matt_turner_nz

Music and Client Links

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:54:33 GMT

Kinda boring, I know, but hey. Even if im posting blogs about CD and DVD duplication, printing or reproduction projects, or Kids Pirate birthday childrens entertainment parties or just pushing my clients

Kanarek - Psychedelic Fusion; Hollywood/Toronto

Golpe Con Classe - Hip Hop/Latin; Spain

Cut The Bull PR - Publicity and Artist Representation, Hollywood

Al Walser - Pop/R&B; California/Liechtenstien

Phoenix Block - New Wave/Electropop; Florida

Ganga - Chill Out/Downbeat; Denmark

Now . . . You Die! Metal / Crust Punk; Melbourne, Australia

Koshowko- Electro Pop; Melbourne, Australia

Auckland Painting - Residential and Commercial painters; Auckland, New Zealand

The Embassadors - Jazz; International collective

DJ TKD - Hip Hop; New Zealand

Element - Hip Hop; New Zealand

Azumuth - Rock; Melbourne, Australia

Roger Greenaway - A/C; Wellington, New Zealand

Murrays Chosen Few - Classic Rock; Australia

Romantech - Drum'n Bass/Downbeat; Auckland, New Zealand (me)

. . . you'll be able to observe how I use links and keyword anchor text to create content that attracts traffic.

DIGITAL COACHING FOR ARTISTS/MUSICIANS

Kurb is a New Zealand based media promotions company providing a regular blog on digital promotion, marketing digital content and creating revenue from new media online.

Kurb also provides online promotion and revenue management services for musicians and artists internationally.CD / DVD duplication and poster services. Our physical media services come with free graphic set up and support, free delivery, and free promotions advice and support for musicians.

And the best value fast turnover physical media services in New Zealand including

http://www.kurb.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/kurbpromo
http://www.youtube.com/user/kurbpromo -
http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com
http://kurbpromotion.blogspot.com
http://www.squidoo.com/kurb

We provide expert and affordable promotion support in all web 2.0 areas: Cutting edge Social Network promotion (Myspace, Facebook, Bebo etc.), Social Media, Blogging, Spam management, Content creation, Content management, Content Distribution, OMD, RSS, Aggregators, podcasts, Search ranking, Search marketing and PPC campaigns on Google and Facebook, Website design, Website monetization, Video production + promotion,

We also have an extensive self promotion area for independent musician and talent featuring dozens of articles, how to features and blog links.

http://www.kurb.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/kurbpromo
http://www.youtube.com/user/kurbpromo
http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com
http://kurbpromotion.blogspot.com
http://www.squidoo.com/kurb
http://databass.giantrobot.co.nz/new_clients_free_consultation.htm
http://databass.giantrobot.co.nz/kurb_cds.htm
http://databass.giantrobot.co.nz/kurb_promotions.htm
http://databass.giantrobot.co.nz/kurb_artists.htm
http://databass.giantrobot.co.nz/kurb_posters.htm

http://www.romantech.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/romantech
http://www.youtube.com/user/djromantech
http://www.last.fm/music/Romantech
http://www.ilike.com/artist/Romantech
http://www.squidoo.com/romantech
http://romantech.wordpress.com
http://romantech.blogspot.com
http://www.amplifier.co.nz/artist/7718/
http://cdbaby.com/cd/djromantech
http://www.reverbnation.com/romantech

http://www.realitycompound.com
http://www.myspace.com/realitycompound
http://www.youtube.com/user/realitycompound
http://www.last.fm/music/Reality+Compound
http://www.squidoo.com/realitycompound
http://realitycompound.wordpress.com
http://realitycompound.blogspot.com
www.amplifier.co.nz/artist/13634/reality_compound.html

http://www.ganga.dk

http://www.alwalser.com

blogs and websites: points for musicians

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:15:52 GMT

Have Blogs Killed Conventional Websites?

This is a short list i grabbed from the www.problogger.com site discussing the advantages and i guess differences between blogs and websites.

Now this is from the site of a guy who's sole 6 figure yearly income comes from posting lists and written pieces like this dicussing blogging, and this has kind of been something I've been getting at - these guys are getting rich from monetizing free content with advertising.

I guess I would say that blogs are important to musicians because its as easy way to grow your online presence, develop additional benefits such as search recognition, and get you into the kinds of habits you'll need as a digital entertainer.

But websites still serve as "your place" a place where you make the rules, and you can create the environment you want for your fans, and dictate what gets shown and how commerce is conducted.

   1. Websites are clunky and expensive; blogs are lean and cheap.
   2. You have to wait for someone to make changes to your website; your blog can be changed easily by you.
   3. You have to wait for someone else to set up your site; your blog can be set up by you in 15 minutes.
   4. You can update your blog at an airport, while you’re on the run. You have to call your webmaster … and wait … to update your site.
   5. You can collect email addresses, and download free reports and bonuses off of a website. Same with a blog.
   6. You can use a shopping cart to collect money for e-commerce of a website. Same with a blog.
   7. You can set up a press room with all sorts of cool links and forms on a website. Same with a blog.
   8. It takes three to six months for the big search engines to find you with a website. It takes two or three days with a blog.
   9. You can easily track stats of who has visited your regular website. Same with a blog.
10. The media are more likely to find you on a blog.
11. You can learn more about your audience from a blog.
12. You market automatically with a blog. But not with a conventional website.
13. You can make a lot more friends with a blog.

Warrant of fitness NZ music industry workshops

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:54:36 GMT

I'll be keeping the worst parts of my personality in check: The flagrant self promoter and the know it all kid who thinks he knows more about monetizing content online than teacher -

but I will definately be there to meet and chat, most likely toting a hand out tip sheet of what I feel are the most important ideas artists should be embracing about building their presence online - which should save me having to get into any arguments.

Lets just hope no one wants to discuss the state of local online music community facilities provided for New Zealand musicians.

Or how visionary NZ on Air/Creative NZ are.

Or . . .

I really hope they don't end up talking to us like we all have no problem moving 10,000 units like they so often do.

8th February 2008
The NZ Music Commission has confirmed the speakers for the three-city Warrant Of Fitness music industry seminar series in 2008.

Featuring music industry professionals currently working in international markets, the sessions will focus on what makes an act internationally roadworthy, the skills and techniques required to work in the global marketplace, and will assist in developing music careers that are export-ready.

Here's the updated schedule - a must-attend for anyone interested in this field.

Wednesday March 5
Auckland Room 4, SKYCITY Convention Centre

Session 1 - MIDDAY: Managing From Afar
Mike Holdsworth talks about how to establish and maintain international contacts when starting from scratch. He'll discuss how much can be done without leaving NZ, the degree of planning and progress you should have in place before going offshore, and what tools are ideal to take with you. Other topics will include examining the most important services to pay for (publicity, radio plugging etc) and how much you can expect them to cost.

Session 2 - 2:00PM: The Future Of Independent Labels
Mike Holdsworth and Rev. Moose take a critical look at how much the online world has changed the independent landscape. Sales, promotion, and the deals artists strike all work differently now, so what are the most exciting digital opportunities, and how do you prioritise what will make the most impact? They'll also discuss the best online strategy or strategies they've come across and how they fit into an act's overall plan of attack.

Session 3 - 4:00PM: International Touring
Julian Carswell and Rev. Moose take you through setting up a tour from afar. They'll discuss how it works with (or without) a booking agent or promoter, parts of the world easier or more profitable to tour than others, and whether to be on someone else's tour or go it alone. Find out what it is actually like out there on the road, the opportunities or problems that can crop up mid-tour, and how you go about dealing with them in that environment.

Thursday March 6 - Auckland
Auckland Room 4, SKYCITY Convention Centre

Session 4 - MIDDAY: Making Noise Globally
Mike Holdsworth and Rev. Moose discuss how you best going about making an impact in an increasingly saturated marketplace. With so many avenues to promote music, be they media, websites, or festivals, are there certain places you should focus on where more of the industry pays attention, and how much should you deviate from your plan when an opportunity arises? They'll also look at how hard it is to get noticed, and whether giving your music away for free to the public actually works.

Session 5 - 2:00PM: Market vs Market
Julian Carswell and Mike Holdsworth discuss some of the key differences between various markets. They'll look at how deals, promotion, trends, and the industry in general may differ from country to country, and which ones may be the best starting points for your act. Some big territories may have tastemaker regions within them, while some countries take their cues from others - but what are they? Learn more about these key differences to best take advantage of them.

Session 6 - 4:00PM: The Wrap Up
All three of our guests will take part in this final session, allowing them to emphasise their main points, talk about what they've come across during their time in NZ, and share their final thoughts. They will also be asked to prepare a 5 minute plan for an artist presented to them to illustrate some of the topics previously addressed.

Friday March 7
Wellington City Gallery Cinema

Session 1 - MIDDAY: Managing From Afar/Making Noise
With Mike Holdsworth and Rev. Moose

Session 2 - 2:00PM: International Touring/Market vs Market
With Julian Carswell, Mike Holdsworth and Rev. Moose

Session 3 - 4:00PM: The Wrap Up
With Julian Carswell, Mike Holdsworth and Rev. Moose

Saturday March 8
Christchurch CPIT Jazz School Auditorium

Session 1 - MIDDAY: Managing From Afar/Making Noise
With Mike Holdsworth and Rev. Moose

Session 2 - 2:00PM: International Touring/Market vs Market
With Julian Carswell, Mike Holdsworth and Rev. Moose

Session 3 - 4:00PM: The Wrap Up
With Julian Carswell, Mike Holdsworth and Rev. Moose

Plasticast strikes back 2008: Spamming freeconomics

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:18:42 GMT

Okay you may remember my concept the plasticast that I launched this time last year.

to me it was really positive because something I'd turned my back on – running a label – had evolved into a new concept, a giveaway CD promoting local artists that would generate contributions from acts that wanted to participate in the cd, and sponsors that would want to associate their brand with the giveaway.

Another concept I have developed is looking to develop a website that would start by combining itunes (retail) and myspace (social) go into competition with amplifier and could grow to cover practically every function of the NZ music industry within 5 years. But that's another story bound to lurk in the darkness until its moment comes.

But for the plasticast f course the money never materialized and I decided to pursue an interest in spam.

The funny thing is, the more I've learned about spam from bad guys as well as listening to "butter wouldn't melt" type marketers like Seth Godin the more I came back round to proposing value in a remarkable way.

See the problem with spam on myspace was that it was all done by crazy Korean university students sitting round in their undies playing RPGs and 1st person Shooters creating the most ridiculous propositions for penis pills, legal buds, maceys gift vouchers . . .

But even most lay band spammers don't understand how spam should be used . . . not just to leave stupidly oversized flyer comments about your latest gig or free download . . . spam works on levels that – though annoying and intrusive as they may be – are FAR more powerful.

My rule became that each time I issued a proposition on myspace by means of spam I had to propose value even MORE remarkably than the last time in order maintain my reputation in the NZ music scene as someone progressive with lofty ambitions for NZ music, not just a money grabbing nuisance taking myspace noobs for a ride.

So this time I am planning to go ahead with the plasticast but to fund it out of kurb myself as a unique "hook" concept, a remarkable concept, a positive concept under which to conduct my next spampaign which encourages the following ideas:

- that kurb is committed to promoting local music even where there isn't a guaranteed profit involved, and leading by example in showing how free content builds brands.

- unknown musicians must be willing to participate in such projects which do not generate revenue in order to create promotional opportunities to gain exposure, while unknown artists expecting to sell cd's at sold out gigs will be severely disappointed.

- take a business like approach to the development of new models and start ups, that is to put the model into testing before there is any sign of commercial interest.

- and most obviously, kurb and all the bands associated look good and create awareness and exposure doing it.

So yeah that's it, Plasticast is back on the cards! But because it's free, I'll have to work even harder to make sure the music on the CD is quality. Musicians with poor recordings, no engineering and most importantly that are falling out of tune and time all over the place will not make it on to the CD unless it really is a rough gem!

This helps cover another unspoken issue – that a lot of acts just don't have the talent.

Of course my first consideration will be for my clients, but come May hopefully there will be a new beta version of the Plasticast around Auckland.

If you're interested lets get those mp3's through to kurbpromo@gmail.com

i'm busy as remember so you're not likely to hear back from me for a while.

Otherwise . . . sit tight for that spam!!!!

Kurb website check it out
Real cheap CD/DVD reproduction in NZ
Kurb Promo on Youtube

Future music income: Your website matters more than your album

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:33:10 GMT

Future revenue for artists: Your website matters more than your album

Okay I been getting these hunches and yknow I've been railing on about how your website is more important than your CD now - and I think a little bit of crystal ball stuff is okay as long as yknow – this is technology we're talking about so you got to keep your options open.

NEWSFLASH: Google releases adsense for video!!! And you thought I was being silly talking about revenue from videos in 2008.

Of course revver and metacafe are already sharing revenue with content generators, and Kurb is of course developing methods to create, promote and open revenue streams from video on the cheap!!!

But what I want to draw your attention to is that all these revenue streams will be so tiny you're going to have to be onto it – and have someone onto it like me – opening up as many channels for revenue as possible, who knows how to turn the constant – at least WEEKLY – stream of content you'll need to be creating into $$$

You see that popcrunch web tv show? I just wanna get straight to my point.

They namedrop top search engine and probloggers . . . why? To give these geeks a headswell so they'll link back to it. Look everyone, I got mentioned on a Hollywood/ pop culture internet tv show. Because when these guys link to you, get ready for a stampede on your site.

These are the guys (here watch me do it, everyones doing it) Darren Rowse, Shoemony, John Chow, Graywolf etc. who just make a lot of money from blogging, They do 5 figures a month easy. These guys maintain subscriber lists of 50,000+ - I'm not going to go over it in detail but I guess these guys inspire people because they have become rich in proving that you can stick some words on a page and sort out some ads to go around the words.

These guys make hundreds of grands a year. It took them a few years, writing most days. But that's all it was. Writing, and ads around the words.

Oh sure – every second day theres something good and new on their site and that takes work keeping it fresh and new. They probably gave away a free ebook. And of course now that theyre rich and kind of famous, they get paid to speak and no doubt constantly being offered deals to endorse stuff and be involved in new projects.

What did I hear? Perez Hilton, the worlds most popular blogger does like 45k a week? 3 million hits a day?

Can you see why I'm saying your website is more important than your album?

Can you see why if a year goes by now and all you've got is 12 audio tracks on a bit of plastic that's pathetic? Have you posted on your blog this week?

I honestly don't want to be repeating myself in 6 months time saying "You should really start a blog to help get more traffic."

I got approached by these cats in NZ who wanted to play 5-30sec audio ads on my site. I'm illustrating this because there will be many ways to open up revenue as soon as you created enough interest in what you're doing.

I've said that 2008 is all about preparing for 2009 when we can expect to see some decent opportunities and who can really say what they will be but its gonna be long tail stuff. You're going to be opening up dozens to hundreds of income streams and digital products dripfeeding you dollars or for the early years maybe only cents at a time.

The internet is taking us into a new era of information, entertainment and advertising communication.

I've managed to succeed outside of the usual industry networks that have always existed because I've learnt to use the new tools. I realised what was possible a couple of years ago but it was a useless waste of time – at the time - because there just wasn't the amount of people using online networks and the platforms and systems available.

But there's a new way of doing things. Do not underestimate how much you're going to have to bleed and give – and bleed and give innovatively at that – to earn peoples attention and trust your authority.

But by the time music is practically free in 5 years time and they stop making CD players . . . you're gonna have a hell of a time selling mp3's for a dollar and CD's for $10.

So lets get smart about this now! Your website matters in the new model but your CD and your album and just more other things you'll be using to make money off whether through retail or advertising.

So that's why I'm running around saying your website is now more important than your album!!! And creating a website that makes money involves so much more than looking pretty. But that's something we can talk about another time.

Or of course we can talk about that right now if you want to pay me.

There's lots of advice on the Kurb blogs on what smart musicians should know about using the internet to promote your music, so subscribe here on myspace oh and leave a comment with a link to your site on our official blog it'll help to get better google search results.

So whats new @ Kurb?

Still the cheapest CD and DVD duplication on runs under 500, with free posters and free graphic set up costs!

But now we've released digital coaching packages to help musicians and artists build income online. And we're doing video production as well as promotion, making it easy for musicians we work with to make videos and promote them online real cheap!

Check out our youtube

Remember our Kurb site is full of articles, videos and ideas for promoting bands and brands.

Dubber video: new music strategies

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:01:05 GMT

Andrew Dubber over New Music Strategies from erwin blom on Vimeo.

Kurb website - artists promotion - check it out

Real cheap CD/DVD reproduction

Kurb Promo on Youtube

Kurb video: digital coaching + viral promotion for artists

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 06:54:19 GMT

New video from me introducing our new "artist packages" as . . . DIGITAL COACHING FOR ARTISTS.

Working alongside artists to build international exposure and develop and open up revenue streams online. Build your social networks, distribute content and gain traction, build a website to generate revenue, pursue new income streams with your music and content. STRICTLY LIMITED PLACES @ $A200 P/month.

DIGITAL COACHING AND CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING ARTISTS AND GENERATING INCOME ONLINE

Digital Coaching is a brand new artist development concept released in 2008 by Kurb to help artists develop their online presence and digital assets into exposure, access and revenue generating income streams.

KURB DIGITAL COACHING IS YOUR ONE STOP SERVICE FOR ALL YOUR EXPANDING ARTIST NEEDS ONLINE -
CONTACT US NOW PLACES ARE STRICLTY LIMITED!!!!

- Build your following and presence on social networks such as Myspace, Youtube, Facebook, Bebo etc. using powerful automation - avoid mistakes and use all the hidden advantages.

- Develop your website into a powerful tool to attract and develop a fanbase - then create online revenue streams from a variety of sources

- Get your digital content (songs, videos etc.) earning money online through Itunes, storefronts, ad supported revenue and more

- Use blogging tools and youtube techniques to create powerful distribution networks and feeds for your content - attract more fans and revenue from your expanding presence

- Use both search engine optimisation, search engine marketing and dedicated online campaigns to build your all important google traffic

- creative support developing dynamic concepts and content (video, blogs) to drive your viral campaign - design and production services

- Explore media campaigns that create publicity and licensing options

- Develop cutting edge and forward looking campaign strategies using new technology such as P2P and new software techniques exclusively available to kurb

Kurb Promo on Youtube

HOW I APPROACH A NEW CLIENT FOR PROMOTION@ KURB

how digital promotion and social marketing works

more indie self promotion articles hub

Our packages - “digital coaching” and online promotion packages for artists

Overview of online promotion strategies

Real cheap CD/DVD duplication

Official Kurb Blog

Kurb TV - kurb videos are here!

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:48:14 GMT

Finally got kurb videos up!!!

Okay okay - pretty basic stuff here but there's a point - making cheap videos is about creating content, creating access and delivering messages in new, effective and CHEAP ways.

Don't sit around masterminding world domination from your bedroom with your gatefold concept album - start building connections, start building access, start builidng your fanbase!

Create access, create trust . . . then create revenue!

Whats the deal? Aucklanders, or those who come to auckland on a regular basis can get on our artist packages starting at $200 p/month and start looking at how we can add video to the range of services we provide for artists.

It could be as simple as performing in our garage or doing a short interview. Not just music videos! thats flippin' obvious! Create access, create trust, create content of value - there are so many ways for these tools to be used!

!

Revenge of the Nerds in 2008: It's all about 2009

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:28:00 GMT

You may have read my blog post last year about social media, and how it was still a geek thing . . . but you gotta remember that once upon a time, back in 2004 when I joined myspace, Soical Networking was a geek thing too.

Now "Social Networking" is sites like Myspace, Facebook and Bebo.

In "Social Media" the big names are Stumbleupon, Digg and Del.icio.us.

It's about users "Stumbling" or "Digging" their favourite online stuff, and that data is then redistributed to people looking for their own kinds of stuff, whether it's knowledge, tech tools and software, or entertainment, whatever.

There's been talk about the idea that "Social Media" will one day eclipse the power of "Search Media" - why rely on Google when slowly, sites like Facebook as well as Last.fm and other forms of aggregators, are creating networks where data analysis can provide you with information and entertainment tailored to you based on the choices of not only your friend networks but unconnected users who show metric consistencies with you.

I mean sure jump on google, it feels more self sufficient than having to ask a friend who possibly knows more than you. But in the near future, you'll be instantly connected to information and entertainment based on its aggregate value created within your network of friend contacts and those with consistent data to your tastes and interests.

ANYWHO . . .

The point is it's working! I've had two killer spikes in the last week sending my daily traffic to www.kurb.co.nz well into the hundreds, which I discovered from my stats was the result of a very modest amount of traction on Stumbleupon.

Now in desperately scratching my head over how everyday muso's are going to make cash I begun to think about where the value is created on myspace. (y'know? like the $US570M sale back in 2005?)

It's not just the thing that built it, but its now one of the only things keeping Myspace alive . . . FANS FOLLOWING ACTS.

Myspace maybe the "new radio". Fans follow acts and trends and they put up with crap like ads . . . but the artist is seeing none of that revenue!

I don't think I said it loud enough the first time:

YOUR WEBSITE IS NOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR CD.

Radiohead just put 10 x more cash in their pocket from their site and they didn't even have ads on it!!!

Look. Let's make a deal.

If YOU can get 3 million people to come to your website - here I'll make it easy - before you die, I'm pretty sure you and me - we can both get rich off advertising.

This is the thing. If you BLOG then making money off advertising . . . That's your bag. Pro bloggers don't put out a CD, tour or do merch. Oh sure they'll do an E-book; but half the time they give it away or its only salivating fans who pay for it. The 5 figure monthly pay outs these guys collect are from their ads.

More than ever you need to create your OWN website, stake out your own claim, so you're prepared to start monetizing on ad supported revenue as the flow of marketing money from TV and Radio to online advertising grows in momentum.

Build a place of culture and community where people can hang out and interact. Create value, fill your site with relevant information, relevant advertising, every digital products and merchandise you can imagine, make it customisable, let fans create their own digital and merchandise packages . . .

Look, as far as I'm concerned . . . 2008 and is ALL ABOUT 2009.

Yeah, I had to wrap that up, I've got work to do.

Don't forget these New Years specials may not last, there's a frenzied mob gathering on my doorstep already, so we may have to shut it down to new jobs.

$100 – 100 CD Discs printed and duplicated

$70 – 50 DVD Discs printed and duplicated

$100 – 1 month online promotion management package

$100 – 100 colour posters printed

OR $250 FOR THE LOT.

HOW I APPROACH A NEW CLIENT FOR PROMOTION@ KURB
how digital promotion and social marketing works
more indie self promotion articles hub
Our artist packages
Overview of online promotion strategies
Real cheap CD/DVD reproduction
postering – placement in Auckland / Free delivery in NZ

Cheers and all the best with your work from Kurb

recent tidbits

ON RADIO

. . Executives at some individual stations say they are playing hits more heavily than they did even two years ago. That is not so much out of concern over digital competition as it is a desire to respond to listeners’ busy lives, said Kat Jensen, music director for KKMG-FM in Colorado Springs, which played “Apologize” 78 times last week. “There’s a very limited window. If they’re going to listen 15 minutes a day, you want to make sure they hear their favorite song in that 15 minutes. It’s really the fast-paced life style that we all live.”

ON BIG LABELS

IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there.

ON AD SUPPORTED REVENUE

"As a result, advertisers and their agencies who want to engage with today’s consumers will have to start turning their ads into content. Ultimately, they will need to be able to produce content that is so compelling, relevant and entertaining that consumers will seek it out and want to share it with others. The new ad model is about creating great content and finding clever ways to embed it in the fabric of communities and content platforms where consumers are hanging out and actively participating."

Music lessons from a world class marketing guru

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:18:24 GMT

FROM SETH GODIN:

Things you can learn from the music business (as it falls apart)

The first rule is so important, it’s rule 0:

0. The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.
Soon, the new thing will be better than the old thing will be. But if you wait until then, it’s going to be too late. Feel free to wax nostalgic about the old thing, but don’t fool yourself into believing it’s going to be here forever. It won’t.

1. Past performance is no guarantee of future success
Every single industry changes and, eventually, fades. Just because you made money doing something a certain way yesterday, there’s no reason to believe you’ll succeed at it tomorrow.

The music business had a spectacular run alongside the baby boomers. Starting with the Beatles and Dylan, they just kept minting money. The co-incidence of expanding purchasing power of teens along with the birth of rock, the invention of the transistor and changing social mores meant a long, long growth curve.

As a result, the music business built huge systems. They created top-heavy organizations, dedicated superstores, a loss-leader touring industry, extraordinarily high profit margins, MTV and more. It was a well-greased system, but the key question: why did it deserve to last forever?

It didn’t. Yours doesn’t either.

2. Copy protection in a digital age is a pipe dream
If the product you make becomes digital, expect that the product you make will be copied.

There’s a paradox in the music business that is mirrored in many industries: you want ubiquity, not obscurity, yet digital distribution devalues your core product.

Remember, the music business is the one that got in trouble for bribing disk jockeys to play their music on the radio. They are the ones that spent millions to make (free) videos for MTV. And yet once the transmission became digital, they understood that there’s not a lot of reason to buy a digital version (via a cumbersome expensive process) when the digital version is free (and easier).

Most items of value derive that value from scarcity. Digital changes that, and you can derive value from ubiquity now.

The solution isn’t to somehow try to become obscure, to get your song off the (digital) radio. The solution is to change your business.

You used to sell plastic and vinyl. Now, you can sell interactivity and souvenirs.

3. Interactivity can’t be copied
Products that are digital and also include interaction thrive on centralization and do better and better as the market grows in size (consider Facebook or Basecamp).

Music is social. Music is current and everchanging. And most of all, music requires musicians. The winners in the music business of tomorrow are individuals and organizations that create communities, connect people, spread ideas and act as the hub of the wheel... indispensable and well-compensated.

4. Permission is the asset of the future
For generations, businesses had no idea who their end users were. No ability to reach through the record store and figure out who was buying that Rolling Stones album, no way to know who bought this book or that vase.

Today, of course, permission is an asset to be earned. The ability (not the right, but the privilege) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them. For ten years, the music business has been steadfastly avoiding this opportunity.

It’s interesting though, because many musicians have NOT been avoiding it. Many musicians have understood that all they need to make a (very good) living is to have 10,000 fans. 10,000 people who look forward to the next record, who are willing to trek out to the next concert. Add 7 fans a day and you’re done in 5 years. Set for life. A life making music for your fans, not finding fans for your music.

The opportunity of digital distribution is this:

When you can distribute something digitally, for free, it will spread (if it’s good). If it spreads, you can use it as a vehicle to allow people to come back to you and register, to sign up, to give you permission to interact and to keep them in the loop.

Many authors (I’m on that list) have managed to build an entire career around this idea. So have management consultants and yes, insurance salespeople. Not by viewing the spread of digital artifacts as an inconvenient tactic, but as the core of their new businesses.

5. A frightened consumer is not a happy consumer.
I shouldn’t have to say this, but here goes: suing people is like going to war. If you’re going to go to war with tens of thousands of your customers every year, don’t be surprised if they start treating you like the enemy.

6. This is a big one: The best time to change your business model is while you still have momentum.
It’s not so easy for an unknown artist to start from scratch and build a career self-publishing. Not so easy for her to find fans, one at a time, and build an audience. Very, very easy for a record label or a top artist to do so. So, the time to jump was yesterday. Too late. Okay, how about today?

The sooner you do it, the more assets and momentum you have to put to work.

7. Remember the Bob Dylan rule: it’s not just a record, it’s a movement.
Bob and his handlers have a long track record of finding movements. Anti-war movements, sure, but also rock movies, the Grateful Dead, SACDs, Christian rock and Apple fanboys. What Bob has done (and I think he’s done it sincerely, not as a calculated maneuver) is seek out groups that want to be connected and he works to become the connecting the point.

By being open to choices of format, to points of view, to moments in time, Bob Dylan never said, “I make vinyl records that cost money to listen to.” He understands at some level that music is often the soundtrack for something else.

I think the same thing can be true for chefs and churches and charities and politicians and makers of medical devices. People pay a premium for a story, every time.

8. Don’t panic when the new business model isn’t as ‘clean’ as the old one
It’s not easy to give up the idea of manufacturing CDs with a 90% gross margin and switching to a blended model of concerts and souvenirs, of communities and greeting cards and special events and what feels like gimmicks. I know.

Get over it. It’s the only option if you want to stay in this business. You’re just not going to sell a lot of CDs in five years, are you?

If there’s a business here, first few in will find it, the rest lose everything.

9. Read the writing on the wall.
Hey, guys, I’m not in the music business and even I’ve been writing about this for years. I even started a record label five years ago to make the point. Industries don’t die by surprise. It’s not like you didn’t know it was coming. It's not like you didn't know who to call (or hire).

This isn’t about having a great idea (it almost never is). The great ideas are out there, for free, on your neighborhood blog. Nope, this is about taking initiative and making things happen.

The last person to leave the current record business won’t be the smartest and he won’t be the most successful, either. Getting out first and staking out the new territory almost always pays off.

10. Don’t abandon the Long Tail
Everyone in the hit business thinks they understand the secret: just make hits. After all, if you do the math, it shows that if you just made hits, you’d be in fat city.

Of course, the harder you try to just make hits, the less likely you are to make any hits at all. Movies, records, books... the blockbusters always seem to be surprises. Surprise hit cookbooks, even.

Instead, in an age when it’s cheaper than ever to design something, to make something, to bring something to market, the smart strategy is to have a dumb strategy. Keep your costs low and go with your instincts, even when everyone says you’re wrong. Do a great job, not a perfect one. Bring things to market, the right market, and let them find their audience.

Stick to the knitting has never been more wrong. Instead, find products your customers want. Don’t underestimate them. They’re more catholic in their tastes than you give them credit for.

11. Understand the power of digital
Try to imagine something like this happening ten years ago: An eleven-year-old kid wakes up on a Saturday morning, gets his allowance, then, standing in his pajamas, buys a Bon Jovi song for a buck.

Compare this to hassling for a ride, driving to the mall, finding the album in question, finding the $14 to pay for it and then driving home.

You may believe that your business doesn’t lend itself to digital transactions. Many do. If you’ve got a business that doesn’t thrive on digital, it might not grow as fast as you like... Maybe you need to find a business that does thrive on digital.

12. Celebrity is underrated
The music business has always created celebrities. And each celebrity has profited for decades from that fame. Frank Sinatra is dead and he's still profiting. Elvis is still alive and he's certainly still profiting.

The music business has done a poor job of leveraging that celebrity and catching the value it creates. Many businesses now have the power to create their own micro-celebrities. These individuals capture attention and generate trust, two critical elements in growing profits.

13. Value is created when you go from many to few, and vice versa
The music business has thousands of labels and tens of thousands of copyright holders. It's a mess.

And there's just one iTunes music store. Consolidation pays.

At the same time, there are other industries where there are just a few major players and the way to profit is to create splinters and niches.

13. Whenever possible, sell subscriptions
Few businesses can successfully sell subscriptions (magazines being the very best example), but when you can, the whole world changes. HBO, for example, is able to spend its money making shows for its viewers rather than working to find viewers for every show.

The biggest opportunity for the music business is to combine permission with subscription. The possibilities are endless. And I know it's hard to believe, but the good old days are yet to happen.

FREE CONSULTATION? How I approach a new client for promo @ Kurb

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:41:57 GMT

How I approach a new client for promo @ Kurb

My commitment to marketing and promotion has seen my range of clients grow from a base specialising in the music industry, to media campaigns involved with environmental organisations, educational institutes and working alongside small business owners to grow their businesses

With every client I deal with there's gonna have to be a tailored strategy given the character of the proposition, especially given the range of options we provide - street media, disc media, social media, online media, search optimisation, online advertising and more.

But the same methodologies can be applied as any enterprise must develop in a certain logical way. An enterprise must develop content to showcase what it is they offer, they must develop a cohesive brand, and value can be created through many different types of messages that result in exposure, credibility and revenue.

Now most often Kurb is involved at only one part of this crucial development. But I tend to make suggestions based not on the options, the effectiveness and our ability to get results and return on investment.

For example, Posters is not a big earn for us, but we continue to offer this service because it brings people to us, and the artists we support need access to this service without it costing them an arm and a leg. So we keep doing it.

But after 5 years it is my gut feeling that posters are useless for "breaking" anything. If the proposition that the poster is making to the "user" is not familiar, it's not going to get processed.

But okay. You're my new client and you've got a few hundred bucks and you want to get started. This is what I say:

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN:

If you don't have a website this is going to become a big mid term priority for reasons which I shouldn't have to explain. The reason that it's not top priority is because mean time we'll run HQ from a social site but we want to get something half decent up there from the get go and we want it sorted out right so there's no hassles later on.

For example - if you already have a website I'm going to need to be able to interact with the "webmaster" - whoever administers the site. Not in principal to make changes to the way it looks but most importantly it's "searchability".

if making basic and regular changes to your website every week is a hassle, then it's going to become a problem, so when starting from scratch we try and anticipate that.

ADWORDS:

Has to be done. This level of personal customisation and targeting is the future of advertising. This is advertising 2.0. You make your ad, decide who sees it deteremined by location and search query, and how much you want to spend, per day, per month, per lead. You see you only pay when someone actually comes to your site through the ad. Basically, if you don't understand adwords completely, that's cool, we can sort everything out for you. I would suggest a budget of $20-$100 p/month.

Otherwise for creatives on the self promotion tip who've got a credit card. Get in there. Start targeting. Get your aim down real good for the optimum. This is the future. Facebook have already introduced a similar system, Myspace will soon too.

Like your web site, these campaigns will grow as they are groomed and tweaked to optimised perfection.

SEO / SEM - Search Engine Optimisation / Search Engine Marketing

I guess just put simply, SEO, search engine optimisation, or the art of making you #1 on Google, is a massive part of online marketing. Luckily in this are I have magical powers. If you go to www.google.CO.NZ and search "online promotion" guess who's number #1? Don't ask me how but I'm good. Just be aware it will take months for me to do this for you, but that's something people usually pay a whole lot more than we charge for. Google will inevitably account for no less than half the traffic to your site, which makes it pretty much the most important part of your marketing.

CONTENT DISTRIBUTION + VIDEO

Much like adwords I will pretty much walk you through your best options to get your music and other primary content distributed for online revenue (itunes etc.) if you are an artist. Starting with retail and moving to publishing and licensing of content.

Whether you're in the entertainment business or not, there is a strong need to develop secondary content for the purpose of promotions, branding and viral opportunities to generate exposure. "Secondary content" is a broad phrase I use to cover a range of media from blog copy, podcasts and video on social networking platforms (Facebook etc.) all the way to blogging platforms (Blogger, Wordpress) podcasts and video platforms (Youtube etc.)

Video obviously requires more attention than we have time for now, but we're currently creating packages to get new talent and branding promoted through video, not only through marketing services and automated distribution saving hours of time, but in producing clean, effective and inexpensive video content. If next year you're not using video, you'll be behind the times.

Watch for my videos coming soon!

But fundamentally, using all these content platforms not only gives you access to millions of worldwide users but also forms a powerful cumulative effect - techniques of which I have barely begun to apply in achieveing what I feel is responsible for the traction I'm now getting with kurb, I mean don't even have an ad in the yellow pages!!!

There are many ideas that I have cleverly worked in making the most of networks and commercial possibilities that exist online, many of which are rather too anecdotal to go into now. But have you honestly really thought about how you could be using NZ's most popular website? I've pulled out some crazy propositions to stay within the rules.

SOCIAL

Well I'm not going to go into the finer details of my deft expertise in this area but it really depends how aggressive you want to be. If you're still developing your content, there's no point in spending a lot of money aggressively promoting. Don't get me wrong, I'm not about album releases and hyping, I'm about a slow building rhythm, you got well recorded songs, videos, photography, design, retailing platforms sorted . . . then lets get stuck in already.

Similarly, social platforms present massive untapped opportunities for brands, products and services to create awareness and access. But New Zealanders are savvy and both artists and businesses have to be creative and innovative with the propositioning conducted in these communities. Do you want to be associated with contributing to the community or leeching off it?

Sure I get flak for being a spammer. But I get far more support from rando's who follow my blogs, and that goodwill is great marketing. If you genuinely offer value, those who are conscious of it will overlook the spam.

POSTERS

Obviously I mentioned my feelings about our poster services early in the post.

Musicians need to have posters, while other clients may be interested in trying this practical strategy out, and we continue to do it simply because it adds value to our all over service, despite the fact it doesn't add much value to my bank account!

More people still end up asking for posters and getting nothing more than posters than don't, but it's a start. I guess in marketing, posters do provide instant gratification but again, without a quality proposition, really it's just more ads.

DISCS

Obviously if you use disc media (CD or DVDs) in your business or you are a musician or visual performer/artist then you'll be pleased to take advantage of the very generous pricing of our various reproduction packages.

But it is also worth considering for non audio/visual clients to consider the ways in which distributing free information or content on CD or DVD can create value as a marketing message or as a free gift.

CONCLUSION

So that just about covers it, but of course the aim is to get results. The nature of modern marketing - especially in grooming an act for the entertainment industry, or making a new small business profitable - suggests long term results are the only way to achieve lasting profitability, and Kurb provides in response such a range of strategies that create value and exposure and different points without breaking the bank, and most of all, I have personally used these techniques to build the leads generated by my own marketing efforts to a point I'm sure most of you would be happy with.

You've got to realise you didn't find me by accident. I'm starting to get real good at making things easy to find, especially to those all important targeted consumers who are most likely to be looking for it. I've also learnt how to slowly turn that into sales. So it's time for you to consider the value of the proposition I'm making you.

For $NZ200 for talent and $NZ350 for businesses we'll get under way with the first month of your campaign, once we've gauged which of these strategies, either separately or working together, will provide you with the best value for your money.

Despite one month being unlikely to create significant exposure, you might want to try one month before commiting to a 3 month package starting at $500 for talent and $950 for businesses.

Please contact me, Matt Turner either by email: kurbpromo@gmail.com
Or reach me on my mobile - +64 (0)27 684 8250

Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

We’re supporting musicians with successful promotion strategies for a budget. Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and video marketing program.

All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

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Matt from Kurb can haz new music industry model

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:00:33 GMT

Okay first, everyone started freaking out that music would become free and nobody would be able to work out how to get paid and break into it. Last week "new models" for the music industry was what everyone was talking about.

So first then lets look at hypebots list of new models.

”As CD sales and label profits tumble, a great deal of hope and excitement has been attached to a variety of new models”:

Music Is Free - And hope to make money elsewhere
Name The Price - Radiohead asks the fans to pay whatever they want
D.I.Y. - The artist is the label handling or hiring out distribution, marketing, etc.
Label As Partner - Band delivers master and label does the rest sharing profits more equitably - often 50/50
Ad Supported Releases - One-offs like Prince and the UK newspaper or Pennywise and MySpace
Ad Supported Labels - The new RCRD LBL
360 Deals - The band as brand. Labels get a percentage of all revenue streams (albums, tours, merch, etc.) in exchange for longer term career investment
The New Old Label - Keep costs down and hope to monetize across multiple revenue from downolads to ringtones to YouTube

Okay the first thing I’ve got to say is this:

All models! Why treat it like a horse race? Different solutions are going to be successful to varying degrees depending on your strengths and strategies, so use them to the degree that they work. If they all work for you, use them all!

I mean if you gig, you gig. If youre some Danny Elfman character who can write music made for TV then you should be looking into that. But the issue is whether revenue from content and even retailing content is even gonna survive. I think before we can even talk about t-shirts the bigger question relates to breaking new acts and how. So today I’m going to be making some models of my own.

If you want to call a blog or an ad supported platform a “label” then sure but I don’t see a big pay out coming. I see innovators who can present dynamic marketing propositions for extracting value from a musicians content and brand - just like prince did.

The models I see don’t include labels because someone like me – an “online content manager” - or possibly your manager will be handling all promotion and distribution of digital content, merchandising, publishing and collecting revenue from such activities, not some huge antiquated apparatus. Either for a fee like I do, or a percentage like a Manager, because if you’re serious, you cant do this by yourself, you need dedicated support in marketing, soliciting and negotiating for revenue, and the technology of media platforms.

If you’ve got the talent to do this, that’s what you should be focused on, not running or promoting the business of your music but in the product itself, in a commitment to quality content.

But let me start from the point where I stand in the business. I thought of offering through kurb a 100% model. That is, Kurb manufactures, distributes, promotes and receives 100% revenue from retail of content. Bands would monetize on the flow on off publicity through gigs, merchandise, licensing, royalties etc. generated by the promotion of the band around the retail of the content, with next to no overheads. But then it could take years to see my end! No Way! There are people in it for the love of music. I just happen to have a good business head on my shoulders as well.

Money in digital retail is like blood from a stone! All I really need to be doing is worrying about expanding on what key controls I have created in my current successful business model so I can learn to break a band like Henry Ford made an automobile. Then, well . . . all your base are belong to us.

So my next idea came thinking about monetizing on my own music - which lends itself more to an experiment rather than paying off my BMW - when I had a techy friend tell me about this thing called Moodle. Mootle? Apparently it’s a marvellous thing, its free, free open source software, but it was so successful the developer had been consumed by developing this amazing interactive content management system – BUT he didn’t do the obvious thing (like I did) and become a consultant – he made people give a percentage of their revenue from becoming approved consultants themselves!!!

THAT WAY HE GOT PAID TO KEEP WORKING ON HIS FREE PRODUCT BY ENGAGING INTERMEDIARIES IN A BLANKET PROPOSITION TO SERVICE ACCESS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THAT FREE PRODUCT.

So why don’t you just offer anybody and everybody 50% of the profit if they can generate revenue from your music in any way imaginable?

This is the crisis of the act that is unknown. The amount of publicity that you must leverage in order to create enough attention to create revenue can only be achieved with either a serious budget or a bold strategy to propagate your content. That’s what’s needed.

That’s when amongst all the talk about new revenue models on the net, Dubber over at www.newmusicstrategies.com told us that he liked Bruce Warila over at http://www.unsprungartists.com

Bruce kinda took me as a bit of a crazy genius a bit like Gerd who you kinda react to like: yes you’re right, but it’s madness, and my brain can't take it. I was down with the Fat packs but by the time we got to cool streams it was getting freaky. You don’t want to be battling over what you’re going to listen to in a public space, you need a gatekeeper on that. You reckon the Fonz would bid on a coolstream? Hell no!

But his blog is mad! I love it. Anyway the thing I really picked up was these Fat package deck things. It’s basically access to ALL your content monetized as either ad supported or premium paid ad-free um “buckets” of access.

And I don’t know where I wemt with it but I was like . . . yeah! I started riffing. You need to become an internet entertainment brand, you need to bundle up all your content, and diversify revenue streams from content by:

- Going old school and selling not that many units on itunes

- Going new school and embracing a tiny percentage of ad supported revenue

AND . . . create the ultimate unique proposition for premium access.

MAKE IT SO YOU PAY ONCE AND . . . GET PERPETUAL ACCESS.

I DON"T WANT TO PAY A FLAT RATE THAT WILL TIME OUT. I WANT TO PAY A FLAT FEE. EVERYTHING. FOREVER.

Now I’m sounding mad. A one time say - $50 charge allows you unlimited access to not only all archived content by the band, but everything else the band produces ever – everything that is and will be available on any other network, retail, ad supported etc would be available to the one time premium subscribers. Obviously this would need some ironing. But bare with me.

HYPOTHETICAL TIMELINE

In the beginning, when the band has only demos, things will be slow but they should be able to gain 100 close local supporters if they’re any good. Supporters are almost investing in the future of content from this band that they will have perpetual access to. This provides the revenue with which they can step up their online promotion, record a clutch of songs half decently, and arrange inter city tours and swap gigs. Subscribers will be built one by one, and the savvy and hardy musicians will be adapted to updating new content over several formats EVERY WEEK.

By the time the band has 1000 subscribed supporters, they’re already on their way. It may have taken a couple of years, but now the band has the funds to take time off to write and record, mount a professional campaign, produce quality merchandise. At this point they should already be monetizing on the traffic through their site.

Even if it takes 5 years or more, by the time the band has 10,000 subscribers – from which they’ve grossed half a million dollars just in subscription fees, but that’s still nothing compared to the value of those subscribers whose loyalty has been earned with years of regular content - they’re probably ready to pay $50 all over again for whatever physical product you make available – vinyl, t-shirts, coffee mugs, whatever suits your niche.

This model is all about every song traded on P2P and every copy of the big single downloaded off itunes and every ad supported platform, while still generating modest income, becoming the marketing for the flagship content product – unlimited and perpetual access to all digital content for $50. But it’s all about choice. You can still charge them $20 for a year or $30 for 2.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE. BRING THAT MOODLE BACK!

You can get canny. Real canny. I’m not just talking about affiliate schemes to incentivise paid up members to sign up their mates. I mean incentivise them to retail as well as develop products and merchandise for retail. Go public. Put up a perpetual 5% dividend of online profit to be shared amongst the first 500 – which means when the website reaches 10,000 subscribers . . . the first 500 members will get their money back!

Oh! This is making my brain twitch! Countless promotional offshoots abound. I'm getting antsy! Before we go lets look at the solids:

- A non exclusive, high value premium content product is only the most expensive of a range of choices

- Unique value proposition with unique opportunities to incentivize fans and create revenue streams from related non digital content

- the value of the and media and content on offer continues to increase over time as more content is continually added to the package

- Over time, the real asset becomes not the content but the access to the accumulation of subscribers as an active audience. Perhaps a forum would be the best place for fans to discuss fair and appropriate use of advertising and special product offers to existing subscribers.

Sorry I got kind of distracted. But I just love my new model! I’m off to get started! Maybe I can still hit half a mill in sales before I'm 35!

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:56:01 GMT

Look out!!! Matt from Kurb is becoming a POWER BLOGGGER!!! RAHH!Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

more bits’n things coming soon.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS
By Matt Turner @ Kurb Promotions, www.kurb.co.nz. Don’t steal without asking.

In the music business, Pride is the deadliest sin.

This should be a great little blog, because the most important thing in the music business – if you want to make it and stuff – isn’t something I know anything special about, it’s not exactly to do with the internet, or online promotion . . .

Just . . . Be safe, be scene . . .

Okay cute headline. Sure, but what do I mean, I said this was the most important thing in getting ahead in music. I mean don’t piss people off!

It means not acting like a prick. It means going to local shows and meeting people even though you might think they’re pricks.

It means if you are serious about your music, and I’m dead serious, your best position is if you’ve got nothing good to say about whats going on in your local scene, then keep it zipped. Or you’re going to sound like a prick. And pricks don’t get gigs.

It’s who you know – of course you know that – but if you know people and they don’t like you then you may as well forget it. So for starters - be nice, but you should of heard that by now. Rock’n Roll attitude is all very well for music videos and magazine covers but it won’t get you anywhere in your professional dealings.

Often not that many people come to the gig. Sometimes you don’t get paid, sometimes theres some hidden cost that no ones prepared to front up for. Sometimes there’s little shits online making fun of you. Sometimes you give someone your demo and they don’t get back to you. Acting unprofessionally in any of these circumstances is basically your ticket out of establishing any respect as an artist.

Stuff posted on forums, snarky backchat on myspace and the like – you are not to react to this stuff! Are you cut out for being a professional entertainer or a re you just another dickhead? People will make their minds up pretty soon.

New Zealand is a TINY country, the next most important thing after being nice and keeping it scene is probably moving to Australia but that’s another blog. Every place in New Zealand is ridiculously underpopulated so unless you live in Auckland which is still borderline . . . if you act like an asshole, you can just forget it.

Sure you can tell little fankids to piss off if theyre hassling you but NEVER diss another local band in open company. What have you honestly got to gain by going on about how much Elemeno P suck? You just end up looking bitter. Which isn’t really that rock’n roll.

Y’know. When a political incident takes place, when all is said and done it seems done, but when the months roll by and you’re getting less gigs . . . it’s a silent killer. You never really know the damage you’ve done to your professional reputation, and what opportunities you’ve missed because someone’s mentioned said incident to interested parties, and they’ve formed their own opinions.

Now when I’m talking about keeping it scene I’m not insisting you turn into some poser hanging on. You may not want to hear this but realistically, if you want a gig, you have to go to the gigs. Y’know hang out, meet people, get involved with whats going on. Even if you don’t like them. I mean you like the same music, don’t you? You don’t really matter sitting in your bedroom if you’re not really connecting with people one way or another.

And sure, the guys from the band that everyone loves right now might make you sick, but that’s the way it is. You only have to be polite. It’s good practice for when you’re starting to get traction.

Trust me, I hate this stuff, but it is so important. Am I telling you to be a fake? No! Be a professional musician, you want to get somewhere, be realistic! Don’t tell the promoter how wicked your band is and your recording soon. Tell them your committed to seeing the scene grow and you want to help build the gigs.

Promoters need all the help they can get - they get enough birds pecking at the pie once it’s baked.

I guess the main reason for writing this blog is because - not only has it been a big mistake I made in publicly comparing a popular television personality and local DJ to spongebob squarepants - But I just still see this going on all the time – especially on myspace - right across all kinds of genres, strife caused by personality clashes and what I’m saying is shit like that becomes a serious obstacle, you need a clear path on your way up.

Guys are working hard on their music, promotion, organising gigs, recording, putting their heart and soul into it . . . and letting it all slide because an unprofessional attitude that in a lot of ways just comes down to a maturity thing, dealing with frustration and being patient, and accepting that though I’m sure you’ve got a whole tonne of potential . . .

Wait your turn.

It’s called paying your dues.

Oh did you think paying your dues meant playing shitty gigs for only a year or two . . . ? Better revise on that. Cos it might just mean being nice to the girlfriends of the guys in the band and a whole lotta other stuff you may not have counted on. But not too nice! Haha.

We’re supporting musicians with successful promotion strategies for a budget. Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program.

All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

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Kurb Myspace

Puff Daddy, Music Industry, 360 deals, ancillary earnings etc.

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:17:25 GMT

If you're smart you're probably thininking . . . but but but puff daddy - I mean uhhh just "Diddy" - is a commercial sell out rapper and I’m a serious songwriter with integrity who’s authentic!!! Or something. Well good. on. you.

So then you understand the crisis of credibility that the advertising industry is facing right now and their desperate need to connect their message in the most subtle and nuanced of ways with . . . you guessed it. Something authentic.

No, you don’t have to endorse “dolphin killers detergent” so I don’t want to hear anybody bleating about “selling out”. if you’re “doing it for the love” then go do it and quit whining about only playing to 12 people and how christmas will be hard this year. sheesh.

I’ve never been a huge fan of his material or anything but the guy knows how to get paid – something of a current preoccupation for musicians currently working part time jobs or looking after their kids.

Also big bad bob is right to chastise Gene Simmons for saying he can’t be bothered making an album if he can’t get paid. Prince, Radiohead, The Eagles . . . have certainly landed on their feet.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2007/11/19/more-eagles/

Bob's also had another go at Jay Z for his prehistoric decision to not allow his album to be broken up for sale as singles online. The argument maybe that Jay Z's had 10 no. 1 albums and he can do what he likes, but if you're not Jay Z . . . don't try this foolishness at home. It's about access people. Make it accessible. Become a star. Then we'll worry about the cash later.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2007/11/20/jermaine-dupri-on-the-huffington-post/

Over to the piece on the diddymeister . . .

While the music business continues its downward spiral, the latest talk among label executives is revolving around so-called 360 deals: ventures designed to give them a piece of all the revenues that come an artist's way.

Executives say monetizing and sharing in every aspect of a performer's career--from recording and publishing to movies, merchandising and endorsement deals--could make up for losses in record sales. But critics argue that the strategy is just another way for the majors to take money out of an artist's pocket.

When this reporter sat down for a recent interview with Sean "Diddy" Combs, one of music's biggest voices and a leading architect of the concept of artist as brand, he expressed a few reservations about the record industry's latest magic bullet.

"Right now, everyone just says this brand-building concept out of their mouths so easily, claiming it's revolutionizing the industry," he says. "But it takes a certain type of superstar who understands at all times what it takes to be in the middle of a 360 situation. This is not going to solve the labels' problem."

Brand bonanza

The hip-hop mogul knows whereof he speaks. He has been so successful at building brands outside of music that fashion, fragrances, restaurants, television and film production, and now vodka collectively make up the lion's share of Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group's approximately $500 million in annual sales. Music accounts for just $100 million, according to industry estimates.

Mr. Combs' focus on building an urban lifestyle empire began more than a decade ago, even before he became a huge name on the music scene.

"He created a movement, and he's carried that over into everything he's done in the branding space," says Rob Stone, a former colleague of Mr. Combs' at Arista Records. He now heads Cornerstone Promotion, which specializes in leveraging music to market consumer products.

"Early on, I made a 360 deal with myself," Mr. Combs says. "What separates me is that I always had a blueprint to be a lifestyle brand. The things people are talking about doing now I already did. I always wanted to diversify."

Building his brands didn't come easily. Artists interested in exploring branding and endorsement opportunities need to do their homework, be selective and have a passion for the products they are touting, says Mr. Combs.

Becoming a business

"You have to become and understand the business you take on," he says. A towering poster in Times Square of Mr. Combs, decked out in clothing from his eponymous Sean John line, says it all.

Mr. Combs demonstrates his commitment to the products under his umbrella with the latest addition to his roster of luxury products: Ciroc, a premium vodka that he's marketing in partnership with distributor Diageo. He plans to be hands-on in developing the liquor's marketing campaign.

"This is not about me just throwing a couple of parties and sticking Ciroc in a music video," he says.

Of course, music still matters to Mr. Combs.

"Music is that thing that makes [my products] sexy and edgy and gives me that direct connection to the consumer," says Mr. Combs. "It's an endorsement of how cool my brand is."

See what Puffy's saying? He's only making %20 of his earn of the music he sells. He's leveraging his rock star status to sell 400 mill worth of other stuff that people who won't pay for music WILL pay for.

Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

We’re supporting musicians with successful promotion strategies for a budget. Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program.

All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

.....................
Kurb Myspace

content and trust - working backwards from success

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 04:51:16 GMT

It’s always good to take a “working backwards” perspective on things to get a clearer perspective on the journey from where you are to where you want to be.

That is, in my case, I create services out of successful strategies. I think in observing these strategies in both form and content, you can reflect on opportunities to adapt these techniques to your own uses promoting your music.

A lot of musicians are frustrated about not getting paid, and I understand. All I can do is provide concepts that have proven successful in my own web 2.0 kind of way and draw from that.

And basically I’m still promoting two major concepts: Content and Trust.

I don’t think you can be a musician any more. You are a provider of entertainment content. Content is contact. Contact is access. Access is value, and value is revenue.

Secondary content is blogs, videos, and podcasts, you’re covering your main social platforms, Myspace, Bebo, You’ve already signed up for a Facebook band page HAVEN’T YOU?, your blogs are on Blogger, Wordpress, Livejournal maybe you’re paying for Typepad, but if you’re rancid on it, you’re on Stumbleupon, Digg and Del.icio.us. You’re on Last.fm, you use Ilike. You wanna kick out free mp3’s? Of course you’re on Mp3.com, Download.com, Soundclick.

You have to provide this content consistently to build and maintain your audience. This whole album release hype shit is nonsense. Look at youtube: you literally have to become a “channel”. Fans tune in. They want to be updated. They want fresh content. Producing an “album” is a distinctly arbitrary form of delivery.

My blogs are already kicking off quite nicely and I’m still just tooling around. At the end of the day I’ve at least got a couple of Page Rank 3’s under my belt, and most of my key content pages on www.kurb.co.nz has gone to PR3 too. I’m into the habit of posting regularly so things will only build.

As I said this summer I’m finishing our studio set in the garage. My goal is when working with bands, at LEAST fortnightly, we want them in front of the camera, reporting to fans, we want the fans to find out who the musicians are. We want to build relationships.

Presentation is a massive part of content, all this branding stuff, your aesthetic signatures, this IS important. You just can’t afford to spend money on this stuff!

I’m already making connections - obviously we’re living in the 21st century and India is well, it’s basically the done thing. That’s why what I’m doing is finding workers in India who can deliver to an expected standard design and web services on the more techy side of things where I am less adept, at a price that’s affordable for artists.

Which comes round to my second point. Trust.

Honesty and credibility are often in short supply on the internet and that’s why it’s becoming so valuable.

You wouldn’t really trust some Indian on the other side of the world to deliver a high standard of presentation encapsulating the finely nuanced visual message of your music. That is why it is my job to find trustworthy workers working within a quality regulated environment in this area to do so, provide trusted services, and profit from it.

What can I say about trust? How about this? If you’re music isn’t that good, don’t hide from it. Don’t pretend you’re the greatest band in the world if you’re not. This is the internet! People are looking to connect with something that’s honest, that they can understand, that they can relate to, identify with . . . and trust!!!

Trust is a commitment to providing access to valuable content. Useful content. You can gain trust and credibility just by being a source of valuable information – theres nothing to say you cant promote other peoples credited content that you feel has value to your online following.

That’s why I write these damn blogs, and I repost heaps of sourced articles. To most people the kind of stuff I do is way off the map, so it’s up to me to draw potential clients a picture, with them in it, just like I’m doing right now. So are you and your music. You gotta open your mouth and start talking, start a conversation with your fans, get them talking back, staying for a cuppa, and picking up something they can take away, share . . . and a reason to come back!

You don’t have to be the best band in the world in order for people to connect with what you’re doing but you’ve got to show them what your about, you’ve got to tell a story . . . or no one will really care.

Just another bunch of guys with a bunch of songs . . .

Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

We’re supporting musicians with successful promotion strategies for a budget. Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program.

All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

.....................
Kurb Myspace

online music promotion: 44 apps and critical mass

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:07:51 GMT

So recently if you follow my stuff on myspace, or my main blog, or facebook, I’ve been talking about the importance of creating and distributing regular online content and now I’m going to be talking about the best way to go about deciding how and where to do that.

I’ve talked about your website as your online “home” – a place where you might build a community for fans, and of sites like myspace as “doorways” to that community. We’re talking about the best ways for you to take your content and fit it in with media communities that already exist – that is, going to where the people already are. So build a great big ornate entrance for the main streets that are Myspace, Facebook, and Youtube but just forget about all those back alley sites that no one cares about!

Gerd Leonhard recently blogged this little slideshow from hypebot/gotoweb2.0 covering 44 web 2.0 music sites. And recently with me having to slog through more geek shit on Social bookmarking now in order to evaluate it’s ability to get results for me and my clients, I had to say, even me, who goes on 6 hour online research binges – is their really time for all this? 44 new web 2.0 sites to promote your music on?

http://go2web2.blogspot.com/2007/10/44-web-20-music-services-in-one.html

I mean guys I get all my juice from such as Andrew Dubber (www.newmusicstrategies.com) and Gerd Leonhard (www.mediafuturist.com) are always like – try this new site, watch out for this new start up, try this new app, add this widget – even those hypebot tips I posted! And what? Is there anybody there? Is anybody listening? Is the crowd calling out for more? Sure if you’re radiohead then it doesn’t matter what platform you’re using, the masses are already looking for you!

Look I been through all this and basically, if you don’t even have an audience to identify, getting exposure for your stuff on the net is going to come down – once again – to the numbers game . . . on the internet means that means TRAFFIC.

These 44 sites – I don’t care. I don’t care how snazzy they look or what exciting new feature they offer. Or how many times they advance theoretically how they can “get your music out to the world” using this new fangled computer internet thing.

If nobodies using their site, if there’s no audience to promote to, then it’s just a waste of time. You’ll come back in a year, and the site will be gone. Another failed online music industry concept start up goes out with a whimper.

Should we get excited about www.we7.com, the site that offers artists a share of advertising revenue in exchange for offering free downloads?

Well why is myspace such a big deal? Bebo? Youtube? Facebook? Google? Itunes? Because it’s what everyone’s using!!! It’s the party that everyone’s at. They’re not at those other 44 sites! I look at the traffic.

Let’s look at specifically our local NZ target audience. I hope you’re not working to hard on your myspace presence or this could be a little deflating. You gotta stay up with it.

% of web traffic in NZ October 2007-10-25

1 – Google – 7.13%
2 – Trademe – 3.92%
4 – Bebo - 2.06%
8 – Facebook – 1.11%
9 – Youtube – 1.08%
20 – Myspace - .49%

See if you’re smart like me you’ll be thinking of clever ways to exploit trademe for marketing. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve but i’m keeping those little puppies close to my chest.

(trademe is NZ's ebay for overseas readers)

Socials like myspace dwarf distribution sites like Soundclick, Download and Mp3. Still use them! Use Last.fm – the biggest aggregator, use Garageband.com or sonific to create a media platform you can distribute – for example the Ilike widget for spreading your music on facebook . . . which is NOW partnered with billboard to render chart information!

But don’t waste your time on sites without any qualifying knowledge as to what signing up and maintaining your presence or even paying them for services will really render in return.

Paying to use a website is like buying a cd. It's a 20th century thing. Forget about it. It's antiquated.

But let's use an example, I’m really excited about the new isynx.com site which is attempting to open up licensing and syncing royalties to everyday artist – tipped to be see major growth in revenue distribution for artists.

But it doesn’t matter how romantic I am about these ideas, it won’t make this site work. So no, I’m not going to spend even 20 minutes to sign up. I’m going to come back in a month and see what happens, to see if gets traction, if it can build a critical mass.

So how do you know where to invest your effort? Quick rule of thumb: If you hear a site discussed in offline media – like myspace, bebo or facebook – you better get your ass on there.

This is really about time management. You know you’ve got to build your presence painstakingly online. Every online promo handbook tells you to create every opportunity for exposure, but really! It takes energy to create energy. Your promotional effort online has to be just like a gig, a rookie band playing a warm up, you’ve got to get the crowd involved, create a vibe, foster the community and create something there that people walking past will see and want to be a part of. But not if there’s nobody walking past! Your energy might be better applied to other tasks in other areas.

How to get gigs/shows

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:40:56 GMT

IF YOU LIKE THIS BLOG - SUBSCRIBE!!!

How to get gigs

Here's another article I grabbed this time from about.com (music.about.com) they got a few good ones! People are always asking me how to get gigs, but I don't touch that stuff!

Posters I do, press kits I do, CD promos I do, gig promotion on and networking on myspace, bebo, facebook I do. My role I see as a happy helper who makes sure your gig doesn't go completely to shit and become a lasting scar on your psyche. Not a bad deal for a couple of hundy.

I know all about gigging, touring, promoting gigs, I've done plenty of it, made all the mistakes.

If you're an unknown, you're going to have to spend a couple of years playing gigs to no one and it coming out of your own pocket and there's no cut in that for me! If you're not an unknown, then you'll already have a manager. Poor sod.

Fortunately, online promotion and networking gives you a chance to at least generate some interest before you hit the stage, but being a manager is not a glamourous or thankful job - that's why I charge $500 p/month to do it on top of a full promotions package.

OH ALSO: one day I will have to write about why it's important to be nice. From my experience Auckland is the ONLY place in NZ where not being nice won't fuck your career and even then, you'll be lucky. Pay your debts, don't be rude or demanding, don't get into "beef" on the "scene" with other musicians. Trust me. Or 6 months from now you'll be sitting in your room wondering why you never get any gigs. Of course it wasn't to do with you dissing that band on the message boards.

HOW TO GET GIGS:

One of the best ways to build up a fan base for your band is to get out there and play live, as often as your can. But often bands find themselves between a rock and hard place - to get a gig, you need an audience, but to get an audience, you need a gig. You can rise above that, however, and get your band in front of the crowd if you follow the right steps. This how-to guide will cover getting a single show, but many of these steps can be built upon to book your band an entire tour.

1. Think Locally - The best place to start looking for gigs is in your own backyard. Get to know the music scene in your area. What venues and promoters are willing to give up and coming bands a chance? What bands in your area play live often and might need a support act? What venues in your area put on touring bands, who might need a local opening act? To get a gig, all of these factors can come into play. Approaching the right venues will open doors to you, and there is strength in numbers, so working together will the other bands in the area will increase the opportunities for everyone. (Plus, you can share gear!)

2. Get your Promo Package Together - [or "media kit"] Have a standard package ready to introduce yourself to venues and promoters. Much like the package you use when you send a demo to a label , this promo package should be short and sweet. Include a short demo CD, a short bio or one sheet to introduce the band, and some press clippings, if you have any (especially ones that review live performances). If you're going to approach people by email instead, cut and paste the info into the body of an email and include a link to a site where your music can be heard. Don't send attachments - most people won't open them.

3. Approach the Venue - To get a gig directly with a venue, call and find out who is in charge of booking bands and send them your promo package. They may tell when to contact them again. If not, give them about a week, and follow up by phone or email. Keep trying until you get an answer. If you've haven't played live much, your best bet is try to get on an existing bill with a band that already has a bit of a following. Keep in mind that if you book with a venue, you may be in charge of promoting the show yourself and paying venue rental fees, unless you are invited on to an existing concert bill.

4. Approach the Promoter - If you'd rather not self promote and take on venue fees, you can approach a promoter to get a gig. Send your promo pack to the promoter and follow up in the same way you would with a venue. If a promoter agrees to get you a show, they will book the venue and promote the show for you, but you may need to send them posters you have made yourself to do so.

If the promoter doesn't want to put you on by yourself yet, ask them if they have any shows you could play as an opening act. If they say no, check in from time to time to remind them you are always available as a support act.

[Matt - lets not pussyfoot about. If you're not established and there's a big promoter guy who's running game in your scene, you'll have to offer to play for free. Rememeber, promoters are often people who like to feel important. work with that.]

5. Understand the Deal - This is the trickiest part for most bands. First, understand that when you are just getting started, you often will not make money on your shows. In fact, you may even end up out of pocket. That doesn't mean it was all for nothing - building up your fan base will mean you do make money on future gigs.

If you do make money, you will either have a deal where you get paid a pre-agreed amount no matter how many people turn up, or you will have a door split deal . Either deal is fine and fair. Focus on building your audience and not the money right now.

6. Play the Gig - Sounds obvious, I know, but the way you handle the gig can have a lasting impact on your ability to get future shows. Show up on time for the soundcheck and if there are other bands playing, remember everyone needs time for their soundcheck. Be professional - there is likely to be free drinks around, but remember everyone is there to hear your music, not to see if you can handle your beer. Don't sell yourself short by getting on stage in anything but your top shape, ready to play a great show. Play a good show, be courteous and professional, and you'll soon be getting more show offers!

[Matt - this is a big one. If you're just starting out, don't be all anal about soundcheck and free drinks!!! You're just there to fill in the gap before the guys everyones coming to see plays. The promoter will look at you like the amateur you are if you stat getting huffy and making demands.]

Tips:

1. Don't Get Caught Up on the Deal - This is worth repeating. Your goal is build up your audience. Promoters and venues are taking a chance on you when you are just getting started - they will be more willing to give you a chance if you don't have a lot of financial demands.

2. But Don't Pay to Play - If you're putting on your own show, of course you may have to pay a venue hire fee and you may to pay some promotional costs. However, don't pay money simply to get on a bill, and don't trust anyone who asks you to.

3. Invite the Press - Keep the entertainment writers at your local papers informed about your activities and always invite them to the show. Also, keep your local radio stations up to date on what's happening with your band and when you're playing.

4. Respect the Guest List - Guests lists have a way of getting out of hand, fast. Don't push it with promoters with the guest list when you are trying to build up a name for yourself. If you're part of a larger bill, you may not even have any guest list spaces. If you do, use what you have and be done with it. Don't try to get 50 of your closest cheapskate friends into every show for free. You'll get a bad name for yourself.

More How To's from your Guide To Music Careers

Playing live may be the most important thing a band can do. If your band is unsigned, playing live is a great way to build up a loyal fan base, get some media attention and attract record label interest. For signed bands, gigs are the means by which you can keep building your audience while promoting your new releases. Booking a gig can seem like an overwhelming process, however, especially when a band is doing all of the booking themselves. If you're in a cold sweat, wondering how to get some shows for your band, never fear. Take a deep breath, relax and follow these steps that are sure to get your band on stage.

The Basics - Let's go right back to the beginning. Before you even can think about booking a gig, there are a few things you will need to have in place:

• A demo or a finished CD, or a website on which people can listen to your music

• A press pack, including information about your band and clippings of any press coverage you may have had.

You should also have an idea of when you want to play a show - approaching a venue or promoter and asking for a gig "whenever" isn't very helpful. Come up with a window of preferred dates and make sure everyone in the band has their calendar clear for those days.

Find the Right People - So, you've got the promo package and demo ready to go - now, who should you send it to? There are two ways you can go about booking a gig:

• Book directly with the venue, in which case you as a band take on the costs and responsibilities of promoting the show

• Book with a promoter, who takes charge of promoting the show

Sometimes, venues work with a specific promoter, and sometimes they don't. Give your venue of choice a call to find out how they do things. If you don't know any promoters, ask the venue for advice, or ask around to find out with whom other bands in your area work. If possible, get the names of a few different promoters and venue booking agents and send them all promo packages - nothing wrong with people fighting to give you a chance to play, right?

Tired of booking gigs for yourself? Try getting a manager or agent on board who can help you get the shows you want.

The Deal - A good deal is part and parcel of a good gig. You should prepare yourself, however, for the fact that many shows lose money. If you're just getting started and don't have much of a following yet, you should think of your gigs as promotional opportunities for your band rather than money making opportunities. Your willingness to work with a promoter and/or a venue to try and minimize the financial risk involved in a show will only help you convince people to work with you.

Your deal should detail how any income for the show will be divided, as well as confirming information about things like accommodation for the band, riders, backline, and soundchecks. If there is something you're unsure about or you don't think is fair, speak up well in advance of the show.
• Door Split Deals
• Before you Sign a Music Promoter Contract
• Backline
• Rider
• Should I Pay to Play a Gig?

Show Up and Play - Now all you have to do is show up and play a good show. Be professional, treat the promoter and the people at the venue with respect, and if you can't handle drinking all of the rider before going on stage, then for goodness sake, don't do it. If you happen to have an off night, but you have treated people well, most promoters will want to work with you again. If you've given everyone working to put on the show a night of utter chaos and stress, well, then, you'll probably be looking for a new place to play.

Make sure you take full advantage of the audience at the show and promote any releases, new websites, or any other news the band may have. Encourage everyone who enjoyed your set to sign your mailing list, so you can let them know when you're playing again.

Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget.

Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program.

All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

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Kurb Myspace

DL Romantech producer mix and starffff

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:05:53 GMT

YES I have actually got round to putting up the link so you can actually download my July producer mix with all the best throughput from my source destination.

I actually have a tub of new material waiting in the wings to swoop down and coat you in sticky romantech goodness for summer.

I'm feeling good, are you?

DOWNLOAD MY NEW T'ING "SUCH HEAVY WINGS" LOT OF GOOD HAPPY DRUM AND BASS ONES FOR YOU - FROM NEW ZEALAND PRODUCER FRIEND, ROMANTECH - HIM REAL GOOD!!! JUST: RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE, BABY!"

SUCH HEAVY WINGS - ROMANTECH JULY '07

DnBMIX Tracklist

1 ILL FISH

2 THEY SHINE

3 LOCKDOWN

4 EVERYTHING

5 FORGET ABOUT IT

6 SUPPORT WORKER

7 NEUTRON STAR ft. NSU

8 POSITIVE VIBES

9 GIRLFRIENDS

10 PAST LIVES

11 BROTHA SISTA ft. 4.5 Hz

12 DESIRE ft. Control

13 EXIT ROMANTECH

14 ICE BREAKER

In other news, Soul Science Thursdays are no more! After a mammoth 20 month strecth well . . . I'll just be straight up, we had such a fine night for the Snatch DJ comp - taken out by DJ Nutron - there really wasn't a better opportunity to say . . . Foci, Thursdays, it's been swell, a lot of great new young DJ's have come up playing the Thursday night slots, a lot of good honest up for it bass heads have come into the scene - but its time to put a lid on that, and take a moment to freshen up.

I will be very suprised if a new weekly opportunity to kick back with beats and brews on a thursday doesn't emerge for 2008.

Don't forget to standby for announcements regarding this years Soul Science christmas party!

But I'm stil running big t'ings! Mainly doing gay shit like writing business blogs and work starfff BAARTT NZ's top hardcore punk act The Bleeders release their new self titled album November 12 and I'm the special head of online promotion operations!

If you are interested in online promotion starf especially where it relates to promoting music and other creative enterprise you can hit my promo blog at a number of locations this probably being the best.

http://kurbpromotions.blogspot.com

I've got lots of magical secrets. Kind of like a my little pony unicorn that if you rub my butt it smells like strawberries. Maybe kind of.

Meantime I'm cranking out thousands of christian personal development DVDs for work which although means you might not actually see me other than those fucking chinese posters I've been putting everywhere - I'm looking for such endeavours to personally develop me into a meaningful relationship with a charming young filly of these likes going into the festive season:

Deep in my subconscious grows the seed that a black beamer will perfectly compliment my upward mobility with a warm hue of conspicuous and slightly ostentatious consumption. I'm sure Freud would say it probably has something to do with compensating for living with my mother, but he can think what he likes. He's dead, meantime I'll be rolling in the myspace "fanny magnet" come '08 :P

Which is bound to be a voyage of self discovery in which I remember rolling in a sexy black ride has a novelty duration of happy satisfaction for about 10 days before the effect is diseminated by insurance costs and constant fear of the many dangers and threats to her shiny blackness - like a 17 year old with a key who's just realised you had no intention of making it "official".

Lets hope it works out. Otherwise at least I've still got my personality.

Man, I reckon "Signs" by Snoop/JT and the Neptunes is such a fat tune.

BUT that's me. I've totally had that same thing happen with T-pain as with what happened with My Chemical Romance last year - of hating them so much I actually stop fighting and decide I'm actually REALLY into T-pain.

Online promotion: it's all about content

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 07:32:00 GMT

Right in part 2 of my new blog series from my latest research - well it’s not really research its more of a successful experiment which I am extrapolating on i.e. doing more of.

Yay I’m on the observation post team for NZ musician now. I guess I’ll have to tone down the buy buy buy angle. Oh and the spam spam spam angle.

But see I see Kurb as like uhhh the mighty Totara, that we might, like mad Vikings, board our cyber wakas fashioned and hewn from the technology of kurb and set forth to conquer far off lands with our antipodean sound – except thanks to kurb, you don’t actually have to leave the house.

I live only a few blocks from The New Zealand Music Industry Commission. Man, if they gave me one of those $50,000 grants they’re always giving out to the household names to get radio play in europe I could put every kiwi artist on myspace on a kurb online promotion plan – then we’d really see some developments!

Btw there’s a reason I never talk about getting NZ on Air or creative NZ grants. You’re better off looking for fairies and leprechauns in the back garden. Maybe Kurb should develop an artist strategy package for that also.

Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget.

Kurb is NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest
CD/DVD reproduction and posters available.

Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and video marketing program.

All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo
.....................
Kurb Myspace

Your online promotion strategy: Its all about content.

Whattya mean “Content”? Y’know, stuff!

Well theres primary content. That’s your music (kinda) and your gigs and your merch. Where your earn is. I don’t deal with that stuff. I make CD’s and posters and I can put you in touch with engineers etc. but basically all the promo stuff that makes you seem cool – your words, pictures, website and profile designs, videos, that’s your secondary content. And it’s my jobe to make sure thousands of people see it.

Remember what I was saying last time about how if your content is good and they can get it, then people will like you, and you’ll make money? Oh but remember how I said – if people can find you amongst all the “access”?

I think what I’m really trying to reinforce to you is that my end of things – the bit where everyone finds out about you – that’s sorted. Just leave that to me. But sure, so if I can make 10,000 people watch your video, what if your video is crap? Or worse, what if you only ever do one decent thing and people think you must have died? I mean I’m open to strategies but . . .

I said do you want to get famous and make money not doing some normal job or not?

But it is kinda why I’ve launched the 3 month thing because if we wanna build your fan base up in a way that’s real we gotta put some work in! Even if you’re amazing it’ll take 6 months at least.

I think I’ll do a post “the cost of fame: $NZ2000”.

Which brings us to the subject. People want cool stuff. Stuff that grabs them, cool stuff they can enjoy, stuff they can feel cool telling other people about. That happens so quickly now its insane.

People come to my blogs. I’m tip toe spamming round some of the biggest internet communities in the world linking musicians I’ve targeted to my blogs and they’re coming and they’re liking and they’re linking and googles reading the links and the blogs are coming up on searches and people are clicking the links and googles reading the behaviour and next thing Kurb is beating out huge established companies in NZ for searches on “online promotion” AND “cd duplication” and “postering”.

THIS IS WHY BLOGS ARE MASSIVE. Because Google pays attention to them. Those little google spiders read EVERY WORD.

Helps if you’ve got 20-odd like me, but I’m lazy I should really get another few hundred up and running.

I can’t tell you all my secrets. But if you can get into the habit of writing about cool stuff that the kind of people who listen to your kind of music like at least once a week, y’know, 2-300 words - you’re gonna have something to work with even if you don’t work with us. Just make sure you put your links! Back to your website! You do have a website don’t you? Oh then make your wordpress blog your website then, shit!

Seriously. Did somebody say “Radiohead”? Your website is now MORE IMPORTANT than your CD. And having your myspace as your website is basically like having a cd without a case. It looks unprofessional and things will get messy.

Your myspace is (or bebo if you’re a teen act or facebook if you play to the discerning crowd) the doorway to well exactly what youtube calls it – your channel. A place where you’re engaging them on your own terms. Myspace is like the gig. Now invite them back to your place and make it personal.

It’s totally like “Like our myspace? You should totally come back to my site and check out our band – we’ve got downloads and everything, it’ll be crazy. I’ve totally got this blog about like, the craziest gig we did ever its like got pictures and everything. Just leave your email if you wanna know when the video for the song we wrote about it is up.”

Now doesn’t that just sound like a bunch of dudes?

And now I’m talking about videos! Videos are different from blogs – they’re not special in a jedi geek way like blogs are because they’re not text, google spioders can't "read" them, they don’t link, they don’t tell google anything. But videos . . . they sure say something.

As I’m moving onto in part 3, people don’t want to pay for your CD!! How do you think you’re gonna get paid? They’re just gonna throw money at you? Why does rich come before famous uh "syntactically"?? If it ever did in reality it certainly doesn’t any more.

We’re gonna have to work – I can get these people to you but you’ve got to really get to these people about who you are, what your music is and what it's about. It’s gonna take more than one cool video to make them part with their cash, but if you’re the real thing it’ll happen eventually.

If you are the real thing then let people know. Blog about it. Film it. Sorry to be old balloonhead over here, but when it comes to internet campaigns I’m the real thing and that’s why I go to the trouble of explaining that the experience is real, and people who pursue this information connect with it and they want to be involved. And they want to spend money. Your music works in the same way. We do business on the internet now. Trust = earning.

And if you’ve already got well recorded songs and you know you’re ready to start blogging and making videos and keep doing it then as I say - write the cheques and leave the rest to me. Then you’ll have plenty of time to make videos and blog posts. Being an industrious fellow I’ll probably be able to do both of those things for you as well soon enough.

We’re already working on our studio set in the garage so we can start filming, bringing content live that people can connect with. Do you think I’m going to be dropping 5k every time I want to make a shitty little clip for youtube? And being all “Te Irirangi Motu” on it? Don't hold your breath.

Have you seen youtube? People record themselves in their rooms talking to shitty little webcams. And they get famous. People are engaging this shit. Video does so much more than blogs to break down the anonymity of the web and create bonds, connections, whatever - for creative and thoughtful people theres endless ways to use video to bring character to your musical identity.

This is what media is all about. Some people love the tight playing, some people love the style, some people know all the lyrics, some people think the bass player has a real attitude and great hair. How are people gonna get that message if you’re not sending it? And I mean every month because you know they’ll just forget if you don’t remind them.

So.

See the way media is converging – as a musician you’ve got to see the SERVICE you provide as part of a larger product which is an experience. To have a career in music these days – well we knew when video came along it was less about the sound - now promoting yourself as a musician on the internet is about promoting yourself as an experience! When people believe in the experience, when you’ve provided someone with the experience of the music and what it represents and it’s real for them . . . people want to feel closer to that experience, and that could mean as little as buying the T shirt. Or the box set. And they’re gonna be there next time you play, and they’re going to bring all their friends.

That's what happens when people discover something real amongst the shit. They hold it up. They say, "look what I found!"

So when it comes to providing content as the engine of your online promotions campaign remember that now, what you’re providing is more than ever, more than a sound, more than a catchy tune, it’s an experience, it’s a way of life.

Music videos go online - end of music TV era

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 05:05:15 GMT

Awesome article dropping down on the state of music videos as a promotional tool and source of revenue to the music industry.

- Don't forget now! Kurb is australasia's leader in dedicated techniques to market and distribute your videos online through Youtube and potential revenue generators such as megavideo, revver and over 15 other video sharing sites.

The economic model that MTV was built on has been shredded - big budget one off videos are out - the digital revolution is upon us! You have the power to cut an album and make a video in your own bedroom and distribute it worldwide!

So don't make one song, one video, keep making songs, keep uploading videos, film gigs, film band practices, make vblogs, make funny shorts, talk about your music, blog about your music, build your following, interact, be an entertainer, create meaning, connect with them and connect them to your music!

visit Business weeks gallery of 10 stars who revolutionised the industry and reflect how innovation, community and interaction could change your musical career.

This new article drops after Bob Lefsetz and other cutting edge media critics denounce the MTV awards and Top 40 becoming just a circus sideshow to what's really happening in the music industry today - as witnessed by the brutal cannibalising of one of it's own, Ms. Britney Spears.

This from indystar:

Consumers Bop to Rhythm of Online Music Videos

[who came up with that clanger of a headline for such a decent article? Don't they know that blogging is 50% headline and 50% content???]

Viewership of music videos moved from TV to the Web at such a fast pace that few saw it coming.

Yahoo, the Web's top music destination, streams 240 million music videos monthly. MTV, which defined the young music video medium but now devotes nearly all of its airtime to non-music video fare, attracted 1 million viewers in prime-time viewing in August.

"Online is the single-largest place where consumers are watching music videos," says Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of eLabs, Universal Music Group's digital division. "When we release a video, we still put it on MTV and BET, but in terms of the most impact from audience and revenue, it's online."

Videos used to be given to networks such as MTV to sell CDs. Now, labels charge for video usage. "It was clear that all of our content needed to be paid for," says Thomas Hesse, president of Sony BMG Music Entertainment's global digital business unit. "The times when we could make our content available for free so someone would buy the CD are over. We drive usage to the Internet sites, so we should be paid."

Hesse wouldn't disclose exact figures, but Caraeff says licensing of music videos to sites such as Yahoo, AOL Music and YouTube reaps $20 million yearly for Universal and is growing steadily.

YouTube has been at odds with much of the entertainment industry because some of its users digitize content on their own and put it on the site without compensating the content owner. MTV owner Viacom is suing YouTube owner Google in a copyright infringement case.

But Universal, Sony BMG, Warner Music and EMI have agreements allowing their music videos to be shown on YouTube. In exchange, they share in ad revenue. YouTube attracts the largest video viewing - including movie trailers, amateur productions and tech podcasts - on the Web, with 44.8 million visitors in August.

With 23.4 million visitors in August, Yahoo is the most-visited music site, followed by ArtistDirect, MySpace's music channel, AOL Music and MTV's music channels, including MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT, according to ComScore.

This summer, Yahoo began offering an application to post many of its videos onto pages of the wildly popular social-network site, Facebook. It has since expanded this concept, via a test site, to post videos from Universal and Sony BMG onto personal Web sites or blogs.

Once word gets out and music fans realize that they can take the latest videos by say, Justin Timberlake or Fergie, and post them to their blog, Yahoo Music general manager Ian Rogers believes the viewing of videos online will grow "from 10 to 100 times over the next one to two years," he says. "There's no question people want to do this."

He says Yahoo fought for several years to shut down sites that offered ways to hack into Yahoo Music and post videos. "We know the demand is there."
Demand and convenience caused music fans to migrate to the Web to watch the majority of their music videos, says Rogers.

"If you want to see a music video, why would you turn on MTV and hope to see the video you want, when you could go online and get it immediately?" he says. "The shift happened as music videos became more available online and less available on TV. This was a natural evolution."

MTV, the channel that defined music videos, isn't sitting out the digital revolution. On-air, the TV channel urges viewers to go to MTV.com to see the latest videos and video premieres. "We realize that we live in an on-demand culture," says MTV Executive Vice President Courtney Holt.

Holt says on-demand viewing is great, but it's TV exposure that still makes the difference for emerging bands. He cites groups such as OK Go and Paramore, which had major online exposure but took off after MTV started playing their videos.

MTV recently bought a 50 percent interest in digital music service Rhapsody to expand its online music reach. Both Rhapsody and MTV.com show music videos on their sites, while some sites - most notably Apple's iTunes - offer them for sale. Caraeff says streaming music videos represents the bulk of the action for music videos and that downloads represent a tiny fraction of sales. Hesse says his best-selling download of all time - a recent Timberlake song - clocked in at just 58,000 sales for $1.99 apiece.
"This is a good, growing business," he says. "As more people get video iPods, we'll start to see more people buying music videos."

Label executives are also looking for streams and downloads to mobile phones - currently a niche business - to explode in the coming years as more wireless customers get multimedia phones.

"The average usage time on a phone for entertainment programming is no more than two or three minutes," says Caraeff. "The short-form nature of music videos makes it a perfect fit."

Q&A with Rio Caraeff

USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham spoke with Caraeff about how music videos have shifted from TV distribution to the Web, and turned into a profit center.

Question: Is TV distribution for music videos still important?
Answer: Online is the single largest place where consumers are watching video. When we release a video, we still put it on MTV and BET, but in terms of the most impact from audience and revenue, it's online. We're reaching more people than we've ever reached before with our music, and have turned what was a promotional business into a revenue business, worth $20 million a year for us, and growing.

Q. Where are people viewing the music videos online?
A. YouTube and Yahoo Music are the lion's share, along with MySpace and AOL. In the last quarter, we had 265 million streams of our videos online, and that doesn't even include YouTube, which is just starting to report activity. We have a Universal channel on YouTube, and the last time I looked, we had 180 million streams. YouTube is becoming the largest place for where our videos are played.

Q. Talk about how you make money off videos.
A. We were the first major label to realize that the old ways of doing business with music videos wasn't working anymore. Twenty years of videos as a promo piece wasn't stimulating sales of CDs. We had to turn videos into a premium product that feels free and convince Web sites to pay license fees for usage. Now every time the video is played, we get paid. We also offer them for sale at sites like iTunes, and via mobile phones and Verizon and Sprint. Both are flourishing, but the lion's share of activity is via streaming.

Q. Music videos used to boast of million-dollar budgets and big-name directors. What's the state of music videos today?
A. Clearly, the days of multimillion production budgets for videos has waned, but we've been able to do more with less. The budgets have come down, but the creativity has risen. With the challenge of doing more with a smaller budget, some of the best videos have come in with no budget, using Mac computers, high-def cameras and a small crew.
I even envision a world where music videos are created by the fan, and collaboration that exists in a digital, all-Internet world - the artist creates the song, and fans can go online, and make the videos. We're going to see a lot more creativity. It's no longer just about one big company publishing, it's a two-way communication. This is completely new to our industry and something we embrace.

Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget.

Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program.

All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

.....................
Kurb Myspace

Excellent article on music industry changes

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:21:34 GMT

Business week gallery of 10 stars who have revolutionised the industry

It has been a rough month of breakups for the Big Four record companies. First, British rock group Radiohead decided to release its new record as a pay-what-you-wish digital download on Oct. 10, making it clear the quintet intends to avoid any new major record deal. A week later, industrial band Nine Inch Nails declared its emancipation from its former label, Interscope Records. NIN's announcement came less than a month after front man Trent Reznor exhorted fans at a Sydney show to "steal" music to protest high CD prices.

"I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different, and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate," Reznor wrote on the band's Web site on Oct. 8. "Exciting times, indeed."

Not if you're a record company executive watching sales plummet. Last year, CD sales dropped 13%, to $9.2 billion, according to figures from the Recording Industry Association of America. The slump mirrors overall revenues for the Big Four—Sony/BMG, Universal, Warner (WMG), and EMI Group—which have been flat or declining for more than two years.
"A New World"

The Internet has wreaked all sorts of havoc on the traditional recorded-music model. For decades labels have been signing bands, paying for their first record and video, moving the music to radio and retailers, organizing concert tours, and helping to peddle merchandise. But for many fans and artists, that model has become grossly anachronistic. If the music is flowing digitally, why allow a corporation to get between an artist and the audience? "It's a new world now, and people are thinking of new ways to reach the people, and that's always been my aim," said Paul McCartney in March, 2007, when he joined Starbucks' (SBUX) new music label, HearMusic, ditching his longtime home at EMI.

It doesn't help that the same companies have been antagonizing music consumers for years with pricey CDs, rights-management restrictions, and file-sharing lawsuits. "They can't even make a product you can open," says Brandon Kessler, founder of Messenger Records, a small New York City label. "Can you imagine going to the store and buying a carton of milk you can't get open? It's infuriating. There's such a lack of knowledge of their customer."

Record executives finally recognize the shift and are no longer betting on a revival of CD sales. "Almost every core operating principle in the recorded-music business has been shaken or challenged," said Warner Music Chairman and Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. in a Sept. 17 speech at a technology conference.

One of the casualties is the industry's fundamental economics. A record label used to play an important financial role because it fronted the money to record an album, which could cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now any 14-year-old can pick up a copy of Apple's (AAPL) Logic Studio for $499 and make respectable recordings. All that's needed are generous parents or a babysitting gig.

Digital is the new paradigm. Who needs a record label to handle marketing and public relations anymore? Musicians can just set up a MySpace page and talk directly with their fans. Record labels used to help court radio stations, too, to get music on the air. Now you can zip MP3 copies of your first single via e-mail to anyone in the world.

Professional Strength

Despite the challenges, record labels still perform some tasks extremely well. The Big Four turn out recordings that are technically pristine, meeting the exacting standards of radio, television, and film that are out of reach for most kids with computers. The labels also can transport these CDs worldwide, stock them at retailers, market them reasonably effectively, organize concert tours, and manage various business functions for artists under contract. "They're very good at selling a Bruce Springsteen album and getting it everywhere at once," says Dale Anderson, a Buffalo (N.Y.) journalist who produced independent folk singer Ani DiFranco's first two records.

Record labels are experimenting with new approaches, too. Part of Bronfman's new strategy will be to expand revenue sources with musicians so that record sales are but one part of a pie incorporating more frequent releases, touring, licensing, merchandising, endorsements, and sponsorships. Others envision a time when music—a market still showing respectable growth—becomes more of a product, like mobile-phone service or cable television, that flows into your home or telephone at various rate plans. Others argue that music will become free, with record companies and musicians making money from concerts, merchandise, and licensing.
What's hard to see, though, is how the Big Four can boost their sales and income much in this new era. Manufacturing and distribution costs stand to fall in the digital transition, and record companies will handle numerous business and administrative functions for artists. But the profit bonanza of an $18 CD? Those days are gone forever. Record companies are likely to become geared more toward the commercial aspects of the business and away from the creative side. "They'll still play an important role. The question is whether they'll get paid for it," says Kessler. "They'll either go out of business or wake up."

There's talk of further industry consolidation—EMI was acquired this summer by private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners for $4.8 billion. Some analysts have said the industry's conversion from CD to digital music may be a job best overseen by private owners.

Mix and Match

Not that CDs will become rare anytime soon. For all its online experimentation, Radiohead is expected to put the new record out on CD next year, shortly after the band ships an $82 "discbox" of album art, vinyl LPs, and eight bonus tracks. Another group, the Charlatans UK, will give fans its new record for free in 2008, with the first single coming Oct. 22 as a digital download.

British music journal Record of the Day collected some 3,000 responses in its online poll of what consumers paid for Radiohead's In Rainbows, finding that about half offering the band nothing. The rest said they'd given £5 or £10, or $10.20 to $20.40. Others said they'd paid what they assume an artist receives from a typical CD—10% to 20% of the retail price—Record of the Day Managing Director Paul Scaife said in an e-mail. "First time I've paid for an album in years," posted a purchaser from Britain, who said he'd paid £5. "I'm paying in part because I love this kind of original thinking—though I don't see it as a solution to the music industry's woes."

In his speech, Bronfman detailed the company's 2006 experience with South Korean pop star Baek Ji Young as a possible template for future releases. In the traditional model a pop act had the record and several singles to sell. For Baek's record, the company had 416 distinct digital products, including song tracks, ringtones, videos, and album art. "And all without the need for physical inventory," said Bronfman. Just the sort of revenue scheme that could comfort a record executive lamenting the loss of his CD collection.

Kurb is NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest
CD/DVD reproduction and
cheap posters available.

Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and comprehensive online promotion strategy.

For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

All the best with your music, from Kurb
.................

Matt Sells out - kurb business blog / marketing 2.0 for web 2.0

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:11:15 GMT

ew I'm business blogging - shoot me now. How sickening.

You can be rest assured that the devil drives an extremely hard bargain. Apparently it’s a buyers market.

Don't worry I've got 2 more music blogs coming up on content and what to do now no one wants to buy CD's.

Of course the same principals apply if your small business is in music and you will obviously observe I'm generating content to distribute - not only to strengthen my search network but to create awareness of the work I'm doing by providing free expertise.

My expertise is obviously in online marketing and I'm not too shabby flinging a few words together. But I'm sure you're good at something you can write or make videos about to - and don't worry this article took me 4 hours to write.

Marketing 2.0 for Web 2.0 – how can your business benefit?

The Internet is the most powerful and far reaching marketing tool available to small businesses and increasingly word of mouth is now word of blog, email or IM and thats what web 2.0 is - when we stop hearing the messages sent by those who can afford to send them and we just learn from the messages we share from the access the internet now provides to one another.

According to Tim O’Reilly who coined the phrase “Web 2.0” in 2004:

"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."

Web 2.0 presents opportunities to use the internet in new and interactive ways to deliver an unprecedented amount of information and choice to unprecedented audience numbers.

Unlike declining traditional media the internet offers users control over access and it gives consumers choice. Web 2.0 represents a major blow for traditional advertising methods because Web 2.0 is about the online experience the user has customised – and no one wants ads! Marketing is to survive only as part of a media experience that is embraced, not an unwelcome interruption to be filtered out.

Social Networking:

Social networking – the explosion of sites like Myspace, Bebo, and Facebook – has transformed the online social environment into a place where branding happens naturally. Myspace, the big daddy of social networking sites, created an online environment where brands as well as bands, characters and ideas could be accounted for with online identities.

You only have to go to the stats to see the wild popularity of these sites in New Zealand and around the world. Even I choked when the Herald quoted 800,000 kiwis use www.bebo.com. It comes behind only Google and Trademe for volume of usage in NZ.

By creating a presence for your business on social networks you are able to present content and interact with other users participating in a massive global network either as an individual representing or creating awareness (this will be required on facebook and bebo which are not so friendly to commercial brands), a brand profile of your business, or even a key product! Or all three! There’s no rule against having multiple accounts.

SEO and web 2.0 - when content "goes viral"

It is still the truth that most of your website traffic will come from search engines and in New Zealand that is overwhelmingly accounted for by the Google search engine. To put what is often reported to be a complex and competitive study into simple terms, search engine optimisation (SEO) is based around keywords matched to your content, and the ranking of its relevancy in the search by the amount of links to it and the quality of those links.

Search engines can be influenced in two ways – by both the quality and quantity of written content you make available and the quantity and quality of backlinks created to your site from other sites. Distributing and sharing as much content furnished with links back to your site as you can make available is the most effective way to dramatically increase your search rank, send your brand around the world and bring traffic to your website.

All I will say is that websites that follow the web 2.0 format, which are some of the highest ranked in the world – myspace, youtube, blogger – the last two of which of course are owned by google, are ranked in a different way by google, and using these sites in different ways to make people aware and provide links to your website can have dramatic results.

But when your marketing message has assumed the appearance of a media experience – whether a blog, a podcast or a short video demonstration - that you have made available through your various online social network to share and enjoy as “infotainment” it’s no longer advertising! And when people are motivated to share the information you have provided they are not only building your search ranking but sharing your marketing message that your personal brand represents knowledge and experience of the products and services you provide.

Video Marketing

Video marketing is the hottest thing in internet promotion right now and youtube is popular with an older demographic where social networking hasn’t spread. Unlike everything else I’ve talked about – videos in themselves will not increase your search rank on google! But the message out there is if you can do it, prove it - film it! People want to see for themselves and now you can show them!

Video content provides important information, breaking down the anonymity that effects a potential customer or clients decision to purchase through an online connection based on trust. Video is also the most potentially effective opportunity to offer deeper understanding through presentation and demonstration.

many more people will connect with your marketing messages as a visual image and when it comes to media – the types of small businesses that could never dream of affording to market by broadcasting video can now provide it cheaply in a way that makes it accessible to targeted users long after it is first made available.

One of the most successful viral campaigns focused on a series of short clips experimenting with blending different unusual objects in a brand presentation for a blender called "will it blend?"– one of these quirky clips featuring an iphone received over 3 million views on youtube.

XML, RSS, P2P, Aggregation

Web 2.0 continues to present newer and better solutions for distributing and accessing information but unlike social networking and video marketing these concepts of syndicating content feeds and providing ever more options for choice and access are ideas which time is yet to come.

But it remains that web 2.0 marketing is about “pull” and not “push”. Using social networking, and sharing blogs and videos, generating content that appeals to users whether it be through information, experience, demonstration, experiments or simply just the quirky, entertaining or humourous is a chance to build awareness of your business while connecting with people in a way they will appreciate and remember.

People are far more likely to "go with what they know" so establishing social profiles and participating in online communities, providing content that people will use and value, in a way that supports higher ranking in searches for your site is the best way for generating leads and contacts in the new online environment.

Cheers for the connection with Kurb. Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget. Kurb in NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest CD/DVD reproduction and cheap posters available.

Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, o All the best with your music, from Kurb For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo ..................... Kurb Myspace

spam and philosophy: Matt the happy spammer

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 04:54:43 GMT

Okay I’m really starting to rev up on the blogging because I’m spamming less than I used to and getting more traffic than ever! I’m #1 on google NZ for “online promotion”!!! But I have been keeping almost 20 blogs. Oh they’re all the same they just look different and have different names. This is the internet. This is digital promotion. Welcome to Kurb.

As I said, Australians can be pretty cynical. They always wanna know what successes I’ve had with bands I’ve worked with. And given that one of my main areas of expertise regards the fine definition of what exactly constitutes “spam”, I don’t really feel obliged to divulge the identities of my top clients.

The thing about running a promotions and marketing business is that I’m my own number one client. If Kurb was no good at promoting itself, it wouldn’t get much chance to promote anybody else. Luckily that’s far from the state of things.

And with my business ballooning, that’s what this articles about, my head turning into a balloon and you watching and learning from me.

Have a thought for me. Don’t think I don’t think about what it would be like if I was in a tight band of hot young guys or had just recorded a top song or a unique video and where I could take it with my skills. Instead I just happen to be one of New Zealand’s most dynamic new music marketing minds, and that being what I happen to be good at, I’m best advised to stick with it.

So what can you learn from me? The problem with most spammers is they are fuckin’ morons with no class. There’s no substance to the muck they peddle yet they are given a great power and they abuse it.

We’re living in a time when the full effects of the internet and online media are starting to permeate the everyday lives of the 1.1 billion people who use it – which is so much better than having deal with SAME OLD 3.5 million people who use it in New Zealand which has the second highest proportion of internet users in the world!!!

And poor Bic Runga can’t even sell enough records to give up her day job!

See that’s where me being an internet promotions expert is useful. Not only in that I already have clients (“fans”?) in Australia (And Europe), but that that means when the 92% of the 87% of new Zealanders who use the internet who use a New Zealand based google search type in “online promotion”, guess who comes up first?

Look at what you can learn from me. When I unleash a spampaign for Kurb – and I actually haven’t needed to for months, we’ve been that busy – I’m not begging people to “buy the new album” so to speak or ramming some new me me me thing down their throat. The fact is I offer a targeted audience of artists a really informative, cutting edge and informative series of blogs and on my site, a really solid range of articles I’ve sourced on basics – and promoting bands kinda is my full time job. And this is the angle I push because the internet is now all about trust, quality and brand. Because Kurb is all about providing access but when theres so much access, reliability and worthiness become really important.

Kurb is like having a doorman who says “right this way” to all the potential fans walking down myspace and youtube street.

To me the obvious thing about internet expert types who don’t spam is . . . who do they think theyre kidding? Any straight laced marketer who doesn’t know anything about softspamming or diet spamming or spam lite or whatever is charging way too much.

Of course I’m about to make a video with me sitting with all my computers spamming away in the background so people can see exactly who I am and I can tell them exactly what kurb means. Of course I will continue to write Blogs that illustrate my expertise analysis and depth of research and allow those who have afforded me an opportunity to spread some of the insight I offer to benefit from it without me asking for anything else in return. And today and tomorrow there is gonna be at least one person who reads this and calls or emails me about getting a campaign going.

More about videos and blogs and all that stuff next blog but what about you? I mean I’m sure you probably don’t know as much about spam (ahem) I mean “automation” as I do but that’s not your job – You’re the one who is changing lives with your music and looking cool, remember?

But people are gonna ask the same questions. Can we trust you? Does your brand stand for quality, is it the truth? Are you for real or are you just a wannabe, one of these types who wants to be a rock star, wants to be on tv? I mean we can see you but are you reliable, are you worthy? This is the internet, theres always something cooler two clicks away.

So are your songs any good? Is your video cool, does it say something? Do you look like – or are just kinda like some cool character out of a movie? Do you have a “vibe”? Do you and the guys you play with seem like cool guys to hang out with? Are you gonna keep doing cool stuff – cool videos that show us that you’re about something, blogs that tell us cool stuff – advice, stories and links to stuff we will enjoy and use? Can I have some of your stuff without having to pay for it? I mean, Are we friends?

Right now I’m looking at a Macdonalds cup and its some guy playing the drums called Xavier from Puerto Rico. Xavier is not my friend. Never really heard of him and I don’t care already except for thinking about how many macdonalds cups this guy is on and how it relates to what im saying.

Xavier is on a fucking million Macdonalds cups and he seems like a cool guy – but no ones gonna buy his album because he’s on a fucking macdonalds cup!

Macdonalds cup: Bad
Real actual connection through quality of content that speaks to people about who you are and what you represent: Good

Uh but what about spam uncle matty?

Most people don’t see me as a spammer because I’m not anonymously pre empting them to buy something under false pretences!

I’m Matt from Kurb, I added you on myspace using a machine because you’re an artist from Australia or New Zealand, and I’m here to give advice about making money or a career in music for free! Is there a problem for you with that?

So what have we learned?

- Spam can be bad, spam can be good, but spam works. And when I say “spam” I don’t mean actual spam, come on. That’s illegal. I mean UH “Automation.”

- People don’t want crap. They don’t want crappy music promotion advice and they don’t want to listen to crap songs or watch crap video or buy crap albums and if you spam crappy crap that’s even worse. Especially if you act like a rock star and don’t reply to real (as opposed to spam) comments and messages.

- When you’re good at what you do – whether its run a media promotions company like me – or make music and cool videos and stuff like you – and you give away cool free stuff that’s not crap and your kind of cool and not crappy in your own way – people will like you and contact you and give you money.

If they can find you amongst all that “access”.

without sp - AUTOMATION you’re not playing the numbers, you’re playing lotto with what opportunities you’ve got really just hoping you’re gonna get lucky. Which basically just narrows it down to people who are freakishly all round talented or basically a sex object or both.

So how do I know it’s true? Because it’s working for me and I haven’t hit the ceiling yet!

Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget.

Kurb in NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest
CD/DVD reproduction and posters available.

Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and an online promotion strategy.

All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

Romantech Bios Archive

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 04:47:25 GMT

“Romantech is bringing sexy back to drum’n bass” - dnbweekly.com

“Breakbeats on Viagra, romancing the stoned with loved up feel good flavours for the floor” – Safe magazIne

“A sexytime liquid explosion!” - bassHQ.net online

“. . . explores the sensibilities with rich, dense, beat driven grooves . . . “ - Beatbreak magazine

“You might be able to sell your CD around the local shops.” – Matt’s Grandma

Hahaha.

Hey. I’m Matt.

Despite what you may have heard I’m actually a “serious” Drum’n Bass DJ and Electronic Music Producer

I make beats. I run my own label. I play out, I promote gigs for international acts and I tour.

I write about it and I film it and I talk shit. And I refuse to get a proper job.

Even if one day you find me under a bridge banging on an empty beer bottle with a used fit, that’s what I’ll be doing. I love parties. I put on parties as part of Soul Science and hosted some awesome international talent.

I will remix your band for free and I will put your name on the door. Check out my new Chill Out compilation “Oceanic Chill” featuring23 cuts compiled and mixed by me. It’s a great selection of tunes.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/djromantech

You can also catch me every Thursday playing funky Drum’n Bass out @ Foci – 6 beresford SQ. Auckland.

www.myspace.com/romantech
www.04748455.net
www.soulsscience.co.nz
www.kurb.co.nz

2006

ROMANTECH

Hi I’m Matt – DJ, Producer, promoter, videographer, and label head. I’ve been building foundations of smooth Drum’n Bass with Downbeat, Breakbeats and Electro for several years now - I’m all about deep and funky vibes whether chilling at home or on the dancefloor. Also involved with lunatic multimedia raconteurs Reality Compound.

Here’s some of the best places to find out more about me, download free tunes and full length DJ Mixes!

www.myspace.com/romantech - my myspace. Always up to date!
www.download.com/romantech - download old demo's for free!
www.04748455.net - my label. check out the full story.
www.kurb.co.nz - my promotions company.
www.mattturner.tk - my dinky home page.

Often im around home writing beats or drumming up a storm on the internet, tens of thousands of people have downloaded and enjoyed my music. I get around the country and play out a fair bit while there’s always something in the works with my partner in crime DJ Control - on top of our weekly Soul Science smooth drum’n bass nights every Thursday @ Foci Bar in Beresford Square, we plan international DJ events regularly.

During the Data:bass and Mental Illness projects, I managed twelve local cd-r releases of local drum’n bass and electronic music in less than three years. Nobody really took much notice, but it was a nice idea. I’ve always been a firm believer in underground networks and in this spirit have put together my latest offering and first official CD release “Oceanic Chill” featuring 23 artists on the downbeat tip.

A big highlight for me would have been being chased off stage by security while dressed as Skeletor our anti-P mascot during the data:bass set at Resolution 04. The crowd went nuts and I’ve always known being a great DJ isn’t just about having great tunes and great skills, it’s about giving a great performance and creating the vibe that makes people wanna rave out hard.

ROMANTECH

DJ Romantech is A prolific DJ/Producer of smooth Drum’n bass/downbeat and the iconoclastic electro pop act reality compound. As the guiding force behind the Data:bass collective and the Mental Illness compilations he has released 9 full length compilations and 3 solo projects of local Drumn Bass and Electronica in less than three years. having toured the nation three times over and having made his presence felt on websites such as myspace.com and download.com with over 30,000 downloads last year, romantech is now resident at foci’s thursday night “soul science” session as part of soul science.

Having been described as “The pocket battleship of Auckland’s D’n B scene” building a much needed alternative for young DJ’s and Producers making beats to get exposure, his recent activities have involved networking internationally to bring the freshest underground elements of this sound to local audiences through regular gigging, tours and releases within New Zealand. New offerings are expected in the form of the “Oceanic” compilation series featuring top artists based in New Zealand, Australia, and South East Asia.

He has of course played at all of the Data:bass nights and at Resolution 04 where he was chased off stage by Security. He has had popular shows and close involvement with Fleet fm 88.3, Kfm 106.9 and now finds himself at Twisted 107.7 fm playing funky liquid Drum’n Bass, Data:bass material and downbeat and eclectic electronica from the Mental Illness files.

Romantech also writes and records many explorations outside of format Drumn Bass into more downbeat, Electro, Indie and free form electronic territory. melodic beats brought together under the influence of the great modern melodic traditions: Jazzy, Dubby and Ambient flavas permeate this potent mix. Meaningful, but still groovy. Introspective - but not a drag.

MIXES:
http://databass.giantrobot.co.nz/Romantech_prsnts_Lickwicked(promo).MP3
http://databass.giantrobot.co.nz/RomantechWly.MP3

SONGS:
http://databass.giantrobot.co.nz/MetroSound-Romantech.MP3

MORE DOWNLOADS:
http://www.download.com/romantech
http://www.amplifier.co.nz/nzmusic/7718/Romantech.html

Ancient bio bits of stuff

Always romancing the stoned with his special blend of only the funkiest liquid Drum'n Bass & breakbeat flavas . . . for me it's all about progressing funk, soul, reggae and atmospheric music into the future with a big funky dancefloor sound - I'm mainly focused on liquid Drum'n Bass but to me it's all the same - kickin' bass, killer melodies, bangin' beats, and good vibrations.

I am funky liquid drum'n bass DJ who plays out in my hometown of Auckland, New Zealand most weekends. You can listen to my music. And if you like funky, vibing dancefloor flavas you should.I got into Jungle and Trip Hop as a teenager in the mid 90's after being turned on to raves and cafs and that. I've been playing out and making beats for three years as Romantech. In late 2002, me and my mate started Data:bass Network here in Auckland, New Zealand - and I'm now running our label, 0474:8455 Recordings. I have also "released" a full length, mixed cd-r demonstration of our material from the funky side of things, "Lickwicked".

I'm on an urban buzz, that's my vibe, searching out the good things from amongst it all, searching for something to feel good about, to make you whole, that makes you just wanna ride it out on a fast break with a ridiculously funky lick on it , and your jumping up, moving into the future . . . or your chilling and this incredibly moving melody just hits you and cracks you open and all this shit comes flowing out of you and you look back, and you look forward, and you look around . . . and it makes you fully just THINK!I also produce downbeat and other more "at-home" joints as Further. + You can check out my DJ mixes on my homesite.

Matt says:
“I really feel the urge to make something happen, something special. Music is special, and to me, creativity is a necessity to understanding. Encouraging it, making it happen and attempting to go about it in a conscious way, I think is achieving something worthwhile. With music, a connection occurs between the artist and the listener that creates a greater potential for understanding than social interactions might otherwise allow. “

“My music is generally about life in the city, life at the turn of the century, the lifespans of the different relationships we form, the significance created by the ubiquitous passing of time, and how we reflect on the way our lives play out..”

My mixing's nothing flash, I can mix a bunch of records together, but when I step to the plates I represent for all the elements that Data:bass brings together - the music, the artists, the events - in my running of the label, and my commitment to building the Data:bass thing as something that can be better for more and more people who wanna do good things, and of course for those who come to us to have a good time.

I'm mainly into my production, I've got at least a hundred songs, all kinds. I've gone back to pure songwriting, then I lay down a break or some beats down on it. My strength is melodies and hooks, and I got my singer girl Haze, Bobbylon's daughter. "Sensitive yet soulful" is what I like to say about her. I play all the funky vocal numbers, and my dream is like to be the guy who gets called in to do big rolling club remixes of shit like K.lee and Nesian Mystic . . . and get away with it! . . . And . . . and like, make Drum'n Bass more acceptable to the mainstream so they can understand how funky and charging it is, and we can get cashed up and have massive free parties and give away heaps of CD's and sponsors products and shit! And I can retire into being this fat little gold chain wearing sugar daddy cutting up and playing out cheesy bootlegs and focusing on my stage act, like with dancers and pyrotechnics and Imagine if the next record would be lowered down from above in this brilliant cocoon of light and interpretive dancers would shuttle the hallowed twelve across the stage to meet it's destiny at the hand of the diamond tip . . .

Liquid Funk Drum and Bass, Filtered Funk, UK Garage, Atmospheric, Funky, Deep, Soulful, Jungle, D'n B, 2-step, Hospital, Calibre, High Contrast, MIST, MJ Cole, DJ Marky, ShyFX & T power, Peshay, Aquasky, EZ Rollers, Danny Byrd, Wideboys, Hospital Records, LTJ Bukem, Goldie

Ancient bio bits of stuff

Why your music is worth nothing RECAP

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 07:14:21 GMT

This is an older blog from a few months back but stand ready - I was on one of my research binges to the morning light last night so we're gonna have some tight new blogwise action coming this week.

It may be obvious to some of you but without a dedicated online strategy your potential as a career musician is pretty much negligible. That is why Kurb is getting so much traction on the Australasian music scene right now.

The two things I'll be focusing on in upcoming blogs are:

content:

whether you're in partnership with kurb to take care of distributing your content or not we need to have a serious talk about the role producing regular content plays in your long term promotion strategy.

Your idea of the great star making factory needs to be knocked down and built up again from scratch.

when I say "content" of course I mean new music, but in order to fully grasp how the online environment works, you need to understand the best way you can embrace REGULAR blogging and video making to build your online presence and expand you fanbase and key contacts.

CD's:

we're gonna have to start getting serious talking about future revenue streams straight away. I've still got too many people asking me how to market their new CD! Forget about your new CD! No one wants to pay for your new CD! I'm serious!

And if you even wanna talk to me about how you're gonna "get signed" just forget it. Get a grip on where we're at in 2007.

No one wants to sign you, no one wants to pay for your new CD. I mean seriously. If Radiohead and Prince have accepted no one wants to buy their new CD, why in hell is anyone gonna wanna buy yours?

You won't ever be ready for a career as a full time professional musician if you're not prepared to understand where we're at.

ANYWAY . . . Older article from a few months back when i decided to get serious about blogging but thought it was worth throwing up there for a bit of depth.

The digital revolution and why your music is worth nothing.
By Matt Turner from Kurb. Copyright 2007. Don't steal without asking.

Hi I'm Matt from Kurb promo. For my first piece here I was going to try and bring musicians up to speed with how the digital distribution of music is changing the industry but last night I had a realisation that I didn't think many musicians are ready to comprehend let alone accept. That is why I decided to write about it.

Your music is worth nothing.

Purely in financial terms, that is. If you get a lot of fulfilment and enjoyment out of writing and performing that's a great reward, but my clients are people who have taken the step of working towards earning a living from music and so that's my angle. But it's not time to collect the coins in your guitar case and go to the pub just yet.

The internet means music is becoming like water. You can try and bottle it and launch a massive marketing campaign to sell it but most people will still choose the tap. So what do you do? Give them the water for free. Start selling cups and glassware.

What the digital revolution means is that technology has now allowed for information – music - to be more accessible to anyone with high speed broadband than ever before. The fact that entertainment no longer needs to have a physical form (i.e. a CD or DVD) is totally changing the music industry. Labels, publishers, distributors, retailers all those who had the most to gain from music as a physical commodity are now bitterly resisting falling profits. Though we might certainly see a "fairer" music industry, even with the online distribution blooming into life musicians have to face that technology is slowing eroding the commercial value of music as a general retail commodity.

If your music is worth buying its worth stealing. In fact if no one wants to steal your music, you know no one will buy it! Which is all a matter of perception because on the internet it's called "sharing" and anybody with half a clue can do it.

The patterns of consumption are changing. Teenagers aren't going to save their pocket money and buy their favourite CD and listen to it for a month. They're going to download something new everyday and listen to it for a week.

I'm not sure it's a moral issue. The point I'm getting at is that I downloaded the latest Shapeshifter album and I decided I liked 3 of the songs, so I paid US$3 to download them and Shapeshifter gets US$2.07. $3. well that doesn't buy many Porsches. In fact it doesn't even by a happy meal, let alone a decent feed of chips for all the guys.

You have to remember when I buy the CD at the Warehouse for $30 the musician doesn't get much more. And with slumping CD sales due to digital developments the business side of the industry is shrinking dramatically, so although Musicians can now see a bigger cut of their earnings than ever before, they have to be smart to stay in it professionally.

So whats going to pay the bills for poor Bic working her day job? Smart musicians have to realise their music that they love is no longer the product, its the window dressing. Lets talk about how musicians are going to make their money in the future:

Merchandising: To be fair this is going to make a hell of a lot more sense if you're a teen Christian emo band that plays at the church hall once a month and has a massive following on myspace and in the youth groups. That's why you'll notice many of auckland's emo and punk bands have their own label. And no I don't mean a record label. Obviously if you're an experimental free noise artist it may not be immediately obvious what items may interest your audience but everyone likes clothes. Giving away water at shows? Buy a hot False Start cup. Merchandising may also be a cunning way to influence fans to pay for the CD they've already downloaded "illegally".

Gigs: Obviously. At least one thing will never change. Nothing beats a great live show. Maybe you don't have a great live show. Then you might wanna pay to book a headliner that everyone knows does and support them. If you see what I mean.

Videos: "The singers shit but I love their camera work." Again, your music maybe worth nothing but your music videos are worth more than ever. paid content is coming people. What if you wake up in 2008 and you're being paid as much as US30c for every view on youtube? And 100 people watch your video everyday? What if your video is totally next level and it blows up or gets featured and 100,000 people watch it in a week? Hullo? Which means that guy in media school who's always hanging around? He's your best friend now.

Licensing: Music may not be worth anything any more but it hasn't stopped being sexy. Music creates meaning it creates an image, and if a product has no image then it has no appeal. The trends indicate that digital licensing for film, television, advertising software and all manner of commercial uses is coming up in a big way, not only with the Merlin deal but also online licensing agencies multiplying.
See to licensing agents, labels and publishing copyrights are actually now a big drag and they love indie artists who hold all the rights themselves. Take Steriogram, arguably the country's biggest "indie" act. Brad told me their deal with Playstation was done in less than an hour. That'd be a well paid lunch break even for Bic.

So.

Making music is what you love and it's the reason you got into this. But lets face facts. Music is becoming lean and mean, to stay alive, you must evolve. The digital revolution means that already the music you create and record no longer has nearly the value as a product as it has in the past. But it still has value as a brand. It still has value as something true and meaningful that touches people and they believe in it. Which is every marketing manager like me's dream.

Because then you can sell them anything.

Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, o

All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

.....................Kurb Myspace