Advice from a Guru: Young Guru (Audio Engineer Behind Jay Z and Others)

Need I say more? Listen to Young Guru share his journey in the music world, how he met Jay Z, and his take on how recording should happen.

Pillars of (Online) Fan Engagement. (All Other Ground Is Sinking Sand!)

Trust me, you can only spam your followers/fans/people in your circles for so long. Even if you're the hottest potato fresh out the oven, spamming 'hungry' fans is sure ticket to a fast expiration date.
Does it mean more work? Dedicating 'extra' time to sit by your device of choice to counter your posts on your upcoming gig with interesting snippets of your life? Maybe.
The key, (I find), is to work towards making your online social engagement 'second nature'. If surely you can spam,you can engage! (Rihanna's love of Instagram is a great example; after all, a (ratchety) picture is worth 1000 words,even more. I refer you to celebrity blogs and their constant deciphering of her posts. Keeps her relevant and mentioned and talked/bitched about...you almost always know what she's up to! Enough with improving her SEO ranking...
So,what can you do? How can you get the best out of the interwebs,your current and potential armies of fans? Behold, the pillars... (with italicized interjections from this gigging musician.)


(image via Hypebot)

1. Authenticity

First and foremost, communication with your fans must come from you, the artist, in your voice. Not your manager, label, or intern. People aren’t interested in hearing generic updates from your label or agent. They want to get to know your personality, hear about your experiences. Essentially, fans want to feel like they’re on the journey of your career along with you.
(It's cool to have your team update for you once in a while ,but c'mon, it's you we are following!)

2. Consistency

Consistency is key when it comes to engaging with your fans. You can’t post an update on Facebook one day, then disappear for several weeks to come back and find that a bunch of fans responded with questions that you never answered. People will likely stop paying attention if you don’t have a consistent presence. 
(I mean really, how would you feel to be snubbed? Constantly? That's the wrong kind of consistency to adopt.)

3. Sustainability

And finally, when it comes to fan engagement, you have to sustain it over the long term. Don’t expect immediate results. It might take months of being consistent to start seeing more quality interactions with your fans, which in turn could lead to new fans, more people at your shows, and increased sales.
(Quit with waiting to a week before your gig to start updating your profiles in CAPS (so annoying!), somehow thinking people should pay attention...you haven't even dusted off the virtual cobwebs!)

If you have an online presence, you in turn acknowledge that you know its inherent value. Else, you could also remain antiquated...which you can make work for you. Point is, an online presence indicates to fans that you are there to engage with. Remember that.

Never leave fans hanging yo! Same way you don't want them to leave you hanging at your gigging hour.
 
           (image courtesy of hypebot)

It's part of the job. The sooner you accept/adopt, the sooner you can reap the awesome benefits of the interwebs and the fans that be.( An interesting and potentially rewarding approach is to centralize your efforts to one social network, then autopost to others. However, be sure to check the autoposted sites occasionally, to avoid a situation as that of the poor cat above. I'd personally recommend Google Plus for such an endeavour; benefits/features will be the subject of another post, so keep it here.)

You might also like: Artists and Social Media: Some Tips (thank me later!)
(Insights largely borrowed from Hypebot's 3 Pillars Of Music Fan Engagement)

Profitable and Sustainable Music Careers Take A Lot of Work!

In order to become financially free in your music career, you will need to take a very different approach than the one that is taken by most musicians. You will need to approach your music career as both a “musical artist” AND as a businessman (or woman). You must run your career as a business, where your primary goal is to add as much value as possible to your fans, other bands, music company officials, and other people in the business of music.

Besides not being prepared to achieve success in the business side of music, many musicians fail to make a decent income in their careers because they make the following mistakes:

Not Taking The Time To Identify Your Market

Once you have become familiar with the value you have to give to the music industry, you will you need to find and identify the people who you will give value to. 

One of the most common mistakes made by musicians is that they spend the time to create an album, increase their musical skills, or work in another area of the music industry, but when it comes time to receive the payoff for their hard work, they have great difficulty making any money. This happens because they have not taken the time to build a database of customers who are ready and willing to pay for the value that the musician is offering. 

Not Having Solid Goals And Ways To Reach Them

To earn a good living in the music industry, you MUST develop a specific plan for how you will reach your goals. If you merely fantasize about making a lot of money, this is not enough to make this goal a reality. Rather than fantasizing, start working toward what you want to achieve by asking yourself the following questions:

1. What is your desired yearly income from your music career?
2. What are the sources of musical income that will make the amount in question 1 possible?
3. What action must you take to set up these sources of income?
4. How many ways can you ADD VALUE to your interactions with people in the music business? (Think of every possibility!)
5. How many ways can you eliminate risk for other people in the music business?

Thinking That Popularity = Making A Lot Of Money In The Music Industry

The truth is that some musicians (who are very popular) still work side jobs just to get by. By understanding this, you will be able to push ‘fame’ aside in order to focus on the most effective ways to work toward your goal of making a good living in music

Not Taking The Time To Set Up Various Music Related Sources Of Income

In order to make a good living in your music career, you must stop thinking from the mindset of obtaining a single sum of money as your main goal. Instead, you must work to build many different sources of musical income that go into your bank account on an ongoing, residual basis. 

Not Consistently Providing Additional Value To Other People In The Music Industry

If you want to make a lot of money in your music career, you will need to make it 110% clear that you are the number one choice when someone in the music industry must choose between you and your competitors. In fact, this must be TOTALLY clear before anyone has even listened to one second of your music!

 

Useful music business assessments and more insights/examples can be found on the original post.

You might also like: Developing A Hardcore Fan Base

 

Artists and Social Media: Some Tips

1. Start with the social media outlets you are comfortable with.

2.Be personal and authentic

3.Let the negative comments stay

(yup! People will come to your defence.)

4. Keep your Facebook fan page and personal profile separate.

5. You've got to hustle!

(Get rid of the misconception that merely posting stuff online will get you attention.)

6. Don't send out too many posts via social media.

(''On Twitter you can throw things out there pretty often, see what sticks and what gets retweeted. Use that to know what to post on Facebook.”)

7.Don't forget that Youtube is also a social network.

('Fans can subscribe to you, fans can interact with you through your channel.')

8. Pay attention to your analytics.

 

These are tips shared by music and digital experts at the New Music Seminar. Here's more details to each tip.)

Got any tried and tested tips that have worked for you, do share in the comment section below :)

You might also like: Push vs Pull Marketing: C'mon,Be Cool.

 

 

The Music Fan Experience (and its evolution throughout history)

What can we learn from a new generation of music fans?

 Remember the good old days of timing music countdown charts on radio to tape and re-tape your favourite songs? The pencil-cassette-celltape relationship? We broke numerous copyright laws,but it was such a dedicated fan affair!

The internet has since become an even more disruptive model for the traditional copyright music business model, but there have been disruptive fan experience models throughout history.

Developing a HardCore Fan Base

"A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living." (The 1000 True Fans Theory)

 

(image via kk.org)

Banking Beats: Africa's Music Economy

'Aid to Africa' has been a dominant theme in the media and political arenas for many years. Yet, despite the billions of dollars in development-related aid, many argue that it has done little to reduce poverty or stimulate economic growth. In contrast, the music industry in Africa has grown exponentially over the last decade and has had a direct impact on Africa's economy. African musical acts of varying genres have worldwide recognition, concert attendance numbers are in the tens of thousands, and homegrown music festivals draw a global audience. Examine the growth of the music economy in Africa and the opportunities it presents locally and internationally.

This was the official blurb for a SXSW 2012 Interactive Panel that saw Africa's rising music economy discussed. Thanks to Matthew Dawes ,one of the panelists, I was able to find the session's podcast, available here.

 

Also interesting to note that Society HAE have proposed a panel session for 2013's conference: The Promised Land: Can Africa Save The Music Biz?

Among other things, the panel proposes to focus to look at what Africa's growing economy and youth population mean for the Music Industry, as well as the partnership opportunities that exist locally for foreign investors, artists and record labels.

 

Let's wait and see if their panel proposal is selected, but I think the conversation can start/continue.

 

What do you make of Africa's music economy, as a consumer and/or producer? Feel free to share in the comments section :)

What Could You Teach Your Fans?

It's great that you can share with your fans on upcoming gigs,releases and other updates directly via your facebook page or twitter timeline, but sooner or later, a musician can pass off as snobbish and irritating ,especially for where you dedicate time to comment on or reply to fan messages. 

 

There's many ways to reach your bottom line as regards fans, whether it's getting them to buy CDs, attend a gig or earn you a 'most popular on social media' title by way of likes and follows. 

Have you ever asked yourself what else you have to offer your fans, other than entertainment? Insight, perhaps? Social commentary alongside other netizens? (Put yourself in a fan's shoes, would you like to only receive 'pushy' messages?)

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Mixtapes vs (Street)Albums vs EPs: Definitions

Informed by my curiosity as to whether every artist should aim for an album as a 'career catalogue', I went about the interwebs and came across this interesting XXL Magazine breakdownof three interesting ways in which musicians can and have used to showcase their talent/art. (Check out the original article for the author's interesting personal opinions.) 

(image from the original XXL Magazine article)

 

 

MIXTAPES: 

Before and outside of hip-hop, mixtapes were a combination of various songs put together by listeners, often for friends to get different songs. When hip-hop caught on in the ’80s, DJs, who were then often bigger than the artists, showcased their skills and taste by cutting up music, blending songs, and featuring new music.

In the ’90s, mixtapes primarily shifted into two categories. Blend tapes, which would take a capellas and verses and put them against different instrumentals. Or standard mixtapes, which were the definitive way to introduce new music and artists, and most lacked any technical DJ skills. Stars were made like DJ Clue, who Def Jam signed and went platinum just playing new unreleased music.

The Internet killed the ’90s definition of mixtapes.(Personal note: I'd say, the internet redefined mixtapes, case-in-point: Mixcrate) Blogs became the new DJs by becoming the sources for premiering new music, and many mixtape DJs at the time were forced into early retirement. A few stood at the end of the day, and became stars in their own rights, releasing projects formed entirely of original music with one specific artist/crew (and often original production). Now, these were always called mixtapes, yet often didn’t have any mixing or outside artists, and sometimes were better than artist’s official album releases.

STREET ALBUMS:

Although they’re distributed virally and organically, they aren’t really a mix of anything other than that artist’s original music (i.e. an album).

Artists are also releasing street albums/EP’s at the same time, so they can provide physical distribution in stores (and when people search for that artist in the world’s biggest music store, iTunes), while still giving away the music to the true hip-hop heads, blogs, and growing their buzz organically.

EPs(Extended Plays):

With artists needing music released in the marketplace, but not wanting to “officially” drop an album, EPs have become the current “it” thing to do in hip-hop. Many artists release EPs as a way to officially get out and monetize original music while building their buzz, without having the pressures of putting out a true album.

 Further reading led me to find this analysis of EPs, especially with the rise of the indie musician.

1. EPs mean more focus:

When you plan to release only 6 songs(for instance), you can spend more of your recording time (and money) focusing on those 6 songs. If this involves studio time, it can mean money saved or more attention paid to getting top notch tracks. If recording yourself, it means more time and freedom to experiment in the studio. And when it comes to mixing this can mean more time devoted to bringing out the little nuances in each mix, as opposed to,say, 12 songs.

2. EPs mean more music:

 With a traditional artist releasing a traditional full length album, that album will generally last about 2 years. Bands typically release a few singles off their album, go on tour for a year or so, and then get back into the studio to write and release a new album. This typically happens in 2 to 3 year cycles for an active band.

This means that in order to stay relevant to your fan base you must find other ways to connect with them in between albums. Usually touring is enough. But imagine for a moment if your band decided to put out 6 song EPs from now on. You could write, record, mix, and release your EP quicker than a full length album.

3. EPs mean more growth:

EPs allow musicians to express our musical growth to the world more frequently.

 

At the end of the day, the bottom line is and should be producing good music. All the above are just means of showcasing it. :)

 

Writing A Musician Bio That Doesn't Suck!

A bio can be a tough nut to crack for independent artists. So how do you write a good bio?

First of all, proper spelling and punctuation are imperative. Don’t have errors in your bio!  Have other people proofread your bio, especially if this isn’t one of your strengths. (I’ve been guilty of spelling and grammatical errors plenty of times myself – just make sure you don’t let yourself off the hook too easily. Proofread. Care. It matters)

Image courtesy of Shafali Caricatures.

‘Popular Expression in the “Silicon Savanna”: Perspectives on the Digitization of Art and Life in Kenya’

 

Organized by Dr. Mbugua wa Mungai (Kenyatta University) and Dr. Andrew J. Eisenberg (University of Oxford), with support from the Goethe Institut-Nairobi and the European Research Council’s ‘Music, Digitization, Mediation’ Research Programme based at the University of Oxford, UK.
 
While it remains to be seen whether the digital revolution will bring Kenya’s ‘Vision 2030′ to fruition, digital technologies are clearly transforming the landscape of Kenyan popular culture.

Apply for the Music Project by the D&F Academy: Learning for the 21st Century

The Dekeyser&Friends  Academy offers innovative learning that creates impact. Its new kind of education allows experienced personalities to pass on their knowledge to a group of young, diverse individuals, who learn hands-on and who use their new skills and knowledge to turn their dreams into reality. 

The Academy offers unique one-year educational programs in the areas of global issues, arts & culture and sports.

Fifteen international Fellows will travel to Hamburg for ten weeks in September 2012 to learn how they can use the power of music to inspire people. The Fellows will then spend the next ten months working on their own projects at home, supported by the D&F Academy. 

During the project our Fellows will benefit from the DreamLab, which is a series of workshops and skill sessions covering values such as passion and courage and includes essential skills like planning, budgeting and presentation skills, taught by inspiring speakers from a variety of fields – from artists to entrepreneurs! 

The 10 weeks Challenge phase in Hamburg is followed by the 10 months Implementation phase in the respective Fellow`s home country. During this phase each Fellow will implement their DreamPlan, for example a social music event or children music initiative of his or her own, with the support of the D&F Academy. During this whole time, Fellows will take part in an online curriculum and we will coach, mentor and advise them to get their own project off the ground!

Application Deadline is June 25th, 2012. Don't miss out on this opportunity.

You can apply here.

 

Overnight Success: Should You Wish For It?

Whether it's a generation Y (aka the popcorn generation) thing or a recurring dream in many a human being, overnight success crosses our minds. All the more so with art, and music. From obscurity to celebrity/sensation. It may form the perfect theme for tonight's midnight dream, but in reality, is this what we should be hoping for in our musical efforts?

Push Marketing vs Pull Marketing: C'mon, Be Cool.

With the world going online, we musicians have great opportunities to interact with existing fans, garner new ones, possibly go viral, even when no one can quite figure out why.

Haters and Trolls: How To Deal

For every great creative work put forth by the artistic mind,there may well be as much 'hating' as there is praise, and many a time, the haters' voice lingers on a bit longer,especially online. It can get overwhelming,after all we are human. But no matter how much trending twitter topics or Facebook post reshares of unflattering comments may strike a nerve,wisdom dictates taking it all in stride,acknowledging criticism in its diverse ways,and yes,even responding to it.

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The world over,there have been stories told and chronicles written,of individuals who inspired jaded masses and disillusioned communities,to fight for their rights, to stand up and challenge oppressive regimes and unfavourable status quos. We know them by name,we quote them when looking for inspiration and when retelling history.

But what about the people that were inspired? The unnamed,the unsung 'ordinary folk?''

 In truth,it is they who are the heroes,the core of history,without whom,the Martin LutherKings and Wangari Maathais wouldn't be the icons they are. And it is the people that we ought to be making way for!

If any of you know this lady,you know we have waited for her album,let alone a single,for the longest while. To finally have gotten the chance to listen(exclusively too..) to what promises to be an 'on-repeat' kind of song is quite the moment of reckoning. She highlights that 'liberation will stay.' Sara Mitaru is not only an amazing singer,but hers is a message carried across a catchy tune: 'Make way for the people.' It reminds me of Che Guevara's saying, that 'liberators do not exist, the people liberate themselves.'

 

This,to me,is a song that encapsulates the recent history that's been experienced inNorthern Africa. The revolution lied,lies and will continue to lie with the people. A timely one,too, as we here in Kenya gear up for a politically feverish season. We allwant things to be different, but we often make the mistake of pegging our hope onan individual,or group of individuals...possibly why we are never satisfied with our leadership.

 

Sara calls out to make way for the people today! My interpretation of this is that if all you want to do is sit back and be pessimistic,make way for those who've had about enough of a culture of impunity,of self-serving and self-agrrandizing leaders. Make wayfor those who will hold their leaders accountable,or will do their best to.

 

A great song this,and hopefully it will rekindle the flames for our quest to see a better Kenya, a better Africa that can only be realized if we rise up and make that difference.

 

Check out the song's teaser below, and look out  for the single on your airwaves! 

 

 

Make Way(The Lyrics)

They Say 
We're independent but they won't set us free,
They Say
We are sovereign but we shackled and chained
They Say
The future is now but the past is with us
They Say,
We are tomorrow but we're stuck in yesterday

But

There's a Man down
Head down
No food on his plate
Will he bow down
Stay down
To see another day
He is pinned down
Spirit down his back against the wall
so stand down stand down
Liberation will say

Make Way
For the people today
Make way
Liberation will say
Make way
For the people today
Make way Liberation will stay

They say,
We won't sit around we'll fight for our rights
They Say
You have trampled us enough Is enough
They say
The future is now, we leave behind the past
They Say,
We are tomorrow say goodbye to yesterday

And we will stand up
Heads up
Put food on our plates
We won't bow down
Stay down
We'll find another way
We will look up stay up and push against the wall,
So rise up rise up
Liberation has said

Make way
For the people today
Make way liberation will say!

 

©2011  Music and Lyrics by Blackman Entertainment

 

Who Are You Really Writing Songs For? | Songtrust

It is natural for songwriters to think that you are always writing music for yourself. After all, art itself is a form of ‘self-expression’. However, take a step back and think about who you are actually writing the music for by asking yourself these questions:

What are your goals as a songwriter?

Are you simply writing the best music you can because you love it?

Are you making music that will appeal to your fans because you know they will buy it?

Are you writing music that will appeal to publishers who can try to pitch the music for commercials, soundtracks and the like?

This distinction is very important for you to understand, as it will be the basis for how you approach your songs, and just how ‘self-expressive’ you can be, or can’t be, depending on what is needed for the right scenario.

Read the rest of the article here:
http://blog.songtrust.com/songwriting-tips/who-are-you-really-writing-songs-for/

Why Musicians Should Own Websites.

I am a girl about the internets...(someone should look into offering valid credentials around that.)

Anyway, while this blog may have begun as a 'group therapy-let's-all-woosa-as-musicians' space, I've decided to add more objectivity to it, and one way is to curate content as I come across it.

Today, we look at this issue of owning your own space on the internet as a musician.(Stop panicking! Breathe in...out...and read on...LOL!)

It's been interesting to find that most musicians,locally and internationally haven't jumped onto this opportunity for many reasons. For instance,as a big hit, there's always content being put out about you, right? So if an interested party does a google search about who you are,plenty is bound to come up and inform adequately. And besides, if I have a facebook fan page and I tweet every now and then, what more do I need, right? 

WRONG!!

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Digital Music Distribution: Are We Willing To Embrace It?

I hope this post will be more of a discussion that yields fruit and proposes a way forth.

 

We have embraced tech in our everyday lives; money transfer, bill payments...and it's made our lives a whole lot easier. There is no shortage of documentation on app developments and competitions, all aimed at tapping into the connectivity and opportunity that the mobile phone has presented. Now, the music industry hasn't been left behind on the tech front, with iTunes Music Store as a benchmark success. And with that has come digital distributors such as TuneCore and CD Baby,SoundCloud and Reverbnation (who recently ventured into the distribution business), AWAL UK and Overtone in South Africa, who distribute to various online music stores, among them iTunes. 

In the US, digital distribution seems to have been embraced and is the success claim for many an artiste, primarily via iTunes downloads.

Whilst these services are accessible to any music lover, they aren't necessarily customized for our market(ie Africa). Reverbnation,for instance, is a platform that most musicians have embraced, and use to create a basic online profile,(call it the Facebook for musicians...lol). Tunecore delivers music to the Nokia store,whose African reach is limited to South Africa.

Physical CDs acquisition tends to be another logistical nightmare altogether, and in this digital era, it may not be the most convenient option,not in a world where a song becomes a hit overnight, yet shipping isn't as easy.

That leaves torrents as the only other option for us to acquire music from our favourite 'international' artists. True?

Now, closer home. I'm yet to come across a digital content distributor operating across the continent.(Massive opportunity if done well....could do a lot to curb piracy, and some of us can get decent salaries off our craft/vocation...) I've had the pleasure of sitting in on brainstorming sessions on digital content (primarily music) distribution proposals. Here in Kenya, two startups: PewaHewa and Hewa have proposed a solution to digital distribution. Yet to fully understand how Hewa works, but PewaHewa makes use of MPESA,Airtel Money and YuCash to purchase one's favourite music, upon which a link to the song(s) is sent to your email address. 

 

Pewa Hewa
        

 

  
Hewa
   

Has Africa been left behind on the music and tech front?

As an artist, this novelty sounds very appealing. It reduces the headache of mass producing CDs, of smooching retailers to carry your music and pay you in good time, or having to chase every Akamba bus to deliver the CD to an eager fan in Mombasa or Kakamega as a last resort. DIY(Do It Yourself) Music Distribution is something many musicians are having to look into because the 'systems' in place seem to do nothing more than abuse our art.

All the tech-savvy people I know can go on and on about apps developed to meet many other needs, but when it comes to music, it's a whole other story. Having recently released an album, and (thankfully) there being a demand for it across the city,country and even continent(woohoo!), we are almost spending sleepless nights trying to figure out how to satiate the urgency with which the album is requested! The Ma3 album for instance, is available on iTunes and Amazon for those outside Africa. Yet the interesting thing is that people want the physical copy of the album. While that is all good, (definitely a good dilemma)...it's a logistical nightmare. We put the album online for everyone to listen (hoping that come the time to sell, digital would be the primary preference). But not so the case! Make no mistake, we are very grateful that the product we've put out there is that desirable! 

The question begs, are we, as musicians and music lovers, willing to embrace to embrace technology's solutions to the problem at hand? As a musician, I have a product to get out to the market. As a music consumer, I want to get access to the product as soon as possible, and to my satisfaction. Basic supply and demand chain? Not so! As it turns out, demand entails tangibility as I'm learning, at least as far as music goes. Fans want autographed copies of records, and it would seem that digital distribution doesn't offer that? 

But what if, as an artist, I put up my album artwork/inlay on my website for free download? 

As a social media evangelist/strategist in the Kenyan music industry, it takes all I've got not to pull out my dreadlocks trying to figure out this quagmire!

 

 

@NiNanjiraNanjira Sambuli

Goodness me!!! there really is no embracing digital music purchase/distribution is there? everyone wants a physical CD copy! woi!

The response(s) to this tweet are the inspiration behind this post/conversation. I'd love nothing more than to ensure that every music lover of the music in my hands gets to it in good time, whether in Mtwapa or Munich! But what I desire even more, is to get this to every fan in the most convenient way possible! This convenience? Digital music distribution.

So the question doth beg? Are we willing to embrace digital music distribution? If so, what do we need to do, as musicians and music lovers? What are the problems that this novelty presents, and what are the possible solutions? For musicians: could digital distribution be a means of curbing piracy by meeting demand in good time? For music lovers: could this be a means of propelling Africa's musical talent onto the world platform? We have propelled the innovation behind some of our most treasured applications/tech startups, why should we not do it for our art?