By Ryan Van Etten on 07/27/2010
“Decide an important action + encourage fans to do the action.” There are three phases according to Vinson: Attract fans from social networks a.k.a. “outposts.” Engage them with a “compelling fan experience.” Sell through simple calls to action. Have one concept per page—one call to action. “Artist websites emphasize an artist’s own brand.”
Posted in Design, Music, Music Flux | Tagged action, Ariel Hyatt, attract, band websites, bandzoogle, brands, call to action, Chris Vinson, communication, direct-to-fan, Disc Makers, engagement, interaction, Liz Leahy, mailing lists, music web design, New Music Seminar, NMS NYC 2010, personal brands, resources, retain mindshare, Section 101, service, social media, social music, tips, Tony Van Veen, UX, value-added communication, What I Learned at NMS10
By Ryan Van Etten on 07/02/2010
Last month I wrote about five tactics for finding music blogs. Let’s revisit this addiction with three more massive resources and a hit of punk rock. 1. MOG Music Network is a network of music blogs integrated with the social music community MOG. An estimated 800+ external music blogs are now part of MMN—including ours—so MOG it up.
Posted in Music, Music Flux, News, Reviews | Tagged album review, Alkaline Trio, blog aggregators, captaincrawl, Chicago, Matt Allison, Matt Skiba, MOG, MOG Music Network, music blog search, music review, punk, resources, rock/pop, search, This Addiction, video
By Ryan Van Etten on 06/22/2010
The story of the new mobile music startup, Sound Around, starts in 2009, in a little place called Raleigh, North Carolina, where brothers Scott and Steve Klein had been brainstorming tech startup ideas. Both were students at NC State, but with opposite majors—nearly yin and yang. Add entrepreneurial DNA, and they’re Pinky and The Brain.
Posted in Apps, Editorial, iPhone Apps, Music, Music Flux, Narrative, News, Popular | Tagged app services, business, development, entrepreneurs, indie, interaction, iPhone, Lauchbox Digital, MobBase, mobile, mobile dev, mobile music, music apps, music startup, musicians, NC State, Pinky and The Brain, platform, resources, service, smartphones, social music, Sound Around, startup story, startups, story-driven, TechStars
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 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
By Ryan Van Etten on 02/11/2010
Dubbed musicblogocide2k10 Google deleted at least six known music blogs from its Blogger platform. Google posted an official response highlighting their current procedures for handling DMCA complaints that were last updated last summer—Google implies that they warn offending bloggers but cite difficulty contacting offenders in the past. They also include the link for filing a DMCA counter claim.
Posted in Activism, Discussion, Editorial, Infoculture, Media/Journalism, Music, News | Tagged backup, bandcamp, blog shutdowns, blogger, bloggers, blogging, blogspot, change, copyright law, Creative Commons, digital, DMCA, domains, dreamhost, DRM, EFF, embedding, export, Google, Grooveshark, hosting, how to, import, internet, jamendo, legal, musicblogocide, musicblogocide2k10, platform, posterous, promo code, resources, rights, soundcloud, squarespace, tips, transfer, transferring, tumblr, widgets, wordpress, writers, YouTube
By Ryan Van Etten on 09/01/2009
“Remixed” is a new beta section on VirtualMusic.tv covering open remixing via remix reviews, remix stories, virtual collaboration, and remix production techniques. The idea is an mp3blog covering remixed tracks with posts that include—or link to—streaming remixed audio or video.
Posted in Editor Notes, Music, News, Remixed, Reviews | Tagged Apps, collaboration, Creative Commons, Indaba Music, music industry, open, remixing, resources, site info, social music
