This post originally appeared on the Cyber PR® blog. Cyber PR® is a digital PR and social media management firm located in Brooklyn, NY who specialize in niche marketing for musicians and the music industry.

This interview with our Director of Artist Relations was part of a seven-part series about radio promotion. In a past life, Dave was actually a radio promoter/tracker for indie artists, so he has some experience in this field. We hope you enjoy the interview!


Welcome to the third of our seven-part interview series ‘Charting the Course: A Radio Promo Discussion’.

The purpose of this series is to explore the world of radio promo, with insights from 6 people who work in and outside of the realm of radio promo, but all of whom have dedicated themselves to advising independent musicians.

Today we hear from Dave Cool, Director of Artist Relations at Bandzoogle!

1. Why should artists try to get their songs on Radio?

Radio has proven itself to be a resilient medium for music discovery. Even in the age of social media and streaming music, many people still look to radio for music discovery and trusted radio hosts who curate their content.

2. Which format is best to try to get if you are an independent musician?

I’d say definitely College & University radio. They’ve always been on the cutting edge of indie music and most open to new music, so it’s a great place to start. Of course, if we include Internet radio, then there are also countless stations that also play indie music.

3. Do independent musicians have a shot at getting their songs to break on commercial radio in 2012?

I’m not totally sure. Because of increased media concentration, with only a few companies owning the majority of commercial stations who then control the playlists, my sense is that it would be very challenging to get onto commercial radio. Unless you have a verifiable hit on your hands, chances are you’ll be frustrated trying to break into commercial radio.

4. How do you know if your radio campaign is successful?

It all depends what your goals are.

You’re not likely to chart or get onto heavy rotation on each and every station you send music to, but if you’ve sent music to 10 stations, charting on 3 or 4 might be a good goal to have.

Or maybe your goal the first time around is to simply raise awareness about your band to the Music Directors at stations and get added to their playlists.

Or it could be measuring the hits on your website coming from cities where you’ve sent music to radio stations. If you’re getting increased traffic (and hopefully newsletter sign-ups and/or music sales), chances are the radio campaign is working. Same for new likes on Facebook and new followers on Twitter. Looks at your stats and see where those people are from. There can be a lot of ways to measure success with a radio campaign.

5. How do you make a radio campaign last or have a future impact once you begin to slip back down the chart (assuming you already are up the chart)?

You can of course ask fans in that city to request your song to keep it high on the charts, you can do an interview at the station, or coordinate a giveaway with the station for CDs, tickets, other merch, etc. After that, you just need to make sure to have kept track of your highest chart ranking and add that information to your digital press kit and on your website so other industry people (and fans) can see how well you did, which might help open up doors for other opportunities.

6. How can you best leverage social media to work with your radio campaign (or is this not possible)?

It’s definitely possible to use social media to complement a radio campaign. You can ask fans on social media to request your music at specific stations, you can team up with radio stations on social media contests/giveaways, update your fans on your chart progress at stations. And if you’ve done any radio interviews, you should of course post the audio to your social media profiles.

7. What advice would you give an artist who calls you looking to spend money on a radio campaign?

I would advise them to shop around for experienced radio promoters/trackers, and preferably people who work specifically in their genre. Chances are those people will have relationships not only with music directors, but also with specific hosts who program music in your genre.

Secondly, I’d advise artists to work with their radio promoter on setting goals for the campaign, so each is clear what the expectations are. And any good promoter will keep you updated on a regular basis on the campaign’s progress, so you can see how things are going and make adjustments if necessary.

Every week, we highlight one of our favorite websites on Bandzoogle.

Who: Dave Goetter
What: Producer/Engineer
Where: Boise, ID
Why his website rocks: Hey, producers need websites too, and we love Dave Goetter’s. When you land on his website, you get a clear description of his services at the top, simple and easy navigation on his menu, and a great big professional photo of Dave. When you scroll down the Homepage, he also has a Featured Artists list that brings attention to some of the artists he has worked with. But maybe our favorite aspect of his site is his Discography page, where he displays all of his credits, organized by year. Impressive!

Check it out at: www.davegoetter.com

This is a video interview with our CEO David Dufresne that originally appeared on the website PromoteYourMusic.net. Promote Your Music was founded by Chris Rocket, an expert online marketer and obsessed with teaching musicians how to use these cutting edge tactics to level the playing field between DIY musicians and major label artists.

In the video, Chris and David discuss:

• The most common problems with musician websites...and how to fix them now.
• Ideas on getting hits using social media and practical steps to drive people back to your site and onto your mailing list.
• Why it’s vital to build a solid audience of 500-1000 fans before you’ll be able to make much money from your music.
• David suggests that old school music marketing was just about getting more and more fans because the profit margins were low on CDs...but now with the right subscription business model you could create a sustainable income with a relatively small group of people.
• How you can start thinking about your fans as “Patrons”, who will be more than happy to provide a little financial support to make sure you can keep making the music they love. (You become like “Leonardo Da Vinci” and your fans are the King paying you to keep the palace full of nice paintings)

Big thanks to Chris and PromoteYourMusic.net for doing this interview, we hope you guys enjoy it:

Our Director of Artist Relations Dave Cool will be travelling west this week to the Canadian Prairies. Manitoba Music, a great provincial music association, has invited Dave to give a workshop about blogging and social media to musicians at their office in Winnipeg. Here are the details:

Be Sociable: Fan Interaction from Blogs to Twitter
Wednesday, October 24
5:30pm

This workshop will teach some the most effective promotion strategies available in the blogging, Facebook, and Twitter world of music marketing. These self promotion strategies will help participants develop an effective step by step strategy for leveraging new opportunities in the digital age. Whether you are building a local following or looking to garner wider attention, this workshop will give you the tools you need to take sure footed next steps.

For more information and to register, click here.

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So if there are any Bandzoogle members in the Winnipeg area, be sure to check out this workshop! Also, Dave will be in town that evening and the following day, so if you can’t make the workshop but want to meet up while he’s in town, contact him at dcool[at]bandzoogle[dot]com

Who: Sierra Noble
What: Singer-songwriter
Where: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Why her website rocks: Sierra’s site is a shining example of how a professional photo makes all the difference for a website’s design. Landing on her website and seeing a great photo as her header image immediately conveys a sense of professionalism. We also love her Homepage, which has all of the essential elements we like to see, but we especially like that she updates the news herself, having a direct conversation with her fans. Nicely done!

Check it out at: www.sierranoble.com

Our Fall Tour goes international next week when CEO David Dufresne heads to Paris, France for the MaMA Festival & Convention. Here are the details:




Website Demolition Derby
Thursday, October 25
4:15 - 5:15PM

Witness live critiques band websites. Reviewing panelists will be ruthless and leave all diplomacy aside. The website's design, organization, content and functionality will be assessed. How does the website fit with the artist's overall online strategy, how good is it towards achieving certain goals?

Virginie Berger (France, marketing expert and founder of DBTH), David Dufresne (Canada, CEO of website platform Bandzoogle) and Ben Oldfield (head of The Orchard France, Swiss and Belgium) are experts when it comes to artists' online presence. They have been instructed to be ruthless but honest, so it should be a fun and useful session.

If you plan to attend and make sure your site is reviewed, send it in advance to david[at]bandzoogle[dot]com

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Digital Services Pitch Session
Friday, October 26
11:00AM - 1:00PM

Bandzoogle has been selected as 1 of 10 companies offering a musical internet or mobile services for a professional or a broader public to present their service at MaMA. So, our fearless CEO will have 6 minutes to explain why everyone should be using Bandzoogle to build their website. If you’re attending MaMA, go cheer him on!

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And speaking of France, stayed tuned for Bandzoogle en français, coming in 2013. We plan to fully translate Bandzoogle into French, and have already taken steps in that direction.

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Stay tuned to our blog as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages for more updates about our Fall Tour. Upcoming stops include the TAXI Road Rally in Los Angeles...

This is a guest post from The Unsigned Guide, an online music industry contacts directory & career guide produced specifically for emerging bands, artists, music managers, producers & anyone trying to make a living from music.

Reaching UK waters with your music is not as unachievable as you may first think! You may not have the funds and resources to journey over in person as yet, but don’t let that stop you spreading your music to further horizons.

Getting your music out to the masses

Thanks to the marvels of the internet it is no longer necessary to have a distribution deal in the traditional sense to get your music onto the likes of iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and eMusic. The major bonus with these digital stores is that you are not limited by territories so your tracks can be listened to across the globe. Find a digital distributor, carry out some research into the stores they can get your track into, enquire about the royalties you will earn and any cut the distributor may take, plus the length of time it will take for your release to be live in the stores. It can take up to 8 weeks for your music to be available digitally but this will allow time for you to orchestrate a campaign to draw the eyes & ears of the UK music industry to your release. This is where the trickier work begins, but it is certainly far from impossible – all you need are the right contacts.


Reaching radio & press contacts

The UK has many radio stations with specialist programmes and shows dedicated to unsigned & emerging music and most will welcome demos; you just need to know the producers and presenters to target. Many UK stations stream their shows live across the internet or have ‘listen again’ options on their website, so it’s always worthwhile tuning in and making sure your music fits the bill. Certain regional radio stations are always very happy to play music from local bands. Obviously, if you’re not from the UK this can be a little tricky but use your imagination a bit. Do any of your band members have links to a particular part of the UK that you could maximise on? If not, you could always make something up!

Although it can be harder getting coverage in the UK press on a national scale, there are plenty of smaller, specialist and well-respected publications you can try. However, an easier approach may be to get in touch with the many new music blogs and websites to get a buzz started. As with contacting radio stations, it always pays to do your research. Scour the blogs for reviews of bands & artists making music of a similar ilk and then see if you can get in touch with the writers and reviewers directly. This method of approach is often more fruitful than submitting your music to a general email contact. If you’ve already had some positive feedback and press quotes in the US, then this could certainly stand in your favour so make sure you include this when you make contact.

Get ur Tweet on!

Ah, the joys of Twitter! Chances are you’re already using social media to the max to promote your music…and if not, why not?! But have you considered using it to help establish some UK music contacts? You could start by tracking down an equivalent band based in the UK with a similar sound and then look through their followers and the Twitter types they are following themselves, to see who is into their music and who they are actively promoting it to. You may just stumble upon some good contacts, and obviously Twitter is perfect for a direct route of communication so you can obtain an email address and get in touch with further information about your music. Once you have gained a few overseas contacts, Twitter is also a simple and effective way to stay in touch, keep them updated with what you’re up to and hopefully create a longer term connection.

How do I get started?

The internet is a wonderful tool to start your research into finding relevant UK music contacts, but if you want to save yourself lots of time and put your effort into your release, then signing up to The Unsigned Guide is the perfect way to arm yourself with all the UK music industry info you need! The Unsigned Guide contains a mammoth directory with over 8,750 UK music contacts from all sectors of the music business. When self-releasing your music, our Selling & Distributing Your Music section will help you track down suitable digital distributors and stores. Our Media section will also be particularly handy as it encompasses contacts for Radio Stations including online stations & new music podcasts, National & Regional Press, Online Magazines & Blogs and much more.

Beyond the contacts, The Unsigned Guide is also packed with useful articles and blogs helping you get to grips with how the UK music industry operates including advice on how to get radio airplay, approaching music companies, self-releasing an album, and loads more, all provided by experienced industry professionals & organisations. Our DIY Doctor is also on call to annual members of The Unsigned Guide, so overseas bands & artists can take advantage of his expert advice to assist with moving their music careers forwards in the UK.

You've written a superb song... lyrics and music are flowing but there's just something missing. Later in the day you have an oldies station playing in the car and it hits you. A simple horn lick under the sweet sound of a commanding bellow. You know it would be the perfect compliment to your newly written hit, but how can you get that sound for your song?

Well, here's the quick and easy answer: You cut that piece out of the song (sample) and you get permission to use it (clearance).

(CC)Ethan Hein

We all know artists who take chunks of popular music throw it on their track and say, "What? I changed it enough so i don't need to get permission." According to copyright infringement law, this may or may not be true depending on the final product. I'm not a lawyer so should you want to interpret copyright law you can find it here.

EMusician.com has one of the best articles I've read about "HOW TO" clear a sample. It provides an in-depth step by step on how to obtain the permission you need to add a sample to your song.  You can also check out copyright records here, but may be limited to just the names of writers. Thanks to search engines like Google, you can usually find contact info on the copyright holder pretty quickly. If you have trouble locating the person/company, you can have the copyright office assist you, but at $165 an hour (2 hour minimum) you really need to make sure the sample is worth it!

Beyond copyright law though, one should consider moral law. Some would call sampling flattery, some call it lazy - either way, consideration should be given to the original creator of the music every time. You may get a free meatball sample at Costco, but if you wanted to use that same meatball brand for a dinner party, you will have to pay for it. Bottom line, sampling without proper clearance (permission and payment) is stealing, plain and simple.

Before diving into the magical world of sampling here are a few pros and cons to consider:

Pros

• The right sound can really add something special to your song. Song creation is like a puzzle with the melody, instruments, lyrics, and vocals. Sometimes the right sample can be just the piece you need to complete the puzzle.
• If you are trying to recreate an elaborate sound that would require you to hire musicians, it may cost less to pay for sample clearance.
• If the song contains a popular hook or phrase, listeners will relate more quickly which could boost your songs popularity (if done right).

Cons

• Sample clearance can be costly. These costs vary widely depending on the person or company granting permission. Roughly speaking you can hire a sample clearance company for around $250 per sample. If you add a couple of samples to a few songs on your EP or album that can really add up!
• If you decide to add samples to your music without clearing them, you could end up with a lawsuit on your hands. Lawsuits are expensive so word to the wise: Every sample needs to be cleared.

Alternatives
To avoid these headaches, here are a few ideas that may help in the music creation process instead:

• Sampling music from other indie artists is a great way to not only save money, but find some really great original sounds. You'll generally have an easier time obtaining permission to use the sample, and the costs may be less. This is a win-win for both artists as they will each be promoting the song for their own purposes.
• Instead of sampling music from other artists you can purchase sample and loop CD's or downloads. By doing a quick Google search for 'sample music' you'll get many results for clearance free samples and loops (many free!) that you can use in your music.
• One of the most cost effective alternatives to sampling would be to recreate the sound your way. You can sing, play, or program many of the same sounds with home studio equipment. It may not sound the same as the original artist or song, but at least you can say it's all your own. This saves time and money in the long run.

What are your thoughts on sampling?   Do you have any additional pros, cons or alternatives?

Every week, we highlight one of our favorite websites on Bandzoogle.

Who: Patryk Larney  What: American roots singer/song-writer  Where: New York City, New York  Why his website rocks: Starting from his hand drawn header image and great font choice, Patryk's site is a testament to great design sensibility. Every aspect of the site, from the colour of the links to his site-wide player, is coordinated, and ties in perfectly with the promotional information for his new album's release. Bonus points for the custom buttons (also using artwork from the new album) that point to each of his sub-pages.

Check it out at: http://patryklarney.com

This is the 4th of 5 website reviews as part of the Hypebot & Bandzoogle Video Website Review Contest. This time, we review the website for Mushy Callahan, a 4-piece/4-brother rock band from Toronto, Canada.

Below is the video review of their website: www.mushycallahan.com

Mushy Callahan’s website has a flashy design and is well-organized, but we go over some of the ways they can improve the design by moving away from the flash elements, adding more personal content, and adding a few key elements that will make the site work better for the band.

We hope that Mushy Callahan, and everyone who watches, finds the video review helpful:

This is a guest post by Fran Snyder. Fran is an artist and the founder of ConcertsInYourHome.com, DinnerAndSong.com, and ListeningRoomNetwork.com - three sites dedicated to the creation and support of "gigs where people listen." Fran has toured more than a million miles, released 7 independent CDs, and continues to tour, record, and speak at conferences.

These are exciting times. Underneath the crumbling architecture of modern touring, artists continue to innovate to get their music heard, and to get their bills paid.

DinnerAndSong is a new house concert format that creates opportunities for easy-to-plan, easy-to-play concerts to fill the most challenging nights on our touring schedules - weeknights.



House concerts aren't new, but they've become critical to the livelihood of the modern troubadour and small touring acts. Usually, it's a pot-luck dinner, 2 sets of music, and a great time for all. The artist gets a meal and a pillow, a captive audience, and $10-20 donation per guest.

The challenge is that 80% of these concerts typically happen on Saturday nights. House concert presenters find it easier to clean up, set up, and get an audience to show up on weekends. Two other factors reinforce the weekend appeal:

1. the format - it's a 2-3 hour event, and
2. the notion that house concerts have to be attended by 20-50 people to be worthwhile.

If you love to play house concerts, what do you do on the other six nights of the week?




Dinner and Song has been a great way to fill in some open weeknights while we’re on tour. We’ve also used them as a “sample” show where we are booked the following year for a full house concert, but the host gets to introduce us to a “core” group for a casual evening, to help build interest for the following season. - Bill & Kate Isles

The DinnerAndSong (DNS) Advantage

• What if a house concert took no more effort than hosting a dinner party?
• What if the format allowed even a small audience to be fun and worthwhile for the artist?

For the DNS host, there's no renting of chairs, setting them up in neat little rows. Usually no sound system, none of the stress of having a big crowd in your home. A couple of pizzas, a salad, and 8-12 guests is all you need. After the 30-minute dinner* with the artist, everyone just gathers around the comfy living room and the performer plays a 40-minute set. The whole event is over in less than 90 minutes.

For artists, it's important to consider what house concerts do, besides allowing an artist to play for an attentive crowd and get paid. Let's also assign a conservative dollar value to these benefits.

• $70 Free place to stay
• $10 Free food
• $20 Intangibles: an easy set, easier set up, new fans/friends, opportunity to create more shows. There are all kinds of benefits to getting to know people in the house concert world. Sometimes, they even take you tanking.

For a touring artist, it's safe to say there's at least $100 in value before you even count donations and merch sales. Now, let's say you have 8 people, at $10 per person, and sell 5 CDs at $10. That's another $130.

So, $230 on a weeknight, in a town where you possibly only had one fan. Not a huge night, but certainly a win if your option was to play a cafe or nothing at all. What if you had an ambitious host who pulled in a few more people?

"We've performed several DinnerAndSong events and have had wonderful experiences at every one. DinnerAndSong turns a casual weeknight get together with friends over food, wine, or dessert into a mid-week mini-concert, providing all the magic and intimacy of a house concert in a condensed format. The DNS concept proves that work nights don't have to be down nights, offering an opportunity to pause, relax, and recharge in the midst of the week day bustle. DinnerAndSong broadens the scope of the house concert movement, expanding the number of evenings we can experience the joy of performing for a listening audience in the intimacy of a home, and it increases the number of moments that we feel a room dissolve into music and wonder." -- Ian McFeron

DNS events can even pay off locally. Again, off-nights strike at home just like they do on the road. Home is where you have the most connections, and the best chance to inspire several fans to have an exclusive event with you. That's right - put a limit on attendees - and sell out every time.

Weekend house concerts can be great, but now we can inspire people to host shows during the week - those nights when touring artists often lose money, playing for half-empty, noisy rooms of distracted patrons? Through ConcertsInYourHome, we've seen hundreds of these events happen, and it's easy to see small events like DinnerAndSong and DessertAndSong adding a hundred thousand dollars of revenue for artists in the next few years.

So how do we inspire people, especially our fans, to host a concert for us on a weeknight?



After creating the DNS format, we created a website to promote the idea. It's a key component of our artist memberships, but you don't have to join anything to use our free promotional tools.

Next time you want to plan a tour, share the DinnerAndSong idea with your fans and friends, and leverage your fan-base to fill the most critical gaps in your schedule. Delight your fans with exclusive, personal events, and stop losing money on weeknights. Many of our artists have pitched the DNS idea when reaching out on Couchsurfing.com, with some nice results.

*some artists prefer to eat after they play, so the format can be switched, or they can just pick lightly during dinner as they chat with the guests.

Every week, we highlight one of our favorite websites on Bandzoogle.

Who: August Rising
What: Modern Rock Band
Where: Los Angeles, CA
Why their website rocks: August Rising’s website makes great use of one of Bandzoogle’s templates, with a nice header photo and well-organized navigation. But what we really love about this site is their clear call-to-action to join their mailing list. Not only do they feature it above-the-fold (before needing to scroll down the page), but they offer great value to fans who join their mailing list in the form of exclusive, email-only content. Nicely done guys!

Check it out at: www.augustrising.com

After our CEO David Dufresne finishes a whirlwind tour of conferences in Nashville, New Orleans, Atlanta and San Francisco, he’ll then be off to Europe for some events there (more details on that soon). Sadly, he couldn’t fit any of us into his luggage for that trip (note to ourselves: buy the boss a bigger suitcase for Christmas).

So, our Director of Artist Relations Dave Cool will take over the North American leg of the Bandzoogle Fall Tour from here, starting with trips to Toronto and New York City. Here are the details:

OCFF: October 11-14 in Mississauga

OK, it’s not exactly in Toronto, but not too far away (about 45 minutes). OCFF is the key event for Ontario’s folk, roots, and traditional music community, and this has become one of our favorite conferences. So we’re happy to have a solid presence there again this year. Here’s where you’ll be able to find us:

Website Demolition Derby
Saturday, October 13
2PM-3:30PM

Dave Cool will be leading our signature “Website Demolition Derby” panel, where websites will be critiqued live in front of an audience.


Free Website Reviews
October 12 & 13
10AM-6PM

On the Friday & Saturday of the conference we’ll have a table set-up from 10AM to 6PM offering free website reviews to musicians. Come by to say hello, get your website reviewed, have some free candy, and if you’re already a member, pick up a free t-shirt too! Dave, along with David and Melanie from our support team will be on hand giving reviews.


Exhibit Hall
October 12 & 13
Noon-2PM

We’ll also be offering free website reviews in the Exhibit Hall when it’s open on the Friday & Saturday of the conference.

CMJ: October 16 in New York City

From Toronto, Dave will (maybe) have enough time to get home to Montreal, do some laundry, and then head out to New York City to speak on a panel at CMJ. Details:

The Art of Creating a Superb Website for Musicians
Tuesday, October 16
12:30PM

Panel Description: A musician's website can be a luminous tool highlighting an artist’s brand, or a disastrous representation of career doom. What should a homepage look like? What are some of the key factors involved to launch and maintain a successful site? Your website is your faceplate and your mouthpiece to the world, and these dedicated professionals are here to show you how to get online traction to match your music.

If you’ll be attending CMJ, be sure to come say hello to Dave at this panel!

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Stay tuned to our blog as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages for more updates about our Fall Tour. Upcoming stops include MaMA in France, and the TAXI Road Rally in Los Angeles...

A few months ago we teamed up with Creative Allies on a contest to design a new Bandzoogle t-shirt. We received over 100 submissions, and after several weeks of voting on Facebook, we have our winner!

So, without further ado, here is the winning design:



Congrats to the designer Stephan from Toronto, who won $500 and a two year Bandzoogle Pro account! Stephan also happens to be a Bandzoogle member with his band "The Clearing"! Check out the band's website here: http://theclearingmusic.com

A big thanks to Creative Allies and to everyone who participated in the contest by submitting designs and voting on Facebook, we appreciate it!

- Team Bandzoogle