Drum roll, please! Record Union are proud to present our very first video. It is intended to introduce new people to the service, and communicate what Record Union are all about. We would like to thank Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus for letting us use their music for the video. Enjoy!
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.
A few members of the Record Union team were recently discussing some of the gigs they had been to the last few weeks, and an important marketing point came up which will serve as the basis of today’s advice. The point is that if you are playing live in front of an audience, make sure they leave knowing who they saw!
Here is the story. There was an open mic at one of the local rock bars here in Stockholm and a band were playing who were seriously good. The crowd was engaged, the lead singer was doing all the right moves and they were quite honestly tearing the place apart. They played a great set, said their thanks and left the stage. However, at no point did they give their name. When they arrived, they said hello, began their opening song - when they closed they left with not so much as a hint at what they were called -let alone where people could find them online. Not only is this a real shame, but quite frankly, it is bad marketing. In desperation fellow gig goers were consulted, and yet again, a dead end - they didn’t know their name either.
So, please, if you are playing live do not make this mistake yourself - introduce the name of your band clearly, as many times as possible. Make it stick. A band who is good at this is Allout (pictured above) whose members include Record Union´s head designer. During gigs, Peter will scream variants of “Allout, Allout, we are Allout, dont forget it, Allout, no spaces, just Allout” before the opening song, in between songs, and even during songs - amusing the crowd but also providing a few memorable moments. People wont forget their name in a hurry.
Furthermore, if you are getting a good vibes from the audience, why not drop some more information? A MySpace address, a quick note that people can find you on certain popular streaming services. If you are feeling ambitious, you can even print some cheap flyers to hand out at the end of the gig.
People love to talk about “this amazing band they say the other night” but how can they market you if they don´t know your name?
We are excited to announce that Record Union will now be collaborating with The Peoples Music Awards! Together we will work hard to create even more opportunities for independent artists around the world.
For those who don´t know about them, The Peoples Music Awards are the first and only global unsigned music award, and are dedicated to aiding the discovery of new independent music. Record Union are really impressed with the awards, and think it provides a great platform for aspiring independent musicians to grow their fan base and gain the recognition they deserve.
The way the awards works is that independent artists, bands and producers can upload their music on www.thepeoplesmusicawards.com, and the general public and a panel of music industry representatives can listen and vote on their favourites. There are various stages to the voting, but their music player and voting system makes this all very straightforward. The winners are announced in there swanky awards ceremony which is this year held in London, and is broadcast all over the world. Next year, we are excited to announce that the Record Union A&R network will be among those sitting on the judges panel.
If you are determined to achieve success in music, then The Peoples Music Awards may just be that extra push which you need. Signing up is free, so head over to their website and sign up now!
Today´s post will look at the lessons to be learned from the story of Making April, a band who are one of the major DIY promotion success stories. They managed on their own steam i.e. without a marketing department, to sell over 1000 singles a week on iTunes. So how on earth did they do it? Well, put simply: hard work, dedication and a plan. By approaching their task in a serious manner, setting goals and spreading their work load, the members were able to achieve what they thought they never could. To do it they exploited fully one thing the internet is superb for, reaching out to fans, and oh how they reached!
In an interview with Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity, they spilled the beans and filled us in how they managed this impressive feat. You can read the full details on Ariel Publicity, but here are some of the key factors which contributed to their online promotion success.
Planning and setting goals: Every morning three band members would meet up in what they called the “War Room” to plan their daily efforts and set targets for what they wanted to accomplish. This planning and coordination was key to their success.
A solid Social Networking Strategy: Making April used MySpace to engage with and develop potential listeners and fans. The way they did this was to scope out similar sounding bands to who already had large friends list, and then contact their friends and encourage them to check their own matterial and leave a comment on their profile.
Getting personal: To develop the relationship with their myspace contacts, Makin April contacted all those who left a comment on their MySpace profile and thanked them personally. Importantly, they left their instant messenger details in their signature. Their IM contacts grew exponentially. They would sit, literally all day long, chatting away to fans and giving them information about the band. At this point they would send their fans free samples of their music, which they could share with their friends, giving even more people the chance to check out their tunes.
Fantastic news! Crescendolls are the official winners of Jack Rocks Sweden 2009. They made it through three rounds of tough voting by a panel of respected judges to make it to the finals held in Stockholm last night. Four bands battled it out onstage in front of a select audience, but in the end it was Crescendolls who clinched it. Inside sources tell us that it was a close run thing between Crescendolls and Oholics, both bands currently distributing their music with Record Union. For you Swedish speakers, you can read more about Crescendolls and the Jack Rocks competition here.
Record Union would like to congratulate Crescendolls on this impressive feat, and wish them the best of success in their bright future.
We at Record Union love to listen to all of the music which is being released on our service daily. We also admire those artists who have put in that extra effort to accompany their release with some impressive album artwork. So much so, that we thought we would post a few of our favourites here on the blog.
People are quite clearly nuts about Nomy. In the past few months he has been receiving serious playtime on Spotify, in total achieving over 100,000 listens. His hit “Cocaine” has more plays that Eric Clapton´s song of the same title.
So who is Nomy? some of you may ask. An impossible question to question to answer, clearly. But to give you some idea we can tell you that Nomy is an self producing musician from Sweden who has built his following from the grass roots up. He creates much of his music via his own computer, which gives him the artist freedom and control he requires for his creativity reach its musical potential. The feeling and meaning contained within his music is surely a testament to this. His songs change from moving ballads to awesome thrashing hard rock refrains. Within each one one can feel the underlying genius which one can identify as Nomy.
By his own volition, much of his music can be found on his website and floating the Internet for free. With such an interest in his music the availability on streaming services and music stores has made his music more omnipresent than ever. Keep on rockin, Nomy. The world is ready.
You can stream Nomy´s music here (Spotify, Deezer ) and find his music on iTunes, Amazon Mp3, Tunetribe and most other music stores. Otherwise head over to his official website.
Digital explosion is a perfectly suited name for the dance/electronic/trance outfit hailing out of Turku, Finland. Their music is digital, and most definitely explosive! With catchy electronic hooks, rapid beats and soaring fast paced synth, the tunes will be buzzing through your head long after you have ceased listening.
The element of Digital also carries another relevance for the band, who first met their success selling MP3s on MP3.com in 2000. They hope to fuel this success and feed their loyal fanbase with their last 2 releases, one called “Electronic Revolution”, and the other a selection of their previously released material (adequtely entitled “Selection“). Find them on Spotify here.
This really is dance music at its highest quality, and one can only imagine what kind of havoc it reaps when unleashed on the dancefloor. Give them a listen on the player in the sidebar to find out what what we mean. “Summer in Belize” is simply nuts.
Twaang metal is a Swedish experimental metal group led by Roland Billberg, an internationally renowned Swedish music maker and producer working in variety of genres. Roland won the The Effigy Award for best Electronica in 2008 and was nominated for “Songwriter of the year” in the US.
The direction of the Twaang metal project is an extravagant and violent brand of heavy metal designed to shock and awe. Drawing influences from Dance, ambient and Rock, Twang Metal creates an audio and stage show experience designed to shake the masses. The bands recent international success have enabled them to develop a more impressive, elaborate image and live performance, making them extremely popular at venues across the world. This raw and uncompromising metal sound is expressed in their recently release album “Dark Angel” which will soon be available online.
Check out the video for Deliverance below to hear a sample of what Dark Angel has to offer.
Another face of Roland can be seen in an independent solo project, in which Twaang takes on a slightly different sound - losing some of the violent thrash metal flourishes and embracing a more straightforward dance/ambient sound. Like Twaang Metal, this sound draws on a range of influences, including artist as diverse as Gary Moore, Steve Vai, Mike Oldfield, Enya and AC/DC. This sound exemplified in album “The Third Dimension” which is currently available on most online music stores, and can be streamed on Spotify here. To sample this side of Twaang, check out the video for “Moondance” below.
