[Dixielandjazz] Online Sites & Communities

[BillSargentDrums at aol.com]

The whole point in this series of posts is totally in  line with what Steve 
has been trying to tell everyone here about playing to the  younger people. . . 
. not ignoring the oldsters, but playing for the  youngsters. 
Aside from videos, and some pictures, your music, if it  has any kind of 
vitality to it, and is played with excitement, enthusiasm and  passion, IS 
TIMELESS! 
When people see you perform live, in person, they can  tell that you’re an ol’
 fart. (My apologies to all the younger ones reading  this.) While this has 
never been a concern of mine (yet), in either direction,  it is to some. 
When your music is played and listened to and promoted  over the internet, 
you are ageless, that is to say, literally without age. You  can now be 
approached without prejudice, by all sorts of  demographics. 
Last nigh I interacted with young folks from Turkey,  Brazil, Singapore, 
Greece, Madagascar, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Mexico,  Spain, Australia, Peru, 
Romania, Canada, Bulgaria, Germany, Malaysia, Russian  Federation, and the 
United States. I know many of you may be concerned about  getting 45 people to 
the local pub or piano bar, but . .  . 
To quote a guy from a blog on  isound: 
******************************************* 
“You can even buy MY CDs on Amazon! I’ve put them on  CDBaby, who don’t care 
if I am an old fat bald guy living in  Middletown,  Delaware. In cyberspace 
no one can tell, and  every dime I make is a couple cents for them. The longer 
the tail the more those  pennies add up. 

And shelf life doesn’t matter. The pop music scene is  appalling. You’re 
done at 30, literally a hero today and nobody tomorrow.   

But Internet sales of music, books, and movies work  differently. In his book 
Anderson  compares Blockbuster, ninety percent of whose movies are new 
releases, to  Netflix, with a library of sixty thousand titles. Seventy percent of 
Netflix’  sales are oldies. Same with books: “at Amazon.com … about a quarter 
of all book  sales come from outside the site’s top-one-hundred-thousand 
best-sellers”  (emphasis added). 

What does this mean to “the little guy?” Well, I have  about twenty copies 
left of my 1983 vinyl release out melting in the barn.  Recently a couple of 
people without turntables wanted to hear that old chestnut,  which is dated 
because I sound different, it’s on vinyl, and I don’t do such  raunchy material 
anymore (I am old and fat and bald, etc, and it SCARES  people).” 
******************************************** 
So far, I have covered myspace, cd replication, hard copy  online sales, 
music widgets and digital online sales. Although I have a few  items I left out of 
those previous topics, I will come back to  them. 
I will now move on to specific websites & communities  that you can get the 
word out on, for the most part, totally  free! 
It is best to get prepared so what follows becomes  “cookie-cutter”. Here’s 
what you need to prepare: 
In a word document program, in plain text, prepare the  following: 
- Your band’s biography & sales  pitch. 
- Your band’s musical  influences. 
- What other famous bands & artists you sound  like. 
- Your personal biography. 
- A complete pitch for each CD you are  selling. 
- Biographies of the members of your  band. 
- A list of upcoming performance dates. (Most of these  sites provide the 
ability to display calendars of your upcoming events. Due to  the nature of my 
band business here locally, you won’t see much of those on my  sites, but be 
assured, they do exist.) 
Place all this stuff in a ready to go  folder. 
In a photo program, you want to produce “web friendly  photos” and place 
them in a ready to go folder. In your program, do a “SAVE FOR  WEB” where it 
reduces the size of the file.  Usually saving as a “.jpg” in high or medium will 
do the  trick. 
You want photos of your band, yourself, and a “.jpg” scan  of your CD or 
album’s cover artwork. 
Regarding your CDs, albums &  songs: 
Use an editing program to convert all your recordings to  “mp3” format. 
Place all these in a ready to go folder. I suggest a bit-rate of  128kbps or 
higher, but 128 works well. 
Make a set of song samples from your full length “mp3”s.  Thirty seconds is 
ok. CD Baby uses 2 minutes for longer  songs. 
The idea is to fill your site with content. The longer  they spend reading 
and looking at your site, the more likely they are to develop  and interest in 
you. Also, the longer the spend reading and looking, the longer  they spend 
listening to your music. 
A basic knowledge of html language, although not  necessary, will be useful. 
I will give you a couple of sites to help you with  that. 
Finally, it would be great if once in a while you’d let  me know that you’re 
actually reading this stuff . . . otherwise there’s no need  for me to take 
the time or effort. I’m going to do the things I’m writing about  anyway, but 
quite frankly, I have an extremely full life, with a bunch of plates  I’m 
spinning, including two girls in high school that are involved in every  activity 
known to mankind. 
I don’t mind putting this stuff forth as long as I know  someone is 
benefiting. But, if I’m talking to a wall . .  . 
Lastly, if you want to thank me, consider buying one of  my CDs. <grin> 
The following post will be on ReverbNation . . . a really  good tool! 

Bill
414-777-0100
BillSargentBands.com

Just released:  "The Best Of Bill Sargent Bands - Volume 1"

Available at:  http://billsargentbands.com/recordings.htm









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