fionazwieb – Page 4 – Fiona Z – The Musician’s Five Star Assistant

Album Release Checklist

One of many reasons why a client comes to me is helping them handle their next album release. Being independent, it’s up to them to handle artwork, distribution, registration, the works – on top of promoting it, performing and practicing – which is on top of normal life obligations. Doing it alone is not a light task.

While I hope it’s clear to you that you need to delegate on help with artwork, press, booking, music videos and promotion, sometimes the actual paperwork of getting the album release gets buried – but is essentially just as important when it earns you money for every stream, purchase and play of your upcoming album.

Some of you may find check lists boring, but I LOVE them. Why? Crossing off that item lets me know the next step was completed, and I can go to sleep at night without my head spinning and thinking, wait, did I do that? Should I do this?

I don’t use them for everything, but I definitely have one for album releases. There’s just too much to miss or get confused by with everything that needs to be done.

So, here it is, in no particular order.

__ Register Copyrights. You immediately own your copyright when the song is in fixed format (sheet music, recording, etc.). It’s very easy to do and I recommend handing it off to your VA right away. Just visit http://www.copyright.gov/ to get started. Note, you can register your album as a collection, so you aren’t paying the fee for each song.

__ Affiliate with a PRO if this is your first release, or add the track information to your PRO – ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. Some distributors that work with independent artists will do this part for you when setting up your album for an extra fee.

__ Add the album to SoundScan. Whether it’s a single or album, register the title at Nielsen Soundscan. Visit http://titlereg.soundscan.com/soundscantitlereg/ to fill out the form. If you have any questions while filling it out, I’ve found their phone support is always available and always helpful.

__ Set Up Distribution. Whoever you use, make sure to get started early on distribution. Some need at least 2 weeks in order to set up pre-orders, and delays can happen. So once you know the date of your release, go ahead and start on the distribution. If you need some guidance on how to find the best distributor, Ari Herstand has a great resource on his blog here.

__ License any cover songs. You’ll need to obtain a mechanical license in order to release a cover song on your album. I’ve only had to handle this with a Christmas album, but with covers being more and more popular, it’s becoming easier to license as well. Some distributors will help with this, but you can also do this by visiting http://www.easysonglicensing.com/.

__ Set up a Private Soundcloud playlist of the album. This will be key if you want to share the album with anyone before it drops. No one wants to download your mp3’s, give them easy listening access via Soundcloud. Plus, most blog submissions and press submissions request a streaming link!

__ Add the album to Soundexchange. If you’re the owner of the songs, primary artist or in the band, there are additional digital performance royalties you can collect on when music is played on internet/satellite radio. PROs don’t cover this, but Soundexchange does. Note, it can take months to get added so if you haven’t registered on their site, do it now.

__ Send the album to Pandora. Lots of people still use Pandora so you’ll want to make sure your album gets added. It takes all but 5 minutes to send it off and if you’re approved, you’ll know in a matter of weeks. I’ve seen it happen in a few days before, but the earlier, the better.

Once you have registered with all of these sites and gathered the album information (UPC, album cover, ISRCs, credits), all of these tasks above can be handed off to a VA to complete. That way, you can focus on the more important things, like practicing for your big release concert! 😉

Hope you find this helpful – feel free to print it off for your next release – and can’t wait till next time!

Album Release - 10/22/2016

Collect royalties every time you perform.

Today’s topic is something I’ve been meaning to write about since the beginning of the year (better late than never, right?). If you’re recording and performing, you most likely are associated with one of the 3 big publishers – ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. (If you’re not, you should be. Sign up now!)

With that membership, you have access to earning royalties for plays on radio, TV, and what we’re mostly going to talk about today, LIVE. The catch is – you are responsible for reporting it. If you’re not reporting it, you’re losing royalty payments for performances of your music! And no one likes the sound of that.

I get it – if you perform a lot, it’s overwhelming, it takes time to get all the info, then you have to meet deadlines – but look, this only helps you in the long run so you wan to make it part of your routine. Whether you are doing it on your own or if you’ve hired someone to do it for you, here are some things that will speed up and make the entire process less painful for you.

Here’s what each PRO needs to know when reporting the shows:
Artist Name
Headline/Support *SESAC and ASCAP only
Submitted By (Name, Phone, Email) *SESAC only
Date of Show
Venue Name
City, ST
Address
Venue Capacity
Paid Admission?
Tickets sold in advance?
Time of Show
Length of Show
Setlist **

**If you perform the same setlist often, build the setlist beforehand and then you are able to select that setlist when you are reporting each show. Also, most of them let you duplicate an existing reported show which is helpful when you are reporting a month long tour (trust me!).

To make it less overwhelming when it’s time to report, build a spreadsheet and then fill it out every week, 2 weeks, month – this depends on your tour schedule. This way, it takes minutes at a time, and not hours on end.

Note: there are deadlines! Below are direct links to each PRO’s deadlines:

ASCAP: http://www.ascap.com/members/onstage/onstage-faqs.aspx
SESAC: https://www.sesac.com/writerspublishers/howwepay/generalInfo.aspx
BMI: http://www.bmi.com/special/bmi_live

My advice? Get caught up now and then just make it a habit to report each month. This way, you will never miss a deadline.

Last piece of insight I have. As you may know, live venues are required to pay a fee to the PROs if music is publicly performed there. There’s some exceptions, but very limited. Keep in mind, smaller venues may be operating unaware of this requirement so if you’re unable to find that venue in the PRO Venue Database, check with them ahead of time. You wouldn’t want to accidentally draw a big target to the venue. Ideally, try to focus on booking shows where they have their licenses in place so that everyone benefits. 🙂

I hope if you are performing you found this helpful, and that you’ll start reporting your performances!

Business Tips - 08/13/2016

This blog post is interrupted by…[Social Media updates]

I was ready to share with you all about a task I’ve been tackling for my clients especially this year, but two new updates for all of our social media profiles happened this week that I wanted to make sure you knew about!

What were they? Can you guess? Okay, I’ll tell you!

1) Twitter Verification is now open to everyone. That little blue badge let’s followers know that your account of public interest is authentic.

You’ll need to confirm your email, phone, and make sure all the details are there. In addition, you will have to send them 2-5 links, plus a paragraph on why you should be verified.

Click here to get started on the verification process and join the blue badge club! It’s about time, Twitter!

2) Facebook Pages got a new look. Have you noticed? Here’s a shot of my favorite musician’s page with the new layout:

What to notice? First off, the banner image is no longer (unnecessarily) covered up by the profile picture. Second, the call to action button is shining through in Facebook blue and larger on the page. Overall, things have shifted around on the page, giving us something new to get used to.

What this means for you? You can get more creative with your branding on Facebook with the more visible banner. With the larger call to action button, that gives you more leverage to whatever you need to promote – mailing list, album, video, etc. so make sure it’s set to something you want your followers to be aware of.

I for one am enjoying this update and I think everyone else will too.

Social Media - 08/04/2016

Building your fanbase by playing for new audiences

photo-1455503521443-c39d5b861bc4 I have noticed a theme recently, and that is I’m realizing that it might not be clear on how you can delegate or what to delegate to a Virtual Assistant as a musician. I get questions like, “How does this work?”, “What do I do?”, “What do you need, how do I give it to you?”. You see, I’ve been doing this for almost 5 years now and so it’s clear to me, but maybe not to my clients.

If this is something you struggle with you question, let me know! I’d like to know how many of you are sitting with that question so that maybe I can help.
Anyway, on to the real topic of today….:-)
I wanted to share with a strategy I’m carrying out with some of my clients who are looking for performing opportunities and connecting with venues as independent artists, i.e. with no manager or booking agent.
There are ways to play more shows in places and venues you want to be in (but maybe can’t get in with just your name/following) by connecting with other bands or artists like you that are either from the same town as you, or touring through your city. You can also connect with venues that present your type of music.
By building a relationship with these booking agents, bands and venues, you can also reach a larger audience to grow your own fanbase!
Here are a few ways to get started on building those opening opportunities:

Reach out to booking agents or management of artists that have a similar sound to you – try to connect with them on a personal level, let them know that you are interested in opening opportunities and what numbers you could pull. Be friendly!
Do the same with venues – let them know you’re local (if you are) and would love to be considered as an opener. Let them know about your pull in the area.
If you know the band is coming to your town, make it an even easier situation by telling the band what date / venues / city you want to open them for. You will be more likely to get a response. Even if they can’t accommodate, you’ve started the relationship!
Make sure to watch their tour schedule to see when they are coming to you. Check each month on their website and reach out when it makes sense.
You can also watch a venue’s schedule to see if any bands need opening. Submit your EPK to the booking agents when you email them – they’ll keep you in mind if there’s a slot they need to fill, even if it’s not the original one you inquire about!

All of these actions get your foot in the door to the venue, the band and the band’s management and touring companies. It’s about being proactive and creating some opportunities for you, so that you can start building your career. So, what are you waiting for?

Business Tips / Tour - 06/27/2016

6 Ways to Amp Up Your YouTube Channel

YouTube is one of the most important social media platforms you could have as an artist – almost 5 billion videos are watched every single day, so you know you can’t miss out on your fanbase there!

While we all know to update our channel banners, utilize ads for your videos and include YouTube cards to promote your album, there are even more things you can do to make sure your YouTube channel is to the max in its ability to be found by your fans and shared with the world. Let’s get to it!

1) Make a channel trailer (2 min or less):
This can either be a direct call to action for new users to subscribe to your channel or a compilation of videos from your channel. Most artists starting out do the direct call to action asking viewers to subscribe to their channel. Once you make a channel trailer you’ll be able to effectively use the channel ad feature! This can automatically play whenever anyone who hasn’t already subscribed to your channel goes to your channel, and you can also make it eligible for free advertising from YouTube!

Example 1 and Example 2

It can take some time to make a really effective channel trailer, so in the meantime you can apply the “other five”…

2) Channel Keywords – utilize and really think about what keywords you want to describe your channel. Include similar artists and/or interests that you followers are into.

3) Branding Watermark – you can make sure every video has your logo. Get your logo with white and transparent background, and upload it as your watermark. Voila! Every video is branded – don’t worry, it’s subtle!

4) Associated Website – link your website to your channel! If you have a website you’d like to use for cards and annotations, this will also help your legitimacy in search results both on Google and YouTube.

5) Connected Accounts – right under your banner, you may notice small icons to your other accounts like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Make sure all the important links are there, including where people can buy your music!

6) Subscribe to other channels – yes, you must give to receive. Add similar artist’s channels to your featured artist channels. With users spending on average 40 minutes on YouTube, they could use that time to find your channel through a similar artist!

That’s it! See, I told you they were small…yet very important in order to utilize your YouTube channel as best you can, especially if you are heavy on promoting your music there. I hope you use them and be on your way to see your channel grow!

Social Media - 06/21/2016

What is a brand guide, and what’s in it for you?

This year has been such a blessing – I’ve been exposed to lots of different projects just these first three months, including a PledgeMusic campaign, national tour, international tour, album releases and marketing overhauls with my clients.

I’m meeting lots of other folks in the industry and learning so, so much. And it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t share some of my experiences with you.

One of my clients has asked me to jump on meetings with his marketing team, and so far it’s been a blast. We are putting together a carefully thought out 3-month campaign in order to really grab his target audience and hold on to them. I don’t think I’ve ever been through a marketing project this extensive, so I’m really grateful to have the opportunity. And excited!

So, working with the marketing company, we’re going over my client’s brand and image based on who we are targeting, and they created a beautiful document called a Brand Guide. It’s a very useful tool to have for any brand, including a musician, to have in order to stay true to your goals and target audience as an artist.

What’s a Brand Guide?

A brand guide is typically in the form of a PDF that puts together visual assets that complement the brand, and in this case, the music and personality of a musician.

What’s in it?

2-3 sentences summarizing the overall feel, sense, colors and descriptive words of the artist.

Go into what the visuals in the brand guide should reflect a sense of. You might have to save this for last.

The Logo

Displays the full name logo as well as mark, as well as any secondary marks, such as colors or patterns that can be used in your graphic designs.

Typography

The options of fonts to be used for any graphics or websites, to be used as consistently as possible.

Textures

Background images, patterns and images that convey the vibe of the music and your personality as a musician. It’s always good to include 4-6 examples, so you have a variety of options to pull from.

Why have a Brand Guide?

A brand guide can help anyone, and more specifically the person on your team who is making your graphics (like your designer or virtual assistant) understand your brand and message you want to convey right away.

When done properly, you’ll be able to hand off your guide to anyone who needs to understand your brand, build graphics for you, or create marketing materials for you.Essentially, a brand cheat sheet!

Doing it yourself.

If you’re not in the position to sit down with a marketing team, you can certainly create one yourself – I suggest bouncing ideas off of someone like a virtual assistant, colleague or friend.

A good place to start is to first establish your marketing mission statement, which can be something like:

Folk singer-songwriter and humanitarian who encourages you to be a part of passionate and intelligent conversations through songs and stories.

From there, you build out your mission words. For example:

Honest, inspiring, passionate, intelligent, positive, warm, welcoming.

Those two things will really set the roots for building your own brand guide, and will make every piece of marketing in the future clear, consistent and effective!

Business Tips - 03/19/2016

10 Thoughtful Gifts for Musicians

This time of year means gift giving, and I always hear from the people I work with that they need to find a thoughtful gift for their friends or colleagues. So, this year, I wanted to put together a list of what I know are considerate to people in the music industry.

Shall we?

10) Pillow – comfy and stylish. I love this pillow, which is great for any music lover. Simple, clean and a great place to rest your head after a long day in the studio ($26)
Buy it now

9) Wifi HotSpot – For a musician, or any friend on the go, a personal wifi hotspot is a huge upgrade. I use KarmaGo personally and cannot recommend it more for a personal hotspot. The best part? You only pay for the data you need. Even better? When people connect to your hotspot, you get free data. ($129)
Get $10 off your purchase: Buy it now

8) Battery Extender – Another techie gift that’s useful for anyone, especially a musician on the go, is a portable battery charger. Great for when you just can’t find an outlet while on the go. This charger has been said to charge your phone to 100% in 90 minutes. ($30)
Buy it now

7) Ear Skinz – these are colorful covers that slip over most in-ear headphones, offering the next level of comfort, fit and sound. These are definitely on my wishlist – wearing those earbuds all day can give me a headache! Right now, they are offering a deal of buy 3, get one free. ($11)
Buy it now

6) Membership to AAA – this is a hugely helpful gift for any musician going on tour. The van will break down, no question about it. ($66 for classic membership for 2 years – 1st year is free!)
Buy it now

5) Pick Punch – this nifty tool should be with every guitar player in my book. This punch can make picks out of old credit cards, hotel key cards, gym member cards, the list goes on. ($25)
Buy it now

4) SpaFinder Gift Certificate – being a musician takes long hours of practicing, and the physical demands increase even more if they are in the studio working on their next album. Give the gift of wellness with a SpaFinder Gift Certificate – you pick the dollar amount and they can use it at several types of health spas (even chiropractors!) in their area, whenever they want. (Starts at $25)
Buy it now

3) Vocal-eze – This throat spray has been recommended by musicians like Tim McGraw, Joss Stone and always seems to be on the vocal coaches recommendations. If the singer in your life doesn’t have this already, treat them to some soothing support. ($13)
Buy it now

2) Tea Variety Pack – Tea has endless health benefits, perfect for the hard working musician and singer. One of my favorite tea companies is David’s Tea, mostly because of their many tea samplers. For just $26, you can give 12 different types of teas. They are bound to find a taste they love! ($26)
Buy it now

1) Support – the best gift to any musician is to give their career support. Buy their albums as gifts for your friends, fund their projects on Kickstarter, Pledgemusic or Indiegogo. Share their music with your friends because the most thoughtful way to give to a musician is to support them.

I hope this helps you in your gift giving search and don’t forget to most of all – enjoy the season!

Blog / Life - 12/15/2015

The biggest hiring mistake I see.

This week, one of my clients showed me a spreadsheet of radio stations he wanted to send his album to – more specifically, U.S. stations that have Jazz Programs. He told me that he got the spreadsheet built by someone on Elance. My job was to comb through and pick out the top 50 (there were something like 200 found) so that we could start mailing out his new release.

I was excited to tackle the research he received, but after a few searches, I realized that this spreadsheet was not going to help us at all. Unfortunately, we realized that most of these stations didn’t have Jazz programs, were not even radio stations in the United States or worst case, weren’t even radio stations! On top of It was disappointing to know that my client paid for a service that ultimately will not help us. I’m still combing through as there have been a couple that will be beneficial to reach out, but for the most part, we’re going to have to start from scratch.

I’m not sure what happened or why the results were this horrific, but it got me thinking of ways how this could have been avoided. I understand that it’s not simple to find freelancers or a virtual assistant who understands what you are trying to do as a musician – most of the VA’s are trained as if they were working strictly for small businesses or offices, so understanding that you need a Jazz program with a local radio station is not going to translate when you ask for Top U.S. Jazz Stations. It was clear the freelancer just wanted to send a lot of results to be impressive. A classic quantity versus quality.

So how could my client’s dollar have gone farther to get the results he needed the first time? Here are some ways to give clear direction when asking a freelancer or virtual assistant to complete a research task.

1) Walk them through the steps – yes, this takes time, but it will save you the headache later. Brief them on what your goal is with this task and what you need to make decisions to reach that goal. Either jump on the phone (best) or show a video via Jing, or type up a paragraph explaining it all. For example, “I want to get my album into people’s hands who have a Jazz program on the radio, online and offline. Let’s get the name of the program, website, who runs it and their contact info – phone, address, email.”

2) Ask them if they have any questions – Give them the opportunity to ask questions about the research task. Almost every time I receive a research task, I ask questions or recap to ensure that once I start, I know what I’m looking for.

3) Offer examples if you can – If you have past examples of what you need, it’s always good to share. It’ll be easier and faster for them to deliver the results you want.

4) Ask them to do some of the task for your to review before moving forward – Especially for research on contacts, you can ask them to search for a few and then you review to make sure you have the information you need and that they understand the task. Once you approve, they can take it away and complete the task with confidence.

5) Hold them accountable – If you receive the research and something is incorrect or you wanted it delivered a different way, the first time this happens is the best time to let them know. This way, they can learn what your preferences are and you’re happier with the results.

Thankfully I got a hold of the spreadsheet from my client before he started sending his Jazz album to talk shows or shows in Puerto Rico! We’re taking direction by finding local stations first, and then building a list from there to help get his album into the DJ’s hands.

Have you ever had a horror story with a freelancer? Did you ever have trouble voicing or giving direction on a task you needed done? Did this help? I’d love to hear from you.

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend.

Cheers!

Blog / Business Tips - 08/22/2015

5 Ways to use Fiverr as a Musician

As a musician, there are going to be lots of instances that you need some creative jobs done, like a poster, a lyric video, or a quick logo. With all the hats you have to wear, you can’t expect to be a pro at performing, songwriting AND Photoshop. Sometimes you need an extra hand at these projects when you don’t have the expertise or time.

A site that I’ve found handy with clients is Fiverr.com (http://www.fiverr.com) . It’s where you can hire creative experts for one time projects, starting at $5.00. It’s perfect for when you need a poster done for an upcoming concert or a lyric video to promote a new single, or business cards for the next conference.

I recently worked on a special project with a client to create a whiteboard video promoting their online store, and we wanted to use Fiverr as our source for the talent. Whiteboard animation can cost upwards of $2,500, so with that out of our budget, Fiverr was a good option for us. During the project and getting familiar with the site, I was seeing how musicians could use this service, either to benefit their business by providing marketing materials or even creating an extra revenue stream for themselves.

So if you’ve never heard of Fiverr, or only browsed the site and want to learn more, here are 5 ways I discovered that musicians can use the site:

1. Lyric Videos – Lyric videos are a really great way to promote and market a new album or single, and there are more and more being produced today by every artist, big and small. Youtube is one of the top visited sites, your fans are going to be one it, so it’s a great tool to use for your music. You can find creatives to make a lyric video in a few days and boom, you have a great promotional video.
Pro Tip: When sending instructions to the person making your video, pick a font for them to use to save modification time. You can select and download fonts to send via Google Fonts or DaFont.com

2. Logos – While it’s not my favorite recommendation for a place to get a unique and stand out logo, it can be a place to get a quick new look on your name. Be careful, there have been rumors that some creatives steal copyrighted font or images, so just make sure they aren’t ripping someone off so it won’t hurt you in the end.
Pro Tip: Make sure you have your brand’s message in place and send it to the designer. You want to make sure your logo reflects your brand, no matter who is designing it!

3. Posters – Venues typically ask for you to send concert posters to post around their town to promote your show. But if you’re on the road or in the studio, it’s going to be hard to sit down and design a poster that reflects you. Send off the task to someone on Fiverr.
Pro Tip: Send 2-3 examples of posters you LOVE. This will help make the process go faster.

4. Business Cards – Everyone needs a business card for networking events or conferences, so you should have them handy, too. While these look easy to put together, Photoshop can get frustrating and you certainly shouldn’t be spending hours figuring out the program when someone comfortable with the program can whip out a card in minutes.
Pro Tip: Grab the template from Vistaprint, OvernightPrints or wherever you’ll be printing the cards to avoid any sizing errors later.

5. Share your talent & sell your service – Last but not least, create a profile and offer your services to potential buyers. Businesses are always looking for unique jingles for commercials or individuals looking for a special song to use for fun or for that special someone. In a discussion with Fiverr’s co-founder and CEO, Hypebot posted examples of how artists are using Fiverr for extra revenue to support their tour, next album and their business. If writing takes a ton of energy out of you, maybe this isn’t the best fit, but if you thrive on being able to write short melodies or light lyrics, you could really create a way to exercise your talents for extra income.

In addition to ways you can use Fiverr, or sites like it, be wary of some best practices I learned from my experience.
* You aren’t always going to pay just $5 for a service. Most of the gigs require add-ons to get the results you need, say HD posters or longer videos. I first attempted hiring the a person to create a video for $25, which ended up being a disaster, and we ended up hiring someone to create a great video at $60. While this is a far cry from $5, with whiteboard animation costing more than $2,500, it was a steal.
* Be selective and study your choices. Take the time to really watch their examples and read their reviews. You’ll be happy you did when you save the time of having to find a replacement from your first or second choice.
* Try to plan ahead and don’t procrastinate when hiring someone. Getting results isn’t going to be a day or two so expect at least 3-5 days to get the finished project. And that doesn’t include any time for modifications you might have. Give yourself time to work with the person to create a great product.

Utilize these sites and embrace the system, but be careful and smart, and you can create some great relationships with these designers to take some of the things you need done off of your plate. You’ll save time and the aggravation of learning Photoshop. 😉

I’ll see you next time.

Cheers!

Blog - 08/01/2015