The Five Worst Pop Songs of 2010

Before anyone reads this I just want to give much love to all of my friends working hard at major labels to promote artists and bring success to their companies. For what its worth, each of these singles was commercially successful in their own right and any criticism is not of the artist itself but of the single. Each of these artists has had at least one single in their careers that I have loved...........it's just that the classically trained university music major in me has certain creative and artistic standards that these particular tracks failed to meet. It concerns me deeply that pop songs that are lyrically inspiring, rhythmically innovative, structured according to the rules of Western music theory and delivered with genuine vocal talent are becoming increasingly rare. This is how I've chosen to complain. Here are, in my opinion, the worst offenders of 2010.

Eminem
"Not Afraid"

I'm not afraid to take a stand
Everybody come take my hand
We'll walk this road together, through the storm
Whatever weather, cold or warm
Just let you know that, you're not alone

You know what irritates me most about this track aside from the bland, predictable, faux-inspirational chorus? The fact that urban artists and producers use so little creativity in order to deliver something that is no doubt intended to be a dramatic statement. To put things in perspective, here are just a handful of the other songs that have incorporated the overused i-VI-III-VII chord progression in recent years:

"Holiday" - Green Day
"Poker Face" - Lady Gaga
"American Girls" - Counting Crows
"One Of Us" - Joan Osbourne
"Numb" - Lincoln Park
"Lost" - Coldplay
"Love The Way You Lie" - Eminem & Rihanna

Here's what I think happened. Eminem and his producers worked tirelessly in the studio for months to create gritty, heartfelt and unique tracks that are Eminem's forte. Then somebody stood up and said "Hey guys, the album is done, now let's throw something together that radio stations will play." Anyone agree?

Usher
"OMG"

Is Usher even trying anymore? Seriously. Had this song been released without any edits by Andy Samberg as an SNL parody, all of America would have gotten the joke; coming from an established R&B vocalist with a 16 year run of legitimate chart-topping hits, it fell flat. The 'song' (and I use the term loosely) wreaks of laziness on the part writer/producer will.i.am in both songwriting and production. "OMG" comes off as a pathetic attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator with pointless chanting, autotune and a years old web culture reference. Its almost like he took the gems from his 2004 multi-platinium release "Confessions," dumped them into a Brita filter and poured pop music lovers a glass of what was left. Drink up!

Justin Bieber
"Baby"

He's young. He's cute. He's got a decent voice. He plays the guitar. He's white. So here is my question: whose brilliant idea was it to turn Justin Bieber into a faux hip-hop/urban crooner, pair him up with a low-brow rapper and throw him onstage alongside hip hop dancers? Wouldn't it have made more sense to brand him as an acoustic singer/songwriter (I'm thinking a young Jason Mraz), pair him up with legitimate songwriters instead of urban beatmakers who wouldn't know a harmonic progression if it bit them on the ass and let him share his talents without adding the urban elements? Just because he was discovered by Usher doesn't mean he needs to be Usher, right? The Garage Band beats, uninspiring chord progressions, predictable melodic line and obnoxious 1-word chorus are simply an embarrassment to a young talent that I truly believe is capable of more.

Rihanna
"Rude Boy"

As a man, the lyrics of Rihanna's "Rude Boy" make me.....well.......uncomfortable. I mean, I grew up with Madonna and Britney-- overt female sexuality is neither surprising nor threatening in the least. But on what planet do these qualify as song lyrics?

Come here rude boy, boy can you get it up?
Come here rude boy, boy is you big enough?
Take it, take it, baby, baby

Not to mention the fact that these three lines repeated endlessly over unchanging beats and chord progressions comprise about 90% of the song. Pointless garbage, but if absolutely nothing else it makes me all the more grateful for the colorful and provocative video.

Taylor Swift
"Mine"

I don't mind Taylor Swift. "You Belong With Me" definitely fell within my top 20 singles of 2009. "Mine," the lead single from her multi-platinum October release Speak Now, however, left much to be desired. Swift, though vocally unremarkable, is a talented songwriter with a string of catchy pop/crossover hits to her credit. So what went wrong here? From a structural standpoint the song is rhythmically and melodically repetitive. The backing instrumental track sounds sounds like every other country song that has been written since the dawn of time. But worse than that the song simply isn't about any subject matter that hasn't already been thoroughly covered in Swifts first two studio albums. I don't think that anybody expected her 3rd album to be a drastic transition into womanhood (think Britney, Christina, Miley, etc) but from an actual songwriter I'd have expected a more mature and compelling production.

Transitioning from Friends to Fans, Profiles to Pages on Facebook

A recurring issue in the past year with my clients in the music industry and beyond is the why, what and how of Facebook marketing within the new platform. By now most bands have made the transition from personal profile to an artist page, but many solo artists and other celebrities have hesitated to make the big move. Perhaps many artists feel that a personal page is well, more personal, and they're not wrong. The ability to direct-message, invite your friends to events and add new friends is valuable and not an option on a fan page. Many are frustrated with Facebook's constantly changing platform for artist integration and refuse to make the jump on these grounds. However, for artists on the rise that are thinking about the long term promotion of their work, fully committing to the exclusive use of a fan page may be something to consider sooner rather than later.

As of this writing, Facebook caps the number of friends that one can have on a personal profile at 5,000. For a developing artist this may seem like a respectable number, but why would any artist want to limit the number of people who choose to become a part of their online world? An indie artist may have far fewer friends than this on a personal profile, but once again it makes sense to plan for the long term. Also, though the success that artists have found with Social Ads (Facebook's advertising program) has been mixed, this is an option only available to fan pages that should not be ruled out. Artists with specific marketability have found success with the program and a fan page allows you to keep this option open. Finally, personal profiles are more likely to contain sensitive information and may understandably cause an artist to hesitate in handing over their password to members of their marketing team. On the contrary, anyone with a personal profile can be added as a fan page administrator, increasing the likelihood that none of your messaging will fall through the cracks when you become too busy to update.

Once you've decided on making the transition there are a few basic rules to follow that will make things easier.

First, limit your privacy settings to drive new connections to your fan page instead of your personal profile. Click on Account (upper right corner) -- Privacy Settings -- Connecting On Facebook -- View Settings. Change the dropdown menu next to "Search For You On Facebook" to "Friends Only". This will ensure that non-friends who search for you in the future will come across (and like) your fan page instead of your personal profile. You can still send friend requests to new 'real life' friends that you wish to add to your personal profile, but they will not be able to find this profile via Facebook search.

Next, take a good, hard look at your fan page and prepare it for your fans by plugging in all content that would normally exist on your official website or myspace profile. Make sure that your iLike account has your most current music uploaded and organized and add the iLike 'Songs' application so that your Facebook fans can easily listen (or use the My Band app as an alternative). Make sure that all press-ready photos, performance shots and pics with fans are uploaded and organized; save the non-professional images for your personal profile. Do the same with videos, either by integrating the Youtube application or by uploading manually via the Videos application. Use the Events application to make sure that all of your performance dates are current.

Now that your page is ready for traffic, begin the process of inviting your fans from your personal profile to your fan page. There is no way to automatically 'convert' from a personal to a fan page, so you will have to bank on your true fans following you from one to the other. There will be casualties along the way, but remember once again that you are making a long-term commitment. Under the profile pic on your fan page, click on 'Suggest To Friends' to bring up a list of the friends on your personal profile. Suggest your fan page to all of your friends and attach a friendly note with the invite. Something like this:

Hello friends! Moving forward I will increasingly be using my artist page to share my music-related updates such as new tracks, photos, events, videos and more. Please take a moment to 'Like' my page so that we can keep in touch. Thanks for the support!

Finally, commit to a set period of time in which your artist page will be your exclusive portal on Facebook. For practicality, let's say about 3 months. During this time period, follow the 'suggest to friends' instructions above at least 2 more times to catch the folks that missed your first request. Tease your artist page from your personal profile now and then:

Just posted 3 new tour dates on my artist page! (with attached link)

You can also offer incentives that are available exclusively to those who like your artist page. My favorite trick is to use Fan Access, an application that allows you to create and edit a 'fans only' tab, to offer a free mp3 download.

To conclude, a quick note on facebook Groups. Here is the reality: facebook groups are a dinosaur from a bygone age. Very few people join or actively partake in groups anymore, opting instead for the fan pages. Its not that groups lack any particular functionality; rather they just aren't cool or current. Ask your fans to join your Facebook group and you risk sounding out of touch.

5 Myths in Social Media Marketing

1) Most of the content that I receive on the web is free, so web marketing must be free as well.

WRONG. While many forms of informational and entertainment-based content are and will continue to remain available on the web free of charge, most social media marketing efforts still cost money. Contrary to popular belief, there are few if any free paths to effective marketing on the social web. Want more Facebook fans? You can easily convert your existing customer base from website visitors or newsletter subscribers to Facebook fans, but are these really 'new' users? Social networks can be an excellent way to improve communication with an existing customer or fanbase, but if you genuinely wish to expand your brand's social media footprint to a new sect of potential customers, you'd better be ready to pay for Facebook Social Ads, Friendblaster Pro on myspace, or somebody to do your targeted follows on Twitter. Think that the unpaid intern who comes into your office once per week and will disappear at the end of the summer is equipped to handle your company's social media marketing strategy because they are young and 'know Facebook'? Think again! You wouldn't ask an intern or entry-level associate to produce your next TV commercial, supervise a million dollar ad buy or coordinate a sponsorship campaign, so why trust your internet strategy to anyone at less than a manager level? Want to produce high-quality and compelling digital content for your brand such as videos, iPhone and Facebook apps, or podcasts? Better get your wallet out-- video production and web development are just as costly as ever.

2) Every business needs active Facebook and Twitter profiles.

WRONG. The cold, hard truth? With a handful of exceptions, Facebook and Twitter have not proven especially effective in marketing certain types of products and services, particularly those that are B2B oriented. Think about it; the operative word here is social network. Social-- not work, business, research, sales-- social. Those that wish to market B2B products on the social web will find it extremely difficult on most social media channels to target their message to the appropriate retail buyer, executive, brand manager, etc. that needs to hear it. Take a look at your own Facebook profile; how many of your 'Likes and Interests', the primary criteria used to target consumers by advertisers, are business oriented? Do you send a friend request to every business contact that you interact with on a daily basis, or do you prefer to keep your account personal, private and fun? The truth about Twitter is that 99% of those who log onto a Twitter account for work purposes are exclusively interested in broadcasting their own messages and not hearing what you have to say. And then there's LinkedIn; as a social network geared toward business professionals you'd think that this would be the ideal environment for finding the right individuals and companies to introduce your B2B product or service to, but the truth is that most people's privacy settings prohibit you from 'cold calling' them unless you are bold enough to claim the stranger as a real-life friend. In my own business development experience I've found that a surprisingly few number of LinkedIn members are open to receiving communication from strangers, either because they do not list their work email address, they do not show up as 'in network' or they simply do not wish to receive communication from non-connections.

3) The web has solved the age-old question of marketing's effectiveness through analytics and ROI tracking.

WRONG. Well, not completely. New tools have come along that allows us to directly track how many clickthrus generated in SEO and SEM campaigns have led directly to sales, but how many digital marketing efforts are actually geared toward driving direct sales as opposed to brand awareness? Your hilarious viral video that cost you $20 to make got 1,000,000 Youtube views; how many of the viewers went out and purchased your product, and how many just got a good laugh? Let's say you have 150 Facebook Interactions, 75 new Twitter followers and your online video received 55 views today. What does this mean exactly? Should you refrain from creating and promoting all digital content that does not directly lead to a trackable sale? Of course not! It is as important as it ever was for executives and marketers to put their message out there to the masses whether or not they can track the exact ROI on these efforts. Some things never change.

4) Social media channels have replaced the need for an effective product website.

WRONG. Official websites are just as important as ever for a multitude of reasons. For starters, websites offer you the freedom to tailor your design, content and marketing message in a way that social networks simply do not. For SEO purposes, your website showing up as the #1 Google hit in a search for your company is the first step in your establishment as a legit enterprise, whereas a myspace profile showing up at the top may raise an eyebrow or two and encourage the searcher to move onto a competitor. A social network profile is not a replacement for an attractive, navigable, informative, content-rich official website, and your website should serve as 'home base' for your marketing efforts.

5) Social media channels are great for generating leads but should ultimately drive traffic back to the 'real' content on my official website.

WRONG. Too many marketers are overly concerned with manipulating the flow of traffic to the location on the web that they deem as the most important. Here's a tip: allow the flow of traffic to develop organically and offer your visitors the content they need in the spots they want to consume it in. If your product or service lends itself naturally to video content posted to Youtube, provide complete information through your videos rather than 'teaser content' that links back to your website. People are smart when it comes to web navigation; if they want to find your website and you've made it easy for them to find, you don't need to manipulate them into doing so. Accommodate your web traffic in the space that they find most comfortable with complete content and information.

5 Rules for Successful Artist Contests

I've been running online contests on behalf of artists across all genres and career levels for some time now and have learned a thing or two in the process. A special contest or promotion can be a great way to engage your online fanbase or achieve some other marketing goal, but before launching into something there are a few rules of thumb that could make the difference between a worthwhile effort and a waste of time.

1) Determine Your Goal.

Don't ever run a contest just for the sake of running a contest or to give your fans 'something to do'. Use a contest as a means to achieve a specific marketing goal and determine what that goal is before starting. Do you wish to promote a new album, single or video? Increase sales? Build a fanclub? Obtain fan feedback? Promote a social media profile? Encourage newsletter or mobile fanclub signups? Figure out what exactly it is that you'd like your fans to do FIRST and tailor the promotion around this objective.

2) Keep It Simple

I cannot overemphasize the importance of creating contest elements that are as simple and straightforward as possible. The entry instructions/method of entry are the most important in this respect. If you cannot list your entry instructions in less than 3 individual steps, revisit the concept and overall framework of the promotion in order to determine a way to simplify things. Stick to a method of entry that doesn't require the entrant to visit multiple websites or social network profiles or submit too much personal data. The more hoops that your fans have to jump through to participate, the fewer that will.

3) Beware of Contest Cliches

A viral video promotion sounds like a great idea, right? This may be true, but before confidently asking your fans to share videos of themselves rocking out to your new single, be aware that an extremely small percentage of online fans will take the time to record and submit a video. If you are a developing artist I'd recommend steering clear of this one as you will likely be disappointed at the low number of submissions. As a conservative estimate, you can expect 1 video submission for every 20,000 myspace fans. No joke. An alternative U.G.C. promotion? Ask fans to submit photos, or even better, text entries on a specific topic. I also recommend using voting campaigns (i.e. 'vote for our band on 3rdpartysite.com') sparingly, if at all. Why? First of all unless you can obtain full entry data from participants and offer some sort of prizing for participation, what are your fans getting out of voting for you to win a contest on a 3rd party site? Whats in it for them? Why should they submit their email address and other personal info to a site that they don't care about so that you can win an online contest? I see artists and bands overusing voting campaigns all the time, and the only ones who seem to benefit are those running the contest.

4) More Prizes, More Submissions.

As a rule of thumb, it is a better incentive to offer many fans a small prize rather than a 'grand prize' that only 1 fan will be lucky enough to obtain. Think about it; a fan will read your contest details including prizing info and quickly calculate their chances of taking something home as a result of their participation. 1 prize offered to 1 lucky fan tells the fan that the odds are not in his or her favor, so why bother? Instead, offer a larger number of smaller prizes to more participants- or better yet, EVERYBODY that enters. A free song download for each entrant or 5 Free CDs per week for 4 weeks is an outstanding value proposition. Don't have a budget for shipping prizes? Label won't let you give away song downloads? Be creative!

5) Be Consistent with All Contest Elements

If your contest language indicates that you will announce the winner on August 21st, you'd better stick to it. If you promise a small prize to a large number of people, do not put off your fulfillment efforts. If you say that the prize is a free pair of concert tickets on Facebook, it had better say that on Myspace as well. Even if you feel like the majority of your fans are in one place online as opposed to another, be sure to announce and promote your contest equally across all web properties; respect people where they choose to interact with you online, not where you feel they should be. Make an effort to create visually appealing contest artwork; hire a graphic designer to do this if possible.

Awesome Viral Video Promotion

One of my favorite myspace designers recently sent me a link to a viral video promotion that he'd seamlessly integrated into the website for the Ohio-based rock band Before Their Eyes. Near the top of the website just below the band's photo and logo, visitors are prompted to share an exclusive video as a status update with friends on Facebook or Twitter first and receive access to the video second.

Tracking on the site's backend shows that this particular campaign generated over 2,000 posts between Facebook and Twitter.

While the concept of exclusive fan content is certainly nothing new, I love the way that this has been so attractively built into the backend of the band's website. In only 2 mouse clicks I have shared the content and viewed the video without ever leaving the site; this is infinitely more attractive a proposition than finding, copying and pasting code or a URL, leaving the page to visit a new one, figuring out the best way on each constantly-evolving social network to share it, etc. I also love that because the promotion exists entirely on the band's website, in essence they 'own' the promotion, as opposed to hi-jacking a branded technology that somebody else has created for a similar purpose and plastered their logo over.

The only concern of course is cost. Web design and video production services do not come cheap. However if you email Nick Moore at nmoore3@gmail.com to inquire about this service, he may cut you a good deal.

The New Tyler Hilton EP and Why It Should Sell

One Tree Hill fans will remember Warner/Reprise artist Tyler Hilton in his recurring role as the villainous Chris Keller. Those of you who without an affinity for the soapy CW teen drama may remember him as Elvis in the 2005 film Walk The Line. Though throughout his 10-year career as a recording artist Hilton has not quite been able to match his success on the screen with success on the charts, he's been on my radar since I first heard 3 brilliant and memorable acoustic/pop tracks from his 2004 album The Tracks of Tyler Hilton (When It Comes, The Letter Song, and Pink and Black). I believe that When It Comes is still in my Ipod's Top 25.

A few days ago I saw a Facebook Ad announcing a new release of Hilton's-- likely targeted to me because I'd listed him years ago as a favorite artist. Since he'd already earned my trust I was more than willing to give his new music a chance, but the first thought that popped into my head was "I am not paying $8 for 5 songs that I haven't heard and may or may not like." The second thought? "I don't have time to listen to 12 new tracks that I haven't heard and may or may not like." To my surprise and delight, the 5-song EP was available on Itunes for only $2.99. I downloaded it without hesitation.

Kudos to Warner/Reprise for appropriate pricing and marketing on this release.

Will EPs eventually replace full-length albums as the default method for releasing new music? This marketer and music fan hopes so. Think about it; unless we're talking about a full-length new album from an artist that one is very passionate about (I can only think of 5-10 of these off the top of my head), why should I allot hours of my time to dedicate the 3-5 listens to 12 songs that it normally takes to reach a level of familiariarity and enjoyment with each? Also, why should I spend $9.99 on unknown music when I could just as easily use this money to purchase 10 songs that I love?

If labels and artists want digital downloads to compete with the Groovesharks of the world as a means of music discovery, a fairly priced EP is definitely a step in the right direction.

Photos from Winter Music Conference 2010

7 Artist EPK's and What I Like About Them

I am currently in the process of developing my first artist EPK and came across a few things that I liked in my research. The main thing that I learned in the process is that an artist EPK (Electronic Press Kit) Video doesn't have to be anything specific, but it should always accomplish one specific goal. Whether that goal is to introduce a developing artist to a wider audience or to promote their 11th studio album, it probably makes the most sense to keep that goal in mind during all aspects of production and not to try to do too much.

While I have yet to find the 'definitive' artist EPK, here are 7 that I came across that possessed a great quality or two that we can all learn from.




I love the EXCITEMENT that this projects. It tells us that Michael Buble is a worldwide phenomenon and makes us feel like even bigger things are in store for 2010.

Alice In Chains
I like how this is shot like a film and the artistic qualities conveyed. I also like how the use of black & white imagery contrasts the video content. They don't appear to have had much video content other than the interview to work with but these two factors help tremendously.



James Hunter "The Hard Way" EPK @ Yahoo! Video

I like how the song titles appear digitally in the corner of the screen as they show the live footage and the print media quotes add a nice touch. Both great ideas.



I love how the best and most dramatic clips of their music are used the way the timing of each music clip works with the storyline. The dominance of the music in this EPK makes me feel like the music itself is the strongest part of their act—that they don’t expensive video effects, high quality performance footage or a compelling interview to show us who they are.



I like how it starts off with her voice and name IMMEDIATELY in the first couple of seconds without delay. The video also shows a good balance of live audio with mastered audio tracks.



I like how the different effects on the still photos make them feel ‘alive’ as well as the use of childhood photos. I also like how he talks about the songwriting process and most importantly how the video genuinely ‘introduces’ the artist. It doesn’t assume that I already know who he is and what he’s accomplished; I'd never heard of him and the video told me everything I needed to know.



Again I enjoy and appreciate the ‘filmlike’ qualities of this. They really only have interview and rehearsal footage but the editing technique makes it feels like so much more. I also enjoy the way that the start of a new song in the background signals the beginning of a new topic of conversation.