Showing posts with label jango. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jango. Show all posts

Thursday, July 7, 2011

You're A Terrible Judge of Your Own Music


Alas, it is true. Murphy's Law will tell you (and I'm not exactly sure who Murphy is, unless he's Papa Murphy, in which case, I'm not real crazy about his pizzas, either) that whatever song you think is your absolute best, fans will absolutely HATE, or worse, will absolutely IGNORE.

How do I know? Well, that's where marketing shows its real value. By "marketing", I mean basically slapping up some songs on a promotion site, such as ReverbNation or Jango, or, if you're really, really bored and narcissistic, on your own radio station.

It's the ultimate conundrum, I guess.

For example, I'm sure that Mark Knopfler thought that this was the greatest Dire Straits song ever:


Watch Dire Straits(money for nothing) in Music | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Of course, that was before Canada got wind of the song, and determined that it was COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE FOR BROADCAST. (Really, Canada? And here I thought you all had that laissez faire attitude. You know, being French and all.) And strangely, "Money For Nothing" was released in 1985, so it only took a quarter of a century for Canada to determine the utter inappropriateness of the song. Well, they have a backlog.

So, Mark was downhearted. Well, actually, he was feeling pretty uphearted until approximately the year 2010.

Ironically, little did Mark know that the actual favorite Dire Straits song, as determined by the fans, was this:



Why, Mark asks? Well, it was because of this line:

"doo doo, da da DO do do doo doo".

Not scientific, I grant you, but what, after all, is scientific about music?

The moral of this story, if there is one, is, as an artist, please make sure that you include this line in every one of your songs:

Doo doo, da da DO do do doo doo


Then riches shall be yours. And you won't have to guess which song your fans will like best, because they will like them all!

Another fine public service from me, your Music Success Guru. And I don't even charge for this!

Woo-hoo-hoo.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Jango?


Sometimes I don't follow up on emails for a long time. I mean, so-called "professional" emails, not personal ones.

I had a couple of emails regarding Jango; one from CD Baby (who is distributing our first pitiful CD), and another from......somebody. I don't remember.

These two emails have sat patiently in my in-box for a few months. Yes, months. Okay, I don't necessarily follow up on things that require a lot of time and effort (and if I don't think there's a whole lot of reward).

But tonight, since I was really at a loss for something to do, I thought I would clean out my in-box.

The thing is, everybody promises stuff, and experience tells me, none of that stuff actually happens. And does it really make any difference if our songs pop up every couple of weeks on a website, and whoever happens to be listening clicks on the "next" button and just moves on to the next song? And do I even want to know that?

But I'm just barely enough of an optimist to think, well, somebody might like our stuff! I mean, somebody?

I don't really like to diss artist sites, because someone is likely gaining some benefit from each of them. However, I will say this: If you sign up for Hello Music, be advised: Apparently, if you're not considered (by them) to be in their top, top echelon of artists, all they are using you for is to push electronics and equipment (at a very special price!)

You will get almost daily emails from them (until you put a stop to it), advertising their latest deals. I don't want to say that they just solicit artists in order to get their email addresses, but yea, that seems to be what they do.

I was curious, after awhile, to find out why they never seem to advertise any "opportunities". So, I did a search for the company, and found this:

Not every band will be plugged into a potentially revenue-generating slot such as Pump Audio, Zalon said. Some will instead be offered discounts for services that partners offer for a fee. Still, he said, "no matter what [the song] is, we're going to listen to it, and we're going to find opportunities."


If that's what they do, fine. I just think they should state that upfront, when they are soliciting bands. "Hey, if we don't like you, can we still spam you to try to sell you stuff?"

Needless to say, I've crossed Hello Music off my list, as they have crossed us off theirs. And more power to the guys who've gotten deals through the site; good for you. It's just not for us, as has been obviously and subliminally communicated.

Now, Music Xray, so far, I like. Why? Well, yea, they charge you to submit to opportunities, but they don't arbitrarily exclude you. If you pay your money, you get to submit. They don't screen. If one is willing to shell out the fee, then one gets to compete. And they don't spam you, trying to sell you stuff.

Which leads me to Jango. Why sign up? Well, I figure, why not? They give you 100 free credits. We can't get on Pandora, lord knows. So, at least somebody will listen, at least for half a second. And you get feedback, so they say. Feedback can be a soul-killer, but one has to have a thick skin in this biz. I guess I'd rather have one honest person say they don't like my song, than a bunch of songwriters on some music forum giving me disingenuous "atta boys" (or girls). At least I know where I stand.

Basically, the reason I wrote this post is to solicit feedback regarding Jango. Has anyone had experience with the site? And if so, what's your consensus?

It's really neither here nor there if we (meaning, I) wasted my time uploading songs. I'd just like to know if it's something to keep on my radar.

But, if they start trying to sell me stuff, then they're (truly) barking up the wrong tree.