Websites, Tools, Apps and Software - Get Your Online Presence Together

I've stopped using Blogger. All blogs are posted on my website instead. You can view this one at: http://www.vidwarren.com/websites-tools-apps-and-software-get-your-online-presence-together

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Preface:

Themed as a story, this growing list aims to give a very vague guide to getting your online presence together as a musician.

I'm sure that your scrollbar has shrunk down to about as small as it's going to go and that's one indication of what a long and arduous process this is. If the only reason you're doing this is to get your online presence together, I don't suggest doing it all yourself; you should only consider doing it all if you are also open to the idea of becoming interested and passionate about online presence management. If you're not, you could always find other ways of getting it done and focus instead on what you are passionate about. Spend a bit of money and get somebody else to do it for you; it will definitely be worth it if it gets you work and even one gig's wages could give you some serious headway. If you don't like that idea, how about offering trades? A few hours of singing lessons for a few hours of tech-support could be worth more than the 'cash value' to both parties.

For me, one of the most frustrating aspects of technology is that there are so many 'puzzles', of which you need every single piece in place to do what you want; every time you find the time and enthusiasm to start, you spend both researching all the separate tools you need and watching loading-bars as you download, install and configure them. This guide aims to at least let you know what you are in for! It lists the steps rather than explaining how to do each one so make sure you use Google to find some more specific tutorials along the way.

My methods suit me, my business and my goals immensely. Yours will be different in some areas. This is why I fully recommend making an action plan of your own as you read this and print it out so that it stares you in the face over the next few years. There is no way that you're going to get this all done in one go; even with a high level of focus, setting up all the tools you need will probably take around a few weeks. Learning the skills, keeping up to date with the tools, building momentum with your followers, developing your image and evaluating your progress are all lifelong tasks and that doesn't even take into account creating high quality music, for which this is all meant to support.

Good luck. Your only chance is to be patient.

Chapter I - A Blank Canvas:

A fine artist and good friend of mine once told me her technique for sidestepping writers' block:

"Sometimes I just paint my canvas cream or an off-white; a big white canvas can be daunting."

If you're unsure of where to start, these infographics might give you some inspiration:


The Conversation Prism is a pin-wheel of social media websites organised into categories:



http://bit.ly/nzlFbb


The Twitterverse gives a comprehensive list of websites and tools that can interact with Twitter:



http://bit.ly/pbqUpu


It's easier to 'fix' something than to start it from scratch. A good place to start is by setting up the basics even if you're not going to 'decorate' them yet. At the very least, make accounts on the following sites:

http://www.facebook.com

http://www.twitter.com

http://www.plus.google.com (not publicly available until October 2011 but there are ways around this)

http://www.123-reg.co.uk (to buy a domain name e.g. http://www.vidwarren.com etc.) Buy a domain name today it's useful even without a website to put online. I'll get to that.

To make a 'Business Page' on Facebook, follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

You'll need to spend more time deciding which sites suit you best for sharing audio and video. In short, I recommend:

http://www.soundcloud.com - For audio

http://www.youtube.com - For video that you want fans, followers and the public to find by searching and subscribing to your channel

http://www.vimeo.com - For video that you want to put in front of people, e.g. emailing video links to festivals etc.

Don't bother with Myspace; it is dead.

You can spend a long time staring at your screen not really doing anything. The trick is to catch yourself doing it and have a task to divert to whenever you feel you are wasting time. Perhaps a little 'screen time' is useful, even vital, to give your brain a break and keep efficiency up. When you want to avoid it, setting up these accounts is a good menial task to ensure you're not wasting time.

You can easily set these accounts up in a couple of hours and it really is worth doing it all in one go. Filling in the information and adding content can take substantially longer and it is OK to have a site online with nothing on it. Don't be so arrogant or idealistic as to say 'I do not want to launch it until it is ready'. You're just starting out and somebody that has seen you at a gig may then search for you on Facebook/Twitter/Youtube/Soundcloud etc. Even if you have nothing on any of them, simply having these sites online could mean gaining that extra follower and that could mean that extra gig, another CD sale etc. Take that will to be ready and use it as motivation to work on your sites. Otherwise, in three years you'll still be in the same position. A strong online presence doesn't just appear when you are ready (unless you pay a team of people to handle it). Personally, I'd advocate having the online presence already set up so that, when you 'suddenly become ready' you don't have to go through the awkward process of slowly piecing together each site, painfully using trial and error constantly changing from 'not quite right' brand-images whilst more and more followers see it all and think 'Oh, I guess he isn't ready'.

Yes, it's hard to publicly present the initially god-awful work in progress that is an image that is supposed to represent you. Your best option is to do it whilst very few people are watching! Don't let your ego prevent you from taking the leap. If you spent all your time worrying about what other people thought when you were learning music, you wouldn't have the need for an online presence now! It's hard to go through that again but, hopefully, looking back at the first time makes it clear how superficial it all really is.

Chapter II - Your Own Website:

This is the most complicated part as well as the part that give you the most control, makes you look the most established, gives you the most clout in a Google search etc. Both of these reasons indicate that it is something that you should do early on. It's going to take time and is important, best get cracking ASAP.

Before I explain, I need to remind you to register a domain name. I use 123-reg and they've always done what I want. You can redirect the domain to your SoundCloud if your website isn't ready and simply buying the domain will give you a professional email address (under £10 a year for a .com and under £4 a year for a .co.uk). You can even set a catch all i.e. *@vidwarren.co.uk to forward to another email address. You could send an email to mygodyoutalktoomuchinyourarticles@vidwarren.co.uk and it would reach me.

Now, on to getting a website:

A brief explanation: A website is a folder on somebody's computer. Each page is a file in that folder. Your browser connects to that computer and asks for permission to access the folder and read the file. To have your own website, you need to buy webspace - space on a computer in which to put your website-folder.

There are countless hosts from whom you can buy webspace. The problem is, the computer on which your website is stored needs to be on and connected to the Internet 24/7. Any loss of connection and the website goes down. Some servers use enormous chains of computers so that, if one computer has a problem, the next one kicks in as a backup. You need to find a host with a balance of the price plan that suits you and the reliability that you need.

If you're looking to buy webspace, feel free to trawl through online reviews and ask around but, having done that myself, I can save you time by recommending my host:

https://www.5quidhost.co.uk

For a starter website, I recommend their five quid per month package.

I've never had any downtime and they've always been prompt to respond to emails. They have deals from time to time so it's worth asking.

So, if you have bought a few years on a domain name from http://www.123-reg.co.uk and have just bought a few years of web-hosting, you shouldn't need to pay for anything else in order to get your own website online.

The web-hosting will also include mail-accounts so you will have an official business email address (without the faff of email forwarding). I recommend Thunderbird as a mail client. It's made by the same people that make Firefox, which I recommend as a browser:

http://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new


Making the website

There are many different kinds of software you can use. Before deciding on how to make it, I recommend installing a free and open-source software-package called XAMPP:

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

XAMPP allows you to host your own website. You're probably not going to use it for this but it will let you test your website as if it were online before you actually put it up.

XAMPP stands for: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl. You'll especially need it to test PHP or if you are going to be using databases to create your site such as Wordpress.

So, that's the testing out of the way. Now you'll need to look at the other pieces of software you'll need to create the site and to get it online:

GIMP is a powerful image editor. It's free and open-source and, for what I do, I find it both more intuitive and more able than Adobe Photoshop. If you're savvy with code, you can write your own scripts and use it in batch mode to apply a process to a large number of images without even needing to open the software. Be sure to check for tutorials online.

http://www.gimp.org

Gedit is an excellent text editor. Again, it is free and open-source. Once you have saved your file with the relevant extension (.html .css .js .php etc.) Gedit will colour code your scripts as you're writing them! This makes it very easy to spot stupid mistakes such as missing a semi-colon at the end of a line etc. Even if you're not planning to use coding, it's still worth having as a text editor.

http://projects.gnome.org/gedit

Filezilla is the best FTP client I've seen. Free and open-source (like everything that's good for online management) it is what you use to securely log in to your web-folder and upload, download and delete files.

http://filezilla-project.org

By now, you're probably starting to see one of the 'puzzles' I mentioned in the preface. It's already a lot of software needed and we haven't even started designing yet! Downloading all of these looks like a slog but, when you compare this to the fact that I had to stumble upon these one by one through months of research, it really isn't that bad. Realistically, if you're starting from scratch, you're probably going to download one or two, then get stuck on something and leave it for a few weeks etc. or maybe download it all and then not look at any of it for a long time. If you're making notes or an action plan this might be a good time to schedule your tasks. Also, stumbling across software gradually is always going to yield a more organic and more effective process. Articles like this are often most useful when you're stuck on where to go next. It's much more likely that you'll look at my entire process and then see one step that suits you than for you to follow every single step. Perhaps that's something to remember next time you're stuck.

To design your site, I'm going to show separate two methods, one- From Scratch -is incredibly difficult and will give you complete control, a thorough understanding and a fully customized site. It is the method that I have used to create http://www.vidwarren.com. The other- Using a Content Management System (CMS) -is still difficult but you won't need to learn a new set of languages to get it up and running. You'll be confined to the parameters of another CMS but sometimes that's a lot more liberating than being confined to the parameters of your own scripting knowledge! Also, if you do know your way around a few scripting languages, you can still use them to get some of the best of both worlds. This is the method I used when helping to design http://www.tessential.com


From Scratch

This is a brave decision and is not to be taken lightly. I'm not going to give an entire instruction manual on how to do this but I can link to something that is fairly close:

http://www.w3schools.com

That should cover all the programming languages you'll need, at least initially. I use HTML (which is where you should start) as well as CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. All of these languages can be used within the same document and combined to handle different tasks.

I write using these languages in Gedit, and save them in my htdocs folder in XAMPP to test them. I create/edit the images using GIMP and I upload the files to my webserver using Filezilla. That is the entire process and it's a lot quicker once you know what you're doing.

If you're already doing all this, you may be ready to explore APIs. APIs are libraries of code with a 'shorthand' that you can use to write a few lines of code that are then translated into gigantic arrays and functions. A few examples:

http://jquery.com - For example, I use this so that my anchors scroll down the page smoothly rather than a sudden jerk to where they are. Check out http://www.vidwarren.com/human-beatbox and click on beatbox workshops to see it in action. There is a lot more that jquery can do, that is just an example.

http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/getting_started.html - This is Youtube's own API and gives you greater control over Youtube Videos embedded into your site.

So, is it worth it? It really depends on what you want to do and how much time you can and are willing to put in. The main benefits are that every pixel is going to end up exactly where you put it meaning that your site reflects your own brand and doesn't look like a common template. As well as this, you will learn much more about coding/scripting this way and then you can use the superpower that is computer programming to achieve something that man alone cannot do.

On my site, I have two very good examples of this:

Firstly, there is my booking form: http://www.vidwarren.com/bookingform_performance.php - This is an online form that takes each field and, using php, composes a contract, which it sends to me via email. I check through this and send it back to the promoter, who checks through it and can then agree by email. This means that I have a contract for every single gig and I never have to write it out. Pretty useful if somebody doesn't pay or decides to cancel out of the blue etc.

Secondly, I have a few scripts written in JavaScript and PHP that choose which track to play first in a SoundCloud set based on an extension on the end of the URL. This means that I can link users to individual tracks with a good chance that they will stick around to listen to the entire set. For an example, follow these links:

http://vidwarren.com/music/?track=atom

http://vidwarren.com/music/?track=delicious

Forcing yourself through an understanding of how websites work is a good thing whether you want to design a site from scratch or not. It's just that designing a site from scratch is the best and most complete way of doing this.


Using a Content Management System (CMS)

This is a much quicker and simpler way. Once you've got the databases installed, managing your site will be just as easy as editing your Facebook profile etc. What's more, you can login to your site from anywhere with the Internet and manage it as 'admin'.

The best option, in my opinion is Wordpress (free and open-source). Download Wordpress from:

http://www.wordpress.org

Make sure that it is .org and not .com as wordpress.com is a blogging site more like blogger/blogspot where you create a profile and wordpress.org is a set of web-developer tools used to create your own website.

To test Wordpress and see if it is right for you, you'll want to install it in XAMPP first using the phpMyAdmin application (included with XAMPP). If you're on Windows, there's a tutorial on how to do that here: http://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/installing-wordpress-on-local-windows-using-xampp

If you've managed that, putting it on your webserver should largely be the same. This is especially the case if you have taken my advice and gone with https://www.5quidhost.co.uk as they have phpMyAdmin included as part of their cPanel.

Once you've got it online, configuring it should be fairly easy. Again, the quickest way is to find a template online that is close to what you want and then start modifying it. There is an 'Editor' in the Dashboard that will give you access to the Stylesheet, the Header, the Page Template etc. these are where you can insert snippets of code if you know how.

Everything that a CMS can do, you can also do on your own with your own scripts designing your site from scratch. It's just a question of whether or not it's worth the time and effort. CMS based sites tend to have the advantage that any change is automatically applied to all pages. This is equally possible with your own scripting by creating your own JavaScript header but you may find yourself discovering this fact by not doing this the first time around. You then have to undo all of the mess you've made. Often there are several examples of this. A CMS may avoid the problem but, to quote Illusions by Richard Bach:

"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."

Keep that in mind. All shortcuts are trade-offs.

There are plenty of other CMS options such as Joomla. Past the 'framework' of the CMS, they are only as strong as their communities. One of the reasons I recommend Wordpress is the quality and amount of plug-ins that are available for free written by other members of the Wordpress community.

You only need one CMS for the main framework of your website but it's possible to include other databases for other tasks. For example, MediaWiki is a free open-source software package used by Wikipedia. You could create a user contributed encyclopaedia on your own site, if you had the need to do so:

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki

Or, you could add an online shop to sell CDs and Merchandise. osCommerce is free and open-source:

http://oscommerce.com

Even with CMS based sites such as Wordpress sites, you will probably still need to use Filezilla to upload images, depending on where you want to put them. However, mostly you will be customising your site from the comfort of your admin login.

So, now you should have a website online. Don't forget to include Google Analytics to track your site statistics:

https://www.google.com/analytics

If you're on Wordpress, there's a plug-in to do that here:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress

And, for tracking your Facebook Page:



Also, to prevent yourself from getting spammed (and to help to digitise several books) get reCAPTCHA wherever you have a form:

http://www.google.com/recaptcha

If you get stuck, there are a ton of forums out there. Most of the time, your question has already been answered and you can find it by trawling Google. If not, you can always make an account and start a new thread. The web-developing community can be extremely helpful.

That's just the nuts and bolts. You'll need to decide what headings are important to you and which content to include and you'll most likely end up with a load of empty pages which make you think 'Man, I need to get some more photography' or 'Oh my days, all my songs need work'. Don't let this act as a reason to procrastinate; use it as a kick up the arse to get everything done.

Also bear in mind that your content and headings affect the search engine results in which you appear on the front page. If you want to be top in Google for a certain search phrase so that others stumble upon your site, you'll need to optimise your site with relevant headings, filenames etc. Look up SEO - Search Engine Optimisation to find articles on the subject.

Chapter III - Brand Identity:

And you thought scripting was tricky; at least you know whether or not it works! Now you've got the 'how' but where does the 'what' and 'why' come in? If you need some inspiration, look up semiotics (the study of signs) to ensure you know what is the reasoning behind your logo. A few articles on the emotional impact of the use of colour may help you to find a colour scheme.

Aside from this, it takes a while to get your head around using angular perspective, transparency, lighting and gradients effectively in GIMP. Making a checklist of these may be a good start.

Find tutorials and, during your research, you really should find at least ten websites that you like the look of for inspiration. This becomes easier if you have a rough idea of what you want. For example, I knew early on that I wanted a dark colour-scheme for my website. It was easy enough to find a big group of dark colour-schemes:

http://blog.monsteractive.com/30-inspiring-beautiful-dark-color-scheme-websites

One tip I can give you is not to fall into the common pattern of making something with a huge focus on being 'easy on the eye'. Lots of people go for pale, low-saturation 'pastel' colours and end up with a site that looks more like a wedding florist's site. Don't be afraid to give your site bollocks, especially if your music has them.

When it comes to branding, everything you can see is included. The fonts are all too often overlooked. Your photography needs to fit. All embedded widgets such as Youtube videos and ReverbNation Show widgets must be customised as much as possible to fit.

When your brand identity is starting to shape up, you'll want to start thinking about applying it to all of your social networks. Twitter and Youtube allow you to customise the background image and colour-scheme. Facebook goes one step further; there's an application called Static FBML, which allows you to create your own tab using Facebook Markup Language (FBML) Facebook's answer to HTML and Facebook JavaScript (FBJS).

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4949752878 - You can add Static FBML to your Page here.

You can replicate your site or create something similar. I opted for creating something similar so that I can find a happy medium between my own branding and Facebook's styling. My tab is here:

http://www.facebook.com/vidwarrenmusic?v=app_7146470109

There's a lot of fine detail but the most important aspect of branding is to keep it simple.

Chapter IV - Connectivity:

You'll know by now from the hours of work you've put into setting up your account that updating every single one of these separately every time you post is going to be a nightmare. The solution is to use tools to connect them together. The don of all sites for this is Twitter and, really this is the main reason that I joined Twitter.

Now, when I post on my Facebook Page's Wall the Twitter application I use reads this and automatically posts to my Twitter. Anything I post to my Twitter (including this automatic posting from Facebook) will get automatically posted to my Facebook Profile and my LinkedIn profile. I also use a widget that embeds my Tweets on the front page of my website. So, from one posting, I can spread news, opinions links and media across the web.

Some websites just ask for your Twitter login and handle things from their end. Others use applications.

http://apps.facebook.com/twitter - This is where to connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

http://twitter.com/about/resources/widgets - This is where to get a Twitter widget for your website.

Syncing your sites through Twitter not only saves you time; it will help to prevent you from neglecting your followers.

So, now you have your website and all your social networks connected to each other full of your amazing music/photos/videos/reviews, generating traffic to each other, all sharing your brand identity and, with a few keystrokes, you can update them all at once. You have Google Analytics on your website and Facebook. Things are really coming together now.

Chapter V - Tools:

Social media tools allow you to specify beyond the ability of Facebook or Twitter. Necessity is the mother of invention and, when a social network site doesn't meet the needs of a computer programmer, sometimes they're stubborn enough to create their own solution and kind enough to share it with the world.

Here is a brief list of applications that you may find useful:

http://www.kurrently.com - Social Media Search Engine

http://www.socialmention.com - Social Awareness Alerts

http://klout.com - Social Awareness Alerts

https://analytics.postrank.com - Measures User Loyalty

http://blogsearch.google.com - Searches Google for blogs

http://www.twitterfall.com - Searches Twitter in real time

http://friendorfollow.com - Shows who is/isn't following you back etc. on Twitter

http://wetoku.com - Video 'side-by-side' interviews

http://socialcam.com - Smartphone video sharing

http://summify.com - Customizable Social Media News, compatible with http://google.com/reader

http://performable.com - Social Media Analytics

http://tap11.com - Social Media Analytics

http://hootsuite.com/p_1003?d=pro - Post to multiple social networks from one place

http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=223419&u=485556&m=25914&urllink=&afftrack= - Social Media SEO

TWITTER:

http://tweetwally.com - Creates a mixture of content from your Tweets and your responses

http://twilert.com - Alerts you at set intervals regarding search results for Tweets

http://twitalyzer.com - Twitter Analytics, compare your Twitter's results with another page's

http://crowdbooster.com - Twitter Analytics

This gives an idea but there is much, much more out there.

Chapter VI - Communicating With Your Followers:

Don't you dare go through all this hard work just to create a big machine that does nothing but bug and spam people! Your time is worth more. The music should come first so do all you can to keep it relevant. Ask yourself questions like 'Is this news?' i.e. have I posted this upcoming gig already? Do I need to post it at all? Some gigs are worth mentioning but, if you've got something better and more interesting to say, that's always going to capture your followers attention and spark discussion more than a predictable announcement and evaluation of every single gig they're not at! If you don't have something more interesting going on, why? Maybe that's a good way of discovering that you should be trying something new and exciting. New collaborations and developments in your music will get a better response than same old gig listings and website maintenance reports (snore). If you have the floor, at least make people laugh or start a conversation about something other than yourself once in a while! If you really must avoid the controversy of political events happening around you, why not write a blog and post it to your wall?

There is a brilliant video here on 'How Great Leaders Inspire Action':

http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html



If you want to get people talking on your site, try not to post heavy, serious information too often. Your job is to take your music seriously enough to make it wonderful. That doesn't mean all communication needs to reflect this. Often, there is friction where people find it hard to switch between the two but at least you have all the time you need to realise this. Think before you post. Don't think too hard but think for long enough not to make a blunder.

Epilogue

A few years after setting this up, you hopefully have a decent following and, if you're lucky, you have set a standard of conversation to you community making your sites an interesting and amusing platform for your followers to post their own thoughts. This is what pushes you towards the position of 'community leader' that gives you and your music the influence that so many are reaching for.

If you really work on this, you'll be in the top one percent of artists because most people don't get this sorted for one reason or another. There is no way that you can complain that 'it is too hard to make it as an artist without a record label' etc. before getting this sorted. If you're willing, patient and hard-working, it really is all there for the taking.

The methods I've used I have been discovering over a long time using trial and error and rejecting many pieces of software etc. because 'it did not suit me' or 'it did not suit my business' and probably sometimes down to luck. Take what you will from this guide but don't follow it too rigidly if you're going to do it all yourself. I wouldn't want to take the 'driving seat' away from anybody. Your online strategy has to be creative and, if you want to be passionate about it, it helps if you're the one that 'creates' it. Get out there and discover something that you'll actually bother using.

A strong online presence is fairly essential in making your passion into your full time job. It's hard to manage but much harder to set up. Get it done before it becomes overdue. You're only going to get busier!

Blog by Vid Warren - http://www.vidwarren.com

How to Deal with Bad Sound Levels

I've stopped using Blogger. All blogs are posted on my website instead. You can view this one at: http://www.vidwarren.com/how-to-deal-with-bad-sound-levels

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I cannot stand looking forward to a gig only to find that the sound levels are appalling on the night. I've found out and figured out a few tips that will hopefully help you to solve the problem or at least not let it throw your performance. These are largely based around gigging where a sound engineer is present during your set. Take from it what you will.

Problem - The monitors are too quiet (as a solo musician).

'Monitors' are the speakers that face the musicians on-stage; they allow you to hear yourself and the other musicians on-stage with you. If the monitors are too quiet in a big venue, it will really feel like nobody can hear you because you will barely be able to hear yourself.

It's almost funny when the cheer at the end of a song surprises the musicians on-stage. Not being able to hear yourself will mean that you will feel like you're competing with all other noise. Melody will probably be the first thing to go awry; it's easier to feel timing than pitch and, if you can't use your hearing, 'feel' is what you're left with. After melody, the more intricate phrases may follow. Like any problem, this can really knock your confidence.

Solution

If you're a vocalist (including beatboxers), put one finger in your ear. This will allow you to hear yourself even during really loud sound surrounding you. Try it next time you are somewhere with loud music. This advice is golden in many situations where the sound is bad. Wearing earplugs or one earplug should have the same effect.

Hopefully, the monitors are too quiet because they haven't been turned up enough, not because they are not powerful enough. This should be easy to sort out in a soundcheck. If it happens during your set, make eye-contact with the sound engineer, point at yourself and point upwards. This is vital for instrumentalists because a finger in the ear won't help.

Other than that, give it your best and always assume that the audience can hear you because they probably can.

Problem - The monitors don't have enough of what you want within a band/collaboration.

When you are performing with a band, you hope that there will be several different monitors with different levels. The drummer will probably want more of the bassist in the mix whereas the lead-vocalist will want more of himself. Sometimes gigs do not have time for soundchecks, usually because of a large number of bands to fit in (this is not uncommon at festivals).

Even if you can soundcheck, only really big gigs will have a separate sound engineer for the monitor levels; usually it has to be done by the band communicating through the mics on-stage. This makes it difficult to get the levels exact, especially as band members may play louder or quieter during the set than the soundcheck due to confidence or varied dynamics in songs. The sound engineer is probably going to sort the levels going to the crowd before the monitors, even then he can't hear everybody's requirements.

This can create problems where you can't hear yourself or certain musicians that you need.

Solution

Although, this problem is less likely to occur if you're with musicians that can soundcheck professionally, it still happens at all levels. Again, hand gestures to the sound engineer can be helpful - Pointing at yourself/somebody else and pointing upwards/downwards.

If the problem is much worse, everybody on stage should turn down their instruments or play quieter and the vocalist should hold the mic further from his mouth or stop cupping it. This will give you the ability to hear yourselves a bit better and then some space to vaguely set your own monitor levels. If it's still not right, everybody should listen to the drummer to make sure you stay in time.

Again, putting a finger in your ear can help to solve this.

Problem - You explain your act to the sound engineer and he decides to give your levels too much bass/treble/reverb etc.

Maybe you're doing/going to do some beatboxing and cranks the bass up to max when your sounds are bassy enough. I get this occasionally. Particularly, it can affect non-bassy sounds by making them sound muffled. I have a suspicion that some sound engineers are just too bass-headed or think that it's what I want, perhaps because it makes me sound more inhuman.

Solution

The best solution to this is to be vocal about the problem during a soundcheck. It's a very simple principle but sometimes performers are shy about asking.

Don't worry that you're 'telling the sound engineer how to do his job'; it's his job to give you the sound that you want. It's like getting a haircut. Make it clear if something is wrong!

If the problem is that you don't know what you want, spend some time outside of your gigs practising setting your own levels. Look into what the EQ does and get to know the difference in sound. It's much easier to get levels exactly as you need them if you can ask for 'slightly less mid' than saying something vague like: 'it sounds a bit floppy'.

Of course, you may not be able to have a soundcheck or other problems might arise. You may want to explore the delicate balance of adapting the start of your set to make it 'sound engineer friendly'. Small tweaks to your set can make a big difference without overshadowing it. Alternatively, you could make your soundcheck method more musical. Here are some examples:

I saw a fantastic soundcheck method used by the all vocal group The Boxettes. They kept some very simple harmonies going and then, one at a time sang: 'my mic sounds nice', followed by each performer asking casually for any changes needed. They could continue this until it was perfect, though they did have the benefit of their own sound engineer.
If, for example, you're a beatboxer, starting your set with some simple hi-hats can work well. Hi-hats are a good sound to set levels for initially; too much bass will make them sound less crisp or more muffled. If there is too much bass, you can stop and ask for less. That way, it won't look as much like you have had to restart your set; it will look like you were just checking the levels before starting.
This technique can be adapted to other instruments too. It is a little harder in a band setting compared to a solo act but the key for both is to start with simple rhythms and thin textures. This will make it much clearer for the sound engineer to hear what needs tweaking.

Although this can become a significant change to your set, it does have the advantage that a simple start allows you to warm up, get into the atmosphere and to ease the crowd into your set. If it really isn't possible for your set, maybe that's a sign that you should only gig where it is possible to have a soundcheck.

Problem - There are last minute changes made by the venue.

Sound levels aren't the only thing that can suffer from this; last minute changes divert focus from everybody. It's common for another problem to go unnoticed during the chaos.

A quick tangent: You may need to make a decision on how to handle the changes to your 'set time' before having to deal with ensuing sound issues.

Last minute changes happen mostly due to unprofessional conduct - possibly from the venue/promoter or possibly from one of the other acts being late/not showing up (don't let it be because of you!) Sometimes, it's out of anybody's control, e.g. the fire alarm going off and affecting the schedule.

The most common change to be made is to the time of your/another act's set. Often, this will be posed as a question to you ending in 'is that OK?' and whether or not it is 'OK' with you may or may not be relevant.

If the set times are to change, chances are, they want to move everything back. It's much more likely that they're running late or even that not enough people have shown up and they want to wait for a crowd to magically appear. If you're not headlining, this could work out well for you because a later time might mean a bigger audience. However, it could be that your fans are expecting to see you perform at a certain time, maybe they have to leave before your new set time. Treating your existing fanbase with respect is more important than gaining new fans. Bear this in mind if you have a say in whether your set time gets moved, especially as you may find that it gets moved back several times before you go on.

It's a lot rarer, but you may be asked to move your set time forward. This is usually because the first band on hasn't turned up or is stuck in traffic. There are many, possibly awkward outcomes of this. There may be people coming specifically to see you perform. If they turn up and you've already gone on early, you've just wasted their night. The room could be less than half as full as it will be by your original set time. Of course, you're in a much better position to say no to the promoter moving your set forward but this can have it's own problems. Will you just sit back and watch nobody perform for an hour? What if everybody in the venue leaves? Something out of anybody's control can always come up. You're in a position to help the promoter out big time and save the day. You'll probably want to give a good reason if you're not going to. Otherwise, you'll look like a dick.

Of course, it's possible that one of the other bands/artists will step up and 'save the day' instead.

Once you've made your decision, that's when you have to be ready for problems that can happen with the sound. It doesn't matter if your set has moved forward, back or even stayed where it was; everything else may have moved too.

Soundchecks usually happen in reverse order of the line-up. The last band to soundcheck goes on first with their levels set exactly. After that, the sound engineer has to reset levels of each of the following bands. There are many different systems for remembering levels. Some use bits of tape stuck next to the faders while others use a notepad and pen. The best mixing desks have 'magnetic-memory' and can relocate to a number of different levels at the push of a button. Hopefully, wherever your set is supposed to be, the sound engineer has made notes of your levels. You may not be so lucky:

Say, for example, you're in the band that's on first. Each band soundchecks (ending with your band) but one band takes forever with their soundcheck and the other band is really late. The whole gig gets pushed back by an hour. By now, you're all raring to go, your levels are set perfectly and you're already an hour beyond when you were meant to go on. You're just waiting for the all clear when the promoter rushes up to you and says 'There's been a change of plan - 'Band #3' need to get off to get their train back to their home-town. Now that we're an hour late, they want to go on first. Is that OK?' Well, what can you do? Let's say that you say OK. The poor, flustered sound engineer is then given about twenty seconds notice before 'Band #3' go on-stage. In the rush to get the desk back to their levels, he doesn't notice that he's just undone your entire soundcheck and has no record of it (why would he need one? You were the first band on).

Solution

As far as I know, the above scenario has never happened to me. I could think of many scenarios like this as they tend to follow a similar pattern and solving them tends to follow similar steps.

The first is prevention. A good contract will specify the time you're on. If this is too difficult to sort out, all it takes is an email. You can check that there will be a soundcheck, and when it is. There are too many details that you need to ask to remember them all in your head. Make a decent booking form and you'll only ever have to send them that to have all of your questions answered. Problems can still arise but you will almost always be treated with more respect if you handle the entire process professionally and the booking stage may be the first contact they have with you.

Next is the decision of whether it's 'OK' to move your set. If the option is really yours to decide, 'no, sorry' or 'yes but' are good starting points. If it's a 'no', you want to be direct but not to the point of being rude. They're probably already under a lot of stress and the last thing you need to do is push them until you get the full brunt of it, though you cannot let this scare you into saying yes. 'No, sorry.' is polite but to the point. If the answer is a 'yes', you may need to throw a 'but' in as well. This will most likely be a safeguard like 'yes I can move my set but I can't move it again, people are expecting me on at a certain time.' or 'yes but I need the drum kit moved off stage because it wouldn't have been there and I need space for my gogo dancers'.

Then, when the decision has been made, you'll need to take on the responsibility of communicating with the sound engineer to check that he has been properly informed and to assess whether the changes will affect your levels.

Finally, when you are on-stage, you may have to deal with unforeseen problems, even after all that prep. All other solutions in this article may still be needed.

Problem - There is feedback.

Feedback is a loop usually created when a mic picks up the signal that it is sending out of the amplifier. This means that it gets louder and louder very quickly. It can also be caused by there not being enough space around the mic when it is at a high volume (known as proximity feedback) which is caused by either cupping the mic or by the mic being too close to the walls. It can deafen the audience or just make an annoying ring.

Solution

Hopefully, the sound engineer can sort this out instantly. When there are distractions that are obvious and out of your control, you can either ignore them or highlight them. I usually like to highlight them so that they don't become an 'elephant in the room'. I had a gig a few months ago where there was feedback for a few seconds, when it had been cut, I paused and said 'that was me' before dropping the beat back in again.

Ways of preventing feedback include making sure that the mic is kept behind the speakers. E.g. not walking in front of them with it. A soundcheck will hopefully sort it out but sometimes it can creep in during a set. Giving the mic some space and moving the mic forwards slightly, away from the walls, can help.

The ideal solution is to use a good compressor. This will allow you to go much louder than you'd even want without feeding back. Generally they are expensive but you can find the odd bargain. It's worth checking out the RNC (really nice compressor) which is a great piece of kit for much cheaper than its equivalents.

Problem - The equipment is terrible.

Sometimes you just end up with shoddy equipment. It might be that you're just doing an impromptu set for fun in an informal setting like a house party or it might be that the venue haven't had the budget for good equipment. This is probably the hardest one to deal with.

Solution

Bringing your own is the the ideal. At least bring your own mic if you're a vocalist. Ask the promoter; I've got a 'Do you require that I bring equipment?' line in my booking form. Just make sure you can identify your equipment easily. Put two different coloured cable-ties around each of your leads and clip them off. That means that you can always identify your leads really easily at the end of the night.

Other than this, lots of the above applies, a finger in your ear, turn down, soundcheck properly, be vocal, start simply and have it large anyway.

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Some of this relates to a general, professional attitude to gigging. Even if the sound is perfect, the mic stand might be too low or the lights might be too bright. If you don't allow yourself the time on-stage to sort these problems out and to ask for assistance, your set can suffer, everyone in the venue can look unprofessional and the audience will feel uneasy, bored or even ripped-off. Nobody should think you're a Prima Donna for asking for a bit less bass.

Make sure conditions are exactly right. Think how much work you have put into your set, why should it be spoiled for that night at the last minute?


Blog by Vid Warren - http://www.vidwarren.com

Should the Artist Bring the Audience?

I've stopped using Blogger. All blogs are posted on my website instead. You can view this one at: http://www.vidwarren.com/should-the-artist-bring-the-audience/

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Do you think that it is fair for artists to be expected to bring the audience to their gigs? Who should handle the promotion and how much of it?

I get job postings all the time from promoters putting on gigs in London. These nearly always come with a minimum audience requirement. I.e. you must guarantee that you can and will bring a specified number of people (usually around twenty-five for small venues). If you don't, you don't get booked again.

Sometimes promoters will pay you for each attendee after 'x' of your guests. I.e. You have the chance to make money only from your tickets, and only after the threshold.

This brings up a number of issues:

Artists have been moving towards a DIY approach more and more, particularly since the Internet took off. If you're a small, unsigned artist, you're able to handle almost all of your graphic design, online presence, tour booking, career direction, production, marketing etc. but now you're expected to promote as well? What is the 'promoter' doing if you are responsible for promoting the gig? He may have put the cash up upfront for booking the venue but that doesn't mean he should sit back and not do any work while you earn him money.

From the promoter's point of view, the ideal may be that your name is big enough that the promoter can use it to handle selling your tickets. This isn't always the case with smaller acts. The artist has his website, Facebook, mailing list, and phone-book and, the smaller the artist's fan-base, the more likely that it is contained within these databases. To whom is the promoter going to sell tickets if the artist can already contact everybody that knows his name?! Perhaps there is a solution that isn't as ludicrously far off as London's music scene would have you think. What if the promoter were to develop his own name and a following by consistently putting on fantastic music events? Then, the venue could develop their own name by consistently hiring high quality promoters. This method has always been a recipie for success. If you don't believe me, think of a venue/festival stage/event that is always at full capacity and has a reputation for great music. Why else could it have this level of success?

Money isn't the only benefit. Personally, I'd say that it ticks all of the 'idealistic boxes' for 'why we got into promotion' as well as all of the 'realistic boxes' that are crucial to survival. If you're a promoter, consider the following benefits of this method:

• The quality of the music is always the bottom line; you'll never have to turn away a high quality act because you're unsure about what numbers they'll bring.
• On any night, an audience will consist of: The artists' following, the promoter's following, and anybody who has decided to go to the venue however spontaneously. Personally, if I want to spontaneously drag a group of people to a venue, I choose somewhere that I trust to have good music.
• Promoting to your own following means that you can build a relationship with your followers. That's pretty refreshing when you compare it to spamming a load of people, most of whom have 'liked' your Facebook Page because they're artists looking for gigs themselves!
• Reputation always leads to opportunity. You're always on the lookout for musicians with a strong reputation, right? You're always saying that word of mouth is the best promotion, right? What about your reputation? What are people saying about you?

This approach all too often is not considered. The artist often ends up doing a large chunk of what is conventionally supposed to be the promoters job. Of course, promoters for small gigs are usually doing several different jobs not to mention all of the organisation and curation but this is a different issue.

It is important to consider the promoter's point of view. If nobody turns up, it is him (and probably the venue) that will lose money. Do you expect that the promoter should be responsible for all the audience? Maybe you are confident that you can bring the numbers required and don't have a problem with doing so. The important thing is that you are both clear about what you expect from each other. Working with flat fees (not door splits) can instantly make it clear that the risk is down to the promoter. Personally, I stopped taking gigs offering door splits because, if I was going to take the risk of losing money on a gig, I'd want to put it on myself.

The best way of looking at it is by being aware of the value of what you already have and how much time and effort you are willing and able to put in. If you can fill a 250 capacity venue in a particular city once every three months, you'll be able to charge a little more because there is less risk to the promoter. If a promoter demands that you bring at least twenty-five people you should only accept if you are confident that you can. Then, you should consider charging more than you would for a gig that you wouldn't need to promote as hard; you're being asked to do more work and those twenty-five fans aren't going to come to see you tomorrow night.

Gigs with minimum audience requirements take from gigs that don't

If you had two gigs in the same venue, in the same week, but only one had a minimum audience requirement, would you put more effort into promoting the one that did? How about putting less effort into promoting the one that didn't? (Neither of them add up). Is the solution to this really that you shouldn't gig in the same venue/city twice within a certain space of time? I've seen gigs with a 'three-week rule'. Perhaps it depends on the size of your name. However, I've gigged twice in the same weekend, in the same city, to packed venues many times. I remember once having a great evening with four gigs in the same night. It would be a real shame to sacrifice several great gigs for the sake of one. I'd say that it's fair to rely on someone else to draw the audience if this is understood by both sides. There are plenty of gigs with an almost guaranteed turnout: birthday parties, street parties, festivals etc.

Promoters and venues are sacrificing their reputation for a quick buck...but it never adds up

Your friends and family will probably support you and come to your first gig even if they wouldn't normally listen to your music. They might see it as 'doing you a favour'. Even if they like your music, they will never build you up to be the demi-gods that they consider their favourite artists to be. This can make it really difficult to get numbers down after the initial stages where everyone is enthusiastic but before the later stages when you are established and successful. This leaves a lot of talented bands out in the cold.

The attitude of many promoters has created big problems for artists, venues, gigging scenes and the promoters themselves. I see so much crap from inexperienced bands and, while I advocate that they should continue performing and develop their act, perhaps open-mics would be a bit more suited to them until they're ready. When I see this crap, it's usually because I've stumbled across it. It's not the kind of thing that will encourage me to come back to that night next time it's on. The promoters probably don't care too much; next month, they'll have a new set of bands that can bring a new set of mates to the gig to hear their crap music. Maybe the audience will even spend more on drink because it's so awkward!

Capacity is not necessarily conducive to talent. If you place capacity above talent, you will suffer in the long run.

There's a pub in central Bristol called The Old Duke, also known as 'The Jazz Pub'. They only ever have a door charge on New Year's Eve. Their bands have residencies and there is music every night of the week. By 10pm each night, the place is nearly always packed. The Old Duke works by having it's own reputation. Bands know that people love the pub and that it will be packed. The pub knows that people love the pub because the music is always good. How can anybody on either side not view this as a million times better than booking a crap band and both the band and the promoter working ten times as hard to fill the capacity through Facebook spam, worrying that it won't pack-out, and then seeing the audience slip through their fingers so they have to do it all again next week? The Old Duke could put on any amazing band from anywhere in the world and people would be there and enjoy it.

Minimum-Audience-Requirement gigs aren't a sure fire way for the promoters to make money either

A new band may genuinely believe they can draw numbers that they can't. It's easy to see how this mistake is a common one to make when a hundred people turned up to their very first gig!

Whether or not you bring numbers, you're still working

Performance is work. Composing is work. You handle writing killer material that got you noticed in the first place, you handle delivering killer performances. Some artists, even 'small names' prefer to spend as much time as possible focusing on that and then to let the promoters handle getting the numbers down. Why shouldn't this be an option? Isn't that the point of giving somebody else a chunk of the money from ticket sales?

The more people that you can bring, the better, but is it really fair to expect it of you? The answer to this is probably yes and no: Yes it's fair if that's the deal that is on the table. If you don't agree, don't take the gig. Yes it's fair that part of the effort should come from you if you're in a good position to promote effectively. No it's not fair that so many venues put too much responsibility for numbers on the artist; this will only burn bridges as, even if you don't take these gigs, somebody else will and it's the scene and the viability of making a living as a performer that suffers.

Gigging to 'your own audience' means that you're not making new fans

You'll probably agree that there are some gigs where a fanbase is crucial, e.g. your album launch. Once you become more established, it's more beneficial to use your 'big name' and more reasonable to expect you to do so; you are fulfilling more roles than just 'an entertainer' when you progress beyond a certain size.

Minimum audience requirements for smaller bands and artists mean that more of the audience already know you. This can also make progress slow and hard to find a strong foundation to begin. This can work both ways; if you don't bring people, you aren't introducing your fans to the venue, to the night, etc.

The promoter may have more expectations of you than you have of him

Say you need to bring at least twenty-five people, how many does he have to bring minimum? He may be just a middleman. What's his value? Maybe it's just that he's offering you a gig. Artists are often in a good position to bring numbers to a gig but I don't think that you should be expected to bring a minimum amount. Generally, if you can't bring an audience, it should be up to the promoter to figure this out by communicating with you. If he's not convinced, he can book somebody who can.

Conclusion

Make sure, through communication, that you both know what you expect from each other. If the promoter is just a middleman, you might as well rent out the venue yourself. You can really help yourself out by putting effort into promoting your gigs but, ultimately, however many turn up, turn up.

Promoting your gigs is not just about getting numbers down; it exposes your name and possibly your music to more people. You could get your name out to 300,000 people from the marketing campaign of one small gig. I find that, when I get booked, it helps if the promoter has already seen my name about.

Minimum audience requirements have been killing the potential for medium sized bands to do medium sized gigs for a long time. It has also been exploiting naïve artists for a long time. I once saw a post for an open-mic night with a minimum audience requirement of fifteen people! 'For the potential of getting paid gigs'. I couldn't believe it. That must be a poor venue if they can't even attract audiences to an open-mic night. You know that the atmosphere there is going to be sour.

Although London is famous for having this kind of stingy music scene, there are still plenty of places in London that work without requiring numbers from the artist. They have to have a great reputation for talent. These places should be rewarded and you would probably rather bring your fans to a night where all the acts are good rather than one where it's you and a load of noobs.

Is this a fair take on it? I'm sure a lot of places in London are backed into a corner with high costs and it's a shame. The simple rules for me are, keep it clear, don't be lazy and, if it's unfair, just don't do it!


Blog by Vid Warren - http://www.vidwarren.com

Spamming

I've stopped using Blogger. All blogs are posted on my website instead. You can view this one at: http://www.vidwarren.com/spamming

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Dear Viewer:

You may have been directed here from a link posted directly to you as a comment on a social network. This is probably an ironic, 'automatic' response to an unsolicited link to your music/work or an innappropriate tag to a promotional image.
The article argues a fair point. Beyond this, it is designed to be nothing more than a light-hearted taste of your own medicine and an innovative method of spreading an article that I advocate. Please don't take it personally.

Regards,
Your referrer

Please don't spam me!

There are varying degrees and some very fine lines and grey areas. However, if you stop and think about it, it shouldn't be too hard to tell whether what you're doing is dignified promotion or spam.

What makes an action 'spam' is not what it is; it's the context in which you find it. You may have created a new track, of which you're very proud. If you then post it as an unsolicited link to my Facebook Wall, you've just fallen somewhere between 'me stumbling upon it organically' and 'me having context for the link through an ongoing private conversation', without getting the benefits of either.

The best way of sharing song without looking desperate and intrusive is to perform it live. The best way of sharing a link is to either post it on your own Wall and let your viewers choose to share it for you or to bring it up in a private conversation when relevant. Both ways allow for an organic discovery of what may be a great track. Neither have anything that is too 'out of the blue'.

You care more about your art than you do spreading it, right?

Facebook in particular have worked very hard to create 'designated spamming areas' like groups and Pages. For the most part, they do not leak into other areas and this is probably a big key to their success. Stick to these areas for your promotion. If somebody has consented to receiving your links in their news feed by clicking 'Like', that's the best place for the links to go.

Seeing the appeal of spamming is easy, if something reaches your inbox, you will see it. That's something that you can guarantee more so than with advertising. If enough people see your spam, then there will be people that follow that link to your Website.

Seeing the problem with spam should be equally easy but it seems to go over a lot of heads.

Firstly, spam is intrusive. The (sometimes first) impression you are creating is done through pissing someone off by wasting their time. There's a queue of people trying to promote themselves but they're often damging their reputation.

Secondly, there are so many people doing it that the chances of it leading to a new customers are tiny. Your time should be worth more than to spam. If you spent that time making music, you would have less need to spam people.

Thirdly, spam looks a bit desperate. It definitely connotes that you don't have enough fans to support you and that you still have too much time on your hands and that your still near to amateur level.

Consider that even massively successful bands can't get away with spamming (depending on your definition). If they can't and don't, what makes you think that you can? 'Would my favourite band absolutely not do this?' is a fairly good question to consider if you are unsure about promotion. You'll have to make your own decisions but it might uncover the 'why'.

Finally, spamming devalues music. If it did work, music would never be chosen on it's value; only on the power of its 'spampaign'. In my opinion, people shouldn't sit back and wait for music to find them. Do you really want your fanbase to consist of people that like whatever is shoved in front of them regardless of its merit?

My least favourite type of spam is the kind that pretends not to be spam - Smalltalk that is obviously there because the person posting it is too embarrassed to post just spam. You cannot polish a turd. Why make up some bullshit conversation? This is blatantly obvious in every one of these situations. Are you going to write comment after comment that looks like a desperate cry for attention and popularity? Really? On the Internet? Everybody can see it! It can damage anybody's view of you, more so with the people that already know you. Yes, it can even cost you your existing contacts or at least a portion of their respect.

There are alternative ways to promote effectively

Promotion is fiendishly difficult. I worry that a lot of people spam out of frustration because it's so difficult to find a way of doing it that is creative and effective. How frustrating it is to have finally finished an track/video/album and then find out that this is just the start of a whole new job. If that's where you're at, try this:

A good logo/motif can go a long way towards helping people to remember you. It's something that surprisingly few artists have 'gotten around to doing'. In fact, enough acts don't have one that having one from the start means that you can really stand out when you're starting out. This is just one of a million things that surprisingly few artists have 'gotten around to doing'. If you don't have your own website, a well customized and content rich Facebook Page, a PRS-For Music membership, a Musicians' Union membership, a well written biog, good promo-photography and an entire set of tight, brilliant music that is recorded and ready for live performance, why are you posting to three-hundred differnt Walls instead of getting all that done? If you do, why are you sharing it publicly with me instead of emailing promoters, venues, festivals, agencies, record labels, publishers, managers, radio stations, magazines and blogs‽

If you stay on the right side of promotion, a lot of your marketing should sort itself out. Leaving flyers in venues, giving them out after gigging, giving them to people that you think will already be interested and sending out e-mails to a mailing-list or a Facebook Update from an artist page are all fine in my books as they all involve the 'target market' having already volunteered their attention in some way; they always have the option of clicking 'Unlike' or 'Unfriend' without sacrificing their entire account. Posting a Facebook event invite to all of your contacts used to be OK but now they appear as notifications and it isn't. Save event invites for birthday parties and leaving dos.

Viral marketing is worth exploring if you don't want to piss people off. Briefly, viral marketing involves giving people something that they want as an incentive to accept your promotion. This can involve creating novel media that people choose to share or giving people free 'giveaways'. Just keep it real: I'm not writing this entire article to entice more viewers to my website. I genuinely believe that what I'm discussing is an important argument and that, if I can help to convince people to stop spamming, the world may become a slightly better place. If this article was written in order to attract more viewers to my website, it would be less effective at doing so!

Incidentally, the most successful marketing tends to have a purpose that is far greater than just a marketing campaign, which is one paradox that makes marketing so hard to quantify. How do you tackle marketing yourself when contriving a campaign is so often shallow and transparent? Perhaps the only solution is to be passionate about what you 'really' do, build a reputation for high quality music and let as much of the marketing as possible take care of itself. If you're going to explore viral marketing, make sure that there is a reason (or at least a very good 'give-away') alongside your campaign or you'll be wasting time and possibly money.

In some situations, not trying to promote yourself at all is the best promotion you can do. This can create a sense of mystery and dignity.

Having a backdrop of some kind with your name on it is a much more subtle way of promoting yourself on-stage than shouting your website out. People are more likely to remember it too. Nothing spoils the atmosphere quite like hearing: 'and, if you liked the music tonight, you can check out my website...' or worse 'Facebook/Youtube/etc.'

The music needs to come first. There's no point having excellent marketing campaigns, websites, photo-reels, logos, equipment and contacts if it's not at least working towards supporting brilliant music


Blog by Vid Warren - http://www.vidwarren.com

[HBB] Is Going to University a Smart Decision for Musicians?

I'm still choc-a-bloc so here's another one from HBB:

Originally posted on 29.06.2010 - LINK

Is Going to University a Smart Decision for Musicians?

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When I was at secondary (high) school, we were told that university was the only option. I find this message quite bizarre and have certainly seen its effects on students that I meet.

When I started teaching in a secondary school, I got chatting to the careers adviser who made it clear that university was not the only option to recommend. I don't know whether this was because a difference in schools or a difference in time.

With top up fees, a UK degree is probably going to set you back £30-40k. I know that this debt doesn't have to be paid back until you can afford to do so but that's not the kind of cloud I'd put over my own head lightly. Despite this, I meet a lot of students that hate their course, don't go to their lectures and, when I ask why they chose that subject in the first place, they say: 'Because I got offered a place' or 'I went to an open day and ended up doing that' or 'I don't know; I just did' or even 'I didn't know what else to do' i.e. avoiding the real world.

Personally, I would love to study music at degree level. I'd just need a way to freeze time and for somebody to pick up the bill. I'm really interested in the subject. I know that I would work hard and do well but there's no way that I would trade a full time job in music with all the experience and experiences that I'm getting for a ridiculous amount of debt and a load of twats getting pissed for the first time. After that I'd just be going back to doing what I already am, though I'd love to see what it would do to my music.

I've done quite a few student gigs, festivals and 'alternative-proms' (a really nice circuit to get on). I also have lots of student chums and have been to parties in halls. From a mixture of this and talking to people when weighing up doing a degree, I have come to these conclusions:

• University used to be for around the top one percent but now everybody has a way in and is going for it. This means that going to university would probably feel like going to school.
  
• Most pissed students are like fourteen year-olds.
  
• The first year of a degree is just about getting everybody up to the level of the smartest people in the class. This means that the whole first year benefits the smartest people the least.
  
• University is a good, essential option for anybody that wants to become a successful doctor, lawyer, headmaster, lecturerer etc. because of the piece of paper it gives you. If you're not in it for the piece of paper, there are cheaper ways of gaining the knowledge, though they will probably take more self-discipline.
  
• Most people that finish a degree, successfully or otherwise, go straight into working in bars, cafés and other jobs that have nothing to do with their subject.
  
• Eighteen is not an 'adult age' for the vast majority. Even physically most eighteen year olds still have some growing to do. In terms of maturity, it's probably wise to wait until you're ready.
  
• Debt is slavery. Although it's probably the best kind of debt you can have, a degree is not as valuable as it used to be. It's not like you'll have a house at the end of it.
  
• Many level three courses (E.g. A-levels) have scope to teach at degree level.
  
• Most jobs in teaching require a degree. Plenty don't.

On a train on the way to a gig, I decided to compare what £20k (the cost of a degree not including living costs) could buy me. In terms of education, I figured out that I could get around 1,000 hours of private tuition for that price.

That works out at five two-hour lessons per-week for 100 weeks (about three years if you take time off for Christmas and the festival season).

To reiterate, you could study five different kinds of music for three years for the same price as a degree. That means that you could do: Beatboxing, Singing, Piano, Music Theory and Music Production. You could choose your tutors too. The only downside is that you'd have to find the money upfront.

My point of view is fairly biased against going to university. There are plenty of situations where it is the best choice. The point of this thread is not to provide an argument against university; it is to state that, from a business point of view, it is a decision that you need to make. Don't let parents and teachers tell you what to do. It might not be the best option, especially if you want to go freelance.

[HBB] How to Deal with People Trying to Rip You Off

I thought I'd start this week with a particularly helpful post from HBB:

Originally posted on 15.07.2010 - LINK

How to Deal With People Trying to Rip You Off

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'Ripping you off' can mean a lot of things. This might be anything from playful and innocent blagging from customers trying to haggle the price of your CD to a manager shoving a contract under your nose that will rob you blind.

Playful Blaggers

There's usually nothing malicious about this, the last thing you want is to turn a bit of fun into a big stress for both of you. The easiest way to deal with this is friendly sarcasm. If they're trying to get you to lower a price on something, you could tell them that, for them, the price has just gone up.

A lot of this comes down to the response they are getting. If they think you're getting uncomfortable or bored with their banter, they might continue to 'breaking point' because you might cave and give them what they want. If they know that the response is following a pattern that doesn't give them what they want, they will move on (and might even buy your CD at full price).

What's fair is up to you. Maybe you will give them a discount because you respect that they've had the balls to ask. Maybe it would be really unfair to let them bully you into giving them a discount where the more polite and friendly people have to pay more.

If you really get stuck, putting them on the spot can work well too. Tell them that they can get a discount if they can impress you with a talent - a short story, a musical interlude/serenade, challenge them to answer some quick fire questions on maths and general knowledge. At the very least, this will stop most other people from trying the same blag.

Deal Welchers

If somebody offers you something and then changes the terms last minute, it's pretty obvious that they're in the wrong. Sometimes, bringing them up on this can allow them to make you look brutish or stingy.

If you're booked to perform for a certain amount and they come to you at the end of the night saying: 'We didn't get enough people in, I can only give you X, is that OK?' you have pretty much got three viable options:

Staying firm - Saying no but staying relaxed can be difficult but it can be a very direct 'dead-end' to their blagging. It's probably best not to go into too much detail with this; you don't need a reason because they know that they're in the wrong anyway. Be blunt, if they push the issue, respond with short and simple dead-ends like 'that's not what we agreed' etc. Starting to justify why will only open the floor for debate. If you get stuck in a 'yes, no, yes, no' bringing in somebody else might help, e.g. 'Let's go sort this out with the venue owner.' Just make sure that it's relevant to them if you do this. Sometimes it helps just to have a witness but it is possible that you will be dragging them into something that is not their business.

The problem with this solution is that they might take that firmness as a reason to start a confrontation. It is not always the best option and depends on who you are dealing with.

Showing them how they're affecting you - Sometimes you can just describe the situation and it will expose what they are doing whilst avoiding any confrontation. You could say: 'Actually, it's not OK, I work really hard at what I do and I don't make very much but we agreed on a fee and you didn't say it would be less if not enough people came.' How are they going to respond? If they were gearing up for confrontation, you might have taken the wind out of their sales. If they were to shout at you now, it would look like bullying and wouldn't get them anywhere.

One of the advantages of this solution is that most people aren't pricks but sometimes they are thoughtless. If the promoter is being selfish because he just hasn't taken you into account, all he needs is a nudge. Being too blunt can make you seem unpleasant. Being 'reasonable' can let them think about it from your point of view and realize that they were asking too much.

The problem with this solution is that it's hard to keep the balance of looking firm and being reasonable. This solution relies a lot on them reconsidering from your point of view. Maybe they are purposefully trying to scam a little money out of you because they haven't done as well as they had hoped on the night. Maybe they have decided that you should have done more promotion even though it wasn't specified etc. It largely depends on their character.

Putting in a crafty blag of your own - If you think that you don't have much chance of getting the full amount, this is probably the best option. You can meet his: 'Is it alright if I just give you X?' with 'Well, that depends. When are you next going to book me for a gig?' You can follow this with more negotiation on fee or even other blags. E.g. maybe he has a studio or rehearsal space and you would benefit from a heavy discount on some time there. Maybe he's a really talented graphic designer and you need work done on a flier/logo/website/t-shirt/photograph/etc. Money is a really hard thing to argue about, especially when it's because there's not enough of it to go around. People can often use this as a way of saying 'I wish I could but I can't' when what they mean is 'I don't want to and I won't'.

The problem with this solution is that you might put more energy into chasing this blag than it's worth. He could easily say 'yeah, I'll book you for a gig in a month' and then 'change his mind' or the same problem could arise at the next gig. You could be negotiating over twenty quid and the problem could be that his nights aren't ever going to do that well.

Sometimes it's just worth getting whatever you can from that night and leaving it at that. It depends on the situation. A lot of this can be prevented with a contract but sometimes that's more hassle than it's worth too. This stuff can come up because of incompetence, malice or chance. That 'twenty quid' might seem insignificant but you don't know who will be there to witness him dropping that bombshell. If it happens in front of an important contact and you don't have a professional and mature way of dealing with it, it may cost you more than 'twenty quid'. The respect is worth more and you'll want to get the practise in on the pocket money rather than have to deal with it for the first time when it's an amount that's big enough to really make a difference.

Dodgy Contracts

When it comes to contracts, there are two simple rules.

One is the motto of the Musicians' Union: Get it in writing. If you want to make something concrete, get it in writing. A signature is nice but not always going to be feasible. However, if somebody refuses to put something in an e-mail, it's going to look more like sneakiness than laziness. People can say all kinds of shit on the phone, where's the record of your conversation? It's usually not a case of bringing up the e-mail and waving it in front of them and/or a courtroom; it's a case of them knowing that they have to stick to the agreement in the first place because they agreed in writing.

The other is get your contracts looked at. The Musicians' Union will give you one free hour of lawyer time per document. Most basic contracts are fairly self explanatory, if a little dense. If something is shoved under your nose, take it away and spend as much time as you need to make heads or tails of it. If you are under pressure to sign it straight away, there's probably something wrong. If there is no room for negotiation, there is probably something wrong. Some of the more complicated contracts are full of Latin terms so that you need to pay a lawyer top whack to look through it. Sometimes there will be a carefully worded clause in the 'small-print' designed to fuck you over. Sometimes it's what is missing that will fuck you over the most. How many times a year do you tick a box and agree to a million-word terms and conditions. Most of the time, contracts are just a mixture of data (how much you get paid, what time you turn up, that there is security on the door) and what happens if everything goes to shit. You should still get paid if the event cancels last minute because of problems on their end. You probably won't if they cancel because of a tornado etc.

You'd hope that a contract would contain a load of clauses that prevent either party from doing what they wouldn't do anyway. If somebody is really trying to shaft you with a contract, it should be fairly obvious when compared to a contract that is fair. Getting hold of a good template for each type is a great way of putting other contracts into context.

Why I Need a Blog

For the past two-and-a-half years, I've been on HumanBeatbox.com's content team writing articles for their magazine and threads in their forums. Most of the time, I share advice on how to run your own business as a musician. This is based on my own experience.

I know many people outside of HBB that would enjoy reading the threads I post. I'm sure that I'll gain a lot from this blogging community too.

So this will be a mixture of new material and reposting old threads from HBB when I'm busy (all the time).

This is going to be fun.

Vid