Promo followup: my last.fm campaign stats

So how do you all think I did? I don’t think I did too badly, although I may market to people listening to different artists next time…

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posted 2 days ago

Quote of the Day...

“The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.
- Paul Valery”

via Ping.fm

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posted 2 days ago

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody [1080p]

The most shared video in my in my inbox today. My 2nd favorite Queen Bohem Rhap parody (outside of that Lego one…I think I’ll bring that one back…)

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posted 3 days ago

Eigenharp Alpha, the future of music

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posted 4 days ago

It's a Sexy Job, But Adam Lambert's Gotta Do It! - E! Online

I’m not team Glambert, and, because I’m on the West Coast, so I missed all the good stuff from last night’s AMAs (from Jen’s falling to Adam’s copulating), but, dammit, enough, already!

If our outrage over rock stars is nothing new, then neither are our rock stars. From Elvis’ pelvis on down, they are nothing if not dedicated to sex, more sex, the next new single, which is probably about sex, and ticking off people who prefer their s-e-x to be not so explicit, thankyouverymuch.

Criticizing Lambert for what he did, smooched and pawed at the AMAs is like criticizing that Paula Deen lady on the Food Network because she made something with butter: It’s what they do.

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posted 4 days ago

My last.fm Top 3 Artists, 11/22/2009

The usual stuff, but I love it so much!

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posted 5 days ago

It Takes a Chunk of Ad Change to Build a Village, or Adventures in Self-Promotion, part 1

I admit, I’m always a little puzzled when on/off line acquaintances tell me that they are surprised to find out that I do write, sing and perform music.  I mean, seriously.  Do a search on Google for my name, and you’ll see links of my work to music sites I’ve never heard of.  I then look have a look over my Twitter stream, my FriendFeed stream, and even over on my Myspace accounts.  Lots of pimping of other people’s work.  Hardly a peep about mine. I’ve now gotten to a point where all that is going to have to change.

As with  many women, I’m scared of coming across as boastful, arrogant, or even spammy when I try to encourage eyes and ears to my music.  In my 16+ years as an online addict, I’ve seen many an attempt to show off their wares be meet with ridicule, sarcasm and, in some cases, out and out anger.   There was once a massive subculture that didn’t take too kindly to being “sold to” on their respective BBSs, and the like. These days, there is really no room for that kind of thinking.  Promoting oneself on the internet (or anywhere else for that matter) has always been a fierce business, but, especially in this economy, everyone’s out for their own.   To this end, you cannot be afraid to put yourself out there, make yourself heard, and reap the resulting rewards (or scorn). Sure, you run the risk of annoying your friends.  But if they didn’t support what you are doing, would they be your friends?

Anyway, to that end, I’ve decided to work harder (and hopefully a little smarter) to sell my CDs online. I’ve decided that, rather than spam the hell out of some of these music sites, I’d do the right thing and participate in some of these music site ad campaigns.   I’d start small, try to extend the time, and work it out from there.  A lot of these sites will allow you to promote either a page or a song.  I opted for song promotion and picked the first “single” off of my last album, “Incident at Motel 6”.  Granted, this album was released over a year and a half ago, and I’ve kind of sat on it without saying anything until now, when I’m in the middle of another project.  But, what the hey?  It’s been good to me, and I want to share it.  So, last night, I paid about $75 for an iLike ad that was to run for 150 clicks, and be seen in all countries accessing iLike in the electronic music genre.  Small audience, right?  Should take a few days to come to fruition, right?

It was over in 2 hours.  $75 bucks for a two hour campaign.  Serves me right for thinking the iLike site had such a small following:

Checking my stats the next morning, I saw that the campaign landed me five more fans and 4 more “Likes”.  I always appreciate more fans, but I’m not sure I can afford $75 every time I need a two hour spike in iLike traffic.  Here’s to hoping the word of mouth from the fans works… I also signed up for Last.fm’s powercampaign.  This time, it’s USD $25.00 for 100 clicks, and you can target it toward people who like certain bands.  I initially had Radiohead and the Chemical Brothers’ fans in my sights as well as the usual Kate Bush/Bjork/Alanis combo.  But then I decided that targeting those bands’ followers was a bit dicey.  So, I chose these, instead:


As of this morning, these were my stats on the campaign:


Ok, not a smash hit, but noone hated it either, at least not so far.   I also have to consider that Last.fm is Euro-centric, so the listens/loves/skips/bans will probably show up while I’m asleep.  I also tried getting my music on Pandora, and aside from the rather stringent requirements, I kept getting this error message when I tried to put in my UPC code for the CD (which IS on Amazon.com).

So, I contacted Amazon.com.  They got back to me the next day and said that the UPC code is properly connected with the item in their store.  Do a search using the UPC code, and there you have it.

So, I’ve put out a couple of emails to Pandora and CD Baby.  It’s Sunday, of course, so I don’t expect to hear from them until tomorrow, if all goes to plan.  And finally, I’ve put together an ad campaign on Facebook.  .50 per click.  Maxed out at $50.00.  It is currently “Pending Review”.  I wonder if I should edit the text to say that the CD would be a great Christmas gift.  Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas.

Anyway, those experimental ad campaigns have cost me a total of $150.00.  It was about as much as it cost me to master the CD, and less than it did for me to dupe it.  It’s too soon to tell to see if I got my money’s worth.  If I can sell at least one CD out of all of this, I’ll smile a little. But I’ve now more fans that I’ve have before, so the payback is already coming. 

I’ll do my best to communicate.  That’s another thing.  I need to get better at fan communication.  I’m always flattered when I email/twitter someone I’m a fan of, and they actually reply! I must do the same thing. Anyway, results in a few.  Cheerio!

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posted 5 days ago

Kandinsky retrospective is natural for Guggenheim -

Reporting from New York - “Kandinsky,” the big exhibition of 95 oil paintings made between 1902 and 1942 by the visionary pioneer of abstraction, Vasily Kandinsky, is a show that looks like it was made expressly for the spiral ramp of the Guggenheim Museum. That’s because in a sense it was.

Solomon R. Guggenheim, the museum’s founder, was a major collector of Kandinsky’s art, amassing no fewer than 150 canvases in his lifetime. (He died in 1949, five years after the artist.) The work was perhaps the most profound influence on the collector’s thinking about nonobjective painting, which shed direct relationships to the visible world. Kandinsky instead explored the emotive possibilities of color and form, study central to avant-garde art for the next half a century.

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posted 5 days ago

NASA - Robert Satcher's Self-Portrait

Astronaut Robert Satcher uses a digital still camera to expose take a self-portrait during the STS-129 mission’s first spacewalk.

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posted 6 days ago

Awesomest...sashimi...plate...EVAH!!!

Taken @ Spanish Springs Sushi, Sparks, NV
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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posted 6 days ago