dot W

No, I don’t mean do you have your music on a ‘Pay what you want’ option on a music hosting website.
The question I think should really be ‘Is my music available for free and how easy is it for people to get?’

All of this has been on my mind for a while and after reading numerous blogs and tweets from artists with ‘Pay what you want’ I have been finally tempted to put it in writing after reading ‘Give it away, now?’ by Nick Tann
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1140545540379794849&postID=1903958461655214011

I understand the independent artists wanting to make their music available to as many people as they can via a ‘Pay what you want’ option, but I really do question if it’s a good idea in the way that is currently being used.
I can’t help it……….it’s how my head works!

The reality is that if you have tracks on your own website, music hosting websites or sites like ‘Jango’ or ‘Spotify’ the tracks can easily be captured, saved or recorded using various free software applications.
Depending on the website the music is hosted on and how the website is set up, if you know how to look around the internal folder systems of your computer, some of the music may just be sitting there waiting for you to look for it already after you’ve listened to it.

Ok, there are is possibly going to be quality differences between the ‘captured’ audio and the purchased options, which does give an argument for having the better quality paid for audio files as long as you can back this up on your website with the technical data.

I have yet to see any type of survey that asks how the audience listens to music, I’ve searched if they exist they don’t make themselves easy to find!
Without the knowledge of how an audience ‘hears’ the end product, it’s hard to know if they can tell the difference of different quality mps or other audio file formats.

You see, the way I look at things is that if the large part of the audience listens to the music through small laptop speakers then they will probably be happy with 128 kbps mp3s that are easily saved and captured from any website that ‘streams’ music.
Why would they bother to sign up to a mailing list when they just want to listen to a couple of tracks when it is so much easier to downlaod and install some free software and hit the ‘record’ button as they wander around the internet!.

Ok, I apologise for this not being very 'artist' friendly, but I am on your side.
Most artists like the idea of having a big mailing list regardless of how relevant the number of true fans it contains. We also live in a world with everything based upon statistics and knowing how many downloads for a track, free or paid, is far better then knowing how many ‘plays’ that might also include an unknown number of ‘captures’ or ‘records’.
Some people think that a 128 kbps mp3 sounds great on an ipod, others think a 320 kbps mp sounds rubbish on an ipod.
Personal experience tells me that when I listen to streamed music on my laptop speakers, plug the laptop audio into my stereo system or my home cinema sound system, it will sound different each time, although it is always the same quality signal.
I’ve got over 35 years of working in audio/media production so my ears are ‘tuned in’ and I can’t always tell the difference of different file formats and bitrates.

I know it may not be such a big deal to most people, but if independent artists gave away 128 kbps mps and sold 256 kbps* then maybe they could sell a few more tracks.

It’s just about making your audience aware that there ‘is’ a difference in the quality and not just saying ‘Have it free or pay if you want to!’

It will always be personal choice based upon the listeners experience and preferences, but it might just give an extra ‘edge’ in the reason for the purchased option.

*We don’t need 320kbps http://www.mp3-tech.org/tests/gb/index.html

It’s been a while since my last bit of blogginess and as always, the more I learn, the more I question.

Having spent a large part of the last month looking at online and offline marketing and promotion for my various projects, it is all now slowly falling into place.

I initially thought that I’d need to bring in some help for the online side of the marketing, but after talking to a few ‘online marketing professionals’ it was obvious to me that all they were concerned about is the number one position on search engine results and mainly concentrated on Google.

I know Google is important, but looking at my web logs it’s obvious that there is more than one functioning search engine out there, so I don’t subscribe to an ‘all eggs in one basket’ approach to search engine optimisation.

Anyway, before I was ready to hand over any cash for SEO tweaking, I decided to check the search engine positions of my web projects first.

The results were a pleasant surprise.

All of my main web projects hold number one slots on all of the main search engines, Google, Bing and Yahoo, for various phrases. So I wasn’t sure what a SEO specialist could offer that I can’t do myself. I can fine-tune the websites for other keywords myself, but I’m beginning to wonder if it’s worth it?

The point being that the SEO specialists will tell you how important it is to be at the top of search engine results, which I agree with in theory. The reality is that if potential customers or visitors to your website aren’t using the keywords and phrases that your website has the top slot for, you won’t be at the top of their searches!

It really is that simple.

So the problem for anyone with a website trying to get more visitors, is to get people wanting what you have to offer, so that they search for your ‘brand’ name or at least search for your ‘speciality’.

Having number one slots on the search engines alone isn’t bringing in the traffic to my websites as much as I could hope it would, purely because people aren’t using the search terms to find them. I can’t change what the websites are and they occupy the top positions for the correct keywords.

I always intended to have offline promotion for my main projects, this has now started and although it’s early days, it is showing signs that it will be successful. Actually more successful than the online promotion.

This all makes me wonder about and doubt the successes of purely online marketing. I know it has worked for some websites if you can get enough people talking about you or what you do, but for the majority of us that isn’t likely to happen.

With so many online businesses out there fighting for the traffic, I’m sure people tend to switch off from online promotional activity unless they are in need of what you have to offer at that particular moment.

As my offline promotional activity kicks into gear over the coming weeks and months, it’ll be interesting to see how things chnage.

I’ve recently been working on a couple of web projects that have brought this age-old question to my attention again.
Like many web developments and new businesses, if an idea relies equally on clients and customers, how do you get one before the other, when they both need to be there at the same time for the project to be a success?

Although both projects use the same basic idea of ‘word clouds’ they are both aimed at very different markets, which also means my marketing and promotional skills are being stretched as I attempt to get the projects out in front of their potential audiences and end users.

For some people, maybe the use of ‘word clouds’ in the way I’m using them is too far from the ‘norm’ for people to accept, but I’ve never been one to do things as others expect and do we really want every online directory and advertising portal to be identical?
People know how a telephone directory looks, they know what to expect from most online business directories, but at www.lecksy.com it’s different!
We don’t have ‘Premium’ listing to get d to the top of the page.
We don’t have pages of listings for visitors to hunt through.
We consider ‘local’ to mean ‘local’ not a 200 mile radius.
We don’t let you have free listing and then charge you to upgrade so your ad actually is useful to you.
We DO have a demo that allows 30 DAYS FREE advertising for your business, service or product.
We only charge £1 per year for each ad/word/tag or whatever you want to call it in any region.
So for less than a cup of coffee you can advertise your business in your local area. All ads are displayed randomly, everyone gets to be at the top, that’s why we don’t have ‘Premium’ listings and you can update your ad as many times as you like throughout the year.
You can use different ‘tag words’ to direct visitors to different sections or pages of your website, see what works best for you, a great economical way to find out what works for your future advertising strategy.

The other project is www.bandcloud.net aimed at independent music. A lot of the ads can be placed for free, artists can add links to websites, downloadable files, podcast websites, anything that has it’s own url!
When I’m wearing my Somojo hat, many of the artists talk about the need for affordable promotion. ‘Free’ is about affordable as it gets and with ‘Bandcloud’ being promoted on www.lecksy.com, www.nordiclecksy.com and in future editions of Somojo Magazine, it should give the artists who use Bandcloud a boost in the right direction.
Although, as I write this, the pages are still very empty.

So, for the next few weeks I have my work cut out searching for those chickens and eggs and see if I can bring any home to roost!

(Maybe I should put some information up on both websites about the benefits of back links for search engine results and page ranking, but I always assume people who have websites understand all this already.)

That’s a question that rolls around in my head almost every day at the moment.
I’m planning a major redesign to the website, adding some features and taking some away. The problem is I don’t know what stays and what goes.

The original idea for Somojo was a web radio station for independent and unsigned artists, the good ones, not just any old rubbish that can easily be found on sites like ‘Reverbnation’ and ‘Soundclick’. You will find decent music on those sites too, but it isn’t all good. For some reason as soon as people start paying to be on a website, they think it qualifies their work as being good.
I’m sure the same can be said about Somojo, I’m slowly working my through all the ‘tracks’ in the system and deleting the music that doesn’t meet the required standards.
The problem with approving the tracks now, is that people don’t like it when their music isn’t accepted. At times I feel like a judge on ‘X-factor’ when a contestant is rejected and they say ‘but my mum says I can sing’
There really is more people out there who don’t know the difference between good and bad music than there should be. Is this because of the music they hear daily on commercial radio or because tv shows like ‘X-factor’ give everyone the idea they can all be successful?
I don’t know, but it makes things a little harder for me.

Since I started Somojo, I’ve always seen it as an ongoing project for the artists and bands to mould into something that they want and can use. This hasn’t happened yet and I don’t see it happening.
So, with very little feedback from people about what is good, bad or indifferent. What can be done, changed or added that will be beneficial to them. I have a project that is basically becoming a glorified personal play list.
I don’t see anything wrong with that. I can be a lot tougher with the music selection and be more pro-active with support and promotion for some of the artists with some of my other projects.

With the re-design now on the drawing board, now is your time to have your say on how you think Somojo can develop, grow and what it can offer to the artists.
I’m aware that I may not get any response, that’s fine. Some times people don’t like to get involved even when it is possibly for their benefit.
But in a few months time if I decide that the time and money that goes into keeping this project going isn’t worth it anymore, don’t be surprised if Somojo morphs into something completely different that you totally hate and then wish for the old version back again!

For a while now, something has been ‘bugging’ me with all the stuff I’ve read on the internet about online marketing and promotion. I haven’t been able to put my finger on exactly what was missing.
I know the people who write the articles are either trying to help or sell their own product, but there was something more that I wasn’t seeing.
It hit me late last night while I was working on ‘auto pilot’ setting up a ton of MySql databases for a large project I’m currently working on.

In all of the articles that I’ve read, there is an assumption that because you are reading it on the internet, you are ‘savvy’ enough to use social networking, understand the ins and outs of Twitter and have the time and desire to learn the required skills.
You could question why would anyone want to read about internet marketing if they don’t understand the technology and how to use it, but that isn’t the point. There are loads of people and small businesses out there who would love to use the internet as a marketing tool, but don’t know how to.
I have friends who can send emails, they also have websites to promote their work, but know next to nothing about using the social networks to their advantage.
There also seems to be the assumption that ‘one size fits all’ which can never be true in any marketing or promotional campaign.
We all ‘want’ different things and ‘expect’ different results. These two can often be so far apart it’s unreal.
Unless we are realistic in what we are capable of with our abilities, no matter how much online marketing we do, we could be very disappointed with the end results.