Got videos of your band? Want to make a little passive cash. Slap some ads on that hoss. Here’s how.
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I was at a digital music event earlier this year, and was shocked to find out how many people had not heard how easy it is to monetize your YouTube channel through Ads. YouTube will pay you for doing what you already do! Take your money!
Here’s how it works…..
YouTube offers revenue sharing for their ‘Partners’ through advertising that they show on your videos and pages. You are eligible (in fact, they want artists!) to become a partner by filling out the Partner Application.
Please note that you cannot become a Partner if you cover songs on your channel! You need the global rights to all video, images, and audio used on your channel. Just don’t use anyone else copyrighted content and you will be good!
The main benefits of being a YouTube partner:
Gain advertising revenue
Advanced channel branding and design (Customize Top Banner and Side Box - See Example)
Access to YouTube’s Content ID, which lets you track, monetize, or block any uploaded videos using your songs
Plug and play people. Sign up, jack all your other feeds, sites and social data into this and you’ve got yourself a website. For the truly lazy amongst us all.
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Onesheet aims to solve that quandary by providing musicians with a way to tie together all of their online outlets in one place: from music to videos to concert dates to online stores to social sites, etc.
The service was founded by Brenden Mulligan, who has been involved in the music industry for five years, doing everything from working at a major label to living on a bus as a band’s road manager. Mulligan is also the founder of ArtistData, which allowed bands to distribute info across all of their web presences at once (that service was acquired by Sonicbids).
“I think a band having their own branded web presence outside of social networks is incredibly important,” Mulligan says. “Bands are told they need their own website, but setting one up and keeping it maintained is sometimes too much effort. So they either need people to help them, or their website becomes stagnant quickly.”
Tour diaries: They are the satisfying sustenance required by every hardcore music fan to feed a band addiction. A glimpse into the backstage, on-tour-bus life of one’s favorite band. Now, thanks to the marvels of modern technology, it’s easier than ever to create a highly visual tour diary to sate the appetite of your friends and followers. One word, my musically inclined friends: Instagram.
Instagram, that increasingly popular photo app that launched near the end of 2010, has become the darling of many a news outlet and brand, but has yet to really catch on among the musician set.
Still, according to Josh Riedel, head of business development at Instagram, more and more bands are getting hip to the site. The most popular is undoubtedly The National (@ntnl). Riedel, for one, hopes to see more bands joining the platform.
“We see bands on stage, but most people don’t get to go backstage,” he says. “Through photos, you can let fans in on what happens when you’re not performing, which I think helps fans develop more of a personal connection with the band.”
Out of ideas on how to juice your bands profile in the greater world wide web? This might be a place to start.
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Author David Meerman Scott made a honest and realistic quote, “if you want 20,000 fans you must do 2000 different things that each generate 10 fans.” This wasmy favorite quote from 2010 and I am going to take this on as a challenge for 2011 for an ambitious project to give you 2000 different things you can do to generate 20,000 fans.
Some of these items will apply better for larger acts, some items will work for any act. Some may work for you, some may not… not yet. Some these can be done with little effort, some will take some web development, some might even require some significant development. Some of these have successfully worked for me over the years. The point is to create a list of items that would cover a wide range of acts and abilities.
Whether you’re an established band or one trying to make your way to the top, remember these tips for every show you play. Even pros can make rookie mistakes sometimes.
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Never-ending Sets
Just like playing in smaller venues, playing shorter sets is a good thing. It piques people’s interest in your music and leaves them wanting more. Playing a lengthy set does the exact opposite. It doesn’t matter if you took an extra ten minutes to set up, or if your friends came out to see you.
The Loudness Wars
If there’s one thing that all inexperienced bands have in common, it’s their desire to play loud. Really loud. They pay zero attention to the size of the room, turn the amps up to 10, and worst of all, drown each other out. It’s a common mistake to have the instruments overpowering the vocals at this kind of show.
Stage Presence
Professionals are always be mindful of their space. No matter the size of the stage, a veteran band avoids unanticipated collisions and the bad notes they cause. The next time you attend a high energy punk show, take a look at how the musicians careen around the stage without crashing into each other.
Playing Too Often
There is nothing a promoter hates more than booking a band, then finding out the same act is already playing at the venue down the street one week earlier. Behavior like this will quickly earn you a bad reputation among promoters. It will also wear out your fan-base.
Managing your band’s expenses may eventually become an annoying chore, if it hasn’t already. Don’t let it get in the way of you reaching your full potential. Check out Skyclerk and breathe easy knowing there’s a better way of keeping track of all that merch money. Who knew accounting could be so simple?
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Accounting for bands can be tough. One persons is at home taking care of expenses, while the group is out on the road getting receipts and racking up money and debt. Skyclerk is a great web based accounting tool. With plans that include both Free and $9 a month you are able to keep track of your accounting from anywhere in a clean and easy to use interface.
Maybe it’s worth your time to work on telling the story of your band than trying to sling your songs. Perhaps?
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In 2009, Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn tried out a little experiment. They spent $128.74 on a bunch of yard sale junk and hired professional writers to draw up interesting stories about each item. Then they put everything up on eBay with the stories that they created to see what happened.
They spent $128.74 on junk and turned that into…$3,612.51!
How does that work?
Sounds like a good question that’s worth exploring, doesn’t it? You might find some insight from the story of a flannel ball that they sold. A pretty worthless object, right? Not much practical value there. Accordingly, they originally paid $1.50 for it. You might be surprised to know that they ended up selling the ball of flannel for $51!
How? Well it all started by imagining it as something with a story. Something beyond just the utility value. Check out the first paragraph of the story that was written for it by Luc Sante:
After my friend Claude had his accident I went to visit him in the hospital. When I saw him I had to cough to divert a laugh. He looked like a guy in a cartoon, his entire body wrapped in bandages. He had broken everything that could be broken, from his skull to his toes. Somehow he was conscious and could speak, although to hear him I had to put my ear right up to his mouth-hole. I thought he said “door,” so I shut it, but he was still agitated. Eventually I got it: “drawer.” The one in his bedside stand contained a single object, a ball of wrapped flannel that looked like his head, only more colorful. I went to pick it up with my fingertips, but then had to readjust. Astonishingly, the thing weighed at least five pounds. I gaped at it, but Claude was making noises. I finally understood: “Don’t unwrap it.”
Doing your own PR/Publicity for your band. There are a few things you should know to get cookin’. Nice interview over at MC with a seasoned pro. A little tidbit is below, then jump over for more. If you can’t tour right now, do some PR.
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When you’re an artist, there are a lot of pitfalls involved with doing your own press or even hiring someone you don’t know directly. What else should people be aware of when doing their own press or hiring a publicist for the first time?
AM:
I think the best thing is to know what your goals are, and what you want out of it, other than getting into Rolling Stone. You have to be realistic and aware that people at magazines and websites and any outlet are very limited with the space they have. They’re being pitched by tons of publicists every day on multiple projects. You really have to be on the same page as your publicist about what you want to get out of it. You want to hire someone that specializes in what you do and that has the time to really focus. I think a big mistake a lot of publicists make is taking on too many things. Choosing your publicist wisely as an artist is knowing who you’re hiring, the kind of time they have for you/that they will make you a priority and that you will both have the same expectations. As a publicist, my job is never done. There’s always another outlet, someone else to pitch, someone else to follow up with, especially in the online world. It’s endless. Knowing you have someone that is really going to work for you and with whom you have the same goals is really important and will make you a good team.
