This guest blog by digital PR expert and author Ariel Hyatt originally appeared on her SoundAdvice blog on February 13, 2012. Ariel is a thought leader in the digital PR world: the founder of a successful PR firm; international speaker & educator and the author of two books on social media and marketing for artists. Ariel’s Cyber PR® process marks the intersection of social media with engaged behavior, PR, and online Marketing.
So – as you know I am a newsletter evangelist!
I believe it is the NUMBER ONE thing that will help you create a career in the music industry; communicating with your fan base regularly and consistently.
If you do not already have a schedule mapped out for sending your newsletters – get your calendar out NOW and pencil in 12 dates – 1X per month (I suggest you send your newsletter 2X per month but start with once a month and grow from there).
Studies show that the best days to send newsletters (for the highest open rates) are Wednesdays and Thursday so make sure to send them out mid week.
Image courtesy of Mail Chimp
Here are 5 critical things to keep in mind as you are crafting your newsletters:
1. Keep Your Subject Line to 55 Characters
Most e-mail programs cut off the subject line after 55 and 60 characters, so keep your subject line short and sweet, and to the point; five to six words max.
2. Get Personal
Saying something personal brings you closer to your fan base. So share a photo of something you love (your pet, your kids, your friends), or something fun and non-music related you did recently like a vacation.
3. You Don’t Have To Have A Show To Send A Newsletter
How about just inviting everyone on your newsletter out for drinks evening, or to join you for a show, or share something fun that you’ve done recently; again, or maybe you just purchased a new album and you love it, and you want to talk about it.
4. Mailing Address & Unsubscribe Link
Know that by law you need to put your mailing address and an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each of your newsletters. If you are uncomfortable adding your home address, then open up a P.O. Box and use that.
5. First Names Get Attention
Use the first name of each person you send your newsletter out to. The best way to get anyone’s attention is to include their first name in the subject line of an e-mail, something like this:
Hey Kevin! Summer News From the Darrin James Band.
It’s catchy, and it gets people’s attention immediately to the subject of your e-mail. Any of the mailing list / newsletter management service that I love, including Bandletter, Fanbridge and Reverbnation can help you customize your e-mails so that your first names of your e-mail list appear in the subject line. Testing shows that the response rates will go up 50%-70% or more if you include first names.
Few musicians have the luxury of independent wealth or the backing of a record label with enough cash to cover the cost of recording. Most musicians have to work really hard to raise cash in order to head into the studio. This is especially the case if it is your first recording.
Before you start raising money, you should have a budget for your recording and know exactly how much you need to raise.
Here are some creative ways to raise money that have worked for me and they can all work for you too if you invest the time and energy to do them properly.
Fan Funding and Donations Sites
There are many services dedicated to fan funding and donations. Some like Kickstarter.com even allow to tie your fan funding into a pre-sale campaign for your music which helps you build relationships with your fans and reach your goals faster.
This is one of the best ways you can fund a recording because the money you raise is revenue (rather than a debt you need to pay back), you have some record sales you can count on release day, and there is a potential to promote your campaign and create awareness for your band and recording with social media.
Once you finish your recording, you can then go back to your fans with a similar campaign to raise money for the release or for tour support.
Here are four fan funding sites that can help you raise money for your recording project and other band expenses:
Many parts of the world have government funding programs for music and the arts. Canada and many European countries have programs where you can receive a low or no interest loan or even a non-rapayble grant to record and promote your music.
Unfortunately most of the states in the USA lack programs of this nature. That said, do your research. Contact other musicians, music and artist organizations, arts councils and your local government to see if there are any programs that may be of help. If you are lucky enough to find a program in your area, contact the organization that administrates the program and find out about the application process.
Business and Non-Profit donations
You may be able to find a local business and or non-profit organization that will donate to your band or sponsor your recording. This be a significant tax write off for the business or organization in many parts of the world. In addition you can offer, for example, signed pre-release copies of the recording, their name and or logo on the CD and release posters and mention of the sponsor in your newsletter and on your website.
Gig Your Ass Off
If you can book shows and make a few bucks from them, play everywhere you can within a short distance of where you live. This was how I used to do it before I knew how to write business plans and grants and pitch to investors. We played for every coffee shop, bar, private party, wedding… anyone or anywhere that would give us any money to play. We even learned cover songs and played them 2 nights a week for cash.
The good thing about this is that on top of raising money and not having debt, the band and everyone in it improves their musicianship and showmanship and you add a few fans to your fanbase along the way.
Work Your Ass Off
When I was in my early 20′s I used to head up to northwestern Canada and plant trees all summer to save money for touring with my band in the winter. The work was complete hell but at 12 cents a tree I was planting about 2000 trees a day on average with 6 day work weeks for 3 months of the summer. We lived in the forest in tents so there was nowhere to spend our earnings. I met a bunch of musicians one summer who were doing the same thing, only instead of touring they were all saving their money to make a recording and dedicate the winter to their music.
The good thing about this method is that you do not have to pay the money back. The bad thing is that you will not be working on your career that much while working these kinds of shifts, though, 3 months goes by quickly…
Investors - Friends, Family, Angel Investors
Don’t be afraid to ask people for help. If you have friends or family with some cash they may be in a position to help you. The same may be the case for some of your early fans and local investors. You never know if you don’t ask.
The best situation is to get people to donate or pre-order your new material, but if you are not hitting your goals with that exclusively then taking on investment is another option. I have raised a lot of money for bands this way.
The most effective way to do this is to structure your band as a business and develop a basic term sheet that describes the investment – how much money you need and what it is for, how and when they are getting their money back, and what they stand to make in profit, over and above getting back their investment.
Here is an example of how I have done this in the past:
You, the investor, give me $5000
I give you 10 signed pre-release versions of the record upon completion
Your name (or company name and logo) appear on the CD, on our website and cd release posters
The first $5500 in physical and digital sales go to you, the investor
It is best to have at least a short business plan and a budget to present to potential investors that indicates your expenses, anticipated sales, project strategies and timeline. You would be surprised how many accountants, doctors, lawyers etc. that will feel pretty cool about being part of this sort of deal, especially if they are a fan. Also, in many parts of the world, investing in a business has some decent tax savings for people that make big bucks and are in high tax brackets.
This method requires you to pay money back much like a loan, however in this case if you don’t succeed in selling records and growing your band then you are not necessarily required to pay the investors back like you would with a bank loan.
Loans from Financial Institutions
Banks traditionally do not consider emerging artists as businesses so getting a business loan for recording your project is fairly unlikely. That said, if you have assets, a job or other forms of security this may be an option. You’ll also want to check with your local Chamber of Commerce or any other local organizations that are focused on economic development in your area. You may find a program that can help you with some form of loan or grant.
You will likely need to develop a business plan to support your loan request but there are many resources online that can help you with this if you find a program that is a fit.
NOTE: Owing money sucks! So, if you can make one of the other options above work for you that is probably a better option.
Remember that once you finish your recording you will need to release it and tour to support it. These things will also have a price tag attached to them and you need to budget for these well before you need them to happen. All of the above creative ways to raise money apply for funding these important projects too.
If you have any questions or examples of the creative ways to raise money that have worked for you please leave them in the comments section!
Darren Gallop is the CEO of Marcato Musician, owns a record label and is an artist manager and an artist himself. He has been coming up with creative ways to raise money for his bands’ recording and touring projects for more than 20 years.
In Part One of this blog series, Marcato Musician & Marcato Festival CEO and artist manager Darren Gallop talks about how to get booked at music festivals and gain exposure in front of their large crowds of music lovers:
Landing festival gigs is one of the most attainable ways to get your live show in front of larger crowds. Every artist and manager should want to know how to get booked at music festivals.
The fact is, most festival artistic directors start their planning by securing their headliners. Then they start to fill the other slots with up and coming talent, even musicians they’ve never heard of before.
These slots are fairly competitive. The larger the profile of the festival the more competition there is. It’s not uncommon to see as many as 1000 submissions for a small/medium-sized festival and upwards of 20,000 for larger international events. In both cases these submissions compete for anywhere from 20 to 400 performance slots.
It may sound discouraging but 20% to 75% of these submissions are an instant “NO! NOT A CHANCE!” You can avoid being instantly rejected by understanding WHY festival programers ignore so many applications. It’s usually because these applications or the artists submitting them:
are not a style or genre that the festival even programs (failure to research the events you’re applying to is a great way to NOT get booked at music festivals)
are not ready (if you’ve only played shows in your home town and haven’t released a professional recording you are probably not ready to hit the festival scene)
do not have the tools and marketing collateral to properly pitch
do not know how to pitch
All of these submissions are automatically and rapidly declined, sometimes even before festival staff has a chance to hear your music.
The objective of this blog series is to educate DIY artists and emerging managers and agents on the tools and processes that answer the question of how to get booked at music festivals and dramatically improve their festival booking success rate.
8 and 1/2 Tips – How to Get Booked at Music Festivals:
1. Be Awesome
If you want to get booked at music festivals, you need to stand out. This means more than just ‘don’t suck’. Your songs need to be great and your live performance has to be memorable. If you’re not there yet you may be better off spending your time writing, producing, rehearsing and gigging in small clubs for a while longer.
I often see bands that have great tunes and play them very well but lack engagement with their live show. I have witnessed Tom Jackson go through the process of producing a band’s live show and I would recommend taking the opportunity to check out his stuff if you get a chance. Remember you are not just selling your music or yourself — it’s really your live show that festival promoters are interested in. Having a killer live show is a great way to get booked at music festivals.
2. Keep Your Bio Short and Sweet
Don’t start off with where you went to school and the life stories of each band member. What is your story? How is it relevant? What does your music sound like? Who are your key influences? What are the most relevant highlights of your career? There are professionals that can write your bio for somewhere in the $150 to $300 range. If you plan to write it yourself, here are a couple of good posts about writing a bio:
(Yes, I just Googled how to write an effective musician bio and grabbed the highest-ranking posts. It’s that easy to learn how to do just about anything these days!)
3. Have Really Good Recordings
Having a great recording is an awesome tool. You don’t need a full album or even an EP to get booked at music festivals, a few great tracks can do the job. You want to have these tracks somewhere online (like Soundcloud or Bandcamp) where they can be easily streamed and/or downloaded. If possible, you should have physical copies set aside for special situations. We’ll talk about how to use these tools in the next part of the “How to Get Booked at Music Festivals” series.
4. Make Headlines
Recognition in the press is a powerful thing. The more relevant the source the more powerful the article and the more weight it carries when trying to get booked at music festivals. A small community or college paper will not be as significant as a review in Pitchfork or Billboard. A press strategy and publicist can be one of the most important elements of your overall business and marketing plan.
5. Live Audio/Video Samples
This can be one of the most powerful tools you can ever invest in. Even if someone hears your CD and loves it, there’s no guarantee that your live performance is great.
Here is an example from a series of videos that cost me about $2,000 to produce start to finish. I built them to sell an emerging artist for opening slots on major tours and to get booked at music festivals in the Canadian market. It has been about 14 months since these videos where produced and the artist has secured many high profile performance slots (including opening for rock band Heart on a 30-day tour) which has paid for the cost of this video over and over.
I also made an additional series that represented what the artist does live with her full band:
This can be done at a cheaper rate if you have friends that can help or the time and skills to deal with some of the production yourself. The production value does not necessarily have to be this high to achieve similar goals, though if you can afford to spend on quality it doesn’t hurt.
In both of these videos I opted for a controlled environment instead of doing this at a live show because I wanted the ability to do each song a few times and ensure the best camera angles. I also had limited time to work with due to the artists touring schedule. An actual live show in a cool venue with an audience that’s really digging it is even more effective but also creates several variables that are less controllable. I have had bad experiences with other acts where we are doing a live show and then during the song that I really wanted to capture the guitar crapped out and then it kind of fell apart. (I suggest if you are going for the actual live show recording route to plan to record 2 or more evenings to ensure you get what you need.)
5 and 1/2. Be an Opportunist
When we landed the opening tour with Heart, I hired someone to come in with an HD video recorder at a show in a major venue and set up my ProTools Mbox with a feed from the board and a stereo mic pattern in the room.
This cost me $300 and has become another great sales and marketing tool:
Bottom line, having some great live content can drastically eliminate risk from the festival’s perspective and makes it easier to get booked at music festivals.
6. Look Good in Pictures
A few hundred dollars for some professional photography will go a long way to portray a professional image. Unprofessional artists rarely get booked at music festivals! Try to come up with a theme or an idea. Pick a cool location, look the part you’re playing, and look like you are all on the same team. Don’t dress like you are going to your buddy’s house to drink beer and watch football. Live shots can be great too — I recommend a bit of both.
7. Have a Solid Social Media Presence
Social media presence is key in building your music career this day and age, and helps when trying to get booked at music festivals. Many indie labels, major labels, promoters and agents go straight to your online presence. It shows them how serious you are about your success and what your fan base is like. Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR runs a blog and newsletter, writes books, speaks at many conferences around the world and teaches courses on this topic.
8. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
If you’ve ever worked in sales you likely know something about this. If not, it’s time to learn because you work in sales now!
Your product is your band’s live performance and your customers are music festivals. Basically, you are looking for a software system (it can be web-based or desktop), or if you are old school some form of Rolodex or agenda/contact book combination. You can even use the tools you have on your Mac or PC like iCal or Outlook to create reminders and your address book to keep notes of your communication with people.
You want something to keep track of every festival you want to play, the people that you encounter that work at the festival, your conversations with these people and follow-up plans. We will go into more detail on the use of the CRM in the next part of this series.
Now Put These Tips to Work!
I hope these eight (and a half) tips to get booked at music festivals will help you think about the festival application process and take your bookings to the next level. Subscribe to the Marcato Musician blog and watch for Part Two of this blog series on how to get booked at music festivals.
Find Darren, Allie or Laird from the Marcato team at the conference this weekend and ask them about their experience at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York last month! They can also show you how Marcato Musician can help you followup and manage all the opportunities you create for yourself at Nova Scotia Music Week!
Surviving Nova Scotia Music Week: The Need to Know
Since Marcato Musician is built by a team of artists, managers and industry professionals, we’re no stranger to Music Conference Overload!
We’ve put together this quick list of 5 tips to help you survive at Molson Canadian Nova Scotia Music Week and take advantage of the opportunity events like this provide for you to further your career.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
It’s easy to live the rockstar life at Nova Scotia Music Week. All night parties, hotel hijinx, a town full of people who can help you take your career to the next level… it’s like L.A., but colder.
You can get a lot of business done at 4:30am, but there are also lots of opportunities you risk missing if you’re not in any shape to take in the rest of the conference. Aim for a healthy balance of work hard/play hard and you’ll put yourself in the best position to achieve your goals for the weekend.
Set some goals and get some meetings.
Like most things in life, getting things done at a music conference requires a bit of work. Sure, your act may be the next big thing but if you don’t connect with the right delegates, you’re missing opportunities!
Research the delegate list ahead of time and set some goals for the week that are in line with your career strategy and marketing plan. You’ll have different goals depending on where you are in your career, but everyone from emerging artists to established industry professionals make new relationships at these events that will benefit them for a lifetime.
The conference organizers have brought these delegates together in one place to meet you and learn about your projects – get to know them, learn from their experience and keep in touch even after the event is over!
Make some time for thinking.
Conferences like Nova Scotia Music Week are programmed to be on the cutting edge. The ideas that are discussed in conference sessions and over drinks in the lounge are often about the future of music and what you can do today to “future proof ” your career.
Try to take some time each day to plan what conference sessions you’ll go to and then reflect on what you’re learning, who you’ve met and how these ideas and experts could affect your career. Once you’ve had time to think about questions or ideas you want to discuss, seek out the experts you’ve met and strike up a conversation. They’re only in town for a few days, so learn while the learnin’s good!
Meet new friends and catch up with your peers.
One of the best things about music conferences is that every year you’ll run into old friends and meet some new ones. It’s just as important to catch up with your peers and people you haven’t seen since last year’s conference as it is to make new acquaintances that you’ll run into next year, and the year after, and so on.
Always take the opportunity to introduce yourself to who you’re standing with in an elevator or sitting next to in a conference panel. You’ll be surprised what kind of friends you can make this way!
Leave the place better than you found it.
Yarmouth is a beautiful town and hundreds of volunteers, staff, community members and businesses come together every year to make sure Nova Scotia Music Week delegates have a place to sleep, good food to eat, a way to get around to every venue and a really good time! Show your respect for their hospitality by being equally polite and not leaving the town in too big a mess when you depart on Monday!
Most importantly…
Have fun! Nova Scotia Music Week is a great chance to catch some of Canada’s best music, party with great people and move your career ahead domestically and internationally.
The team here at Marcato Musician wishes you all the best success!
We’re excited to announce Marcato Digital Solutions has secured $500,000 in financing from Innovacorp, Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation, Coastal Community Business Development Corporation, and the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program.
A Nova Scotia-based company, we develop productivity software for the music industry and have received the half-million dollar boost to bring our artist management and music festival management tools to users around the world.
“Marcato makes it easier to do anything from solo-artist and band management to the planning and execution of world class, multi-day music festivals and events,” said Darren Gallop, president and CEO of Marcato and an artist and label manager himself. “Our software reduces time wasted entering, re-entering and looking for information and increases a manager’s ability to organize and collaborate with their team while keeping everyone accountable.”
We offer two products: Marcato Musician (marcatomusician.com) and Marcato Festival (marcatofestival.com). Marcato Musician is web-based artist management software that lets musicians and band managers track communications, schedule bookings, stay on top of tasks and deadlines, manage contacts and venues, store files in a centralized file manager, promote upcoming gigs on social networking sites, and generate printable tour itineraries and media kits. Marcato Festival offers similar features to festival organizers, helping them manage artists, shows, workshops, volunteers, media, logistics and communications.
“Marcato has been a lifesaver in terms of organizing an event of our size and scope,” said Jonny Stevens, Executive Director of Halifax Pop Explosion, an international music festival and conference that uses Marcato Festival to present 150 bands in 18 venues over 5-days to more than 17,000 fans and industry delegates from around the world. “It makes it really easy for me to keep watch over the dozens of staff and team members we have, and allows us to schedule volunteers, production staff and more. Marcato has also helped keep costs significantly lower than if we didn’t use the system.”
Innovacorp, Nova Scotia’s technology commercialization agency, manages a venture capital fund that invests in early stage, high growth companies. Target industries include clean technology, information technology, and life sciences. Seed and venture capital investment is a critical part of Innovacorp’s High Performance Incubation (HPi) business model, which has earned international recognition as a best practice approach to technology commercialization.
Check out this photo from the Development Team’s room (also affectionately known as “The Nerd Cave”) in our new office:
Notice anything missing? Yes, all the developers. Also note the lack of excitement on the walls. We’re hoping to get your help with that.
The original suggestion by one of the developers was that we paint the walls black and bring in Morgan’s Dad’s 1980′s DJ Gear, including black lights and disco balls. We decided to “put that idea in the parking lot” for now. Instead, we’re going to try plastering the walls with gig posters from the artists and festivals that use Marcato.
So… here’s the pitch:
PLEASE SEND US YOUR GIG POSTERS!
Here’s our address:
The Nerd Cave – Gig Poster Project
c/o Marcato Digital Solutions
P.O. Box 852, Station A
Sydney, Nova Scotia
Canada B1P 6J1
We don’t use snail mail for much else around here, so if you’re inclined to take the time to send us a note with your gig poster (maybe even an autograph?) we’ll take pictures of what we get and share them here on the Marcato Blog. We might even find a t-shirt or two to reward whoever sends us the coolest poster, so be sure to include your return mailing address (we can’t email a t-shirt… yet).
We’re all looking forward to seeing what comes of this, though I suspect at least one of us is still secretly hoping to get that disco ball installed.
(P.S. Most of the other offices at Marcato HQ are pretty bare too, except for Laird’s – he has a White Stripes/Ashley MacIsaac poster. All that to say if you wind up sending more than one poster, we’ll probably find somewhere else to put it…)
Over the last few years as an artist manager, I have had several positive (and not so positive) experiences with agents. I can remember the first time I signed one of my bands to a major agency. I was so excited! I thought we would start making more money, get some big opening opportunities and play at all of the big festivals. In contrast to my hopes, we ended up with crappy tours, 0% increase in live performance revenue, no opening slots and nothing more than a few local festivals. After a few years under my belt and a few more agency experiences, I finally figured out how to make the most out of a major agency. In this post, I am going to try to break down the key things that I did differently that made for a much more positive experience. For all of you seasoned veterans out there, I’m sure you know most of this already, but for you younger managers or DIY artists who have recently signed with an agent, are aspiring to find a agent or who are not so happy with the early results of a recent signing, I hope this helps.
First of all, you need to realize that if your band averages less than $1000 a performance, it does not provide much of a monetary incentive to any established agent. An agent is not going to spend hours a day hunting down indie promoters, bars and other small venues for your less than $1000 a show. Think about it. At 10%, we are talking less than $100 for each show booked. How do you get your agent to prioritize your low paying shows over some of his roster’s heavy hitters? The amount of time that goes into a $10,000 show is not much more than what goes into a $1,000 show. This means that you need to sell the agent on your future success/value. You need to make him believe that in a year or 2 your band’s value will grow considerably, adding to the list of heavy hitters on his roster. Here are some of the things that I did on my last management project that really changed the game for us:
1. A leader with a vision for success
Essentially all your agent does is book shows. One of the most important things for an agent is to know that there is someone championing the project and that this person has a realistic vision of where they band is going to go. I had a chat about a band with an agent friend of mine recently. He expressed that he liked the band, but then said “if you manage this project and have a vision for how it will be a success, I am in” After speaking with him more about it, I realized that although he liked the music and the folks in the band, he was not prepared to make the time investment unless he was confident that there was someone that saw a path of success and was dedicated to driving the agenda. This can be a manager or a keen band leader. You just need to have someone dedicated to making sure all of the pieces come together (performances, press, distro, money, etc.)
2. Build an awesome team
Your agent wants to make money off you and be part of a success story. Building a team that includes a great radio promoter, publicist, label or distributer, manager, consultant, producer, etc., demonstrates that you are serious about success. If you can bring in people that have a successful track record this will help grow your agent’s belief in the project.
3. Develop a marketing plan and a strategic plan
What are you going to do and how are you going to do it? How does everyone in the team fit into the plan? Click here to read my previous blog post about developing a marketing plan. Usually, I come up with a rough one pager plan before I have a team in place, which includes the big picture vision and summary strategy for getting there. I then build a team based on this vision and once the team is in place, I work with the team to finalize the marketing plan. This way everyone has contributed and has a sense of ownership in the project.
4. Provide the tools for your agent to be able to sell your band
The basic tools include a website, photos, bio, stage plot and audio recording, but assuming your band is new or fairly unestablished, most promoters and festival bookers have likely not seen your band. Although showcasing at music events can be a great way to expose your music to buyers, in many cases getting in front of them physically can be a challenge. For this reason, one of the most critical tools is a live performance video. Here is an example of the one that I produced to equip my agent to book Carmen Townsend‘s first cross Canada rock tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sYwQoQVMz0 You may have a great sounding record, but in this day and age that alone does not instill confidence in a buyer that you can really kick it live. Here is another example of a purpose-built video we made to land Carmen an acoustic cross Canada opening slot for Heart. They needed a tool that would give confidence to the tour promoter and Heart’s management that Carmen could get up on stage with an acoustic guitar and kicks ass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD6DUqQFST4&feature=related
Your agent has relationships with buyers that will help him land opportunities for you, but he needs high level tools to get your these slots. He is not going to be calling promoters begging that they book you.
5. Schedule regular meetings with your agent
Plan 6 to 12 months out what markets you want to visit and why. Agents are always talking to venues and promoters. You need to (without driving them too crazy) be in their ear on a regular basis letting them know what you are looking for. When I was working on landing a major opening tour for Canada, I would bring it up every time I talked to them. I would also contact managers of more established bands and email my agent letting him know what I have done and the feedback I had received. I made it very clear to him on a regular basis that I wanted an opening slot as a mechanism to introduce my artist to the national market. I was not going to shut up until I got it. In the end, he landed us a killer slot. The same goes for festivals and other tours. Plan early, make sure he knows what you are looking for, and make sure you know exactly what he needs from you to make it happen.
6. Make it easy for your agent
Again, your agent is not making a ton of money from you (yet), so make his job as easy as possible. For example, instead of saying, we want you to book us a cross Canada tour in May, I would say, “we need to tour Canada in May and focus on markets where we have measured traction. I have already spoken to a band in Vancouver and they want us to open 3 shows with them in Victoria, Nanaimo and Vancouver. Here are the contacts for those shows, we are going to do a split on the door — can you go in and confirm these? Also, I spoke with a friend of mine at club X and he wants to have Carmen on the 5th. He also recommended these 2 venues in Calgary and Edmonton and has put in a good word for us. Based on the markets we are getting press and radio in, I think we need to hit these 12 cities as well. Here are a few venues that we played last time we were out there that worked out really well…” So basically, I have started the tour. The agent does not have to start from scratch — the project is already rolling, and he just needs to go in and seal the deals, do the contracts and fill in the gaps.
I hope this helps! If you have any questions or suggestions on how to get the most out of an agent, please share your thoughts in the comments below.
And lastly, we are looking for a Sales and Marketing Intern for Marketing Digital. If you have International business or business related schooling/courses, then please send in your resume.
We are looking for a qualified individual to join our team as the Junior Sales Representative. Please spread the word and send in your resumes. Job posting closes next Friday, July 1, 2011.
We’re excited to announce that we’ve just completed development of our referral program for Marcato Musician. This allows you to send invites out to any bands, managers or other organizations that you think might like to use Marcato Musician — and get credit back for doing it. Here’s how it works:
For each new account you refer in this fashion that later becomes a paying Marcato Musician customer, we will credit $1 to your account each month for as long as they remain a customer.
Yes, that means that you can use Marcato Musician for free if you refer enough accounts. If you take it even further and your referral credit exceeds the cost of your account, we’ll store the extra credit on your balance in case your monthly total ever changes (like if you add more artists to your account, or some of your referrals drop out). Since it relates to your account balance, only account admins have access to the referrals section by default. If you want to grant somebody else access, just edit their permissions in the Admin panel and check the box that reads “Access the referrals system”.
If you’re ready to get started, log in to your Marcato Musician account. Click on the Marcato icon at the top left to open the navigation menu, and click the “Referrals” link underneath your Organization’s name in the navigation menu. This page will explain to you everything that you’ve read here, and you’ll be able to start sending invitations by clicking the link you’ll find near the top.
The people you’ve invited will show up in a list in this referrals section, and will be divided up into categories: those who have started paying for their accounts (these are the ones that you get credit for), those who haven’t yet paid for their accounts, those who have declined your invitation, and those who created an account but later cancelled it. You will also see a summary that shows the cost of your account before and after your referral credit.
That’s everything you should need to know to before you begin. If you have any questions or notice anything amiss, drop us a line on our support board and we’ll get you sorted out ASAP.
So – as you know I am a newsletter evangelist!
Image courtesy of Mail Chimp
Few musicians have the luxury of independent wealth or the backing of a record label with enough cash to cover the cost of recording. Most musicians have to work really hard to raise cash in order to head into the studio. This is especially the case if it is your first recording.
Landing festival gigs is one of the most attainable ways to get your live show in front of larger crowds. Every artist and manager should want to know how to get booked at music festivals.
(P.S. Most of the other offices at Marcato HQ are pretty bare too, except for Laird’s – he has a White Stripes/Ashley MacIsaac poster. All that to say if you wind up sending more than one poster, we’ll probably find somewhere else to put it…)
