Name: Greg
Web Site: http://www.genyrockstars.com
Bio: Greg is a marketing guy from Orlando, FL. He works in the music industry and has clients that span from young entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 brands that look to him for online marketing ideas, advice and other cool stuff to help their business and personal development. Find him on Twitter, @g_ro or shoot an email to rollettmarketing@gmail.com.
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Local Orlando Hip-Hop – Smash City Gauntlet
April 28th, 2010The Orlando hip-hop scene is much bigger and cultured than you probably thought or gave it credit to. Just one look at indie hip-hop road warriors Soliloquists of Sound (many know Swam as the mayor of Downtown Orlando), the local battle scene (Grind Time originated from Orlando) and the myriad of talent that frequents Firestone, Backbooth, 57 West, The Cameo Theater and other venues gives you a nice picture of the present and future of Orlando hip-hop.
One group that is causing major commotion is Smash City Gauntlet. Comprised of Kap Kallous, JBiz and Redd Simpkins the trio may have a new group name, but they have been helping to build the Orlando scene for years. Collectively they have rocked shows with Murs, Wu Tang, KRS One, Rakim and others and a former group featuring Kap and Redd Simpkins hit the top of the CMJ hip-hop charts.
The group just launched a new EP on Earth Day, noting that they are keeping “bad music from polluting the OZone.” With a pretty nice indie video to kick thing off and free music for the summer ride, this is just another reason to keep Orlando at the forefront of indie hip-hop.
Check out their debut EP, There Goes The Neighborhood and check below for the video to the Devils Lettuce (caution: NSFW).
You Need Products To Make Chedda
April 8th, 2010
photo by lincolnblues
This is a no-brainer, but so many people, especially in the entertainment business and wonder why they are still doing the same ‘ol thing.
Without products, you cannot make money. These can be in the form of services, physical, digital, affiliate or whatever else you can think of. The format doesn’t matter as long as they add value to your career and your business.
I talk to so many musicians locally here in Orlando and all over the world through my sites and products and the number one thing stopping their growth is that they have “0″ income potential.
If you aren’t playing shows, don’t have an album/movie/art, and aren’t looking at ways to monetize your talent, it becomes really tough to get that MTV crib.
The next variable is adding value through your products. Having a CD is like having a business card. Yea, bands get away with selling them at live shows, but the value in the plastic revolution is far passed. Fans are looking for something beyond what they can find for free with a Google or Torrent search.
I recently came across this promotion for 72 Musicians, a film about 20 bands who told their story about bring on the road and being musicians. Here is the trailer:
Now they are looking to make some money off this thing (how ironic that you would want to get paid for your hard work!)
The cool thing is that they are not trying to get into your Blockbuster or Netflix as the number one way of generating some revenue. Instead they are giving direct access to fans with a ton of options:
They have price points and mediums that reach every fan. From a $7.99 download all the way to a $400 Hard Drive of the raw files.
They even have a free download of the soundtrack in exchange for the coveted email address.
Looking at musicians and other artists, are there ways that you can adapt this model to work for you? How can you use your podium, microphone or other platform to turn what you love and work your ass of for into something that pays the bills and gives value to others?
This post was written by Greg Rollett, music marketing guy and advocate of taking musicians’s money to help them make more money.
Spit Your Game At BarCamp Orlando
April 1st, 2010
This Saturday, April 3rd is BarCamp Orlando, a collection of geeks, coders, technology freaks, artists and entertainers that walk into an empty presentation board and fill it with topics that range from structuring URL’s to coding with Ruby to the state of the Orlando scene (doterati was actually a result of some BarCamp discussions a few years back).
For those that are unfamiliar with the format, a BarCamp is an adhoc conference where there are no scheduled presentations. When the event begins, the audience is given the keys to the city and fill up the speaking board with topics that they want to talk about. You are given about 30 minutes to woo the crowd, engage in a conversation with the audience and make new friends by telling people how smart and cool you are.
I have given 2 BarCamp talks, one here in Orlando and one in Miami and both of them were really exciting. This year, I’ll just be hanging and wooing my way into finding a development team for a covert project (I always seem to have one of those going on).
Peep the super dope trailer below!
The event is free and run by local tech hero Gregg Pollack. The shenanigans happen at the Wall Street Cantina from 9:30am – 6pm.
So if you are up to spitting some game, meeting some friends and learing about some tech stuff come out and enjoy a nice Saturday in downtown O-Town.
If you want to grab a beer, do the cool thing and shoot me a message via Twitter – @g_ro.
-Greg
Rewarding Your Fans
March 26th, 2010I always love when artists give back to their fans. Music has an immense spiritual and higher calling and giving your fans the opportunity to become ingrained in your vision and your culture is something that they will not only cherish, but pass on and build the musician’s brand.
In this vein, I am excited to see all of the integrated marketing campaigns happening with remixes, stemmed out versions of songs, rock band tracks and other ways to get your fans excited about the music.
One cool campaign I came across this week was from Katherine McPhee from season 5 of American Idol. She is prepping the release of UnBroken, her 2nd major album on Verve Forecast Records. In their launch campaign they have really empowered her fans and this is sure to help with release day numbers as well as long term brand impact which will help her on tour, with sponsors and other deals which will generate income for Katherine and her label .
One example that I wanted to show was the Facebook promotion “Unbroken Chain.”
It’s a fairly simple pass along contest for the fans. Come to the page, listen to some music and pass it on to 3 friends to get a coupon code for a prize. The cool thing for the artist is that they get 3 new confirmed fans/friends who they can now promote to and in turn get them involved to ask 3 friends to join. Simple, yet very, very effective.
The only complaint I have is that they are using 30 second clips – kinda B/S in today’s market where I can download the album for free with enough searching and yet can’t listen to the whole songs for free in a controlled environment.
Kat and her label are doing some other exciting things to market her album including:
helping with a fan’s wedding playlist to calling fans during an album listening party, from giving fans opportunities to create videos and splash pages to having them design a fashion set.
When you are creating your next campaign, how can you get your fans or your customers to come alive? This is one of the most vital pieces in the new economy that we are in right now!
This post was written by Greg Rollett. He talks about music marketing and the new music economy over at Gen-Y Rock Stars.
What Music Makes You Feel Alive Today?
March 17th, 2010
What’s happenin Make Me Alive folks? I wanted to start this post by thanking Doug and Derek for giving me a holler to write some stuff about the music industry.
We all know the music industry is nuts right now. You have gangsters doing synchronized dancing to get in the spotlight, outrageous wardrobes that take away from the true talent of artists, kids getting music history from video games and labels releasing far less music than ever before. Yet…
…there are more artists, more opportunities and more great platforms to listen to and discover music than ever before.
You buy a Mac you get Garageband. And a webcam. And iMovie to put it all together. All for like $1,500. Hit repeat.
You have kids in college (and post college) that have changed the entire face of the music industry and are looking to change the way people engage and share their music. Example 1 – Shawn Fanning and Napster. Today’s version is Grooveshark, situated in Gainesville, home of the dreaded Gators and one of the best indie scenes in the southeast (No Idea, half of Fueled By Ramen, Common Grounds, etc).
But for all the good that is happening, what music have you listened to recently that gave you the chills? The music that you can’t wear to tear the wrapping off of (or rip from iTunes, whatever)? What music, song or artist made you want to get in your car and just drive, with no location in mind, just to put the windows down and the volume way beyond what your Prius’s manual says is possible?
The answer is usually slim to none.
Then there are the artists themselves, and this is where my background comes into play. There’s a lot of talk about movements, genre-bending music and big dreams. When push comes to shove, they can’t figure out what Twitter is and have a hard time realizing that today’s business is only 50% talent. Maybe less.
Great music that sits in your Pro Tools rig is no better than the tree that falls in an empty forrest.
But great promotion cannot help bad music, just ask 50 Cent.
The audience at Make Me Alive is a really cool one. They are touching on the cool things in our culture that make life worth living, and not watching. I’m all for that.
So today, as I close this little block party out, I really want to know what makes you get out of bed in the morning? What song, or artist or movie or person makes you feel alive? Once you have the answer to that question, you can use that to start kicking ass and taking names and give hope for the future of the arts community. If you are an artist, how can you make someone feel alive this week after they are a witness to your work?
That’s you goal this week! Make us feel alive. Till next week.
This post was written by Greg Rollett. He runs a music marketing company from his laptop in Orlando, FL.
Image above by Leonan Claro
