As a musician, however, the fascination around Turntable is centered on how it's actually an amazing new tool for artists to share their work with fans, and to connect with new fans in the process.
I've been on the site since a couple weeks after it launched, and I sold music very early on simply by playing my own tracks in a room. I've gone on to run listening parties both for a local festival, and for other artists-- the latter helping to launch an album to the top-selling position on Bandcamp.
Turntable is taking off, especially as a new medium for artists to intimately share their work. In recent weeks, I've seen artists ranging from Sir Mix-A-Lot to ?uestlove, Manchester Orchestra to Ra Ra Riot run listening party rooms to great effect-- where I usually stick around to answer helpful questions about the site's inner workings.
In light of that, I wanted to throw together a few helpful tips for musicians starting out on Turntable:
1. First: the basics.
You get a Turntable account by having a friend on Facebook who has access-- it's spreading pretty quickly, so the chances of that are high. Once you're in, check out the FAQ, and this CNN article for tips on etiquette. Turntable is dead simple to use, but it doesn't hurt to get an overview first.
2. Join the community!
If you're a new user in a room on Turntable, start conversations, and engage people. Don't come in and start posting links to your music in chat without getting a feel for what people like first-- especially if you don't already have a large fan base.
3. Let people know upfront you're playing your own music.
If you're joining an existing room, people tend to be more receptive and more willing to hear you out if the music you're spinning is your own. Get a DJ seat, get comfortable, and set the stage for what you're about to play.
4. Give away free music.
Have the track you play in Turntable available as a free download, either on your website or some place like Bandcamp --preferably in exchange for an email address. When you play your song and people respond positively, mention that the song can be downloaded for free, and give them the link. If you're lucky, they'll add your songs to their Turntable playlist, and spin your music on the site when you're not around.
5. Have thick skin.
Playing your music in a Turntable room-- especially a big one-- is not like playing a gig. It's more a cross between playing a gig, and reading a page full of YouTube comments. People are more or less anonymous, so sometimes the criticism can rain down. Expect that people will be honest, and be kind and receptive in return. It will work in your favor for the people in the room who DO like your music.
6. Have listening parties.
If you already have a good-sized, receptive fan base, create a room just for your music with as many DJ seats as there are members of your band-- and then send out a message on Twitter that you're DJing in a room. Turntable is more or less instant-gratification, so you don't need to announce in advance-- and additionally, the current room cap is 200, so rooms fill up pretty quickly. I've seen rooms with Sir Mix-A-Lot or Talib Kweli get flooded to capacity within minutes from a single tweet. While this may seem bad, it kind of works in your favor-- having an intimate 200-person party with your fans lets them feel like they're insiders, and you'll be able to carry on more meaningful conversations about your music, as well as let them get to know you.
7. Play songs you're comfortable sharing online.
While it's a good idea to play new (or unreleased!) songs for your fans, be aware that currently, uploading songs to Turntable keeps the songs in the system for other users to add to their playlists. While this is a benefit-- being able to upload your own tracks that are not in the Turntable database-- be sure to only share songs you're comfortable with people playing when you're not around.
8. Check your stats.
You can keep up with how many people are playing your songs with a nifty third-party site called TTDashboard created by Alain Gilbert. For example, clicking on a song in Turntable can tell you how many points it received in which room, and who played it. Points are the currency of Turntable, given when someone clicks "Awesome" on a played song-- and a strong measure of how people are reacting to your music at any given time.
9. Have fun.
Turntable, ultimately, is about sharing music you love with people who love music. Don't just share your own work, but share songs by other artists that move you as well. It'll make for a more exciting experience for everyone, and allow people to connect with what we're all here for anyway: the music.
FOOTNOTE: I've recently discovered that you can add your own music to Turntable's native database by submitting it to Tunecore. Simply upload your album or single, and then select "MediaNet" as a vendor, and your music should be searchable within the Turntable database within a week or two!
I like life best when it's at zero or sixty: all introspection and huddled blankets and fireplaces in the middle of the woods, or motorcycles and sunrises from the wrong end and adventure and singing in alleyways.
Last weekend was nearer to sixty.
My best friend Jason and I drove down to Los Angeles in some sort of marathon endeavor last Friday, singing Banana Pancakes, eating shitty fast food and racing against the clock. We had less than forty-eight hours until we had to be back in San Francisco for an event Sunday morning.
We arrived at favorite human and wunderkind photographer Allan Amato's studio early Friday, just in time to be random hands-on-deck to help with a shoot.
The model: Andy Dick.
Mostly this involved hanging out, searching Los Angeles for random cigar props, and moving lights around when Allan said to.
I didn't really know who Andy was when I met him-- I will say he has the capability to be quite charismatic. And he seems like a man with a whirlwind of a mad life.
The next day, after a night of endless running around, Allan, Jason and I went back to the studio to build and decorate a set for the LAMP album cover.
This is the set, in a little corner of Allan's studio, built from abandoned wood planks and random ephemera. I was super proud of it:
And this is the photo Allan took, which arrived in my inbox less than two days later:
The man is fucking brilliant. (He photographed Jason's album cover too, but it's still being magic-tricked out.) Allan just finished shooting and directing a music video with our friend Tas Limur, for lovely English songstress Sonja Kristina.
(It's his first music video. I think they outdid themselves. See for yourself.)
After a sped-up rest of the weekend, I woke up Monday morning to Kevin Smith calling me an art chick.
Kevin has a new daily live podcast, called Smodcast, and launched an ad spot program that was cheap enough that I'd try giving it a shot. I actually can't stop listening to Plus One Per Diem, the podcast he does with his wife, Jen Schwalbach. Their dynamic is fascinating to me, and really fun to hear, so taking out an ad on their show seemed like a fun experiment. You can listen to the result below:
* * *
Finally: I realized something important.
I've been burning out a little on music production for Sirens (the next song on LAMP) and it occurred to me that part of the problem is I haven't written any music in ages. Lots of listening, tweaking, perfecting-- but no writing.
So I'm launching a new section of the site, called Sketchbook. It is what it sounds like. I'll throw works in progress, minute-song experiments, and random sketches in there in a sort of music-diary-pile. I'll post links to new entries on Twitter as they go up, or if you like, you can follow me on Soundcloud.
The first entry is a minute song I wrote when listening to Sirens for the thousandth time was driving me bonkers. It may turn into a real song. Maybe. You can check it out on the Sketchbook here, or just hit play below.
It's night time in the San Francisco Mission. Star St. Germain is pinned between myself and Kim Boekbinder in Kim's tiny white pickup. We have just high-fived for making the world considerably smaller, after dining on beignets and ice cream while swapping stories.
I love making the world smaller.
At dinner, Star talked to us about this amazing project she worked on that is as captivating as she made it sound, called We Are Giving Up. Two musicians, two albums, each documenting the same road trip across America from different directions. The fascinating thing, is each album can be played simultaneously with the other, and the outcome magically, serendipitously just works.
Go here to listen: We Are Giving Up.
Click the star to hear both albums at the same time. Marvel.
Also take a gander at the music video that Kim's lovely man Jim Batt is working on (with Molly Crabapple!): I Have Your Heart.
And. My friend Allan Amato, who was not at dinner, but who has coincidentally photographed Molly recently, should also be mentioned in this link-pile of art-love. He's doing a brilliant Kickstarter project based around Parkinson's, and has shot stunning photographs of Terry Gilliam, Neil Gaiman, Kevin Smith, Grant Morrison and more. Go, if only to ogle the pictures. Support, if only to get one of these pictures for your very own.
I love having such passionate, driven people in my life.
It means getting calls at midnight with someone wanting to read me a story, to see if it works.
It means photos sitting in my email, and music videos, and letters that might as well be poems, from friends scattered around the world.
It means my best friend playing me songs in his apartment at all hours of the day or night, each inching closer to being released in the world, and getting to witness them grow, like baby birds in the nest, right before they take off.
I'm infinitely grateful.
It's inspiring.
In the meantime, I am slowly working in the background on LAMP songs, and soon the floodgates will burst open.
The hardest part is the most solitary, and maybe the least publicly interesting. It involves a lot of staring at a screen that looks a lot like this, clicking, listening, clicking, and listening some more. (A friend who is a recording engineer told me recently that he describes himself as a Professional Listener.) I'm teaching myself music production, which is a longer road than I'd hope for, but I'm definitely learning a lot as I go. The songwriting is not the hard part. Recording is the hard part.
Fortunately? It's also ridiculously fun. The next song is called Sirens, and is dizzingly close to being done, with another hot on its heels.
Soon. So very soon.
(If you want to get a link to Sirens the moment it's released, as ever, join the mailing list below-- you'll be sent infrequent and awesome surprises..)
"People associate themselves very strongly with the decisions they make (even something as simple as enjoying coffee or going to bed late), but they don't realize that they would be just as happy being the opposite kind of person, and be just a much "themselves."But no, there is no risk in changing. The real risk in staying the same.I plan to be unrecognizable in 5 years. I plan to surprise everyone.You should too.Now, tell me how."
But! While it's fresh in my mind, I've been meaning to do a post on Kickstarter itself. What's Kickstarter, you ask? Well, it's the really fantastic site that lets you crowd-source fundraising for projects, and is how I funded my upcoming album. During the campaign, lots of friends and strangers wrote asking how it worked and if it was good fit for them, or how to make their current project better. I mainlined Kickstarter projects & related blog entries for four months before launching my own project, with lots of friendly help from the folks at Kickstarter itself (I'm looking at you, Cindy Au!) so I have a small country's worth of thoughts on the subject.
For the friends who asked and the strangers who might be wondering, here's a tiny map that might help you get started funding your own forays into awesomeness.
1.
FOCUS ON THE PROJECTKickstarter is excellent for launching your play, book, product, album, or whimsical Nintendo-scarf knitting project. What it's less excellent for is subsidizing general, non-specific ideas.
Bad example: "Help me pursue more art in my life!"
Good example: "Help foot the costs to build an eight-foot tall lego replica of Diagon Alley!"
Think concrete, and finite-- something with a beginning and an end goal, that you can define easily.
Take these two examples by Polly Law. In this one, Polly focuses on how she doesn't have enough time and energy to be an artist, and how she wants to be able to cover her bills for four months while she pursues her career. And in THIS one, Polly focuses instead on what she's trying to accomplish with her actual art, The Word Project. Project A = Unsuccessful. Project B = Successful, with Polly reaching 147% of her goal.
It is much easier to be able to say: "Yes, THIS project, I want to help make it exist!" as opposed to "support you as an artist, wha...? What does that mean?" The latter is amorphous, while the former gives people something concrete to attach to.
2.
REWARDS, REWARDS, REWARDSIf you're thinking about putting up a project, you also have to consider what you're giving people for their money. Each project has backer tiers from a dollar to a squillion dollars, and each should come with a reward appropriate to that level.
Kickstarter has a lot to say about this in terms of how to make your rewards fun, but personally, I think Kickstarter works best as a pre-order model-- take, for example, TikTok, a campaign to produce iPod Nano/watch conversion kits. Of the 13,512 people who chose to back the TikTok campaign, nearly all of those humans were pre-ordering a TikTok. Which is to say, they while they were funding a dream, they were also buying something they wanted.
So think about what that looks like. If you're making an album, that's easy-- you offer pre-orders for the album. If you're choreographing an interactive dance event in the middle of a zoo, maybe you make dvds of the event, or photo-books, and offer those as rewards. There should be a concrete something that people can take away that is a piece of your project. Be creative, but more importantly, find rewards that get people to feel involved in your project.
3.
GIVE PROOF OF WHAT YOU'VE DONE BEFOREYou have a project idea! Awesome! But before you put up your project about building a giant bee-powered flying machine to the moon, a few things... whatever your project is, it's best if you give proof that you've done this sort of thing before-- or something like it. (In this example, perhaps, you have a long resume of building medium-sized bee-powered flying machines.)
I've seen lots of negative feedback against Kickstarter projects that ask for money without demonstrating some background in their field. It's not always needed, but it's hard to get people to back you without seeing some of the effort you've put towards your particular expertise, especially since backers get no guarantee their money will be used towards the project itself. Kickstarter is pretty good about remaining scot-free by telling backers: any money you donate is effectively forfeited. And for that reason, backers need to be sufficiently inspired and have faith in your demonstrated abilities before they'll financially support you.
4.
GIVE PROOF OF WHAT YOU'RE DOING NOWSo you're planning a theme park in Venezuela built entirely around the adventures of sea monkeys? First of all, ridiculously awesome. Second of all, it might be a good idea to show off some of the legwork you've spent on getting this idea off the ground. Theme park blueprints. Miniature models of El SeaMonkeyLandia. Building permits, prototypes for working rides, that sort of thing.
It's best to already have some of your ducks in a row when you hit Kickstarter so people know you're serious, and so you know what you're getting into.
5.
USE VIDEOHave a video on your actual Kickstarter page. It seems in lots of cases, videos on the project page make or break a project getting funded. People want to see who you are, and very specifically they want to know in a short amount of time why they should be excited about your project. Specifics about the project are really good. Specifics about rewards that people receive from funding you are also good. Demonstrate your passion for what you're working on, and let people get excited with you.
6.
LOOK AT OTHER PROJECTSLook at successful projects on Kickstarter-- those that have made 100% of funding to those that have made 1000% of funding. Also look at the projects that have failed. Figure out what's different in the presentation from one to another that makes the successful ones successes, and the failures fail. (Some things are different from project to project, but may give you an idea as how to present your project in such a way that it'll garner more attention.)
7.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCEGenerally, Kickstarter doesn't have a built-in audience. Which is to say, if you hit the launch button on your project (in which you attempt to make toy unicorn versions of all the American presidents) it is unlikely that with no further work you'll get a ton of backers. It's POSSIBLE (I mean, toy unicorns! of presidents!) but chances are slim.
The way to look at it is this: Kickstarter operates off of your existing friend, family, and fan-base. Once you launch your project, your job is to tell everyone you know. It's those existing connections you lean on, as well as their belief in your project to share your work via word-of-mouth with their own friends.
8.
EXPERIMENTKickstarter is still a new platform, and people are coming with new and interesting ways of using it all the time. Take risks, both in how you present the project and what you use it for. A few random things I've found helpful: it helps to aim lower than what's needed for your funding goal. You'll be more likely to get the money that is donated since it's all-or-nothing funding, and people will be more excited for you for making funding so quickly, leading them to support you even more. Also? Try to start with no more than 5 or 6 backer tiers-- the more tiers you have the more potential you have to overwhelm and confuse people.
9.
DON'T GET DEJECTEDKickstarter isn't a guarantee; it's a rallying point. It is for better or worse, a testing ground for ideas. Which means some things catch people's attention and some things don't, and since it's all-or-nothing funding it's possible you won't hit your goal. That's okay. This is a way for you to flesh out your ideas and a way to determine interest. If the first try doesn't work, like they say, try, try again.
>> Download "Baby It's Cold Outside" song here.
>> Download the "Baby It's Cold Outside" Sock Puppet Activity Book here.
Vocals: Olga Nunes & Allan Amato
Music: Olga Nunes
Artwork: Laurie Pink
Master Sock Puppeteer: Liz Donnelly
Stage Hands: Becky Hurwitz, Erin Currie, Jason Seigler, Olga Nunes
Sock Puppets In Order Of Appearance:
1. Santa Claus & Mrs. Claus
2. Casablanca Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman
3. Rapunzel & Prince
4. Thriller Michael Jackson & lady friend
5. Little Red Riding Hood & Wolf
6. Jesus & Mary Magdalene
7. Lady & The Tramp
8. Penn & Teller (bee magic trick edition)
9. Sherlock Holmes + Watson
10. King Arthur & Patsy + Holy Grail
11. Edward + Bella
12. Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer
13. Luke & Leia & Obi-Wan
14. Skullcrusher Mountain Mad Scientist + Ladyfriend
15. Kirk & Spock
16. Say Anything Lloyd Dobler
17. Korben Dallas + Leeloo
18. Jean Grey & Scott Powers
19. Tom Baker Doctor Who + Leela
20. Captain Malcolm Reynolds & Inara
21. Doctor & Doctor Who & River Song
22. Buffy the Vampire Slayer + Angel
23. Frank n' Furter & Rocky
24. Super Mario & Princess Toadstool
25. Han & Chewy
26. Jesus & Mary (water into wine edition)
27. Kermit & Miss Piggy
28. Doctor Horrible + Penny
29. King Kong & Fay Ray
30. Space Invader & a little rocket
31. Batman & Catwoman
32. Harry Potter + Voldemort
33. Kirk & Spock
34. Santa Claus & Laurie Pink & Allan Amato & Olga Nunes
I've been working on a secret project for months.
It started with a dream. Literally: last July, I dreamt I met the founders of Kickstarter, and posted it on Twitter. I got a tweet response from a random someone named @shinyee_au:
shinyee_au: @olganunes subconsciously, you want to start a project :)
olganunes: Well... consciously, I want to start about five @kickstarter projects. ;) RT @shinyee_au: subconsciously, you want to start a project :)
shinyee_au: @olganunes do it, we'd love to have you!
...wait. ..."we"? I wonder. Who is "we"? I look up her profile, and see her name is Cindy Au, and she WORKS for Kickstarter.
A few hours later I received an email from Cindy, who does-- more or less-- artist research and development for Kickstarter. She'd found my website through Twitter, listened to all my music posted online, and found my contact address.
I was totally, completely floored. Not only had this woman gone through all the trouble of seeking me out, she loved what I was doing and wanted to be sure I used Kickstarter to do it.
So I decided. I'm making an album. A first-- a finished, mastered, physical release, to share with people. And I wanted to build a story around the music, to give people a way to be part of the album, and to walk through the music with me. I made a pitch video for Kickstarter explaining more about what I was going to create, and a trailer for chapter one of the story.
Watch here:
Here's the trailer on YouTube:
And here's the first single:
For days, I've been furtively sneaking glances at the Kickstarter page, watching the number zoom higher and higher at ridiculous rates. Twelve percent. Thirty-two percent. Seventy-one percent. At one in the morning last night, I was drowsily heaped in a pile on a hotel bed in New Orleans, waiting for a flight back to San Francisco, and half-asleep clicking the reload button every few minutes, watching it dance intoxicatingly closer-- ninety-seven. Ninety-eight.
...Ninety-nine...
And at 1:22AM, just over thirty-six hours after putting it up, the final donation came in from @heymister, pushing it just over 100%.
HOLY CRAP. WE DID IT!
I couldn't believe people were still awake, but text messages and tweets started flickering on my phone: CONGRATULATIONS.
But what was even more awesome, was seeing all the messages popping up on Facebook and on Twitter, from people saying they loved LAMP and wanted to see it happen. People, out there, who actually wanted this to EXIST.
That's some kind of awesome madness, right there. :D
AND THERE'S TWENTY-FIVE DAYS LEFT. Which is mind-boggling.
So.. what do we do now?
What... what if... we could DOUBLE the goal? OR TRIPLE IT!?
*hides under the bed*
It could happen. And the more that LAMP gets, the cooler and bigger the story of LAMP could become.
Here's how you can help. Check out the rewards on Kickstarter, and if you like the project, donate.
And if you REALLY like it, tell your friends. Send an email. Or click the Twitter or Facebook links below.
I'm really excited to get the chance to make this real, and I'm even more excited about being able to have so many people play with me in making this story. Thanks SO SO SO much, in general, for being awesome. Because this project? Doesn't exist without you. :)
Until about a year and a half ago, I used to run a music blog called the Fabulist. I actively pored through various outlets prowling for new music, including other blogs, radio, magazines, television, friends-- you name it. I was on the hunt.
When I stopped actively contributing to the blog, I turned my efforts elsewhere and my ravenous appetite for new music waned. And so did my up-to-the-minute awareness of where individuals hunt for new music now.
A friend of mine yesterday sent me to the HypeMachine popular list. I'm deeply familiar with the HypeMachine; I got in early on their blog lists with the Fabulist and emailed Anthony, one of the individuals at the helm, a fair bit back and forth in the beginning. The HypeMachine is a good snapshot of current popular music-- but it's a snapshot of a particular niche of music-lovers. And it's a far different snapshot than, say, the charts at Last.FM And different yet again from the charts on Spotify.
Each place you go hunting for music gives you a different overlay, a different niche audience of music-lovers. It used to be the case that most people got their music recommendations from a small number of sources: homogenized radio stations, MTV, a few major record labels.
Now, there are an infinite number of places to find channels of music distribution. Out of curiosity, I did a very informal, very unscientic survey of about twenty-seven people on Twitter, and asked: "How do you normally find out about new music? Also, if you normally find new music through blogs, what blogs do you read?"
Surprise: almost everyone named a completely different source for music discovery. There is no one place or one person.
Individuals-- either friend connections or trusted connections-- and "the internet" rank highest. But both of those categories are made up of very specific different details-- each person has a different friend they rely on, or a different trusted source. A different music blog they love or Twitter feed they follow.
Which is to say, we have all become hunters and gatherers of music.
I'm asking for selfish reasons. The back of my brain spends a lot of time whirring over music marketing: how to do it, where, what's most effective. Which mountain should you climb to the top of and what kind of bullhorn should you use?
After you have a shiny stack of hopefully good music in hand, there are an equally infinite number of marketing strategies as there are current music distribution channels. Everyone is guessing at the next move, and stacking up their chips accordingly on what is, effectively, a risky bet.
But: people are consuming more music than ever before. The music industry has gone through the equivalent of the Big Bang. And everyone has scattered to their own private corner of the universe, with their fractional piece of the music world.
What does that mean? Pay attention to everything? Pay attention to nothing, find your own corner of like-minded peers and drill down? Both? Neither?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Maybe the lesson here is to be flexible, adaptive, and not marry any one method. If most people find new music from their trusted connections and the internet-- which probably have a lot of overlap between them-- then the answer is to make good music, and trust that if you put it anywhere, then it should find its way into the hands of the people who will love it by word of mouth. Spreading your music across multiple sources just ups the chances it will get seen.
But ultimately: "The number one success-driving factor in your online exposure is NOT what station you broadcast on, but how strong your signal is." *
