We’ve talked about in the past that musicians need to be able to keep up with technology, and embrace the tools that are available (while not spending 24 hours a day on the computer and losing the magic that is meeting face to face). Many moons ago I interviewed David Codr about his Music Phone book. This was a great resource for keeping up on all sorts of contacts in the music business.

That was back in 2007, and things have changed and keep an accurate version of anything is hard when things change so fast. Consequently, the Music Phone book has now morphed into musicpage.com where you can list a profile, and search for venues, booking agents, music stores, etc in your area. When you find them you can add notes that only you can see.

When you call Steve at the Rusty Rhino bar and he says to call back next Tuesday you can use the service to send you a reminder next Tuesday via text message. Best of all its free. There are some great features that you do have to pay for (this is good, typically resources that never charge for anything go out of business).

When I logged in I see where there are some resources on the site, but as its brand new there are some area that are a little bare. One area I would like keep void of information is the section of the site that helps musicians find stolen gear.

The way the site does stay in business is through one advertisement per page (when I logged in) and its targeted. For example if you say your a guitarist, you will more than likely see adds that has guitars. If you are a pianist you will see (you get the idea).

To get access to the “uber cool” features for six months, use the coupon code musicianscooler when you sign up.

Someone had sent in an email about what shopping cart I use. I found a WordPress Plugin called estore that stops people from sharing the download link. The customer never receives the actual link to the file (its encrypted). You can use it create packages, it accepts coupons for paypal, and if you need to give special instructions to your customers. If you are using amazon S3 to host your files it works with that. They make adding a shopping cart SO EASY by adding snippets of code to your website. You don’t need to have a reference guide to remember the codes, you click on a box and select what type of button you are adding (subscription, buy now, add to cart) It’s very, very easy. Best of all (as we all know scripts don’t always do what they are supposed to do) there is great support, and a big community. Best of all there is a one time fee of $49 and there is nobody else involved with the sale of your digital goods, just you and paypal (no monthly fees).

Dave has cracked the door of marketingmusican.com and he created a video for youtube to help explain why YOU should be managing your website (and the fact that you can do it for around $10 a month).

It’s Too Big To Fail – Why Every Musician Should Manage Their Own Website

When you are trying to get your first gig, you want to explain to the club or event how THEY are going to benefit. Late night TV infomercials help you understand the problem you didn’t know you have (Is your cheese crooked? Do you hate having wrinkled cheese?), then they explain how their product eliminates all the hassles (It’s a cheese straightener – but wait there is more). The bottom line is EVERYONE loves to benefit. When you describe your band, instead of explaining how people will love you because everyone loves you, think of what their pains are and explain how your band will not cause those same pains.

This CD is also short (clocking in at around 10 minutes), but gives the booker a decent idea what the band sounds like, and understands how we want to work with  them not so much for them to create not just another gig, but an event.  We provide seasoned musicians, great music, and no headaches.

This is just one of the ideas in my book Get Your Band Out of the Basement (and keep them out of the asylum).Available for $12.99

Also mentioned on this episode:

www.stageclothes.net – because they see you before they hear you.

www.audibletrial.com/dave – get a free audio book for signing up.

If you are looking to create a website for your band, please contact me as I can start your website for free.

I just read about this service at punchtab.com where you can build your own loyalty program. While they have a built in catalog that gives away gift cards, you can make your own. Your fans/visitors get point for doing certain tasks each day at your site.

For example:

Visiting your site every day – for their first visit to your site every day your users will earn 100 points
Liking your content on Facebook – for their first Like on your site every day your users will earn 100 points
Tweeting your content – for their first Tweet on your site every day your users will earn 100 points
Google +1 your content – for their first Google +1 on your site every day your users will earn 100 points
Commenting – for their first comment of the day your users will earn 100 points

You an also do a one time giveaway (where actions give you entries into the drawing).. It takes just a few minutes to install this on your site, and you then get statistics on your site and you get your own “leader board.”

I see this tool as a way to pull some of the traffic from Facebook over to your website, while giving another reason for people to visit your site.

Check it out at www.punchtab.com

Today I podcast live from the banks of Lake Erie.

Today I’m talking about leaving the Negative Nancy Attitude at home.

I had an interesting gig that was supposed to be outside, and due to rain, was moved inside. Inside the club as noting but glass and hard wood. In a nutshell, we knew we were going to be asked to turn down eventually. When this happened, a member of my band threw a tantrum and voiced his frustration in front of the waiters and waitresses.

My wife was unaware that a manager was sitting in the booth next to her when she complained that they had a station ON THE STAGE where waiters/waitresses would come up and check out their orders. We did our best to leave a path, and you do what you have to do.

If a gig goes bad, the better thing to do is:

1. Stay calm. Work with the bar/club owner and give them what they want.

2. Keep the big picture in view (I once had a bass player that made ONE comment that cost us SEVEN gigs).

3. Wait till the next band practice to discuss the situation, and come up with a game plan on how to handle this situation in the future.

Complaining Band Members

Who throws the most tantrums in your band? The drummer, bass player, guitarist, Keybaords, or Lead Singer? Leave your answer in the comments.

Two months ago, I began implementing Ariel Hyatt and Carla Lynne Hall’s strategy to increase my Twitter following, as laid out in their book Musician’s Roadmap to Facebook and Twitter. The basic idea is to follow potential fans in the hope that they will follow back. I discovered that the more selective I am in choosing who to follow, the more likely I am to connect with people who may become genuine fans. I’ll share my process and results below.

Optimize your profile. Every potential follower will first scan your profile to figure out who you are and why you followed them, and decide whether or not to follow back based on what they see. Be sure to include a short “elevator pitch” that accurately describes your sound, a link to your site, and a reference to a related band or two. I describe my music as “electronic indie piano pop for fans of The Postal Service, Depeche Mode, and Owl City.”

Follow related bands’ followers. In my case, that means finding the official profile of The Postal Service, Depeche Mode, or Owl City and following their followers. With any luck, they’ll click through to my profile, spot my reference to the related band, follow back, and maybe even take a listen. But I don’t just follow anyone! I prescreen each potential fan to ensure they meet the following criteria:

1. At least 20 followers. I learned this the hard way! After my first indiscriminate following session, I received several direct messages asking “do I know you?” People with low follower counts are likely tweeting only to close friends. The idea here is to get noticed without invading anyone’s privacy.

2. No approval required. Along the same lines, I don’t send follow requests to users who keep their tweets private. It strikes me as rude. If I click on the follow button and see “pending (cancel),” I immediately cancel. Perhaps someone more bold than me will experiment with a request-only strategy and share their results.

3. Last tweet less than one week old. There’s no point in following inactive accounts. While our main goal is to attract potential fans, we might as well narrow our focus on people who can help spread our message. That means active Twitter users with public tweets that reach a respectable number of people.

4. No egg icon. While we’re on the topic of respect, no self-respecting Twitter user keeps the default egg icon as their avatar. If they can’t even bother to upload a profile photo, they’re not worth following.

5. Following 30-300. If a user follows less than 30 people, they won’t follow me. If they follow more than 300, they won’t notice me.

6. English speaking. I realize that users who Tweet in other languages could very well speak English, and even spread my message in their native language. Still, it’s disingenuous to follow someone when you don’t understand what they’re saying.

7. No businesses. Businesses are on Twitter to promote their brand and services. Even if they happen to follow related bands, they’re not likely to evangelize. Stick with personal accounts.

8. No back-scratchers. Many profiles state something along the lines of “follow and I will follow back.” My mission is to find new fans, not to artificially inflate my numbers with people who don’t care about my music.

9. No Beliebers. Justin Bieber takes up 3% of all Twitter traffic. If I see him mentioned in a user’s profile or tweet stream, I immediately unfollow. Beliebers have a nasty habit of retweeting anything even casually Bieber-related, including desperate pleas for the little man to follow them back.

These are guidelines, not rules. If I come across a person that interests me, I’ll follow them regardless. If someone meets the criteria but rubs me the wrong way, I won’t. Go with your gut.

I keep at this until I follow 50 new users, which takes about 20 minutes. To check my progress, I use the find function in Chrome to search for the word “following” on the current page until I see 53 hits (three instances of the word appear naturally on the page before you start following anyone).

Unfollow non-followers. After two days, I use JustUnfollow to unfollow the users who aren’t following me back, usually about 40. This step is crucial because 1) Twitter only lets you follow 2000 users unless a higher number follow you, and 2) high following counts coupled with low follower counts look amateur. After unfollowing, it’s right back to following related bands’ followers, ad infinitum.

Beliebers or no, your Twitter stream will quickly become cluttered. To counter this, create a list of users you actually want to keep track of, and bookmark that page. While it’s important to interact with your new followers, it’s tough to stay on top of more than 150. I have Twilert send me email updates that mention me, my band, or my latest album at 4 pm daily, so I don’t miss out on anything of direct concern.

Hey look, it works! On March 18, I had 700 “organic” followers, the natural result of using Twitter since December of 2008. Eight weeks later, I’m approaching 1000.

On the flipside, I’m following almost 400 users, four times more than when I started. And I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a chore. 20 minutes every two days may not seem like much, but it sure ain’t passive promotion.

If you’ve got any ideas to further refine the process, please share them in the comments! And if one day you discover I’m following you on Twitter, I hope you’ll recognize the high honor it confers and follow back.

Brian Hazard is a recording artist with sixteen years of experience promoting his eight Color Theory albums. His Passive Promotion blog emphasizes “set it and forget it” methods of music promotion. Brian is also the head mastering engineer and owner of Resonance Mastering in Huntington Beach, California.

Other Episodes

Should I Automate My Tweets?

Root Music For Facebook

Grow Your Fanbase with Facebook

Today I talk about a tool to spice up your youtube videos at www.viewbix.com (I say viewblix in the podcast).

I also talk about (for those using WordPress ) Slide Deck. You can see it in action on my site www.morepodcastmoney.com

We are also looking for a juke box for your website that s html 5 compliant. I know the wordpress plugin powerpress is html compliant (so it works on iPads). I’m not positive you can play a single episode… Do you know of one? Leave a comment below (he said Reverb Nation crashed his site).

Thanks to Rich Palmer for the voicemail. He was remembering days of the www.bestoftheworstpodcast.com

Today I talk about how my bass player and I got into a finger pointing contest about our promo packs. Aggressive people want things their way and are hell bent on making their point of view be THE point of view. Assertive band members look to find a compromise where Aggressive personalities want to WIN the argument. These are some of the types of things I discuss in my book Get Your Band Out of the Basement

Free Sammy Hagar Audio Book
Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock

You can get this audio book for FREE by going to www.audibletrial.com/dave

For almost forty years, Sammy Hagar has been a fixture in rock music. From breaking into the industry with the band Montrose to his multiplatinum solo career to his ride as the front man of Van Halen, Sammy’s powerful and unforgettable voice has set the tone for some of the greatest rock anthems ever written—songs like “I Can’t Drive 55,” “Right Now,” and “Why Can’t This Be Love.”

In Red, Sammy tells the outrageous story of his tear through rock ‘n’ roll, detailing the backstage antics and nonstop touring that have made his voice instantly recognizable. Beginning with his musical coming-of-age in the blue-collar towns of California, Sammy traces his rough and determined rise to fame, working harder than anyone else out there and writing songs about the things he loved—fast cars, loud parties, and lots of good times.

But solo success was just the start, a prelude to his raucous and notorious decade as the front man for Van Halen, one of the biggest-selling rock groups in history. Filled with behind-the-scenes stories from his time with the band, Red offers the Van Halen story as Sammy saw it, holding nothing back about the worldwide stadium tours, the tensions with Eddie, the messy parties, the divided friendships, and, of course, his controversial and widely disputed exit from the band.

After Van Halen, Sammy changed directions again, throwing himself headfirst into the tequila business and creating Cabo Wabo, one of the most successful tequila brands in the world. And all the while he continued to rock, touring the country with his bands the Waboritas and Chickenfoot, and eventually reuniting with Van Halen for a tour that became both a box-office smash and a personal catastrophe.

From the decadence of being one of the world’s biggest rock stars to the unfiltered story of being forced out of Van Halen, Sammy’s account spares no one, least of all himself. His is a tale of a true rock ‘n’ roller—someone who’s spent decades bringing the party with him wherever he goes but always headin’ back to Cabo for mas tequila.

Sound Cloud For Band Practice Notes

This week we have some feedback from the audience. We had Carlos from www.bydefaultmusic.com who explains how he is using  www.soundcloud.com. He records practice then he and his fellow band members can leave comments on each song so that all band members can see the comments.

Root Music Easily Gets Your Music on Facebook

Eric M Hunter www.ericmhunter.net wrote in to chime in on our previous discussion on Facebook. He wanted to say he is very happy with Root Music for putting your music on your facebook page. You can see this in action on his Facebook Page

It would be nice if you could put an option to BUY the music at Facebook.

I’ve had people that are in my boat (not enough time to keep up with social media) ask me about automating their tweets, blogs, etc. Its an interesting question, but its not easy to answer. First I had to get educated a bit on exactly what is possible with software such as tweetadder ( I don’t own this software). I went to their site and watched all their training videos. They show that if you want to – you can have your twitter account run on auto pilot. It really depends on what you are using twitter for, and what you want from your followers.

Pick up your shogun and aim at anything

If you use twitter to simply tell the world what is going on, and hope they listen. Sure you can automate that, and automate finding people to listen. Why do I feel that is OK? Because your having a one sided conversation. It’s all tweet out and not tweet in. As you are not building a relationship with anyone, I also feel that you are doing what I call “Shotgun marketing” where you throw it on the wall and see if it sticks. While tools such as Tweetadder have impressive tools to help you find people that would be interested in your music, or niche, if you automate everything you will look like a robot and turn people off.Tweetadder costs you $55 bucks, and you can set up your twitter account and it will find, follow, unfollow, retweet, reply, and more without you lifting a finger. If you’re looking to grow your twitter following quickly with somewhat qualified followers it would work. The tools make it a very educated shotgun, but none the less a shotgun.

Looking to build intimacy with your fans

If you are looking to gain a better understanding of your fans, then automation can’t do that. Tweetadder can find more people who are interested in your music, but people are pretty smart. If I mention someone in a tweet and get a “thanks” message almost instantly, I’m thinking you are a robot (which will turn most people off). Building relationships takes time and work. There really is no way around that.

Where Automation Pays Off

In watching the Tweetadder videos, I can see where actions such as unfollowing people who are not following you, or doing a search and following the users in those results could be a time saver. They also include many tools to help your automation appear to be human. The key though is if you want to build relationships you will need to genuinely interact with them.  Tweetadder even mentions in their training videos that if you turn everything on that is possible in the software, you will more than likely lose followers as it will be blatantly obvious that its not you sending a “thanks for following me” message at 4 AM.

Much like everything else in life. Automation in moderation. For more information go to www.tweetadder.com