Ba Rock Obama Fundraiser in Greenpoint NYC

A few weeks ago, my band AM, played this fundraiser for Barack Obama’s campaign. It was basically a hipster neighborhood event in Williamsburg/Greenpoint in NYC where they got a bunch of bars together to host a bunch of indie bands. One ticket got you a bracelet that allowed you to go to any bar that was hosting this thing and see all the music that was being made. It was called Ba-Rock Brooklyn.

So, it was pretty cool to meet all the bands there that night, and to my surprise (since I am a pessimist when it comes to people showing up at shows), there were a lot of people out that night and everyone raised $2500 for Barack. Not bad for a neighborhood thing.

I realized that part of the success of these kinds of nights is the “Music scene” aspect of it all. It works better to ask your audience to go to an event where they will be able to hear lots of different musics than just hear your band. So, the draw is “Come see a night of local indie music”, rather than “Come see my band”. A slightly different Continue Reading

Steps

Setting up a network is fast and easy.  Figuring out which features make sense for you, and moving or linking to any other content you have on the web, might take a while but is something you can do in phases and complete over time.  Here’s what to do:

1. Go to Ning.com and choose a name for your network, probably just your band’s name or your name.
2. Sign up for an account — you’ll use this login for when you make changes or want to make more social networks for your other projects.
3. Describe your network, add a tagline, keywords, etc.  Make the network public so that anyone can join and they don’t need an invite.  (You wouldn’t be that snobby

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When you make and share music you are creating a community. It may be a big audience at a show, or a small group of friends blasting your tunes in the high school parking lot. In collecting an audience you are often bringing together people who have more in common then just an appreciation for your art, like the way they dress or the other music they listen to.

The promise behind Social Networking on the web is that it allows people to parallel   what goes on in “Meatspace” in virtual form. Ning.com is a site that helps your fans    connect with each other and keep up with your artistic endeavors.

Overview

Ning makes it super simple to create and customize a brand new social network. It allows you to go beyond the simple profile that the Facebooks and MySpaces of the world allow. Your fans can even create groups within your Continue Reading

Google maps is the best!

As it gets harder and harder to tour for a small act, with gas prices and lodging and every other thing you need to go on tour costing all kinds of money, people are finding alternative ways to go on tour. People use myspace and facebook to connect with their fans and crash at peoples’ places. A few years ago, the band that I was playing in booked small tours where we rented a van and booked some bigger shows that paid some money, and then used that money to stay in motels and peoples’ houses. The amount of telephone planning and mapping and logistics took a good chunk of time and energy. One of the things that I’ve recently discovered, and maybe because I’m not as computer literate as my partner Craig, is using Google Maps to map and plan tours. You can create a customized map to mark Continue Reading