www.kurb.co.nz aka best of my artist promotions blog

Oh hi, since myspace is dead, can I hang out on your website for awhile?


Hi everyone!

This is Matt from Kurb promotions.

We are media services company that specializes in global online promotion for artists.

Y’know. Myspace. Youtube. Itunes. Blogs and RSS. Search engine optimisation. Websites. Aggregators. Ad supported revenue. All the computer stuff.

I've worked with some of NZ's top bands. Now I mainly work with bands all over the world, and give advice through my blog.

We also have some exceptionally cheap physical media services such as CD’s, DVD’s and posters with a free delivery policy so you can do it all over email.

I’ve been killing it on myspace and blogging up a storm for the last 18 months and I wanted to share some articles I’ve written.

There’s a lot of people blogging about Radiohead and Madonna and changes to the music industry but not that many people blogging about the reality of nuts and bolts internet promotion, breaking an act online and what is refered to as “monetizing” online content. I.E. making money off it.

The word “monetize” is basically used to infer to the character of most new web concepts which have become successful and THEN turned that success into income – they’re two distinct operations and this is something modern artists have to be aware of.

It’s all about new media and web 2.0. That means a new version of the internet that is driven by interaction and choice unlike the old version which was more like radio or TV. You sat there and you listened or watched whatever they chose to provide.

This is all of course what I do for a job. I help artists do the internet, I make CD’s, I make posters and I put them up.

I will probably only be posting the odd article that seems to make more sense than usual when and where I get the chance, otherwise, check out my blog at:

http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com

You’ll find heaps of industry tidbits and analysis – sometimes borrowed from other blogs – but also lots of practically applicable tips and kind of low key insider knowledge basically based around how the internet will make money for digital content creators.

http://www.kurb.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/kurbpromo
http://www.youtube.com/user/kurbpromo -
http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com
http://kurbpromotion.blogspot.com
http://www.squidoo.com/kurb

what would sid vicious say about this? ...well, he probably would have laughed once, maybe twice, and had a big blast b4 he stopped getting paid enough to actually od and not just lose an arm...

I have never been motivated by money? i was never taught respect for it. Not in School, not in home, my dad destroyed my faith in humanity, 10 years later i was able to understand it wasn't my problem, thank god.. Banks used my lack of knowledge to rip me off more often than not. Yet, i often would hear that I "was" a really wealthy rock star. Well, why not? ...a NZ#2 album, a NZ#4 album, 2 albums selling a lot more in the states via college radio, NME and Melody Maker Albums/Singles of the week... WE did make good money. Live. We made $1.80 per cd (retail $29.95) for every cd sold in the shops. The NZ Media used to put any spin on musical success they could. And I understand why. WE were on the front cover of the biggest newspaper in the world, USA TODAY. NO F@#$KING Prime Minister of NZ has ever been on it. In 1994 I think I was quoted about 6 times in the NY Times. I guess there would have been at least another 12 stories from NZ bands. Was Jim Bolger in the NYTimes that year? I doubt it very much. But he sure got paid a lot of $ not getting in it. Why don't they pay muso's like politicians?

Say if you do really well, really (Neil Finn) well... why not pay him $50,000 a year for being a spokesman for nz?. After all, what is a politician?

Or would it be better to all just sell drugs, abuse our country when the NY Times asks us about it and carry on living on the dole while the kids we have are fucked cos we wanted to be rock stars... Obviously there is less money for the record industry but it hasn't made much difference to any NZ artists. Maybe we might make $30,000 a year when we have an album out.

Why would you want to do music though? unless you wanted to die young? Cos i'm sorry, but $30,000 a year is not enough to bring a family up on in NZ. And that $30,000 is when things are good!!!

I'm not giving up music. It took me 8 years to realise that I had made the biggest mistake in my life. I wanted to be in a band. I worked to pay my rent, But while we did make very good money touring in NZ, tour support for international tours and for making records meant unless we had an album 4 times more successful than Bic Runga's top album (we split our royalties between the band as if 1 was to be rich we were all to be.

But there was gonna be no nest egg for us. Not paying our advances back at $1.80 a unit. So, ,I hated it. I hated how i had poured my soul into something that was fools gold. And I knew it. But I wanted to go to NYC and I really knew I could do it, if i was lucky and the band wanted to be playing music for a job. But that means working full-time touring the world and for not very much money (till that magic song "How Bizzare" goes #1 in the US.

Whatever happens, its going to be a lot better than when record companies ran it. Please don't get me wrong. A lot of my friends and people I respect are in the industry. Not for too much longer though... I don't know what will happen. The fact that Labels are trying to take bands APRA $ is making me angry. Is this true? I never understood why Mushroom took 50% of our APRA money in the 90's... After doing some sums, I know know why. It was a lot of money.

I mean lots of you will be saying shut up u sad old fuck but If It was worked out fair, record companies would have made a good profit and so would have 'more' bands than did. I know now that I was not lucky enough not to be born into money but making the pretty stupid and uncommercial music was a punt for the company. A very small investment all up, and it is pretty much paid off in full (all at $1.80 a cd). If it had been done in a fair world we would have made as much as if we were teachers. Nearing 40 years old I'm glad I did what I did. I love music. I noticed when I played a month back that is what I have been missing for the last 10 years. So, i will never winge about $ and music again. I wont make the mistakes i made before either. I don't know how its going to work, it will be better though. If you are in a band, do not sign anything unless you can retire on it the next day. I think we can come up with a way in which the people who make the music that puffs out our chests, or makes us jump up and down when a ball goes over a line, or makes us remember the people who we love don't end up earning less than a traffic cop (again;i don't mean all musos get paid heaps, but if someome writes a song that moves NZ they should earn as much as a drain digger, or maybe we should just forget writing songs for radio/tv/movies/etc. Forget about making $ out of music.

Sorry,
this was very badly written and its all over the show. Obv. I'm upset that even though i was hoping we might finally have a chance of making a living from music I just can't see how. This is my example. Mushroom Music(Whom I have finally ended my publishing agreement with are selling my songs on i-tunes ...have a guess how much i get paid 4 a song? ... one NZ cent per song. Luckily, they have no future say over any music i write from now on and if anything it has given me the power to write again so I can make some money and they wont get it. I don't hate these people. Some of them are actually lovely. It's just the fact that the 3d's have a catalogue of songs that mushroom are in control of that they don't give a damn about. Of course, they will take all the $ they can from those songs. I actually added up how much money our albums made and what we got paid for it. I never got as far as the final button push cos i was so sad and angry. not at my friends, or the people who worked for these companies but because i was never tought how money works. I'm learning now. I'm not going Christian (nothing wrong with that tho). And I'm going to write songs and work out how to make a living equal to a audio-engineer. It's not a lot to ask. If the album bombs, I'll think about doing something else. But till then I'm going to write some kick-ass songs, get to th US and have that USA Today interview. I hope by then a NZ politician is smart enough to talk to me first. I'm sick of watching music TV and every kiwi muso interviewed pretends they are making a real good living. No-one says "Kids, go to UNI. Play music for a hobby. Sheet. I don't want it to be like this. I want us to get it together so its fair and if you can write songs and you have the drive then you have a chance of making a living. Either that or we should add on the nzon air logo "success is not likely kids ...only 0.1% of NZ musos make more than a p-dealer. the others don't. they live under the poverty line, as do their kids.

I don't think i'm exaggerating... When we were doing well (mid 90s) the only other band doing a similar trade was Shihad. That is 2 bands who were making a living not much better than mcdonalds. Yet the 3d's cd's alone generated $1,080,000.00 and probably a lot more. I worked this out as 36,000 CDs at NZ$30 each. Thing is we also sold singles, cd-singles, a large range of t-shirts. Vinyl Albums that sold for huge amounts of money $40US or even 45pounds in the uk. 7" singles too. So to be fair.... thats like $1,300,000 that went over the counter, and we never saw as we were paying back how very, very, small advances at $1.80 per cd.

36,000 CDs paying back our advance at $1.80 per cd equals $64,800.

Does anyone see why i'm unhappy? I thank the companies for the chances they gave us but we were not that much of a risk in my opinion. If Spin Magazine calls you the best band in the world, spending $65,000 that they have recouped ended up making them approx. a million dollars.not a lot but for a small dunedin based business if we had been given our money we prob would be doin it now and we would be happy.

These numbers are rough but probably more likely stacked in their favor.

If you are in a young band. fight them. lets get rid of them. Apple to if we have to.

Punk Rock saved my life. And the way i see it is we can make the best cds ever and sell them for 33% what itunes or a company will do it 4 then lets start a revolution. or go back to yr bobby mcferrin cd as that will be all you will get from now on. there are so many ideas to make this work...it needs a group of people to tell these tech giants that their players mean shit if they only have celine dion to play on them. im just worried for bands in ten yrs time. i mean sonic youth are made. public enemy are made.

You will have noticed how there are 20 times more bands touring than usual? do u think it will stop? not till the $ do. its how bands are paying their rent. yes kiwis, in the usa if you are in a band you have rent to pay and its not cheap. i found it really hard to hear kiwis pine about getting back home so they dont have to work so hard. i would rather play guitar than a forklift. am i right???
...to tell you the truth i felt like i lost that argument!

sorry!!!!!! i just want a job. im writing songs and im booking a gig and i hope like fuk the 3ds will play... i'd love a part-time job if anyone knows of one. i've worked as an asst manager at real groovy. done alot of event management, tour planning and working with immigration and i know a lot of cool people in the us and uk where gear and vans are cheap and have playstation etc.

let me know what you think of my rant.i didn't proof it cos im too angry. I wonder how much artists in nz are making now? we used to get laughed at for flying and staying in hotels in nz! fair enuff!! but i wonder how many artists are making better money than traffic wardens!!! how could we find this out? i want to keep this quiet till i can get some figures without causing fear but my 4.5yr old boy could do with even $50,000. the good thing is now im not on mushroom i can do my own deals. and im not anti deals i just think if u do a deal do it 4 1 album, if theres a prob then you are not stuffed. and you can also do a distro deal where you get $16.00 per cd instead of $1.80!! way better! and u can do it with indies in every small place in the world so they are all working 4 u and they care.

u might not even care, but i'm sure u would be interested in whats gonna happen. do write me. i'd like that.

POSITIVE FEEDBACK: MUSICIANS AND TRADEME


Trademe is my local New Zealand version of Ebay. It's kind of a bit different but one things for sure.

New Zealanders are crazy about trademe. They're insane. It's worse than P (meth), there's likely to be suffering in every family.

I think this is because kiwis love getting a sweet deal. They want to get the best deal, no matter what!

Sites like Trademe, Youtube and things like Mp3's are all part of a megatrend called "digitisation" which is really a revolution in communication that we can interact with each other in this way, but of course is HIGHLY disruptive to certain industries the music industry obviously being one of them, and it wont be the last by no means.


But lets cut the fluff, the most important thing about Trademe in online music promotion is that essential concept:

It's where the people are. This is why Myspace took off. Because everyone was there! When it comes to trademe in New Zealand . . . everyone uses trademe!!!!

I mean seriously. You have a profile on myspace but you're not taking advantage of New Zealand's biggest online community????

Lets look at what you can do on Trademe.

You can sell CD's. You want physical distribution for your CD's?

Your physical distributor is now crying in his soup because he is a poor poor man now. He does not care about sending 2 copies of your CD to every store in the wop wops so he can make what? $2? on each one.

He does not care.

Go see someone at Real Groovy. Make sure you ask for it to go to the four centres. Go home, put an ad on trademe.

YAY! You've got a distribution deal!!! Congratulations!!!!

And what do you know? You've got a "profile" on trademe! You can search it on google, pity you CANT put your website address, that's against the rules.

But theres no reason you shouldn't cram as much information about your music into that page as possible. This isn't myspace! You've got a customer in the shop!

This is your opportunity to paint a picture of what it is that makes you a unique local voice and win them over with a stunning depiction of your raw essence that makes them just want to support!!!!

When you reflect on the new paradigm of the music industry and bloggers going on about the "1000 true fans" model for a successful career in music, the personal connection you make when you sell a CD on trademe is doing more work than a mountain of spam to take one step closer to having a viable fanbase.


For kiwi musicians who want to work hard this is FOR REAL. Make that interaction as positive as you can make it.

Put things in the envelope! Posters, stickers . . . use your imagination!

These people are purchasing directly off the artist and that makes them feel positive.I honestly feel, especially from lots of touring etc., that everyday New Zealanders everywhere want to support local musicians. They feel good about it, but the opportunity doesn't really arise. Work that!

And you know what's next!!!

"Wellll what else can we sell on trademe????"

Well it's a little bit like that magic question

"What kinda stuff can we sell from our website in the future?"

Which I will posting about soon, BUT different because trade me is only for PRODUCTS and not SERVICES.

So you can sell a CD. Or a DVD. Or a T-Shirt. Or mugs. Lighters. Pens. Balloons.

Condoms.

Uh . . . you get the picture. There's quite a bit of stuff you can sell on trademe.

In fact that's the whole thing about this long tail thing I'll tell you about sometime. You have to sell something for everybody. DEFINITELY have one area that you specialize in. But DO NOT have one measley little thing that you sell.

Innovate. When you innovate, success can creep up on you so fast its scary!

LUCKY DIP!!!! 10 RANDOM SONGS ON A BURNT CD $6.73 NO RESERVE FREE DELIVERY WITHIN NZ!!!

What products can you create with the resources you have that can be uniquely branded?

Hmmmm But no services! . . . SO that means you cant sell like

A performance, offering to play somewhere

Rights to a song. Or offer to write a song

BUTTTTT guess what?

You can sell ticketssssss! That's right.

Got a gig on? Got a felt tip? (:p) Make some tickets and sell them on trademe!!!
Remember! It's not about making $20 selling a couple of tickets if youre lucky on trademe.

It's that YOUR GIG IS ON NEW ZEALANDS BIGGEST WEBSITE.

Remember how I said go where the people are? MMMM

So okay how much were you spending on promotion for this gig coming up? Hundy? 2 spot? You're doing radio??? You can get the front page of Trademe for what $40?? And like . . . 50,000 people are going to see it!!!

Could work out good if you timed it jjuuusssstt riiightttt

UHHHHH yeah.


Again. You can go on an on about your band and your CD, and all the other wonderful products you can purchase online!!! Good to have someone who can write well for that.

That's why radio and magazines and stuff are in bigggg trouble. When you put your money to work smart online by giving it to google or trademe you can potentially do so much better with your investment, even if its $20.

Radio works when it plays KFC ads at lunch time. Trust me, I'm in marketing. HAHA


Okay moving right along. I actually have been working on a song called "Positive Feedback" and that's what led me to right this blog.

I'm not even a real trademehead but even I – and I'm sure you identify with me – proudly maintain my feedback rating. It was only just now that I looked at my feedback and realised

"Great music, top guy!"

"Wicked sounds man!"

"Awesome beats!"


my feedback is now not just a pretty number but a totally compelling reason and impartial recommendation to purchase one or several of my fine products!

I can quote that stuff IN the listing, hell I can even put it on my CD Baby page, My myspace and let me just underline that point – that because of the pervasive use of Trademe in New Zealand telling people to buy your CD on Trademe is not a stretch because everyones got an account!!!

it's likely a lot of people would feel MORE comfortable buy on trademe than say Itunes!!!


So that's my blog about trademe!

I think the most important things to remember are

- everyone in New Zealand is there, so you should too

- use your ad to tell readers about stuff that makes you unique

- innovate with your product line!!! Don't just sell your CD album!! Get creative, look at your resources.

- You can sell tickets on trademe like it's a default gig guide! You can use paid advertising to create exposure that goes beyond the product on auction

(that's a big tip!!!! You owe me!!! HAHA)

- Lastly and most importantly:

You're selling stuff on trademe. YES it is smalltime. This is your opportunity to invest in creating something out of what you have got – Other New Zealanders on trademe who are interested in your music!!!

You've got their email!!! You're going to be sending them a physical delivery, you've got a chance to make that a significant interaction and begin building a quality fan base !!! DO IT!!!

BLOGGING FOR MUSICIANS IN 2008: Search, revenue and engaging the audience


from kurb artist and web 2.0 promotion blog
http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com
http://www.kurb.co.nz


A lot of my readers and clients are tuning into what I’ve been saying about blogging - except I know I can get a bit rabid at times at run away with myself so I thought it was important to do a solid post outlining some more basic concepts here for musicians to think about approaching their blogs:

- what blogging represents for musicians in 2008

- benefits of your blog as it develops: from google juice, to revenue, to engaging your audience

- what to post about and good blog karma

- what about blogging on myspace / facebook?

After this weekend I have no doubt musicians can make money blogging! But that is just ONE part of the opportunities blogging represents for artists.

So as I’ve described, in the last 3 years Myspace normalized a lot of behaviour, especially amongst younger people, that was previously perhaps considered geeky or isolated to techies such as actively socializing, bookmarking, blogging and discovering music online.

But users are leaving myspace and they’ve matured in their social behaviour online. Artists are also maturing with their promotion, looking to engage audiences, build relationships and create value in new ways, and this is why the return in popularity of blogging over the last 6 months or so has resonated with artists. Lets go over the reasons:

Blogging for musicians in 2008 represents:

First it represents independence from myspace, facebook etc. in creating your own platform in which to present content, be found and interact with fans, and control the way revenue is created from those interactions.

These other points I think will have value if I make them chronologically in order of development.:

STAGE 1: SEARCH ACCESS AND GOOGLE GOODNESS (SEO)

When I first set up a blog for an artist I am aware only a handful of people will read it in the first few months but you just gotta get in there and get those 50 first posts out. 300 words. You’re creating text content that represents accumulative search authority.

Most fortunately, I have managed to maintain my wordpress blog’s page rank at a respectable 4 out of a possible 10. And the value of having a page that is highly ranked for authority – I PASS ON that authority to every site I link to through my blog. That’s why I regularly link back to my site and to my clients sites, to pass on the google goodies I’ve earned.

If you use the term “downbeat/chill out artist from Auckland New Zealand” A LOT in your blog . . . then your blog is going start ranking for those searches.

That’s why you find a lot of blogs like mine full of dumb SEO sentences like:

”If you’re interested in cd or dvd duplication and printing in Auckland New Zealand you should see budget cd and dvd duplication specialists kurb promotions in Auckland New Zealand for all your cd and dvd duplication and printing needs in Auckland, New Zealand.”

Google really likes blogs, (they own one of the biggest blogging platforms, blogger, where I’ve been making my $US1 a day or so with adsense.) because:

1: they’re tidy and organised as a platform which is part of bigger network of platforms. No dead links and the navigation of links is already set up to accommodate users as well as Googles “search spiders” which run around on your blog trying to work out if you’re any good.

2: They’re updated regularly. Google definitely ranks older more established sites higher BUT also likes fresh content - not crusty old sites that haven’t been updated with new information, so making a weekly posting on your blog is a bare minimum.

3: All those words. Googles spiders read they don’t see. The only thing theyre interested in is the text on your site. Though video and audio present other exciting new opportunities online, when it comes to google and search optimization its about words!!!!

STAGE 2: GROWTH AND REVENUE:

After around your first 6 months or 50 posts, Google and the rest of the internet is going to start taking you a bit more seriously and it will be time for you to start taking your blog a little more seriously.

I’ve done 88 posts in almost 8 months.

You’ll be moving to the point where I’m at, where having 100 or more visitors to my Wordpress blog in a day isn’t surprising and I’m actually earning a few dollars a week from my Blogger blog through the easy instalment of Google’s adsense program.

By this stage you’ll recognise the need to be active constantly on your blog posting every few days to keep the momentum building. But just like anything that grows you’ll face new problems.

Recently I’ve had to accept my blog is getting too big for simply copying and pasting articles to my blog. Google loves content but can be very dubious about “duplicate content” so although other bloggers love it when you link back to them, when you copy and paste a whole article without any commentary or point of difference at all, it can make some bloggers a little disgruntled.

That means posting lame spider friendly SEO articles is probably out to, because your readers are not going to get value and thats the most important thing.

STAGE 3: RELATIONSHIPS AND ENGAGING YOUR AUDIENCEA lot of people say the best reason to start a blog is simply for visibitlity and networking but the final point of value to be found in blogging usually comes a couple of years in - building that relationship with your fans that they have access to you and you remain continuously visible to them, maintaining your engagement.



I firmly believe a well kept blog should prevent you from ever having to spend hours a day corresponding by email to your fans, which I don’t think serious artists have time for, unfortunately. The commitment to bloggin creates the compelling depth you need to develop your true fanbase, especially as you develop what they call your “voice”. The character of your writing in your blogs.

Your blog allows you to keep your fans engaged without having to actively maintain relationships, and as you go further down the path of ad supported and fan supported revenue ideas . . . when you have the attention of a trusting and loyal audience (an audience that you probably engaged when you offered them a free mp3 they enjoyed or they “stole”) making money in the 21st century is not going to be a great leap, trust me.

Again, look at the way I use my blog for a few cues. My blog is active and out there, and a major part of my marketing as well as communication and branding strategy. The message there is inviting - come to my blog, get this free, valuable information, learn about the work I do, BUT the emphasis is always lurking there on the desired outcome: come to my site where you can think more seriously about giving me your money.

MUAHAHAHAHA

Am I running round the street screaming “I’ll make you famous on mysapce and youtube for $50 a week!!!!”

Should you be running around screaming “Buy! Buy! Buy my album!!! It’s NEW!!!! Buy it! You have to! I don’t care who you are, I’m a musician and this is my new album and it’s new!!! Buy it!!!”

that’s not going to work is it? Slowly building a relationship and maintaining a relationship with fans is how you’re going to eventually quit your day job.

SO WHAT DO I BLOG ABOUT? BLOGGING KARMA . . .

Here’s the point of difference between me and you. I blog about a very specific and topical developments in a popular industry niche.

You blog about your music, your self and the things that are important to you that represent your music, and I can see theres a challenge there in keeping the content coming.

But if you’re not obsessed about creating art through your music or other mediums you may as well not be here. If you are obsessed, share it!!!

I’ve never been able to release my own solo project album of recordings because I was so deeply obsessive about it! How many songs? Which songs? A mixture of songs or just the upbeat ones or just the downbeat ones? What about the album art? WHat about the name???

Share your obsessions!!! Share that passion for what youre doing – let peole know! whatever problems you’re facing, other musicians and artists are facing them too, and as an artist, talking about problems and solutions and reflecting on them for the benefit of others is ultimately what youre about!

Got other interests, political or religious views that are part of who you are as an artist? Interested in other artistic or technical endeavours? Don’t take the safe, palid, non offensive route! Fans are engaged by artists who are not afraid to speak their minds and become three dimensional characters, with personal brands that represent clearly defined ideals.

Now building Blog karma is a great way to start out if youre stuck for posts. Don’t feel interesting? then blog about something related that is!
Remember you want to blog about things relevant to your artistic image to build the keyword and search optimisation of your content. If you’re a rock band from Melbourne . . . blog about other rock bands from Melbourne!!! Eventually theyre going to find out you blogged about them and they’ll feel special, strengthening your network.

Look it happened to me just yesterday

http://www.nerdy-frames.org/2008/04/dj-romantech.html

Your fans and readers will get increased value out of finding out about new underground artists and you could become an authoritive source! Sure, you want to get in the media, but whats better than being in the media? BEING the media!!!!

Next year, I want to be working with artist who have built loyal readership fanbases on their blog and are able to partner with high quality product and service providers that equate to killer affiliate earning opportunities!!!

WHAT ABOUT BLOGGING ON MYSPACE AND FACEBOOK????

Well lets just get facebook and reverbnation and squidoo a couple of other important sites out of the way because web 2.0 means its relatively easy just to hook your RSS feed from your wordpress or blogger blog up to display on your facebook or reverbnation whenever you post.

For my clients I will be developing more concise content management techniques based on RSS feeds – as it is I will be cutting and pasting this to 8 different blogs/myspaces and that’ll take me half an hour alone, not to mention the forums.

But this is a good question asked by a couple of my clients to highlight some elements of what blogging is all about.

From a search perspective, it does add value to search engine optimization but not that much. You should already have quality links back to your site from your myspace profile page giving you “google juice” or search authority from myspace, and having such links from other authoritive sites such as top blog sites (wordpress, blogger) increases that authority.

My experience with wordpress though sometimes frustrating to use because they don’t make it easy for you to just throw in videos, ad platforms etc. like the Google owned Blogger, is that wordpress has created a lot of authority and random traffic for me, and that is why I recommend it. I get more traffic to my blog than to my site these days.

While you can publish your pieces on a myspace blog, the features are a lot more limited. Most popular blogging platforms offer built in navigation that also improves search authority by immediately linking all the content in the blog. The myspace blog is really just a satellite attached to your profile

And it will be a very cold day in hell before myspace writes any checks for an artists share of the advertising revenue they create from the artists content on myspace.

HOWEVER – it is not yet determined how much traffic myspace blogs bring in from within myspace through searches etc.

BUT in terms of building relationship and engaing your audience ALONE, you should be getting into the habit of addressing your fanbase regularly.

You’re not one of those artist who just users a friend adder and a plays increaser to look good are you? Or are you actually interested in building relationships with your fanbase?

To me the most important reason to just do a simple cut and paste to your myspace blog AND your myspace bulletin, is that you’re still using myspace to create the opportunity to have someone on your friends list come closer to being a true fan by moving the interaction forward.

You don’t just become another band on somebodies friends list, another 2-dimensional somebody just using the internet to get their 15 minutes.

OKAY LETS FINISH UP!!!

MUSICIANS BLOGGING CHECKLIST

Tags – don’t forget your tags! Both internal search and google loves them so using keyword “tags” on blogging platforms such as wordpress and blogger is fundamental to getting that initial traffic going.

Links – Link back to your site, your myspace, any other blog that talks about you, anything thats interesting or relevant to your readers! - the link button in the writing panel makes it easy, but I also suggest creating a signature which you cut and paste into every blog like I have below - which could be your “link family” linking back to your site, your cd baby, your youtube, myspace etc.

Search and Comment on other blogs – comment on other relevant blogs – make sure you contribute something to the discussion, just DON’T forget to fill in your website

Post Titles - use title that engage users and searchers. if I called this post “about blogging and stuff” do you think that will target my desired audience or pull in curious traffic?

http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com
http://kurb.co.nz
http://kurbartistmanagement.info
http://cd-dvd-duplication.co.nz
http://aucklandpostering.info


Kurb is a media promotions company providing a regular blog on digital music promotion, marketing digital content and creating revenue from new media online.

Kurb also provides online promotion and revenue management services for musicians and artists internationally CD / DVD printing and duplication and poster services.Our physical media services come with free graphic set up and support, free delivery, and free promotions advice and support for musicians.

NZ MUSIC MONTH SPECIAL FOR NZers - 3 MONTHS BARE BASICS DIGITAL SERVICES NZ$400

Missed this one from a couple weeks back

THE GEEKS WILL INHERIT THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

more promo/industry articles at http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com


Did you get the message from 2009?

Leave your labels now. The geeks are coming and they will eat everyone who works at your label except maybe the young guy who updates the myspace street team pages who will live among them and learn of their ways in the new music industry.



As we speak, geeks are monetizing content in the night. Soon their geek armies will be ready to monetize you, monetize your face, monetize your music, monetize your website, your blog, your dog and your mother.



It’s going full on now.



I still call myself a musician yknow. But deep inside me, something has changed. Web 2.0 has changed me. In my heart I have turned geek.



And while I’ve been yipping on my blog about musicians using social media, and search optimisation and websites and software that will automate and tricks that are sneakier than your pants . . . the lord of all geeks, their god if you will, he who is known as Steve Jobs, boss of Apple has decided that things are going to change.

He is going to be the boss of music from now.

Steve says to the majors - that y’know, seeing as I’m making all the money with my little ipod thingee’s how about you like, give me all the music to put on my ipods and I’ll give you like . . . $20?



Of course the majors are fucked so they’ll take anything to eat. But then whats $20 split between 4 labels and most of the acts in the history of pop music and what does it leave for you if you’re signed? Not much even when you times it by the amount of ipods sold.

This way, if you’re not with a major, your music isn’t given away free with an ipod, so you’re at a major disadvantage because people can already listen to bands they know for free, and find way more bands for free, but your band wont be one of them.



But even when you do get on the ipods you’ll only be getting your percentage of fuck all. It will be so little its not funny.

Because I’m sure they’ll make it so anyone can get on the ipod if they want to. I mean then . . . why do you even need a label if everyone just buys an ipod and gets all the music free? If this happens, I believe the big major labels will just wither.

And then the musicians will be alone. Just the music and big Steve.



But you don’t have to be scared of big Steve, even when there’s so many bands to feed and so much music and only $20 to share.

Because I told you.

As we speak, geeks are monetizing content in the night.

. Soon their geek armies will be ready to monetize you, monetize your face, monetize your music, monetize your website, your blog, your dog and your mother.

I am among their ranks. By night I train, I learn of the black hat and the white.

We don’t make money out of selling things! Don’t be silly.

Artists create attention. We turn attention into money.

We are geeks. We do things differently. The way of the geek is not to work!

It is to design and run a computer program to do it.

It is to pay some guy in India or China to do it.

Or even pay some guy in India or China to design and run a computer program to do it.



Sing your song. Play your tune. Leave the rest to the geeks.

READY YOURSELVES OH YE PLAYERS AND SINGERS OF SONGS!

THE GEEK MAN COMETH

FLEE YOUR LABEL OR PERRRISHHHHH!!!!!

April Update: music / band / artist promotion news and bits



Hey all been so busy recently just a quick round up of some of the most interesting commentary on the digital promotion and digital music front





Awesome new blog series warming up from our very own kiwi online music guru, Andrew Dubber at http://www.newmusicstrategies.com



Answers to 100 questions he gets asked about music and the internet regularly . . . looks like it’s gonna get good, so check it out.



BOB BAKER ON THE JAY-Z / LIVE NATION 150M deal:

Ask yourself these questions …

* Where is there an intersection between my style of music, my fans, and the supporters of a business or organization?
* In what way could I use my music to help a company connect more with its customers?
* And how might they help me in return?

It’s an amazing era. So ask the right questions … and you might get some amazing answers!





BOB LEFSETZ ON THE MYSPACE MUSIC DEAL:

If this had happened even one year ago, it would be considered a big deal. But at this point, with iMeem streaming music, with music available free, with major labels having less power than ever before, it merits little more than a shrug.

Now Mark Zuckerberg [Facebook] may have been revealed to be a barely pubescent money-hungry twerp who doesn’t really care about his users . . .



For those who haven’t heard, Myspace Music will be relaunched in a few months all kitted out to make money selling stuff – downloads etc,and through ads etc. the point is that all the majors are on board and common dissent suggests, everything that once was great about myspace being a place where little guys still had an opportunity will be compromised as fox network, Myspace’s parent company, plays to the majors desire to head off Apple Itunes domination of the download market and online revenue.





I think what we’ve got to be ready for is that the computer industry could swallow the music industry whole at any point, and that’s what I’m preparing for!

Things could totally change very quickly if Apple or other Tech companies decide they want to play hard ball with the music industry. Vodafone is now selling more singles in New Zealand than anybody else and bloggers around the world are talking about it . . .





Which should be proof enough that changes are underway and yet the government agencies, established local labels, artist platforms such as amplifier and the artists themselves lag behind in their efforts to create a dynamic online environment for New Zealand music.





This obviously doesn’t concern me a GREAT deal because over 80% of my client based is overseas.





Here’s another exceprt. I’m sorry. I know I should be working harder to credit my sources!!!!







“Whenever writers try to explain the collapse of the music industry, they inevitably blame the labels themselves; they point out how wasteful and inefficient the corporate structure was at places like Elektra and Chrysalis, and how unfair it is to charge kids so many dollars for a disc that costs pennies to make, and that modern consumers have come to the realization that ‘music longs to be free.’ This may all be true, but I’m not sure it’s a viable explanation for things like huge layoffs at Def Jam. Lots of industries succeed despite being poorly modeled. What happened is this: Young people needed more money to pay for their rising levels of self-imposed debt, so they unconsciously gravitated toward the first technology that provided a cost-saving alternative. Because four-minute digital-song files are relatively small (and thus easily compressed), ripping tracks for free became the easiest way to eliminate an extraneous cost. It wasn’t political or countercultural, and it had almost nothing to do with music itself. It was fiscally practical. It was the first, best solution.

People didn’t stop buying albums because they were philosophically opposed to how the rock business operated, and they didn’t stop buying albums because the Internet is changing the relationship between capitalism and art. People stopped buying albums because they wanted the fucking money. It’s complicated, but it’s not.”





This is why at kurb im always on about alternative revenue. Things are going to get real sad for parts of the industry soon, all the money caught up in the sale of copies is just going to disappear.





A lot of businesses that don’t adapt will go bust and people are going to lose their jobs. I’m not sure whether or not many music industry bloggers know it, but they sure don’t mention it.





I make CD’s and DVD’s for a living. I know all about CD’s, I know I will still make CD’s for a few years yet, but there will be no success stories about bands that sell lots of songs. Downloads, CD’s or otherwise.

The success stories will be about the bands that found some other way to create value and get out there. And the musicians who eat will be the ones who found a hundred different ways and things to sell to make a dollar.





interesting feature at Portfolio.com

Future Pop by Jeff Yang

Mar 27 2008: CDs are dead, and Korean impresario Jin-Young Park knows it. American music labels could learn a thing or two from the model he’s built in South Korea.

Highlights
“In meetings with music labels here, they talk to me about releasing albums,” says Park. “They can’t accept that there’s no such thing anymore. Where I come from, CDs are nothing—they’re just souvenirs. I tell them, ‘Wake up!’”

“In South Korea, where Park is building a new kind of music-business model, 80 percent of households have a broadband connection; downloads via both PCs and cell phones make up an overwhelming share of the nation’s music market. Download revenue there has soared 422 percent since 2000, to $366 million, while CD sales have declined 83 percent over the same period to just $70 million in 2007….”

Read this and say YES:

“It’s the artist as brand: In Korea, consumers don’t buy music; they buy a product relationship that reaches across every media platform and entertainment genre…”

“Fans of the group can buy tickets for their live concerts at $110 a pop; purchase a growing array of their merchandise (the names and faces of top K-pop stars adorn everything from $5 phone cards to $500 cell phones and music players); download ringtones featuring their songs ($2); and even make bids on a charity auction for a dinner date with the girls on the popular social-networking site CyWorld (five fans paid between $3,800 and $6,000 for the privilege last year). And if all that’s not enough, fans can always tune in to the Wonder Girls’ reality TV series, now in its third season as one of MTV Korea’s top-rated programs…”



CHEEEERSS



Kurb is a New Zealand based media promotions company providing a regular blog on digital promotion, marketing digital content and creating revenue from new media online.

Kurb also provides online promotion and revenue management services for musicians and artists internationally.CD / DVD duplication and poster services. Our physical media services come with free graphic set up and support, free delivery, and free promotions advice and support for musicians.

And the best value fast turnover physical media services in New Zealand including

http://www.kurb.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/kurbpromo
http://www.youtube.com/user/kurbpromo -
http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com
http://kurbpromotion.blogspot.com
http://www.squidoo.com/kurb

then we get their SOULS!! MWAHAHAHAH

yeah - agree.
you have to use these online tools whether they are ere to stay or not. Its a bit like thinking ' no rock unturned'.

But its best not to keep all your eggs in one basket and share your info around.

The Blog, or the centralised place to launch from is the best idea, and syndicate from there.

I miss friendster

BLOGGING IS THE NEW MYSPACE: MARCH 08 ROUND UP ON WEB 2.1


Hi I’m Matt from kurb promotions

You might guess why I’m here. The arse is dropping out of Myspace fast and it’s time for us all to let go and move on.

Obviously I’ve been a bit of a myspace go to guy and I’ve still got all these articles on the web of me going on probably about how great myspace is for promotion and I need to update on that to keep my credibility in tact!!!

MYSPACE IS NO LONGER SINGULARILY IMPORTANT TO YOUR INTERNET PROMOTION.

it’s reached the untipping point.

To me myspace promotion is like street postering for a gig. Does it work? Depends on the act, the night, who knows, it’s cheap. You wanna risk NOT doing it?

But youre mad to think posters or myspace will make you a success.

It’s a bit like moving out of home.


There’ll be many other websites and internet fads but none like myspace was. And you’ll still have to come home for dinner once a month to check your messages and clean the spam off your comments. But you don’t need myspace any more, and Tom’s done all he could to prepare you for the world and help you become a grown up musician.


You’re on your own with so many choices.

What about facebook? It’s all so cliqqy. Bebo? Isn’t the crowd a bit young?

It’s a real bummer! It was so easy when everyone was in the same place! Now all the kids are on bebo and the grown ups and the cool kids are on facebook and basically BLOGS ARE BACK in a big way.
Now before we go on I must update you:

• The New York Post reported today Sony BMG and Warner Music Group are both near deals with MySpace for its new music site. One source said, “Everybody’s operating with a sense of urgency to try to close it out.” Major music companies are taking an equity stakes in MySpace Music and will share in the advertising revenue. Expect both ad-supported streams and paid downloads at the site. (New York Post)

Will this turn things around?

No I don’t think so. Myspace is just doing what Facebook just did, cashing in. And I think to the average muso it wont work, and to the general user it looks kind of ugly. Oh they’re monetizing, but does it feel right?

But what is happening right now is the massive energy from Myspace is now rapidly dispersing.

Where is it going?

Yes a lot of it has gone to Facebook and Bebo but artists following the punters soon realised these sites didn’t favour promotion the way myspace did, and even I’ve had a hard time and never really got the hang of using automation on them.


Following the fall out from myspace, internet marketing types have gone back to their roots. Search engines and blogging. I’ve gone to blogging. Artists are jumping on blogging and I think musicians and other heavy net users are basically launching off a social network environment into blogs pretty freely right now.


And marketers are just going apeshit over bookmarking. I’ve seen it, seen my site spike like 500 visitors out of nowhere. I don’t know how it happened but I know they came from stumbleupon. Don’t worry I’m fully tooled up to go into this and get ninja on it.

But internet promotion is adjusting to web 2.0. Internet people know that spam cannot live in an information efficient environment.

It’s back to the grindstone for the marketers in the big bad world of social media, and for the artists as well.

BUT myspace has transformed the users experience of the net. Myspace taught people to interact and find new music, and they are leaving myspace looking for that same experience. Connection. That’s where you need to put your music in the equation.



You just can’t rely on myspace any more to be the foundation of your internet promotion . You gotta be on Facebook and Bebo too. Will it work? I dunno – do you want to be unprepared? You gotta be on last.fm and garageband for ilike, reverbnation, Imeem, soundclick, and download, mp3.com, twitter of course – and the list goes on!


AND you got to update your blog and build it all on your own. But at least it’s YOUR blog.


Blogger.com has shot to number #11 most used website by New Zealanders – while myspace languishes at #23. You see what I mean?(Bebo + Facebook are battling it out at #7 and #8. Both numbers have stopped growing. LOOK OUT SOCIAL NETWORKING FATIGUE)

And you won’t be making the same mistake as with myspace. You want these peoples Email address. Or increasingly, you’ll want them to add your RSS feed.

You want them to do this willingly.

Sign them up. Sign them up on your site, on your blog, in one of the dozen or so social profiles you’ll have to maintain.

Because when you’ve got 1000 peope ready and willing to listen to what you have to say – not just some “friend” on some tacky website


That’s when we monetize. First we get their attention. Then we get their money.