Glasgow Jazz Festival: Digital Media for Music, by Inner Ear Ltd. (www.innerear.co.uk) Page 1 of 6
Glasgow Jazz Festival Seminar:Digital Media for Music, by Inner Ear
Digital media production and promotion company Inner Ear, who run the UK’slongest running internet radio station, Radio Magnetic, present an interactiveworkshop for musicians on how to get the most out of digital media.
This document contains links referred to during the workshop. Throughout thesession we will refer to use of RSS, tags and embeddable media.
Inner Ear and Radio Magnetic
The company was established in September 2000. Radio Magnetic waslaunched in March 2001. We create and communicate content for brands,businesses and broadcasters. We also provide bespoke training andconsultancy in digital media production and social media marketing.
MySpace
Most people have left the building but it is still worth having a presence on theoriginal social network for music. Mostly accessed by musicians, media andfans, but there’s not much interaction anymore. Although better services exist,it is work having a presence, even if your content updates are automated.
http://www.myspace.com/paultowndrowhttp://www.myspace.com/ryanquigleytrumpethttp://www.myspace.com/drlonniesmith
BandCamp
BandCamp is what MySpace should've/could've been. A slick, easy to use,versatile shop, which can be linked to your PayPal account. Upload a losslessfile and BandCamp will convert to appropriate formats.
http://wyntonmarsalis.bandcamp.com/http://accidentalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/leipzig-ep
Use custom URLs so the Bandcamp page looks like your website:
http://music.4hero.co.uk/album/4hero-presents-extensionshttp://bandcamp.com/features
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ReverbNation
An all in one resource for music promotion, distribution and sale,ReverbNation provides an extensive array of services. Reach fans, book gigs,track stats and, with paid pro features, distribute tunes to online shops.
http://www.reverbnation.com/#/brassjaw
Useful guide to ReverbNation’s key features:
http://musicians.about.com/od/musicpromotion/p/reverbnation.htmhttp://www.reverbnation.com/controller/main/signuphttp://www.reverbnation.com/#/main/overview_artist?feature=digitaldistribution
SoundCloud
A relatively new platform, Soundcloud provides an excellent embeddableplayer. Users can comment on parts of the track.
http://soundcloud.com/glasgowjazzfest/http://soundcloud.com/jazzanova-remix-contesthttp://soundcloud.com/sonar-kollektiv
MixCloud
Like Soundcloud but for DJs, radio producers and podcasters, Mixcloud offersan embeddable player. Upload tracklists, which become searchable.
http://www.mixcloud.com/radiomagnetic/http://www.mixcloud.com/astroboy/
As everyone is on Facebook, it’s important to have a presence and provides agreat way to interact with Fans. Every band should have a presence inFacebook. We recommend fan pages over personal profiles or groups.Recent advances in apps and plugins allow for greater levels of customisation.Each of these profiles has slightly different features, which we’ll discuss.
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http://www.facebook.com/glasgowjazzfest?ref=tshttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Lonnie-Smith/45668450948?ref=ts&v=wallhttp://www.facebook.com/wyntonmarsalis?ref=tshttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Jamie-Cullum/107958155898606?v=desc&ref=tshttp://www.facebook.com/snoopdogg?ref=ts
Note the Band Page plugin used on Snoop Dog’s Fan Page, available here:
http://www.rootmusic.com/http://www.musicthinktank.com/mtt-open/bandpages-turn-facebook-into-a-viable-home-for-musicians.html
The ubiquitous micro-blogging social networking platform is a highlyeffective tool for communicating messages and following trends. Manymusicians are using it to connect with fans.
http://twitter.com/GlasgowJazzFesthttp://twitter.com/MartinTaylorMBEhttp://twitter.com/neilcowleytrio
Monitoring tools can keep track of what people are saying about you, whichyou can also embed on your website or blog:
http://search.twitter.com/http://twitter.com/goodies/widget_search
Useful advice for best practice Tweeting in music promotion:
http://musicians.about.com/od/musicpromotion/ht/twitterformusic.htm
YouTube
Create your own music videos and establish a presence on YouTube, engagewith fans and extend your brand:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MartinTaylorGuitarhttp://www.youtube.com/user/hueandcrymusic
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Build your own Blog or Social Network
If you want to build your own blog, we highly recommend Wordpress:
http://www.wordpress.comhttp://www.wordpress.org
Embed your digital media content and connect your blog to your socialnetwork presence. There are also loads of useful plugins, including gig andtour diaries, which can be linked to ticket sales sites:
http://www.gigpress.com
If you want to take things a step further, you can experiment with buildingyour own social network using a service like BuddyPress (open source) orNing (commercial):
http://buddypress.org/http://bagging-scotland.com/mybag/
Ning provides a quick and relatively easy way to build your own socialnetwork. It’s no longer free so we’ve provided some examples, then a link tothe Ning site plus some alternatives.
http://hueandcry.ning.com/http://paultowndrow.ning.com/
http://www.ning.com/http://www.socialgo.com/http://grou.ps/
Connecting Services
Almost all social media services provide RSS feeds, which can be used to jointhem together, post updates to multiple services and aggregate information.
http://ping.fm/http://twitterfeed.com/
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Measuring and Monitoring
In addition to Google Analytics for measuring website statistics, there are asuite of useful services for monitoring your band’s presence online:
Manage RSS feeds:
http://feedburner.google.com
Monitor blog comments:
http://www.backtype.com/
Monitor forum posts:
http://boardreader.com/http://boardreader.com/s/%22the%20phantom%20band%22.html
Monitor trends:
http://www.bandmetrics.com/http://www.trendrr.com/http://socialmention.com/http://socialmention.com/search?q=%22silver+columns%22&t=all&btnG=Search
A social media obsessive:
http://cybraphon.com
Issuu and Slideshare
Presentation and document publishing tools like Issuu and Slideshare offersome interesting features which can be adapted in the promotion of music:
http://issuu.com/innerear/docs/digital_media_for_musichttp://www.slideshare.net/innerear/the-edge-festival-indie-teaser
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Merchandise
Made to order physical product shops like Spreadshirt and Café Press enableyou to design and sell your own branded merchandise from your ownwebsite, earning commission on each sale without incurring upfront costs ordealing with fulfilment or returns.
http://www.spreadshirt.net/http://www.cafepress.co.uk/
Resources
Share and search bookmarked links:
http://delicious.com/innerear/
Music and social media articles and information:
http://www.musicthinktank.com/http://mashable.com/?s=music+promotion
Scottish Music Industry Association:
http://www.smia.org.uk/
Contact
Get in touch with any questions about digital media production or promotion,especially social media marketing and send us links to your music for airplayconsideration on Radio Magnetic.
http://innerear.co.ukhttp://radiomagnetic.com
Twitter: @inneearuk @radiomagnetic @dougalperman