Do you get your Twitter on?

I just read this article referring to how twitter has a low retention rates. Now I'm not sure if you use Twitter, but basically Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

While some people don't like it or don't return, could be because they are not using it to its benefit. For example I see twitter as a platform to give your "elevator speech" in 140 characters or less. Basically get to the point and show me the value. (This 140 character idea would be nice in business meetings and probably save time. After a while business meetings can tend to go on about nothing). The three reasons I use tweeter is (1) value (2) entertainment and (3) a bit of hey what is he/she doing.

Now in order for me to get value from Twitter I need to be selective in who I follow and in return be selective in what I post. For example I follow googleatwork to keep up with Google technologies and MrBuzzFactor for new music marketing idea's. These are very useful to me and I view them daily. Any people I follow which I lose interest in, I simply stop following. It’s nothing against that individual, it’s just I get no value from their information. In addition to my twitter account twitter account (www.twitter.com/dirving_theaces) I use tweetworks which allowed me to create a group of followers. (www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/theaces) I can update a group in one single post.

Challenge yourself to be creative with Twitter. For example use it as a powerful marketing tool. Being I have a band, I can use twitpic to tweet backstage pictures or studio shots. I can use twitter for quick updates (e.g. Be the first to hear our new song. Let us know what you think.) Or you can get more advanced and integrate this with Google maps. Image your at a bar or show, you can tweet your location; your friends can see where you are and use Google maps to find you. You may even be at a great show, tweet a few pictures and comments, your friends see this, use the TweetMapper application and are able to meet you at the show. There are endless possibilities so be creating and use twitter to empower you.

What ? A TV show and you may be invited?

The Aces will be doing a TV shoot for a local TV show called "The Beat" This will be a feature on the band and include some lucky fans as well. So we'll be looking for that 50's pinup / burlesque look - so if you have tattoos or holes in your fishnets, etc - we're looking for you. If you have a rat rod we want you too. Looking for about 5-7 greasers/pinups to be included. Dates will be in June, shoot will be in santa rosa, possibly around the airport. So we'll keep you posted.

just played with a punk rock band and it was....

We just played a benefit for a good friend of ours who's screen printing business has hit hard times with taxes. (Hey shouldn't you be ready for taxes and aren't taxes yearly?) Anyway we very supportive of his business and I think he had a good night. And hey, we're going to need t-shirts soon anyway. We'll this week we have one rehearsal before our huge Friday gig for about 500 people. We need to connect, we need to connect..... Be sure to check our links on the left and join us on our twitter group, email, etc - We need you to help us with photo's and idea's so drop us a line and upload your pictures to flickr.

No One Rides For Free

"No One Rides For Free"

The Aces = blues trash machine

What is blues trash you ask? It's a distorted wall of sound topped by wailing harp.

What does this all mean, product coming soon.

Hey - check out of friends at www.eltororecords.com - the sound will charge you.

Things to come....

Google "The sound will charge you"

What self publicity tools are you using?

Have you been to www.musicthinktank.com recently if you're an indie artist? Or being a music fan have you checked out iLike? Actually if your an indie artist and you don't have a reverbnation profile yet you should! Reverbnation has some very nice tools for you to manage your music, add widgets to your blog or facebook, great reporting tools on visitors or song downloads including geographical regions, manage your calendar including adding the crowd attendance, ability to sell songs/merchandise, distribution on itunes, etc and a very nice email management program.

You know, how great it would be if you're diligent enough to keep your ReverbNation calendar updated, gig attendance updated and monitored your reports. The reports could be another tool to add to your EPK / promo pack. Now agents, publicist, etc can see real results. So check it out and use these free tools today. (there is also a premium service too)

The Aces - Blastin' "You're Gonna Lose" in Memphis TN

Preparing a treat for the easter bunny.

Blues Trash !

Check out Need Your Lovin' It's killer!

From: http://song.ly/2yb7

To Tweet or not to Tweet, that is the question

Found a great new site to use with Twitter. (Actually my wife found it) it’s called Song.ly. Basically it allows you to share and discover music on twitter. So for example, if you have a MP3 located at http://www.site.com/music/record/getmysong.mp3, song.ly will allow you to create a short link to the download allowing them to play the song right in the browser without having to download the song first. So now the URL http://www.site.com/music/record/getmysong.mp3 would look like http://song.ly/wf9x1 which can easily be posted to Twitter, sent in SMS text messages, posted to blogs, facebook or myspace. The shorten URL is more user friendly than the long URL. Image how powerful this can be. Say you’re at a friend’s gig and you record 2 minutes on your iPhone. At the gig within minutes, you can create an MP3, upload the song.ly and post to twitter or better yet SMS text this to your friends. Your friends can have instant access to your night and deiced to change their plans and meet you at the show. Pretty powerful stuff for indie artists and fans. Now there is always the question on if the band is for or against live show audio/video taping. I feel as long as people are not producing something to sell for profit (this has copy write restrictions) I’m total for it. When The Aces perform, we’re not doing anything I would not want others to hear or see, in fact I need people to spread the word on the band.

Tips for the not so famous

I had an interesting reaction when I posted a question on LinkedIn. I was asking if online press releases were worth doing. So instead of the traditional press release with print magazines, what if I did it to all online sites. The people interested in the topic was great and respones were passionate. Actually I realized by using social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, etc, you can have a whole team available to bounce idea's off of and hear from their experiences allowing you to decide it yourself (DIY)

http://tweenmarketing.blogspot.com/2009/03/tips-for-becoming-not-quite-famous-by.html

It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses

You know, I really love technology. There is a conference coming to San Francisco called The SanFran Music Tech Summit being held in San Francisco. I’m planning on attending this with my wife to put me up front and center on how technology is helping the indie band/artist. I read something which said DIY means “Decide It Yourself”. I like that saying a lot. There is some powerful technology available and when combined with creative thinking can really be inspiring and exciting.
On The Aces front, this is the week we put together our heads and get our liner notes together. Actually when it comes to thanking people, following the twitter model (less is more so make your comments count) fits…...

No taco trucks tonight after the show !

I just arrived home (12am PDT) from The Aces opening for Charlie Musselwhite. I was pretty surprised in the response we had. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves plus the dancers were in full swing. I’m always a bit cautious when we perform in front of a mature crowd. We can either be too loud or rambunctious or they will dig what we do. Well it was a good night and the crowd did enjoy our set. (The set did sound pretty good to me too) We meet a lot of new folks (Jill, Matt, Charlie and others I can’t remember) who were very supportive of us. We played a 9 song set featuring classics such as “You’re Gonna Lose” and “Stole Something From Me”…… We’ll it is approaching 12:45am in California and I’m getting tired – until next time, be sure to visit us at www.acesfan.com

Thursday April 2

Today is thursday, one day before we open for charlie musselwhite in santa rosa at the last day saloon. Earlier this week on monday Sky and I appeared on KRSH 5:01 blues. We were featured with Charlie Musselwhite to promote our show coming this friday April 3. The show was un-rehearsed, acoustic and a blast. We performed three songs off the cuff. As Charlie says "you can never go wrong with a 1-4-5 shuffle in the key of A". Lets see tuesday we had a band meeting and rehersal. Danny West is going to be appearing with us on 2nd guitar and was kickin' on House on the Hill. Rehearsals are less then inspiring, but required none the less. Once the curtains go up and lights go on, it's show time....... We'll probably be to loud and trashy for some people on friday and just enough for others. It should be a pretty exciting show...... We will also have some good news soon on our CD.