The Official Funky Management Blog Based in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area, we are an artist management and representation company dedicated to discovering, developing and delivering exceptional talent to the world.
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With The Grammys A Few Short Weeks Away, Billboard.biz Has Everything You Need For Music's Biggest Night
With the Grammys a few short weeks away, Billboard.biz has everything you need for music's biggest night (and week) -- analysis of all the major nominees, a letter from editorial director Bill Werde, behind the scenes with the telecast's longtime producer Ken Ehrlich and much, much more.
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New Fire Productions and U Street Music Hall, along with MANIFEST and 88 are proud to announce the inaugural Basecamp Music Festival Friday September 27 - Sunday September 29 being held at Camp Ramblewood - 2564 Silver Rd, Darlington, MD 21034
Basecamp is a three-day music and arts festival taking place at a converted summer camp halfway between Baltimore and Philadelphia. The event’s four stages will present various styles of EDM, electronica, and more, and this beautiful wooded venue features a swimming pool, pond, hiking trails, plus tent and cabin camping. The event will also include morning yoga sessions, vendor village, seminars, and a whole range of visual and performance art. Tickets for this event are limited to 2,500. This will be an exclusive experience, not a mega event.
Basecamp is strictly 21 and over. ID’s will be checked at the gate, and anyone under 21 will not be allowed in.
Gates open at 2 p.m. on Friday September 27, with the music starting at 6 p.m. The event ends at 8 p.m. on Sunday.
The four stages of music will be inside of existing buildings on the site: A large hall with wood dance floor, a barn built in the 1860’s, an open air pavilion, and a poolside deck. Although the outdoor setting of the site is amazing, we’ve chosen to put all stages within enclosed structures, mostly for production purposes. Basecamp is striving for a 360 degree experience, and the options available within a building for lighting, décor, and audio far outweigh what we can do setting up in a field. This also provides a perfect dance floor and completely eliminates any concerns over weather.
There will be multiple food vendors on site, operating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as full bars at all stage areas. The event rounds out with a host of daytime activities, including yoga, seminars, nature hikes, and more.
In an ideal world I would wake up in the morning to a fresh cup of hot coffee. I would enjoy it as I check my e-mail and skim social networks to check up on friends and my favorite bands.
I would immerse myself in an online community of music lovers, songwriters, and musicians sharing, caring, and building with each other… NOT blasting commands to “check out my new hottest thing”.
I see enough billboards on the interstate.
In this world:
Bands would stop acting like rock stars and start acting like leaders
They would build self-sustaining tribes
They would listen to their fans
They would understand that growing organically will always win over view counts
As a music blogger, my inbox would NOT be full of one-liners and YouTube links I only see as distractions. Whatever happened to “connecting” with someone?
Unfortunately, this world does not exist. From where I’m sitting, the average indie band sucks at using social media and its ruining it for everyone else. Most importantly, your potential fans.
What are we doing wrong, you say?
Oh boy…where do I begin?
Me, Me, Me Marketing
You might have been raised in a world of billboards and commercials, but using social media as a one way street is killing your promo game.
It seems too many people are missing the social half of the phrase, social media.
You need to engage with fans and listeners instead of blasting them with links, videos, and nonsense about buying your album.
Sadly, most bands qualify [as what the marketing world refers to] as spammers.
Engaging is easier than you think and should come naturally (assuming you are not a recluse).
Share albums, videos, and news about other music you enjoy or local bands you play with.Ask others what they think.
Share news related to the music industry or issues that reflect the personality of your band and use them to engage in conversation.
Instead of posting links to the same videos and songs repeatedly, post clips of the band working in the studio or upload a demo mix and allow fans to share their opinions so you can take the art to another level. Involve fans in your process(es).
Network with bands in other areas to create an atmosphere for gig swapping and collaboration as well as cross promotion of content.
This list goes on but the takeaway here is engage in a way that results in feedback and interaction.
Build a community.
Focusing on the wrong metrics
Your follower count means nothing unless you see conversions.
Huh?!
More important than a follower, view, or like:
How many fans have signed up for your mailing list?
Do you pass around a mailing list signup sheet at your show?
How many people have you met at shows? (You do hang out with the audience after the show…right?)
How many people have bought a CD or t-shirt?
Stop putting all your energy into increasing numbers on social sites and focus on converting the followers you have into loyal fans.
Use social media to funnel music listeners to your website where you attempt to convert them into a mailing list signup, song download, or merchandise sale.
Would you rather have 1,000 likes or 100 fans spending $1,000 on music, merch, show tickets and crowd funding campaigns?
Show me the money!
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Nearly a decade after the mixtape wars of the mid-2000s, the format still resides in an awkward limbo for retailers, distributors, artists and labels. Many retailers stopped carrying mixtapes after the RIAA proved litigious against the sale of unofficial releases, leading police raids on several retailers in 2005 and on the offices of DJ Drama in 2007. But mixtapes remain a critical promotional tool in the industry, particularly among hip-hop artists, where they often rival official albums. Outside the purview of the major-label system, sales of the format have persisted.
Last month, a mixtape album by unsigned artist Chance the Rapper available as a free download landed at No. 63 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, having sold 1,000 copies in the week ending July 7, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The collection of original music, "Acid Rap," was sold through iTunes and Amazon, despite having been offered for free on the artist's website since April 30. After representatives of the artist claimed that the sales were being made without their knowledge or compensation, digital versions of the tape were quickly pulled from both retailers. But on Amazon, an apparently unauthorized physical version of "Acid Rap," credited to a company called "Mtc," continues to be sold at press time for $14.83.
"I've never heard of Mtc, so this has taken us by surprise," Chance's manager Patrick Corcoran says. "But when I first saw it I showed Chance, and his lawyers are trying to stop it."
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