Here at Music Is My Day Job, we’re always looking for new ways to help you make music your full-time gig, thus our “Musician’s Library” feature, where we look at books, articles and ideas that you should be adding to your reading list. Today, we are focusing on The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris and, more specifically, Ferris’ concept of “Elimination”

(For those not familiar with it, The 4-Hour Work Week is a system developed by Tim Ferris which allows one to reduce the time they spend on business-related items (think selling your music, booking gigs, contracts, etc) to a minimum, allowing you the maximum amount of time to do what you love (writing music, practicing, touring, etc).  While there has been a lot of talk about Ferris, his blog and The 4-Hour Work Week–both positive and negative–none of it has really highlighted how his system can help musicians.)

When Ferris refers to Elimination, he is describing a process of purging your daily routines of those things that produce the least while taking up the most amount of your time, whether that be meetings, difficult clients, email, media/internet distraction or tedious tasks.

Sounds great in principle, but implementation is more challenging.  For example, with regards to media and internet use, his recommended media diet is as follows (from page 87 of The Four-Hour Work-Week):

• No newspapers, magazines, audiobooks or non-music radio. Music is permitted at all times.
• No news websites whatsoever…
• No television at all, except for one hour of pleasure viewing every evening.
• No reading books…except for…one hour of fiction pleasure reading prior to bed
• No web surfing at the desk unless it is necessary to complete a work task for that day.  Necessary means necessary, not nice to have.

Now, we’re not saying that you should be as extreme (though you’re more than welcome to try), but in keeping with the intent of this concept, think about your day for a moment: how much more could you accomplish–writing, recording, practicing, marketing–even if you were to do half of what he recommends?

Out thoughts exactly.

He also has similar suggestions for optimizing use of e-mail and social media (including using auto-responses and improved use of FAQs), eliminating difficult clients and more, but the one section that may help you the most as a musician regards eliminating tedious tasks, and batching those that you can’t eliminate.  He suggests that we should all stop looking at tasks in terms of how much money we are saving, and re-frame them in terms of how much money/time they may be costing us.

For example, let’s assume that you are doing all of your physical product shipping by yourself because you don’t want to pay CD Baby’s $4/CD charge.  So, when you sell a new physical album, while you have to spend 30 minutes to package the album in a shipping container, address the shipment and deliver it to the post office, at least you are not losing $4/album to CD Baby.  If you sell seven albums a week, that is approximately 210 minutes of your time, or 3.5 hours–not much time, considering the week has 168 hours–and you are saving $28/week (CD Baby’s $4 charge x 7).  However, if by spending one more hour each week calling venues and promoters you could book one more gig per week–which pays you $300 for two hours of work–wouldn’t it be wiser to batch all of those shipping-related tasks into one and let CD Baby take that $28 so that you can spend your time booking additional gigs?

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Your challenge for today: make a list of those things that produce the least but take up most of your time.  Create a plan to get rid of the top three within the next seven days through either straight-up elimination or batching.

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You can learn more about Timothy Ferris and The Four-Hour Work-Week by visiting his official website and blog here

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Q: Can you tell us what you do at Whrrl?

A: My job at Whrrl is to grow our music community through promoting and supporting musicians, the fans that support them, and their stories.

For instance, imagine you are on Twitter and see a post that says, “@thethermals is at The Crocodile Café getting ready to play, see their story (8 photos, 9 updates) at http://whrrl.com/56842“. You can then click through and get an incredibly rich and cohesive account of the event from the perspective of that musician, as well as anyone else who is collaborating on that story.

What really sets Whrrl apart, though, is the story unit in which we display content and the collaborative nature of the product. Fans can view a very rich, comprehensive account of a musician’s activities, and comment directly at any point. This kind of immersive, direct interaction is much more powerful than message boards and short text blurbs alone. It also enables fans to participate in the everyday activities of musicians, making them feel part of the moment.

“Whrrl enables fans to participate in the everyday activities of musicians, making them feel part of the moment.”

From a non-musician perspective, there have been a number of entertaining, well-viewed stories based around music. Many people have shared their concert experiences, one user took a trip to Graceland, another shared his story from a record listening night. A big part of music is sharing what you like, and Whrrl is a great way to do so.

Some examples:

• Pop Noir recording: http://whrrl.com/experience/story/17576904
• Parachute before and after a gig: http://whrrl.com/experience/story/17055545
• Chad Coronato, founder of Unuka Records at a Hip Like [blank] show (a band on the label): http://whrrl.com/experience/story/17643550
• Skip Hunt at a My Bloody Valentine show: http://whrrl.com/experience/story/17741795
• Justin Bacque at Graceland: http://whrrl.com/experience/story/17702087

Q: Top 5 shows?

1. Murder City Devils, Botch, The Catheters – The Graceland, 1998, Seattle, WA
2. Guitar Wolf, December 2003, Yamagata, Japan
3. Neko Case – Paramount Theater, 2006, Seattle, WA
4. Sonic Youth – Bumbershoot, 2002, Seattle, WA
5. Exploding Hearts – Blackbird, 2002, Portland, OR

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BONUS: After we finished our interview, Marcus attended My Bloody Valentine’s show at the WaMu Theater in Seattle. Check out his story about the show here.

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Additional Reading:

• Whrrl review from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/03/13/whrrl-iphone/
• How to use Whrrl: http://whrrl.com/story/show/243
• MusicIsMyDayJob on Whrrl: http://whrrl.com/person/17608794/Jared_Covington
  (admittedly a work in progress–add us as a friend and let’s tell a story together!)

Overall, it was definitely a much needed step in the right direction, though it is still far from perfect. Here is our breakdown (insert Ennio Morricone’s classic theme here):

The Good

• Users can now create playlists and publish them all over the web–whether on blogs or other social networks
• Users can send these playlists to MySpace friends
• Artists can now upload up to 10 songs on their profile page (formerly, six was the limit)

The Bad

• Lots of bugs, some due to different browsers, some due to the MySpace’s programming
• (In fact, the lists that I built Monday & Tuesday of this week have now vanished due to some random system error! The error message I received upon logging in this morning did not specify what had happened–it just confirmed that it happened.)
• Users can only feature one playlist on their Music Profile page, and these playlists are not automatically featured on their regular MySpace.com profiles.  So, if users want to put the playlist on their MySpace page, they have to click on the “Share” button just like they would to share it on Facebook or anywhere else.

The Ugly

• It is still MySpace–ads are plentiful and as intrusive as ever
• There are no obvious benefits over competitors such as imeem, iLike, MOG and others, other than MySpace’s large user base. In fact, most of the features of MySpace Music are more elegantly implemented on other services
• MySpace Music still feels very separate from the other parts of MySpace, and as it does not do anything that the other music-based social networks do, I’m not sure what the benefits of using it above the other services actually are

Ultimately, as an artist, if MySpace is an intricate part of your online presence, than you should definitely play with these new features and determine how best to incorporate them into what you are already doing there (and there is no reason that every single artists should not be taking advantage of the increased song limit to let people discover your music). However, if you are not already making MySpace an intricate part of your day-to-day efforts to connect with fans, these new features are no reason to reconsider your strategy.

Comments? Thoughts? Disagree with our take? Share in the comments below or via Twitter.

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for more articles and useful goodness for independent musicians.

Too much trouble to remember? Subscribe to MusicIsMyDayJob via RSS or email and let us remember for you.

Much has been written about Twitter, and many things will continue to be written about the seemingly ubiquitous micro-blogging service (especially if these rumors are even slightly true). As of 16:00hrs EST on April 2, 2009, Google finds 43,058,597 blog articles on the topic–a number nearly impossible to comprehend, but it goes a long way to demonstrate both the popularity of the service and the immense number of people who are trying to determine how to use it to their advantage.

Musicians are no exception–this spreadsheet lists hundreds of artists, bands and other music-related Twitter users (and it continues to grow exponentially), all of them trying to determine how to use the service to reach fans and spread the word about their art.

So is Twitter just another social media fad, or is it an important tool to reach new fans and interact with your audience?

The answer is “yes.”

Twitter is the hip social media thing to do right now, but after you peel back the hype and “trend-spotting” news reports (and actually start to use the service!), you will discover that Twitter allows for interaction unlike any other type of social media, and there are specific benefits to musicians that no other service can offer, especially when it comes to connecting with fans.

You Should Be On Twitter

The secret to Twitter’s utility lies in its (a)brevity and (b)immediacy.

On Twitter, you only have 140 characters to express yourself, so every letter matters (this sentence happens to be exactly 147 characters long, to give you some perspective). No fluff, no hype–only the essential, and because of that, it allows you to connect with fans and potential fans in a very direct manner. It also forces your creativity and personality to shine through–if your updates consist of thoughts like, “At the grocery store,” “Reading email,” or, “Buy my record,” very few people (if any) will want to hear what you have to say, but if you inject your personality into the few characters that are available to you, people will be interested in hearing more.

Immediacy is the other aspect that makes Twitter so essential for independent musicians.  In fact, Twitter is most effective when used in the immediate present, rather than for documenting the past as you would in a blog or on your MySpace page.  Because of this immediacy, Twitter presents intriguing snapshots into precise moments, allowing people a perspective no other media can  provide.  As such, you can pull your fans into your world, sending out immediate updates as you record an album, or taking them along on tour as you look for something to do between cities, creating an experience and loyalty that an MP3 can not.  You can also receive real-time feedback and comments, whether you want to know which mix of a track you should use, where to perform in a given city, or even whether or not you should change your band name!

Use Twitter to Find Your Ideal Audience

Twitter is a ridiculously effective way to find your audience, but it requires that you be a real person in order to do so successfully. Don’t simply sign up for an account, post a few updates, and expect the followers to come beating down your door–you need to reach out to others and actively participate in the conversation.  Remember, if people care about you, then they will want to hear your music, and the same people will eventually become your music’s champions.  On the contrary, if you constantly send nothing more than the Twitter equivalent of spam, saying, “Download our new E.P.” (as several artists actually do each day), people will quickly tune out, or worse, not even bother following you.

When following people, follow them because they interest you, not because you are trying to trick them into liking your music. Be authentic in your updates–don’t reveal every detail of your day, but also don’t hesitate to say when things are not working out; it sounds corny, but just be you, and people will feel a connection.  Reply to people, and let them see that the person updating your profile is actually you (and not some record label intern).

Follow other musicians and artists, and you will see what attracts people and what does not.  @questlove, @imogenheap and @trent_reznor certainly do not need any help attracting fans, but they are excellent examples of what to do if you want people to follow you, fans or otherwise–they are real people in their updates, they interact with their followers, and they provide the immediate glimpses into their lives that are the life-blood of a successful Twitter user.  They also take full advantage of Twitter to transform their followers into fans and keep their name and music in conversations, even when they are not releasing anything new or touring.

Turn Your Followers Into Fans

Twitter is an amazing way to turn casual followers into fans, as well as fans into super-fans, especially as they begin to feel a real connection with you and, thus, your music. The secret here lies in the consistency and quality of your updates–be active and regularly update your profile, but continue to focus on updates that bring fans into your world and gives to them an experience and interaction that they could not get otherwise.

You will actually learn more about effectively using Twitter to connect with your ideal audience by signing up and following the people I have linked to throughout this article, so I would suggest that you make that your priority.  However, as you work at using Twitter to connect with your fans, here are some things you may want to experiment with:

• Debut music, videos or other content on Twitter especially for your followers and watch them spread to other media outlets
• Hold contests and competitions for your followers–everyone who sends a specific link to their followers is entered into a drawing, best suggestion for an album title gets a name in the album credits, etc.
• Determine which venues you should be playing in a given market with fan suggestions solicited on Twitter–not only will this help you book gigs in unfamiliar markets, but if you can show a promoter or booking agent that X number of fans/patrons have told you that you should play in a specific venue, they can’t argue that you are not “right” for their regular audience
• Reserve a couple of spots on your guest-list at each live show specifically for your Twitter followers, and give them away the afternoon before a show. Not only does it reward their loyalty, but it also creates pre-show buzz and anticipation in each market
• Let fans create your set-list on Twitter. Ask them what they want to hear and build the list from their suggestions
• Even better, as there are various ways to use Twitter from mobile phones, build your set lists spontaneously through encouraging fans at your live gigs to request songs via Twitter. You can even use #hashtags to track the requests.  Yes, this requires some extra practice, but imagine the excitement your fans would feel in having this opportunity!

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Additional Reading

• In Defense of Twitter for Musicians – If this New Music Strategies interview with bassist Steve Lawson doesn’t sell you on Twitter, then I’m not sure what will. (via Hypebot)
• Better Than Free – Wired-founder Keven Kelly on competing with free and giving your fans an experience that they can not get from a download or plastic disc.
• The Fan Economy – Social Media Strategist Bud Caddell’s excellent slide show on working within the new fan-centric economy and using it to your advantage. Spend some time with this one.

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Comments? Thoughts? Suggestions on the most effective ways to find your audience using Twitter? Share in the comments below or, of course, via Twitter.

Don’t forget to check back later for the final post in our series on Finding Your Audience.  Too much trouble to remember? Subscribe to MusicIsMyDayJob via RSS or email and let us remember for you.