DubMC

Big Idea: The World Music Concert Exchange Program

Start booking a weekly or monthly gig in your local city. Develop a local following where your audience knows that each gig is going to be a little different. Maybe there are seasonal themes or special guests; or maybe alternate repertoire from gig to gig. Give special deals or greater access for people who sign up for your email announcements. Then once you have a good following coming to your regular gigs, set up an exchange with a band that has done something similar in a nearby town. Offer to host them at your monthly gig in exchange for them hosting you at theirs. Find a half dozen bands you can do this with and you have the beginnings of a tour. Once other bands see this, they will replicate what you have done. Eventually a network of world music bands can have a regular exchange. And once that is established, the network can host bands from overseas either for a profit or as the beginning of an international exchange program. Comment your progress below!

Big Idea: Your Conscious World Music Image

You have invested every bit of your soul into your latest compositions and arrangements. And you have scraped together more money than you knew you could to get into a studio and have your first thousand albums pressed. You are in the final hours of production: “What should we put on the cover? Who do we need to thank in the booklet? There is not enough time for a photo shoot.”

STOP! WAIT! After all of that hard effort, are you really going to just slap a mediocre snapshot or some clip art on the cover? Are you relying on some substandard graphic design program to make a cheap-looking collage?

Studies show that as much as 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues. Why would it be any different in getting your musical message across? Do not undervalue the importance and power of the visual image you emit as a musician.

Even “world music” artists, whose music itself often has a more compelling message than other performers, are ultimately entertainers. You must convince audiences and fans to buy your recordings and your concert tickets. From the package on your album to the way you dress on stage, your visual image is the first thing people are going to absorb. Will they even give your music a chance if they are not convinced by what they see?

Here are some tips to take into consideration as you formulate your visual image:

1. When performing and in press photos, wear something that is visually compelling, unique to you, and conveys something about your singular contribution to the world. Your “look” should match your essence. Making your visual message match your musical and lyrical message combines to create powerful emotion that makes you memorable and deepens your listeners’ experience of your music.

2. Get an actual artist to create your album covers and marketing materials. Yes, it costs money. But it is money well-spent. If your album looks cheap, if your concert poster looks cheap, what message are you giving your potential fan? Do not use your cousin who is just learning PhotoShop and who thinks that the cartoon font is… fun.

3. Do not use studio head shots. Ever! They look like you are trying to audition for something; which conveys the message: “We are not successful yet.” Use photos that are unique, artistic, compelling. If you do not feel confident in knowing what that means, think about who you know who is a visual/artistic person (though not necessarily an experimental/avant garde type artist) and ask them for advice. A photo editor at the newspaper in your next concert city would rather run an interesting or unique or artistic photo than another photo that looks just like any other band photo. Don’t use photos because they look the way you think they are supposed to look. Use photos that surprise, draw the viewer in, or invoke an emotional reaction.

4. Photos don’t need to be expensive. Digital cameras in the hands of a friend with a knack will often do the trick. When in doubt, take photos outside. Natural light looks better than snapshot flash photography.

5. Think about the narrative or content of your recording/repertoire and then think of some place nearby, outside, where you can visually represent those themes. On the other hand, sometimes representing a theme in very obvious ways will look cliché (“if their artwork is not very creative, how creative is their music going to be?”).

6. Make cool t-shirts. Sell them. Wear them. Mention them on stage. Put an order form on your website and in your album booklet.

7. Make cool hats, buttons, stickers, and underwear too. The more you can sell, the more you can sell. The better they look, the more you can sell. People will pay you for the honor of being your billboard. People will pay more if they look cool. Keep track of which stuff sells more and which stuff has a better profit margin.

8. It’s OK to tell your band what they have to wear. Paying tickets for a band that looks slouchy can be insulting (unless you play a genre of music wear slouchy is expected). If you are not in an Indie Rock or Folk Band, t-shirts and plaid shirts are slouchy. Individuals within the band can accentuate their stage personalities with different looks. We have already seen plenty of bands who all wear black all the time.

9. If you come from a specific tradition, you don’t have to look “tribal” to visually reference tradition. Sometimes it is even more powerful when you mix up traditional clothing with other dress. Or if you create your own style that reflects your unique role as a bridge between cultures. 

10. Think about a visual image/vocabulary/theme for each project you do. When that project is over (you made the album, you did the tour), start over with fresh imagery. It can be good to carry over some element of your visual representation from project to project—such as an aesthetic approach or a logo—but having something fresh gives past fans more of a sense that they are getting something new on the next album/tour. You want them to buy again, so give them something fresh.

Q & A With Founder of New Global Music Digital Store ONErpm.com

While some DubMC readers may have met Emmanuel Zunz at WOMEX or APAP conferences when he was promoting his record label Verge Records, we sat down with him for an update on his latest creation: ONErpm, a digital store for music and film from the edge of the planet. We've tested out the interface and are impressed. Here's the full scoop...

1. In a nut shell, what is ONErpm?

ONErpm is a digital store for musicians and filmmakers that also offers digital distribution services to other retailers like iTunes and eMusic.

2. How does ONErpm differ from other MP3 sites?

First, we're a niche site focused on international content which enables us to target a certain customer while providing more focused attention and services to the artists on the site. Second, we strive to offer artists more flexibility and options than anywhere else. Content owners determine the value/price of their content. They can sell it or give it away, and they can adjust the price any time. In addition, we offer digital distribution per album, meaning if you already have an album on iTunes you can just sell it on our site, but if you also have a new release we can distribute that for you as well. The difference between us and other DIY distribution platforms is that we only make money when you make money, so we have an incentive to promote your music to other retailers. Other platforms charge artists upfront for the distribution service, in exchange for artists keeping 100% of royalties, but the reality is that over 70% of music online does not sell at all, so most artists end up losing money.  Finally, we offer a bunch of cool features on the site for listeners, such as free unlimited streaming, a virtual media library where they can store their favorite tracks and backup all their purchases, multiple key word (tag) search so you can actually find cool music, an interactive media player that allows you to create and save playlists, check out recommendations, rate and share content, and buy!

3. What led you to start this website?

I created this site in response to the growing demand for international music and film here in the US and elsewhere. Movies like Slum Dog Millionaire, City of God (Brazil), or Tsotsi (South Africa) and artists like MIA, Seu Jorge, or Mister Catra, are perfect examples of the kind of content we're interested in. At the same time there are literally hundreds of thousands of artists in Brazil, India, South Africa, and other countries that have no viable sales channels for their music.  Today's music market is getting more cluttered, making it even more difficult to rise above the noise despite all of these D-I-Y platforms. Sure anyone can create an account on MySpace or other similar services but how much are artists really getting out of that anymore? And for listeners, there is just so much stuff out there its hard to make sense of all of it. My hope is to create a niche environment that is known for quality rather than quantity, and that represents all this incredible music and film being produced around the globe, but which currently doesn't really have a home that it can call its own. On our site, fans of global music and film will find it easier to get what they want, and artists will benefit from the added visibility, services we offer, and hopefully sales we generate as a result.

4. Talk to us about what types of music fans that are being drawn to the site?

Anyone who is interested in global music, film, and culture are finding the site interesting and fun. We're also seeing traffic from different countries like Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean, and Africa where many of our artists are from.

5. What are some of the technical/design difference with your service for the fan?

We have a very interactive media player. It plays both video and audio, providing a more integrated experience. I have never liked how audio and video are always kept separate. You can reorder tracks in the Player without interrupting what you are listening to or viewing while creating your playlist. You can also queue content to the player without interrupting the content you are enjoying.

We do search differently than anyone else. You can search by multiple tags or key words. Tags are created by the system but also by artists and listeners, so what you have in the end is a taxonomy that is both system and user-generated. This taxonomy allows for a very dynamic search generating very specific results. For example, I can search using the following tags: 'Hip Hop', 'Brazil', and 'driving', and the system will generate results with all of the tags, followed by results with one or more of the tags. You can further filter your results by album, track, video, playlists, video, and artists.

We offer listeners a virtual media library, or an in the clouds library of their favorite tracks and videos on the site, their playlists, as well as a backup of all their purchases. Its kinda like iTunes but its browser based, and you can click and drag to reorder songs or create new playlists....

6. And what about the content providers? What types have joined up so far and what types do you expect in the near future?

We're fortunate to already have some great cutting-edge artists and labels on the site. Some of the recent labels to have come on board are Six Degrees, ST2 Records out of Brazil, Bee Records in France, Verge, Kallpa (Colombia), Nomadic Wax, and many others are in the works. We have a strong contingent of Hip Hop artists from the US and elsewhere, and we're growing our Latin Alternative base, and getting more dub and reggae artists as well. I expect we'll get more of the same types of globally minded content owners, and more indie film. We also have some great Hip Hop documentaries from Senegal and Colombia, and a skateboarding film from Rio de Janeiro.

7. So how do artists, labels, and other content providers sign up to sell their music on ONErpm?

All they have to do is go to the site, sign up, create a profile, and upload an album or video. It takes about an hour total. Labels should email us at labels@onerpm.com to get started.