I'm sorta having an identity crisis. OK, actually... I think I've resolved the crisis part, but now I need some help. Confused yet? Let me explain what's going on.
A few months ago I participated in a blog contest. One of the areas that we had to complete was coming up with a "perfect pitch." In other words, we needed to be able to describe our sound/music within 15 seconds. This is also known as the "elevator pitch." I actually didn't have too difficult a time coming up with mine (it's the phrase on my site that starts with "Imagine a steel cage match...") but that was because I had decided in the previous section that I was going to take on this contest as "Big Blue Barry, the artist" and not "Barry French, the composer."
Fast forward to a couple of weeks back. I found out that I was one of the 1st place winners in the contest and I was going to receive a free 6 week PR campaign. And that's about the same time when my identity crisis hit...
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Showing posts with label music success in nine weeks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music success in nine weeks. Show all posts
Music Success In Nine Weeks Recap
Before I get to the heart of this post, here's a quick update of what's been going on since we last spoke :-)
While I didn't win the grand prize for the blog contest, I DID win one of the 1st place prizes - a free 6 week PR campaign! Look for that to start within the next month or so... I've been finishing up some of the "busy" work for one of my library deals, ie... paperwork and lots of stems and edits for about 25 tracks. This is a new start-up library that began about a year ago. We now have a MAJOR distributor in place and the first group of tracks will begin to hit the streets in about a month. I also signed my first deal for a vocal song with a very selective music library. The song is a co-write with my friend Joel and is going to be on the Crushing Gray album when all is said and done. I'm sure there's more stuff to update you about but it'll have to wait for the next entry. Earlier this week, I got an e-mail from Ariel Hyatt asking me if I could do a blog entry for her that basically re-capped my experience in her blog contest. She was so inspired by how the first one went that she's going to do another one. She'll be posting my blog summary on her site as a guest blog entry. Below you'll find what I sent to her. Ariel asked me to provide a summary of my experiences with her first Music Success In Nine Weeks blog challenge. It's hard to believe that it's been three months since the contest ended. Seems like it was just yesterday when I was posting my final entry. But as I look at the calender, I can clearly see that the hands of time have moved well past that point in time. I remember before I decided to take the challenge, that I was kind of sitting on the fence about it. You see, I'm not a touring artist. Haven't been in a long time. My dreams and goals at this stage are to one day be a full-time composer working with Film and TV. Hence my hesitation about taking the challenge. I wasn't sure how it would apply to me as a "stay-at-home composer." But after some great feedback from some musical colleagues, along with a gentle nudge from Ariel, I decided to take the challenge. I remember going through the first chapter and just feeling overwhelmed right at the start. Not because of the amount of work, but instead, because of the "type" of work. While my wife is probably more of the "dreamer" type personality, I'm much more of the "nuts and bolts" kind. At my day job, I spend most of my time bringing other people's "dreams" into reality by doing the actual grunt work. So when it was time for me to dream big, I really struggled. And part of the reason for that was because I was trying to walk the line between "Barry French the composer" and "Big Blue Barry the artist." I wasn't sure "who" was taking the challenge. And looking back at the goals that I set for myself, I straddled the line between the two. As the book progressed, I began to form a clearer picture of who I was as an artist. Developing our perfect pitch definitely helped solidify that "side" of me. As I'm typing this, I have a feeling I should probably read the book again, but this time, do so as "the film/TV composer" 'cause I'm sure my pitch would be different than what it currently is, which is "Imagine a steel cage match between Sevendust and Linkin Park with Joe Satriani as the referee..." in case you were wondering :-) I remember being excited when I got to chapters 3 and 4. I knew that my web site was in need of some work and this was the perfect "jump start" to help me get it taken care of. I did the re-design myself, and while I'm not a graphic designer, I was very pleased with how things turned out. And in regards to the Web 2.0 sections, I was already doing some of those things and that chapter helped to improve my efficiency. I definitely remember feeling "victorious" at the end of those chapters. The next couple of chapters, e-mail and mailing lists, were a bit of a challenge for me. And honestly, they still are. While I was in the contest, I definitely made an effort to grow my list, and it worked, as my list doubled in size in just one day. But once the contest ended, so did my attempts at growing my list :-( I do plan on attacking this one again as I did see some monetary results because of it. Simply put, if you follow her advice and stick with it, it works. The other area that I struggled with, at least initially, was the Continuum program. Of all the chapters that made me wish I was back in one of my old bands, I think this one was it. If it were 10 years ago, I would have had no problem filling up one of the charts she provided in the book. But since I'm not touring and I don't have any merchandise, I wasn't really sure what I could offer. In the end, I wanted to do something that would help my career but at the same time help others and her idea of linking up with a charity really spoke to me. I ended up deciding on donating 30% of my album proceeds for the remainder of the year to 3 different charities (10% each). It's been great trying to reflect on each of those entries that I did for the contest and remembering all the different things that were going on at the time when I wrote them. The contest was definitely worth doing. I made some new friends through the process as well as got a better definition of who I was and what my long term goals were. I'm also happy to say that one of my goals, to write and sign 50 new library tracks by the end of the year, has ALREADY been met! So if you're reading this and trying to decide on whether of not this challenge is something worth doing, let me encourage you to give it a shot. There will be areas that you'll find difficult as well as areas that come very natural. But in the end, it will really help you to get a clear definition of who you are as an artist now, where you want to be as an artist, and the tools to help you get there. Thanks again to Ariel and her crew for allowing me to be a part of the initial challenge. I thoroughly enjoyed it! - "Big Blue" Barry Blog Contest Week 9 - An Overview of Traditional PR Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joiseyshowaa/ / CC BY-SA 2.0 It's hard to believe that I'm on my last entry for Ariel Hyatt's Music Success In Nine Weeks Blog Contest. It's been quite an experience to say the least. Some of it has been easy to do, while other times it was definitely a bit challenging. But I guess you could really say that about anything in life. Blog Contest Week 8 - Creating a Continuum Program Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 When I first glanced at the title for this chapter, I immediately started having visions of intergalactic time travel and laser beams. But upon closer inspection of the book, I soon realized that it had nothing to do with the Space-Time Continuum. I gotta admit, I was a little disappointed. I thought I was going to be able to put some of my college education to use (I minored in Physics). But my disappointment went away rather quickly once I discovered that this chapter was going to help me come up with a plan to generate a stream of income that will, wait for it... continue... long after the first purchase has been made. Ariel provides a quick recap of where we should be at this point in the book as it relates to the various tips, tricks, and techniques we've been learning since starting the book. Even though I'm following the majority of every idea and principle she's mentioned, I still feel like I'm just starting out. Blog Contest Week 7 - Real Live Networking Tips
Before I get to this week's topic, here's a quick update on last week's entry. I set aside some time to go through a stack of business cards that I had acquired over the last year or so from people that I met at the TAXI Road Rally in LA to increase the size of my newsletter list. I'm happy to report that I was able to double the size of my newsletter list! Now, in full disclosure, it wasn't very large to begin with, but hey, that's what this contest is all about right? Taking the steps to build something. I haven't even tackled my "inbox" yet, or the majority of my friends and family either. So I think it's possible that with a little work, this list can break the 100 mark very soon! The next step is to actually send out a newsletter! LOL... That's my primary goal for the week.
Now on to this week's contest. Chapter 7 is entitled "Real Live Networking Tips" and though I'm not gigging out anymore, this chapter still has relevance to me. One of the concepts she mentioned was being a shark in a sea of tuna. In other words, go hang out with groups of people that are NOT doing what I'm doing. One of the things that immediately came to my mind would be film festivals. I actually went to the Nashville Film Festival last year for the first time and was able to make some contacts there. Nothing came out of them yet (other than a few email addresses I was able to collect!) but it's something that I'll be even more prepared for this year. She also gives some practical advice on things you shouldn't say as well as things you should say, and how to position yourself in the conversation. Some excellent advice that I will be implementing as I find myself in live networking situations. Which these days, don't seem to be that often. I used to spend much more time outside of the house but over the last couple of years, I've really become much more of a home-body. Wonder if it's related to the fact that I got a home studio about 2 years ago. Coincidence? I think not. That's all for this week's chapter. I'll be posting my entry for Chapter 8 very soon so be on the look out! Until next time... Blog Contest Week 6 - How To Build Your Mailing LIst This week's entry in the CyberPR Blog Contest finds us in newsletter land. Back when I was doing the band thing, I used to send out a newsletter to our email list. But since I made the switch from gigging artist to film/TV composer I just never thought about sending a newsletter. Well, that mindset is gone and I'll be sending out my first newsletter next week. I'm going to try and coordinate them around the first week of the month.In this chapter Ariel makes the comparison that the size of one's email list is directly proportionate to the size of their income. And while I can't speak about that from the perspective of someone with an email list in the tens of thousands, unfortunately, I can however verify the other end of the spectrum of that statement. But hopefully with Ariel's help (no pressure!) that's all going to change. She encourages you to set aside a scheduled time once a week of about 60-90 minutes to focus solely on building your email list. So tonight that's what I did. I think I went over the 90 minutes but I figured, what the heck, I'm already behind, time to start getting caught up! She provides you with five tips on getting more fans onto your list, such as adding friends & family, creating a location to store potential email addresses, offering a bribe, list trading with other bands, and going mobile. I decided to focus on the first three methods mentioned. For tonight, I focused on adding friends and family, as well as offering a bribe. The past two November's I've had a chance to go to the TAXI Road Rally in LA and make some great connections. In doing so, I've exchanged business cards with quite a few people. So the first thing I did was go through that stack of cards to find some potential list members. I ended up emailing 25 people tonight, using the template that Ariel provided. So far I've had 5 people respond back that I could add them. I think that's a good start! Also tonight, I went through my followers on my Twitter account and sent a direct message to the 40 most recent followers and told them that they if they signed up for my monthly newsletter, they would get a free mp3. No response on that one yet, but it's not helping matters that about an hour after I did that, the ReverbNation site went down for maintenance. Earlier in the week I started keeping a folder in my e-mail client with potential leads in it. I'm going to continue to do that and start making that a weekly habit as well. I'm going to grow this list. Oh yes! It will grow! At the end of the chapter Ariel lists 7 steps to help jump-start your email list. Let's see how many of those I did tonight!
Until next time... Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrianclarkmbbs/ / CC BY-ND 2.0
Blog Contest Week 3 - Optimizing Your Website
It's been a bit easier to focus on music this week, especially compared to the previous two. Having to go back to the day job helped re-establish a bit of routine but I'd be lying if I said that everything is back to normal. But I was able to do a better job with my Daily 5 this week, definitely better than the previous week.
Here's a quick update on the six music goals that I set for 2010 back in Week 1's post.
Week 3 - Optimizing Your Website is the shortest chapter in the book at only 3 pages in length. But those pages contain 6 steps for maximizing your web site. Some of the steps include adding your pitch to your home page, making sure your page loads in 3.5 seconds, getting rid of flash intros and adding a consistent look and feel across all of your online presence. Even though I had originally planned to have my web site re-design finished around May, after reading through this chapter I decided to move it up. Instead of writing some new tracks over the holidays, I spent some time writing code instead. I took the steps Ariel mentioned and tried to incorporate them into a new site. While I was working on this, I heard from one of my old college roommates, Nathan, who happens to have the moniker of being my #1 fan. He's been there since the very beginning when I first learned how to play guitar back in the dorm room. He truly earned the name. The reason he wrote was to give his opinion on my perfect pitch. He mentioned that my more recent material had started moving towards a keyboard-based, dirty synth lead type of sound, a la Linkin Park. And while he thought the pitch was good, he felt like if I was going to continue in that new direction, that maybe I should consider that. I was glad that he brought that up. And since he's a big fan, I had to consider what he was saying. Even though I know I still have a bit of the Foo Fighters influence in my songs, the more recent stuff doesn't reflect that as much. So I revised my perfect pitch and ran it past him and got the approval from the #1 fan. So here is the new perfect pitch: Imagine a steel cage match between Sevendust and Linkin Park with Joe Satriani as the referee... I agree with him that it's more fitting and is a better description of where I'm at now musically, as well as the direction I'm heading in. Now back to the website... I tried to implement Ariel's 6 steps in my new design. First off, I added my pitch to the site. I put it in a spot so that it's always there, no matter which page you land on, so there will be no doubt for anyone who visits the site as to what my music sounds like. The next step was making sure the page loads in under 3.5 seconds. I implemented some caching on the back end to help with this process. Another step was to not use a Flash intro. That was an easy one since I don't program in Flash :-) The fourth step was to implement a consistent look and feel throughout the net. I've partially done this in regards to my other social networking sites but I haven't completed this one yet. Mainly because I was waiting to go live with this site before taking on the other ones. But that will be one of my Daily 5 items for the upcoming week! The next step was to give away an exclusive MP3 or video or something that would entice people to sign up for your email list. So I made myself a banner ad with "FREE MP3" written on it to hopefully entice people to sign up. The final step is to make it clear to the user that once they sign up they'll be told how to get their free item, as well as make sure they know their email address will never be given out to anyone ever. To handle the first half of that step, I was able use a feature in my ReverbNation account that sends an auto-response when someone signs up for your email list so that made it easy to manage the instructions aspect. Coming up next week is the Musician's Guide to Web 2.0. Looking forward to that one as I suspect it will be a crucial step in the process of getting my music out there. But now I've got a couple last minute things to check and then I'll be publishing my new site. It should be live within an hour or so of posting this blog. Until next time... Blog Contest Week 2 - Your Perfect Pitch
As promised in my previous entry for this contest, here's an update on my progress for the goals I outlined in Week 1. It was a bit of a struggle for me with the "Daily 5" this past week. One reason was because it was Christmas, but the bigger reason was because of the situation with our cat. The short version is our cat had been declining in health over the last few weeks and this week ended up being his last. My concern was more for making him comfortable and knowing that he was loved than it was for my own goals. Next week though, I think the goals will be a good distraction to help keep my mind off of missing my little buddy.
I was able to make some progress towards the re-design of my web site. And since Week 3 is about optimizing your site, I'm actually planning on having that goal completed by then. But for now, let's get started with Week 2 - Your Perfect Pitch. The point of this chapter is to really help you maximize your online and offline branding, to create your own Unique Selling Point, to create something that will give your potential audience a context about you. I remember back a few years ago when I was trying to do the band thing, trying to explain to people what we sounded like. We said the typical "we sound like us" statements that so many artists say. We didn't want to be pigeon-holed into sounding like someone else. We didn't want people to think we sounded like other bands, we wanted them to think we sounded like us! Looking back at it, how foolish we were. Humans like context. We like reference points. We like what we know. And back to my old band for a second. People are going to think what they want to. I wonder how much more effective we could have been had we had a more clearly defined strategy in place, if we would have had our "Perfect Pitch". No point in wasting time on "what if's" at this point so moving forward... The book gives some examples of some of Ariel's client's pitches to help us get a jump start on the process. Then there was an exercise to fill out. The first part was to list out the genres that you typically play, which for me was Rock, Metal, Hard Rock, Pop-Punk and Alternative. Next was to write down all the artists that people say I sounded like. My list included the following: Sevendust, Slipknot, Foo Fighters, Breaking Benjamin, Daughtry, Nickelback, Metallica, Pantera, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. Next was to make a list of artists (and authors or famous people) that have influenced me. I pretty much stayed with just artists and the list included Sevendust, Mark Tremonti, Foo Fighters, Paul Gilbert, Dream Theater, and Joe Satriani. The next step was to come up with a list of feelings and vibes that I want my music to convey. The list consisted of the following: intense, emotional, anger, sadness, rage, joy, melancholy, powerful, epic, melodic, brutal and rhythmic The next part of the process was to go back over the first steps and choose my favorites and from there, create a few words or sentences that sum me up. I chose the following as my favorites: Sevendust, Foo Fighters, Joe Satriani, intense, powerful, melodic Now it was time to write out my pitch. And to help test it out, it was suggested we log on to http://www.15secondpitch.com. I created a profile there and walked through the wizard that the site had for creating your 15 second pitch. Another term I've heard used to describe this is the "elevator pitch." Heard that term at least a dozen or so times at the TAXI Road Rally. So after going through the wizard to create your pitch, you're then shown the pitch and given a timer so you can test it out. My first effort, which used the wizard, ended up taking me about 22 seconds to say, and it didn't feel natural. The site is geared towards businesses, and while being a musician is a business, the wizard seemed like a fill-in-the-blank kind of process. I'm sure for other people it probably worked wonders, but for me, it just didn't seem to be a good fit. But one thing it did help me realize was what NOT to do :-) I continued to use the site and edit my pitch on the profile page I created, skipping the wizard altogether. Then I would use the timer function to see how long it was taking. After a few attempts, I finally came up with something that I felt good about. Something that I felt I could stand behind. Something that was 100% me. And just what is my Perfect Pitch? Let me tell you... Imagine a steel cage match between Sevendust and The Foo Fighters with Joe Satriani as the referee. The next step was to start implementing this pitch on my online and offline branding, starting with my web site's home page, myspace page, facebook page and any other social networking sites I use. Since I'm a non-performing artist, I don't really have a lot of offline branding that I'm doing, so I don't really have anything to focus on there but I have added it to my myspace profile, facebook fan page, twitter account and my web site. Coming up for next week is Chapter 3 - Optimizing your website. The plan is for me to have my new site all finished and rolled out at the time that I post the blog for Chapter 3, probably a week from today. Actually, let's make that a definite. One week from tonight I will post the review of Chapter 3 and will go live with my updated web site. Now I gotta start planning out my Daily 5 to make sure I get it done! Until next time... Blog Contest Week 1 - Getting Mentally Prepared As I mentioned in my last entry, I've entered myself into a blogging contest for Ariel Hyatt's book Music Success In Nine Weeks. I'll be doing a total of nine entries, one for each chapter, over the next nine weeks.The first week is about "Getting Mentally Prepared." One of the things that Ariel talks about in this chapter to help get you mentally prepared is the concept of setting goals, both short term (daily) and long term (year from now, lifetime). I'll be honest. This chapter has been a bit of a challenge for me, mostly because it's forcing me to "dream" a bit. Let me explain that a bit. I joined a company called TAXI in January of 2008 with a long term goal of getting some of my music placed in film and television. Well, honestly, when I first joined, I was hoping that it would be a "short" term goal, but I quickly learned that, for the most part, the music business, especially film and TV, is a very slow moving process. Back to that goal... I spent the first year really learning the ropes so to speak. Figuring out how to improve my recording and production skills. Then this past year, all of the blood, sweat and tears that I had been putting in started to pay off. My songs started getting signed to different music libraries. I had some placements on MTV. I scored the music for part of an indie documentary film. I landed a spot as a composer for a daytime talk show. And most recently signed an exclusive deal with a publisher overseas. And while all of those things were part of my "generic" goals, none of them were things that I would have written down as specific goals (with the possible exception of MTV). Which brings me back to the book. Part of the "homework" in this book involves writing down five successes that we hope to accomplish each day, but not all of them will be music related. They can be something as simple as doing laundry to something a bit more involved like composing an orchestral piece. The key is to get in the habit of doing something positive each day and not to focus on the negative. I'm a pretty even-keeled person, so not focusing on the negative isn't really that much of a challenge for me. But one thing that I think I'll benefit from by doing "The Daily 5" will be to help me keep a bit of balance in my life. When I put my mind to something, I go for it at maximum velocity with every bit of energy that I've got. And while that can definitely be a good thing, it also means that sometimes I might neglect other aspects of my life that need tending to. When I got focused on something, I just block out any distractions that might get in the way, whether they're an actual "distraction" or not because I am focused on the end result, and I'm too stubborn (thanks Granddad!) to quit or give up. The next section of the chapter deals with setting some actual Goals, and not just strictly music related goals, but also goals for your life in general, some of which are for the upcoming year, and some are for your entire lifetime. While I won't bore you with my "Daily 5" lists, I will however, present some of my music goals for your reading enjoyment. If, for no other reason, then to have them there for accountability. So with no more adieu and no further gilding of the lily, I present you Big Blue's Six Music Goals for 2010, Edition 1:
I'll be sure to include an update on my progress when I post the entry for the next chapter. And for those of you that know me, you won't be surprised to hear that a "lifetime" goal is to have one of my tracks used during the broadcast of a Kentucky basketball game (or highlight package) on ESPN or CBS. That, quite honestly, would be a dream come true. Well, that's all for this week. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and I'll be back soon with my report on Chapter 2! Until next time, - Big Blue Music Success In Nine Weeks Blog Challenge
Earlier last week I got an email from Ariel Hyatt talking about a blogging contest that she was going to be doing in regards to her book, Music Success In Nine Weeks. I wanted to take her class at the TAXI Road Rally last month but it was up against another session that I also wanted to see so I didn't get to take it. But, as it turned out, I had a chance to meet her during one of the lunches while I was there.
When I first got the email I really wasn't sure if I wanted to do the contest or not. There were basically two reasons for my indecision. The first reason was that I'm not trying to do the traditional artist route anymore. And though I knew that the book was not strictly for the traditional artist, I still wasn't sure just how much of a benefit it would be for me. The second reason was simply this... time. By doing the contest, I knew that it would be taking up quite a bit of time. And at the moment, time is not necessarily a commodity that I have loads of currency in at the moment. And as much as I'd like to, I seem to have difficulty in maintaining an active blog. But the more I thought about it, and the more feedback I got from some friends of mine (some of which are also going to be doing it), the more I decided that it was probably an investment worth making so I got the book earlier this week and plan on starting it this weekend. Over the next several weeks I will be posting a blog entry about each chapter of the book and what I learned, what I struggled with, etc... I know it's going to be a lot of work, but I'm looking forward to the challenge! - Barry
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