katieohalloranJul-06-2009 7:11pm
Songwriters, Meet Your New BFF
Fact you may not know about me: As a teen, I dabbled with songwriting.
… Then I quickly realized that judging other people’s songs is much easier than writing hits of my own, and I decided to focus on the business side of the industry.
Nonetheless, my brief foray into the songwriting world led to the discovery of MasterWriter, one of the most useful tools a songwriter can have at their disposal. And as I was looking at the MasterWriter icon on my desktop the other day, the thought occurred to me that some of our readers may not be aware of the program and would do themselves a world of good by becoming familiarized with it, especially now that version 2.0 is out.
Offering a number of trememdously helpful and unique features, MasterWriter provides songwriters with virtually everything they need in a single program. Its rhyming dictionary identifies perfect rhymes, sound-alikes, and pop-culture rhymes. Additionally, rather than only providing you with single-word rhymes for a word, it also offers a “Rhymed-Phrases” feature, thereby providing you with phrases that rhyme with a word. Rhyming aside, if you simply want to find a phrase that includes a particular word, its “Phrases” feature has you covered. Furthermore, its “Pop Culture” feature offers a vast list of American and World Culture items (these can be used for inspiration) and the program now offers a handy new feature (in version 2.0) called “Word Families” (essentially a thesaurus on steroids).
The above is just a quick overview of the most notable features offered by MasterWriter to give you an idea of what it’s all about. As you can probably tell, the results offered by the program are far more extensive than what you would get in the average rhyming dictionary or by using other songwriting tools. This can inspire new song ideas, help solve writer’s block, and take songs you’re working on in directions that you wouldn’t have otherwise thought of. For a full list of features and to get a better understanding of how the program works, visit www.masterwriter.com and watch the short product demo. You can also check out the thorough review Geek.com did of MasterWriter 2.0 here: www.geek.com/articles/music/lyricists-score-a-hit-with-masterwriter-20-20090423/
Happy writing.
Alternative Venue Performance Opportunity: Six Flags' "Live & Local" Music Series
Playing at alternative venues is a tactic overlooked by many new artists, but when the right venues are selected (based on the psychographic profile of an artist’s target audience), its power cannot be overstated.
Sure, you may not make any money from ticket sales (depending on the type of performance and on the type of venue), but playing at alternative venues can put you smack dab in front of your target customers while they are out living their lives. This is important for all artists, regardless of their stature; there are many major artists who occasionally perform at alternative venues. However, it is an especially important means of promotion for new, unsigned artists since they don’t have the benefit of heavy airplay and other media exposure to get their messages out to people.
With this in mind, I want to share with you a great alternative venue performance opportunity that was brought to my attention when I saw a favourite up-and-coming band of mine, Shytown (www.myspace.com/shytownmusic , www.twitter.com/shytownmusic), take advantage of the opportunity itself: Six Flags’ “Live & Local” music series. (Check out the video of Shytown’s “Live & Local” performance on the band’s MySpace page to see the series in action.)
Most of the Six Flags parks in the U.S. participate in the series. In addition to providing artists with a platform to get their music heard by hundreds of people, Six Flags allows artists taking part in the series to sell merchandise at their performances and to retain 100% of the merch sales. For a more in-depth overview of “Live & Local”, here is an announcement from Six Flags Great America (the Chicago park) concerning the series:
This past season, Six Flags nationally launched the Live & Local music series. Live & Local gives musicians a chance to be heard by thousands of potential fans. Six Flags Great America is among the many parks to participate in this exciting series. Some of the bands that graced the stage included: Leo, Dramatic Visions, Comic Book Heroes, and many more.
Whether you are a single artist with a guitar, a new band just trying to get heard, or a cover band that likes to sing the great songs of our generation, Six Flags may have a spot for you.
Music of all genres is accepted. Six Flags will choose those artists which reflect diverse and family friendly material. The performance stage is located inside the park at the Mission Stage in the Southwest Territory, or the Beach Stage located in Hurricane Harbor.
Please note: Adult language is not permitted and will not be tolerated. Performance days are available in April, May, and all throughout the summer. Artists will play 5 half hour sets throughout the afternoon starting at 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 4:00, and 5:00. This is an unpaid performance, but 10 free tickets shall be issued upon completion of 5 sets. Merchandise sales are allowed, and artists shall retain 100% of their profits. Items must be family friendly, and in good taste. Six Flags retains the right to review and approve/disapprove of any merchandise.
Six Flags Great America will provide an adequate stage and power. Bands will provide all sound and needed backline equipment, and will also do all the setup and load-in themselves. Stage hands will not be provided. It’s suggested that you bring a push cart, as you cannot pull your car into the park or to the stage due to safety concerns. The band and one technician will be escorted into the park free of charge for their performance only. There is a discounted ticket available if the band or guests wish to enjoy the park before or after the show.
Many of the parks are still looking for artists to take part in the series over the summer. If you’re interested, look into your local park for more information.
And remember, when playing at an alternative venue, just like when playing at a traditional venue, you must maximize the opportunity! Putting yourself in front of people who end up liking what they hear is not going to do you much good if there’s no way for them to know who you are, to stay connected with you, and to buy your music/merch. Make sure your band name, site, and mailing list are all promoted during the performance. If the venue allows for it, make sure your music/merch is available for purchase on-site. If the venue doesn’t allow for on-site sales, make sure your audience knows where your music/merch is available. You may also want to have free download cards or sampler CDs to hand out to people. These, of course, are just a few of the many things you can do to maximize an alternative venue performance.
AH Vault: Interview with Jon Vanhala
This is one of our longer videos, so you may need to watch it in segments, but it is incredibly informative and will give you a heightened understanding of how labels generally go about marketing their releases. In the video, Jon Vanhala, former VP of New Media and Strategic Marketing at Verve Music Group (he was still with Verve when this interview was recorded), discusses the role of “New Media” executives at record labels and explores what he considers to be one of the biggest changes that has come as a result of the digital revolution: the fact that all content from an artist has the potential to become a commercial use item and/or a marketing item. Additional topics include the ideal amount of time needed by Verve to set up a marketing campaign for a release (and why this amount of time is needed), how long marketing campaigns typically last, what affects a label’s decision regarding whether or not to push a release for a longer-than-average period of time, what types of releases tend to do particularly well in the online world, and how labels secure prime positioning for their releases in online stores.
AH Vault: Tisa Mylar Talks Venue Merchandise Percentages
I thought it would be fitting to follow up my last blog entry, “Merchandise Marketing Lesson from Katy Perry”, with an AH Vault entry that speaks about one of the many intricacies of merchandising: the fact that most venues charge artists a fee in exchange for the right to sell merchandise at the club.
On average, a venue will charge a fee of 25% of the revenue generated from sales of non-music merch that take place at the club (venues do not typically take a percentage of the revenue generated from CD sales that take place at the club). If you have not yet started selling your merch at shows, it is important that you familiarize yourself with this practice; you will need to take it into consideration when pricing your merch and you will need to factor it into your bottom line.
In this video, Tisa Mylar, manager at the historic Whisky A Go-Go on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip, speaks about common merchandising practices at the Whisky and why venues take a percentage of merchandise sales. She also covers other topics related to live shows including how to get booked at the Whisky, the likelihood of being seen by A&Rs and others in the industry when playing at the Whiskey, the practice of “pre-sale”, web-casts and DVDs of live performances, and how the income generated from the door compares to the income generated from the bar.
Merchandise Marketing Lesson from Katy Perry
With the decline in recorded music sales, now more than ever, artists must take full advantage of the other revenue streams available to them.
Merchandising can play a huge role in an artist’s overall revenue stream; for many artists, the income generated from merchandise sales is their second largest source of income, next only to the income generated from live performances. Taking the necessary steps to activate this additional revenue stream is especially important for independent artists as merch income can allow them to fund new projects like albums and tours. Of course, merchandise can also act as a promotional tool for artists.
As integral as merchandising is to an artist’s career, I see very few artists putting a great deal of effort into marketing their merch beyond the basic methods (promoting it on their sites and MySpace pages, setting up attractive merch tables at their shows, etc.). So, I thought I would do some investigating to find examples of artists whose merchandise is being treated as a high priority and is being marketed in interesting (and effective) ways; the best example I have found so far is Katy Perry.
As with most artists, Katy’s merchandise is promoted on her MySpace page and on her official web site. However, her merchandise has also been promoted in some particularly interesting ways. For example, she sells heart-shaped sunglasses (link to item: http://katyperry.shop.bravadousa.com/Product.aspx?cp=14398_14678&pc=BGAMKP01#), and wears these sunglasses (or very similar ones) herself at a number of her live performances - a great way to promote them to her fans. Here’s a picture of this marketing tactic in action:
She also sells “Katy Perry Slept Here” t-shirts (link to item: http://katyperry.shop.bravadousa.com/Product.aspx?cp=14398_14829&pc=BGCTKP07). These shirts were cleverly promoted when Katy and Travis McCoy (her boyfriend at the time) were both part of the 2008 Warped Tour. At one point during the tour, Travis performed with Bring Me The Horizon, another artist that was part of the tour. During this performance, each member of Bring Me The Horizon wore one of the “Katy Perry Slept Here” t-shirts, leading to a significant amount of awareness and buzz surrounding the shirts. Here’s a video of the performance:
To sum up, the tips we can extract from this example are:
1) Wear your own merchandise.
Wearing your own merchandise is an extremely effective way to make your fans aware of it (just don’t go overboard with certain types of merchandise or you may come off as being too self promotional). Wearing your merch during a live performance or in a Youtube video are two ways you could implement this idea. When doing so, make sure your fans are aware that what you’re wearing is, in fact, your merch and be sure to let them know how they can purchase it (for the Youtube video, you could include this information and a link to your store in the video’s description).
2) Get other artists (or public figures) to wear your merchandise.
Getting a popular artist (or anyone in the public eye) to wear your merch is also an effective way to create awareness for it. Obviously, it’s easier for a well-known artist like Katy Perry to make this happen… It also helps if you have buzz-worthy merch like she did (i.e. “Katy Perry Slept Here” tees). However, independent artists can still do something similar on a smaller scale. For example, if you know another artist (or if you’re touring with another artist), they might be willing to wear an item of your merch for one night if you return the favor, or if you expose them to your fan base in a different way.
Hopefully you’ll find the above tips useful when creating your next merchandise marketing plan.
Ask RIZ
Hello ArtistsHouse community!
I’m excited to announce that RIZ will be sitting down with me to do a video interview for ArtistsHouseMusic.org.
RIZ is an emerging artist and songwriter. He is currently independent, but that hasn’t stopped him from taking his career into his own hands and making some very big things happen. For example, in addition to writing and performing his own material, RIZ also writes for other artists. To that end, he has written for (or is currently writing for) some of the biggest artists on the planet: Sean Kingston, Flo Rida, Kat Deluna, Ryan Cabrera, and more. He is also associated with Akon’s label, Konvict Muzik, as a writer. It’s not a publishing deal, but when the label needs songs for projects it is working on, RIZ is one of the writers those projects are dispersed to. Finally, he has ignited a major online buzz using Facebook, where one of his groups, Petition To Get RIZ Featured on MTV “Buzzworthy”, now has over 400,000 members (yes, you read that number correctly!).
From a business model perspective, RIZ has been making himself available to write hooks for aspiring artists for a $1,000 flat fee, thereby giving these new artists access to the same quality hooks that the majors get (something that sets him apart from most writers with similar track records).
Suffice to say, there is a lot that can be learned from RIZ and his success story… and I want the ArtistsHouse community and RIZ’s fans to get involved!
I would love to hear any questions you have for RIZ that you would like me to consider asking him. These questions can be about songwriting, his use of social media, the steps a songwriter must take to launch their career without the backing of a major music publisher, how the current climate in the industry is affecting artists and songwriters, or anything else you think would make sense to ask RIZ.
Post your questions as a comment to this entry OR send them to: katie.ahm(at)gmail(dot)com (make sure you put the dot between “katie” and “ahm”)
We’re still working out the details regarding when we’ll be able to record the video, but I’d like to start preparing the questions now so I’m ready to go when RIZ is available.
I look forward to hearing your questions! I will try to ask as many of them as possible.
On a concluding note, here is how you can learn more about RIZ and connect with him online:
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/rizofficial
Twitter: http://twitter.com/RizMusic
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/rizonline
Facebook (Fan Page): http://www.facebook.com/pages/RIZ/31917650024
His self-titled album, “Riz”, is available on iTunes now.
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