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MobBase Teams With Valleyarm, Music180 & Viral Nation for International Reach & Digital Distribution

MobBase, the fast, easy and inexpensive way for music artists to get their own custom iPhone app, is now available to more artists in more places and through more channels than ever. A new partnership with Valleyarm is marketing MobBase to musicians in Asia, Europe, and Africa. And Music180 and Viral Nation are now offering MobBase as part of the toolkits of products and services they provide musicians to help them market and promote themselves.

“More and more musicians are reaching out to fans and bringing them backstage, on tour or into recording sessions via a mobile app,” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer. “It’s connection that reinforces relationship and it’s what builds musical careers.”

“Our partners are helping build relationships and careers too. The shared commitment to indie and developing artists guides our partnering strategy and is fueling our growth.”

Reaching musicians in Asia, Europe, and Africa
MobBase partner Valleyarm is marketing MobBase to musicians in Australasia, The Pacific and throughout Asia and through its partner network in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The publishing and online marketer of music and video content is the leading digital distributor in the Asia Pacific, selling through hundreds of online stores including China Mobile, China Telecom, Telstra Bigpond, Beatport and Maxis Malaysia.

“A mobile app is a ‘must have’ part of artists’ promotional mix,” said Lucy Tulett, Valleyarm’s Head of Business Development. “Because it’s so fast, so easy and so inexpensive, MobBase is the hands down best mobile app solution for Valleyarm artists.”

New distribution relationships promote MobBase to more artists
Music180 is the world’s premier Artist Development Platform that gives artists career management and the ability to meet and work with the world’s top music industry professionals. With Music180’s new membership-based management programs, artists can create a custom career game plan, get pitched to labels and management companies, write and record in the studio with top music pros and more.

“We give artists expert guidance and access to top music pros to take their music careers to the next level,” said Eric Galen, CEO of Music180. “MobBase is about helping independent artists connect with fans and promote themselves – it’s a perfect complement to our services.”

Viral Nation is a social platform connecting musicians and other content providers to venues, promoters and fans. Viral Nation is offering MobBase to musicians to help them promote their music and build their careers.

More than 400 apps – including apps for Saw 3D, Stomp the Yard
More than 400 artists and also music venues, movie and TV soundtracks are using to build iPhone apps. Notables include heavy metal artists, X Japan, and also new apps for Jazz Mafia, Robbie Rivera, and Filth FM. And MobBase is powering the official soundtrack apps for the NBC television hit, Parenthood, the Saw 3D movie and the dance celebration, Stomp the Yard.

Fast, easy, and inexpensive way for artists to get their own iPhone app
MobBase is the low cost way for musicians to share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and other content with fans on their mobile devices. MobBase apps are priced for starving artists and also artists who remember what it is like to starve, with many artists paying as little as $0.50 a day for their own custom iPhone app.

Who Needs Music? Photographers, Curators, and Authors Do!

So you are a musician. That’s awesome. But competition is stiff and you need to make a living. Aside from live performance, music, and merch sales, there are many ways to make a living by composing or providing your tracks for film and video. And fortunately, these types of opportunities for getting paid as a musician and composer for film/video have increased astronomically over the past 10 years with the rise of, you guessed it, the internet and technology.

As a working composer and sound designer, I have managed to build a viable and growing career doing what I love, which is making music and playing with sounds. I have only been able to do so by expanding my search for composition opportunities into artistic realms never before thought of as viable to composition work. All sorts of people are now making video and require music for their videos, expanding the need for original music.

The advantage of the internet and the role it plays in increasing our exposure as artists is obvious and there is no need to belabor the point. Most of us communicate daily with folks all over the world whether it be for collaboration, paying gigs, or as friends and family. However, the advent of technology and its impact on opportunities for musicians begs a bit more analysis. Not only can musicians and composers create better and faster, but because of access to affordable technology, other types of media artists can more easily make video as well. This includes photographers, photobook creators and curators, and authors, who now actively create video to promote and showcase their work. Fortunately for us musicians, these videos need sound and music, and as a result, photographers, curators, and writers are now valid artists with which to seek opportunity.

One example of a photographer and videographer creatively using original music is Genevieve Russell of Story Portrait Media. As part of her work, Russell creates videos which incorporate dialog, photography, and music for photographers to showcase their work and present themselves. One such example is the showcase video for Norah Levine found here. Clearly, photographers, who never had need for music in the past, are now viable candidates to seek out and contact for music composition gigs.

A second example of the use of original music is a fantastically fresh new media called “flipthroughs,” being created by the Indie Photobook Library, founded by photography writer and photobook curator Larissa Leclair. This flipthrough video is a superb example of a new media mash which needs music. It features the photobook “Desert Days” by photographer Matt Austin and shows a close up of a person flipping through the photos in the book with an accompanying track by the artist A(a)rdvark/Jeff Austin. The killer track adds emotion and artistry to the act of viewing a photobook, which previously would have been a silent process. Who would have thought? A photobook curator makes a video of a photobook with original music to create a cutting-edge fresh mashup of media which best of all, requires music.

Another group who is now searching for music are book authors. The concept of a “book trailer” is a new phenomenon and many authors are either creating book trailers themselves, or are hiring professionals to do so. Regardless of how it gets done, though, these book trailers need music. There are tons of articles and blogs online that give advice on how to create a book trailer and all of them mention adding music, whether original or royalty free, as part of the process. Obviously, now, authors are a target for opportunity.

You might be wondering how you would go about finding artists who actively seek music for their work? While this could be an entirely other post, it is safe to say that “traditional” methods work. Join photography and book writer forums, post on blogs related to the subject, answers questions related to the subject on yahoo answers, search for videographers who make videos for photographers and email them directly. Yes it can be boring and take time and effort, but being active in your search to find opportunities for your music bears results. This world is ripe for music, a sonic apple waiting to be plucked.

Other types of artists/associations that now require music for projects:

  1. Podcasters
  2. Audio Book publishers
  3. Churches
  4. Poets
  5. YouTube videographers

About the Author
This is a guest post by Adam A. Johnson, a music composer and sound designer who owns and operates Architect of Sound, a music company that provides custom music scoring and sound design for Film/TV/New Media projects both in the U.S. and abroad with clients in Canada, Ireland, Haiti, Egypt, and Dubai. Credits include LEGO, the United Nations, Aquafina-Pepsico, the National Endowment for the Arts, US Customs, Exxon, NYC Mayor Bloomberg and more. He also owns and operates the SFXsource.com Sound Effects and Royalty Free Music Library.

The Ting Tings Select Remix Contest Finalists & Invite You To Help Pick The Winner!

Recently, The Ting Tings teamed up with MixMatchMusic, Creative Allies, and URB.com to host a remix contest for their new single, “Hands”. The UK indie pop duo launched the contest in order to find an official remix for the song and 91 amazing remixes were submitted by fans in just one month.

The band has selected their 10 favorites and now needs your help in picking the winner, whose remix will be released with the forthcoming limited edition “Hands” Remix package (which you can pre-order here)! The winner will also receive $500. Not too shabby, eh?

Without further ado, here are the 10 finalists. Please vote for your favorites by 11:59 PM on December 16th, 2010.

The limited edition “Hands” Remix Package is a unique offering created by fans and curated by The Ting Tings. Only 500 copies of the package will be sold, which shall include original art and music submitted through The Ting Tings’ “Hands” Remix Contest. Be sure to pre-order the “Hands” Remix Package today because this will definitely sell out!

MobBase Integrates Soundcloud & BandsInTown, Adds Key Distribution Partners

Soundcloud BandsInTown

MobBase, the fast, easy and inexpensive way for you to build your own iPhone app, has integrated Soundcloud and BandsInTown to its service to make it easier for artists to share music and get fans to their gigs. MobBase is also making it easier for artists to get their own apps by making them available from BFM Digital, Ditto Music, Musicfinity, and The Indie.

The new capabilities and distribution relationships coincide with an important new milestone – 325 MobBase apps have been developed and released since the service debuted in November, 2009.

“MobBase helps artists build their careers by making it easy and inexpensive for them to connect and engage with fans,” said Charles Feinn, co-founder and CEO of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer. “Integrating Soundcloud and BandsInTown adds sought-after functionality, and distribution with BFM Digital, Ditto Music, Musicfinity, and The Indie makes it even easier for them to get the app they really want.”

More power to connect and engage fans
BandsInTown is a platform that connects live music fans to their favorite artists. Its integration with MobBase makes it painless for an artist to add and manage tour dates, with information about shows, including when and where it’s taking place and how to get tickets, sourced from artists’ Facebook and Myspace pages, ArtistData and thousands of venues around the world.

Soundcloud’s integration with MobBase makes it even easier for artists to add music to their custom apps. Artists can now stream tracks directly from their Soundcloud library into their MobBase app, eliminating the manual loading of mp3 files. The integration makes it fast and simple for artist to get their music into fans’ hands and on their phones.

The new technology partners complement existing integrations with Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, and Shoutcast. MobBase’s capabilities and extensive relationships with its technology partners make it a complete solution for artists.

“Our mantra is ‘get fans to the gig,'” said Todd Cronin, CEO of BandsInTown. “It’s a huge win for an artist to be able to deliver essential gig info via the same app they use to connect with fans, on the device that is with them every waking moment.”

Ditto MusicBFM Digital

More places to get your own custom iPhone app
BFM Digital, Ditto Music, The Indie, and Musicfinity are each offering their artists the opportunity to get their own, custom MobBase app. MobBase is also offered through IODA, Iris, and Tunecore – in addition, indie labels including Silverback Music/Controlled Substance Sound Labs, SMC Recordings, Welk Music Group, Vanguard Records, Town Thizzness, Red Bull Records, Sargent House, and 429 Records are also offering MobBase apps and promoting MobBase to their artists.

“BFM’s label partners are creating iPhone apps because they see the value of connecting with fans in real time via mobile technology,” said Steven Corn, CEO of BFM Digital. “MobBase is an ideal partner for such applications, as they are highly customizable, user-friendly and affordable for indie artists.”

More apps for more artists
More than 325 MobBase iPhone apps have been released so far, with scores more in development or in the Apple queue for approval. Prominent artists including Pepper, Parkway Drive, John McLaughlin, and Everclear are among the bands that have built and launched their own MobBase apps. MobBase is the preferred app solution for indie artists such as Rebelution, Paul Thorn, Jump Smokers, RX Bandits, Zion I, and Veronica Ballestrini.

Fast, easy and inexpensive way for artists to get their own iPhone app
MobBase is the low cost way for musicians to share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and other content with fans on their mobile devices. MobBase apps are priced for starving artists and also artists who remember what it is like to starve, with many artists paying as little as $0.50 a day for their own custom iPhone app.

Marketing Your MobBase iPhone App

So you’ve built an iPhone app through MobBase and it’s in iTunes. Now what? Time to market that app, baby! With hundreds of apps developed, we’ve learned a thing or two about marketing apps. Here are some best practices that we’ve learned on marketing your iPhone app (for free):
  1. Place big banners on all of your websites, including your official site, Myspace page, Facebook, etc., so that anyone who visits your websites will find out about your app. To increase conversions, be sure that your banners point directly to your app in iTunes. If you need help making a banner, let us know by emailing support@mobbase.com!
  2. Announce the launch of your app by sending out an email blast/newsletter, tweeting about it, sharing on Facebook, etc. You know your fans better than we do, so be sure to share the news wherever you normally connect with fans. If possible, be sure to include screen shots of your app, a description of what’s inside and any other relevant info that your fans would be interested in.
  3. Constantly update your app’s content and let your fans know when you’ve updated it by tweeting about it, sharing on Facebook, etc. This will give fans a great reason to keep coming back to the app and in doing so, they will be more likely to tell their friends about your app.
  4. Add exclusive music to your app that can’t be heard anywhere else. This will be huge motivation for fans to get your app.
  5. Tell your fans about your app during shows and live appearances, interviews, etc. Create pocket-size cards that promote your app, hand these cards out and have them available at your merch table. Be sure that the cards include something like “Just search [Artist Name] in the app store or go to [direct iTunes download link] to get the app!”
  6. Include your app in your online store, linking fans to iTunes for download.
  7. When setting up your app, be sure to include relevant iTunes search keywords, like your artist name, genre, and any other relevant tags that would help fans find the app in the app store.
  8. When setting up your app, be sure to write a persuasive and thorough app store description that lists all of the features and content included, and any other reasons why fans should get the app. After reading the app store description, fans should be so excited that downloading the app is a no brainer.
  9. Add your app to as many iPhone app review websites as you can and make sure that the entries are thorough and include screen shots, when possible. Most app review websites are free. Get a list of review websites and more info here.
  10. Drive awareness of your app by having fans contribute videos to it. More on this here.
  11. Create a video inviting fans to get the app and walking them through it. Embed this video on all your websites and upload it to as many video sites as possible.
  12. Share your success stories.  Let us know how you’re doing, how many fans are downloading your app, and how it’s contributing to building your fan base. We’ll promote your successes too. Just email us at support@mobbase.com.

Did we miss anything? Let us know by commenting below! We’ll be updating this list, so follow us on Twitter for updates. For more tips on marketing your iPhone app, you can also check out this article. Now do it! Questions? Here’s more info on how to build iPhone apps