Beginning today, we’ll be posting one “mandatory strategy” every week or two, where our objective is to give you a quick strategy recommendation that we believe to be a “must” if you want to be successful in today’s wild, often unknown, and digitally driven landscape of the music business. This week’s “mandatory strategy” recommendation is to ALWAYS BE ACQUIRING new fans.

The Art of Frequency

Anyone who knows me (Ryan Wines) and my philosophies will know that I regularly preach that artists today need to develop the “art of frequency”, where they are regularly creating and evangelizing new music to their fans and to the masses. It is my belief that independent artists who take more than a year to release a record these days, without releasing any other public material (EPs, singles, demos, live tracks, videos, etc), will be largely be abandoned by their fans and will be considered irrelevant by others. This is do to a large variety of factors, one of them being the vast competition from other artists who produce material more regularly and a general inundation of music from so many sources. If you want to separate yourself from the static that surrounds us, you must produce material with a high degree of frequency and your work must simply be better than most of the rest (be BRILLIANT!). Note: More on “The Art of Frequency” can be found in a previous essay here: http://petmarmoset.com/about/pet-marmoset-strategy-posts/

Fan Acquisition

As such, if you are regularly putting out new material, you ABSOLUTELY MUST be working equally hard (if not harder) at building and developing your fan base. Simply put, there’s no point in putting out a lot of material if you don’t have an audience already interested, developed, and ready to go nuts when they get it. As many of you know, at Pet Marmoset PR + Digital Strategy, we work closely with Topspin Media in developing and executing our direct-to-fan strategies. At Topspin, they focus on three core stages of development:

1. Creating awareness (aka Fan Acquisition)
2. Making connections (I prefer to call this “Engage and Interact”)
3. Monetizing

Too often, artists complain that they aren’t selling enough merchandise to justify an investment of time and resources in strategy, publicity, an effective website and other tools. Many artists take the standpoint that they don’t make enough money to invest any more than they’re already spending on recording, mixing, mastering, duplication and other more traditional costs associated with releasing music. As such, most artists will skip steps #1 and #2 and will get frustrated that #3 isn’t happening.

What are you doing?

As I sort of borrow/paraphrase some wise words that Ian Rogers expressed in a recent essay/post, what artists need to better understand is that consumers and music fans have an unlimited number of places to spend their time and money today. How are you getting in front of them? What is your strategy? What are you doing to compel them to interact with you and follow you? This is not a world where you can simply record an excellent song and expect that people will naturally discover it and go crazy for it. This is NOT a “build-it-and-they-will-come world.” Sometimes I even wonder how a band like The Beatles or The Rolling Stones would stand out and succeed in a world like we have today.

In the beginning (“beginning” meaning that you are not doing music full time or for a living), more than anything else, your focus needs to be on fan acquisition. What are you doing to acquire new fans? Are you working hard to grow your email list? What are you doing to get more Twitter followers? Do you have a blog? If yes, is it easy for fans to subscribe to it? How are you managing your Facebook page? Are you offering free song downloads in exchange for email sign-ups and Facebook Fan sign-ups?

More fan impressions equals more sales. No fan impressions equals zero sales. That’s easy math. Thus, if you’re not working to grow your fan base and followers, you won’t succeed at selling or monetizing anything.

Case study: The Pixies

While I was in Austin last week for SXSW, I thoroughly enjoyed my time meeting with the talented team at Topspin Media and caught a very interesting presentation and case study examination from Topspin‘s CEO and direct-to-fan guru, Ian Rogers. He presented The Pixies as a case study and it went something like this…

As their fans already know, The Pixies have been extremely slow at the whole “online” game. With the exception of a few impressive fan sites and the usual Myspace page, the internet had sort of been a desert wasteland to the band for many years, and as far as I know, they didn’t even have an official band site until late last year (2009). Sure, there were some pretty cool fan sites and things developed and maintained by other people (fans), but the band itself simply had not made direct-to-fan marketing a priority. As such, even though they were The Pixies and already had thousands of fans around the world, they had not tracked or managed any of their fan connections or communication channels. So the first thing the band did when launching a new website and embarking on a mission of direct-to-fan strategy was focus on “fan acquisition”.

As you can see at their website – http://www.pixiesmusic.com – your first impression is an immediate and in your face call-to-action to download a free live EP, in exchange for your email address. This is “Fan Acquisition 101.” Notice that long before offering to sell you anything and even before playing a song for you with a streaming player, The Pixies want to give you something in exchange for your email address. They want to “acquire” you as a fan/relationship.

This bares results in three AMAZING ways:

1. It elicits and compels immediate interaction between the band and the fans, opening up a communication channel that can be utilized moving forward.
2. It gives the fan something of value in return for giving the band their email address, further vesting them as an activist and a participating fan of the band.
3. It allows the fan to “opt in” to the email list giving the band expressed permission to engage them in the future. The value of this to the band is immense. Product marketers in the non-music business world will often pay a lot of money, sometimes an upwards of hundreds of dollars for a single, qualified fan acquisition of this nature. The value here is tremendous.

Also worth noting, if you explore The Pixies website, you’ll quickly find that they’re not selling anything. Does that seem weird or odd to anyone else? Well… actually, this is indication of their firm understanding of what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. You see, The Pixies are aware that they first need to acquire and build a fan base before they can expect to sell them anything. They are much smarter than they may appear.

The set-up pitch

Once a reasonable fan base has been built (or as you’re building it), you should you develop a comprehensive strategy for regularly engaging and interacting with your fans. This will create dialog and a participative community, compelling fans to follow you a little bit closer than a more casual fan. In all honesty, this is the equivalent to a “set-up pitch” in baseball.

A set up pitch is used to throw the hitter off balance, so the next pitch will get him out. Usually, the set-up pitch precedes a strike out pitch or a pitch that the hitter will not hit hard. The purpose of using set-up pitches is to get the hitter off balance. For example: you may be calling all soft pitches (change up, curve ball) away, away, away. The hitter will be thinking away and then you bust him up and in with a fastball. You were using these soft away pitches to set up the hard inside pitch.

Essentially, if you can first build and establish a reasonable fan base… and then engage them, participate with them and get them really paying attention to you and excited about what you’re doing… then the conditions will be perfect for you to give them what they really want: WHATEVER YOU ARE SELLING.

Here are some worthwhile tools that every artist should be using today to acquire new fans:

• Offer a free song/demo/EP/video/(insert valued material) in exchange for a fan email address
• Offer a free song/demo/EP/video/(insert valued material) in exchange for becoming a Facebook Fan
• Offer a free song/demo/EP/video/(insert valued material) in exchange for a Twitter follow or retweet
• Have an email newsletter subscription in an easy to find place on your website
• Have a blog and have a blog subscription in an easy to find place on your website
• Immediately following a live performance, walk the room with an email sign-up list. Swallow your pride/insecurities and do it.
• Dedicate 30 minutes every day to a specific and measurable digital strategy (ie: Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, etc). This is CRUCIAL.
• Feature recent comments to your blog or artist website. Fans want to join in and participate.
• Give fans the ability to share or recommend your songs/site/etc to their friends.
• Regularly feature contests and giveaways on your website to bring good will and excitement to your fans.
• Make a viral video. No, not the typical band video. Do something wild and crazy or outside of the box and post it through your digital channels.

To see some of these tools in action, you can check out some of these artist sites:

+ www.thedimes.com

+ www.ilovemetric.com

+ www.getbusycommittee.com

+ www.dandywarhols.com

+ www.paulmccartney.com/goodeveningnewyorkcity

+ www.fridaymile.com

The time is now!

One last warning that is worth bringing to your attention… Whatever you do, don’t wait until you have a new record to release to start doing these things. From a strategic standpoint, you want to spend several months (if not years), acquiring fans, developing them through regular engagement and interaction, and getting them ready. I’ve seen way too many artists finally decide to start doing some of these tactics and strategies right around the time that their new record is being released. This is the equivalent to cooking up a big amazing dinner for 15 people, but forgetting to send out the invitations and not giving people enough time to plan on attending. Then you and your closest two friends end up with a big amazing meal, along with a huge table setting, all by yourselves and without the company of others.

In fact, if you are an artist and you have a record that is done and you’re feeling like you’re way behind on getting these things done, consider using your new record as a fan acquisition tool so you can build up your fan base for the NEXT record or project you make.

Resources

As you may already be aware, http://www.topspinmedia.com, BandCamp, and a few other similar platforms offer many cool and innovative solutions for executing many of the recommendations in this essay. There are also a lot of great articles on the web that you can find and explore. Here’s one from Topspin’s CEO, Ian Rogers on related topics: http://www.fistfulayen.com/blog/?p=509

Need help?

Last, but not least, at Pet Marmoset PR + Digital Strategy, we know a few things about direct-to-fan strategy and are available to work with you to help you develop strategies and tools of your own, so you can accomplish some of the ideas and objectives that we’re recommending in this essay. Please feel free to reach out and say hello or ask us for more information by emailing Ryan Wines at ryan@petmarmoset.com.

Thanks for reading.

How to Write Effective Emails to Your Fans in 8 Easy Steps

Key Concept: Sending emails to your fans has a lot more to do with science than it has to do with art.

As digital strategy geeks, we subscribe to a ton of artist email lists. We do this because we want to see what others are doing and also because we want to regularly put ourselves in the role of the fan, reading things and experiencing things as a fan would. Unfortunately, 90% of the band emails we receive aren’t effective…and actually, many of them cause us to find the “unsubscribe” link after only a few emails from the artist.

Moreover, if you are an artist or you are in a band and you confidently think your fan emails are good and effective, I would like to ask you how you know this is the case. How do you know you are successful? Are you assuming your emails work because people come out to your shows and because the fans you encounter mention that they like your emails? I would like to politely challenge your confidence and proclaim that if you’re not actually tracking, analyzing and optimizing your emails, based on real response data – than you truly have no idea if you are successful with your emails or not. But don’t worry…. you’re not alone.

We’ve learned that most artists have no idea how to send an effective email to their fans and almost no one is taking a scientific approach, looking at tangible and measurable results to improve what they’re doing. This experience has prompted us at Pet Marmoset to take a closer look at our clients and the artists we work with in a wide variety of capacities. And as embarrassing as it may be, we found that we’ve been doing a terrible job of helping and informing the artists we work with as to what the should be doing to succeed with email marketing. As such, we’ve decided to dedicate this essay to “Band Email Strategy 101″ – explaining the very basics that every artist should be doing, packaged together into 8 easy steps.

The bottom line is that connecting with fans is a crucial endeavor for bands and artists alike. It’s something that should never be taken lightly, and when done correctly, it should play a central role in growing a fan base and engaging a community or a tribe around the artist. While trends prove that social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LastFM are on the rise for fan engagement and interaction, I challenge anyone who would lead you to believe that email is a dead medium. In fact, depending on the demographic of your fans, I would argue that email continues to stand strong as the leading fan communication channel for most artists.

Okay, before we get started, we want to throw out a few questions to get your wheels turning…

Questions to ask yourself

• Do you keep and maintain your fan email list in your Gmail or Yahoo or Hotmail account (or something similar)?
• Is the only time you send emails to your fans is to let them know about an upcoming show?
• Do your fan emails generally go something like this, “Hey Everyone! We’re playing a show tonight. We’ll be a (insert venue name) at (insert performance time) and it’s going to be a fun time! Please come out and check out our show. Thanks! (insert band name)?
• Have you never sent an email to your fans or do you only send out a fan email once or twice a year?
• Have you been “doing what you do” (recording music, playing shows, playing in bands, etc) for more than a year or two and your email list is less than 100 people?
• Is there nobody on your team regularly reviewing the analytics and results of the emails you send and working to improve the results for future emails you plan to send?

If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions, then you definitely need some help with your fan emails. Thankfully, you’re in the right place. Follow the guidelines below and you’ll soon find a significantly increased effectiveness and success rate with the emails you send… and you will likely grow your list significantly.

#1. Draft an outline BEFORE writing the email

Whatever you do, don’t ever write your email without first taking a minute or two to sketch out a quick outline. And better yet, don’t write an email when you are rushed, at work, or when you find yourself in a panic the day before a show when you just realized that you forgot to send an email out. Trust me that your email will be ten times more successful if you simply slow down, give yourself some time, and create a brief and simple bulleted outline first, before you get too deep with writing the actual email.

What should your outline look like? Your outline should focus on these three things:

• The greeting and opening 1-2 sentences must be highly compelling. Many recipients will only read the subject line and the first couple of lines of the body of your email, so make these count and try to include your call-to-action.

What is a “call-to-action”? With regard to sending an email to fans, a call-to-action is the desired action you are asking of your fans and readers, supported by the core message and objectives of your email. Examples include inviting them to come to your upcoming show or inviting them to buy a ticket, downloading a free song, making a purchase in your webstore, exploring your new website, becoming a fan on your Facebook page, following you on Twitter, etc. A call-to-action can be free to your fans or it can require a commitment of time and/or money. Honestly, a call-to-action can be just about anything you want it to be.

• One easy to read and easy to understand call-to-action, above the fold. One of the biggest problems I often see in band emails is multiple call-to-actions (ie: upcoming show AND a new song AND a record release AND a new press review AND a new video, etc) or the call-to-actions are buried at the bottom of a long, wordy email. You should really work hard to only have one call-to-action in a single email. While it’s great that you have so much going on that you want to tell your fans about… you should keep a list of everything you want to announce and either save the news for future emails or use your other communication channels (ie: blog, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc) to get the word out. Simplicity is crucial and keeping your emails brief with only one call-to-action is a must.

When I say to keep your call-to-action “above the fold”, I mean to keep it in the top half of your copy or email. Do not place your call-to-action at the bottom of your email or even in the lower half. Most of your fans won’t read the whole email, so it’s critical to get to the point as early as you can.

• Keep it brief. Although it’s implied in the two above bullet points, brevity is the key to success. As you know from opening and reading all of the email that you receive on a daily basis, your window opportunity is miniscule at best. You may only have about 5 seconds or less of someone’s time to convey your message and hopefully get them to click on something or take the appropriate action. Try your best to write no more than two paragraphs, along with one clickable image and some bulleted info with links is ideal. If you really need to say more, three brief paragraphs is the absolute maximum amount of text that should be in one email.

Please note that if you have more to say, but you feel too constrained by these guidelines, you can post more information on your website or your blog or your Facebook page and then simply provide a link or two in your email that invites your readers to “go here for more information.”

Okay, now that your draft outline is complete and has been edited and refined, it’s time to starting working up the actual email, step-by-step.

#2. The From Line (your email address)

While all recipients read the Subject line, a minority (10 to 40 percent) of emails are actually opened. Knowing who the email is from is of foremost importance. As such, always make sure your email clearly comes from a clear and legitimate band email address(ie: name@yourbandname.com or band@yourbandname.com) – not a random @yahoo.com or @gmail.com or @hotmail.com account. And as a general rule, first names, such as “johnny@thedimes.com” are better than group, band or company names, such as “band@thedimes.com” or “info@thedimes.com”.

#3. The Subject Line

When considering what to write for your Subject Line, consider this question: does the email appear to be relevant to the person I’m sending it to? Or better yet, ask yourself: why would someone care about this email I’m sending out? As such, having a strategic,specific and relevant subject line should not go overlooked. This element of a band email is one of the easiest to test and can have a significant impact on the overall results. Is it something that makes one want to open and read more? Can the reader quickly and easily understand the objective of the email while only reading the subject line?

An example of an effective email subject that we recently used for The Dimes went like this:

Subject: “DIMES NEWS! Free song attached + Show this Friday Night at Doug Fir!“

Take note that without actually opening the email, the recipient can quickly and instantly gather from the subject line alone who the email is from, what the call-to-action is, and what to expect to read about in the email. And yes, I already broke one of my own rules by having two call-to-actions. Honestly, if an artist could attach (direct download link) a free song to every email, I think every email would be more effective. As such, if one of your calls-to-action is a free song download, I’m okay with two calls-to-action. One should also keep in mind that it’s a general rule of thumb in email marketing is to keep your subject line to 50 characters or less.

#4. The first two lines of your email: make them count!

Something you want to consider is that many email programs today will display the first few lines of your email in a preview pane. In addition to Outlook, Entrourage and Mac Mail users, this is also true for many Gmail, BlackBerry, and iPhone users. Important questions to consider when developing your Subject line and first two lines of your email:

• Is your call-to-action and/or the first two lines of your email clearly visible from an email Inbox without opening the email or scrolling? Do you have alt tags for your images in case some recipients have images turned off? (Note: Alt tags are the text image description that readers see in the place of images if images are blocked or are turned off from view).
• Is the preview pane going to show an image or text? This is important to know as many web-based email systems now default to turn images off and will only display the placeholder text. Making sure that your header or email format will allow for clearly visible text and not simply images will increase your chances for reads and conversions.
• When viewing your subject line amidst a full email Inbox, does your Subject line and email preview make your message stand out from the others? Consider using some compelling language, all caps on one important key word, and other tweaks to the Subject line that may make your message stand out. (See The Dimes example above)

#5. The Body

As I explained above, the first two lines of the body of your email are the most important. This is what many readers see first in a preview pane, it’s what they read first when they open the email, and it’s ultimately what hooks them to continue reading. I cannot emphasize this enough. While the first two lines require a crucial hook and appeal to the reader, don’t forget that the whole email is important. Here’s a quick guideline for writing an effective body of your email:

1. Hook your reader with the first two lines. Enough said.
2. Know your audience and speak to them like you know them – like you would speak to a friend or a family member. Don’t make it sound like it’s a broadcast message to thousands of people. Today’s fans and consumers have learned to turn-off to broadcast messages. Instead, take some care into making your message sound more intimate, more familial, entertaining, and inviting. Create something that puts soft, warm, and fuzzy feelings into the tummy of the reader. Note: This is where many artists I know push back and tell me that “it’s not my personality to sound soft, warm and fuzzy” and “it’s just doesn’t feel natural or sincere to write emails like this.” My response is this: You’re not writing just any email here. This is special and should be treated differently than what you would normally do. Remember – what you’re doing here is working to build a tribe of believers – a fan base that you are ultimately inspiring and leading, and hopefully will help build your career and evangelize your music out to the masses. If you play it bland and straight and feel that it just doesn’t work for you to write a compelling, warm and fuzzy email such as this, you might as well stop reading now and go back to checking the play count on your Myspace page.
3. Be concise. Be concise. Be concise. Yes, once in a blue moon, I believe it can be valuable to tell a story and write something a little longer that might appeal to the hearts and souls of your fans – maybe tell the story behind a special song or something intimate like that. But the best place for longer stories are on your website and blog. A website or blog is a place where fans go, when they want to, to explore deeper and to get more information. These days, email simply isn’t the best place for anything other than a concise, brief message and call-to-action. Your email copy should consist of simple words, short phrases and paragraphs of only 1-3 short sentences.
4. Use a compelling image that communicates the core message of the email. For instance, if you are giving away a free song, make the image a clickable link to a direct download of the free song…and don’t send the reader to another site to get the download. If you are announcing a new video, take a screen shot of the video and make it a clickable link to a streaming video player on your website. If you are announcing an upcoming show, your image could be the show poster, which links to more info about the show on your website. Don’t use more than one image in the body of your email. One image allows the reader to quickly focus on your key message and hopefully answer your call-to-action. More than one image can confuse the reader and dilute what you’re trying to do.
5. Lead your readers to a clear call-to-action. Ask yourself, what is it that you really want your readers to do? If you want them to buy something or know something, you’ve got to clearly communicate that with them, and most importantly, you’ve got to ask the question. Making your reader search for the next step or if you assume they’ll go to your website or the venue website or wherever you want them to go, you’ll encounter a serious pitfall that many overlook. Often times, a clear and compelling graphic image is ideal for a call-to-action. Whenever possible, always work to find ways to drive your readers back to your website – either to your store page, to your show listings page, or to some place where there is a clear and visible offer. If you want to drive them to your blog so you can share more information, make sure that you have an offer on the sidebar or somewhere that is clear and obvious.
6. Give your fans something they can be excited about. Regularly producing compelling dynamic content is a wonderful way to engage and excite your fans. In this area, you are only limited by your imagination and your available resources. Viral videos, free songs, free tickets to shows, limited offers, and opportunities that can create a sense of scarcity or urgency can often be very effective. Regularly producing dynamic content like DIY videos, podcasts, releasing rare demos and b-sides, organizing a meet-up with fans, and other enticing offers are wonderful ways to increase the response and effectiveness of your emails to fans.
7. Don’t underestimate the power of “P.S.”. I know it seems silly and you won’t find many email marketers preaching about including a P.S. at the end of your email…but trust me, it works. If you have something funny or witty to say, or if you want to remind folks about your webstore or the new 12′ vinyl that just went on sale – the P.S. is the place to do it. Always keep the P.S. to one sentence.

#6. Sending the email is only half of the work. The other half is ANALYTICS!

Too many artists send emails and then never know how many people actually received them, who opened them, who clicked on what, how many conversions-to-sale you had, or how many hard bounces you had. Truly, drafting and sending an email to your list is only half of the work. Understanding how effective it was, and why it was or wasn’t effective is the other half. As you move forward and continue to send more emails in the future, understanding and optimizing your emails based on your response data is the most important component to success.

What are analytics? Email analytics are the detailed statistics about the performance and effectiveness of your email. Common terms and phrases used in email and web analytics include:

• Number of views (emails opened)
• Total clicks
• Unique clicks
• Click-through-rate (total clicks divided by total number of emails opened)
• Traffic to your website and/or offer pages
• Conversions-to-sales
• Unsubscribes
• Hard bounces

In addition to these basic statistics (and much, much more), you can see who specifically read the emails (ie: which email addresses took action), what links were clicked and how many clicks each link received, when the emails were actually opened, where each person clicking is physically located, and so on and so fourth. It’s pretty amazing the degree of depth and detail you can really dig and analyze with email analytics.

Then, once you’ve captured relevant data and have spent some time looking at it… the next objective is learning from the information, making some assumptions and conclusions from the data and analysis, and then tweaking, changing, and optimizing your approach to designing, crafting and drafting an email, so you can ultimately improve your results and effectiveness as you send more emails in the future.

#7. Frequency

One important consideration that should not go overlooked is that of frequency and consistency. You cannot send a couple emails a year and expect to be effective. While the specific degree of frequency is completely dependent on the artist or band and what they’re comprehensive strategy and objectives are, the key is to be consistent with what you’re doing. As a general rule, we recommend that every band should send out an email to their fans no less than once every 4-6 weeks.  While we have heard some success stories about artists sending a weekly email, we wouldn’t recommend doing something that often. Typically, sending one email a week to your fans is too much and will overwhelm people. A good approach would be to be in touch with your fans and work to understand what works best for them. Regardless of what they tell you to your face, the analytics will tell you if you are failing or succeeding. Most importantly, whatever you decide is a good frequency for you – make sure you do it and make sure you are consistent. Infrequent fan emails and inconstancy will result in lackluster results.

#8. Technical, design and legal aspects of sending effective emails to fans

Note: If you are feeling overwhelmed or if you are exhausted reading all of this, you can stop here and come back to this later. The core basics of writing a successful fan email are above. The rest of this dives a little bit deeper into the details…

Believe it or not, there are multi-volume books and guides written about email marketing. And quite honestly, there is a lot more every band and artist should know about email marketing before delving too deep. For instance, there are a lot of design considerations (ie: make sure you’re sending HTML emails), design guidelines, best practices, spam laws and regulations, and a whole lot more. Honestly, our recommendations regarding email design are to keep things relatively simply and in HTML code.

Whatever you do, don’t try embedding Flash or JavaScript or videos or even CSS. Less is more and when it comes to email marketing, and simple is better than fancy. Don’t attach images, mp3′s, posters, or ANYTHING to your emails. Instead of attaching things, always host the object somewhere and provide a link to it.

Having a visually compelling, graphically driven, yet simple HTML email design is important. We suggest using a basic template and customizing it with your brand, images, and content. A simple graphic header banner is nice, so people immediately recognize your name and brand. We also recommend using a sidebar to communicate other basic info, such as upcoming shows, links to your social media sites, a small banner that links to your webstore, etc. If you can position these tastefully and subtly in a sidebar, then it’s less information that you’ll need to cram into the body of your email. Many email marketing platforms provide free templates that are easy to use and design. I like the ones at MailChimp.com.

If you are interested in checking out some very basic, yet effective email designs, check out or subscribe to:

• The Drone newsletter at www.the-drone.com/magazine/category/blog/
• The Dimes email list at www.thedimes.com
• Logan Lynn’s email list at www.loganlynnmusic.com
• The Dandy Warhols’ email list at www.dandywarhols.com

What not to do

In the wild world or email marketing, there are also long lists of things that you definitely should NOT do. While you can find these lists all over the web, here’s a short list of some basics:

• Using bright red fonts, or going crazy with colors, styles, and formatting.
• Yelling with lots of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• YELLING WITH ALL CAPS!!!!
• Using spammy words, like “mortgage, viagra, etc.”
• Saying, “free” or “click here!” or “click here now!” or “act now!” or “limited time!”

Spam filters are getting really smart these days… In fact, some of them are too smart for their own good, and if you use the wrong words, colors, tons of exclamation points, lots of all caps, and things like that – you will end-up in a lot of spam filters and junk in-boxes and you’ll probably never even know it. So the bottom line is to be careful, don’t be spammy or cheesy with how you write your emails, and be aware of what not to do. There are lots of lists available on the internet, giving you more insight as to what specific words you should avoid using in your emails, so you can avoid getting caught in spam filters.

Yes, there are laws and you could get into a lot of really big trouble

Be careful and be aware that whenever you send out a fan email, you are under the guidelines, regulations and laws of the applicable government agencies. The United States federal CAN-SPAM Act became law on January 1, 2004. According to their website, the FTC says that if you violate the law, you could be fined $11,000 for each offense (multiply $11,000 times the number of people on your recipient list). ISPs around the country have already successfully sued spammers for millions and millions of dollars under this new law. If you are sending out fan emails (ie: commercial email), be aware that you can’t do whatever you want. There are best practices, guidelines, and laws available on the internet to help you ensure that you’re doing things the right way.

Speaking from experience, not just speaking (like a lot of so called “social media experts” out there)

Fortunately, we’re not merely speculating and guessing about what to do and how to do it. At Pet Marmoset, we’re actually grinding it out. We are physically in the trenches with more than eight years of experience, executing email marketing campaigns for bands and artists of all shapes and sizes, ranging from smaller bands with less than 100 email subscribers, to established record labels and more major bands who have around 40,000 subscribers. We plan, strategize, and execute email campaigns every week and are up to our eyeballs in data and analytics, constantly learning and optimizing what we do and how we do it. We also utilize and work closely with email marketing platforms and providers like Topspin Media, Fanmail, ExactTarget, Constant Contact, MailChimp, FanBridge, Vertical Response and others. The good news is that we’re immersed in this business and are constantly testing and working new approaches and campaigns. The challenge is that there’s always something new to learn and as fans and consumers continue to evolve, so must we and the way we do things.

Thank you for reading this and please, keep in touch and let us know what kind of impact this has on your fan email endeavors. If you have questions or would like help navigating email marketing, please contact us and let us know how we can help. You can contact Ryan at ryan@petmarmoset.com or you can use the contact page on this site.

…Yes, this is my call-to-action, buried at the very bottom of a super long essay.

Parks & Recreation – Elysian Fields (We’re Dead We’re Dead) from grammar school on Vimeo.

Our good friends at Grammar School Pictures just released a new video for Parks & Recreation who are on Hush Records.  When you have a second, check out Grammar School out and see what they’ve got going on. They’re making films, music videos, and even provide a little insight into the process of their craft.

Pet Marmoset has teamed up with them on many occasions, mainly capturing live video footage for The Dimes. They are super great guys to work with. And they smell nice too.

Joe Solis | Team Marmoset

Keywords: Parks & Recreation, elysian fields,we’re dead we’re dead,grammar school,vimeo,hush records,pet marmoset,Vimeo,team marmoset

Here’s some food for thought, specifically aimed at anyone who asks the age old question, “Does my vote count?”

In the 2000 Presidential election, it was 537 Florida voters who ultimately decided who would win.

You see, it’s really easy to get lost in all of the political processes involved with electing a President. If you are like most people, once you start talking about electorates, electoral colleges, popular vote vs. electoral vote, etc….everything gets blurry and it’s difficult to understand how one vote in so many millions of votes can actually make a real and tangible difference.

Although this might be over-simplifying things a little too much…for a moment, let’s remember how the 2000 Presidential Election ended-up. Now if you recall, it was bound to be a tight race. All of the talking heads and pundits on TV were saying it was too close to call all the way up to election night.

On election night, it quickly became clear that Florida would be a contentious state. The national television networks first called Florida for Gore in the hour after polls closed in the eastern peninsula of Florida, but before they closed in the heavily Republican counties of Florida’s western panhandle. (The peninsula is in the Eastern time zone, while the panhandle of Florida is on Central time.) After the polls had closed in the panhandle, the networks retracted their call for Gore, calling the state for Bush; then retracted that call as well, finally indicating the state was “too close to call”. Gore made a concession phone call to Bush the night of the election, then retracted it after learning just how close the election was.

Due to the narrow margin of the original vote count, Florida law mandated a statewide recount. Now, you surely remember all of the voting problems, issues and controversies surrounding the Florida vote, the recounts, the courts, and ultimately the United States Supreme Court. Right? It was such a mess…

However, the most important thing to remember about the 2000 Presidential election was that after all of the recounts and red-tape, George W. Bush won the State of Florida by 537 votes.

537 votes.

You see, in Florida, which ever Presidential candidate wins the popular vote – that candidate recieves all 25 of the state’s electoral votes. And in 2000, George W. Bush received a total of 271 electoral college votes to Al Gore‘s 266 – sealing our nation’s Presidential election.

Therefore, it can be argued that essentially 537 votes decided the election.

Does my vote count?

This isn’t some fairy tale I’m describing. This is what actually happened. And this is why your one, single vote truly does count and will make a difference. Vote.

This is your friendly little reminder that it’s almost November 4th. Sort of a big day.



Quite honestly, if anyone out there knows my brother-in-law or my sister…please forward this to them. Last I checked, they were both planning on not voting. Can you believe that? I’m serious. My brother-in-law, who lives in Springfield, suffers from a severe case of apathy and my sister, who lives in Albany, is pretty hung-up on conspiracy theories. In fact, I think she asked my mother to fill out her ballot for the last Presidential election, which is border-line on being illegal.

I’ve stopped talking politics with either of them. Fair warning: generally speaking, it’s not a good idea to talk politics with family. Especially with family that is apathetic or is into conspiracy theories…or anyone that votes strictly along party lines….or anyone who bases their voting solely on one or two polarizing issues (like abortion or gay rights)….unless you are gay or have had an abortion – and then I guess you are entitled to be as passionate as you want on those two issues. But enough about that, before I find myself slipping too far down a slope that I cannot climb back up from. More than anything, I just want to encourage you to vote.

Vote with your heart…but be sure to use your head too. Research the issues. Get out your calculator and actually do the math that the politicians are talking about. Don’t be spoon-fed facts, snippets and sound bites by the media.

Don’t base your views on what the people on TV tell you. (FYI: John McCain isn’t George Bush. And Barack Obama isn’t a socialist, nor does he pal around with terrorists.) Don’t base your opinions on what the polls tell you. Don’t base your opinions on what your parents tell you or what you grew-up learning…or on what your preacher tells you.

You have a brain – use it. Form your own thoughts and author your own opinions. Stop and question your beliefs and critically evaluate why you believe what you believe. Be strong…but remember to listen. Be open-minded…but do the research and seek out truth.

Consider issues in terms of your local community…and in terms of your global community. Focus on improving people’s lives – not only your own, but everyone’s. When listing all of the problems and everything that is wrong…also make a list of solutions and the things that are good.

You aren’t supposed to understand everything. You aren’t supposed to have all of the answers. You aren’t supposed to be right all of the time. It’s okay to be wrong sometimes. Most of the time, it’s good to admit it. (That’s what my wife tells me)

Talk to your peers and your friends. Talk to your colleagues and to others in your community about the issues and the candidates. Talk, and even better – LISTEN to those who don’t share your opinions and views.

Don’t vote based on party lines. Don’t vote based only on one or two polarizing issues. Seek perspective. Look for the big picture. Understand that rarely will you find one solution that solves everything. There are strengths and weaknesses, and pros and cons to almost everything…especially in politics.

Seek better understanding. Meditate. Pray. And try to understand that there isn’t always an absolute right and an absolute wrong. There isn’t always a clear “good” and a clear “bad.” It’s not all about good vs. evil. It certainly isn’t always about “us” vs. “them”.

Participate. Be responsible. Be compassionate. Have respect for everyone – even those who oppose your views and opinions.


Vote.

…Oh, and if you have any good advice on how I can encourage my brother-in-law and sister to vote, please – let me know. You can post a comment or email me at: ryan@petmarmoset.net

As our Nation experiences the political cycle of yet another Presidential election, I am growing increasingly fascinated by what is unfolding in the Vice Presidential nomination of Sarah Palin.

While I maintain my own opinions, virtues, values and political passions, for the purpose of this essay, I will do my best to set aside politics (specifically issues and policies) in an effort to offer a less “political” analysis regarding the enormous significance of John McCain selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate.

To begin this analysis, let me first point out that I am both astonished and surprised that more people have not yet shed light on the growing possibility of Sarah Palin being President of the United States of America. To explain how easily this may come true, I will explore the age, health and mortality of John McCain. And while I must explicitly state that I sincerely wish no ill health or harm to John McCain, I believe we must give more attention to the fact that his health plays a major and prominent role in this election. Let me elaborate…

Maybe you’ve seen the comedically entertaining website, Things Younger Than John McCain, where they lightly poke fun at just how old John McCain really is. Yes, it’s true, John McCain is 72 years old. For the record, both of my Grandmothers are older than McCain, and all things considered (hip replacements, knee replacements, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, severe arthritis, hearing loss, minor heart trouble, occasional memory lapse and general slowing and fatigue), they’re doing relatively well.

As this silly website examines, here is a short list of things younger than John McCain:

• Duct Tape
• Penicillin
• The Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
• Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
• Cheerios
• The Zip Code
• Keith Richards
• Ronald Reagan (when he was elected President)
  
• The Grapes of Wrath (Classic Novel)

Yes, it’s true. Senator John McCain is older than this list of old things, and for a more entertaining exploration of such things, visit the website for yourself: www.thingsyoungerthanjohnmccain.com.

And that’s not all. John McCain is also older than all of the following countries:

• Ethiopia
• Kenya
• Libya
• Morocco
• Bahamas
• Belize
• Jamaica
• China (Yes, The People’s Republic of China gained sovereignty in 1949, ending the Chinese Civil War)
• India
• Iran
• Israel
• Korea, North
• Korea, South
• Kuwait
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Singapore
• Syria
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Bosnia
• Iceland
• Italy
• Fiji
• Australia
• Russia

Note: This is a partial list, as there are just way too many countries to list them all. I tried to use the most recognizable ones. This list represents countries that became sovereign, independent nations as we know and acknowledge them today – ALL gaining their current sovereign and independent status AFTER John McCain was born in 1936. [Reference5]

Okay, okay… Enough fun and games about how incredibly old John McCain is. Now, let’s get serious and examine what this really means in terms of how his health and age will truly affect his potential Presidency.

For American men born in the 1930′s, the average life expectancy is about 58 years. [Reference2] Being that John McCain is 72 years-old, it’s important to take note that he is already 14 years past his own life expectancy.

Now remember, at age 69 (three years younger than McCain), Ronald Reagan is the oldest President to take office in our Nation’s history. And as I recall, he took a fair amount of criticism for being too old, aloof, and out of touch with the American people, especially in his second term. During the Iran-Contra Affair, Regan notoriously had “no recollection” on many key events and dates that could have increased his responsibility in the scandal.

Regarding John McCain’s age and the fact that he is significantly past his own average life expectancy, I would now like to examine his general health more in depth, in hopes of gaining a better perspective of other contributing factors that could adversely affect his mortality while in office.

Maybe most important, we should consider all of the extreme abuse (both physical and mental) that he has endured throughout his life. I assume we are all well aware of John McCain’s heroic, while miserable story as a Prisoner of War during the Vietnam War. Here are some highlights of the abuse and injury he experienced:

• Shot down by a missile over Hanoi. he fractured both arms and a leg, and then nearly drowned.
• After he regained consciousness, some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, and an angry crowd crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him twice, once in the ankle and once in the groin.
• Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, instead beating and interrogating him to get information.
• Eventually, McCain spent six weeks in a Vietnamese hospital, receiving marginal care.
• Having lost 50 pounds, in a chest cast, and with his hair suddenly turned white, McCain was sent to a different camp on the outskirts of Hanoi in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live a week.
• Next, he was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years, maintaining life in dirty, abusive, inhumane conditions.
• Next, a program of severe torture began, where he was subjected to rope bindings and repeated beatings every two hours, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery.
• Further injuries led to a suicide attempt, which was stopped by guards.

While many are aware of McCain’s unfathomable plight of survival as a Prisoner of War, few are aware that he had experienced four other airplane accidents previously:

• Soon after graduating from the Naval Academy in 1958, McCain’s plane dove into the water near Texas. Knocked unconscious, he woke up as the aircraft settled on the bottom and he swam to the surface.
• McCain ejected from another plane near the Maryland coast in December 1965 when the engine died. McCain was also lucky to escape with his life on July 29, 1967.
• He was sitting in the cockpit of his A-4E Skyhawk on the deck of the USS Forrestal off Vietnam when a missile on another plane accidentally discharged, striking his plane. He dove out of the cockpit through flames. Fire engulfed the Forrestal, nearly sinking her, and killing 134 men. McCain was hit with shrapnel in the legs and chest, but recovered.
• Another documented accident involves snapping some power lines in Spain, while flying too low. [Reference3]

Equally as important when considering John McCain’s health and mortality, one should consider the real and undeniable fact that he’s battled melanoma cancer in recent years. In fact, John McCain had three of his four skin cancers removed (including malignant melanoma), as well as lymph nodes and part of a salivary gland. [Reference1]. With all due respect to Mr. McCain and his family, and as very unfortunate and terrifying as this may be, these are all facts that I would like to consider when electing the most powerful leader of the world.

So how healthy is John McCain? What role does his age and mortality play in this Presidential election?  Given his risky health and medical history, how much can one count on him surviving a full-term as President? Why should we care?

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Sarah Palin.

IF John McCain is elected President of the United States, and in the unfortunate scenario where he were to fall ill, become incapacitated or die… at a young age of only 44, Sarah Palin will instantaneously become the most powerful leader and decision maker in the world, sans no one.

Here is an abbreviated summary of her qualifications and life:

• 44 years old, born in Idaho, raised and resides in Alaska.
• Wife of Todd Palin – works for BP as an oil-field production operator and owns a commercial fishing business.
• Mother of five. Children: Oldest (son) recently deployed to Iraq; Next oldest (daughter, 17 years-old) is 5 months pregnant; youngest child has Down syndrome (born April 2008).
• In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla Pageant, then finished third in the Miss Alaska pageant, at which she won a college scholarship and the “Miss Congeniality” award. Palin admits to smoking cannabis as a youth^, though she says she did not enjoy it.
• Palin graduated from the University of Idaho in 1987, earning a Bachelor of Science in communications-journalism.
• In 1988, she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska. Palin repeatedly applied for employment with television cable network, ESPN, but was not interviewed for any openings.
• In 1992, Palin was elected to the Wasilla, Alaska City Council and was reelected three years later.
• In 1996, she was elected mayor, and was reelected in 1999 with 73.6% of the vote. NOTE: The population of Wasilla, Alaska is 7,025. This is a little bigger than the size of the student body at my alma mater, Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon.
• In 2002, Palin ran for Lieutenant Governor of Alaska and lost in the Republican primary.
• Four years later, Palin ran for Governor of Alaska and won, garnering roughly 50% of the vote in the Republican primary. In the general election, she defeated Democratic nominee Tony Knowles, 48% to 41%.
• Sarah Palin has served as Governor of the State of Alaska, the 47th most populated State, boasting a population of 683,478. [Reference6] She’s been the Governor of Alaska for about 20 months. NOTE: My great city of Portland, Oregon has a population of 2,159,720 people living in the combined greater Portland metro area.
• Odds and ends: Sarah has apparently named her children for circumstances occurring in her life during the time of her pregnancies. For instance, a dedicated runner, she named her older son Track because he was born during that sport’s season 18 years ago. [Reference7]. Another interesting fact is that Palin returned to work only three days after giving birth to her youngest (now only 5 months old) child. [Reference8]

In summary, while I believe that Sarah Palin has accomplished a lot for a young woman and is certainly on a path to being a wonderful leader and politician, I simply cannot believe that she is in any way, shape or form ready, qualified or capable to lead the greatest and most powerful country in the world. In fact, if given some time and resources, I believe I could make a hearty list of more than 100 people that are more experienced, qualified and capable of leading this nation.

And, it’s important to note that the President of the U.S.A doesn’t need to die or be comatose to have the Vice President take over the Presidential powers. Did you know that Vice President George Bush Sr. assumed Presidential powers for Ronald Reagan when President Regan underwent surgery to have cancerous polyps removed from his colon in 1985? For more info on the power of a Vice President as the “Acting President”, go here: Wikipedia.

Moreover, with the high or relative risk of John McCain’s health and mortality (if elected President), I find the selection of Sarah Palin as a legitimate Vice Presidential nominee to be an embarassment and an insult to the people of the United States of America. At this point, I have not yet concluded if this is a more desperate move or a more psychologically political move, but in any event, I hope more people take note of both how ridiculously old John McCain is and how ridiculously inexperienced, under-qualified and incapable Sarah Palin to assume the role of President of the United States – which is a key component and responsibility of every Vice President in office.

And in an attempt to fool the American people, they’ve only given us about 8 weeks to examine and research who this “Sarah Palin” candidate really is – hoping to sneak her by as a legitimate replacement candidate for those feeling disenfranchised by the unsuccessful run of Hillary Clinton. Wow.

I recently found this short video clip of an interview where actor, Matt Damon, quite eloquently describes nearly EXACTLY how I feel about this issue:

The fine folks of Seattle’s irreverent online music zine have published their latest edition of “Peep P-town,” – courtesy of yours truly. The column is an abbreviated feature of my recent reviews on The Builders and the Butchers, Weinland, and Ehren Ebbage. Check it out.

www.nadamucho.com

MTV News traveled to what many hail as the indie music capital of the world (some Montreal-based Canadians may disagree), Portland, Oregon, to talk to Colin Meloy, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, the Thermals, Menomena, M. Ward and others about the city’s eclectic sound.

While I guess the publicity is good for Portland music (all news is good news, right?) – I couldn’t help but cringe a little after watching the video, thinking that the image and perception they convey looks a lot more like the Portland Mercury’s vision of the Portland music scene, than what it actually is. I mean, you can see for yourself and will hopefully reach your own, independent conclusions…but largely, MTV’s video footage of Portland portrays it more like a bunch of dirty, experimental punk bands, including some very eclectic (maybe artsy – thats arguable), extremely niche stuff. A couple of exceptions include M. Ward (She and Him) and the more folky, Horse Feathers.

But seriously… My experience with Portland is much broader and much more accessible than most of the video clips MTV includes here. Apparently, they were aiming to confirm the good ‘ol “Keep Portland Weird” bumper stickers...which my best bud Mikey will tell you was stolen from Santa Cruz anyhow.

Highlights include pointing out that Portland has a good job market for baristas and bartenders and that it’s the perfect city for slackers. And in the end, I must whole-heartedly agree…EVERYONE IN PORTLAND IS IN A BAND.

Check it out:

Dave Allen of Pampelmoose recently posted something that I find particularly interesting, in reference to Lyle Lovett claiming that he’s never made a dime from record sales. Read Dave’s post here:

+ Lyle Lovett: I never made a dime off record sales

This very notion certainly opens quite a big can of worms and one can variably take this story and run with it in so many different directions that my head is already starting to spin…. However, in context of the current state of the record business and how independent musicians may (or may not) financially succeed in this industry, I find Lyle Lovett’s story to have deep and significant meaning.

While I consider “records” in one form or another to still hold value and be artistically significant – especially as a means of making an artistic, musical statement and, moreover, using a familiar vehicle to do so – I think the exchange rate for which the musical economy is founded on has changed so dramatically and now looks and operates more like an amoeba than anything else. Okay…that statement lacked surprise or brilliance…but what I’m really trying to say here is that we must completely rethink and reestablish our expectation of the function and financial value of a record, if we stand any chance of figuring things out.

What if….outside of the bounds of artistic statement and meaning, a record (or a record sale for that matter) was nothing more than a promotional tool? What if the music itself – in a living and breathing form – is where the true value is held? I’m seeing a big, colorful pie chart (be it hypothetical) representing the financial makeup of a successful full-time independent artist. Maybe the biggest and brightest color represents live performance…and another big piece represents commercial business opportunities, including licensing and sonic branding…and yet another decent chunk of the pie represents royalties for every time your favorite satellite radio station plays a song and every time Laguna Beach or Heroes includes a song in their latest episode…and yes – somewhere, probably one of the smaller pieces, represent the fine and respectable (and probably old) people who still value a recording enough to actually pay for it legally. I’m sure there are other opportunities/pieces of the pie I’m leaving out – hopefully even some that we don’t really know about yet…

What if?

There is much debate about Radiohead’s In Rainbows“Pay What You Want” pricing model for new record releases. Popular opinion seems to be that while it’s an innovative and brilliant strategy, unless you are of Radiohead’s popularity and demand, the method in and of itself offers very few answers for the average indie artist.

I believe that the “Pay What You Want” idea has many more layers and complexities to be considered, before we too quickly brush it aside as a flash in the pan gimmick that only works for super bands. Who’s to say if planned and strategized appropriately, that it couldn’t be a worthwhile approach for an average indie act?

I have some ideas that I believe can make this a viable and financially productive model – for the right artists…and I look forward to trying them out one of these days soon.

Until then, we can watch art-rock turntable artist, Girl Talk – one of the first publicized cases of a legitimately successful indie artist (meaning reasonably accomplished, but not signed to a major label) to use the “Pay What You Want” pricing model.

[Photo: Girl Talk's Greg Gillis]

Doing a little research and quickly grabbing a snapshot of Girl Talk’s results thus far, here’s what I found…

1. His top level strategy appears to be two-fold: In addition to the “Pay What You Want” pricing model and the fascination and buzz that gimmick creates, his new record illegally samples about 300 songs – which could prove to be a brilliant publicity vehicle all by itself. You see, everyone is eagerly watching and waiting to see who will be the first to file a lawsuit against Girl Talk.

Hey…this reminds me… My friend and Dimes guitarist, Pierre “The Hammer” Kaiser, had his own genius idea the other day, suggesting to me how great it would be if Yoko Ono would sue The Dimes for covering John Lennon‘s Watcing the Wheels song. (Click here to hear The Dimes cover: Watching the Wheels) Hmmm….

2. Here’s the deal on buying Girl Talk’s record.

• Any price (even $0.00) grants the download of the entire album as high-quality 320kbps mp3s. This is CD quality, the same quality you get on iTunes.
• If you pay $5 or more, it adds the options of FLAC files (higher quality, non-compressed), plus a one-file seamless mix of the album. A seamless mix is cool here, becuase the record is a mix-style DJ album.
• If you pay $10 or more, it includes all of the above, plus a packaged CD mailed to you (when it becomes available). You do have to pay a little extra for shipping too, if you choose this option.

3. Not only is Girl Talk’s new record, “Feed the Animals”, being offered at a “Pay What You Want” rate, but they’re also streaming the entire album on their Myspace page. Now some may scoff at that and believe this method would inhibit record sales… I say, regardless of record sales, they’ve got almost 30,000 plays on Myspace today alone. Surely, some of the folks listening on Myspace have enjoyed the record so much that they want to grab a copy of their own, right? Just for fun, let’s say that only 1 in 75 of those Myspace people actually pay for the record today…at an average price of only $5. What if?…

Well, that would mean gross sales of about $2,000 for Girl Talk to take home at the end of the day. Now take note – that’s revenue created from Myspace traffic for only ONE DAY! Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

4. Funny side note… If you go to Girl Talk’s e-commerce page to get the album and if you opt not to pay anything, you’ll be prompted with this selection screen:

I have opted to pay $0.00 because:

_ I may donate later
_ I can’t afford to pay
_ I don’t really like Girl Talk
_ I don’t believe in paying for music
_ I have already purchased this album
_ I don’t value music made from sampling
_ I am part of the press, radio, or music industry
_ Other reasons

At this point, you click on the selection that best applies to you and then you are prompted with the download button on the next screen. Nothing like a little guilt trip to convince a few extra people to pay for the music!

I will say, I’m a little surprised they didn’t take the opportunity to get some personal contact info from the downloaders (ala Radiohead), so they could follow-up with their new fans about future releases, tours, news, and special offers. They may have missed the boat on that…

5. While neither Girl Talk nor their label will divulge record sales data at this point, they say they are satisfied with the album’s performance. The label said most people who bought the download paid about $10, with a few offering $20 and one benefactor even paying $50. They also suggested that “several thousand” opted to not pay anything for the record.

In any event, it’s pretty cool to think that simply due to the freeloader factor, “several thousand” more copies of Girl Talk’s record are out there in consumer land – being listened to, played at parties and shared with friends. Worse things could happen, right? This is the epitome of “guerrilla publicity.”

If you’d like to learn more about Girl Talk, here’s some links:

+ Girl Talk Myspace Page

+ Illegal Art (Girl Talk’s label) – You can buy/download the album here.

+ LA Times: Digital download model puts song exposure above sales

Here’s a song from Girl Talk’s new record. This is definitely dance material!
Let Me See You (Girl Talk – 2008)