Why You MUST Create Your Brand If You Want To Build A Successful Digital Career

It still makes me want to cry at night to see so many people trying to establish their online career, while missing out on the essential:

You are a brand, whether you like or not.

The question you should ask yourself:

Am I creating a bland brand that’s forgettable, or am I creating a kick-ass killer epic personal brand that shines brighter than a thousand suns ?

This is a bit of the top, but if you treat your online presence like a brand, you have maaany advantages :

 

• You have a crystal-clear vision

Most people are confused. They really are. When they start their building their online presence, they have no clue what their core message is. What do they stand for ? What’s they unique story ? If they don’t know, then the readers and clients don’t know, and that means hasta la vista digital career.

Every good brand has a mission or a story that’s worth talking about.

They know what they stand for, which makes it easy to create raving fans and kick-ass business opportunities.

• You own a grrreat digital presence

Well-created brands have a stronger presence. It’s not my opinion, it’s fact. Those peeps and companies get talked about…everywhere. Fans are spreading their message via tweets, Facebook-shares and articles.

You know how you call that ?

Free mass marketing.

Su-weet.

• You stand out from the crowd

There’s a word that every average entrepreneur fears: competition.

If you are like everyone else, you have to compete against everyone else.

And if you happen to be in a popular niche, you can imagine the nightmare you have to go through. You against the rest of the world. Well, good luck with that.

But if you are an incredible brand, you have way better chances.

You are easy recognizable. People remember you. There may be thousand others in your niche, but that doesn’t matter.They fade away by the shiny rays that emit from your unique brand.

 

• You can charge…wayyy more

I can see the dollar signs shining in your eyes already, but it’s true: cool brands can charge more. Way more.

How many internet marketers are out there that teach you how to sell more stuff online ? Thousands. How many launch coaches are out there ? Mmm, I can give you one: Dave Navarro  .

This guy is kicking digital ass on every level.

Why ? Because he built himself a killer brand, and found ways to make himself stand out in an over-crowded niche.

He has a short sharable story. His design is unique. He’s networking with influencers. He’s producing killer content flavored with a take-no-prisoner style. He’s helping people get what they want.

In short – he’s a kick-ass digital brand, which allows him to charge 250$ for a consulting hour. Nice one.

• You enjoy stellar options in dark times

Your money is super-tight, but you need either a kick-ass ebook or consulting ? Whom will you bless with your green gold  –  the cookie-cutter what’s-his/her-name-again or the maverick of his niche ?

The answer is clear like the smile of the Buddha. You go for the best branded person – the one people know and trust.

• You have access to magical opportunities

My brand is getting more popular – I get featured on lists   , make interviews and enjoy creative project offers in my inbox. That’s white magic, right there !

Now, I’m not saying that to brag (maybe a little), but to show you the epicness that happens when you spread your digital influence.

I’m still at the beginning of my journey, but I get so many opportunities every week my brain barely keeps up with it. The same can happen to YOU !

A cool brand commands more influence, and that results in people wanting to work with you. The possibilities are endless – you can get more clients, build joint ventures and/or receive job opportunities etc.

Space’s the limits here.

conclusion…heck yeah !

Seriously, I could give you a trillion more reasons why it’s essential to build your brand, but those are the major ones. Crafting your online brand is ass-kicking on every dimension.

If you haven’t start branding yourself digitally, you need to do 2 things right now:

1) Slap yourself in the face

2) Start one thing today that will spread your influence, like reading this blog ;)

What do you do for your personal brand online ? How do you spread your influence every single day ?

via marsdorian.com

 

Posted via email from TJ Chapman's Blog

B.o.B - Adidas Commercial

In case u didn't see this...B.o.B has a new Adidas commercial & endorsement deal!!

Posted via email from TJ Chapman's Blog

Getting Your Music Into Pandora by

Michael Zapruder is an award-winning musician who serves as Music Curator for Pandora , the Oakland-based internet radio service based on the Music Genome Project. As curator, he directs all aspects of music collection, curation, and cataloging for Pandora's stations. Zapruder has been with Pandora nearly since the inception of the Music Genome Project and was appointed as Pandora's music curator in 2004.

There are any number of ways to get your music on Pandora. We're always looking for new music to play for our listeners, so we watch all kinds of blogs, radio stations, show listings, charts and things like that. And while we don't automatically add everything we see in those places, when an artist reaches a certain level of visibility we like to try our best to make that music available on Pandora.

So that’s the first thing you need to know. If you are connecting with an audience or community in a strong way; if you're playing good rooms and getting attention, you will have a fine chance of getting into our collection.

We know we can't find everything, though, so for the many deserving bands that we miss for one reason or another (and for bands that are just starting out), we offer a web-based music submission process that is free and open to everyone.

Here's how it works:

1.    Register for Pandora (the submission process is connected to listener accounts, so you can use your existing account if you have one).

2.    Go to http://submitmusic.pandora.com and follow the directions for submitting.

3.    If your CD meets the requirements for submission (you have to have a valid UPC code and the record has to be for sale in the Amazon CD store), you'll be prompted to upload two songs along with any biographical or press information and any links you'd like us to know about.

4.    When we get to your submission, we listen and make a decision about whether your submission is right for us.  (This takes time, so be patient.)

5.    If you're accepted, we send you an email with a customized mailing label that you'll use to send us your record. If we pass on your record we let you know on your submission page and we encourage you to keep us posted on your future work.

Lots of people ask us about the Amazon requirements, so here's the skinny:

We use UPC codes as identifiers to display the right artist information and album art when something plays on Pandora. We want to be able to show as much information about the artists we play as we can, and UPC codes make that possible.

Requiring albums to be available in the Amazon CD store guarantees that we will have usable metadata for every album we accept, which in turn frees us up to spend our time listening to your submissions instead of entering song titles and such. It also means that interested listeners will be able to find and buy your music by clicking the Amazon link in the Pandora tuner.

You can get your music into the Amazon CD store for free using a service called CreateSpace. They press on-demand CDs for Amazon purchases. For people who have CDs for sale already, there is a vendor program that Amazon offers that charges an annual fee as well (and in case you're wondering, we don't have any financial stake in the above services).

So, what are we listening for when we get to your submission?

Well, for unknown bands the fundamental question we have to answer is: will fans of this kind of music be excited to discover this on Pandora stations?

We also consider how the submission might add to our existing collection. We may have more of a need for Black Metal, a less visible genre, than for something more common like Indie Rock (that's not to say that we close the door on any genres, but the state of our collection sometimes comes into play).

We have a few basic internal guidelines for listening to every submission.

For one thing, our reviewers never have to give a reason for accepting music, but they always have to explain their decision if they are rejecting something. This only seems fair to us.

Also, we try to keep our personal musical preferences out of the decision-making process. The fact that a reviewer may not enjoy Darkwave or East Coast Hip hop or anything else really has no place in the decision about whether our listeners would embrace that music.

We are looking for excellence. Tim, Pandora's founder, often says: "You have to earn your way into Pandora." We try to make good decisions about whether the music lives up to that high standard.

When it's all said and done, though, we know that with music and art we can't ever be 100% sure we're making the right call. We can never completely transcend our own subjectivity. Our way around that is to keep it simple: we try as hard as we can to give your music a fair hearing. We do our best to be conscientious with your work.

If we do get it wrong (and we do sometimes), we'll find out about it; and when we see your music being reviewed or appearing on a chart somewhere, or when you're playing the Fox Theater here in Oakland, we'll make sure to get it into the collection right away!

Best of luck to everyone who is considering submitting their music or has already done so, and thanks from all the reviewers here for your interest in being a part of Pandora.

via knowthemusicbiz.com

Posted via email from TJ Chapman's Blog

B.o.B invades New Zealand (Airplanes LIVE)!!!!

TJ Chapman | TJ's DJ's

www.TJsDJs.com
www.Twitter.com/TJsDJs
www.Facebook.com/TJ.Chapman
www.myspace.com/TJsDJs

Check out my artists:
-------------------------------------------------------
B.o.B aka Bobby Ray - www.BoBatl.com
Double D - www.IamDouble.com

Posted via email from TJ Chapman's Blog

B.o.B invades New Zealand (Airplanes LIVE)!!!!

TJ Chapman | TJ's DJ's

www.TJsDJs.com
www.Twitter.com/TJsDJs
www.Facebook.com/TJ.Chapman
www.myspace.com/TJsDJs

Check out my artists:
-------------------------------------------------------
B.o.B aka Bobby Ray - www.BoBatl.com
Double D - www.IamDouble.com

Posted via email from TJ Chapman's Blog

An Overview of Music Business Management

by David Rose

I’m a firm believer that the longer an artist can manage themselves the better off they will be in the long run. I wrote a blog post last year titled “Build It and The Music Biz Will Come ” I encourage artists to read before rushing out to find a music management “team” early in their career. Once an artist has done all the hard work required to build a dedicated fan base they may want to consider hiring management to help grow and manage their business. Below is an overview of some of the traditional management roles in the music business.

 Manager

Traditionally, managers have spent much of their time getting their clients signed to a record label deal then working with their client’s record labels to coordinate publicity, radio promotions and retail marketing budgets and programs. Today, the desirable skills for a manager in the music industry have changed fairly significantly. Managers need to be specialist in direct to fan relationships, social media, online marketing, licensing and sponsorships. They should be generally knowledgeable in ways artists can be successful with and without a record label.

 Managers should handle all the artist’s personnel issues with the band and crew members and work with the rest of their management team including the attorney, booking agent, business manager and tour manager as needed.

Managers are typically paid 15% to 20% of the artist’s gross earnings. That means they get paid their percentage on all the artist’s earnings including, royalties, publishing, touring, merchandise, or sponsorships before the artist gets paid. Some managers have multi-year contracts (that can be quite complicated) with the artists they represent and some just work on a handshake.

Attorney

Given the uniqueness and complexities of recording contracts, management agreements, publishing deals, sponsorship or licensing agreements and the various other music business related agreements attorneys can play a critical role in protecting the interests of the artists they represent. The most important thing to look for in an attorney is experience in the music business. Just because someone has a law degree (even from a top school) does not qualify them to adequately represent artists in the music business.

A good attorney with experience in the music business can keep you from making contractual mistakes they have seen that have happen to other artists. Attorneys usually charge by the hour or by retainer (a set monthly fee) and in the music business it’s fairly common for them to charge well established artists a percentage of gross earnings, 5% is typical. 

Business Manager

A business manager is the person or firm that collects monies owned to the artist from royalties, publishing, touring and merchandise sales, pays the bills, band and crew, invests the profits and files the tax returns. They handle the artist’s general accounting related needs, royalty collection & auditing and tour budgeting & reporting. Many good business managers are either CPA’s or employ CPA’s on their staff due to the complexities of the music business accounting and the challenges of dealing with multiple state and international tax jurisdictions that come into play when an artist is on tour. They also handle all financial aspects of the artist’s personal life including insurance, loans, mortgages, investments and estate planning.

 Business managers typically charge 5% of the artists gross earnings in the music business but some an hourly rate or flat monthly fee. 

 Booking Agent

Booking Agents play an important role in the success of the artists they represent by planning and booking their tours with promoters and venues. They will make sure you are playing in venues that are known for your genre of music or booked as an opening act for bigger band. Booking agents negotiate the fee structure (guarantee,  % of the door, meals, etc.), determine ticket prices and ticket availability in the market. Thoughtful route planning is critical to the financial success of a tour and a good booking agent should make sure you are not playing in Atlanta one night, Chicago the following night and Jacksonville the next.  Route planning can be a challenge for even a seasoned booking agent due to the large number of competing tours and the limited availability of quality venues in highly desirable markets.

Booking agents typically collect a 50% deposit on the show guarantee from the promoter once the show is booked. They usually charge 10% of the money the band gets paid for the show for their services. For example if the booking agent negotiates a $2000 guarantee for a show, they would collect a $1000 deposit, keep $200 (10% of $2000) then send the band $800. The band or their manager / road manager would collect the balance ($1000 in this example) from the promoter or venue after the show. 

Tour Manager

The Tour Manager handles all the details of life on the road for the artist during a tour. They will arrange transportation, hotels and meals for each stop, make sure the equipment is accounted for and maintained plus manage the crew. The tour manager makes sure the venue has the stage, sound and lighting set up as requested and that the band is paid per the terms arranged with the booking agent. They manage and safeguard the cash collected while on the road. The Tour Manager will work with the tour publicist to make sure the artist shows up on time for scheduled interviews, appearances and promotions in each market. It’s the tour manager who puts out all the inevitable fires that come up at each stop during the tour.

The tour manager is also responsible for maintaining the tour plan and budget set up by the manager, business manager and booking agent. They are typically paid a salary, per diem or a set amount per tour.

via knowthemusicbiz.com

 

Posted via email from TJ Chapman's Blog