3OH!3 singer Sean Foreman performs in California in 2009. 3OH!3 reportedly reached “3.7 million fans via 304 different artists” through Headliner.fm. Photo: Flickr/msimmondsphotography

“Promotion on the social web was broken. We wanted to see if we could make it better.” –Mike More, Headliner.fm co-founder.

This interview was a long time coming. Mike More (@mikemore) had introduced himself to me last June via email. He was excited to talk on the phone about what he referred to as fan trading—the concept behind his new startup Headliner.fm which mirrors live music’s headliner-opener relationship online.

What’s the story behind Headliner?

MM: We [Mike More and Bill Cromie] were working with all the major labels, TV networks, and film studios helping them to promote their new release via video on the social web. While we were doing this we realized how broken music promotion and marketing for bands and artists on the social web was. We also saw early on the move from the inbox to the stream or real-time communications and that this was growing very quickly. So we put our heads together and thought like a band or artist. We asked ourselves what is the best way to reach new fans on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and mobile devices. The answer was simple: ask other bands with similar fans to tell their fans about your band—collaborative promotion. We liked this idea because having bands become the filters for messages seemed the best way for bands to get the most of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and mobile platforms. Having an artist recommend another artist is like having a chef recommend a restaurant. You know that this person who is making the recommendation has taken his or her time to vet it, and has the background that would allow them to be well-qualified to make a recommendation. Additionally, collaborative promotion rewards bands for their existing fan base and allows them to reach new fans fans in a scalable, authentic way. These ideas were the guiding principles of Headliner and kinda where Nabbr [their previous company] fell short.

Headliner launched in late 2009—what are some things you’ve learned along the way since then?

MM: The most important thing we learned is to listen to our users. Headliner is here for one reason—to serve their needs period. We have just partnered with SoundCloud so our users can check out other bands music quickly and easily before they accept promotions from other artists. This was the number one request by the bands who use Headliner so we implemented it quickly. The SoundCloud partnership allows bands to syndicate their music to Facebook and Twitter—Headliner is becoming an artist-run content syndication network on top of Facebook and Twitter.

How does online promotion compare to offline promotion?

Playing a show you get to get your music in front of a new audience for 20-min or an hour. The audience are having drinks hanging with their friends and having a good time. On radio once your song is added to a national play list your song will be heard by millions of people tens of thousands of times daily. The signal-to-noise ratio is much lower on both of these offline promotions. Radio is like 20 songs 50 times a day and that’s it. Both of these are very hard to replicate on social media platforms. Most large brands would have a hard time replicating the impact of a live show, national radio, or TV campaign online.

Additionally the signal-to-noise ratio on the social web is way out of control. You need to think of social media differently. The only similarities—and what holds true for both—are that you need to have great music and you need to reach a large new audience with enough frequency to break through the noise on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and mobile devices. What we see is that it takes more reach and frequency to stand out on the social than offline. The main advantages of social media are the lower cost of using scalable viral techniques and the quality of new fans you can reach.

On which social network—Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace—does Headliner seem to work the best. Are fans on one network ‘worth’ more than on another? What’s the exchange rate so to speak?

MM: We see a higher response rate on Facebook and Twitter mainly because Headliner only messages fans via status updates. That said, when MySpace changed their band pages and placed status updates on top of the page we saw response rates jump up a MySpace. We have 133 million fans over all about 40 million on Facebook, 37 million on Twitter and 56 million on MySpace. We see this because bands still have a lot of fans or social capital on MySpace music.

I don’t think fans are worth more or less on any platform. A fan is worth more to a band when they’re real and engaged in the band’s music. The exchange rate is one Band Buck to reach one new fan on any platform. That said, bands can choose only to run promotions on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace so bands can chose which platform they think is most useful for their promotion needs.

How does the pricing work?

MM: We have a freemium model. So any band of any size can sign up for Headliner and reach 15k new fans on us—plus earn Band Bucks for their existing fans and by accepting promotions from other bands.

It’s critical for us that bands have a free service to reach new fans which is better than any paid alternative. We want the free experience to be so good that some portion of our bands will want to upgrade to the Pro level to get a few more bells and whistles.

So for free you get to reach new fans for free on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and mobile. We have two subscription accounts, Pro ($30/month) and Platinum ($50/month), which include additional features [e.g. deeper analytics and location-based targeting. Pro comes with 300k Band Bucks per month and Platinum comes with 750k, equivalent to 300 and 750 "new fans" respectively.]

Do bands that have a larger fan base have greater authority or ranking?

MM: No, bands on Headliner with larger fan bases do not have greater authority. In fact, smaller bands or bands who have smaller fan bases tend to have more reactive fans than bands who have over 500k fans.

We have a chart that ranks bands by how many new fans they reach and how many promotions they accept from other bands. We wanted to create a chart which rewarded bands who are best at cross-promotion other bands.

Do you have any other social web communication insights?

MM: The real-time web or status updates have changed the way fans communicate on the social web. If you look where all the action is on Facebook it’s around status updates. Bands need to get their music into the stream.

Who are your favorite artists—Headliner or not?

MM: That’s easy. I’m a big Wu-Tang Clan fan. We have both Redman and Method Man on Headliner. I love their music.

Tell us about Nabbr—how did you go from Nabbr to Headliner?

MM: Nabbr was a great learning experience for both myself and Bill. We started Nabbr as almost a completely different company. The original idea was for a media-rich list of anything on the web that you could share through social media—think StumbleUpon with video, music, and images. We did not really get that much traction with this idea. So via a conversation with a friend of mine, Steve Greenberg, who was the president of Columbia Records at the time, we came up with the idea for what Nabbr ultimately became—a video-syndication network. Steve had just finished a CD with a new group he signed—the Jonas Brothers. He was very excited about his new group. He’d shot three videos for he same song with three different endings but was having difficulties getting traditional media to give his them any thought. Traditional radio had rejected the idea of playing the Jonas Brothers because of their age and pop music had just fallen out of style, and TRL was a no go. So Steve asked us how we could help get out. I suggested he start a MySpace page for his band—keep in mind this was 2005 when MySpace had about 12 million users—and we would post his videos on the front page of their MySpace page and make the video shareable (pre-YouTube).

This stunt worked okay but did not really move the needle for the Jonas Brothers. As we took a look at the Jonas Brothers fans we saw that one fan owned a site called whateverlife who had 3 million kids showing up a month. I reached out to her as asked her to post the Jonas Brothers video on her front page with a button to vote for the band on TRL within a day the Jonas Brothers made it to #4 on TRL. Steve called me in disbelief and asked me is this was real. I told him first of all you paid us nothing to help you and second of all we are small startup living on Ramen soup and no sleep—what money do we have to invest in your artist? The rest you say is history—shortly thereafter we found hundreds of other social media sites and reached a combined audience of 40 million monthly unique viewers where we syndicated video for all the major labels, movie studios, and TV networks. Since then both video and the social web have exploded.

In a lot of ways Headliner is a much better way to syndicate content on the social web—it’s smarter, faster, cheaper, more targeted, and authentic.

What’s on the horizon for Headliner in 2011?

MM: Our big goal in 2011 to help as many bands and artists as possible to build their fan bases through the power of collaborative promotions. Collaborative promotion is not a new idea for bands but until now has been hard to scale without a platform. We want to help create long-term value for bands and artists who use social media to reach and engage their fans. On this note we plan to roll out more tools to help bands and artists find discover the best bands and artists to promote with. The idea is that the more that a band uses Headliner the easier it should become to message new fans about a new show, track, or post.

// Notes: The interview took place via emails in 2011 and was edited for clarity.

Get On Bits.

Digital is the bomb. When I say ‘get on bits’ I mean get digital. Get on YouTube. Get on Facebook. Get indexed. Become bits. Bits outlive memories. Legacies live on bits. ‘All we are is bits in the cloud.’

Bring Me The Horizon singer Oliver Sykes pushes the edge of the Vans Warped Tour 2010 stage in Dallas, TX.
Photo: earlylove/Flickr

YouTube it.

In 2010, YouTube takes the cake as being the sweet spot for music. Their fact sheet reads currently that “people are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube” and that “52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.” Vevo, which launched in late 2009, saw screaming growth through 2010 largely due to its integration with YouTube. It’s pretty understandable why video is so engaging—it combines multiple senses: sight, hearing, and—if you’re pressing a keypad or touchscreen—touch. Triggering the brain from multiple angles makes for strong communication and vivid memories. Video influences people. Last month in Wired, TED curator Chris Anderson and Jon Chu talked about how access to free online video accelerates innovation. Chu used the example of kids who learned dance moves by watching videos of other dancers, “Kids in Japan are taking moves from a YouTube video created in Detroit, building on it within days and releasing a new video, while teenagers in California are taking the Japanese video and remixing it to create a whole new dance style in itself. This is happening every day. And from these bedrooms and living rooms and garages with cheap webcams come the world’s great dancers of tomorrow.”

Live is unique.

Seeing a live show is an experience—it’s not a product, but that’s not to say that it can’t be captured on one. Ask Aderra, a company who “records live concerts to flash drives and MicroSD wristbands which are available to the audience immediately after the performance.” Their USB drives can also be used to access exclusive content on the web. It’s important to realize that experiences have more intrinsic value than products.

Cut the intro.

Get right to the hook. Two time lessons in 2010 were seconds and clicks. At NMS NYC 2010, Jay Frank (@futurehitdna) said that artists have, “10 seconds to engage someone—to impress them.” He said to “clicks to content,” because the more clicks it takes, the more it’s bye-bye attention span. In a way this explains the addiction to YouTube, whose videos are one mere click beyond Google search results. “Anything more than two clicks and you’re missing out on the majority. … Impress them fast.” If you’ve made it this far into the post, you’re a champion, and deserve a video for the rest of the ride.

API breakout.

Expect to see more mashups based on music APIs. Most notable IMO are mashups built on APIs from The Echo Nest and from SoundCloud. The Echo Nest is a data-driven startup that launched in 2008. Its platform is in use on MTV Music Meter, MOG All Access, Indaba Music, Bandintown, exfm, and more. Based on data from Compete, web visits to SoundCloud were up 850% in 2010. A number of apps—many mobile ones—support integration with SoundCloud. Keep Grooveshark on the radar, their web visits were up 235% based on Compete, and unofficial Grooveshark API documentation is available on APIshark. The Grooveshark library is also accessible through the Tinysong API. Spotify too has potential for a mashup explosion. See the API list: 30 Music APIs.

Mystery tour.

There are several events/ticketing services out there beyond Ticketmaster/Live Nation, such as Eventful, Songkick, Ticketfly, and Live Music Machine. Ticketing is mysterious and because of that I think less music startups have gone in its direction. But live music is really what music is all about, and I think we’re going to see a lot more action in this space, especially when more people have smartphones and are using location-based apps. But the question I’m asking about ticketing is, ‘what could possibly stop Facebook from wiping away the entire online ticketing industry with an official ticketing service within Facebook Events?’

Brainmelt.

I’d like to write about licensing, but it’s just so boring and complicated, still, in 2011, and this article is already way to long for the YouTube Generation. I do think something about the licensing needs to change, especially in the U.S. where “WTF is SoundExchange?” is the typical reaction, and many musicians believe that receiving payouts from rights organizations is a straight-up myth—it’s not, but setting it up may melt your brain. For now what I think is worth knowing is that the majority of money that SoundExchange pays out comes from Pandora. So if you’re on Pandora, then you definitely want to be registered with SoundExchange. If you’re asking “how do I get on Pandora?” then read this. First, push to the end of this article. You made it this far. I promise you it’s worth it.

Born free.

If you asked Austin Powers what he thought about the internet, I know exactly what he would say..: “it’s freedom, baby, yeah!” His nemesis, Dr. Evil, would be saying “throw me a frickin’ bone here!” Who would you rather be? Free is the nature of the internet and what makes it such an advance. If you’re not embracing that free spirit, then you’re in the wrong industry. It’s like the accelerated innovation I mentioned at the start of this rap. Everyone is building on each other’s work. It’s human nature. Pablo Picasso would tell you that “good artists copy—great artists steal.” Picasso didn’t become famous by making a few great paintings. He became famous by making thousands of them. He only sold the ones that he needed to, keeping the rest in his possession, and nowadays I can’t help but wonder if he’d be getting them on bits. Really it comes down to more than creating fresh music, but being innovative on every front, and living it. That, my friends, is art. // @ryanve

UK startup BandApp is hell-bent on becoming the indie mobile replacement for MySpace and record labels. Similar in concept to Sound Around (now part of ReverbNation) or MobBase, BandApp’s monthly service gives musicians a platform to create and manage their own iPhone apps. But BandApp is taking a different approach in that they’re sidelining the paralyzing iTunes App Store approval process and delivering their apps via the web, and in 2011 will launch their own retail outlet, a digital storefront, called the BandApp Store.

Perhaps the most intriguing thing about BandApp is who’s behind it. Have you ever heard “The Ballad of Chasey Lain” or freak danced to “The Bad Touch?” [iTunes link] Don’t lie.

Actually BandApp founder Adam Perry (a.k.a. The Yin) was a drummer for the band ‘A’ until circa 2005 when he joined The Bloodhound Gang, who released those two particular sonic treats in 1999.

Pricing: Bands: £20 startup fee plus £7/month with 1-yr contract or £75/year. Fans: Free.

I gave a quick test run on my iPhone of one app, and it worked pretty well, nice features, especially the fan wall, but an issue with going horizontal (no landscape mode yet maybe). The fan wall gives a direct connection between the band and the fans, and has nice Twitter and Facebook shareability.

To try out the apps point your iPhone’s Safari browser to one of these: bandapp.com/theblackout – bandapp.com/zebrahead – bandapp.com/wearetheocean – bandapp.com/a. Once there, just use your menu to “add to home screen” and you have instant pain-free mobility. Can you pocket it?

OR Vimeo—as opposed to streaming from your own host in a custom player

• 1. No bandwidth strain or maintenance issues.
• 2. Visitors get player controls that they’re already used to.
• 3. Shareability.
• 4. It works. Everywhere. Always. (plays on iPhone etc.)
• 5. Easy as f*** to implement (copy and paste). No webmaster needed.
• 6. Traffic source—put link to your site in YouTube video descriptions.
• 7. Google indexes YouTube videos.
• 8. The network effect compounds these advantages.

YouTube blows away the rest as far as eyeballs. I really like YouTube’s new iframe embed code (it’s what we’re using here now). Vimeo is the second biggest and IMO has really nice features. The best part is that you don’t really have to pick—upload to both of them! Psst.: Tube Mogul may help for going beyond that—I’ve never used it but it apparently can syndicate uploads to multiple video sites. Also I know the YouTube API available for developers. Anyone use it?

Photo: matthileo/flickr

“Why make your own website? You own it. You own the experience.” –Chris Vinson, Founder, Bandzoogle.

Since before you heard of Google, Chris Vinson has been designing musician websites. Like many today, he was in a band that needed a website. He did what anyone with enough determination would have done—he built it. 1000+ people were on his email list before email was a staple. Based on the success of his band’s site, he was later hired by his record label to build hundreds more. In 2004, he launched Bandzoogle—now a comprehensive, subscription, website platform for musicians.

“Decide an important action and encourage fans to do that action.”

Tracking website analytics for years, Vinson has concluded that “elaborate sites lose traffic.” Simple is better. Having a complicated, all-Flash website is self-defeating. “Flash sucks” was rule #1 in his 18-minute intensive at NMS about ‘how to make an artist website that rocks.’ He echoed these rules and really drove the idea of having exactly one concept per page. Have one call to action—e.g. ‘download this’ or ‘become a fan on Facebook.’

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. “Artist websites emphasize an artist’s own brand.” Make it personal. “Frequent updates = repeat visits.”

Bandzoogle founder Chris Vinson explains how to make an artist website that rocks. Photo: virtualmusictv/flickr

Brand isn’t something you sell. It’s not schilling other people’s products, and it’s not selling out. Brand is what you stand for.” –Liz Leahy, Co-Founder, Section 101.

What about fan mailing lists? What’s the right frequency? Ariel Hyatt suggests one email per month. Each should contain a single call to action—a different call to action each month. Disc Makers CEO Tony Van Veen said, “Retain mindshare. Don’t let them forget about you.” and “Add value in your communication.” Everything you do online is communication and should reflect your brand vision.

In a VideoSong

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).

VideoSong is medium defined by Jack Conte with those two rules. In addition to his solo production, Jack is the orchestration 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. They popularized their music on YouTube with videosong—a format that seemed functional and easy—and inspired viewers.

Last Friday, Kevin Breuner at CD Baby interviewed Jack Conte in DIY Musician Podcast #096. I recommend giving the full podcast a listen. Jack explained why he and Nataly chose to cover the songs that they did, and how it helped them become sustainable on mp3 downloads alone—covers and originals. Here are two excerpts from the podcast—the first is about the attraction to videosongs, and the second is about why Pomplamoose resisted record deals from all four major labels.

Sound Around: iPhone apps for bands.

Gee, Scott, what do you want to do tonight? The same thing we do every night, Steve—try to help music take over the world by building better mobile apps for bands and their fans!

In 2009, in a little place called Raleigh, North Carolina, 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. Scott (Brain) was preparing to graduate as a computer engineer, and his younger brother, Steve (Pinky), was studying business management/marketing. Their startup would be born, but the question was, what kind? Taking advantage of their student resources, they had access to mentoring and networking through the NCSU Engineering Entrepreneurs Program.

They started 2bros1blog.com to blog about what they learned on the startup road. Many early ideas were solutions aimed towards the university community. Scott had learned Objective-C, the programming language for iPhone apps, and they decided they really wanted to get involved with mobile apps. Everyone has a phone, and they always have it with them, right? But they needed to find the right niche. They thought about campus sports or news apps, but when they proposed building a news app for the college paper, they were met with perplexed stares. Scott and Steve realized that for their app service to fly, they needed to find people that were really interested in expanding and engaging their audience. Being music fans themselves, they took what seemed to be a logical turn that summer—towards musicians. Next stop, Sound Around.

Scott graduated in December, gave a speech, and started a job at an TransLoc—a startup that provides realtime location information to mass-transit users. He built their iPhone app. At the same time he and Steve (who was still in school and working part-time in Macaroni Grill) were developing what would soon be called Sound Around. At the turn of 2010, they took on 15 bands as closed-beta testers. In February Steve learned the ins and outs of web design and built getsoundaround.com.

With people skills and resourcefulness, they’d bootstrapped their expenses so far, but in early 2010 they got involved with TechStars in an effort to raise seed capital. In March they flew to Boulder and found themselves surrounded by like minds in the tech scene. Of 600 startups, TechStars funds only 10. Sound Around made it to the top 27 but not the final 10, and it was back to bootstrapping.

In a typical college scenario, the two brothers were living in a 4-bedroom apartment with two other students—David and A.J.—but when David moved out to live with his fiancé, Scott and Steve commandeered the empty room and converted it into a workspace—their current headquarters.

Having success with the beta apps, they started recording videos to demo the Sound Around platform, and, in the meantime started the application process for funding through another (more local) startup incubator, called LaunchBox Digital…which pretty much brings us to the present. Last night was a milestone for Sound Around. Their first apps were approved by Apple and are now live in the App Store. The party was on, but it’s only the beginning for Sound Around.

In the upcoming weeks, Sound Around will be running discount promos via Twitter. Stay in the loop: @VirtualMusictv and @getsoundaround.

Scott is on a 3-month sabbatical from his job at TransLoc to focus full-time on Sound Around. Steve would love to be able to dropout next semester and get Sound Around rolling without distractions. Funding would help them “scale faster” but with or without it they’re expecting to launch in public beta this summer. They considering finding a 3rd team member experienced in web and/or Android dev.

The ‘band apps as a service’ market is a wide-open frontier. There’s some fundamental characteristics about Sound Around that really make them stand out.

1. It’s the DIY mindset. Sound Around’s young, two-brother team is the core of all their development. They’re building it all from the ground up. By not hiring out their programming or design, they’ll be able to constantly address feedback and improve their platform. When demands of the app market change, they’ll be able to adapt the fastest.

2. Sound Around purely focused on developing apps for bands/musicians. They’re not leaving the music niche—immense as it is—and they plan on rocking it. MobBase is their only direct competition right now, and there’s plenty of room to coexist in this space.

3. In what I’ve learned about Scott and Steve, I can tell that they understand the importance of people in the mix. They plan on creating an interface for interaction—not one-way communication—and they have a lot of innovative ideas on deck.

4. Their pricing is user-focused. It’s not based on installs. Bands pay based on the number of fans that actually use the app each month. The starter $14/month plan covers 1000 unique app users per month. Above 1000 is $0.01/user until the next tier—$29/month for 5000 unique users.

5. Their mascot is a giraffe named Shirley. She’ll make you smile. :) Giraffes are a symbol of evolution, you know. She doesn’t always travel with the team of course, who’ll be attending events this summer, including Warped Tour in Charlotte, and would love to meet up.

// update // October 19, 2010 from Scott:

I know it hasn’t been very long since we officially launched back in July, but we’ve been working on something really cool behind the scenes that we’re finally ready to tell everyone about. One of our fellow local music companies, ReverbNation, has acquired Sound Around and will be moving quickly to launch the product to their more than 900,000 artists.

Steve and I are both super excited to be joining the ReverbNation team to work on providing mobile products that will continue to move the needle on acquiring new fans, and engaging existing ones on a deeper level. We’ve been heavily vested in creating useful technologies in the mobile space, and we have no doubt that these efforts will only be amplified as we move into our new roles working alongside an impressive and passionate team of individuals.

For everyone that had a hand in touching, shaping, or otherwise influencing our foray into building a product and launching our first company, we can’t thank you enough for all of the hours of mentoring, being a cheerleader, and (most importantly) bringing us down to size when we needed it.

Device Dependency

Apple continues to create a major dependence on iTunes through their mobile products—the iPod, iPhone, and iPad—and I don’t think that anything is going to “kill” iTunes without a war. iTunes is the 7-Eleven of media—it’s more convenient and expensive, but it’s closer to home. For many, the iTunes experience is ingrained behavior—a household name—and part of their daily commute so to speak.

Generation Gap

The second huge advantage Apple has is the generation gap. Older people are more likely to have money to spend, and are less likely to adopt something new—especially if it’s less convenient. For Spotify to compete stateside, it will start through today’s youth. I love the Spotify concept, its mobility, and its adaptivity. They are smart to develop/test/improve their service in one location (Europe) before attempting to roll it out in another market (U.S.)—that’s business expansion 101. I hope that Spotify becomes a hit in the U.S. mainly for the sake of the music. Who wants an iTunes monopoly?

Apple Affinity

Apple products have strong affinity, and an army of enthusiasts drinking their Slurpees. Anyone looking to compete with them has to have an equal or greater affinity, and/or introduce something totally disruptive (which Spotify has done to a degree). Spotify has game, but so does Apple, who made a calculated move with last year’s Lala acquisition. One big thing to remember is that music has always been about the experience, and it always has been.

Apple Shuttle