Today it seems that sound itself doesn’t quite cut it.
Audiences are demanding and want a performance that is aesthetically pleasing
in every domain- ESPECIALLY those sitting in their underwear in front of a
monitor.
Musicians hoping to get any form of recognition from the
current online music community need to understand one thing:
YouTube is your friend.
If you don’t have a YouTube account stop everything and
create one. Now.
Also if you haven’t got a video camera we suggest you go and
buy yourselves one of those pretty soon too.
A lot of big names in music have YouTube to thank for
helping them make it in the industry who wouldn’t have normally had the
opportunity or the resources to be discovered.
Here’s one example you’ll probably know.
From a home video singing in his living room in clothes that
are too big, to making $116,423 within the first week of his new single
“Boyfriend” (still in clothes that are too big), it’s not hard to see that
Justin Beiber, or his mum, really hit something on the head here.
While Beiber might not be exactly your style, it seems that using
YouTube has really paid off for a number of other great artists including TerraNaomi, Lisa Lavie, Mia Rose and many more. Talent scouts are constantly
scanning the web for up and coming talent and what better way is there to be
seen than showcasing everything you’ve got right there on their computer
screens.
To be continued…
This is a good mock up of a tutorial page. Youtube is pretty well known so i think we should be giving more strategic advice that is not commonly known or be exploring lesser known sites. for example (from my own experience), we could suggest posting video responses to the most popular videos of the day in your category (music) in order to direct views to your videos. works like a charm. constantly keep rotating which of your videos your are posting as links and constantly change them to be linked to the most popular videos either generally or that are similar to your own. you could then further discuss the benefit of adding other musicians as friends on youtube and talking to them, asking them to watch/rate/link your videos (i get these annoying messages all the time), and then further how to build a community around your fan base. the most popular artists talk to their fans, whether through responding to comments, returning inbox messages, accepting friend requests or even addressing fans in their videos. building a loyal fanbase is the most important thing you can do as they will bring in more fans and are the source of your revenue (once youtube offers you a paid account, which it does fairly easily for musos, you get revenue from advertising proportionate to your page views so getting fans to rewatch and share your videos is important!)
ReplyDeleteThis sort of info would be best delivered from someone of relative success on youtube, and i believe there are many sydney based students who are in a position to do so, so it should be doable to access someone like this.
Here are a few more important existing sites to consider:
ReplyDeletehttp://themusic.com.au/
"Offers an Australian music directory covering artists, media, radio, TV, major venues, record companies and events."
http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/
"Australia's online music community"
http://www.reverbnation.com/
"The best tools for musicians and the best music for everyone else."
http://www.cdbaby.com/
More audience targeted, but useful tool for musos to sell their music directly to fans:
"Fall in love with your next favorite song or artist. CD Baby has over 3 million tracks for you to browse, listen, and buy."