The hardest rocking music industry Twitter users & why you should follow them!

No, really. This list is outdated. CLICK HERE for the current version.

So when I set out to make this list my original goal was to rank the top 100 people in the heavy music industry. I wanted to list the people that were most likely to help a struggling metal or hard rock band. I recently saw some really lame list of several hundred so called rock bands and to be honest it pissed me off! The band’s on that list wouldn’t know rock if Lemmy from Motorhead kicked it up their backside with the end of his boot! Just like Digg is filed with nothing but a bunch of 3 piece suit band fanboys, Twitter was being made out to be the same thing. I knew there were some metal lovin’ geek out in Twitter land and they needed to be ranked. So I tried my best to find the top 100 of real rock and metal people on Twitter. The small problem was I couldn’t find 100. So for this list I rounded it down to the top 50, but in a few months I plan to try this again.

No, really. This list is outdated. CLICK HERE for the current version.

Please know that there are some that didn’t make the list because they hadn’t updated in about a year. Some very high profile metal industry companies that have left their Twitter accounts lay dead. This is also how I ranked this list. Does the person follow people back? Do they respond to fans or unsigned bands in a reasonable manner? Do they have the power to help unknown bands and will they? Don’t like it? Make your own list! Send me the link and I will send it out to everyone on my list.

No, really. This list is outdated. CLICK HERE for the current version.

If you have someone (including yourself) that should be on the list when I do make it the top 100, please send me the link on Twitter! I didn’t put myself on this list because you all probably already follow me. Plus I’m not sure I am as powerful as these people. Enjoy!

No, really. This list is outdated. CLICK HERE for the current version.

50. http://twitter.com/eveofdoom
Editor of Geeks of Doom, heavy metal-lovin’, headbanging, bass-playing, vegan chick

49. http://twitter.com/recsoftheflesh
An unknown band that is using technology to push themselves to the next level at all times.

48. http://twitter.com/plugola
PLUGOLA is a social music community & digital marketplace, for independent musicians AND their fans.

47. http://twitter.com/XTRMPromotions
He may not be too tech savvy, but he is learning and is the go to guy for “get in the van” tours for bands on a budget.

46. http://twitter.com/RocmanUSA
Video editor extraordinaire! May not be the cheapest, but he is one of the best.

45. http://twitter.com/Mick_Shrimpton
Claims to be the former drummer of Spinal Tap. Legit or not he has a very comedic way of looking at the music industry.

44. http://twitter.com/Stickam
Ever thought of streaming your concert live for the world to see? This contact can set you up with no charge at all!

43. http://twitter.com/unsect
The official band channel. They play Hard rock with electronic elements and ambient textures.

42. http://twitter.com/metalextremo
Online Metal fanzine from Brazil. Very passionate!

41. http://twitter.com/HeavyAsHell
Official Twitter account for the hardest rocking social news site on the net!

40. http://twitter.com/nicefishfilms
He does a podcast that combines music and tech as well as blogs about music industry news a lot.

39. http://twitter.com/FTWM
Feed the world with a song! Altruism is great PR.

38. http://twitter.com/gladhandermusic
Great band using tech to get the word out on their music.

37. http://twitter.com/decepticrat
Not sure he wants it out why he is important to metal, but he is very powerful in social news circles.

36. http://twitter.com/MusicGoat
Podcaster, blogger, and music fan…a great part of which is metal!

35. http://twitter.com/polymath22
His major passion is a site called Ning. He is a heavy music fan.

34. http://twitter.com/Mortalwind
Very well known in social news circles. If you can get him into your music he might use his power to help you.

33. http://twitter.com/DarkNemesis618
Programmer for both RockMyMonkey.com & HeavyAsHell.com

32. http://twitter.com/SilentJay74
One of the top users of Mixx.com and a total heavy music fan. Part of the social news podcast Social Blend. Total smartass!

31. http://twitter.com/cGt2099
Another key member of the Social Blend crew as well as a top user of Mixx.com

30. http://twitter.com/metalsucks
The number one metal loving Word Press blog.

29. http://twitter.com/aversionline
Webzine

28. http://twitter.com/robinjection
Robert Pasbani of Metal Injection fame.

27. http://twitter.com/Sleazegrinder
Sleaze Grinder webzine.

26. http://twitter.com/deathisgain713
Death Is Gain webzine

25. http://twitter.com/metaledgeblog
Although not the Metal Edge magazine in the U.S. that recently went under, this one still seems to be active. Not sure what country they are from though.

24. http://twitter.com/censoredmetal
A Metal Webzine/Blog

23. http://twitter.com/MetalMartyr
Webzine

22. http://twitter.com/apeshit
APESHIT is an extreme metal webzine.

21. http://twitter.com/ThrashHits
Webzine

20. http://twitter.com/HallOfMetal
webzine

19. http://twitter.com/metalinjection
Watch br00tal videos or upload your own. Get your fix!

18. http://twitter.com/rnrgeek
Live podcaster

17. http://twitter.com/chriscornell
Ex-singer for Soundgarden not too metal anymore, but still worth a mention.

16. http://twitter.com/bumblefoot
Guitarist for the current Guns And Roses

15. http://twitter.com/sebastianbach
Ex-lead singer of Skid Row. Current band are the same guy Rob Halford from Judas Priest uses on his solo stuff. Amazing stuff!

14. http://twitter.com/victoryrecords
It’s a record label. Look ‘em up!

13. http://twitter.com/dillingerescpln
The band Dillinger Escape Plan

12. http://twitter.com/Download2009
The legendary music festival. Line up is always the best Rock, heavy metal, & punk of that year.

11. http://twitter.com/vurnt22
Remember the band Living Color? They had a few pop rock singles, but most of their stuff is closer to the Bad Brains. Check ‘em out!

10. http://twitter.com/HeadbangersBlog
The blog version of Headbangers Ball

9. http://twitter.com/Revolvermag
One of the few metal magazines still in print.

8. http://twitter.com/kerrangmagazine
One of the longest running print metal magazines in the world.

7. http://twitter.com/EaracheRecords
If I have to explain who Earache Records are I’m gonna have to smack you upside your head!

6. http://twitter.com/digearache
Head guy at Earache Records

5. http://twitter.com/ChrisSteffen
Writer from Rolling Stone magazine. Writes about metal often for them.

4. http://twitter.com/thatmetalshow
Talk show on VH1 about metal

3. http://twitter.com/ianchriste
Author of the best metal encyclopedia Sounds Of The Beast, SiriusXM Satellite Radio dj, his band appears on the soundtrack to the cult film Gummo.

2. http://twitter.com/talkingmetal
One of the leading metal podcasts.

1. http://twitter.com/CotterCity
Not only does he run the most powerful ad network for metal websites, but he also started Blistering.com

No, really. This list is outdated. CLICK HERE for the current version.

Well there it is. What do you think? Please feel free to let the people on this list know about it, because it would look kind of strange if I sent 50 individual messages out myself. That would be bad etiquette. However, if everyone that reads this sends it to one person that would be a good thing. As always, if you need something sent out just let me know. Thanks.

This list has been moved, updated, and automated!

CLICK HERE for the current version!

The best way to find the music people you want is to first find just one legit music type. Then go through their friend list and grab the ones that look like they might be able to help get the word out on your band. As I have pointed out before, you want to follow back every legit person that follows you. It’s just good Internet etiquette. However, you should be careful about not following back the low life scum. These people will follow several thousand people in hopes they get followed back. They prey on your guilty conscience. You are better off without them in your circle because they are not your target audience. The band that has 100,000 followers on Twitter can get way less reaction than the band with 100 quality followers because if you have thousands of followers most of them really don’t care about your music. In fact it may be less than 1%. It’s like spending a few thousand dollars on a specific metal ad network like Fixion Media or spending thousands advertising on the Today show. Just as middle age housewives won’t care about your band, neither will SEO spammers. It’s all about target audience!

Now we’ve talked about reaching music industry people like the music specific bloggers, booking agents, record labels, and other music industry people your band should network with, but what about actual fans? Well you need to make sure and use the embeddable widgets on every website the band is part of. Both MySpace and Facebook have ways to do this. Put it on your main official website as well. Put it everywhere you can. This way your fans can follow you on all these social networks. Then they will bring in their friends and your fan base can grow. This is better because it gets you your target audience. Plus because of this you will end up with way more followers than people you are following. This makes you look more legit. Remember that a social networking profile that has way less followers than people they are following shouldn’t be trusted.

Of course a good start to finding that target audience is to follow me on both Twitter & Plurk. If always plug the music profiles I think deserve more followers.

Now I know I am going to ruffle a lot of feathers with this one, but it needs to be said. Many will try to tell you that viral marketing is all you need. I have had people tell me that a campaign to promote a site was failing because I wasn’t using viral marketing. The funny thing about this was that the campaign was made specifically to be a viral marketing campaign. So not only do most not have a clue what viral marketing is, but they really don’t know what it can and can’t do. Now I am not saying that you should stay clear of all viral marketing. It does have it’s place. It just needs some old fashioned marketing along side of it.

Banner ads do work if it’s not a tech site:

Now you will hear all kinds of garbage about how banner ads don’t work anymore. The problem is that all the info is highly contaminated. There are tons of tech related sites that have only tech savvy readers. Those sites fail with banner ads it is true. The reason is that all those tech savvy users are using every kind of ad blocker they can to never see ads. This is killing their favorite sites, but they don’t seem to care. Now the great majority of people do not use these ad blockers and will never be able to keep ahead of the ad networks, so banner ads work for music sites. So when trying to pour some fuel onto your band’s viral marketing fire, a banner ad will work.

An example of viral marketing failure:

A few months ago I sent the word out to all the social networks I belong to that I would shave off my five foot ponytail if a certain amount of stories hit the front page of social music news site HeavyAsHell.com. The campaign was about as vial as you can get. But it never actually went “viral”. Now I’m sure that there will be “Internet Marketers” that can (and maybe will) nit pick apart the campaign and say in hind sight why it didn’t work. It’s real easy to sit on your high horse after the fact. The fact is that this was something that was helping kids with cancer and no one jumped on it. If that doesn’t work, what will? Now in full disclosure the campaign was saved last minute by an SEO friend of the site NowSourcing.com. Without Brian’s help it would have been a total failure. Would have been nice if it kick started the site the way it should have though. We still got to help the charity though, so half the goal was met. The point I want to make though is that the viral marketing alone failed.

Less than your band paid for all it’s equipment:

Now I am not talking insane amounts of money here. $2,000 for a month long campaign at FixionMedia would do amazing things for an unsigned band if done right (See my recent article on Pirate Bay for info). If you really want to kick it into full stream spend another $3,000 at IndieClick.com at the same time. This should be plenty enough to kick start your band’s next viral campaign.

If you are already famous you have the power to go viral:

Now some will give examples of how major things were done using services like Twitter. Well, those people are already celebrities of some level. Recently Mashable‘s Pete Cashmore crashed a few servers because he posted something on Twitter. The story tried to spin it as if it was a sign of how powerful Twitter was. The truth is that it was a sign of how powerful Pete Cashmore was. Leo Laporte may have grown his Twit Network “organically”, but he says all the time that he is riding the coattails of being on Tech Tv half a decade ago. Same with Digg. Would Digg be what it is today if it wasn’t for “The Dark Tipper” plugging the site on Tech TV? I’m willing to bet my left nut that HeavyAsHell.com would instantly explode if I was able to do a five minute class on Headbangers Ball showing people how to use it and why it’s so important to the scene. Kevin Rose did just that and it got him enough users instantly to let the site grow from there. Every business plan that has been able to use viral marketing had some old fashioned angle behind it.

In closing:

So save your pennies before trying to use viral marketing. It only works with an old fashioned marketing budget behind it. Don’t believe me? Check out the contest currently going at HeavyAsHell.com and see what we can’t even give away!