Last Music Success in nine weeks Blog Post

OK so for the last 9 weeks I have been blogging weekly about the book "Music Success In Nine Weeks" in order to hopefully win a marketing campaign by Ariel Publicity. At first my intention was to win this thing and then I quickly saw how beneficial to my career following the weekly advice was. I am going to do this blog post in 2 parts: First I want to go over what I have accomplished over the last 9 weeks and Second I will address the 9th chapter of the book which is all about creating a continuum program.

A look back at 9 weeks:

• Came up with my pitch that I am stoaked on and is on my banner above
• Branded my social media and websites for uniform design and message
• Tripled the size of my mailing list
• Established a quality Newsletter
• Started a weekly giveaway of a brand new song made exclusive only to my mailing list
• Recorded 15 songs from start to finish that will all eventually be released to my mailing list and they will vote on which ones will be on my next album
• Gave an in depth interview on musicbailout.com
• Received play on the "best of Itunes" podcast Coverville
• Wrote a song for a fellow artist which is in heavy radio rotation
• Collaborated with artists in Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Brooklyn
• Played over 20 shows and have many high profile gigs booked
• Secured a top dubstep producer to remix one of my tracks for my upcoming release
• Worked with a college to get a free video shoot for my band the WATCHLIST which is almost done
• Had 6 free professional photo shoots
• Created a picture bio which has received great feedback
• Started reading and interacting with 12 blogs that specific to what I have going on musically
• Completed 95% of the WATCHLIST record
• Was mentioned in Citybeat (local mag) and sent press kits out to all markets within a 3 hour drive of Ocean Beach for CD reviews.
• Placed a song in an upcoming Indie Flick

Looking back I am proud of what I have accomplished by hustlin' and no matter what happens with this contest, I am moving forward at this pace.

Week 9: Creating a continuum program

The Ultimate goal for any musician is to be able to support themselves by doing what they love and if you look at the statistics in regards to people who actually can do this.... it is very dismal. That is why I love this book. The idea is not to get a gold record, but rather connect with a manageable amount of people who will support you in your career. When you realize you can achieve financial success by making 1000 true fans rather than 1 Million, your attitude starts to change and become more positive.

Right now I am giving away all my music, If you come to my shows you probably have seen me dumping boxes of CD's into the audience. I would rather my music be heard for free then ignored for a price. Hopefully that person I gave a disc too will listen to it, burn it for their friends and then come out to the shows... that is the goal.

Moving forward however, I will continue to build my fan base and start making things available ranging from low to high price. The idea I am most stoaked about is custom handmade merch made to order. I have been screening shirts, jackets, hoodies and other shit in my garage for years and in the near future I am going to offer this up to everyone on my mailing list. The idea is you can pick any article of clothing, any color of design and any location of screen and I will hand make them and ship them out. I don't know anyone who is doing this and I could not be more excited about it.

We are also talking about deluxe releases with video, posters, stickers and double discs that would be limited run and available in low quantities.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog series, I know its a little different to click on a bands website and see career goals and marketing tactics discussed, but it seems like everyone has enjoyed reading.

I have really learned what can be done if you put your mind to something and wanted to let all the fans know that I will be pushing forward at this pace for as long as I can. All I ask is if you enjoy my music, please share it with others that you think might as well. If you need a CD, hit me up and I'll get you one, If you want to help me... hit me up and we can figure something out and if you want to just enjoy.... do that too.

Much Love

The Tommy Dubs Story

Check out this project I worked on with my homeboy Chris. Nice little BIO.

Building a list and staying up!

As I look back through years of shows and mailing lists come and gone, I can’t help but be a little disappointed in my efforts to collect and maintain a large database of people that I have come across in my musical career. Since I started this competition I have been making a daily effort to increase mailing list members through exclusive giveaways and by trying to create an interactive environment.
I am on so many lists and there are ones that I will open weekly and then there are ones that I ignore completely. Here are things that turn me off:

• Errors – please take the time to check before you hit send
• Spam – I want a direct connection with the lists I am involved with. If you are committed to the philosophy of 1000 true fans, there is no reason for any of your communication to look like spam. There should be no shortage of things to discuss with your mailing list members.
• S.O.S – Same Ole Shit. We have all heard it before…. By now…. WE HAVE ALL HEARD IT BEFORE! Be original, be descriptive and be concise. Please get to the point and make sure your list flows. Follow the “intro, guts and call to action” format as outlined in “Music Success in Nine Weeks”
• No offer, just asking – Always hitting me up on your email list asking me to do something is annoying. What’s in it for me? Always reward!

I have really thought about what I like/dislike and I am taking that and applying It to my mailing list. I am committed to giving something away weekly in the form of an exclusive e download, giving everyone on my mailing list a free album and letting my mailing list vote on things like which songs should be included, T-shirt art, sticker art, etc.. I also want to try and communicate twice a month.

The biggest thing that I need to accomplish is growing my list. I have gone through my contacts on Gmail and asked their permission to add them to my band list, most said yes which increased my list instantly. I am also making sure to collect emails at every show by walking around and trading CD’s for emails. Now this next idea is something that I think is totally unique and well worth the small investment. Not only is it effective but it works in so many situations.

Go to a coffee shop with a nice looking bowl, tell the coffee shop that you want people to drop their business cards in the bowl for a chance to win a free lunch, you pay for the lunch and get to keep all the email addresses. Clearly have it stated that the email addresses will be added to your mailing list and make unsubscribe very easy to do. This can be done anywhere your demographic shops: Surfshops, Skate Shops, Music Stores, Record Stores, Art Supply Stores, Bars, etc… This technique has worked in the business world for years so it easily applies to the MUSIC BUSINESS world.

Check the video below out, It is a little highlight reel from our studio session on Friday:

A Doctors Advice - Live Life

I have been pretty sick this last week and finally decided to go to the doctor. After a short exam, he looked at me and said, "you have the flu".  Well, shit I thought I had pneumonia so whew. I told the Doc, "as I get older...." He interrupted and said, "You have earned a lecture Son." He told me about this book called "the Pump house" by Thomas Wolfe where 2 surfers contemplate life after 30 on the beaches of Encinitas. The Doctor looked at me and said, "your not old." This was a wake up call for me, I realized you have to hustle every day, even when you are sick so there is no excuse for this blog being late (Ariel :))

This week in the Music Success in Nine Weeks challenge is all about connecting with your fans through newsletters and such. Well, we have been hard at work adding names to the mailing list so when we send out content we will at least have an audience. I give away tons of Cd's at shows and after doing so, I ask for an email address and most people will be happy to trade it. If they don't, I swipe their drink off the table and chug it... ha ha.

Newsletters, like blogs, are very tricky because there are so many out there. Just like in songwriting, it is important to follow some guidelines when writing a newsletter to shape the content and keep the readers attention. The basic format is the personal introduction, the guts and then the call to action in which you ask your audience to do something like buy a CD, go to a show, write a review etc... to check my latest newsletter out, CLICK HERE.

I am a big fan of newsletters, but more often than not they are way overused. So many of them I send to my trash so it is my commitment to my mailing list that I will only send 2 a month.. Unless there is massive news that needs to be communicated otherwise. I am also offering exclusive merchandise, songs and early releases of music through my newsletter so if you have not signed up yet....What are you waiting for?

Living Life....

Blogging - Easier than hanging fliers

This is another entry in the Music Success in 9 Weeks blog challenge. This is week 5 and I only have 4 more weeks to go. This week (and corresponding chapter in Ariel Hyatt's book) is all about the blogshpere and developing a presence on strategic music blogs. This is something that takes some serious time and commitment and the most important rule is not cruising around the web hyping yourself and looking for bloggers to pay attention to you. Bloggers are in fact artists themselves and you have to stroke their ego to get any return attention. There are obviously exceptions to this, but for the vast majority... this holds  true.

I have been using multiple blog search engines to target my efforts, but wanted to discuss a specific situation.

I came across tightmixblog.com and wanted to share this with everyone. Chris is the author of this blog and their are great tips on this site as well as some great indie bands on here that Chris has come across. Chris is also the author of the EBook, "How to really get your music on the blogs" which I read and has great advice that runs parallel to this chapter in the competition. I thought a lot of Chris's ideas were in line with Ariel Publicity and it turns out he actually used to work (or intern...can't remember) for Ariel. After reading his blog, I contacted him and we are in the beginning stages of Chris taking over my social media presence. I was really impressed with his quality of writing, insight and passion for indie music. I think this is the ultimate example of what Ariel is talking about in this chapter.... I read, reached out with sincerity and then developed a mutually beneficial situation. Everyone is happy.

Also on this front, I got Musicbailout.net to write an article on my music and as I mentioned last week the podcast (audio blog) Coverville recently featured on of my songs.

The most important thing that I am taking away from this is consistency and professionalism. I have always believed that if you treat venues and booking agents with respect (Show up on time, get on and off stage quick, etc.), treat people with kindness and sincerity and just act professional you will be way ahead of 95% of the bands out there. Just by following up and taking chances this is what I have accomplished in the last few weeks:

• Free Video Shoot scheduled for next week - I asked my network of anyone that knew of production companies that did good work. It turns out someone needed a band to shoot for their school project and they chose us out of the dozens of bands because we had a vision, the material and locations all ready to go.
• I am in negotiations with a Dubstep producer who I will not name yet to remix a Tommy Dubs song for my next release.
• I have musicians in Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Brooklyn and now Arizona all singing or playing parts on tracks for my upcoming album
• I secured 50% writing credit on a song that is in heavy rotation
• I have established articles, reviews and plays on blogs
• booked high profile gigs
• Increased my mailing list daily through shows and reverbnation widgets
• Contacted an established up-n-coming blogger about spearheading my social media efforts.

Check out this video from our show Friday night.... We need a better camera angle next time :)

Who's got time for it all?

This is week 4 of the "Music Success in 9 Weeks" blogging challenge and the corresponding chapter in Ariel's book is all about social media and Web 2.0. The Internet has become so interactive and such a great way for bands to reach out and have a 2 way experience with music fans and other musicians. There are so many great tool and resources, but keeping up with it all can be a full time job. I mean who has time for Twitter, Twacker, Tweeker and Tooter when you have to write songs, hang fliers, play shows and record albums? Well some how or another you have to make time.

The problem is, the ease of sharing songs and videos has become so easy that it seems impossible to stand out amongst the endless other artists trying to do the same thing. I have come to see consistency is king and the job of marketing through social media is never ending. Luckily some sites are making it easy to stay current with tools such as widgets. Widgets are applications that can be customized and placed all over the web and they draw their content from one source which is easily updated. Reverbnation.com has mastered this and is well on the way to being the next inclusive music site for fans and bands. I highly suggest signing up for Reverbnation.

Taking part in this blogging challenge is forcing me to stay on top of shit and I wanted to talk a little bit about what I have accomplished in the last 4 weeks. What I am most excited about is I started recording my follow up to "En Los Campos". To get fans involved with the this, I have been releasing demo versions of tracks exclusively through my mailing list. I knew that this would increase the amount of people signing up for my email list but I decided to take it one step further. My Goal is to write, record and release a new song every week until I get 15-20 songs and then let the mailing list vote on which songs I should further produce and then release on my next record. Taking it a little further I decided to give free copies of my new CD and "En Los Campos" to anyone who took part in this and voted. Pretty stoked on this.

In the last couple days I have been talking to Danny from the Cool and Deadly and Aleko from Planeta Lem about swapping tracks and collaborating. I finished a track last night that  I am sending to Brooklyn for Danny to record on and tonight I finished a song that I am sending off to Barcelona for Aleko to be on. I love being able to record with people around the world through email, there is something really special about that.

Last couple of weeks I have also been lucky on the Podcast front. Cue, from the freestyledub podcast has invited me to host a couple of the next pod casts and Coverville (best of Itunes Podcast series) included my cover of Donovans "Berts Blues" on their latest podcast. Download the whole show here

It really is amazing everything you can get done when you are keeping your goals and little successes in the front of your dome.

Week 3...the Voice in my head

Continuing on with my music success in 9 weeks blog.

I wanted to urge all independent musicians looking to take their career into their own hands to check out Ariel Publicity. In the world of the crashing record labels there have been some people making a living and a name for themselves by helping the DIY musician. One is Derek Sivers, who Esquire Magazine calls "One of the last music-business folk heroes." Derek is the owner and creator of the massively successful CDbaby.com and has made digital and physical distribution painfully simple for the independent musician. Another is Ariel Hyatt who is teaching her brand of Social Media marketing and the DIY ethos through an abundant amount of resources in her books and website. 

I am taking part in the music success in 9 weeks blog challenge, based on the book of the same name, in effort to be selected to win a free marketing campaign. Basically I read a chapter, write a blog and spread my music further while making fans in the process. I hope through these posts I can share what I have been learning and hopefully inspire to do the same and take on DIY in the new social age.

Optimize my website.... Optimization!

I followed all of Ariel's suggestion in this chapter and as usual everything is spot on. One thing I wanted to talk about a little further in detail is the use of "Intro Pages" and Flash. These 2 things are super annoying. Anytime I come across an Intro page on the web this little voice in my head says, "no shit i reached boringsite.com, that's what I typed into the address bar". Back in the day intro pages were on so many websites and I could not be happier to see them disappearing. With so much web surfing being done on Iphones these days, intro pages even make less sense. They typically do not offer any information and they slow down the loading of the site.

Flash...ugh. So annoying. GET ME THE INFORMATION!!!! We, the collective WE.... the Royal WE, have no patience. "We" should be able to view your website on the lowest common denominator P.O.S. computer, on the slowest dial up line, in the seediest Internet cafe from a third world town. I don't want to download any software to be able to get simple information on anything. Flash not only takes long to load, but it seems way outdated to me and cuts off access from anyone checking your page on an IPhone.

Other things discussed in this chapter had to do with maintaining the consistency of your brand through online and offline media and an important suggestion to make your website load within 3.5 seconds or be dammed to loose the majority of your audience. I also learned about the need to satisfy the Whats in it for me factor of the Internet.  I decided to give away a MP3 a week for awhile until i release at least 20 and make them available only to my mailing list members. After I have released enough, I will let the mailing list vote on what songs should be re-produced and then included on my follow up album. I thought this sounded like a cool idea and a way for fans to take part in the record.

Since I have started this blogging challenge I have come across a lot of Blogs that deal with DIY promotion and wanted to share some of that information as well.  Tight Mix is a great site that I found that that also offers some great advice and interesting blogs including an inspiring video of Young Guru discussing the state of the music industry.

Tommy

DO WORK!

If you are just coming across the Tommy Dubs Website for the first time, you may find it odd to see me posting about my career goals in plain site for everyone to see. Well to be Honest it is a little weird, but I am taking part in a 9 week program intended to drastically increase the success I obtain in the music industry. Ariel Publicity is an excellent resource for musicians and she is hosting a blogging challenge that will end up awarding a custom marketing campaign to the winning musician. After re-reading music success in 9 weeks by Ariel, I noticed that I did not include my goals. in the next year My goals are:

Expand my live performances into every market within a 3 hour drive
Sellout of all of my remaining Gadfly Stock. I have boxes of Gadfly records in my garage that are Taking up valuable instrument space.
Get regional radio play
Book 1 high profile Producer gig
Sell 100 downloads a month continually
Place 1 song on TV or film
Have a mailing list totaling 1000 readers
Consistently pull 250 people to shows

According to Ariel's book only 3% of people write down their goals and actually taking the time to complete this step drastically improves your chances of attaining your goals. This, however is not the only step to be taken. It is obvious to me that consistent reminders of my goals and small steps to be taken daily are going to be the key to reaching them. Another great point that I took away is celebrate daily success's and stop beating yourself up. The book suggests writing down daily success's and then reading over them. Doing this a few times so far has really been eye opening and motivating. Well I hope you take something from these blog posts and I am really excited to look back over the next 9 weeks to see what I have accomplished.

If you feel so inclined to help, buy a CD, tweet this, subscribe to the blog, contact me via email or show up to a show.... Or show up with a million dollars and that can be a shortcut!

This video that I am posting is something I recorded today. It is an version of the song "True love will find you in the end" by Daniel Johnston and just like the last one, it includes audio from a different crazy neighbor. I live in the Warzone... OB.. Where the Ghetto Meets the Sea.. and I LOVE IT!