Social media for bands: Q&A with a reader

Yesterday i got a random question from someone on Facebook who discovered my earlier post about social media for bands. I thought she had some interesting questions so here's the transcript of our Q&A:

Ok! well the first question that i have is what do you do for a living? Is your blog something you do for fun?

A: I do online marketing/web application development & iphone app development on the side. My blog is for fun and to occasionally piss off hypocrite conservatives & Apple haters.

How do you think the internet has changed the music industry?

A: Its been bad for big pop artists, especially those who may have a lot of label money but make terrible music. On the other hand it has been great for indie musicians because no longer do you need millions of dollars to spread the word about your music. It also has changed the artist / fan relationship in some ways. In many cases fans have a direct line of communication to the artist via Twitter / Facebook etc…

Do you think there are any negative aspect to this method of promotion?

A: It takes a huge amount of persistence. There is no "silver bullet" to success. So i think for bands just starting out it can be hard to know where to start etc…I think it's also really easy to give up early on when you don't see results. You also have to be careful to maintain 'an arms length' relationship with the fans while still being accessible. Getting too close to your "coo coo for cocoa puffs" fans can end badly.

Do you have any tips for local bands who are looking to use social media to promote themselves?

A:
- Start by eating your own dog food. Follow/subscribe to artists on twitter/facebook that are already doing it and get a feel for what is working for them and how they are using the tools.
- Don't give up, it's gonna take time to build momentum.
- Use a service like ping.fm to make it easier to update all your social media profiles in one fell swoop.
- Use a service like www.artistdata.com to post your tour schedule once, and syndicate to hundreds of tour schedule websites across the internet.
- Find a good Twitter client. On Mac/iPhone i recommend Tweetie. Also there is a cool iphone app called Boxcar that will send you notifications on your iphone when you get @ replies or DM's from fans which leads to my next tip:
- Do whatever you can to respond to every fan question/comment.
- Give your music away for free on your website. The bad news is people could be downloading your music for free anyways. The good news is digital content has a distribution cost of $0. Take advantage of this. People will still buy your music but more importantly you will make more money from touring due to a growing fan-base.
- Most of all: make amazing music. It doesn't have to mainstream pop. In some ways it is easier to build a following if your music is unusual!

In your post about tips on using social media for bands, you said never spend a cent on traditional advertising. What was your reason behind this?

A: You only need to do this if your music sucks or you were signed to a major label and now need to pay back their investment in you asap. TV & print advertising is horrendously expensive. Making a music video with the objective of having it show up on MTV is a waste of time & money. Even MTV seems to have realized this as there is hardly any music on these stations anymore.

The one thing i think that's worth spending dollars on, is getting mentioned by tastemakers. If you can get a tastemaker to plug you in in an authentic way to their fanbase, it can have huge upside.

And what about bands using YouTube? Do you think that this form of social media is a good way to promote their music and upcoming projects?

A: Absolutely. Get a cheap flip mino camera and take it on the road with you. If you have a mac iMovie is great for putting together quick video blogs. I'm sure there is something equivalent on Windows. Fans love this stuff. Also, if you have the resources you can stream your shows online via ustream for free (assuming you have the hardware required). Indie bands like Enter The Haggis are doing this and it's a great way to boost the return your band gets from playing a show.

Great questions!

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