1 ON 1 Entertainment & Broadjam: A New “Strategic Partnership”!

1 ON 1 Entertainment has formed a “Strategic Partnership” with Broadjam®, well known for over 15 years for delivering music licensing opportunities for independent artists. Follow the link below and get ready to take advantage of this new partnership with substantial discounts on Primo Membership and Music Submissions.

This new partnership with Broadjam adds to our already full roster of professional services being offered to independent musicians in rock, pop, hop hop, rap, country, jazz and all others who are trying to compete in a very competitive and very saturated market: The Music Industry.

1 ON 1 Entertainment was formed to help artists navigate the many twists and turns of the internet and offer professional guidance and “solutions” in logo design, custom website design, online marketing and social expansion. We are very happy to have Broadjam as part of the 1 ON 1 Entertainment family to add their many years of experience in music licensing.

Click Here to be taken to a special Broadjam Web Page which will explain these benefits to you including the following:

$99.98 for a 1 year “Primo membership” (a $199.95 value)
Only $5 for all song pitches to Music Licensing Opportunities!!!

• Submit your songs to music-industry professionals for a full review
• Sell your song downloads for $0.99/song, keep 100% of the profits for your first 500 sales
• Discount on all 1 ON 1 Entertainment’s Professional  Services
• Submit one free song to any Broadjam Monthly Contest
8 Become eligible for mentions/spotlights in the Broadjam Newsletter (sent to thousands weekly)=

FREE – 1 year Film/TV membership (a $100 value)

• Pitches to Music Licensing Opportunities – $5 per song to Film/TV Opportunities, $10 per song to all others
• Click here to see some recent Music Licensing successes from Broadjam members!
• Submit your songs to music industry professionals for a full review

Click Here to Learn More!

 

 

Your Name(required)

Your Email Address(required)

Professional Website (not Facebook Soundcloud or Reverbnation)

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Online Licensing Submission Requests

I received an email from offering everyone $5 submissions. So I took a look at a few. I haven’t submitted through them personally for a long time, mainly because of the “Terms” for many of the submissions. Having gone through this with several websites, I would like to recommend that you PLEASE be sure to read ALL of EVERY submission request (many can be seen under the “Opportunity Terms/Contract” when you click on a submission request). Many of them are asking for 100% OWNERSHIP OF YOUR COPYRIGHTS, for 100% of the publishing and for other very unethical and downright unfair terms. Further, most of these website claim zero responsibility for the terms of each submission request. PLEASE everyone, be careful and READ READ READ. Read it ALL and read it again… have an attorney read it if you are unfamiliar with legal mumbo jumbo.

Case in point. This is pulled directly from the request: “Artist irrevocably assigns, transfers and grants to Company, its successors and assignees, one hundred percent (100%) of Artist’s right, title and interest throughout the world in and to the Controlled Composition. Such assignment, transfer and grant of the Controlled Composition or Compositions shall include, without limitation, the copyright, the right to secure copyright registration, and any and all copyright renewal rights and/or extensions thereof, all for the full term of copyright protection and all extensions and renewals thereof.”

It goes on with: “All entries are final and irrevocable. Once Artist has delivered Materials to this Destination, Artist may not withdraw the submission. Absolutely no fee refunds will be made for any reason.”

Why are they offering no refunds? Because once you sign, you’re SCREWED!Be sure to protect yourself and your music. Read ALL the fine print, all the Terms of every contract or deal BEFORE signing. Once you sign it, you are committed to it and saying “I didn’t see it” is not going to be enough to stand up in court.

All the above applies to every website and/or service that offers licensing requests by “music industry professionals”. Just be safe and good luck.

DDIY – Don’t “Do It Yourself”

Click Here to Visit the 1 on 1 Entertainment Website

 

There are some things that are perfectly fine as do-it-yourself projects. Others… well not so much.

To start, PLEASE forgive the tone of this post but I prefer to speak frankly about this topic. As I browse the web, I constantly find myself shaking my head remembering #SimonCowell reply to a horrible #AmericanIdol contestant’s performance… “What are you THINKING?” Remember that?

For the love of God Almighty, people please listen to me right now. There is a growing trend it seems that is turning the entire internet into a bog of mudded up foul-smelling disgusting poop! The worst of course being the industry of get rich quick schemes… OH! The humanity!!!! I’m speaking of course of these horrible, terrible, awful low end DIY websites. I can’t even call them websites, they’re so crappy, using cheap low-grade imagery, endless scrolling single page nightmares that no one is going to EVER read through!

Personally, I think by now I’m pretty good at knowing my strengths and weaknesses. I know I’m a good musician. I know I’m a good designer. I like to think I’m a good father, etc… I won’t bore you with the rest. Conversely, I’m a decent cook but I am definitely not an executive chef. I would certainly not try to open up my own restaurant. I’m not an attorney. If I ever have legal troubles, I’m sure as hell not going to try to defend myself. I’m going to go and hire an attorney!

So all you indie artists out there, actors, models, anyone doing anything creative, all you business owners regardless of industry, etc. please, under no circumstances, in the name of everything that is human and sacredly Holy, unless you are in fact a professional designer and someone who understands all of the ins and outs required to put up a professional website, do not, I repeat do NOT try to build your own website! I don’t care if your mom or your friends tell you it looks good, go hire a professional website designer. DON’T use a template, “cookie cutter” website builder. DONT try to learn a program and do-it-yourself! DO NOT think that because you understand how this program works, that you’re automagically a professional website designer, foregoing years of practical design experience!

FREEBIE WEBSITES: One thing that REALLY kills any chance of a professional online image is that irreplaceable, unmovable, annoying, always visible… “This Website Built FREE by XYZ Websites”. As a business, that tells the world you don’t give a shit enough about your own brand and image to invest in it and if you are an artist, it tells a fairly longer tale.

BUYING THE PROGRAM: Sure, anyone can get #Dreamweaver and learn to “build” a website, but to “design” one, professionally, understanding all the aspects of a website and what it needs to be, what it needs to include, how to code, how to deal with #SEO, how to properly web format graphics and images, etc…. This is an entirely different animal. And of course using these templates means that you’re choosing one, a fish store in Maine is using the same one, another artist is using the same one… I think you get the idea. The likes of WordPress make it easy for anyone to put up a website. But trust me when I tell you, I’ve seen some real butcher jobs when using templates, you probably have too. If it’s a matter of using it as a simple blog, go for it, but not for your full-blown website… one that it supposed to be your PROFESSIONAL website. As far as for Search Engine Optimization, if you can’t get into the code, you either need 100 pages of relevant text, or you need to pay to have it listed on the top of #searchengines. Short of proper coding and knowing what’s involved in SEO tactics, your website will be a water fountain in the desert with no map to it. TRUTH!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Would you go out and try to land a record deal with music that is poorly recorded, where the instruments aren’t lining up, with a guitar out of tune, with a poor vocal performance? Ok well some might, but if you are truly serious about your career, you’re probably not one of those. No. You’re going to bust your ass to put your absolute best music out there. Why should you treat your online image any differently? You are the CEO. Your music is your product. Your online image is your marketing tool and the window by which the public gains access to you.

I don’t know how much time and how much money you spent on your career, but putting up a website that you THINK is going to work, that you THINK looks good, can honestly destroy everything you’ve worked hard to build. The smart move is to invest in yourself, whatever it takes, to make sure that you get exactly what you need and exactly what you want. Online, it’s all about image. You need to have a professional logo and a professional online image that is as professional as the music, the products etc. that you’re putting out to the public.

A website needs to be an extension of you, of your creativity, of your business. It needs to reflect what you stand for and what you believe, what your philosophies are. It needs to catch attention in a positive way in the first 3 seconds that someone sees it. It needs to be individualized to YOU by use of the right interface design, the right colors, the right text styles, the right imagery, etc. And ALL of this needs to be conveyed in a cohesive way, tying into your brand, your social profiles, your printed marketing material, and so on.

Before they will listen to you, they are going to SEE your website. Remember that.

Unless you’ve hired a professional designer, what you have right now is probably not up to par of what it could be, and I’m actually very confident in saying that based on what I’ve been seeing lately from businesses and from artists submissions to 1 ON 1 Entertainment.

Please my friends, my fellow humans, and of course my fellow independent artists… hire a pro. If you have any questions, 1 ON 1 Entertainment doesn’t charge to talk to people. I know times are tough, a lot of people are struggling, and probably none more than musicians and creatives. All the more reason to get yourself more competitive in some very competitive industries. Take advantage of EVERY advantage you can possibly get your hands on. Get your hands on us… we don’t mind. And if you want some help, and you’re really serious, maybe we’ll choose to work with you.

“Take Control”… its time!

1 ON 1 Entertainment is a professional graphic design, website design, online marketing, SEO, global distribution and social expansion firm.

Web. http://www.1on1ent.com

Em. results [AT] 1on1ent [DOT] com

Social Engagement: The Golden Key

So you’ve created a band or artist page on Facebook. GREAT! The pictures are nice, you’ve got some widgets, etc. working well. The problem is, all you post are show announcements like “Hey everyone, we’re playing at so and so venue on so and so date!” While it’s very important to let your fans know about your shows, this kind of post misses one of the most important aspecst of Social Marketing: Engagement.

You want your fans to talk about you. You also want your fans to talk WITH you. You want them to “interact” with your posts. With show announcements, you’re not ASKING for interaction. All the information they need is right there. They don’t have reason to interact. To have more fan engagement, you have to GIVE them a reason to interact with your posts.

Here’s a very simple thing you can do. If you have plenty of “Likes”, then you have plenty of people already in your target audience. Instead of only posting about your shows, how about starting a discussion about an interesting topic or perhaps ask them a question?

Try it. By asking them an engaging question, you are asking for them to publicly post their opinion about something. Many people are more than happy to show they have knowledge about something so the more general your question is, the more engagement you will likely get. Try something like “What do you think is the greatest love song of all time?” Or “What was the coolest live show you ever went to?” I would veer away from asking people their stance on a political issue. You are a band, not politicians and you certainly don’t want to say anything that will offend anyone’s political stance. Same with religion.

By posing an “interactive” question to your audience you are also asking them to interact. You’re also:

1. Asking them to engage
2. Giving them reason to engage
3. Asking them to post THEIR opinion on a subject
4. Showing you care about your fans opinions
5. Letting them feel like they matter among the others

Now think about this for a second. Who is YOUR favorite artist? How would you feel if that artist that you’ve loved for a long time, suddenly asked you for YOUR opinion or just showed they want to get personal with YOU? Probably the single most important thing is to let your fans feel like they are getting closer, more personal with you, the artist they are following, the artist they love!

Put these few simple principles into practice, working with the psychology of your fans and with social engagement, and you will SEE more engagement. This can be applied to any Facebook page for artists, bands, any kind of business and even personal pages!

1 ON 1 Entertainment works with artists and businesses to help employ best practices that work. From professional logo design and website design, to full marketing and Social Expansion, we are available. Learn more at the1 ON 1 Entertainment website. If you are struggling in creating a professional “online image” and trying to figure our how to market what you’ve spent plenty of time and money to create, then we might just want to work with you.

1 ON 1 Entertainment… Take Control!

http:// www.1on1ent.com

Building Relationships in the Music Industry

The music business is build 99% built on relationships. So many music supervisors, publishers and others who place music are inundated daily with strangers submitting music. So here’s a far better practice. Before just sending your music over blindly to everyone on your email list every time you record a new song, here’s a better practice:

DON’T THROW SHIT AT A WALL HOPING SOME WILL STICK!

Blasting to every possible email address you come across will not help you. If you consider wasting time and money a help, then yes, it will help you. Seriously though, you want to take the time, research each music supervisor, publisher and any others in your sights BEFORE submitting

BUILD A RELATIONSHIP

Spend some time speaking to the person you’d like to submit to. You may find out very quickly that they don’t even handle your style or genre of music, in which case, you don’t want to waste their time or yours. Be courteous. Don’t act like you’re the best thing around because EVERYONE thinks they are. Be different. Be kind. Be NICE. Be the ones with integrity. THAT is what makes a difference to a music supervisor.

 ASK PERMISSION

Once you’ve had the chance to speak with your “friend”, and hopefully you’ve turned being strangers into being on a first name basis, only then is it cool to ASK if it would be ok if you submitted music. You might spend time befriending them only for  “we’re not accepting music currently.” and that’s ok. Down the road, they might get in touch with YOU if they need something along your style. They will remember you as THAT GUY who was nice, who had integrity.

BEST FOOT FORWARD, ONE CHANCE AT A FIRST IMPRESSION (and any other cliche you can think of!)

More than likely, you’re probably wasting your time submitting to everyone blindly. Most do not take unsolicited material and like us, we don’t accept submissions off the street, so to speak. If someone sends in an email to submit music and I don’t know who they are, that email is going in the trash. “Why?… How can someone be so mean?” you might ask.

HERE’S THE HONESTY: Consider how many artists submit blindly per week to music supervisors alone. For bigger names and publishers, it’s probably in the thousands. Do you really think they would have the time to do anything else in their lives if they had to “be nice” and listen and critique every single submission?

Be considerate of TIME. If you value your own, then value theirs.

Just introduce yourself, and then after you’ve emailed back and forth a few times, ask if it would be ok to submit a song or two. Then, submit your absolute BEST. Best written and best produced and without a doubt, best possible quality. If you don’t have broadcast quality, get back to the studio and rerecord. DO NOT SUBMIT music that is not top notch, even if it is an acoustic/vocal version. Make it the BEST, professionally recorded, acoustic/vocal version you can deliver. Otherwise, you may just blow your one chance at that first impression.

I can’t tell you how many submissions I’ve been through this week alone that the artist “thought” was good enough quality for airing! Sometimes I WISH I could be as mean and nasty as Simon Cowell IE. “What are you THINKING?” But I’m not. I am writing this blog in the hopes it reaches at least some of you who think it’s ok to submit music that YOU KNOW is not great quality, with instruments not performed/recorded in sync with each other, with pitchy vocals, with careless mixes, without mastering, and on and on and on.

It’s NOT ok to submit “an idea” or “a demo”. Submit professional tracks. No one is going to listen past 10 seconds (or less) to a horribly recorded demo and say, I see the potential of the song… here’s $50,000 to go rerecord it.” It just doesn’t happen!

1 ON 1 will take submissions as projects come in, for now through Music Xray. Like it or not, reviewing tons of music is a ton of work. Writing back to each and every artist takes time. By asking for a small fee for submission, it also weeds out those who are less confident in their own product and might be the tipping point to make them reconsider submitting their music, AFTER it’s more professionally recorded.

If you would like to submit, please visit these links:

Good luck.

 

SEO and Finding Your Website

SEO – Search Engine Optimization is a website’s best friend. As stated in a previous post, “The web is a desert. Your website is a water fountain. Without a map, how will those poor, thirsty souls find it?”

SEO is the process of utilizing the ode or HTML, Java, etc. that runs your website and enhancing and writing it in such a way that the search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, can easily find it. Search engines use what are called “Spiders” or little bits of code or bots to crawl your website. When it finds relevancy to someone’s search terms, it returns with search results. The goal is to be as high up as possible on the first page of search results.

How? You might ask. Well answering this question would take about a year. But the short of it is to hire someone who knows of tried and proven techniques to gain high placement.

One thing you can do on your own right now, if you are the webmaster for your website. Start rewriting the text on the website using keyword rich text. This means that you need to use the words on your website that you want people to find you by. For example, if someone searches Google for “Rock Bands in Oklahoma City”, and you are a rock band in Oklahoma City, well then it makes sense that you should say that on your website.

One other thing you can do on your own. Get more Back Links. The more websites you have that link to yours, even a simple text link, the better your SEO advancement will be.

As part of the 1 on 1 “Plans” we offer professional SEO among the many others professional services we offer. There are many individual tactics for obtaining high search engine rank… we know of many of them.

Contact Us and let’s talk.

Clean up Your Image

Online… it’s ALL about image.

When you first come to a website and see poor or pixelated imagery, what is your opinion about that brand? No what if it’s a musician’s website and the images are crappy, alignment of text is crappy, colors are blinding and the website is overall just a mess?

Well of course you may not be a designer but everyone has some sense of what looks decent.

The web is a desert. Your website is a water fountain. Without a map, how will those poor, thirsty souls find it?

The simple fix to your own website is this. Get one done by a designer. Buying and learning a website editing program does not mean you are a website “designer”, it mean’s you can “build” a website. These are two very different animals.

Here are a few key things to incorporate into all of your online material, including your website and electronic Press Kit (EPK):

• Use professional photographs whenever possible and by all means keep them current. Your online image is what sells you to potential “customers” and creates that initial interest from the start.

• Use well written text that is rich in words that clearly define you and your music.

• Hire a designer… period!

• Make sure your logo is used on ALL marketing material online (and offline in print)

• Stick with a consistent color theme. When you start adding 7 different colors, it;s very hard on the eye and does not make people want to return.

• Do not put dark text on a dark image or back ground or light text on a light one. Don’t make people struggle to read.

• Talk to 1 on 1. Having a website doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to do anything for you. The web is a desert. Your website is a water fountain. Without a map, how will those poor, thirsty souls find it? You can’t hand your website address to the millions of people out there so you must use the web to use the web! We are professionals in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which is how we will help you get found.

Keep all this in mind and you will have a MUCH nicer presentation and moreover, your IMAGE will be one that instills visitor confidence from the moment they enter your website. The same holds true for any of your social profiles. Your Facebook page header, Twitter header and so on should all be consistent with your website’s design and branding and should all use clean clear imagery and photos. Your music is your business after all, keep it awesome!!!

At 1 on 1, we are professional graphic and website designers, among other things and this is one of the services we offer. If you would like to discuss the possibilities of working with 1 on 1 on a professional website, graphics, posters, logo or any other design or marketing material, feel free to Contact Us.

Clean up Your Music

Before you submit anything to anyone, make sure it is CLEAN! This means a professionally recorded song, mixed and mastered. If you can’t afford this, there are plenty of online guides and articles with solid recording techniques and links to get some very good and cheap recording tools.

For just a moment, put yourself in the role of a Music Supervisor looking to place an acoustic ballad on a hit TV show. You receive about 100 submissions per day and have to review each one… one by one. Included in the submissions are electronic dance songs, rap, hip hop, heavy metal and of course some, who follow directions, actually submit an acoustic ballad. 

As a music supervisor, you not only have to find the best song and lyrics for your show, you also want to find a song that requires little to no work. By work we’re talking about possible rerecording, remastering, etc. as well as additional clearances. For example, if a submission includes an obvious sample from a Jason Mraz song, you need to obtain licensing to use it the song, which means contacting the right people at the Mraz camp. This clearance should have been done by the artist who used the sample in the first place BEFORE submitting the song to you, but as stated in a previous post, many artists do not know the business side of music.

You, the music supe, also have to find the “cleanest” broadcast quality music, again to avoid more work. Standards for placement are very high when it comes to the cleanliness of music. Songs will simply not be placed in any professional production if the quality sucks! Period!

Take the time, make the time or your wasting your time!

So as you listen to submissions, you hear hisses, pops and some very poor quality recordings, noticeable even in the first few seconds of listening. Do you think this will qualify for placement? Even the most beautifully written and performed song must be clean, free of ambient noise, environmental noise and of course device noise. If it’s not, it simply will not be considered and in all honesty, it won’t get a listen beyond the first few seconds.

Here’s the question: How does YOUR music sound. Is it clean? Is it mixed and mastered professionally? To gauge it, ask yourself… do you think it’s radio ready. If not, if it’s got all sorts of noise, if the instruments are performed with parts not played on time and in sync (is the bass being played in line with the drums?), if it’s not CLEAN then it is not going to be placed in 99% of instances.

The point here is that it’s not ok to submit poor quality to a music supervisor and moreover, why would you waste your money when your song is not what you KNOW it needs to be. Ok well in all fairness, maybe you didn’t know until you read this post, but now you DO know. So what are you going to do?

It’s not a fun idea thinking “oh hell, now I have to rerecord all my songs!” I’ll say it plainly… take the time, make the time or your wasting your time. Thats it! Put your absolute best foot forward and trust me, your chances at placement will grow exponentially… seriously!

If you would like to continue a personal conversation about your music, complete with a professional critique of a few songs, you are welcome to submit 2-3 of your BEST songs. But please, do so knowing everything you just read above. If it’s not clean, you’re still very welcome to submit, just be prepared for hard honesty. If you it’s not in time, if you didn’t tune your guitar, if it’s got background noise or hiss, etc. etc. etc… we’re going to tell you exactly what we hear wrong, including off key, pitchy vocals. So if you want to work with us, we’re prepared to work with you “1 on 1”!

Contact us HERE!

The Business Side of Your Music

Most musicians are not business owners and probably don’t know what they need about being a CEO for a corporation. But when it comes down to it, you ARE the CEO of your own business. Your music and “online image” are your products.

One of the first things I did when forming my businesses was to create a short business plan. It was by no means elaborate but it identified the key elements of the goals I was hoping to achieve. Of course making a profit was first on the list, but among the other top contenders for the higher bullet points was Successful Marketing.

You are a musician. NO! You are a business owner! You create music. NO! You create a product. You give away your products for free. NO! What are you crazy?

Running a business as a musician needs to be treated exactly the same as if it were any other kind of business. There is overhead, there may be staff, there are regular purchases like gas to get to gigs, strings and batteries, new software, computer upgrades, cables, microphones, etc., there is profit and and there is loss and if you’ve formed the business legally in your state or country, there are taxes to consider from the income you earn. You create and offer a product and/or service, your music and your live performances, and hope the public will get on board, like it and purchase it. If you’ve incorporated, there are other facets of the business to consider. I won’t get into business law but among all, there needs to be active and continual marketing. Without at least a plan on how a business is going to get the word out about themselves, well as the saying goes, you might be “pissing in the wind”! 

Once your music is great, the marketing and the business will be great!

Like it or not, you ARE the CEO. You decide how your time, and the time of those you hire or contract, will be spent. You set the rules. You define your sound. The bottom line is, you WORK! Yeah I know that’s not very rock n roll, but it’s the straight truth. But without the work, you are going nowhere fast. Without MARKETING, I would tell you to quit right now. It’s just way too competitive out there to not be capitalizing on the huge impact that social media and online marketing can have on your career.

So you don’t really know how? Well good thing you found us! We do! We are your marketing team. We are your sales department. We are your PR firm.

Contact us, get in touch. Let us hear what you’ve got. If we feel the music you’ve created is great and good clean quality, then we might just pick you up. More than anything, we want to help. We want to help you learn and have the tools so you can then go out there and be a DANGEROUS MACHINE!!!!

Start today! Create your Facebook Fan Page and Twitter profile, invite your friends and family and start posting, every day, about everything, not just about your music. Did you find a $20 bill in the street? Post it! Did you ace your college exam? Post it! Did you meet an awesome new girl? Post it! (post a picture too if she’s cool with it). Post your YouTube videos… POST POST POST!

Contact Us now and let’s see where we stand.

Music Marketing 101

When it comes to marketing, beginners and experts will agree that there is one constant that is required for any campaign to succeed: Repetition. If advertising was a simple matter of Pepsi placing one ad on TV, they wouldn’t be where they are today. Instead, you see ads for ®Pepsi, ®Coke, ®Burger King, ®Nike and so many other huge companies everywhere and all the time. Repetition. This is the key for any Marketing Plan to succeed.

Whether you got into music to land a deal with a major label, perform live, sell CD’s or get your music heard, you are a business owner. You are the entrepreneur. Your music and image are your products. From the moment you recorded your first song, you started a business. You wanted to get your music in front of the world and probably want to earn a decent living doing what you love most. This is how we at 1 on 1 see you and how we will treat your music career.

When you start a Facebook page for your band, the most important aspect is continued engagement with your fans. CONTINUED ENGAGEMENT. Posting once a month will not cut it. Repetition of interaction is the only way you will build a solid fan base and keep them there. So take some time, just ten minutes per day, and post something about you, your life, something funny that happened to you. Don’t make EVERY post about the music or your vent schedule. Interact… be fun with the fans. You’ll see a big change!

At 1 on 1, we are music people too! We personally understand the struggles that today’s independent artists are facing. Should we choose to work with you as an artist, our first and most important job at 1 on 1 is to work WITH you, to first understand YOUR vision. We are your Public Relations team. We are your Marketing team. Once we have a clear understanding of the direction you want to take, we can then devise a plan, working together, to advance your public image and gain more exposure for you and your music.

If you are serious about your online image and want some professional help and guidance, don’t hesitate to Contact Us.