10 Mistakes Bands Make in the Social Media Age

So you’ve got a Myspace profile, Facebook page, Youtube page, and even a Twitter account. The bass player’s friend designed a bitchin’ Myspace layout with cool photos, videos, and the amazing songs you recorded at a “real” studio. You make sure to send out bulletins whenever you have a show or add pictures to your profile pages. Your band is totally connected and ready for the social networking onslaught of new fans.

One problem: Nobody cares. Nobody is checking out your music that doesn’t already hang out with you in real life. Nobody is coming to your shows except the friends who get in free and your parents. Nobody is buying your T-shirts and you can’t even give your music away for free, much less sell it. It feels like you’re treading water. What gives?

The problem is that your band isn’t really using social media. You’re using free sites to post traditional media and then waiting for stardom. It’s 2009, and that’s bullshit. Music is being consumed now more than any time in history, but it’s been 20 years since “punk broke,” 10 years since Napster, and 5 years+ since the record industry began falling apart because of downloading. You’ve got to adapt to this reality on more than just a superficial level.

Here’s the 10 biggest mistakes independent bands make in the social media age:

It is not enough to merely put your content up on social media sites and wait for people to see how awesome your band is. You’ve got to get fans involved and have conversations with the people who like bands like yours. (sending out mass comments and bulletins that say “comment back” does not count). Your online presence should invite participation, not wait for fans to initiate it. There are no more rock stars, and no band should ever think they are above dealing with fans or going out of their way to introduce themselves to new people. Make sure your profiles and communications are inclusive and interactive rather than just informative.

This is one of the most common mistakes bands make in general, especially online. You may think it’s unique that your drummer is a metal dude, your bass player is tragically hip, and the guitarist doesn’t need to “conform” to be cool (i.e. wears stupid shit). Likewise, your may think your music “defies genre” and can’t be compared to anything! This is a sure way to alienate the majority of your potential audience. If you don’t know your band’s identity, no one else is going to either. This confusion becomes blatantly apparent online, because you don’t have any recognizable style, theme, or brand to market.

You don’t have to “sell-out” to have an identity. It merely means you decide who you are as a group and what your collective goals are. You should sit down and seriously discuss your image and direction before going out and wasting energy trying to recruit confused fans. After that, you’ll be able to create a consistent online persona that gives people something to associate with.

Closely related to identity is finding a scene that you fit into. Successful modern bands share fans with other similar groups, both online and at shows. Again, this does not mean that you have to conform, or change your music to fit in with a particular group of people. Sometimes it means creating your own scene! The key is that music fans want to belong to a group that shares things in common, and bands are one of those things. You should use your online presence to network and publicly advertise the mutually beneficial relationships you have with other bands in your “scene.” Promoting other groups along with yourself will pay off, because you can expect the same from them, and because you become part of something bigger than your band alone. You are sure to draw in many times more fans than you could by yourself.

We all know that myspace is virtually useless nowadays as far as individuals are concerned. The spam is overwhelming….and most of it comes from bands you’ll never ever care about. Where you once could go to discover new music, you are now inundated to the point of being completely numb to it. You can’t really blame bands for wanting as many people as possible to hear their music, but using bots and mass mailings show a lack of respect for your potential audience.

Find out whether or not your band might be relevant to the people you are contacting. Yes, that means doing a little research, but it will guarantee a high success rate. If you’re not sure if some person or demographic wants unsolicited contact from your band then don’t waste your time or theirs. There’s plenty of folks who want to hear your music and it’s your responsibility to do the proper leg work and find them.

As for the fans you already have, make sure to target your communications with them as well. People who live in Atlanta, GA don’t need to get 3 messages and a facebook event invite to a show you are having in Tallahassee, FL. And if you’re sending out bulletins or tweets, make sure they are relevant to the people that follow you, and not randomness with no context. Relevance to the individuals in your audience and potential audience is the key. Know that your interruption will be worth their while.

You need to objectively measure what methods and campaigns are actually working to get you new fans. In the business world, that means unique visitors, and “impressions” on new people listening to your music (not Myspace plays from your own band visiting your profile!) There is a big difference between “feeling” like something is working and seeing the numbers right there in front of you. You’ll often be surprised where people are linking to you from the most…you need to find out and focus your campaigns around these more successful tactics. There are literally hundreds of tools available that offer comprehensive tracking of band’s social media presence (Rockdex and Band Metrics are 2 great examples), most free or extremely affordable.

People who come to your shows should be your number one VIP fans. These people have already made a huge investment into your band (or a band you are playing with) by taking time out from their schedule, driving to a venue, and generally paying money upon arrival. It is a huge mistake to let this core base get away without getting information that will allow you to solidify further commitment from people that actually want to be involved. With your core, a number and an email is far more valuable than a one time EP or T-shirt sale. Make sure you have a text message and email list (complete with name and zipcode) at every single show, no matter how small. You need to keep these up to date and well-ordered so you can target your best fans with information when you really need their support. Finally, make sure to reward these fans with special promotions and giveaways that you don’t offer to the general public.

No one is willing to pay for music nowadays, especially not some local band’s music, so you might as well burn CDs and give it away right? Wrong. People are definitely willing to pay for your music if you’d only give them the chance. Your fans are well aware that you are an independent artist and they are willing to spend money to support you. But if you don’t put a value on your primary product (your music), no one else will either. I can’t tell you how many free burned CDs I’ve gotten, not caring to listen to any of them.

The key to selling your music is price point. The standard for mp3 tracks has become 99 cents because of iTunes and record labels, but economic studies prove that 99 cents is an artificially high price for digitally delivered music. While you want to have your music on the major distribution sites, you should direct your fans to retailers that allow you to set the price, and keep most of the profit (Bandcamp and Snocap). Try selling your tracks for 50 cents or less and your fans will really appreciate the discount while still attributing a real value to your music. Plus you get to keep a much higher percentage from these lesser known retailers, so you end up making more money anyway.

Another successful tactic is to make fans “earn” a free copy of your music by doing some very specific measurable promoting for your band (put your profile in their top friends, send out 10 emails to friends, bring someone to a show). That way your music still has a “price,” and you’ve gotten something valuable in return: low cost word-of-mouth promotions.

This is really an extension of the “targeted communications” and “tracking success” maxims, but I feel that this specific issue needs to be discussed because of its pervasiveness. These online contests usually promise the winning bands exposure, money, recording time, tour slots and other amazing prizes. Sure, you think, all you have to do is get enough people to vote for you and you’ll be launched to the next level and get all kinds of industry exposure. The problem is that they are almost always sponsored by companies whose only goal is to collect marketing information from your fans. They don’t deliver the results. I have never seen a band win one of these contests and have any kind of noticeable industry boost or label interest. Then pair that with the fact that 99% of the time you won’t beat out the crazies who form 30 fake email accounts and vote every day for their own band.

Do you really want to inundate your fans with messages like “Top 20! We’re moving up! Please Vote!” every single day, only to see you lose or have nothing come of it. That’s not to mention that you’ve set them up to receive a torrent of spam from the sponsor and whoever else they sell the information to. Save your communications for important events like shows, content releases, and special promotions so you don’t burn out your base.

One other note: Actual live battles of the bands are generally just as bad. The primary motivation for these event sponsors is money, since your fans have to buy tickets to multiple rounds of the shows and you don’t see any of it. Moreover, you rarely have set showtimes, so your crowd is sometimes required to sit through 2 or 3 hours of bands they have no interest in seeing just to finally catch your 20 minute set at 12:30am. And again, the promised exposure never happens. You are way better off booking a show with other bands in your “scene” and co-promoting the whole event.

I’ve got some unfortunate news. Your band isn’t going to get signed. In the 90′s record labels were making money, and a small percentage of bands were getting deals. That was 10 years ago. Bands just aren’t getting signed nowadays, and the .001 percent that do are getting raw deals (all-in 360 degree deals where the label makes a majority percentage off everything you do). Waiting to get discovered is not a sustainable model in today’s music business, regardless of how good you think you are.

The good news is that you don’t need a record deal to be successful. As an independent (or indie label) band you can achieve all the things you think you want a major label deal for: adoring fans, big tours, and yes….even good money! But you’ve got to be smart and run your business correctly for the modern social media era. I’ve gone over some very important concepts for independent bands in this article but it is by no means a comprehensive business plan. Check out this article for more pointers on running a successful, socially connected band: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/100-free-affordable-high-.html 10. Giving Up

Like it or not, playing in an independent band nowadays makes you an entrepreneur. You are running a start-up company, and like every new company, there’s going to be ups and downs. A successful band, like a successful entrepreneur, sticks with their main goals for the long term, but adapts on a short term level based on experience. A typical musician gives up a project when the going gets tough..a modern musician sucks it up and keeps moving on.

Of course, you can get help along the way, provided you’re willing to accept it. Important people come out of the woodwork when you’ve got something good going on your own. Even labels may take interest (despite my previous claims). But all of this is entirely dependent on what you’ve been able to accomplish on your own with the social media tools you have available. What crowds can you draw? How many people have bought your music? What bands have you played with? These are all important questions with concrete answers. A successful band will have confident answers to these questions, and will continue to try and improve their results regardless of music industry “attention.”

The bottom line is that you hold the future in your hands. If you take your band seriously, then you need to take the reality of the social media era seriously. If you’re working at a pizza restaurant waiting to get discovered, that’s what you’re gonna be doing for the rest of your life. That’s giving up.

But if you really care, you need to be out there, staying on top of trends, and doing whatever it takes to succeed. That’s the ethic of a successful modern band.

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