Musicians Looking to Ning for Homebase

I see a new trend amongst artists looking to build a community around their music and have their fans play a major role in their development, and that of their content. The trend includes one of my 100 social media sites for musicians and goes well beyond your standard profile page.

Ning is a powerful platform with which anyone can create a social network about any topic. In your social network you can build it with any components that you think are necessary and that can include:

• Pages - static pages to tell fans bout your band, how to contact you or anything else you feel like sharing
• Videos - these can be uploaded directly into Ning or sent over with a YouTube embed code. If you upload directly, you can count plays and also embed those videos anywhere else on the net
• Photos - again these can be uploaded into the site directly or using the Flickr API (sounds harder than it is) you can import all your photos, tags and descriptions from the photo sharing heavyweight.
• Groups - manage your street teams with individual groups for different cities, regions, etc or have your fans create groups to share stories, pictures and discussions
• Profile pages - just like any other social network you can have your own pages. On these pages you can friend other people, trick out your page and interact with others.
• Blogs - Not that you aren't blogging already, but this is another platform for you to get the word out.
• Forum - get your fans talking about your shows, their fav tunes, other artists and off topic interests to keep them on the page. Be sure to interact with them for maximum efficiency.

On top of the standard features above, you are free to add any 3rd party coding into your pages. This gives you the power to add your Reverbnation Widgets, iLike or iMeem players, videos from Vimeo, Viddler or Kyte or anything else you can manage to fit on the page.

Some examples of musicians using the platform for their homebase include:
Asher Roth - a hip-hopper from PA makig a big name for himself with his latest mixtape The Greenhouse Effect. He is using the Ning platform to post news updates, videos, get messages across to his hardcore fans and keep them interested in his movement through getting to know each other. Check out a sneak peek below or visit the site here.


Buckcherry - the rockers who brought you 'Crazy Bitch' are using Ning to get their fans to interact with them in a big way. Their Ning site has 113 user generated videos from their shows to backstage antics and everything else that goes on in their world. Those videos go along with the over 1,500 pics of the band that fans have posted. Take a look below.

(click image to enlarge)

So what's it cost?
Well, nothing to try out. Essentially it's a free platform. The catch is that a free account slaps a .ning.com to your domain and floods the site with Google Ads that you do not collect on. The fees to upgrade include:

• Custom domain = $4.95 / mo
• Remove the ads = $19.95 / mo
• Remove additional Ning promotional links = $7.95 / mo

My suggestion would be to try out the platform with a custom domain and see how you and your fans interact on the site. You do not need a million fans with profiles for the site to be successful. It may just be a place to organize all of your online content or your street teams into groups. It may be a place to interact with diehard fans and have awesome conversations. Or it can become the platform for you to build an amazing relationship with your fans. The possibilities are endless, but in the end Ning is just a tool, its up to you to promote it, produce great content and hold engaging conversations.

Any people out there have Ning sites for your band? Let us know about your experience.

-Greg Rollett

Will Play For Clothes

In today's music business you are seeing artists make money by doing anything but selling music. The fact is, your music can be a catalyst for your business. Rappers selling drinks, pop stars selling perfume and DJ's rocking shows in mall stores for a few bucks.

You see, it's not just you, the artist who is looking for promotion and a way to stand out from the crowd. Stores, businesses and brands are doing everything that they can to get their message and products across to Gen-Y.

I'll DJ for Some Kicks
The Washington Post had a great article on stores ranging from department stores to traditional mall filler stores having DJ's create an ambiance and style to associate with their brand. The results can be great for the musician. Lord and Taylor can pay in upwards of $1,000 for a gig in their store. Other brands offer trades for clothes, shoes and accessories.

Gen-Y Rock Stars can use this music marketing tactic to reach a defined audience and demographic that they may not see at one of their night gigs. Tie in some promotions of your own and you might have a new game plan to gaining attention.

Not a DJ?
So a lot of you might be saying that there is no way for my band to rock out in a department store. That may be true but there are other live performance opportunities like this that you can begin to take advantage of to put a little cash in your pocket and attention to your faces.

Restaurants and Bars
Look for downtimes in a local restaurant or bar. This may not be the money maker that helps you quit your day job but it will usually get you a free meal and some beers and the admiration of the crew that stops by after work.

Businesses
No, you are not going to rock out during their morning sales meeting, but if you have some selling ability of your own, you may be able to get them to use your music in their next commercial, informational video for clients or YouTube clips. There is normally a marketing budget for these kinds of things. Ask for a credit at the beginning and end of the song with your band name, song title and website address.

Sporting Events
A few of the bands we work for were hired by the local Orlando Predators, an Arena Football League Team and were compensated well for an hour's worth of music. They got to play during the tailgate in front of the main sponsor's booth. It was great awareness and got them into contact with some good partners. Another group that had success here played for the Tampa Bay Lightning at Halftime. They were paid a guarantee and we negotiated that everyone in a winning section won a free sampler from the group. Remember that sporing events are usually family friendly.

Remember to look for events that can use your noize to help them shine above everything else that are hearing. Also be sure to come professional, as most of these businesses are not used to working with Rock Stars, young egos, tattoos and other stereotypes. They are running a business and you are helping them to increase their profit.

-Greg

User Generated Contests

Contests are a great way to get people excited about your band, product, show or promotion. With the advent of Social Media it is extremely easy to get your fans to help spread the word and build that contest for you. All you need to do is pony up some prizes, make up some rules and leverage the tools of Social Media to make it happen.

Some examples of user generated contests would be:

• Make a short video of yourself playing karaoke to one of our songs, upload it to YouTube and tag it with our band name and the name of the contest so we can find it.
• Make your profile picture the flyer for the next show, drop us a comment and we will give away 2 free tickets to that show to a lucky winner.
• Post the craziest song titles you want us to write about on your blog. We'll pick one winner and create a track on our next album with the winner's suggestion.

There are countless other ways to get your fans involved in user generated contests. Be creative and make the barrier to entry as easy and fun as possible.

My good friends at Endavo Media have created a great new white paper that outlines some tips to creating these contests, how to promote them and how they can grow your fanbase exponentially. Head on over and grab a copy, its free and filled with great info!

Now I'd like to turn it over to the Rock Stars. Have any of you had a successful user generated contest for your band, music or product? What was the prize? How did you pick the winner?

Let us know, so that we can help other bands see the benefits of a contest!

-Greg Rollett
To learn more about Social Media for Musicians, get our free eBook now!

Let Us Diss Your Myspace Page

Hey Gen-Y Rock Stars. We are launching a new service to get you the feedback you need and the ability to learn form the feedback of others. It will also allow us to test what is working and see how bands are using different strategies.

So what are we doing?
Send us 1 profile page. It can be your page on Myspace, Virb, Facebook, Bebo, YouTube, iMeem or any other music service there is. We will then head on over, take a peek and give some advice on the good, the bad and the ugly.

It's a pretty simple concept, but we want to see what is out there and help other bands see what is working on these networks and social media sites as it relates to:

• Social music promotion
• Music discovery
• Conversation
• Networking
• Performance
• Plays
• Streams
• Downloads
• Conversions and more!

How do I get down?
Send us your link to your page and a few sentences on what you have accomplished and what you want to accomplish on that site. Send that to greg.rollett@endagon.com. Every week on Gen-Y Rock Stars we will feature one of these sites and share our feedback. The community will also have the opportunity to do the same.

Then what?
Hopefully you take the constructive criticism and apply it to your online and social music promotion. We will try and stay in touch and see how it has affected your results on those sites.

That's it! Start sending us your stuff today.

-Greg

5 Sites For Social Music Promotion

Every band lives and dies on music promotion. Having people hear your music and then keeping in touch with them to spread the word is an important element in the life of a musician. With the rise in Social Media entrepreneurs focusing on the music industry, there is a vast opportunity for expanded music promotion, well beyond your local gigs and Myspace bulletins.

Marketing and promotion is the epicenter of being a Gen-Y Rock Star.

Below is a sneak peek into the 100 Social Media Resources for Musicians that is being released on Monday. It is comprised of 5 sites that you can start using today to get your music into more ears and headphones to get you into bigger vans and playing better shows.

5 Sites for Social Music Promotion
The Sixty One - It's been dubbed the Digg for indie musicians. A great place to being social music promotion, The Sixty One allows bands to upload songs and have the members of the community bump a song up or down on the quest to tackle the front page. Ultimately its the fans and their promotion that can drive a song into excessive plays, bumps and fame!


Fuzz - Get your music on Fuzz and begin inserting your music and message into a great group of niche indie music fans. Have fans and users add your tracks to mixtapes and playlists and even create your own mixes from other bands on the site. Remember, we are in this together and the more great music you promote, the more fans will trust you when its time to unveil your new tracks!


iMeem - I used to think this was a hidden gem, but the masses have spoken as iMeem is one of the top 5 Social Networks in the U.S. and is build around the playlist principle. Get you music on as many playlists as possible and watch the viral spread as users embed these players everywhere.


StumbleAudio - It's channel surfing for new music. Get your tunes on StumbleAudio, let music lovers find them, love them and increase the chances of your songs being heard. One of the top music discovery sites there is.


DopeTracks - For my hip-hop peoples, DopeTracks is a collaboration site where artists, producers and DJ's can come together to make great music. Jump on enough collabs and let your new partners promote you on their sites to their network. That's what its all about right? Building your network? You bet it is.


If this list of Social Music Promotion sites got your appetite wet, be sure to get back here Monday at 12:01 am to download the full list of 100 Social Media Resources for Musicians. It's free and it will make an impact on how you promote and market your music to your fans and future advocates.

-Greg Rollett