Welcome to my tumblr blog - The baby brother of my Music Marketing blog PlasticHallway.Net Unlike my other one this "PlasticWilko" blog is more opinion based and contains posts on music indusrty analysis, tech and mobile news and the odd music and video piece.
Amanda Palmer Reaches $1million Mark - But What Can We Learn From Her?
Yesterday, innovative musician Amanda Palmer succeeded in proving that you don’t need record labels with deep pockets to make money in music. With her Kickstarter campaign reaching $1million, a new record for a music project.
The campaign that launched a month ago had a target of $100,000 and garnered more the 10x that from 21,000 backers, 34 of who pledged $5,000 for a house concert.
But don’t think that any band can achieve anywhere near this scale. Palmer has been on the forefront of direct-to-fan for years. She has an army of die hard fans and her pledges offer both value and exclusivity.
SO WHAT CAN OTHERS TAKE FROM THIS?
You need fans before you can ask for support - The $100,000 target was reached in under 24hrs, before any press was generated.
It’s not about charity, it’s about exclusivity - Pledges include, limited edition packages, art books and house concerts.
You need to build a relationship with your fans - Palmer has over 500,000 Twitter followers & 140,000 Facebook likes, plus a large devoted mailing list.
Offer something for everyone - over 9,000 people pledged $5 or less (These are new fans).
Fans before media - Palmer often engages her fans in projects with no media involvement.
These projects take a lot of planning - Looking at her campaign page you will see just how much detail went into getting everything ready. Plus she’s added regular updates that include photos, artwork and Q&As.
Don’t overshoot - She aimed for $100,000, despite previously raising $130,000 on a smaller project.
Yesterday she Tweeted: WE. FUCKING. DID IT. $1,000,000 OF PURE FUTURE ARTMUSIC ASSKICKING.
The last day of inspiration before we get in to the nitty-gritty of trying to disrupt ‘stuff’! To start at the beginning click here.
Kicking things off last night was Níal Conlan best know for being the bass player in Delorentos and a little less know for his collaborations with comedy group Diet Of Worms and more recently in curating the Monthly General Meeting, described as a night of arts and all things. Níal opened the night with a quote from William Goldman “Nobody Knows Anything”. Definitely fitting the disruptive theme of the week. He also spoke how his band came closed to signing a big deal that would have seen them in a position to promote and tour their music worldwide. Unfortunately this was 2008 and Lehman brothers filed for bankruptcy, driving the global recession. It was at this time they came close to calling it quits and it was only the process of creating music together did they realise what being in a band was really about for them. He said he no longer sees it as being about competition anymore but about collaboration. Something Delorentos have been doing a lot of recently with their Little Sparks magazine and recent run of pop up shops.
Siobhan O’Dowd then spoke about her time working for one of Ireland’s biggest promoters and how she convinced them to hire her by booking their venue for a college night for 6 months, proving her worth before they put her on the payroll. Siobhan was heavily involved in setting up and establishing Electric Picnic from day one, but left after the sale to Live Nation subsidiary Festival Republic. She went back to do a masters degree and is now marketing manager in Accenture, working with tech start ups. She spoke about Ireland’s cultural heritage and the synergy between music and tech and how there is plenty of scope to merge the two.
Up next was Trevor O’Shea of Bodytonic. As he tells it, they started off running a club-in-a-pub and now runs clubs & pubs. Bodytonic went from playing house music to 30 mates in a bar in Dublin to hosting multiple stages at festivals and opening both a bar and a club. They now have 3 music labels and offer services from PR to booking. Trevor talked about how things went pear shaped and how they nearly closed their doors. He said it came down a 3 minute decision, involving a shit story about a bottle of coke, busted toilets and the wonders of Dynorod. He came so close to shutting down a full club night, which would have left him with fees they couldn’t cover and what could have been then end of Bodytonic. He said he learnt more in those surrounding months then he did in the previous 8 years of boom time and on that night he realised that if you’ve built relationships with people they will do almost anything to help you out, no matter how shit that task might be!
After Trevor we heard from Alexia Golez. Paid to break stuff, Alexia is a test engineer by trade and avid blogger. Alexia wrote her first programme at the age of nine as she thought it was fun. She too spoke about the importance of collaboration in her work and about about keeping the end user in mind at all times. She also spoke about how technology and the internet has grown in it’s ability to follow and generate news.
We then heard from Philip McMahon of This Is Pop Baby. Outsiders in the Theatre world, rather then trying to fit in with the existing club, they started their own. They brought their first show to a music venue and then a festival, where they spent 3 years mixing pop stars with drag queens and DJs. Once they had mastered their craft they went looking for some support to put on a large show. This accumulated in a six week stint in the Abbey Theatre to 20,000 people. Philip believes you should never be afraid to be ambitious or to say you’re ambitious. He said selling is usually bigger and harder then creating, but just as important and he left us with some stern words of advice… “There isn’t always an app for that”.
Closing the night was IADT music management lecturer Michael Murphy. Claiming to be the only Irish manager to have bands signed to each of the majors, Micheal is currently doing a PHD on the history of Irish music. A wealth of information, he spoke about the importance of music in Ireland and Ireland in music. He believes best entrepreneurs work in music and that having only three major labels bad for consumers. He stressed that indie labels need to start working together and that we don’t only need to disrupt the industry, we need to wreck it. He closed the session quoting the late Tony Wilson - “Wake up industry you’re dead”.
What started as an experiment to get a few creative music and tech heads together in a room has turned into a very informative event. Over the last 3 nights we’ve heard from a diverse range of people, whose expertise range from music, film, events, publishing, broadcasting, app & web development, marketing and even architecture. The plan is clearly to inspire those who attend and see if something creative ideas can be produced by the end of the week.
Last night we heard from a pioneer of direct-to-fan, Nick Kelly. Nick was fun funding his albums long before sites like Kickstarter or Pledge Music ever existed and was engaging his fans, long before the likes of Imogen Heap or Amanda Palmer. Back when he was in Fat Lady Sings, he sent out 6,000 Christmas cards to his fans, via snail mail! This wasn’t seen as cool by his peers but he believed it important. Nick spoke about the shift in the music industry and how his principles back then are even more important today. Today more then ever we need to be professional and organised, but not to make the mistake of acting corporate online. He also stressed that similar, small bands/brands are not your competition, the U2s and Cokes of the world are and you should team up with others to help gain traction.
We then heard from Miles O’Rielly, a film director, who has worked with some of Ireland’s most acclaimed acts. Miles himself has been through the major label mill with his band Juno Falls being signed to V2 in 2003. Having witnessed the drastic changes in the industry over the last decade Miles puts most of his focus on producing and directing music videos and shorts. He spoke about putting principles before money and how he only works with acts that inspire him.
I was a little surprised to hear that the next speaker was the city architect for Dublin City Council and responsible for planning Dublin’s LUAS, but Ali Greham was there to talk about a side project she organised called Pivot Dublin. Set up as a quest to pitch Dublin as the design capital of the world. Although it didn’t win (it came second), it has succeeded in building a platform for designers in all walks of life to come together and work on projects, while also raising awareness for design in general. Ali spoke about the importance of design, how difficult it can be to create something from a blank canvas and how you need to be brave and optimistic at all times.
Culann Mac Can then spoke about his company Rocudo and their new DJ studio for iPad. A high end production software that he intends to give away on the app store using the same free-to-pay system that Story Toys were trying out. He spoke about how hard it can be to invest time and money into a project and then give it away for free. But he believes that this is the only way to quickly grow a community and then offer additional samples to bring in revenue.
We then heard from Paddy Cosgrave, who runs both the Dublin Web Summit and F.ounders. Paddy spoke about taking chances and the importance of putting creative people in a room together. Hence the reason for setting up F.ounders. There is a saying in Silicon Valley that great tech ideas don’t come from sitting behind a computer, they come from meeting other creative people. F.ounders does just that, with 150 of the biggest names in tech attending.
Finally we heard from Finian Murphy. When not working for a marketing company, Finian writes a blog on advertising, trends, marketing, music, fashion and technology. Finian spoke about reaching the masses, the importance of making sure enough people know about your product as possible. Selling a story, people will buy a product quicker if they think they are buying into a way of life. One of the reasons Apple products are in such high demand. He also spoke about the importance of collaboration and integration.
First up was Jim Pipe form Story Toys, children’s book publishers, who have embraced technology and now create some incredible interactive children’s books and games for iPad, iPhone and Mac. The Book publishing industry are facing similar problems to what the music industry face 10 years ago and with the advantage of hindsight some of them are clearly making the correct steps to adapt and survive. No longer are books a one way narrative and Story Toy’s use of augmented reality is a great example of that.
We then heard from Cathal Gaffney form Brown Bag Films. An example of obsession and persistence. Brown Bag has grown from a 2 man operation to a thriving international organisation. They produce animated content for the likes of BBC and Disney and their show receive over 5million views a week. Cathal talked about how important it is to keep focus on your targets. He suggested writing down a scope of what you are not and try not to break out into too many tangents. In his case he shut down a profitable advertising department, as it was taking away from their prime focus of making narrative animation. A decision that nearly crippled the company but paid off in the long term.
Ciaran Walshe, editor of LeCool, then spoke about how he blagged his way into 2 jobs as a sports reporter with no experience, before moving to Berlin for a year where he was told about this online magazine started in Barcelona, that was looking to franchise. Ciaran jumped into publishing with with no background and has built up a thriving cult readership. He expressed the importance of creating your own niche and how word of mouth is the strongest form of marketing. Ciaran, also turns down ads from companies that don’t feel right for his audience and stressed how important this is to LeCool’s success.
After Ciaran, we heard from a very energetic 19 year old James Whelton, who put the entire room to shame with his achievements. Early last year he founded Coder Dojo, an organisation that run free not-for-profit coding clubs for youths. James is a big believer in open source and offering free goods, where the value is shifted to another service of product that has increased value. Something that a few artists have properly explored but where some have had great success.
Blathnaid Healy spoke to us about a new online community for creative Irish people from around the globe. World Irish, still in beta, has been seeking communities from around the world and bringing them online. Having come from background in old media, Blathnaid worked on the digital side of RTE, she too stressed the importance of a single vision. Stating that it is hard for an organisation like RTE to fully embrace the web, when it is constrained to broadcast format. Where as Word Irish is looking to be a user content driven site that will focus on that single format.
Finally we heard for Michael Keegan of Old Hat. Michael has been working web development for 15 years and has a wealth of life experience. Never trying to achieve anything more then to cover his mortgage, he has grown a successful business by applying some strong principles. Here are a few of them:
You survive by finding your strengths and figuring out what ones work in the marketplace
Technology is fashionable and ever changing
Take time to put simple things in place
Relationship are the most important thing
Leave a little bit of capacity
Keep perspective
Step back & learn to delegate
Face problems
Two days in with some inspiring talks so far. There’s plan for a bit of an open discussion after tonight’s session, which will be interesting to see what ideas emerge.
Yesterday evening saw the launch of Music 3.0. A music/tech gathering, with the hope of opening discussions and allowing creative ideas flow. Participants are made up of a collection of tech-heads, musicians and music industry. With a few short talks on start ups, trends and opportunities.
First Up was a start up called Soundwave. A music app that toggles music plays and collects location and time stamps. To the punters it’s a simple way to see what new music is trending in different cities across the world. While the music industry, will be able to track their artists’ activities across the globe in real time. Before you would have to wait for your IMRO reports to know if your music was gaining traction in other parts of the world and these can take up to 2 years to get to you! There are a lot of music analytic platforms out there but Soundwave claim to be the only ones that a) collects data, from your mobile device’s music player even when the app is inactive & b) are putting a focus on location. I’m already a big fan of sites like Next Big Sound and even AWAL’s Buzdeck, but if Soundwave can gain a strong early adoption then, they will have a very powerful service on their hands.
This was followed by Nicola Bates from Emerald Valley II, who’s mantra “Just Fucking Do It” was quickly adopted by Music 3.0 as a call to let some creative juices flow. With the belief that her hometown of Newry was in the prime location to be a thriving tech hub within Europe and undeterred by the local governing agencies lack of motivation, she took maters into her own hands and started inviting tech companies to set up shop on the border town. In the last 6 months she has attracted 3 tech start ups and is standing firmly behind her mantra!
Next Up was the controversial Damien Mulley of Mulley Communications, who I think should talk at this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes. Giving that he lives up to the advice he offers.
Be yourself online, no matter how crazy that may be. Using Jedward’s Twitter account as an example of how to just say what you think and not worry about how you are perceived.
Don’t be afraid to pick a fight. He used an example of where he picked a fight with Sky Handling Partners for loosing his bags and providing the worst customer service and as a result drove 200,000 visits to his site in one day and now holds the 2nd and 3nd search spot for their search term with the a post titled “Why Sky Handling Partners are cunts”. God forbid a band would offend someone these days for fear of loosing out on a future sponsorship deal!
The most valuable thing you can do is give something away for free. This is something the music industry in general have been fighting and young bands too fail to realise the potential they are missing out on.
After Damien we heard from 45Sound. A clever bit of online software that will automatically sync video footage to an audio track. Meaning a band could play a show and record proper audio off the desk, then ask their fans to film it on their phones and upload their videos. The tracks would automatically be synced to the audio timeline. On a small scale this could easily improve a fan video by replacing the crappy sound recording with professional audio. On a large scale, getting hundreds of fans to film all or parts of gigs and having the whole concert synced, before the editing process begins. Another great example of spotting a problem and going out and finding a solution. I’m looking forward to seeing what creative uses this platform will generate over the coming years.
Finally we heard from Richard Seabrooke, who has been actively involved with bringing creative people together for years. His latest offering Offset is in the form of a 3 day event, which has doubled in size every year since it’s creation 3 years ago. 100% self funded and organised by 3 people in their spare time. Yet they still manage to produce over 50 hours of presentations, workshops, debates and interviews each year.
Day one of Music 3.0 had a clear theme of just fucking do it and don’t be afraid of upsetting a few people along the way. They probably aren’t your audience anyway. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s install for this evening.
A couple months back I was asked if a couple of my blog posts could be used in a book by former Public Image Ltd and Nine Inch Nails drummer, Martin Atkins’ new book Band: Smart. A collection of stories and tips for bands, gathered from all walks of the music industry.
Atkins has now launched a Kickstarter campaign and is more then halfway to reaching his target with 15days to go. His pledge options are some of the most ridiculous, I’ve seen! For $1, an extra ‘fuck’ will be added to the book, while for $20 you will receive a t-shirt with the slogan “Welcome To The Music Business….You’re FUCKED”!
Currently teaching at Madison Media Institute, Atkins leads courses on Touring, Advanced Entrepreneurship, Artist and Event Management, and Online Marketing.
Mobile Roadie Announces New Versions Including Free Mobile Sites
Mobile Roadie has just announced version 4.0 with better CMS, an iPad app and new pricing structure, which bundles the iPhone and Android app into one, but most exciting is their new entry level mobile sites that start off with a free version.
Sunday Times Feature - Album Art In A Digital World
I was featured in last weekend’s Culture mag in The Sunday Times. Talking about the future of album artwork, now that CD sales are dying and downloads are on the rise.
You can read the article by clicking on the image below.
I’ve been writing on Tumblr for about a year now and last month decided to move my main blog over to a stand alone site. I will be posting all my main content on the new site while I will keep this Tumblr blog for posting music industry news and interesting links.
