​One interview transcribed becomes 24 pages of content. Not every one of the thousands of words are post worthy, but many are. How much better would your website, social media, or newsletter be if you had 24 pages of stories and insights to choose from?

​A client asked me to look into a musician he came across who has no band affiliation, no albums, no studio credits, etc., but gets huge numbers for their drumming videos on Instagram and YouTube. Most of those drumming videos just show them playing along to well-known songs by others. They have over one million followers on YouTube. They also have a Patreon account. After all, even if all of those one million followers are not fake accounts, you are not going to make enough just from YouTube advertising revenue to live. However, their Patreon account has only about 240 patrons. Maybe a couple of those patrons subscribed at a high dollar level. Those details are hidden. But odds are most (if not all) of the patrons subscribed at the basic $1 a month level. So in this case, one million YouTube followers has a value of about $240 a month. Yet another reminder that followers are not the same as genuine fans.

Because I am an admin for the pages of various bands, I received an email from Facebook about official music videos coming to the platform. It asked you to click a button in your Settings to allow your official music videos to be automatically added to your page. Why this is interesting...

1 - Apparently this means that Facebook has finally reached an agreement with the major labels. Hopefully this means I will no longer be accused of copyright infringement when I post the band's music to the band's official page.

2 - This is a big step in Facebook's attempt to take down YouTube. 

3 - The email contained a subtle threat. "If you don't add your music videos to your Page by August 1, your fans will instead be able to find them on a new Page, created by Facebook for your official music." Translation - If you decline, we will create our own page featuring your videos that you will have no control over and that we can use to compete against you. 

The house always wins. 

​I saw this tip from an Instagram marketer: In the first comment under your post, load up with as many hashtags as the system will allow. THEN three days later, delete that comment full of hashtags so you can use those again without running afoul of Instagram's algorithm. 

Really this is a sign that Instagram and the use of hashtags in general are kind of broken. And if this gimmick works today, it will probably not work tomorrow. 

Use social media, but work on building a better fan experience elsewhere. If Instagram is not showing your content to your followers, that is a failure by Instagram and not a reason to engage in desperate gimmicks. 

On the U2 album "Rattle And Hum" Bono introduces their cover of "Helter Skelter" with the line, "Charles Manson stole this song from The Beatles. We're stealing it back." Although not a direct correlation, there is the temptation to tell prospective clients "Social media sites stole your fans. We are going to help you steal them back."

Moving forward I think it will be important for bands (and businesses) to create walled gardens for their genuine fans. Yes, keep using social media, but don't give in to the idea that those sites are allowed to hold your fans hostage as they have been. 

More importantly, show that better content, a better connection, and a better experience await the fan who steps outside of the app. 

I am making a couple of small changes. New interviews will now be sent out via the newly created Interview Series newsletter.

If you are a subscriber to the blog, you should have been automatically added to the newsletter and should have received the link to the new interview with Ben Sesar, drummer for Brad Paisley, today. If you did not, please go ahead and subscribe at https://bandstofans.ck.page/interviews

I am going to stop my use of Feedblitz right now. I am also going to change the focus of the blog. It will no longer be used to announce new interviews. I might still post interview excerpts, but I am not sure. In fact, I am not sure exactly what this blog is going to become. I will just see how it evolves.

​Thanks.

One interview with us will yield a lot of content for your band's website, social media, newsletter, etc. Grab this special offer at https://bit.ly/50offinterview

One of this week's big projects: I am organizing the creation of a new video for Huey Lewis & The News that will honor frontline workers. We are crowd-sourcing content from around the world. It is all being done with social media posts, emails, phone calls, and, of course, an Excel spreadsheet. (I am one of those geeks. Future fun project: Creating a spreadsheet that lists all of my records and compact discs.)

If you would like to participate in the video, you can read the submission guidelines in this Facebook post. 

Peter Holsapple (The dB's) - Songwriting as a multi-instrumentalist. [ Watch on YouTube]

[Watch full interview]