In an effort to solidify the Falik brand Magic Lantern Records will be distributing Falik songs and merchandise solely through ReverbNation.com and Facebook (http://falikshow.com/store and http://falikshow.com/fbstore, respectively).
If you see Falik product anywhere else, Falik and Magic Lantern Records respectfully requests that you contact them immediately: content@magiclanternrecords.com.
Thank you for your patronage.
Charlie Pecot
Magic Lantern Records
aka "Falik"
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Falik on the Internet Part IV
Ok, so now Falik 
is in Hawaii - Kailua-Kona, on the "Big Island" to be exact. My blogging on this site has been confined to topics dealing with marketing and promotion strategies, and I'll keep to that.
Demographics for Kailua-Kona: the town itself has a little more than 10,000 people, the entire island less than 200,000. Sparks/Reno is around 420,000.
Surprisingly enough, though, I find Kona to be a bit more cosmopolitan, the people a bit more open despite it's lack of population. That may be the weather's influence; average temp is 70-84 degrees (that includes lows).
Popular artists from Kona include the band Pepper
and Jack Johnson
. On the ReverbNation.com site those two acts are listed as numbers 1 and 2, respectively for Kona. Yours truly is at number 3. Yep, that's me, right behind Jack Johnson as being the most popular artist on ReverbNation.com from the city of Kailua-Kona (including surrounding zip codes), HI. It must be noted that there a total of 64 registered artists from this area. When I changed my profile from Sparks to Kailua-Kona, I was number 4. It took a few weeks to get to number 3.
Getting to number 3 on ReverbNation.com involved a couple of different strategies, all involving exposure. I started "fanning" every artist on the site I could find who was in my category of "world/reggae / electronica". Unfortunately, I wasn't getting fanned back. So I changed my genre from "world/reggae / electronica" to "electronica/dance / world", then started fanning those artists, with more success.
I've thought a lot about the natures of a "world electronica" artist and an "electronica dance / world" artist. It seems that "world" artists take themselves very seriously - probably a little too seriously, in my opinion. Not to sound too disparaging, but they appear like missionaries on a holy quest. Sounds great, but there is a flip side - they may come off as musical zealots, giving the impression that their artistic expression is the only one that matters, as does their purpose of bringing a specific music of a local region to the world, which they can't do if you're cluttering up the air waves with your "crap". This means that there is not much of a feel of "community" towards other artists. "Electronica/dance" artists seem to have an entirely different slant. I think this may be because the artist's purpose or motivation is focused on the effect that the music has on the listener, rather than on its origination. I think this makes it more "fan" music, than "musician" music.
With that being said, the response I've received from electronica dance - and hip hop / rap - artists has been favorable. I've experienced a lot more fanning and plays. And because of ReverbNation's "social media" hooks into Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, when someone creates activity in ReverbNation
those channels become populated with content, as well.
ReverbNation also has modules that can be incorporated into personal websites, and I've used this to great effect on my website http://falikshow.com, which adds to the exposure and stats. In the past month Falik has risen as high as 276 on the national electronica/dance charts, ranking higher than other well-known artists, such as "Thievery Corporation". All this after having moved to a smaller demographic. Can you say "bigger fish in a smaller pond"?
Facebook has helped immensely, as well. I've gotten in touch with a lot of old friends who have taken a liking to Falik and they've spread the word, actually doing most of the heavy lifting. As an artist you must make yourself available, because it's your fans that make you popular, and you don't have anything to do with the latter, whereas you have complete control over the former. You must keep an open mind and put yourself out there in whatever media you can and let your fans take you the rest of the way. Also, you must remember that you're promoting yourself - warts and all - and your music is a by-product.
Kailua-Kona is not much of a market for electronica/dance, not like L.A., or New York, and probably never will be. That is not unless Jack Johnson straps on a sampler. Then all bets are off.
is in Hawaii - Kailua-Kona, on the "Big Island" to be exact. My blogging on this site has been confined to topics dealing with marketing and promotion strategies, and I'll keep to that.Demographics for Kailua-Kona: the town itself has a little more than 10,000 people, the entire island less than 200,000. Sparks/Reno is around 420,000.
Surprisingly enough, though, I find Kona to be a bit more cosmopolitan, the people a bit more open despite it's lack of population. That may be the weather's influence; average temp is 70-84 degrees (that includes lows).
Popular artists from Kona include the band Pepper
and Jack Johnson. On the ReverbNation.com site those two acts are listed as numbers 1 and 2, respectively for Kona. Yours truly is at number 3. Yep, that's me, right behind Jack Johnson as being the most popular artist on ReverbNation.com from the city of Kailua-Kona (including surrounding zip codes), HI. It must be noted that there a total of 64 registered artists from this area. When I changed my profile from Sparks to Kailua-Kona, I was number 4. It took a few weeks to get to number 3.Getting to number 3 on ReverbNation.com involved a couple of different strategies, all involving exposure. I started "fanning" every artist on the site I could find who was in my category of "world/reggae / electronica". Unfortunately, I wasn't getting fanned back. So I changed my genre from "world/reggae / electronica" to "electronica/dance / world", then started fanning those artists, with more success.
I've thought a lot about the natures of a "world electronica" artist and an "electronica dance / world" artist. It seems that "world" artists take themselves very seriously - probably a little too seriously, in my opinion. Not to sound too disparaging, but they appear like missionaries on a holy quest. Sounds great, but there is a flip side - they may come off as musical zealots, giving the impression that their artistic expression is the only one that matters, as does their purpose of bringing a specific music of a local region to the world, which they can't do if you're cluttering up the air waves with your "crap". This means that there is not much of a feel of "community" towards other artists. "Electronica/dance" artists seem to have an entirely different slant. I think this may be because the artist's purpose or motivation is focused on the effect that the music has on the listener, rather than on its origination. I think this makes it more "fan" music, than "musician" music.
With that being said, the response I've received from electronica dance - and hip hop / rap - artists has been favorable. I've experienced a lot more fanning and plays. And because of ReverbNation's "social media" hooks into Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, when someone creates activity in ReverbNation
those channels become populated with content, as well.ReverbNation also has modules that can be incorporated into personal websites, and I've used this to great effect on my website http://falikshow.com, which adds to the exposure and stats. In the past month Falik has risen as high as 276 on the national electronica/dance charts, ranking higher than other well-known artists, such as "Thievery Corporation". All this after having moved to a smaller demographic. Can you say "bigger fish in a smaller pond"?
Facebook has helped immensely, as well. I've gotten in touch with a lot of old friends who have taken a liking to Falik and they've spread the word, actually doing most of the heavy lifting. As an artist you must make yourself available, because it's your fans that make you popular, and you don't have anything to do with the latter, whereas you have complete control over the former. You must keep an open mind and put yourself out there in whatever media you can and let your fans take you the rest of the way. Also, you must remember that you're promoting yourself - warts and all - and your music is a by-product.
Kailua-Kona is not much of a market for electronica/dance, not like L.A., or New York, and probably never will be. That is not unless Jack Johnson straps on a sampler. Then all bets are off.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Falik on the Internet, Part III
I've used a lot of on-line services over the years, trying to spread the word about my music. Currently, the sites I work the most are ReverbNation, FaceBook, MySpace, and my own site, Falikshow.com. I also use twitter and other services that utilize twitter APIs, like http://twt.fm/ that allow you to share mp3s.
I like ReverbNation right now primarily because of the way it integrates feeds from other sites, particularly MySpace, FaceBook, and Twitter. Other features that work for me are the profile layout, and the newly-implemented storefront.
The RN layout is modular allowing for the exclusion of content types. That's important to me because I don't perform a lot so I can exclude the "gigs" section. Most of the new music artist sites popping up include a YouTube video feed, and RN is no exception.
I also like its charting implementation. Ordinarily, for me popularity charts are counter-productive (pardon the pun). My music is not mainstream and I usually don't fare well even when I get lumped in with other world artists. And even RN doesn't separate "world" from "reggae". But the way stats are accumulated it does offer a picture of activity that is none-the-less informative. I get a much clearer picture of who is enjoying my music despite the genre classification; the labeling doesn't get too much in the way of analysis. MySpace stats, on the other hand, tell me absolutely nothing, and usually appear to lag, anyway.
Falik on the Internet, Part II
I moved to Sparks, NV at the beginning of 2006, roughly 4 years ago, which is about 3 years after I put out my first CD "Streaks and Strokes", and just after I released my 4th CD "Elvolution". "Falik's Revenge" and "Bring It" were released in 2008 and 2009, respectively, which puts my catalog at 6 CDs worth of content, or about 70+ songs. I mention all this because you can't really talk about promotion without talking about what it is you're promoting, and where; all this doesn't happen in a vacuum. Even though the medium is the internet your potential customers are not computers; there are actual people out there to which you must connect. So, in retrospect, Falik's career has now expanded into two distinct markets; southern California, and northern Nevada, each with its own idiosyncrasies.
In southern California the weather is better, it's bigger geographically, more metropolitan, and there are more people, and lots of money. It creates more opportunities to go and perform, get exposure, and just connect. New trends are discovered and developed more quickly, everything is ahead of the curve. The competition is also a little more fierce, making it more difficult to be identified as "different" and "new", which in turn puts pressure on you as an artist to hone your skills.
The Reno/Sparks scene seems to work a bit more like island living. It's not very cosmopolitan despite the many casinos and tourist spots. The closest "big" city is Sacramento, California 2 hours away. The isolation is manifested by its geographical location; it's difficult to get to even when it's not snowing, which it does a lot. On the whole regional tastes reflect its isolation; economically depressed, consumers align themselves to styles of music, dress, and products to create identities, rather than originate them. It just costs too much. Everything seems to be "behind the curve". All this makes it easy to be recognized as "different" and "new".
The comparison between southern California and Reno is important because both have advantages and disadvantages, challenges that must be overcome. The fact that they are almost opposites in terms of how promotional strategies need to be developed has not been lost on me. I'll be frequenting this theme through my blogs.
Falik on the Internet, Part I
This is a list of on-line resources I use (or have used) to promote Falik. This blog will be used to examine the usefulness of these sites to me, or at least explain how I use them. This list is not comprehensive or in any particular order.
- MySpace.com
- Facebook.com
- falikshow.com, magiclanternrecords.com
- Magnatune.com
- uPlaya.com
- MyMusicSite.com
- Garageband.com (associated w/MySpace.com)
- ReverbNation.com (http://falik.org)
- Last.fm
- YouTube.com
- Tribe.net
- twitter.com
- cafepress.com
- ccmixter.org
- amiestreet.com (http://amiestreet.com/artist/falik/)
- live365.com
- amazon.com
- iacmusic.com (http://iacmusic.com/artist.aspx?ID=13683)
- youlicense.com (http://www.youlicense.com/Artist/Falik)
- pumpaudio.com
- napster.com
- myxer.com
- thumbplay.com
- songcastmusic.com
- songvault.fm (http://www.songvault.fm/artists/falik.htm)
- iLike.com (http://www.ilike.com/user/ilikeFalik)
- snocap.com
- weedshare
- lulu.com
- iTunes.com
- soundclick.com
- cdbaby.com
- artistserver.com (http://www.artistserver.com/falik)
- artistopia.com (http://www.artistopia.com/falik/events)
- bebo.com (http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=7557297159)
- 7digital.com (http://indiestore.7digital.com/stores/indiedefault.aspx?shop=-64175&g=855cf9fb-b9e7-4736-abd6-5f79dfa49b18)
- allmusic.com (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=FALIK&sql=11:jifixqyrldse~T0)
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