Twitter makes it all happen. More Deadmau5 stuff.

by Mrs. Gunn

Reblogged from PandoDaily on March 19, 2012.

From: http://pandodaily.com/2012/03/19/how-coldcalling-deadmau5-on-twitter-earned-one-artist-his-big-break/

edited for content. click on link to see videos.

How Coldcalling Deadmau5 On Twitter Earned One Artist His Big Break

by Greg Kumparak
on March 19, 2012

When I hear anyone talking about “the power of social media”, my brain immediately flips to thoughts of self-appointed gurus with titles like “Twitter Ninja” or “Friendster Rockstar”. I can’t help it. It’s pretty much pavlovian at this point.

In this case, it really is a story of the power of social media — or really, how the Internet, a Twitter account, and a whole lot of skill and luck has earned one guy his big shot with one of the biggest artists in the world.

This past weekend, the hugely-popular electronica artist deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”, not “dead-mow-5″) started working on a new track called “The Veldt”, inspired by Ray Bradbury’s 1950s short story of the same name.

Rather than locking himself away from the world for days to return with a new track in hand, however, deadmau5 introduced a bit of a twist to his workflow: he’d stream it all live. Every glorious minute of the process, from the sampling of the audio (including using the sound of him clapping on his own bare bum as one of the tracks) to the surprise attacks by his cat Professor Meowington (a cat with more Facebook fans than most bands), would be streamed to anyone who cared to watch.

As the track came together, deadmau5 mentioned that he’d need to start figuring out what to do for the vocal track soon — and that’s when things started to get really, really cool.

Having been watching the stream throughout and wishing he could be a part of it, up-and-coming house producer Chris James took the mention of vocals as a challenge. After tying together bits and pieces from the stream with working samples that had been released throughout the weekend, James came up with lyrics (also inspired by the short story) and began laying his tracks on top of deadmau5′ work.

He finished up, exported, and, on a whim, sent it off to deadmau5 via Twitter:

@deadmau5 did some unique shoegaze-ish vocals over “The Veldt” based on the story. Hope you enjoy soundcloud.com/chrisjamesoffi…

— Chris James (@ChrisJOffical) March 18, 2012

and… nothing happened.

At least at first. Assuming that it was more of the same junk that people cold called him with all the time, deadmau5 mentioned the tweet but didn’t click through. After some assurance from the fans watching back at home that he should give it a listen, he loaded it up. The next tweet he sent:

@ChrisJOffical DUDE… YOU KIDDING ME???? #%#$$!

— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) March 18, 2012

deadmau5 moved to make Chris’ vocals a part of the official track almost immediately, pausing only to listen to Chris’ vocalized mix a few more times.

Within minutes, he had Chris on the phone. Within hours, deadmau5 had pulled his manager and Chris together on speakerphone — while still live on the stream — to work out the finer details (“I need a second verse; also, can you do 3 stereo stems, with effects on a separate track?”).

One viewer managed to capture the big moment of discovery (Heads up for the folks at work: there’s swearin’ aplenty in here):

For the curious, a number of fans have ripped unfinished renditions of the The Veldt from the stream (complete with Chris’ vocal track beginning around 2 and a half minutes in) and put them up on Youtube, albeit with all the background noise and limited fidelity inherent to ripping audio from a live stream:

Regardless of how you feel about electronic music or even this specific song, you’ve gotta admit: how this all went down is fairly incredible. Armed with nothing but a fistful of talent and a Twitter account, a mostly-unheard-of artist has managed to get his work incorporated into a track by a Grammy-nominated king of his industry. The Internet is wonderful.

[Thanks for the heads up on all of this, Thomas!]

Category : Case Studies

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Mous5

by Mrs. Gunn

Here us a reblog from Deadmau5’s tumblr: edited

some advice on rollercoasters and stuff

Well, since PaulyD and his hair obviously has no need for my advice, let me elaborate pass it along to someone who’s actually serious about music. You probably.

Marketing is such a vile term to me for some reason. In fact, every time i hear it i probably cringe harder than your grandma would if she ever heard the word’. Im serious. And yet, upon surfing the interwebs, and reading articles about me… YEAH I GOOGLE MYSELF. sing it! ‘Everytime i think of you i google mysellllfff….’ *cough*

anyway, i sometimes stumble across these “music marketing” type blogs that are all about “oh his marketing is this and that and he does this and that” and i think it’s only fair to know that im simply following a few simple guidelines really, im no marketing genius… at least not deliberately anyway….well, whatver. let me scribble down some thoughts here.

If youre an artist, youre making music, releasing music, maybe even a hit here and there… you need a few things to cement yourself ‘in’ other than a first and last name and a handful of tracks. Of course youll have your twitter account, facebook, tumblr, etc etc… so you have all these little conduits at your disposal to reach out to your followers, whether its 10 friends, 100 fans, or a epic 1 million plus cult following, it really doesnt matter, it all applies relatively.

1. You need to make a world.

Yes. i know, that was vague… lemme explain. So you have a rollercoaster in your backyard… which is rad. coz everyone loves roller coasters, cept for whiney ppl. and all the people from around your block is gunna wanna come and at LEAST check that out, or ride it. And itll be the hot thing in the neighborhood for about a week. But once everyone’s had a go… they’ll lose interest, go home n play Sega instead. I see this happen to SO many people… its ridicules.

Well, what you need then, is a theme park… and you AND your music are the theme. You with me here? Now, people come into your theme park, and holy , check out all this stuff… buncha rides, no 2 the same, some merch here and there, special events, dolphins through hoops and all that whacky stuff. You want people to come to your theme park and feel like they’re a part of this world of yours.

2. Don’t overkill 900 on the promotional stuff.

I don’t read spammed to death promo stuff, so, the type of people i’d like to have in my theme park don’t either. Nor do i come blaring on the theme parks PA system every 20 seconds hyping the same ride over and over again. Also a bad look to take flyers to other peoples theme parks and start plastering posters all over the place.

3. You are not fictitious. From what i’ve learned, the best way to make a guest in your theme park feel involved or just as much a part of your world as you are is to avoid being invisible. Get out there and immerse yourself in the world you created, youll have fun, it’s your place for hecks sake. If your not having fun in the world you created, then you messed something up and did it wrong. Go jump on a few rides with your fans. Sure there are times when you’ll need a little break here and there. But heck, i had my 7th or 8th birthday at a mcdonalds in niagara falls once. And in my naivety, i honestly and truly believed for a while that Ronald and the Hamburgler would show up. They didnt. and i was bummed, but if they did… man, i woulda been a fan for life. (.) BUT i still do enjoy a qtr pndr w cheese from time to time all the same.

anyway, im not sure whats left in me here, its late, early, whatever, i still havent slept… but the TLDR version is basicly… make an entire experience with your work… not just a name and a piece of work. Make an interesting and unique experience, and the people will want to come to be a part of it. and the rest will just happen naturally. think about it. the experience that is yours will “market” itself.
5 days ago 875 notes

Category : Case Studies

Tags : Lalala

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Amanda Palmer’s response to all the hoopla

by Mrs. Gunn

As you may know, she has raised almost a million dollars on Kickstarter, and she still has 10 days to go. This post is a response she to the world, regarding her impetus for this project and quite frankly a comeback to everyone complaining she couldn’t have done it without the label. This letter has been edited for content, and was part of the Lefsetz letter. Bob Lefsetz is an industry insider who writes a blog and sends out his “letter(s)” daily to 20k people +. You can’t find this online because it is from his “mailbag,” which doesn’t get blogged just sent as an email so everyone can see everyone else’s reactions. Thank you Mr. Lefsetz for sharing.

From: Amanda Palmer
Subject: Re: Kickstarter

hey bob

don’t know if you’ve noticed, but yesterday i launched the 30-day kickstarter for my new album, “amanda palmer & the grand theft orchestra”.

at the moment i’m writing this, we’ve reached over $250,000 after only one day of being live. go look:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amandapalmer/amanda-palmer-the-new-record-art-book-and-tour

that’s about $50k MORE than the scheduled recording budget i wouldn’t have been given if i’d stayed on roadrunner…AND WE’RE ONLY ON THE FIRST DAY.
i hope we reach $600k or more by the time we’re done. or a million. who knows? sky’s the limit.

since getting released, i’ve been waiting to put out – on my own terms – a big, legit solo album.
for THREE YEARS i’ve waited….three years of tweaking and agonizing over the perfect online self-release system, the perfect management team.

when i fought to get off roadrunner (my old band the dresden dolls signed in 2004; i tore off and went solo in 2009), my main problem is that they had NO IDEA how to work WITH ME.

they didn’t understand why i didn’t want to spend money and energy on stupid stuff, wasting time where our audience and potential audience WASNT…opening for vapid bands, putting our songs on lame film soundtracks to sub-par horror movies. our audience was too smart for that stuff.

they didn’t understand why i wanted to spend marketing budgets on what they considered “unnecessary” things….like hiring an internet marketing team, building giant web systems to showcase my fans’ art and homemade videos….like spending money and time on the online fan forums.

and i was always told them: “REALLY? you don’t get this? you don’t get why it’s not only important, but why it’s going to MAKE US MONEY? ok heck, we’ll pay for it ourselves.”

so we did. i was happy to spend the money out of our pockets: this stuff OBVIOUSLY had to be done. and we were starting to make money on the road by then.

i remember one freezing chaotic day in minneapolis, on tour with the dolls in 2005….leaving soundcheck, picking up my cell and asking a frantic favor of a friend in new york (the only friend i had who was adult enough to have a checkbook at the ready, i didn’t have one on the road).

my internet marketing guy had called me, freaking. when we’d signed, the label had agreed to cover his monthly fee. now he was expecting an over-due check from the label, had been waiting six weeks, and was about to be evicted from his apartment if he couldn’t get ahold of $1000. i begged my random friend to write out and mail a check it to my internet guy, promising i’d pay her back when i got to new york in a month…so he could pay his rent. i knew better than to call the label. they’d just lie and say they’d cut the check. i’d been through this 12 times already.

a few months later the label told me they wouldn’t cover our internet marketing team AT ALL while we were “between records”. they didn’t think paying someone to run our myspace and fan forums was NECESSARY unless “we had a record actively being worked”.

they didn’t get it. at. all.

THEY SERIOUSLY DIDN’T THINK THE INTERNET WAS NECESSARY UNLESS YOU HAD A RECORD TO PUSH.
they didn’t understand the value staying connected ALL THE TIME, every day, from the road, from the spaces between.

and this was 2005/2006. not the dark ages.

but still….LOST. they didn’t understand why we’d want to put the majority of our resources into connecting with our fans online.

were they on the road with us 300 nights a year? were THEY emailing & chatting online and off with these people EVERY DAY? heck no. but i was. i knew. our fans were all geeks and gays and punks and young weirdos. ALL ONLINE ALL THE TIME. i knew the connected we did throughout the year would result in the sales later.

now, after three years OFF THE LABEL, and after ALL these collected years of talking with fans after every show, twittering daily, staying connected, singing hard, touring constantly, and answering thousands of fan emails….the result?

$250k in a day.

BAM.

seriously: i can’t imagine why i’d do this any other way.

love
amanda palmer
www.amandapalmer.net

p.s. i just finished “strayed” by cheryl strayed and absolutely LOVED IT. thanks for the tip. and now me & cheryl and pals on twitter. amazing internet is amazing.

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10 Apps Ozzy Ozborne’s bassist uses

by Mrs. Gunn

This is a reblog from Chris “Seth” Jackson’s blog, http://howtorunaband.com/10-iphone-apps-that-ozzy-osbournes-bassist-uses, edited.

10 iPhone Apps that Ozzy Osbourne’s Bassist Uses

This is a guest post by Blasko, Ozzy Osbourne’s bassist and band manager at Mercenary Management.

With the myriad of apps to choose from these days, which ones are the most useful to the the young musician types? Beats me, but here is my top 10. Oh, and who am I? My name is Blasko. I play bass for Ozzy Osbourne. I manage bands atwww.mercenarymanagement.com. I blog atwww.bloganddestroy.net.

1. Lock Box – My life online has become all about UN and PW’s. On a regular basis I access multiple sites, whether it be Facebook, Amazon, Priceline, etc. and all of which I have different UN and PW’s for. I use Lock Box to keep all my stuff straight. Oh yeah, it’s FREE!

2. Things – I am a student of the GTD process,Whatever ya wanna call it, for me it is imperative to have some sort of “to do list” system. Between management, personal and band responsibilities I use Things to keep my organized. Even though I wish this app was sync-able in the cloud, I do like it’s user friendliness and I also need something that is compatible with my lap top, iPhone and iPad simultaneously.

3. xFeed – RSS readers are essential to my time management. There are so many sites like Blabbermouth, Mashable, Hypebot, etc. that I need to read everyday to stay connected. The xFeed app enables me to skim the headlines without actually having to visit 100 sites a day.

4. Amplitube – For all guitar and bass players I found this app to be essential. In addition to the iRig, you can just plug right in to your iPhone or iPad and jam away. Try out different tones and amp combos, play along to songs, or it’s a great tool for learning new songs. I have our whole live set in iTunes and I use it to warm up for gigs. This will set ya back a few bucks, but totally worth it in my opinion.

5. Instagram – My new favorite social network! Follow me @blasko1313

6. Pandora – This is easy and FREE! Kinda like having your own personal radio station. I also really dig the music discovery element.

7. Facebook / Twitter – These are essentials for bands / musicians. You have to be connected.. BOTTOM LINE! Twitter is easy to get a grasp of and works well in the mobile platform. Facebook is an obvious necessity but I am not totally hyped on their app just yet.

8. Phoster – All bands should get hip to this app. You can make posters for your gigs or events or whatever in seconds.

9. iBooks – I try to read as often as possible and iBooks make’s it easy to breeze through a chapter almost anywhere. My most recent purchases / recommendations – Bringing Metal to the Children by Zakk Wylde, I’m Awesome by Jason Ellis and Why I Failed in the Music Business by Steve Grossman.

10. Pushup Warrior – It can be a challenge to stay in shape on the road and apps have made it much easier. This is a good one that can be done just about anywhere. The pushup is the best exercise and this app makes them fun as well as challenging. Compete with your friends!