Keith Olsen

Keith Olsen continues to work in the industry today and has seen the changes the recording industry has undergone over the ensuing decades.

When asked, “What’s the best advice you can offer about the music business?“, Olsen said:

It is dog eat dog business and remember that nothing is over-night and you have to be great at what you do. I gave a talk once in Amsterdam for musicians’ day Europe, and there were thousands of people in the audience and I asked them, “how many of you are professional musicians?” and they all raised their hands. And then I asked, “how many of you practice eight hours a day?” And it went to dead silence.

Then finally one guy in a corner raised his hand and replied, “I do”. And I pointed to him and looked at him and said, I’ll see you on the charts”. And that is what it takes, it takes dedication, it is not a part-time, software driven career. It is all about knowledge, art, and expertise. And being good just isn’t good enough. You have to be great.

While I don’t agree that all you need to succeed is practicing, this is a very powerful advice for sure. It is too often forgotten how important and how difficult it is getting “through the dip” (as Seth Godin calls it).

You can read the full interview at this location.

“I’ve actually been doing stuff like that for a year,” Darren points out. “It began with me doing video blogs about making the record, and then I started using Morse code and sending out secret messages via Twitter. We then had a competition where there was a treasure hunt, and fans had to work out a code and find a password and enter a competition to be flown from anywhere in the world to London to hear the record for the first time ever. That happened, and we then put clues in bottles and hid them in Rome, New York, London and Sydney. Fans had to find them and they’d win a collector’s edition of the album, but when they combined the four clues it unlocked a part of the record – it’s a ten-minute video preview of all the music on the record. It’s been incredible, and it’s been a year-long journey to get to this point.”

Darren Hayes

Generally speaking, within the digital age it’s arguably more important to communicate with the fans and encourage their involvement. “I think it’s always been important,” the singer feels. “I just think it’s easier today with social media, but I’ve always embraced that. I used to go into IRC chatrooms and message on message boards back in the day, and 15-20 years on Twitter and Facebook are obviously the tools of today, and who knows what they’ll be next week. But yeah, it’s definitely important. I think it’s important to communicate really. I don’t come from a generation of performers where I feel like a celebrity, and I certainly don’t feel above my audience. I am a fan. I’m a fan of other artists, and I find it difficult to even refer to the people that buy my music as fans. I find it a bit degrading, except they know what I mean by that because I was the kid who waited outside Michael Jackson’s hotel for an autograph. I totally understand it, and I try to break down those walls a bit. That’s why I try to use social media to do that.”

Darren is the owner of a uStream account, a service whereby you can stream live videos to fans. “I’ve only just started video streaming actually – I enjoy it,” he admits. “To be honest nothing really beats the live show, but uStream’s great for people who live in places where you will probably never be able to get to. They get to see you live essentially, so I’m going to be doing more and more uStream stuff for sure.”

How effective has your foray into social media been Darren? “To be honest, I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know. All I know is… to be honest, I’ve only just really focused on my Facebook page six months ago; we went from 2,000 followers to 110,000 followers, and it’s just slowly grown over time. Twitter has been a similar thing; I started with one follower, and I think I’ve got about 45,000 or something. To me it’s not necessarily about an immediate spike, or about something that a marketing person would tell you – to me it’s just about having a presence there. For me, when I think of an artist… If I wanna check out their latest release, I’ll probably go to Twitter and YouTube. I’ll go to a separate YouTube page and then I’ll check out what they’re like on Twitter, and that’s a lot different to the way that I used to check out music, which is I’d just go to a record store and flick through albums.”

Secret Codes & Battleships

“It took about four years, actually,” the vocalist admits. “I’m Australian but I live in London, and my last record was pretty experimental. It was the first time that I put out an album on my own label, and at the end of that period I was a bit burnt out to be honest. That was 2007, and it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do. I think the shortest answer to your question is that the goal for me was to really try to make a record that was a lot closer to the very beginning of my career, and the way that I used to write songs. That was focusing on song craft and writing classic melodies and really being quite hard on myself, the opposite of where I’d come from which was just being pretty indulgent and not really being concerned about airplay or commercial success. This record was about reconnecting and really trying to be disciplined, so that’s where it began and it was a pretty amazing run. I got to record all around the world; I got to reunite with a lot of people I hadn’t worked with since the beginning of Savage Garden, as well as working with songwriters and producers like Carl Falk who is a new Swedish producer. He’s a fan of Savage Garden and had actually come to my shows when he was 18. I’ll be 40 next year, and here I am in the studio with this 20 something prodigy and making new music together. It was a pretty extraordinary ride.”

Darren Hayes

Secret Codes & Battleships will be the second studio full-length to be issued through Hayes’ own record label. “I’d been with Sony Music or Columbia Records since I was 23 years of age, and when the record deal ended I didn’t even try to get another deal,” he confesses. “I felt quite frustrated towards the end of the record deal; I’d made an album called The Tension And The Spark and it was the most critically acclaimed record I had ever made, but the record label hated it. I experienced what it feels like to have a record essentially buried; it got a release in the UK but the US refused to release it, and it was really upsetting. I think at the end of that period, I vowed that I never wanted to put myself in that position again where an album that I’d made and was proud of was at the mercy of someone else. That was the beginning of me starting my own label, although Secret Codes & Battleships is out through Universal in Australia and EMI Music in the UK and the rest of the world. It’s a partnership between my label and those major labels, and that’s amazing because I’ve still retained all the control over my music and I’ve got this incredible machine and this enthusiastic promotion team behind the record. I can never really be in that position again, where a record of mine is essentially shelved.”

However, negative aspects come to forming one’s own record label. “I think partly why I’ve partnered up with major labels this time is because just being on my own was exhausting, and financially it’s very expensive – there’s a lot of costs involved in just getting stock to stores, and hiring a team,” the Australian explains. “There’s probably 20 people that work directly for me and with me on the record, so having that burden shared with a major record label as I do today is easier than just being on my own.”

Many labels and PR agencies have been switching over to HAULIX because it’s at the top of the class right now. I did a quick Q&A with HAULIX Founder/CEO Matt Brown, and with his creativity, experience, and marketing, read on to see why HAULIX is one of those unique companies that isn’t going away anytime soon.

Alex Gilbert (Dotted Music): How did the idea of Haulix come about, and what were your initial goals?

Matt Brown (HAULIX): I had been running the webzine MetalReview.com since 2001. After our popularity increased, our mailbox started to overflow with promotional discs; literally getting hundreds of packages per month. As a computer science graduate, we’re taught how to solve problems with technology – so my gears were always turning, trying to think of new ideas. After a couple years of experiencing the overflowing mailbox and learning the music promotion process as a whole, I knew there could be a better way of doing it. I think it was some time in 2007, I thought of building a digital promo service. Piracy was a big deal already and so I knew security would be an important component of the business, not to mention a huge selling point. I threw the idea around with a software developer buddy at the consulting firm I worked at and I purchased the domain name “LeakSecure.com.” As with countless other ventures that I started in the past, this one lost its steam and died after a week or so, and that was that.

Two years later in February 2009, when the economy tanked, I lost my job as a software developer. Suddenly being dropped in the jungle of the unemployed was kind of scary and a little liberating at the same time. The digital promo service idea resurfaced and I figured there would be no better time than now to dive in head first. I ditched “Leak Secure,” took about thirty minutes of brainstorming and came up with “Haulix.” I put a Craigslist ad out for a software developer/business partner. Next day, I found out my ad was taken down due to some restriction. But in the previous day, one guy’s email made it through. We met up for happy hour, discussed my vision of how this digital promo service should run and we decided to partner up and run with it.

Our initial goal was to keep it simple and easy to use. We wanted it to do a few things really well, rather than a lot of things half-assed. Haulix was to become a tool used for managing media contacts, creating digital promos, security to deter leaking and reporting to track progress. Those core features are still at the center of what it performs today.

As a freelancer, I’ve seen many labels and PR agencies switch over to the Haulix platform, because it’s extremely user friendly, ALL of your promos are under one roof (instead of logging in and out from one ipool to another), and I also think the method of downloading both the music and hi res pics is better than anything else out there right now. You must be pretty proud of how far Haulix has gone so far?

Matt Brown

A lot of the web-startup experts preach that if you aren’t embarrassed by your first version of your software, then you waited too long to launch. I’m glad we took that advice and launched quickly. Our first version was absolutely horrible. But being a two-man team, we were lean and we could make changes really fast. One by one, we started to get new customers. They would use our system and give us feedback. We would then quickly add enhancements. Repeat, repeat and repeat. After a year or so, we had a fairly solid platform and a handful of happy customers.

In regards to the competition, we periodically glance over to see what they are up to, but we definitely don’t analyze what they do with a microscope. Doing so would corrupt our own vision of how things should work. With that said, having all promos magically show up in one spot was definitely a strategic move to relieve having to have ten different logins/passwords. While we concentrate on an easy toolset for our customers, the journalist’s experience is equally important to us.

Any new developments in the works for Haulix that you’d like to share?

In the next 6-8 months, we will be releasing new versions of our promo platform along with a fresh new public website. Even more exciting though, is a partnership with The Orchard. I just did a web-demo for their marketing team in New York last week. For those that don’t know, The Orchard is sort of a one-stop-shop for tools for music industry professionals. That includes marketing, distribution, promotion, etc. They are going to be opening an app marketplace and Haulix was invited to be one of the first 20 apps in that marketplace. The Orchard will be introducing us to their huge list of clients. We’re honored and flattered at the same time.

It seems like there are too many bands right now. A freelancer + his/her team can only cover so much, given there are only 24 hours in one day. A few years back it was much easier. It seems like there were way less bands, physical (promotional) product was still fairly standard, and while I know many journalists prefer physical copies, digital can still fly. I spend a good chunk of my day driving around, so at least being able to burn a CD to listen to in the car is the best way for me so soak in the music I need to review. The times surely change fast. What are your thoughts?

It’s very ironic, MetalReview.com is in its 10th year and I see firsthand a dramatic decrease in the number of packages that come in the mail. We used to have a locker for packages and now we get by with a little 12″ x 5″ mailbox. A few years back, journalists totally turned their back on digital promos and I could understand why – it was a change and they were used to getting physical “prizes” in the mail each week. Fast forward to now and digital is quickly becoming the standard and journalists are beginning to accept them. Like you mentioned, I think a new issue, is the sheer number of releases hitting the market each month. There’s no way for journalists to keep up and as a result, they cherry pick what they want to review. Regardless of how a journalist prefers to consume their music, I think it’s important for a writer to write consistently for a couple months and then take a week or so off. Otherwise, they are bound to get burnt out by music-overload. On the other side of the coin, if you are a band, fishing your new album out to websites and magazines, and you want to get noticed, don’t slop your album into a YouSendIt file and then send mass emails out to the press. All bias aside, there’s a huge difference between downloading a promo from a page with no advertisements, that’s branded to the album, versus hitting YouSendIt and enduring Viagra popup ads and a hidden download link.

Leading into my next quick question. You are also very tech saavy. Out of all Haulix users, do you think more people stream the music directly from Haulix or download from Haulix then do what they do (ex. burn cd, stream via Windows Media Player, itunes, etc.)? From an analytic standpoint, what do you think?

We keep detailed statistics on resource consumption. Most journalists download the entire album and then listen to it on their own terms. Many stream a few tracks (as they cherry pick), to see if they like it. If they like it, they download. And lastly, many stream the album as they download it.

Thanks for your time, and thanks so much for making a journalist’s job much easier. Cheers! Any last words for our readers over at Dotted Music?

I would like to just say, that we are all in this industry together. Artists and labels need journalists to write about their releases. Journalists need promos so that they have something to write about, which adds content to their websites or magazines. We depend on each other. Change can be hard to handle sometimes, but if we are open-minded and continue to do things for the good of the music, we can survive through these hard economic times and have a loud future.

Thanks for the interview and support!

"We Create Music" panel at 2011 ASCAP EXPO (l-r): ASCAP's Erik Philbrook, Claudia Brant, Mike Elizondo, Fergie, Trevor Rabin, Kevin Rudolf. Photo by PictureGroup.

Alex Gilbert: Etan, to a lot of people, ASCAP comes off as the corporate bad guy like a Wal-Mart or a Guitar Center would. People really forget if they want to get paid for their music when it’s played in public, they’ve got to go to a Performing Rights Organization (PRO) like ASCAP. Care to explain to these people why ASCAP is really the good guy here to help?

Etan Rosenbloom: Sure! ASCAP is a membership association of songwriters, composers and music publishers. Our core role is to license the public performance of our members’ musical works so that they can earn royalties when their songs are played on the radio, on TV, on the internet, etc. Here’s some general info about ASCAP.

ASCAP is most definitely not a “corporate bad guy” – in fact, we are a not-for-profit company! Every dollar that comes into ASCAP goes right back to our members, minus a percentage that we use for our operating cost (it’s among the lowest operating costs of any PRO in the world).

ASCAP’s Board of Directors is entirely composed of ASCAP members, all of which are elected by ASCAP members. So every decision we make is about getting fair compensation to the creators of the music that all of us benefit from on a daily basis. Our members rely on their ASCAP royalties as a valuable source of income. The many thousands of businesses that purchase ASCAP blanket licenses know that they’re doing the right thing, by paying for the music that helps their business. Here’s a list of our Board members.

I guess you could call us “the good guy,” but really we’re just looking out for the interests of songwriters.

When you drive a car, you need a drivers’ license. When you want to perform your music publicly, you need an ASCAP license. One in the same you could say. Legally, please describe the importance of this.

It’s not quite accurate to say that you need an ASCAP license to perform your music – you certainly don’t have to pay ASCAP for the right to perform your own material! Legally, any entity that performs music in public – and that includes music venues, bars, radio stations, TV stations, satellite radio, internet sites with streaming music, theme parks, etc. – is obligated under copyright law to obtain permission from the writers and publishers of that music to use it publicly. The simplest way of doing that is through a PRO like ASCAP. We offer blanket licenses to music users, so that they don’t have to individually reach out to the writers/publishers of every single song they play. More on how we license.

Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora at the 2008 ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO

There’s plenty of benefits becoming an ASCAP member. What are some common routes of musicians, and what are some unique ways some use to advance their career(s)?

Oh man, there are so many different ways that ASCAP members use their ASCAP membership!

Some members rely on their ASCAP checks for their livelihoods. If you write music but you’re not an artist, you don’t have any artist royalties coming in, so your performance royalties are ever more important.

Other members use ASCAP as a resource and source of advice. Every day I get members calling to ask about publishing deals, managers, how to reach out to music supervisors – everything. We’re really at the nexus of the industry, since we deal with so many different facets of the industry.

ASCAP has tons of different educational and career-development opportunities, ranging from our weekly office hours, to month-long songwriting workshops, to our ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO, a massive three-day conference dedicated to the art and business of songwriting that occurs every April in Los Angeles. The positive feedback we get on the EXPO is pretty staggering. You can find out more here.

We also run showcases for ASCAP acts at major industry events throughout the country. We run stages at SXSW, CMJ and Sundance, and we sponsor and support plenty of others, from folk festivals to the Warped Tour.

I should add that we’ve got the American PRO world’s only comprehensive Member Benefits program. Our members can get discounts on web tools, software, travel, online education and even health insurance. More details here.

One unique program that ASCAP offers is the annual ASCAP Plus Awards. Any writer member that makes under $25,000 per year with us can apply and tell us about the activity they’ve had in areas outside our normal broadcast media surveys (e.g. live venues). An independent panel of distinguished music experts then evaluates all the applications, and awards applicants with a non-recoupable cash award. As in, ASCAP Plus Awards winners don’t have to pay the money back. The deadline is June 1st every year. More here.

Metallica at the 2004 ASCAP Pop Music Awards. They were honored with the inaugural Creative Voice Award. Photo courtesy of Wireimage.

What advice would you give some of the youngens out there looking to get into the world of copyrights, licenses, royalties, etc.?

It’s the wild, wild west out there in terms of how music is used and distributed. You don’t necessarily need a label or a publishing deal to be successful. But that’s all the more reason to educate yourself as much as possible! Stay abreast of all the changes afoot on the industry side; one good way is by subscribing to The Daily Brief, a daily digest of music industry news and commentary, curated by ASCAP Board member Dean Kay. Subscribe here.

You should be aware of all your rights as a music creator, and also understand all the different royalty streams available to you. Of course become an ASCAP member if you aren’t already, but also get to know what organizations like Harry Fox and SoundExchange can do for you.

Any ASCAP advancements you’d like to share with us that you’ve got in the pipeline?

We introduced Member Access in late ’09, which allows our members to see all their royalty statements, see their entire catalog, look at any cue sheets they have on file and make up-to-the-minute updates to their accounts. And as of last year, you can access all of the above via your iPhone by using our ASCAP Mobile app.

This is the first year that we’ve offered online video access to all the footage from this year’s EXPO – about 60 hours’ worth of content. More info here.

I can’t share all the other cool advancements we’ve got lined up, but I’ll put it this way: ASCAP’s continuing its mission to help its members and ensure that they’re compensated fairly. This happens on a variety of fronts, some technological, some legal, some legislative. We were the first PRO to issue an internet license, and we’re constantly licensing new internet sites that use music. All in the name of protecting the livelihoods of our members, no matter how the music industry landscape changes.

I had the pleasure talking to Will Runzel, who just two years after graduating from Indiana University had founded the successful promotion company, Fifth Agency, known for touring famed names like Mike Posner, Big Sean, Steve Aoki, Twista and Sam Adams. Adding to his successes, Fifth Agency recently formed a partnership with the Prime Social Group and he’s transitioning into a new chapter in his career after accepting a personal offer to work with Steve Aoki and Dim Mak Records.

With experiences in tote, Will offered a forthcoming perspective into the promotion side of the industry to reveal the fast paced and not so glamorous inner workings that should keep musicians on their toes.

Will Runzel

How did you get into promotion after you graduated in 2009 and how have you worked your way up in such a short time to found your own company, Fifth Agency?

I started promoting nightclubs in Florence, Italy when I ran out of money studying abroad. The free drinks that came with the job really offset a lot of expenses. I pretended to be a booking agent (what I had conjured in my head), and actually had some success booking my buddy’s bands locally in Bloomington, IN while in school at Indiana University.

One of the guys asked me if I could promote his Saturday night event and I took it from 50 people to 500 people in 7 days (thanks to flyering the Wisconsin-Indiana tailgating party, at which all the Wisconsin people showed up and gave us momentum). Then I filed my LLC and took Mike Posner on his first Midwest tour by implementing promotional strategies that I created myself. Fifth Agency turned two years old on March 9 of this year and then a few weeks later, the Prime Social Group absorbed us.

What musicians have you promoted for?

Jeremih, Mike Posner, Digitalism, Big Sean, Curren$y, Steve Aoki, Twista, Sam Adams, and some others…

How did you even find the connections to start promoting the larger names like Twista and Aoki?

Just email the agent. There is a database. You just have to come off as professional with a plan in mind, a budget and everything all spelled out neatly, and they’ll respond.

You blog for MostlyJunkFood.com about your own experiences as a promoter, and you’ve been dishing out some great advice, but in college you studied sports writing? How did you transition from a lover of sports to a lover of music?

I think I am a lover of both. Unfortunately I have now limited my fanship to just professional sports (NBA and NFL), I just don’t have time for college sports anymore. I just love writing. I’ve written short stories and poetry and I feel like I could write in most genres. If given the information, I can formulate something concise about any topic. And to me, that’s the way non-fiction should be written; to compact all the necessary information while developing an image for the reader in the least amount of words.

What are you looking forward to pursuing in the near future? Where would you like to be in your career a few years down the road?

I have a job offer on the table from Steve Aoki himself. By the time this is published I will probably be on my way to California, or developing a massive tour for Prime Social Group through the Midwest.

I’ve seen you walking around the stage, darting from musician to DJ to tech person, what’s really going on behind the scenes? How much coordination is necessary to manage a concert?

Well, you got the sound guy and the mics, the different artists who need to be taken care of, making sure the door guy isn’t stealing from you, making sure the girl at the front whose ticket won’t scan is telling the truth, keeping dehydrated people from passing out, making sure your green room is clean for the artist, making sure the artist has everything they need, making sure all the people on your guest list get in, making sure the press has their passes, making sure no one is back stage when they are not supposed to be, coordinating all of this with security, making sure the venue owner is happy, keeping the show on time so my headliner doesn’t get cut off for curfew, and of course I have to slip in a drink or two so my head isn’t throbbing from the speakers.

Would you say that the music industry’ glitz and glamour is just an image that fans and listeners portray?

Yeah, 100%. I can name at least 5 rappers who live in one bedroom, dirty ass apartments in downtown LA. And these guys are supposed to be “big” rappers.

Why do you think that is?

Perception is reality.

Would you suggest that musicians promote themselves around their own home town or is that setting oneself up for being pigeonholed?

It’s a must, if you can’t take your hometown by storm as soon as you make a concerted push, you might as well just stop there.

How important is touring vs. radio time vs. blogs? What do you believe is the most effective?

You should do what you can. Blogs mean you need a PR company and great content. Shows mean either you know the guy throwing it, you paid to get on, or you are already big enough to have a draw in other cities and thus an asset to the promoters who set up tours like we do. You have to pay for radio time. You can get a few plays just from knowing a few people, but if you want to stay in the Top 40 radio charts you have to pay for that.

What would you suggest is the best means of promoting yourself as a musician?

This all depends on how much money you have, read this article for more information: Friday Runzel-ism: How to Make it in the Music Industry.

Would you suggest that musicians should pay to open for a well known musician? Would you say that it’s worth it?

Like I said, perception is reality. I would generally say no, but if you’ve made a push in your hometown and it almost looks natural that you should be opening for a Snoop Dogg or whatever, pay the $500, if your hometown shows you love, the crowd will go wild for your set and the promoter will think, “Maybe we should put this guy on the bill next time.”

What are a couple of marketing strategies that you use to promote musicians, and a strategy that musicians without a PR person or promoter can implement?

Be your own PR. Write press releases. Make cheap, viral videos (easier said than done) for your songs, and write PERSONAL emails to the people who run blogs by asking them if they will check out your video. That’s what I would do.

How important is it to target the college demographic as you are doing now? Would that be the first demographic that you would suggest a band target in their first tour?

That’s not for me to say. I started this business in college so I know the college demographic, but if I am a band or a band manager, I would be interacting with and identifying where your fans are, and why they are fans.

What would you suggest musicians do to find out about the go-to venues in specific cities?

Ask the kids. See what acts are performing in a certain city, and see where they are going. For example, big hip hop group A goes to venue B. Small rock band C goes to venue D, etc.

What social media sites do you use to listen to musicians? How do you feel about Myspace?

Myspace had a shot and they blew it completely. Myspace was holding on in 2006 and it needed to be completely redone and they had a shot. They waited until 2010 for their facelift and botched it on all accounts. I like to say “find your niche and fill it.” Myspace was never going to compete with Facebook for world dominance of home page status, they should have made it simple for people to listen to music and interact with fans and have an easy to find section for every detail of a musician (tour dates, music, photos, etc). They will however, remain a standard that all musicians need, but as you see now they will never be updated like how Facebook pages and websites are updated. Facebook swept that rug out from under them.

Do you have any advice for aspiring musicians?

Go get some money and call me.

Francis Bea is a New Yorker turned Chicago co-founder of Musefy.com (in development) and writes Musefy’s blog Musebox.

Dieselboy discussed the latest happenings in HUMAN and just launched at the time subHUMAN (dubstep focused) labels. Damian, who gained a worldwide recognition partly due to his famous mix CDs, also talked on how irrelevant traditional mix releases become, being replaced by online material. His new mix, Unleashed! (yet to be recorded at the time of the interview) is now available for free download at the Dieselboy Soundcloud page.

My main interest was, of course, his online and marketing activities. Damian sincerely shared the difficulties connected with maintaining numerous web profiles and websites, many of which have been registered under the Dieselboy name, instead of Human or personal “Damian Higgins.”

Other covered topics were Dieselboy’s promotional tools of choice, advantages of creating artist-centric mobile applications, and much more. Watch it below (or in a separate page, with annotations)!

The video was recorded at ‘Amber Beach’ open air, Kaliningrad region, Russia. Filmed and edited by Kathrine Apanova. Interview by Andrew Apanov.

Alex Gilbert (Dotted Music): Blogs (web-based) and Magazines (print-based) have a lot of similar material. With how technology exponentially increases, how do you see the future for both blogs and magazines? Regardless of technology, both do still spread the good word, eh?

Bill Knowlton (We Love Metal): I agree that both do spread the good word, but in much different ways. For some reason bloggers aren’t taken as “real” journalist as compared to our print market peers. The unusual part of that is magazines are near death. Blogs are free to read and contain the most up to date information. Magazines have a printing deadline so they often get left behind and report old news, which the reader has to pay for.

Magazines will often get the biggest and best interviews which surprises me because We Love Metal and sites much bigger than ours get more readers in the run of a day than the larger magazines even print, let alone sell.

What I will say to the magazine defense is often they have journalists with education and background in written media. Most of us “bloggers” are self-taught fans that get better as time goes on. I will forever find it funny that magazines mock bloggers, but they are all switching over to digital media.

We Love Metal

What are some of your favorite blogs and magazines out there right now?

Two blogs that I read every day are bringbackglam.com with Alyson who is one of the reasons we started our blog. Her honest fan based approach appealed to us and made us decide that being nice to musicians can actually work. She is great at taking the negativity out of the music industry. On the other hand I read metalsucks.net because those guys say things I can only dream of saying.

As for magazines, I will occasionally pick up Revolver, but not as a norm.

The internet is instant international access. With such an abundance of websites out there, it’s hard to get people to click automatically like one would a Google.com. What are some of your marketing methods for WeLoveMetal.com?

We have tried a lot of different techniques for marketing of We Love Metal and we don’t have unlimited money so it’s difficult to pay for constant ads. We went through a time of link building and reading every Search Engine Optimization book out there, but ultimately it came down to writing good stories that people want to read.

We have been around 2 years as of this month, but only started to take this very seriously last year with a new design and constant updating. The results have been phenomenal. We picked some target words and ran with them. We now have the #1 position for “Heavy Metal Blogs” and that has helped greatly. Although not a majorly searched item on Google it’s a great niche market for us.

To really answer the question: you have to write to get fans, those fans will bring fans and so on. When we first started I hated people saying the only way you can get ahead is with solid, original content, but it’s true.

What advice do you give for aspiring music journalists out there?

Two pieces of advice:

1. Expand your horizons and don’t be scared to ask what seem like stupid questions. A good example would be when I first started covering harder metal I asked a musician flat out what a “blast beat” was and apologized for not knowing. He gave me the definition and explained that most writers use the term, but really have no idea. People can see through you faking it, so get your facts and knowledge down. Write, write, and write.
2. Don’t be an asshole. It seems that the negative guys get ahead, but when you are black balled by every major label and musician because you act like a smart ass; you’re not going to get ahead or be much of a respected journalist. Every artists who puts their music out there deserves a form of respect, you don’t have to like it, but finding some merit in someone’s passion is worth investigating.

When we come to party out with you in Canada, where would you say some good places to catch a show, grab a bite to eat, party it up, and get a good grasp on the area would be?

You would need to hit two places. Montreal is the mecca of metal in Canada. You could hit shows of all nature in Glam, Hard Rock, Death, Black, or a bunch of Cores. The drinks are cheap and the music rules the streets. Doesn’t matter where you eat because your ears are going to be bleeding from the bass. Montreal does have a couple of booty clubs as well. Just a couple!

Than you would have to head over to Halifax because that’s where I’m at and we would be tearing up a city that has the most bars per capita in the world. Mix that with local bands like Black Moor, Orchids Curse, and Broken Ohms and you are in for one hell of a party.

Bill Knowlton with Dan Donegan

If you were to create a dream tour, who’d be on it?

My dream would be a one day festival show with tickets sitting in the $60.00 range. The line-up would consist of 10 bands and leave you speechless at the end. In order:

The Worshyp – Mastodon – Black Label Society – Motley Crue – Testament – Anthrax (Belladonna) – Guns & Roses (Original) – Megadeth – Metallica – Black Sabbath (Dio)

There are others, but these 10 on one day would be the day I could die. I think we could have an after party with Quiet Riot (Dubrow) as well.

On the promo side for We Love Metal, are you looking for any more writers (of course one’s that know how to handle the digital pen)? If so, how can they get in touch with you, send you some samples, etc.?

I’m always interested in new writers and their take on things. I can’t imagine why people want to hear us over and over again… lol! Anyone can submit samples to me, but must realize that payment can be low. Sometimes very low. They can send it to blknowlton@eastlink.com with a PDF attachment.

Bro, thanks for your time, and I always enjoy reading WeLoveMetal.com! Any last words?

Only last words would be keeping the metal alive to all. We need to teach the mainstream of the talent and charisma Heavy Metal stars have. For me personally, media pushing music that is played with a machine corrupts real music and real musicians. Kids thinking they are musicians by putting samples together not only degrades Metal and Rock stars, but also people ranging from classical musicians to someone’s grand pappy playing the fiddle in the kitchen.

It’s about real music with real instruments. Just like real metal news on welovemetal.com

Thanks for doing this man; you’re a class act and a pleasure to work with.

Interview by Alex Gilbert.

The Rods‘ guitarist and lead vocalist David “Rock” Feinstein, who agreed to chat with Ultimate Guitar’s Joe Matera in January, also happens to be the cousin of Ronnie James Dio, tragically passed almost a year ago.

Feinstein talked about Dio, the band’s new album “Vengeance,” out in March, believing in yourself, and the music business – among many other things. Read on.

David 'Rock' Feinstein

Back in the early 1980s a then-unknown Metallica opened a headlining tour for you, what do you remember from that period?

Both of us bands were like club bands. We were playing clubs at the time and it was a great time and the guys in Metallica were really great. We had a lot of fun. There is not a lot to tell about it, except for the fact that we had a good time playing with those guys.

Back around the same time, the whole burgeoning new wave of metal was coming to the fore.

Yes, we didn’t know it at the time but we were definitely at the beginning of that whole new wave of heavy metal that was happening. And we didn’t realize it at the time but I think we influenced a lot of bands that actually went on after The Rods decided to stop playing. We were a big influence on bands that started out and that makes us feel good even though we didn’t become as successful as a lot of the bands that followed us. But it still feels good to have them be part of that whole scene in the beginning.

What has so many years in the music industry taught you about the business side of things?

The business side of things is basically the same as it has always been. The only thing that has changed things quite a bit is the internet, especially with iTunes, video and downloading music. I don’t think even the big well known bands are selling the number of albums they used to in the past because of downloading.

I think one of the biggest changes is that, in the early years before the internet, the bands really relied on record companies. If the band didn’t have a record deal, you couldn’t get your music out there and heard. But because of the internet nowadays, new bands can really get their music out there and be heard without having to rely on a record deal from a record company.

Read the entire interview at this location.

Read several excerpts below. I included few general Dotted Music-related parts so the new readers can become more familiar with what this website is all about.

Omega’s Apple: Personally, how would you describe what Dotted Music covers exactly?

Andrew Apanov: Dotted Music is heavily centred around music marketing, services for musicians, and general music biz news. What I try to cover more extensively right now is a variety of new technologies meeting musicians’ needs. And in the long run, this blog is all about inspiration. Each writer on this blog tries to give readers a few bits of inspiration each week, bits that can help boosting your music career at least slightly. Dotted Music can’t help to solve all problems of a struggling musician (no one can), but it is aimed to help musicians to move in the right direction instead. Fortunately, everything above fits the original Dotted Music motto, “Living music in the digital age.”

Andrew Apanov

Dotted Music seemingly has a focus on how the digital age has affected music, and the ways in which labels and bands are or are not adapting. How is Dotted Music incorporating new mediums in which to promote itself, and experimenting with new things? Surely it’s difficult to get noticed?

Marketing and managing a blog is an exciting and difficult adventure on its own, that’s for sure. I use social media actively and push the blog in various ways, but overall – will be sincere – I can and will do a way better job here.

A blog, just like a band, has to be treated as a business. I often find a lot of inspiration and great ideas applicable to music marketing in blogs about blogging. General internet marketing rules work for everyone on the Web. Vice versa, if you are a musician – go read Problogger or Copyblogger to find useful ideas and sharpen your writing skills. Have I mentioned that I believe that all musicians have to blog a priority?

Being involved in the music industry, has being located in Russia presented you with any difficulties in progressing throughout your career?

Living where I live has its pros and cons, but I tend to see mostly cons, ha! Kaliningrad is very nice and cosy, but there are not too many places to go out – and just being at the same town most of the time can be pretty tiring. I would be much happier with the place if I and my wife could travel more.

On a positive side, hell – I am in Russia, so everything could be way worse! I’m very lucky with where exactly I am located. Geographically, Kaliningrad is in the middle of Eastern Europe, and it doesn’t even have any direct connection with the “big” Russia. Plus, I think it’s a blessing if you live here and own business operations outside the country. Compared to most European countries or the US, life is relatively cheap over here.

What new developments can readers expect at Ultimate-Guitar.com, and also, will these new developments give you any extra responsibilities?

Oh man, there are so many things happening right now. We’ve been in a very difficult licensing process with music publishers during the last few years, and by now have signed contracts with all major publishers, which is absolutely unique for a tablature website. The Ultimate Guitar Tabs mobile application is doing very well, and we just released an Android version to accompany the iPhone one. An iPad app is coming very shortly, too. In March we announced a venture deal with Slash, and as part of that deal we are hosting his official website, built and maintained on our side. There was even a very special branded edition of Arcade Rocker iPhone app released in the summer.

And around February or March Ultimate Guitar will present users something totally fresh. I believe any guitarist will love what we’ve prepared. This is a big step for UG, and more details are to follow soon. The company as a whole is at a very important stage of its life cycle. We are getting seriously big, and I’m really happy to grow alongside it.

Read the entire interview at this location.