The Manager’s Corner
by Chris Daniels
I’ve managed my own band for 30 years. I’m in the Colorado Music Hall of Fame and we have 15 albums out so far. It’s been a fun career and it keeps developing. And despite the amazing changes in technology, success in the music business is built around some tried and true elements: great music & performance and really hard work and timing (often mistaken for luck). The book I wrote for my class at CU Denver on artist management called “DIY: You’re Not in it Alone” is exactly what you need to understand. Whether on our local Colorado “island” or in the greater internetville … there are a lot of us out there doing everything we can to survive… and we learn as much as we can from our peers. So here is a little of what I’ve been teaching and researching.
YouTube: one little world that means so much. And most artists blow this pretty badly, especially young artists hoping for that viral video that will make them the next OK Go. My first bit of knowledge to pass along is stop worrying about going viral … you have better odds of winning the lottery and it will distract you from the main point. And what is that you may be asking? Building your fan base. YouTube is the best tool you have for building a following for the music you write or perform, whether it is Rap Battles, Latin, EDM, Bluegrass, Metal or Pop. Way back in 2012 Nielson reported the 54% of Americans were siting Youtube as the source for finding new music and that number is growing not shrinking.
So what’s a young artist to do? Embrace it. And there are some real advantages to this new world. First and foremost is that you don’t have to look like a supermodel to get your music noticed. A perfect example is Lake Street Dive. Their success correlates directly to the two things that I have stressed over and over in this column. First they have a fantastic live show and second they used the internet – especially Youtube – to build an unstoppable momentum that put them on David Letterman. This was no fluke or even a viral video. It was straight ahead slow-build, word of mouth with people talking about the quartet and going (specifically) to their live Fun Machine video for “I Want You Back” – shot on a Boston street – that now has more than 1.5 million views. It’s not viral kittens – it’s great music captured raw and with no fancy tricks. It shows very simply that these are great musicians.
And that’s the point. In the old days there were three elements a video had to have, wet streets, fire and a good-looking babe. And they were expensive productions. These days the videos that build a band’s fan base are the ones that show the undeniable talent of the artists themselves. Whether it’s acoustic in a warehouse or Danielle Ate The Sandwich singing in front of her refrigerator door, the most important thing to capture is the band’s energy and talent – that is what will make people come to your shows and that is what will interest those who do not live on the “island” of Colorado to look for you when they come to our State on a pot-tour and want to catch some entertainment between munchies and a nap.
And there are some simple and easy rules that will help you make the most out of your YouTube endeavors. (1) get your own channel on Youtube. It’s as easy as setting up a Facebook page and it means that anything you do will be controlled by you – and monetized from your channel. (2) shoot interesting footage, don’t worry about a perfect lip synch (you can cut to a different shot if you don’t have the exact lyric captured) (3) find a great editor and make the cuts both artistic and fast – 5 seconds is an eternity in Youtube land (4) HAVE FANTASTIC AUDIO – whether you do it live or your using a track – nothing turns off YouTube watcher/listeners quicker than crappy audio (5) lighting – dark dingy low-light crappy videos can hurt your efforts (6) except for # 1 and 4 don’t be afraid to break all the rules – some of the most interesting videos are the result of doing things your own way (7) for god’s sake be creative.
Monetizing your video. So what do you get for putting up your video on YouTube? Well it can be buttloads of money if you are lucky but you have to do two things (1) generate at least 5,000 views – it is your basic entry level for seeing ad revenue (2) there are great new services for collecting monies from the use of your music on YouTube either by you or by your friends and fans using your songs in their baby dancing videos.
In general there are two streams of revenue from videos – a very very small amount from the views of the videos themselves and – what can be a much greater amount from placement of ads on your videos. (There are basically two kinds (a) pre-roll (b)pop-up or crawler.) Probably the newest and best way to make sure you are getting the best return on ad revenue from YouTube views comes from TuneCore founder Jeff Price who has a new company “Audiem” that specializes in helping artists maximize their revenue stream from this essential source of fan base development. There is a good article on Jeff and the whole concept at http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2013/06/12/audiem.
It’s no big secret that the revenue from the sale of recorded music is negligible for young artists. For example Spotify pays a whopping .0057 of a cent for every stream. So that virtual zero point for the sale of your recorded music should motivate young artists to make the most of every other revenue stream from merch to live performance to sponsorships and endorsements, to your publishing. And YouTube is another way to make the most of your efforts because it can serve a critical role in building a fan base – and if you are smart you can monetize it to add to your revenue. It may be a “river of pennies” but the boost you get from building your fan base will payoff with much greater dividends.
Category: Shop Talk
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