Ashley Alexandra Dupre: Sudden Celebrity

There aren't many things that can thrust an independent musician into the national spotlight. One way is to become a finalist on American Idol (or its equivalent outside the U.S.). Another way is to be identified as the high-end call girl who brought down the governor of New York.

As it turns out, what's disastrous for Eliot Spitzer may pay big dividends for the 22-year-old woman who hooked to pay the bills while also crafting hooks with her dance club style music.
Since her identity has been revealed, hits on Ashley Alexandra Dupre's MySpace profile have skyrocketed, plays and sales on her Amie Street page have jumped, and -- get this -- radio stations around the country are playing her tracks (she appears to have only two available).

On top of that, Penthouse and other men's magazines are knocking on her door, and there's talk of a book deal. However, according to this MSNBC story, "Major labels would be unlikely to sign Dupre."

(Oh well, when you have notoriety on your side, who needs a label? Come to think of it, if you're completely unknown, who needs a label? Oh, and by the way, what IS a record label these days?)

So, what's the point of blogging about Ashley Dupre and her music? What can you learn from this?

For starters, I don't recommend you run out and start renting your body for any amount of money. But you might learn that ...

• Attention gives you leverage. Consumers can generally pay you with two things: Their time (also known as their attention or awareness), and their money. Money doesn't always follow attention. Ms. Dupre may very well gets loads of short-term exposure and still not sell much music, but she'll likely cash in some way. Money grows where attention goes.
  
  
• You can take a perceived burden and turn it into an opportunity. For instance, Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles could have used their sensory limitations as a justification for inaction. Instead, they moved forward anyway, despite the obvious challenge. (Strange comparison, I know. But you get the point.)
  
  
• Guard your brand. Usually, your brand identity is what you present via all of your promotional avenues -- your web site, album covers, photos, live shows, press kits, etc. Most people slack off beyond that. But, as speaker Jim Bunch says, "The game is always on." The decisions you make in all areas of life can affect your brand. So conduct yourself with the big picture in mind.

Who knows what will become of Ashley Alexandra Dupre. But one thing's for sure: she's an indie artist who suddenly has a lot of media attention. What she does with it, only time will tell.

-Bob


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Folk Alliance: Pictures to Prove It

Had a great time attending the Folk Alliance conference in Memphis a couple weeks ago. Here are the pictures to prove it.
Ran into the lovely Dalis Allen, who produces the 18-day folk music extravaganza known as the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. Photo by Pooki.

Had an interesting time doing the "Internet Is Your Friend" panel with Jim Schultz of Sonicbids; Madlyn Sklar of GoGirlsMusic.com; Martin Folkman of Musicians Atlas; Michelle Conceison of Market Monkeys, and Lydia Hutchinson of Performing Songwriter magazine. Photo by Pooki.

Not even out of her teens yet, Sierra Noble is an amazing fiddle player from Manitoba Canada who has accomplished some impressive things. See for yourself at www.sierranoble.ca. Photo by Pooki.

It was great to run into my Nashville-based friend Kari Estrin at Folk Alliance. She specializes in managing Americana and folk music acts, as well as acoustic radio promotion. Visit her at www.KariEstrin.com. Photo by Pooki.

What a thrill for Pooki and me to meet Joel Plaskett, an award-winning rocker from Nova Scotia. We'd seen him play live before and even covered one of his songs at gigs in St. Louis. But we'd never met him until Folk Alliance. Thanks to Kari Estrin for taking the great photo with the King!

Ms. GoGirls herself, Madalyn Sklar, with yours truly in the exhibit hall during the conference. Photo by Pooki.

(l-r) Singer-songwriters Jenn Franklin and Annelise Le Cheminant (my Nashville/Salt Lake City friend who wowed us with her solo showcase slot) strike a pose with Pooki at Folk Alliance.

Standing across the street from Sun Studio in Memphis, TN. The place where Sam Phillips, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash launched a new brand of music in the 1950s. Photo by Pooki.

Pooki soaks up the big ass glowing lights along Beale St. in Memphis, TN. Evidently, you can get your beer to go at this fine establishment :-)

-Bob


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Check out Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook, the classic guide to indie music promotion. Now revised and updated, with four new chapters on Internet and Web 2.0 music marketing.

Derek Sivers, president of CD Baby, calls it "The most directly applicable, start-tomorrow, creatively inspiring book I've ever seen on promoting your music!" Get more details here.

1,000 True Fans to Make a Living

When Seth calls something the "best riff of the year," people notice. And lots have.

I'm talking about Kevin Kelly's two-day-old blog post titled "1,000 True Fans," which has struck a powerful nerve online. He puts his own spin on what I and many others have been saying for years about succeeding in the arts in this modern era.

I've talked about this in my live workshops and touched on it recently when I wrote about tapping fans for funding and the benefit of having 10,000 people on your mailing list.

But this concept of attracting what Kelly calls True Fans (a diehard subset of a larger group of Lesser Fans) is very intriguing. Here's an excerpt:

Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day's wages per year in support of what you do. That "one-day wage" is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let's peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.

One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate.

The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

Again, this all dovetails with the indie message I've been hammering home for years. You don't have to be a household name to be successful. Thousands of musicians, authors, artists, photographers, filmmakers, bloggers and more make a nice living serving their unique slice of the population. I proudly count myself among their ranks.

These self-empowered creatives work outside the traditional structure and usually make smart use of the Internet to bypass middleman roadblocks and take their craft directly to the end user: the fan. Reach enough fans in this manner and serve them well ... and you will eventually have a solid list of True Fans -- people who will reward you often with their time, attention and money.

Read Kelly's entire blog post and the reaction to it around the Net. Then get busy building your fan base ... and serving them well!

-Bob

Check out Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook, the classic guide to indie music promotion. Now revised and updated, with four new chapters on Internet and Web 2.0 music marketing.

Derek Sivers, president of CD Baby, calls it "The most directly applicable, start-tomorrow, creatively inspiring book I've ever seen on promoting your music!" Get more details here.

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Fans: The New Source of Music Cash Flow

As I said in a recent YouTube video clip, the music business these days is like the Wild West. No one knows exactly how things will shake loose. No one can truly predict the future. Therefore, the best way to proceed into this new frontier is to do what everyone else is doing: Making things up as they go along.

So have some fun with your marketing and career development!

One cool concept is the fan-funded model. Kristin Hersh and Scott Andrew, among others, have effectively asked their fans to help them fund their recording projects. But now there are entire web sites set up to help indie artists collect money from their fans.
Sellaband.com and Slicethepie.com are two such sites. This Wired.com article by Eliot Van Buskirk spells out more details, but here are some interesting numbers:

Anyone can become an investor in a SellaBand artist by buying an advance copy of an album and a single share in the recording for $10. The site has raised more than $1.5 million from more than 25,000 investors. They've deposited an average of $50, but investments have run as high as $25,000.

Out of 6,500 bands, 14 have reached the $50,000 mark, which is when SellaBand helps find a studio and a big-name producer to record the album. (SellaBand artist Cubworld got paired with Gwen Stefani's producers.)

Slicethepie lets fans pay $10 for a share in the album and a free digital copy ... The site has raised $400,000 so far, while attracting 7,800 artists. Bands only get funded if Slicethepie's blind-listening reviewers -- who generate 10,000 reviews a day -- rate them in the top 2 percent of new artists. Reviewers are paid 2.5 cents per review, with bonus pay if they pick bands that prove popular.

I've been preaching the Focus on Fans sermon for years now. They are -- and have always been -- your greatest asset. Why not tap into your fans for financial support beyond buying CDs, concert tickets, and merchandise. Whether you use one of the sites above or not, allow your fans to play an even bigger part of your success story.

Welcome to the Wild and Wacky World of Music Business Change. Are you mixing it up and experimenting with different ways to get exposure and generate revenue? If not, you should be.

Whatever you do, don't make the mistake of simply watching from the sidelines. Get busy ... and have some fun!

-Bob


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What's Your Music News Hook?

What exactly is a news hook? It's an idea that you pitch to an editor or writer. It's a story angle that is newsworthy and that should appeal to the readership of the publication in which you're wanting to get exposure.

News hooks are suggestions you make to media people via press releases, cover letters, e-mails or phone calls. If your news hooks are strong enough, lots of editors and writers will bite and cover you in the press.

So who or what should your news hooks be about? Most musicians put themselves front and center. And that makes sense, right? After all, they are trying to promote themselves. The drawback with this approach is that the focus is on the artist ... and not on the needs of the journalist.

To be a successful self-promoter, you need to learn to craft news hooks that keep the interests of the media person and his or her audience foremost in mind.

Want some good and bad examples?

"Great New CD Out Now by Local Band!"

Sorry, but this is not a very effective hook. Thousands of CDs come out every week. Yet another new one from another up-and-coming artist is not "news." Dig a little deeper.

"New Music CD Celebrates the 10-Year Anniversary of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal"

I know, this one is bizarre. But admit it, when you read it, you probably thought, "Now that's a weird concept for an album. I wonder what those songs would sound like?" Imagine what fun you could have with the song titles. A news hook like this stands out because it has a specific story that separates it from "here's another rock or pop or hip-hop CD."

"Look Out World: XYZ Is the Band to Watch in 2008"

This is a classic example of the over-hyped PR pitch. Most journalists roll their eyes at this type of bombastic announcement before tossing it in the trash (or hitting the delete key). Don't tell people how awesome you are. Paint a descriptive positive picture, but let the journalist determine the adjectives.

"Punk Rocker Offers 5 Tips for Overcoming Addictions"

If you have a significant personal story to share, feel free to make it a part of your news hook, especially if your experience can help other people. Have you overcome a personal obstacle, fought a deadly disease, feel strongly about a cause, or experienced something extraordinary? Chances are, people will want to know about it, and the music media may very well be eager to cover it.

So, let me ask you ... What's your music news hook?

-Bob

P.S. For more music publicity tips and tactics, check out the Indie Music Publicity Home Study Course or Killer Music Press Kits: Deluxe Edition.

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What Do YOU Want in a Music Conference?

As you may know, I'll be presenting the first Indie Buzz Bootcamp music conference June 20-22 in my hometown of St. Louis, MO. If you've read my early description of it, you also know that I want to make this a weekend workshop event unlike any other in existence today.

While I have some definite ideas about how I want to present this life-changing event (solo speakers instead of panels, a focus on education and action plans instead of showcases and parties, etc.) I'd love to get your thoughts on what you'd like to see in a music conference.

Please consider the following questions, then click the comments link below and post your responses:

• What's been missing from the music conferences you've attended in the past?
  
• What would you really like to see in a weekend event dedicated to indie music career success?
• What topics would you like to see covered?
• Who would you like to hear speak?
• What factors would motivate you to attend?

Thanks in advance for giving me your honest feedback. I'll give consideration to all the responses and incorporate the ones that make the most sense.

-Bob

P.S. Register to win a pair of free admissions to the Indie Buzz Bootcamp here.

P.P.S. If you're on Facebook, I have an event page for the conference here.

Check out Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook, the classic guide to indie music promotion. Now revised and updated, with four new chapters on Internet and Web 2.0 music marketing. Get more details here.

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Frank Zappa on Music Industry Change

I'm guessing this video clip is about 20 years old or so. (Frank Zappa died in 1993.) It's interesting to hear this innovative musician's views on the recording industry in light of what's happening now.


You can also watch it on this page at YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UAWqwLjN70

-Bob


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