Last night I reached 10,000 friends on MySpace. I’ve never tried to hack the system or send a bot out to friend people. It’s true a large percent of those 10,000 maybe fake, spam or who knows but you can bet a 
whole bunch are real fans. First off I created a MySpace bulletin (blog post?) saying thanks and I really do mean it. Without an audience there is no artist or musician.
The surprise came when I logged in this morning and I got a message stating I could: Automatically Approve Friend Requests. So getting to 10,000 actually got me something cool. Who knew?!
I know a lot of people knock MySpace and there are plenty of competitors but I still use and love the site. There’s no better way to get an instant view of a band. MySpace is in talks with Amazon and the major labels creating a deal for a new MySpace Music store. They plan to launch in September and I think it could be big. Check out the article on TechCrunch: click here
This entry was written by , posted on July 31, 2008 at 9:22 am, filed under promotion and tagged Amazon, MySpace, promotion. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Yesterday a box arrived from Neuton who distributes my record label, Things to Come Records. It was the new release from Ionic Vision called “Club Isolation”. Ionic Vision are a well known EBM (Electronic Body Music) band from Belgium. They contacted me about releasing remixes for two songs off their new album “Sweet Isolation”. When they told me they already had mixes from David Carretta and Millimetric I knew I had to do it.
So back to the box and the point of this post. I always love opening a box of new records and I knew Andy de Decker from Ionic Vision wouldn’t be getting his records for a few days so I decided to videotape myself 
opening the box to show him. Then I remembered all the Macbook Pro box opening videos there are on YouTube and the light went off in my head. So you see the creation above. Don’t forget to blast the music behind your show and put links to places you can buy the release!
Belgian EBM band Ionic Vision releases 12 inch single on Things to Come Records with remixes by David Carretta, The Horrorist, Millimetric and Stamba! This is Electronic Body Music! The Carretta & Millimetric remixes of Sleep & Die Macht are set to be giant hits in Darkwave clubs and Industrial Goth events. The Horrorist remix will scare the living daylights out of you. Stamba from Bordeaux shows off his studio skills in a slick production. As with all TTC releases: MUST HAVE! – Neuton.com
There are more things you can do than a simple unboxing as far as video promos go. Find one of the first stores selling the new baby and do a video walk in and show the record on the shelf. Get two nice looking ladies to play frisbie with the new 12 inch single (in slow motion of course). The skies the limit. I wonder how to make a video promo of a Digital Download unboxing?
Vimeo, Viddler or Blip.tv are all video hosting sites which look much better than YouTube. The video above which is hosted on Vimeo alows me to customize the color of the text overlay. But which ever site you choose to host your promo also add the video to YouTube because of the shear volume of viewers on that site. Don’t forget to add tags to your video so your promo shows up when someone searches “ebm” or “Things to Come Records” for example.
Be warned that like blog posts people can comment on your video. Some people will think the idea of a record box opening completely stupid. However, fans want to know the behind the scenes stuff and record collectors are a special bunch who will drool as they watch the shiny new vinyl appear!
More info about Ionic Vision “Club Isolation”: click here
This entry was written by , posted on April 19, 2008 at 7:07 am, filed under business, promotion, video and tagged promotion, video. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Stickers and rock buttons are seriously important for any band to have. These are the classic promotional items because they are cheap to make and when displayed promote your name. What’s more important to you: The latest X-Box game or 250 4.25″ square stickers to give away? Both will run you about $60.
I like to keep my my stickers and rock buttons black with white printing. Besides keeping the cost low it stands out the most.
For rock buttons (or pins as I like to call them) I use the popular RockButtons.com. The size you want is 1 inch. At least thats the standard size you see on every punk rockers jacket. 250 pins will cost you $65 and you can have 2 designs in that bunch. For $115 you can have 500 pins and 3 designs. For the rock buttons
color doesn’t cost more. You can also add your website URL or slogan printed along the edge of the pin at no extra charge.
You can also make your own rock buttons. You need to buy a button making machine and the button parts. Check out buttonmakers.net for everything you need to know.
When it comes to stickers your going to want to check out stickerguy.com. I discovered them when watching the video below by a guy named “Brian Botkiller“. You want stickers that are each on a separate cut. If you get them on a roll you will have to cut each sticker from the roll. This doesn’t really work in practice (I’ve tried it). You think to yourself I’ll just cut them in advance but stickers cut from a roll are bent and don’t hold their shape in a stack… it’s messy. Luckily stickerguy is so freakin inexpensive you can afford their cut stickers. Orders from stickerguy take up to 8 weeks so order well in advance of when you need them.
With both rockbuttons.com and stickerguy.com you upload your designs via a web interface. They offer templates for Photoshop and Illustrator you can download.
The best time to hand out your free gifts is during any low in your live set. In between songs or any long breakdown. If you have any technical problems hand stuff out to buy some love! Remember to keep a few extra giveaways for the promoter and any nice looking ladies that you meet after the show.
By the way both the places I mention in this post are in the USA. If anyone knows any rock bottom cheap places to manufacture this stuff in Berlin please let me know in the comments.
photo credit: phil dokas and brianjacobsen
This entry was written by , posted on April 11, 2008 at 1:53 am, filed under promotion and tagged pins, promotion, rock buttons, stickers. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Twitter is a service that fits somewhere between email, instant messengering and micro blogging. If your a musician or record label you can use Twitter as a promotion tool. Twitter has RSS feeds and badges so each of your posts can instantly be placed across the internet at several locations at once. Twitter is also a type of social network and you can follow friends or companies your interested in. You do so in a public time line made up of a everyone you are following. It’s a fun and addictive experience. Let’s take a closer look.
I created a Twitter profile for my music studio. I use this profile to promote whatever is going on in the studio, new releases and even important wire to the ear blog posts I made. Posts are limited to 140 characters of text which I think is brilliant because you are really forced into stating simple moments and facts. I input entries vie my Twitter page online but you can also post Twitter entries by using software on your Mac or PC, IM clients or mobile devices like cell phones, etc…
You can see my Twitter page here:
http://twitter.com/thingstocome
But you do not have to go to my Twitter site to see the updates. Take a look at all the locations those posts travel to:
On this blog Wire to the Ear look on the far right column:
“Things to Come Records Studio Updates”.
At the Things to Come Records homepage in two locations…
First on the homepage under the “In The Studio” section:
www.thingstocome.com
And at the bottom of the studio page:
www.thingstocome.com/studio.htm
On my MySpace page on the left hand column there is a grey badge titled “What am I doing?”:
www.myspace.com/oliverchesler
At the official website for The Horrorist on the bottom of the studio page:
thehorrorist.thingstocome.com/studio.html
On my Facebook profile on a turqiouse box in the left hand column titled “Twitter”:
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=734037165
As you can see your Twitter posts can take on any look. You can use the official Twitter badges or style your own using CSS. You can also choose how many recent updates should be listed.
The video above is a really great way to grasp everything Twitter is about. Highly recommended.
This entry was written by , posted on March 22, 2008 at 2:23 am, filed under promotion and tagged badges, promotion, Twitter. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
There is a website called Animoto that lets you upload or import a set of photos and music and then it will churn out a slick music video for you. Usually when I get back from a live performance the promoter or fans will send me some photos of the show. Why not get these into music video form onto YouTube? Great promotion no?
Of course you can take the time to create a music video from still images in Final Cut Pro, iMovie or Adobe Premier but Animoto is super easy, fast and effective. Here’s how it works: Head over to 
Animoto.com and sign up for an account. Click “create video” on the top left of the window. Next, you choose “30 Second Video – Animated Short” or “Full Length Video”. The 30 second clips are free to make. If you want to make something longer it will cost you $3.00. There is also a yearly subscription fee for $30.00 which allows you to make as many full length videos as you like. Now you either upload your photos or import them from flickr. Remember my post “Why every musician should have a flickr pro account.“? Here’s another reason why! You can also import photos from Facebook, Picasa, Smugmug, and Photobucket. You can choose a few photos to be featured by adding a “Spotlight” tag on them. Then you add your music and hit “finalize” and Animoto does its magic. A great new feature they just added is the ability to send your creation directly to YouTube.
You end up with a pretty neat music video. Fancy transitions with zooms and pans make your static photos come to life. The thing I personally like is how fast the process goes. Take a look at this short clip I put together from still photos from my show in Espenhain, Germany at Praezisionswerk and my song Now Destructor:
There’s nothing stopping you from using promotional photos and a talking soundtrack or an interview. Why not create a video of your album covers or event flyer’s?
“Animoto is definitely a slick, fun, easy way to compile your photos into energetic videos.” - Harrison Hoffman, CNET
There is one thing I don’t like about the service and that’s the fact that they slap the Animoto logo at the end of the video. The logo appears even at the end of full length videos you pay for. I contacted them to see if there was a way around it and they told me no. Oh one more thing: use Firefox, Safari gave me trouble.
This entry was written by , posted on March 20, 2008 at 2:51 am, filed under live performance, promotion, video and tagged Animito, flickr, promotion, video. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Each month on the first I make a top 10 music chart. Songs I am really into at the moment. There are a few good reasons to do this. If your a band or an artist, some of your fans will be interested in what your current tastes are. The fact that I know I need a chart each month forces me to discover and seek out new music. As a musician it’s important to be always listening to what’s out there and not get stuck completely in the past.
There are places you can post your chart other than your own website. Your MySpace, Facebook and Last.fm pages can host your chart. Slow news week but it has been a while since you sent an email newsletter? Make it look a little more meaty with a chart. If all the songs in your chart are on iTunes then turn your chart into an iMix. Likewise, if your music is entirely available on Beatport you can publish the chart on Beatportal.com. Anytime your interviewed include your current top 10 chart. If your known enough many magazines print DJ charts each month. Groove Magazine often prints my chart.
Should you put your own songs in your chart? Hell yes! If your own new material isn’t in your favorite new songs of the month then you shouldn’t be releasing it to the world! If you want to get fancy make the song titles click able links to a place where someone can hear and buy the song right away. Also consider including a photo of yourself or the album cover of the number one song on your chart. If you like you can even include a little description of your chart’s style. I add a disclaimer to my chart because I put everything on from Country to Minimal! Don’t forget to put your website next to your name and a little message somewhere saying “feel free to reprint this chart anywhere”.
With the onslaught of a million net labels charts have become an important tool to find hot songs. I like to read them and make them.
The Horrorist – Top 10 – February 2008*
www.myspace.com/oliverchesler
01 Electric Feel – MGMT
02 Washmachine – Workidz
03 Nietzche – Abstrackt Keal Agram
04 Story of an Artist – Daniel Johnston
05 You Should Tell Me So – Orilla Opry
06 13 Dobermans – The Horrorist
07 Bubbleblitzen – Miro Pajic
08 Beneath You – Mark Mendes
09 U Turn – Mark Ramsey
10 Stereos and Such – Popof
*The Horrorist chart is not your normal DJ Chart. The music here is not normal. These are songs Oliver Chesler is listening to now. If your weird and like great music then listen to these songs. If you are normal I am sorry this chart is not for you.
photo credit: phil_h.psd
This entry was written by , posted on February 2, 2008 at 2:56 am, filed under music, promotion and tagged , Beatport, charts, iMix, iTunes, promotion. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
In the above interview Jason Lytle the lead singer of Granddaddy tells us what the secret of songwriting is. This video has been going around for a while but it’s definitely worth watching so I reposted it. I wish this band did not break up. I saw them live at Irving Plaza and they were superb. One of my all time favorite bands. Here are ten great Grandaddy songs:
Do you like Granddady? What’s your favorite from them?
This entry was written by , posted on December 14, 2007 at 3:58 pm, filed under music, promotion and tagged Granddady, promotion, video. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
As I ever rummage the internet for all things music electronic I often come across very interesting items. Not everything I find deserves a post but are cool tidbits nonetheless. To share these kinds of findings with you I joined del.icio.us.
del.icio.us which is owed by Yahoo is a social bookmarking “platform”. Basically you sign up and instead of keeping your bookmarks in your browser they appear on the del.icio.us website. Why do this? To share of course! So you can now see whatever cool findings I come across on a given day here:
http://del.icio.us/wiretotheear
But guess what? You don’t have to leave this website to see the latest 5 things I looked at. Just move your eyes to the right side column and scroll down to where it says “wiretotheear’s latest del.icio.us bookmarks”.
Still want to know more about social bookmarking? Check out this video great video at the de.icio.us blog: click here
This entry was written by , posted on at 7:51 am, filed under promotion and tagged delicious, promotion, social bookmarking. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Why not allow some of your music to be free? Free for others to use on podcasts, radio shows, remix, mashup or simply free to listen to? This can be a great promotion tool. Creative Commons is a non for profit organization that offers CC licenses from their website.
You log on, answer a few questions and they give you the license. The service is free. You can specify some variables you would like in your license. For example, you can allow people to use your song but require they attribute the work to you. You can choose if you allow your song to be used commercially. You can specify if you don’t want to allow
modifying your song. When you get your license you can simple have some text displaying the type or display one of the cool CC icons.
The video above from Veronica Belmont and Maholo Daily shows the basics of using Creative Commons in reference to the music world. It shows some websites you can use to promote your newly licensed music. Also in the video is a lame attempt at a mashup in Ableton Live which is worth watching just for a laugh.Here is a song I offer for free. It was also released on a 9/11 Tribute album:
Creative Commons Licenes are not just for audio, you can add them to text, video, images and software.
photo credit: openDemocracy
This entry was written by , posted on December 13, 2007 at 4:42 am, filed under Ableton Live, promotion and tagged Creative Commons, promotion. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The dynamic between artist and fan has changed in recent years. It used to be if you were an artist you wanted to seem out of reach, high on a pedestal from your followers. However, today fans want a personal relationship with you. It’s not good enough to give them a monthly or even weekly update. They want to know what your doing right now! One of the best tools to give a window into your life is Twitter.
So what is Twitter? To start head to Twitter.com and sign up for an account (it’s free). Click on Profile and give yourself an avatar. Next under where it says “What are you doing?” type up to 140 text characters. In a way it’s like a mini-blog letting the world know what’s going on with you at that moment. These moments you enter are called Tweets.
If you have friends on Twitter you can follow them and vice-versa. Besides the archive of all your own Tweets you can also see a master timeline which shows your Tweet and your friends Tweets.
Now comes what I think it the best part. Click to www.twitter.com/badges and create a widget that displays your Twitter updates on any web page you place it. This is great because you only have to put your Tweets in one place but instantly wherever you have badges your updates will show.
I have Things to Come Records studio Twitter badges on my MySpace page (www.myspace.com/oliverchesler), Facebook page and artist website (thehorrorist.thingstocome.com). If you notice they all look different because you can customize the badges to fit any site. If you notice on my artist web site’s studio page my Tweets are not even in a widget but customized into the look of the page itself using CSS. You can also have your Tweets injected into a Wordpress blog as posts using Alex King’s Twitter Tools.
If you find going to a web page to input your Tweets cumbersome and your on a Mac try Icon Factory’s very nice program Twitterific. There is also a nifty Dashboard Widget called Twidget. I am sure there are Windows Twitter applications too. There are also methods of sending Tweets by email and Instant Messenger clients.
Lastly, I’d like to point out that Twitter has some competition. Google has a similar service called Jaiku and Kevin Rose and the Digg crew run Pownce. Unfortunately they are all incompatible. Come and follow my record label on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thingstocome
This entry was written by , posted on November 24, 2007 at 7:27 am, filed under business, promotion and tagged promotion, Twitter, widgets. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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