I’m always on the lookout for tips and tricks which we can use to persuade people to interact with us. As a band just getting off the ground, it’s all about Guerilla Marketing and doing the best with what you’ve got. One of the main problems being a band and attracting fans is keeping their attention from the start - people have limited attention spans and on the internet you have a very short period of time, usually seconds, to turn someone from merely curious into actively involved with what you do.
This isn’t about lying or being rude - we can leave that to the porn popups which do nothing but promote celibacy. This is about making sure that when people come across your website, mailing list or press release they are engaged to take action as much as possible. You only get one go at this stuff usually so every word counts. And as anyone who has read Lost In Showbiz can testify, you can often do yourself more harm than good.
So I picked up a copy of Yes! 50 Secrets From The Science Of Persuasion whilst killling time in Borders bookstore on Charing Cross Road and found it really interesting. Not all of the 50 things it details can really be applied to being in a band or having a website as some of it is more about dealing with business situations, but it is a great read and there are some things that can be applied to presenting yourself online.
I’ve picked out some of the more interesting points from the book, numbered so you know which points I am talking about should you buy it. I do recommend it, it’s a great read.
1. Make yourself look busy and successful already by carefully choosing your words. When an already famous infomercial changed it’s tagline from ‘Operators are waiting, please call now’ to ‘If operators are busy, please call again’ they saw a marked increase in calls. The first sentence conjured up scenes of bored operators waiting for calls, the second promotes the idea of operators struggling with the load.
The main thrust of this, and much of the book, is that people like things that they think other people like. Anything you can do to show that other people like you, such as a list of recent people to sign up to your mailing list, can help persuade people that you’re worth it. And as we can see from the infomercial example, it doesn’t even have to be specific - even the thought of it can help.
2. With this in mind, try also being specific - people are more likely to do something if they think that other people who are similar to themselves also did something. For instance, telling a country music forum how much other people who like country music also liked an alien rock band. Eight out of ten country music fans said they liked the alien rock band. See?
3. Negative social proof. This is like the flip side of the previous points - people are less likely to do something if they think other people did something different. Notice I didn’t say ‘People are less likely to do something if they think other people also did it’ as this in fact increases the chances of people doing more of the stuff people aren’t doing. Confused?
An example. Instead of telling people not to illegally download your stuff, tell them that the majority of people buy your stuff. Instead of labouring the point of what you don’t want people to do (which makes it too important) highlight the point of what you DO want people to do. People want to be like everyone else, and if you highlight the fact that everyone is illegally downloading (for instance) they’ll think nothing of it.
4. Magnetic middle - people gravitate towards what everyone else is doing IN BOTH DIRECTIONS. If you tell your fans what the average fan does for you, the fans who do less will do more, but the fans who did more will do less - they will all gravitate towards the average. So make sure that you make sure that people who are already great fans are still rewarded and told that they are valuable.
5. Don’t offer too many options. If you have a store or merch, break it down. A store with 6 obvious choices will sell more than a store with 20 choices. If people can’t make their minds up, there is no sale.
6. Be very careful when giving out freebies. When you give out freebies, always remind people of the VALUE of the freebie. (Buy the CD, get a complimentary t shirt worth 12 pounds - NOT Buy the CD, get a free t shirt) Basically, don’t use the word free EVER - always attribute value to your generosity.
7. Have various price points. Think about the way you look at a wine list. I bet you always pick a wine which isn’t the cheapest, but is a few up from the bottom. This is where the thing you want people to buy should be positioned - the list itself gives items value.
9. Do nice things for your fans shortly before asking for their help. The law of reciprocity dictates they will be far more willing to help. This is a much better idea than pleading. If you do nice things for people, they will do nice things back - however, act first.
10. Personalization. Anything handwritten increases interaction by a huge amount. If you want people to act, make it personal. One post it note, handwritten and stuck to a form increases interaction by almost three quarters. If you want people to do something, make them feel special.
11. If you want to treat people, also make them feel special and that they have something that others do not.
13. If people do you favours, pay them back soon. If you do people favours, ask for a favour back soon. People have short memories. Keep it current.
14. Foot in the door. If you can get someone to help you in a little way, they will probably help you in a bigger way shortly after. Instead of asking fans to stick a huge banner on their own sites promoting your band, first ask them to place a small easy banner. Then later ask them to use the huge banner. They will be way more likely to help, because they already have in a small way.
15. Labelling. Assign someone a nice trait, and then ask them to act upon it. I know you’ve been very supportive of live music in the past, so please come to our gig next week. I know you wont abuse this technique, because after all you are a very honest person.
16. Ask questions. ‘Please let us know if you can’t attend the gig’ is not as good as ‘Will you please let us know if you can’t attend the gig?’ Also, ‘Please vote for us in the battle of the bands’ is not as good as ‘Will you be voting for us in battle of the bands?’
The main thrust here is that when you get an answer the chances of interaction further down the line are greatly increased.
17. Get people to write things down. People commit to things more if they have signed something, ticked a box or generally acted in some physical way.
20. When you’re asking for something, show that even something small can be useful. ‘Please donate money’ is not as good as ‘Please donate money, even a pound can help.’ Something to consider if you’re thinking about raising finance through the internet.
22. Get someone else to sing your praises. This is always a funny one for bands who have to write their own blurb the whole time. Try and quantify your brilliance by quoting other people. Being smug really doesn’t work - however, you need to prove your worth so you need others to do it for you.
28 Turn a weakness into a strength. ‘L’Oreal - ‘cos you’re worth it’ is a good example - this product is expensive, but that’s ‘cos you care about the way you look. Write a list of your weaknesses and make them interesting - your weaknesses make you unique.
29. Along the same lines, mention your faults but back them up with a plus. An example is ‘Small but perfectly formed’ - take the negative aspect on the chin and back it up with a positive effect of this aspect. ‘We’re a tin pot band with a tin pot sound, but we sure as hell will bring the house down’ (Whoops, just strolled into another point about rhyming)
30. Admit your mistakes. If you have to cancel the gig, be very open about it and admit human error. People will respond positively.
31. On the other hand, if it’s an internet related error blame the technology.
32. People tend to gravitate towards words they can easily pronounce, and this includes band names. So don’t call yourself Georgia Wonder then.
33. People also tend to prefer things that sound like their own name. There are a lot of dentists called Crentist for a reason. Even the first letter of a name can dictate someone’s profession. I’m a musician, my name’s Moore. Hmm.
34. Mirroring. If you mimic someone else, they are more engaged with you. Sounds crazy, but if a waiter simply reads back to a customer what they just ordered, their tips increase by 70%.
36. Uniqueness. I know there isn’t so much scarcity on the internet these days, but people still like exclusives, and still like to know that something doesn’t happen very often. After all, it’s not often we get to work on something like this, is it?
37. Don’t talk about savings, people can’t get their heads around it. Talk about LOSSES. So instead of ‘If you buy these things together you can save x amount’ you should say ‘If you DON’T buy these things together you will lose x’.
38. Because because because. The word because is very powerful. Just going up to a queue of people and asking if you can go first will get you nowhere. Going up and asking if you can go first ‘because I need to’ will increase your chances, even without a valid argument. Put in a valid argument however and it works every time. Again - ‘L’oreal - because you’re worth it’.
Please keep reading my blog, because I need you to read it. Please keep reading my blog, because if you don’t this small puppy will die. (Feel free to make your own up)
39. All the reasons - none of the reasons. When people are asked to give ten reasons why something is great, they end up not being so favourable about something as when they are asked to give one GOOD reason why something is great. So before you start asking your fans to come up with ‘all the reasons we’re so fantastic’ stop yourself and ask them all to think of ‘one cool reason why you think we’re so fantastic’
41. Rhymes. There was a reason for the jingle. They are easily remembered. Beanz Meanz Heinz. See if incorporating a rhyme somewhere can help people remember something important.
42. Perceptual contrast. People remember detailed stuff more than less detailed stuff. If you want to promote one thing over another, detail it more.
43. Loyalty cards. This is a good one. In many coffee shops you get a loyalty card - every time you buy a coffee they stamp your card - get ten stamps gets you a free coffee. However, they give you two stamps to get you started. This is the same as having an empty card to start with with only eight stamps required.
It is the feeling you get of already being on your way that makes this more efficient. Always try and explain to your potential fans how they are already engaged or along a certain road. I mean, you’ve come this far and you’re already on the way to getting a complimentary CD in the mail.
44. Give product choices interesting names. Option 1,2,3 and 4 is nothing like as effective as ‘Blue Elephant Package’ or ‘Stripey Megapack’. Make the names interesting and appealing.
45. Logos. Use your logos in all the right places. This goes without saying, but I’ve seen bands put their videos on YouTube without even having the name of the band or the graphic in the video. You need to jog people’s memory about where else they saw you wherever possible.
50. Coffee makes people more receptive. Force everyone to drink coffee at your next gig just before you tell them where your merch table is (or not)
Ok, that’s a quick breeze through the book. It’s well written and thought provoking, and although it’s essentially a book of lists, it’s the mindset that you come away with after reading it that is useful. Highly recommended.
Ok, I know this has been doing the rounds, but I need to post this up here just in case you’ve missed it. Some guys in the 90’s did some crowdsourcing of their own - they asked people to describe their kinds of music they hated the most, and what they comprised of. And then they wrote some music that fitted this description.
Lifted quote alert:
The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and “elevator” music, and a children’s choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commercials and elevator music. Therefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance–someone who dislikes bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ, for example–fewer than 200 individuals of the world’s total population would enjoy this piece.
So in a way this is an early version of crowdsourcing and just goes to show that it’s not the data itself that’s important, but what you do with it. What is great about the piece is that it is DEFINITELY unique, wheras the song these guys wrote based on what is POPULAR was very dreary indeed.
Is it genius, or is it crap? Who knows, but it made me laugh till my eyes bled. I wonder what an up-to-date version of the most hated music in the world would be like? Hmm I feel a side project coming on…
There’s been a lot of talk about crowdsourcing over the last few months, particularly as it pertains to bands and artists. Although these conversations have been varied in scope, here are a few main themes that keep cropping up:
1. Using a global music contest/promotion site to validate an artist or band to increase awareness and sales
The idea being that by using sites that allow anyone in the world to vote on their music likes and dislikes one can prove the potential of an artist and increase their value. Slice The Pie and OurStage fall into this category, as does to some extent Amie Street.
2. Using an existing fan base to help promote a band or artist using street teams across the Internet
The idea of using your current fans to get new fans not just by traditional word of mouth, but by using all kinds of Internet and viral strategies, banners, playlists etc. ReverbNation has good tools to do this in the form of widgets, emails lists and street team management. Of course the original and most famous website to facilitate this is Myspace, although it tends to be more of a band to promoter tool nowadays.
It could be argued that this is only real crowdsourcing if you do actually have enough fans.
3. Crowdsourcing investment
The idea of getting fans and others to invest in your act, however small an amount, as a way of getting where you’re going. This bucks the trend of traditionally relying on a record label to fund absolutely everything, and can help strengthen bonds with existing fans whilst also collecting new ones.
Sellaband was the first site to tie in it’s $50k goal in with bands, but unfortunately it also ties them into a lot more than just receiving the money to do what they like with. Other sites like Fundable exist where you can raise money for anything in return for anything, and Fundability which is a higher end investment model for when you want to go for something a bit more business like, with the potential to find some heavyweight angels.
4. Using a service to help promote a band or artist using street teams across the Internet
The idea of paying premade networks to promote your music. There are services that will boost your YouTube plays, Myspace hits, friend adds and all sorts - for a fee. Majors and smaller labels alike realised the importance to get coverage across the Internet social sites as a means of promotion, and for breaking a new band just as in traditional media, a lot of people need to be made aware of a lots of acts very quickly.
When you have several accounts on social music sites, it becomes quickly apparent which bands and labels are outsourcing their crowdsourcing - suddenly a band you have never heard of is asking to ‘befriend’ you across all networks at the same time. This costs time and money.
Now these are all very valid and salient ideas about crowdsourcing, but on the whole the people who are talking about these things are people in bands with absolutely no public face whatsoever. Unheard of bands, hearing about all this stuff, wondering how they can make use of it. They are going to be at point one.
I have put these crowdsourcing ideas in this order as you can’t really do one until you’ve done the previous one. If you started a new band tomorrow, and had just put a myspace page up and were looking ONLY to use the Internet as a means of making yourself known then this is pretty much it.
If you (1) put your music on some contest style sites you could get known to new audiences which would (2) help you generate a fan base which could (3) allow you to ask them to invest in you, the money which you could use to create MORE investment from ‘real’ investors meaning you could (4) start spending the money on growing your fanbase faster.
Of course it’s not anything like as cut and dry as this, but you get the idea. Crowdsourcing is a term to describe something that we already do, already happens and is the nature of the social landscape.
This is all very interesting, but in actual fact has nothing to do with why I am writing this article. Although I think it is good to know about all this stuff, I think that the FEEDBACK one can get from the whole process is even more valuable. Let’s start thinking about crowdsourcing as the biggest focus group in the world.
When you put your music on any site which allows people to vote for your music, either against other people’s or in it’s own right, you have access to opinion. On some sites this could be as much as a written appraisal of your track, on others it could simply be the fact that once the voting was done, you came 25th out of 1000 other tracks. This information is extremely valuable as it lets you break the crowds down into SMALLER crowds. And if you can do that, you can find the crowds that are going to be useful to you. No one can please all the people all the time, but we can use a crowd to find a community, and use a community to find our potential true fans.
With each site that you can use, you should at least be aware of its:
Geographical bias (crowds on a mostly american site are going to vote differently to a UK site)
Average age per site
Average age per genre (if the site has genres)
This will at least help you get a handle on what the feedback actually MEANS from one of these sites.
Let’s imagine you put the same song into a contest on a US site and a UK site which were more or less identical in terms of active users, age etc - at the very least you would come out of it with some data which showed you which country liked the song the most. If you put the same song in again, you would have a more accurate reading. What if you put the song on a French or German site? Could that teach you something about this one song?
Let’s take another song and put it on a site which has a plethora of categories to put the song in. You enter the song into the ‘Acoustic’ category and after a month it gets into the top 50 Acoustic songs that month. You change the category to ‘Folk’, and it comes in the top 20. You try some more related categories but still it always seems to strike a nerve and get higher up in the Folk chart.
In these two examples we are using crowdsourcing to discover who actually likes what we do, who reacts to it the best, and in what genre, in what country. It has cost us nothing, and we can do it per song. Being able to use these crowds as a focus group on a song per song basis leaves you with a very clear picture of where your song is going to be well received. It can help you target your PR, come up with angles for stories. It can let you discover the cross over points of one genre to another, and help you find niches that you didn’t even know you were a part of. It can show you where to spend your time, and where to spend it less. If you are looking for licencing on certain songs, it can show you which territories may be more receptive to certain songs.
So although people say you’ve got to be in it to win it, I beg to differ. You’ve got to be in it to learn how to win it, which is entirely different. Use the crowds to show you where you belong, and to discover smaller and more niche networks of potential fans. Fire your songs into the crowd, study where they land, and then alter your aim accordingly. Listen to the mob and target those calling your name. You may end up with a club instead of a crowd, but at least they’re all yours.
It’s not very often that one of your friends does something really ultra-cool, so when they do it’s nice to have a platform to brag about the fact that you know them. Financial renaissance man Max Keiser has been taken on by the Huffington Post as one of it’s business bloggers. Quite an achievement for someone tipped to be the Bill Hicks of finance.
Some of you reading this from the UK may not know what the Huffington Post is but let’s put it this way - The Guardian newspaper put Huffington Post number one in it’s recent rundown of most important global blogs. It’s big and important and grown up. So you should at least go and read it.
Max and I have worked together a few times - we’ve battled with semantics on websites such as his Kinooga film financing website (still in beta) - I’ve played a con-man on the streets of Paris in one of his documentaries, and I’ve even written some music for his podcast and radio show.
While we’ve all been wondering how to monetize our music sites and endeavors, Max has for years been monetizing dissent. You can read his extensive take on the world of commerce (and more) over on his own site.
Max was one of the first people I ever met who embraced the podcast totally and utterly. With his partner Stacy Herbert, they have been cranking out shows day in, day out, for years, without any of the ‘blog fatigue’ that seems to be hitting certain Internet bloggers. And it has certainly paid off. One year I’m sitting there wondering what the hell they’re doing this podcast for a few people for every night, three years later I’m wondering why I didn’t do it. They have built up a loyal and attentive fanbase by simply delivering good content until people noticed. Persistence is everything.
So that’s it, I’ve bigged up my friend, but I had to really. He was first person to play a Georgia Wonder track on the radio anywhere (on London’s Resonance FM) and you don’t forget stuff like that. I wonder if Huffington Post need a new theme tune…
I was just reading a thread over at Music Think Tank and a quote from Derek Sivers of CD Baby made me laugh.
“I’ve met too many people who got into music because they loved playing drums, but well-meaning people tell them they need to read some huge book about the business of music and negotiating contracts, cross-collateralization, and points on the agreement. Feeling guilty, they try to go through it but find it boring. Then they start copyrighting all of their songs and trademark their name and set up an LLC. Someone else says they need to have a website, so they try to learn HTML, but someone else says they need to have flash on the site. Then they try to learn flash. The truth is that while all of those things are important, nothing is more important than maintaining your full excitement for what you are doing. If you lose your enthusiasm along the way, things will fail no matter how flashy your site is or if your band name is trademarked. Pay close attention to the compass in your gut. Do the work that’s most exciting to you, because that’s what you will do best” - Derek Sivers
I’d read it before already somewhere, but as I have been spending a stupid amount of time doing related-but-not-neccasarily-musical activites it made me think about just what it is I do on this damn computer.
So as a stream of consciousness in no particular order, from things I have spent days on to things I have merely touched upon, here is a list of things that so far this year have taken up my time while sitting in front of my monitor. Some are applications, some are websites, some are blogs, some are services, some are companies. It would take me far too long to create links for them all so please forgive my laziness, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’ve already spent far too long either using, or considering using, the stuff on this list.
I’m not sure why I’m posting this - all I do know is is that I did it in half an hour and found it quite valuable. I first looked at all the apps I used regularly, then went through my Firefox bookmarks, then skimmed through my emails back to the start of the year, just to remind myself what I’d been up to. These are in no particular order other than that. It made me feel a bit better once I’d created this list, and made me realise just how long it takes not only to do what you do, but also to discover and experiment with new stuff.
(I have marked things with an asterisk * which I only discovered or started using this year)
Firefox
Safari
Pro Tools
Logic Audio
Final Cut Pro
iMovie
iPhoto
Photoshop
Dreamweaver
Flash MX
Joomla
Wordpress
Transmit
Quicktime
Pages
Text edit
BB Edit
Pukka
Last FM
iTunes
Wire Tap Pro
Audacity
Audio Unit Manager *
Nicer *
Waveburner
Skype
twhirl *
iChat
MySQL
User CP
Facebook
Myspace
MOG *
Virb *
Digital Rodeo
iLike
Bebo
iMeem *
Slash Music
Reverb Nation
Slice The Pie
OurStage *
Famecast *
Music Nation *
Feedburner *
MyBlogLog *
Technorati *
Tubemogul
YouTube
Myspace Video
Veoh *
Crackle *
Revver *
Yahoo Video *
AOL Video *
Brightcove *
Metacafe *
Daily Motion
UK Flyers
Awesome Badges
Bargain Band Merch
Music Industry News Network *
NPR
PR Web *
Daryl Willcox Publishing *
My PR Genie *
Drop.io *
Flickr
Twitter
iMooch
Mixaloo *
Nimbit
Tunecore
Amazon Advantage *
ShopIt *
mPush *
Beatwire *
Tabber *
Friendfeed *
Buzznet *
VidyUp *
Magnify *
FindASocialNetwork *
Compete *
Ning *
Metrolyrics *
Mashable *
Gmail
Google Calendar
Google Docs
Google Chatback
Google Maps
Google Analytics
Google Adsense
Google Blog Search *
Google Reader *
Protopage
Highrise
New Music Strategies
Music Think Tank
Audible Hype *
Boing Boing *
Kings Of A&R *
Lefsetz
The Technium *
Hypebot
Lost In Showbiz *
Unsprung Artists *
Alltop *
YouLicence *
Song And Film
Ricall *
Pump Audio *
Apple
Mac Rumors
Siteground
Proxy List *
BitStrips *
FixMyMovie *
Fundable *
Fundability *
Plaxo
LinkedIn
Paypal
Joomlashack
iZotope *
Eventful
Freecycle
MMF
PRS
Musicians Union
Uservoice *
Evernote *
Disqus *
Splashcast *
AskABlogr *
eBay
Holy Moly
Widgetbox
gigya *
MeeMix *
musicSubmit
Picasa
Gearslutz
Goodprint
Turnkey
Thomann
Tannoy
Korg
Joomlaworks
txtNation *
Cafepress
NovelTech
Digital Village
Purely Gadgets
Sony
Squidoo *
Tumblr *
UKBands
YouSendIt
Songquarters *
Artist Data Systems *
Skribit *
World Of Warcraft
Unreal Tournament
It was quite good fun, why not do it yourself and post your own results up? It’s quite cathartic.
Whatever you do don’t go near the last two on this list. They could ruin your life.
Cross promoting a band with a brand is nothing new. However, as the traditional record deal hits it’s twilight years, artists and brands alike are looking to bypass the record company completely and do things together. Groove Armada have come to the end of their record deal and instead of signing a new one, have gone with Bacardi as their sponsor. This could be the future of directly funded music from major brands.
However, it is likely to be a rocky ride for some artists. With no one acting as a buffer between the band and the brand, your new masters may have a less than rock and roll morality which could seriously upset your ‘freedom’ - you know, the freedom to throw a television out of a window, accidentally mention the word sweatshop in public or complain that your feet hurt.
In the same week that Groove Armada did it’s bit for teenage binge drinking, we have the story of a SXSW invited band being denied their $10k expenses from a Camel Cigarette sponsored event by joking about the dangers of smoking.
The small print of any deal done with a brand would have to clamp down your rights to not behave in ways that could damage the brand. And as you would be doing it direct, it would be the head of sales and marketing sending you a text to let you know that your contract has been terminated immediately. There would be no Amy Winehouse style antics for you, no spewing your Bicardi on a troupe of paparazzi for the guys in the label boardroom to laugh about. There would be no one at the brand gunning for you or looking out for you. Business is business, and the moment you don’t tow the line, you’ll be out.
Unless you are as bland as the product you are promoting, you better not have an off day or a personality, it could cost you dearly.
Ok, now we’ve seen how not to write a press release (which is one of the best ways to start) we can look at how you should go about writing your own. I’ve written an outline of a press release which you can insert your own incredible and amazing story into.
This example is kind of about the right length, and hits on the salient points in kind of the right places. However, you don’t have to adhere to this example that rigidly. If you’ve got a good story then it should have it’s own life.
Just don’t have a boring story and you’re halfway there.
Read this doc on Scribd: Press Release Template for bands THIS IS YOUR HEADLINE AND SHOULD GRAB PEOPLE’S ATTENTION This summary paragraph is an elaboration of the headline in no more than four sentences. Now you’ve got people’s attention you need to let them know very quickly what this is actually about before they go reading some stuff that they’re not interested in. City, State (FRONTEND) Date This lead paragraph contains the most important information in no more than 25 words. Quite simply, state the news you want to tell people. This needs to be able to stand on its own in case the reader skipped down to the start of the article. Include all your most important words here and in the previous bits. Do yourself a favour and add your web address here too http://frontend.gwonder.com so people can immediately give your release some con text. Keep sentences short and to the point. In the first few paragraphs you want to answer all the questions who, what, why, where, when, how. If you break it down like this it is easier for interested parties to cut and paste ideas from your release to create their own articles and stories. You could well be quoted word for word from this release, so make sure you write stuff you wouldn’t mind being repeated! Check your spelling and make your release is around 300 to 800 words before you submit it anywhere. There’s nothing that makes you look more rubbish than having really stupid spelling mistakes in your releases. The best length for a headline is around 80 characters. Any more than that and you’ve probably not got the snappiest title. Be sure you include the most important news elements in the body of the release. It can be a good idea to write the headline and summary last to make sure you haven’t said too much at the start. Only the headline should be in capitals. If you’re not going to use capitals, you should capitalize every word except for prepositions and articles of three charac ters or less. All these other paragraphs are the filling out of the story. Quotes from band members, fans or anyone related to the story. You should fill in the details about the news you have to tell, and by using quotes you can bring your story to life. ‘It was amazing’ said Julian Moore of Georgia Wonder’s Frontend blog, ‘Once I’d learned to write press releases the whole world was at my feet’. You can visit his site at: http://frontend.gwonder.com and you should put links to your website just like this too. Typical topics include announcements of a new website, special offer, winning an award, being first at something, getting on radio or tv, releasing some music on a format no one has invented yet, or a gig in a strange place like the wreck of the Titanic. You are not writing hype though this is not a commercial. The people reading this are not your target audience you are giving them the tools to create their own articles. If you are using I, WE and YOU too much then you are in danger of sounding too much like an advert. It’s OK when people are being quoted, but not that great in the body of your release. DO NOT put an email address in the body of your release as it may screw things up with the spam bots, which could end up with your release not being delivered. Traditionally it has been normal for the last paragraph to be the least important. However, it’s become common practice lately to summarize the key points like so: For additional information about this amazing press release (or for a press pack or CD), contact Julian Moore or visit www.gwonder.com. You could also put some other important details here like who looks after gig bookings, publishing etc About MY AMAZING BAND: Include a short “boilerplate” about the band. This could be your UPS (Unique Selling Point) or some other quick para graph that sums your band up. If you don’t have one you really should make one up, and stick with it. Contact: Julian Moore, head of PR Georgia Wonder Band 1234567890 http://frontend.gwonder.com ###
If you want to download the word document you can grab it here:
In a future post I will attempt to tackle the art of writing a good press release. Regardless of writing style and general format, one of the things that most people forget to have is a good idea. If you don’t have an angle on your story you won’t be able to write a good press release. It’s quite hard though to find press releases which show off how NOT to do it.
Luckily help is at hand in the form of Lost In Showbiz (where howlers come to die) - a brilliant and unmissable collection of some of the worst press releases going.
You can learn more by reading these terrible releases than reading ten times as many good ones. Next time you write a release, compare them to this site. If you’re in the same ballpark, don’t do it.
Here is my favourite, but do visit the site too to see some other corkers (inline comment from Lost In Showbiz, not me)
Forwarded Message
From: coalitiongroup.co.uk
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:19:02 +0000
Subject: The Charlatans Downloads now at over 60,000 in one week
The Charlatans
Over 60,000 Downloads in one week
The Charlatans’ new album, ‘You Cross My Path’, has been downloaded over 60,000 times since it was made available on Xfm’s website last Monday – a phenomenal number which would have seen the album enter the UK chart at number two if conventionally released [LIS - erm, except it wouldn’t as then people would have had to pay for it, which might have put a good few off, surely?].
The album is currently available as a free download on www.xfm.co.uk. Says the band’s manager, Alan McGee: “I feel we are totally vindicated with the philosophy that if you go free and make a great record, you can exceed your dreams. No longer does music have to work in the traditional major label dominated way. Long live the Charlatans.”
Says the band’s vocalist Tim Burgess: “When Alan McGee and I had this idea 18 months ago, we never imagined that it could be this successful. It’s a tribute to people’s belief in us and if we were in the shops, 20 years after the Charlatans started, we would be the number two most popular group in the country this week – going free was the best thing for us. Thanks to everyone that has downloaded the record, cheers.”
Wow. This really put Radiohead and Trent Reznor in their place. Not.
The ‘music biz’ is about creating copyrights and monetizing them - taxing the listening process of recorded and performed music for financial gain. That is the simplest way I can think of to describe it.
If we forget about the ‘net for a moment, and just take a look at the life cycle of an imaginary label.
If I start a new label tomorrow with no artists and go on the hunt to collect and nurture a roster of copyrights, my whole business model revolves around my ability to find the best artists, increase their value, and monetize them. I will need to act fast, take risks and go with my gut instincts if I’m even to stand a chance.
I set up a team of four to deal with the bands we have/will sign, and two to look for new ones.
Let’s imagine I get really good at this. Within ten years I have 10 successful acts bring in money from 400 copyrights. I now have a team of six people monetizing the copyrights, four people looking after the artists, and two people looking for new ones.
Let’s put some zeros on the end. Let’s imagine it went 1000 times better than that, and we had a merger just so we could handle our own growth.
Within ten years we have 1000 successful acts bring in money from 40000 copyrights. We now have a team of six hundred people monetizing the copyrights, four hundred people looking after the artists, and two hundred people looking for new ones.
Hang on a minute, that can’t possibly work - putting two zeros on the end of everything has created a monster. Corporations die with these kinds of numbers, we need to scale it all back. Let’s do that, so we can survive.
After the chop, we have 1000 successful acts bring in money from 40000 copyrights. We now have a smaller team of sixty people monetizing the copyrights, forty people looking after the artists, and two people looking for new ones.
That’s better. Can you see a problem with this?
Yes.
Unlike any business known to man, Music Business 1.0 lets their Research And Development team rot. If you want a good definition of ‘pear shaped’ this is it. There is a point where the tides turn and the copyrights themselves become bigger and require more resources than the creating of new ones. From this point on you are in an entirely new business. The value is tied up in your history, and the shareholders can see nothing else. You’re not that cool label someone cared about any more - you’re a number on a ticker next to Pork Bellies and Oil.
Branson sold up years ago because it lost it’s EDGE, and when Virgin went public he bought it back. Something for Guy Hands to think about.
Apple are thinking about something they’ve always shied away from - an iTunes subscription based service. For years they’ve been telling us that ‘people want to own their music libraries’. But now, as a way of selling more iPods, it seems they’re willing to go back on that idea and ‘bundle in’ unlimited free downloads with their iPods as part of a ‘forever’ subscription service.
Now I know things are moving on, but judging from recent history this could be disastrous for the artists. Just because Apple have their act together doesn’t mean that the majors have it together, or even want to spread the good news. They spent a fortune and time and effort getting 400 million bucks out of the P2P guys and haven’t passed a cent on to the artists, and haven’t shown any system for even doing this. They were happy to get hold of the money, but now they’ve got to actually pass it on, they are shrugging their shoulders and claiming they hadn’t worked that bit out yet.
God help us if Steve Jobs gets his way in that case, as what’s left of music biz 1.0 collects all the money and doesn’t pass it anywhere.
Not only that, it’s monopolising the market and if this goes through I will flush my iPod down the toilet and video it with relish. If Steve does this he is going back on his word, and many years of goodwill will be flushed with it. The iPod has ruled for years because it is really rather good. This new tactic is very un-appley and monopolistic. In fact, it’s very Microsofty, which is even worse.
This could really get me angry. There better be a good explanation! As soon as I hear things like ‘The labels will be paid 20 bucks per ipod sold’ I automatically think ‘Hmm, that’s nice for them. That means someone could afford a really nice bonus.’
Steve don’t do it. Subscriptions are one thing, flat rate bundles on hardware is evil.
