Myspace Tips & Mistakes

  

 

 

"You might not want to play on MySpace but you have to play the web game" Danah Boyd.

Myspace maybe not everyone's cup of tea, its backend can be awkward but its still a music industry standard and you can use it your advantage. Here are some tips and what not to do.

Myspace Profile Tips
1) Choose a short readable music related title - myspace.com/(bandname)music
2) Killer Profile Picture
3) Contact Details (email, phone)
4) Mailing List Sign Up
5) Retail Links
6) Have well-known artist of a similar genre/syle in your Top Friends
7) Add friends daily
8) Add regular blog/status updates
9) Add some profile format code to sharpen up your page
10) Short up-to-date profile/bio written in 3rd person (ie. not 'I then went...' etc ) so media/industry can use the text.

Myspace Mistakes (c/o Andrew Dubber)

1) Using MySpace as your website
This is the worst mistake of all, so I’ve put it at the top of the list. If MySpace is your online presence, you don’t have an online presence. MySpace is for social networking. It is not where you do your business. Have you set up your office at the pub? Use MySpace to interact socially with people, and encourage them to visit your own site where you have control over things like design, content and functionality.

 

2) Using MySpace as your email
One of the great things about MySpace is that you can send private messages to people and they can reply. This is not an replacement for email — and if conversations go beyond more than one reply, you need to take it to real email as soon as possible. The messaging thing is about establishing contact. Once you have a real contact, then treat them like a real human being — not a MySpace arms-length ‘friend’.

 

3) Having an impressive background image
If you have a lovely photo as the background to your MySpace page, one of two things is true. Either: a) I can’t read large sections of your text because it’s the same colour as parts of your lovely photo; or b) I can’t see it properly because it’s behind large sections of your text
boxes. It’s nice that you have nice photos. Put them on Flickr. Leave your MySpace background plain so I can focus on who you are and what you have to say to me.

 

4) Embedding lots of media
Your MySpace page is not one of the TV channels. I know how to use YouTube. I have not come here to watch videos. I want to know who you are and what you do, so that I will know whether to (and how to) interact with you. If you represent more than one artist, and they all have a video, then set up subsites on your own website and direct people there. One video per page, preferably. If you must put a video on your MySpace page (Really? Are you sure?) then whatever you do, make sure it doesn’t autoplay the moment I load your page. It’s bad enough I get music playing the second I open your page. Nothing scares the casual visitor away like simultaneous multiple sound sources.

 

5) Writing lots of text
Remember - this is a place to meet people and interact with them.
Starting off with a 3,000 word essay’s not the greatest ice-breaker in the world. Be brief. Be engaging. They’re after a quick synopsis — not a complete history. Again, direct them to your website if you feel it’s appropriate to make your entire autobiography known.

Remember: MySpace is a tool. It’s one of many. It’s not your only shot at engaging with your audience or prospective market. It’s an important one though, and it’s one that it’s very easy to make mistakes with. Use it well.

 

6) No Contact Details
Believe it or not some people don’t have MySpace accounts and many in the industry regularly checkout bands Myspaces and you should always have your contact details and an email address at the very least.

Myspace Tips

Below are some Myspace tips from on-line promotion expert Dana Boyd who was in NZ recently.

• Define yourself through your registration: if you are a band make sure your registration is a music one not a general registration

• Connect with your local support network

• Include your name in your title and define your search terms well

• Use great photos so that you are recognisable

• Engage with your fans. Respond to their comments... etc

• Use the comments as a feedback for your strategy

• Get to know where your fans are so you can target your tours to the right spaces

• Keep updating your information to keep it fresh

• Accept friends always

• Figure out your html so you can hack in your own design

• Prioritise design - make it look good

• Sell the whole life of the band not just the music

• Write your presence

• Let people know about a new release ahead of time

• Signal your events

• Take advantage of not having to pay for the bandwidth costs - that's a real saving

• Think of your web presence as a continuum of the broader media

Other MySpace Marketing tips

1) Customise Your Design
Loads of free templates see…
myspacehacks.blogspot.com
myspacenow.com
myspacer.net

 

2) Avoid scrolling graphics that crash browsers

 

3) Add text messaging
‘Text For Free’

 

4) Share Flickr Pics
Myspace has 10 or less photo’s
Try flashandburn.net/flickrtools

 

5) Locate Your Visitors
Geo-visitors
See digitalpoint.com/tools/geovisitors

 

6) Add more friends to your main page
Normally only 8 friends allowed on homepage.
Myspace Custom Friend Generator lets you show off 40 of your best friends and always include high profile well known bands with a similar sound so newcomers get an idea of what you sound like. See www.r4wr.com/friends
Also add a couple of high profile artists who have a similar style and genre to you so strangers can immediately get a sense of your sound.

 

7) Have a slam-dunk profile picture.
Sad to say, but most people see before they look, and in turn hear. To attract more potential fans to your site, you have to get them interested based on visual alone. But we mean classy visual. For musicians, that's either a dynamite shot that isn't like every other typical band shot, or even a really creative logo or visually stunning picture that can wrap around what your music is all about.

After you get them to come and look a little deeper, you reel 'em in with your amazing and undeniable music. The point is to drive traffic to your site, and then let the art speak for you.

 

8) Respond To Everyone
For as long as you can, try to respond to everyone who asks to be your friend or writes you a message. It's hard and time consuming ... but on numerous occasions, just by writing back — creating that line of personal communication — and thanking someone for taking the time to listen and comment, add your act, etc, we have gotten e-mail addresses for our mailing list, questions regarding how to buy our CD, and several new fans out to shows.

The extra personal contact is a luxury that these people don't get with the big-time musicians they already love. And they are so grateful to you for writing them back — they can't believe it!
Plus, it makes it even better for us because we get to know new people, we get to have conversations about our music with complete strangers — we find out what it is about our art that speaks to people. It's a gold mine of information that will make you a better writer, a better musician, and a better person.

 

9) Join Like-Minded Groups
Join groups that either reflect the type of music you make, have members that match your target fan profile, or just interest you in general. This is a much better way to make yourself known to potential fans than by randomly asking every new profile you come across to add your band. That is like catching a fly with chopsticks — a nice idea, but very hard to do.

Most people, if they don't know you or your music, just get annoyed with tons of new bands/acts pestering them with adds all the time. You have to go to them, make them think they found you. You can do this by joining legit groups and getting your profile pic (see our first tip) out there. If you seem interested in what your potential new fan is interested in, you have a much better chance of actually making a new fan.

 

10) Add a Mailing List
Its easy to embed a mailing list request form into your myspace - see freedback.com.

 

USING Your Myspace Effectively (c/o Matt Turner)

Once you've established your myspace site, selected a terrific photo or graphic that accurately signals your primary artistic sensibility to casual surfers, and your band name or label name signal the same (hopefully), a few practical strategies can be employed to help you maximize your marketing efforts. These basics are worth mentioning because I see so many artists overlook them that I cannot assume that you know to address them. We'll start with your music player, as your music is, of course, key to your marketing efforts.

 

Title
By the way, before we move on, I'd like to mention one simple strategy I've seen some solo artists employ on myspace that helps to inform surfers that they are, in fact, an artist: they add the word "music" behind their name. Example: www.myspace.com/kellybrockmusic . It's simple. It works. Do it. OK, back to your music player. I want you to answer these questions about your music player:

 

Your Music Player
What does you music sound like?
Crummy sounding demos and recordings sound crummy on the myspace player. Period. You gain nothing by advertising to potential fans, venue owners, bookers, and industry folks that you have crummy sounding demos. I've been on terrific sites only to be disappointed the moment the music began, and not because the songs were bad, but because the sound was terrible: muddy vocals, little or awkward mixes, and the like. You must treat your myspace site as a professional marketing vehicle because your site is a professional marketing vehicle. Make your demos/recordings clear and ensure your vocals are upfront.

 

Did you post your lyrics?
People like to read lyrics - that's one reason why they still buy CDs or search the Internet for lyric sites. Fans love to know the words to your songs so they can sing along. If you're a songwriter pitching your songs, then lyrics are a must. Don't make folks look for your lyrics elswhere or try to write them down or memorize them - post them on the lyric page of your music player. Make it easy for people to understand your songs and like your music.

 

And don't forget to include the following on your lyric sheet:
* Authors/composers of the song
* Your publishing company (if you are an unsigned artist/songwriter, then you are your publishing company)
* Your performing arts organization affiliation if you have one, such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC
* A copyright notice! You can simply type "Copyright 2006". Don't neglect to add this important information.

 

Add Contact Info
I would also suggest that you include your business mailing address and contact information, along with your band website, on the lyric sheet so that if someone copies and saves/prints out your lyric sheet, your contact information is readily available. Make it easy for people to find you.

 

Do you permit rating and comments?
Use your player to gain valuable information about how fans perceive you and your music. Don't be afraid to let people rate and post comments about your songs. If the ratings are poor and the comments are negative, figure out why and use that information to improve your songwriting, instrumentation or recording. You can always delete negative comments, but at least you've received input about your music to help you improve what craft. In addition, comments give you an opportunity to contact the commenter, thank them for their comments - even if they are negative - and turn the "friend" into a fan. The same goes for song rating.

 

Have you enabled the Add feature to your songs?
When I land on an artist's site and hear a great song, I may want to feature that artist on my myspace site for The Aspiring Songwriter. I regularly feature myspace artists who are friends on my site and play their song to promote them. I cannot tell you how many band and artist site I visit that don't enable the add feature on their music player!

Ask youself this question: "What am I on myspace for?" The whole point here is to get people to add your song to their site so that everyone who visits their site hears your song (and the play is counted on your music player song counter). If your fan's visitor likes your song and clicks on the the "visit" option of your fan's music player, they will be directed onto your site where, hopefully, they will ask to join your site because they like your music so much, and you have a potential new fan because he or she was sent from your other fan's site. And, that new friend/fan may add your song to their site. Comprende?

The music player add function is viral networking at its simplest! You will rarely hear me scold, but this is such a no-brainer that I am confounded when I run across artists - and some really good artists - who don't enable their player's add function. I'll assume it was a momentary lapse in good judgment and I'll be sure to revisit your site sometime - if I remember you - after you've had the chance to make the necessary adjustments. Enabling the add function does NOT enable fans to download your song; it only permits them to stream your song from their site much like web radio. Do it.

 

Do you enable the downloads?
If you want to enable free song downloads, let me run this idea by you: Do you want potentials fans to download your song from your myspace site and your have no way to obtain precious contact information from that downloader (e-mail, address, etc)? I wouldn't.

If you want to offer free downloads, I would argue that you get those myspace friends to visit your official fan site to download a song, and require the the downloader give up on e-mail address at the very least to benefit from your largess. Your purpose is to build your fanbase, and if you don't have their direct contact information, such as an e-mail and/or a mailing address, then you've squandered the chance to obtain that information by enabling downloads on your myspace site. There may be others who disagree with me on this point, but I'd rather have the contact information as an exchange for a download.

If you don't have a home page or download service that enables you to obtain the downloader's contact information, then at the very least post an offer on your myspace site indicating that you will e-mail your myspace friends a free MP3 of the song in question IF they send you their e-mail address. Don't give away your goods and get absolutely nothing back for it!

 

Do you employ the song graphics option?
Again, a no-brainer. Let your fans see your song while they're hearing your song. Don't waste another opportunity to more effectively market your music. Fans want to see and hear. Get that graphic or photo up on that player, a different one for each song!! Yes, I'm scolding again, but there really is no excuse for not marketing your music properly, especially when the marketing mechanism is free.

 

Should you use the song rotation option?
Whether you push one song by making it the default song when someone lands on your myspace site or let the songs rotate depends upon your overall marketing plan. If you're pushing a song as a single, then default to that song playing when your site is opened. Build up the interest and the play numbers for the song. Tie a featured song with a free download on another site (for which they must give your contact info), build your fan base and create some press about how many friends turned into fans by signing up to get their download. Make myspace work for you. If you're not pushing a song as a single or as a free download, or you are a label that is promoting a variety of artists, then letting the songs rotate makes sense.

(Thanks to Dana Boyd, Andrew Dubber
& Matt Turner for the info)

www.myspace.com/christchurchmusic

LINKS:
See Promotion & Publicity for more myspace/website articles.