WELCOME TO FLUX RESEARCH: CLYDE WRITES
WELCOME TO FLUX RESEARCH: CLYDE WRITES
Hitler gets invited to South By Southwest
If you have yet to be introduced to the phenomenon of YouTube rewirings of the above scene from Downfall, here's one excellent example.
I had been planning a piece for Hypebot on Unofficial Marketing at SXSW and was reminded it was about time to do so by the above video created by comedian Duncan Trussell in response to being asked to perform for free and pay his own travel expenses.
Though SXSW has its pluses, it's not what it used to be for indie artists trying to get some attention. Each artist has to decide for him or herself what actions are worthwhile but, if I was on the move as a musician, I'd be going unofficially and taking the guerrilla route to fame.
Though I don't state this in the post, I think of SXSW Unofficial as the name for an alternative festival taking place within and beyond the confines of SXSW.
Hypebot: Unofficial Music Marketing at SXSW
I recently relaunched a project from back in my ProHipHop days called Music Biz Blogs.
It features a selection of mixed RSS/Atom feeds from 50+ music industry blogs plus a search engine to search those blogs.
It also has a sidebar featuring tweets from my Music Biz Linkmasters list plus a Flickr strip that displays the most recent Flickr pics tagged either musicindustry or musicbusiness. I switch between the two searches when one gets slow.
You can subscribe to the Music Business Blogstream via an RSS feed or by daily email. I tried to set up a Twitter account as well but it's just not working due to issues with the feeds.
When I created it a number of years ago, many of these tools were new and I was experimenting with lightweight information sites for the web. Most of them never really took off beyond a certain core audience but now that I'm writing for Hypebot, I thought it would be worth reviving.
Amy Winehouse - Love Is A Losing Game (Live at SXSW 2007)
Truly beautiful rendition of this song.
Just letting people know that I'm again posting at All World Dance where I write about dance for a popular audience across genres including cool videos and pics.
All World Dance has been my most successful indie project in 2011 so it's high time I dug back in!
All this talk of shopping that comes with the holiday season reminds me that I shop when I want, where I want for reasons of my own.
But I did try to participate in a positive way to Record Store Day one time and it was a first and last for me for both Record Store Day and for writing for Yahoo's Associated Content:
Johnny Cash - Hurt
I would never have expected Johnny Cash to cover a song by Trent Reznor and I guess we can thank Rick Rubin for this. Quite powerful.
Nine Inch Nails - Hurt
Trent Reznor, performing with various lineups as Nine Inch Nails (NIN), is a truly amazing performer and songwriter. If you are unfamiliar with his work, the above live performance of Hurt will give you a sense of why Johnny surprised me with his cover.
Often when writing about publishing and mobile opportunities, bloggers like myself will refer to stats regarding how much of a particular population has smartphones or tablets in order to make a case for developing mobile versions of one's website or services. But it's much more important to focus on the population of potential customers, since not everyone is going to be interested in your publication or service, and even more important to focus on your current customers, given the frequently high cost of customer acquisition.
Recently trade publication Packaging World conducted a survey and found that 46% of their subscribers owned a tablet, such as the iPad or an Android tablet, and 78% said they planned to own one by next spring.
Of the 46% who are current owners, "74% said they read work-related digital magazines on the devices. At the same time, 55% said they accessed work- or industry-related websites with their tablets."
I'm not familiar with the mobile solutions employed by Packaging World but, given that many customers with tablets, I'd certainly want my website to have a nice tablet version to keep those customers engaged and to let them know my company was keeping their needs as subscribers in mind.
Beyond the issue of specific mobile devices, this news brief is a strong reminder of the need to survey one's customers on a periodic basis.
Sometimes they'll surprise you!
I've been posting periodically at This Business of Blogging and here are some recent posts:
How Blogging Helped Save The Roxy
Industry Blogging Your Way Out of Unemployment
A View From The Cave Blogger on How Blogging Helped Build His Career
Food Blogging as a Business: Will Write For Food, Nourished Kitchen,
The Amateur Gourmet
Bon appetit!
The Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats
Good Morning, World!
Legitmix Empowers Artists
Legitmix: Make Money From Mixes Without Clearances
(And It Might Even Be Legal)
Legitmix "allows you to create legal, monetizable mixes that include copyrighted work without getting clearances."
Tracks.by Facebook App Spreads Love For Lil Wayne, Trey Songz & Soon
All Indie Musicians
Tracks.by is a "new service for content distribution and social media marketing created by Matt Schlicht and Mazy Kazerooni" currently incarnated as a Facebook app.
88tc88 Helps Indie Artists Get 'Big in China'
88tc88 is a "Berlin-based music startup that helps outsiders distribute and sell music in China online, via mobile and in physical forms though they appear to have most fully developed mobile opportunities."
The Tour Trail Combines Gig Calendar & Ticket Sales
The Tour Trail is a "recently launched service for musicians offering a combined calendar of upcoming dates with ticket sales where applicable."
Rock City Club's Social Music Net Off To Slow Start
Rock City Club is a "social music network" that seems headed for the "death pool."
Related Flux Research Coverage:
Flux Research: Music Startups
Clyde Smith Writing at Hypebot
Flux Research is a Freelance
Writing Hub for Clyde Smith.
Clyde can be contacted via:
LinkedIn ~ Twitter ~ Facebook
clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com
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