youbloomConnect: First Step Towards a Successful Gig!

22-Mar-2019 By Anthony Flowers

Whether you’re a solo vocalist, a DJ or in a band, the music industry is a tough place to work in and there’s a lot of people trying to “make it”, just like you. How tough is it exactly? It’s actually pretty simple, let us do the math.

Revenue is usually not shared!

Approximately 75% of all revenues in the music industry go to the top few hundred artists recognized as household names and are controlled by major record labels. 20% of the revenue goes to approximately 750,000 actively gigging professional artists and only 5% of all revenue goes to roughly 10 million+ emerging artists. This is where youbloom steps in.

Sign up, right now!

By signing up with youbloomConnect, you become a part of The Global Music Village, a community of artists, fans, and hosts. People who love live music and who are here to help you grow your fan base and increase your live performances locally and beyond! Getting requested by your fans and playing a youbloomConnect gig can open doors to multiple opportunities. If you get approved by our A&R panel, our shows will lead you to more fans, landing more gigs, more tours, and increased ticket and merch sales!

Perform more, share more, grow your fan base!

We want you to share your gift of music and perform as much as possible! Most importantly, we want you to take your share of the revenue by doing what you love! That’s the dream, isn’t it? So don’t wait any longer and take the next step today! Sign up with youbloomConnect today and let our team handle everything you need for a successful gig!

Cheers to live music!

If you enjoy this blog about music and want to know more about youbloomConnect be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. As always thank you for reading and being part of “The Global Music Village.” – youbloom: The Global Music Village

youbloomConnect: Share the Gift of Music

05-Mar-2019 By Anthony Flowers

youbloomConnect: the new way to experience live independent music

Everyone has that something special inside of them. Something to give to the world; so give the gift that can be taken anywhere. A gift that will fit in any suitcase or in the palm of your hands. You can enjoy it with a glass of wine after dinner or while hiking with the dogs. That gift is music; and it’s so much fun to share. You can share local music with a friend, colleague, or somebody you love. When you share local independent music; you are also sharing your dreams, passions, and life experiences with others. Let us paint the picture for you. In a few words, youbloom will show you fans, artists, and hosts, a few ways to get in on all the fun!

What is youbloomConnect?

youbloom, the parent company of youbloomConnect, is a global cooperative movement centered around bringing music lovers unforgettable musical experiences at affordable prices in cities around the world! youbloom definitely has humble beginnings, notably starting out as an online song competition in 2010. Over the years, having produced nine signature music festivals in two countries with 100’s of musicians, youbloom would like to introduce youbloomConnect.

youbloomConnect is: unforgettable, uninterrupted, live music experiences in a city near you!

To the creators, artists, and performers, it is a platform to empower the independent music community to share their gift through live music performances and build up the independent music community around the world.

Perform:

How many people reading this can play the guitar or sing beautiful melodies?

First and foremost, artists – we highly encourage you to share your gift with the world to help in creating what we call “The Global Music Village.” The more people who hear the stories you write about your dreams, passions, and life experiences – the more you get to perform. Check us out and sign-up to become one of the first performers with youbloomConnect in your city!

(If you’re ready to sign-up now? Click here!)

Request:

Where would music be without the fan?

Fans, let us tell you something. You are so important in creating and sustaining “The Global Music Village”. The artists you love and will soon discover are asking for your time and attention.

During a youbloomConnect™ show, artists will be pouring out their dreams, passions, and life experiences just for you! We simply ask you to sit back amongst friends and neighbors, (in most cases) bring your own snacks and beverages, and enjoy the music.

Fans: we also want to share another secret with all of you. The more you request your favorite bands and artists, the more likely you will see them performing their music live in your city. Join youbloomConnect as a fan and start requesting the performers you want to see and music you want to hear! Find out about the live music gigs in your city before anyone else.

(Fans: are you ready to sign-up & start requesting your favorite independent acts at this point? Click here!)

Host:

Wanna have a concert in your living room?

If you are still reading, it is safe to say you probably really love live music and finding the next concert near you.

Have you ever dreamt of hosting a live concert in your own space? Well, no worries. With youbloomConnect we can make that dream come true!

Become a Host and find out how to use your space to bring other music loving fans together to experience an unforgettable live music experience in your city, the youbloomConnect way. If you have enough space for the artists and fans; you can bring your neighbors and friends together to have a live music concert in your very own backyard, garden, office courtyard, coffee shop, art gallery…you get the point! youbloomConnect has a CityRep near you ready to facilitate everything and curate a truly unforgettable live music experience. If you are interested in becoming a host in your city, submit the information we need to get you in touch with the CityRep for your city!

(c’mon is it even a question? Sign-up to become a host now!)

Cheers to live music!

How to Promote Your Music on YouTube – And Keep your Subscribers (2018)

21-Jul-2018 By Robert Loustaunau

Promoting your Music on YouTube

Promoting your Music on YouTube isn’t exactly revolutionary. In recent years, the content-sharing platform has beefed up its incentives for creatives looking to grow a subscriber-base and monetize their music. For the DIY musician, the challenge is rising above that seemingly infinite noise of YouTube content and its pesky algorithms. Here we’ll outline how to make your channel a hub of unstoppable, watchable content that the algorithm’s just can’t keep at bay.

Put Your Best-Flick Forward.

Nick Aslam – youbloomDublin Music Festival 2018

Have your best or newest music playing at the start of the page or readily clickable. A majority of viewers decide whether or not they’re going to subscribe to a channel in the first 30 seconds of scanning the page. If they’ve ended up on your page then that’s already a great start for you. But now you need to hook them. Have your newest release or most popular upload playing automatically as they enter your channel. That, or have a welcome video that immediately makes the page personable between you and the viewer.

Clear Call-To-Action

You don’t want it to be hard for your viewer to find more of what they like. At the start and end of videos, as well as throughout your profile, make your call-to-action easy to see, and simple to click. The Backlink channel with Brian Dean has a really useful tutorial that explain the “In and Outs” of creating an effective call-to-action as well as tips on all aspects of YouTube strategy. A call-to-action can be links to your other social media, website or BandCamp album. Also, end your videos with explicit calls-to-action for viewers to leave a comment. Anything that will provoke further engagement among viewers is key.

Keep it Consistent

Choosing a day and time of the week to consistently upload content will more likely gain you a consistent fan base. Followers are more reliable if they can rely on you to stick to an upload schedule.

You’ve most likely spent a lot of time developing your band or music to fit a certain style. You want the feelings fans associate with that style to transfer over into your YouTube page. Work on developing your page to mirror your music. This could mean creating a layout with video thumbnails and color schemes that match that of your album artwork.

No Returns Without Tags

The tags you choose to represent your videos with will be your first line of attack in ranking among the ocean of YouTube videos. You want to cast a wide net but you also want to be casting it in the right place. Tags are the primary source that YouTube algorithm’s use to place your video.

Peco – youbloomDublin Music Festival 2018

Your first tag should match the keyword you have chosen to represent your video and should also be included in the video title. If the video in question is your “Music Vlog at the Hollywood Bowl,” than an appropriate first keyword might be “Hollywood Bowl or “Music Vlog.” For your next view tags, use variations of that keyword. Perhaps “Gig Vlog,” “Vlog,” or “Hollywood Music.” For your final few tags, use general terms that encapsulate the big picture of your video: “live music” or “LA music scene.”

Another way to get your tags working for you is by using the same ones as other popular videos that are similar to your’s. Websites like TubeBuddy and vidIQ allow you to quickly check the tags of high ranking videos allowing you to slap on the same tags for a chance to show up beside them in a search.

Keep it Short Lengthy

This isn’t Twitter folks. 140 characters isn’t excessive. In fact, research has shown that writing longer descriptions for your videos actually helps your ranking. 100-200 word descriptions seems to be the sweet spot here. This is because the more specific you are, the more YouTube bots have to work with when sorting you for organic searches.

By the same logic, longer videos, usually 8-15 minutes long, rank better. Just by making longer content you are quickly increasing the chances that your video will get more watch time. So if you’re wondering how to turn that 3 and a half minute music video you’re premiering into ideal-length content, get creative. Add bonus content to the ends of your music videos; a behind-the-scenes feature or heartfelt message from you and your band to your followers serves two purposes. It gets that run-time up closer to the sweet spot and it humanizes you and your content, giving fans a connection to you and your band that would otherwise be lost in cut-and-dry music video.

Co-Market

Image-1 (2) — The Burma – youbloomDublin Music Festival 2018

Many YouTubers rely on one another to promote their own channels. Teaming up with other artists, collaborating, or guest appearing in each others’ videos is mutually beneficial when both parties exchange niches of fans and followers. Websites like youbloomConnect make this co-marketing simple by matching you with compatible artists that suit your style and are based nearby. This makes collaboration seamless and if you end up finding a good match, youbloomConnect will even help you to set up gigs with the other artists. Check out our Connect Guide to learn more about everything youbloomConnect can do for artists.

Make this Space a Home

Finally, you want your channel to be more than a glorified playlist; that’s what SoundCloud is for. YouTube is the perfect platform to show your followers the minds behind the music and to establish a personal connection with subscribers. Feeling a relationship with a YouTuber promises a much higher return rate of loyal viewers between uploads. This can’t be done with a music video alone. Create band interviews, behind-the-scenes gig vlogs, or an informational video. And don’t forget to end each video with some specific call out to your viewers: “Leave a comment about your favorite part of that gig, what band we should collaborate with next,” etc.

Stay tuned or subscribe to the weekly youbloom Newsletter for our follow up article on promoting your music on YouTube. In our following post we’ll be getting into the nitty-gritty of perfecting your SEO score and how exactly you can beat the algorithm.

Knowing the If, When, and How of Hiring a Manager

18-Jul-2018 By Josey Dunbar

Knowing when hiring a manager (and whether or not to hire one at all) is right, can be a tough call for artists…

When deciding what’s right for your band, it’s important not only to weigh the obvious pros and cons, but also to consider the methods of attracting and choosing the best manager for your individual group of artists.

Step One: Consider the Pros of Hiring a Manager

1) Experience

Managers can provide outside knowledge of the music industry for your band. Whether you’re an up-and-coming group or have years of experience preforming, hiring a manager will provide knowledge that can prove to be essential when dealing with hosts, venues and sponsors.

2) Third Party Ear

In addition to providing knowledge of the industry, managers can also serve as a third party perspective when disputes arise within the band. Having an unbiased opinion can help to resolve budding conflicts between artists.

3) Concentrate Vision

Hiring a good manager can also be a perfect way to narrow in on a brand for your band and develop a solid vision for your group’s future.

Step Two: Consider the Cons of Hiring a Manager

1) Money

Managers aren’t free nor are they cheap. If your band is going to end up losing money or barely breaking even by hiring a manager- maybe consider holding off for the time being.

2) Loss of Artistic Freedom

It’s no secret that a band loses the total control they started with when they decide to hire a manger. Though releasing some control may prove to be beneficial for the musician’s future, you must decide if the end goal is worth it.

At the end of the day, hiring a manager is an investment that only you can deem worth the expense and risk.

But the important decision-making doesn’t end there; after deciding if a manager is the right move for your band, it’s time to decide how to attract and choose the right one.

Step Three: Attracting a Manager

After deciding to find a manager for your band, you’ll learn the first step in finding the right one is to not look. No you did not read that sentence wrong—don’t go looking for a manager; the right manager will come looking for you.

With that said, there are certainly methods of speeding up the process.

1) Growing Your Fanbase

The more buzz there is around your band, the more managers will know who you are and where to find you. To learn more about growing your fanbase check out “How To Hook the Super-Fans.”

After you attract managers who embody the same vision you have for your group, don’t be afraid to give them some control while still maintaining your own individuality, of course.

Maintaining some control of your own booking and touring can be made easy for those who choose to hire a manager and those who fly solo through youbloomConnect. Learn more at youbloom.com

How to Hook the Super-Fan

07-Jul-2018 By Josey Dunbar

Contrary to popular belief, a super-fan is not always a crazed group of followers or a die-hard groupie. All brands have super-fans. They’re a key component in building and sustaining a successful career by enagaging a solid fanbase.

The question then becomes: what classifies as a brand and how do you build one that attracts enough super fans.

The term super-fan refers to an individual who supports a brand and everything that brand produces. Artists depend on super-fans as a bedrock of support. When on tour, a band can trust that their super-fans will show up, buy merch, and be tweeting about the show long after it’s over. When band’s establish a healthy base of super-fans, they are establishing a continuous body of support that can last throughout their careers.

From Starbucks to your local coffee shop that plays nothing but bluegrass, all brands attract super-fans. This comes down to the fact that people are drawn to originality. Every brand needs its own niche to attract a sustaining number of super-fans.

Who will your super-fans be?

Before a company, artist or individual can successfully attract, engage, and retain super-fans they must have a well-established brand. At the end of the day, there are billions of different people in the world with trillions of different interests; this means every brand who successfully markets a clear and individual niche has a high likelihood of attracting super-fans.

Building a brand comes down to three things: intended audience, clarity of product, and quality of service.

Whether you’re trying to market your sound or attract a wider demographic of ticket-buyers, your brand begins with your unique offerings and intended audience. Detecting what sets you apart is the quickest way to identify the basis for your brand.

After establishing a solid brand with individualized characteristics that will attract super-fans, the task becomes maintaining engagement from those fans. This maintained loyalty is often seen when artists create personal relationships with fans and release a steady flow of their branded product (shows, recorded music, etc.).

In addition to establishing these bonds, the branded product must retain its super-fan as the brand grows.

Joining a community with inter-industry connections can make a huge difference too. Today, a lot of artists are finding security in artist networks, like youbloomConnect, which help bands grow their fanbase and develop their brand through artist-partnering and co-marketing tactics. Definitely check out our guide to how youbloomConnect works if you want to learn more about our strategy.

Ultimately, developing a brand comes down to originality. Pursuing what sets you apart and working to maintain relations with super-fans as your brand-base expands will ensure your success in the future marketing of your music.