Karl Alomar is the COO and President of VYou.com, a social platform that provides video profiles for users with content structure in the form of conversations. A serial entrepreneur with an MBA from Columbia Business School, Karl has built companies with revenues in excess of a hundred million dollars, with an emphasis on tech over the past 15 years. The VYou platform allows users to connect with experts, interact with their favorite celebrities or organizations or communicate with friends and families. Video created on the site can be embedded and posted anywhere on the Internet, providing artists, bands and others with a very personal way to connect and interact with their fans and promote their brands.

 

 

Karl talked to me recently about how he got into the technology space, how the VYou platform works and several specific ways artists can use the features of the platform to promote their music and build meaningful relationships with their fans.

 

 

Musician Coaching:

 

Thanks so much for talking to me, Karl. Tell me a little bit about what led up to you joining up with VYou.

 

KA:

 

I started a couple companies prior to finding my way to VYou. I started my first business in 1998. It was a video platform, but more for video distribution and video monitoring. It was more on the business level than the consumer level. I sold that company in 2000 when I decided to go to business school at Columbia University in New York. During that time, I started another company that was much more of an internationally-based business but again, with a technology backbone. I sold that at the beginning of 2010 after building it to about $130 million in revenue.

 

Then, I met the founder of VYou, Steve Spurgat through some advisory ventures I was doing at that point. I got very intrigued by the concept of VYou and what he was doing and decided to jump into the business at an early point to get it through the launch. I helped get it funding and get it to where it is today.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

There have been a lot of players in the streaming space – and not all of them have been successful. What was your goal when you set out to help found this streaming company?

 

KA:

 

Steve Spurgat originally conceived of the business. The concept was initially more oriented around creating a fully-encaptured personality online. The idea is, all the people in the world you would want to have a conversation with, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to talk to – like Deepak Chopra or others like that. Users can encapsulate their full personalities in video and online so anyone can communicate with those personalities at any time. It was never thought of as a streaming business. It was always thought of as a video or an online clone of your personality that people can interact with freely.

 

That obviously evolved, and it became more conversational. It started transforming into more real time and today, is more of a video and Q&A-based platform. It allows people to answer questions they receive on video and is all short messages vs. long, streaming videos. We average 30 seconds to one minute per response. And what happens is that as you build that database of content, people are able to, through natural language processing, interact with the content at free will. You start getting this seamless conversation taking place between all the members of your audience with that profile on VYou.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

And you’ve had a number of high-profile musicians use the technology and the site.

 

KA:

 

Yes. We’ve had a bunch of musicians either using the technology directly themselves as a platform or using it through interviews and other events that are taking place through companies like Flavorpill or VH1 – everyone from Lenny Kravitz and Moby, down to independent artists. We’ve had a bunch of independent artists and young, newly-signed artists who have yet to have albums come out or have just had early albums come out. We’ve had a huge spread of musicians, and there’s a lot of musical talent on the platform right now.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

What would you say some of the best uses of this video platform are for somebody promoting either themselves or the products around themselves?

 

KA:

 

The best conceptual use case is basically the ability for an artist to communicate and connect with their fans on a much more intimate level. And the applications that allow that are these interactive videos, which is all crowdsourced questions and content. Through these videos, artists really feel that they can directly respond to those questions and have that intimate connection to their audience. The beauty of it is, no matter who asks the question, the people that come in and experience that communication afterwards will always feel like it was a direct, one-to-one communication for them. It creates a simulated intimacy even though it’s on a broadcast platform.

 

There are a couple different ways that works. The most obvious way is that people set up a profile and use it part of their social activity. They link it into their Facebook, their websites and use it as part of their Twitter posts. They use it as a straightforward Q&A communication platform with their audience. And their audience gets a feel for what inspires them, what’s going on around them and all the information about what’s  happening with and around the artist – announcements  about new videos, new albums, new shows, or whatever it is they want to announce.

 

There are a couple other applications that we’ve found interesting that we’re working on right now. The platform also allows you to record short message videos. We call them status updates. And I see a lot of artists using that when they’re on the road or when they’re going to perform somewhere or do things where they’re essentially sending videos out to their fans. And because of the social connection to Facebook and Twitter, you get this immediate distribution of whatever it is you choose to post. So, we do see artists putting these status updates out there and telling people what they’re doing, where they’re going, or giving the audience a feel of what it’s like to be that artist on a day-to-day basis.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

Your description makes it sound pretty portable and user friendly. How is it different from doing a YouTube vlog or some other sort of video diary?

 

KA:

 

There’s a very big difference. First of all, you can do it all on your mobile phone or on an iPad. Secondly, it’s a direct webcam-to-web functionality, so you just have to press a single button. You don’t have to upload a video and there is no editing involved. You take out your phone, record, then post it. And as you post it, you can choose to share it on Facebook, Twitter or wherever else you want online. So, it’s a much simpler process than the one you’re going to have to do through any other more traditional video broadcasting platform.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

And for non-joiners like me, do you have Droid support?

 

KA:

 

We’re going to have Droid support at the end of December. We actually have a big design upgrade coming this month. The Droid support should be coming along with that or right after that.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

That’s great. And what are some of the other applications you see as being particularly useful for artists?

 

KA:

 

One of the ones we see a big benefit on and that we see a lot of publications using is the ability to encapsulate a video interview with an artist. And the beauty of this is, it’s all short message video. And it’s all packaged into a pre-existing player that lives within the publisher’s page. Flavorpill is a great example of a publisher that’s using this. Essentially, it allows for video content to be encapsulated in an interview that can be recorded anywhere. You’ll have an artist that’s halfway around the world that will want to do an interview with Flavorpill. So, they’ll set up their profile and record all the interview questions. Then the artist can sit down and answer all their interview questions. You’ll see a lot of people sitting in hotel rooms, concert halls or in their apartments responding to questions. It becomes a really nice interview platform within the industry, which gives a really good user experience to the audience.

 

The final thing that comes straight off the top of my head in terms of use case is some artists also use the montage feature or the open question feature. To explain what that is:  the core of the platform is this “push” technology where people are pushing their profiles or their brands out to the world, advertising themselves and getting to know their audiences in that way. But, there’s also a “pull.” The pull is, there can be an artist who has a following, or just wants to put a question out to their audience. And they can actually pose a question to their audience and pull video responses from their audience. Some artists use this feature for contests. Others use it simply to gather or create community chatter around a particular theme or idea. The idea is, you put the question out to the audience, and all the audience members will come back and start answering these questions. We have this unique player that plays all the answers sequentially. It allows you to search through and see different people answering the same question. So, we have artists using this feature to broadcast a contest or an opportunity or just to generate chatter and communication within the audience itself to encourage more interaction.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

Surely when you got into online video, you did ton of research and continue to do a lot of on-going research. Do you think interactive video is going to stick? Are the metrics you’re tracking showing this to be making a real impact?

 

KA:

 

Absolutely. One really simple example is Flavorpill. The time on site for the pages that had interviews on them were twice as long or even longer as the time on site for the rest of the pages on the site. It wasn’t that the rest of the site had bad content on it. They actually have great time on site on average. But with the interview pages, the audience gets very engaged in these videos.

 

I think what VYou does is take the real person, whereas Twitter and Facebook have this buffer that makes you wonder whether it’s actually the real person or someone in their place filling in the content, tweeting, posting, etc. VYou says, “This is the real person. This is true, intimate conversation with the real artist.” And it allows that artist to really create a more intimate relationship between themselves and their audience.

 

The internet is evolving more and more. It started with just text, which turned into rich text with images. Then, images started becoming animated, which eventually turned into video. Then, social media was introduced. Now, social media is starting to integrate video as well. And creating that opportunity where you’re really able to make people feel like you’re talking to them and really communicating with them on a very personal level is something that is specific to social video. You can’t really get it in another delivery format.

 

To learn more about Karl Alomar and his work in the social video space, and to check out the VYou platform’s new video features releasing in January, check out the VYou website.

Tony Monte is the Founder and President of New Music Director, a multi-media company that provides interviews and exclusive performances from a variety of recording artists for web broadcasts. Tony’s career has spanned many different areas of the music industry, including college radio, DJing and marketing and promotion for major record labels. An avid drummer in high school and college, he eventually, he moved away from the idea of being a performer and found his way to college radio at Jersey City State College, working at WJCS. His love for instantly connecting to music fans led him to also work as a club DJ for many years, playing a number of different types of music. And it was DJing that finally led him to his first music industry position, helping build the marketing and promotions company Pellegrino Promotions, from the mid-1980s to almost 2000, which grew into an extension of many labels’ marketing and promotions departments and helped maximize a variety of artists’ projects. During this time, he also helped start the Street Information Network (SIN), a network for DJs that summarizes information about what is happening in markets in different towns and individual clubs both nationally and internationally. Tony left his position at Pellegrino Promotions and became Vice President of rhythm promotion and marketing at RCA Records, and then moved on to take the same position at Capitol Records. Several years ago, he started his own company, New Music Director.

 

 

I recently got to sit down and talk to Tony about the work he does with New Music Director, the evolution of the radio format and how artists can go about getting their music heard on the radio.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

Thanks for taking the time to speak today. What kind of work do you do with New Music Director?

 

TM:

 

We film conversations with recording artists and bands for web broadcasts. And we spend a minimum of an hour with each artist. From that hour-long conversation, we post produce that conversation into a show, which gives a perspective from the artist’s point of view about who they are professionally and personally. Once those shows are produced, we have a national network of affiliates that hosts are show. Those affiliates range from radio stations – which are broken down by format, depending on who the artist is – publications and we’ve just secured our first television affiliate, PIX11 in New York. Right now it lives on the website for the television station. We’ve been very fortunate with that. As we’re developing this, we’re trying to see how we can share our online content with companies like PIX to where it may be able to contribute and enhance what they’re doing as part of their regular broadcasts as well.

 

I think when you look at it right now, the traditional definition of what television and radio stations do has changed drastically. I think they’re all looking to have a component of their brand that shares some of the content they produce traditionally and provides an option for their listener, viewer or reader – whether it be radio or television or a publication – to get it exclusively online. That online content is so transient. People can carry video, audio or something written with them in their pockets through their PDAs.

 

 

Musician Coaching:

 

I get people coming to me all the time and asking, “How do I get on the radio?” Mostly I come back and say, “You have to build up to it,” or “You have to approach the local show guy if you’re more of a rock guy and there isn’t a chance for different mixes and winding up on a mix show.” How do you answer that “getting on the radio” question for a DIY artist that is doing okay in their home town and starting to draw people to shows? When is it time to go to radio and how does it work?

 

TM:

There are a couple things there, because I had a chance to see it internally at two labels. After RCA, I had the same position at Capitol Records. Although you look at your responsibility as being the same when you shift labels, the way it develops is different depending on where you are. Honestly, the answer is, “There’s really no clear-cut answer.” Oddly enough, a lot of it is common sense. You need to think about, if you were in a position where you were trying to connect to what an artist is doing, how would you want to be approached? I realize a layperson may not understand how record rotations work and how songs get rotated, or what power, medium and new rotation is. And that person probably doesn’t understand how records stay on the air through research.

 

But I think the first thing to do is to just look at the landscape locally. No executive in any company that’s based in New York City or L.A. is going to be any more knowledgeable about what’s going on in Denver, Portland, Oxnard, Roanoke, Virginia, Ft. Myers or even Miami than you if you live in one of those places. You’re going to know more of the intricacies of your market than anyone else. And I think when you look at how things develop and you know the street better in the town you live, you can see how things develop a buzz. If things are only coming to you from radio, then that’s your only outlet. But I don’t think that’s the case, especially in this day and age.

 

I think you have to look at building a solid foundation. And that foundation comes with believers. And it comes with working on “the street” (for lack of a better word). And the street is any outlet through which you can connect, whether that be through the clubs, through hanging out at a mall or theater and giving your music away in order to create some kind of awareness. Obviously now more than ever being able to perform well has become the biggest advantage that you can get as a developing artist. It’s really solidifying locally who you are, what you do and building from there.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

Obviously you have this really traditional radio background, and now you’re moving towards being a content guy. In a lot of ways, the jobs are similar. You have this product that you want to disseminate as widely as possible and get those artists exposed. Of course, you make money by being a content provider. But what have you seen change for artists at radio? You said you have to build a story in your local market. But are there key performance indicators that people are looking for when they’re taking a look at artists for radio?

 

TM:

 

I think everyone has a difficult job, no matter what they do. It appears that because of the way the music industry and radio have evolved, it has become much more difficult than ever to secure a slot on radio. The reason I say that is because radio programmers, heads of programming – whether they be regional, national or consultants – are being looked at under the microscope by the people that oversee each of those different areas. They have to stand behind the decisions they make in supporting a record to put on the air. If a record doesn’t’ connect almost immediately, it doesn’t stay on the air. It has a shorter life span, unless they can see something happening. If you get to the point as an artist of even being on the air, having a great song is just a part of it. I don’t know if it’s as meaningful as it has been in the past, because they want to see other things.

 

A recent example is, I wound up sitting with some programmers with a new artist and playing the song. While the song was playing, they were just as interested in looking the artist up via their Facebook page, their Twitter page and their other online outlets as they were in the song itself. People want to know now, even with a brand new artist, what’s going on. And it goes back to what I was saying earlier:  If you can create a story and build a foundation locally, it gives you a platform to move from. One of the advantages of doing things locally is that the clock doesn’t necessarily run out. When you’re at a major corporation – a multi-national music company – there are a number of artists that are scheduled. That’s just fact and reality. And you have a window during which to connect with an audience and the general public. If the company doesn’t see those signs, they’re onto the next band or artist. I don’t mean that in a negative way. It’s just that the reality of the process.

 

I remember back at RCA, we didn’t really have that strong an urban and rhythm crossover presence. It was more of a Top 40 and a rock company. So, when we had an artist like Tyrese, we were able to spend the time and  money to develop an artist for longer than some of the companies that were the cornerstones of that format. Because these other companies had so many established artists coming, they had to make way; if a project or an artist or a song didn’t connect in that window, they were onto the ones they knew had some kind of history. We had the luxury, in the case of Tyrese, of not having that history, so we could spend an incredible amount of time reinforcing a song and the artist with general public and radio. That doesn’t exist now. You have a small amount of time spent. And once you are green lit, that’s when the clock really gets running, and it has to happen quickly.

 

One of the things that most people don’t know is how and why songs stay on the radio for as long or as short a time as they do. And in most  cases, that’s done by call-out research. A company calls the listeners of a radio station. They go into a quick summary of who the listener is and how they’re connected to the station and whether or not they’re full-time listener. Then, the listener will be able to hear what equates to seven seconds of a song – the hook of a song – and rate it. In a city like New York, from what I’m told, the number is a little over 130 people that get called and tell radio stations which are hits and which are not. Nowadays, you have the electronic reading of the airwaves with MScores and  tools like that, which are even more of a deterrent to new music.

 

It’s a lot more difficult than ever before. It’s something you can talk about for hours and argue and debate about. But that’s just the playing field right now. If you get on the radio, your song has to react fairly quickly.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

When do you think it’s time for an artist to go to radio? I feel like a lot of artists go prematurely, even if just through a college campaign.

 

TM:

 

It’s funny, because I’ve seen, both on the independent side and working as an extension of different labels and departments, that even being in it on the corporate site, you can literally come out of a meeting and say, “Okay, radio’s the most important component of this project, but it’s going to be the last one, because we’re going to develop a live presence or a publicity campaign first. There’s going to be marketing and all that.” And then within 24 hours of that meeting, you’re thrown into the middle of this big radio campaign, and you’re thinking, “Wait … weren’t we going to build this organically?”

 

Musician Coaching:

 

I’m glad to hear you say that. It has always felt to me like everyone is really impatient and pushes the radio button way too quickly.

TM:

 

Yes. And there are a number of reasons for that. Number one, managers play a big part in it. And what manager doesn’t want to hear his artist on the radio? Managers are also getting pressure from their artists, who say, “Why am I not on the radio?” And that gets translated to the labels, who are asked to expedite that process. That’s one of the reasons for it.

 

The other reason for impatience traditionally is that it’s incredibly difficult to develop a record, but it’s the most rewarding. One of the bands I point to right away, who can pretty much back up everything you and I have been discussing is the Dave Matthews Band. Here’s a bar band out of Charlottesville that played in what I think was Coran Capshaw’s bar. They played to a lot of college kids and developed such a strong foundation locally that when all the college kids went home, they went home with a Dave Matthews Band album. They built  a loyal, incredible following based on being a bar band. You can go back further and look at Springsteen. He had probably one of the biggest bar bands to ever emerge. And I mean that with all due respect.

 

So, when is it time to go to radio? It’s really hard to say. I don’t think there’s any blueprint for it. I think you can “line up the stars,” as I used to be told at one of my corporate positions, and use the avenues that are responding and reacting well and go to radio with some kind of a story. But that’s the best case scenario. Because you have a small window with radio – now more than ever – you need to go with as much going on as possible.

 

With college, I think you have to go with the right song to the right station; that’s the key to everything. Is your music right for the outlet that you’re going to? That’s the first question to ask. And I think the answer has to come with a lot of objectivity. And it’s hard for certain artists to be objective. I think if you can look at where you’re going and know that it makes sense, then that’s the key.

 

Just another thing, I remember when RCA had The Strokes, there was a conscious effort; because “Last Night,” one of the songs off their debut album had some pop appeal. And it wasn’t necessarily part of the plan, even if there was interest, to bring them to pop radio, even if they had a song which many thought could’ve been a mainstream song because it would diminish the core of the band. On the other hand, you had people that don’t have records that are accessible to pop radio trying to jam it down their throats. And it just doesn’t work like that. So, you have to know where you’re going, and be objective about where you’re going before you get there.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

What have you learned about the importance of the work you do with New Music Director? How do you approach having these conversations with artists, and how does that set your business apart from others that facilitate conversations/interview bands and artists?

 

TM:

 

I’m trying to do two things. And in conversations about this, I always have said, “I want to hear something I’m doing that’s so great, I’ll ask my mom and she’ll tell me how great I am.” I’m interested in the critique. I have very thick skin – as most promotion people do – so I’m not offended easily. I’d rather hear the negatives about what we’re doing. One thing I have found in talking to people about this around the country, since our show is on websites nationally, is that the people that are watching this really seem to connect with who these artists are as people.

 

On the artist side, I’ve been blown away by how many artists – and we do have this on camera – enjoy having an opportunity to open up. And when you look at how quick and fast paced this world has become – and we do live in a sound-byte-based world – most artists, when they are brought to a radio station, have X amount of time. They’re pretty much asked the same questions:  “When does the album come out?” “Are you in the Top 40 of Hip Hop world?” “Whose vesting on the album?” And they also get asked other basic types of questions about producers. And there’s a void when it comes to many of these artists being able to share who they are personally. There’s that Inside the Actors Studio, 60 Minutes, Charlie Rose void for these artists; they don’t necessarily get a chance to really get into talking about “why” and “who.” Those are the important questions. And we find that what we’re doing has been in some cases therapeutic for artists. We’ve had a number of artists share some incredibly intimate stories and feelings with us that have led some of them to almost literally slide off their chairs laughing and others to break down in tears. They are able to share different things about who they are and how it’s reflected in their music. We try to position that to where I think we’re offering people that digest our shows an alternative to what they’re seeing in most other places.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

Obviously you wouldn’t be in this business if you didn’t feel what you were doing was important. But do you think it’s important for an artist to share themselves in this way and post the content online? How is what you’re doing enhancing the visibility of the artists that you’re interviewing?

 

TM:

 

I think we’re giving an audience a chance to get to know the artist.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

Is that important for an artist in the developmental stages as well?

 

TM:

 

I think it’s always important. For example, Game is a multi-platinum artist who has been around for ten years. We were fortunate enough to be able to have a very comfortable and genuine conversation with him. He brought up things I know for a fact he’s never brought up in the ten years he’s been an artist and in the ten years people have wanted to know what makes him tick. We don’t ask the normal questions that artists are used to being asked. That’s what I think is different.

 

In growing up, being around for a while and looking at some of the historical groups, I think about, for example the Rolling Stones. I never knew where Keith Richards lived. I could only imagine. But this generation and the previous generation grew up with MTV Cribs, so they know these little details.

 

Musician Coaching:

 

Is there any potential backlash when an artist shares themselves in this way before they have an established brand? Is there a danger of losing some of the mystery?

 

TM:

 

Yes. I think so. We spend sometimes a week researching any given artist we talk to. And a question I ask a lot of artists is, “When is too much information too much information?” And some of the answers I get are funny. I think there needs to be that mystique about an artist; that’swhat makes them special. And I only say “special,” because musicians are people that are affecting people’s lives. Bands like The Who and artists like Bob Dylan, or bands like The Clash, or Public Enemy on the hip hop side have affected people’s lives. They’ve brought a consciousness to people. And that’s always what’s been special about music to me. It’s great to enjoy music as entertainment, but the power of music – another thing we talk about a lot – is something that’s really special.

 

There’s a quote attributed to Bruce Springsteen – and I hope this ties back into what you’re asking – that I’ve always loved:  “You have to look in your audience’s eyes and see yourself. And they have to look into your eyes and see themselves.” I think you can translate enough information to share in a way that affects people without giving up the MTV Cribs level of information, like telling someone what type of soap or shampoo you use. I’m not really interested in what Pete Townshend had for lunch, even though he’s probably the songwriter or musician that has affected me the most. I think there is a time where there has to be mystique about the people you admire and respect. But it’s difficult now because the line has been so blurred and is so incredibly thin that some people want to know absolutely everything. Yet, they’re still not necessarily finding out everything that artists want to share.

 

To learn more about Tony Monte and his company, visit the New Music Director website.

Andy Gesner and Rob Fitzgerald are the two principals in the music video promotion company Hip Video Promo.  Andy was a musician who had been in and out of rock bands, created the Artists Amplification community and after doing similar video promotion work with other companies founded Hip Video Promo in 2001.  Rob came on board in 2006.  Hip video promo gets music videos played on music television shows across the country.  Hip works both for major label artists and independents.

Musician Coaching:

So give me a basic overview of your company and what you guys do.

RF:

Well, I deal a lot with the clients themselves in terms of getting all the assets together that we need to get out the door, like the masters and making sure everything is closed captioned, and that we have the proper photographs and bio information, one sheets prepared etc.  That in and of itself can be a hassle to people not familiar with the video.

Musician Coaching:

Mass mailing in multiple video formats has to be a nightmare for someone that doesn’t know the difference.

RF:

Exactly. And, well, it’s also really that technology has really changed the game a lot too. One of the things we have to keep up with is technology, because now we’re working a lot more with digital assets; things aren’t just coming in on beta tapes. There’s a lot of back and forth about how are we going to get the master delivered, how are we going to do this, get it dubbed properly, etc., etc. On that end, that’s a lot of what I do. And then we have another girl whose job is to make sure that the programmers are telling us what they’re doing with our videos. As a client, you certainly want to make sure that we’re sending the video out, but we need to be able to tell the clients who’s playing it. And if they’re not playing it, we need to know either why not or when they’re playing it. The thing with radio is, you have that centralized, universal chart that everyone reports to, whether it be CMJ, etc. You don’t really have that with video anymore. So it’s really up to the promoters to keep up with the individual programmers.

Musician Coaching:

Doesn’t Neilsen or someone one track this anymore? You have to figure out how many spins there are via word of mouth?

RF:

No. There’s no tracking service. There used to be the CVC Report, which did that. But that went under probably four or five years ago. Since then it’s really been up to the individual promoter to keep in touch with the programmers. With that being said, a lot of programmers we work with are very good at sending out their weekly tracking or their monthly or bi-monthly tracking. But there is definitely a certain element of being the heavy hand had that says, “We’re not going to be spending our clients’ money to make these dubs and send them to you if you’re not telling us what you’re using. We need to, aside from supply content to them, give information back to our clients. If we can’t do that, we can’t send you the video.”  Another member of our team is in charge of all the programmer intake and keeping track of address changes, what shows come on the air, what shows go off the air and also getting all the tracking into reports. And then we have a few other people on staff who prepare reports and ascertain all the playlists and get everything ready to go back to the client.

Musician Coaching:

I noticed you mention you’re including a bio in the package. Is this similar to radio promotion in that all these programmers are remarkably overwhelmed, and you really need to have some kind of story that’s interesting, in other words the biographical information for your artists and the product itself are going to do a lot of the sales work for you?

RF:

I think with any kind of promotion, one of the first questions a promoter is going to ask is, “What’s the story? What’s going on with this band?” So, yes, that’s a big part of it. We want to give them every reason, aside from, “Here’s a great video,” “Here’s what else is going on with this band. They’re doing really well with radio, they’re getting great press, they’re touring with so and so.” We also want to get them all that information. As far as them being overwhelmed, for some of them it is. What it is a lot – we were talking about technology before – technology has made it a much more affordable venture to make a music video. With digital and everything, you don’t need a film camera and you don’t need all this stuff to make a video. You can really edit it and shoot it. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be any good necessarily, but technology has made many more people of the opinion that they are music video directors.

Musician Coaching:

I have seen some videos that cost next to nothing that were better than some million dollar videos…

RF:

The thing we love, and one of the things we tell a lot of clients is, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to make a music video, but you have to have a good idea. That’s what kind of separates the men from the boys in music video world. No, you don’t have to spend a lot of money; but a lot of people don’t spend a lot of money and they’re trying to make their video look like they spent a lot of money. A good idea, a good concept, a good execution will embrace the fact that there wasn’t a lot of money spent on it. They’re not trying to make it look like they spent a lot of money on it; they’re trying to make it look like they have a cool concept. So, absolutely, you don’t have to spend a lot of money, but because you don’t, a lot of people that don’t have a good vision or the talent to make a good-looking video are still making videos. With the rise of something like YouTube, video has become a much more important component, whereas maybe six or seven years ago, people were saying, “Oh, MTV’s not playing as many videos. The video format is a dying breed.” Then all of a sudden you get your whole viral element, and video shoots back to the top of being a big priority for bands.

Musician Coaching:

Before we jump into digital, I notice that you guys are sending out a lot of physical different formats, but you’re actually sending something you can hold – a DVD or the various formats – to programmers across the board for terrestrial video outlets. Let’s say and artist made a video and they are looking to use this piece of their marketing toolkit to get them somewhere. Are there a lot of options for people like that to get test spins on different regional or niche video outlets offline?

AG:

I’ll take this one. I would have to say that going back to your question about bios and about presentation, we go to great lengths to present each artist in a way that is unlike a lot of other promotions companies where they might just take the band’s bio and maybe rehash it a little. For us it’s almost as if we’re the band’s team of lawyers and we’re going into the courtroom of indie rock music video opinion. We really have to give these people an intriguing, compelling reason to give these artists – of which many are very independent – programming consideration. What we’ve come to find is that whether it’s a bad like Spoon or Moby or the Gaslight Anthem, that you know are going to grab people’s attention because they are already a known quantity, we have hundreds of success stories of bands that were just flying under the radar but because the video was so incredibly outstanding, it more or less became the anchor of their marketing campaign moving forward.

These are the kinds of success stories that lead to tons of repeat business for us, because radio has really locked the indies out. Press is so expensive that even if you plunk down $5,000 or $8,000, who’s to say that anyone is going to actually write about you and write favorably? A compelling video and a video that really has an impact on viewers is going to definitely help an artist, especially independently, to really get to that next level so when they go out for the next record or the third record, they’re going to be in a situation where they’re a known quantity. There are so many stories like that where people are coming back because they got so much great feedback on the video that they realized, “Hey, people want to see it, they want to hear it.” The attention span of the normal American these days has become so small that they really want a full story, whether it be visual or audio or print so that they can make an informed decision.

RF:

One thing I’d add is that a lot of the programmers we service, on the terrestrial level, or even really on any level, have that independent mentality where they’re going to get the name bands, and obviously those are going to get on there because they’re established and well known but a lot of these guys are just looking for something they like.

Musician Coaching:

I guess my question is are there are still traditional terrestrial video outlets where a independent artist can get spun?

RF:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Musician Coaching:

Again, most people say, “Well, I want this on MTV,” but they don’t know. Fuse you get a little bit of a better shot. If you’re a gay artist, there’s Logo. If you’re a hard rock artist, I’m sure there are outlets like that. There’s Manhattan Neighborhood Network if you want to go really, really small. It’s just good to know that those are out there. Here’s a good question. Where should every artist, whether they can afford your services or not, be online? Is it going to YouTube or TubeMogul to kick it out to the major players? What would you say to someone that has no budget or blew their entire budget on making the video and now wants to get that video exposed?

RF:

The same thing I would say to a band that wants to do anything and doesn’t have the budget – do as much as you possibly can yourself. I’m sure you see it with A&R and stuff. The bands that get the furthest and accomplish the most are the ones that will never let anyone work harder for them than they will.

Musician Coaching:

I guess I meant specifically. Are there outlets where everyone should be? Who are the usual suspects?

RF:

Stuff like YouTube and a lot of those sites where you can upload it yourself and get it on there, there are tones of sties of that nature, whether it be YouTube, Yahoo, AOL etc. On our end, we don’t dive head-first into all the digital realms because that gets into a whole new world with viral marketing teams, and a lot of times when we get into a project with teams, we kind of overlap. They have someone that is more specific to the blogs and everything. We do work with places like AOL, Yahoo.

Musician Coaching:

Those services do have a programming staff is my understanding.

RF:

Right. And we work with sites like that where we feel that we can get them the video, and then we can also do more above and beyond just getting it on their site.

Musician Coaching:

And that’s a good question. Obviously relationships are always necessary, but are relationships the difference between getting spins on serious sites like that vs. maybe getting tested once?

RF:

I think first and foremost your product is the biggest thing. That’s the difference, which we try to stress a lot to bands: “Make sure you have something that you’re totally confident in.”

Musician Coaching:

I didn’t mean to make that sound so black and white. I guess, putting aside talent, and somebody who wrote a single as obvious as say Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” are relationships essential for getting regular rotation for something on those outlets in most cases?

RF:

I think in a lot of situations, it’s a huge benefit, because the guy who is giving your video to them can pick up the phone and get that guy on the phone and have a conversation about that, then your video has just gone to the top of that pile. He now has your video specifically written down on his to-do list for the day instead of it just blindly coming in and sitting in a pile of the other 50-some videos they got in that week.

AG:

One of the toughest parts of my job is, over nine years we’ve had to tell many, many potential clients, “My staff and I have watched your video. The song is good, the video is good, but we don’t feel comfortable moving forward with you.” Basically, I’m trying to say in the best possible way that, “You know what potential client? Don’t lead off with this video.” A lot of times they will say, “So you don’t think the video is that good?” I never tell them that the video isn’t that good. I say, “Look, in this world, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. And this video might not be the first impression. You might want to go back to the drawing board.” And sure enough in numerous instances we’ve had bands come back nine months or 14 months later and are really appreciative of us and say, “You saved us from ourselves. You didn’t just take our money.” I don’t want to take bands’ money if we don’t feel confident that the video is going to get them the exposure or the attention they deserve. With that being said, we’re selective on the videos that we promote to our programmers, but the programmer is always the first to say, “We appreciate that you guys always send us the best of the best.”

Musician Coaching:

It was the same for people who would pitch A&R executives – your reputation was everything. When somebody became known as a peddler of shit in the A&R community they couldn’t get a meeting or anybody on the phone.

AG:

You use that expression I use all the time here in the office. Nine years into this, and I still haven’t become a shit merchant. And there are a ton of them out there. Each year I travel the country and visit my programmers and I take them out to their favorite restaurant or we go out to their favorite night club, and I’ve done this tour every year. A month from now I’m going to start my eighth tour of the country visiting my programmers, and yes – the programmers love to be shown love. They’re the first ones to tell me, “Andy, when that Hip video package comes to us it always goes to the top of the pile because we know we’re going to get a ‘Place to Bury Strangers,’ we know we’re going to get ‘Smile, Smile,’ or we know we’re going to get the new Spoon video from you. Don’t you guys have the new Frightened Rabbit Coming up? I can’t wait to get that!” Of course, for a lot of these bands like Frightened Rabbit, when we first promoted them two years ago, nobody knew who the hell they were. The same thing happened with Grizzly Bear. The first time out with Grizzly Bear, it was “Grizzly who?” But when you come back a second time around, boy does it make your job a lot easier.

Musician Coaching:

Good to know.

RF:

Video is kind of like the weird, mysterious cousin in the promotion family. People don’t know how you do video. We definitely know there’s an element of uncertainty terms of what a video consists of.

Musician Coaching:

There’s a lot of this I certainly didn’t know.

AG:

Briefly, I wanted to mention that, whether it’s Jerry at JBTV in Chicago or Shirley at NY Noise in Manhattan or John Faulkner at Notes from the Underground in L.A., or Alternative Currents in Omaha, or Music Mix USA in Florida, these video shows have been around a long time and they really do have a rabid, loyal viewership. TV is a time-tested medium. People still want to sit in front of their TV and be fed it. Not everybody wants to go to the computer and search for it. With that being said, for  anyone that feels that terrestrial TV is going by the wayside, I beg to differ.

Musician Coaching:

Let me ask you this – of all the videos you get, is there a common mistake, either technically or quality wise or anything that you would have people avoid? You just mentioned your screening process is a bit intense. What are some mistakes you see from independent bands making videos? What are some things people should avoid when making a video.

RF:

Well, say they were going to send it to the local, regional channel the thing that a lot of people do – you know when you watch a video and you have your band name, the song title, the director and the label on the bottom left-hand corner? That’s called a Kyron.   That’s something that the programmer puts on and the channel puts on and the show puts on because a lot of times they have a custom-made thing. What we see a lot now is that the director will put it on themselves. So we get a video, and we can’t send a video as far up as an MTV or as low down as a local, regional show, because they want to put their own graphic on there. So if you send it out with s self made kyron (*** Note -no clue how to spell this but I’m sticking with my first attempt***) on there, nobody’s going to be able to touch it. That’s kind of a common thing. With urban videos, it’s a little more black and white, because more of the current trend in the hip hop world is to have the big, splashy graphic on top that says the band name and the song title. That’s okay, because that’s more a part of the video. That’s something that’s part of the video itself. But the white block letters in the bottom left-hand corner.

Musician Coaching:

The floating text in the first few seconds, yes.

RF:

A lot of times the programmer will get a video and they’ll like it, and they’ll say, “That’s great, but you need to send it to me without the kyron.” One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of programmers, if they do a regular show – a show that airs a couple times a week, maybe it’s an hour long – they want to be able to program a bunch of videos. Not that we ever want to compromise anybody’s musical or artistic integrity, but the longer the video is, the less of a chance you’re going to have at getting it programmed. Because if you send a video for a song that’s five-and-a-half minutes long, you might have a programmer say,  “Hey, I could get two videos in this span of time instead of this one video eating up five-and-a-half minutes of the programming.” Personally speaking, it seems too bad to me that there’s the mentality that every song or every single needs to be three-and-a-half minutes long because some of my favorite songs are four-and-one-half-minutes or five-minutes long, but again, I’m not making up the rules, I’m just going with the reality of what people are looking for and what gives the best chance of air play. And lastly, I’d say if you’re looking for television broadcast type airplay, don’t push your luck with potentially offensive material.  Even though the Internet has kind of desensitized people to what is acceptable and what is offensive and what is not, censors think differently. People like to push the envelope, and if you’re going viral with it, that’s great; but if you’re going to have bare breasts or gratuitous butt shots, a lot of people are not going to play it for that reason. And it’s not like I’m telling people what to do with their videos, but that is the feedback that comes back from censors.

Musician Coaching:

Suggestions for what not to do when trying to get your video aired are completely within the realm of the question. Andy, did you have something to add earlier?

AG:

We service over a dozen retail pools, better described as content providers. Whether it’s Club Com who gets the videos into fitness centers and gyms so that when you’re working out you can watch the cool new Spoon video, or if it’s Promo Only in Florida who provides their video reels to night clubs, night life locations, cruise ships, bowling alleys, or it’s DMX in Seattle, who hits all the major retailers in the malls you go to, or In-Store Sports Network who provide video content for Foot Locker and Foot Action …  they have to be cognizant of content, because they don’t want complaints coming back from customers saying, “Hey, I was in with my eleven-year old daughter, and that video had some salacious content.” Aside from the national outlets that will flag a video due to content, you’re also hurting yourself out there in content provider land, because you see videos everywhere you go. I go to my local oil change place, and they have videos playing in there. It’s all very much something bands should consider. If you want to get cute, like Rob says, or they want to get salacious, you’re going to be hurting your chances for exposure.

Musician Coaching:

Just one last question. Are there any parting words of advice for artists out there and their videos?

RF:

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so if you’re going to send your video, make sure it’s something you’ve taken the time to be really proud of. That’s really the gist of it. You can understand that promotion and your team and your contacts can only go so far if you don’t have a good product to work with. Take the time to make it right.

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