The Monday Mix -- Nobody Can Hear You If You Are Screaming Into A Tornado

This will be our last Monday Mix of 2013 so I thought we'd start by taking a look back at the past year while looking sightly forward to 2014.  For the rest of the month we will be doing a lot of retrospectives but this will be a more informal look back at the year and forward to the future and how indie music has been and will be impacted.

This has been an odd year.  Though we've seen a continued thirst for indies, it feels as if the mainstream wrested control of music as a whole.  One need look only at services like Spotify, Google Play, Pandora and iTunes Radio to see what caused the loss in traction.  Though it is true that these platforms do allow indie bands to expand their reach, most of them have buried indie performers behind walls and walls of mainstream promotion and commercial advertising.

We're hoping that technology and the public's desire for more indie music will converge into something spectacular during the next year. 

One service that probably won't help is Google's new streaming music platform. The service is said to be modeled after Spotify, with users having on-demand access to music. The on-demand aspect makes sense, since that’s how YouTube users are already viewing videos. Rumors also indicate that the service will offer both a free ad-supported version and a premium ad-free version with a monthly fee attached. YouTube is all about ads, so I don't expect anything to be truly ad-free, despite any monthly payment. Attaching advertisers will ultimately mean better opportunities for label supported artists, once again at the expense of the indies. Same old, same old.

YouTube isn’t just the largest video site in the world, it’s the largest music service, too. And any subscription model like this for music (which the industry has established as a viable business model for streaming music) could in turn help Google transition YouTube into a place where consumers are OK with paying a monthly fee for music video access, thus benefiting its subscription services for premium channel partners. This could further push indies into the background in exposure opportunities and in accessible revenue streams. Google isn’t the only platform with plans for a streaming music service. Beats Audio’s streaming service has also planned a launch for 2014.

Where does all this leave the indies? That's a head scratcher, but it sure feels like all that is left is do-it-yourself hashtag indie promotion.

For a more sobering gut check, google the phrase "streaming music services that cater to indies." What a shame, considering all of the advances indie music has made since 2010.

TAE PHOENIX & SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING



And what of Social Media promotion? As the year closes, I still see bands clinging to the same, tired missteps that killed MySpace five years ago. Too many indie bands and artists are acting like they are entitled rather than acting as leaders. I get the e-mails and I see social media posts and I wonder to myself, why do so few understand the concept of social media marketing?

Tae Phoenix is someone who gets it (Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TaePhoenix).

Tae is somebody that represents strong leadership in social media and self promotion. She is constantly developing her brand image. Her e-mails are released consistently, are short and to the point, and are not full of repetitive, boring command-content statements. Tae connects with her audience. She listens to her followers and to her peers. She understands and embraces the concept of organic growth.

If we learned one thing from the demise of MySpace, it should have been that me, me, me marketing is nothing but a one way street that negatively impacts your promotional abilities. In our offices, we use the phrase, "Nobody can hear you if you are screaming into a tornado" as a way of checking ourselves before we post anything to social media. True, we do post a lot of links, but we are aware to engage first and speak secondly. Why won't more indie bands follow that lead? Engage!

Again, this is an area where Tae Phoenix excels. Understanding the social aspect of social media is an important step. Target your tweets and Facebook posts. Give social media followers a reason to engage. Say hi once in awhile if you must. Social media allows us to build virtual, self-sustaining communities. Don't be the absentee leader of your community and don't phone it in by posting the same, tired links to view your videos and purchase your music. Tired posts make for tired followers.  Tired followers kill careers.

The fruits of an engaging social media campaign are conversions. Your social IQ helps you focus on the metrics that matter, helping you convert followers into music sales.

I'll use Tae as an example again. Her recent Kickstarter campaign was 100% funded in (I believe) less than 72 hours. That is an amazing accomplishment and is the direct result of understanding the nuances of social media. I don't think Tae is as concerned with the sheer numbers of social media followers as she is with targeting responsive followers.

Responsive followers are the result of an engaging social media campaign. Responsive followers lead to conversions. Conversions are those fans who will opt in to your e-mail newsletter, download or purchase your music, buy your merch and/or attend your shows. Conversions therefore monetize your music career. Stop putting 100% of your energy into increasing numbers on social sites and focus instead on converting the followers you already have into responsive, engaging fans. Use social media to funnel music listeners to your website or crowd funding campaigns and convert them.

When you've grasped the ideas behind social media marketing, when you've embraced the power you are capable of wielding in social media and when you've understood the difference between engaging and commanding, you will find yourself selling your brand without really selling. That is how Tae Phoenix crowd-funded an album in 72 hours.

If you can create a community of loyal, supportive fans, you can convert them without really asking. You've reached a point where your community wants to help and does so without prompting. There is still work to be done, of course, but now you are working smarter instead of working harder. Soon your followers will be converting new followers on your behalf. It is that power of community that grabs the attention of those that matter. A loyal, engaged and supportive following will always capture the attention of journalists, agents, radio stations and industry executives.

Please allow me to give you two last pieces of advice before I send your indie band out with a change in paradigm:

• Subscribe to the Tae Phoenix mailing list to see a great example of successful media marketing with engaging content
• You are not a major record label, so stop acting like a major label corporate marketing machine through social media.

In short - stop screaming into the tornado.

I wish you a successful, prosperous and engaging new year.

The Monday Mix will return on January 6, 2014. Thank you for reading.

THIS WEEK'S TOP FIVE LIST

Five ways to leverage your social media campaigns.

1. Publish blog friendly content: Consider repurposing your brand content by making it less formal and more conversational in tone.
2. Demonstrate your unique personality: Engage your followers by letting them get to know you, your band members and the culture that makes your brand what it is.
3. Communicate product launches without the hard sell: New music, merch or an upcoming show? Engage your followers with the process and your excitement in releasing something new instead of focusing only on the close. The sale will take care of itself.
4. Recognize your industry and your peers: Take the time to note what others are doing by re-posting relevant links or mentioning something or somebody that offers relevancy and significance.
5. Stop being a bot, start being a human: There is nothing more disinteresting or less engaging than posting a repetitive link simultaneously to all of your social media platforms. Be divergent in your content. Show your human side. Engage your audience instead of commanding them.

THIS WEEK'S FACEBOOK FRIENDS



Extreme Metal from Philadelphia's I Am The Trireme.

Few bands can match the ferocity and sheer brutal combination of melodic death and vile symphonic black metal that I Am The Trireme (pronounced "i am the tri' reem") has conjured. Hailing from Philadelphia PA, IATT bring forth a relentless, fast paced, crushing wall of blackened brutality and haunting melodies. Listeners can expect to hear a searingly dark, aggressive blend of brutality and purely sinister blackened metal that is sure to leave them foaming at the mouth.

Conceived in 2008, I Am The Trireme quickly began to heave their mass out of the dark abyss and shape themselves into a great leviathan in the world of extreme metal along side acts such as Rotting Christ, Goatwhore, Suffocation, Exhumed, and literally countless other heavy hitters in the extreme metal community; proving IATT themselves as equals in the genre.

While never claiming to be strictly black metal, IATT hold strong to belief of black metal in it's purest form - unencumbered and in direct opposition of ALL religious ties and affiliations. In a time where ideals and strong beliefs have shifted into trends and thoughtless practices, leaving the scene littered with hollow shells in the image of our forefathers; I Am The Trireme sets a course true to their convictions and shines an unapologetic ghostly light through the fog into the beyond.

Please Facebook Like I Am The Trireme. While you're at it, check out their new merch store via Biohazard Apparel. We hooked I Am The Trireme up with a sweet merch deal at Biohazard and we can do the same for you.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Delusional Waste by SPC ECO




ABOUT THE MONDAY MIX

The Monday Mix airs from Noon to 5:30PM CDT each Monday and is designed to help you get through that brutal after-lunch, energy-sucking span that kicks off every work week. This particular show will be a mix of old, deep album cuts and new indie music with a lot of genre crossover. No Adele. Sorry.

What else does The Monday Mix do? Well, it helps you discover new indie music by combining some really great under the radar tracks with more established songs that were, once in fact, under the radar as well. The hope here is that the culture shock of discovering your next favorite band won't be so enormously imposing if we surround the new stuff with some of your old, familiar friends.

Jivewired supports independent musicians by paying royalties for airplay on Jivewired Radio. Please help us support indie artists by listening to our station and by purchasing indie music. Thank you. The links on the radio player will give you download options if you really dig on the music and some of the songs are offered for free.

To listen, just press play on the radio widget to the right or use this link to open in a new window that will allow you to listen when you navigate away from this page:

Launch Jivewired Radio

MONDAY MIX PLAYLIST FOR 09 DECEMBER 2013

1. The Paper Trench by Admiral Fallow
2. Losers by The Bell Brigade
3. Hold That Thought by Ben Folds Five
4. Breakers by Local Natives
5. Ain't No Stranger by Lee Bains III & Glory Fires
6. Remember Last Time by Avi Buffalo
7. Strange Transmissions [Chillout Mix] by Norah Jones & Peter Malick
8. Still Left To Roam by Grazzhopper
9. Hello Narwhal by TAUK
10. Tetop by The McLovins
11. I'm Writing A Novel by Father John Misty
12. The Only Place by Best Coast
13. Busted Up by The Replacements
14. Catch Me Now by American Dreamers
15. I Believe In You by Sinead O'Connor
16. Man by Neko Case
17. Curtains Drawn by Crown Point
18. Sacrilege by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
19. Laid by James
20. Where Not To Look For Freedom by The Belle Brigade
21. Heart Of Colifax by Andy Palmer
22. Way Down Now by World Party
23. Maria by Dr. Pants
24. Wrapped Around Her Finger by Mikey Ohlin
25. Christmas Katie by Widespread Panic
26. Good Change by The Big O Trio
27. Caledonia Blue by Chloe Johns & Justin Cooper
28. Everything Is Embarrassing by Sky Ferreira
29. Crying Tree by Fiawna Forte
30. Do I Wanna Know? by Arctic Monkeys
31. Calm Before The Storm by The Bats
32. Sunday by Jet West
33. No Control by Pepper
34. Justice by Burning Slow
35. The Hard Way by Massy Ferguson feat. Zoe Muth
36. Between You & Me by Cary Morin
37. Good Spirits by Jakob Tovar & The Saddle Tramps
38. Strangers by Rache La Vonne
39. She Will by Savages
40. Yellow Red Sparks by Yellow Red Sparks
41. Other Side [Stuck Together Remix] by Atoms For Peace
42. Downpour by Lovebettie
43. Looking For You by Lannie Flowers
44. Sick by Sneaker Pimps
45. Be Your Own Machine by The Bourgeois
46. Handbag by The Imperial
47. Honky Tonk Devil by Craig Plumlee
48. Folk Singers by Chris Lee Becker
49. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
50. Sun by Two Door Cinema Club
51. Sinking Ships by Don Gallardo
52. Wakin' On A Pretty Day by Kurt Vile
53. Does She Know Yet? by Tae Phoenix
54. Merry Go Round by Shani
55. Wait by Colin Gilmore
56. Sorry About Last Night by Wally Dogger
57. Uh Oh by Super Water Sympathy
58. Before We Run by Yo La Tengo
59. Birdhouse In Your Soul by They Might Be Giants
60. Here Comes Your Man by The Pixies
61. Awkward by San Cisco
62. Sitting Still by R.E.M.
63. Just A Ride by Jem
64. Trip On Love by Abra Moore
65. Eyeoneye by Andrew Bird
66. Big Love by Matthew E. White
67. Hey Hey Hey by The Quick & Easy Boys
68. Santa Cruz by Foreign Talks
69. This Is Not Love by Well Hung Heart
70. Lying To Myself by The Can't Tells
71. Part Past Part Fiction by The Chills
72. Coming For You by von Grey
73. Me & My Guitar by The David Castro Band
74. Riot Rhythm by Sleigh Bells
75. Dear Madam Barnum by XTC
76. Put The Message In The Box by World Party
77. For Anyone by Star Anna
78. Evil Girls by Escondido
79. Little Song by Shauna Burns
80. Body & Soul by Goldenboy