Top 10 Music Blog Posts of 2005

Everyone's doing year-end wrap-ups. I might as well hop on the train. Last summer I offered my top 10 blog posts of the first half of 2005. Here are 10 posts that either got the most response from readers or flipped my trigger the most since midyear.

- A New Day for Indie Music?

- One Kick-Butt Music Web Site: Look & Learn

- It's Like Complaining About Gravity

- Keys to the Music Success Kingdom

- Music Biz Headaches: You Need the Eggs

- Outrageous Music Marketing Ideas

- What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

- The Psychology of Crowds

- Create a FREE Music Podcast

- Ask Your Fans for Help

Happy New Year!

-Bob

Planning Your Music Revolution

"Artists used to need a record label to be heard. Now, all they need is a powerful PC and a broadband connection. For any musician with at least a pinch of talent and a desire to perform, the Internet has become a godsend."

So begins a recent article in USA Today. Nothing new here for most active musicians. But it does offer even more evidence that the independent revolution is well under way and gaining ever growing waves of attention.

Hopefully, you're a participant and not just an observer. In fact, 2006 would be the perfect year to make great strides with your music. The best way to make that happen is to set goals and achieve them through focus, accountability, persistence and personal integrity. Check out this resolution planner and web site for inspiration.

-Bob

Another Kick-Butt Music Web Site

I've talked about kick-butt music web site ideas here and there. Well, here's another example of an artist who is making great use of the Web.

Check out Josh Woodward's site, and particularly his My Songs section, where he employs the following features:

• A line that states "Not sure where to start? What kind of music do you like?" Then he lists categories such as "Darker Pop/Rock," "Light Folk" and "Heavy," with suggested songs to check out for each style.
  
  
• Free MP3s of 77 original songs. Not only that, he gives people the option to stream or download the tracks AND supplies the lyrics and guitar tabs to each song. Wow.
  
  
• Links to where you can purchase his CDs (for only $5 each) and his music "sharing policy."

That's going above and beyond to provide benefits to fans. What are you doing to deliver value on your web site?

-Bob

Guerrilla Music Marketing Book #1 on Amazon

Early this year, I was excited to see that the Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook had reached the #3 spot on Amazon.com's Music Business Books bestseller list. That's as high as I have ever seen it get. Most of the time it consistently ranks in the top 10, hovering between spots 6 and 10.

Well, today the little book that could hit the #1 spot in the category (and #4,432 among all books on Amazon). Click the image below to see the full-sized screen shot.


I'm thrilled that this title continues to chug along and grow in popularity every year. Hopefully, the same thing will happen with the sequel, Guerrilla Music Marketing, Encore Edition, which gets released next month.

Stay tuned as this indie publishing success story continues.

-Bob

The MySpace Value Debate

UPDATE: Since I made this post, I have published a new book called MySpace Music Marketing. Check out my new web site, www.MySpaceMusicMarketing.com, for details.


I recently announced the dipping of my toe into the social cluster [expletive deleted] that is MySpace. I started my page there on 12/3/2005. As of this writing, I have 434 friends and 692 profile views. Respectable numbers, I suppose, depending on what you compare them to.

The jury is still out on how effective it will ultimately be for me personally, but there is a debate brewing over how worthwhile the site can be for indie artists using it as a marketing tool.

Scott Andrew got the ball rolling with this post about a band that was a "featured artist" on MySpace. As a result, the act had its music played 20,000 times with 1,200 friend requests ... and zero CD sales. David Hooper and Joe Taylor Jr chimed in with their doubts about the value of MySpace.

I'll play it safe and not take sides at this point, but here's a comment from pop dance artist JANAJANA, who was apparently inspired to start her own MySpace page after reading my e-zine last week:

"Hi Bob. This was a great suggestion to join here! Since we joined last Tuesday, we have had over 1,100 plays, 1,500 new friends add us, and our CD sales are off the hook (had to get more ordered). The web server is maxed out and we can hardly keep up with it ... all in 7 days!"

I'm sure there are as many different opinions of MySpace as there are artists setting up shop there.

To be continued ...

-Bob

Your Lousy Music Career

Joe Taylor made some great comments last week on his Spinme.com blog regarding ongoing media reports about "lousy" CD and concert ticket sales. He pointed out that a major label's definition of "lousy" can be an indie artist's ticket to a thriving career.

How can that be? Because today's audiences are fractured -- something I touched on early this year with my observations on the Grammy Awards (which I recently turned into a podcast).

Then Joe posed this rhetorical question:

Would the world be more vibrant if one out of a hundred professional musicians made $100,000 per year, as opposed to one out of ten thousand musicians making ten million dollars per year?

Of course, his answer was a resounding YES. These days, there are countless opportunities for artists who operate under the radar screen and cater to niche audiences.

Joe also offered up this bit of reality-check wisdom:

The deflation of the mainstream recording industry as we know it opens up tremendous opportunities for working musicians. And I mean "working." You can't sit back and wait to be discovered -- you've got to go build your own audience. If the labels aren't willing to get out of bed to chase niche audiences and "small" markets, all the better for you.

I agree. The opportunities are there. Are you willing to work to uncover them?

-Bob

Exposure on NPR's Open Mic

Since it began in 2003, NPR's Open Mic segment has showcased nearly 800 independent, unsigned and self-produced bands. It's described as "a virtual stage for aspiring musicians to reach a larger audience with their work and a place to discover music you likely won't hear anywhere else."

Starting last month, Open Mic became a daily podcast. A new song with comments from the artist is featured each day, Monday through Friday.

Who can submit music?

"Anyone who puts out their own music -- from basement tapes to studio-quality recordings -- can submit their work for consideration on All Songs Considered's Open Mic. We are looking for wholly independent artists playing any genre of music."

Read the submissions guidelines and get cracking!

If you're concerned about the wording in the permissions form, check out this CD Baby post for some thoughts on that.