Twitter Followers For Sale. “The number of Twitter followers I had in relation to how many people in the world know about me was woefully inadequate,” he said. So in June he bought a small city’s worth for $424.15, raising his Twitter follower count from about 700 to more than 220,000. “There’s a tremendous cachet associated with having a large number,” said Mr. Nainan, 31, adding later, “When people see that you have that many followers, they’re like: ‘Oh, my goodness, this guy is popular. I might want to book him.’ ” It may be the worst-kept secret in the Twittersphere. And it’s not just ego-driven blogger types. The practice is surprisingly easy. Will Mitchell, the founder of Clear Presence Media, a marketing company outside Tampa, Fla., said that he has bought more than a million followers for his clients, which include musicians, start-ups and a well-known actress he declined to identify. “And it’s so cheap, too,” he said.
Buyers and sellers see nothing wrong with it. But Twitter is starting to clamp down. Topspin's New Partnership With MTV's Artists.MTV Music Hub Will Expand Company's Footprint. A company built in the 00's to help artists sell and market direct to their fans stands to get a big boost from a 30-plus-year-old company looking to bring artists and fans together: New artists pages to launch at MTV.com will feature direct-to-fan features powered by Topspin Media. Announced Thursday at SXSW by Van Toffler, president of Viacom's Music Group, and set for a May 1 private beta and a summer public debut, Artists.MTV will provide a digital home base within the MTV ecosystem for over 1 million artists.
Artists will be able to sell digital and physical goods, upload and stream digital content and sync social accounts to pull content from other platforms. Each Artists.MTV page will also feature a virtual tip jar. Artists can register for the private beta now by clicking here. "Jersey Shore" may pay the bills, but MTV has spent the last few years repositioning itself as a company that connects artists and fans. Writing Original And Interesting Chord Progressions. Part I | Lessons. Music Supervision Mastery: JuxMusic Licensing Agency — Part I. MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN: Over the next few months, SonicScoop will track synch licensing developments — which directly affect artists, producers, engineers, studios, publishers, and many more music professionals – in our “Music Supervision Mastery” series.
NYC-based concerns of all forms will be included, and you can expect their observations to be national/global in scope. Brandon Mason, founder of NYC's Juxtaposed Music. Their cup runneth over. Music supervisors today have no problem gaining access to tracks to synchronize (or “synch”) with visual media. Their mission is to find the perfect track within the ever-expanding haystack of licensable songs that are now available to them — on time and under budget. It’s no wonder that services created to catch the ears of music supervisors are proliferating. Meanwhile, electronic media continues to do what it does best: converge and recombine.
Exhibit A today is Juxtaposed Music a.k.a. How about in the advertising world? Modiba: WHY YOU SHOULD PAY FOR MUSIC. By Jon Sheldrick Let's get one thing straight: I love free music. If a musician decides to give away an album, I'm the first to download it. I am against the RIAA lawsuits that sue people for sharing music. Rather than scaring people into buying music, I advocate a culture in which people actually want to spend money on music, because they understand the positive repercussions it has on the medium of recorded music, and the lives of the artists that produce it. What I hope to do in the following paragraphs is persuade you that not only does paying for music benefit that artist you claim to support, but also benefits you, the listener. I'm not going to make a legal argument. I used to illegally download in high school. After high school, I went to NYU, hoping to become a recording engineer. During this time I also started to look for work in recording studios.
As I saw this going on around me, I stopped to think. Perhaps people don't really care about how artists make their living. Artist Revenue Streams Research Project – My friends at the Future of Music Coalition are conducting an online survey from Sept 6 – Oct 28th to determine the variety, depth and complexity of the ways that musicians are making money these days. Not theoretically, but actually.
We are looking for performers, songwriters, composers, band members, session players, producers, MCs and anyone else making music to join in and take the survey. A while ago, I posted this from my friend and Berkleemusic student David Sherbow showing a pretty comprehensive list of the different ways that musicians can make money. This might give you food for thought on taking the survey and planning your career… The artist music business model has been in flux for years. The record deal dream that most artists sought is no longer the viable alternative that it once was.
Where does this leave the average independent artist? Artist, future, moeny, music, performing, publishing, revenue, touring, writer. Musicians: Stop Building An Email List. Guest post by Chris Rockett of Music Marketing Classroom. I know the title of this post may seem a little bit weird considering I have been banging on about fan capture for the past guzumteen years, but hear me out...
Something was buzzing around my head this morning that I probably stole from somewhere but let's pretend that's it my own original thought ;-). Here goes... You need to stop building an email list...or in other words you need to stop thinking about it like a LIST. Just to be clear...there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that having a way to connect with your fans instantly is your most important asset...but actually thinking about them like a LIST makes them sound like groceries and does not help you on your mission to entertain and delight them.
This "list building" approach kind of turns them into an abstract bunch of 1s and 0s who are only there to line your pockets with gold. "Prospect" Plus...there's more than one way to skin a beaver: Love your list! You need another why? Artists and Managers: Deathtraps and How to Avoid Them. Email By George Howard (Follow George on Twitter) As the music business moves inexorably from a label-centric industry to an artist/manager-centric one, it’s increasingly important to not only understand the current role of the manager, but also to have a firm grasp on the important enduring elements of the artist/manager relationship. This, and subsequent articles look at issues that artists and managers must confront in order to raise the odds of a mutually successful long-term relationship. As I’ve written before, the role of the manager has changed. Historically, the manager would attempt to identify an artist they believed had the potential for success, nurture the artist, get them signed, and then act as a liaison between the label and the artist.
For those who engaged (or are currently engaged) in this activity, it’s a tough, tough gig. In order for the above to work, there must be two very specific points of intersection between the artist and manager: 1. DO SONGWRITERS SUFFER IN THE NEW BUSINESS MODEL? - FutureHit.DNA. Songwriters are often the forgotten entity of many discussions of the new music business. When people talk about records being loss leaders to touring, they naturally presume that the artist must also be 100% songwriter. If the artist is not, the songwriter suffers. On the other side, Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” sold more units in the US in 2011 than any other song in a 12-month calendar year. Add in worldwide sales and airplay, and her and her co-writers are likely making more than they would have even five years ago.
So what is the new reality? I was reminded of this question when I saw the promotion for the new Counting Crows record. On Monday, the band announced that they were distributing a free sampler of their new album on BitTorrent. I hope a lot of young bands pay attention because you don’t have to monetize everything to get your name out there. All of this seems well and good, except for one thing. One of the artists covered on the project is Richard Thompson. How Lady Gaga's manager reinvented the celebrity game with social media. This article was taken from the June 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online. One afternoon in February, Tumblr president John Maloney called in to the Atom Factory, the Los Angeles offices of Troy Carter, Lady Gaga's manager.
The offices -- still being built -- are all clean lines, dark wood and brushed marble, and shout of-the-moment hipness and wealth. Carter has a three-room first-floor suite with pop art and leather furniture. Huge televisions show basketball matches in every room. Lady Gaga costumes sit behind glass across one side of a room. Carter didn't greet his Tumblr guests in his personal space, but in the foyer.
Tumblr was paying calls in Los Angeles, Maloney said, as part of a "deep dive" into the entertainment business. "Who've you got, celebrity-wise? " Case in point: actress Alicia Silverstone. 10 Reasons Why You’re Losing Your Facebook Fans. Maybe you haven’t followed “The Rule of 4 C’s”– consistently create compelling content! Bands, solo artists, hip hop crews, jazz ensembles– you’re losing fans on Facebook; your engagement is going down and you don’t know why. Wait. Really? You don’t know why? The answer is simple: you’re not creating content worth sharing. 10 ways to turn off your fans on Facebook I know there are thousands of bands who are doing things right, winning new fans with engaging posts and videos (and I don’t really mean to suggest that YOU aren’t one of ‘em). 1.
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve received separate event invites from every band on a bill, I’d probably have enough to buy that sweet parlor guitar I’ve had my eye on for a while. 2. Contrary to what shows like American Idol and The Voice may tell you, music isn’t a competition. 3. Did you get all excited about Facebook at some point and then abandon it? 4. If you’re posting more than a few times a day, it better be good stuff! 5. OK. 7. 8. 9. Musicians, Ignore Vimeo at Your Own Peril! August 8, 2012 Bad Breakup News: Apple dumps YouTube for Vimeo For those of you who’ve become accustomed to viewing and uploading YouTube footage quickly on your iPhones, the rumor-mill bears bad news. According to an article from our friends at Hypebot, Apple and Google are at it again; this time, it looks like the new iOS 6 will not accommodate the YouTube app (YouTube, of course, being Google’s popular video-sharing site).
Hopefully Apple had the nerve to tell Google to its face, instead of writing a stupid note delivered by a go-between the way my first girlfriend dumped me in 7th grade. What? I’m over it! I swear. Why you should upload all your videos to Vimeo, ASAP! Anyway, the quick-link between your iPhone/iPad and YouTube may be about to get a bit slower (at least on new iPhones and iPads; you’re probably safe for a while on older versions).
What’s the moral of the story for musicians?