Archive | music promotion

Jack Maher on adaptation during covid 19

By nick cody on 18th June 2020 in Collaboration, music promotion

This is a reply to a blog post I made from www.nickcody.co.uk and is so on the ball, I’m reposting here as I think this is great advice to all artosts. Also be sure to check out https://jackandthevox.com

Adaptation – the key to survival

Adaptation is the key to survival, not only in business but in nature. As the virus no doubtably will adapt, we also must adapt.

Our lockdown started on March 14. I personally went from 25 shows a month to zero in the blink of an eye. All of Victoria’s gigs were subsequently canceled, many of them festivals which are the bread and butter (anchor gigs) that keep her afloat. All of them gone.

For the first five days of lockdown we were kind of in denial, but reality set in and I became severely depressed, so Victoria suggested we do an online show. So I checked out what other artists were doing, and what a learning experience that was!

Poor sound and bad video took the cake, even with the big name musicians, poor sound being the icing. I vowed that if we were to do an online show the sound must be the number one priority. Video number two.

It was a long, grueling troubleshooting process, but I was determined to dial it in. Our solution was to use two open condenser microphones that would pick everything up in the room in “stereo” and play our instruments through a full range keyboard amplifier. That did the trick.

But the experimentation was far from over. We ran into many different technical issues, mostly because we are technically inept, but this was a whole new world for us as performers.

Getting used to playing without any audience response was no easy task. Getting used to changing how we play to accommodate the condenser microphones was even harder. We pressed on.

Our plan was to do two songs every day, one original song and one cover song. Easy street… so I thought, and once again I was humbled by the amount of work and preparation that had to go into this type of performance broadcast.

Around show number 40, (after 40 days in a row) we decided to upload videos instead of doing them live to broadcast. Something seemed to be missing from that experience. As artists we were missing that live performance rush, and online audience members could tell a difference in the “vibe” of the show. After further troubleshooting we went back to live broadcast (around show number 52) and we haven’t looked back.

I feel like we have settled in to the new musical normal. However even today our broadcast was glitchy and we had to start over, and today was shown number 87. We are still learning, but we are humble and we are determined.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but if this inspires any other musicians to keep on trying and persevere, then my long lettered post is worth it.

Thank you Nick for being an advocate for the artist.

Jack and the Vox are two superb artists and did an amazing performance on the lastest Songs of Hope episode. Take a few moments to sit back and enjoy music at its very best.

Writing Lyrics for original songs

By nick cody on 27th May 2018 in music promotion, songwriting

As well as running the OUS platform, I am in two bands “The Small Change Diaries” and more recently “Nick Cody and The Caravan of Dreams” To date I have written 35 original songs, 25 with The Small Change Diaries and 10 with The Caravan of Dreams.

I remain fascinated by the writing process and my favorite artists all paid great attention to the lyrical content of their songs. When I hear music these days, I always think to myself “Would I be happy having written that?” Often lyrically much of what I hear would only be the first draft. I confess to being a fan of dark and often sad songs that talk about human relationships and behaviors. My favorite albums include “Blood on the Tracks” “Hejira” and “Nebraska” I’m also a big Richard Thompson fan, so my tastes are not exactly mainstream cheery music!

Often songs will be inspired by people I meet and or observations of human behavior. With The Small Change Diaries, examples include “Hey Rona”, “We’ll draw you out” and “Birdman” In all these instances I found that the best way to write was to allow ideas to simply flow and later wonder about editing. Often I’ll have notes scribbled on random bits of paper, and if I have one to hand, one of my moleskin diaries. I then transfer everything to my laptop and always back everything up in two locations for safety purposes. Sometimes I feel that songs are just nagging to get written and to be recorded. I always feel a huge psychological relief once a song is recorded, mixed and mastered. It’s as if the plan has finally landed!

I am lucky to be working with some amazing musicians and these folks often bring new ideas to the song’s arrangements. The first Caravan of Dreams album is much darker than anything I have done with The Small Change Diaries and I’m really pleased with what we have to date. All the songs are written on the ukulele, but the material is not all based around the ukulele. Its far more diverse and I am using a really diverse range of musicians. Some of the progress of the new album is detailed on www.nickcody.com for those interested

The BIG project that will launch in 2019 will be much more extensive than OUS and will be of great interest to those who have a great love of music.

The Power of Visuals in Music

By nick cody on 10th January 2018 in music promotion

When working on a number of new projects in recent times, I am increasingly aware of the importance of great visuals in music and especially in music promotion. This visual dimension is one of those elusive obvious considerations that often gets missed by both artists and promoters.

As the old saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words”

I actually suspect that visuals may be even more impactful that that!

YouTube in promoting music

As well as using great photographs, video has become king in the world of communication. YouTube in particular is a major platform for artists and in the era of sound and vision on the move, people are far more likely to watch a short video that read an article.

YouTube actually added 500 million users between 2012 and 2017 which is an indication of how music is increasingly consumed in this way. In setting up the OUS platform we decided that video should be central on artist’s pages.

For my own band The Small Change Diaries, we decided to invest in video for the Birdman track from our second album. The video actually pre dated the La La Land movie, and interestingly had a similar wonderful dance sequence between Kier Brown and Amy Hamilton filmed in the record store. Ink Blot films did a great job

This video was a huge amount of work, but to date has attracted some good attention. As the old saying goes

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression”

The Importance of using great photos

All smart artists and promoters appreciate the value of using great photographs. This often means good investment in hiring somebody who can do this professionally to get the best results. I’m constantly amazed at how many artists and promoters use really sub standard photographs on websites and in promotions.

Here are some of my favorite photographs taken by Karen Turner

Visual impact with record covers

Record companies have of course always known about the importance of a great visual image and many artists have classic album artwork. Classic covers include the Clash’s London Calling cover, The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers cover, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Andy Warhol’s famous graphic for the first Velvet Underground cover. These have become iconic images which of course work far better visually as vinyl album covers than as much smaller CD covers.

Collectable Music Visuals

Much of the work from photographers during 1960s and 1970s who took photos of classic artists is now highly collectable and a great investment. Genesis Book Publications specializes in very high quality books of such photographers. Once an artist dies the material becomes even more valuable. One example is for David Bowie’s artwork. The Speed of Life book is fully subscribed – see http://www.genesis-publications.com/book/9781905662210/speed-of-life and can now be worth 500% more than the original retail price for the 2000 limited edition run.

Original prints of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and in more recent time Bruce Springsteen are starting to be great investments. I suspect the photographers when they originally took these photos would be surprised at how sought after these items are.

Conclusion

The visual image for a musical artist is a key ingredient in getting attention, if you see what I mean?

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