It was 1988 when I got my vinyl copy of ‘Appetite for Destruction’. Little did I know then that Slash would still be churning out great albums two decades later and that most of what us musicians do today is as much about a micro-computer as it is a Marshall amplifier.
Back then I had to save my pocket money for a couple of months to get an album. Now, in 2010, you can listen to albums for free using Spotify and you don’t have to wait until your next shopping trip or to go around your mates place to hear them.
Web 2.0. The new rock’n'roll.
Everything from writing demos, getting great drum sounds, to promotion, to contact, to connection – it’s all happening on the screen and in cyberspace these days.
So here we are, four weeks in to the Music Success in Nine Weeks challenge and this week sees us get stuck into Social Media for musicians, building on week 3, and embracing the new wild ways of the web.
I want to begin by highlighting some of the key differences, that I gained from Ariel’s book, between what was the web (1.0) and what is now the web (2.0) for a creative recording musician. You can play spot the difference.
Web 1.0
- Static or Silo sites
- Read only
- Contained basic information e.g. Home, About, Bio, Contact
- Passive surfing
- One-way conversation
Web 2.0
- Social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn)
- User contributed sites (e.g. wikipedia)
- Self publishing platforms (blogs, podcasts, etc)
- Interactive e.g. comments, ‘like’, dynamic pages
- Two-way conversation
Ariel explains,
One thing to keep in mind is Web 2.0 is much like a garden. It takes consistent
cultivation and weeding to make it thrive. Just planting it once and leaving it
alone will not make your garden grow.
This advice reminds me that it is about keeping things fresh and current. The consistent cultivation and weeding can be applied to (re-)writing too, I have found.
Blogging
Ariel’s guide contains a number of links and resources to sites where you can begin to learn how all this cool stuff works. I won’t go in to detail here as different people need different information, however, you can find out more by buying the book or checking out blogs of other participants (who knows what beans they might be spilling)
Some other participants you could follow:
Jennifer Grassman – “Jennifer is Kate Bush cast as an Agatha Christie heroine; haunting, melodic and sophisticated”
Ethan Waldman – “Like an acoustic version of Radiohead collaborating with John Lennon”
Meghan Morrison – “Imagine Alanis in Wonderland having tea with Charles Dickens and The Cranberries”
Sean T Wright – “Imagine John Lennon and Neil Young meet Peter Pan on the shores of Neverland”
Hudson K – “Eccentric anti-pop piano rock”
I’m going to restrict this post purely to the insights and resources that were useful to me on this pass of the book, hence, I will skip most of what Ariel suggests about blogging (i.e. Ariel’s Option #1), all of which is useful advice yet there’s much more to come on the topic.
There was a powerful exercise, which at first seemed a little daunting, to identify 50 blogs that you want to be reviewed on. It’s going to take me more than a week to complete as I’m still identifying blogs I like to follow.
Find Your Community
I was mildly shocked this week to find that when I listed the musicians I’ve worked closely with, so far in my life, that out of around 30 or so that I have played with in bands for over six months – I only know three who are still actively playing music – and wait for it – two of them are not actively online promoting their music.
In the past two years I have been making new connections and slowly building a new community of excellent musicians. I feel lucky yet I know I have only just begun. I have begun to work with a couple of bass players, one of which is based in California sourced through TAXI, another in London and I’m also seeking out others. One of the beauties of Web 2.0 I consider.
The work won’t stop there. Once these connections are made it is a case of adding value and building the community. I will be looking for new ways to expand my own network and looking to help others expand theirs. One valuable little tool I am learning to love is Twitter.
I’ve been tweeting with AgendaRed for most of this year and found it very valuable for finding new resources and keeping informed, this blogging challenge being an example. The advice in the book helps me review my approach and I consider that it is important that I only re-tweet useful information to others.
How handy it is to have quick twitter conversations gaining the thoughts of a community, responding to others and for finding links to the latest news articles and blogs – live. Whilst I deliberately limit my time on Twitter it is an incredibly handy tool, especially as a musician, and it is also free.
Join in the fun and connect with me on Twitter.
Podsafe Music Network
I’d never heard of Podsafe Music Network before reading Music Success in Nine Weeks.
You can become a podsafe artist by creating a profile page for yourself on The Podsafe
Music Network.
The idea is that this allows podcasters to use your tracks in their shows without worrying about clearance issues. Given that apparently hundreds of podcasters use this site to get music for their podcasts I think that this could be a great opportunity for promotion. You can see who is logging in and choosing your music.
I’m still reading the terms and conditions and seeing how that fits in with music I offer non-exclusively to Music Libraries, however, it’s an interesting idea for exposure and well worthy of further exploration.
Flickr
What the ^&£*$& has photo albums got to do with music?
Everything.
Flickr is useful for:
- Finding photos for blog posts (with permission)
- Joining groups and connecting with photographers and other people’s photographs
- Socially sharing photos
The book has introduced me to the concept of joining groups, uploading and sharing photos (which is possible with Facebook I am led to believe) and embracing Flickr as a photo book of your interests and life. As they say “a picture says a thousand words” and there’s some groovy groups to join too such as:
and Live Music
I consider that I really enjoy looking at other peoples photos as it is a way to get an interpretation of how they see life and this is an opportunity that’s a unique way to socialise.
Welcome to the jungle.
What are you thoughts on Web 2.0? Do you have any useful resources to share?
Share in the comments below.
Further reading:
Photo Credit: ©Sandra Farrow
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Hey!
I love the photo, it drew me into the post immediately (You’re right, pictures are important for music… or at least for connecting with fans who will help build the life of your music. This is especially true in the online world where people don’t see you in person).
In fact, you’ve inspired me to put one up one in my blog post this week. I usually just use images from creative commons that feel relevant to the subject matter, but I should be using some that are more personal as well. Thanks for indirectly prompting me to do so!
I’m curious about your thoughts on, and experience with, TAXI. I heard people talking about it at Songposium this weekend, but I haven’t heard any good reviews thus far. I see that Ariel is now networking with them and because I love and trust Ariel and what she does, I’m curious to know more about this service that I’ve heard referred to as a “scam”.
Cheers
Meghan Morrison
P.S. (Thanks for the plug
Hey Meghan. Thanks for the comments!
What are your concerns specifically?
I think scepticism is healthy. My recommendation to anyone considering TAXI membership would be to be clear about your own music objectives first (before making any decisions on whether a tool or service is an appropriate one to use) then check-out any of these three (free) resources which could save you time and money and then, of course, speak to as many members as you can through the forum:
1. Brian Hazards “12 years with TAXI” article on Music Think Tank
http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/michael-laskow-of-taxi-marketing-entrepreneurial-skills-musi.html
2. Take a look at the (and perhaps join the free) TAXI forum and get a feel for the TAXI community (as well as lots of information on industry, gear, recording techniques, etc.)
http://forums.taxi.com/
Or check out a members perspective:
http://www.taxi.com/transmitter/1010/industryvideos.html?cid=EMTXTR00000048
Good luck with the rest of the blog challenge, Meghan. Let me know if you would like to see one of my own TAXI music critiques to see if it’s the sort of feedback that could help you too.
Thanks for the info, Rob!
This is great. An informed and researched decision is often a wise one (but not always
haha. Yes, I’d love to see one of your TAXI critiques.
Cheers
Meghan
I’ll organise the critique and get that to you, Meghan. Cheers!
Rob,
Great post! Love the visual format (pictures, quotes, etc.), as well.
You mentioned that you were “mildly shocked” when finding that only three, really only one musician online (out of those that you had worked with recently). That IS surprising. However, that said, I recall looking up band(s) to see if I wanted to go hear them and support the indies and not finding anything on them on the web. Similar to what Ariel says about pitches, it pretty much ended there because I could not lock onto what I would be going to see and hear.
Thanks for sharing!
-Lady D
Insightful comment, thanks Lady D.
Suggests we need to “show up” as much as we can. Imagine all those lost opportunities. Not only do we need to continue to fine tune our on-line presence, we also need to make sure we’re easily accessible.
Thanks Rob for the link in you blog section – a really in depth post, btw! I was very interested to hear about the musicians you’d worked with in the past all but to a man now not involved in music as it stands today!
I’ve a similar experience. People get distracted and do other things, and yet… the reality today with all of cyberspace’s vast array of software for making music – it’s way easier now than ever!
cheers
Sean T Wright
I heard somebody the other day talk about how we’re living in the “age of distraction” – a very interesting thought, thanks Sean.
Great point too about the opportunities. tools and resources that technology offers us today towards us owning and running our own show. It’s all there for the taking!
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