I totally flaked out on seeing bands last night. But I did get here early and was glad to be able to check out Avi Buffalo (representing LBC!) who was pretty awesome. Also happy to speak to Pyles about yesterday’s music review session and Tony from SubPop for a bit. I’ve decided I am going to live blog the Social Networking Panel, so these updates will be frequent throughout their panel. I’ll also pull in tweets as needed so you can get some reactions as they are happening.
So the formalities:
Panel: Social Media & Music Online: Making the Internet Work for You
Panelists:Mat Diablo (91X/Slacker.com), Rob Marlbrough (webwized.com/robdowntown.com), Dave Brown (Holiday Matinee PR), Jordan Glazier (eventful.com) and Jason Fisher (Epitaph Records), Chris Cantore (Online Media Director, Street Scene)
Quoteable:
“There is no excuse for you to suck on twitter” - Dave Brown
What You Missed:
1.46 pm: Diablo and Marlbrough are already here - Mat has his laptop up and is drinking a beer. Cantore came by to chat with me which was nice.
1.57 pm: Owen from FM 94/9 just came in.
1.59 pm: session is about to start and the crowd is still sparse.
2.00 pm: Bart introduces the panel.
2.03 pm; Mat takes over and lets us know that they are not going to talk about Social Media in the abstract.
2.09 pm: Cantore is talking about his new project - The Green Room.
2.10 pm: Intros are over. Diablo is steering the convo to twitter.
2.14 pm: Dave Brown with the first great quote of the panel. Cantore tells everyone that you will lose followers and piss people off.
2.20 pm: Cantore is emphasizing how to be interactive and how to build a presence and “your brand”.
2.22 pm: Fisher (from Epitaph) tells us social media has leveled the playing field. He talks about the evolution of twitter and how it has transformed into a way to broadcast information. Twitter has a 6x greater click through rate than a myspace bulletin.
2.26 pm: Brown gives a slew of options a band can use in lieu of myspace.
2.27 pm: Q & A starts. Blogs to look at for tech info. Mashable.com is mentioned.
2.28 pm: Rosey and I get a shoutout from Cantore.
2.30 pm: Fisher emphasizes that you have to keep your fans engaged. He also tells everyone that your photo is more important that your music. Controversial!
2.32 pm: Cantore emphasizes that you need to keep your content updated. (side note: this is true, as a person who reads blogs, there is no reason to go back to a site unless there is new content. the most successful blogs have timely updates.)
2.35 pm: Follow counts? Do they make a difference? Quality over quantity is the rule.
2.38 pm: Downtown Rob talks about being engaged with your followers.
2.39 pm: Some tweets during the panel:
@MyMelodie Love that theres a Social Media panel @ music fest! RT @DowntownRob I uploaded YouTube video Social Media Panel at #NPMT http://bit.ly/RsaUj
@auroraawakes @holidaymatinee just want to say I’m enjoying your advice and opinion on the social media panel.
2.41 pm: How to monetize? Some guys is giving a business plan...blah blah blah.
2.43 pm: This lady who has been asking wack questions in every panel I’ve attended is asking another wack question.
2.45 pm: Facebook does not have as much functionality for musicians but now is the time to get familiar with it.
2.47 pm: Next question - you tube. How do you get people to look at your you tube vids? Downtown Rob says to use it as a storage place - send your links via your social networks.
2.48 pm: Tumblr is mentioned - free resources for bands are good.
2.54 pm: Fisher says that email is dead, collect phone numbers instead.
2.57 pm: Panel is over. Woo hoo.
K, that’s it for me today. Gonna see some bands now!
I sat in three more sessions but only took notes at one.....
Panel: Indie Labels: The Last Great Hope?
Panelists: Tony Kiewel (Sub Pop Records), Marc Silverman (ADA Distribution), Eric Howarth (M-Theory Music/Hi Speed Soul), John Reis (The Night Marchers / Rocket from the Crypt / Swami Records), Pall Jenkins (Three Mile Pilot / Blackheart Procession) and Rafter Roberts (Singing Serpent Music)
Quoteable:
“People who are interested in this noise want the genuine article. If the package is worth owning, people will buy it.” - John Reis
“Doing something you like is not a good business plan.” - Pall Jenkins
“Chasing something instead of expressing themselves.” - Tony Kiewel when asked about people’s motivation for sending mass mailings to record labels.
What You Missed:
A great session. This panel had a lot to say about the indie label’s role in the new marketplace for music. It’s obvious that indie labels are doing something right. Tony Kiewel from SubPop moderated the session and he was particularly wordy (not in a bad way) when talking about the indie label’s role in the “system”. As we all know, the way people hear about music has changed - instead of hearing it on the radio or seeing it on tv, they are getting their exposure to music from myspace, you tube, torrents, or even their own network of friends. What I thought was interesting (and I felt that this resonated through every session I attended) - the panelists obviously love what they do, they aren’t in it to make a ton of money and the best advice they can give to anyone is to make music that people connect with. Seems easy enough, but we all know its not. The one last thing I want to note about the session is that Tony from SubPop did say a couple of things about the radio that I found particularly interesting. First he said that the bands and their label do not get played on the radio (except in rare occurrences and that our city is lucky that we do have good radio). He also mentioned that the “scene” in Seattle is supported by a great radio station, KEXP. I’m glad he mentioned this - as much as radio is put down by the indie rock world, I think recognizing that getting a tastemaker like KEXP to play your music is vital for taking a band to the next level. The radio world is changing too - so much so that an indie band like Silversun Pickups (on Dangerbird) can score a top 10 hit or two on the alt rock charts. That sort of indie success can happen (see Manchester Orchestra as your latest example), but they did all the things that this panel emphasized - get your music out there, play some shows, love what you’re doing. (oh yeah, and DON’T SUCK). One last general observation - the people asking questions about how to get your music to a label (or in other sessions on tv or in movie) - who the f*** were they? Not part of the “scene” here. That last quote up there by Tony from SubPop really summarized what I was feeling - anyone there that was trying to get info about “making it big” or making a ton of money from the music is in the wrong business.
All right, enough rambling from me. Go out and see some shows tonight!!!
I did drag myself out of bed to get to the NPMT on time....I took notes from the first couple of sessions. If I don’t do a post now, it may never happen so I am spending my downtime drinking coffee at Eclipse and using their wi-fi.
Panel: Music Industry 101: The Basics 2009
Panelists: Michael Halloran (FM 94/9), John Ryan (Chicago Kid Productions), Paul Abbott (Zen Mastering), Mario Quintero (Black Box Recording Studio)
Quoteable:
“People forget we need really good songs.“
“If you don’t write good songs, I can’t help you.” - Halloran
What you missed:
Of course, Hal got some gems in even though I was only there for 15 minutes. Basically, he told people that to get your music on the radio, it has to not suck. Well, duh you say. But seriously, there is a lot of bad music out there and definitely tunes that are not radio worthy (or the flip side, tunes that should not be radio worthy, but that’s a whole other post). Bart Menodza (who was moderating) also reinforced Hal’s point by bringing up that a good song is a good song no matter what - and brought up covers (near and dear to my heart), citing the example of the covers of Britney Spear’s “Baby One More Time.” And remember when everyone did covers of Gnarls Barkely’s “Crazy”? Good songs last forever. Enough said.
Panel: Crafting “The Buzz”
Panelists include: Wendy Bryford-Jones (Hello Wendy PR), Judy Miller (Motormouth Media), Amanda Kagen (ABC Public Relations), Albert Ching (OC Weekly) and Seth Combs (San Diego CityBeat)
Quoteable:
“I want to hear something that resonates, that I can remember” - Wendy Bryford-Jones when talking about what she looks for when representing a new band
What you missed:
This panel came at you with both sides of getting information out about bands and their music. On the one side, you had three industry PR vets and then the other side were writers for local alt-weeklies. I recorded this session and I may have more to say about this later if my week doesn’t get crazy. But in a nutshell, I got a good sense of how the publicity world works - and as someone who does write about music and receives emails from these publicists, it was interesting to hear how and what they do for artists. On the writing side of the panel, both Albert and Seth had some zingers but mostly I got the sense that like most people who write about music, they want to hear new music, they want to go see bands, they want to write about you. With a huge caveat of course. You have to not suck. (A recurring theme already...) Near the end of the panel, there was a great discussion about new media - the debate over whether print is dead or not lives. But really I think we all came away knowing that new media is the best way to get information out - the instananeous nature of twitter and blogs is really a great way for people discover new music and create buzz.
I kind of did stream of conciousness notes of the Music Marketing: Brands and Bands panel.
The lo-down: session on how to build a fanbase through the local media, merchandising, marketing and promotion - loosely moderated by George Vargas, the UT music critic.
The panelists (besides George Varga): Erik Stein (Scoop Marketing), Garett Michaels (FM 94/9), Jeff Motch (Lively & Motch), Petey X (Merch Lackey), Greg Pearson (Trusonic) and Tadd Crayton (loserkids.com)
My notes (these were totally what I was typing while I was listening to the panel):
George Varga asks all the panelists if they’ve been in a band….out of the 7…just 2 of them (one of them on season 2 of real world. Don’t recognize him at all. )
Crap, my cell phone just went off….bad bad me. we all got to hear Against Me!
Varga: Era of the internet….in flux but where will it be going?
Petey: play out…presence on the internet. Looks at myspace if a band is asking merchlackey to print tees. Merch a key factor in getting yourself out there (repeated more than once from everyone so far…)
(editor note: Varga asks everyone to tell the audience what they do)
Stein: as a professional publicists – need to start as DIY before you can really break.
Garett: “we play music”
Motch: design….Jack Johnson is his biggest client
Petey: 10 yrs as a musician and then what’s next? I can do this better than most people out there.
Pearson: tru-sonic – 30000 retail locations that they provide music for. Retail, music choice. Custom playlists. Original and covers. 20% unsigned artists.
Crayton: loserkids – fashion/started by the blink guys. Formerly of artist direct.
Varga points out a “Common denominator” - blink (stein, motch and crayton)
Using blink as an example of how do it right - they toured up and down the west coast – blink – where all the airplay and popularity came from.
Garett: passionate fanbase – don’t do unless you love it. (blink) he heard from programmers on the west coast (while in Detroit)
Motch: If someone’s an asshole, you don’t help them.
Stein: access is a lot freer. With the web, they need content.
Garett: on radio programming – what is radio trying to do. It’s a business – used KROQ as an exmaple. Narrow and formulaic. When programming KBZT, they looked at the opportunity in the market. KBZT tried to build a passionate fan base on word of mouth. They had an agenda. Garett comments on the state of radio (my favorite topic). He calls it “Formulaic bullshit” Notes that KBZT only plays three songs of top 10 in their format. Radio cannot break a band it is an accelerator. Gives MIA as an example of how radio is an accelerator. MIA was a critic’s darling when the album came out. They tried playing “Paper Planes”. Not much traction on air. Now “Paper Planes” is being used in the trailer for the movie Pineapple Express. Radio (crossover over different genres) is jumping on it now.
Next topic: Does good press matter?
Petey: Bad press is good press.
Another topic: how do you hear new music?
Motch: 91x made me turn off the radio.
Garett: tools for discovering new music – recommendations and word of mouth. (He sideway insulted Varga with saying that he would rather listen to someone he respected as opposed to Varga’s writing.)
Guitar center -10 formats, core playlist. Mix in custom acts.
(At this point I stopped taking notes...wasn’t as interesting because they were kinda all saying the same thing.)
But I recorded the whole thing and here are some cool quotes (besides the couple of gems up there....)
Garett: “The 900 lb. gorilla of rock radio in America is KROQ.”
Garett: “Who remembers the Nixons?” Stein: “I do, I was their publicist.”
Petey: “No one wants to see that the record they worked six months on and poured their heart and soul into just be bagged by a person who can’t even play guitar.”
Petey: “In your life you can only sell out once.”
Motch: “Anyone who really loves music in this town doesn’t listen to the radio.”
On another note - the panel was definitely dominated by Petey, Stein, Motch and Garett. Pearson and Crayton barely got a word in edgewise. But all in all, very entertaining and informative for sure. Can’t wait to go see bands in a few hours.
There’s more than a few familiar faces on these panels.
Music Industry 101: the Basics in 2008
Panelists include:
Robbie Lloyd (Silva Artist Management), Ben Moore (Big Fish Studios), Steve Churchyard (Producer INXS/The Pretenders), Chris Cantore (X1FM), Ken Leighton (San Diego Reader), Nathan Dinsdale (San Diego CityBeat)
Music Marketing: Promoting Your Band
Panelists include:
George Varga (San Diego Union Tribune), Jeff Motch (Lively & Motch), Petey (Merch Lackey), Garrett Michaels (FM 94/9), Tadd Crayton (loserkids.com), Cary Baker (Conqueroo PR), Eric Stein (Snoop Marketing)
Touring 2008: Getting a gig locally, and in another town.
Panelists include:
Tim Mays (The Casbah), Len Paul (SOMA San Diego), Steve Poltz (Singer-Songwriter), Kristen Worden-Harris (Croshal Entertainment), Candace Mandracia (Live Nation/House of Blues)
Is a Record Deal in your Future?
Panelists include:
Eric Howarth (M-Theory Music), Neils Schroeder (Surfdog Records), James Agren (Darla Records), Sean-Michael Dove (myspace Records), Jennifer Knoepfle (ASCAP)
I gotta wake up and be there at 10 to go to this stuff? Grrr. I do think that the panel that Garett is sitting on should be interesting. I’m thinking I may have to live blog it.
Okay, before I even got here I had a bit of a OMG-I’m-going-to-SXSW moment. I was sitting in my exit aisle window seat when the two people in front of me (also in an exit aisle) show up. And they are none other than Kim and Kelley Deal. OMG. The whole 37 minute plane ride was a little nerve wracking for me. Like I kinda wanted to say hi and what not, but at the same time, I didn’t want to be a dork. So I didn’t. Kelley read a book the entire time and Kim took a nap, in case anyone was wondering. Haha.
And now I must figure out where my friends are so we can get some dinner and some Shiner (of course.)
Lyn is always rawking to the song in her head, which she would be happy to sing to you. Just ask.
Music posted is for sampling purposes and is only available for a limited time. If you like what you hear, support the artist and buy the album or go to a show.
Where in the world are Minnie and Ox?
Olympia, WA
Next stop on the tour:
San Diego, CA
Future stops:
Dallas, TX
Atlanta, GA
Lansing, MI
Chicago, IL
Dayton, OH
Baltimore, MD
Harrisburg, PA
(latest photos here)
ugh, I agree about Pandora. Major suck. Sometimes I’ll listen to Last FM if I’m in the mood for a certain style or genre. They do an okay job, though not super awesome.
Dear Chick Rawker,
Thank you for taking our survey. The purpose of these surveys are two-fold.....to find out what ALL listeners think about the music we play, along with songs that we think listeners might be interested in hearing on our station. The songs on the list below are not necessarily in rotation on our radio station. We have a lot of fun here and sometimes we have specialty weekends and features that songs on this list might or might not fit into. I hope that you continue to take our surveys and give us your opinion because it helps us program our station to give listeners what they want.
Yes alternative music crosses over to the pop world, it always has and always will. I think it’s great when an artist or group reaches this level. They release there music and are labeled “Alternative” and then they become “Popular” and the masses want to hear them. If managed correctly this will allow them to create and be more artistic with their music in the future. For example NIN....yes “Closer” is a “Popular” song, but without it, would Trent Reznor have been able to create and work on the many projects he has that appeal to a “Music Connoisseur” like yourself? We don’t know for sure but we can guess the answer is “Yes.”
There is a purpose and place for POP Music. I hope that from now on you take this into consideration when you listen to and judge the formats that this type of music is featured on.
Thank you,
Cristy Westfall
Music Director
KSCF – Sophie @ 103.7
These are the same things I have been thinking about for awhile now, starting when Chris left. Radio is still relevant and will be for a while. The other competition aside from online is satalitte radio. Many people listen through Sirius and XFM. It is all splintered. Partnerships, collaboration, engaging with fans are the way to go and survive. Hard core music fans like most of our crowd may end up left to scrounge for the good stuff. But really, is that so new?
