Category: English

English · Interviews

Interview with Steve Bootland (Music2Deal Representative Portugal)

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Steve, you are the new representative of Music2Deal Portugal. Why did you decide to become a member of the team?

Music2Deal shares many of the ideals and practices of “The Portugal Music Scene”. We proactively seek opportunities for artists within the international marketplace. Networking with the ability to showcase your artist, music, talent, skill or service to other active industry reps with the same interests fits our business model perfect and showed positive results within hours of using the platform. Joining the team simply made good sense.

Please tell us something about yourself. What kind of experiences do you already have in the music industry?

I was lucky enough to start at a young age in the live side, first playing rhythm guitar in a band (not very well), working as a roadie, backline tech, production manager and eventually tour manager for years. It was an incredible insight into the workings of many bands, labels, agents, promoters and management companies being right on the front line of both success and failure. Constantly learning about release planning, promotion, the live show, the ins and outs, and much more. Throughout these many years of touring I put to practice some new skills by jumping in the deep end with my own label distributed by a subsidiary of Sony. As well I managed friends bands and promoted the occasional event. I eventually moved into the international development side and away from touring though I do sometimes miss being on the tour bus, plane, train, car, taxi, van, and the laughs and tears.

Is there a particular reason why you settled to Portugal?

It was really just a life change move after living in London for 23 years. Obviously sunshine and beaches attracted me after the first holiday here years ago but it was the feeling I had when I first looked in an estate agent window. I wan´t just dreaming, I was window shopping.

What can you tell us about the music industry in Portugal? What can Music2Deal do to improve the situation?

The Music industry in Portugal is much the same as anywhere in the World, however one of the main problems we face here is a lack of information about The Portugal Music Scene getting out of the Country. The government simply does not spend on music export. It talks about it but very little money reaches the hands of organisations who set up to do the governments job promoting culture. To give you a little idea; 2 years ago Portugal and Spain were featured at Canadian Music Week in Toronto. We were part of a group set up called Mission Canada. We lobbied government, chased ministers, had the best press any band would kill for, approached national companies for investment and had a record breaking 22 bands invited to play. In the end only 8 bands could make it due to lack of interest from any government body or National industry leader. Spain on the other hand had over 20 bands, the tourism minister was present, they hired their own venue so more bands could play and they had over 25 official delegates. Saying all that though, Portugal is a hotbed of amazing talent. Once known only for Fado, Portugal has an amazing live scene, incredible indie scene, Jazz, Blues, you name it. The festivals in Portugal are some of the best in the World and favoured by many big touring acts One of my favourite parts of my job is to send someone a track from bands we work with. The reaction is always … “Wow, they´re from Portugal?”.

To answer “what can M2D do to improve the situation? It is HOW members of Music2Deal use the platform which can help any change. The Music industry in general is changing and has always been changing. We can sit around complaining like we are the injured party and “rebrand as a survivor” (as David Byrne recently put it in the Guardian) or we can look for opportunity in change. M2D offers a platform to help people at work in this industry. Taking 10 minutes to start setting up a profile and starting to network is the only hurdle anyone faces. Get through those few minutes of your life and M2D will already be helping.

What are your next steps concerning your work as a Music2Deal representative?

The first step is making people aware of M2D, helping brand it in Portugal and getting buy in from somegreat industry leaders here. Building our fanbase like we would for any artist we work with and learning about our fans. The feedback is already great and will grow I´m sure. I am looking forward to many music industry reps around the world discovering the wealth Portugal has to offer.

Steve Bootland on Music2Deal: http://music2deal.com/pt/theportugalmusicscene

by Sara Shirazi
English · Tips

How To Get Your Project Marketed & Promoted

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Allen_20Johnston

Article by Allen L.  Johnston – The Music Specialist
http://www.asha.com

Online marketing and promotion has changed once again, and for you readers that imagine you can get it right one time and make a huge fan base “FORGET ABOUT IT”.  Getting your music, film or fashion project marketed today takes a combination of hard work, online technology and physical networking.

ONLINE

You have a FaceBook page, ReverbNation account, Twitter account and email but still you don’t have REAL fans or sales.  Having people “like” your page does not create fans and the new “Pay for fan” services are doing an injustice to the emerging artist.  The biggest online marketing fault I see is communication.  Once you make initial contact with a fan you must continue to let them know that you care.

Contact                             

Make initial contact with your fan and be courteous

Re-Contact

Become a regular communication person with your fan, find out what they desire in your product and what you can do to increase this desire.

Inform

Give information on your project and on yourself, keep your fan informed of new developments within your organization and new ways of communicating with you.

Give Away

Everybody likes FREE STUFF so make sure that you have something free for your fan on a periodic timetable.  This can be a free video of you speaking, performing or traveling, a photo, a mp3 or mp4, a chance to win tickets to your show, a private event, etc..

Re-Connect

Stay in touch with your fan often and personalize your communications, happy fans BUY stuff.

Design a plan for your business that includes honesty, uplifted morals and professionalism.  Then treat your customer with respect and you will find that you will have endearing fans

You must still get out and be visual, play gigs, shake hands, make friends and make a fantastic project.

Remember that today’s promotion is direct to consumer especially via mobile delivery, video, photos and streaming is now the norm.

Physical Network

Hotep – an Atlanta entrepreneur and entrepreneurial speaker says “Your Network is your Net Worth”

The best way to network with Industry professionals is face to face and conferences still provide the best availability for the least amount of finance.  Be careful before you sign up for any industry conference.  Honest companies will promote WHO they have as panelists, WHAT the panelists will be speaking on, WHERE and WHEN.  Recently I have seen advertising for the NEW JACK THE RAPPER Conference.  This is so misleading for the advertising speaks incorrectly about the accomplishments of “Jockey Jack Gipson” and implies that this conference will continue the tradition.  Upon closer scrutiny ALL this conference offered was promises of a conference without any solid information, of course it offered a way to send its owners money.  Absolutely no information on attendees, panelists, panel times, past affiliations or even information on WHO the organizing company is.  I totally take offense to the inference that this will be a conference even similar to JACK THE RAPPER’S FAMILY AFFAIR.

Music Conferences today have become big business for the individuals and companies that put them on.  Almost every conference created has an educational component, a seminar, panel discussion or technical workshop. Here lays the problem, why pay good money to come to a conference with positive seminars and not attend?  Every conference I have attended in the United States this year has had more night time attendees for parties and performances than daytime seminar attendees.

In Europe it is the complete opposite.  Conference attendees come for business during the day in droves.  Panels are packed and private meetings are scheduled.   Let me give you a few ideas on how to become more productive at your next conference.

 

Rules To Work Conferences

1. Research Your Conference – Know who is going to be at the event you will be attending.  Read the Schedule in advance and determine who you want to meet and WHY you want to meet them.

2. Schedule Meetings – Try and reach companies, executives, publicists and other artists prior to the event and schedule private meeting times to discuss your MUTUAL interests.  Email works when used properly for communication, so PLEASE spell correctly.

3. Speak Correctly – Leave the urban street based conversations at home.  This is a business and professionals will be attending and speaking on the seminars.  Lose the phrase “You know what I mean?” and the phrase “You feel me?”  Say what you mean upfront and be prepared to explain yourself.  The way you speak in the “trap” is not going to get you anywhere in the entertainment BUSINESS environment.

4. Take a Shower – Partying the night before is NOT an excuse to have bad breath or body odor.  Make the effort to bathe BEFORE you come to the seminar.  You never know who you will be standing next to.  By the way dousing yourself in perfume or cologne is NOT bathing.

5. Be on Time, awake, attentive and prepared – Walking into seminar fashionably late shows disrespect for the other attendees and to the seminar speakers.  It also says that maybe a professional does not want to work with you because you didn’t think enough of their time to hear them from the very beginning.

6. Take notes – Just like you were back in school.  This is how you remember some of the information that will be disseminated.  Plus this is how you can keep names and numbers straight, while you write down any questions you may have.

7. Have Business Cards Available – name, email, website, phone number, mailing address and a representation of what you do. (Logo, business name, etc.)

8.  Receive Business Cards – When you give a card, receive a card.  Take the card in both of your hands if possible; read it before you put it away.  This business card is the beginning of your entertainment industry database, treat it with esteem.

9. Carry a Camera – Take photos of the panelists to help you remember who was who.  And take as many photos with other people as you can.  Email them back to the person and use this as a starting point for a great business relationship.

10. Be Polite and Courteous – You want and need to advance your career, the worst thing you can do is to disrespect and upset a professional.  This means NOT telling a DJ off for not playing your music,  DJ’s TALK TO EACH OTHER and so do distributors, store buyers, publicists, record exec’s, club owners and almost everyone else that is a professional.

11. Follow Up – email, telephone, regular mail and do ALL of these things consistently.  It is true that the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

12. Have An Online Presentation – FaceBook is good for starters however you do need your own website that allows viewers to find out more about you and your talent.  You should also create MP3’s of your material for sending and for downloading.  If you have a visual talent, create video for web usage.

English · This & That

Call To Mobilize

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Allen_20JohnstonArticle by Allen L.  Johnston – The Music Specialist
http://www.asha.com

This year I came to a drastic realization that American Urban based artists, publishers, producers; writers, film makers, label owners, magazine owners and entertainment industry entrepreneurs are wholly under rated and under represented on the world market place. During one of my daily walks around the MIDEM convention exhibition area, I ventured in to the Electronic / Urban Village at Midem.  The name suggested that here would be a place where various types of Electronic and Urban based musical products and opportunities would be found. A place where companies from around the world could come and find music, DVD’s, film, magazines and digital deals from the best Urban and Electronic makers in the world. Feeling that the Urban marketplace should be over flowing with product by and about people of color I went looking for the best in the world

What I saw was several different spaces occupied by every nationality BUT people of color.  Blatantly missing were American Hip Hop, R&B, Southern Soul, Blues, Jazz and Gospel companies.  In fact I saw NO REPRESENTATION at all from any Black or Hispanic owned company from the United States in this area.  At least 50% of all the music I saw, and heard during MIDEM came from people of color world wide, but there was less than 5% participation from African Americans conference wide and less than 1% booth participation.  The only Hip Hop artist of any notoriety that I saw making meetings and doing deals was Chuck D, and he brought a group of business people with him as a support factor. American Hip Hop has made major influence around the world I saw Death Row Records from Germany and even though South Africa has licensed Little John’s music thru TVT there was not another Atlanta based rapper or representative at the conference.

Countries from around the world were looking for music and DVD products from American based “Urban” companies yet there were virtually none to be found. The Japanese, South Africans, French, Belgium, Swedes and every English speaking country are all looking for American Hip Hop, Jazz, Gospel, Southern Soul and Reggae, but once again there were NO representatives of any of the major artists nor any revenue generating INDEPENDENT  COMPANIES available that I saw or heard of.

This has to stop now especially while there is a window open for such great financial and cultural reward.

So I am making the first call to mobilize the American Urban based artists, publishers, producers, writers, film makers, label owners, magazine owners and entertainment industry entrepreneurs.  I have started talking with different companies and organizations to acquire a cadre of African American owned entertainment businesses that will be able to represent their products and make deals on an International basis for MIDEM 2014.

Please take a moment and look at your long range goals, if they include a digital market or an International market lets find some time to talk.  Plan your work THEN work your plan.