musicians – Fiona Z – The Musician’s Five Star Assistant

This blog post is interrupted by…[Social Media updates]

I was ready to share with you all about a task I’ve been tackling for my clients especially this year, but two new updates for all of our social media profiles happened this week that I wanted to make sure you knew about!

What were they? Can you guess? Okay, I’ll tell you!

1) Twitter Verification is now open to everyone. That little blue badge let’s followers know that your account of public interest is authentic.

You’ll need to confirm your email, phone, and make sure all the details are there. In addition, you will have to send them 2-5 links, plus a paragraph on why you should be verified.

Click here to get started on the verification process and join the blue badge club! It’s about time, Twitter!

2) Facebook Pages got a new look. Have you noticed? Here’s a shot of my favorite musician’s page with the new layout:

What to notice? First off, the banner image is no longer (unnecessarily) covered up by the profile picture. Second, the call to action button is shining through in Facebook blue and larger on the page. Overall, things have shifted around on the page, giving us something new to get used to.

What this means for you? You can get more creative with your branding on Facebook with the more visible banner. With the larger call to action button, that gives you more leverage to whatever you need to promote – mailing list, album, video, etc. so make sure it’s set to something you want your followers to be aware of.

I for one am enjoying this update and I think everyone else will too.

Social Media - 08/04/2016

Make your next album release stand out to your fans.

Lately, I haven’t been feeling so well, so I’m trying to take it easy with lots of tea and rest. I think with the season changing, I’m also getting a little bit of a spring cold. Nevertheless, things are moving along here for me with a website being built, a DIY Tour Packet being written and my clients are creating exciting new products! Recently, I celebrated with my client who just finished off the recording and mixing of his new album. I am really excited for him and cannot wait for it to hit the stands. I’ve been listening to it nonstop these past few days!

One of the many reasons I love working with musicians is being able to be part of the process of all that goes behind releasing a new album. A part of me is amazed at the entire process and I admire musicians for pouring their hearts into an album and allowing just about anyone come into their world for a listen. It’s even more amazing to allow fans to peek into that process, because I know they are so interested in how the music happens!

This release was special in that we involved the fans more than usual in the process. We feel the music from this album is going to be a real crowd-pleaser for his fans, so we wanted to make them feel a part of the process!

Setting up the schedule for rehearsals and recordings was quite the task. This album was particularly special in that it involved many duos and collaborations. I had to coordinate with several different musicians to find time for rehearsal and recording for both my client and the studio. It took focus, but keeping a Google Calendar kept me organized. I also would check in each week with the studio to make sure all times were right. Weekly emails to the musicians was also necessary to avoid any confusion – being on a deadline, we didn’t have time to waste from people not showing up!

Because these rehearsals were happening months in advance to the release, we thought it would be a perfect idea to videotape the duos and release them one by one before the actual CD release! We knew fans would love to see the collaborations and the recording studio; plus it was a neat way to get them excited for the new music and see some of behind the scenes while also hearing a preview. We released 6 videos, spaced out every few weeks, each of them easily gaining 1000 views the first day they posted.

Don’t have the budget to video tape? Create videos on your phone with clips of recordings and messages to your fans and post on Vine or Instagram!

While the rehearsals and recordings were being scheduled and happening, we had our wonderful graphic designer create some options for the CD cover. To involve fans, we actually posted options of covers on Facebook and let the fans tell US which cover they liked best. That was a lot of fun to hear their comments and suggestions; I highly suggest it for your next album! You might get some ideas you wouldn’t think of on your own or with your team.

Take this idea to the next level and invite fans to vote on their favorite cover. As incentive, offer a free download of a new single from the album! Your fans will really appreciate that.

After my client mixed the audio and the master’s were created, we decided to upload the audio to SoundCloud, letting people stream the music and simply, just get to hear the music. Fans love free, especially when it’s a high quality product. Now we have the ability to share the album before they can buy and they can decide if they would like to have their own copy. Once it’s available for download, we’ll make it available for purchase, but having the previews available is a nice way to welcome your close fans to your new piece of work.

Don’t want to make the entire album available? Just choose 3-4 songs that you think represent the album the best. You want fans listening and excited to hear more!

What are your favorite ways to promote an upcoming album? What unique ways have you involved your fans in an album release? Did you notice better sales from it? Send me a message, I’d love to hear your experience!

I hope you all have a wonderful day, wherever you are.

Album Release / Business Tips - 04/25/2014

Do you know your value?

So you may have noticed these past few emails of me mentioning a tour packet that I’m working on. Yes, it’s true! I’m working hard every day to put together a DIY Tour Packet to be released with my new website for independent musicians to reference while planning a tour! Essentially, it’s going to be for musicians who need direction and organization when planning for their next tour, especially if they don’t have a tour manager or assistant to help them. I’m really excited about this and it’s just going to be FULL of information (and photos!) that I’ve learned personally, first-hand, on the road and over the years as an assistant.

There are a load of logistics and check lists for any tour, but the first step is initially booking the dates. Maybe you have an agent organizing your tour, or maybe you are doing it yourself. Either way, you want to get yourself organized and prepared before you start making those calls to save time and frustration. Getting clear about your fees will make booking quicker and easier for everyone!

Here are some tips to creating your rate sheet.

1. Determine your fee
Determining your fee as a musician is not straightforward, so definitely take some time and care into finding what works for you. Here is a wonderful article on how to determine your hourly rate and then from there, buckle down your flat rate. Things to consider is not only the amount of time you play per set, but also the travel time. Travel costs come in step 3.

2. Paying your Bandmates
If you are a solo artist, then you don’t have to worry about this. However, if you have a band to pay, determine their rates and add it onto your solo rate to determine the band rate so you can ensure to earn your fair share. Also, be sure to include in this amount you have to pay your band to rehearse, not just perform.

3. Travel & Hospitality costs
Most of my clients keep travel fees separate from their performance fee, which I think is your best option. Putting this statement on your rate sheet will make it clear:

Arrangements for travel & hospitality costs are additional and are to be specified at the time when an agreement is made between the Hirer and the Musician

So when you have a lead, determine if you will charge for driving, flying, train, etc. and hotel for the duration of your stay. And be sure to say ‘in addition’ to your performance fee!

4. Create a clean, easy to read rate sheet with a chart
Keep it simple and include a chart at the top with your rates, clearly stated and number any additional statements, including the travel and hospitality costs, below the chart.

Even if you aren’t going on a tour and just looking to book shows when you are available, this rate sheet will help save your precious time and energy when negotiating an offer.

Thanks for reading!

Business Tips - 04/08/2014

Don’t let it slide…

Hey there!

I hate to say it again, but yes, we had another cold weekend (and a cold week ahead of us!) here in NYC. This has to be the longest winter I’ve experienced! Maybe if I close my eyes and click my heels 3 times I’ll appear on a beach?

Yeah, enough day dreaming. Let’s snap back to reality.

If I think too much about my big dreams or long term goals, I lose sight of my to-do list. Does that ever happen to you? You get so focused on writing and recording for a new album that you miss a deadline for the release? Or you are having a really great conversation with a top guy in the industry giving you priceless connections, and when you hang up, you already forgot that persons name he gave you?

It’s easier than you think to forget important tasks when you are trying to balance your business, your creative process and your life!

We’re not robots who have programmed reminders or alerts that will go off – we’re humans. We need to be realistic and set ourselves up for success in reaching our goals.

Whether you are tackling your to-do list on your own or with an assistant, here are some tips I myself use to keep me on track and crossing off things on my to-do list!

1. Don’t count on remembering.

If you are in a conversation and you are conjuring a great plan, say, book a tour next year, don’t count on remembering the conversation after you hang up. Write down dates, names, notes, ask for spellings while in the conversation so you will not forget! This saves a ton of time having to a) try to remember or b) having to call back and get the info again.

2. Use your resources.

There are a zillion apps that can keep you focused. I keep it simple by using Google Task Bar with my gmail account. Take a look at a snapshot:

I’ve blurred this mail account, but you can see the Google Tasks box in the bottom right-hand corner. To turn it on in your Gmail account, just click on the tasks link on the left-hand side of the screen. You can even make it pop-out and open in its new window.

With it, you can quickly create a list to check off for yourself. The great thing about it is that it stays open when you are in your email, so it’s in your face, every day, all day. If you have a to-do list, you need to put it where you will look, right?!

I use the task list to keep track of any emails I need to send, deadlines, quick tasks and more. It’s also my go to when I do need to be reminded what needs to be done – such a great way to keep focused.

3. Write it down!

Currently, I’m assisting a client release a new album along with the sheet music this summer and there are plenty of deadlines with both products. The checklist includes filling out a new release form by a certain date, submitting the cover art for both the album and the songbook, publish the music, get licensing for certain pieces, proof read the book, and the list goes on and on!

For a large project like this, instead of using a task list, I wrote down the deadlines clearly on an old-fashioned paper calendar so that I can see clearly the month(s) ahead and remind my client of the important deadlines. Visually seeing the timeline helps me immensely and I highly recommend it for anyone.

4. Delegate – The most important part!

There will always be more to do than you can handle. Delegate the simple & low profit work to your assistant, such as, sending a quick link to a person interested in booking you, searching for a flight to your next gig, sending rehearsal times to your band, etc. Allocating what you need to do will diminish the to-do list for yourself and get things done quicker.

I hope these short tips will help you keep on track of your deadlines so you can make this year amazing!

Business Tips - 03/03/2014

4 Ways to Spruce up your Facebook Page!

One part I love about my job as an assistant is helping musicians carry out their branding on their social media pages. Often, musicians have the branding in place on their website, but their Facebook page doesn’t match it. I can’t count how many times I go to a musician’s page and see so many small things they could do to make it look fantastic! I’ve become accustomed to updating musician’s pages for them so that their branding matches across the board, one of the many tasks I do for my clients.

Considering a Facebook page is most likely the place people will go to check out your music after your website, shouldn’t you pay more attention to make sure it reflects your brand? Short answer – yes.

Here are 4 ways you can spruce up your Facebook Fan pages.

1. Put a cover on it

Some pages I’ve come across feature a picture of themselves as their cover photo, along with a picture of themselves for their profile picture. Going that route doesn’t allow for anything to stand out and it can feel cluttered – like a bad photo collage. Do you have an amazing logo? Make it your profile picture and then feature a photo of you as the cover. Have a new album or tour? Make the cover about that, featuring dates and links, and choose a great shot of you for your profile picture. Keep in mind the size of the cover it 851×315 pixels and if you are creating a cover with information on it, keep in mind where the profile picture box will be on the left. I use this handy template whenever I am building a new cover.

Beyonce’s Facebook admin does it just right here, using her new logo and contrasting it with a photo.

2. The info under the profile picture.

For this info box, keep it simple and be sure to include a link! I’ve seen pages not utilize this space correctly by either a) not including a link or b) include too many likes! Choose one thing you’d like to focus on – whether it’s your new album, new website or your twitter account – and write a quick sentence or tagline with the one link. For example:

More than just a girl with a guitar – (link to website)

Get Kelly’s latest album, ‘Girl with a Dream’ here (link to purchase)

3. Choose the right Facebook Tabs

You’re a musician – you tour, you have merch, you have an email list, you want people to buy your music, right?. So why not feature those revenue streams as well as fan connecting streams on your Facebook page?

^On my page, I feature what’s important to my followers.

First of all, get rid of the ‘Number of Likes’ Tab. This is super unimportant to people visiting your site – plus, they can see how many likes you have under your name if they need to know. That tab can be used towards a link to your newsletter sign up, your blog or a link to your online store. One thing you cannot remove is the Photos tab, but find the apps you can include and use the space you have wisely!

4. Personalize your Facebook Tabs with Images and Text

Once you have the best Facebook Tabs picked out for you, it’s time that you personalize them to match your branding. You do NOT want to keep the generic tab cover or title. If you use Mailchimp for your newsletters, as many of us do, adding their app to your page gives you their generic picture / title:

So, instead of ‘Newsletter Sign Up’ which doesn’t even fit in the title, keep it short with ‘Email List’ or ‘Mailing List’. Then, get rid of the apps tab image and replace it with a branded text image (Note: the size of these images have to be exactly 111 x 74). Take a look at John Mayer’s tabs. His team created matching images that reflected his branding and is easy to read and more importantly,UNDERSTAND. Job well done by John Mayer’s Facebook admin:

So, how do you change the Facebook Tab Image?

Here’s a quick tutorial:

Take these four ways to freshen up your page and you will change the entire feel of your page for visitors in just a few hours. After seeing what it could look like after a few minutes spent with it, why would you go back?

Social Media - 02/17/2014

Double your Performance Opportunities!

As a musician you want to put yourself out there as much as you can – and one part of this means being proactive in finding your gigs (Read Bob Baker’s Get Your Ask Out). This means applying to be on a conference performance slots responding to a venue requesting submissions on Reverbnation, or with the rise of the idea of ‘concerts in your living room’, seeking out opportunities on Gigit or Concertsinyourhome.

You may start applications, and then fail to follow through and complete them because you began a different project, only to come back to it a few days later and realizing you missed your deadline. Or, you aren’t prepared for what they request in your profile or submission, for example, a high quality photo of the band or some attention grabbing press quotes. Not having these things ready causes the process to take way longer than it should!

Get organized by getting together in one folder:

1-2 Hi-Res photos of you and/or your band, color and b&w
Band member full names/all instruments
3-5 MP3s (most used format for submissions) of your top songs
2-3 Videos on Youtube of your top plays or favorites
3-5 killer press quotes from the top publications
Short (50 words) AND long current bio

You are also going to want to have that handy-dandy calendar I mentioned last week to be sure when you are available for the concert, event or conference.

Now, this is the hard part…sit down, start and finish that application!

The worst thing you could do is start the application, get distracted by something else, and then when you remember to return to the application days or even weeks later, discover you missed the deadline. Nothing is more frustrating than making such an easy error!

Once you get more comfortable with submitting to conferences, you can start a database with names of festivals you want to be a part of with deadlines/requirements and then you can clearly see that November is the time to submit to NAMM Conference in January.

Being that organized will make you efficient and quicker to get your applications in and on time, meaning more chances for you to perform!

Business Tips - 11/18/2013

How Musicians Waste Time

Musicians, your time is valuable. You need that time to dedicate to creating and developing your music. But, as you grow in your career and business, the busy work does too. Updating websites, keeping up on social media, submitting music, coordinating rehearsals and interviews comes with the territory of a musician – and it’s a lot! To lighten the load, I’ll be sharing tips over the next few weeks on how to make the days go by easier.

Coordinating a Rehearsal

How many email chains do you have of you going back and forth with your band on rehearsal times, days, places…a bunch, right? Scheduling might seem like it takes no time, but when you think about it, it can take a chunk out of your day. Things that might be slowing you down is when and how you initiate the first email to schedule a rehearsal.

When scheduling a rehearsal:

You want the rehearsal to be a few days / no more than a week from the performance day – so send the initial email about 3 weeks before the performance date.
Be sure to give everyone a few days to reply – not everyone is glued to their email inbox!
Give clear times on when you are free. Don’t say “Oh, I’m free whenever this week or next.” Instead, choose times and say “after 6PM on Tuesday, or 1-5PM on Friday”.
Tell them how long you want the rehearsal to be, whether it’s 2 hours, 4 hours or a full 8 hour day.
Find a time before you worry about the where it will be, a much easier task when dealing with a 5-member band.

Reminders are heaven sent to someone who has a swamped schedule. Once a meeting or rehearsal has been confirmed, I set up reminders with Boomerang for Gmail (or reminders in Outlook if you have that). Boomerang is great as it lets me choose a date and time to send a reminder. So, once I know a rehearsal will be next Tuesday at 5PM for 2 hours, I schedule a reminder to everyone in the band to send a reminder the day before. This has prevented the dreaded ‘double-booking’ that will happen as you get busier. Be smart and set yourself (and your band) some reminders.

For meetings or interviews, I tend to follow the same process. Pick the time for them, be clear on how much time you have, give them your contact info and set those reminders!

Business Tips - 11/04/2013