Sonic Branding: How Can I Write Music For Commercials?

Let’s start with a little experiment - think about NBC.

Did you visualize the rainbow peacock logo?

More importantly: did you did you hear the NBC chimes?

The chimes associated with the NBC Network are an example of sonic branding. Just as brands rely on a certain color palette, typography, or a particular image, brands may also establish a connection to a particular song, jingle, or series of notes (as NBC does with the G3, E4, and C5, for you music theory folks out there).

Click to read more ...

How To Make Money From Your Music On YouTube

YouTube is undoubtedly one of the most important tools for musicians to market and engage with fans online. But how does YouTube make you money?

Rather than simply allowing YouTube to run ads on your music videos and hoping for the best, you should focus on creating a sales funnel strategy.

Click to read more ...

The Internet Killed The Record Deal: Launch Your Album On Your Own

Saying you need a record deal to launch an album these days is like saying you need a desktop computer to visit the Internet. Twenty years ago people would not have believed that you could have every song in the world in the palm of your hand or on your television, but here we are. Now it just takes a mic, a bathtub, a computer and few clicks to launch your record and make it accessible to people all over the world. But it’s also just as easy for your music to get lost in the shuffle and disappear into obscurity. The following tips are your best shot at making it in this ever-evolving music game and getting the airwaves bumping with your heartbeat.

Click to read more ...

The Musicians Guide To YouTube Marketing

Got another treat for you today folks. This training, The Musicians Guide To YouTube Marketing: Audience Development and Video Promotion for CREATORS is taken directly out of my high end Masterclass for Modern Content Creators  – which you can sign up for F*REE here for a limited time. (until we’ve reached capacity for the number of people I can effectively serve for this class)

*I’m Jamie Leger, and if we haven’t already met, I’m here to hook you up with this caliber of content on the regular. You can sign up for my VIP Email List to get the latest premium content, as well as answers to your questions, and someone who really gives a crap that’s out here testing, (experimenting both personally AND helping others) and reporting what works and what doesn’t.

Click to read more ...

Twitter Vine for Musicians

As of a few days ago, you can now add 6 second videos to your tweets to spice them up a little bit. The start-up company Vine makes it incredibly easy to create and share bite-sized videos that have a lot of potential in the music marketing world.

Click to read more ...

YouTube's Dirty Little Secret

Ever spotted a terrible video on YouTube with an inconceivably high view count? Of course you have. Would it make you feel better knowing that most of those “views” were completely automated and only lasted 30 seconds with the sound turned off?

Click to read more ...

Boosting Views on Your Videos and Engagement with Your Fans

I’m about to leave for tour with my band . However, I thought I’d share my newest idea for boosting traffic on videos and increasing engagement with fans. Specifically, I’m talking about the videos that our band creates while we’re on tour. In the past, we’ve had a partner sponsor our tour video blogs: we would do shout-out’s, promote their brand, they would get a link with every video, etc. This tour, we’re trying something different.

On this upcoming tour, our band is going to sponsor a different non-profit organization, charity, or Kickstarter project with every video. Here’s a step-by-step to what we’re doing:

Click to read more ...

Why I Think Video LPs Are A Good Idea

Yesterday I uploaded what I’m calling a “Video LP” for my album Erase This to YouTube. [watch it here] The Video LP consists of eleven different videos (one for each song on the album, and a personal introduction from myself), tied together by a YouTube playlist that will automatically roll through all eleven videos, in order, with the click of one button.

For Fans

For music listeners and fans, the Video LP (LP referring to “long playing”, the name given to 12” vinyl records in the 40s) is a great format for sampling an entire album before making a purchasing decision. It’s similar to streaming the entire album on my website, but better. The Video LP format allows for on screen lyrics and all of the liner note artwork typically associated with CD and record sleeves. You won’t find that on most streaming mp3 players.

Additionally, because each song is its own YouTube video, songs can be favorited, commented on, embedded and shared easily, in a format that listeners/viewers are already familiar and comfortable with.

Click to read more ...

Browser Audio Recording Gives the Web a Voice

Mozilla, which makes the FireFox browser you might be reading this with, has a way to let regular webpages record audio and video and play them back with only a few lines of simple code rather than the more complicated Flash technology usually required for in-browser recording today.

This might sound like a wonky technical detail, but ultimately, it has big implications for people in general and music fans in particular.

Once web browsers can literally hear what you’re listening to (and see you, assuming you’ve given them permission, of course), they’ll be able to identify music playing in other programs or in the cafe where you’re sitting; record karaoke or more advanced audio projects directly onto the web; let you hear what your favorite artists are recording; and other fun stuff developers have yet to dream up.

For now, we must surrender the fantasy of ranting, finally, with our own actual voices, into the comments sections of columns with which we disagree — if only due to the early stage of this technology. Mozilla released an early, Mac-only, FireFox 3.5-only version of the Add-On on Thursday, which it’s calling Rainbow on Thursday, apparently so-named because it pairs so nicely with the term “cloud computing.”

Click to read more ...

Photo and Video Release

When I had live video shot in the past, we hung large, dated signs up that clearly declared our ownership of the video.  The signs also strongly suggested that anyone that did not want to be included in the video should please leave.  We also had our camera crew shoot the signs right into the footage as ‘evidence’ if needed.

Here’s a video and photo release (below) you can use when you believe it really matters.  Get an attorney to check this for you.  Always try to get verified (check an ID) addresses and phone numbers on these releases.

Click to read more ...

Keep Shooting High-Definition Music Video and Related Material

Here’s another reason to shoot high-definition video that’s connected to your music-related ventures:  Demand for short, interesting, compelling, non-explicit, music-infused, high-quality, high-def content is going to be driven by the digital signage industry.

I have been doing some work for a venture that’s focused on digital signage. Here are some stats to consider:

• Digital signage is going to be an explosive growth (exposure) opportunity - with over 500-million connected screens predicted to be in the market by 2013.  
• The combination of all the impressions generated by all the connected digital signs - already makes digital signage one of the largest impression-generating networks on earth.

Since the average exposure (time) to digital signage is relatively short, music videos are perfect for digital signage loops.  Expect new mass-exposure opportunities to grow out of the digital signage networks over the next twenty-four months.

Question:  Do any MTT readers have high-quality music videos that they feel are under exposed?

About Bruce Warila