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pghboemike said: "resources for businesses to start using social media to build communities
https://www.google.com/search?q=beginner...media+marketing" Wow! Thanks Mike! Exactly what I need! I found a free PDF on the topic for starters, with links to as much information as I might ever want!
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Not knowing much about today's web design, wouldn't it be possible to develop a downloadable app for members to record their gig on their own pc during the the performance. The information is on their pc anyway I guess. That way they could upload it to a youtube channel later. Assuming that copyright rules are observed. Just about any screen capture program that can handle audio and video at the same time would do the trick. But my son discovered a new technology that might enable us to make this happen automatically, so we'll have to see if that can be implemented without violating any rules. If so, that would be a desirable service to make available to customers
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I will wish you success in getting the site set up and a growing participant involvement which should be quite rewarding for all your effort.
Carry on.... Thanks... I really appreciate your encouragement.. and this isn't the first time! You've offered many a kind word before, and there is absolutely no way a value can be placed on that... encouragement is priceless... you're a good man
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How in the world did you get kicked off that "other site"??? still scratching my head over that one Kevin... I was totally blind-sided I am taking an "other site" break this month as I am too involved with FAWM. FAWM is taking all of my listening and creating time up. I don't know how those of you who participate in FAWM do it! I bow to anybody who can generate that many ideas and resolve them into finished songs in a short month! I hope you are kickin' butt this year... you are one accomplished song writer in my book! I like the "other site", but I would be happy to try anything out that you create. I understand completely! I like the other site too! I'd never have left if it were MY choice... but I greatly appreciate your willingness to participate in my project. I hope we can make it worth the while of everyone who helps. Keeping recorded videos of the sets and allowing users to download them would be great. You could delete all recordings after 24 hours, so your hard drives don't get all filled up! these are interesting ideas, well worth consideration. Most of your songs are originals, so I can easily see that happening.
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I don't have any idea whether this could work or not; I doubt the other guy is anywhere close to making any money on it but I could be wrong. I have only dropped by there a few times, never sat through a whole song and never paid anything.
You are right that we have to find a new paradigm but personally I cannot see me ever paying a cover charge to watch something on the interwebs! Just too many other things to choose from. I think you'd be wise to include the tipping method as it seems to be something folks could get into while already engaged with a show.
Also, you should probably focus initially on gaining popularity and then you could potentially earn your revenue from ads or sponsors or premium memberships, etc.
If you are serious about it you should consider launching a Kickstarter campaign and see if you can get enough funding to launch (or at least cover your costs for the first few months!)
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I will be happy to participate, but my cat is really sad that he will not be getting top billing. He likes to be paid in cat nip! Rob, my son and I will really appreciate any help you can give us in getting started! I'll be trying to figure out a way to reward the charter members... Actually I don't have a cat, I did once but after climbing the curtains the second time it tried him with some wild rice and gravy! lol! You ain't right!
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I don't have any idea whether this could work or not; I doubt the other guy is anywhere close to making any money on it but I could be wrong. I have only dropped by there a few times, never sat through a whole song and never paid anything.
He is making money. Lots of people DO buy tokens and tip. The performers themselves tend to support one another, and then there those performers who advertise and they have a whole fan club show up to cheer and tip. If activity is reasonably high, you can sell ads. etc etc You are right that we have to find a new paradigm but personally I cannot see me ever paying a cover charge to watch something on the interwebs! Just too many other things to choose from. I hear you... I think the same way... but we are a dying breed. Young people are more inclined to stream content than to leave their homes. And whereas they probably wouldn't pay a cover charge to hear ME, there are performers they WOULD pay to see. We're not talking Eagles ticket prices, BTW... A performer would need to know what he could get away with asking and still get takers. There is at least one site using this paradigm, and they have snagged a bunch of well-known artists. Check out STAGEIT.COM I think you'd be wise to include the tipping method as it seems to be something folks could get into while already engaged with a show. we definitely will include a away to tip. People warm up to tipping fairly quickly. Also, you should probably focus initially on gaining popularity and then you could potentially earn your revenue from ads or sponsors or premium memberships, etc. I like the way you think! If you are serious about it you should consider launching a Kickstarter campaign and see if you can get enough funding to launch (or at least cover your costs for the first few months!) Hmmm.. good point... I'll have to look into that.. thanks for the idea!
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Hi Pat. I am very excited for you and your son on this new venture. I definitely think this type of thing is the way to go with music now. People are getting used to paying for music differently now. (Now that they can listen for almost ANYTHING for free on Youtube). They can even capture the audio for free if they are computer savvy. But I don’t think they are going to bother downloading music much anymore. It is such a pain to back it up and worry about what music is on what device. I think people are going to start tipping and “sponsoring” artists more than buying music. (How sponsoring works I am not entirely sure).
BTW I am very excited to be upgrading my internet connection today! I was getting a paltry 0.6 Mbps and now I’ll be up to 10! So those who view my shows on the other site should start seeing an improvement in the performance.
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We wish you much success with your new site, Pat.
Regards,
Bob
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Hi Pat. I am very excited for you and your son on this new venture. Thank you Josie! I definitely think this type of thing is the way to go with music now. there are definitely many timely applications for interactive streaming, which I will talk more about in another post! People are getting used to paying for music differently now. I agree! and there will always be a market for music.. we crave it... the million dollar question is "which presentation works TODAY?" BTW I am very excited to be upgrading my internet connection today! I was getting a paltry 0.6 Mbps and now I’ll be up to 10! So those who view my shows on the other site should start seeing an improvement in the performance.
AWESOME! I can't wait to hear how well it works on BITCONCERT.COM!
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We wish you much success with your new site, Pat.
Regards,
Bob Thanks, Bob! Likewise, I wish success to all the people who see value in interactive streaming and find ways to use it to further their musical endeavors! I hope you give us the opportunity to advertise you on facebook, broadcast you on bitconcert.com and archive you an youtube... none of which would cost you anything! In fact, you'd almost certainly earn money by promoting yourself!
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More ways interactive streaming can be useful to musicians:
Lots of musicians make money giving music lessons. They are limited in the number of lessons they can provide by
1) time (only so many hours in a day)
2) distance (only so many local students)
Interactive streaming could also be used for music lessons, because the students could watch and ask questions. Two-way streaming is also possible, so you could also watch the student to see if he/she is using good technique, and offer corrective advice.
This could be accomplished by setting up a session with a "cover charge" (which would actually be the price of the lesson)
Depending on the type of lesson, you could in some cases host multiple students in the same session
You could also expand your territory, being able to offer lessons to grandchildren living in another state, or fans in another country.
think
outside
the
box
there
are
many
possibilities
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(FrankB AKA SEEKER) said: "I would advise you to setup a YouTube Channel also named BitConcert." DONE! Thanks Frank! (but until there are some videos posted, searching for that channel yields the message "no such channel") And while I was at it, there is now a Facebook page for BitConcert too! (Also no content) Pat, Just FYI . . . I'd start posting on the FB page at once, i.e. if nothing else to tell people what's coming. Later,
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We wish you much success with your new site, Pat.
Regards,
Bob Thanks, Bob! Likewise, I wish success to all the people who see value in interactive streaming and find ways to use it to further their musical endeavors! I hope you give us the opportunity to advertise you on facebook, broadcast you on bitconcert.com and archive you an youtube... none of which would cost you anything! In fact, you'd almost certainly earn money by promoting yourself! Thanks for the invite Pat, but we've got bookings that will keep us busy for a while. We will definitely tune in when you're up and running. Regards, Bob
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Pat,
A key point to consider . . . while the site and premise is built around the performer, don't overlook the importance of the "civilian" viewers. As without them your performers will be looking elsewhere to play in short time. Make no mistake about it, whether they say so or not, they are in it for "the money".
Case in point I don't care "personally" about the tips as I give every cent from my tips to charity, but don't think for a minute I don't want "every tip I can get for my charity".
I say this because what I am seeing is largely disproportionate number of performers to just regular viewers. Add to this, 90% of the tipping comes from about 10% of the performers and you will get my point. Simply put there are more takers than givers, and the numbers continue to skew in that direction, now where have I seen that before, but I digress.
Don't sweat getting performers, if you build it they will come. And if they can make a few bucks they will stay! The key is getting enough non-performing audience members on board who will support your performers, that is where the marketing should be directed.
I have noticed many performers who try to make their living off of the tips, so they are online 5-6 times a day picking up what they can. IMHO this is bad for a couple of reasons, the first being they do their best to steal other performers audiences, and it also makes a mockery out of the scheduling process. Also many of them "never" tip anyone else, heck they can't afford it as in some cases they are trying to pay their food bill from the tips.
Bottom-line the tipping pool is only so big in any venue so if you keep adding people who want tips and not adding tippers the wall is not very far away.
IMHO they key to long term success with a venue like this is continued growth within the non-performing members.
Just some thoughts from personal observation and a little sales and marketing background experience.
Later ma friend,
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IMHO they key to long term success with a venue like this is continued growth within the non-performing members.
Wise words from a respected friend! I agree 100% ! Its really only the viewers who show up with cash for tokens, because the musicians get the whole package for free That's where the social media comes in. Since most people are on one or more social sites, if the musicians join our page, the ads will go to all their friends... plus they can invite them personally. When you consider the way FB content gets propagated to anybody who's linked to anybody who's linked to anybody, the potential for making viewers aware starts to grow exponentially Also the exposure from youtube won't hurt. I spent the day looking at software that will make all of these presentations (bitconcert, youtube and facebook) look polished and professional and not just like the usual FB and youtube blurbs. The goal is to make our channel provide some eye candy to go with the main course. A key player is BIAB, which is the best rapid development- royalty free platform for generating unique and exciting musical content for ads!
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Thanks for the invite Pat, but we've got bookings that will keep us busy for a while. We will definitely tune in when you're up and running. true, you are one of the real pros here on the forum, Bob... but plug this into your thinking: all of your live gigs are before fairly local audiences... at least within driving distance. My goal is to develop a truly global audience for bitconcert.com You are not only a performer, you are also a song writer. People are far more inclined to buy CDs at the artists concert than they are to buy in any other way. Our site will be setup to allow viewers to buy the performing artist's CDs and MP3s from a pop-up window without ever having to leave your concert. (Strike while the iron is hot and the enthusiasm is high! ) Or not. Each person gets to decide for him/herself whether interactive streaming plus free marketing is useful
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regarding Danny's VERY insightful observation about growing the audience while letting the musicians come because they see money changing hands....
I'm about to retire. Growing this site will become my full-time job after retirement.
When my son and I started researching the feasibility of sites like this, we googled and found a few (but not many, considering the overwhelming potential) similar sites.
We noticed right away that about half of them were dead. No activity for months. Yet others were dynamic, active and growing.
The difference is that the dynamic sites all had somebody working the paradigm every single day. I will be doing that... mostly because it is in MY best interest to draw new money to the site.
And the musicians who are using the service for free and earning money in the process will benefit as a result.
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HI Pat. I agree whole heartedly with what DanncyC is saying. The key will be to draw the non-performers into the audience and Facebook and Youtube are a way to do this. There is one guy who does very well on the other site who already has a huge following from the 1000 plus youtube videos he has made. He goes on the nameless site and the audience (non-performers) flock to his concert and boy do they tip!
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Pat, much success to you and your son! I guess you've figured out how you're going to stay busy upon retirement.
A couple of thoughts. I think each performer will need a profile, if nothing else as a place to put links to their SoundCloud, Soundclick, CD Baby, Facebook, YouTube and ectera accounts. There also needs to be a way to e-mail the performer for requests, etc.
Forums are important. I think two forum groups with one for communication between performers (for advice, collaboration and support) and a seperate forum for audience. Both forums should be able to access you.
Audience mailing list to update on site improvements and new performaces.
Finally, there needs to be a way for casual audience members to look for unknown performers they may like. I can think of two ways: audience ratings and classing every performance by music genre and sub-genre. The issue is who does the performance classification. For instance what I call beach music you may call as oldies or classic rock.
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