House Ninja at the DIY Musician Conference

2018 CD Baby DIY Music Conference notes

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Hey everyone, I had an amazing experience at the CD Baby DIY Musican Conference in Nashville two weeks ago.  I took TONS of notes, so I thought I’d share the first day’s notes here.  If you’d like a nice clean PDF of all three days, check this out. 
  1. Tracey Max (CEO of CD baby)
    1. CD Baby aspires to be the most trusted and useful service for independent artists in the world.
    2. 20 years of CD baby. Problem 20 years ago: no access for indie musicians.
    3. Changes in the music industry
      1. Decline in physical formats. It’s taken us 20 years to get back to where we were in terms of industry revenue. CDs are not dead, however, if you’re touring or your audience demands it. Format change is inevitable.
        1. Key driver: rise of digital consumption and streaming. He predicts by 2021 downloads may be gone. Benefit: it’s costless to experiment with digital streaming. What platforms are dominating?
          1. #1 Add supported, YouTube is by far the largest. 5 billion streams per month, 78 countries, 70 languages.
          2. #2 Alibaba in China. 650 million subscribers.
          3. #3 Spotify.
      2. Proliferation of Content: easy to make content, very cheap. Low barrier to entry. Over 20,000 new songs delivered to Spotify daily, CD baby sends 3,000.  What are you doing to set yourself apart?  What’s your story?
      3. Social media is enabling artists to connect directly to fans
        1. Facebook alone has 2 billion users
      4. Music is even more global, so your competition is all over the planet.
      5. Access is no longer an issue.
    4. How is CD Baby Adapting?
      1. Publishing. Why is publishing income important?
        1. 10-15% of a song’s earning comes from here
        2. Gateway to other forms of monetization like sync licensing
          1. CD Baby has had placements with T-Mobile, etc. CD Baby is non-exclusive which only benefits you.  Ensure the platforms you sign up with are non-exclusive.
          2. YouTube: you need an administrator. CD Baby is on track to payout $8 million from YouTube streams
        3. You can’t get on platforms like Pandora or Amazon Unlimited without publishing info.
        4. CD Baby Pro: 1 million songs, $5 million to artists
        5. This is going to grow 50% over the next 5 years.
      2. Promotion
        1. co – free to you if you access via your CD Baby Dashboard, 50,000 users. Coming soon: Audience builder (stream to unlock on Spotify). Coming in October. (House Ninja note: I attended a specific session covering Show.co on Sunday, so keep reading)
        2. Hearnow: one-page website for releases.
    5. How are other artists adapting to these changes
      1. Social Media: Cavetown on YouTube. Makes stuff on YouTube from his bedroom, has 500,000 subscribers to his channel in 3 years. Great way to unlock other things.  Has made $100,000 on Spotify alone.  Build a subscriber base on Social Media and fans will stream your music elsewhere.
      2. Old school: William Clark Green on Spotify. Method: relentless Touring.  Will have performed over 120 times by the end of 2018.
  2. Ed Cage and Nicole Perez (beatboxing performance)
    1. Amazing father-daughter beatboxing duo. He was a bus driver before this!
    2. Mentor apprentice viral video beatboxing YouTube, 185 million viewers.
    3. Advice: be careful selecting lawyers. They got screwed early on.
    4. Touring Europe was tough. Figuring out taxes was very difficult following merch sales, batteries don’t fit, etc.
    5. Advice: Music is about business first. Make sure you own all of your content.
    6. Careful how many people you have behind you. It gets expensive. They have a manager and an attorney.   Also remember production and your split sheets. How many people are involved in production.  Watch those pennies, they add up.
  3. Cheryl B. Englehardt. Rock your Email List Twitter @CBE // Instagram @cbemusic
    1. Today we’ll cover:
      1. Define concrete goals for your email list
      2. Teach your fans how to be great fans
      3. Create a content plan that doesn’t overwhelm you
      4. Shift the context of email marketing
    2. Why email:
      1. 79% of emails get seen, organic reach on Facebook is only 42%
      2. Sheryl Sandberg opens her email before Facebook… it’s a place of undivided attention
      3. You get 3 seconds of subject line attention vs. less than a second on Facebook
      4. Click through rates on Facebook are .9%, in email you can get up to 30#
      5. People are 66% more likely to buy through an email than social media.
    3. She’s a jingle writer cbemusic.com, moderated a panel at SXSW on email marketing.
    4. She has everyone pull out their phones, email her for slides and notes slides@cbemusic.com Reminder: you can do this onstage! Gather your fans’ email addresses.
    5. How’s she’s used email:
      1. Used a 600-person email list to ask her fans to donate airline mileage to fund a band tour to Europe. She offered to pay transfer fees and give merch to people who donated. It worked. ¾ of the band flew free to Europe.
      2. Her email list has never been over 2k.
      3. She also fan-funded her last two records for over $20,000 using only a PayPal button on her website.
      4. Hosted house concerts, come to shows, follow changing career.
      5. They’re her heroes. She brings them along in the journey.
      6. She has email courses, videos, free guides.
        1. What we know: we need an email list.
        2. What we don’t know: what to write about in email, how to connect to a website.
        3. What we don’t know we don’t know.
      7. Key S.T.A.G.E.S of email
        1. Strategy. What do you want, and how are you going to get it.  Connected to your goals. What do you want? When they’re clear, they can help you. What do you want them to do? Stream music? Donate airline miles? Come to your concert?  Journey of email marketing is connecting your strategy to your fans through your content. The journey from them is taking them from a subscriber to an advocate. Subscriber, fan, customer, repeat customer, superfan, advocate. If you’re not moving them along this journey, you’re not using email effectively
          1. “It’s easier to be a musician today than to be a fan.” It’s our job to tell our fans how to be great fans. Funnels, campaigns, broadcasts, automation. Tell fans how you want them to interact with you. She has an email that explains which platforms she makes the most money on, and how they can sign up!
          2. Campaign: an email sequence of 3-6 emails that are triggered by something a subscriber does. Designed to move your subscriber through a journey. (Mailchimp calls it something different).
            1. She has three series. Welcome (managing expectations), Nurture (getting to know you), and Rise (selling to them).
            2. Use every single holiday to promote something!
          3. Broadcasts: real time emails sent to the emails sent to the current list, no matter where they are in the journey. She reserves Tuesdays for broadcasts, and has her funnels go on Wednesday so that no one gets two emails from her on one day.
          4. Automation: process of preparing content to be sent out automatically on a schedule based on their timing.
            1. Welcome series: 3-5 emails in 1-2 weeks. First email is a reminder that they just signed up. Give them something (free song, etc.). It’s about the gesture.  Welcome email gets the highest open rate.  Tell them what’s next.   Ask them to engage… what’s your favorite email? More on writing a perfect Welcome Email: co/welcomeemail
            2. Nurture series. Tell your story. Focus on transitions:moves, quitting jobs, breaking up, etc. Highlight songs. Why did you write this song? Did something funny happen? Behind the scenes.  Do tell them where they can go listen. Be vulnerable. Band member highlights. Invite reply shares (have you ever had this experience?)  Getting replies is really good… you’re getting validated as not-a-spammer.   10 transitions / turning points/ decisions. 10 songs that have a story. 10 profiles (places, people, etc.)  Each one is a two-paragraph email.
            3. Rise series. 4-6 emails in a shorter period of time, 2-3 weeks. Promote 1 thing. Tell them about the thing. Handle objections (tech, money, time). Celebrate if they get the thing. This is also an opportunity for an upsell.  Ideas: 5 products or services you sell for money. 5 places you’d like more engagement/followers/likes.
          5. Connecting all of it: Welcome, nurture 1, rise 1, nurture 2, rise 2. Pepper with re-engagement, holiday launches, segment series, broadcasts.
          6. Content Platforms: (Good news: easy to move from one to another)
            1. Basic: via your website platform (Wix, etc). Advantages: simple, streamlined built in, drag/drop. But: no bells and whistles, ability to automate
            2. Designated: mid-level services (Mailchimp, ConvertKit, etc.). Low cost up front, exponential costs as list grows.  Some bells and whistles, ability to automate.
            3. Advanced CRM. Expert services. Infusionsoft. Most costly. Great if you want a pro helping you.
          7. Think about coordinating your emails and social media.
          8. A note on selling. It’s not about getting your list to buy your CDs every month, it’s about creating a relationship so that when you need them, they show up and are your hero.
        2. Technology. How do you implement, tag, and organize your list?
        3. Awareness. Tell people you have a list! She tells people twice in one set.   Facebook adds can work too. Website is your hub, everything goes back here. Cross promote with other artists that are similar to you on their lists.
        4. Gathering.
        5. Engaging with fans. It’s your life, they’re fans of your life. Share.
        6. Sell.
      8. Action items: Finish your lists, choose a platform, decide who in your band is going to write how many emails, get in touch with her. Inthekey.co/emailcourse
  4. How to Tour Europe without a booking agent or label. Kristen Ford
    1. Full time artiest for 4 years, 3x tours to Europe, 1,000 shows total
    2. Touring Europe is awesome.
      1. You have immediate International cred
      2. Europe is compact so it’s easy to hit lots of country
      3. Long term opportunities to build an audience
      4. Travel making music = the real, non-tourist experience
      5. Fans aren’t as stuck on their phones. Europeans like American artists
    3. 12 months out: start planning. Do the research.  Build a spreadsheet of cities, venues, promoters, bands, and contact info. Create your route.
      1. Check comparable indie artist’s past euro dates.
      2. Look for venues that host indie international acts.
      3. Work with local promotes or label (for a one-off event). Interview bands they’ve worked with in the past. Look for some anchor gigs such as festivals that have a big budget. They may pay your travel.
      4. Reach out to your friends and personal contacts/Bandcamp. Try changing your current location on Facebook and look for friends you could stay with. Look for other similar artists on Bandcamp. Reach out and see if they want to do a show together. Look for their shows (posted from Songkick to bandcamp)
      5. Try Trip Advisor and search for “live events” or your genre and the location.
    4. 9 months out start reaching out. Perfect your pitch.
      1. For your anchor sites, reach out 12 months out.
      2. Tell them who you are, when you’re seeking a show, why they should book you. Remember Europeans do dates and times differently (military time).
      3. Turn “no” into an opportunity. Is there a different date? Do you have a secondary room? Need an opener? Find out what the real objection is and why they said no.
    5.  How?
      1. Make some skype calls (cheap calls) and be nice. Watch the time change, ensure you’re calling during business hours. If they have a specific process… follow it.
      2. Don’t expect American customer service. Depending on the culture, they may come across as cold.
      3. Get confirmations in writing.
      4. Getting multi-lingual. Google translate your pitch into desired language followed by an English version.  Enlist a helper who’s fluent.   Learn how to say, “Hello, do you speak English” and make calls. (House Ninja note: you can download language packs for offline use via the Google Translate app. Extremely handy when traveling internationally!)
      5. “Just on Holiday” approach – Passport, driver’s license, insurance (she recommends MusicPro)
      6. Pack light. Lots of venues will provide backline or rental, or borrow equipment from another band / friends. Lots of acoustic artists go this way as tourists, bring home <$10,000 in cash.  Be careful with legalities… check with your attorney / accountant.
        1. Merchandise: you can ship things ahead of time or have it printed locally. If customs asks, call it “promotional” (House Ninja Note: this sounds sketchy. I’d get some professional advice before going this route)
        2. Get an international phone plan and watch that data. (House Ninja Note: you can also download maps offline on Google Maps while on Wi-Fi. You can then use the navigation features without an international data plan.)
        3. Cash only please! It makes your life easier and Europe tends to be a much more cash-based economy.
        4. Get it for free: parking, food, drinks, lodging, etc.
    6. 3-4 months out: promote your show. Remember, you’re an international touring artist! Enthusiasm sells.  European venues may have built in crowds.
      1. Consider hiring a European PR company.
      2. Busk ahead of the show
      3. If you’re staying at AirBnB, invite the hosts and their friends.
    7. Getting around:
      1. Travel light. Careful with baggage restrictions.
      2. Plan in advance
      3. Public transit is actually good. Look for discounts (slower trains, student discounts, etc.)
      4. Leave lots of time.
      5. In a pinch, consider hitchhiking.
    8.  Lodging:
      1. You ain’t on vacation. Some venues have a room you can crash in.
      2. Couchsurfing website. Host some people locally, then you’ve got some reviews for traveling.   Use your “Spidey sense,” and recommends using the buddy system. Could also sleep in your car if you have a rental.
      3. Hostels
      4. Bookings.com – Most expensive choice.
    9.  Dining:
      1. Often more leisurely meals, be careful if you’re in a hurry.
      2. Buy food at grocery store.
      3. Tipping 20% isn’t expected most places. Check Lonelyplanet.
    10. At the gig: represent, bring it, be flexible. Bring backups and things that might be hard to find. Less banter more music (remember the language barrier). Make tipping obvious. Display and work merch. Learn some words to connect.    Download codes sell very well in Europe (CD baby makes great cards, as does Bandcamp).  Double check you’ve got everything before you leave.  Connect with the locals.
      1. Get fans and keep them listening. Mailing list, streaming, socials, etc.
    11. After the tour: post card thankyous to venues, promoters, people you crashed with. New fan online special!  Something digital that doesn’t cost to ship. Keep good accounting: what worked what didn’t? Where’d you make money?
    12. Q&A tidbits: she’s a solo act. Usually shows are shorter, 30-60-minute show. Many venues will ask for a setlist ahead of time.  For acoustic acts, they want to hear YOUR music, not covers.
      1. Q. Her favorite place? A. Someplace new. Also comments that the UK and Ireland are good places to start since they speak your language.  Germany tends to really like Americana.
      2. Q. How long should your tour be? A. Depends on the routing. Your biggest expense will be the plane ticket, so the longer you stay the better.  Getting all of your gear around tends to be the hardest part.  How are musicians compensated at small clubs? She’s been full-time since 2014 and has never had an audience bigger than 150.   If you can’t make the room fee, consider doing a 0-cover charge but percentage of the bar. Venues for minors? Look for non-conventional route. Schools, churches, etc. But Europe tends to be laxer about underage artists. Let them know when you’re reaching out.
      3. She has a book coming out: A DIY Musician’s guide to Touring and More. How to hit the road and earn a living by Kristen Ford.
  5. YouTube for Artists
    1. YouTube Overview and updates
      1. Over 70% of watch time on mobile devices
      2. Over 400 hours of vide uploaded every minute
      3. 1.9 billion logged in users
      4. 91 countries and 80 languages covering 95% of all internet traffic
      5. Stand Alone YouTube music app
      6. New look and feel for homepage. Simplicity, consistency, fan favorite: dark color
      7. YouTube Live. Use ultralow-latency for real-time streaming.
      8. Inline moderation for moderating your chat feed
      9. Six new tools for moderating your comment (pin, show love, stand out, chose moderators, block words and phrases.
      10. Playlisting (com/music)
      11. Concert tickets on YouTube: partnered with Ticketmaster on Concert listings to feature your upcoming US shows on your video watch page. Your tickets will automatically appear if you’re using Ticketmaster, and they’re expanding to other distributors.
      12. You can link your T-screen materials in cards.
      13. Community: post videos, text, pictures, gifs, polls, and more. Gives artists a place and way to connect directly with their fans – subscribed YouTube users will receive notifications reading posts.
      14. Artists on the Rise: new part of trending section. Highlights developing artists.
      15. Music in this Video. YouTube is using Content ID to expand the watchlist page credits for artists, songwriters, and rights holders.
      16. YouTube Studio Lots of analytics in the app.
      17. Monetization: Three parts of the ecosystem. Artists, fans, and advertisers.
        1. Revenue model:
          1. Ads (AVOD)
          2. Subscription (SVOD)
        2. Enabling monetization: only if you have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months.  Steps: 1. Enable account, 2 add AdSense.
        3. What influences adds? Is the language explicit? Is it appropriate for all ages? Is there violence or hateful content?
        4. Ad serving model? Is it the right time to show and add?
      18. YouTube content ID:
        1. Massive scale. More than 8,000 rightsholders use Content ID. 50 million files, 600 years of reference files.
        2. How’s it work? Partner provides original work. Digital fingerprint created, User uploads fan video, rightsholder decides what to do.
        3. Custom rules based on geography or re-use length.
      19. Why should you care?
        1. Rights management: block content and album rips, generate more viewership, promote your music.
      20. Content Strategy & Audience Development
        1. Music Channel Design.
          1. Put text on channel banner promoting your tour, album or whatever. Use Photoshop. Take advantage of real estate here. (House Ninja Note: Gimp is an opensource, free competitor to Photoshop and works quite well. There are also lots of videos on YouTube that will help you get started).
          2. Include a featured video. You can default to your most recent video. This auto-plays for non-subscribers.
          3. Have something on every “shelf”. This is where you sell your content, lie shelves on a store.
        2. Metadata:
          1. Titles should be highly searchable, with searchable terms first
          2. Include novel/unique attributes
          3. Distinguishable official, live, lyric, cover videos
          4. Include episode #s
          5. Accurately descriptive
          6. A good example for naming: Devin Dawson – “asking for a friend” (Official Music Video)
          7. Optimizing descriptions: Huge for SEO
            1. Help viewers decide what to watch and can be used to promote videos, tours, social links, album release dates and more.  Best practice:  reiterate titles, lots of links to streaming platforms, song lyrics (if a fan doesn’t remember the song title but they’ll remember the chorus, they won’t find it unless you use the words), put a bio for the artist in video description (it will help YouTube place you next to other singer/songwriters, for example).  You can put a lot of these in your default description
          8. Building playlists: create them, it keeps people coming. Refresh them periodically if they’re no longer relevant. Share the playlists on other social media platforms. Share a video playlist, not an individual video.  Helps improve your watch time.
          9. Infocards and end screens. Call to action. Help people buy merch, watch more videos, subscribe to your channel.
        3. Content Development: exploring music content formats. Lots of options besides music videos including: Collaboration, Live, Official music videos, Tutorials, Lyric videos, Covers (can generate a lot of attention.  Very searchable. Remember to think about timing. Cover songs that are pretty recent.  Cover songs you like.), Interviews, Dance, Remix, Acoustic, Behind the Scenes (BTS), Tour vlogs, Regular vlogs, Bloopers and outtakes, Teasers and samplers, Tour content (Don’t let channel go stale! Post content while you’re on the road to reduce viewership between releases, increase subscriber growth.  Tour announcements, making of, behind the scenes, tour diaries, official tribute or recap, mobile live streaming.  Gives fans that can’t attend the chance to feel like they’re there.)
          1. Create videos for certain moments of the year (holidays (e.g. Jon Foreman – I won’t let you go – Mother’s Day), seasonable programming,
          2. episodic content (include episode #). If people like Part 1, they’ll watch 2 and 3.
          3. Live streaming. Mobile live makes it very easy.   Casual mobile live streaming vs. Live streaming performance. It will live on the channel after the fact, or you can make it private.
        4. Why upload regularly?
          1. Viewership, subscription, and engagement activity is directly associated with channel activity. Vies and engagement are linked to watch time. Subscribers stop receiving notifications when there are no new publications. Fans don’t stop watching when there are no new releases. It takes time to re-activate an audience after a channel is dormant.
          2. Best practice: keep your channel “warm” between albums.
          3. Publish regularly, even when there’s not an album dropping. Pro tip: Use watchtime reports to see what content is most popular, then replicate.
          4. Best practices: aim for 1 video every 2 weeks, avoid bulk publishing
        5. Edit your music videos shelf in official artist channels (switch off auto-playlist)
        6. youtube.com useful for 44 countries. Useful for DJs.
        7. Official artist channels. Single destination. Makes it easier for fans to find your central destination. Look for the music note next to the title. Also merges viewcounts.
        8. Official Artist Channel and product updates
  6. Tom Jackson on Performing. Worked with Taylor Swift for three tours. Has a blog and email list. Tom Jackson’s Live Music Method. Performing arts schools don’t teach you to perform. DVD series. All Roads Lead to the Stage. $33/month he’ll give you the DVD set for supporting a child for 12 months via Childfund.
    1. The same problems happen to everyone.
    2. Four reasons to perform:
      1. You love music
      2. Message. You like the community
      3. You want money. For most artists, 88% of their money comes from their live show… but most artists don’t invest in this.
      4. Me.
    3. Has a book and DVD available.
    4. He has a method and a process.
      1. Spontaneity and winging it are two different things
      2. We have limitations. The stage is only so big. House concerts are even smaller.
        1. “Mastery reveals itself within limits.”
        2. If you’re building a house, the first thing you need is a plan. There’s a lot of psychology that goes into a show. Milk is put at the back of a grocery store for a reason. There’s a plan. There’s a vision.
          1. Each song has those moments that provide an emotional response, a moment. Work those moments.
          2. People come to experience moments, not listen to music.
          3. Create moments at a show and your merchandise will fly off the table. If songs make them feel something, they’ll buy it… because they want to feel that way again.
          4. Materials, tools, and skills. How do we make a solo act interesting visually?
            1. A band is like an action movie. A singer/songwriter is like a dialogue movie.
            2. Do all your songs sound the same? No… then why do they all look the same? Communication: 15% is content (the words), 30% is the passion, 55% is what they see. You’re not “married” to your audience, you’re dating.  They’re trying to decide if they like you.
          5. After the house is built, you move in
            1. Your personality makes your show unique.
            2. Radio music is formulaic. Radio is a commercial, your live show is a movie.  You are the lead character. Re-arrange your songs to work for a live audience.  React to the audience.
            3. If you’re playing 20 minutes, the idea is NOT to play as many songs as you can. Pick out the moments you want to convey.
            4. Look at the show from your audience’s perspective
      3. Ideas for a solo guitarist on stage (Erin Kinsey is the performer)
        1. What does the audience pay attention to? Guys like guitar riffs, girls like relationships on stage.
        2. You need context. The same song style over and over gets old.  Everyone on the planet likes a groove.  Do some sing-alongs, do some touchy-feely songs.
        3. Experiment with looping. He has her record and loop the harmony from center stage, then pick up a different guitar and play over the top from the left side of the stage. Has her go back center, Improvise chorus, oohs, ahs
        4. Everyone is attracted to something different in the song. Lyrics, groove, instruments.
        5. If you have trouble talking with the audience, lay a little groove and talk over that.
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