I am now in week 3 of the Music Success in 9 weeks programme.
Week 3 is about Optimising your website.
Last week Love Live Music defined Part 1 of their social media pitch as:
"Helping musicians make money from social media".
Love Live music helps artists to build their social media with the aim of increasing traffic flow to the website, building a fan base by growing an email list and creating two way communication with the fans through interactive sites such as Myspace, Twitter and Facebook. One of the values we have is "to earn money while you sleep". I like this value and unsurprisingly so do the artists that work with Love live Music. All the time we keep asking the question will this make money for the artist and promote their music to the fans?
This week I am going to look at what we have done with Love Live Music artist Marc JB - and how we have optimised his website.
Marc JB's Pitch:
Music Producer, Remixer, DJ and multi instrumentalist, creator of Sainted Records & one half of Bimbo Jones
Marc has had over 47 number ones in the US and UK Dance charts. He has remixed and co-written with many artists including Kylie, Pink, Britney, The Killers, LadyGaga, Kellis, Sergio Mendes, Christina Aguilera to name drop but a few AND with his own band - Bimbo Jones - a #1 in the USA with a dance track called "And I try" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZz7InUVBD8&ob=av2e
Marc JB wanted to increase his on line presence and be able to drive more traffic to his website and increase sales through itunes. Marc came to Love Live Music and asked if we could help him establish an online presence and help increase revenues through his music.
Initially we ran an audit of his online presence, his google rating and significant references to his work and downloads. We set some goals of where he wanted to be and what he wanted his fan experience to be.
Using the Music Success in 9 weeks model of optimising your website, we followed through the 6 sure fire ways to catch and hold on to your fan base.
1. Adding the Pitch to the homepage: We added this to his website, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.
Marc JB's current pitch is:
Music Producer, Remixer, DJ and multi instrumentalist, creator of Sainted Records & one half of Bimbo Jones
2 Got the website to load in less than 3.5 seconds
3. Ensure no flash intro on the website
Recent studies show that website users have the attention span of a gnat, if they have to wait more than 3.5 seconds for a site to load, they move to another site. With Marc's main website, we decided to have music playing straight away and which ever track we were trying to promote that week, enabled to start playing immediately.
www.MarcJB.com
Marc's website was quite complex and very dark so we simplified everything, made the predominant colour white which has been proven to be the best colour for fans to read, navigate and feel comfortable with. This article by Web design tuts states:
White space allows for easier scanning of a website. It reduces the amount of text visitors see all at once and makes reading much easier. It allows for the visual separation of design elements without adding any new elements such as visible lines or boxes. It is clean, looks professional when used correctly, and gives a site an uncluttered and fresh feel. White space is sadly one of the most underrated elements of a strong web design. Just because it isn’t shiny or glossy doesn’t mean it isn’t important or essential to a website.
Marc's site is simple but you get to instantly hear his music, and don't have to wait for any Flash intros to load. You can can easily view his twitter feed of his most up to date news and click through to his Facebook, Myspace and YouTube channel with ease to listen to his music.
Check it out: www.MarcJB.com.
4. Ensuring a consistent Marc JB Brand "look and feel" all over the net.
Working with a stylist and photographer, we worked on Marc's look and style and these images can be seen on his Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Website, YouTube Channel and press shots.
Marc has a consistent look across all media platforms.
It is sometimes quite difficult to develop your own image from a visual perspective so either splash some cash and get some help from some professionals or enlist your friends and family (if you dare) to give you advice, dress you and get some great photos of your new look for all your sites. We get new designers to sponsor new artists and promoters of new make-up and styling to come and help on our shoots and always reference them on the album artwork.
Love Live Music works with some of the best creative types to create unique images and styling.
Max Ellis, Digital illustrator and Photographer extraordinaire has spent many years creating images for new artists and developing images for their online presence. Have a look at one of Max's photographic Blogs of Images of Musicians - this portfolio includes art work used for album covers and for PR purposes:
Marc JB and Lee Dagger by Max Ellis - the amazing duo that make up the Bimbo Jones remix team - a simple and fun image of Max and Lee.
Max is also an excellent live music photographer and these images are great for your website when you want to show what you get up to when you gig live:
Please give us a call in the Love Live Music office or email us if you would like help and advice with your image and would like some professional images created to match and enhance sales of your music.
We will give you a fifteen minute consultation for FREE and point you in the right direction.
Please email us in the London office with FREE IMAGE CONSULTATION in the subject header.
Email: info@lovelivemusic.co.uk
5. Give away an exclusive Free MP3 to satisfy your Fan's needs to have your music playing from their music media desk top unit.
Fans love free stuff - actually we all love free stuff! Marc wrote a song specifically to entice fans to come and follow his MarcJB world. We advertised on his website and Myspace that we were giving away a free tune in exchange for the fan email address. An exclusive download widget was created on the Reverbnation website which then was installed on Marc's website, Facebook and Myspace and advertised though Twitter. Fans get a free download in exchange for their email address. This has helped grow the fan base, double Myspace fans and increase followers on all of MarcJB's social media sites - so a very effective form of PR and fan base growth.
Here is the Reverbnation link - http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/5777810
6. Make it clear and set them at ease
Fans aren't stupid and it is important not to send spam or sell on email addresses. Fans need to know they are safe with you and that you have their best interests at heart.
Creation of Social media channels is a two way conversation and in the same way you look after your real time in the flesh relationships, fans must be respected and their needs met, they must be listened to and you must make all income streams available from music, merchandise and downloads.
We hope you have enjoyed hearing a bit about our client Marc JB. Apart from being a super talented musician, studio producer, remixer and DJ, he is a lovely human being and that comes across in his music. So to finish off here is a humorous video that Marc made describing a normal day in his studio.
Go and check him out and let me know what you think.
Sally J Freeman
Love Live Music.
Marc JB's Social Media Channels:
www.MarcJB.com
www.twitter.com/marcJB
www.myspace.com/MarcJB
www.Facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001023293580
www.Youtube.com/MarcJBtvwww.bimbojones.com
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