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Marketing Your MobBase iPhone App

published
on September 3, 2010
by
Alan Khalfin
in DIY, MobBase, music, music business, social media, and tools for musicians
. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

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

The Indie Invites Artists to Win $25k in Prizes, Including a Free MobBase App!

published
on August 17, 2010
by
Alan Khalfin
in contests, DIY, fans, MobBase, and music
. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Are you the Ultimate Social Artist of 2010?
TheIndie.biz wants to know and to find out, they just launched a contest for musicians that has up to $25,000 in prizes! Their Ultimate Social Artist Contest invites bands and musicians from all over the world to take part and bring their fans along for the ride, who can also win up to $3,500 in prizes. The band that signs up the most fans to their TheIndie.biz profiles, while selling the most songs through the site and receiving the highest ratings from the contest’s panel of judges, wins.  Contest sponsors include YouLicense, Media2Radio, and MobBase, who has also partnered with The Indie to create iPhone apps for its artists.

“Social media has changed the music landscape,” says Damon Cleveland, CEO of TheIndie.biz. “With millions of people online, updating their profiles, chatting, giving status updates, the biggest audience in the world, at any given time, is online. TheIndie.biz gives independent musicians the opportunity to tap into that audience and introduce them to their music, while music fans from all over the world can discover new bands. The rules have changed and we want to help indie bands take advantage of the new opportunities.”

How to Participate
To participate in the contest, bands must be registered artists on The Indie, which is free. There are two phases to the contest: first, bands must have/sign up 100 fans on The Indie, after which they will be eligible to submit a song and a brief note on how they acquired their TheIndie.biz fan base. The contest winners will be judged based on:

  1. The content of the song submitted (production, composition, and lyrics)
  2. Number of TheIndie.biz fans
  3. Artist development, marketability, and overall readiness
  4. Ability of the artist to socialize their music on The Indie
  5. Creativity of their social media campaign

The contest ends on October 31, 2010. Registration and participation for fans and bands is free, and all genres are welcome, so why not enter the contest here?

Prizes and Judging
The Ultimate Social Artist will be selected through a 25/25/50 weighted formula, with 25% of the weight going to the number of fans registered, 25% going to the number of songs sold on TheIndie.biz, and the remaining 50% toward the subjective portion including the song submitted along with the other elements of the band’s portfolio. The Grand Prize includes $25,00 in prizes:

  • Full publicity campaign (releases, industry media blitz, etc)
  • 30 day full ad campaign (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, etc)
  • Social media marketing campaign – up to 50,000+ subscribers
  • A MobBase iPhone App with one year of free service
  • Global marketing of winning song – up to 1,100 radio stations
  • Global marketing of winning artist – up to 1,350 DJs
  • One week feature placement on iTunes, Napster, Amazon, and others
  • A professional, personalized band management plan
  • A professional, personalized band marketing plan
  • Regional tour marketing & booking
  • Song/Voice licensing for The Music Producer
  • Six Month private label song licensing account, and more…

About The Indie
The Indie is a premier social music promotion and distribution platform that encourages the discovery, and consumption of music created by unsigned artists, independent artists and indie labels. They strive to meet these goals by creating simplified, highly effective, social solutions that enable artists to exponentially promote their music and dramatically grow their fan base; providing artists with emerging channels where their music, performances and videos can be discovered and consumed; and creating a marketplace the attracts and encourages music fans to explore, discover, share, and consume music socially.

Outside Lands Remix Contest Winners Selected!

published
on August 12, 2010
by
LG
in collaboration, DIY, music, remixing, and tools for musicians
. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

All in all, there were some amazing remixes submitted for the 1st annual Outside Lands Remix Contest powered by URB.com and MixMatchMusic. Entrants from around the world competed for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to DJ at this year’s festival. After torturous deliberations among the judges, the grand prize winner is Nisus for his remix of Gogol Bordello‘s “Transcontinental Hustle“. As the winner, Nisus will get to perform in front of thousands of festival goers at Outside Lands this weekend, so be sure to check him out if you’re going! Nisus will also get $500 and a free iPhone app from MobBase. To learn more about the winner, check out his website.

We’d also like to congratulate the following winning remixes selected as finalists:

Rebirth Brass Band – SaQi (http://saqimusic.com/about/)
My Morning Jacket – Irene! (http://soundcloud.com/djloosefit)
Beats Antique – Giancarlo (http://djcarlo.net/)

Listen to all the winning remixes below, or check out all the remixes submitted here.
Outside Lands 2010 / URB.com Remix Contest Winners Selected!

The Black Seeds Remix Competition

published
on August 11, 2010
by
Sandra
in fans, music, remix promotions, remixing, technology, and tools for musicians
. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , .

Fans of many genres will be pleased to hear about the Black Seeds Remix Competition. The Black Seeds are among the many good things that come from New Zealand, other than Flight of the Conchords. (Actually Bret McKenzie is a former member of The Black Seeds.) The Black Seeds have teamed up with MixMatchMusic to host this competition, in which fans have the opportunity to remix two sick songs from the 2008 album Solid Ground: “Rotten Apple,” which “has all the thump of a vintage Parliament-Funkadelic jam” and “Strugglers,” a solid reggae tune that reminds us to help those less fortunate and not become complacent.

Prizing
The winning remix will be featured on The Black Seed’s upcoming ‘Specials’ LP and the winner will receive 40% of profits from the use of the track!

How to participate?
1) Choose a song to remix
2) Download the song stems, its free and easy!
3) Create your remix using the stems and any additional music or beats that either you have created or have a creative commons license for. You can also make your mix online by clicking on the MixMaker button of the widget.
4) Upload an MP3 of your remix via the same widget you used to download the stems. Enter as many remixes as you like!
5) Share the track with your friends and ask them to comment, rate, playlist your mix and share it with their friends on twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and their blogs, etc.
6) Once you have finished and uploaded your remix, judges will select a winner for each track and one grand-prize winner!
7) Contest ends at 5pm Monday August 30th, 2010. More on the rules here.

The Black Seeds
The Black Seeds, who hail from Wellington, New Zealand, have a dubbed out reggae sound with hints of afrobeat and soul. Renowned for their powerful 8-piece live shows, the band has gained a following outside of their homeland, both in Europe and North America. Their particular brand of vintage roots reggae fused together seamlessly with big beat funk, dub, soul and other grooves vibes well with many audiences. Perhaps lead singer, Barnaby Weir (vocals/guitar), put it best when he said, “We sound like a sizzling BBQ, beside a vintage car, next to the beach on a summers day after a few beers pressed to vinyl.”

BFM Digital and MobBase Partner to Bring Custom iPhone Apps to Thousands of Artists

published
on August 10, 2010
by
LG
in music, music business, and technology
. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

BFM Digital, a leading digital music aggregator and distributor of independent music, has partnered with MobBase to provide affordable and cutting-edge iPhone applications to its clients. MobBase makes it easy for artists and labels to create, launch and manage their own, custom iPhone applications. MobBase was built by MixMatchMusic in an effort to give artists the tools they need to cultivate and engage their fanbase. MobBase is a low cost way for artists to share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and more with fans on their mobile devices.

“BFM continually strives to offer the latest marketing tools to our clients through a suite of services. In today’s DIY environment, access to new and affordable technologies is a vital part of any independent artist’s career, and mobile marketing through such applications are quickly becoming a must have for artists. MobBase and their easy to use, affordable way to build an iPhone app make them a perfect addition to our suite of services,” says BFM’s CEO, Steven Corn.

BFM is also launching their own discovery and promotional iPhone application through MobBase. The application will showcase featured artists and releases from BFM’s extensive catalogue, and is launching with albums from Beach Boy founder Al Jardine, all-star charity compilation album Aid Still Required, which includes tracks from Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and Maroon 5, and up and coming pop starlet Julia Michaels. BFM’s official application can be downloaded for free via the iTunes store here.

About BFM Digital
BFM Digital is a global digital music company committed to serving the independent music community and delivering quality music, spoken word and video content to leading online BFM DIGITAL Page 2 August 5, 2010 retailers worldwide. Representing a diverse catalog of indie labels, artists and publishers, BFM distributes to all of the major music services including iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, eMusic, Napster, Walmart, Nokia and many more. With an unparalleled commitment to personalized service, BFM works closely with their content providers from around the world to ensure maximum exposure of their catalog by customizing marketing efforts and building strong relationships with BFM’s digital store partners.