Social Networking with Arkells & the “Ballad of Hugo Chavez”
Never heard of Akells?
You’re not alone. This groovy group was brought to my attention by Crazed Hits, which featured the band as an A&R pick.
“Ballad of Hugo Chavez” – Arkells
Agreed. And I would like to add that Arkells is a fantastic A&R pick. This band is definitely onto something special and it is only a matter of time before the record labels come a-knockin’.
Arkells may have a weird-sounding name but their mix of indie rock and soul is divine. They sound like Kings of Leon crossed with the Beatles and Elton John. And they’re from Canada.
Excellent vocals. Excellent melodies. Excellent songwriting.
This is my first time listening but I get the feeling that Arkells’ music is the kind that sounds great the first time you hear it, grows on you, and ages like fine wine. Every time you listen to it the music sounds better than you remember it.
What I’d really like to point out though, aside from the great music this band makes, is how Arkells is using social media to grow their fan base.
Here’s a quick breakdown of Arkells’ Myspace stats:
- 340,000 plays
- 422,000 profile views
- just under 5,000 friends
- lots of ‘comments’ activity from genuinely interested fans
While Myspace isn’t much of a powerhouse platform for launching miraculous indie music success stories, there are bands that still generate serious interest from a sizable audience on the social networking juggernaut.
Myspace isn’t everything though so Arkells doesn’t stop there. They gig fairly regularly and they tape their performances and upload them to their website and to their Myspace page. They also video blog their tour diaries on YouTube.
By putting Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Myspace to use in an intelligent manner Arkells are maximizing the value of social networking tools in their music career. And they’re doing it pretty much the same way that any decent modern indie music business book or course would instruct you to do:
Plan your strategy and execute.
It’s not rocket science. Yet so many indie artists and musicians sabotage their careers because they don’t take the time to draft up a plan of action and follow it. How can you know where your career is going if you don’t know how to get there?
You need to create yourself a map to your destination and follow it. Otherwise you can expect to keep floating along never knowing quite where your career is headed.
Room for Improvement
Arkells’ band website is simple, aesthetically attractive, and has all the necessary information and links that interested parties would come there looking for but it doesn’t have all their tour dates listed. Their Myspace page does though…
The mailing list sign-up on their website doesn’t provide any incentives for signing up so my guess is a lot of people see it and don’t bother.
Giving your website visitors incentives to sign-up for your mailing list is a crucial factor in converting visitors to prospective customers in your sales and marketing funnel. You gotta offer a free mp3, free EP, free PDF report–something to entice your visitors to sign-up. Otherwise when they leave your website they may never come back and you’ll have no way of knowing who they are and getting in contact with them.
Arkells’ next misstep online is they haven’t uploaded any new material to their YouTube page in a while (4 months) and I saw very little interaction on their page between the band and other YouTube users. Arkells have a Twitter, too but judging from their stats (0 followers) I assume they only recently signed up for their band Tweet Tweet account.
Arkells have a few areas that need improvement but overall they are doing a fine job using the internet to augment their touring efforts in growing their audience. I expect this band to go on to do big things in Canada (their native land), the UK, Australia, Germany, and possibly Sweden, Switzerland, and here in the US.
Do yourself a favor and check out this great band. Arkells. Remember the name.
Author:
Dexter Bryant, Jr. (DbryJ)
DbryJ Music Media
Dexter Bryant Jr (aka DbryJ) is a dance-rock producer and electro-urban singer/songwriter. He is the owner/founder of DbryJ Music Media, a music publishing and multimedia music production firm. Email dbryjmusic AT gmail.com to book Dexter for speaking engagements on the topics of music marketing, new media, and e-business.
Read Dexter’s music business blog The Hit Music Academy at http://hitmusicacademy.wordpress.com
