The Business of Art

So, every now and then I dispense some well-meant advice,  usually a mix of helpful suggestions and related rant material.  The source of these letters accumulates as I go about my daily routine as a music columnist, reviewer, and music site dude.  I run into things that either rub me the right or wrong way.  I try to offer some advice on how to avoid the bad things, accentuate the good, all in the hope that it helps artists and labels and PR reps and writers go about the Business Of Being An Artist.

These columns are in no means definitive.  I learn things the more I run this site and write reviews for other sites.  I gain additional insights, and I share them at random times.

My opinions and advice may or may not be applicable to other writers.  But I think most of the points I make have a certain universal cache that will translate to situations other than the Bird is the Worm universe.

So, here’s a new edition of Stuff You Should Think About Doing.  Let’s begin…

• Check your retail pages.  It’s not enough to simply sign up for the various retail sites to sell your music.  Be sure to verify the information reflected there is correct.  Check back at a later date, be sure nothing has changed.  So many times I’ve seen albums for sale that had a sideman listed as album artist or had the primary artist name misspelled or the album title botched.  If someone searches for you or your album on the retail site, it might not bring your album up.  Make sure people can find your album when they want to purchase it.

• Related:  Occasionally check the retail links on your site to be sure they still lead to the correct page.  If someone is on your site and says, hey, I want to pick up an album by this artist… you really want to be sure that when they click the link on your site to take them to Amazon or CDBaby or eMusic, that the link does, in fact, take them there.  Sometimes retail sites move things around, or a page gets corrupted and they have to build it back up, or perhaps your album is now being offered on a new label… these could cause changes to the links to your album.  How often should you check?  No more than once a month, no less than four times a year.  It’s hard enough for a jazz musician to make a living these days… it’s worth the couple minutes of time it takes to click on your site’s links to be sure they’re leading where they need to go.

• Be sure you have strong metadata entered that goes up on the retail sites.  Be sure that artist and album names and song titles populate correctly.  Fans can get put off if they purchase your album and have to edit the information.  It’s not the end of the world, but, y’know, it’s not a bad idea to be sure you’ve got strong metadata.

• Speaking of links… Link everything.  If you have an artist site, be sure that you have active links from it to your twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud, Youtube/Vimeo, retail, sidemen, and any other site you can think of.  Bassist Simon Little nails it on his site.  Look on his Main Page; see all the buttons that go to all the different locations he’s nested content?  On your Soundcloud page, do the exact same thing.  Vimeo/Youtube, same again.  Check out Simon Little’s Soundcloud page… see how he links back to his own site and other sites he’s nested content?  You should do that, too.

• On Twitter, you only get the one link in your profile.  Please please please link to the site that you actively update.  If you link to your site, but never use it anymore and make updates to Facebook instead, how am I supposed to know that?  If you’ve gotten weary of maintaining your own site, and now just use Facebook to announce new releases and tour dates, then make that your primary link on twitter.  People will typically only give you one click… after that, the odds increase dramatically that they give up if they don’t see what they’re looking for.  Make it easy for people to find your current information… that increases the odds they pay money for your music, both live and recorded material.

• Be nice to your personnel.  Want to see a gold standard for how to show respect to the sidemen who appear on your album (well, aside from paying them)?  Check out Darcy James Argue‘s site, and how he features his ensemble members.  On his site’s About Page, you get an introduction to Argue, then a listing of all of his ensemble members, all of which are hotlinked to their own sites (if they have one).  It’s the right thing to do.  It also is helpful to people reviewing your album, not to mention listeners who want to do some exploring.  How many of us have used the “sideman method” to discover new Jazz?  Hey, I really enjoy the tenor saxophonist on that pianist’s album… I wonder if he has any albums of his own… that kind of thing.

• Related:  If you have a seriously kickin’ site, and I can’t find album personnel listed anywhere on it, I grow to hate you very quickly.  Hotlinked or not, there is never any excuse not to list any and all personnel who participate on one of your albums.

• You might want to think twice about taking down streaming videos or audio.  Because when I embed a video, either as a full screen or in my “slimmed down” audio player form, or when I embed a soundcloud player, if you remove your video or soundcloud song, that takes it not only down from your own page, but from the page of everyone else who has embedded it on their site.  So, now, when people read certain reviews on my site and hit the play button on the audio to listen to your music, instead of hearing something they might purchase, instead they get error messages like “Oops, couldn’t find the sound you were looking for” or “video no longer exists.”  That’s a missed opportunity for you, the artist, and a disappointment to the review reader.  And it’s not just me.  Your video/audio may be embedded in hundreds of music sites across the internet.  Removing a video or song from your Youtube/Vimeo/Soundcloud page removes it from those hundreds of other sites, too.  All of those embedded videos and songs have a promotional value to you, so don’t lose sight of it or ignore it altogether.  Unless you have a very good reason to take a video or audio down, then don’t touch it.  Leave it alone.

• I would be curious to hear from artists and labels why anybody does it in the first place.  Thoughts?  Feel free to comment below

• Speaking of tour information, if you’re a label, you couldn’t possibly do better organizing your musicians’ tour information than Cuneiform Records does on their site’s Tour Page.  Not only do they have a vertical list of tour dates, organized by artist, but they also present a calendar view of tour dates.  This is the kind of page that I return to.  If I want to see if any shows are coming to a town near me, I’m going to return to a page like Cuneiform’s, because I know I’ll have everything presented to me in multiple easy-to-read formats.  I am not likely to miss a show from one of their artists because I happened to overlook a date or it was poorly laid out to read.

• Youtube videos sometimes suck because of ads.  I’m not sure exactly what criteria triggers it, but sometimes Youtube throws up a bar of advertisements on certain videos on its site.  This looks bad.  I mean, who the hell wants to watch friggin’ ads flash across a video screen.  I won’t put them on my site, and I’m sure I’m not alone in despising them.  That’s a blown opportunity for some artists getting their music promoted on other music sites.  The good thing is, there’s an easy solution… also upload your videos to Vimeo.  It’s just like Youtube, but they don’t do the ads.  This way, your videos are now on two different sites, and if Youtube sticks ads on your video on their site, someone like myself can simply embed the video you’ve uploaded on Vimeo.  Jazz ensemble Klabbes Bank has got the same video up on Youtube and on Vimeo.  In addition to uploading videos to youtube, also do the same on Vimeo… no ads.

• If you discover Youtube has put ads on your video, you should get them to take them off.  I don’t know what the process is like for that kind of thing, and it may be more trouble than it’s worth.  And if you’re also uploading to Vimeo, then that also negates some of the Youtube bite.  Also, worth noting that sometimes the ads only show up when the video is embedded.  For instance, when you watch the video on Youtube, no ads shows up, but if I try to embed the video on my site, the ads show.  As I mentioned, I’ve had to exclude promoting certain videos for that problem.  If you are unable to ascertain whether your video gets ads on an embed, you can shoot me a message and I’ll test it for you.

• Stream full album tracks on Soundcloud (ignore if you’re doing same already on Bandcamp).  I suggest doing the entire album because it gives the listener/buyer the best opportunity to fall for your music.  However, at least do it for a couple album tracks.  It’ll give people a chance to hear your music.  And someone like myself who writes reviews, I love including an embedded Soundcloud (or Bandcamp) player in my review so people can listen to the music while reading the review.  I have to be honest, I’ve shelved a few album reviews because there was no music to stream, and I often write more about the album if they’re music I can embed in the body of the review.  Several times an album has gotten 500 words because I could embed an album tracks, sometimes only 100 when I couldn’t.  Let me put it this way, if you think letting customers only listen to 60 second song samples should be sufficient for them, then I’m only going to write the word equivalent of 60 second samples for them to read about your album.  This isn’t always going to be the case, but I almost always prioritize albums that have embedable audio.  Just do it.  It’s a good strategy for so many reasons.

• And if you’re an unknown artist outside of your own zip code, and you’re putting out a debut album, for the love of god, stream a friggin’ album track.  You have nothing to lose.  It can only do you good.  Do you know how many times I’ve linked to or embedded an album track and had readers email me or message board me and say, wow, that song is great, I immediately went and bought the album after hearing it.  Here’s a great example of this happening on the AllAboutJazz forums, for people commenting on the new Tunnel Six album after I posted a notice on the New Releases Only discussion thread (my nick on the forum is dsschicago).

Okay, I think that’s it for today.  I’ll probably have more to talk about in a couple weeks.  I’ve got a few more subjects I’ve been wanting to broach.

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Dave

P.S.  If anyone has trouble commenting, please email me and let me know.  I think I’ve got my site’s security set up where it needs to be, but I’m always concerned I’m locking out the good with the bad.  Thanks.

So, every now and then I write a little Open Letters column, usually a mix of helpful advice and related rant material.  The source of these letters accumulates as I go about my daily routine as a music columnist, reviewer, and music site dude.  I run into things that either rub me the right or wrong way.  I try to offer some advice on how to avoid the bad things, accentuate the good, all in the hope that it helps artists and labels and PR reps and writers go about the Business Of Being An Artist.

These columns are in no means definitive.  I learn things the more I run this site and write reviews for other sites.  I gain additional insights, and I share them at random times.

My opinions and advice may or may not be applicable to other writers.  But I think most of the points I make have a certain universal cache that will translate to situations other than Bird is the Worm stuff.

So, here’s a new edition of Stuff You Should Think About Doing.  Let’s begin…

So, you want me to review your album?  You’re a musician, label, or PR rep.  You find my email on my About Me page.  Here’s what a great email would contain:

-An informative, but succinct Subject line.  Amazing to me how poorly used the Subject line of an email is.  What you need to understand is that I’m getting anywhere between 20 and 50 emails a day.  Not all of them are review requests.  Many are about upcoming shows, video releases, industry news… all kinds of music related stuff.  But your email is going to be in that crowd.  I’m more likely to notice it if it has the following items in the Subject line:

• The phrase “Review Request”
• Artist name
• Album name

That’s it.  It gives me just enough to know what’s there, without it getting to be so much that my eyes glaze over.  I’ll notice it the day it hits my inbox, but even more importantly, I’ll notice it a week later, a month later, any time down the road.  It is a supreme challenge to stay organized while keeping up with all the work.  Having the Subject line of “Review Request:  John Artist – “Awesome Album Title” means that I’ll be able to slot the email where it needs to go and it’ll catch my eye down the road if I need to gather it up later.  The sheer volume of emails I receive guarantees that some will fall through the cracks.  A good simple subject line will help mitigate that risk.

-An introductory paragraph.  It doesn’t have to be too in depth.  Some writers/site owners will want you to state why you picked them in particular.  It’s a good thing to research who you’re approaching.  With me, however, I’m covering modern jazz.  As long as your album is a new release and it’s somehow related to Jazz, then you’re in.  Tell me briefly about why you’re contacting me.  Ultimately, this intro paragraph is simply an expanded version of your email’s Subject line.

-Now, about your music.  You should provide two links.

-The first link sends me to a place I can stream your album.  A Soundcloud page, a Bandcamp site, your own site which has its own audio player… somewhere I can hear as much of your album as I need to in order to determine whether I might be interested in reviewing it.  If you send me to a CDBaby or Amazon site, I close out of your email and move on to the next one.  If you send me to a MySpace page, I pray that I don’t get another virus from that damnass site, and then curse you for sending me there… and then move on to the next email.  If you send me to your site and it only plays 60 second song samples, then I move on to the next email.  Let me hear it all.  It gives me a better sense of whether I’ll make a spot for you in my schedule, and the more I can hear of your music, the more you’re giving me a chance to fall for your recording.

-The second link should give me a place I can download the album from immediately.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s a private Soundcloud page, a Bandcamp page with a provided comp download code or a Dropbox page.  But if I like what I hear from your first link, the sooner I’m able to download that album onto my computer and put it in my review queue, the better your chances at getting a review.  If I have to email you back and say, yes, I’d like to review your album, the more you’re risking that it doesn’t happen.  I’m not always able to respond to emails requesting a review copy.

And even though I tag your email with a follow-up symbol to get back to it later, it’s no guarantee that I will.  I’m dealing with huge volumes of requests.  The less time I have to spend going back and forth, and the more I can do in any one sitting, the better your chances at getting a review.  And don’t let those links expire.  I’m not always able to get to a review request email the day you send it.  Sometimes it’s not for weeks until I get to your email.  There have been several times that I’ve followed a link to listen to music or download it, just to receive an error message that the link has expired.  I try to follow up to request that the expiration date gets fixed, but that’s no guarantee.  Often, I just move on to the next album.

-What about CDs?  Different reviewers are going to have different requirements when it comes to the physical product.  Me, I prefer getting the actual CD, but I don’t frown on a digital promo copy of the album.  Sometimes I even prefer the digital copy.  I promise that I won’t look down upon you or de-prioritize your album because you’re doing digital promos only.

For a variety of reasons specific to me, your chances of getting a review are increased if I have a physical CD lying around the house… especially if I’ve taken a pass on your album the first time around.  Basically I have a slush pile, a Shelf Of Interminable Waiting, for those albums that I keep in sight just in case I feel like giving an album a second chance.  Every now and then a spot on my review schedule opens up, and I need something fast, and the first place I look is that slush pile shelf.  There have been actual reviews that have resulted from this shelf.  It doesn’t happen often, but if you’re not an established artist and you feel strongly about having me review your album for my site, then mention in your review request email that you’d like to send a physical CD and request my postal address.

I’ll re-emphasize that getting me a physical CD is not required to get a review on my site, but there’s no doubting that something about how I’m wired means I’ll notice CDs sitting on a shelf more than I noticed line items in an iTunes library.  So take that for what it’s worth.  Also, sometimes I’ll just simply ask you to send me a physical copy.  Some combination of variables like the type of music presented, my travel schedule, and my tech situation requires me to have a CD promo.  For instance, as I type this, with my hard drive full and my iPod not working, and faced with a daily two hour round-trip commute, it’s the musicians who have sent me CD promos are getting more heard than those I’ve downloaded.  But that kind of thing changes (for instance, I’m waiting for a new external hard drive to arrive, so that’ll help with that).  I mention all of this just to provide you with as much information as I can… not all of it is timely or useful in all scenarios.

-Don’t forget to attach a PDF of your one-sheet.  You’ve probably developed a one-sheet for your album… basically a promotional version of your liner notes.  It’s something that tells me about the artist, the album being promoted, past albums and projects the artist has been associated with, and anything else that seems relevant to getting me to know more about you and your music.  Typically, it should all fit on one page, though I’ve never thought poorly of one-sheets that, actually, went on for two pages.  Your music is your most effective communicator and reflects your best chance at receiving an album review, but it won’t hurt for there to be a story behind the music.

I’m a sucker for a good story, and sometimes when I’m on the fence about reviewing an album, a good back-story will be the little nudge to get me to review an album.  Don’t manufacture a story.  If a good story naturally exists, then great, but if the one-sheet is simply a “this is my music” type of thing, there’s nothing wrong with that.  Run with it.  Like I said, ultimately, it’s the music that matters most.

If you paste the one-sheet in the body of the email, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Other things to include on your one-sheet:

• Release date
• URLs for your artist site, a label site (if applicable), and those of other musicians on your album.
• Social media info.  If you have a Twitter address, include that on your one-sheet.  Include all Twitter addresses for anyone having anything to do with your album…  musicians, PR rep, label, cover art designer, etc.  I like Twitter to promote content, and the less time I have to search down Twitter addresses, etc, the happier I am and the more likely I help spread the word about your album review.  Same goes for stuff like Facebook.

-When have you become a pest?  I’m certain that some of you have sent out email queries, not received a response, then wondered how long to wait to follow up… or, even, whether to follow up at all.  I can only speak for myself here, but my answer would be, yes, it’s okay to follow up.  A guideline, let’s say, no sooner than 3 weeks, no later than 6.  Just a simple sentence, politely stated, asking if I’ve had a chance to listen to your music.  You’re not being a pest.  It’s not an inconvenience for me, and, hell, sometimes it’s helpful for me as a reminder.

Helpful Hint:  When you send the follow-up email, do it by responding to your initial query… that way I’m getting your info and the links to your music in the same email asking me the status of the review.  It’ll make it more convenient for me to have your music/info in front of me and not have to track it down in my inbox/email system.  If you’ve sent a physical CD and you’re nervous that I haven’t received it, it’s totally cool to follow up and ask.  I try to email people when I get a promo copy, but I don’t always remember or have the time.  Following up on something like that is natural.

Any more than one follow-up, though, is probably too much.  If a few months have passed, then, fine, it’s cool.  But if I’ve already told you that I’ll give your album a listen, I’m almost never going to respond to tell you, no, I can’t do anything with it.  I barely have time to listen to all the music that I receive, and I definitely don’t have enough time to provide an email about what I’ve decided… and that includes albums that I actually write a review about.  I know it might come off as rude, but my time is very scarce, and it’s gotten to where I have to make some hard decisions on what I can and can’t do.  Email correspondence often doesn’t make the cut.

-Please be nice.  But more importantly, be sincere.  Obviously, being rude in an email doesn’t score any points.  I can’t stress enough that being genuine and sincere does go a long way.  Be professional, yes, but I know the Business of Art is a tough thing… knowing what to do and how to do it, it’s not always clear cut.

And this is your album, which you’ve worked extremely hard on, and this is your career, which you’ve invested so much of yourself into… it’s difficult to switch from the intense emotional involvement of creating the music to a state of professional detachment as you try to promote it.  That’s so damn hard, and you have my sympathy.

The good thing with me is that I’m not going to look down upon you or ridicule you if you own up to not being sure if you’re doing the right thing or ask for advice or any of those things you probably don’t want to do if you’re pitching Blue Note or ECM.  It’s okay to admit that you’re unsure, and since I like to help, if I have advice to give, I’ll send it your way.  I mention this just to help, perhaps, take some of the pressure off of you when pitching a review to me.  Yes, I’ve got preferences on how I’d like a review pitch to appear, but for the most part, I’m a pretty forgiving guy.  Don’t get too intimidated by the process.  For those of you just starting out, I know how it can get.

Okay, I think I’m going to end the column here.  I was going to mention some stuff about strengthening your internet presence and maintenance of Youtube videos and Soundcloud pages, but I’ll save that for the next column.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me, though it might be nice to have you comment below, because others might have the same questions.

Cheers.

So, for a variety of reasons, I’m searching down information on artists, the nature of which falls under a series of different categories.  I run into a lot of dead-ends and long winding paths to eventually find that information.

The other day, I was putting together a Tiny Reviews post.  It had five 50-125 word synopses “reviews” of new jazz releases.  I do the Tiny Reviews posts because I don’t always have time to do proper write-ups of every deserving new release that I discover.  So, I figure, at least do some mini-reviews, which will at least get the spotlight on the music.  A couple sentences about the album, perhaps mention of a previous release or tie-in to another good recording, a list of personnel, an album cover, embedded audio (if available), and some links to sites for retail, artist site, and label (unless self-produced).  And, later, when it’s posted, I also send it out to both Facebook and Twitter (which means I’ll need a twitter address, if the artist has a twitter presence).

These Tiny Reviews posts should not take me much time.  The reason I do them is because I’m short on time as it is.  But I’ve begun noticing that a percentage of these posts are taking way more time than they should, and I can attribute it directly to the amount of time I spending looking up artist information.  This article will touch on some simple things artists can do to be sure that complete information is available to fans and media alike.  Because I can’t be the only one frustrated with the inordinate amount of time it takes to track some of this down, and if you’re an artist who is attempting to sell recorded music, then having that information available to us is in your best interest.

In no particular order, here’s some helpful tips:

List your sidemen.  I’m astounded by how difficult it is to discover who performed on a particular album.  I go onto a nice tricked-out artist site, plenty of promo about the new release, but no mention of who performed on it and with what instruments.  Do this.  It’s important.  Not only is it respectful to give credit to the people who helped create the album, but it also gives potential listeners/buyers additional insight into the music and whether to buy it.  Perhaps knowing that a particular pianist or bassist appears on your album will be the tipping point to get them to purchase your album.  Perhaps it’s knowing that bass clarinet is featured on your album.  Also, in Jazz, many listeners use the sidemen as a way of discovering new music.  Your music could lead to purchases of the music of your collaborators.

And in the case of someone like myself, who perhaps is going to do an unsolicited write-up of your album, I want that information to be a part of the review.  This is free PR for you.  Respect the time and effort of the people giving you this free PR by making it easy on them to collect the relevant information.  Personally, I’m at the point where if I go onto your site and don’t see the sidemen listed, I’ll scrap the review.  That shouldn’t be something anyone should have to spend time searching for.

Link like crazy.  Whether an artist has their own website or prefers simply going with a Bandcamp, Soundcloud, or Youtube presence, a problem with listeners/buyers finding your internet home is getting your site so it falls at or near the top of a Google search query on your name and/or album title.  I can sympathize.  Especially if you don’t have much of a following (yet) or, worse, you share the name of a popular athlete, politician, or celebrity.  If you’re an unknown saxophonist whose name happens to be Bill Clinton, then there’s a good chance that anyone doing a search for your site is gonna get no less than ten pages of non-you results before even getting a whiff of your site.

The thing is, there are ways you can lead people to your site that navigates around the traditional Google search.  You do this by linking like crazy.  My two immediate suggestions to you are to upload a video of your music to Youtube and Soundcloud.  They’re both free services.  Youtube, you know what that is.  Soundcloud is similar in that you can have your own station/page, but it’s simply uploading audio, no video.  Where this becomes helpful, is while, you, the unknown sax player who shares the name of a former U.S. President, is not gonna see the light of day on Google when people search “Bill Clinton” & “saxophone,” on the other hand, there are far less results when that same search is made on Youtube.  And, then, if the searcher adds one or two extra keywords to the search, say, an album title or a geographical location, those search results get whittled way down.  And believe me, those extra search keywords on a straight-up Google search don’t guarantee that your artist site will show up anywhere near the top.  I am speaking from experience.  On Soundcloud, which has a pretty decent search function, it’s even easier to find the artist.

So, upload an audio file of an album track to Soundcloud and/or Youtube (on Youtube, just make the image the same as your album cover).  Preferably, do both.  And then link like crazy.  In the text below your Youtube video, mention the album details (including sidemen!) and include your website address and the website address of every other place you and your music exist on the internet.  Got a Soundcloud page?  Give that address on your Youtube page.  Also have a Bandcamp page?  List that address.  Got a Twitter account?  Give your twitter address.  Facebook?  Link it up.  And do the same on every other place you have an internet presence.  Create a spiders web of internet addresses so that no matter where a listener/buyer first encounters you, they have a road map of every other place they can search your music down.

It amazes me when I go to an artist’s Bandcamp page, and they don’t link to their artist site.  Or how no mention is made of a Twitter presence on an artist’s site, and on their Twitter profile, no mention is made of their artist site.  Or how a Soundcloud page has four audio tracks uploaded and nothing else other than the artist’s name.  All these social media tools, they’re easy to wield and take little time to construct, and the rewards are limitless.  Make it easy for people to find you.  Think of it this way… establishing and internet presence and creating the road map that I’ve advised, it’s the equivalent of taking your physical cd from the bottom shelf in the back of a music store and putting it closer to the front and eye-level.  You took the time and care to make this wonderful recording… take a little time and care to be sure people can enjoy it.

If you’re on Twitter, let people know it.  I touched on this in the previous point, but I’m going to riff on this facet just a little bit more.  If you have a Twitter presence, make sure people know about it.  Include your Twitter address on your website.  And if you send out promo cds and/or promo emails, include the Twitter @ address on those, too.  When I send out tweets about reviews or Jazz Picks or AAJ Download of the Day, if try to include the artist (and label’s) Twitter address in the tweet.  It’ll not only let the artist know that something affecting them has happened, but it also directs listeners/buyers to your Twitter profile.  And if you include your website address (or Soundcloud page, etc) in your Twitter profile, then that will direct those listeners/buyers to your various sites, too.  I love Twitter, but it’s search function isn’t reliable.  If you think just searching your your name will find me your Twitter address, you’re wrong.  Include it on your site, and anywhere you’re on the internet.

I’m going to talk briefly in a future article about whether an artist even needs a Twitter presence.  The moral of the story is ‘no, you don’t,’ but it’s such a simple and helpful tool to use, artists really should hop on Twitter.  But like I said, I’ll talk about that, probably in next Saturday’s article.

Stream your music.  Let people hear it.  In a previous column, I talk about the value and rewards of streaming some or all of your album.  You can read that article on BitW HERE.  I’m not going to rehash what I’ve already written, but I will re-emphasize how much having a track or two to listen to enhances the music discovery experience.  No matter how nicely a website or album review is, more often than not, it’s the music that triggers the impulse to purchase an album.

Update, please.  This goes to artists and labels both… keep your sites up to date with new releases.  It happens way too frequently that I see an intriguing new album pop up under a retail site’s new releases listing, the hop over to the artist site to discover that their site still only displays info on an album that was released years ago.  And, then, I’ll go over to label site, and find that there’s no mention of the new release listed there either.  Bad.  That’s very bad.  I don’t know what else to say about that.

Is your email address still alive?  If you want people to be able to contact you, be sure that the email address you list on your website is still an active one.  If I reach out to you about writing an album review or getting featured as the AllAboutJazz Download of the Day or just to say hi, getting an undeliverable response error isn’t likely the impression an artist wants to make.

That’s it for now.  I’ll likely write follow-up columns on this subject as I encounter more flaws in the system.  Also, I plan to write a column soon which highlights certain artist, label, and PR rep sites that I think represent the types of internet presences to aspire to and model your own after.

Feel free to comment below on anything I’m talking about.  If you have questions about anything I’ve written, but would prefer to contact me privately, go ahead and email me at the address listed under the About tab above.

Cheers.

**This begins a series of posts intended to give artists, labels, and promoters some insight into how I use the internet to discover and purchase music and how that knowledge might be used to the benefit of the artists.**

I don’t claim to be the prototypical music listener and buyer.  I listen to, and buy, a whole lot of music.  I spend uncountable hours on various sites, including my own, shooting the breeze about what I’ve heard.  I don’t care to attempt to quantify my actual cash outlay for all of the music I’ve acquired in my life, but I’m sure the grand total is pretty steep and would cause me to shake my head in disbelief.  In addition to amassing a sizable amount of music, I’ve also accumulated substantial insight into how I, and others, go about discovering music.  And to the point of this article, I’m going to share what I know.  My advice is well meant and I hope it is taken that way.

About me, currently:  I’m the AllAboutJazz Download of the Day editor.  I contribute to a new arrivals column on music retailer eMusic in which I make weekly Jazz Picks.  I write standard reviews for both outfits.  I have this Bird is the Worm site.  I occasionally contribute to a very cool new music site called Music is Good (dot org).  I’m beginning plans to expand my reach.  So, not a Music Big Shot, by any means, but I know some stuff and I do some stuff.  Further down, I will describe how I typically go about exploring new music.  I mention my current jazz bio by way of explaining that my current positions aren’t the reason I have my current music exploration process… I have those positions because of that process, because of my enthusiastic and relentless search for my next favorite album (and hopefully your next favorite album, too).

I live in the middle of nowhere.  You will not meet me at hip jazz clubs or at regular hangs.  I don’t run in similar circles.  I am, in a physical sense, out of the loop.  The music I discover is done solely over the internet.  If you’re an artist who can’t be bothered with an internet presence, who rues the day MP3s were created, and who doesn’t have a label, agent, friend or family member who is internet savvy and gets your music up there in bright bold html, then it is very likely I will never hear the voice you give through notes and silence.  I will never have the opportunity to connect with you.  Your music doesn’t exist to me.

In this, I am not alone.  Lots of people live in lots of small towns all over the place, far far away from concert halls and music shops and venues that would have quality music playing while people sat around to shoot the breeze about it.  And it’s not just the middle-of-nowhere people.  I am a Chicago guy.  I was born and raised there, lived in that city throughout my life.  There are a whole lotta people who live in that town, and just like any large city, it is populated by a segment of people who don’t go out a hell of a lot, who maybe don’t like City Life all that much, who live in solitude while surrounded by six million neighbors.  These people, also, are on the internet discovering music, buying music on the internet, living digitally.  Do not dismiss my advice as just the inevitable fallout of small town logistics.  There are people in jazz centers of the world that will never see or hear you if not through the internet.  This is about much more than geography.  This is about how people connect, not just today, but tomorrow and tomorrow after.  That it is increasingly happening in cyberspace is not necessarily a good or bad thing.  What’s important is the quality of that connection between musician and listener, and it requires a little bit of effort from both parties to make it work.  Let’s talk about that.

Finally, My Point:  Lemme Hear It.  If you have an album, let me hear all of it.  A musician’s best tool at getting me to plunk down cash is the music itself.  I like a pretty album cover as much as the next guy.  Cool band name or album title?  Sure, it’ll grab my attention.  The label, producer, guest musicians, personnel and instruments, yeah, absolutely, they’ll all help in catching my eye.  But those only serve to corral me in as far as wondering what your album sounds like.  That essential curiosity won’t be satisfied unless I get to hear that music in its fullness.

Don’t give me partial song samples.  I don’t care if it’s 30 seconds, 60 seconds, or, as some artists have done, provide song samples that are exactly half the song duration.  The theory of samples, I suppose, is to intrigue me sufficiently to take a chance on buying the album.  Well, the problem with that is that I’m done taking chances on music based on song samples.  I’m tired of looking on my shelf (and my iTunes library) at all the albums I “took a chance on” in the spirit of music discovery, and now they just sit there gathering dust.  There’s no reason to gamble like that.  There is so much great jazz being recorded in the present day that I don’t need to waste money on albums that don’t connect with me.  If I waste cash on an artist’s album, it’s very rare that I’ll ever give that artist the time of day again.  I just won’t risk it.  That decision is unequal parts pragmatism and spite, and I really don’t care what the ratio on that bitter soup is… that’s where we’re at.

Another thing to keep in mind with song samples is the negative reaction the ear has to a song that is suddenly cut off.  I hit the play button on a song.  It has a nice opening, gets me interested from go.  The song builds off the head and really starts to cook or simmer or cool.  Now I’m starting to get hooked.  A few more notes, and then nothing.  Song sample is over.  Like the music just up and disappeared.  Me, I’m sitting there feeling cheated.  Just when I started making a connection with the music, it’s yanked away from me.  That ain’t a nice feeling.  I’m left feeling cheated.  I’m left feeling like someone is trying to pull a fast one on me.  What would have been the harm in letting me hear the entire song?  I’m left feeling suspicious that the album ain’t up to the level of the samples, because why else hide the music from me?  Or maybe there’s some other cryptic reason for samples which I’m not aware of… but again, why risk my cash in a situation that presents all these questions?  Where I’m going with all of this isn’t to address any imagined or valid reasons for using samples, but to address the importance of establishing a connection with the listener, and how tearing the music away from their ears mid-stream absolutely severs that connection.  It’s a bad thing.  Stop doing it.

I’m gonna return to the topic of establishing the connection, as well as reasons why allowing full streaming of music is a good thing, both in terms of directly how it benefits the musician that I, specifically, can hear it, but also how it helps in a general sense of the artist-fan relationship.  I’m gonna talk for a little bit about how I typically look for new music on the internet, then tie it all in to what I’ve said up to this point.

Here’s been my typical music exploration process the last few years.  It involves five steps:

I use the eMusic jazz new arrivals listing as my primary search population.  For my purposes, it is easily the best list of jazz new arrivals and most useful tool for exploring it.  It’s not the only way I go about discovering new releases, but using eMusic’s listing is the most common one.  What I like about it:  I can search chronologically by release date, it provides the albums in a simple list with an album cover, artist name, label, album title, sub-genre, and it has a button to listen to samples on that summary page.  That’s a huge thing for me.  It means I can listen to samples of each and every album that looks even remotely like a jazz album recorded in the present day.  I also like how the eMusic new jazz arrivals list has everything on an equal footing… no one album cover is displayed more predominately than the other.  When I look at that jazz new arrivals list, the new Bill Frisell, Herbie Hancock, and Joe Locke albums appear no differently than the new Markus Pesonen, Kekko Fornarelli, and Sunna Gunnlaugs albums.  I don’t like that I can only hear thirty second samples on eMusic, but that’s a problem bigger than just them, and I make it work for my purposes well enough.  It’s up to the artist (and, in theory, the labels) to overcome the retailers limitations on song samples.  However, what to take away from this first point is that all new jazz releases are on an equal footing with me.

I skip over (most) compilations, (most) re-issues, and definitely anything that looks like some sketchy “new label” copyright violator.  But no matter how ridiculous your name is, no matter how cheesy your album cover, no matter that your sub-genre is easy listening (or something equally not to my taste), I will give you a couple song samples to catch my interest.  Because, ultimately, it’s All About The Music for me.  I take the luxury of listening to everything, even if just for a little while.

That first 30 second sample is a big one, but it’s not your only shot.  If I like what I hear on that first sample, I let it play to the second.  If I listen to the first two samples of your album in their entirety, I put you on My List.  I keep a weekly list of artist and album names to investigate later.  If you don’t do much of anything in that first sample and don’t piss me off with your music, I’ll often skip ahead to the second and then third sample.  If your music doesn’t irritate me in those first couple song sample fragments, I’ll put you on the list with a ‘maybe’ designation after it.  If you irritate me with your music in the first sample, I don’t bother listening to anything more.  I move on to the next album.  It may not be fair, but that’s where we’re at.  There is so much music out there and so little time to go through it all.  We live in a world that has pretty much imposed a 30-60 second shot clock on how much your songs play on a retail site… respect that limit and keep it in mind when you construct your album.  Keep in mind that the first 30 seconds are the first, and perhaps, only impression you’ll get to make on a listener.  Let’s move on…

Okay, so now I’ve gone through a ton of jazz new arrivals.  I have My List.  Here’s where my advice, and this article, becomes relevant.  Here’s what I do.

I begin searching for internet sites where I can hear something more of your music than just 30 second samples.  I’ll google your name and see if you have a site.  If you do, I immediately look for a page on your site to stream your music.  If you have a place where you stream all or most of your new release, I think a nice thought of you and I listen to it.  If I really like the first couple songs, then I make a couple notes on My List, and then I’m done with you for the time being.  You’ve made it to the next round.  If I’m not sold yet, I keep listening, giving your music every opportunity to connect.  If I’m not liking your music so much, I still continue listening.  If you give me the opportunity to listen to your music in full, I will give you every opportunity to prove to me that I should keep listening.

Let’s say I don’t like the album and you don’t make it to the next round on My List.  Lemme tell you why that’s not the end of the world.  I Bookmark sites.  I have different bookmark folders with links to sites that let me stream in full.  I Will Return To Your Site.  I will return to give your current album another listen, I will return to your site to see if you’re coming to a town near me, and I will return to see if you have a newer release coming out, one that might better connect with me.  This process I’m currently explaining, it’s not the only method I utilize to discover music.  I also have Bookmark Nights, when I go back through what I’ve heard before and give it another shot.  I have strong anecdotal evidence of artists who had an album I didn’t like suddenly becoming my New Favorite Artist with a later release.  And, sometimes, making that connection with a later album has me re-evaluating my relationship with the earlier album.  Sometimes, once that connection is made, it translates on to future albums and back to past ones.  This has happened.  Repeatedly.

Okay, let continue with #4, but we’ll set up the scenario that you don’t have an artist site or you don’t stream music on your artist site.  These days there are less and less tech excuses not to stream on your site, but that will be a subject for a different article.  For now, let’s just continue on with this scenario.

So, I struck out on your website.  I now turn to specific trusted third-party sites where I am confident that I can stream music in full and the site won’t spam me or unload some ungodly virus onto my hard drive.  My first two choices are Bandcamp and Soundcloud.

For those unfamiliar with either of those sites, Bandcamp is a very cool retail site that is very self-driven by the artist, and I’ve been told that as far as music retailers go, the musician rate on sales ain’t bad.  It’s a lot like myspace but without all the social nonsense and spam.  What I like about it is that 99% of the artists who list there use the functionality of full streaming of music.  Soundcloud isn’t so much a music retailer as a music showcase tool, but the end result is the same… a huge percentage of the musicians who are on Soundcloud stream their album in full (or nearabout).

(Note:  Artists who only provide song samples on Bandcamp and Soundcloud stand out like a festering thumb.)

Since I really like to focus on small label and self-produced jazz, I typically do pretty well finding music on Bandcamp and Soundcloud.  Up and coming jazz musicians have grown up in a cyber world and are hip to the benefits of the internet.  And a big benefit of putting music up on sites like Bandcamp or Soundcloud (or others I’m about to discuss momentarily) is that even if a musician doesn’t have the time and/or knowledge to create their own site, third-party sites like Bandcamp and Soundcloud give the artist a meaty skeleton on which to establish themselves and build up from.  I’ve lost track of the times I’ve seen a post on a music forum or twitter that linked to a Soundcloud or Bandcamp page, which I then followed, listened to, and then purchased the music or, at least, spread the word about it.  But more on that later.

Okay, so back to the search.  If I strike out on the artist site and Bandcamp and Soundcloud, I start searching for secondary sites like AllAboutJazz and Reverbnation and Youtube and Facebook… sites where I’ve seen instances of full-streaming by artists but have had mixed results so as not to make the sites fall within the first avenues to explore.  AllAboutJazz has begun allowing artists to stream their music on the site, and of course there’s all the free tracks available on AAJ to download and/or stream.  Reverbnation is very similar to Myspace.  You know what Youtube is, as well as Facebook.  I don’t know how long this particular Facebook functionality has existed, but I’ve noticed that Facebook has a “Band Page” tab, which some musicians use to stream their music on.  That’s a good thing.

However, if I strike out on those options, too, then I go to a label site (if applicable).  Most labels don’t stream in full.  Some will stream a couple songs, some do just samples, though some, like Palmetto and RareNoise and Savoy, stream in full (god bless ya).  And, ironically (and smartly), some labels like Anzic and Sunnyside actually have created Bandcamp pages where they stream and sell their music (god bless ya, too).  If I was able to hear your album in full on your label site when I couldn’t hear it on your own (if you even have a site), then your label has already done right by you.

If I’ve struck out on all those other options and googling your name hasn’t brought up some oddball result like you’re streaming your entire album on archive[dot]org or ubuweb, then I have one last place I check before scratching your name off the list… MySpace.  However, the only reason I stop on MySpace is, one, to see if you have an artist site address that my google search didn’t return (which happens occasionally, oddly enough) or maybe find a musician name or other search term to feed into google (which also has brought results in the case of an ensemble name being no-go on the search because everything was linked to a specific musician’s name from the ensemble).  I do not listen to MySpace tracks anymore.  Aside from getting hit with a nasty virus from a MySpace page and nearly getting hit with two others, I now get error messages when trying to play MySpace tracks or, sometimes, it plays a sponsored track instead of what I wanted.  I’m done with that site, other than for a scan for information.

If, at this point, I’ve got nothing on you and couldn’t hear your music, then I cross you off the list.  I’ve already spent considerable time investigating your music, and if after all that time I couldn’t even hear what you have to offer, then forget it, I’m moving on.

If I was able to hear your music and didn’t care for it, well, I addressed that above.  But it’s worth mentioning again… your music will get revisited, both current and future albums.  Musicians who let me stream an album in full may not get a sale from me, but they do earn substantial goodwill, and that can result in a future sale from me or, possibly, I spread the word that people can stream your album by putting posts on various forums and blogs (and with nearly 10,000 forum & bulletin board posts about music, I assure you, I’ve done it plenty), and that could lead to new fans and new sales.

For those of you who let me hear all (or near all) of your new album and I liked it…  Congrats, you move on to #5.

In addition to the immediate benefit of purchasing your album, there an assortment of others upsides that could result from my having been able to hear your album (results may and likely will vary):

5a.  I invite you to submit an album track to be featured as the AllAboutJazz Download of the Day.  AAJ gets about 2.3 million visitors in an average month, so not too shabby a crowd to get your music out in front of.

5b.  If your album hasn’t been released to the public yet, and it’s going to retail on eMusic, then I may include it as one of my weekly Jazz Picks.  eMusic has something like half a million member customers, so that can’t hurt promo-wise to get out in front of that group.

5c.  I write a formal review of your album for AllAboutJazz, eMusic, Bird is the Worm, Music is Good, or in the future, other music sites and publications.

5d.  To hell with 5a – 5c.  I mean, those are all good and they will bring you some solid results, but 5d is so damn important and it’s what I’ve been doing and will continue to do regardless of my associations with any organizations or media outlets.  I Get The Word Out.  On Bird is the Worm, on the AllAboutJazz forum, on the eMusic forum, on the eMusers forum, on Twitter, through emails to friends and just hanging out… I love to pass along what I’ve discovered, to share the great and beautiful music I’ve heard in the hope that others might also have a sublime reaction to it as well.

I love music.  Jazz, especially jazz of the present day, is definitely tops in my life, but music has always been at the forefront.  All those years of ambivalence at not owning a tv, all I cared about was whether the stereo was working and searching for more great music to play on it.  I received an iPod once as a gift.  It had video capability.  I never bothered looking into purchasing shows or movies for it… I filled that damn thing up with mp3s, and suddenly my commutes on the EL and CTA buses and Metra trains were so much more enjoyable.

And the gift that I consider music to be in my life, I can’t help but want to share what I’ve found, to share that gift.  My enthusiasm may be almost pathetically innocent in its childlike exuberance, but fuckwhatever, it’s how I’m wired, and so passing along the gift of found music Matters To Me.  I’m compelled to do it.  I want to spread some happiness along to others.  That’s a human reaction that I’ll never hide from, to want to find ways to make the world around me a little bit better than the way I found it.  One of those ways is spreading word of beautiful and engaging music.

So, yeah, in me, you effectively have a street team member.  I don’t work for you or take orders from you, but I’ll be out there spreading the word about your wonderful music like you were my good and dear friend.  I am the human element of the connection your music made with me via the internet, and so it follows that one way for me to show my appreciation for your music is to shout about it from the rooftops.  This way, other listeners will gain the benefit of your music and you will gain the benefit of more people listening to and purchasing your music.

HOWEVER…

This is only going to happen if you Let Me Hear Your Music.

Cheers.

-Bird Is The Worm