Articles

TIME TO MAKE SOME CHANGES

For a while now, I’ve been analyzing the shit out of music, social media, and how bands (and therefore Sidewalk) can use it to their advantage. And I don’t mean ‘make money’, but ‘create fans’ and take the first steps to, yes, becoming a famous band.

As most of you know, I’m recording my debut album in three steps: three EP’s of four songs, which will accumulate in a debut album of twelve songs. For money reasons, so I can save money in between studio time, but also for marketing reasons, to gather support along the way and get new fans.

The first EP, ‘Have Heart, Will Travel’, I gave away for free. This was December 2009. The following months, I got airplay on national radio, got invited to play on (national) radio, had reviews in four magazines a couple of blogs, and more than 500 downloads of the EP (or, to a smaller amount, songs off of the EP).

Problem is, if you keep tabs on everything music-wise, chances are you are going to get hit with a lot of success stories. Unknown bands that sell a lot of albums. Bands that use the pay-what-you-want model and make a profit. Bands that use social media instead of being paid, et cetera. That, in combination with a lot of ‘I would have paid for it’ comments from fans and friends, my position on the whole ‘free music’ thing changed. If they can do it, so can I.

The second EP, ‘They Say The World Is Turning’, was released a year later, in December 2010. For a minimum of three Euros. The first song (the ‘single’) was free, the other three cost one Euro. Pretty low for an EP, right? That’s what I thought.

I sold 65 (to date), of which 49 in the US.

Yay, I made some money. But I didn’t reach 1/10 of my previous fans. I could analyze the hell out of it (the Dutch don’t commonly have PayPal of credit cards, which is pretty standard in the rest of the world, and Bandcamp uses those), but it probably wouldn’t do much good.

A few weeks ago, I went to a seminar by Niels Aalberts (former record label honcho, band manager and blogger, who doesn’t want to be called a social media guru). While I pretty much had an idea what to expect, the social media guru (sorry) opened his seminar with a simple, yet all-telling statement: “As an unknown band or artist, you want two things: money and fame. Forget about the first one.”

That struck a chord, so to speak. The figures say it all: 500 people who enjoy my first EP, 65 who enjoy the second one. I thought I made 500 fans with the first EP, but there’s a difference between someone who likes your music and a fan. It took me this long to realize.

So, here it is: my music will be free again. Digitally speaking, the EP’s and debut album will cost nothing. I will try to generate money with CD’s, LP’s, Special Editions of the EP’s, my awesome T-shirts and tickets for shows (that said: try outs with the band are coming up in May!). Until then, I will work my ass off to get the money for the studio, artwork and printing/publishing.

So what about the fans who already invested money? Yes, it seems pretty lame of me to give the same music away for free that you paid money for. I have a solution. All of them (I have a list of everyone who paid money for the second EP) will receive the debut album a week before everyone else will. That includes people who order it online. Deal?

Enough typing. Back to work.