20 Dec. 2011

[Lunkhead]

Still pretty quiet around here. I guess folks are real busy.

Today is the last day of my current employment situation. I've been on a six month contract for a company in San Francisco (http://www.meltwater.com), working part time. I was planning on trying to take some time off after my contract ended, maybe do Fun A Day. Friday I got a job offer, though, and I accepted it, so now I'll be starting a new job on January 4th. I'll be working at http://www.rootmusic.com, makers of the BandPage Facebook app.

So, a self serving question of the day: What kind of Web presence do you have for your musical activity? A Myspace page? A Facebook page? A Twitter account? Your own Web site? Bandcamp? SoundCloud? Some combination of those and/or more?

I've got my own site, though I don't think it gets any traffic. I've got a MySpace page for Merisan, though I'm not really sure if that gets any traffic. I recently set up BandPage for BSS's Facebook page. I also set up a SoundCloud account for BSS, and I think we have a Bandcamp site. We use Blogger for a blog. No Twitter account though.

I know Jonathan Mann has his own site, a Tumblr blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook page with various apps including BandPage, a SoundCloud account, a Bandcamp account, two YouTube accounts.

It seems like musicians these days wind up managing a lot of different online technologies...

[fluffy]

Hey, congratulations on the job.

Sockpuppet just has the site and the Bandcamp (which is kinda-sorta but not-really integrated into the site). I always feel like it's kind of an awkward setup though. It'd be nice if Bandcamp had a more reasonable way of posting demo versions and blog entries and such. As it is I doubt anyone actually subscribes to my RSS feed anyway, though. also I guess that technically my YouTube account belongs to Sockpuppet. Oh and I have a SoundCloud account and occasionally post stuff on ccMixter as well.

I used to have a MySpace for Sockpuppet but it was just getting a lot of spam and nothing else. When the emailed "such-and-such has contacted you" messages were increasing in severity I started flagging them as spam in MySpace's system, and I got an angry comment from MySpace's admins saying "These are our ads to you. We have to keep our site free somehow!" So I deleted my account. (I mean the messages just looked like regular spam from other users, and they had a "report spam" button. And it's not like I ever used my account for anything anyway, so I didn't care about it being "free" if I was just going to get a lot of spam from it.)

[HeuristicsInc]

I have my own site incl. blog, myspace (defunct), facebook page, twitter (not used much), soundcloud (not much there), bandcamp, cdbaby, ...
yeah, it's too much to keep track of.
-bill

[jast]

QotD: my own site only at this time, and I plan on keeping the number of sites as low as possible.
Unless you count the basically-completely-inactive stuff, too: Twitter (@musicjk, no posts in 2011 yet) and YouTube (mrjast, no public posts at all).

[BBABM]

bad boys & fitzroy both have facebook pages, bandcamp accounts, and reverbnation accounts.... thats really all i care to upkeep because it seems that neither get much traffic at all unless i post a link on my personal facebook, and use them mostly for talking about new song fights, or putting up videos of live practices.

[JonPorobil]

I've got a Facebook musician page which hasn't been updated in over a year.
I've got a MySpace page, which hasn't been updated in even longer.
I have my own website, which hasn't been updated in several months, but that's mainly because I haven't done anything lately.

I'm thinking about nuking the MySpace and Facebook pages. I've never had a Bandcamp page, a SoundCloud, a Reverbnation, or anything like that. I've already got my own website, so I don't reap the song hosting or web presence benefits that services like these offer, and I don't think their "social" applications are robust enough to generate the exposure that would make them worth my effort. It seems to me that jon-eric.com is enough for what I'm doing.

[Spud]

We have orphaned pages all over the internet. Can't keep up with the service changes. http://www.mightyoctothorpe.com isn't even up to date, and the music archives mostly got nuked when I was really broke and let songhole.org expire.

[JonPorobil]

Hey, Spud, speaking of web pages, I'd like a word with you next time we're both in the IRC room...

[Spud]

I knew I was walking into something.

[Caravan Ray]

I've been on a six month contract for a company in San Francisco (http://www.meltwater.com), working part time.
...

I looked at that website. I know it was using common English words - but I am still really not sure I undersrtand what that company actally does

So, a self serving question of the day: What kind of Web presence do you have for your musical activity? A Myspace page? A Facebook page? A Twitter account? Your own Web site? Bandcamp? SoundCloud? Some combination of those and/or more?

I made a website through CD Baby when I made my CD in 2009
http://www.caravanray.com/

but soon forgot about it - and now it seems squatters have taken over and are selling caravans. Good on them.

I have been delighted to recently discover that the songs from my '09 CD are still earning me income. CD Baby distributes them all over the place and everytime one gets played on Last FM or something like that - I get about 0.01 of a cent or something. I have earnt $USD 0.03 in the last 6 months alone! I have decided I will record 10 singles as digital releases this (next) year and distribute them through CD Baby, possibly under a variety of names - and see how much of that sweet, random micro-coinage I can attract. I will probably try to do some dodgy youtube video for each to maximise my exposure. Should I be signing up for a Meltwater JitterJam?

[JonPorobil]

I knew I was walking into something.

So a Spud walks into a bar, and the bartender says "Hey! I was just talking about how this bar needs a good website!"

[ken]

How much does it cost to put a song on CDbaby?

[Caravan Ray]

How much does it cost to put a song on CDbaby?

$9.95 per song

or 10 songs for $80

I have pre-paid the $80. Now if I get a sudden urge to write and record a song about a North Korean Leader or something like that - I could have it for sale on iTunes in 24 hours. I will be keeping my eyes open for current event novelty song opportunities

I was going to do another CD - but the whole album thing was too much work. And besides - it is 2011. CDs went out with the mullet.

----------------------------------------------------------------
edit:
https://members.cdbaby.com/cd-baby-cost.aspx

maybe the 10 for $80 doesn't exist anymore. Just seems to be $9.95 a song now

[fluffy]

At least they still give a relatively lower flat-rate for entire albums, although it's gone up to $39 (used to be what, $35?).

TuneCore also lets you do singles but they charge an annual "maintenance fee" instead.

Personally I think that iTunes is a stupid way to go as an independent musician. BandCamp is a much better proposition in general. iTunes is really set up for people who make LOTS of sales, and you still have to do all your own marketing to drive those sales anyway so might as well go with the cheaper option that also gives a better, more flexible product.

I also like that BandCamp's payment model is biased towards the artist, rather than towards themselves, and also reduces the payments overhead and so on. Plus they give you so many perks as well.

[Caravan Ray]

At least they still give a relatively lower flat-rate for entire albums, although it's gone up to $39 (used to be what, $35?).

TuneCore also lets you do singles but they charge an annual "maintenance fee" instead.

Personally I think that iTunes is a stupid way to go as an independent musician. BandCamp is a much better proposition in general. iTunes is really set up for people who make LOTS of sales, and you still have to do all your own marketing to drive those sales anyway so might as well go with the cheaper option that also gives a better, more flexible product.

I also like that BandCamp's payment model is biased towards the artist, rather than towards themselves, and also reduces the payments overhead and so on. Plus they give you so many perks as well.

I like how CD Baby seems to distribute stuff everywhere - so that from time to time - people seem to occaisionally stumble across a tune called "Pictures of Natalie Portman" and apparently listen to it and sometimes even spend 99c to buy it - so miniscule amounts of money dribble into my account. I may as well get a few more catchy novelty songs out there and try to increase the dribble. Maybe even just try recording 10 versions of "Pictures of _________" - each time substituting the name of a much googled celebrity

...hmmm...I wonder if "Pictures of Kim Jong Ill" would work?

[ken]

This discussion made me check on the one CD I have on CDbaby, space_ by Fourteen. The same band that brought you 2from14's I Think It's Killing Me. That album is from 2002! Much like CR, we have about $7.50 in earnings from .01cent payments over the last 5 years.

[Caravan Ray]

ker ching!!!!!!!

[Billy's Little Trip]

I will probably try to do some dodgy youtube video for each to maximise my exposure.

One of your names can be Dodgy Caravan. That way you come up on a search for your old squatted site. Touche'.

[roymond]

QOTD: I limit roymond promotional activities to blimps and full bus decals. Seems more targeted that way.

[Caravan Ray]

QOTD: I limit roymond promotional activities to blimps

I was wondering why you sent me a "roymond.com" Tshirt

[ken]

Hey All,

If you are planning a Cd release this year on CD baby, they are going to raise their prices $10 next month. You can pay ahead of time and save right now.

Ken

[Billy's Little Trip]

$10 bux?! More like CD Maybe. Don't they know that there are cheapskates in the world that do not believe in paying for anything that doesn't have glowing flashing lights and pushy buttons on it?

....oh hey everyone, I have an invisible box of air I'd like to sell you. Buy two and get the third one FREE!
From the makers of silent orchestra on an invisible CD. Not available is stores.