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There’s a general understanding nowadays that music blogs, especially the more influential ones such as Gorilla Vs. Bear, You Ain’t No Picasso (who broke Bon Iver), Aquarium Drunkard, Brooklyn Vegan and many others, can have a profound effect on an artist’s career.

They only cover stuff they like and have track records in turning on large amounts of people to great new music.  But how do you go about getting your name into one, or many, music blogs?

Here’re a few things I’d consider:

• Do your homework:  You need to find blogs who’re talking to fans who might also like your ban.  Who does your act sound like?  Go to HypeMachine (hypem.com) and type in the names of similar artists and find out who’s talking about them.  Get the contact info and write them an email.
• Be relevant and brief -  I’d send along something like:  “Hi, I saw you liked band x.  Great band/album.  I’m in a band that sounds quite like them, here’s my myspace etc.”
• Try not to annoy - Follow ups every 10 days to 2 weeks is sufficient.
• Don’t send any attachments or MP3s:  Say what you need to say briefly, with possibly a press release below your message in the body of the email.  It’d help if you had a website set up where bloggers could download the music and info if they were interested, but simply offering a myspace and website URL is usually enough.
• Record and track your progress:  I’ll use Google Docs to record contact info and notes on a certain bloggers contact.  It’ll sometimes take 3 or 4 emails to get any kind of response so you’ll need to easily track what stage you’re at with each contact.
• Build relationship:  Remember, you’re not looking for the front page of Pitchfork just yet.  If you get any response from a blogger, even a “Thanks, but no thanks”, use that as an opportuinity to start a conversation - you never know where it might lead later on.

Anyway, that’s my $0.02.  What’s your experience in this brave new world of music journalism?

Update: By coincidence (I’m behind on my feeds :-)  New Music Strategies and Jeff Pulver have both posted great ideas on this subject.

It’s been an interesting few weeks as I followed Escape Act & Tom McShane across the length and breadth of our fair isle, touring in support of their new 7″ release.

It was quite a journey - from rabid fans in Derry (”OMG, are you guys Escape Act?  I heard you on Colin Murray - He’s the new John Peel!), to aloof music-browsers in Tower Records, it was quite the spectrum.  All said, all of the dates were enormously positive, and unique in their own way…

Derry was a raucous environment, and the city has a frenetic energy at the best of times - then, in true summer-time fashion, 50 or so Italian students landed in off of a bus halfway thru Tom’s set and made quite the crowd

Tower Records in Dublin was a chance to see if either act could control it’s sound to play in such a small space - with a liberal use of “jazz hands”, both Tom & Escape act played mezmerizing sets to the ever-changing, vinyl browsing crowd.

The 3 hour, Friday rush-hour trek back from Dublin to Belfast that same day was a marathon for everyone, but it was worth it for the show at Lavery’s that awaited that night.  The crowd was expectant and warm for the show, with only one appearance by the cheap and sleazy Belfast punter (”Why would I pay to get in when I can watch the show from the door?” is an actual quote from one guy.)

Back in Dublin only 1 day later, upstairs at Whelan’s was a wonderful venue.  A sign above the bar reads “Dear Customers:  Whelan’s is a listening venue.  Please respect the artists and remain quiet during the performance”  It’s rare that venues understand simple principles such as this - between trying to make a buck from artists and draw a crowd, sometimes the music is simply lost in the shuffle.

Luckily, the music was at the fore that night - I have to admit to being a bit star struck by the opener, Mumblin’ Deaf Ro.  Ever since Neassa (from The Terribles) sent me his album last year I’ve been besotted by the Dublin song-smith’s lyrical story-telling and mesmerizing guitarwork - I’d highly recommend you check him out - http://www.myspace.com/mumblindeafro

A week later, Cork’s welcome was a warm one - plenty of radio play and press made for a good, if chatty, turnout.  The nattering masses made getting people’s attention quite difficult, but the lads were up to the challenge:  at one point Chris from Escape Act was rocking so hard he kicked over the half the drumkit.  The move certainly served it’s purpose and turned a few heads.  Jim @ Plugd records was enormously enthusiastic about the 7″ and the store is one of the best I’ve seen - check it out if you’re ever down there!

The swan-song, then, was in Limerick last night - the ever-fabulous Vertigo Smyth, as he had in Cork, played an amazing set augmented by some wonderful double-bass and ukelele work.  The after-party was supposed to be at a place in Limerick called Daphnes - word had it that the bar never closed but rumours abounded that local law-enforcement had started to crack down on the revelry.  So it was, that when we arrived at the venue at 3am there were various crowds of folks milling about hoping to get the signal to enter the aladdin’s cave of late night boozing.  The fact that there were crowds outside what was supposed to be a “secret” shebeen kind of negated any chance of getting in - Limerick’s worst kept secret indeed.  Good thing there was a house party to be had!

So here I am drinking a hair-of-the-dog in Limerick, and I’m still processing all of this - the good, the bad and the smelly.  Once my head is in a place where it’s fully functional, I’m sure I’ll have some insight.  Till then, I’m just gonna marinade in the whole, messy lot.  Yum.

Just some pics today of my recent trip to chat to the nice folks at Rough Trade and Sister Ray about our current and upcoming releases.  The pictures tell the story of love, loss and alcohol better than I ever could -

Our gracious hosts…

Tom’s new fashion accessory - Green Vinyl

Conversation…

Would you like a drink? - No, thanks, I’m not thirsty. - wha??

7am.

Virginia Woolf’s Grandfather’s Graveyard

Parklife

Can’t work all the time…

I <3 Swingboats

and old tyme-y hockey games

Too big for this

I’m waving! See!

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Last year’s SF Music Tech Summit raised an interesting concept for me - Blogs, Social Media, Wikipedia etc. are nothing more than “The Tyranny of the Bored”.  The premise being that the new gatekeepers of music and media are those who sit around all day and do nothing but post blogs, review records and generally interact with the web.

The concept never really sat well with me - sure, it seems like just a lot of people with too much time on their hands, but IS it?  Is that what things like Wikipedia are primarily made up of?  Losers without a life?  Somehow, it didn’t add up.

Then I read this article, and the penny dropped.  The basic thesis here is that thoughout any technological or industrial upheaveal, there’s a period of brain-freeze in society at large - the changes are too vast to contemplate, too new to fully grasp, so we mask it.  During the industrial revolution, we used gin.  During the latter half of the 20th Century, it was TV (namely, the sitcom).  “Desperate Housewives essentially functions as a kind of cognitive heat sink, dissipating thinking that might otherwise have built up and caused society to overheat.”  Wild, I know.

But once we emerge from this binge, enormous technological leaps are ready to be made.

What struck me most is about how this relates to the emerging music economy:  “The way you explore complex ecosystems is you just try lots and lots and lots of things, and you hope that everybody who fails fails informatively so that you can at least find a skull on a pikestaff near where you’re going. That’s the phase we’re in now.”

And this was exactly my approach to the presentation I gave at Barcamp, it was exactly the approach Andrew Dubber thought was the right one (he called it “Ready-Fire-Aim”) and it’s exactly what Penny Distribution is shooting for.  With the goal of carving out 1/100th of the cognitive surplus that’s suddenly waking up from it’s stupor.

To me, the best thing you can do (if you’ve any interest at all) is read a lot, think a lot and then try something in the music industry ESPECIALLY if it’s technology related.  Look at the ingredients that will make up the New Music Economy, then fire up the stove and start cooking - a sprinkle of licensing, a dash of subscription, maybe a slice of Co-Marketing.  Someone’s going to make one HELL of a stew.

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I’ve been thinking quite a bit about social bookmarking site del.icio.us, and the various ways I use it to aggregate information for Penny Distribution.

•    Tagging interesting articles or some relevant new story, then providing my tags as an RSS feed/Email Subscription for folks who’re interested in music industry stuff and want to follow what I’m reading each day.
•    Tagging artist news, reviews and coverage with the artist’s name - then providing an RSS feed/Email Subscription for that artist so fans can be kept informed of news about their favorite artist.
•    Subscribing to my peer’s del.icio.us RSS feeds - basically having other folks researching on the internet for me

These functions have been incredibly useful in connecting Penny and our artists to fans and people interested in what we do.  I have a sneaking suspicion, however, that I’m not getting the most out of the service from label perspective.

If you’re a label, artist or manager, do you use del.icio.us to connect fans to your artists?  And if so, what approaches do you take?

My delicious RSS feed is here and you can subscribe to the Penny News service via email here.

If you liked this post and think someone else might find it interesting, please forward it along.  Thanks!

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Belfast crowds can be a fickle bunch, but in the right settings, there can be a passion and energy in a Belfast crowd that really represents the deep music roots this city has.

Last night’s Gifted showcase was an interesting contrast to the gig the night before; (the “secret” Topman sponsored show which featured Jape), where patrons were much more interested in being seen than engaging in the music.  The two sides of Belfast’s musical coin, if you will, two nights in a row.  Last night put the good side well and truly on display.

We got to there right after A Plastic Rose had taken the stage and despite a thin crowd and guitar tuning problems, they were tighter and more tuneful than I remembered.  Jackson Cage put on a rollicking display of Modern American Country, something there just is not a lot of round these parts.

But by the time General Fiasco took the stage there was no doubt who punters were most excited about on this bill.  Andrew and I bumped into a few label heavy-hitters (Capitol records in the Empire?) who were in serious scouting mode about the General - and you could see why.  Tight riffs, great look and a drummer every bit reminiscent of Fyfe Ewing, driving the whole band along like a train of horses with pounding, solid beats.  Ed Zealous again left a bad taste in my mouth - I’ll be avoiding them whenever possible.

I can’t remember the last time there was electricity in the room like that.  Overt enthusiasm is not a particularly well known Belfast triat - Have you ever been blown away by a bands ability to bring out the best in a Belfast crowd?  Who and where?

Image by coxy via Flickr

In a recent paper from the UK’s performing rights society MCPS-PRS Alliance, two of the sharpest minds in music 2.0 proposed that music rights societies, such as MCPS or any record label, should ask for equity in nascent web based music startups in return for granting those startups the right to use their catalog.

The merits and demerits of this proposal aside (and both are wonderfully divulged in the paper, so go have a read), I’ve been one of a few proponents of the idea that it is this type of co-operation of the technology industries and the recorded music industry that truly presents the best solution moving forward for all involved. From the paper:

“It is in the opinion of the authors that a long-standing solution to the
dilemma of licensing nascent and controversial uses will only occur by
way of persistent, perhaps heated dialogue between the developers of
new services, the investors in those services, and the owners of the
underlying rights involved. Each party has a stake in the success of
innovative opportunities.”

Although the relevance of copyright is currently hotly debated, it is still the framework under which artists of all levels, rookie to mega-star, are compensated for their work. At the indie music level, the viability of artistic careers must start with the artist’s right to be compensated for the performance, duplication and licensing of his/her work.

Of course, the wild success of YouTube and other online enterprises paid little or no heed to copyright. I’m not passing judgment at all here - it’s the digital environment we live in and there’s no changing it.

My question is - how can technology and recorded music industries find common ground in this debate to the advantage of all? More importantly, is this kind of co-operation worthwhile for startups at all? Would you consider the rights of artists were you to run a Music 2.0 startup? I’d really like to hear what you think on this - especially if you’ve got a perspective from the technology side.

Cory Denis summed up this “New Music Economy” quite succinctly in this Wikipedia entry. And it’s this summation that’ll form the basis of a talk I’m giving this weekend at BarCamp, a series of talks that normally focus on tech subjects such as coding, web design and the like. I’m hoping to get into some “heated dialogue” with you here and discussing this subject with folks at BarCamp.

After all, like any great marriage, it’s the arguments that lead to the real growth.

If you found this article interesting, please forward it to someone else who might find it useful, too. Thanks!

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Ian Rodgers (former head of Yahoo! Music) is one of the select few Music 2.0 commentators who consistently hit the nail on the head when talking about where we’re going (not just where we’ve been) in the music industry.  My (extremely short) list also includes Mark Gunheim,  Mike Masnick and Terry McBride

Ian’s open letter to Guy Hands (new owner of EMI) today is a great read for artists and new labels alike.  Standout passage (standout because this is exactly what Penny Distribution offers):

“If I’m an artist, I’m probably better off having a small label start building my career than I am submitting to a major, going through the buckshot marketing machine and hoping against hope they’re going to break me at radio or MTV. If the small label has an existing relationship with a group of people already inclined to like my style, they have a better chance at building my career from the bottom-up than I have hitting it big in the channels of radio or MTV.

If, as this hypothetical artist on an indie label, I get traction, will I then move up into the major system? In the old days I *had* to if I wanted to reach a wider audience, but not anymore. If I’m the White Stripes of tomorrow do I do a 360 deal with the label or do one with myself? I can afford to record my own music, I can distribute in 100 different ways by myself (and keep more of the profits), so if I’m going to partner with you for my releases you’d better have better access to a larger audience than I could generate on my own. If my song fits in the limited (and shrinking) channels of radio and music television I might have a shot. But if not, what do you offer?”

Read the whole article here

Image by Helico via Flickr

So, you all know I normally save this space for music industry discussion, so forgive this off-topic post. I’ve got 2 things I want to share:

1. We’re excited to announce the release of Tom McShane’s new single “Fighter” on split 7″ vinyl and download. You can preview the tracks over at Tom’s Myspace or his Penny Distribution page.

If you dig the music, go ahead and pre-order the vinyl at TomMcShane.co.uk - you’ll get immediate access to 4 bonus downloads as well as your shiny new record when they ship on June 23rd.

2. If you’re a fan of Penny Distribution’s music, you should subscribe to our dedicated Penny Artist News site. It’s basically a bulletin board for all of our artists and will keep you up to date on new releases, shows and signings. Coming up are some exclusive radio-session downloads from Tom McShane in the buildup to the release of the vinyl. Not to be missed.

{aside} For the picky among you (and you wouldn’t be reading this blog if you weren’t!), we’re also offering artist-only Email Updates & RSS feeds. Go check them out and stay on top of it

Thanks for your patience with this - we will now resume our regularly scheduled programming…