Performance Anxiety?

Performance Anxiety, more commonly known as Stage Fright is a common phobia that affects an individual before appearing in front of an audience.

Even the most successful of performers struggle with stage fright in some stage of their careers. However, the majority of them have used certain tools in alleviating the symptoms, much like the flu.

In order to combat Stage fright, you need to understand the severity of the phobia and the trick to finding the solutions you need.

I found an article on the publication, Psychology Today, where Author Lybi Ma, defines the types of Stage fright and tips on how to better understand them, in order to combat it. Here is what she had to say on the matter, starting with a definition of performance anxiety and who suffers from it.

Performance anxiety – Lybi Ma

Common and Treatable

Performance Anxiety in its various forms is the most common phobia in the United States. It's often called "stage fright", but it doesn't have to involve a stage. Anyone whose activity brings them to the attention of an audience, however large or small, can experience performance anxiety. I use the terms, stage fright and performance anxiety, interchangeably.

Performance Anxiety is most commonly experienced as a fear of public speaking. However, people whose career or other interests require them to take the "stage" for other purposes, i.e., actors, musicians, athletes, etc., will experience stage fright as an impairment of their own particular activity. A mime, for instance, can experience performance anxiety, looking timid and arthritic, even though no speaking is involved.

Performance Anxiety is very treatable. However, many people just suffer with it, with all the limitations and negative emotions it imposes. They either don't realize help is available; they fear they can't be helped; or they think it will be too hard.

While everyone's situation will vary in some ways, I find that there are four general ways in which people experience stage fright.

Four Types

Some people go to great extremes to avoid any possibility of being "on stage". I've worked with clients who carefully chose all their college classes to avoid any presentations, and picked a career which wouldn't ever include any public speaking. These people usually succeed in avoiding presentations, but often have regrets about the way this fear controlled their life choices. If you belong to this group, you are probably troubled by both fear and regrets.

There are others whose performance anxiety is less extreme. They don't let the fear dictate their major career and life choices. But they do strive to avoid the occasional presentation at work, the wedding toast, and the leadership of a civic group. They usually keep their fear a secret, and try to find ways around it. As a result, they never feel secure. The problem hangs over their head for lengthy periods of their life, even though they rarely actually give a presentation. If you belong to this group, you probably suffer considerable anticipatory fear and shame.

Then there are those whose professional success has led them to the necessity of public speaking, even though they would rather avoid it: the attorneys, engineers, architects, authors, doctors, teachers and others whose work has become so successful, so much in demand, that they are increasingly requested and pressed to present their talents and knowledge before an audience. If you belong to this group, you must either develop the ability to face an audience, or cut short the successful arc of your career.

And finally, there are people with a passion for creative expression. In this group we find performing artists, musicians, singers, actors, comedians, professional speakers and athletes. None of them are immune to performance anxiety. If you belong to this group and develop stage fright, you face a dilemma which cannot be avoided. Your spirit urges you to seek out the audience, even as your body warns you to stand back, and >b> you must choose.

The good news is that performance anxiety is common and treatable. If you want to overcome this problem, you can! But in order to overcome it, you must first understand how it works.

The nature of stage fright

Performance Anxiety is what happens when you focus on yourself and your anxiety, rather than your presentation or performance. It stems from a tendency to resist and fight your anxiety, rather than to accept and work with it.

It's the result of thinking of the performance situation as a threat, rather than a challenge.

How Intended Solutions Backfire

Stage fright is like being heckled mercilessly during your performance, and getting into an argument with the heckler, except that it's your own mind doing the heckling. You get so involved in your internal struggle that you don't get involved with the actual performance.

Most people with performance anxiety fright get tricked into focusing on themselves, struggling against anxiety in a vain effort to get rid of it. To illustrate this point, here's an excerpt from a consumer review I saw on amazon.com which reviewed a book about the fear of public speaking.

The reviewer wrote that the tips in the book aren't helpful because

...the tips actually are for speakers who are ALREADY fearless but just need to improve their speech skills: For example: Get immediate response from audience. You know, the last thing I want to do in a presentation is further prolong it by asking what they think of it. My plain goal is just to complete a mediocre if dull presentation WITHOUT anxiety, not get responses from my audience and so forth.

Making things worse by

Trying not to feel anxious

See what's happening here? The goal this reviewer sets for himself is to get through the presentation without anxiety. That's almost certainly not going to happen, because even people who love public speaking get some anxiety when they present. (I really like to get in front of an audience, but one time, offering a toast at a friend's wedding, I found my arm shook so much I couldn't keep the champagne in the glass).

So, when he does feel anxiety, he's going to think he's really in trouble, and will struggle more...only to make himself more nervous.

How does he make himself more nervous? He tries not to involve his audience, because he doesn't want them to slow him down. So he hurries through it, keeping it dull, maybe even just reading it and not looking at the audience.

This means he doesn't establish any connection with his audience, which will make him feel more lonely and isolated up there. It means he won't get any encouragement or show of interest from them, which would help him calm down. It means he's just up there by himself, struggling with his own self-criticism.

One of the keys to mastering stage fright is to become truly involved in, and focused on, your material.

Not on yourself.

In a complete program for stage fright, you'll need to work with the anticipation you experience in the hours, days, and weeks (maybe months!) before a presentation. You'll need to work with the anxious symptoms you experience during the presentation. You'll need to know how to defuse the Panic Trick. And you'll need practice with the performance situation itself.

Here are a few tips that can help you during the actual presentation. Compare them to what you usually do when you have to perform. You may find that these tips are the opposite of what you usually do when you have to get in front of an audience. That was true for the consumer book review mentioned above. If that's the case for you, as it generally is for people who struggle with this phobia, it will hopefully suggest a direction for you to try something different.

And different is what you need. If you keep doing the same thing, you can only expect the same result.

Tips for Coping With Stage Fright

1. If you want to talk (or sing, act, etc.), you have to breathe. And if you want to do these things calmly, you'll need to breathe diaphragmatically. This won't always come naturally, and you'll probably need to practice. You might think you already know everything there is to know about breathing, and if you're a professional singer you probably do. But everybody else, be sure to take a look at the breathing material.

2. Remind yourself that they're not here to see or hear you, unless you're a very famous person, or your mother's in the audience. They're just here to see the person who's playing this piece or talking about this topic. Today that happens to be you. That's not really important to them in most circumstances.

3. Expect, and accept, that you will feel anxious, especially at first. That's OK. If you allow yourself to work with the anxiety, not against it, you'll be able to calm down and proceed. If you resist the anxiety, you'll make more trouble for yourself.

4. Take the emotions and passion you feel for your subject or artistic expression and channel it into your performance. Don't try to "hold it down". If you try to suppress it, it will work against you. Express it!

5. Establish the right focus for your task. What do I mean by focus? I mean what you're paying attention to as you engage in your performance. This, unlike the other four tips above, will vary depending on what kind of performance you're engaged in.

* If you are giving a talk, your focus should be your material and the audience reaction to it, because your task is to inform or persuade them. You therefore want to be aware of how they are responding, so that you can connect with them in various ways.

*Establish contact with the audience through eye contact and talking directly to them. Ask them questions to get them involved in your talk (i.e., How many of you here have ever had this experience...?) While your natural instinct will probably be to avoid the audience as much as possible, just like the reviewer cited above, you will actually feel less anxiety once you get the audience involved with you.

*If your task is a performance art, your focus will be different. It's not your job to persuade or inform the audience. You want to perform a piece for their enjoyment. In this case, you can ignore the audience, and turn your focus to your music, or your character, and leave the audience to enjoy your performance on their own.

*Where you don't want your focus to be is on yourself and your anxiety. This is why it's so useful to develop an accepting attitude toward the anxiety, to take a few steps to calm yourself a little, and then shift your focus to the task at hand.

In conclusion, it doesn’t matter your profession or how big your audience is, everyone can suffer from this condition. It’s now up to you to not let it become you. Shift your gear, engage and enjoy.

X

Romy

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Instagram User?

With over a million registered users on Instagram, it no wonder Brands, especially fashion brands are turning to the extremely useful social media tool.

Instagram is a platform, similar to Facebook where users are able to share, like and comment on its content as well as being exposed to the vast network of individuals that utilize the service.

Beautifully crafted pictures entice users to share and follow not only people’s personal photos, but Brands.

Gone are the days where the Instagram stigma was seen as a hipsters tool, but as we have seen, with the influx of bloggers utilizing the social media site, Fashion brands are jumping on board at a rapid pace with fashion tycoons,  Brand leader and fashion editors, all seeing the potential and significance of this immensely popular sharing site.

As instagram follows trends, bloggers and fashion campaigns utilizing the visual aspects, such as instavidi, a video app that allows the user to take a 15sec video, that is able to be shot in  different sequences. 
So how does this benefit you as an independent designer? Well Writer Dominika Peszko wrote an article for Fashionbi Newspaper, dated September 4th 2013, on how you can utilize this amazing website to make your fashion brand stand out. 

 Here is what she had to say on the matter.

Creative Images

It is important to fill brand's Instagram account with the creative images. Beautiful, unique and interesting photos, often with a personal touch can make a fashion brand shine bright like a diamond. Combining merchandise pictures with styling images and behind-the-scenes shots of events will make it the winner.

Burberry is the luxury fashion champion when it comes to its Instagram account. The brand uses merchandise photos and behind-the-scenes pictures from photo shoots and commercial filming. In addition to that, it posts London shots that convert its account into something unique and superb.

Another fashion luxury brand, Louis Vuitton, is all about elegance and innovation. Although brand's models clearly represent its values, the company adds a bit more by showcasing popular travel locations, such as Paris, or keeping up with the latest trends by highlighting them in the photos while revealing backstage footage.

On the other hand, Gap's account plays with the light, imagination and colors. Not only are the pictures clear and splendid - they are also enriched on the writing that appears on some of them. "Love is Life" or  "Be You" make the reader just feel good.

 Your fans = Your models

A fashion brand can easily promote itself by using the images submitted by its fans wearing brand's clothing. Customers may become brand's key social media marketing element. A company that does it very well is Free People. It asks its fans to post images of themselves wearing company's clothing and labeling them with specific hashtags. But the company doesn't stop there. Free uses some of the photos on their official website. Excellent promotion, isn't it ?!

Backstage access

Instagram enables brand's followers to see behind-the-scenes images. That's what the customers love.

For example, Burberry doesn't post huge amount of clothing pictures on their account. They're rather occasional. What the brand actually does is posting simple, though sophisticated images of the company's base in London and cool backstage pictures from photo shoots. 

Instagram Video ? Sure !

Instagram Video is a feature that lets fashion brands add something more than the images. The company that apparently knows how to make use of it is the American clothing brand Guess. They have been posting some videos of makeup styling or the previews of their collections. Whoever thought it wouldn't work - Guess proves it does !

Hashtags

Use hashtags and use them wisely. They make the content searchable and what's extremely important - they enable brands to reach out to the masses. Hashtags can be used to tag a brand, or a specific product line. But overloading pictures with the hashtags isn't the right approach. They should be used to describe the images, wisely.

For example, Louis Vuitton is (wisely!) using such hashtags as #LouisVuitton or #LVshoes linking them to the brand's products and fashion campaigns.

Social Media Integration

Instagram has a built-in social sharing feature. It allows the same photos on Instagram to be shared on other social media platforms that belong to the company, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr or Foursquare. It's not a surprise that the most commonly used platforms are Facebook and Twitter. After a quick and easy setup, not only brands, but also regular users are able to post their Instagram pictures to all their previously mentioned networks. This built-in feature makes it so convenient to go further and promote even more !

Instagram is a magnificent tool for fashion brands to market their collections. Some of them have polished it to the perfection. Others are fiercely catching up. Instagram is fun, engaging and creative. Fashion brands can express their values through powerful and inspirational images and videos. And that's the beauty of it.

x

Romy

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Pop- Up Anyone?

In today’s world, more and artists are rushing to get their work on all social media platforms in order to promote their work, however, there is still no substitute for personal interactions with potential prospects and buyer at a trade show or pop up store.

Since ‘Pop- Ups’ are taking London- if not the world- by storm, and the reason people choose to exhibit at them is to increase sales and create awareness for yourself as a brand. Pop- Ups are a cost effective way and simple task to meet hundreds of potentials face to face, rather than getting lost in the vast ocean we call the internet.

If Advertised correctly- and this is where social media comes into play- an artist has the chance to meet with the right people, a Gallery owner looking for new talent, a journalist looking to fill the cultural pages of their magazine and even potentially meet other art professionals.

Following an article I picked up from Art Business, writer Kathryn Peck discloses information for artist who wish to exhibit. Although she refers to Trade shows, the article is simply translated, no matter how you choose to exhibit.

Exhibiting 101 – Kathryn Peck

Do your homework beforehand.

Start planning for the show in advance. Note all deadlines and communicate with show managers and show service vendors, who can be helpful in explaining rules and answering questions. Attesi suggests assigning one person to oversee this process. Giglio advises early planning, including selecting booth spaces, booth design, graphics and construction. It will “help keep costs under control and will also help keep you from last-minute craziness and exhaustion,” he says.

Make your booth space open and inviting.

“Product is king!” says Peter LoCascio, who has been helping companies market themselves for more than 35 years and today runs Trade Show Consultants (tradeshowconsultants.com). “The exhibit booth should be designed to transform suspects who walk the aisles of a trade show into prospects.” This advice means that exhibitors must pay close attention to the layout. For example, they must leave plenty of open space for visitors and be sure that the lighting highlights the art on display.

“Lighting is critical for artworks,” says LoCascio. “The exhibitor should design his or her exhibit utilizing as much illumination as possible on each of the pieces displayed.”

Attesi adds that overstaffing or understaffing a booth can create an unfriendly layout. “You need two people for every 10×10[-foot] space, plus some extra staff to rotate in so everyone gets a break,” she says.

Consider your booth a store, too.

Use a trade show not only to exhibit your latest artworks but also to promote and sell other facets of your business, such as prints, calendars and cards.

Build contacts and mailing lists.

Social-media websites make it easy to build a following, but trade shows offer the opportunity to make a personal connection with those who admire your work and may be future clients. “Sales-lead management is key to maintaining contact with booth visitors and should be a major focus,” says Lo- Cascio. “Get visitors’ names, addresses, cell phone [numbers] and e-mail addresses with a synopsis of discussion topics in a form that allows effective post-show communications.”

Promote your events.

Use the time you have at a trade show to promote other events in which you will be participating. Consider printing a list of upcoming shows or workshops, dates and locations for visitors to take with them.

Consider show specials and reduced show prices.

Show specials may help stimulate prospects that might seem to be wavering on price, says LoCascio. He suggests marking each piece with the regular price and the new special price. “The show special should be advertised in the booth and only last until one week after the show before the prices on selected items goes back up,” says LoCascio.

Stand up straight and smile.

Personal presentation at a trade show is important. Never leave your booth unattended, and those tending the booth should not just sit or “look uninterested,” says Giglio. “Always greet and make eye contact with passersby; you never know who is walking by your booth.”

“I see more 10×10 table shows where exhibitors put the table in the front and sit behind it and then check their e-mail,” says Attesi. “This does not send the message, ‘Welcome. Come into my exhibit. Relax, look around, have a seat, and learn more about our products!’ Walking up to an exhibit where the staff is checking their phones or in a circle chatting to each other can be intimidating for attendees and is the best way you could sabotage your investment.”

LoCascio also advises against exhibitors’ eating in the booths. It “deters visitors who don’t want to impose,” he says.

Hope this Article was helpful and we at BOTS look forward to seeing our invites to you exhibition soon!

X

Romy

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Marketing Yourself- The DIY Way

Working with Be On The Scene, I am faced with a lot of questions from performers on how to market themselves in the ever growing industry. Now as I am no expert, I thought I would share an article written by Carina Westling of Imagem, who appeared as a guest author on DIY Musician Blog.

Imagen is an independent music publishing company that manages artists like Vampire Weekend and Justin Timberlake.

Carina explains three tips on how to successfully market your music in a step by step article focused on the musician as an individual. I hope you find this as insightful as I have and you are one step closer to achieving your goals.

lets begin-

 How do I successfully market my music?

If you want to get anywhere as a songwriter or a performer, it’s crucial that you learn how to market yourself and your music. The issue is, occasionally a songwriter will get a “lucky break” with his or her music and fall into fame and fortune without having put in much effort. When that happens, every other songwriter on earth thinks that’s the way to make it happen. You just have to be lucky. After all, we all want a quick fix, right?

However, if you’re serious about being successful with your music, that’s not much of a strategy. I want to give you three important pointers on how you can be much more likely to achieve your songwriting goals, based on how you market your music and yourself as a musician.

1. Speak to One Person

Of course as a songwriter you want to appeal to the masses. You want a ton of people hearing, sharing and loving your music. I get that. But one thing you have to realize when you’re marketing yourself is it’s best to address a single person to increase the odds of getting their attention.

For example, let’s say you signed up for a band’s email list at one of their shows. Which of the following opening email lines would be more likely to grab your attention as a reader?

A.    “Hey Guys – We wanted to thank you all for coming out to our last show. We appreciated you guys being there and hope you can make it out to our next show at…”

OR

B.    “Hey Bob – We wanted to thank you for coming out to our last show. We appreciated you being there and hope you can make it out to our next show at…”

Doesn’t the second one feel much more like it’s directed at you, specifically (well, assuming your name’s Bob)? The second one’s much more likely to get your reader’s attention. There’s a subconscious detachment that happens when we read phrases like “hey all you guys.” It makes us feel like just a face in a crowd, and we zone out. But when we’re spoken to directly, we’re much more likely to respond.

To get good at this technique, a great marketing approach is to create an avatar of your typical fan. Write out the name, age, gender, occupation, etc., of one of your fans. It can be someone made-up, who you feel represents your fan base appropriately, or it can be an actual fan of yours. Every time you write an email, tweet, or Facebook post, keep that person in mind. Pretend you’re writing to him only and not to everyone on the internet. It’ll help you keep your writings engaging for everyone who reads them, because while saying things like “Hello Cleveland” is kick-ass on-stage, it just doesn’t apply when you’re marketing yourself.

2. Give Value

Another big mistake a lot of songwriters make is they don’t make their promotions all about their fans. They make them about themselves. They say things like “We would really appreciate it if you came out to our show. It would mean so much to us.” That’s inwardly focused. It may work on their mom and siblings, but it just won’t appeal to someone who’s a casual observer of the band. In fact, it’ll probably turn that casual observer off, because it’s such a self-serving statement.

Another phrase I see a lot of songwriter’s write when promoting their stuff is “hey check out my songs, and let me know what you think.” There are two reasons this phrase is a bad idea: 1. Again, it’s self-serving. It’s all about the artist who posted it, which means other people aren’t likely to care. And, 2. It’s disingenuous. They probably don’t really want to know what you think, UNLESS you love it. If you hate their music, they’re not going to want you posting that on their page. I recommend staying away from that phrase altogether in online postings. It does the exact opposite of giving value.

Instead, talk about the benefits they’ll have by coming out to a show or buying one of your albums. Let them know why it’ll be a positive experience for THEM. People respond to what makes them feel good, so make them feel good. Don’t just talk about yourself. Everyone’s favorite topic is themselves. Not someone else. Use that piece of information to your advantage when you’re inviting someone to a show or to buy your music.

3. Build Relationships

One of the best ways to market your music is to build relationships. This applies not only to people who can help advance your career, like club owners and bigger bands, but with your fans as well.

As far as building relationships with your fans, if you were in the crowd for a band’s show, wouldn’t you be much more likely to come to another show if the band members engaged you in some pleasant conversation afterwards? If you get your fans on your email list, you can continue the relationship, by offering them cool stuff in your emails.

And as far promoters, bigger bands, etc., who can help your career along, building relationships with them, is key as well. You’ve heard the phrase “it’s all who you know.” Well start knowing people. But again, it’s about them. Don’t try to build relationships with people by seeing what they can do for you. No one will want to deal with you. Just be cool and get to know people. Later on down the line, you might able to ask for things, and it’ll be okay because you’ll have that relationship. But start out just by getting to know them, and even see if there’s anything you can do for them. If people like you and get to know you, they’ll be much more likely to want to help you succeed.

The opposite of building relationships would be to spam people online. This includes sending emails to people who didn’t ask to receive them and posting your music on sites that weren’t looking for it to be posted there. Things like that will only aggravate people, and possibly even get you blocked from the sites you want to be on. You’re doing the opposite of building relationships.

The problem is, most songwriters think in numbers. They think “that Facebook page has 20,000 fans. If I post my music there, SOMEONE will hear it, and I’ll get famous.” What’s much more likely to happen, is you’re just going to annoy the owner of the page. Think about how you feel when random people you don’t know post their stuff to your page. Instead, try to develop a relationship with the owner of the page. Maybe he’ll eventually promote your music to his page, if it’s good. And if not, that’s fine too.

Last Note

Marketing your music and yourself as an artist is crucial to your success as a songwriter. It’s just as important as understating songwriting, stage performance, recording and theory. Actually, it’s probably more important, if you want songwriting to be more than just your hobby. So use this information to avoid some unnecessary mistakes throughout your journey to success and have fun.

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Food Art

Ignore what you have been taught, forget alphabet spaghetti, there's  a new artistic movement in town!

During  my travels around Asia and North Africa, I was constantly surprised by the way the locals were grabbing the tourists attention, mostly to earn a few bucks or two, but nothing prepared me for what I saw when it came to Food Displays.

Watermelon umbrellas,  apple swans and  lemon dragon flys were some of the beautiful art works displayed. However, not for consumption, but for art pieces.

Take a look at the video above for some of the examples and new innovative (albeit wasteful) ways of creating art.

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Romy

6 charateristics of a succesful musician

 

 

Hey Guys,

As it is a Monday, I thought that I would keep this post short and sweet and let the video do the talking for once!

Jayme Lewis is a renowned bassist, author and educator and in this installment for MusiciansUnite, Jayme reviews the six important characteristics that all successful working musicians must have.  He talks about what you need to do to excel your musical career forward. No matter your age, style, skill or experience level, every musician will learn something valuable!

hope you enjoy!

x

Romy

romy@beonthescene.com

Musical Genious, A touching Story

He cant tell his left from his right and cant count to 10, but he can play every note of every song he ever heard. even if he only heard it once, 10 years ago.

Derek Paravicini, aged 26, was born 14 weeks prematurely and was within an heartbreat of death.

When Derek came along a few minutes later, the doctor presumed that he, too, could not possibly live. And yet just when his mother Mary Ann had given up hope, she heard the faintest of whimpers, the tiniest of muffled squeaks. He had made it. 

Three decades on, Derek no longer makes muffled squeaks. Instead, he brings a rapt audience in St George’s concert theatre, Bristol, to their feet again and again, with a dazzling range of music — an Oscar Peterson arrangement of Greensleeves, his own version of Bach’s Air in the key of G, a jaunty ragtime taste of Debussy.

You’ll have heard of perfect pitch. Well, Derek has absolute pitch — a rare gift, meaning that, when he hears a chord with ten notes in it, he can identify every one. Most professional musicians can get about five. 

He can master any melody on earth, has a databank of thousands of songs in his head and can play any one of them at will, improvising as he goes. 

Because he was born so early, Derek is blind. The oxygen used to revive him at birth caused certain vessels in his eyes to grow abnormally, damaging his retinas, in a condition called retinopathy of prematurity. 

 

As he is blind, he cannot read music — he can’t even read Braille. All his performances — his and the orchestra’s — is encapsulated entirely within his head. 

Remember, Life Does not Limit you, Only your own fear can

How Youtube is driving Innovation

Chris Anderson is an editor, journalist and a creator of a popular games website IGN and in this video he talks to TED audiences on how Youtube is driving innovation. He explains the rise of web video that is driving a worldwide phenomenon he calls the Crowd Accelerated Innovation which is the self fueling cycle of learning that could be as significant as the invention of print.

How does this affect us? Well, taking an example from the video, as students we learn from age old history and research, but today lessons are available to us from the best teachers and audience. right on your computer screen. 

Please watch the video and share your thoughts and comments in the box below!

X

Romy

Copycats

Last year, in the Daily mail I read an article on copyright laws for major designer labels and how Copycats are able to get away with making Knock Offs in this instance, Louis Vuitton Knock off Bags. Upon watching my weekly dose of TED talks, I came across the same topic being discussed and thought it is a sign to share it with all of you.  

The speech lead by Johanna Blakely touches on the lack of copyright laws in the fashion industry as opposed to the firm grip the law has on Film, Music and Software.

In the world we live in today, there are so many niches and groups of people who like different things and in most instances, different budgets. With the internet, we are able to get it twice as fast than in previous years.

Johanna touches on competition, so what does this mean for artists? Well everyone wants a bigger piece of the imagination pie or want to be the first in innovation at the same time keeping things fresh. But a quick search on Google on a certain topic or idea you are playing with will see this having been done before, in some form or another.

Creativity is defined as the ability to channel carious existing ideas and make them into something new and better. In simple terms, copycats are merely serving a need within a market in order to make money. A wise women once said, “Copycats are here to make money, Artists are here to make a difference.”

X

Romy

Creative Refreshers Course 101

"The Creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves." - Carl Jung

Twice a week, a find myself committed to writing business blogs, managing social media content as well as trying to not feel like I am just churning out words. As a blogger I have to constantly draw inspiration and be creative.

I thought I would share 3 tips on how to be more creative in order to a creative. Some tips are nothing new and I’m most certain I have explored and shared these with my lovely readers in the past, however, they are effective and, well, and they work.

Let’s begin with the first tip.

-       Creativity is ignited by surroundings, including experiences and sensory emotions. I find when I have been sitting at my desk too long (although as previously discussed I have feng shui’ed it) - my mind draws blanks. Instead, I take a walk up the road to the off-license and buy myself a bag of skittles (true story) and on the walk back, I look at the houses lining the streets, I gaze up at the clouds and I take in the smells and sights. Think of it as imagination kindle. Whatever it is that you do, seeing things through new eyes will surely jog creativity.

-       Creating routine and jotting down schedules always helps. My daily routine starts after I have had breakfast and put on my Spotify and create my to do list for the day, scheduling in priorities. If you are like me, you tend to jot things on paper and risk misplacing it, ensure you place all your bits and bobs in one place. This could be a file, draw or box, as long as you know you will find it in there somewhere.

-       Do things differently… if you are a musician, strum a little harder  or try using a pic, if you are a designer, try a different stitching and so forth.

-       And finally, never dwell on mistakes. Start from fresh each time!

X

Romy

Many thanks again to Pikaland, illustrator’s blog for always inspiring me! 

EP Coming out?

                                           How to promote and maximize sales of your album.

So it’s been months of rehearsals, promotion, cutting and recording. But what now?

You have the album in the digital format but how do you maximize its reach and sell sell?

Remember… maximizing an opportunity and an album can maximize its sale potential, drop the ball and it could sink without a trace.

I’m going to use one of my favourite bands as an example for this blog, The Black Keys, and an article I discovered for the PR they did on the Album, El Camino

It’s was a stressful time for the record label Nonesuch/warnerbros and their management, Q Prime and especially for the band members. However, how they promoted the album has become a case study on how to best release an album in the digital age. The result was 206,000 albums sold in the first week of release in the USA. Pretty great right?

So how did they do it?

Well, first off, the rule in promotion and marketing is to always have a strategy. The Band used every opportunity they had to mention the release. This wasn’t just on a few occasions where they deemed fit, but at EVERY possible chance and daily too. Here is a simple breakdown.  

·         email blasts to a fan mailing list

·         Twitter and Facebook updates

·         viral videos

·         tour date releases

·         Record Store Day record release

·         TV, print and  radio interviews

·         video interviews

·         album release shows

·         live stream broadcasts

Now as a new artists and one without a label, PR company and management behind you, some of the tasks seem daunting. But refer back to a previous blog on INDIE-Pendance where I explain how to be your own manager as well as to use Social Media to its Maximum capacity for free.

The Black Keys were successful in creating somewhat of a frenzy in their fans, encouraging them to pre-order albums for a fear of missing out. They created a demand.

If you are doing this independently, please remember a few things.

With emails, you have to give as much info as possible and be very direct with your fans

-       Always insist fans to join the email lists

-       Try and gain as much support from local music stores and independent outlets as much as possible. This seems quite daunting, I understand, however, you would be pleasantly surprised how much people are willing to do. Refer to previous blog on Amanda Palmer and the Art of Asking.

-       Use twitter at least 3 times a day to promote it

The band did chose an unusual album release date of 6^th December however, Pat Carney Noted in an interview,

There’s a rule you release albums in February-March, then you tour the summer. Then there’s the September-October schedule. Our new album is out on December 6. I asked the label for a list of major rock bands that had released albums in December. In the last 10 years there’s maybe four. But our manager said it’s a shame more bands don’t, ‘cos it would force the industry not to shut down. So we’re going to try it.

Perhaps without the major competition of releasing against other artists in your genre will work in your favour. Do a bit of research and find out who is doing what, when and why.

Having never released an album myself, I can only imagine the stress, time and money it takes to get promotion started. However, if you take a small page out of some of the big names “book” and find a way to make it work for you, you will be on the road to success in no time.

I wish you the best of luck and look forward to an autographed copy!

X

Romy

romy@beonthescene.com