Welcome to episode 12! To start todays wonderful show we had Lee Zebedee giving you the snappy introduction. He’s our band mate who happened to be round when we were recording so we thought ‘hey, why not introduce our show’… turns out it was a mistake.
The beautiful music we had at the start of our show was from the talented Chloe Charles. Check out her song, Business, here:
![Business [Official Video] by Chloe Charles](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aaMRTNdK6dc/0.jpg)
Also, go and buy her stuff coz it’s beautiful. She’s at www.chloecharles.com.
Before we get into our extremely valuable interview with Ben Maitland-Lewis of Presskit.to, here’s some news from Steve. He is involved with an exciting project which fuses music and singing with mental health research. It’s called Tempo, and the idea is to bring music to those who suffer from these problems to gauge how it can help with the symptoms. For anyone who wants to find out more about the organisation, or indeed get involved, go to www.facebook.com/tempowellbeing to keep up. The website will be coming soon!
Chris has been working on some original music recently. For anyone who wants to have a listen, here it is. Let us know what you think and feel free to share if you like it:
Also he has been working on perfecting distortion techniques. For anyone wanting to know more about grit, growl or whatever you want to call it, go to Chris’ blog post on it.
iSing Magazine has also been released this week! Go and buy it because it’s awesome and unique… and of course we wrote an article in it, which makes it even cooler. Jokes aside, it is such a great resource for vocalists of any type. You can find it here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ising-magazine/id795789150?mt=8
The editor in chief, Line Hilton, will be with us on the next episode so join us for that.
On to Bens’ interview…
Ben is a graduate of Berkeley College of Music, a past director at SonyBMG Music Entertainment, an artist manager and the CEO of Presskit.to.
Presskit.to is a website where you can build an electronic press kit (EPK), which is the industry standard method for any artist, singer, band or actor to present themselves to possible clients.
The traits of successful people in new music
Organisation and delegation are a part of the process in being successful, but also opening up and letting people into the world you create rather than being selfish and protective over it. This includes collaboration and sharing experiences with everyone, which serves to raise everyone up in the industry.
Using social media to communicate with fans in a way that makes them feel very connected to you is another very important activity for a successful artists.
Also presenting yourself in a professional way to the business and artist management side is something that needs improvement. The communication methods between fans and management need slightly different approaches, but are often too similar.
EPKs are the new method of creating this professional approach as they create a concise portoflio of your work that is easily navigated by the reader.
There is also success in record sales when an artist considers the rest of the world and it’s music markets. The US seems to be a tough market to break but if you can then you will do very well. However, European and Far Eastern countries are examples of huge music markets that artists can look to for sales and career advancement. It’s a matter of finding out who the consumer could potentially be and how they like to consume their music, so that you place music in the right mediums.
Who should I work with?
It’s important to check out those who are offering you contracts or promises of management at a price. The credentials of such a person can obviously give a clue as to what kind of clout they have in the industry, and you’d be right to be wary if they had none to offer. Some are also riding on old fame and credentials that are long invalid but can still give the impression of them being well connected. If it seems like that person is a decent option it’s important that you have a good relationship and that they understand who you are trying to be as an artist.
However, the music industry is in such a place where the power is with the individual. The person who is in control of their own brand will ultimately prevail, and there are so many avenues of music distribution now that it’s easier to be that person. That’s why perfecting your craft, learning the business and presenting yourself well becomes even more important… no-one else will do it for you.
Brands themselves like to hook up with cool artists these days too. They like to tap into the lifestyle and relate it to their product, so there is an opportunity to work with them and gain some funding. Ben and his company got funded $30k by Magners and Shure Microphones to test their products at SXSW festival in Texas. It can be really beneficial.
Internet consumption stats
35% of the globe are connected via a laptop
93% of the globe are connect via a mobile device
78% of Europe are connected via a laptop
129% of Europe are connected via a mobile device (more than one per person)
This means that a drastically higher percentage of people, and potential clients, are viewing media and web based content through phones. So any efforts you make to present yourself to the world need to look beautiful through any device, especially a phone. Presskit.to works well with this challenge.
Per day:
2,000,000 blog posts uploaded
532,000,000 FaceBook posts
864,000 hours of video posted to YouTube
You are competing against this as an artist, so you really need to stand out amongst these numbers if you are going to make it. Be creative and unique with how you present yourself… always.
Where is the music industry headed?
Streaming will be king according to Ben. Being a part of the right channel will get you ahead of this game. Creating your own fan base and hence a set of customers who will purchase your music and support you if you connect with them well and create great music.
Collaborating will also be a goldmine. First of all though, to be nice and open to getting involved with people will be a great beginning. Helping your colleagues out here and there without expecting anything back will be remembered and help you down the line, somewhere. It’s actually a small industry, so being nice will keep you in business longer and will leave people wanting to work with you.
What about Presskit.to?
Press Kits, in their original hard copy format, have been around for a long time. When they went digital in 2002 that then became the standard way of presenting yourself. Now there’s 1000s of products out there that are badly designed or cluttered, but Presskit are breaking the mould with their clean and functional EPK.
It’s between $2-$5 per month for a fully functional account, complete with up to 3 different press kits. A press kit can include music downloads, SoundCloud integration, gig/tour schedule, spotlight media and featured video, biog and links. All this in a well-designed sleeve that can be emailed, which is easier to view and navigate than an email with a bunch of attachments and text links etc.
You can also install it into FaceBook through tabs, embed it into a website, and is compatible with laptop, ipad or any mobile device. It’s essentially a digital business card.
Kind offer from Ben!!
Ben has kindly offered a 15% lifetime discount to all podcast listeners on all Presskit.to products and services. This includes press kit monthly fees, writing services, press kit management services, logo/graphic design and consultancy.
Promo Code: nakedvocalist
If anyone would like to reach out to Ben, you can hook up with him here:
Email: ben@presskit.to
Twitter: @maitlandlewis or @presskitto
FaceBook: /presskitto
YouTube Pick
We have no idea what to say about this. Just listen to it…
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