Madalyn's Blog

Available only in the GoGirls Music Store!

Need tips on getting more out of your Myspace marketing efforts? Madalyn Sklar breaks it down and explains image and branding as well as getting the most out of music conferences. Plus tips on simple HTML code for your comments, bulletins and blogs.

This e-Book is designed for beginners or those looking to gain a better understanding of Myspace Marketing as well as those who would like to learn some basic HTML code.

Click here to order your copy!

Labels: e-book, ebook, marketing, music, myspace, promotion

Dewey Beach is one of my most favorite music conferences. It's the only one that gives away FREE badges to ALL the bands. That is awesome. Vikki Walls has created such a great environment that includes VIP parties for everyone, including the bands. As an industry person, I'm the one who typically gets the royal treatment at these things but I have to say it's nice to see the musicians get the same respect as well as free food and beer!

Dewey Beach is a very small coastal beach town in Delaware that attracts a great local crowd who loves live music. Vikki offers up a fun atmosphere during the day at the trade show that included vodka snocones and a real red carpet for picture taking. I got mine taken with MTV's Matt Pinfield. There were panels and workshops plus our fun speed networking event I do with my friends at Human Factor.

But hey nighttime is an entirely different story. That is where the party and real fun begins. We had two great GoGirls showcases. Friday night we took over McShea's, a super cool Irish pub. Our performers were great. The sounds guys were awesome and fun to work with. How often does that happen?! Saturday night our theme was "What happens in Dewey stays in Dewey!" We had an incredibly wild time at Gary's. The music was great. Many of the performers came early and stayed late. The audience enjoyed the line up. People kept buying me vodka drinks all night. It was one memorable night.

So here's the bottom line about Dewey. No pretentious musicians or industry people in attendance. It's one of the few events that I truly enjoy going to so I can relax at the beach, put on a few awesome shows and meet great people.

See you there next year!

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Labels: dewey beach, indie, music, music conference

Rainmaker Public Relations & Artists Management is celebrating its’ 12th anniversary this month. Rainmaker PR, one of the longest-running PR companies for independent artists, has worked with over 1,500 clients since it opened it’s doors in 1995. Being an indie public relations firm, Rainmaker does something that is much more specific and intricate than other PR firms. Aside from sending out discs and getting reviews & interviews for her bands and labels, Rainmaker also offers artist development consultations on a bi-monthly basis. In regards to this cutting-edge service, Kelley says: “It’s important to educate artists on the most cost effective ways to spend their money and give them a solid direction to achieve their specific goals.”

Not one to rest on her laurels, owner Rhonda Kelley along with her partners also launched and created The Virtual Publicist and The Virtual Publisher in May 2007. A downloadable press list with mailing labels and resources to make doing a D.I.Y campaign doable. Always one to help independent bands out, regardless of their budget, Kelley started The Virtual Publicist and The Virtual Publisher to give bands with limited means the ability of promoting their music to a wide array of magazines, newspapers, and other media outlets at a minimal cost. At last count, there are over 450 contacts in The Virtual Publicist, which is a large number considering the bargain-basement price of the service, a one-time only charge of $39.95.

Even before Rainmaker PR was born in 1995, Kelley kept busy in the creation and production process, creating the entertainment show, Edge TV. After publicists quoted her exorbitant fees to assist with the local musical guests on the show, Kelley had no choice but to do it herself. This led to the creation of Rainmaker Public Relations & Artist Development. Kelley explains what she thought when she was starting the agency: “Dedicating myself solely to unsigned musicians because they were the ones who needed my help most, I did something that was very unpopular in 1995 but is now a standard model. The best part of running Rainmaker Public Relations and Artist Management is being able to work every day with great musicians and help them further their careers. It’s exciting to wake up every day and know that my job is listening to great new music and making sure the world is able to hear it, too.”

Check out Rainmaker PR at www.rainmakerpublicrelations.com and The Virtual Publicist / The Virtual Publisher at www.thevirtualpublicist.com

Labels: indie, music, pr, rainmaker public relations, rhonda kelley

Hey Indie Bands & Music Businesses:

Having a Myspace page is great but it takes a lot of precious time to really work it. Time that you can't spare. Wouldn't you rather work on your music or business while we promote you on Myspace? We have spent the last two and a half years working with indie artists and bands, helping them increase their presence on Myspace. In addition we have built an impressive Myspace page for GoGirls and our affiliate business sites. It has worked for us. It's worked for our artists and bands. It can work for you!

Basic Promotion Package:

We will add friends, post your bulletins and blogs, send messages and leave comments on your friends pages. You can expect increased exposure resulting in more profile views, song plays, comments and messages.

Increased Myspace Exposure = Increased Opportunities for You!

Get additional information and pricing at http://www.gogirlsmusic.com/promo

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Madalyn Recommends:
	Using Myspace to...Promote You & Your Music (newly revised edition!) available in the GoGirls Music Store

Labels: bands, gogirls, indie, marketing, music, myspace, promotion

I get lots of information that relates to the music business. From time to time something really cools pops into my inbox. This is one of them...



Friends of ReverbNation,

I'm writing to tell you about our latest innovation a few days ahead of the official announcement. Its called 'TuneWidget', and it is live and available to our users today. Its our belief that this widget will become an indispensable tool in the music promotion and cross-promotion arsenals for artists, labels, and managers. Play around with a working sample here:
http://www.reverbnation.com/main/tunewidget_overview

What's so cool about it?

1. Its the closest thing to having an entire band website in a portable, sharable, trackable widget. It contains music, video, an interactive tour map, join the mailing list function, and more.... with more to come (including selling music).

2. The artist, label, or manager can customize the background image of the widget and change it whenever they want (thus changing the image in real-time on all outstanding widgets). This is an effective way to make real-time announcements about things like a new CD launch, tour, etc using the image as a communication vehicle.

3. The most unique, and arguably most important feature of Tunewidget is that it allows artists to cross-promote other artists to their fan base. Labels and managers understand the value of cross-promotion as a way of introducing new acts to their established fan bases, and for years artists have used the MySpace Top 8 as an effective way of recommending other artists. TuneWidget makes it easy for anyone to cross promote friends, label-mates, touring partners, etc. across the web as a whole. They can have any number of recommended artists in rotation at any time, and can change who they are recommending in real time. Clicking on the "recommended" artist at the bottom of the widget switches the widget to display the complete mini-site of the recommended artist (including songs, schedule, video, mailing list, etc).

Like everything else we build, the TuneWidget is tracked and comprehensive stats are reported back to the user.

Does it work as a promotion and cross-promotion tool?

Beta test results indicate that TuneWidget is extremely effective for both promotion and cross-promotion:

* Fans played the music at double the rate of other music widgets

* Fans stayed engaged longer with TuneWidget than other music widgets

* Fans switched to view recommended artists almost 50% of the time if they had played the primary artist's music

* Fans tended to listen to a significant portion of the song from the recommended artist when they switched to them

Update on ReverbNation.com

TuneWidget joins our other widgets, the My Band application at Facebook (creates a mini artist profile on your facebook page), the integrated music player at Freewebs, the TunePaks that send music via email and IM, the FanReach email system, and our Street Team module to create a complete online "hub" where artists, labels, and managers can base their promotional efforts and track the results.

Every metric on the website is growing at over 30% month over month, with artists adding over 1,500 songs each day. Growth is good and important, but we continue to focus on our "artist first" philosophy, believing that we can create a company that has real lasting value for the customers we serve.

Please feel free to ask me any questions you have about TuneWidget or anything else at ReverbNation.

Best,

Jed

Jed Carlson
Chief Marketing Officer
ReverbNation
jcarlson@reverbnation.com

501 Washington St.
Suite D
Durham, NC 27701
919-321-2268

Labels: bands, CD, indie, music, ReverbNation, share, tunewidget

Here is Philly-based music magazine that I love. Origivation. Check 'em out at http://www.origivation.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/origivation



Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Labels: magazine, music, Origivation, philadelphia, philly

Thanks for visiting the blog today. I wanted to let you know about the special I'm running at IndieMusicCoach. You can take advantage of my "intro consult" call for only $35. It's normally $50 so this is a nice savings!



You can arrange a 30 minute phone call with me to discuss your current needs, help set goals and an action plan to achieve your goals, or just pick my brain. I have over 11 years of experience working with indie artists. What can I do for you?

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Labels: business, indie, indie music coach, madalyn sklar, motivation, music, success

by Madalyn Sklar

Labels: indie, madalyn, motivation, music, sklar, success

Madalyn's Note: this is a site worth checking out. Here is what their web site says...

A new breed of music company...



Fuzz is a music company providing a one-stop solution that connects artists and fans. Artists can promote, stream, sell music and merch, and efficiently manage every aspect of their careers. The Fuzz community enables fans to discover, share, review, interact, influence, hear and buy music in a user-friendly forum that encourages participation.

Founded on artist-friendly practices developed by a team of veteran recording artists, touring musicians and music & technology industry professionals, Fuzz strives to be the most artist-centric, technologically innovative, and socially responsible music company.

Fuzz can also provide additional services to up and coming artists to help support and propel their careers including distribution arrangements, production, recording, and management services. Our mission is to empower and partner with artists to achieve the financial success needed to keep creating great music and help their fans discover it.

Labels: fuzz music, iindie, music

Attention All Artists!



Check out this GREAT web site where you can sell your CDs in digital format. I'm a fan of earBuzz.com and encourage you to check them out. Don and his staff are awesome.

Sign up now and go live this week while receiving 100% of your digital download sales. Artists receive 100% of the purchase price from digital download and physical CD sales at the new earBuzz.com, supporting indie artists 100%. “no other site comes close” - Indie-Music.com. Artists membership is $2/mo and $25 per CD title. Sell your music to the world within a week and keep all of the purchase price. High-Quality 256-bit AAC and mp3.

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Madalyn Recommends:
	Learn how to make the most of a music conference! Get the MP3 download! available in the GoGirls Music Store

Labels: business, download, earbuzz, indie, MP3 songs, music

by Madalyn Sklar

Labels: advice, artist, business, development, eugene foley, indie, motivation, music

The Indie Bible

I advise plenty of indie musicians about great resources and this is one of them. I've been using the Indie Bible for many years and it's one of the best publications out there.

I can even offer you a discount if you click here!

Derek Sivers from CD Baby says... "It's SOOOOOO good! I just got it last week, and I'm amazed! A must for anyone wanting to spread their music - everywhere!!"



If you are not familiar with the Indie Bible, here is what their web site says:

The Indie Bible lists THOUSANDS of places where you can get your music REVIEWED and your songs PLAYED on the radio. ALL genres of music are covered! The contacts listed are music reviewers and radio personalities from around the world that will listen to your music, and if they like it, will present it to their readers and listeners. The Indie Bible shows you where to promote your music, regardless of your musical style, and will save you MONTHS of valuable time!

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Labels: indie, indie bible, music, resources

I'm a big fan of Peter Spellman. He is a well respected author and teaches at Berklee College of Music in Boston. I met him years ago at 2NMC in Nashville and had the opportunity to see one of his lectures.

Peter has written some great books and I'm always happy to promote them.

Here's his latest:

PLAN YOUR BAND!
Sample High-Impact Band Business Plan and Music Investor Proposal All-in-One



Are you starting a band?
Are you managing a band?
Are you serious about making it work?

Then put a plan into your passion. PLAN YOUR BAND! is both a Sample Band Business plan and an Investor Agreement all in one. It lays out the key pieces of how to achieve band success today.

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Labels: berklee, book, business, indie, music, peter spellman

Get your copy of the hottest teleseminar yet!

“Press & Promotion” is now available as an MP3 download!



Madalyn Sklar interviewed Mara Hitner of Flying Coaster PR and Music Connection Magazine about using the media to promote your music, tricks for getting press and discounted advertising and the importance of your bio and press releases.

Order you copy here.

Labels: advertising, business, gogirls, indie, madalyn sklar, mara hitner, music, music connection, press, teleseminar

Okay so you have submitted your band for a music conference but "uh oh" do you know where the conference is located at? What city and state? Do you care?

I just dealt with a band that submitted to a great opportunity we offered over at GoGirlsMusic.com. There was no submission fee. And if your band was selected you even got a FREE registration badge. Can you get any better than that?

So this band submits. They are offered the opportunity but don't confirm timely. After sending a second request to confirm they ask where is the conference located at.

Huh??

Okay call me um ignorant but what the hell?

I find out they live in Seattle, halfway across the country and had no intention of traveling. I know, it makes no sense. Why would you waste your time and that of others? I just don't get it.

I'm going to tell you this very, very nicely because I don't want you to make the same mistake...

Don't EVER submit to an event and not know where the hell it is! You will make a complete fool of yourself. People in the music business will not want to work with you.

My time was wasted because of this band's stupidity. Here is what you can learn from them.

Be smart. Open your eyes. Research. Respond timely.

Yeah it's simple.

Okay done with my rant...

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Madalyn Recommends:
	Learn how to make the most of a music conference! Get the MP3 download! available in the GoGirls Music Store

Labels: bands, conferences, indie bands, music, stupid

Coming up next month is one of my favorites, the Dewey Beach Music Conference. There will be so many great opportunities to meet and network with lots of great industry people. But what do you need to do to prepare?

There are lots of things:

*Load up on business cards and CDs.
*Have pen/paper to take notes
*Bring flyers about your show & don't be afraid to pass them out
*Show up with a positive attitude
*SMILE - it will make a huge difference

I have two great resources available in the GoGirls Music Store that can help:

Music Conference Teleseminar Panel
Earlier this year I hosted a Music Conference Panel featuring Allie Shaw (Hyperactive), Angie DeVore (Dfest) and Vikki Walls (Dewey Beach). They dished out lots of information and advice on music conferences. Including a Q&A session with the audience!

Check out this teleseminar call and learn how to make the most of a music conference!



Using Myspace to...
create a buzz @ a music conference
In this e-Booklet I'll show you how to use Myspace to get attention at a music conference! I talk about image & branding as well as useful tips before, during & after the conference.

I also provide Myspace page examples plus details on how to track friend requests. You'll learn valuable tools in this e-Booklet!

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Labels: artists, bands, conference, dewey beach, indie, madalyn sklar, music

Check out Madalyn's latest DVD!


Indie Music Success - Getting Motivated!

Are you ready to earn more $ in the music business?
What if you could earn more money than you ever imagined as an indie artist. Do you have what it takes to succeed? Stop holding yourself back from the success you desire and deserve!

Check it out at http://www.gogirlsmusicstore.com/

Labels: business, dvd, indie, motivated, music, musician, success

I found this really cool PDF booklet on how to market, promote and make money from your music. It's from the people over at TuneCore.



http://www.tunecore.com/images/artwork/templates/pdfs/tunecore_manual_dl.pdf

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Labels: business, indie, marketing, music, promote, tunecore

You have to make your own opportunities.
Your future is not a matter of chance.
It's a matter of the choices you make.
It's not something you wait for.
It's something you must actively pursue.

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities.
Seize common occasions and make them great.
Opportunity can come disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.

Start today, right where you are.
Distant fields will always appear greener.
Yet, golden opportunities are all around you.

THE DAILY GURU

**********************************************
©2006 by Max Steingart

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Labels: indie, motivation, music

Here is a cool web site to check out, Songfacts. It's a searchable database of song information compiled by radio professionals, music enthusiasts, and visitors to this web site. They have some really great, in-depth interviews with songwriters and I'd like to share one with you today.

Interview Roger Clyne
by Carl Wiser

Roger Clyne had a taste of fame as lead singer of the Refreshments, but has found his niche writing and performing with an independent band. We started the interview talking about the difference between major labels and independents, and why it's important to put art before commerce.

Carl Wiser (SF): After doing this long enough you get an ear for the passion of certain fans, and boy, they really have an interest in spreading the gospel of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers.

Roger Clyne: I love it. And, you know, we're really fortunate. We're an independent band and so we don't have to play by anybody's rules but our own. We decided to put the art before the commerce, and you know, put meaning in songs and try to be part of like a world community via Peacemakers, truly, and that's what people have responded to. Instead of worrying about writing for radio, or predicting or following trends, we just shot the art from the heart and bingo – it worked.

SF: Well, you were with Mercury Records, right? When you were with the Refreshments?

Roger: Yeah, that's right. The Refreshments were from… when were we around? Not long, '95 to '97.

SF: So you've had the experience of working for a major label and then being independent.

Roger: Yeah, it's a lot harder to be independent. But it's also more rewarding.

SF: How do you mean? I'm just trying to get a sense for… you know, if you're a new artist or something and you have the choice, okay, should I really strive to get this major label contract, or should I go independent? What would you recommend?

Roger: I don't want to vilify a whole industry, or even the idea of a major label. They have a different agenda, and their agenda is, right now, to respond to stockholders. And the easiest way to do that is to create something that generates profits quickly. It's harder to do it long term. They have to answer to quarterly meetings and stuff. They have to show growth on the bottom line. And they do that by taking music and selling it. The idea of artist development, consequently, has kind of gone by the wayside. The major labels are in the business of finding hits. And they're still doing it. That's fine, I was in that business for a while. We were in a major label situation. They actually didn't ask us to change who we were or rewrite a song or write anything for radio in the beginning.

So major labels are in a different business. They're in commerce, not art. Artists are artists, they're not capitalists to begin with. So unless an artist can find a major label vehicle, or even a minor label vehicle, whereby the art leads the commerce, I would recommend that they let their art lead their commerce. That's the way it works for us, it's in our manifest now to do that. It was risky, and it was hand-to-mouth for a long time, and sometimes it still is. But it ultimately has been rewarding. I've been in the public eye now nationally for ten years, and still paying the utility bills.

Read the rest of the interview here...

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Madalyn Recommends:
	Indie Music Success DVD - Getting Motivated! Are you ready to earn more $ in the music business? available in the GoGirls Music Store

Labels: car wiser, interviews, music, roger clyne, songfacts, songs