is one of the more popular options for musicians' email newsletters. It has a free tier and offers a wide range of tools and features for the pro music marketer. Like a number of smart web companies that offer services for broad markets, MailChimp has a guide to using MailChimp for Music. It combines general features musicians might find useful along with some specific to music that were new to me. Mailchimp for Musicians The MailChimp for Music guide focuses on basic MailChimp features of which you should be aware including some especially for musicians. Here are a few worth highlighting: Email-for-Download Campaign Using an integration with CASH Music, you can trade a free download for a new email address. Create An RSS-To-Email Campaign Whenever you post on your blog you can automatically send an email alert to subscribers. Socialize Your Campaign Not only does MailChimp have social features but they also have templates to allow you to generate emails based on ecommerce outlets including iTunes. Share Your Music MailChimp will host your audio files for free downloads. There are more features of interest to musicians though the above are particularly relevant. MailChimp's templates and design options are also quite strong. You can see examples of the wide range of possibilities. MailChimp is the Leader While people often mention MailChimp's 2000 subscriber free tier, that's an offer you can find elsewhere. I'm really most impressed by MailChimp because they have such advanced features as A/B testing and keep adding new ones like drip email campaigns. These are the kinds of features that allow you to fine-tune marketing campaigns and develop closer relationships with fans who are likely to spend more money and see more shows. So that means MailChimp is a solid long-term tool for any musician who wants to grow their business.

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 6a

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 6a

Written by Tommy Darker, originally published in The Musicpreneur.

Travelling the world and chatting with fellow aspiring artists reveals astounding insights about the future of music. Here’s the deal: we think we all face different problems, but the reality reveals the opposite. I will share one of these insights, explaining what it means for the way we work as musicians and how to move in the future.

This is the part 6a. Each part is linked at the end of the post.

PART 6a
The new music world: innovative Messages demand innovative Mediums.

How ready are we to welcome the new music world, where musicians will be entrepreneurs and thrive? Once again, let’s not jump straight to the answer, but let’s go around it. Shall we?

Patrick Vlaskovits created a presentation worth reading about growth hacking [5]. He mentioned something that grabbed my attention and triggered thoughts:

“Innovative products demand innovative channels, context and mediums.”

That is to say, for the new generation of Musicpreneurs to flourish and create innovative art, business models and solutions to their problems (Message), along with the proper innovative context (Medium) need to be in place. And vice versa; as an important and inevitable by-product, each innovative context needs innovative products (cultural and entrepreneurial) to keep making sense.

Alright, enough with the theory. I think I’ve stressed enough that existing Mediums provide wrong context for the era of the Musicpreneur to fully blossom.

Fundamentally, Musicpreneurship is not mastery of the existing system of infrastructure, it’s true innovation set to build a music business and preparing the ground for a new ecosystem.

In my presentation in Midem [6], I mentioned that, despite being in a transitional era, the current D2F is not strong enough to replace the old system set up and maintained by labels. Hence, all the problems and insecurity for musicians that keep letting people down.

What should we focus on, in order to build this innovative environment and musical products? I’ve discovered seven areas imperative to the new music world.

Let’s discuss them.

• Business understanding (business models, revenue streams)

Where do you turn to when the old music biz system is not helping you anymore and there’s no-one to run your business activities effectively? I see only one solution: it’s high time musicians understand the fundamental business mindset themselves.

Where to start? The bullet-point method never fails:

• First and foremost, learn about Lean Thinking [7] and how to build a startup [8]. I’d suggest that you start with Steve Blank and his free courses/blog. This will unlock the perspectives of what an enterprise is and how it drives value to your audience and you. Hint: when musicians demystify what business is, they see clearly that it’s all about creating value for their audience, while enjoying making a profit doing so.
• To get started, there’s no single more representative way to approach the music business methodically than the Business Model Generation system [9]. Buy the book and read/watch the numerous free resources about the topic.
• Find out what other industries are doing. They’ve experimented far more than musicians have, so there are valuable lessons to take away and rework. See examples and how modern business models work for other companies. They will provide inspiration on how you could operate and think as a music business.
• Business is learned better in practice. Studying can help but, from my experience, nothing compares with actually trying to sell something and then trying to understand why you’ve failed to do so.
• Finally, if you’re a musician that loves stating ‘I’m a musician, I only want to make music’, then here’s a personal confession for you: I’m not a natural-born businessman either. Neither did I enjoy it in the beginning. It came out of necessity and desire for innovation and independence. The idea of demystifying the notion of business came from getting immersed and facing the real problems of my music ventures. And, guess what? I find myself more complete and creative now. Somehow, creating new dots, connecting and disconnecting them, as Steve Keller says [10], brings astounding and unpredictable results. The endless possibilities keep me going.

I tend to document everything along the way and put it online publicly. You can read it here.

• Obtaining knowledge (Darker Music Talks)

As I mentioned in Part 4, our current music education system progressively becomes more irrelevant and more unable to illustrate the dynamic, modern environment. Our education needs to be smarter and more practical. Knowledge has broken free from the certificate, which is not as useful as it once was.

How will we build a better educational environment that reflects today’s needs and mindset?

Innovative Mediums require innovative Messages, remember? Instead of courses made to stay static for the years to come (music colleges) or courses with no credibility and touch with reality (music blogs), we could focus on the power of crowdsourcing; learning from experts in our field of interest, and from musicians that have already had success in building their audience and business. All we need is a platform connecting these musicians (demand) with the experts/successful musicians (supply) — which can facilitate this curated knowledge in a platform.

This way, we ensure the relevance and practicality of the knowledge we receive. We won’t have static lessons anymore, but proven knowledge, delivered by the most relevant local resources in the most personalized way.

These resources will not have to come from the music industry itself. The gaming, diamond, casino, porn, and book industries (and so many others) have so many valuable lessons to teach us. I know, because this is how I discover fresh approaches to all of my projects — I see what ideas the other industries have to share.

In practice, how could that work? Don’t worry, I’ve started.

My main venture, Darker Music Talks [11], whose mission is to spread entrepreneurial knowledge wherever musicians around the world are, is a series of discussions that connect local knowledge keepers with musicians, in a chance for a constructive dialogue. Each discussion is free of charge. These conversations are educating more than 700 Musicpreneurs in 6 countries at the moment (as of June 2014), with a goal to reach 13 by September 2014.

For those who want to go a bit deeper, there are limited slots for full-day workshops, where musicians have to pay a small fee (in order to cover expenses and create some budget for the venture’s expansion) to get practical knowledge and actionable plans by accredited educators on subjects such as business models, social media, crowdfunding, project management and lean startup thinking.

Picture for a moment what AirBnB does. This is the mindset Darker Music Talks follows too; AirBnB discovers available local resources, instead of building new hotels, turning local accommodations into rooms-to-rent. Darker Music Talks discovers local knowledge keepers and practitioners, instead of building new music colleges/courses — and turns them into credible knowledge resources.

In a world where Coursera-type online courses help thousands of students obtain information, Darker Music Talks could be the platform to disrupt music education as we know it.

It’s time to provide musicians with practical knowledge on what to do next to build a sustainable business around their music. If you want to organize one in your city, get in touch.

• Productivity

As we saw in Part 4, management is the Achilles heel for musicians. There seems to be some kind of problem that prevents musicians from getting much productive work done.

I think the explanation is simple: too much information. Musicians today are overwhelmed with a vast amount of information and tasks to undertake, making their artistic life less enjoyable.

It makes sense. And, to be bloody honest, a new ecosystem without musicians doing ‘the right work’ won’t really go anywhere. Nobody just wants to be ‘busy’. That’s a myth we artistic types need to get over.

The problem with information clutter could be easily tackled with the aforementioned knowledge system. A filter that shows (and teaches) musicians what information is worth consuming could be a great time saver.

However, it’s not enough to make an artistic person more productive. I’ve been there, trust me. A problematic area seems to be the completion of admin tasks. We’re pretty good at being creative, but not in completing the work that ‘has to be done’. I can already picture in my head the last musician to complain about having to update his social media profiles.

What I did, in order to put my life together and minimize the time spent on workload, is pretty straightforward. Practically speaking, it is not a method I read somewhere, but it’s helped me loads and I’d like to share it with you. Since it’s my own creation, let’s call it ‘The Darker Method’. Again, this list is to be followed by order, otherwise it won’t be of much help.

1. First of all, I focus on getting some pre-work done. Before I undertake any kind of project, I make sure I understand what the heck I’m putting myself through!

In German: I clarify my goals and set priorities. This is the absolute number one step, which creates a structure of thinking throughout the whole project.

I won’t go in depth about goal-setting and prioritizing; there are many resources out there. It’s worth mentioning that I wrote this article, which mentions goal-setting (Why Do Musicians Always Feel Disappointed About Their Careers? [12], and this book about decision-making and action taking [13], which includes practical tips about prioritizing.

2. Once I’ve done the pre-work, I shift my mindset to high-value productivity. Woody Allen wrote, directed and produced 44 movies in 44 years, half of which got awards! THIS is high-value productivity. [14]

Work for the sake of work won’t take you any further than the perfect average.

Moreover, instead of working for the whole day, I found it super helpful to focus on exactly 3 hours of work per day. 3 high-value-productivity hours, forcing myself to get everything done within this timely limit.

This helped me break my constraints and cut the fluff out of the game. In 3 hours, I don’t have much time to contemplate on unnecessary stuff. Instead, I follow what Woody Allen inspired:

“Be bold in conception, but pragmatic in execution.”

No brainstorming, creative stuff or day-dreaming. Just workload that HAS TO be done.

To break this even further, I use 30-min volumes of high-value work, following the Pomodoro Technique [15] (it works great for me) and track my progress with the following principle.

3. “Just don’t break the chain!”, said Jerry Seinfeld about the way he becomes productive. He just gets his work done every day, no matter what. He focuses on not breaking the chain of work he’s created. [16]

A great way to put that in perspective is the ‘Numberless Calendars’ idea that Andrew Dubber suggested [17]. I’ve been following this method for a while now and, I got to confess, it is the perfect drug to keep me doing.

4. Ok, let’s say we’ve managed to organize our shit and become productive, with only 3 hours of work per day (it needs work, trust me).

How more awesome does our day look like now? If you wake up at 6am, like me, you’ll be done by 10am. The whole day for you to devour and do creative things.

To take this one step further, once you’ve got hold of the amount of work it takes to get specific tasks done, you can start outsourcing them. You now know exactly what it takes to get them done. Create a checklist and let other people get them done on your behalf.

Some ideas that could be handy:

• Allocate tasks to your band members. You’re a team, right?
• Ask your fans/interns to get some work done for you. The former want to be part of the experience and the latter want a better CV.
• If you have budget, find a virtual assistant and let them do specific tasks per day. There are many services out there. Just Google ‘outsourcing’.

5. Last thing to keep in mind: once you’ve understood how to manage your time and tasks effectively, it’s high time you get a manager to take you to the next level.

‘A manager will not fund your career, but will help you leverage what you’ve already built,’ says Ian Titchener, a manager and supervisor from London with more than 35 years of experience in the industry, in his interview for my book [18].

I’ve never had a manager, but I have a feeling that they will play a vital role in the era of the Musicpreneur.

Further investigation and resources are necessary to explore the present and future of music, so I reckoned it would be useful to provide some links below. They are either already mentioned in the essay or provide additional context to the issues discussed.

[5] Patrick Vlaskovits on growth hacking
[6] Midem 2014 — A Musician As A Startup
[7] Steve Blank on Lean Startups
[8] How To Build A Startup
[9] Business Model Generation Canvas
[10] Steve Keller, founder of IV Audio Branding, featured in ‘The Indecisive Musicpreneur’
[11] Learn how to be a Musicpreneur at Darker Music Talks
[12] Why Do Musicians Always Feel Disappointed About Their Career?
[13] Tommy Darker — The Indecisive Musicpreneur
[14] Woody Allen and the Art of Value Productivity
[15] The Pomodoro Technique
[16] Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret
[17] Andrew Dubber — Numberless Calendar
[18] Ian Titchener, experienced music manager, featured in ‘The Indecisive Musicpreneur’

Tommy Darker is the writing alter ego of an imaginative independent musician and thinker about the future of the music industry. His vision is to simplify scalable concepts and make them work for independent musicians.

He is a writer about the movement of the #Musicpreneur and founder of Darker Music Talks, a global series of discussions between experts and musicians. He and his work have been featured in Berklee, TEDx, Berlin Music Week, Midem, SAE Institute, Hypebot and Topspin Media. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

This research and essay is proudly patronized by its readers.

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 3

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 3

Written by Tommy Darker, originally published in The Musicpreneur.

Travelling the world and chatting with fellow aspiring artists reveals astounding insights about the future of music. Here’s the deal: we think we all face different problems, but the reality reveals the opposite. I will share one of these insights, explaining what it means for the way we work as musicians and how to move in the future.
This is the 3rd part. Each part is linked at the end of the post.
PART 3

Digital native musicians have always struggled with the same problems. Actually it’s just one.

We have shaped the digital world and its tools according to our needs (a tool is created because it solves a real need for a sizable amount of people). These tools have dominated culture and shaped our behaviour, consistently, no matter where in the globe we reside.
That is to say, our behaviour becomes incrementally homogenized. The more we progress in the digital world, the more interconnected we become with one another, the more we influence each other and the less differentiated our behaviour happens to be.
That is not to say that there are no local specialities (ie. very specialized needs that make sense only in a local environment), but the vast majority of today’s projects seem to spring from the same global motives.
Refraining from generalizing the situation, I could state: within the context of the en-masse-spread culture of the digital world, musicians have faced the same problems.
The aforementioned problems of part 2 existed, exist and will keep existing in the digital economy until musicians realize and accept that the context and the economics of the Digital Era (dominating medium: the Internet — main characteristic: interactivity) are different from the Electrical Era (dominating media: TV and radio — main characteristic: broadcasting).
The problem is one, and it roots back to the belief that the way we obtain knowledge and do business are still the same.

We still believe we belong to the old music industry. You know, labels, CD sales and stuff. What is the new industry, you ask? We’ll get back to this at the end of the essay.
I’m a fan of retrospection. At this point, I believe it will be helpful to closely examine how the old world was moving and how we’d been dealing with our issues so far, only to see more clearly the new solutions that arise.


Tommy Darker is the writing alter ego of an imaginative independent musician and thinker about the future of the music industry. His vision is to simplify scalable concepts and make them work for independent musicians.

He is a writer about the movement of the #Musicpreneur and founder of Darker Music Talks, a global series of discussions between experts and musicians. He and his work have been featured in Berklee, TEDx, Berlin Music Week, Midem, SAE Institute, Hypebot and Topspin Media. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

This research and essay is proudly patronized by its readers.



Guest Post on 09/08/2014 in D.I.Y., Music Business | Permalink


Location:Sycamore Dr,Lancaster,United States

3 Simple and Free Website Design Resources for Musicians

3 Simple and Free Website Design Resources for Musicians

A Guest Post by Crowd Audio

I’ve harked on marketing for a few posts now.

Not for nothing, because being a band in a vacuüm is pointless.

You want fans, and marketing is the thing that will get you fans.

It gets a bad rap, but marketing isn’t evil. It’s what you do every day when you talk about your music, upload a song or post a music video.

And as you all know by now, you should be doing this through your own website.

Where Do I Find a Good Website Design for My Band?

Good question.

The answer is: ALL OVER THE PLACE!

It’s actually quite frustrating because you can feel like you’re drowning in designs when you go search on Google. But let’s narrow the search parameter a little bit and focus on something that’s more budget friendly.

Or as you musicians might know it as: free.

I’m only recommending and talking about WordPress themes because that’s what I’m familiar with and confident to talk about.

There are a ton of free options out there, and even more Premium, paid themes as well.

Just a quick search on Google for “free WordPress themes for musicians” yields some good results. Obviously they won’t all be free but here are some great sites that have some good free options for you.

Premium Free WordPress Themes

PremiumFreeWordpressThemes has some good options for musicians on a budget that would like a simple and nice design.

The Retro Music and IndaClub are both cool options for wildly different genres.

Heaven Themes

Heaven Themes looks super cluttered and seems to portray itself as a massive hub for website themes. At first glance it looks like Amazon.com if they only sold website themes.

But once you get past that you can’t deny the massive amount of different themes available on their site. And they’re not only limited to WordPress so if you have different preferences for your platform(you shouldn’t) then you can choose a Joomla or a Blogger theme (don’t do it).

TightMixBlog

There are some interesting choices on TightMixBlog. I guess the generic 2010 theme could work for your music, but it just lacks design and is a bit “blah…”

However, the author’s favorite theme on the site is Sight, a really cool free theme that comes with a bunch of customizability.

I actually used it a few years back as the theme for my band so I can highly recommend it to anyone who needs a simple but cool looking theme that won’t cost them a dime.

Other notable mentions are the City Dreams theme, which would come in handy if you have a really cool band photo or an awesome live shot of your band rocking out on stage.

Make it Simple

You don’t need an expensive designer to make you a website. You just need some intermediate skills in setting up your free WordPress theme and you’re good to go.

This is something anybody in your band should learn because you should always treat your website as your flagship marketing tool.

What themes are you using on your website? Did you go with something free, or did you treat yourself to a premium theme?

Crowd Audio helps you take your music to the next level. They connect independent bands and musicians with excited audio engineers eager to help them with their music.

If you’re a musician, Crowd Audio gives you access to a community of audio engineers eager to mix and master your music, giving it that professional sound.

If you’re an audio engineer, Crowd Audio creates a community of like minded individuals looking to gain experience by doing the audio work they love.

Through community and crowdsourced competition, bands get a professionally produced sound while audio engineers get exposure and experience

10 Networking Tips for Musicians and Bands

10 Networking Tips for Musicians and Bands
BY: SIMON TAM |
Networking.

For most musicians, this is something that most know they should do but feel uncomfortable with or don’t know how to approach. However, it’s something that can open the doors to better shows, a record label, a new sponsor, or even more fans. Here are some things I’ve learned over the years about networking:

1. The Value You Bring to Others: Many networking events can feel like a shark tank, with people fighting to get business cards out and meeting the right people. It can often be inherently selfish, people seeing who can help them get what they want. However, networking is about building partnerships, so you can often stand out by finding ways to deliver value to other people, whether that is simply connecting other contacts to one another or helping someone solve their problem. That’s far more effective than finding ways to show off or impress others.

2. Ask Questions: Whether you are connecting in person or through email, the best thing you can do is open up communication by finding out what the other person needs. The better you understand them, the better you can build the relationship. That interaction matters more than the pitch you’ve carefully constructed about yourself.

3. The Pitch: That being said, find a way to accurately describe what you do in an interesting way in 15 seconds or less. This article on pitching your band might help.

4. Be Intentional: Whether it is at an industry event or online, you don’t want to spam everyone about what you do. Instead, identify the people who are most relevant to what you do, what you offer, or what you need. Focus on them. It’s better to have one solid connection than 100 meaningless ones.

5. Stay Alert: This is one of the reasons why I don’t drink; acting tipsy in front of others can be a sign of weakness and lack of self-control. It’s also important to proofread emails before they are sent, both for spelling and grammar as well as content and length. All of these things reflect you and your work.

6. Think Outside the Box: Don’t always focus on record executives or promoters. Sometimes, it’s good to go outside of your industry and just focus on the general needs of your music career as a business. You’ll always need printing (business cards, download cards, posters, etc.), so why not connect with a printer?

7. Make Connections: The best way to meet people is to be the person that connects others. Offer to introduce someone to one of your contacts who can help them. If you’re known as a connector, people will be more willing to connect with you as well as return the favor.

8. Accept Rejection: Sometimes, people are too busy or they are uninterested. Don’t take it personally and don’t fire back some kind of hurtful email. Be careful about leaving bad reviews on sites like Sonicbids, you might be viewed as petty.

9. Get Your Hands Dirty: Remember, the payoff for networking comes when you help others. Offer to donate time or resources, volunteer, offer advice. Some of my strongest connections have come from volunteering for non-profit organizations and meeting contacts who believe in similar causes.

10. Follow Up: Following up is one of the most important parts of building relationships. Emails, text messages, and phone calls are often forgotten about. Everyone can get busy and need a reminder. Other times, it’s just good to check in. Make it a habit to follow up with an important contact every few weeks.

Whether you are heading to a music conference like CMJ or SXSW, or you are trying to connect with others via Linkedin, keep the above 10 tips in mind to help you stand out as a vital member of the community rather than someone who is only pursuing their own interests. Keep your communication short, to the point, and valuable to others!

If you’d like more advice on how to find, develop and win over contacts, check out How to Get Sponsorships and Endorsements.

—————

Simon Tam is the President and Founder of Last Stop Booking, author of How to Get Sponsorships and Endorsements, and performs in dance rock band The Slants. Simon’s writing on music and marketing can be found at www.laststopbooking.com. He is on Twitter @SimonTheTam

Related articles

• 10 Networking Tips for Musicians and Bands (laststopbooking.wordpress.com)
• 49 Ways to Get Free Music Promotion (djduece.wordpress.com)
• 10 Networking Tips for Musicians and Bands (hypebot.com)
• How to Get Gigs on Sonicbids (hypebot.com)
• Why Is A Culture Shift Important For Musicians? (djduece.wordpress.com)
• Never Act Like An Amateur Band (hypebot.com)
• 101 Ways to Make Money as a Musician (simonverse.wordpress.com)

A Musicians’ Guide To Google – Tips To Maximize Your Google Experience – hypebot

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5 More Apps for Making Music Without Really Trying | Evolver.fm

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Odd Future Joins The Pop-Up Store Craze – hypebot

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Social Media Success For Musicians - A 2012 Roadmap

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