My first article for Tunecore was published yesterday! I’m very excited to be working with this amazing group. For those of you unfamiliar with Tunecore, I suggest a quick perusal of their site asap. Tunecore is a digital distributor that allows you to keep 100% of your royalties and earnings. You pay a one-time fee for album placement and a yearly storage fee and nothing more!

The article, Why Every Band Needs a Blog, is the first in a series I’ll be writing for the Tunecore blog. Thank you to Ewald, COO of Tunecore, for a great opportunity.

Hello guys and gals. I’ve been on hiatus from my blog in August, feverishly working on my new book about blogs and blogging. Once it’s ready I’ll give you more details.

In the meantime…here is a video presentation of Gerd Leonhard on the Future of Music. Gerd is the head of Sonific, a streaming music application. He calls himself a Music Futurist and has written several books on the subject. Rick Rubin recently quoted some of his ideas on subscriptions services in an article for the New York Times. I have not read any of his books but based on this informational video, he knows his stuff.

Pay close attention to his new paradigm of purchasing. “It is no longer a pay first paradigm.” How true.

For well over a year I have been encouraging bands to start their own blogs. I even started this blog to give advice on how to start one and what to do once it’s up. So it gives me great pleasure to see two of my most beloved bands listening to my advice.

The Upsidedown and Saturna. I have worked with both bands on and off over the last four years. I’ve watched them go through band members, image changes and recording records that take years. Now, I get to see them be some of the first bands to embrace the new world and start their own blogs. And they are doing a marvelous job with them!

The Upsidedown - This blog is not only gorgeous, but reflects the personality of the band to a tee. I know everything about them (well, I like to think I do) and still, I want to see every page. Fantastic job guys.

Saturna - A simple, clean and informative blog. They are smart about how they structure their headlines (always using their name - good for search engine optimization) and the content in their post. Lots of links, photos and thank yous! Brilliant!

If you are in a band and are still not sure of how to jump into the blogosphere - use these bands as examples. They are doing it right.

Excellent article about how the music world has changed for the musician doing it DIY.
Read it!

It was only about a year ago that I first heard about blogs. The band I was managing at the time loved the word and used it to describe everything. Blog this and blog that and bloggity blog blog became the response to every question. A year later Web 2.0 has re-defined the way we use the Internet and blogs are more than a mere catch phrase. They are a valuable tool for sharing information. Every industry can capitalize on this new tool, especially the music industry. But what is a blog and why the hell should you have one??? Justin Kistner from Metafluence wrote a great post on what a blog is and the importance of having one:

“[Blogs] are intended to be a forum for an individual or group to publish information on a recurring basis. Blogs originated as online journals and the name blog itself comes from the mash up of Web+log. Blogs have been traditionally valued for their informal, chronologically-based structure because it frees writers to write with their flow. Blog posts differ from traditional articles because they are supposed to be personally biased and shared for the purpose of conversation, which is carried out through comments left on the post. They are a great way to gain search engine traffic because search engines like websites with frequent content additions. Blogs also foster relationships because of their conversational and opinionated nature.”

Now, as a musician or label, you probably have a Myspace page and some of you may even utilize your Myspace blog. Well, its time to take off the training wheels and join the Blogosphere. Having your own blog will allow you to connect with your fans without the restrictions of the Myspace template and, most importantly, your blog is your domain, not Rupert Murdoch’s.

In a blog post you can have five types of content:

1. Text
2. Photos
3. Links
4. MP3s
5. Video

What does this mean for you?? A few examples of potential content:

• Imagine being on the road, all those great moments in the van, and you wish you could share them. You have a video camera and a microphone. Record it and put it up on your blog.
• Your best friend is in a band and their new record rocks. Write about it on your blog and put an MP3 with it.
• You had an amazing show last night and you have some hilarious footage from the opening band, throw it up on your blog.
• Your favorite band is coming through town tomorrow, put their poster on your blog.

As long as you are not violating copyright laws, you can put up anything you want.

The next step is getting that information into the hands of your fans. This is another awesome component of having a blog – the RSS Feed. In a nutshell an RSS Feed is a way for you to get your content to people who want it. Rather than sending out an email to your lists every time you post something new, an RSS feed will automatically send your post – as you created it, with the text, video, photos and MP3s – to the people who have subscribed to your feed. In order to view the post your fans will need a Feed Reader, but they are free and easy to obtain from Google or Yahoo!. I think even Safari has a built in Reader.

As I mentioned in my previous post, content is king. As a band you are constantly creating content and now you have a way to share it.

Some tips on blog postings:

1. Use it as a forum to promote yourself as well as your friends and get them to do the same for you.
2. Don’t limit your postings to just band or music related content. Put up poetry, photos, funny stories, etc.
3. Study other band blogs but don’t feel like you have to be just like them. A blog is an opportunity for you to express the fullness of your personality. Your blog is an integral part of your promotional arsenal. It should be as unique as your music and the members of your project.
4. Use lots of pictures and videos. It makes the blog more interactive and interesting.
5. Register your blog with Technorati. (Technorati is a blog search engine. Once you register with Technorati your posts will automatically be included in all searches. Unlike with Google searches, Technorati responds to queries with the latest post that fits the query, not the ones that fit the current search algorithms. For instance, if you post something about your concerns regarding Net Neutrality, and someone goes to Technorati and puts in “Net Neutrality” if your post was the last to mention it, it will be the first in the search results. You also improve your status by having lots of links…)
6. LINK LINK LINK! When you link to someone ask them to link to you. The blogosphere is a community. Consider your Blog Roll to be like your friends on Myspace. You want lots of them!

Contact me if you need a blog or have questions about how to manage one. kyra@kyrareed.com

Since this is my first post I thought I’d tell you about a book that beautifully illustrates what this blog is about, the inevitable merger of music and technology.

Chris Anderson, editor for Wired Magazine, has written one of the most important books of the year, “The Long Tail.” Although the book was not written for the music industry specifically, its relevance to the future of the industry is vital information for anyone in the biz.

We all know that the industy is in flux. The old “hits” driven business model that the music industry was built on is crumbling. In its place is a long tail of semi-hits and decent successes. Rather than a fortunate few making all the money, it is now being spread across a greater number of smaller labels and independent musicians. Niche driven markets are replacing hit-driven markets. This translates to the possiblity of more career musicians that can support themselves and less superstars buying up acres of McMansions in Georgia.

Online music retailers such as I-Tunes can house millions of tracks in their monsterous libraries. Far more than the average brick and mortar retail music store. And while the storefront probably only sells about 20 percent of its total merchandise in a three month period, online retailers report 90-100 percent of their tracks are selling during that same time. It appears, the more that’s available the more that will sell.

So, how does a band or musician capitalize on this phenomenon?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Make as many of your tracks, past and present, available through as many online retailers as possible. Consider contacting a digital distributor like Iris or The Orchard to help you with the process. The Orchard has a list of Online retailers here.
2. Record the songs that didn’t make it on the record, dust off the songs you left behind and finish the ones you weren’t sure about. Create your content and make it availalbe. The more you have to offer the more you have to sell. It no longer takes a big budget to lay down a few tracks. Here are some great open source audio recording and editing software options: Ardour and Audacity
I highly recommend all musicians read The Long Tail.