Radical.fm is part Pandora, partturntable.com. When it launches later this year, this personalized streaming music service includes the ability to “RadCast” streams in real time. A related service,Radical Indie will offer a free, worldwide internet radio service for musicians and fans of unsigned artists. A DJ feature allows musicians to host their own programs and speak directly to fans.
How Indie Artists Can Get Involved Now:
Prior to launch, Radical.fm is encouraging indie artists to upload music and other assets to Radical Indie now.. Uniquely, uploaders control a buy button which can be direct almost anywhere for purchase, including the artist’s own web site.“We want to give independent musicians a creative and promotional platform, and are thrilled that we can offer a powerful tool on a world-wide basis for free,” said Radical Founder and CEO, Thomas McAlevey. “Radical Indie will be similar to our conventional service, Radical.FM, but with no music label imposed restrictions on territory or functionality.”
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
You would be hard pressed to NOT have heard of Google+, the newest social networking and sharing tool from Google which after one month of existence boasts around 18 million users. Artists are already bombarded with a plethora of tools to help them connect with their fans, but Google+ truly adds some unique features which have great potential for integration into a musician’s marketing arsenal.
Overview:
Google+ consists of a content stream, photos, sparks, hangouts, and chat. While these features are nothing groundbreaking, the feature pulling all of the others together is Circles. Circles allow you to put contacts into different, self-defined groups, which control what content you see and share. Since there are a number of good articles explaining the basics of the platform, let’s get into how each feature may be utilized by an artist.
Note: Currently only personal accounts exist and Google has suggested that businesses (artists) postpone creating accounts until special business accounts currently under development are made available.
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.”
Are things getting a little crowded online these days? It’s getting a bit tough to stand out. MTT has some ideas and hips a few services…two you already know about and how the industry uses them to keep tabs on you.
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Social networks provide far reaching opportunities for musicians, the only trouble is they don’t work for the overwhelming majority of bands and aspiring artists. Critical mass and huge opportunity creates overcrowding.
What always struck me as strange was how musicians on myspace.com actually thought that having a million friends was a good thing (despite the fact those friends were all musicians who only ‘friended’ so that they can get more ‘friends’ for themselves).
Can people spot the problem here? It’s a fake market, a bit like the sub-prime mortgages that bought the banks down.
A large proportion of musicians use social networks to build a fan base and launch their own careers. However, without adequate finances and marketing expertise it is very tough for a band to break through to reach public awareness. It is possible, but tough!
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.
If you’re driving people to your Facebook page then this is for you. It’s all about keeping them on that thing and it’s not just voodoo that does it. A few good tips backed up with some stats. Get on it.
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Though this report clearly is shared to attract attention to their services, the sharing of such data in this form is exceptionally useful for music marketers who want to move beyond hunches and what’s worked so far. This report focuses on engagement rates based on considering “fan base size” in relationship to the number of comments and the number of “likes”.
Some of the findings with an emphasis on industries most relevant to music marketers:
Shorter posts increased engagement. 27% higher engagement was seen for posts between 1 and 80 characters.
Full-length URLs trumped shortened URLs. Engagement was 3 times higher for posts using full-length URLs.
Posts outside of regular business hours, identified as 10 am to 4 pm EST in this study, saw engagement rates 20% higher than the overall average.
Engagement with posts peaked on Thursday and Friday however peak usage also varied by industry.
