April Tara » April

Aviary launches online music creator

April — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:23:22 +0000

Known for it’s amazing online graphics tools like Phoenix and Raven (yes, they’re all named after birds), Aviary announced the launch of a new tool – Roc, the online music creator, which will allow users to use their audio editor, Myna, to create ringtones and music loops.

This makes Aviary a powerful suite for the DIY musician. Use the graphics apps to create banners or buttons for fans to post on their own sites. Use the audio apps to create messages to fans. Even better…use both to create ringtones and phone screensavers and sell them on your website as package deals!

My guess is that Aviary will be adding a video editor to their suite of tools next. How cool would that be, to be able to make your own videos without having to buy some program or take up a bunch of space on your hard drive for it?

Of course, in order to take advantage of these tools, you’ll need to have some basic editing skills and the time to work on all of it. But a lot of artists are lacking one or the other or even both. If that’s the case, it’s going to be worth the investment of hiring someone else to do it for you and save yourself some time and frustration!

SonicBids acquires ArtistData

April — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:49:26 +0000

Brendan Mulligan, the entrepreneur behind ArtistData, announced today that AD had been acquired by SonicBids. You can read Brenden’s announcement here.

So what does this mean for artists, promoters and others involved in the DIY music business? The main advantage is that users will be able to book gigs like they did through SonicBids then promote them like they did on ArtistData. (Oh, and ArtistData will be giving their users access to premium/paid services for free until September 1st.)

Is this exciting news for the indie music scene? Not really. Personally, I was never a big fan of SonicBids as it is. The results, or lack thereof, didn’t justify the cost. Plus I’m a big believer in using your OWN website to share your EPK rather than paying to host it somewhere else. SonicBids just didn’t seem to do much for anyone that I knew that was using it.

ArtistData, on the other hand, was a great service….until they started taking away some of the best features and offering them as paid services instead. That’s when I quit using it. And there were quite a few bugs too. Status updates to other sites – Facebook, MySpace – didn’t always work.

So with each service having its own share of problems, maybe combining the two will correct some of those and make both SonicBids and ArtistData more useful. Useful isn’t the problem though – providing enough value and producing enough results to make it worth the expense is the issue as far as I’m concerned.

Where in the world is April Tara?

April — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:53:38 +0000

AprilTara.com will be undergoing some changes very soon. In order to maximize effectiveness and narrow my focus, I’m going to consolidate three sites – AprilTara.com, CherryBombPromo.com and RockStarBlogDesign.com – which means that the focus here will continue to be about social media marketing and online resources but geared mainly towards indie musicians and unsigned bands. That’s where I’ve been putting all my energy for the past year, that’s where my passion lies, and that’s where I feel I can be the most helpful.

There will still be some general info that applies to anyone interested in social media – like the recent hoopla over Facebook privacy issues – so stay tuned and keep watching for posts!

Your band is your brand

April — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:51:15 +0000

We all know what brands are, right? Coca-Cola. Disney. McDonald’s. Those are all brands. Even people can become a brand. Need an example? Oprah.

With the way the music industry is changing, you have to think beyond promoting your band and look at the bigger picture: building your brand.

Ever heard the saying “Even bad publicity is better than NO publicity”? So not true. Not anymore. Not with the way images and video and audio clips are now living on forever in website archives and cached pages. Look at all of those sex tapes (ok, you don’t have to literally look at them…just think about them) that have come back to haunt celebrities who probably weren’t quite so famous back when they made them. Granted, they might make a few bucks off of it and stretch out their 15 minutes of fame a bit but the chances of them ever being taken seriously are almost nil.

When you’re in a business – and, yes, this is a business – that relies so heavily on image, you have to start thinking about what you’re putting out there to the public (aside from just your music) even in the early stages of your career. The interviews you’re doing today for those free local weekly papers or Internet radio shows, those will be the foundation upon which you start building your brand. So do you want to build it on solid concrete bricks or cheap flimsy wood?

Here are a few quick tips for you to keep in mind when opportunities for some publicity come along…

Quality over quantity – Don’t assume that getting your band mentioned on as many blogs or podcasts or radio shows as possible is the best way to get the word out. Let’s look at some simple math. Say you have a goal of earning 300 more listeners – people who are hearing your band for the first time – within the next month. Do you want to spend your time going on 30 different Internet radio shows with about 10 listeners each or 2 shows with 150 listeners? If we’re talking about one-hour shows….well, you can figure that one out. And, no, you don’t want to use all of those bad interviews as “practice” for when the good ones come along. There won’t be any good ones if you develop a reputation for giving bad interviews.

Do your research – Don’t just jump at every chance to do some PR. It’s okay to say no to that friend of a friend whose roommate has a friend on MySpace that does a live Internet radio show. Of course, you can definitely say yes BUT make sure you get some more information first. What kind of experience do they have? How long have they been doing this? What’s their audience like? Are they knowledgeable? Prepared? Trust me, you don’t want to find yourself spending two hours struggling to fill dead air on a live radio show, begging friends to call in with questions, with an inexperienced and unprepared host.

Be prepared – When you do decide to accept a PR opportunity, get as many details as possible and get them as far in advance as possible, especially if it’s going to be something that’s recorded live. Find out what kind of questions the host will ask. Have your answers ready - not scripted, just a general idea – and decide who will handle the responses, whether you have one band member acting as spokesperson or all of the members taking turns (except maybe the bass player because they’re always the quiet ones.)

Have fun – Once you’ve found the right opportunity, you’re prepared, you’ve promoted it and the time finally arrives, relax and enjoy it! Let your band’s natural charisma and chemistry come through. Act like you like each other! People want to hear that you guys (or girls!) enjoy creating music and that you all get along because that means there’s a better chance of longevity. There’s also bound to be some humor involved, so follow the host’s lead to see if they prefer to keep it light or if they’re all about debauchery. Just don’t go too far. Remember…you are PROFESSIONAL musicians. Act like it.

Oh, and by that I don’t mean throw a television out of a window. You’re building a brand here…you don’t want to be known as those guys.

Writing for Examiner.com

April — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:50:42 +0000

I recently accepted a position as a contributor to national website Examiner.com, covering Omaha Rock Music.

This is a great opportunity not only for myself but it also gives me a chance to promote local music which is my big passion.

I’m encouraging everyone to subscribe to my column there either via RSS or email, which you can do from my bio page, and to share the links with others. More exposure and more page views means better placement on the Examiner Omaha page and we really want readers of Examiner Omaha to see what’s going on in the Omaha rock music scene!

5 ways to hold on to your sanity when you work at home

April — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:26:05 +0000

When most people start contemplating the idea of working at home, they envision living without the stress and hectic pace we’ve become used to when we work in Cubicle World. (I can hear the laughter coming from all of you work at home people all the way out here in Omaha!)

Even when I started out working at home for another company and I had set hours and a supervisor telling me what to do, it was still stressful. Working in an office allowed me to forget about all of the stuff I needed to do at home. I could sit at my desk without seeing the pile of dishes that needed to be done. I wasn’t distracted by the TV or tempted by my cozy blanket and paperback book on the couch next to me.

Then when I decided to work for myself instead of someone else, it became even more stressful. That security of a steady income meant I had to constantly worry about being able to pay rent or buy groceries for the week and finding enough clients to make that happen. And we won’t even talk about those days when the kids are out of school or, for some of you, having kids who aren’t yet school age.

Those visions of work at home bliss sure don’t last very long. Over the past year and a half, I’ve learned that you have to make a conscious effort to reduce and maybe even eliminate some of the chaos that goes along with working at home.

Here are five ways to hang on to your sanity while working at home:

Automate – There are so many tools out there to help you automate some of your tasks, whether they’re business related or domestic. Let’s take the TV distraction as an example. I admit, I’m one of those people that needs background noise so my TV stays on almost all day even if I’m not paying attention to it. However, I have gotten hooked on some daytime shows. Instead of letting my mind wander off, I got into the habit of using a DVR to record the shows and I watch them when I’m not working. As far as business, take advantage of tools that will allow you to automatically schedule blog posts to publish on specific days. Do most or all of your writing in one shot then spread them out so that you’re not having to remember to go back and publish them.

Outsource – My business is built on outsourcing. I started out as a Virtual Assistant, handling tasks that my clients didn’t need to do themselves. I still make my living from people who are outsourcing tasks that they don’t know how to do or that they just don’t have the time to do. For example, through Rock Star Blog Design, I build and customize Word Press sites for people who aren’t technically inclined and have no desire (or the time) to do it themselves. So instead of wasting their valuable time trying to figure it out, they’ll hire someone like me to do it. And we all know how stressful technology can be, even for us tech geeks out there!

Take a break – It’s very easy to get sucked into the Internet all day long. I know I’m not the only at-home worker out there who has looked at the clock and realized it’s 10 pm and I haven’t showered all day. I’ll also confess to spending an entire day in my pajamas. And, yes, I’ve even forgotten to eat which is pretty bad considering how much I LOVE food. So I finally scheduled a break into my day, sometimes 2 or 3. During the day, I’ll play around on Facebook apps (Farmville anyone??) or on the game site, Pogo. At night, I’ll read a NON-BUSINESS RELATED (very important!!) book or magazine. (Just picked up the 4th Sookie Stackhouse book a few days ago!)

Be sociable – Just because so many people are using Twitter and Facebook for business doesn’t mean you can’t use it to socialize too. In fact, some of that socializing can lead to finding new clients or partners, but don’t let that become the motive for your friendly interactions. While I do have a lot of business acquaintances on my Facebook list, I also have family members, old friends, and local people on there too and I sometimes I’ll just hang out and chat with them.

Do something – It’s really easy to become a hermit when you work at home and you’re also going to find yourself facing bouts of laziness. The best way to avoid that is physical activity. In a recent post at Web Worker Daily, the author Dawn Foster talks about 4 tips for holiday season stress reduction. One of the tips she mentions is exercise. Even something as simple as a 30 minute walk around the block will make a big difference.

I’ll admit, I don’t always do these myself so I know how hard they can be. Just remind yourself to do it, schedule it into your calendar, and keep at it until it becomes a habit. (Here’s a great write-up about a service called Habitforge that will show you how to do just that, based upon the idea that it takes at least 21 days to create a new habit or break an old one.)

I’d love to hear about your own stress reduction tips! What are you doing to hang on to your sanity? Leave a comment and let me know.

Be open to opportunities

April — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:03:21 +0000

As I write this, I’m sitting here listening to my boyfriend play his guitar which would normally be a pretty unremarkable event. (Not that he’s an unremarkable guitar player, it’s just that he plays guitar all the time so it’s nothing out of the ordinary for him to be doing it now.)

What’s remarkable about it is that he’s doing as part of a project that’s a perfect example of the way social media and the potential for businesses – whether it’s a band, a bookstore, a yoga class – to reach a global audience because of the interactivity involved.

Here’s a brief description of the project:

Download music tracks
Record your own ideas
Upload for worldwide release

The tagline of The Public Record site says it’s “the first large-scale, truly interactive recording process”. and at the wheel of it is Tommy Lee – yes, the guy with the sex tape but more importantly the drummer for Mötley Crüe. Tommy is giving musicians across the world an opportunity to record the next CD, “Public Mayhem”, by Methods of Mayhem.

As some of you know, I combined my love of both music and social media to form Cherry Bomb Promo and help bands use the Internet to their advantage when it comes to promoting their music. So The Public Record just totally excites me. There are so many bands out there that still have no clue how social media can work for them. In fact, a lot of them don’t even know what social media is. They don’t have Twitter accounts or Facebook fan pages and that’s why they come to me.

So how does this apply to us non-musicians?

Thanks to social media, we all have access to some amazing opportunities – everything from Black Friday deals last week to job opportunities with major corporations or, as in this case, recording with a major rock star. Some you have to look for, some just kind of fall into your lap.

When you do run across these opportunities, be open to them! We all have our obstacles – a fear of failure, a fear of success, anxiety over not being good enough. Face those fears and do it anyway.

Think back to some opportunities you’ve had in your own business. Did you pass any of them by out of fear? Did you grab onto them? What happened as a result? Did it improve your business or did you learn from something that didn’t work out?

I’d love to hear about your own experiences with opportunities. To get the conversation, I’ll share two important results I’ve had.

After one opportunity, one of those that seemed like fate, I learned not to settle for less than I deserve based on promises for something better in the future. I lost a lot of money and my kids and I suffered for it because I was foolish enough to put someone else’s needs before my own when the situation didn’t justify doing so.

After another opportunity, I learned that I was better than I thought at doing something I was afraid I was clueless about and I’m quickly realizing that I’m not only better than I thought, I’m actually pretty damn good at it!

Beyond My Space – Using Twitter

April — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:08:19 +0000

Now that you’ve set up your Twitter account and customized your profile, let’s move on to actually using Twitter to promote your band.

Image via CarrotCreative on Flickr

First, you’ll want to start following people. By following them, you will see their status updates, referred to as “tweets”, in your Twitter stream. Your stream is the view from your Twitter home page. The home page is different from your profile page which is where your own tweets show up. Eventually others will follow you too. And your tweets will then show up in your followers’ streams.

How do you find people on Twitter and vice versa?

Ok, now you might be wondering who you should follow and how do you get people to follow you. (By the way, don’t get all hung up on numbers. A band that has 14,000 followers isn’t necessarily more talented or more successful than a band with 140 followers.)

Here are some suggestions on finding followers and followees:

Do a search. Using Twitter’s search engine, try looking up tweets that include relevant terms. For example, since I’m based in the Omaha area, I could do a search for the words music and Omaha to find people that are talking about both of those. Check out those profiles and follow some of those people. (Oh, and you’ll hear words like “tweeters” and “tweeple” to describe people on Twitter. Personally, I prefer “twits” because I think it’s funnier.)

Let people know. Update your fans on MySpace and on your website letting them know you’re on Twitter and ask them to follow you. You can find some very cool Twitter graphics to post on your sites (check here and here) or you can just use a text link. (Once you’ve got a Facebook fan page and a mailing list, you can announce it there too. We’ll talk about Facebook and mailing lists in a future post.)

Two other resources for finding people based on specific topics, locations, etc. are WeFollow and Twitter Grader. Twitter Grader is also a good tool to use when measuring your presence on Twitter although this is another area where you don’t want to get all caught up in numbers. And while you’re checking out WeFollow, be sure to add your own profile there too.

Keeping Twitter updated

Another important aspect of using Twitter to promote your band is making sure your profile doesn’t go stale. You don’t have to post every single day but don’t let it sit there for months either. You can sync your Twitter account with other profiles like MySpace and ReverbNation so that any updates you post to those accounts will show up as a tweet (get used to that word…it sounds silly saying it at first but it’s here to stay) and/or vice-versa. (When we get to the subject of blogging, I’ll show you how to automatically add your new posts to Twitter too.)

You don’t want all of your tweets to be automated though. Appoint or hire someone (*ahem*) to manage your profile so that you have a real live person on there interacting with others on Twitter. Use those searches to respond to people. Check your replies (when someone replies to you or you reply to them, it will show up as @ followed by their/your name) and respond to those. You can check your replies by clicking on the link in the sidebar of your Twitter home page. You can also do a search for your band’s name to see if anyone has mentioned you then thank them for listening or coming to your show, supporting you, etc.

So those are the basics of Twitter. Follow. Update. Connect. Just remember… F – U – C… On second thought, maybe we better not use that acronym.

And just a few more quick notes or things that will come in handy when you’re using Twitter to promote your band…

Hashtags – If you see tweets that have a # sign followed by a word, phrase, or letters, that’s called a hashtag. Hashtags are used to make it easy for people to keep track of a certain topic or event. For example, if I’m tweeting about a local event, I’ll add the hashtag #Omaha to my tweet and, if the event organizers have created one I’ll use that one as well like we did recently with the Tweetsgiving global fundraiser (#tweetsgiving). Do a search for that hashtag to find others talking about that same topic.

Lists – Lists are created by Twitter users to categorize profiles they’re following. When you visit someone’s profile, you’ll see the lists they’ve created or that they follow by looking in their sidebar. For example, I have lists on my personal Twitter account for profiles related to the music industry, for profiles of people or companies in Nebraska, for personal friends, etc. Use those to find new people or companies to follow.

Terms – I’ve already mentioned a few of the terms you’ll see related to Twitter – tweets, tweeple – and you’ll hear a lot of made-up words that start with a “tw” that somehow magically indicate that it’s Twitter related. Some others you might see are DMs (direct messages, private messages sent directly between two users), auto-DMs (automated direct messages that say things like “Thanks for following me! Click here to find out how I make millions online! http://stupid(*#&spam.com) and trending topics which is a list of topics or hashtags that a lot of people are talking about that particular day. And, as with any website, watch out for the spammers. Block them! And be careful about clicking links in your DMs. If you click one and it sends you to something that looks like the Twitter log in page, DON’T enter your info. The spammers and bots love Twitter too.

So between the last post and this one, you’ll get a general idea of what Twitter is all about. Remember, it takes time and work to get the most out of it which is why so many bands are handing it over to people like Cherry Bomb Promo to help out. I know some people still think Twitter is silly and they don’t see the point but it’s a powerful online promotion tool. Use it!

Did you miss one of the “Beyond MySpace” posts? Check here for the others.

Beyond MySpace – Part 2: Setting up a Twitter account

April — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:42:10 +0000

In the first post of the “Beyond MySpace” series, we talked about your website. Now we’re going to start looking at some mainstream social media networks, the first one being Twitter.

One quick note before we start diving into these: it’s a good idea to go ahead and grab your username on these sites even if you don’t plan on using them just yet. For example, if your band name is Helter Skelter it might be hard to use that same name everywhere and considering it’s a pretty common phrase, it might already be taken. So grab it before it’s gone! To make it easier, check multiple sites at once using a service like Know ‘Em or Namechk.

Ok, back to Twitter…

"Dirty Bird" from MonkeyWorks Illustration

Setting up your Twitter account

Once you’ve registered an account with Twitter, the first thing you’ll want to do is set up your profile. (Click on ‘Settings’ in the menu at the top of the page to make all of these changes.) Some of these are self-explanatory – real name (your band’s name or your own if you’re a solo artist), URL, time zone, etc. The others are a bit more important:

Bio – In 160 characters or less, enter a description of your band. It could include your tagline, release date of your next or latest CD or single, names of the band members, etc. This is a good place to use some SEO (search engine optimization) techniques and use words or phrases for people to find you. So if you’re a heavy metal band, you might want to include that in your bio so that people who are doing a search on Twitter for the phrase “heavy metal” will end up on your profile.

“More info” URL – This is where you’ll want to send Twitter users who want to get more information about you. Usually this will be a link to your website or your MySpace profile but you can also use the link that will send them to your CD on Amazon or a specific page on your site like your bio page or your events calendar. (If your link is too long or has a lot of numbers and characters in it, use a URL shortener such as bit.ly to make it a short one.)

Location – Get as broad or as specific as you want. If you live in or near a major city, use that as your location to help local people find you and build up your fanbase wherever you’re playing most of your shows. If you do a lot of touring, you can use phrases like “Midwest” or “US” to let Twitter followers know that you’re not limited to a specific area.

Picture – Another no-brainer…add a picture. This is the image that will show up next to your name on all of your status updates, known as “tweets”. It needs to be something that will look good when it’s very small, so your latest show flyer probably isn’t the best image to use. Use your CD cover or a square-ish band photo. Don’t make it anything too small because if someone clicks on the image, they will see it in original size.

Mobile – You can text your tweets by enabling the mobile feature. Once you’ve activated it, you’ll be able to send a text message to a certain number (varies depending on where you’re located) and have it show up on your Twitter status.

Notices - Twitter will send you an email whenever someone new follows you or sends you a direct message if you check these options. If you’ve set up the mobile option, you can also set it up to send you a text message and block it from sending you those texts at certain hours of the day.

Design – Rather than sticking with the generic backgrounds Twitter offers, you can add a background image and change the text and sidebar colors to match, giving your profile a custom design. (If you’re not a graphics person, you can purchase a custom Twitter background through our sister site, Rock Star Blog Design.)

You’re on Twitter… now what?

Setting up your Twitter profile is just the beginning. Now you’ve got to put it in action! In the next post, we’ll go over some tips and techniques to help you get the most out of Twitter including syncing your Twitter account with MySpace and other profiles, using automatic updates, and how to find and connect with followers.

YouTube Channel – Veggie Gardening Tips

April — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:04:52 +0000

One social media customization that I don’t see very many people taking advantage of is customizing your YouTube channel. Last month, I did one of these for a gentleman named Kenny Point who is an expert on gardening.

Now, a lot of people may not know that the only way to be able to add a header to your YouTube channel is to be a YouTube partner. But there are ways to get around that.

Here’s what we did with the Veggie Gardening Tips channel: