Thursday, June 4, 2015

8 Steps To Discovering Your Brand

Branding image
We all have a brand, but most of us just don't know what it is. Branding yourself, your music, your band or your product is extremely important if you want to become a success in the music business however, so it's important that we discover what our brand is - and the sooner the better.

Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that provides 8 steps that you can use to look inside yourself, your music, or your business to begin to discover your brand.

"1. What name are you using? Am I using a business name or product/service name that’s most comfortable to me now? Can I name the service I provide something other than a generic name? Is the name easy to say and remember?

2. What makes my business or product stand out from everyone else? What do I do? How would I like to be perceived? If you’re a service business, list your core specialties, then narrow it down to 3, then narrow it to 1. If you have a product, list its benefits, then narrow it down to 3, then narrow it to 1.

3. Who do I wish to serve? How do I do it? Describe the people that you currently do business with or are your customers. Describe the people you would like to do business with, or the customers you’d like to attract.

4. What is the current image of the business or product? How do my current customers describe it? Ask a variety of people, then extract the commonalities.

5. What’s my customer service like? How do people feel when they work or interact with me? How do they feel if they come to me with a problem with a product or service that my businesses has provided?

6. What does my business stand for? Is there a cause I really believe in? What are my values? What really matters to me? What would I never do?

7. What’s the look of the business? What colors represent the business? Is there a certain type of clothing that represents the business?  Does the business name or product suggest an image?

8. Is there a current brand that I identify with? Why?"

If you can answer these questions, you're well on your way to not only discovering your brand, but developing it into a powerhouse as well.


Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Metal The Most Popular Genre On Spotify

It's easy to think that pop music is the most popular genre in the world, especially if you listen to radio a lot, but that's not the case - at least according to Spotify.

It turns out that globally, metal is at least in the top 10 genres and is usually in the top 5. The genre also has the most listener loyalty, with pop a distant second, followed by folk, country and hip-hop.

The genres most popular artists include Metallica, Slayer, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Sepultura, Pantera, Cradle of Filth and Anthrax.

Of course, this is no surprise to metal fans, but the major labels should take note. There are some hard core fans there that still buy physical product.



Tuesday, June 2, 2015

The Social Video World Is Changing

Facebook video image
Until recently, YouTube had the market cornered on video both by users and brands. If you wanted the greatest interaction with your fans, that's where you'd go.

That's all changed recently since Facebook has put such a huge emphasis on video. As a result, a number of surprising facts about social video have come into play thanks to data from Socialbakers. Here's what they found.
  • The top 1,000 profiles on both YouTube and Facebook are uploading 4X the number of videos on Facebook now. Many big brands have even stopped posting on YouTube altogether in favor of Facebook. That said, there are still brands and large media publishers that still enjoy big gains from posting on YouTube.
  • In terms of interactions, Facebook videos perform much better than other platforms. Organic fan reach is 3X higher than YouTube. They're also shared a lot more. 
  • Instagram is still mostly a picture platform, but it's being used more and more by brands for short videos. The problem is that most people still don't relate to videos on the platform, and would prefer to get their videos from elsewhere.
  • YouTube videos are still the most commonly shared on Twitter.
The takeaway is that YouTube is losing market share to other platforms, and what that means is you should also consider other platforms besides YouTube for your videos. Don't abandon YouTube though, because it's still a powerhouse.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Shazam Adds Visual Recognition

Shazam camera logo image
Shazam answered the age-old question of "What's the name of that song?", but soon the app will be able to do much more.

The company has now added a visual recognition element to the app, which means that you'll be able to point your phone at a poster, print media, or some merch to unlock some additional online content.

Yes, QR codes already do much the same thing, but they're clunky, sometimes difficult to read, and pretty ugly. This new element allows a company to register the artwork with Shazam, and the artwork then acts as a built-in QR code itself when triggered by the phone's camera.

Walt Disney Company, Harper Collins, and Target have already signed on to the service, but the company is in talks with the major record labels and the promoters of several large festivals.

QR codes held so much promise but were ultimately underused. Perhaps Shazam has finally found the key to visual recognition.

The new logo is built around a camera icon, as seen on the left.

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