by Jon Walker
Like it or not, the world wide web has become a cornerstone of ‘who you know’ in the 21st century. Facebook has become extremely popular over the past four years and a must-have in every marketing mix. It can connect a willing public with a brand, or a band or artist they love. Facebook has become a go-to place for would-be fans to find out what their favorite artists are doing. Its integration with the burgeoning mobile marketplace, showing up on almost every new cell phone model from the Android to the iPhone, makes it even more important.
Profiles vs. Pages
Even if your band has already joined Facebook, there are a few things you should know. There are two different kinds of outlets available to you as a user. The first is known as your Facebook profile, which includes personal updates and links to the people you know. The second is what Facebook calls its pages, and this is where you will need to do most of your marketing.
The Problem With Profiles
Facebook profiles are the default area where you are taken when you first join the network. If you look at Facebook’s Terms Of Service you’ll see a lot of stern language about the type of activity that is forbidden for any profile owner. Most of the activities that you would intuitively do when you first set up a band profile are clearly forbidden and punishable by account termination. This can be disappointing when you have invested time and money into building your audience.
Some of the primary behaviors that are technically not allowed on a profile are:
• Requesting to be friends with someone you don’t personally know
• Posting “Unauthorized Commercial Communications” such as status updates or Direct Messages
• Posting offers about contests, giveaways or promotions
• Using your personal profile for your own commercial gain
Problems can arise when clients log into their own profiles and unknowingly violate a term or condition, resulting in termination of an account.
Facebook Pages For The Win
As Facebook expanded its business model and dealt with the reality that marketers belonged on the network as much as fans did, Facebook pages were created. These pages are meant specifically for commercial entities (in our case an artist or band) to post brand-specific information to users that become a fan of the page. This gave Facebook a way to offer a voice to brands, but keep unwanted promotion away from unsuspecting users. This is an area where MySpace failed and managed to lose a huge portion of the social networking audience.
The ability to add content to a Facebook page is similar to that of a Facebook profile; you can add information about your band, photos, status updates, news, events and more. The real power of Facebook comes in the applications that can be added to your page, which allow your visitors to interact and bring a part of your band to their own profiles to share with friends and family.
Applications For Everything
Some might argue that the key to Facebook’s success has been their open-source philosophy, which allowed developers and entrepreneurs to bring their own functionality to the network. There are apps ranging from music and video tabs to gift-giving applications and more. There are new applications being made available to the network on a daily basis. Some of the most utilized applications for bands/artists include:
My Band—An application powered by ReverbNation, which is an extremely useful social network, specifically for music fans.
iLike & Music—Both of these applications are available from the iLike network. The Music application enables you to post a miniature website within your page containing art and other music-related content.
Twitter—This application allows you to connect your Twitter account with your Facebook account so that your Tweets get broadcast to your Facebook fan base.
Artist Data Sync—This isn’t really an application in the sense that it is added to your page, but this website (artistdata.com) can sync to your events and status updates on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Eventful and many other websites.
Custom Applications—You may have a great marketing idea that requires tools not yet available through other applications. There are a number of qualified web development companies that can build a custom application tailored to your needs.
You can’t depend on your lukewarm fans to regularly visit your official website to take advantage of the experience you have built for them. This is why it is important to deliver the same functionality to your users on Facebook. They are much more likely to share the experience with others if familiar tools such as Facebook’s ‘like’ and ‘share’ functions are just a click away.
Location, Location, Location
There are a number of ways that someone might find your Facebook page. These include:
Direct Link: It’s important to link to your Facebook page from your official website, your email campaigns and even on your business card. The people being referred by another marketing channel are already primed to become a fan on Facebook.
Search: Facebook has its own search engine, but other engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing are indexing Facebook page results. It’s important to greet the fan with relevant information about your group and offer clear information that they have come to the right place. Some artists may include imaging that isn’t congruent to the artist Website or album artwork. In this case, a visitor may be hesitant to ‘become a fan’ if they aren’t sure they are on the right profile. This is especially true when considering a profile image that appears in the results of a Facebook search. You don’t want people to find your profile in the search, rather you want them to find your fan page. When you end up with 1,000 profile friends and 50 fans on your fans page, you’ll be kicking yourself because you’re limited as to what you can say and do on your profile. Be extra careful not to choose any settings that keep your page from appearing in search results.
Referrals Within Facebook: The ability for users to ‘like’ and ‘share’ content on Facebook make it easy for User A to see content that User B is interested in. Picture this: You’ve just released your new EP and issued a status update on Facebook. User A comes along and decides to ‘share’ the news with their friends. All of User A’s friends will be able to see that they have shared the news and can come see the news for themselves within one click. In addition, when someone ‘Becomes A Fan’ of your page the news is sent to all of their friends. It is very important to tap your current fan and business acquaintances and encourage them to ‘Become A Fan.’ When they do, all of their friends will know about it.
Facebook Ads: You’ll have to spend some money, but Facebook advertising campaigns can yield a high number of fans if done correctly.
Facebook Events: This is a kind of guerrilla tactic, but a number of people use Facebook’s event listing to find out about events going on in a specific city or at a specific venue. Ensure that all of your appearances (public and private) are listed on Facebook, including details about the gig.
Keeping Content Fresh: To ensure that your page stays relevant, you need to keep the content fresh and engaging. It’s important that you assign an administrator (or multiple administrators) to your page so that the right people have access to update your information. If you are out on the road, then you need to appoint someone that takes the job seriously so that correspondence gets answered quickly and information is updated in near real-time. Make sure that you always have fresh content available, such as videos, status updates, event listings, photos and much more to keep your name appearing in the feeds of your fans and followers.
Tracking Results: Facebook offers a simple platform that is tethered to all pages and gives information on the number of visitors, demographic information, and even the quality of the postings that are being made. It’s important to pay attention to this information and utilize it where appropriate. When posting links, there is a useful link service called bit.ly (http://www.bit.ly) which allows users to track the number of clicks the link has received. There are other tools available, many at a paid premium, that give you details about your fans and the way they are interacting with your page, but these may not be necessary or appropriate for most artists. Another way to gauge success is to probe the analytics engine of your official website to see how many visitors are coming to your site via Facebook and what exactly they are doing when they get to your site.
Facebook Finale
It may seem a daunting task for a musician to successfully exist on Facebook, but most will find it very easy once they have spent some time interacting with users. The important thing to remember is that there is help available and a number of professionals that can be called upon if you find yourself struggling to maximize your success. Remember, Facebook is not a one-way communication tool. You must allow your fans to communicate with you and be prepared to treat them like the people they are. It’s often better to have 100 dedicated fans that have a sense of ownership in your band than 1,000 mediocre fans that know you only as a contact through Facebook.
• • •
Jon Walker is a Nashville native, with a degree in Music Business Marketing from Belmont University. He joined the AristoMedia group in 2003. Jon’s affinity for technology and experience with entertainment marketing gave birth to AristoMedia’s, new media division—AristoWorks. Since 2005, AristoWorks has developed web applications and online campaigns for numerous major and independent label projects including various applications for MusicRow Magazine. (jon@aristoworks.com)
Parton Opens Nashville Store; New Wynette Biography
/by Sarah SkatesFans on hand at the ribbon cutting can win a meet and greet with the superstar through raffles, a “Dress Like Dolly” look-alike competition, and a contest for fans dressed in the most “Dolly gear.”
————————
Wynette died in 1998, leaving a legacy of work, including 17 No. 1 hits such as “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” “Take Me to Your World,” and “Stand by Your Man.”
McDonough appears tonight (3/9) at Nashville’s Davis-Kidd Booksellers at 7 pm.
Swift Launches iPhone App, Brings Tour Back To US
/by Sarah SkatesIn other Swift news, this week Big Machine Records launched the official Taylor Swift iPhone application. The free app features Facebook and Twitter connectivity and is available here. Built using Mobile Roadie’s leading mobile app platform, the app is enabled with push notification so that any time the superstar releases new music, videos or photos, fans will be instantly updated on their iPhones. Fans can also see her most up-to-date tour information, find and connect with other fans in their area, and share photos with each other.
Bentley Explores Bluegrass Roots On New Album
/by Sarah SkatesFor the album he joined with longtime collaborators the Del McCoury Band as well as new musical partners Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers. The disc also features vocal and instrumental contributions from Alison Krauss, Miranda Lambert, Tim O’Brien, Sam Bush, and many others.
“It’s my version of bluegrass music,” offers Bentley, who says the genre is his first love. “It’s not just banjos cranked up to eleven. It throws out a big net.” For the album he worked with award-winning singer/songwriter/producer Jon Randall and respected recording engineer Gary Paczosa. Some songs from the project are from Bentley’s proven pen, and others come from what might be unexpected sources, like Bob Dylan.
Oscars Score In Ratings, “Weary Kind” Wins Song
/by Sarah SkatesPictured at the post party for a Nashville screening of "Crazy Heart." (L-R): BMI's Jody Williams, Lost Highway recording artist Ryan Bingham, T-Bone Burnett, Jeff Bridges, and New West Records President Cameron Strang. Photo: Erika Goldring
Country music had a much deserved moment in the Hollywood spotlight last night (3/7). “The Weary Kind,” written by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song during the telecast which drew the highest ratings since 2005.
Bingham, a Lost Highway artist, and Burnett penned the song for Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges as a past-his-prime country singer. Bridges also won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of “Bad Blake.” Bridges, Bingham and Burnett all won in similar categories during the recent Golden Globes.
Also at the Oscars, Sandra Bullock was named Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work in The Blind Side, a film that also starred Tim McGraw in a supporting role.
According to preliminary data from Nielsen, last night’s Academy Awards drew an average audience of 41.3 million viewers. This is the show’s highest ratings in five years, since 2005 when 42.2 million people tuned in. The Oscars sank to record low viewership in 2008 with 31.8 million. By last year its numbers had rebounded, making this the second consecutive year of ratings growth.
CBS reports that Nielsen is counting digital video recorder data for the first time this year, which could make comparison to last year’s ratings a little off.
Below is Bingham’s performance of “The Weary Kind” on SIRIUS XM’s Outlaw Country.
FBMM Names New VP and Owner/Shareholder
/by MichelleCarmen Romano, Jr.
Carmen Romano, Jr., managing director of Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy, Inc. has become a vice president and owner/shareholder of the company. Romano joins founding owners Chuck Flood, Frank Bumstead, and Mary Ann McCready together with owners Jamie Cheek (2006) and Duane Clark (2008).
Romano has been an entertainment industry business manager for the past twenty years and prior to joining FBMM to open their New York office in 2004, was president of Progressive Business Management. He is a graduate of Bloomfield College, an active member of NARAS and currently resides in Livingston, New Jersey.
Flood Bumstead McCready & McCarthy Inc. is a Nashville-based firm, founded in 1990, which specializes in financial and business management and represents a diverse roster of artists including Rascal Flatts, Kings of Leon, Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, Gary Allan, Joe Nichols, Gnarls Barkley, Vince Gill, My Chemical Romance, Dierks Bentley, Pearl Jam, Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, MGMT and John Hiatt, among others.
Leadership Music Accepting Applications
/by FreemanApplication forms and information are available at www.leadershipmusic.org. Deadline to submit applications is March 26. Those who have completed applications in the last two years need only submit an updated form. Applications can be submitted three ways:
Mail: Applications, Leadership Music, PO Box 158010, Nashville, TN 37215-8010
Fax: 615-770-7092
Email: office@leadershipmusic.org
Country Acts Throwdown On Multi-Stage Tour
/by Sarah SkatesThe Country Throwdown Tour Presented by Rockstar Energy Drink will commence May 14 in Tampa, FL and wrap June 20 in Mountain View, CA. Headlining the run is Montgomery Gentry, Jamey Johnson, Little Big Town and Jack Ingram. Other artists confirmed for the first annual multi-stage tour include Eric Church, the Eli Young Band, The Lost Trailers, Heidi Newfield, Ryan Bingham and The Dead Horses, Jonathan Singleton & The Grove and Emily West.
A Bluebird Café tent offering daytime sets, and music during the mainstage set changes, will feature emerging songwriter-artists Ashley Ray, Brad Tursi, Cory Branan, Dave Pahanish, Jedd Hughes, Sarah Buxton, Troy Olsen, Heather Morgan and Walker Hayes.
Among the other activities will be a full concourse of lifestyle attractions and vendors, happy hour, autograph sessions, and chances for seat upgrades. Country Throwdown is building interest with an iPhone app and free Mp3s on its web site.
Organizers are also offering numerous deals on tickets. The limited time Throwdown Ticket Takeover splits the amphitheater seats down the middle, with one side offering a flat price for any seat during the pre-sale, while regular tiered ticketing will be available for later purchase for the other half of the amphitheater. Pre-sale tickets are available via Ticketmaster and also serve as a jump-the-line pass for first access into the venue. Customers of tour sponsors Rockstar Energy Drink and Wrangler jeans will also be eligible for discounts.
In addition, a select number of Country Throwdown shows are included in the 2010 Country Megaticket package. This limited-time offer gives fans the same seat of their choice in the same venue for several top shows throughout the year such as Brooks & Dunn, Brad Paisley, Sugarland, Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts and Tim McGraw. Country Throwdown is also teaming up with Tickets-for-Charity® to offer fans premium seats and exclusive VIP Packages to benefit great causes.
Tour dates
5/30 Saratoga Springs, NY
5/31 Gilford, NH
6/4 Virginia Beach, VA
6/6 Bristow, VA
6/9 Houston, TX
6/10 Dallas, TX
6/12 Salt Lake City, UT
6/13 Denver, CO
6/16 Bakersfield, CA
6/17 San Diego, CA
6/18 Phoenix, AZ
6/19 Irvine, CA
6/20 Mountain View, CA
DVD Set Coming From ZBB And Friends
/by Sarah SkatesThe Pass the Jar DVD will feature eighteen performances, with ZBB alongside guests Kid Rock, Little Big Town, Joey + Rory, Shawn Mullins, Angie Aparo and Aslyn. The show includes songs from the ZBB’s platinum album The Foundation, their favorite covers, and new unreleased material. It was shot in HD and directed by Darren Doane (who also shot the band’s videos for “Toes” and “Highway 20 Ride”).
The Pass the Jar 2-CD companion will include audio from the DVD as well as six other tracks.
Fans who pre-order Pass the Jar will get access to pre-sale tickets for ZBB’s homecoming show at Atlanta’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on May 8.
Pass The Jar – Zac Brown Band and Friends Live from the Fabulous Fox Theatre In Atlanta DVD/2 CD Tracklist:
DVD
1. Intro
2. Whatever It Is
3. It’s Not OK
4. Jolene
5. Who Knows
6. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
7. Sic ‘Em On A Chicken
8. Junkyard (feat. Angie Aparo)
9. The Devil Went Down To Georgia
10. Trying to Drive (feat. Aslyn)
11. Alabama Jubilee (feat. Barry Waldrep)
12. Can’t You See (feat. Kid Rock)
13. Highway 20 Ride
14. Colder Weather (feat. Little Big Town)
15. Free / Into the Mystic (feat. Joey + Rory)
16. Toes
17. America The Beautiful
18. Chicken Fried
19. We’re Gonna Make This Day
CD 1
1. Whatever It Is
2. Let It Go
3. It’s Not OK
4. Jolene
5. Who Knows
6. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
7. Sic ‘Em On A Chicken
8. Where The Boat Leaves From
9. Trying to Drive (feat. Aslyn)
10. Alabama Jubilee (feat. Barry Waldrep)
11. Blackbird (feat. Matt Mangano)
12. The Devil Went Down to Georgia
CD 2
1. Can’t You See (feat. Kid Rock)
2. Highway 20 Ride
3. Whiskey’s Gone
4. Colder Weather (feat. Little Big Town)
5. Free / Into the Mystic (feat. Joey + Rory)
6. America The Beautiful
7. Chicken Fried
8. I Shall Be Released
9. Bar (feat. Sonia Leigh and guests)
10. Toes (feat. Shawn Mullins)
11. We’re Gonna Make This Day
NSAI Ready For “Spring Training”
/by contributorThis year’s guest lineup includes Jessi Alexander (“The Climb”), Dave Berg (“Stupid Boy”), Journey’s Jonathan Cain (“Open Arms”), Brett James (“Jesus, Take The Wheel”) and Tia Sillers (“I Hope You Dance”).
The event takes place at Nashville’s Millennium Maxwell House Hotel at 2025 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard. Held during Tin Pan South week, Spring Training also offers perks to registrants, including discounted Fast Access Passes. For more information click here or call 615.256.3354.
Facebook For Musicians—Artist Primer
/by contributorLike it or not, the world wide web has become a cornerstone of ‘who you know’ in the 21st century. Facebook has become extremely popular over the past four years and a must-have in every marketing mix. It can connect a willing public with a brand, or a band or artist they love. Facebook has become a go-to place for would-be fans to find out what their favorite artists are doing. Its integration with the burgeoning mobile marketplace, showing up on almost every new cell phone model from the Android to the iPhone, makes it even more important.
Profiles vs. Pages
Even if your band has already joined Facebook, there are a few things you should know. There are two different kinds of outlets available to you as a user. The first is known as your Facebook profile, which includes personal updates and links to the people you know. The second is what Facebook calls its pages, and this is where you will need to do most of your marketing.
The Problem With Profiles
Facebook profiles are the default area where you are taken when you first join the network. If you look at Facebook’s Terms Of Service you’ll see a lot of stern language about the type of activity that is forbidden for any profile owner. Most of the activities that you would intuitively do when you first set up a band profile are clearly forbidden and punishable by account termination. This can be disappointing when you have invested time and money into building your audience.
Some of the primary behaviors that are technically not allowed on a profile are:
• Requesting to be friends with someone you don’t personally know
• Posting “Unauthorized Commercial Communications” such as status updates or Direct Messages
• Posting offers about contests, giveaways or promotions
• Using your personal profile for your own commercial gain
Problems can arise when clients log into their own profiles and unknowingly violate a term or condition, resulting in termination of an account.
Facebook Pages For The Win
As Facebook expanded its business model and dealt with the reality that marketers belonged on the network as much as fans did, Facebook pages were created. These pages are meant specifically for commercial entities (in our case an artist or band) to post brand-specific information to users that become a fan of the page. This gave Facebook a way to offer a voice to brands, but keep unwanted promotion away from unsuspecting users. This is an area where MySpace failed and managed to lose a huge portion of the social networking audience.
The ability to add content to a Facebook page is similar to that of a Facebook profile; you can add information about your band, photos, status updates, news, events and more. The real power of Facebook comes in the applications that can be added to your page, which allow your visitors to interact and bring a part of your band to their own profiles to share with friends and family.
Applications For Everything
Some might argue that the key to Facebook’s success has been their open-source philosophy, which allowed developers and entrepreneurs to bring their own functionality to the network. There are apps ranging from music and video tabs to gift-giving applications and more. There are new applications being made available to the network on a daily basis. Some of the most utilized applications for bands/artists include:
Custom Applications—You may have a great marketing idea that requires tools not yet available through other applications. There are a number of qualified web development companies that can build a custom application tailored to your needs.
You can’t depend on your lukewarm fans to regularly visit your official website to take advantage of the experience you have built for them. This is why it is important to deliver the same functionality to your users on Facebook. They are much more likely to share the experience with others if familiar tools such as Facebook’s ‘like’ and ‘share’ functions are just a click away.
Location, Location, Location
There are a number of ways that someone might find your Facebook page. These include:
Direct Link: It’s important to link to your Facebook page from your official website, your email campaigns and even on your business card. The people being referred by another marketing channel are already primed to become a fan on Facebook.
Search: Facebook has its own search engine, but other engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing are indexing Facebook page results. It’s important to greet the fan with relevant information about your group and offer clear information that they have come to the right place. Some artists may include imaging that isn’t congruent to the artist Website or album artwork. In this case, a visitor may be hesitant to ‘become a fan’ if they aren’t sure they are on the right profile. This is especially true when considering a profile image that appears in the results of a Facebook search. You don’t want people to find your profile in the search, rather you want them to find your fan page. When you end up with 1,000 profile friends and 50 fans on your fans page, you’ll be kicking yourself because you’re limited as to what you can say and do on your profile. Be extra careful not to choose any settings that keep your page from appearing in search results.
Referrals Within Facebook: The ability for users to ‘like’ and ‘share’ content on Facebook make it easy for User A to see content that User B is interested in. Picture this: You’ve just released your new EP and issued a status update on Facebook. User A comes along and decides to ‘share’ the news with their friends. All of User A’s friends will be able to see that they have shared the news and can come see the news for themselves within one click. In addition, when someone ‘Becomes A Fan’ of your page the news is sent to all of their friends. It is very important to tap your current fan and business acquaintances and encourage them to ‘Become A Fan.’ When they do, all of their friends will know about it.
Facebook Ads: You’ll have to spend some money, but Facebook advertising campaigns can yield a high number of fans if done correctly.
Facebook Events: This is a kind of guerrilla tactic, but a number of people use Facebook’s event listing to find out about events going on in a specific city or at a specific venue. Ensure that all of your appearances (public and private) are listed on Facebook, including details about the gig.
Keeping Content Fresh: To ensure that your page stays relevant, you need to keep the content fresh and engaging. It’s important that you assign an administrator (or multiple administrators) to your page so that the right people have access to update your information. If you are out on the road, then you need to appoint someone that takes the job seriously so that correspondence gets answered quickly and information is updated in near real-time. Make sure that you always have fresh content available, such as videos, status updates, event listings, photos and much more to keep your name appearing in the feeds of your fans and followers.
Tracking Results: Facebook offers a simple platform that is tethered to all pages and gives information on the number of visitors, demographic information, and even the quality of the postings that are being made. It’s important to pay attention to this information and utilize it where appropriate. When posting links, there is a useful link service called bit.ly (http://www.bit.ly) which allows users to track the number of clicks the link has received. There are other tools available, many at a paid premium, that give you details about your fans and the way they are interacting with your page, but these may not be necessary or appropriate for most artists. Another way to gauge success is to probe the analytics engine of your official website to see how many visitors are coming to your site via Facebook and what exactly they are doing when they get to your site.
Facebook Finale
It may seem a daunting task for a musician to successfully exist on Facebook, but most will find it very easy once they have spent some time interacting with users. The important thing to remember is that there is help available and a number of professionals that can be called upon if you find yourself struggling to maximize your success. Remember, Facebook is not a one-way communication tool. You must allow your fans to communicate with you and be prepared to treat them like the people they are. It’s often better to have 100 dedicated fans that have a sense of ownership in your band than 1,000 mediocre fans that know you only as a contact through Facebook.
• • •
Jon Walker is a Nashville native, with a degree in Music Business Marketing from Belmont University. He joined the AristoMedia group in 2003. Jon’s affinity for technology and experience with entertainment marketing gave birth to AristoMedia’s, new media division—AristoWorks. Since 2005, AristoWorks has developed web applications and online campaigns for numerous major and independent label projects including various applications for MusicRow Magazine. (jon@aristoworks.com)