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  Nick 2:10 pm on September 9, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  A Music Fan Community 80 Million Strong! We Love You Guys! 

  Exciting news here at Headliner.fm: our site’s reach just broke 80 million fans. 80 million is a ton of people. To put that into perspective that is more than the population of France or Italy. Our site launched a little over six months ago and things are really starting to take off. Since launch over 20,000 bands have signed up for our site. Although the response to our site has been largely positive we won’t rest on our laurels any time soon, we have some awesome new features in the works that we will be rolling out this fall. We are definitely excited for the future!

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  Nick 2:16 pm on September 8, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Headliner.fm Interviews: The Watermarks 

  

  A lot of cool bands have signed up for Headliner.fm recently. I try to spend a little time each week listening to our user’s music and finding new bands I like. One band that recently caught my ear was The Watermarks. The Watermarks have a great sound: heavy synths, fuzzy guitars and catchy hooks that sort of recall the Jesus and Mary Chain.  The group, which is based out of Houston, has opened for some huge bands including Broken Social Scene and The Ting Tings. So far, on Headliner the group has made 3 connections and reached 8,000+ new fans.You can visit their official site here: The Watermarks.

  I had the opportunity to do a brief interview with Jason and Cesar of The Watermarks, via email, where we talked about their experiences as an indie band in 2010. Check it out!

  How would you guys describe your sound?

  Jason – Electronic, shoe gaze, noise pop, with a 60′s pop influence.

  Cesar – I’ve always say we’re electro-pop-rock. I guess the current term for our type of music is indie rock. If it was up to me, I’d just call it rock n’ roll.

  How did you guys end up signing up for Headliner?

  Jason – We heard great things about the site, and love the idea of it.  A band in today’s industry would be crazy not to sign up with Headliner.  It offers so many chances to get your messages out to a fan base of like-minded bands that might not otherwise be available.

  You opened for numerous artists, which would you say was your favorite experience?

  Jason – There have been tons of great ones, but my favorite would have to be playing with The Ting Tings at House Of Blues.  Great show with a great band at a great venue!

  Cesar – The Ting Tings. We got treated super well by the venue. We got our own backstage room with food, TV, towels and everything! The Ting Tings, Jules and Katie, and their whole crew are really nice and friendly, very down to earth people. And playing in front of 800 people, who were into our music without even knowing who we were, also helps. of course.

  

  Do you hope to some day get a record deal, or would you stay DIY?

  Jason – I think labels as we know them are an endangered species.  In the future labels might start to work in a way that allows artists to remain “DIY”.  If that were to happen then maybe we’d take a deal, but for the time being we are having more fun and being allowed more opportunities by doing everything DIY.

  Cesar – It’s hard to say. I don’t hope to get a record deal, at least not with a major, because I know this won’t happen. The music industry has changed so much in the past few years and it’s still changing. I think that labels started as music filters, as people with the resources to support what they thought was good music, and they used to do it for the love of music, not for the love of money. Back in the day, there used to be something called “artist development”. They knew that sometimes an artist was not going to become a major hit right away, and they would work with the artists, little by little, until they gained some degree of success. In that sense a label would be a great. Nowadays, a label doesn’t have to be “a label”, it could be anyone interested in backing up what they believe is good music. Musicians like us, with barely any resources for touring, promoting our music, merch, etc, would bennefit greatly with that kind of support, which combined with all the effort we’re already putting into it, could take us to the next level. Now, we’re not waiting for anything to happen.

  What are you doing to get your music to more people?

  Jason – We give all our stuff away for free.  ”Pay what you wish” for MP3s on the website, free CDs at shows, etc.  We are also trying to make our social media sites more personal.  We don’t only send out “release news” or “shows news”, but we try to engage out fans in a more personal way.

  Cesar - We’re doing everything we possibly can. What I think has been the most important thing is the proper use of social media to engage the fans or potential fans. Some of us also do it with our own personal accounts, and to me, it has not only been successful, but also fun. It’s not about promoting our music or products, it’s about having a conversation with the people interested in our music or music in general. We don’t want to be seen as a product, but as five human beings who love music as much as our fans do.

  We are also starting a new project in the couple weeks.  We call it “The Watermarks Open Song Project” of WOSP.  We are creating a website which will document our in studio song writing process.  We will be making posts of the songs progress from the very first little idea until a completed track is released.  Fans will be able to see, and hear, every step of the writing process, and are welcome to leave comments, etc.  It will be available at http://www.thewatermarks.net or a sub-blog.

  You guys have been together for quite a while, how has your sound changed over the last few years?

  Jason – I feel we have a harder yet more danceable sound now than we used to have.

  Cesar – I don’t think it has changed, I think it’s had a natural evolution. I think our songs have become more solid, and we have a better idea of what we want to do. Even when Jason and I started the band long ago, I don’t really feel like we were really The Watermarks until Nick started playing with us. I think he brought in the element that finally made us a band.

  We see you’re taking Radiohead’s approach at selling your album for whatever price somewhat feels like paying. Has that helped you grow your fanbase?

  Jason - It certainly has.  It’s more important for us to have 100 people hear our songs for free than to sell 10 CDs.  Since we began giving our stuff away tons more people have taken the time to listen to it, and since we began doing “pay what you wish” exponentially more people have downloaded our music.

  Cesar – I believe so. We’re not making much money, but people like good + free. We certainly work hard to put out a product of quality, and at this stage of the game what we want is for our music to reach as many people as possible, to be in people’s minds and iPods. It’s OK if we’re are not making any money, we do it because we love it anyways.

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  Nick 2:19 pm on September 7, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Headliner.fm Tips: Changing Your Profile Pictures 

  Your profile picture is your public face, the first visual representation other users see when they find you. Headliner.fm automatically chooses one of your social networks profile pictures as your default Headliner.fm profile picture. However, it is possible to change your Headliner.fm profile picture to anything you want. Here’s how:
  If the profile picture you want is already the profile picture of on of the social networks you have connected to Headliner.fm
  1) Click on the account settings button located in the top right corner of your Headliner.fm account
  2) Click on the “Change Image” link
  3) Switch your profile picture to the one you want.

  

  If the Profile picture you want is NOT already the profile picture of an account you have connected to Headliner.fm you will have to take the following steps:
  1) Change the profile picture on one of your social networks to the picture you want.
  2) Connect that network to Headliner.fm
  3) Follow the steps above.

  Hope that helps!

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  Nick 11:18 am on September 3, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Headliner.fm Teams Up With Myspace For ArtistHQ 

  Starting today Headliner.fm will be featured on Myspace Music’s ArtistHQ area. Myspace is the music industry standard for social networking. Virtually every band/artist who is serious about promoting themselves online has a Myspace page. ArtistHQ is an area in Myspace that offers bands and artists select tools to advance their careers as musicians. We are very excited to work with Myspace and to help bands on Myspace use our site to promote themselves. We are going to have some exclusive offers for bands on Myspace so stay tuned! Check it out here.

  

  Headliner.fm on Myspace ArtistHQ

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  Nick 3:32 pm on September 2, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Congratulations to the Winners of the Papa John’s x Headliner.fm Contest 

  Back in May we teamed up with Papa John’s Pizza to give bands and artists a chance to win gift certificates for free pizza. A lot of cool bands participated in the contest, but we could only choose 3 winners. The winners are:
  1)2 Grown Kidz $500 Grand Prize Winner
  2)J. Smooth $250 Second Place Winner
  3)International Farmers $100 Third Place Winner

  Check them out!

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  Nick 2:22 pm on September 1, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Headliner.fm Interviews: The Lighthouse and The Whaler 

  

  The Lighthouse and The Whaler

  Whenever I find an independent band I really like on Headliner I try to interview them. The Lighthouse and The Whaler was one such band that caught my ear. The Cleveland based group makes beautifully crafted indie-folk songs with intricate instrumentation and intelligent lyrics. This is a band that deserves a lot more recognition and they if keep releasing solid tunes I would not be surprised if they become a lot more well known. You can check out their site here. Here is a brief interview I did with band where they talk about Cleveland, their influences and some of their favorite places to play.

  How would you guys describe your sound?

  Indie pop in a folk wrapper.

  What do you think about Cleveland’s music scene and have you ever thought of moving to a bigger city?

  Cleveland’s music scene has been growing over the last few years and there are a lot of good bands emerging from the scene here. A lot of people overlook Cleveland, but there is a lot happening here that people aren’t aware of. We have thought about moving to another city before, but we’ve done really well in Cleveland and we’ve been able to tour both coasts so, for us, being in Cleveland has been an advantage.

  Besides yourselves, who are your favorite up and coming bands?

  Tallahassee, a band from Rhode Island, and Typefighter, a band from Washington, D.C..

  What is your favorite venue to play and why?
  

  The Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland is a phenomenal venue. We’ve played all over the country, and it truly is one of the best venues we’ve been privileged to play at.

  How has your approach to making music changed in the time you guys have been together?

  We’ve definitely grown as songwriters since we started. The process in which we use to write music has evolved as the chemistry in the band has become stronger. We’re big on collaboration and most of the band members play a big part in the writing process.

  How did you guys end up signing up for Headliner?

  We thought it would be a good way to get more fans into our network.

  Musically who are your biggest influences?

  The influences in the band vary depending on the member, but we can agree on a few like Sufjan Stevens, Radiohead and The National.

  You guys keep a pretty detailed blog on tumblr. What made you decide to start one and how do you decide what to put on it?

  We thought creating a blog would help people to get to know us better. We want people to feel like they are on this journey with us so we put up things that, hopefully, allow them to see who we are when were not on stage.

  You guys have opened for some pretty big names. Of all the shows you have played which has been your favorite?

  It’s a tie between opening for The Temper Trap at The House of Blues in Cleveland or playing at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This question is actually the subject of much debate between band members.

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  Nick 4:01 pm on August 31, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  How to Create Promotions on Headliner.fm Even Faster 

  Here at Headliner we have been hard at work on new features that make creating promotions easier. A few weeks ago we introduced the Express Promotion to streamline the process of promotion creation. Since then we have developed a new feature, “Select All” button, that should further simplify that process. The “Select All” button allows you to select every artist on a page in the Artist Discovery screen on Headliner. It is a very simple and intuitive feature, but if you create a lot of promotions it can save you a lot of time. Below is a screenshot with the “Select All” button highlighted in red.

  

  The Select All Button

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  Nick 1:41 pm on August 31, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Myspace Adds Facebook Connect 

  Making Facebook easier to use isn’t one of Myspace’s priorities. Just a few years ago Myspace and Facebook were direct competitors, engaged in a battle for the top spot of social networkdom. Yesterday, the two giants called an uneasy truce when Myspace launched Facebook syncing, a new feature that allows users to post their Myspace status updates to Facebook (although not vice versa.)  Check out more info here..

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  Nick 5:05 pm on August 30, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Travie McCoy x Headliner.fm Case Study 

  Travie McCoy has had a big year. Travie released his solo debut, Lazurus, and his single ‘Billionaire’ was a top 10 hit. We had the opportunity to work with Travie, promoting ‘Billionaire’ to music fans via our site. Here are some of the results from our campaign:

  • Travie reached over 5 million new fans.
  • Travie connected with over 9,000 artists to help promote “Billionaire” through recommendations.
  • 8,197 clicks of the “Billionaire” video on Youtube.
  • 2,454 visits to Travie’s official website
  • 6,420 clicks of a free download link for “Billionaire”
  • 22,000+ overall clicks.

  Here’s what Fueled by Ramen’ senior director of new media Adam Samiljan  had to say about the campaign:   

  “Headliner made it incredibly quick and easy for us to help Travie McCoy’s ‘Billionaire’ single reach over 5 million new fans. We got amazing results from the campaign…hits on the music video, music downloads and new followers on Twitter. Thank you!”

  
  

  
  

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  Nick 2:50 pm on August 27, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Does Headliner.fm Work? Yes! 

  Nick Carter has been using Headliner for a couple of months now. Nick had one simple goal when we first started: Gain more Twitter followers, or as he told us “Dude I want to get to 100,000 Twitter followers. Can you help?”

  We wanted to share the results of Nick’s campaign. Which we think are pretty awesome.

  • Nick ran 17 promotions on Headliner.
  • Nick reached 3,785,062 new fans on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
  • His new fans visited Nickcarter.net 19,508 times through links via Headliner.fm
  • Nick connected with 5,463 artists to promote his music.
  • Nick got over 20,000 new Twitter followers and reached his goal of breaking 100,000.
  • Nick had his promotion message retweeted 100′s of times reaching 100s of 1000s of additional fans.

  To show some love we sent Nick this T-Shirt and asked him to send us back a pic with him wearing it
  Check out the pic here:

  

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