How can you as a indie musician build a presence take advantage Google+? This excellent article written by Ariel Hyatt over at Ariel Publicity gives you a great overview into what Google´s social networking has to offer indie artists. If Google+ is new to you and you are wondering why on earth you should build yet another profile in addition to your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter then this is a must-read. Thanks Ariel!
There are some interesting new services popping up surrounding the live circuit, one of these is Songkick.
From a gig goer perspective, Songkick is an online service that keeps you updated about upcoming concerts. Via the Songkick “Tracker” you can search for your favourite artists, venues and festivals and by tracking them keep updated on who is playing, where and when. You can even track your friends and know which gigs they intend to hit up, as well as the city you live in to keep informed about all the upcoming gigs going on there. You will be notified when new gigs are announced, and see a calender of all the concerts going on the coming weekend and in the future. One great feature is that as a gig goer you can upload photos and videos for the events you have attended, add reviews and even build a gigogprahy of past concerts and festivals you have been to.
Now, as an artist, band or promoter this service clearly has many benefits. It is straightforward to add your own events to Songkick and as yet you cannot create your own special artist profiles - just adding your concerts into the database will make it trackable to people using the service. If you are looking for a good way to coordinate your concerts with fans, attract new people, get reviews and raves about your gig and also have a place to for you our your fans collect videos and photos of you being a rockstar - then Songkick is a great place to do this.
The era of the mega hit is gone - niche is the new mainstream. Find your niche and rule it - or better, create one and own it. In this interesting discussion with Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR, Derek Sivers talks about an important feature of the online music environment vital to understand if one is to make headway marketing music online.
