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!

Click here to sign up today for a free trial of Marcato Musician and find our how it can help you make the best of the opportunities you create this weekend.

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.”

In addition to Halifax Pop Explosion, Marcato already counts as customers renowned artists, companies and events such as Australia’s Peats Ridge Festival and Sydney Blues & Roots Festival and Canada’s Gordie Sampson, Joel Plaskett, Mary Jane Lamond, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Stan Rogers Folk Festival, Celtic Colours International Festival, and the East Coast Music Association.

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.

Both Marcato Musician and Marcato Festival offer 30-day unlimited free trials of the productivity software at marcatodigital.com.

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…)

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.

Sales & Marketing Intern

Junior Sales Representative

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.

For starters, you can do more with it. And you can do it faster. Looking for a particular booking? Just search for it in the menu. Want to send a message to the rest of your team? Click the “Add Message” link that’s right there at the top of the Messages submenu. If you’re an account admin, you can reach the Account Settings screen from anywhere just by clicking the link in the menu (instead of having to find it buried behind the Admin page). The new menu makes it easier to find what you’re looking for, and faster to get there.

It’s also more flexible. Previously, if we wanted to add a new feature or module to the software, we would have to think up a sensible way to reorganize the navigation links that used to span across the top of the page. If there wasn’t a sensible way to group it with something else, it simply got tacked on the end — which meant we were quickly running out of real estate at the top of the screen. Now we have more room to expand without getting disorganized — and the whole thing sits nicely hidden out of your way when you’re not using it.

The next time you’re using your Marcato Account, open up the navigation menu by clicking the icon at the top left of the page, and have a look around to familiarize yourself with what’s there. You’ll find all of the old Help links on the right-hand pane of the navigation menu, so if you have any questions or suggestions about these changes, you can follow the Support Board link there. You can also leave your feedback here on our blog.

Marcato Digital Sales Executive Job Description

The first video is a walkthrough of our new Facebook Event Syncing functionality. You can click here to watch the instructional video.

We’re also launching a brand new, much improved version of our website integration system for feeding upcoming bookings to your website. We’ve ditched our old PHP scripts in favour of embeddable HTML widgets. You can use our website widget creator tool to easily create your own drop-in bookings feed. You’ll be given a snippet of HTML (similar to a Youtube video-embed code) that you can paste right into your site. To access this new tool, go to your artist profile and click ‘Website Integration’.

If you have any questions or comments, please post them below!