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?

*****

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.

*****

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

*****

Over the last month or so, we started noticing many updates on Twitter and Facebook that were being posted from something called Whrrl.  Curious, we did some investigating and discovered a relatively-new application that allows people to collaborate in the telling of a story and then share that same story with friends on Facebook and Twitter.  Impressed with the many possibilities this application presents for independent musicians, we reached out directly to Whrrl’s music community guru himself Marcus Sacco who took some time out his day to tell us more about how Whrrl can help independent musicians connect with their fans.

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

*****

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.

*****

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!)

As many of you are aware, MySpace released some new features in the MySpace Music section of their website this week, some geared at musicians, and others directed towards music fans.

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.

This week at MusicIsMyDayJob, we are looking at ways to determine who your audience is and how best to reach that audience, even when starting from scratch. Don’t miss our other articles in this series, and check back later for a recap of suggestions and recommendations from our readers.

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!

*****

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.

*****

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.

This week at MusicIsMyDayJob, we are looking at ways to determine who your audience is and how best to reach that audience, especially when starting from scratch. Don’t miss our other articles in this series, and check back later in the week for articles on using Twitter to connect with new fans, as well as a recap on Friday of suggestions and recommendations from our readers.

There are many articles and forums to help you determine how best to find an audience on YouTube, as well as examples of people who are doing it successfully (our favorite is here, but you can also find some great tips here, here and here).  While we do not want to duplicate most of what is already out there in excess, there are some specific things that musicians should be doing to find and network with their audience on the popular video sharing website.

Customize Your Profile and Channel

Make your channel look like you and your general aesthetic–change the colors and font, use a background image that ties into an album cover or other appropriate image, and make sure that your contact info all completely filled in (official website, bio, etc). Also, don’t forget to properly tag both your channel and your individual videos with your name as well as other appropriate adjectives, as that’s how people will find you.  For more on how to do this, read this article.

Create Individual Videos With a Specific Goal in Mind

What are you hoping to accomplish with your video? Do you want to show that you can play the most unique version of Flight of the Bumblebee? Maybe you want to prove that you are a guitar prodigy? Maybe you want to stun your potential fans with a visual artistic interpretation of your music?  Maybe you just want to let your fans see what you are like off-stage?

Whatever your purpose, stick to that and don’t get distracted. If you are showing your band perform your best song live, do that and nothing but that–don’t take away from it with backstage antics or other unrelated content. You can always post a second, third and fourth video for whatever you left out of the first. Attention spans are short on YouTube, so make sure that each view counts and each video stays “on task.”

Use Standard Opening and Closing Images

Make sure that people know that your video is coming from you (and not a fan or other content creator) with a standard opening and closing sequence–it works for television shows, and it will work for you.  Ideally, the image will be one that is similar to your customized background and album artwork. Even something as simple as an image with your name, your website, and a reminder of where people can find your music is fine as long as it looks professional and you use it consistently across all of your videos.

As YouTube videos can be embedded in blogs, websites and just about anywhere else on the internet, there is no guarantee that people will be watching your videos on your YouTube page, so make sure they know which artist the video is from.  Low-cost programs for creating these abound, though we recommend picking up Kinemac as part of the MacHeist bundle today, as you are never going to find such a high-quality program for so little money and support worthy charities at the same time (ends 6 April 09 so act now!).

Be Social

YouTube is more than just a place to watch videos–it is a video-based social network, so you need to treat your fans there just like you would those on MySpace, Twitter, Facebook or any other social networking site. Comment on people’s videos; choose favorites that are not your videos and display them on your page; and send video replies as any other user would.

Perhaps most importantly, as people start to find you and your music, implement YouTube-specific marketing campaigns that speak to YouTube-users’ particular strong points–invite fans to make a video of one of your songs, mention specific users in your videos, and give fans something special that they would not otherwise have access to such as backstage interviews (conducted by a YouTube fan?), video journals and more.

* * * * *

Comments? Thoughts? We know that this is just a small portion of ways that musicians can use Twitter to find their audience. Share your favorites in the comments below or via Twitter.

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

This week at MusicIsMyDayJob, we are looking at ways to determine who your audience is and how best to reach that audience, even when starting from scratch. Don’t miss our other articles in this series, and check back later in the week for articles on using more traditional techniques to reach an audience and using Twitter and YouTube to connect with new fans.

Back in 2002, some friends and I launched TheBendies.com, something that we described as a, “music-based, personality-driven website,” where we posted music reviews and whatever else came to mind.  Yes, today you would call it a music blog, but at the time, as blogging was still a relatively fringe activity, we thought of ourselves as innovative and different, and, visiting the archives today, I can honestly say that, in many ways, we were. Throughout the site’s brief life, we were quite successful, even if families and jobs eventually brought things to a premature end.  You can still find some of the key contributors doing similar things here, here, here and here.

When we launched TheBendies.com, we wanted people to actually see what we were doing, so we sent out various targeted emails to fans of the music artists we were covering. How did we find these fans? Besides targeting friends, family and other people who we actually knew, we went one-by-one through the user profiles on MakeOutClub (the original social network everyone seems to forget about, pre-Friendster, pre-MySpace) and emailed those who we thought may care about the same music we did.  To our surprise and delight, many did.

Today, finding people who care about what you do is not nearly as labor intensive–especially for musicians–thanks to the prominence of social media, but that does not mean you can take it for granted that your ideal audience will find you. In fact, there may be too many tools available that will allow you to search for your audience. Here are some of our recommendations for using social media to find your audience, especially if you are just beginning or starting from scratch.

MySpace

Maybe the most obvious, but also one of the most essential.  Even if it may feel like the world has moved onto Facebook.  MySpace still has more than 58 Million Unique Visitors each month, and many of those are there looking for music.

You really have no excuse for not knowing how to set up a profile, but just to make sure we are on the same page, here are a few Dos and Don’ts:

• Do register as a musician (not a normal member–otherwise, you can not post your music to your profile page)
• Do list who your influences are, but only include three to five bands. We know you like many artists and want their fans to like you, but your priority should be to make it easy for your ideal audience to find you. Besides, do you really sound like Pantera and Simon & Garfunkel and Kanye West? Probably not, even if you do enjoy music from all of them.
• Do be specific in your genre description–your ideal audience is looking for something specific, so don’t make them dig through hundreds of other “Alternative” acts to find you.
• Don’t decorate your page with a lot of bells and whistles.  Focus on your music and who you are–if your ideal audience can’t tell within 10 seconds of landing on your page whether or not you are what they are looking for, they will go somewhere else.
• Do make it easy for people to contact you. Make sure the links for your official website, blog, Twitter account, Facebook Fan Page and similar links are prominent and obvious.

Once you get things set up, it is up to you to bring your potential fans to your page.  Regarding that, let’s get this one issue out in the open: posting incessant messages telling people they should check out your new single is not only less-effective–it’s obnoxious and turns off many potential fans.  Our suggestion? After choosing which three to five artists you are going to list as an influence, visit those artists’ MySpace pages and determine which people are leaders among their fans–look at who the artists have featured in their “Top 24″ and skim through the artists’ comments for those fans who have several postings to find these leaders. Then, add those people as friends and wait. That’s it. Let people come to you and let these initial contacts feel like they are discovering something.  Reply to their messages, send them MP3 links and other exclusives when they add you as a friend, and make them feel that you are their artist, and then watch the word spread to their other friends about you.

Music-Based Social Networks

Last.fm, imeem, iLike, The Filter and MOG are all examples of music-based social networks.

Not only do these networks offer radio-quality streams of thousands of songs, but also opportunities for fans of similar artists and genres to interact and share the music that they love.  For many hard-core music fans, these sites have become key music discovery tools, yet relatively few independent musicians actually use them to spread the word about their music, preferring to focus on MySpace and Facebook.

If you take one thing away from this article, make it this: use these music-based social networks to find your ideal audience. Nothing will be more effective or efficient.

People are on these sites specifically because they love music, so why not go and preach to the converted music fans rather than abusing Facebook friends or spamming random bloggers with review requests?

While the specifics may differ, each of these sites allows you to share your music with the community, and most even allow you to provide MP3s as free downloads to community members if you so choose.  But once your music is up there, how to you find potential fans? With these networks, finding the ideal fans is the easy part, for these networks track what its members are listening to, so you can actually go in and see which members have listened the most to similar artists (and then contact them using the suggestions from theMySpace section).  This music-based social networks also make recommendations based on listening habits.

For example, on Last.fm, if I choose to listen to my customized radio station, I hear artists and songs who are similar to those I have listened to in the past who are not already have in my library, and it is surprisingly accurate.  Additionally, since other members can see what I have listened to, I regularly receive recommendations from both fans and artists of new music I should check out.  I always listen to these recommendations, because they are generally targeted recommendations from people whose taste I trust, and besides that, discovering new music is why I participate in these communities in the first place.

Before uploading your music, we recommend that you play with each of the sites–while they are similar, each has its strong points and unique community dynamic. Don’t just read the F.A.Q. or take the virtual tour, but create an account and start interacting with people (as a fan, not an artist), and look at what other artists are doing (if anything) to connect with their fans through these sites.  Once you do begin to reach out to fans, again, don’t spam everyone with incessant messages about your new single–let them know that it is there, and let them discover it and tell others.  Most of these sites also allow you to create specific groups, so once you have some fans who are actively telling others about your music, you can set up a place where they can connect with one another, as well as learn about tour dates and more.

LinkedIn – The Dark Horse

Yes, that LinkedIn.  Sure, LinkedIn is great for connecting with coworkers and business networking, but for finding music fans? You bet. You may not be able to post your music and have people declare themselves your fan, but there are other ways to find fans.

One of the most amazing things about LinkedIn is the fact that you can connect with people from more than one-hundred different industries, including some of the most brilliant and experienced executives from the fields of marketing, sales, new media and, indeed the music industry.

Even better than this, these executives are very generous, sharing their expertise in forums and responding to questions ranging from the speculative (What should the music industry accomplish digitally in 2009? ) to the complex (Marketing Your Way Through the Recession).  With this generosity, why not go to them with your marketing and sales questions and see what they suggest? Not only will you find solutions to your challenges, but you will also access a whole new demographic who is not hanging out on MySpace but still loves music.

Of course, there is certain etiquette to posting questions in business-focused forums. Post a question that says, “Hey, this is my new single. What do you think?” and watch them ban you forever while demanding your head on a silver platter.  But maybe you are trying to determine which CD printing plant to use; or maybe you are looking for the most effective ways to connect with tour promoters in distant markets; or maybe you need help determining where you should spend your limited marketing budget; these are all valid business questions, so why not ask the people who know? You will not only benefit from their experience and ideas, but you may find some influential new champions of your art in the process.

Coda

Social Networks should be a key part of finding your ideal audience.  With simple courtesy and authentic actions, they can help you to find the people who want to hear your music, and perhaps more importantly, those who will want to tell others about it.

How have you used social networks to discover fans? Let us know in the comments below or via Twitter.

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

Ever since discovering Blip.fm in January, I’ve been somewhat obsessed with the service.  For those unfamiliar with Blip, it works by aggregating music streams and MP3s from around the web. Users then sign up as DJs and “blip” their selections (along with an optional message of up to 150 character) to those who choose to follow/listen to them–think of it as what radio would be if it had been invented by the kids at Twitter (and you can actually link your Twitter and Blip.fm accounts if you are so inclined, as well as your Last.fm scrobbler–details here and here).

While Blip.fm is a lot of fun (after all, one of the best parts about being a music fan is sharing the music that you enjoy), one of the reasons that I like Blip.fm as much as I do is the variety of music that I am exposed to as I listen.  For example, courtesy of the people who I follow on Blip, the next five songs that I will hear as I am typing this are:

• Chumbawuba – “Big Mouth Strikes Again”
• The Lucksmiths – “The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco”
  
• Tim Maia – “Danca Enquanto É Tempo”
• Golgol Bordello – “Baro Foro”
• Thievery Corporation – “Shadow of Ourselves”

Listening to random DJs from the public home page is even more diverse and surprising–it’s actually somewhat overwhelming to see how much music is being played and listened to around the world. Courtesy of the Blip.fm homepage , the next five songs I would hear at the moment I am writing this are:

• Bear McCreary – “Battlestar Sonatica”
• T.S.O.L. – “Code Blue”
• The Meters – “Just Kissed My Baby”
• Bad Company – “Feel Like Makin’ Love”
• Grizzly Bear – “Two Weeks”

Now, you’re probably saying to yourself, “Great, so you like Blip.fm–we saw that from your Twitter updates. What does this have to do with independent musicians?” My answer? Everything.

What Independent Musicians Can Learn from Blip.fm

I recently spoke with two different independent artists, both of whom told me the same thing: “I love making music and I would love to do it full time, but there really isn’t a market for what I do.” I replied with a simple question: have you ever logged onto Blip.fm?

If there is one thing that we can learn from Blip.fm–besides the fact that people from around the world like to share what they are listening to–it is that if you make music, there is someone who wants to hear it; you just need to reach your audience.  If you were in Borneo making Electronic-Albanian-Folk-House music twenty years ago, I may concede that you would have trouble reaching anyone beyond the local tribe of Tasmanian Devils, but today? If you have Internet access, the world is yours (the world, of course, meaning the people who are dying to discover your music).  People want to hear what you are doing–you just need to get your music in front of them, and not only does the Internet allow you to find those people, but it also provides you with a nearly-infinite number of ways to get your music to them.

Next week, our articles here at MusicIsMyDayJob are going to focus on ways that you can find your audience–as niche or obscure as your sound may be–but until then, here are some of our favorite non-music articles on the topic:

• How to be a Rock Star in Your Niche from copyblogger
• Remarkable Communication on finding “all the people in the entire world who are weird in the same way you are”
• Men With Pens explaining why “small stats make for big audiences”
• Copyblogger on dominating your niche, whatever that niche may be

Thoughts on Blip.fm? Specific questions you have regarding finding your audience as a musician? Please share in the comments below or via Twitter.

Last week, the Huffington Post published an article by Mike McCready titled The Future of the Music Industry.  In this article, McCready describes his vision of how music will be discovered and consumed in the near future.  Besides overtly (over-)plugging his new Music Xray service and offering a somewhat reductionist view of the music industry’s glory days and current challenges, McCready predicts that:

• Music will appear free to consumers, even if it is actually paid for by advertising and licensing fees
• People will generally find music via computer programs and databases, and the key to the success of these databases is tied to the accuracy and depth of their data
• For artists to earn any sort of living making music–from music sales, concert tickets, or otherwise–they will need to reach the masses, and these recommendation systems will allow them to get in front of the “…gatekeepers, such as music supervisors in Hollywood, ad agencies, program directors and video game designers…” who will give them that mass exposure

I could go through McCready’s essay almost paragraph by paragraph, explaining where I disagree (and I still may in a future article).  Admittedly, he does get a lot of things right, and my issues are not with many of his facts, but rather, the assumptions he makes about the modern music business and the modern methods by which artists can achieve success.  Two of these assumptions in particular are very relevant to readers of this blog, and so let’s examine them.

Assumption #1: The Record Label’s Role as Filter

First, McCready seems very confused as to what the actual role of the major record labels has been, as well as their current challenges. His claim:

…[In the past] The music labels were society’s music filters. They were responsible for finding the best talent, nurturing it, promoting it and distributing it all over the world…[But now] How can the fans find the needles in the haystack they want to hear? How can the artists locate their future fans? It’s the fundamental problem the labels were solving but now they can’t do it effectively. There’s too much music for them to even try to filter effectively and nobody wants to buy their CDs anyway, so how can that work even be funded?

Yes, you read that correctly: the job of the major labels was to find the best talent and to promote said talent, and the problem today is that there is too much music for them to sift through to find the talent.

in reality, the job of the major labels has always been to find the talent with the most commercial potential

Now, as anyone who has worked at a major label will tell you, their goal is not to find the best talent; often times, quality is even an afterthought, as there are always singing lessons, auto-tune, and Max Martin’s production to fall back on.  No, in reality, the job of the major labels has always been to find the talent with the most commercial potential.  For better or worse, the major labels are in the business of generating income from music (not the music business, but the business of music), and while they often times find both, if they don’t see the potential in an artist to earn back more than what they are going to have to invest to make that artist an international star–whether through album sales or all-compassing 360 deals–they will not even consider offering the most talented musician a contract. I’m not saying that the major labels do not sign talented artists, but rather, that their goals are first and foremost commercial, with artistic talent in second place.

The claim that the labels can’t find the talent in today’s market is also bogus. The issue is not finding the talent–despite reductions in A&R budgets, hundreds of artists are still signed each year.  The challenge lies in being able to successfully promote that talent in the traffic jam that is today’s entertainment market place and convince consumers to spend money on that talent.  In the past, there were relatively few channels that the masses could use to discover new music–radio, print, television and word of mouth–and the major labels were generally able to take advantage of these channels and generate music sales with startling efficiency. However, they now they find themselves at a loss as to how to continue to generate revenue in a democratized marketplace (which, McCready, to his credit, quite accurately describes in the first three paragraphs of his commentary).

The lesson? Do not ever believe that you don’t have a major-label deal because you lack talent; it almost always comes down to economics.

Assumption #2: Mass Exposure is the Only Way to Earn a Living as a Musician

McCready also claims that in the future, mass exposure will continue to be the key ingredient to success as a musician. In his words:

In spite of the reduced barriers to music creation and access to easily have your song distributed to all of the digital outlets…it still almost always requires mass exposure in order for a song to really take hold and begin to earn some money…Songs must still come to the attention of someone who has an opportunity. The gatekeepers, such as music supervisors in Hollywood, ad agencies, program directors and video game designers remain and will continue to remain in place playing a valuable role.  So, real change will come by leveling the playing field and by giving individual artists equal access to mass-exposure opportunities.

The problem with this reasoning is two-fold. First, it relies on a very limited definition of success. We have addressed this before, so I will not go into too many details here. Sufficient to say, because of technology, success as a musician no longer requires platinum albums, ubiquitous radio play and major label money (in other words, mass exposure). If you are comfortable defining success as, “earning a decent living as a musician,” then you can be successful without mass exposure.

If you are comfortable defining success as, “earning a decent living as a musician,” then you can be successful without mass exposure.

Second, McCready seems to lack a fundamental understanding of who the gatekeepers are today, supplying an anachronistic list of typical entertainment executives who have something to do with music. The truth, though, is that, for better or worse, we have all become the gatekeepers–we send song recommendations to friends via Last.fm, iLike and imeem; we comment on user-generated videos and mark them as favorites for anyone in our network to see; we tell those who have decided we have something valuable to say our opinions and ideas in 140 characters or less, and allow others to do the same.  Inclusion in a block-buster movie or top-rated television show is no longer a guarantee that a song will sell, but get 500k views on YouTube or mass buzz via Twitter, and watch the sales of that song explode!

As a musician today, you do need gatekeepers, but those gatekeepers are all around you–they are following you on Twitter, making music videos for your songs and putting them on YouTube, reading your blog entries and, most importantly, using that same social media to tell their friends and followers about how much they enjoy your music. Is having a song included in Grand Theft Auto a good thing? Of course, but the point is that the importance of those who make those decisions as to what-is-exposed-where has been significantly diminished thanks to social media.  Today, everyone has an opportunity to be a gatekeeper, and your focus as a musician is no longer to search for your one big break via the gatekeepers of the past, but to take advantage of the dozens of small opportunities that you have each day to grow your tribe and create new fans.

*****

I have nothing personal against Mike McCready–I have never met him, and his Music Xray service appears to be something that should be in the independent musician’s toolbox. However, his essay for the Huffington Post on the future of the music industry demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the opportunities and possibilities that artists now have.  You don’t need mass exposure, and you don’t need the support of a major label. Build your tribe and create your own success.

One of the more effective ways for you as an independent musicians to promote your music and discover new listeners is through your local independent record store. These stores and their customers are at the center of any healthy local music scene.  Thus, they should be a key part of your music marketing strategy.

April 18, 2009, is the annual Record Store Day celebration–an excellent opportunity to both support these music-centric businesses and to promote your music to the locals. Read on to learn how…

What is Record Store Day?

This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, djs spinning records and on and on. Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day is now celebrated the second Saturday every April. – RecordStoreDay.com

Why should you care?

As stated above, independent music retailers are generally at the core of any healthy local music scene. These stores don’t just sell music–they are cultural centers, acting as the proverbial water-coolers for any scene’s true music fans. Customers come to these stores as much for the experience as they do for the music, and the best of these stores deliver both in spades.

Employees at these stores are not just High Fidelity-like music snobs , but they do know their music, and most are either actual artists themselves or tied into the local arts scene in some other way.  These people eat, sleep, drink and breathe music, and as an independent musician, you need them on your side.

These stores are active supporters or local music, promoting local shows to communities of active music consumers, writing about local bands via their websites & blogs, and selling music by local artists (generally via consignment). In other words, they are an independent musician’s best friend.

Support your local record store!

That brings us to Record Store Day 2009, and an excellent opportunity for local musicians to support their local indie record stores. How?

• Book a gig at a participating store–As described above, almost every participating store will have live music performances on Record Store day, and you should be one of the acts! (In a quick informal phone poll of 10 participating stores during the afternoon of 3/9, 6 of the stores were still finalizing their plans, so there is still time!) Remember, though, that this is a gig to support your local indie store and local music fans, so don’t play the diva or expect payment. This is all about generating good karma.
• Tell all of your fans about Record Store Day, and urge them to participate–Use your email list, your MySpace page, your Twitter account, your Facebook page and any other means you have to tell your fans to get out and support their local independent music stores. If you want to use official banners and website badges, go here
• Follow @recordstoreday on Twitter, and encourage your followers to do the same! There are also many independent music stores who you should be following on Twitter, including @amoebamusic, @criminalrecords, @hoodlums, @WaterlooRecords, @ZiaRecords, @Slowtrain and @landlockedmusic
  
• Even if they don’t have room for you to perform at their celebration, be sure to spend some time at your favorite indie record store on April 18th, 2009!
• Even better, make every day Record Store Day–don’t let these essential music-focused businesses vanish! Become a regular at your local indie music store–you’ll be glad that you did…

Now it’s your turn to share: how are you going to celebrate Record Store Day? Will you be performing at a local store? Dropping money on the original vinyl pressing of Black Flag’s debut? Picking up one of the many cool exclusive releases that the stores will have on 4/18? Tell everyone all about it in the comments!