Tech consultant for Olympia, Lacey, And Tumwater

Now some bands may not get this one, but Skype is a tool that can help both the unsigned local band and the worldwide rockstar. Skype is a VOIP service like Vonage or Oovoo. The difference is the Skype is free. Skype is also well known for it’s high quality. Ask anyone that knows me and they will tell you that I am one very picky customer. I hate all cell phones and media players because I think they all suck. Not one on the market is worth a crap in my opinion. So when I say that Skype has amazing quality and is shockingly dependable, it means something.

Now if you are in a signed band, please do all your interviews over Skype with a good quality headset like the one you probably play World Of Warcraft with. Nothing is more annoying than trying to listen to an interview with a band that has a crappy cell phone connection. There is no way your cell phone, land line, or any other traditional phone type device is going to come anywhere close to the quality of Skype. If the person doing the interview doesn’t have Skype, they can call you on your Skype number. They don’t have to know why you sound so crystal clear. They just need to be shocked at how easy it is to understand you and how clear you sound to their audience. Now to get a Skype number you will have to pay a VERY small amount. You pay $60 for a full year of an online number or $18 for the 3-month online number. Your band will stick out like a sore thumb with all your interviews sounding more clear than any other interview they have done before. This is a good thing.

So what if you are an unsigned band? Ever get a sore ear from holding a phone to your phone all day? Sucks don’t it? What about when your ear gets all itchy from the cell phone headset? What about the phone bill you get when calling around trying to set up that do it yourself mini tour every summer? You can call real phones with Skype while using a soft Plantronics GameCom type headset. Not only will this be way more comfortable, efficient, and cheaper, but it will also be more productive since you will sound more professional with your crystal clear sound quality.

Now of course once bands and labels wake up to the concept of Skype it will be a great method of networking and communication. Skype not only does voice, but it also does text. So one service for sending instant messages to other contacts online as well as making tons of phone calls. Of course you can also try and set up a bunch of press using the voice service. So no matter what level your band is at, Skype can help you save money and help you become a self promotion machine!

So I was trying to think about what I should blog about today and it dawned on me that I’m trying to be know and the Rock N’ Roll Tech Consultant. So why the hell am I not blogging about things that would help bands? Time for a face palm and a Homer style “DOH!” So today I will give the top ten tools bands should be using, but are not. Then I will follow it up with a two week series on how bands could get the most out of these ten great social networks. Now here is the trick, how do we get bands to use this info? Please do what you can do get your favorite unsigned, underground, or just unknown band to pay attention to this info.

1. Twitter
Now I do see a few bands that sign up, but then never do anything with the account. Then because nothing happens they give up. SO very sad. I will go more into that in my follow up on Monday Jan 19th. Until then stick this in your Marshall Amp! Imagine being able to text back and forth with your fans while sitting on the tour bus. Imagine you are just a local unsigned band. If all your fans and friends are fully hooked up to your Twitter account you can send reminders out a few hours before a show. This can help your draw. Got a new shirt out, why wait for them to go to your site? Send them a Twitter message. If they have it fully hooked up it can send the message to them on their cell phones, instant messenger, and Twitter profile. So it’s like your website following them around everywhere they go. More detail Monday.

2. Plurk
Now Twitter is great for getting a message out, but what about if you want to talk with your fans? What if you want to get some feedback on a new song, shirt, or show announcement? Plurk is made for conversation. Just like with Twitter, you may end up with new fans just from being part of this very social network. More detail on Tuesday Jan 20th.

3. RSS
What the hell is RSS? Well, I will go into massive detail about what RSS is and how to get the most out of it on Wednesday Jan 21st, but until then here is a brief overview. It is a way for you to get your band news out to more people. It will make your band’s website ten times more powerful. Trust me on this. There are some major label bands that have RSS feeds but are making some horrid mistakes. More info Wednesday on that.

4. FriendFeed
FriendFeed is a service that let’s you combine all your social network profiles into one place and discuss them with people. It’s all about networking and Friend Feed is like networking on a big bag of crack. More info on this one Thursday January 22nd.

5. The Pirate Bay
Now most of my music industry contacts will hate me for even mentioning this site, but screw them and their dying industry I say! Seriously, I think those labels could get some major traction out of TPB if they played it smart. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has a profile page on the site for a reason. Imagine if some unknown band out of nowhere put up their great new cd on TPB. Then promoted the hell out of the free download with a $2,000 ad campaign from Fixion Media. Sure you wouldn’t make any money from the cd directly, but imagine how many new fans you would gain? Then you would have a draw in cities you have never been to before. More info on this Jan 23rd.

6. Skype
I interview bands from all over the world all the time. I have interviewed bands from my own hometown and had horrid connections. Then I interviewed a band called Lions Share from Stockholm Sweden and had a crystal clear connection. It sounded like he was in the same room! It is also a shockingly cheap way to call around the world for things like booking tours or just making contacts with people that can help you get your music out there. More info on this Jan 26th.

7. You Tube
Now I am starting to see more bands use this, but I think bands should use it more. Imagine releasing a new video a week. it could be just the band talking to the fans directly, inside band practice, some live footage, or whatever else. In my follow up I will talk about how to get the best quality video, how to edit it dirt cheap, and how to get the most out of it all. More info on this Jan 27th.

8. CD Baby
This is a great service for getting your stuff on iTunes, Amazon, and several other places all at once. Trying to do everything that CD Baby will do for you is just plain retarded. Let them do all the annoying crap. It’s their job. More on this More info on this Jan 28th.

9. Ping.fm
Ping is pretty much the opposite of Friend Feed. Where as Friend Feed is a great place to receive all your social network activity, Ping is a place you can make one post to tons of different sites all at once. For example I use it when I am about to go live with an interview of a band. Gets the message out to thousands all at once instantly! More info on this Jan 29th

10. HeavyAsHell.com
Ok, did you think I was going to let this post go without getting in a plug? Yes, HAH is a site I started awhile ago. Ever since Keith from Darkernemesis.com nuked all my hard work and replaced it with his own CMS things have been growing nicely. We are about to announce our newest contest, so traffic is about to explode there. So promote your band and win something coll at the same time! This is like Digg.com, Mixx.com, Reddit, Propeler, or a few others except we are only for heavy music. More info on this 30th! Hmmm? Could I be picking that date for a reason? Maybe.

Ok, so this has been more about mapping out what I am going to blog about for the rest of this month. My hope is that this is just a good way to kick things off in a direction that might help me become known as the premier Rock N’ Roll tech consultant. Keep your horns facing palm forward or you are a poser. Next two weeks are going to ROCK!

So after two requests in one day I threw together this little video tutorial. This info works best with Ustream & Stickam but might work on others as well. I forgot to mention I use an Ubuntu o0erating system on the desktop and Vista on the laptop. This is to prove that the OS has nothing to do with how well your podcast can be.