By Ryan Van Etten on 07/26/2010
10 seconds to engage someone. 10 seconds to impress them. In his research for Futurehit.DNA, Jay Frank discovered an impressive trend: Shorter song intros lead to better sales. “2/3 of bestselling songs have an intro that’s less than 7 seconds.” The average intro length for Top 25 songs is 6.6 seconds. “You really have 10 seconds to engage people.”
Posted in Music, Music Flux, News, Popular | Tagged 7 seconds, Ariel Hyatt, attention, attention span, business, consumption, culture, don't make obstacles, engagement, Eric Garland, first impressions, Futurehit.DNA, Google, Gwen Lipsky, impact, Jay Frank, marketing, Mike Doernberg, monetization, MusicBiz, New Music Seminar, NMS NYC 2010, obscurity, people, Ralph Simon, ReverbNation, SEO, song intros, tips, What I Learned at NMS10
By Ryan Van Etten on 07/14/2010
VideoSong is medium defined by Jack Conte with two rules: 1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice). 2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds). Jack is one half of the indie music duo Pomplamoose, who chose video as their social medium of choice largely due to the magnetic attraction emitted by YouTube.
Posted in Interviews, Music, Music Flux | Tagged anti videosong, band, CDBaby, direct-to-fan, DIY, DIY Musician Podcast, engagement, indie, inspiration, interview, Jack Conte, Kevin Breuner, mp3 sales, music industry, MusicBiz, podcast, Pomplamoose, production, rock/pop, shortform content, social music, video, videosong, viral video, YouTube
By Ryan Van Etten on 06/25/2010
I’ll be representing VirtualMusic.tv at this year’s New Music Seminar in New York—a music business geared TED-like event. It’ll be my first time at NMS—I’m stoked to hear ideas and meet people. There’s a lineup of keynote speakers during the day and performances at night. I’ll recap with an editorial. If you’re going—I’d love to meet ya’. Tip: promo code nmsny10 might still work for 2-for-1.
Posted in Events, Music, Music Flux | Tagged conference, flashback, Madonna, MusicBiz, New Music Seminar, NYC, promo code, video
By Ryan Van Etten on 06/03/2010
In the sea of music blogs, best means most relevant to the reader. How can bands or listeners find blogs in their genre? How can they find blogs in a specific city? Google is an obvious search tool for most topics, but to really get in the trenches and find smaller indie blogs, here are five super-effective search techniques. Includes live music photos.
Posted in Music, Music Flux, News, Popular | Tagged blog aggregators, bloggers, Cymbals Eats Guitars, Delicious, Elbo.ws, genres, Google, Hype Machine, indie, Japandroids, last.fm, live music, location, music blog search, music bloggers, MusicBiz, No Age, noise pop, photos, resources, rock/pop, search relevance, search trends, similar artists, social media, stumbleupon, tips, Titus Andronicus, Twitter
By Ryan Van Etten on 05/26/2010
“You’ve just got to be open and free, because that’s the way people want to get content on the web”, says Dallas Penn. “Don’t be afraid of someone stealing your work so much, just have more work to give, and, if people are stealing it, you know what you’re onto something. You’re moving in the right direction.” continued Penn. Frank Talk summarized it in poetic terms, “If they’re stealing from you, [then] you’re on the right track.”
Posted in Discussion, Infoculture, Media/Journalism, Music, Music Flux | Tagged bandcamp, blogging, blogosphere, blogspot, circular promotion, community, content, copyright law, counterculture, culture, curating music, hip hop, internet, music bloggers, MusicBiz, net neutrality, new media, Oddisee, open, openness, personal brands, video
![Music Autoplay: On or Off? [Poll]](http://img.virtualmusic.tv/thumbs/sound_johnnyvulkan_150.png)
By Ryan Van Etten on 05/11/2010
Have you ever visited a band’s website or MySpace page only to be blown out of your chair by a blaring music player? Usually the first thing I do is try to figure out how to turn it off, and, if I can’t figure that out in one nanosecond, I often exit the page and never return. Is this really the message one wants to send to their website visitors? Probably not. But maybe I’m a freak and the majority disagrees, so I ask, what do you think?
Posted in Design, Discussion, Music, Music Flux, Popular | Tagged autoplay, band websites, best practices, engagement, music web design, MusicBiz, poll, pros and cons
By Ryan Van Etten on 04/27/2010
On the road of sound, there are players, and there are consumessengers. Due to the increase in communication mediums, consumers—the fans—are spreading the message now more than ever. Hence, the consumessenger has emerged. These modern fans are still fueled by the music, but what we’ve seen is a shift to an era where musicians are the engine, and their fans are the only fuel that matters. Gassing up your car isn’t free, but hybrid music fuel can be.
Posted in Boundless, Discussion, Editorial, Music, Music Flux | Tagged advertising, business, CDBaby, Chris Anderson, consumessengers, content, DIY Musician Podcast, economics, free, freeconomics, influencers, Kevin Breuner, like button, marketing, music industry, MusicBiz, MySpace, obscurity, photos, podcast, recommendation engine, resources, social media, social music, VW, word of mouth, your friends are your filter
