TuneCorner

Inside EQ - The Keys To A Great Mix by Jake Hartsfield

Jake Hartsfield is a songwriter, producer, touring sound engineer and a new addition to the TuneCore Marketing Team.

---

 

With today’s technology – GarageBand, for example – anyone can record a track straight into their computer using their computer mic, slap on a few automatic effects, and instantly have a finished recording of a song.  If you try to transition from Garage Band to Logic or Pro Tools, it can be a little overwhelming trying to understand all of the fundamental rules of mixing that are done for you in Garage Band, but which need to be applied from scratch with more professional programs.

I’m going to help you get an idea for some fairly advanced EQ, Compression, and FX techniques that you can apply on your own, which should also help you understand fundamentally how to create a great mix.  All of the specific settings I’m recommending are my own personal preference – they are by no means the “standard” or “correct,” but should give you an idea of what you can go for when you mix.  This article – Part 1 – will focus on EQ.  Part 2 will focus on dynamic processing and time-based effects.

Equalization (EQ) – The Golden Rule: Cut before you Boost

Always cut before you boost.  Think about it this way – you want to cut out the nasty, keeping the sweet.  If you boost too much, you’re keeping the nasty, and adding a little sweet, but hearing mostly the nasty.  You’re raising the noise floor when you boost.  Any audio processor is going to color or change the tone and quality of whatever audio is fed through it.  Equalizers sound better if you attenuate frequencies rather than raising the gain.

Search and Destroy: Find the bad frequencies before you cut them 

A quick way to find bad frequencies (whether it’s from the room acoustics, sibilance, the instrument, or an electronic issue) is to boost a specific frequency with a sharp Quality Factor* (8 to 10) very harshly (boost it 10dB) and listen. While you have that boosted, change the frequency and search around to find the offending frequency.  Once you’ve found it, try softening the Q (maybe 3 to 7), then gently cutting until you can’t hear that frequency standing out any more.  You could also reverse that and cut it 10 or 20 dB, then slowly raise it back up until you barely hear it.  You might use this technique to find a ringing in a snare drum – and you might want to make a note of the frequency (say it’s 185 Hz), then also check for the ringing at the harmonics of that same frequency (double or half the Hz, so check 92.5 Hz and 370 Hz).

Quality Factor = Q

*The Quality Factor (Q) defines the sharpness of the band of frequencies affected by an equalizer.  A lower number widens the band while a higher number narrows the band.

Kick – Cut 200 Hz with a fairly wide bell curve (with a Q of 1 to 3) to attenuate some of the “boxy” sound of the drum.  Boost 3.5 kHz to 5 kHz with a fairly sharp bell curve (with a Q of 3 to 6).  The phat nasty (the good kind of nasty) bumpin’ frequencies in the kick drum are around 80 – 150 Hz.  Different size kick drums are centered around different frequencies.  50 Hz and below is the subtle sub frequencies that add depth to the kick.  Don’t go boosting that low end just because you don’t think you can hear it well enough.  You don’t want to compromise that nice top end you’ve carved out.  The biggest mistake people make is mixing the low end too hot.  A bass-heavy recording will muddy up your entire mix, and sound like a puny little chipmunk squeaking through someone’s computer speakers that can’t reproduce anything below 400 Hz.

Snare – Use a high pass filter around 100 – 150 Hz, because there are generally no frequencies generated by the snare drum below that threshold that you need.  Try gently cutting the mid-range (around 600 Hz) with a wide bell curve (Q of .5 to 2) to take out some of the harsher noises in this range that aren’t always frequencies most prominent in the snare drum.  Sometimes you still want to feel the weight of the snare, which you can do by leaving a little low end around 150 Hz to 300 Hz.  That crack you want in the snare is usually between 1 kHz and 4 kHz, depending on the snare drum.  Try boosting 3.5 kHz to get more crack…but don’t have a crack attack!

*For that epic 70’s & 80’s snare sound, try scooping a big chunk of the mids out (600 Hz) leaving that low end and the crack.

High Tom – Use a high pass filter around 50 Hz to 80 Hz, or even higher.  Toms are tricky – sometimes they sound great without any tweaking, other times it’s a much-needed fix.  Try cutting around 500 or 600 Hz with a soft Q (1 to 3) to take out some of the “nasty” box-like sound.  Boost that frequency first so you can hear what sort of “nasty” I’m talking about.  The slap/crack of the high tom might be around 3.5 or 4 kHz, so you can boost that with a sharp Q (similar to the slap of the kick) to help the top end cut through the mix.  The sweet spot in the low end is entirely dependant on the tom, but is usually around 150 to 300 Hz.

Low Tom – Only use a high pass filter if the floor tom is too bassy, and then use it around 50 Hz.  Similar to the kick, cut around 200 or 250 Hz to attenuate that boxy sound, then subtly boost (if needed) 3.5 kHz to help the attack/slap cut through the mix.

High Hat – Use a high pass filter starting anywhere from 200 Hz to 450 Hz.  You only really want the sweet, smooth, and bright frequencies between 800 Hz and 10 kHz.  If you’ve got a harsh sounding hat, try cutting 1 or 2 kHz with a medium Q (3-6).

Overheads – If you’re just going for the cymbals, cut most of the other drums out by using a high pass filter around 200 Hz to 400 Hz.  Sometimes you’ll want to gently attenuate (cut) 600 Hz with a wide Q (.5 to 2) to soften those harsh mid frequencies not always favored in drums.

Vocals – Use a high pass filter starting around 100 to 150 Hz.  Listen carefully, and depending on the singer, you might want more low end or less.  Cutting low end (200 Hz to 300 Hz) off a vocal is like cutting off the weighted chains holding it down beneath the ocean of sound and lifting it above the mix.  If you recorded the vocals in a small room, there could be “room modes” (frequencies that are more reverberant than others due to the dimensions of the room), that are affecting your vocal.  You can find these by using the search and destroy method and listening for frequencies that sound like they’re humming or feeding back.  You may want to cut a little harshness around 1 kHz to 2 kHz (with a medium Q between 4 and 6), which is where most of the harsh sibilance (s’s, t’s, v’s, f’s) is.  You don’t want to cut too much of this, because the sibilance helps us understand what the vocalist is saying – you just don’t want these frequencies to sound too harsh on the ears.  Attenuating the sibilance is usually best accomplished with a de-esser (a dynamic processor that will be covered in Part 2).  You can add “air” to vocals to make them sound lighter and brighter by boosting 5 Hz and higher with a shelf EQ…or a soft shelf boost after 1 kHz.

Acoustic Guitar – In a full band mix, you want the acoustics to really pop out of the mix, and the best way to do this is to cut off all the baggage – so use a high pass filter as low as 100 Hz and up as high as 400 Hz (use your own judgment, all acoustics are different).  You should also look for frequencies in the lower mid-range that are excessively boomy or humming (most acoustic guitars have a natural resonance – a frequency at which they vibrate/reverberate the most).  Before you boost 3 kHz – 10 kHz to get that sparkly you want, try cutting the low end and mid range more with a wide EQ band.

Electric Guitar – For rhythm guitars, you want to keep some of the warmth and power of the low end, but you still want to get rid of the unnecessary rumble deeper down.  Try using a high pass filter around 100 Hz.  For lead guitars, try using a high pass filter up to 150 Hz or 200 Hz.  Start low and raise the frequency until you hear it begin to affect the center of the tone, then back off (lower the frequency) to where you can’t tell the difference.  You might not be able to hear the lower frequencies you’re cutting out, but you are cleaning up your mix!  This allows more room for the kick and bass guitar in the low end without the guitars muddying up everything.

You may have noticed I didn’t mention anything else besides the high pass filter when mixing electric guitars…  That’s because I believe it’s better to go for a great tone with the amp and mic placement than try to fix it with EQ.  I rarely use more than a high pass filter on my electric guitars.

Piano – Another instrument similar to an acoustic guitar in a full band mix – you want it to pop above everything else, and be able to mix it fairly low and still have it stand out.  Use a soft, but generous high-pass filter between 100 Hz and 200 Hz.  To help the attack of the keys sit above your mix, try gently boosting anywhere between 1 kHz and 5 kHz.

Bass – Your bass guitar should be married to your kick drum.  It should sound as though the kick drum is your bassist thumping his strings – the attack at the front of every hit.  To achieve this, you should find what frequency your kick is centered on and carve out that frequency in your bass guitar (cut about 5 dB and see what it sounds like) to make space for the kick.  To get rid of the boominess of a bass guitar, try cutting between 80 Hz and 150 Hz.  Cutting to carve out that space for the kick drum will help control a boomy bass as well.  If you want to add a little presence (brightness) to your bass, try boosting sharply on a frequency between 1kHz and 3 kHz.

If you want to hear examples of songs I’ve mixed of various genres (if you don’t trust me), go to www.jakehartsfield.com and click on the DP logo.

Your ears are your greatest tool.  Listen to a lot of music and try to imitate the sounds you hear when you’re mixing.  Play a song with a great drum track or lead vocal through your speakers, then immediately switch back to your mixing software and try to replicate that sound – try to hear and find how sharply they EQ’d the instrument, which frequencies stick out, and which sound the sweetest to your ear.

Happy Hearing!

The Future of the Music Industry by Jake Smith

---

Jake Smith is a TuneCore Customer Support Representative and Editor of the Weekly Newsletter

---

 

To say it's been a bumpy decade for the music industry is a bit of an understatement.  After Napster's introduction in June of 1999, we've seen ten years of new formats, declining record sales, lawsuits, and passionate arguments from all sides (artists, labels, the RIAA, and consumers) about the pros and cons of these drastic changes.  Has suing music pirates done anything to curb illegal downloads?  Has digital file sharing helped new artists reach more fans faster?  Where will the industry be ten years from now?

iTunes 9 recently came out, and with it a variety of new "bonus" features that come with selected albums.  These iTunes LPs as they're called can include album extras like music videos, digital booklets, artist band photos and more (important note: at this time TuneCore is not yet set up to deliver content as iTunes LPs - we will make a HUGE announcement when we are able to, stay tuned).   Features like these have got me thinking about the innovative ways in which stores, labels, and artists have worked towards making incentives to pay for, rather than steal music.  In my opinion, the music makers and retailers who stick to the list below will be the ones leading this crazy music business into the future.

1. Stop fighting the changes

The digital revolution was and continues to be scary for those who once made the brunt of their money selling round pieces of plastic.  In the wake of peer to peer websites that allowed for people to share and receive music files without spending a dime, the first response of the Record Industry Association of American (RIAA) was to sue the peer to peer services themselves.  After this proved only to spawn new peer to peer services, the RIAA turned its sites on the people doing the sharing.  Suddenly, people of all ages, shapes and sizes found themselves being sued for thousands and sometimes millions of dollars in damages.  I don't mean for this to turn into an argument about the pros and cons of file sharing, but I think most people would agree that these giant lawsuits haven't done much of anything to stop the piracy problem.  I remember a particularly pathetic attempt by BMG to create an "unrippable" CD on which to print their new releases.  One day after the release of the first disc in this format, it was discovered that by using a black sharpie around the edge of the disc, you could burn and import it with no problem at all.

The moral of the last ten years?  It's futile to fight changes in how people consume their content.  Consider this: once upon a time, the biggest threat to the industry was that people could use cassette tapes to record songs off the radio.  Piracy stinks but as long as music is written and recorded, the danger of it exists.  This leads me to my next thought:

2. Sell things that can't be stolen

Maybe people will always find ways to crack codes and steal content in our digital age, but there is money to be made by providing consumers with additional ways to connect to the music they love.  Some things to consider:

• Classic merchandise is still very big: T-Shirts, Buttons, Stickers, and even less traditional items like USB drives and Snuggies keep many bands in the black.
• Music "powers" other products: Movies, TV Shows, commercials, video games (The Beatles Rock Band, anyone?), even greeting cards have been great, "non-stealable" ways of getting music out there.
• Give consumers bonus "rewards" for buying: iTunes LP definitely practices this idea - now, instead of just getting music for your money, you get cool additional content as well.  Other incentives could include bonus tracks for people who pre-order, providing different formats (CDs, digital downloads, vinyl records), offering limited run "premium" items (coffee table books, first 100 copies signed, etc).
• Don't forget live shows: While music sales may have dropped, concert attendance is as high as ever.  Give fans a show to remember and they'll keep coming back!

3. Quality over Quantity

I read this really great interview the other day with the founders of Merge Records (Arcade Fire, Spoon, M. Ward).  While other labels, both big and small, have had some really extreme ups and downs over the past 20 years, Merge has remained steady.  Instead of pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into every artist they release then praying for one of them to make it big, they focus on putting out the artists they love.  If they don't expect to make a ton on the release, they keep recording and promotional costs low.  As a result, Merge have positioned themselves as taste makers.  When indie music fans see "Merge" on a new artist, they see it as a mark of quality.  The lesson in this?  The more good product you provide your fans with, the more they will respect and support you.  I would argue that whatever shape the music industry may be in ten years from now, the song will always be king.

 

But what do you guys think?  Share your thoughts here on the TuneCore Blog

Stay Hot in Online Marketing by Jake Hartsfield

Jake Hartsfield is a songwriter, producer, touring sound engineer and a new addition to the TuneCore Marketing Team.

---

Something that I always advise new artists to consider is “What are you going to call yourself?” Seems like an easy question at first, but it is becoming increasingly important to make sure that your name is unique enough so that you can market yourself effectively online

Brand Yourself Uniquely

Ideally, you want a name that no one else has or has even thought of before.  When you are inventing a name, here are a few checks you should make:

•    Google It.   Is anyone else using the name?  Another artist?
•    Search the US Patent & Trademark Office (uspto.gov)
•    Is “www.yourname.com” available?  “www.yournamemusic.com” ?
•    Look for MySpace.com/yourname
•    Facebook.com/yourname
•    Ilike.com/yourname
•    yourname@gmail.com
•    YouTube.com/yourname
•    Check Knowem.com for your username
•    If your URL is already taken, you could settle for “yournamemusic” or some other variation, though this is not ideal.

YourName.com

I cannot stress how important it is to buy your own web domain to use as an artist.  Even if you don’t use it right away, reserve it!  You can buy yourname.com for about $10/year at GoDaddy or any other domain site.  It’s worth it.

Having a central location to point your fans to is essential for streamlining your marketing strategy.  You own everything on this site and you’re not relying on an unreliable company to host your media and manage your fans.  You want your fans visiting YourName.com more than any other profile you have online.  Your other profiles (Myspace, Facebook, iLike, Twitter, etc) should be extensions of your brand that ultimately direct your fans to YourName.com.

To improve your Google listing for your domain, buy as many years in advance as you can (reserve YourName.com for 10 years) and Google sees your web page as more important than another site that is only going to be around for a year or so.  Also, use good solid keywords and descriptions in the meta data for your website.

Google Presence

When you Google your artist name, you want to be in the Top 10 results.  You want to be #1 if possible.  To improve your presence on Google, you should consider creating profiles on the current hot websites I’ve included in this article.  The more web real estate you have, the larger your web for collecting fans (and customers!).

In a study done by Cornell University, 57% of people clicked on the #1 result, 13% clicked on the #2 result, and 10% clicked on the #3 result.  Only 3% clicked on the #10 result.  The percentage of people that looked at page 2 was something like 5%... So, if you don’t appear in the first page of results on Google, you’re losing about 90% of your potential fans/customers.
 
Artist Email Your Team Can Share

Set up an email – Gmail is my favorite – dedicated to your brand/artist/band name.  Use this email to manage all of your other web accounts.  This makes it easy to share access to your web assets with your team (manager, web promoter, band) without giving them access to your personal email or information.

Mailing List – Cash For Emails

Wherever you go, wherever you play, wherever your fans go, you need to be collecting emails!  Have a signup sheet at your shows; have a signup form on all of your websites, use the TuneCore widget to collect fan info.  Email is your best advertising medium – you can send a direct message to all of your fans…whenever you want.

There are tons of mailing list clients out there. iContact is a great program. But there are a bunch out there so find one that fits your needs.

URL Tracking

You want to track as much of your promotions as possible.  URL shorteners are a good way to track clicks as well as save space on posts and tweets. Bit.ly is a good tool as well as TinyURL.com.

When you tweet about your new song on MySpace, use a bit.ly link to point people to myspace.com/yourname.  Then you can see on bit.ly how many people actually followed your link.  You can compare that # to how many followers you have.

All Your OTHER Websites

It’s important to stay on top of what new websites are hot/popular.  Whatever new social network is getting the most press or has the most users is where the largest percentage of Internet users are going to be. Facebook,. Twitter and MySpace are all important branding tools.  Imeem is getting some press.  Spotify is getting huge press, but it’s currently only in the UK.  Below, I’ve listed a number of the current hot sites I’m aware of that I think every artist should be using.  Anyone else know of any good sites?

Facebook - www.facebook.com

Create an Artist Page.  Get Facebook.com/yourname if you can.  I think right now you have to have 25+ fans to get a dedicated URL, but I could be wrong.  These things change every day.

iLike - www.ilike.com

iLike is the Music Application for Facebook.  It is easily integrated with your Facebook Artist page and personal page.

YouTube - www.youtube.com

One of the most viral and popular websites active today.  Also valuable for hosting videos for your other websites – you can integrate YouTube with almost every other website you have.

Myspace - www.myspace.com

MySpace is popular because it’s one of the only sites that fans know they’re guaranteed to find music.  If people can’t find you on here, they Google you.

Twitter - www.twitter.com

Build your list of followers and send them periodic updates to keep them up to date with any band news. Use Twitter to help blast a promotion out and ask people to re-tweet it, tracking the link with bit.ly.

imeem - www.imeem.com

Users must create a profile to listen to music – recommended and similar artists pop up and lets users create playlists.  Hop on the bandwagon while it’s still growing!

Purevolume - www.purevolume.com

MySpace’s rival site during the rise of Emo, Indie, and Hardcore bands – still a hotbed for Pop-Punk and similar genres.

Questions, comments?  Let me know!

Widget Updates: Photo Galleries, Videos, and More! by Jake Smith

Jake Smith is a TuneCore Customer Support Representative and Editor of the Weekly Newsletter

---

 

First and foremost, we'd like to thank everyone for the extremely valuable feedback we've received on the TuneCore widget.  We are happy to say that the reviews have been quite positive across the board and we look forward to your continued input.



With your thoughts in mind, we've unveiled a set of new features now available for all TuneCore widgets.  To ensure continuity, the changes you make to your widget will automatically update wherever your widget is live.  Updates include:

Band Photo: You can now upload a band photo directly to your widget page, it will display when a song has not yet been selected.

 

Upload your band photo from: http://www.tunecore.com/widgets (have to be logged in).

Photo Gallery: Create and host a photo gallery in your widget by linking directly to a Flickr account.

 

Don't have a Flickr account?  Visit http://www.flickr.com to set one up.

In the "My Photo Gallery" section, enter your Flickr user name OR a photo set ID. Photo set ID is essentially a photo album ID from Flickr. You can grab the photo set ID directly from the URL of your photo page.  For example if my URL was:  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frego/sets/72157616781787756/

My photo set ID would be 72157616781787756

Videos: Share your YouTube videos (electronic press kits, live performances, etc.) inside your widget!

 

Don't have a YouTube account?  Visit http://www.youtube.com to set one up.

In the "My Videos" section, enter your YouTube username. It will pull ALL VIDEOS from that account.  For this reason, if you have a YouTube account that features several videos unrelated to your music, you may want to create a dedicated band YouTube account.

Tour Dates: Keep fans up to date with a list of upcoming performances.  At this time you can only add future tour dates.  To add tour dates, log into TuneCore then click http://www.tunecore.com/widgets



Donations: Raising money for a tour or a new record?  Fans can now donate to your cause directly through the TuneCore widget to your Premier PayPal Account (learn how to set up your Premier PayPal Account here: http://www.tunecore.com/widgets/paypal.html)

What do you guys think?  Let us know here on the TuneCore blog!

The Producer's Checklist by Jake Hartsfield

Jake Hartsfield is a songwriter, producer, touring sound engineer and a new addition to the TuneCore Marketing Team.

---

 

As a TuneCore user, there's a good chance you're a producer as well..  You may have an Mbox or you may have an entire Pro Tools HD rig with an analog console.  Maybe you have a bigger budget and like to lay down tracks in a professional studio away from home.  Whatever the case, if you’re producing yourself, and especially if you’re producing other artists, there are some basic things to keep in mind when starting a new project.  Some of the most important steps you'll take happen before you even enter the studio.

Below is my own "Producer's Checklist", though I'm sure you each have your own.  Do you do anything differently?  Let me know!

Work Out A Budget

    •    Will you be renting studio space?
    •    Are you renting any microphones, amps, or other gear?
    •    Schedule dates for tracking, overdubs, editing, mixing, and mastering
    •    Are you hiring musicians other than the artist?
    •    You need to pay them even if they are “your friends”
    •    How much will you charge for your production fee?
    •    Even if you’re client is “your friend” they should be paying you too
    •    For larger projects, food, housing, & other living costs could be included in the budget

Write With The Artist If You Can

As a producer, I like to write with the artists I produce whenever I can, because there simply is not enough money coming in from production advances (for most independent producers.)  By writing, you can get royalties (which can be substantial if you’re writing with a successful artist/writer).  If an artist comes in with most of their album already completed, a good producer will sit down with them to help polish up the songs, offer directional advice, work out arrangements, or even write a few new songs with them.   During this process, you should be creating a track list of songs you know you want to record that will most likely be on the album.  If you – as a producer – are writing with the artist, you should be given a percentage of the copyright to each song you help write – but its negotiable between you and the artist whether you should get 10% for writing a key lyric, or 50% for re-writing most of the chorus melody and changing the song completely. 

Songwriter Split Agreement

This is an important contract to write up (you can do it yourself too) that stipulates what percentage of the copyright you own to a song you co-write with another writer (or writers).  Writers usually take an even split – if there are two writers, each writer gets 50%, if there are three writers, each writer gets 33.3%.  If no split is discussed, but all writers are in agreement that they intentionally co-wrote the song together, then the split is legally assumed to be even between all writers.

What Are “Producer Points?”

Producers can often negotiate “points” on an album for their creative input into the process, which equate to the percentage of sales they can receive from album sales.  However, it’s not often that a producer sees back end (producer royalties) from albums they produce – this is why songwriting is so important!  If you think you need to brush up on your songwriting abilities…read one of Cliff Goldmacher’s articles

Contracts

If you get to a stage where you have artists that you produce that are doing more with their music than slapping it up on MySpace and playing local gigs, you probably should consider getting an entertainment lawyer to write you up a producer contract.  Just sitting down and talking with a lawyer can give you an idea of what sort of things you need to discuss (legally and contractually) with your clients before any tracks get laid down.  A producer contract should address your rights and the artist’s rights to each other’s work, ownership of sound recordings, the production fees & budget, a pay schedule, your commitment to providing the artist with the best possible product, and all that fancy lawyer jargon.

Encourage Your Client (the Artist) to Practice!

Make sure your artist & band is prepared before you start tracking, especially if you are renting studio time.  It’s a good idea to have a rehearsal session scheduled before tracking – just like you’d have a rehearsal before a live show.

Thoughts, questions, comments?  Share them here on the TuneCore Blog!

Direct to Fan: Creating an Effective Offer Page and Fan Acquisition Techniques by Mike King

Mike King teaches online music business courses for Berkleemusic.com, Berklee College of Music’s online school. He is also the author of the book Music Marketing: Press Promotion, Distribution, and Retail, out now on Berklee Press.

Anyone that has been following music business trends for the past few years is likely familiar with the high profile direct to fan campaigns (campaigns that focus on the monetization of an artist’s fan base directly) that Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Imogen Heap, and others have been involved with recently. As Mike Masnick put it in his 2009 NARM Keynote, the recipe for effective direct to fan campaigns can be boiled down to: Connecting with Fans (CwF) + Providing a Reason to Buy (RtB) = $$$. Makes sense, right? The difficulties arise when you consider that there are 5 million bands on MySpace, all of which are vying for the consumer’s attention. It’s easy for NIN and Radiohead to connect with fans, the skeptics’ note, as they have had years of major label support and hundreds of thousands of existing followers to work with. How can a developing artist in this climate differentiate themselves from all the other bands out there?

The answer can be slightly more nuanced than Masnick’s formula above, and to me, is based on a four key elements: 1) setting up an effective offer page on your site that is tailored to your marketing goals and where you are in your marketing cycle, 2) expanding your digital touch points through creative fan acquisition techniques, 3) integrating your online and offline marketing towards the same goal, and lastly, 4) once you’ve created your groundswell of support and fans, integrating effective 3rd party digital and physical marketing, sales, and distribution (such as Tunecore) outlets into the mix. Let’s illustrate these elements with two examples.

Example 1: Fanfarlo

Creating an Effective Offer Page Tailored to Acquisition

Although they were supported by NME in their hometown of London (who have called their release “a carefully orchestrated treat”), and have some high profile fans in the members of Sigur Rós, Fanfarlo found that they were having a tough time breaking into the US market. Fanfarlo’s music is undeniably great (aside: the first step, of course, in any marketing campaign is to have great music. Without this, any DTF marketing campaign will fail), and as such, the plan for breaking Fanfarlo relied a lot on getting as many folks to experience their music as possible, with the end goal of gaining enough interest to pack the Mercury Lounge in NYC (300 capacity).

The band initiated their acquisition-based campaign by looking at what assets and connections they could leverage. Fanfarlo developed a low-cost video, dug up some unreleased tracks, and recorded new acoustic versions. Of particular note, the band’s management reached out to Sigur Rós, who agreed to mention Fanfarlo in one of their emails to their fans.

Prior to any outreach from Sigur Rós, the band knew it was crucial for them to create an offer on their site that would make their music as accessible as possible, while at the same time create a degree of urgency. Again, as monetization was not the driving force behind their campaign at this stage in their marketing process, Fanfarlo decided the best course of action for building up their base was to provide curious potential fans with the opportunity to purchase their record for $1.00 (for a limited time), in exchange for an email address (which provided the band with permission to engage with these fans directly at a later date). They band adjusted their site accordingly, employing best practices with SEO and Web IA, and created an offer page dedicated to highlighting their music and making it easy to purchase via one click off the offer page. This was the result:

Along with the redesigned offer page on their site, the band adjusted all of their social media pages (visibility on MySpace, Wikipedia, Facebook, Last.fm, iLike, YouTube) with appropriate offer copy/images, and links to the offer on their proper site. Once all the backend was done and Fanfarlo was ready for the traffic, Sigur Rós hyped the band in an email to their fans and Fanfarlo essentially had an “offer you can’t refuse” waiting for them. In exchange, the band built up their email list, created a viral buzz on their new record, and not only had enough interest to pack the Mercury Lounge in NYC, they had to upgrade to the larger Bowery Ballroom!

Example 2: The Lights Out

Expanding Your Digital Touch Points through Social Media & Integrating Your Online and Offline Marketing

All marketing campaigns are different, and not everyone has the luxury of having support from major bands like Sigur Rós. But no matter where you are at in your career, core marketing principals hold true, particularly when it comes to effectively using social media to engage your fans and building up your base. The best example of social media campaigns are creative ideas that leverage the viral nature of social media to engage fans and effect change in not only the digital world, but in a band’s physical campaign as well (which of course is still incredibly important to any overall marketing campaign).

The Lights Out is a Boston-based band working to raise their hometown visibility and acquire new fans to positively impact their touring base throughout the Northeast. On the heels of an oppressive heat wave in Boston in mid August, the band initiated a Slush Puppie “flash mob” online marketing campaign. The band found the appropriate location for the event via polling their Twitter followers:

Once the location was chosen, the band set up a Facebook event, which allowed them to update the status of the Slush Mob, get an idea on who was coming, and communicate directly with those that expressed interest.

The band then set up a Twitter hashtag (#), which organized all messaging around the event into a single live channel on Twitter search. The hashtag use also had the all-important added benefit of becoming a “viral generator” for the event, piquing the interest of the band’s follower’s fans, and influencing activity at a level outside of what the band could do with their fanbase directly.

Once the existing fans were engaged in the event, Boston-based bloggers picked up on it, the market’s alternative weekly featured info on the event, and popular Boston-based event and social media Twitterers did the same.

The band continued Tweeting from the event and after, and shared photos of the turnout using Twitpic:

So, what did all this mean to the band’s stated goal of raising their visibility and acquiring new fans?

The data:

• 20% increase in unique web site visitors

• 24 times increase in daily twitter followers

• 3,352 impressions from media coverage

• 66,160 impressions from Tweets and Retweets

• 195 impressions from Twitpics

• Approximate Total: 70,000 impressions

New fans also direct-messaged the band, telling them how much they enjoyed the idea/their music and expressing interest in attending future gigs. And because this social media campaign included an offline component, new fans were able to bond with the band in a more personal way.

Again, all marketing campaigns are different, and should be employed in a way that focuses on the strengths and opportunities of the respective band. The specific tools will certainly continue to change as we move forward, but the principle of determining your core goal and engaging / developing your fan base to reach this goal will not. What’s particularly exciting to me is that artists have the option to market and distribute their music directly, with less gatekeeper involvement, than ever before. We’re in the early stages of direct to fan campaigns, but I think it is undeniable that there is a tremendous amount of growth potential in the segment – and is an area that artists, managers and others (forward thinking, artist-serviced based companies, for example) have to look at very closely. 

Share your thoughts here on the TuneCore Blog!

Talk the Talk With Your Sound Engineer by Jake Hartsfield

Jake Hartsfield is a songwriter, producer, touring sound engineer and a new addition to the TuneCore Marketing Team.

One of the jobs most bands take for granted is that of their sound engineer – yes, I’m talking about the guy at the venue who sneaks around in a hoody, makes stupid jokes only he finds funny, and looks like he just woke up from a very long nap…

I’m one of those guys.  However, I would argue that I do not necessarily fit that particular stereotype.

The engineer in charge of mixing your monitors and mixing front of house (what the audience hears) can make or break your show.  If you can’t hear your own vocals in your monitor to sing in tune, or the kick and snare to feel the groove, you can find yourself struggling with the most basic elements of live performance – playing together with your band and singing on pitch.  Technical issues shouldn’t get in the way of the show, but the reality is – they often do.  Getting a good monitor mix during sound check is essential to allowing you to deliver your best possible performance.

Most large touring acts bring their own sound engineer(s) that they know and trust.  But don’t worry – every venue you play at will have someone there to run monitors and front of house if you don’t bring your own guy (or gal).  What’s important in those scenarios is how to interact with the engineer(s) so you can get the best mix possible.

Always be courteous and respectful when working with the house engineer!  They basically have your career (at least for the night of your show) in their hands.  You wouldn’t want to make your doctor angry if he’s performing surgery on you.

Know your input list and have a stage plot

If possible, type it up and print it out – or better yet, email it to the production manager or engineer at the venue before your show.  It makes your job and the engineer’s job a lot easier, and you’ll come off much more professional.

Your input list is literally a list of the inputs your band will need/use on stage.  For example: kick, snare, high tom, low tom, overhead Left, overhead right, Fender Twin (amp 1), Blues Jr. (amp 2),  Bass DI, Bass mic, Lead vocal (stage right), BGV (stage left).

Draw up a clean sketch of your stage plot including drums (draw each piece of the drum kit), where your amps will be, where you will need power, where you’ll need vocal mics.  It’s also a good idea to label your inputs by number on your stage plot to correspond with your input list.

What to ask for in your monitor mix

You need to be able to hear yourself, and you need to be able to hear the core elements of your band.  Don’t be afraid to ask for more or less in your monitor, but be very polite – the engineer is there to help you, but he doesn’t like being yelled at any more than you do.  What you don’t want to happen is for your engineer to purposefully sabotage your mix because you called him a “lazy good-for-nothing jerk” before the show.  As true as this accusation may be, you must NOT say this to his face.

A general rule of thumb is:

• Set up your equipment quickly and be attentive to the sound engineer’s questions & requests
• Ask for kick and snare
• Ask for your own vocal or guitar
• If you are a guitar player, hide your ego and DO NOT turn your amp up louder than you need it to get good tone.  You are hurting yourself if you do.  By keeping your amp at a low to moderate level, you will be able to hear your monitor mix better and your engineer will be able to make you sound better.
• Keep it simple and clear – most sound guys want to get the sound check done as quickly and as effectively as possible

Front of House

This is the mix that the audience hears through the main loudspeakers.  You generally do not have much say in this since you are on stage, but it’s always a good idea to bring along a friend (or your manager) to stand back during sound check and make sure everything sounds good.  In my opinion, (and when I mix), the most important instrument is the lead vocal, and 2nd is the kick and snare drum.  If there is a good balance between these three instruments (and you can hear the vocal clear and loud), you can usually rest assured the rest of the mix will sound good.

But be careful.  Sound engineers do not like being told HOW to mix, especially from your friends.  Be tactful in how you approach your engineer when you are asking for a better front of house mix.  If you have a manager or someone who can pretend like they know what they’re talking about, have them talk to the engineer. Just make sure your audience can hear and understand your vocals.

Advanced monitor mix tips

These tips might be useful to remember if you want to sound like you know what you’re talking about.

• Kick drum – you may want to ask for more “attack” at 3 to 5 kHz if you can’t hear it clearly enough
• Vocals – If it sounds muddy or too bass-heavy, this is usually due to the “proximity effect” which boosts the low end response of a microphone when you get closer to it.  Instead of backing away from the mic, ask for less low-mids around 300 Hz.
• Acoustic guitar – If you know your acoustic has good low end response when you plug it in, you may want to mention that to your sound engineer, and be wary that it could feed back easily in your monitor if you do not roll off the low end around 100 Hz or 200 Hz.

Politics

Like it or not, there can be politics involved when it comes to how your band gets mixed.  If you are opening for a larger band, there may actually be a dB level written into the contract for your show that sets a limit for how loud you can be, so that the headlining band sounds “bigger and badder.”  Hopefully you will not have to deal with any of the ugly things that can come out of this, but you should be aware of some of the…not so fun stuff.

If the engineer for the headlining band is also mixing your band, he is naturally going to want to make his band sound better (it will also help him keep his job).  Sometimes, the only way a desperate engineer may know how to do this is to make your band sound worse.  Dirty?  Yes.  True?  In competitive situations…often yes.  The answer?  Make friends with the other band and the engineer before the show, and hopefully you can avoid this type of situation.  If it happens, it happens – just forget about it and move on.

As you will learn (or have already learned) in the music industry, it’s all about building relationships and *who you know.  You never want to burn any bridges,  and you don’t want a burning bridge to come back later and try to light you on fire.  So, always treat everyone you meet with respect and you will often see it reciprocated.

*Networking, networking, networking.  This is one of the most vital aspects of your career, apart from your music.  Meet the right people and you will go far.

40th Anniversary of Woodstock and the current state of Music Festivals

On the morning of August 15th 1969 what was supposed to be an impressive but contained concert at a private residence outside of Woodstock, New York, turned into a sprawling free concert that defined a generation of music. We have been reminded of this event a lot over the past few weeks as we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the '69 Woodstock festival. I am not so sure that this spontaneous event could have happened in today's world. Sure, we have a social networking infrastructure that they could not have dreamed of back then. But can that really compete against the corporate sponsorships that tightly monitor admission, security and promotion of current festivals?

I am all for free concerts, in fact there is going to be a big one in my home town of Baltimore. That said, I have a sneaking suspicion that Virgin Music Festival won't have the same "free love" aura as Woodstock '69. I'm just sayin'.

What do you guys think?

Get Your Music Ready for the Holidays! by Jake Smith

---

Jake Smith is a TuneCore Customer Support representative and editor of the weekly newsletter

---

I'll come right out and say it - I love Christmas music.  People like me are the reason soft rock radio stations play "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" October 31st through New Years Day.  Yet, in my adoration of these songs there lies jealous anger.  All around the world, radio stations have "All I Want For Christmas" and "Baby Please Come Home" on rotation 10-20 times a day for 2 straight months, EVERY YEAR.  Add in direct sales, TV and movie placements, features on compilations, and royalties from cover versions and we're talking some serious cash.  It's hard to imagine why the songwriters behind these classics would do anything but swim in their coins like Scrooge McDuck.

What's to keep us from using our talents to cash in on the Holidays?

It may seem a bit strange to discuss Christmas songs in August, but I mention it for a few reasons.

• I just read an article from Billboard News confirming that Bob Dylan will release his first ever Christmas album this October to raise money for     Feeding America.  If Bob Dylan was able to get himself in a Christmas state of mind while recording in hot summer months, so can you!
• Writing, producing, mixing, mastering, uploading and delivering a track can take time so you should always think ahead.
• Holiday songs are not limited to Christmas - patriotic song sales spike around the Fourth of July, spooky songs get a big boost around     Halloween, and tunes about poultry and mashed potatoes go through the roof on Thanksgiving (that may not be true... but you never know).

I am no expert on this issue (I did do an independent study on Christmas music in college... just sayin'), but these are some things you may want to think about if you plan to release holiday music into the world.

    1. Mix covers and originals.  You'll often see holiday records where established artists will perform standards but also include one or two songs they wrote themselves.  I'll listen to anybody's version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" at least once - This might lead me the other songs on their album, which might lead me to other non-holiday songs they've released.

    2. If you plan to write an original holiday song, spend some time studying the ones that have stood the test of time.  You may notice certain chord changes, riffs, or key phrases that pop up in a number of holiday tunes.

    3. Look for a fresh angle.  Understanding what makes other songs popular does not mean you need to rip them off do what's been done 1,000 times before.  Maybe you should try the exact opposite.  Flip a classic on its head with a unique instrumentation, write an album of Hanukkah Hip-Hop songs, combine different holidays within a single EP or a single track, whatever!  Hit people with something they've never heard before and you could end up tapping a market no one has before.

Who of you out there already has holiday tunes online?  Do any of you plan on writing or covering a holiday song this year?  Does anyone think they have a unique approach to holiday music, the likes of which the world has never seen?  Share your thoughts here on the TuneCore blog.

Engage Your Fans: Elvis Costello's "Spectacle" and You by Jake Smith

Jake Smith is a TuneCore Customer Support representative and editor of the weekly newsletter

---

This week, the Sundance TV Series "Spectacle: Elvis Costello With..." went live on iTunes, distributed by TuneCore.  I was quite pumped about this (being a big Costello fan), and it got me thinking about the interesting road his career has taken.  I doubt when "My Aim Is True" came out in 1977, Elvis had dreams of hosting his own TV series where he would sit down with iconic musicians, film directors, and even a former U.S. President.  Likewise, Paul McCartney didn't start jamming in Liverpool with visions of his band's career encapsulated in a video game (granted it was the 1960s so it would be pretty amazing if he did). 

The ways artists keep contact with their fans and make new ones have changed greatly.  No longer do you just record albums, play shows, and hope to get on radio and MTV.  Music consumers have grown to expect new and exciting ways to stay connected with the musicians they love, and as a result artists, producers, and labels needs to think outside the box.

There are a variety of ways musicians can entertain and engage an audience.  On top of playing music, maybe you can host  your own online interview or variety program.  Maybe you can run fan art and video contests based on your music.  If you're a painter, sculptor, or graphic artist you can sell or display your original pieces along with your recordings.

Do you have to do any of these things specifically?  Absolutely not, but if you have multiple interests, why not combine them?

Agree, disagree, think I'm crazy?  Share your thoughts here on the TuneCore blog.