Presskit.to Blog

"Guess No More" Webinar Recap

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:54:00 -0400

Last Wednesday we held the second installment of our Presskit.to webinar series. We were joined by panelists Chris Bolton of CD Baby and Marcus Taylor of Venture Harbour to discuss using data to really learn about your fans. The duo had some great suggestions on using data to find actionable tactics and strategies such as working backwards by first identifying the question you want answered and then finding the relevant data to draw a solid conclusion.

If you missed the webinar, or want a recap of the presentation, we’ve archived it on both YouTube and SoundCloud.

We hope you’ll join us for our next webinar!

Tips & Takeaway Points

Use data to understand how you can best promote a potential marketing campaign, and how you can effectively plan for moving forward - making the most out of your time & budget.
Use “tags” to track data through Google Analytics to see how engaged your audience is, and how they react to your campaign.
Track data that deals with your target demographic, cities you should be touring in, or simply data that answers your questions.
Don’t get caught up with vanity metrics - data that does not create a clear, actionable outcome.
Number of Facebook page likes or Twitter followers cannot drive fact-based decisions, and are an example of vanity metrics.
Track your data closely and carefully,as a spike in traffic could be due to an audience landing upon your content while on the search for something else.
Engage with your audience to attain the best social interaction possible on social networks.
Data you produce is historical,and although it can help make educated decisions, it cannot necessarily predict the future.
Most importantly, KNOW your audience - no more guessing!

Artists: Let Data Be Your Guide

Tue, 28 May 2013 10:36:55 -0400

WRITTEN BY ETHAN SCHIFF

It’s common today to hear bands proudly brand themselves as “DIY Artists,” without confronting the commitment it takes to “make it” as an independent artist. While you, as an artist, brainstorm your project’s goals and marketing agenda, it will seem intuitive to make decisions based on what you believe are the best social platforms or distribution systems to use, as well as the types of people responding best to your music. At the very beginning of your project, this really is the only way to go, as you have no history to reference. But many artists unfortunately fall into the trap of continuing this blind planning, rather than stopping every so often to check the hard facts about who is responding best to their music, where they’re consuming it, and where they’re located.

In that initial planning stage, before you have real data to build your strategy from, consider stepping out of the music space, and thinking about big-picture concepts that transcend industry, and always lead to success for a business. After identifying these concepts, then at that point begin to build your project’s strategy.

In my experience, I always focus on three things: transparency, community and exclusivity. Those three concepts transcend industry, and definitely transcend music genre. However, especially as a creative, creating a full-blown development strategy can get overwhelming. With merchandise, publishing, touring, recording and social media often all needing to be prioritized at once, artists seem to constantly crave a single thread to inform their strategic decisions.

Enter data.

The beauty of data for artists is that data serves as a compass, both on and offline. Rather than assuming something will work, data doesn’t lie. When analyzed properly, it can influence your everyday actions, allowing you to strategically penetrate a focused goal, and move step by step through your plan.

Tour routing is a great example. Every artist can, right this second, pull up a list of the top 10 cities where their fans/listeners/viewers are located on Facebook, Soundcloud and YouTube. With these reports in front of you, you will surely begin to see patterns, which can guide your routing. Although it may require a bit more effort, it sure beats saying “well, it’s a rock band, so let’s tour the South.”

Here’s an example for you. Below is a graph showing Facebook “Like” data for a pop artist’s Facebook page. These graphs come within the “Insights” section of every page.

This is a perfect example of data telling us something critical. Often, people assume that pop music is going to be best received by teenagers, and the stereotypically “obsessed high school girl” comes to mind almost instantly. However, looking at the chart, you can see that a miniscule 3.7% of this artist’s Facebook fans are ages 13-17, while a massive 65% (!) are in the 18-24 bracket. If this artist were to ignore data, as most artists do, her entire image, tone of voice, and overall brand would very likely not be the right match for what the data is proving is her true audience.

Another piece of data built into Facebook is knowledge of where your audience is located. Here is a photo of the top cities where this artists’ fans are located:

This is just Facebook data. You can pull the same info from Soundcloud, website analytics, and virtually anywhere else where your music is played. If you pull similar screenshots from all of your key channels online, you can quickly see patterns and begin using these patterns to drive your marketing. Even further, let’s say your Soundcloud and Facebook pages tell you that New York City, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Boston, MA are your most popular cities, and your most popular audience is ages 18-24. In this scenario, you would, within seconds, be able to build your tour routing to focus on those cities and clubs within that age range. If it was the same, but your audience were age 13-17 and could not get into clubs, perhaps your strategy would be to contact high schools in those cities and do performances for those kids.

But touring is just one piece of an artist’s career. If you, as an emerging artist, begin getting radio play in a few cities, you could garner this information and execute geo-targeted (location-based) campaigns to propagate these same communities. A good example of this is through press outreach – if you see a few stations in Pennsylvania playing your music, that information should lead you to contact all the music blogs in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to see if you can continue to nurture this potential new audience. Also, in the land of the free (download), collecting fan data is critical. A highly populated mailing list is not just a bunch of email addresses and zip codes; it is a report telling you who and where your fans are. Website traffic, merch sales, ticketing reports, live show draw, and your quantitative social media footprint are other forms of valuable data for a manager.

With all that said, the most important “metric” is still trust. Trust, in its most genuine form, cannot be measured, and that’s what makes it so special. It cannot be bought; only nurtured. Developing trust with your fan community is critical, and can only be done through repetition and consistency. As trust develops, so does your story and your influence.

With great tools like Next Big Sound, Google Analytics and free insights from your social channels, it is easier than ever before to identify your fan base. Touring, radio, web and merch reports, combined with an obsessive focus on trust, consistency and community is a winning formula. Without data, it would be easy to wander aimlessly through the evolving music industry. But with data as your guide, the entire process becomes much simpler.

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Ethan Schiff is an artist manager and music industry blogger. He can be found online via Twitter @ethanschiff or directly through his blog.

Next installment of the Presskit.to Webinar Series - "Guess No More" presented on May 29th

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:38:00 -0400

Building your audience is no easy feat. As a manager, independent artist, or straight-up go-getter, you may seem so overwhelmed trying to figure out your next move that it’s hard to find time to focus on your art. While many artists may be searching for a starting place, there are many resources out there for artists to make their decisions based on hard, fact-based data.

In the next installment of the Presskit.to Webinar Series, we’ve recruited two excellent panelists (Marcus Taylor, Venture Harbour; and Chris Bolton, CD Baby) to talk about what kinds of Data that Artists and Managers should be collecting to make educated, fact-based decisions. The webinar, titled “Guess No More: Using Data to really know your fans” will be presented on Wednesday, April 25th at 12pm EST.

Click here to register for the webinar!!

Hey! Down here!

If you missed our last webinar on effective bio writing be sure to check that out here!

5 Tips for Using Data to Grow Your Social Media Audience

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:29:00 -0400

This is a guest post by Marcus Taylor, Director of Venture Harbour, a company that specializes in consulting digital marketing to companies in the music industry.

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It’s not often in music marketing articles that I quote statisticians, but when talking about data and it’s role in the music industry, who better to seek advice from?

William Edwards-Demming, the renowned American statistician, is famous for saying “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” What he’s less known for saying is that “the most important things cannot be measured.”

When it comes to building a career as an artist, data certainly has the potential to make you more effective in how you spend your time and budget. But with an abundance of vanity metrics, and ‘data for the sake of data’, it also has the potential to waste time. Here are my five tips when it comes to using data to grow your social media audience as an artist.

1: Remove All Vanity Metrics

Below is a screenshot from Google Analytics, a popular web analytics tool used to collect data on how people interact with your website.

These are vanity metrics. While it may seem interesting to know that on average people spend 01:43 minutes searching for music contracts on MusicLawContracts.com, there’s nothing actionable about this data.

Is a 61% bounce rate good or bad? It could be either – perhaps 61% of people are visiting, finding what they came for and leaving. Or perhaps they get to the site, hate it, and disappear? We can guess, but if we’re guessing then what’s the point in collecting this data in the first place?

Now here’s an example of actionable data.

I know how much I paid to get these sales from Facebook and Guitar World Magazine, so this data tells me “does it make sense to continue advertising on Facebook or Guitar World?”

That’s how data should be used: to provide clear answers to clear questions.

If you use a tool like Next Big Sound, Music Metric, or similar, strip your dashboard bare of all vanity metrics. Forget what looks pretty and focus on what will genuinely give you actionable insight.

Here’s a screenshot of Next Big Sound’s artist dashboard:

Don’t get me wrong. NBS is an awesome tool when used correctly, but there is absolutely nothing actionable about this data. It’s data porn. However, if you’re prepared to pay for the upgraded version, NBS starts to get a bit more actionable.

This goes for most tools that deal with data reporting. At Venture Harbour, we use a range of data analysis tools including Radian6, Qwaya, Perfect Audience, Visual Website Optimizer, Linkdex, MajesticSEO, amongst others. In every case, it’s fundamental to ensure you’re working with actionable data rather than vanity metrics.

2: Segment your data to understand your audience

As we saw above, looking at ‘total fans’ or ‘total unique visitors’ isn’t particularly actionable. When you start to segment data and look at who your audience is by demographics, psychographics, where they came from etc. it starts to become a bit more useful, as you can better invest your time in reaching the right audience.

For example, if you segment your audience by device and find that <25-30% of your fans are looking at discovering you via mobile or tablet, it might make sense to start thinking about a mobile site/app. If you segment your download data and find that 90% of your paying fans are 18-22 year olds from Australia, you can optimize your efforts to reach more of that demographic.

3: Use data to optimise your budget & time

Time and money are both valuable commodities. Most of us have more of one than the other, and we often trade what we have in excess for more of the other. One of the most tactful uses of data is improving how we allocate our commodities to get more of the desired result.

Take this data from two recent Facebook Page Like ads I ran for a client as an example. Both ads were identical except for one small variable (the bid type).

Advert A:

Advert B:

Both ads cost $60 and ran for one week. However, one drove 50 page likes and the other drove 20. This data tells me that the bid type for advert B is a far better use of my advertising budget.

Where you’re spending ad dollars or investing valuable work hours, data can be useful for optimizing the allocation of your time and money.

4: You must set goals

Without a goal or a specific question in mind, data is relatively useless. Your data should complement your goal progress by helping you learn what does and doesn’t work – enabling you to get closer to your goals quicker.

5: The most important things can’t be measured

Finally, remember what William Edwards-Demming said – “The most important things can’t be measured”. When it comes to developing a career as an artist, there are so many immeasurable things that are so important.

Don’t let the data fool you into thinking that an increase in Facebook Page Likes means your fanbase is growing. Your fanbase is a collective of real relationships that you’ve built with real people. Relationships are not determined by a click of a ‘Like’ button, but far more intangible qualities such as loyalty, desire, and happiness.

While there may generally be a correlation between a growing fanbase and an increase social activity, they’re not intrinsically linked.

Whenever you rely on quantitative data to support a decision, also consider the qualitative impacts of those decisions.

—

If you’d like to learn more about myself, Venture Harbour, or have any questions regarding this post feel free to drop me an email (marcus at ventureharbour.com), a comment below, or a tweet.

"The Art of Tasteful Boasting" Webinar Recap

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:05:00 -0400

A big thanks to those of you who helped make our first Presskit.to Webinar a huge success. The Art of Tasteful Boasting tackled the ins and outs of writing an artist/band bio and tagline. We were joined by three amazing panelists Chris Robley, Marketing Coordinator & Blog Editor, CD Baby; Julia Rogers, Editor in Chief at Musiciancoaching.com; and Jem Bahaijoub, Founder of imaginePR. The trio brought on some great new ideas on getting started with a bio and making it true to your band and music.

If you missed the Webinar or simply want a recap, the recordings are made readily available on YouTube and SoundCloud. We even listed some of our favorite points for you to quickly check out.

We hope you’ll join us for our next Webinar on May 29.

Tips & Takeaway Points:

Jot down descriptive adjectives of your music, and questions you’d like answered about your band when you’re getting started.
Writer’s Block?! Take a break!
Try different approachesto your bio (overly bragging, super-humble, ego-maniac, etc.), and pick the best parts of each.
Quoting yourself mid-way in a bio is a great way to incorporate first and third voice.
Prioritize your achievements! Don’t be afraid to name-drop if you’ve worked with a notable industry figure (but, don’t exaggerate or lie).
Create a few different lengths of your biography. Short versions for press or social media, and longer for your website.
When building a tagline, try to find two descriptive things to say about your music and you as an artist/band.
If in doubt, keep it simple! Don’t be afraid to have someone help you write.
BE AUTHENTIC AND BE YOURSELF!!

Stand Above the Noise: The Challenges of an Indie Musician

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:30:15 -0400

In the newest installment of the Stand Above the Noise video series, Andrew sits down with Reimut Van Bonn of VUT (German Association Of Independent Music Companies) to talk about the current state of Music Discovery, Maintaing a Professional Music Career, and how the Music Industry is changing.

Check it out below, and don’t forget to Subscribe to the series here for regularly scheduled Music Industry video content!

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Stand Above the Noise is a documentary-style series of video interviews, filmed and produced by Dotted Music. From Berlin and Helsinki, to a host of cities dotted across Europe, we have been encounter musicians and essential names in the music business, including representatives from the likes of Universal Music, Soundcloud, or Live Nation. Learn how to be remarkable and make this business work for you with Stand Above The Noise, a contemporary insight into the contemporary music industry.

All-new Webinar Series Premiers April 25th!

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:43:00 -0400

This Thursday, April 25th we’re hosting a FREE, one-hour webinar that we’ve dubbed “The Art of Tasteful Boasting: How to write a press-worthy biography & tagline. We are very excited to play host to an AWESOME cast of Panelists, including:

Julia Rogers - MusicianCoaching.com
Chris Robley - CD Baby
Jem Bahaijoub - imaginePR

We’ll be discussing the challenges that go along with writing strong artist bios and attention grabbing taglines for use in your Presskit, press releases, and one sheets. We’ll be covering topics like finding your narrative voice and overcoming writer’s block. We’ll also open it up for questions so you can ask about anything we don’t cover.

Register for the Webinar here!!!

Social Network Overload? Top Sites Musicians Should Focus On

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:31:00 -0400

WRITTEN BY LAURA MAXWELL

Key information and recommendations to put social network overload into perspective.

We live in a time where there is so much content fighting for our attention on the internet. We want to keep up with our friends, know the latest news and discover new things before anyone else. Bands face an incredible challenge of getting their message out through all the tweets, “lols”, “OMGs”, and headlines and it’s easy to be overwhelmed, especially if you are trying to create a scalable social strategy. With so many social networks to choose from, how do you know where to start?

After gathering statistics, the recommendations below are made based on network popularity, ease of use, and the ability to integrate and post content across multiple networks simultaneously.

The Big Three

Every band should be using these three networks to reach fans. They are the top networks based on sheer user volume and are where your fans are most likely to be. There’s no doubt that these networks have been in your vocabulary for sometime and theres a reason. A recent study by Pew Research found that an astonishing 67% of American internet users are on Facebook. That’s huge.

Facebook should be the first building block in your social media strategy and the one you spend the most time on. It’s where the greatest flexibility in fan engagement exists and more time is spent on Facebook than any other network- up to 7 hours per month on average according to this study from the Socially Aware blog. Facebook’s increased flexibility with the Open Graph API also allows the other social networks you use to link to your Facebook page and deliver more frequent and engaging content. Spend time making this the most visually engaging network you have and respond to comments or posts in a timely manner.

Some interesting results of the Pew study confirm that while Twitter has about 16% of the population using the service, a higher proportion of urban residents are tweeting away. If you’re targeting an urban audience due to the genre of your music or engaging in tour promotion, consider emphasizing Twitter more. Depending on your tweet volume, you can also have each tweet you send post directly to Facebook and vice-versa. Just be careful not to overwhelm people with too many posts.

YouTube is the ultimate video service and where you should be posting your music videos, tour footage, and homemade movies. Fans and music industry folks alike use YouTube to find, observe, and contact rising artists. Do you remember how Justin Bieber got his start? Again, you can link these videos to Facebook- do it! The annual State of Online Music report produced by Next Big Sound shows staggering numbers around YouTube video views- up to 25k per month per artist on average. That could be you!

Graph depicts Views by Thousand

Other notable social networks

While not an exhaustive list, the following social networks get high marks for their ease of use, popularity, and ability to integrate with other networks.

Soundcloud

Soundcloud popularity has taken off in the last year, showing incredible growth in 2012. According to an unofficial source, Soundcloud is tracking at over 180 million active users per month. Additionally, Next Big Sound’s 2012 State of Online Music Report states that monthly average song plays per artist on Soundcloud nearly tripled by the end of the year. Soundcloud also integrates well with other social networks (like Presskit.to!!!), so it’s easy to repurpose and promote content.

Instagram

Instagram is quickly passing “flash in the pan” status and becoming a network we live by. With 100 million users and growing, Instagram makes sharing photos easy and with a wide range of filters it can change your “blah” phone photos into vintage looking treasures. You can post directly to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more to keep the beautiful content flowing out to fans.

Bandsintown

The network started as a simple way to get notifications about the bands you “like” on Facebook so that you can see them live. Utilizing Facebook’s Open Graph API, the network is expanding to give fans a more robust experience and will soon allow them to buy tickets directly (with the help of LiveNation) and more social features. Another plus about the app is that it has the ability to recognize the concerts you add here and feeds them to other networks where your band has a presence. It’s relatively easy to maintain your show listings here and it reminds people when you have a show coming up on a medium they are already spending a ton of time on (Facebook).

Tumblr

While the growing blogging service only has about 6% of the population using it, it’s easy interface and ability to connect to your other major social networks makes it a gem. Surprisingly, internet users also spend about 1.5 hours a month here, second only to Facebook. Post videos, tracks, and other media with the click of a button. There are tons of music bloggers using the service so consider using it if you’re looking for a way to reach them. They can easily “tumble” or re-post your content to their blog.

Do you use any other social networks that have helped you connect with your fans or made your social strategy easier? Let us know in the comments!

—

Laura Maxwell is an experienced social marketer, analyst, and the co-founder at MusicVagabond.com. Based in Boulder, CO, she helps brands and bands uncover the social strategies that will engage their fans and take them to the next level.

Throwback Thursday: Artist Management Contract Terminology

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:29:39 -0400

WRITTEN BY AIDAN RUSH.

There have been enough publicized horror stories of bands signing terrible contracts it’s a surprise bands sign any type of contract at all these days. However, while there is an argument to be had as to whether or not record labels are still necessary, it’s this writer’s opinion that artist managers will always be necessary. That’s not because you, the artist, can’t necessarily navigate your career by yourself, it’s because there just aren’t enough hours in the day for you to get it all done. Yes there are rare examples of independent musicians making a killing by spending 20 hours a day doing it all themselves, but they are the exception that proves the rule. If you ever plan on working with a personal manager (as opposed to a business or tour manager), it would behoove you to familiarize yourself with the basic artist management contract terms defined below!

Read the entire article here!

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Hailing from the hills of God’s country, Aidan rush holds down Business Development for Presskit.to, and was once a Moonlighting Juggalo.

PIMP YOUR EPK: A Webinar hosted by Dotted Music

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:36:19 -0400

On Wednesday, April 10th at 11AM PDT (2PM EDT), Andrew Apanov of Dotted Music and the Stand Above the Noise video series will be hosting a 30-minute webinar called “Pimp Your EPK” and has chosen to use Presskit.to as the sample EPK platform. We’ll have a Presskit.to team member on hand to answer questions and chime in with tips throughout.

Sign up for the FREE WEBINAR here!!!

Featured Presskit: Mally Bieber

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:50:00 -0400

Like, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you obv know how much hate the Bieb’s has been getting from the media over the past few weeks. From attacking the paparazzi outside a London hospital (totally the camera man’s fault), to ripping his shirt off at a TSA checkpoint (what’s wrong with showing a little skin?), things have only gotten worse for America’s heartthrob after this weekend.

Bieberlicious snuck his pet monkey, Mally, onto a private jet headed to Germany for a string of gigs over the weekend. Upon arrival, Mally was confiscated and QUARANTINED by airport security (BTW, totes not necessary?!?!)!!!!!. Mally is now sitting in airport limbo, as the Biebs sorts out his €10,000 fine for not obtaining the proper paperwork authorizing the Mally’s entry into the country.

We sat down with JB to discuss how his team is using Presskit.to to gain the appropriate media coverage for the wrongful quarantining of Mally, and their efforts to free the little guy as soon as possible.

Presskit.to: How have you used Presskit.to/MallyBieber to gain awareness of the travesty surrounding Mally?

Justin Bieber: Well I’m like, totally PO’d at the German government for not being cool about this whole thing. I mean, what? I’m going to Germany…I’m obviously bringing my monkey with me. Shouldn’t they know that??? Don’t they follow me on Twitter??!! Just let me do me. Just let the Biebs be Biebs. Jeez.

Pk: What support are you seeking from the Beliebers to help with this cause?

JB: Just believe <3

Pk: What can we expect to hear next from Mally?

JB: Not sure. It looks like she’ll be released once the doctor says she’s free of any foreign diseases that could potentially be introduced to the country (yeah, like that would happen lolz), and I have some €10,000 fine to pay, or something. I wipe my bum-bum with €10,000, so that’s like, not a big deal yo.

I’ve been snap chatting her to keep her company. Hopefully this won’t affect our relationship together, but I’ve already told my people to start writing my next song about her for me.

Pk: Thanks, Justin! You’re in our thoughts <3

—

Happy April Fool’s day everybody!!

iansanity-nub: theartworkofiansanity: Painting I did live at...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:41:40 -0400

iansanity-nub:

theartworkofiansanity:

Painting I did live at the IndieAmbassador Halloween Bash. It’s a little sloppy, but then again, so was I. © 2012 iansanity

I painted this one while wearing a straight jacket. :)

We love this painting! It’s hanging up in our Presskit.to office right now!

Throwback Thursday: Making a Stage Plot

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:00:51 -0400

Written by Mike Harmon.

Stage Plots and Input Lists make EVERYBODY happy.

If you’re an artist that has a gig coming up, you should provide the sound engineer with a stage plot and input list at least a day before you get to the venue. This will give the engineer important information about your band’s stage setup, instrumentation, and how they’ll organize inputs into the PA. If you don’t provide the sound engineer with a stage plot and input list beforehand, you may run into a few snags with equipment, stage layout, or even how the front-of-house mix will sound.

Read the entire article here!

Throwback Thursday: There's More to a Free Music Campaign than Free Music...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:19:59 -0400

Written by Jem Bahaijoub

You’ve done it again. You’ve given away a free track from your latest album. It’s on your website. You’ve talked about it on Facebook. Job done, you think. Well think again.

There’s no doubt about it. Free music is a powerful marketing tool. However, the music industry has become so over-saturated with free music that we’ve become desensitized to the process of consuming, promoting, and thinking about the importance of free music. This age-old debate has become, well, old.

I was lucky enough to revitalize my thoughts on the topic recently when I met the artist Derrick N. Ashong who launched the “Million Downloads Campaign” earlier this year. The aim of the campaign is simple - To give away one million downloads of songs and remixes from the new album AFropolitan by Derrick N. Ashong & Soulfège by Christmas 2012. So far the campaign has been such a success that Derrick witnessed over 20,000 downloads in one month.

“How?” I hear you ask. Well, Derrick did something a lot of artists are forgetting to do - he planned, strategized and philosophized over the process beforehand. So take a step backwards, and consider the following….

Define Your Purpose

Before you even contemplate giving your music away for free, you need to define your goals. We know you want to increase your fan base and drive awareness to your latest musical offering, but you need to be MORE SPECIFIC. How many downloads would you like to achieve? By what date? If your fans know your goal and timeline they may be more willing to help you spread the word. Use your previous download statistics as a benchmark. You can also try something like “If I achieved 5,000 downloads by my 30th Birthday it would be the best b-day present ever!!” You’ll be surprised by how specifics motivate people.

Read the entire article here!

A Musicianʼs Mini-Guide to Crowdfunding - What Platform Is Right For You?

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:24:00 -0400

Written by Jem Bahaijoub

2012 was the year crowdfunding went mainstream. The success of Amanda Palmerʼs Kickstarter campaign threw the alternative fanfunding model into the limelight, and now most musicians are turning to their fans and friends for ﬁnancial support pre-release. But what is the best crowdfunding platform for you? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each platform? Hereʼs a helpful chart outlining the key features of four of the top crowdfunding platforms out there.

Click the image below for a larger version of the chart!

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Jem Bahaijoub is the founder of imaginePR, a music marketing company based in Washington DC. Connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

SAtN interview with Stewart Walker (Musician, Founder of Persona Records)

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:41:28 -0400

Our friends at Stand Above the Noise sat down with Stewart Walker, an electronic music producer and Founder of Persona Records. In this week’s discussion, Stewart & Andrew contemplate the state of the Music Industry, and how musician’s art is taking a back seat to things like Social Networking. Check it out, and let us know if you’ve also got a record collection hiding out in your basement - awaiting it’s epic return!

Update: Our Live Stream From Big Bang

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:27:00 -0400

Hi everyone

Unfortunately due to circumstances with the venue out of our control we are unable to stream the remainder of the show at Big Bang. We’re extremely bummed that we weren’t able to finish the show and bring you the awesome tunes of Young Pharaohs, Catch Lungs, Spencer Foreman, Congo Sanchez, vs, and Charity Strike.

Please check them out regardless. In the meantime we are currently playing the FOCUS playlist on Presskit.to Radio so you can still listen to the tunes that they’re playing live tonight.

Next Live Stream: Berklee SXSW Party // Friday, March 15th @ Noon (Central)

Please join us tomorrow at noon back at Presskit.to/sxsw for our last live stream of SXSW 2013 where we’re honored to be bringing you the Berklee SXSW Party live from Brush Square Park in Austin.

More info can be found on the Berklee SXSW Party facebook event.

Cheers

Chris & The Presskit.to Crew

Throwback Thursday: I the Mighty SXSW '12 Bus Session

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:01:15 -0400

Last year at the SXSW Festival in Austin, TX, we had the pleasure of hosting several phenomenal acts from across the country to perform on our Tour Bus. We coined the intimate, stripped down videos our SXSW ‘12 Bus Sessions.

For this week’s Throwback Thursday, we’d like to feature one of our favorite sessions from San Francisco based band I the Mighty. Check out their performance of “Cutting Room Floor,” and be sure to visit http://presskit.to/SXSW to tune-in to what we’re doing this year!!

Get Hired: Think like a Hiring Manager

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:56:00 -0400

Written by Sophia Moon.

Standing between you and your dream job is a gatekeeper, namely the hiring manager who sorts through hundreds, sometimes thousands of submissions to match candidates to open positions. They are experts at spotting careless errors, have no tolerance for missing information, and will unemotionally eliminate unfit candidates to get to a manageable few that show the most promise.

The challenge of dazzling a hiring manager is manifold - to provide the right information to stand out amongst all the candidates, while selectively adding samples from your portfolio that best represent you and your work.

A helpful exercise, I find, is to think like the hiring manager who comes across your Presskit and resume. Let’s assume for the purpose of this exercise that you are absolutely qualified for job “X”. How do you create a Presskit that showcases your talents and compels a hiring manager to see you as a strong candidate for your dream job? Now, go assemble your Presskit to include all of that relevant information and content. Every individual has unique experiences so with a media-rich Presskits you can really distinguish yourself with examples of your work.

Check out T.J. Petracca and Reynold Roque’s Presskits for great examples.

Below is a basic checklist of items your Presskit should definitely have. (Note: these are the minimum Presskit requirements for Justine Taormino to submit your Presskit for opportunities on the Berklee LA Opps Board as well.)

Name: Your Name, Band Name, Company Name - whichever is relevant to the job you are seeking.
Cover Image: High-Res Professional Headshot or band photo; or company logo.
Current Location
Professional Skill
Video Introduction: Read blog post on Video Introductions here.
Professional Resume: Upload to your Presskit in the Files section, under the media tab.
Media: At least one (1): audio, video, image
Bio: A short description of yourself and your work (Tip: list your accomplishments in the Wins section)
Wins: Highlight a minimum of 2-3 notable accomplishments
Contact Information
Links: Website and social media presence (Tip: Avoid adding personal social media links.)

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Sophia Moon is the Chief Marketing Strategist for Presskit.to. She holds an MBA in Marketing from the D’Amore-McKim School of Business; and a BA in Sociology from Brandeis University. Sophia specializes in brand management, content strategy and social media marketing. She is a well-respected, independent Singer-Songwriter, currently working on her second album, Shades of Love (Acoustic R&B) .

SXSW 2013: Do it Like a Local

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:10:00 -0400

Heading down to Austin for SXSW ‘13?

If you haven’t already micro-managed your calendar to the point where your schedule is mapped out by the minute, check out this video from Flow Nonfiction on how to “Do it Like a Local” for SXSW ‘13.

From the best places to drink & grub to the most unique showcase spots (yes, even the local Dentist has a SXSW music showcase at their office), Flow Nonfiction’s “Do it Like a Local” video gives you plenty of ideas for what’s worth checking out in Austin.

Don’t forget to tune in to Presskit.to SXSW ‘13 Radio for live showcase streaming, exclusive Artist interviews, and your favorites from the Presskit.to Bus Sessions at SXSW ‘12!