Qoutes from FOWA and BarCamp Miami 08

So being the marketing guy at a tech conference was interesting. Learned way too much and am left even more confused on some ends. But hey, you gotta start somewhere and FOWA Miami was a great place to do it. This first recap post will highlight some of the best quotes from the past 2 days including BarCamp Miami. (Apologies in advance for anyone's name that I forgot to jot down, if it was you who said it please yell at me in the comments.)

Assume something is possible and work backwards. (Google rep - and dammit can't remember his name)

Everyone can use widgets, only nerds use RSS, that’s why widgets are viral (Justin Thorp)

Conversation is king, content is what they talk about (my new slogan courtesy of Justin Thorp)

Talk to the brain, not the mind. (Kathy Sierra)

Where there is passion, there is a user kicking ass (Kathy Sierra)

Know their face (Kathy Sierra)

Free is great but create value and people will pay (Matt Mullenweg)

The future....we will make them work together (on Future of Social Networks by Joseph Smarr)

XFN rel="me" (everyone)

hCard = RSS for profiles (one of the hosts, not sure which one)

If customers/users aren't asking for it, DON'T BUILD IT (didn't write it down)

Create an application and put it where everyone already is instead of trying to get them to come to your site (paraphrase from Kevin Marks)

Fuck he's smart, guess I'm not going to apply at Google (me to Logan after Kevin Marks got off stage)

Love your community more than yourself. (Gary Vaynerchuck)

Guarantee visitors by being awesome. (Gary Vaynerchuck)

That's it for quotes today. Surely more wrap up stuff to come tomorrow or lter tonight. It's off to the ScrapBlog Party at Nikki Beach. Don't be jealous!!

-Greg Rollett

photo courtesy of ScrapBlogMiami

Good Ol Miami - FOWA Day 1

Hey folks, I'm 4 hours south at Future of Web Apps in South Beach. Just got to Knight Concert Hall on Biscane Blvd for the AOL Breakout Session. This afternoon will bring in BarCamp Miami and tomorrow is a full day of FOWA. Live blogging all day.

Hiring Staff at a Start-Up Gen-Y Style

For the past 2 weeks I have been sifting through resumes and interviewing some candidates to come and work for our Social Music Marketing Firm in our “lil ‘ol” office in Downtown Orlando. It has been quite a great, scary and stressing period for me. Being in the position to bring people on in a commission only basis is hard for anyone to explain, especially when the client list isn’t particularly long and the money in the bank isn’t, well, in the bank. Here are some observations from the process:

The ad. I put out postings on Craigslist, Facebook and Myspace for Music Industry Sales Reps. Being in the recruiting field (actually a marketer for online postings) I knew how to attract attention to a position and instigate a call to action. Also being from this background, I knew just how disappointing the classified sections of Facebook and Myspace are.

Craigslist generated over 120 responses in just over 2 days before I pulled the ad. The responses varied from college students to potential interns to music industry entrepreneurs who needed to add to their income pool. They were very in tune to the niche I wanted to hear from, and most complied with my requirements and method of contact. Many even took the step to visit the Rollett Marketing site and sent an email from the contact form within. Very satisfying.

The interviews. Now I know this position was hyped as a music industry sales position in a fun and relaxed atmosphere, but wow! I was flat out terrified with some of the attire that came into our office building. Short skirts, low cut shirts, leather boots, mo-hawks, boxers out the pants (I am a hip-hop head but I didn’t know this was still happening), and more. What about not having a car and bringing your friends to the office? Not once, but 3 times this happened. How are you going to get downtown 3-5 days a week?

The Good. Out of the 10 interviews that I conducted I had 3 brilliant people that were exactly as I expected from our email conversations, resume and phone talk. I am happy to be bringing them aboard. Expect some posts from them as they get acquainted to the scene and start learning everything that is SEO, SMM and this everyday changing music industry.

The bad. The position is commissioned based for sales and many people that came in were looking for the free perks offered – free tickets, interviewing major and indie acts, etc and had no sense of an attempt to help build our company. Granted, no one wants to work for free, but everyone wants to work to be a part of something greater than themselves.

Yes we are a start-up. Yes we have no money and yes, we are looking to grow and take on full time staff and become Orlando, then Florida and then the country’s biggest music marketing company there is. If you want to be a part of something great, this is an amazing opportunity to be there from the start. It’s like finding that band in your local pub before they become the Gym Class Heroes on MTV.

Hiring has been a difficult task. Only time will tell if they stick around and actually produce at the potential levels we saw from them in our interviews.

Oh and hiring is only the first step. The “how to hire people and have them become sales superstars manual” (that I forgot to buy) didn’t include the fact that we now have to train them. So next week, look for that installment of G-Ro and his start-up chronicles.

Any advice, growing pains, success and horror stories are well appreciated. Gen-Y entrepreneurs, please feel free to join in this conversation. We are all here to help each other succeed, prosper and create a lifestyle that we can be happy with.

-Greg Rollett

Observation: Why Don’t the Major Labels Interact With Music Fans?

I am knee deep in my feed reader and I had starred a few Evolvor posts from last week that got me thinking:

Corporations have started to understand the importance of interacting with bloggers, commenters and consumers. They have been able to shift advertising models, control complaints and increase brand acceptance by being in tune with social media.

While it has become commonplace for corporate CEO’s to talk personally on blogs, reply to comments and messages and openly address the people that keep them in business, the music industry has kept shut.

• Is this because they are too busy coming up with lame answers to declining CD sales?
  
• Is it because they have nothing to say to the people who are stealing profits from their 7 figure salaries?
  
• Is it because they don’t know how to set up a free blog on Blogger or Wordpress?

Theory 1

They might be busy, but so is Matt Cutts at Google. I bet he’s pretty busy doing some engineering for the most innovative company in the planet according to Fast Company. So how and why does he find time to not only blog about what Google is up to, but comment on top blogs when Google methods are being questioned.

What about Dell? They had a nightmare on their hands a few years ago. Negative comments ranked higher than positive ones. Now they have a dedicated team of bloggers who make sure customer comments are met and answered, and quickly.

Mark Cuban is a busy guy. Between running the Mavs and his billion companies, he spends a great deal of time blogging and talking about what is going on.

Ok so the time theory has gotta be out.

Theory 2.1

DRM? Lame. Alienating iTunes? Lame.

Maybe if they became the authority they used to be on finding new bands, they wouldn’t have the problem of relying on fad-happy websites to tell them who is talented. Maybe that time they don’t have could be better spent finding better bands, who have more than one single and maybe a career like U2, Green Day or Snoop Dogg that can land them residual income instead of a get rich quick ringtone scheme.

Theory 2.2

The Warner CEO made $3.4 million in 2007. For a company that reported $21 million in loses the same year. I think they have a bigger problem on their hands than the song I just downloaded for free on some site that makes more money on advertising per year than they do in music sales.

Theory 3

Eh, my 5-year old brother can Myspace and blog. If you can’t figure it out, ask the kid bringing you your mail to help out. He is probably pretty connected.

I usually don’t rant too much, but I can’t find an email address to any marketing exec at a major label for an interview. I can’t find a good blog with good content from any major label employee. I can talk to the CEO of Fortune 500 companies but not that of one that needs my $15 to stay in business.

So this is for Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI, and Warner Music Group to step their game up and start talking with the people that you need to talk to. The days of closed door meetings are over. Welcome to Web 2.0 and Social Media. Don’t miss this bus or you might be riding with the Pinto’s of the world.

-g-ro

(Missing) Your Local Scene Orlando

The origin of this post began from a comment on a YPulse thread called ‘Suburban Blues.’ Anastasia, the author, talked about growing up with a little bit of good ol’ boredom. The way kids interact with themselves, peers and adults have affected how they grow and mature and adapt to life in the city, suburb or place of their choosing. The comment in question came from Gareth. Here is what he had to say:

“I grew up in the UK in a town which was completely walkable and a 15 minute train ride would take me into a major city, so from a young age I've always been able to travel where I like, go to parks and the beach or just make my own way around.

I recently emigrated to the US and have ended up in the suburbs, about 20 miles South of Orlando in Florida. These places are soulless, there's nothing to do which doesn't involve driving somewhere.

Luckily I'm old enough to drive, and old enough to drink (past 8pm all there is open round here are chain restaurants and one bar). Without those two escapes I would go crazy here for lack of anything to do. I would not want to raise children in this unnatural environment. No wonder young people in this country are so highly medicated.”

I responded on the site but thought about the topic of “scenesterism,” and how local scenes emerge and evolve. Being a musician and in the ‘scene’ has been easy for me, I guess. I wanted to play my music for crowds; so I started to learn where these crowds were, who the important people are, how they dress, talk, act and the whole nine yards that follows.

Orlando is a tourist city. At least that’s what the media, the public and everyone with a hand in the multi-billion dollar business wants you to think. You might also like to note Orlando as a college city. UCF is the 6^th largest campus in the country. Add that to a growing student body at Valencia and Seminole Community Colleges, Full Sail and the countless tech and post secondary schools and there might just be half a million kids in the 17-25 age group running the streets trying to figure out their life.

Then you get to my scene, or so I thought, the music scene. Even in a city as small as Orlando (when compared to cities with ‘real scenes’) there is an emerging culture taking over the city. The problem is that Orlando doesn’t have a sound. It doesn’t have a theme. It doesn’t have one person who is cooler than the next. What is has is a diverse population that is creating voices, and people are listening.

Rock:
Big 10-4 was on Universal and had every college student singing and drinking at the Social till 2am on a frequent basis.
Florida Music Festival is going strong and takes over downtown Orlando in May.
Between the Trees just struck big.
Social Ghost. They got to tour with Alice in Chains, need I say more?
Cori Yarkin has been in Rolling Stone and featured on the Hills and continues to tour non stop.
Rock For Hunger continues to hold a music festival that continues to grow and attract more fans, better bands and help more people than any other rock music fest in Florida.
Anti-Pop continues to be a success despite its sometimes questionable motives.

Hip-Hop:
For a music and culture that is supposedly dying, a city that is not known for hip-hop is doing pretty big things.
Love them or hate em, Sol·illaquist of Sound has taken the country by storm. Expect a new Epitaph/Anti release this summer
Kap has emerged as a new threat and will be taking over Backbooth 2 nights a month to highlight the Orlando hip-hop scene.
The Unlikely’s and greyscalemusic show that live bands are alive in Orlando hip-hop
Madd Illz comtinues to throw the biggest festival and competition in the land with Lounge Battles 6 coming right around the corner March 7-9^th.

Funk:
Legendary JC's anyone?
Union Made and Sugarfree continue to push the envelope

Indie:
Try Band Marino if you want to go dance with 300 of your closest friends in Orlando.
Poverty Branch puts on a show that no one will soon forget.
There for Tomorrow is the next generation of pop-punk stars and they are right in your backyard.
Want to be amazed? Go see the kid in the lead of No Circus. If he doesn’t have soul, I do not know who does.

Venues not called the Social or Backbooth
Think everything goes down at one of these 2 venues, you are out of your mind.
Catch some culture, great art and inspiration at the City Arts Factory.
Listen to the next great band while browsing through some of Central Florida’s best canvas paintings at the AKA Lounge.
Like it loud, step out of the parking garage on Central and head into Central Station’s Rock Bar.
Get out of Downtown and see the greatest metal shows in Orlando at the Haven. Or grace their stage with full band open mic on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Coffehouses that offer more than just coffee: Austin’s Coffee and Film, Stardust, Dandelion Communitea, Java Dave’s Push Play Cafe and Natura are just the start
Sake bombs and the best DJ’s and indie hip-hop at Tatame.

Creative types:
Florida Creatives is a monthly happy hour designed to meet, network and learn with Orlando’s best internet geeks, musicians, artists, film guys and more.
Linkmind.Orl and LunchFu are great events to get in the spirit. I promise I will be making one of these soon.
BlogOrlando and BarCampOrlando
AD2 and Orlando Young Professionals

Here’s to showing Orlando some love. For the souls, the heads, the hippies, the dive bars who could use a few more patrons, to the local havens that local bands long to grace the stage, for the bands who are paving the way and for the bands who aren’t.

There is a scene here. It has a soul. If it’s not what you are looking for, well make your own scene. Start meeting like minded people. Stop complaining until you have made an effort to join our scene. The one we created. There was no Orlando scene just a few years back. Now we are gong strong, bringing in new friends, growing and learning along the way. This goes for anywhere worldwide, not just Orlando.

“And if ya don’t like it, just make somethin better, take ya hands out ya pockets and ya arms out ya sweaters.”

-G-Ro from ‘Not Hip-Hop’

If I neglected from adding your band, your venue, your event that makes Orlando tick, please insert it into the comments. The more love for Orlando the better. We are what we make it.

What does Gen-Y Attention Span Mean To You?

Being in the entertainment industry (or any industry for that matter), we need to be aware of where our viewers time is being consumed. Where Boomers and Generation-X would spend an evening in the basement listening to vinyl and 8-tracks, Gen-Y is out and about.

Millennials are:
Talking on cell phones,
Instant messaging,
Spending time on social networks,
Video sites,
Gaming,
Going to movies,
Watching DVR-TV,
Ripping, downloading and streaming music,
Eating out,
Googling,
Blogging,
Shopping and more.

So when you are designing your marketing campaign to Gen-Y, you are thus competing with all these mediums. If your song, video, game or other medium doesn’t immediately grab their attention, they are on to the next one. With thousands of videos being uploaded every hour on YouTube it is very easy to click on to the next one.

If your video game is hard to play, boring or not up to graphics standards, it gets popped back in the mail to get another better one tomorrow.

If your song isn’t available on iTunes, Myspace, in video form, Pandora, etc, they will spend the next 3-5 minutes listening to someone who sounds just like you only better prepared.

When you are preparing your message, how long is it? How fast till Gen-Y gets what they want?

Is your video 3 minutes long, when your competitor gets across the same message, only better in 30 seconds?

Does it take 2 minutes to get to the chorus of your lead single?

Do you have to walk through 3 buildings to kill one monster?

Ryan Healy from Employee Evolution says it coming from a Millennial perspective:

I’ll admit it, my attention span is virtually non-existent. When a friend sends me a link to a YouTube video, if I’m not hooked in 10 seconds, I don’t watch the rest. When I stumble onto a new blog, if the first post doesn’t suck me in immediately, I usually leave, never to return again.

People will not invest time and energy into something that is not immediately appealing.

When you are making your next marketing plan for your new single, your CD release, a viral video, just think of the competition you are in a league with. If you are an emerging artist, your song is a small fish in a very large and oversaturated pond. Play your cards right and the food will come a plenty thanks to viral aspects, word of mouth and strength in numbers.

Gen-Y has choices. Are you on their menu?

Record Store Day - April 19, 2008

(hat tip to Hypebot)
Record Store Day. Yes Record Store Day. April 19th, 2008 is the day where you, as a musician, consumer or fan needs to support your Local Mom and Pops Record Store. The stores that will be participating will be members of AIMS, CIMS, MMN,Newbury Comics, and the Value Music Group of Indie Stores.

Here in Orlando that means your favorite Orlando neighborhood record shop, Park Ave CD's. They are a member of THE COALITION OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC STORES.

From the official Record Store Day website:

On this day, all of these stores will simultaneously link and act as one with the purpose of celebrating the culture and unique place that they occupy both in their local communities and nationally.

In the meantime drop by Park Ave CD's in Orlando (2916 Corrine Drive) for tickets to shows at the Social, Backbooth, Firestone and more plus the largest selection of Local Music in Orlando. (While you are there, drop off the flyers to your latest show or get your CD in the Local Music section on consignment.)

-g-ro

10 Things To Do Before You Release Your CD

You have put in the work in the practice rooms, tried your songs in from of fans and peers at local venues and then put your entire life savings into recording your CD. This is typical of a local band cycle. The problem that most Orlando bands face after they record their CD is what to do with it when it comes.

Most bands that I talk to are amp’d about their new CD. “It’s the best thing since sliced bread.” “We’re going to get signed off this one.” And so the responses go.

Most bands go as far as having an impressive CD release party with a good number of fans who all buy the CD and take home the memory of a good show and a good time. Problem is, after those 200 or so people leave the band still has 800 or so CD’s in the backseat of the drummer’s car (see Discmaker’s and company traditionally hit you with the 1,000 CD minimum to see any bit of a pricebreak).

Then the band goes and takes a few weeks off, plays some more shows and before you know it 3-4 months have gone by and you still have 700 or so CD’s, little to no buzz and your parents want their money back.

So with all this said, I am going to share with you 10 tips to prepare before your CD release that will hopefully keep the stream of sales going and the publicity hot even after your big CD Release push. I am going to tailor this to the Orlando area but you can use this information anywhere just input your local spots in the place of the Orlando ones.

1. Create an ongoing mailing list and actually use it. This one is from Music Promotion 101 and it overlooked by most bands on a local level. Read: Myspace is not a mailing list! Put an online mailing list on your Myspace page, website, etc with a free widget from FanBridge. Take your laptop to your show and have people sign up there as well. The fans that sign-up for your mailing list want to hear from you, and they are more likely to follow what you are doing.

2. Promote the Album, not the Show. When making posters and placing them around town, promote your album. This will make the posters timeless and keep the buzz for your band longer than your show in a week.

3. Press Releases. Make and distribute. Send to every media outlet, print, tv, online, radio. You will be surprised by the amount of response you get from them, from incoming links to interviews to mentions in Orlando Weekly, the Sentinel and more. When sending online remember to submit to PRWeb and PRLeap.

4. Change your Myspace Layout and other Online Sites to reflect the theme of your album. Prepare your fans for the CD before it is released by shifting your Myspace image to that of the new album. With a new album comes a new image, embrace it and do not overlook the power of a redesign.

5. Pre-Orders. Start fundraising for the duplication of your album. Using PayPal is free and easy and allows you to create a database of the emails and addresses of fans who want your album before they have heard the songs.
6. Set a Tuesday release date and get into local stores. Setting your release date for a Tuesday will put you on the same schedule as all other music releases. When getting your CD in local stores like Park Ave CD’s and CD Warehouse, talk to the manager about getting your album put onto the New Release shelf at least for the initial day or week of the release. If you are lucky and make great music, they may even put you on the marquee of all releases coming out on that day.

7. Blog. Blog about your album. Blog about making the album. Blog about the album cover. Blog about how you and the bassist fought it out everyday for how a certain song sounds. This is not only good for search engines, but as a diary for you to remember the process.

8. Make a commercial and market it on YouTube, Myspace and Facebook. Why can’t you have the next Soulja Boy? Make a quirky video, make it funny, make it short and send it to everyone you know. If its good and catchy, look for the traffic to come and pre-order your CD.

9. Start streaming your music to create a buzz. Get your music on Last.FM, Pandora and others. These sites will not only increase your fanbase but also pay your royalties for streaming your music.

10. Online Distribution. Cool, you have a physical CD coming in a few days. Did you know iTunes, Amazon and others take weeks to import your music if you are an indie musician? Get them your music ASAP to have it ready for your release.

There are a million tricks to get your music ready and become buzz worthy. These are just 10 that can make an impact locally when you are trying to break your CD.

-Greg Rollett