Many musicians are multi-passionate when it comes to the arts. Those who love to sing, play instruments, and write music are the same ones you’ll usually find painting, dancing, taking beautiful pictures or writing books. It’s all that creativity swirling around inside and it comes out in various forms.

This is a guest post from Ethan Schiff (CEO of New Torch Entertainment), from the Music Marketing Money blog. In this post, Ethan stresses the importance of creating a world for fans to enter before taking care of all of those other tasks on your to do list.

As a new artist, it’s very easy to buy into the mindset that there’s a list of things you must do to compete in today’s music industry. This makes sense. Artists are, in fact, not solely artists as much as creative entrepreneurs.

Your Instagram page might see twice as much traffic as your official website, and your recent Tumblr post about a charity you support might resonate with fans more than your latest press release. The industry is changing. Digital is everything and everything is digital. It’s all on you. All of a sudden, launching your project is very overwhelming.

Typically I see new artists begin their new project with some sort of list. We’ll call this LIST A.

LIST A:
• Make Facebook page
• Make Twitter page
• Make Instagram page
• Immediately ask friends and family to Like/Follow/Share these pages
• Make MailChimp account
• Find a web designer to build a website (Editor's note: you can skip this with Bandzoogle, of course!)
• Find a graphic designer to make a logo
• Find a publicist
• Find a manager
• Find a merch company to make t-shirts
• Book as many shows as possible
• Hope for the best

Doing these things is of course not a bad thing. But doing them first misses the point. Creating LIST A is easy because everyone is writing the same list. As an alternative, here’s a list of questions (we’ll call it LIST B) that are much tougher to answer:

LIST B:
• What is my end goal?
• What do I care about, not as an “artist”, but as a person?
• What do my “fans” care about, as people?
• What level of transparency am I comfortable with?
• What visual aesthetic do I identify with?
• What will phase one, two and three of my live show look like?
• Is my current music actually the first impression I want to make, or should I keep writing?

And perhaps most difficultly yet importantly:

• What kind of experience do I want to create?

The most important thing to realize here is that you should not make LIST A if you don’t know the answers to LIST B. The second informs the first. How can you begin talking to your fans if you don’t know what you believe in?

The question of experience is critical. When planning new projects, it’s important to remember that a common thread between many of the most recognizable and successful artists is that they are able to create a world for fans to enter. This concept transcends genre, budget and even your recorded music.

When you see Katy Perry’s live show, you are absolutely and completely in a world that she created. But it extends beyond that into everything she does – from the way she tweets to her weather reporting skills.

Tom Waits does the exact same thing, possibly better than anyone else. If you watch his compelling live performances or this brilliant press conference for a minute, you’ll find yourself almost in a trance, realizing that you are in Tom’s world and not your own.

Beyonce is the queen, shining down on everyone else, and you’re lucky if you’re able to enter her world. Amanda Palmer is the artist of the people. Her world is completely accessible. You can hear the names Radiohead or Jay-Z and associate it with some sort of feeling and environment beyond your own.

As a new artist, your challenge is to truly identify and articulate the experience you are trying to create, regardless of scale. After firmly knowing the answer to that question, you will embark on your journey with significantly more clarity and confidence than ever imagined.

Ethan Schiff is co-founder and CEO of New Torch Entertainment, a New York-based music management, publicity and consulting company. He can be found on Twitter @EthanSchiff.

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

Who: Anne Janelle  
What: Contemporary Folk
Where: Brookfield, Nova Scotia, Canada
Why her website rocks: We recently posted The 8 things that should be in every band's digital press kit on our blog with tips for how to put together a press kit on your website. Well, Bandzoogle member Anne Janelle attended our Website Derby at the Folk Alliance conference this week, and we were blown away by the one she has on her site!

On top of having an incredibly well-organized site with great photos on each page, Anne created a perfect digital press kit page. We especially love that she has hi-res photos with vertical, horizontal, and black & white versions, giving journalists and bookers all the options they need for images.

Plus, she has a downloadable Onesheet with great press quotes, notable performances, and her full contact info. Really nicely done Anne!

Visit her site at: www.annejanelle.com

*If you’re in Kansas City for Folk Alliance, be sure to pass by our booth to get your website reviewed and join us for a member meetup Saturday night! Details here.

YouTube is becoming an increasingly important source of revenue for musicians. In this guest post, TuneCore Music Publishing offers some great tips on how to get the most out of your YouTube Channel. 

In case you haven’t heard, you can earn money when your sound recordings are used anywhere on YouTube. You can earn money when other people use your sound recordings in their videos and on your own YouTube videos. TuneCore can collect all this revenue for you. By signing up for TuneCore’s YouTube Sound Recording collection service, YouTube’s Content ID system will identify your sound recordings and your revenue everywhere it can be found. TuneCore gets the revenue from YouTube and deposits it directly into your TuneCore account!

With these new opportunities to make money from your music on YouTube and grow your brand, it’s important to have a well-developed YouTube channel. To help you kick your channel into shape, we’ve outlined some best practices designed to increase your channel’s appeal and effectiveness.

But first things first: If you don’t already have a YouTube channel, go to YouTube.com to create your artist page and start uploading great, engaging content.

All set?  Good.

#1. Give a good first impression.

Make sure you have a great thumbnail for each video. It’s the first thing people will see when they search for your videos, so make it appealing.  Each time you upload a video on your channel, you can choose from three thumbnail options.

#2. Be smart with your title and video description.

Your title is of course important for intriguing viewers, but it can also improve your search results. The very first term should be relevant and you should follow that with what is featured in the video. While your title should be clear and concise, the video description is where you can go in depth, providing insight into you as an artist. Go ahead and include your lyrics in the description—if a fan knows the chorus but not the song title, including lyrics will help them find your video.

#3. Set up your tent.

Tent pole content is the BIG EVENT or piece of content that you will build around. If the launch of your music video is the tent pole event, behind-the-scenes videos, in-studio sessions, direct-to-fan announcements and other promotions should all support the major launch. Plan out your calendar with these larger videos throughout the year, and build the roads leading to them with additional posts.

#4. Remember that YouTube is a social network.

According to recent stats, YouTube is more popular than Facebook for teens. YouTube is interactive. It’s not skyping-with-a-friend interactive, but the comments section reflects the real-time evolution of conversations. Artists should be engaging with fans after posting a video. And make sure you keep revisiting the comments section, responding to your viewers who just saw your video for the first time.

#5. Pick a winner.

Are you running a contest to give away tickets or merch? Make sure you use YouTube as a communication channel.  Create video announcements encouraging fans to enter, and announce the winner with a filmed congratulations!

#6. Create call-to-action videos.

Consider making a few quick videos to encourage your fans to take action. Ask people to vote, buy your single on release day, go support another artist’s site, or ask fans to come out to see you on tour. Speaking of touring, how about making a video for each city; you can be creative and ask for local tips in the comment section, or announce where you’ll be before the show for a fan meet-up. Use your videos to create opportunities.

#7. Annotate, Annotate, Annotate.

Add comments, directions, websites, purchase links—this is your video, after all! Use it as a billboard to advertise. And definitely direct fans to subscribe to your channel so you can keep them coming back for more. Bonus: annotations have been shown to improve total watch time.

#8. Play around (with playlists).

Create playlists of your videos instead of having a series of isolated videos. Start with your most recent and most popular videos to get your fans hooked, then let them cycle through new and old material.

#9. Hang out.  It’s work.

Make use of Google Hangouts, especially around your video premiers.  It’s also possible to set it up so you can stream your hangouts on your YouTube channel where your subscribers can tune in and participate.  (This functionality does require an application—INDMUSIC can help you make this happen.)  Have a way for fans to submit to be one of the few people in the hangout and not just a commenter. And always share the link to the stream to expand the hangout. These personal connections elevate your online events.

If you have the type of fans that talk and post about you in their YouTube videos, jump in their comments section and encourage them to join the hangout, or if they’re the host, crash their own hangout.  You can also try surprising fans with a video dedicated to their page.

Important tip! Make sure your Google + account is integrated and linked to your YouTube page.

#10. Timing is key.

If you’re busy promoting your music, you’re being featured on music blogs, your album just came out, or you have a song on a TV show, make sure you have relevant content on YouTube as well. Fans are going to be searching for your music.  Even if you don’t have a “professional” video done, throw together a lyric video.

Ready to take your YouTube channel to the next level? Try out the tips above, and let us know in the comments if they work for you (or if you have more tips to add). And make sure to check out how we can help you make more money on YouTube.

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

Who: Zardonic  
What: Metal EDM
Where: Planet Earth
Why his website rocks: When landing on Zardonic’s website, you’re immediately brought into his world of metal EDM.

Using our Manhattan theme, Zardonic added his logo to the header, and then created an amazing header slideshow using some great live images that show him in action. The mask, the stage production, and of course, the incredible crowd shots, all help to paint a picture of an artist who has been described as "Skrillex meets Slayer".

Great job with your site Zardonic, and we’re looking forward to those masks being available in your Store!

Check out his site at: www.zardonic.net

We’re heading to Kansas City for one of our favorite events, the International Folk Alliance Conference!

The conference is happening February 18-22 at the Westin Crown Center Hotel. Our Director of Artist Relations Dave Cool will be offering free website reviews, hosting our signature Website Derby panel, as well as organizing a members meetup. Here’s where to find him:

Website Derby

Thursday, February 19
10:00am (Penn Valley)

Dave will host this panel which will feature live website reviews for musicians, as well as for festivals, venues and presenters. Joining Dave to help critique websites will be Cindy Cogbill from Folk Alliance, and artist/designer/Bandzoogle member Alex Vissia.

Free Website Reviews

Dave will also be offering free website reviews to attendees of the conference during the following times at the Bandzoogle table:

Thursday, Friday & Saturday:

10am-1pm (Mezzanine in front of waterfall)
2pm-5pm (Exhibit Hall)

Kansas City Member Meetup

While in town for Folk Alliance, we’re also going to host a member meetup!

Please join our Director of Artist Relations Dave Cool to talk music and websites. It’s a great opportunity to meet and network with other members, find out what’s coming up next for Bandzoogle, and to let us know what features *you* would like to see us build. And the best part? Drinks are on us!

Details:

Saturday, February 21 @ 7pm
The Brasserie at Westin Crown Center Hotel (1 Pershing Road)

Please RSVP if you’ll be attending, space is limited.

Hope to see you there!

Great news if you’re selling physical items (CDs, vinyl, merch, tickets): you can now set "in stock" quantities and manage your inventory in the Store feature!  

More and more artists are selling limited-edition items like signed albums and posters, or even a one of a kind, hand crafted items. Now you can set a quantity of items to be "in stock" and you won’t need to worry about someone trying to purchase an item after it sells out.  It also works well for things like tickets with a limit number of seats available.

Whenever a fan purchases an item from your store, the inventory will automatically decrease. When there are no items left, it will display as “out of stock” on your website and you’ll know it’s time to reorder.

And as always, with our Store feature you get to keep 100% of your sales!

Inventory tracking is a PRO feature, a plan that includes other awesome stuff like album pre-orders, selling PDFs and videos, sale pricing, and creating unlimited download codes.

How it works

• In the Pages tab, click add feature, and select “Store”, or select an existing Store feature in your pages.

• Click add product, and choose to create a new product, or add an existing one

• Set Track Inventory to Yes, and enter the number of items you have available in stock.

• If you have variations of your product available, you can also track the amount of stock available for each variation.

• Click Save.

It’s that simple. Once you sell out of something, simply update the inventory for the item in your Store when you have new items available.

Let us know if this is an option that will help you better manage your sales. What types of merch items are you selling in your Store? Any other commerce feature or option you’d like us to build? Let us know in the comments!

With over 25,000 bands and musicians using Bandzoogle to power their websites, we see artists of all genres, and at different levels of their careers. Everything from garage bands rehearsing to play their first show, unsigned bands who just self-released their debut album, to artists signed to labels with many albums already under their belts.

The Grammy Awards are coming up this weekend, and we’re thrilled that several Bandzoogle members have been nominated! So we wanted to congratulate them, and also highlight their sites so you guys can learn a few website tips from some of the very best musicians around.

Who: Brandy Clark   
What: Country Singer-songwriter
Where: Nashville, TN
Why her website rocks: Brandy Clark is up for *two* Grammys, for Best New Artist & Best Country Album. Incredible. She’ll also be performing during the broadcast alongside Dwight Yoakam!

Brandy’s website is an example of how one nice professional photo can make for a simple, but great looking website. And we love how she puts her best foot forward on the Homepage with news about the Grammy nominations, an appearance on Good Morning America, and Late Night with Seth Meyers. Clearly it’s been a great year so far for Brandy. Congrats and good luck this weekend!

Check out her website at: www.brandyclarkmusic.com

Who: Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
What: Jazz Ensemble
Where: New York, NY
Why their website rocks: We love the page on The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra’s website dedicated to their latest album, which was nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album!

That page gives tons of context for the album. They explain the album's concept, who played on it, and include video interviews about the album, as well as photos from recording sessions. Really nicely done guys, we’ll be rooting for you this weekend!

Check out their site at: www.vanguardjazzorchestra.com

Who: T. Graham Brown
What: Gospel/Soul Singer-Songwriter
Where: Arabi, GA
Why his website rocks: T. Graham Brown was nominated for Best Roots Gospel Album, which is obvious as soon as you land on his site and see the special header image. A great way to put your best foot forward!

We also love that T. Graham Brown created a page just for Grammy voters. It has a full stream of the nominated album, biographical information about himself and the producer, as well as a personal video message from T. Graham Brown. We hope you bring home the gold T. Graham Brown!

Visit his site at www.tgrahambrown.com

There are many different kinds of people that will be visiting your website, but likely for different reasons. These include your current fans, potential new fans, as well as media, bloggers, bookers, and other industry folks. 

For example, your fans might go to your website to read your latest blog post or download your latest song. But with media and industry, they’re probably visiting your site to find things like your official bio, or some promo photos. 

To make it easy for media and industry to find the information they need (and quickly), the best thing to do is create a Digital Press Kit section on your website. 

What should you include in it? Here are 8 things that should be in every musician’s digital press kit:

1. Bio

The first element to have is your most current bio. Bookers and festivals often have different needs and word limits for bios, so it would also be a good idea to include a few different versions, including an elevator pitch, a short bio (1 paragraph), a medium bio (a few paragraphs) and a long bio (4+ paragraphs). 

2. Photos/images

The next element to include in your digital press kit is a section with downloadable (professional) photos. Have a few different official photos, with vertical and horizontal options, as well as black & white versions available. Make sure some of them are hi-resolution in case the media person or festival programmer needs to use the image for print. You can also include the image for your most recent album cover, which can be especially helpful for reviewers.

3. Music

You’ll of course need to have your music available to listen to, including a few tracks available to download. If a media person wants to get a copy of your full album or EP for review, just put clear information on who they can contact to get a copy.

4. Video

Many blogs and media sites love to embed videos of the artists they’re covering, which helps make the article more visual and engaging. Embed a few of your best videos in your digital press kit to make it easy to find a quality video that best represents your band.

5. Press articles/reviews

It wouldn’t be a press kit without some press, so post links to a few of your best reviews and interviews. Don’t assume that people will click on each article and read them in full. Pull the best quote from each review and include it underneath the link. You can also spice up this part of your digital press kit visually by including the logos of the media source next to each article/review.

6. Notable achievements

If you’ve been nominated for any awards, charted on radio, performed at noteworthy festivals or conferences, you should definitely include this information. Anything that can help to give positive context to your music and career should be in your digital press kit.

7. Contact info

Although you should of course have a “Contact” section on your website, you should also have detailed contact information in your digital press kit to have everything in one place. Include an email address as well as a phone # where a media person or booker can reach you if they need to speak to you in a hurry, they’re often working on tight deadlines.

8. Social media

And finally, include your social links on the page so that if the media person or booker wants to quickly check out your social media presence, they have all the links right there. You don’t have to overdo it, simply list the social media networks that you are most active on.

Want to see some great digital press kit examples? Be sure to check out these Bandzoogle members:

www.briaghamctavish.com/epk 
www.neilwatsonmusic.com/press-kit 
www.tylerkealey.com/press-kit 

Have a nice digital press kit on your website? Post the link in the comments!

In this guest post, photographer Faya gives an amazing behind-the-scenes look into the making of an album cover with Bandzoogle member B’s Bees. She gives great insight into what a photo shoot like this involves, which we think is helpful for all bands and musicians. Enjoy!

Recently, I had the opportunity to work with Montreal Jazz Band B’s Bees for their first studio album cover.

I have collaborated with a variety of bands from the Montreal music scene over the last little while, I found myself developing more and more elaborate shoots which have involved finding or building props, clothes styling, design and couture, and even climbing trees in the middle of the night, on an island, in the middle of a lake.

B’s Bees is a 7-piece hard swinging jazz band that highlights the music of the 1960’s Hard Bop era. I have been friends with band founder, Brandon Goodwin, even since our first years in Montreal. We had previously worked together on the official band picture and when he mentioned wanting a more intricate piece for the album cover, I was there!

As with every shoot, we had to figure out the same challenges. Photography is much more than just taking the picture, it’s all the hard work that goes into it, the weeks of research, development, props gathering, the team, coordinating all the elements, and overall, the time and the passion.

Location

We were on minimal budget, so rental was out of the question. We ended up converting my home studio into this magical room we are imagining, with the Victorian feel, wallpaper, armchair, big curtains. Then, we filled it with organized clutter, inspired largely by the book, A Perfectly Kept House Is The Sign Of A Misspent Life.

Props

Brandon’s girlfriend’s family provided us with most of the props for this shoot. Yay grandparents! Additional items were purchased at flea markets, Home Depot and Fabricville. All within a $150 budget.

Wardrobe

Wardrobe was taken care of by Brandon’s good friend, Kristy Wilson, who brought along Nathy for makeup with her charming ways.

Assistant

I worked with my long term assistant, Sebastien Villiard.

Video

As this was such an elaborate shoot, I knew that it had to be documented. That same day I had a request from Chris Kells wondering if I had any shoots he could be part of. Coincidence?

Voilà messieurs dames! We were ready!

The Shoot

This shoot was a whole journey, with prep starting up to 3 weeks prior to the day of the shoot. I have to say I felt almost crazy when designing the set as every single prop to the folds of the curtains were intentionally placed. I can only imagine that such is the case for movie sets also. This is where the line between cinematography and photography starts getting blurred. Is there even a line for such concepts? Am I overdoing it? Is this even going to look good? Oh, the eternal doubts of a creative mind.

Here is the BTS video that follows this endeavor. Hope you’ll enjoy it!

Originally from the tropical island of Mauritus, Faya is now based in Montreal, Canada. Her main focus is band photography in parallel with experimentations in fine art. Visit her website: www.thefaya.com

B's Bees is a Montreal based 7-piece hard swinging jazz outfit that highlights the music of the 1960s Hard Bop era. Check out their website (built using Bandzoogle) at www.bs-bees.com