The Musicians Middle Class Has Got to Go!!!

Mind you, I am only speaking about the terms "musicians middle class" or "musical middle class", I completely support the movement. I just feel that those terms, which have been adopted by bloggers and writers of all things music 2.0 (another term I would love to move past) are not empowering enough and they do not clearly define what I believe they are attempting to define.

I am not sure exactly who coined either term but back in '07 Bruce Houghton at Hypebot defined the musicians in this category as "artists selling 20-100,00 copies and making a living through direct sales, touring, merch and other streams; and because there are fewer outsiders taking a cut. They are empowered by the viral marketing and direct sales that the net enables."

Even though the artists Mr. Houghton described are aspiring to become sustainable and earn a "middle class" income with their music, this does not mean that they are part of a "musical" middle class and I doubt that any artist would refer to themself as a "middle class musician". Even if the terms are being used to describe the large space that falls between the garage band and the major-label artist and the artists that occupy that space, I will still argue that there has to be a better term(s). Besides, I am not a big fan of using the class system to describe any group, let alone a group that contains members from all walks of life.

When it comes down to it what we are really trying to define is the artist/musician as an entrepreneur. You can find many different wordings for the definition of entrepreneur but the one that I feel sums up the what I mean came from good ol' Wikipedia."Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to the type of personality who is willing to take upon herself or himself a new venture or enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome."

I propose that today we replace "Musical Middle Class" with the term "Entrepreneurial Musicians Movement". Sure, the term doesn't flow off the tongue very well but I think it is an accurate description of what is actually going on and increasingly more powerful than "middle class". I, for one, am switching gears and I will no longer use the term "middle class" when referring to the Entrepreneurial Musicians Movement and I will be replacing the term "do-it-yourself" or "DIY" musician with "Entrepreneurial Musician" . I beg of you to do the same.

Not happy with these terms? Please make a case for something you like better. I am not married to the terms that I proposed here, I just want to make a change.

Thank You For Reading My Blog. Where's Yours?

I'm going to continue to beat this social online networking horse, so if you haven't suited up to be a knowledgeable jockey yet then it's time... Seriously! You can stop reading my blog (there probably aren't too many of you out there at this stage), but it won't make the digital revolution go away.

Think about where you get your news from. I guarantee you that my mother, the "I sit on the patio drinking coffee at 5:30 in the morning and read the tree-killing newspaper", isn't reading this. The digital wave is beyond her. I do give her respect for the fact that she is trying to learn to navigate through facebook in order to keep up with my nephew who is spending the first few years of his life in Puerto Rico. Every time I'm home I have to walk her through something on the computer. I actually love it. It helps me practice my patience and makes me feel useful.

I was at a BBQ in this little place called Frog Town (it's nestled right around Silver Lake and Echo Park) apparently. I suddenly realized that I needed to write my blog that was to post the next day and gasped, which got everyone's attention. One of the girls there replied very snottily with, "Oh my gah. Blogs are so stupid". I attempted to stand up for myself and explained that it's a part of my job to put my knowledge in blog form every week. It didn't help. I had already been deemed uncool.

I want all of you artists out there to throw caution to the wind and not care about what a hipster thinks about you blogging. In fact, if you happen to be a hipster, get over yourself and open up your mind. Take a look at these little nuggets of information I managed to find from research done by Mediapost.com back in November 2008.

*87% of 18-29 year-olds believe bloggers have become opinion shapers

*68% use blogs to keep up on issues or topics of interest

*46% use blogs to conduct research

Those numbers are from almost a year ago, so imagine where they are at now.

Going even further, a study done by the Harvard Business School determined that if your album is blogged about by 250 bloggers then your sales go up two fold. If 400 bloggers talk about your album the sales go up five fold. It can be done by any blogger too. From the one in New York at a prestigious company with a corner office to a kid in Kansas with a twin bed.

So... are you blogging yet?

Cheers!
Creed

Keeping in Touch with New and Potential Clients

I have already talked about how important it is to follow up with your referrals (i.e. clients) in a timely manner. But just because you follow up with them quickly, does not mean they will end up working with ArtiSans. Working with ArtiSans will not be an impulse purchase for a band. Sometimes the band isn't at a point where they are ready for the services ArtiSans offers. These referrals are STILL valuable and it is VERY important to keep in touch with them. Then, when they are ready to move forward with their plans to record, you have built a relationship with them, and ArtiSans has remained fresh in their minds.

Be Personal with Communication: Sometimes people get too wrapped up in the business aspect of things. Show that you, and ArtiSans, are human! Communicate with them on a personal level. Business professionals who make the effort to establish a more personal relationship with their potential clients, attract more notice and interest than they would in a cut and dry business relationship.

Don't be Afraid of the Phone: I am guilty of this point...I have gotten used to the alternate ways of communicating. I prefer email actually, and would rather send a quick text than talk on the phone. But the phone allows you to engage the other person in a conversation. It forces you to pay attention and fully concentrate on your conversation. And, it cuts down any possible confusion that might occur from an email (I have learned that sarcasm isn't conveyed in an email very well).

Picking up the phone and speaking with someone personally is very important. It shows you are genuinely interested in building a relationship and a dialogue. It may seem awkward at first, but it gets easier with each call you make, and each time you speak with the person. If you don't want to get stumped - write down a few conversation topics to keep the conversation going.

Maintain a professional but friendly image: Don't get too wrapped up in the business end of your call. Be personable, be friendly, get to know a little bit about the person outside of the business realm. Find out what is important to them and what is going on in their lives. Take notes! Then the next time you call them you can follow up on the conversation and get an update on things you have discussed in earlier conversations.

Remain Upbeat and Positive: One negative comment can take over the entire tone of the conversation. Use the skills you would use in an interview...no trash talking people, gossiping, talking negatively about things. You want them to associate only positive things with ArtiSans. Also, no one wants to talk to a "Debbie Downer"!

Invite people to subscribe to our newsletter: I don't think anyone at ArtiSans uses this tool enough! ArtiSans newsletter is a way for us to keep people informed about what is going on at ArtiSans, and brings more people into ArtiSans' Circle of Influence. Plus, the newsletter will discuss specials and promotions going on at ArtiSans Label and Studio. To sign up for the newsletter, all people have to do sign up via the link on the main page of the ArtiSans Label website.

Go see the Band's Shows: Did you refer a band? Are you keeping in touch with them to try to get them to sign with ArtiSans? Then go see their shows! This is the easiest way to keep in touch with your Referral. Showing up at their gigs shows your interest and commitment to the band, and that you want to support and help them. It is essential in building a trusting relationship with them.

Earning the confidence and trust of one potential client will almost always lead to recommendations in the future. People want to work with, and buy from, people they know, like and trust. Building strong client relationships is the basis for many types of businesses. Keeping in touch with the clients and potential clients will increase the potential that that client will work with ArtiSans. And for the RADAR advocates, more clients for ArtiSans = more rewards for the advocate!

Studio Etiquette For the Artist

Hello kids. Today we are going to discuss studio etiquette for the artist. There are certain things you don't want to do in the studio for several reasons. Most importantly, it's not a good idea to annoy and/or distract the person in charge of your projects sonic quality. And almost as important, these things are just plain rude and if you decide to make too many of the wrong people upset with you you're going to eventually find it difficult to find people work with you. So here they are...

Talking and Cellphones
Here's a simple rule that's always good to live by. If you're in the studio (especially in a session where tracking is happening), then at the least put your cellphone to silent. This will help you avoid the two biggest no-no's: 1) Having your cellphone go off in the middle of a take. This will annoy everyone involved in the project (including yourself) and, worse, will cost your more money when you have to re-cut that take. 2) Your cellphone ringing in the control room while the engineer is tracking (or mixing, or editing, or whatever). The only thing worse than that is answering it. Do not do this to say anything more than, "Hey. Sorry I'm recording, I'll have to call you back." ("What? Gramma's dead?!" is also acceptable.)

What goes in line with number two is talking in the back of the control room while everyone else is working. If you want to have a conversation with a band member, or whomever happens to be there, then go outside to do so.

Basic message: Do not be a distraction. It costs you money and respect.

Food and Drinks in the studio
Always ask if it's allowed. Don't ever assume you can just walk in to the control or tracking room with any food or beverage. If it is allowed then make sure to keep it away from any and all equipment. Setting a cup of coffee on the mixing console is never a good idea, even if the engineer does it. If you happen to spill something, find something to clean it up with and do so. I have yet to record any royalty; we can all cleanup after ourselves.

Visitors
Again, always ask if and how many are allowed. Some studios don't care, and some don't like the distraction (especially mastering sessions). If you are going to have some arrive, then always try to plan on them arriving at the beginning or during a scheduled break. There's nothing worse than the unscheduled visitor showing up while you're trying to nail something that's just so close to working. They just become a distraction, and will cost you more money in the end.

Being Late
Watch your scheduled time and do not be late. A lot of studios start the clock when you are scheduled with or with out you. The only thing that stops that is you calling ahead. Even then, pay close attention to their cancellation or late policy.

Look for studios who have complimentary load-in times (like us...30 mins to be exact). If your session starts at 11 AM and they have a complimentary 30 minute load in time prior to session start, get there at 10:30 and get loaded in. If you do this every session, then you're bound to save some cash on your total for recording costs.

For those who have been following along, what's the common theme? It's the simple fact that sticking to studio etiquette guidelines will save you money in almost every situation. When you don't distract, then things get done faster. When you're not late, then you don't waste studio time. And when you don't spill coffee on a $50,000 to $90,000 console, you don't have to spend the rest of your life paying it off. Remember these things (as well as all the advice I've given over the months), and you're recording experienced is set up to be a pleasant one.

Sites That Can Help With Band Business

Lately, I have become obsessed with websites that cater to the business of being in a band. I love hearing about new ones and I love diving in and seeing how they work. Here is my current list of favorites in no particular order.

Reverbnation: Reverbnation is a phenomenal tool for the band that is interested in getting a little more organized.The site is packed with tons of great widgets that help the artist to spread their music and images all over the web and others that help artists collect emails or display their upcoming shows. They have a utility that lets you send out mass emails where Reverbnation will handle any opt-out situations (not that anyone will want to stop getting your emails but just in case). They have a gig finder tool that will help you find venues based off of location and even who has played there before. They even have some pretty good metrics tools that let an artist gauge the success of their efforts. One of my favorite parts of Reverbnation is that they are constantly adding new services and they recently partnered with Microsoft for a song sponsorship program where artists can get paid for people downloading their songs for free. Oh, did I mention that most of their services are free?

ArtistData: I first found ArtistData a few months ago and I was blown away. If you are tired of updating every social networking site out there each time you have a show, this is the site for you. ArtistData allows you to publish content on multiple sites at once from a single location. Update your calendar and status at Myspace and Facebook from a single log-in. Plus you can generate newsletters and tour books as well as post your shows to numerous concert databases. This is a website that can seriously help you cut down on the amount of time you spend away from making music. Oh, did I mention it's free?

Band Metrics: This site monitors and analyzes an artists digital identity. How many hits your social networking sites are getting, how many friends you have, how many time your video has been viewed. Now you can see how many hit your Myspace page received after you did that radio interview or played a big show. On the surface metrics might seem a bit boring but with a little creativity you can use this data to help increase your fan base and keep track of which of your efforts are paying off the most. This site is still in beta and it is only occasionally letting in new accounts so go sign up for the updates so you can be the first on your block to have an account. Oh, did I mention its free?

Bandize: This is an incredible site for band management. This site has great business features that are tailored to the business of being a band. It has a digital ledger that allows you to not only keep track of band money and expenses but you can easily keep track of what expenses came out of who's pocket. You can easily log merchandise sales, keeping track not only of the cash but of your inventory. A band can delegate and keep track of tasks. Keep a contact list online that every band member can have access to. Keep note on each contact. I only recently found out about this site and I was pleasantly blown away by it. This is the only site that I am mentioning that has a monthly fee ($15 per month with unlimited log-ins per band) but if you are serious about organizing your band, this might be well worth-it.

What are you using to manage your band? Drop it in the comments section and I will check it out.

What Genre Are You?

JC sits in my general vicinity at the studio and runs his mouth a lot, so I get to hear most of the stuff that he says... even when my headphones are on and Coldplay is blaring. However, I must give him credit in that he triggered the idea for this blog.

A few days ago he was submitting metadata on Gracenote for a band's CD and was going through all of the different genres to choose from. Below is a very short list of the absolute best ones that he found:

Shoe Gazer, Dream Pop, Outsider Music, Post-Modern Electronic Pop, Jangle Pop, Paisley Underground, Folktronica, Turntablism, Queer Core, Mercy Beat, New Wave Quirk, Diva Style, Space-Age Bachelor Pad and Quiet Storm

A music genre is defined on the Art & Popular Culture website as "a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or 'basic musical language'". That's great, but it also goes further than that. It can be categorized by techniques, styles, context and non-musical things such as geographical origin.

Personally, I have a hard enough time just explaining what bands CONJOB sounds like. I don't need a bunch of other ridiculous categories to try and shove us into. Too many choices isn't usually a good thing as it often induces an anxiety attack, which provokes anger. It's gone from just being "Rock", "Reggae" and "Hip Hop" to "Midland China Rock", "Jawaiian" and"Mad Chester"!

My thought is that it is nearly impossible to classify all music in a consistent way, which is why all of the subgenres have popped up. I say be done with it. Don't define your genre. As the soulful Joss Stone says, "When I'm listening to the music I'm creating, it's not really in any genre, 'cause it hasn't been created yet. When it is (written), we just put it down and it's there and it's like, yeah, it's soulful and it's felt. Some may call it R&B. Some may call it blues. I don't really give it a name; this is just me singing, just me feeling it out."

Feel this out!

Cheers!
Creed

RADAR Quarterly Meeting - Program Update

Last Sunday we had the 2nd quarterly meeting for RADAR, and it was a great success. In attendance were our current RADAR Advocates, as well as many potential advocates and other special guests of ArtiSans Label and Studio.

We had a nice mixer and got to get to know our current advocates and some of the new advocates that have registered since the meeting. It was exciting to have the current advocates, potential advocates, current clients, and potential clients and vendors meet, and to put faces to the names of the people we deal with daily.

I did a short presentation on ArtiSans and the RADAR program. The presentation covered a little bit about ArtiSans Label, and why it makes sense and stands out from the more 'traditional' labels. The bulk of the presentation came from most of the blogs I have written for ArtiSans, and my goal was to help the advocates achieve success in the RADAR program. My presentation covered the RADAR website navigation; The RADAR program details, benefits and rules and conditions; Where to look to find musical artists; Gow to approach artists, what to talk to them about, and what information you should give and get from them.

We fielded a lot of questions from the advocates. It was brought to my attention that some advocates hesitate to submit referrals when they meet a band, because they want to follow up with them, and get the conversation about ArtiSans going a little more. Then they end up delaying their contact with the band, and end up never submitting the referral. The solution - SUBMIT THE REFERRAL IMMEDIATELY, then we will take care of the rest. There were also questions about the 'type' of musical groups we work with, if we only work with specific music genres. ArtiSans Label offers services to any artist of any genre, at any career stage. We want to help and educate artists so that they can be successful, and concentrate on the most important thing - their music. These are very good questions, and we are glad that we can have an open forum where these questions are asked, and where other people can learn the answers and solutions.

We also launched a new promotion for the RADAR Advocates. This promotion will be posted to the main page of the RADAR dashboard, so that the advocates are reminded of what they can win every time that they sign in.

We have set the next RADAR quarterly meeting for Sunday, November 8. We hope to achieve some serious goals by the next meeting. The first goal is to get the RADAR website overhauled so that it is completely functional, and so that it is helpful to the advocates, leading to more referrals and rewards. The second goal is to build my relationship with our current advocates. By doing this, I'll be more in tune with the advocates and their needs. I'll also know what changes I need to initiate to help them stay motivated and to make the communication process easier. (So look out for more calls from me, my RADAR advocates!) The third goal is to find more advocates who are a good representation of ArtiSans and want to help spread the word about how ArtiSans can help bands.

I have gotten some of the FAQ and How-to-Strategy information up on the RADAR site, and will be adding additional information in the next few weeks. I had a great time meeting everyone who came out last Sunday, and look forward to working with you within RADAR.