#39 The Sentric Music Podcast June 2013

Tunes for June! June’s tunes. Tune in for June’s new tunes. However you want to phrase it the Sentric Music Podcast returns this month with a dozen new tracks by some of the best upcoming artists THE WORLD has to offer (it’s not just UK anymore, oh no). Including:

Hurricane Love
John Smith
Jaws
Gnarwolves
Nadine Corina
All We Are
Spring Offensive
Deafkid
The Luck
CenoB1te
Chad Male
The Bazaars

You can subscribe to this podcast via the magic that is iTunes as well if you wanted. Just search ‘Sentric’ and it’ll be there. You can rate it if you were feeling nice as well.

The Ten Things People In The Music Industry Want From Your Facebook page…

By Pursehouse – Follow me on Twitter.

(FYI – I did a similar post back in November 2011, but this one is all shiny and new as of ‘summer’ 2013)

Regardless on what your personal views are on Zuckerburg’s creation; Facebook is quite simply the ‘go to’ place for me to have a gander at a band/artist I’ve been recommended by someone or something.

Thanks to this I’m on Facebook every bloody waking day of my life. So much so that my ‘Friends’ on there must think I’m borderline addicted at being in the loop with what they’re all doing; which mainly consists of making me feel fat and lazy (“Steve’s just completed a 83km run!”), jealous (“Andrea’s just checked into a hotel spa & resort you can’t even dream of affording!”) or desperately alone (“That lad who was fatter, lazier and poorer than you has just got engaged!”).

But away from reading a certain member of my extended family pour his heart out on his timeline and discussing things he really, really, really should be keeping indoors; I’m going from band to band listening to their music and trying to discover more about them along with the rest of the great unwashed of the music industry.

With this in mind, here are ten things you should be doing to appease the hoards of major label A&R people who are digitally queuing around the corner of the internet to hand you a cheque for several hundred thousand quid to make your wildest dreams come true (if your wildest dreams include being in debt for the vast majority of your life and having to mime along to your new single on ‘Lorraine’ on a Wednesday morning with a cracking hangover from the previous night’s shenanigans).

Oh, and you might as well go and ‘Like’ Sentric Music’s page shouldn’t you?

1. Get your URL nice and concise please

If, when written down in an email, you’re Facebook URL is the size of a small people carrier then you need to head over to www.facebook.com/username and sort it out.

Try, if you can, to have your username the same as it is on all other social networks therefore your fans know that all they need to do is add the same phrase at the end of each site in order to find you. Ergo; facebook.com/sentricmusic, twitter.com/sentricmusic, soundcloud.com/sentricmusic etc.

2. Let me be able to listen to your music please

I’d guess that around 1 in 6 Facebook pages for bands I go to don’t have any music on there available to stream. Baffling really. It’s not like you’re short of options these days…

Here at Sentric we use ‘Topdeejays’:

Have you ever listened to our podcast? You should. It’s an attack on the senses. A sexy attack.

Then there’s BandCamp (as modeled by John Smith)

Then there’s ReverbNation (as modeled by By The Rivers)

ReverbNation. Go listen to ‘Don’t Say You Love Me’ by By The Rivers. It’s lovely.

Then there’s BandPage (as modeled by Tall Ships)

BandPage. Go listen to T=0 by Tall Ships. It’s utterly epic.

3. Please don’t make me ‘Like’ you, that’s my decision thank you very much

Never, ever, never, ever, ever, never, ever, never make ANYONE EVER ‘Like’ your page in order to listen to your music. It is a terrible, abhorrent thing to do, akin to minor treason should be punishable by a fine of some sort. If you think of doing it, stop yourself, close your eyes and imagine your mum looking at you as a child saying; “I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed.” That should be enough of a deterrent.

The only thing which is acceptable is to allow people to listen to your music and then offer them a track as a free download if they ‘Like’ your page & give you an email address. I’ll let you do that.

4. Make it look nice please

Immediately bookmark this link: The ultimate social media image sizing cheat sheet. Bit handy that isn’t it?

Having your page ‘look nice’ is a lot more powerful than what you might realise; it looks professional and makes the user believe what they’re currently looking at/listening to is a polished article.

All those tab buttons are customisable and you can utilise your cover photo to promote your latest tour like Cattle & Cane have done here:

Look at those tab buttons! B(r)and ahoy.

Or tell your fans about your upcoming LP like Canterbury have done here:

You should pre-order it as well y’know. ‘You Are The One’ is a brilliant song.

5. Let me know about your gigs please

I’ve listened to your music, decided it’s great and I’d love to know if you can do that middle eight with the harmonising three way guitar solo live as well as you do on record. Therefore let me know if you’re gigging in the near future so I can come take a picture of you do doing it and post it on Instagram.

There’s SongKick (as modeled by Antonio Lulić):

There’s BandsInTown (as modeled by The Chapman Family):

BandsInTown. Go listen to ‘This One’s For Love’ by The Chapman Family. It’s one of the best songs of the year. Honestly.

6. Use the ‘About’ section to tell me about yourself please

You obviously think your music isn’t too shabby (I hope) so therefore your biased hyperbole is no good to me.

Quotes from reputable sources such as traditional press or known music websites/fanzines are great. You don’t need to put full reviews up; just choice pull quotes which show that the right people are both hearing your music and, more importantly, enjoying it.

Also mention any significant radio airplay you’ve received in the past as that’s always a turn on to read. “Our single XXX was played by Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1 and Lauren Laverne on BBC 6Music as well as a number of regional BBC stations” etc.

Basically: Tastemakers respect tastemakers’ tastes. Tasty.

Also – Contact details of you and your team (management, PR, label, publisher, agent etc) if you have them are pretty handy here. As are links to wherever else I can find you online (Twitter, website, Instagram, SoundCloud etc).

7. Let me see what you look like please

Good up to date photos or a video will do nicely here. If I’m spending a day rooting through new music I’ll always watch a music video before streaming a song because a) in theory it should be one of your strongest songs or else why on earth would you go to the hassle of making a video for it? And b) I get to see what you look like and deep down we’re all voyeurs aren’t we? Aren’t we? We are. Thought so.

8. Please remember that your friends might not be your fans

Please remember that these are two different things; if your friends choose to ‘Like’ your music page then that’s their grave they’re digging which you can then dance upon with your spamming and whatnot. If they like you as a person, but for some inexplicable reason not the 8-bit-hardcore-glitch-hop you spend your weekends locked away in your bedroom creating then keep that off your personal page (to an extent of course, if you manage to land a number 1 album I’m sure they’d forgive you giving that a mention)

9. Be social please

If you’re talking about other people/bands/companies then be sure to ‘tag’ them in the post. Check out the picture below for a post we did on the Sentric page for May’s podcast; see how all the band names are in blue? That’s because they’re hyperlinked. This means…

• The page tagged gets a notification that they’re being talked about which means they might ‘Share’ it to their followers
• It allows your fans to click on the name to take them to the page mentioned so you’re spreading the love
• To tag a page use the ‘@’ symbol and start typing the name of who you want to mention (like the Liverpool Sound City example in the below picture), be sure you ‘Like’ the page first as well

You can tag up to 10 pages per post y’know. Anymore and you might get POST traumatic stress disorder.

10. Only show the tabs that are relevant please

Mr James Cherry (who you should follow on Twitter) is the man behind the Sentric Music Facebook page and he had this bit of advice to contribute to the blog:

“Too many bands have a gigs tab with no gigs on it. Remember that the tabs are there to promote you, so don’t let them become dead ends and switch them up to reflect what you are currently working on.

In my opinion one of your tabs should always link to your music, whether this is your Soundcloud, Bandcamp or iTunes to provide something for your fans to hear.

The other two tabs could be anything you want; Gig Dates, Merch, Email Sign Up/Free Track, Competition Entry, Blog, Instagram, Twitter, Pledge Campaign, YouTube etc.

If one is out of date or not relevant then switch the focus elsewhere, promote your Instagram to boost your following, grab some emails with a free track giveaway, or push users directly to your website for your latest tour blog. Keep the content fresh and it will ensure fans will always return to check out what’s new.”

Wise words – he’s clearly learned a lot sat next to me.

So there you go! This covers the basics; you can use Facebook analytics and advertising to devastating effect if you know your way around it, but I don’t. So that’ll come at some point in the future.

If you agree/disagree then let me know by the usual channels. If you like this post why not go crazy by sharing it on your Facebook page and tagging us in the post like I talked about in point nine. Call it homework.

What I’m listening to this; John Grant, Young Rival & Circa Waves

What I’m reading this week; The Prisoner Of Heaven by Carlos Ruis Zafron

Pursehouse. 

#38 The Sentric Music Podcast May 2013

May I introduce you to MAY’s podcast?! Ha! We did that joke last year you know, and we’ll do it again in 2014 most probably. The thing is about true quality is that it never dies, right? With that in mind; this month’s podcast might just go down in history as one of the best ever thanks to a track listing of twelve songs of undeniable quality. Including:

Cattle & Cane
The Chapman Family
Esco Williams
Dirty Dishes
Canterbury
Kenkodie
Young Rival
Polarsets
Pixel Fix
I Like Trains
Song Of Return
Room 94

You can also subscribe to this podcast via the voodoo of iTunes.

#37 The Sentric Music Podcast April 2013

Spring has sensationally sprung so put a spring in your step with some super sexy saucy sounds. This month including:

Club Smith
Circa Waves
ShaoDow
Ed Black
Coasts
The Lake Poets
No Monster Club
Dems
Axes
Talk To Angels
Ragz

You can subscribe to this via iTunes if that kind of thing floated your boat:
http://senmusi.cc/V6mA4H

If you like it then you should have put an ear plug in it…

By Pursehouse – follow me on Twitter

Music. It’s great isn’t it?

Personally I believe it’s simply the best thing in the world and I can honestly say I can’t remember when I last went a full day without listening to at least a cup of it.

I’m going to take a punt and suggest you’re probably the same. If you’re reading a blog that is primarily full of advice for musicians/bands then I’ve no doubt you have a bit of a penchant for ditties of a certain ilk.

So imagine if it was taken away through no fault of your own. That’d be utterly rubbish – I think we can all agree with that? But what if it was taken away because you didn’t look after yourself? That’d definitely be worse.

I’m writing this as last night I attended my second arena rock concert over the course of three days and upon retiring for the evening my ears were ringing harder than the bells of Gretna Green on Valentines Day. Being the forgetful, simple man I am; it had completely slipped my mind to take my earplugs with me.

I lay there thinking of the frequencies I may never hear again, about how I’d make an utterly rubbish dog, about how if I kept forgetting my earplugs then eventually I’d damage my hearing so much that Mariah Carey would be able to sing higher than I could actually hear.

Now usually the ‘style’ of this blog (if you’ll humour me into believing you can call it that) is one of,

‘Here are the facts, do what you will with them. If you choose to ignore them, that’s your prerogative but I’m only telling you “how it is” on the industry side of this business’.

It’s a style that appears to work as a lot of you have said some very lovely things about these grammatically suspect ramblings in the past (saying that though, I should point out someone did leave a comment calling me a “Pompous Ass” last week. I’m going to track down the ISP and see if it’s come from my Dad’s iPad), but this time I’m changing my tone…

Basically this is a plea from me to you. I’ve probably never met you and for all I know you could be an utterly abhorrent human being (I’m sure you’re not) but regardless, I’m still asking you with genuine sincerity to invest in a pair of ear plugs and protect something that we all take for granted; the ability to hear.

Please.

I was criminally late to this; I bought these little wonders of joy back at the beginning of 2011 and I wholeheartedly wish I’d bought them a decade ago…

A few months before I’d been to an all day gig in Liverpool where I stood and watched live music for just shy of eight hours. The day climaxed in a set by the rather noisy but equally brilliant Cerebral Ballzy and as thoroughly enjoyable as the day had been, the ringing in my ears lasted for the following FORTY EIGHT HOURS. I realized then that it was time to sort myself out.

Now, there appears to be two camps of thought when it comes to earplugs;

The ‘Putting It Off-Ers’

and

The ‘Please Stop Putting It Off-Ers’.

There is no denying the importance of protecting your hearing (show me a soul who is “all for” going deaf and I’ll show you a man who lives next door to Jedward’s rehearsal space) but it’s the initial spark of motivation that’s needed.

Once you’ve taken the plunge and invested in a pair then you’ll jump into the second camp quicker than that lovely red haired fellow who won the gold for team GB at London 2012.

Now, this isn’t a blog to go and tell you where to find them or what to spend because quite simply I’m no expert in this field. For me it was a friend who worked for an AV company who recommended a local ear doctor (Otolaryngologist) who took a mold of my lugholes and had some rather fancy ones made just for me.

At £170 they were pretty pricy but I’m not suggesting you need to spend that much at all (a quick poll on Twitter tells me people spend anything from £20 – £100 on versions they all swear by). I took the plunge with the bespoke option as I’d tried some cheap generic ones in the past and they were completely useless for me. However, please let the record show that I do have an odd shaped head so I doubt the innards of my ears are playing by the normal aesthetic rules either.

As I’m a Yorkshireman, the idea of forking out just shy of £200 on something I’m pretty confident I’m going to lose before my 30th birthday appealed to me as much as buddying up with Eric Pickles during a Bikram Yoga session. During my bellyaching about my inherent frugality, a friend who is A&R by trade said (rather poignantly, i should add, for a man who I’ve seen commit some basic hygiene atrocities during various music festivals over the years) “They’ll be worth every penny if it means you get to hear your daughter say “I do” on her wedding day”.

A quick note on the common misconception that it ‘ruins’ the sound: Again, I stress the “I’m no expert” bit as mentioned above but the ones I’ve got simply reduce the sound by around 15 decibels and the clarity is astonishing.

I hope this didn’t come across as preachy but if it did then this is officially the end of today’s sermon. If just one of you decides to go and buy a pair of earplugs now then I’ve done my job.

I only do this because I love you, you know.

What I’m reading this week: The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron

What I’m listening to this week: Har Mar Superstar, Catching Flies and Circa Waves.

Pursehouse

#36 The Sentric Music Podcast March 2013

It would appear that eleven, not three, is the magic number as last month’s podcast was the most downloaded yet. We’re not fools here at Sentric y’know, if something works we run with it and that’s why March’s audible journey also has eleven ditties for you to discover. What next?! WOULD THEY DARE DO TWELVE?!?! Probably not to be honest. Let’s not get carried away now. This month’s line up:

Tall Ships
Revere
Luke De-Sciscio
The Sea
Silent Sleep
Great Pagans
Ste Hedley
Feral Brood
Camp Stag
Vasco Da Gama
Centrefolds

If you have an iPhone/iPad/iTunes/iPod/iFace or any of that jazz you can subscribe hither.

The Sentric Music Podcast #35 February 2013

I know what you’re all thinking; “How could you possibly improve the Sentric Music podcast?! What could be better than ten brilliant tracks from some of the best emerging artists the UK has to offer?!” After thinking long and hard we’ve come up with an answer… ELEVEN TRACKS. That’s right, this month see’s 10% extra audible goodness for those holes in your face that you call ears, featuring:

Red Kite
Screaming Maldini
To Kill A King
By The Rivers
The Loud
Collectors Club
Curxes
Department M
Yes Cadets
The Lines
Indian Red Lopez

You can subscribe to this via iTunes you know if you’re into all that witchcraft.