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Charles Alexander
Good friend Charles Alexander has just just posted this very detailed assessment of the Topspin “direct to fan” music marketing platform, and the Berklee School of Music online course that comes with it. Anybody who is considering using the Topspin platform now that it is about to “come out of beta” should read it before making the plunge.
Money quote:
The software package and interface has a steep learning curve. This course helps alleviate some of that.
“Steep learning curve” is putting it mildly. If you do follow the link make sure you scroll down to the comments to find my own observations on Topspin and what Charles has written about it.
Whoever is reading this, needs to read THIS.
It is possibly the most succinct summary of what it takes to survive as a troubadour (or band, or just about any kind of artist..) in the era of the Celestial Jukebox.
Apparently the skateboard is a big party of Ian Rogers shtick.
The link takes you to the summary of a presentation at the New Music Seminar last week in Los Angeles by Ian Rogers, the CEO of a company called Topspin.
Here’s the money quote:
First and foremost, your marketing plan needs to be an extension of your art, it needs to fit the image and brand of your band. What’s good for Miley Cyrus isn’t going to work the same for Danzig (I hope). But I do believe the above bit of advice, “Do Something Small Weekly and Something Big Monthly”, is universal: to put a simple plan together to make sure you have more fans tomorrow than you have yesterday, get out a calendar and start mapping out the next few months or even the year.
One little thing every week. One big thing every month. That much sounds simple enough… or, well, maybe it isn’t. Too many people I know or talk with about music and business are still locked into the old “release an album once a year” model. Hell, one group I know has been so nose-to-the-grind-stone focused on recording a whole album that they have done nothing over the past year to actually cultivate or communicate with their fan base.
This presentation was accompanied by the announcement that Topspin will soon be throwing their beta platform open to the music world at large, in the manner of, say, Nimbit, Bandcamp, or Reverbnation. Where before you had to be or know somebody in order to get in, starting in a few weeks, anybody who wants to will be able to use the Topspin platform.
This is probably good news, since Topspin is mostly a very robust platform. I say mostly because I’ve spent enough time with it myself to appreciate its more powerful features, but I have also found it extremely challenging to use. In particular I found their e-mail listserv function to be nearly unusable. Ironic, since gathering and utilizing e-mail addresses is the core component of any Topspin campaign.
So I suppose its fitting that the announcement of this new open platform is also accompanied by the announcement that Topspin is hosing a contest that will award “$5,000 plus help executing the campaign to whomever submits the best plan.” Because unless the new version of the software is dramatically different from the old one, it’s going to take a $5,000 budget and all the help you can get to navigate the Topspin platform.
Several of weeks ago, McShane Glover, a former colleague who works as a booking agent in the mid-Atlantic area, invited me to have lunch with one of her clients, Vicki Genfan. I kinda remember Vicki from my exploits back in the previous millennium. She played guitar for another former client, Dee Carstensen, and I rememeber Vicki as one of those fret-and-string-masters who makes me wonder why I bother to keep guitars around my own abode.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Vicki has graciously agreed to let me offer up a track from her double CD Up Close and Personal. Click the play button below to listen to “Atomic Reshuffle” via this player widget from Soundcloud:
(iGizmo users, sorry… the widget is Flash. <*sigh*>)
As impressed as I am with Vicki’s virtuosity on guitar, I might have been even more impressed with her mode of transportation (OK, I’m exaggerating, there really is very little that is more impressive than Vicki Genfan playing guitar, least of all a mere means of transportation…).
Turns out Vicki is not the only genius/goddess in the family: her traveling partner is Tay Hoyle, a systems designer and engineer of equal vision and virtuosity, an artist in her own right in a different of medium. For example, Tay was responsible for much of the interior design and engineering and actual wiring for the John Lennon Education Bus.
When I pulled into the parking lot of the strip Mall where I met Vicki and Tay for lunch, I pulled in right behind a yellow Dodge van, which turned out to be Tay and Vicki’s rolling home, studio, and stage, all rolled into one remarkably compact vehicle:
Tay and Vicki and the Yellow Minstrel Wagon
This one most impressive vehicle, and dare I say, the modern minstrel’s ultimate means of conveyance. Continue reading
Another video for your viewing pleasure:
Jon actually sent me this video himself a couple of days ago, and I found it clever and entertaining in a “novelty song” sorta way. But after reading this account in Music Row magazine, I think I’m even more intrigued with the the time, effort — and, no doubt, expense — that went into this particular effort. Seems there were quite a few hands on this particular project:
The music video, created by filmmaker Louise Woehrie of Whirlygig Productions is inspired by Vezner’s wry humor and deadpan persona. Using a traveling minstrel theme, Woehrie joined forces with co-director/editor Chip Johnson and graphic designer Casey Burres to bring the tale to life as Vezner dons his troubador hat to comment and commiserate with fellow app addicts about life on the cutting tech trail.
I wonder what the budget was, and how it fits into a larger marketing plan. I mean, where’s the “email for a download” function that would build Jon’s fan base (it’s not on his website) ?
I mean, it’s very clever, but it also seems to to exist in something of a vacuum, marketing wise. What’s the plan, Jon? How is this building your audience? I’m sure there’s a method to your madness, clue me in?
Oh, and if you’re viewing the video on your computer, blow it up to full screen – the HD quality holds up VERY nicely.
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