So you want to be the next Justin Bieber, Adele or Psy, but you’re not sure what things new musicians should be doing on the internet to promote yourself? Have no fear, you can do better and get discovered from the comfort of your bedroom.
It’s such an exciting time to be a musician. You can write and publish your song to a global audience without a record company. You have all the tools you need to push your music out there.
Will you or your band be at youbloomDublin 2017? If you’re a musician, there is no better place to be in Ireland from June 1 to 5 than Dublin City Centre for this year’s youbloomDublin. With hundreds of local and international bands and artists performing music in every genre imaginable as well as music industry professions speaking on panels where they will be taking questions from independent musicians, the benefits of applying to play youbloomDublin 2017 are many.
Here are 5 reasons why you or your band should apply to perform at youbloomDublin 2017.
Be sure to fill out your application early! This year’s youbloomDublin has already received a record-breaking number of applicants and we anticipate more than twice as many as last year. What are you waiting for?! Apply to perform at youbloomDublin 2017 here.
Want a taste of the youbloom experience? Take a peek at all of the photos, videos, interviews and more coverage from this past youbloomLA 2016 here.
Need more reasons to apply to perform at youbloomDublin 2017? Subscribe to the youbloom newsletter and you’ll get valuable music industry insights delivered directly to your inbox each week. When you subscribe to the youbloom newsletter, you’ll also be the first to discover who will appear at youbloom.
When is youbloomDublin 2017? The 5th annual youbloomDublin Music Festival & Summit takes place June 1-5 in Ireland’s gorgeous Dublin City Centre.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – August 22, 2016
youbloomLA Music Summit and Festival enters its third year showcasing local and international bands and music industry speakers.
September 29, 30, and October 1st across Los Angeles.
Los Angeles, CA: youbloom, an annual international music festival and conference, expands its reach for youbloomLA 2016 to include Downtown LA, Northeast LA, and Culver City.
Now in its third year, youbloomLA 2016 is excited to announce its bands and speakers. “No”, and “Mars and the Massacre” are two of the musical highlights this year. The conference organizers have managed to maintain the level of intimacy and integrity expected from a youbloom conference while growing their reach considerably. The panelists are top notch and the areas of expertise covered have widened, and youbloom will be presenting special sessions on live and touring, music licensing, digital marketing, and a special panel on “Women in Music”. Music conferences are often underrepresented on the Westside, and youbloomLA is thrilled to partner with Hamilton High School for the Arts for the conference segment and with Musicians Institute with a number of its artists showcasing.
This year’s keynote speakers are Liz Garo, talent buyer/event producer at Spaceland Productions (The Echo, Echoplex, Regent Theater and more) and Darrell Brown, songwriter, arranger with worldwide music sales of over 72 million units. There will be over 40 speakers from all areas of the industry, including Loretta Munoz (ASCAP), Brad Rains (Atlantic), Les Borsai (Gridhub), Kevin Day (SkyRocket), and Jeremy Hammond (Western Front).
The youbloom A&R Team has also curated over 80 bands from 6 countries as well as the US, including, Brazil, UK, Sweden and Ireland and includes genres such as hip hop, rock, reggae, folk, bluegrass, pop, Mediterranean and more. Full list http://www.youbloom.com/ybla-2016/
A truly signature aspect of youbloom is the community it develops; their generosity and understanding of artists’ essential needs and comfort is paramount. To that end, the local LA bands will be adopting and hosting acts from farther afield. These ambassadors include Evol Walks, The Blue Dolphins, The Vigils and Turning Violet, along with about 25 more fabulous discoveries and hometown treasures.
The conference will be held Friday and Saturday, September 30/October 1 at Hamilton High School for the Arts (Culver City adjacent) from 11am to 6pm. Tickets are on sale now as follows: Delegate price $100 ($75 students with ID) with access to all of conference and gigs.
All 3 nights gig wristband $30. Otherwise buy tickets at door, $7 Old Towne Pub, Five Star Bar and The Lexington. Free entry to La Cuevita and Griffins of Kinsale.
Available online at http://tinyurl.com/jmarwar and at the door. At last, the music! On Thursday September 29th, and Friday September 30th and Saturday October 1st to wee hours of the morning, music lovers and discoverers can find it all at five locations: Griffins of Kinsale; La Cuevita; The Old Towne Pub; The Lexington Bar; and Five Star Bar. Cover charges range from free to $7. See ALL Artists
About youbloom: Learn. Connect. Play. That’s the youbloom motto; the creed for this community of music enthusiasts whose mission it is to help artists build a sustainable living. youbloom was founded in Ireland by doctor, musician, Phil Harrington and nurtured by visionaries like Bob Geldof and Nigel Grainge. What started as a modest online song contest in 2010 surged into an annual Music Festival and Conference in both Dublin and Los Angeles, bringing nearly 100 bands from a dozen countries to each event.
For more information contact Phil Harrington philh@youbloom.com
website http://www.youbloom.com/ybla-2016/
Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/youbloom
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/youbloom
Instagram.com/officialyoubloom
YouTube youbloomTV
The old music industry models have splintered and shattered in different directions and platforms. Beyoncé just released a visual album that was announced via a HBO TV special. Drake streamed Views From The Six exclusively on Apple Music. Kanye West continues to tinker away on The Life Of Pablo after its been released. Adele doesn’t tour if she can help it. Taylor Swift still refuses to stream her hit album 1989 on Spotify.
That level of impact and control is reserved for the megastars, those who are lucky to have established themselves and have an audience listening – the 1 per cent? Everyone else is still figuring out how they can make their art their life’s work. Those people are the focus of Youbloom, a conference and music festival taking place in Dublin next month.
“Seventy-five per cent of the revenues of the music business go to the superstars – which numbers maybe the low hundreds worldwide,” says Phil Harrington, the CEO of Youbloom. “So it’s not the 1 per cent, it’s the .0001 per cent of artists that earn the most. The rest take the crumbs, not even, the crumb off the table. It’s very unbalanced.”
The new DIY and the old industry
Youbloom’s aim is to help those crumb-earning independent musicians succeed on their own terms by to empower them with knowledge about how music works, facilitating networking and a connect to established and experienced industry figures.
“The question I thought to myself, that became central to Youbloom , is ‘What is it going to take for an artist to make a decent living, if they’re good enough?” says Harrington. “What has to happen? How is this going to be solved?”
Today’s bands can utilize social media, crowdfunding, data analytics, new tech and platforms to get noticed but Harrington says these modern tools have yet to translate into career sustainability and that a lot of opportunities can still come from the old-school idea of networking and showcasing.
“We haven’t yet got to a place where the science and the art of using these tools results in more and more artists becoming viable, but it is coming.”
Now coming into its fourth year in Dublin (it is taking place for the third time in Los Angeles later this year), Youbloom’s purpose has previously included the idea of a data co-op between artists to a song contest as suggested by Bob Geldof.
Geldof invested in Harrington’s forays into video when he acquired the rights to JVC in the early 1980s. They shared an accountant and Harrington got to know more about the music business as a result.
Before that, Harrington had trained as a doctor, but he developed an interest in alternative medicine, which lead to music therapy under the name Voce, something he has done at raves, Burning Man festival and Irish prisons in Portlaoise and Spike Island. At the workshops, Harrington teaches a technique of “releasing your voice in order to explore your inner self.”
“When I do them, I wake up the next day feeling so renewed, everything is back in alignment. It’s a healing experience.”
Harrington’s interest in helping people through music transfers to Youbloom. Once the song contest was established, Nigel Grainge, who signed Thin Lizzy, Sinead O’Connor and Geldof’s Boomtown Rats, got involved by listening to the song contest entries and the idea morphed into the Youbloom music festival and summit.
‘A band or singer-songwriter is basically a little microbusiness’
This year’s event features panels about music synchronisation, approaching the media, music rights, US artist visas, royalties and touring Brazil. There are opportunities for networking and speed sessions.
“Our tagline is learn, connect, play,” says Harrington. “The first tenet of that is the artist learning the business of music. A band or singer-songwriter is basically a little microbusiness. It’s a complex business – there are lot of different elements to understand. Most artists don’t expect to be signed to a major label now. They understand that they have to do a lot themselves.“
Speakers at the conference are drawn largely from the established industry, including publisher of DIY Magazine Rupert Vereker, publisher Steve Lindsay, lawyer Eileen O’Gorman, artist manager and arts immigration expert Matthew Covey and Irish musician Donal Lunny.
“We reserve spots for artists to engage with the industry. On top of that we create mixtapes and collect data from the band and we promote them to industry, the partners and sponsors. If we see an opportunity to connect a band to an industry person – whether it’s management, sync or otherwise, we’ll make it happen.”
Adopt a band
At night, the focus moves to seven Dublin city venues featuring performances from Irish and international bands, playing for the industry and fans alike.
Artists who apply via Sonicbids and Youbloom’s own database are assessed based on social media engagement, live activity, Youtube live performances, fanbase and their answers to the Youbloom application form. The artists that are invited must pay their own way.
“Bands finance themselves to come in. The business model doesn’t afford to be able to pay those expenses. What we see are bands coming in from the US or South America and they put together a tour over two or three weeks and apply to a bunch of festivals and conferences and if they’re accepted it forms the basis of their tour.
“We do a thing called adopt a band. The local artist adopt the band coming in to Dublin. They help them with accommodation, get them gear and help them out.”
Youbloom success stories have included bands signing publishing deals, recording with an established producer, touring opportunities and management.
“We had a band called Cartoon from Brazil who played both in London and LA; they brought both the industry and the local audience to their gigs. They ended up getting signed to a Japanese label.”
Harrington says the bands that are interested in connecting to experienced industry at Youbloom are those who understand what they need to be proactive in order to make a living out of their music to make even a sliver of what the Beyoncés and Drakes are making.
“The A&R guys used to help out the bands by offering advice and talking to them. Then 10 or 12 years ago, they disappeared when the budgets at the major labels dried up. Artists were still doing gigs but the A&R people weren’t there. Then, three or four years ago, the bands would get down to business after the show, instead of partying. That’s something you’re seeing more and more – the artists realise they have to do it for themselves.”
Youbloom takes place from June 1st to 3rd in Dublin. Tickets are €100 for the weekend.
Creating your online presence and growing your fan base is not as easy as some make it out to be. If you were creating your Facebook page for your music five years ago, this would have been a different story. Few artists had band pages, and it was less difficult to get lost in the shuffle of massive social media notifications.
Today, though, you need to have a well thought-out plan if you want to see yourself build a high-quality page with an actual engaged audience of your fans.
So how do you do this? Let’s look at this six step plan that will help get you up and running and off to gather those ‘likes’ :
In business, you have to know your customer base before you go and open your doors. This also rings true as an artist for creating your Facebook fan base. There are nearly 1.5 billion users on Facebook. It is impossible for all of them to fall in love with your music. Even Taylor Swift has haters, and she’s seen as one of the most popular present-day musicians.
However, don’t discount everyone. You want to be specific, but you also want to be creative. What does this mean? While Taylor Swift’s fans may not be yours, it’s important to figure how to find more fans that will like your music. You can use Facebook ads to promote your music. When doing so, be sure to get specific on the types of people you’re targeting — not just age groups. What do they like? What do they dislike? Knowing little intricacies like this can help you expand your audience.
Ok, you have your audience. Now you need to start engaging them with the content you add to your page. You’ll want to keep three things in mind each time you post:
A great way to do this is by jumping in on a conversation or cause that your potential fans care about. Here’s an example (albeit a non-musical one): A business that sells used machinery lets their audience know that they care about heart health with a Facebook post. Since this topic is relevant to their audience, they create engagement. This human touch is what lets audiences know you’re worth their time.
You can also take a look at Facebook’s tip about how to create a two-way conversation. You want to garner a response from your audience and create dialogue. Comments move your content through the news feed more frequently so it is seen by more users.
Not every post you’ll create will see the same response and engagement, so keep track of what types of posts seem to attract your audience more than others. It will be an important way for you to discover what works for your fans and what doesn’t. Some ideas to keep in mind:
Now, I’m not saying you should pull a Kanye West here, and tweet controversial things just to get engagement. Instead, put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and create and post information that your audience will truly want to read and see.
Keep your content relevant to your audience and relatable. You may not see results right away, but be patient. Don’t start spamming your page with promotional material. This will just annoy your users. You want to build a relationship that will last over time.
Make sure you foster that relationship with your fans by posting content that feels real to them. This will build trust, and they’re more likely to continue following and sharing. Once you’ve created this rapport, up your game and post more frequently about gigs and shows. If you’ve done it right, your audience will be hungry for more content.
Don’t just post something here or there — like twice a day on Monday, nothing until Wednesday and then three times on Friday. This lack of scheduling won’t help your audience recognize when to look for new content from you. Create a schedule and hold to it.
Be creative with your scheduled posts. This will help create a rhyme and reason for them. For example, you could do a ‘Music Monday’ post that highlights what you’re listening to that day. It could be a favorite song, band, or album each week. Then poll your audience — ask them what they are playing on repeat.
This is an easy way to keep the beginning of the week light and funny — and your audience will be more likely to tune back in during the week for more serious topics. In order to help you stick to your post schedule and topics, make a list in your planner to help you stay organized and on task.
You can’t make improvements or build off success if you don’t monitor how your content performs and measure its failures and successes. Be sure to look at your page insights and make notes. Know what kind of metrics, like negative feedback, you should be evaluating to improve your reach and engagement with your audience.
If you want Facebook to be successful for your band, you have to pay attention to what is being read, shared and commented on. If a post gets absolutely no engagement whatsoever, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad content. It just means you need to look at the types of adjustments needed to do better next time.
Now you have the tools to build and optimize your Facebook page successfully — so get out there and find your fans! It’ll take some hard work and dedication, but the little community you create will very much be worth the effort.
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