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 ArtistServer  Wednesday, Jul 27, 2005 11:13:45 AM
20 Ways to Maximize Your Exposure on ArtistServer - Pt. 4 of 4 18)Offer Ringtones with each of your songs – As of the date that this is being written, there are approximately 160 different mobile phones which support the use of mp3 files as ringtones. This number will double over the next year as nearly all mobile phones take on mp3s as a ringtone format. You might be seeing some dollar signs right now as you realize that the ringtone market is fairly healthy, but I'm going to suggest that you not sell your ringtones, and that you give them away for free as a marketing tool.An mp3 ringtone is usually very short and hopefully optimized for the tiny speaker on mobile phones. You can pick the intro of your song, the chorus, or even go back to the masters and mix down something new just for the ringtone. The following are some specific tips on creating your own mp3 ringtones:
19)Publishing your RSS feeds and 'Ping blog service sites' – Each artist is provided with three RSS feeds to their content. One to their Blog, one to cover their songs, and the third to reviews about their songs. In each case, the 15 most recent items are always displayed – this way your feed is always up to date. (If you are wondering what RSS is, just do a Google search on “What is RSS.”) With the urls from your feeds, you could spend a good few hours submitting your feeds to various RSS and blog search engines. Here is a listing of places for you to submit to: http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/ The reason you want to do this, is the same reason why you'd want to submit your Website to a search engine – you want them to index it so people can find your content. There's a concept called “pinging” where you are informing a site that your content has been updated so they will index it. Fortunately, someone launched a site that 'pings' many of these sites for you in one swoop – visit: http://www.PingOMatic.com – submit your RSS link – then bookmark the results. The bookmark allows you to trigger that same ping request again, so each time your post new content, you click on that bookmark – watch the ping results – the carry on with your day. 20)Support other artists – It might sound strange, but yes, you can promote yourself by promoting others. A simple example would be a “song of the week” selection that you pick and promote on your site. People will come back to see what is picked next – artists will email you asking them to check out their songs – and music fans will start using you as a filter to finding great music. And... while they stop by to see your 'song of the week' selection... they'll also see links to your music! Some of these people will definitely want to hear what your music sounds like – and there is your opportunity. The only issue with this, is that you can't fake it – your efforts to promote others must be true and not stuffed with fluff. 
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ArtistServer Wednesday, Jul 27, 2005 11:08:33 AM
20 Ways to Maximize Your Exposure on ArtistServer - Pt. 3.5 of 4 We're picking up the "20 Ways to Maximize Your Eposure" article at number 16 - but I wrote too much today, so I have to break this into 2 separate posts. If you have any questions / comments or ideas - just post a comment or send me an email. --------------------- 16)Use the "Song Linker" to generate links to your songs – When you are in the My Account area of ArtistServer – click on 'Songs and Ringtones' from the main menu and you'll see an option called “Song Linker.” If you click on this, a popup window will open providing you with a cool tool for generating links to any of your songs. Not only that, the Song Linker generates links in HTML, links w/ buttons, and links in BBCode (used on most forums). My favorite is the links with buttons in BBCode – this way I can simply copy and paste the link into a post on a forums to announce a new song. The post then displays the song title and the standard play and download buttons from ArtistServer.com. 17)Run a remix project or contest – Even if you aren't creating electronic music, there's some good reasons why you should consider running a remix project or simply allowing others to remix your music. Some of you may feel that your music isn't 'remixable,' but you are wrong, remixing works across all genres. What is a remix project? There are many ways a remix project can function, but the most common is as follows. You write a song and record it – then you take the separate tracks from the recording and save them as WAV files – or convert them to high bit rate mp3 files. Be sure to not include effects – make these files 'dry.' You now have a 'sample pack' - which you can zip up w/ a “ReadMe” file inside that contains copyright info and any rules about the project. Next – you upload the zipped up samples to ArtistServer – or any Website – then get ready to do some promotion. Please note that there's a lot more you could do when preparing samples and your sample pack. For example, providing the BPM, making sure the samples are rendered at the pitch they're used, making sure the DC offset is taken care of, etc. The idea is to go give these people great source material so they can create great tunes. Before you start, you'll need a plan, a reason why you are running a remix project. Is this a new release you are promoting? Maybe the launch of a new collective? Possibly you are looking to get B-sides created for a 12in release? Or, maybe you just want to dive in to the whole remix, mashup and sample scene. Whatever the reason, your project will not go anywhere unless you actively promote it and have a plan. But... how do you run a remix project? Once you have your promotion plan, the sample packs, and maybe even some banners created for your project, you'll be ready to announce the project on forums, blogs, your site, places that allow news releases posted about independent music, even on fliers in your local club. You'll want to establish a Web page for the project and use this as a home base for your sample packs, the remixes that come in, any reviews about the project or songs and links to your site and all the sites of the artists who participate. In order to help people link back – make a button – the standard size is 88x31 pixels. I know, it's a very small button – but this is how it works, and if you make it big, people won't use it. Go with the standard to ensure the most mileage, make it readable, and if you want to go all out, make one in black, white, and two or three other colors. This way, people can find a button that works best for their site. Some people run their projects as contests – where they'll pick the top 3, or the 'best' one and present the artist with some prize. This is a great way to stimulate interest in your project if artists haven't heard of you. When there's no direct outcome for a project, you may find it difficult to attract remix artists. If this is your case, then a contest might be the only thing that will get your project off the ground. As the remixes come in, add them to your site along with some comments. Once you have a few on the site, you can do a second round of promotions at all the sites you first announced the project at. Let people know that there are some cool remixes to be heard, that the project is still in progress, and that it's not too late to give it a try. When doing your promotional runs, be sure to monitor the threads on the forums you post at and reply to everyone so they see that you aren't a spammer. Many people get this part wrong, they forget to communicate with people and simple spam the Web with information about their project. If you do this, not only will your project fail, but you might even tarnish your reputation. Concluding the project – At this final stage, you'll close the project and notify all participants that they can now access all the songs online at the project page. From here, you could do a few things like: release a remix album, promoting the remixes on an online station, sending out a Cdr of the project to your radio stations that support independent music, creating a CD using an online service like Mixonic.com or CafePress.com or just give them away for free. Getting remixed is fun – it shines a new light on your music – it creates connections between artists, fans and genres – and it's an excellent way to promote your music and yourself as an artist/band. Some last thoughts – Be sure to define how the remix artist can use the remix – for example: can they post it online or on P2P networks, can they put it on their own CD, what will the copyright be for the remixes and if there are any rules as to how the remixes should be titled. Don't try to dictate too much control – you'll find that having these people promoting their own remixes creates another wave of promotion for you – possibly better than the one you created. ------------- Please see the next blog posting for items 18-20.
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ArtistServer Thursday, Jul 21, 2005 11:44:22 AM
20 Ways to Maximize Your Exposure on ArtistServer - Pt. 3 of 4 Greetings... if you didn't already read items 1-10, please see the first 2 post in this series.If you want to increase your exposure as an artist, get heard more, increase your downloads and streams, the please read on for the next five ArtistServer tips. Feel free to ask questions or post comments. 11)Use your ArtistServer shortcut link – Each artist on the site has a shortcut link that points at their site. Any time you want to post or publish your link or even if you want to yell it across the room – your shortcut link should always be used. What is a shortcut link? Well, let's say your artist name is “Cool Music” - you could then create a shortcut link in your artist profile (in the My Account area) that looks like this: www.ArtistServer.com/CoolMusic – which is much easier for everyone to remember than: www.ArtistServer.com/artists/index?a=2012 If you want to change or check your shortcut link – login to the site, then enter the My Account area – and click on Artist Profile – on this screen you may enter your shortcut link. 12)Adding Artists to your Favorite Artist Links – Both artists and members can link to each other and have the links and comments display on the artist's and member's sites. For artists the list is called 'fans' and for members the list is called “Favorite Artists and Friends.” The reason why you'd want to consider this, is that cross linking is always a good way to promote because it adds you to other artist's sites. After you add the artist, contact them and let them know you enjoy their music and that you linked and ask if they could check you out and maybe link back. It's called networking! 13)Do a Review trade – Here we have another form of networking – doing review trades. There are a few ways to do a review trade. Version 1: you review other peoples music and then later on, contact them and see if they would be interested in reviewing some of your songs. Or Version 2: you visit a discussion board/forum and announce that you'd like to do some review trades. Either way, it's a good idea to have already given a few reviews – just in case the person wants to check and see if your reviews are valid. There 'are' some people out there that take advantage of this and write 'fluff' reviews – so make sure you really listen to the song – be honest – and try to offer suggestions and point out what does work instead of just stating what doesn't. This is also a great way to get started in a forum – you join, introduce yourself, make a few posts, then hit the community up for a review trade. We all enjoy feedback – so treat others how you want to be treated... write some reviews! 14)Design your site – At ArtistServer, you have several ways to customize your site. We give you tools for designing your pages, picking colors, adding content and even a collection of settings for you to toggle on or off so your site doesn't look empty because you don't wish to use some part of your site. So – how do you use these tools? What can they do? For starters, they won't make you look great unless you apply some good design concepts, nice colors and good layout. If you want some help in selecting colors – here is a great tool: http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html One aspect of the “site designer” that may need some additional explanation – is the “skin locking” option. You may or may not have noticed the item in the main site menu called “Site Skins” - if you click on this, you'll have the option of changing the way the site looks by selecting a new skin. Since each site visitor can select what skin they want to use, there's a chance that your artist site's design could clash with the colors in some of the skins we offer. If you want to avoid this, you can “lock down” the skin to the one of your choice. This means your artist page will look the same to every user because you'd override the user's own skin setting with your own. You can also set your artist site so it always uses the skin that the user currently has selected. Whatever you do, be sure to check out the site designer in the My Account area and try experimenting with your site. If you need assistance w/ colors and design, stop by our forums – there's usually a few people around with sharp Photoshop skills. 15)Write a tutorial/article or concert review – This item may not seem like it would help maximize your exposure, but if done will, it definitely could bring more traffic your way. But what would you write? Here are some suggestions: a concert review, a product review, interviews with other artists, tutorials on how to create certain ideas in a sequencer or how to perform some aspect of one of your songs. The idea here, is to get your name out there – get people interested in your art and your perspectives – and to be proactive in the community. Just try to use clear and easy to read words and try to avoid slang – we have a truly international population on our site and while most speak/read English, it's always a good idea to consider the readers.
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ArtistServer Tuesday, Jul 19, 2005 10:29:50 AM
20 Ways to Maximize Your Exposure on ArtistServer - Pt. 1 of 4 Over the next few days, I'm going to provide a collection of 20 ways you as an artist can promote yourself on ArtistServer.com. For those who are reading this outside of the site, ArtistServer is a music hosting service providing a platform for both artists and music fans to share and enjoy independent music (eventually, we'll host photos and videos too!).Each day, I'll have 5 more tips/ideas on how you can use ArtistServer to promte your music and yourself as an artist. If you have any questions, please post them to the blog so others may learn from our discussion - or if you need to contact me in private - use the contact form on ArtistServer.com. Here we go! 1)Start Blogging – ArtistServer offers a complete blogging tool, with categories, comments, RSS feed, and more. By Blogging, you not only provide more 'hooks' out there for yourself, you can promote specific songs by using the 'now playing' option of the blog tool. By adding a song ID or link, the blog tool will locate the song on the site and add it to your blog post. 2)Release an EP instead of single songs – I know how exciting it is to finish a new song, and then turn around and upload it as soon as the encoder completes, but think about holding back some of your songs and releasing them as a collection, as an “EP.” Even if they aren't “themed” together, you can save up 3-4 songs then focus your promotional efforts in one blow instead of stretching yourself out. You might think this doesn't make sense when we are dealing with digital files, that the “album” format doesn't work – while this is partially true, there is still an attraction to a collection of works. Some people call them “Web releases” or even albums – whatever you want to call it, it's still a good idea to serve up an impressive group of songs together. 3)Tag your songs – ArtistServer now offers “Tagging” on all of the content hosted on the site. A tag is basically a keyword or phrase used to define or categorize something. Tags provide a fun and interesting way to discover content in addition to providing an organic environment for correlations to form. Don't miss out on the opportunity that Tags offer – tap into what is unique about your content and allow it to be discovered. 4)Create LoFi versions of all your songs – Someday, ArtistServer will offer file transcoding, which will generate LoFi versions of your songs for you. Until that day, you'll need to create these on your own. If you put aside some time, you should be able to generate LoFi versions of all your songs in no time – especially if you have software which allows for “batch processing.” By adding your LoFi versions, you open your music up to a much greater audience. We have users from all around the world – and much of the world is not using DSL or cable for connecting to the Internet, they use 56K modems. Please encode your LoFi files with these settings: 32 Kbps / Mono / 44100 Sample Rate. 5) Join and participate on our forum – While our forum isn't very active these days, there is still a great crowd there who give honest reviews, have a wealth of information about music production, have years of experience with online music, come from all parts of the world and love music. By participating, you make yourself more visible, and the more people who know you in the online music scene, the better. Connecting with other artists is a great thing - you'll not only find some new friends, you'll find people who aren't going to tell you your music is great unless it's great. Fortunately, most of the feedback around the forums remains constructive. Come back tomorrow for five more tips!
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