Congratulations! Your MySpace page will no longer have to look like this...

Announcing the winners of the MySpace Redesign contest, plus a special rate for the first 10 Creative Deconstruction readers to sign up for an account. Details below.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the ‘Transform your MySpace Page into Something that Doesn’t Suck’ contest! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, click here. In order to enter, readers had to tweet their best music business advice and tag it with the hashtag #CD140. As promised, today I have picked the winners. You can find all the entries by searching #CD140 on Twitter. I know I said I would only pick 5, but I made the executive decision to pick 6 instead. They’re my rules, after all.

The winners, in no particular order:

1. @LunaChicaRecord Fans are worth more than what they pay for your music. Online stores know all the info on who buys it, but do you?

2. @edhombre Make really incredible unique music. Make every gig & every artifact as amazing as you can. Repeat.

3. @radionowhere How to make it as indie band?As @tywhite sez, “quality is hyperefficient”. No point tweeting until music smokes.

4. @jensjolund DIY artists: engage authentically in all aspects of your career. Focus on what you have to give.

5. @Dezmund You cant do everything yourself. Write rehearse and perform. Enlist some quality help for all of the other stuff.

6. @richmondmike Advice for bands? Get a proper job, it’s much less trouble in the long run.

If you’re on this list make sure you are following me on Twitter so that I can send you a direct message with the access code to your new free account with MySpace 360 Wizard. Congratulations!

Important note for those who didn’t win:

If you are interested in optimizing your band’s MySpace page with the MySpace 360 Wizard but didn’t win, I have good news for you. Dave and Cara have given me 10 accounts to offer to you at 30% off the normal retail price. This is the best deal you are going to get anywhere on this tool, but you’ll have to act quickly because these discounted accounts are on a first come, first serve basis.

The first 10 people to use the coupon code ‘CD140′ will receive the discount. Click here to order.

Related posts:

1. Win a Free Chance to Transform Your MySpace Page Into Something that Doesn’t Suck

You can’t really go anywhere in the music industry today without hearing the phrase ‘fan-engagement.’  While most bands have (hopefully) always made an effort to connect with their listeners and fans in a way that goes beyond the music itself, social media has thrust the practice into the spotlight in a big way. Services like Twitter and Facebook have provided a platform to maintain contact with fans across the world in ways no one could have imagined ten years ago. Many artists are seizing the opportunity and seeing impressive results.

Of course, when any concept begins to saturate an entire industry the way fan-engagement recently has there is bound to be some backlash. Backlash is good – even the most promising ideas need to be tested and critiqued. I came across a couple of interesting pieces last week that provide a good counterpoint to the fan-engagement buzz, and I thought they were worth discussing further.

Farewell to the Casual Fan

The first piece is a great article by Jeremy from Finger Tips Music entitled Farewell to the Casual Fan. Jeremy argues that new models that put too much emphasis on fan-engagement may actually drive casual fans away.

“Today’s fan engagement schemes, however, deny the existence of casual fans by leaving them out of the picture entirely.

Because what entices a super-fan will almost, by definition, be of no interest to a casual fan. Just because you happen to like a song or two, or even an album or two, doesn’t mean you require a musician’s real-time biographical details, doesn’t mean you crave endless streams of recording flotsam and jetsam (b-sides, live takes, remixes, etc.), doesn’t mean you’ll want to purchase objects lit by physical association with the musician (self-designed t-shirts, hand-addressed postcards, and the like) or watch repeated video presentations.”

“Most important of all, a casual fan will not spend upwards of $100 a year purchasing music and other accessory items from one band or musician.

In his original “1,000 True Fans” post, Kelly asserted that the processes artists develop to feed their diehard fans will also nurture what he calls “Lesser Fans.” I see no evidence beyond wishful thinking to support this idea.

I believe, on the contrary, that the more the music scene focuses on these kinds of super-fan activities, the more likely it will be that casual fans more or less disappear.”

While I disagree with some of Jeremy’s conclusions, I appreciate that he is serving up a dose of reality to artists who fail to understand that the artist-fan relationship isn’t black and white. Some fans may sit down at their computer each day hoping to find a new communication from their favorite artist – whether a song, a video, a simple email or DM. Others might view that kind of constant contact as spam. The reality is that artists need to learn to navigate both types of relationships. The goal is to engage fans, not annoy them.

Yet I don’t believe that a rash of over-extended artists will cause these casual fans to disappear. Casual fans don’t stop listen to music when they’re turned off by an artist, they simply stop paying for it. And they’ve already stopped paying for it. The recent focus on fan-engagement is not causing this – it’s responding to it.

One commenter, Ben Denison, offered an interesting counterpoint that I thought was worthy of including here:

On the contrary, it is my concern that over “engagement” by a band will drive away the super fan. Do you already tire of going to a band site and being asked to engage in some sort of merry fan/band dance, when all you want to do is listen to the music?

He goes on:

As far as I can see there is already evidence that over engagement has already generated a niche as super fans are seeking bands such as Islet that don’t even have a website/myspace/bandcamp for the exclusivity and mystique factor.

The 80’s on Social Media

October 29, 2009 marked the 40 year anniversary of the first message sent over the internet. To mark the occasion, Duran Duran bassist John Taylor delivered a speech at UCLA on the effects of technology on music. Specifically, Taylor spoke about the way that constant fan-engagement may harm the relationship between artist and fan. Here’s an excerpt via the BBC (which you might also recognize from Hypebot):

When artists today are asked to Twitter their every thought, their every action, to record on video their every breath, their every performance, I believe they’re diluting their creative powers, their creative potency and the durability of their work.

And in the long run I believe they’re also diluting the magical power and the magnetic attraction that they can or will ever have over their audience.

John Taylor of Duran Duran

He’s saying two things here – the first is that social media communications, however simple and mundane, actually use up an artist’s creative reserves the same way songwriting might.

I happen to think that he’s fundamentally right, although this statement again assumes that artists are incapable of any nuanced understanding of fan interaction. Yes, if an artist wastes three hours in front of the computer screen he or she is unlikely to have much energy left for creative endeavors. No one is actually asking you to do this. To suggest that modern fan-engagement models require artists to “twitter their every thought, their every action” is a dramatic exaggeration.

How much time does it take to update your Twitter status? 30 seconds maybe, and only if you’re really straining to think up something clever to say. So even if you push 20 updates per day that still only consumes 10 minutes. That’s less than 1% of your day. Of course this is an oversimplification of what is involved in an artist’s social media activities, but the point is that you shouldn’t by into the “every thought” hyperbole.

In his second statement, Taylor claims that using social media to step out from behind the curtain and connect with fans in an authentic way is detrimental because it dilutes the rock star mystique. Well, if it does fans seem to be doing ok without it. I love the way Matisyahu put it in an article a few months back (I haven’t been able to find the source to link to it – I’ll update when I do.) He pointed out that when he was growing up he never would have imagined getting the chance to connect with his heroes the way his fans are able to connect with him through social media. The memory of that desire is what drives his own forays into consistent fan-engagement. These activities have only served to further endear his fans to him as an artist and to his music.

Use every weapon

The bottom line is that the tools are there to connect with fans, and they’re free to use. To ignore them is to ignore an important weapon in every artist’s fight against obscurity – and poverty. Artists need to learn how to use these tools responsibly and effectively to build their fan base, while understanding that different types of fans require a unique approach.

A few days ago Heap posted an update on Twitter linking to her website where she has her new album Ellipse streaming in its entirety. The record doesn’t officially drop until August 25th in the US.

Heap’s new work is full of her trademark quirky sentimentality. Her breathy, incomparable voice provides an anchor throughout the album’s different textures.  Ellipse begins with the bubbly, synthesized ‘First Train Home.’ In ‘Earth,’ Imogen’s multiplied vocals call to mind an assembly line of robots singing a cappella. ‘Swoon’ injects a bit of energy and and attitude into the middle of the record, giving way to an almost anthemic chorus. The breezy, sentimental ‘Between Sheets,’ and the manic ‘Aha’ finally lead the listener to the album’s dreamy anti-climax ‘Half Life.’

You can listen to the complete album for yourself below. Let me know what you think. Actually, you can feel free to let her know what you think.

It will be interesting to see the kind of buzz (and sales) that this full-album preview generates once the album is available for purchase. It has the potential to be pretty powerful. Listeners have made it clear that they like to try before they buy, and more  than 900,000 fans now have the opportunity to experience her new tracks before they hit stores. Remember when artists had to rely on radio for that kind of exposure?

Heap has also made it very easy for the stream to be shared by offering code for website owners to embed Ellipse with no strings attached. That means that with no additional cost or effort to herself and her team Heap has allowed the larger online community to promote her work on their sites. And why wouldn’t we bloggers take her up on it? She’s given us something that goes beyond self-promotion and actually adds value to our readers’ experience. Without the ability to embed Ellipse in this post I would have probably just retweeted the link to the stream and called it a day.

All hype aside, I think this is a nice move that is consistent with Heap’s marketing strategy up to this point. Not every act is going to be able to reproduce what Heap has done in the promotion of Ellipse, (nor should they try – come up with your own strategy!) But there are a lot of good lessons to be learned.

What are you doing to promote your music? How are you using social media and the web to engage with fans? Do you have the help of a label or are you doing it on your own? Let me know – it’s easy to get wrapped up in the buzz surrounding high profile acts but I’m interested in stories about artists at all levels.

Also check out last week’s post Imogen Heap shows us that DIY pays off – and takes a lot of work.

Photo by kk+

Spend enough time online and you might begin to suspect that some media folks want you to think that the DIY approach will somehow be less work than then a traditional career in music. Strange, given that the term itself implies the opposite. ‘DIY’ does, after all, stand for ‘Do It Yourself.’ More rewarding? Less artistically limiting? More fun? Yes, yes, and probably. But less work? No.

Better does not always equal easier. Creating quality music and running a business are both challenging tasks on their own. Put them together and you’ve got your work cut out for you. The artist/fan relationship is the lynch-pin in today’s music marketplace and that relationship also takes a lot of time and energy to maintain, let alone grow. As much as you might want it to be ‘all about the music’ there are many other responsibilities vying for your attention. One artist who has learned this lesson – and who has experienced its sacrifices and rewards – is Imogen Heap.

An article called The New Music Business Model: Imogen Heap has been getting a lot of attention lately. Any article with a headline like ‘The New Music Business Model’ is likely to get a lot of attention these days, but this one is worth reading. The author, Colette Weintraub of Deep Dive Marketing, describes the sometimes novel ways Heap utilized technology and fan engagement in the making and marketing of her upcoming album Ellipse.

Imogen Heap wasn’t starting at square one when she began promoting Ellipse – she already had a committed fan base thanks to a host of films and TV shows featuring her music. But with Ellipse Heap has expanded her reach exponentially, and has truly done the bulk of the work herself. She refinanced her house to fund recording, she communicates constantly with her fans, even crowd-sourcing song titles and album artwork, etc.

She does SO much, in fact, that it’s hard to see how she has any time left to create music.

I didn’t really think of it that way until I read a recent Lefsetz post about his reaction to the Weintraub article. Here it is:

I uncovered the essay … delineating everything Imogen had done to sell her new album.

And my first reaction was, is it worth it?

Now the activities took two years to unfold.  But suddenly, you’re no longer a musician, but a personality.  And so much of what Imogen was doing was generating no revenue.  It was all leading up to a single sales event, the ultimate release of an album.  Huh?

He goes on:

Do you have to be a newfangled self-marketer to have success in today’s world?  If that’s what it takes, if you’ve got to do everything Imogen did, how many will say no?  What about practicing, gigging, getting good? … Just about everything Imogen has done here has nothing to do with music … There’s got to be a better way to reach fans.

It was refreshing to see a different perspective on the ‘New Music Business Model’ buzz, and it got me thinking about something I had seen from Heap herself a few days before the Lefsetz post. In responding to one of her followers on Twitter, Heap indicated that she was feeling the strain the process was putting on her. The DIY model that she had embraced was leaving precious little time for what she loves most: music. You can read her updates in the screenshots below.

Building a successful career in music on your own terms and with your own two hands is a difficult task, more akin to the life of an entrepreneur than to the iconic lifestyle of a rockstar. You’re the CEO, the content creator and PR coordinator all rolled into one overworked and (usually very) underpaid package. It’s not for everybody. Not everyone is going to enjoy that kind of lifestyle, and let’s not kid ourselves – not everyone is cut out for it.

I appreciate all of the excitement Imogen Heap’s story has been generating recently, and I hope that her new album launches to enormous returns. It’s great to have such a compelling example of DIY success. Those who do choose to go for it would be wise to study her experiences.

That, and after following Imogen for while now on Twitter and in the media I can’t help but root for her. I suppose that means that what she’s been doing for the past two years is working.

Photo by Jeremy Cowart.

I just wanted to take a moment to say how much I appreciate you, the readers of Creative Deconstruction. It’s encouraging to see so many artists, fans and music pros recognizing the unprecedented opportunities we have in the music business today.

When I started this site a few months ago it was my goal to create a place where new ideas could be discussed and independent music could be celebrated. There are still quite a few features and services that are yet to be implemented, and I am always looking for feedback on what you would like to see more (or less) of. So please – make use of the comments section at the bottom of each article. Share your ideas and voice your questions and concerns. I try my best to respond to each comment. I won’t have all the answers of course, but there’s likely someone out there who does.

There are also several other ways to connect with me and the rest of the budding Creative Deconstruction community so that we can all get to know each other better. You can find me on Twitter as @refeup where I’ll point you to many other people and services that you’re likely be interested in, and join our new Facebook community where you can post comments, music, videos, etc. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed or via Email to stay up to date with new articles as they are published.

Please feel free to send me an email using the form on the Contacts page. I like emails. Submit interesting stories or tell me about creative or unique business strategies you have implemented - especially if you got the idea here. I’m always looking for good case studies, whether they resulted in success or failure.

Thanks again for reading and for your comments. I look forward to seeing the Creative Deconstruction community grow and getting the chance to get to know each of you better in the coming months.

- refe

Related posts:

1. More Creative Deconstruction

Here’s a recap of what went on in the music industry this week (technically two weeks this time.) Make sure to check out anything you might have missed and leave your comments. Know something we don’t? Submit a story.

Most Popular:

How to create a release strategy for the new music marketplace – Capitalize on the new ways fans are consuming music.

Trent Reznor quits Twitter – how real is too real in social media? – The “most innovative man in the music industry” finds that broadcasting his life may do more harm than good.

This Week:

New album releases July 7th, 2009 – Check out the albums that dropped last week and download straight from iTunes/Amazon.

Radiohead Manager, MAMA and Nettwerk Team Up to Create New Alternative to Record Labels – Finally, some big names get behind a model that respects artists and consumers.

The hidden risks of real-time buzz – Real-time media (such as Twitter) can be a great tool for promoting your music, but it can come with a price.

Number-one way to make sure your band fails – A good reminder on the importance of gigging.

Music Video Picks:

Dirty Projectors: Stillness is the Move

And don’t forget to check out the archives.

This Week in Music History:

1987 Bruce Springsteen played his first ever show behind the Iron Curtain when he appeared in East Berlin in front of a crowd of 180,000. The show was broadcast on East German TV. (This Day in Music)

Related posts:

1. The Broken System: Deconstructing Music Consumption

The new real-time media culture has brought with it many incredible opportunities, but when you take a closer look it quickly reveals itself to be a double-edged sword.

Platforms like Twitter make it possible to stay frighteningly up-to-date on what’s going on in the world, whether it’s the death of a pop legend or a civil uprising across the world. The same goes for trends in music. If a band or a sound gets big, it’s likely to get big fast.

Faster is not always better, though. In fact, when a band comes out of nowhere and makes a big splash it can create unrealistic expectations, or worse, consumer fatigue. So, while generating buzz may be easier than ever, it may do more harm than good.

Too much of this business (and business in general) is built on promising consumers the world and giving them mediocrity. It’s much better to under-promise and over-deliver. How many times have you un-followed an artist on Twitter after the fifteenth time they tweet “Check out my awesome new record! It will blow your mind!” No, it won’t. How do I know this? If it was really going to blow my mind you wouldn’t have to warn me before hand. Somebody else – someone whose mind your record had already blown – would be telling me all about it instead.

Word of mouth used to take months or even years to spread. Now, I can send an update to hundreds or thousands of people all at once telling them how much I like the new Foreign Born record, or how much I’ve been listening to Phoenix. That update joins with a larger stream of conversations around those bands and the resulting buzz can be remarkable. That’s real-time, and it’s nearly impossible to manage effectively.

Yet, the faster word spreads the faster it risks losing its power. Even worse, what once was a lot of positive hype can quickly become a stigma. As Lefsetz recently put it:

“The mantra of the Internet age is slow and steady. [Its] the dreaded Pitchfork Syndrome. The site makes you, you sell product and tour to many, then the site says your next album is not as good and you’re OVER! Be careful what you wish for.”

So take your time. Build your fan base through honest, humble interactions and hard work. PR is good, and certainly don’t stop marketing your music. But remember that you’re an artist first. Buzz will come and go. The majority of your energy should be poured into crafting great music that gives your listeners something to tell their friends about. That is the only way to achieve lasting success.

There’s no secret formula to insure that your band will be successful, but I can tell you one fool-proof way to guarantee its failure: stop gigging.

It’s so basic, yet I have been consistently surprised at how many bands come to me looking for help getting their careers off the ground who treat gigging as a chore. When it’s time to pound the pavement and book a few shows they procrastinate. They focus on reworking their songs, doodling potential album artwork, updating their MySpace page – anything – and come Friday night they’ve got nothing lined up. Fame and fortune are postponed another week and they’re left wondering why their career still hasn’t taken off.

There’s been a lot of talk recently (on this site certainly) about the need for bands to connect with listeners and cultivate a fan base that will launch them to the next stages of their career. There are a lot of ways to do that. Social media platforms like Twitter and MySpace have been getting a lot of attention, and really can be excellent tools to engage with listeners. Yet, these tools are just distractions if they aren’t supplementing the connections you are already forging with live audiences.

The artist/fan relationship puts down roots live. They can see your face, and you see theirs. They get to watch you screw up, and you get to watch them move along with your music. It’s loud, it’s messy, and you share it with every person in the room. You can’t reproduce that in a recording, and you certainly can’t reproduce it in a 140-character status update.

Gigging takes work, but it’s not a chore – it’s your job. Every aspect of an artist’s career is built on live performance, and if you forget this you are setting yourself up for failure.

If you have been around for a while you have probably noticed the big changes that we’ve implemented here at Creative Deconstruction. We’re sporting a new look, more functionality and more content. Our goal is and has always been to provide our readers with timely, in-depth commentary on the business of music and other relevant industries like entertainment, technology and social media. The updates to the site are designed to support that mission and add a more engaging multi-media experience (much of which is still yet to come – stay tuned.)

If you have any questions, commends, criticisms, ideas, news tips, etc. please let us know! Just click the ‘About’ link at the top of the site and fill out the contact form. If we end up using your submission we’ll give you credit, so make sure you leave your Twitter user name or some other way for our readers to find out more about you.

WooThemes

I also want to make a quick note about the guys who designed the new version of Creative Deconstruction. Woo Themes is a group of web designers who specialize in creating websites to run on Wordpress and other CMS platforms. I’ve been so happy with their work that I wanted to make sure and give them a shout out. They also let me know that they are running a 4 for 1 special right now, so the timing seems to be right! If you buy one of their themes, you can pick 3 more for free. I highly recommend checking these guys out.

If you want more info on Woo Themes just let me know, or click here. and you’ll be redirected to their site.

Thanks, and please share your feedback!

If you were on Twitter at all yesterday you probably heard the big news. NIN frontman Trent Reznor - often hailed as the most tech-savvy man in the music biz – has given up on Web 2.0. How could one of the most prolific rock star Twitter users (641,977 followers at time of writing) pull such an abrupt about-face?

Reznor explains himself in an open letter posted on the NIN forums that is characteristically articulate and colorful. In it, he cites ‘idiots’ as his primary motivation for giving up on social media, saying,“I decided to lower the curtain a bit and let you see more of my personality. I watched some of you get more engaged because you started to realize there’s a person (flaws and all) back there, and I watched some of you recoil in horror because I’m not what you projected on me. All expected. I’m not as concerned about “breaking” your idea of NIN at this point. It is what it is and I am what I am.”

How real is too real?

This brings up a something I’ve actually been thinking a lot about lately. At what point does openness in social media go from being helpful to harmful in the artist/fan relationship?

Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment. Celebrities – whether movie stars, rock stars or pro athletes – appeal to us largely because they’re unapproachable. We see the roles they play or listen to the songs they sing and we begin to build up a persona in our minds that we project on the celebrity. They become something larger than life, and when our access to them is limited there is nothing to contradict what we’ve imagined to be true. That’s exactly what happened with these NIN fans. They latched on to something in Reznor’s message and that became who he was to them.

“My world is upside-down.”

Then he joined Twitter and fell in love. Reznor hasn’t exactly been shy about his love life lately, and his updates have frequently been one-hundred and forty characters of romance, butterflies and batting eyelashes. I’ve put a few of them up for you here to check out yourselves. Not exactly the angry, self-loathing industrial music poster boy so many had come to idolize. These updates disrupted the image he had cultivated in the 90’s and which his legions of fans had since elaborated on. Some have seemed to grow with him, endeared by this softer side of Trent. Others hate him for ’selling out’ and turning his back on everything he had preached for over a decade. As one fan put itin response to one of Reznor’s mushier updates, “My world is upside-down.”

Reznor responds to all of this in his letter, “I was not expecting to broadcast details of my love life there, but it happened because I’m in love and it’s all I think about and that’s that. If this has bummed you out or destroyed what you’ve projected on me, fair enough – it’s probably time for you to leave. You are right, I’m not the same person I was in 1994 (and I’m happy about that). Are you?”

Leave some mystery

Trent Reznor has every right to grow up. He should grow up! No one can keep writing the same words for ten years without starting to force it. Yet, it isn’t just that he is a happier, better adjusted individual than he was when he began his career. He simply communicated to much. The man behind the music revealed himself to be very little like the music he made and that just isn’t what many fans want. They want the entire experience of artist and art to be consistent.

If you plan on taking away all of the mystery and inference of your persona as an artist you can expect to turn a few people off. Just to be clear: I’m not in anyway advocating that musicians come up with some pre-planned alter-ego designed to best compliment the type of image they’re going for. I’m just trying to be realistic about what it means to be an artist. Build relationships and be authentic – but remember to leave a little mystery, too. Authenticity is not about divulging every thought that runs through your head, it’s about being honest in what you say and do. Even being a little vulnerable. I don’t think that Reznor will be the last high profile artist to recognize the double-edged nature that social media can be in the artist/fan relationship.

The lesson here? Bare your soul in your music, not on Twitter.