Da JamBuzzer Blog

Watch, & Read This Letter From My iPod…

“Dear Listener,

It has been a cold, hard and lonely last couple of months. I have been sitting in your room, feeling empty inside. It seems like every week you pick me up just to put me back down. Every time I think that I am going to get filled with some good music, I’m let down and disappointed by the mediocre songs that you put in me.

But I’m sure that you’re just as disappointed as I am. You’re probably not happy with the quality of the music that’s been put out lately either.

It seems that our relationship is drifting further and further apart, simply because the industry doesn’t seem to want to give us decent music for me to play for you.

I am still holding on to faith that one day, some new music artists who are not controlled by money hungry corporate stiffs will rise up and put out great music again. But I also hope and believe that the music listeners will support these new music artists so they have the chance to go big and be played in iPods just like me all over the world, by listeners just like you.

This will help us to get our relationship back to where it used to be… Remember when you first bought me?

We spent soooo much time together!

There were plenty of songs for you to put in me, and I returned the favor by providing you with hours of listening pleasure. But thanks to these non-passionate artists who only care about money, our relationship has suffered.

Ohhhh I wish we could go back to the good ole days when artists actually cared about creating good music.

Are you even reading this letter?

Hey! Maybe you can pass it on to the ‘music industry’ and let them get a sense of how I and iPods all over are feeling right now. If things don’t change, then it won’t be long before I just decide to end it all. We need each other…You, the listener…me, the iPod.

Please tell ‘the industry’ to either step up and put out good music, or step aside and let the up-and-coming artists who really care about us have their chance to succeed, and at the same time, give me and you the chance to succeed and get back to a strong relationship where you give me the tunes, and I play them for you.

I hope that the new music artists who are on the rise don’t get discouraged, and truly have a chance to help us, as we help them at the same time.

Hey! Maybe that new JamBuzzer.com site will help!

When it comes out, please make sure that you tell all your friends about it, and tell all the new music artists too! Please don’t let me die. I really don’t want to die out with the music industry.

You need me! I need you! We need music! Don’t let us die out! Please!

……. I’m beggin’ you…. …….

-Your Old Buddy,

-iPod”

Well, its  4:09 in the morning, and we are stuck in the office because of ICE!!!

We just tried to leave, but our cars couldn’t make it up the street, because there is a nice thick layer of ice covering everything outside.

If you were here in Chicago, you probably would have laughed as you saw two cars make futile attempts to get up the shallow hill up the street, and fail dramatically. We basically lost all hope when we saw 2 giant city snow plow/salt trucks couldn’t even make it.

You  could seriously put on some ice skates and play hockey outside right now! Well, might as well get more work done while we’re here!

Over this last year, especially that last 6 months, the Internet seems to have been going crazy over this highly talked about site known as Twitter.

It started off as a tool just to connect and keep in touch with friends to let them know what you are doing. So the term ‘social web application‘ fits well, because ‘being social’ is what the app is all about.

Being social can also be extremely powerful for a music artist, because when fans feel like you care enough about them to interact with them regularly, then not only will they stay loyal, but they will become an army of promoters who talk about you to all people who they socialize with.

But the reason the buzz has been going on about it recently is because internet entrepreneurs, bloggers, and mlm marketers have found strong value in it for building their business.

At first, it sounds as if these people would come in as ’spammers,’ and while some of them do, that is truly not the case.

If you think about it, things you buy and places you go, are all connected with social activities.

For example, if you need a lawyer, you could easily look in a phone book and find one. However, you are more comfortable when you are dealing with a lawyer who was referred to you by a friend or family member, and you know that they will take care of you.

So when you think about this, it makes total sense.

So I played around with Twitter to see if there was a way that it could be valuable for an independent music artist to use as not only a music promotion tool, but also a way to keep in touch with your fans and stay on their minds.

Watch the video to see what I came up with:

So now that I’ve settled those curious thoughts about the value of this tool for music artists, as well as fans, sign up, follow me and JamBuzzer, and let me know what you think!

-Peace
-Aaron B.

If you feel like you have something that people should here, then you can’t be shy about it…

Here is a recent question that was asked:

“I have just finished recording my first album, and am excited! But I have been a shy person my whole life, and don’t really know what to do next! Do I just walk up to people and say ‘hey buy my music’ or what? I hope there are other ways that I can spread the word about my music…”

To answer this concern, I should mention that there are quite a few artists who are in the public eye who have been shy. The thing is, you have to find your own best way to turn that shyness into energy that you can feed off of and use it to your advantage.

You will have to use your mouthpiece and tell others about your music, but the beauty of it is that when you have told enough people, and your music backs up what you say, then you will acquire fans who will start telling the world for you!

Have you ever heard a rumor in it’s beginning stages when you were in high school?

It starts off as this ‘unbelievable’ statement about someone or something, and its so bad, or good, that before the end of the school day it has spread around the entire school!

The unbelievable thing about this phenomenon is the fact that it started with just one person telling the rumor! The reason it worked though, is because the person who started it was able not only to subliminally convince themself, but they were able to really make it believable and convince the few who they spoke it to.

You should have the ability to do this with your talent as an independent music artist, since you don’t have the hundreds of thousands of marketing dollars like the major labels.

If you can find music listeners who are really active advocates for their favorite artists, and make them a fan of your music, then this ‘mob effect’ can happen for your music as well! What? You ask what is the ‘mob effect?’

The mob effect is quite simple really.  Think about this:

You are walking down the street in the heart of the city, even downtown, and you see someone looking straight up in the air, with an excited look on  their face. As you wonder what in the world this person is staring at up above, you get kind of close to him and look up too.

You don’t see anything, but he’s looking up so convincingly excited about something, that you keep looking too, hoping that you will see what it is that has him so captivated.

After 2 minutes go by, you give up and decide you are just going to leave. So when you put your head back down, you notice that a large group, or ‘mob’ of 20 people have all assembled and are all looking up in the sky at nothing.

This my friends, is the ‘mob effect,’ and it is a phenomenon that has been around since the begining of life (I think).

Even the dinosaurs probably experienced this.

So the point of this is, you may have to break out of your shyness for a period of time, but if you promote effectively to the active music fans in your market, then they will eventually take over and your music will spread like legs in Las Vegas.

For those of you who are still worried about your shyness, you have a tool that can help take the ‘approaching’ factor out of the picture and make it easier on you.

You have the Internet!

You also have JamBuzzer! The tools on the internet for independent music artists are so sophisticated nowadays, that you could theoretically become popular and successful without even leaving your city!

When I first started marketing my services as a music producer and selling rap beats and r&b instrumentals to artists, there were only so many people that I could see in my city in a week. I did fine, but not good enough to quit my day job.

When I discovered how to use the internet to market myself, not only was I able to instantly put myself ‘in front’ of artists all over the entire world, but I was also able to quit my day job and pursue my passion as a music producer  and marketer on a full-time basis!

I have been known to be shy when I was coming up, but I can tell you that when you become high from the excitement of being able to live your passion everyday, then shyness rubs away! I’m sure you can probably tell from the videos I post that shyness is no longer in the picture, at least not in this case

Your solution is simple: If you are afraid to approach everyone you see about your music, then focus on the people who you can see are heavily enthusiastic about their favorite artists. Tell them about your music, get them on your side, and build an army of music promoters….for free!

But I must tell you, make sure that your music is quality, all the way around.

What Up All!

As we get close to turkey day, I grow more and more excited, and my stomach grows more and more wider and ready to accept all of the food that is being cooked in the kitchen!

But on another note, I have put together a quick survey regarding the music world, music downloads, and the internet as it effects the major as well as the indie music. It is a quick 4 question survey that should take you about 2 minutes or less to complete.

So what are you waiting for! Take the quick survey now!

I just wanted to update everybody on how things are comin’ along with the development of the beta. I am hoping that we can start conducting the first tests with users sometime this month. I have been playing around with the site so far ‘behind the scenes’ and we are still working out the kinks.

During limited beta testing, we will only have the basic features and functions working so that we can continue to work out the kinks and get user feedback. Some of the advanced features will come a little later after this testing period. Some of those features will not be in place in the beginning because:

1. They must remain a secret until completed
2. They require that we have a good amount of quality jams uploaded to the site by artists

Once the bugs are worked out, users are built, and quality jams are up and buzzin’, we’ll be ready to roll out the big guns, and disrupt the industry.

Meanwhile, I have been planning and staging development on some of the ideas that were put in the feedback section by all of you on the waiting list! I have also developed a few more ideas that will make things even more exciting and interesting once we reach stage 2 of site development!

Stay up and be ready
-Aaron B

In an earlier post that I wrote titled, “The Indie Music Term,” I talked about the surprising revelation that I found about the amount of searching that occurs everyday on the internet for the term, ‘indie music.’ I discussed how years ago when I owned ‘indiernb.com,’ i was always asked, ‘What is Indie Music?’

Even though the trend has changed and exponentially more people search for the term ‘indie music’ instead of ‘independent music,’ there are still some people who don’t completely understand where the term ‘indie’ came from. As I stated in the earlier posting, the term indie, is simply a short version of the word independent.

But really, what does it truly mean to be an independent music artist?

You see, I’ve noticed in the past that people would associate being an independent artist or an indie band with the term ’struggling.’ But when you look at the market today, a lot of artists signed to major labels are struggling, and a lot of indie artists and indie bands are in a better position.

Even in the financial department, it is possible for an indie band or solo artist to prosper quicker than a major artist, if done properly.

Artists who are signed to a major label have to pay everyone in the world before they make a cent. The label has to get paid, the distributor, producers, songwriters, and in the cases of major labels, the producers and songwriters are heavy hitters who charge top dollar. So most of the time, a new music artist who is signed to a record label won’t really make much profit at all from their first album, even if it goes gold. They will make most of their money from paid gigs.

In the case of the indie artist, they get to keep a much higher percentage of their record sales, and because of what the internet allows us to do with music as far as distribution goes, the need to pay excessive amounts to distributors and marketing departments are not as prevalent.

Even if you don’t want to be completely independent, you can still sign to a well established independent record label and still keep a low overhead compared to what you would have to pay out to a major label.

So the answer to the question of what is indie music is simple.

Indie music is music created by a party that is not governed or controlled by a major corporate record company, therefore it is independent of the standard formalities that govern the music industry. Indie music doesn’t depend on the corporate suits to get it from the creator to the fans, therefore can reach its destination, the fans, without the extra processes that go on in the corporate major label environment.

To make it more simple, lets just say that indie music does not depend on anyone but the artists and fans.

Recently, I received a letter from a young, new music artist who was down and discouraged about the way things are going in the music industry….

He felt that even though the internet should be making it easier for a new music artist creating new indie music, the big social music sites are still paying too much attention on the major artists, and putting them at the forefront and not even giving the new indie music a chance to ‘breathe’ and be seen and heard by the fans.

He was also concerned that the sites didn’t feature hardly any indie music news, and that as the major labels and artists start to step in and finally embrace the new trends in music on the internet, that it would become harder for independent music artists to promote themselves.

I understand his concern, but I believe that we’ve only seen the beginning of the trend changes that are about to occur in the music industry with the internet.

I see it much in the same way the stock markets act sometimes…

The insiders who go against the typical knowledge get in first, and milk the cow for all its worth. By the time the person who bags the groceries at the store starts talkin’ about the stock, and everybody starts to come move in on it, the insiders have gotten the benefit out of it, and they start unloadin’ their shares to the new suckers as it nears the peak.

Then, the insiders start workin on finding the next one.

So i consider the world of indie music and independent music artists to be the ‘insiders’ who quickly adapt to and embrace the new technologies that the fans are using, while the big labels and artists fight the trend.

But as soon as the big labels start coming in last, it is only a matter of time before the trends will start changing again, and the indies will find the next soon to blow ’stock.’

I’m not sure if I explained that as clear as I could have, but my main point is that as a new music artist, I wouldn’t be too concerned with what the majors are doing, and I wouldn’t be too concerned about it affecting how we do things.

Part of our reason for staying independent is exactly what the word means; we don’t depend on a corporate company to run our lives as artists, therefore we do what we want, when we want…

If you want to be ‘dependent’ and chained to a job, then go work at Wal-Mart and greet me at the door.

But if you want to continue building your own life  and career as an indie artist, and be free to create how you want, when you want, and distribute it how you want, when you want, to who you want, then you must realize that you have to take it upon yourself to use whatever resources are available to promote your music.

I am working to make sure that JamBuzzer is a very strong resource for you, but the success of it will depend on all of us to upload our best work.

Quality jams are what’s going to keep our fans coming and listening on a regular basis, and quality is what will help us build our fan-base and careers as independent music artists.

So I want to offer a word of encouragement to all of you independent music artists, and I also want to encourage you to be a part of our team movement by contributing the best quality music that you can, so that when we start inviting the millions of fans who are thirsty for new music, they will have a reason to stay, and a reason to become YOUR fan.

I tested the backend admin section for JamBuzzer this week, and things are going pretty good so far. After we got over a few issues with the server last week, things started going well, and I am happy to say that we should be in private beta real soon.

We also finished the first version of the buzzer profiles for all you music fans, and the jammer profiles to help all you independent music artists promote your music.

There are a lot more new features that will be built into the application, things that have never been done before yet in a social music application. These things will be added after the private beta, which will be open to a select number of jammers and buzzers while we work out any potential issues before spreading to the masses.

Since other social music sites seem to be leaving out the artists who I feel will become the most important people in the ‘virtual music industry,’ then our model will be built around indie music promotion first, allowing people all over to discover new indie music,  and major music will work its way in as the RIAA and major labels let their guards down to this new way of conducting internet music business.

We have also put together a system of dynamic indie music charts that I believe will revolutionize the way that the internet keeps track of indie music, as well as major label music….that is…if major record labels don’t dissolve first, for lack of willing to change.

There are a lot of independent music artists as well as music lovers who have been contacting me with excitment for the offical launch of JamBuzzer, so it is vital that I get as much feedback from the first testers as possible, so that we can collectivley meet the demand and expectations of the thousands of people who have signed up to be notified of the launch.

I’ll keep ya posted on what else is happening on the development side of things. Be on the lookout

It recently came to my attention, that the term ‘indie’ music is used more frequently than the term ‘independent’ music. You may wonder why I find that so amusing…

Well, a few years ago I owned a site called ‘indiernb’ where we did indie music reviews on independent r&b artists, and during that time, everyone always asked me “what is ‘indie’?”

At that time i figured that most people knew that i was referring to indpendent music and independent artists, but to my surprise nobody knew what I was talking about. Since I grew tired of explaining the concept to thousands of people, I had decided to put the site on hold and pursue other ventures.

But as I was doing my research this past week, I now see that the tables have turned, and now the term ‘indie’ is used much more than ‘independent.’

And when i say much more, I mean drastically more…a lot…almost sickening how much it’s used. Not only that, but now there are dozens of sites popping up, and guess what they do….they conduct indie music reviews….how ironic

It’s amusing how quickly the internet and the music industry can change on you without you even realizing it….Can’t say I didn’t see it comin…