Enjoy Hip-Hop Responsibly

Hey you! Yeah… you. Come over here. I’ve got some air to sell you. Yeah, you can get it free on your own but you should buy mine. After all, it’s ministry.

Payola is an ugly part of the mainstream music scene particularly in radio. It has crept into media as well albeit to a lesser degree. If you place an advertisement we’ll guarantee an article or some sort of coverage. If you pay us for a “promotion” we’ll run your single 30-50 times a week even if music testing shows our listeners don’t like it.

Indies can’t compete with that most of the time. They can’t get enough face time to win over the gatekeepers in order to be in the prime spots.

All of this sucks, right? Greed takes the place of letting the best rise to the top. What people are left with is a bunch of over-compressed auto tune flavor of the moment crap.

The pay to play mentality has slowly crept into our scene. You don’t get supported unless you pay. It used to at least be about “we like and agree with your ministry style so we’ll support you but not them” in years past. Now it’s starting to become about money before service and support. Sure, we’ll support you but you gotta give us some money. Never mind how “good” your music is or the quality of what you’re doing. If you pay, you’re in. Unfortunately amongst Christians it’s easy to take advantage. People are naturally more trusting.

When did money become more important than building and supporting the scene? From my vantage point it’s been slowly creeping in for a few years. For the record, I have challenged a few people I’ve seen doing this. Yes, I do understand that “stuff” costs money. Fair enough but I think you have an idea of what I’m talking about.

This reminds me of why I got involved in our scene and it’s reinforced my passion for doing it the right way.

Sometimes the best things in life really are free.

Did you know that 8 out of 10 people who view an online ad will never click on it? Media Post just released some statistics on user behavior when it comes to online ads.

6% of all internet users are “heavy clickers” and they account for a whopping 50% of all ad clicks.

This got me thinking… are my ads conveying enough information to appeal to only the 6%? Am I completely missing on the rest? Do your ads all say “click now”?

It’s something of an epidemic in our scene.

In hurrying to get information out on what you’re doing as an artist… you’re forgetting the very people you ought to be serving info to first – media. Somehow (almost always without permission = bad form) I end up on “fan” email lists from artists. There are a few things wrong with this:

1. You should be getting your announcements and news sent to Media first. Why? They are your lifeline to millions and millions of people who aren’t likely to ever visit your web site/Myspace/Facebook etc. You’re foolish to not take advantage of such an opportunity. Sometimes it sours me on wanting to cover an artist. It’s now old information and for how much effort goes into supporting you already, the least you could do is get us info early.

2. Sloppy. I keep using the phrase “almost always” because it fits. Presentation is pretty important even when it comes to delivering your updates to fans much less media. Clean it up and for goodness sakes hit “spell check”. It’s not that hard.

3. Relationship. Artists/labels should know this one by now. We’ve all heard that “it’s about who you know”. I’ll let you in on a secret… those artists that take 2 minutes to check in with me and personally deliver information are far more likely to find support. Those that send impersonal communication, never respond to my questions/requests and aren’t very thoughtful of providing me with material… well, you can guess the result. In the mainstream scene this is hardly an issue at all. Unfortunately in the Christian scene it is the norm.

For those that wonder and cry about being slept on… maybe it’s your fault because you haven’t done any ground work to not be slept on. Be okay with that or do something to fix it.

4. Opt in. There is a spam problem in our scene. Adding people to your email list without their permission isn’t ok. It’s annoying and a quick way to turn more people off than win them over. Set up your email lists to make it easy for people to opt in. If they want to be removed, comply right away. I’ve been hassled so many times about wanting to be removed from some Christian artists email list that I never signed up to be on in the first place!

Hopefully a few light bulbs turn on after reading this.

This email both cracked me up and made me shake my head.

Hi_____,

I swear my name is Josh and not ______.

*removed* is considered one of the major breeding grounds of hip-hops finest artists and continuing this trend is up and coming artist *removed*

Really?

*removed* is a rapper/producer, with a style that has the nostalgic feel of hip hop’s “golden era” combined with today’s modern sound. I have read your page and I absolutely love the format, I feel it fits his style. It would be great if you would consider doing a review or feature on *removed*, I think your readers will enjoy reading about him and his music.

Did you really read my page? If you did, how come you don’t know my name? *chuckle*

The lesson:
I know how hard it is to personalize a note for each and every spot you’re trying to promote to. I’ll admit that I use some copy in the same ways but I make every effort to personalize it to the point that you wouldn’t know it was the same info. Getting stuff submitted like what is above makes me reach for the delete button before I make it half way through the pitch… and I have much more patience for this than most. Learn from it if you’re promoting music.

Peep game!

My inbox is emtpy

I came across a pretty fresh article that made me re-think how I handle email coming through my inboxes.

Check out “How to improve your email etiquette“.

So I am on Facebook and get a GRIP of requests to join this or that. Because I cannot (and in some cases don’t want to) keep up with it all, I politely decline loads of invites.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been getting requests to “Become a Fan” of artists who I barely know and who certainly don’t submit junk to the website for coverage.

Weird ain’t it?

I was recently interviewed for Rap Fest Radio. Check it out.

You’ve added me to your email list. I ask for a quick update to my email address and you give me a hard time.

Say what!?!

The moral of the story is to provide help to someone that you have inconvenienced. Especially since you went through the trouble to add them without their permission or without them otherwise opting in to receive your emails in the first place.

Keep a clean list by allowing people to opt in and opt out as they wish. If they need help removing themselves, help them.

I’ve begun to notice a disturbing trend amongst many indie artists on social media websites.

On Facebook you can “tag” people in photos. Upon joining Facebook a while back, I enjoyed the feature. When I received the email alerts “Oh cool. I’m in this photo.” Now I pretty much loathe them. Why? Because 90% of the time when it’s from an “artist” it’s spam. I’m not in the photo and all you did was tag everyone on your friends list. Not a best practice at all. If the shoe fits you here… you may want to reconsider the practice.

What if you were on the receiving end? For real. How would you feel?