By BKWill on

Hello Drupal Friends,

My name is Will and I work as an Online Manager for a music marketing company in NY. It's my job to service websites with tools that are used to build robust content for various websites that feature and support music content. In this case I provide sites with Bios, Photos, A/V content and links, Tour Info, ect. for them to create unique content for their sites. We have two main focus points: 1.) To build connections between similar sites in order to foster a strong online community; 2.) To help webiste build robust content and increase site traffic. We do this because record lables hire us to distribute their music on the web. Instead of just mailing albums to sites, we've taken to really understanding the type of content individual sites need and use, and to building relationships with content developers.

In order to drag my company into the 21st Century kicking and screeming I sought out a usefull solution to orgnaize my clients content, distribute information, collect feedback, and provide detailed tracking and reporting completely online. I found Drupal to be the answer to all of my needs and then some. I've been working with other Drupal friends to create an interactive portal for both clients and websites to share and exhange information. The first step in building this portal was to address the needs of everyone involved. I did this by conducting surveys and speaking to many people on both side one on one. My work as gained some attention and I've been asked to speak at this year's 2005 CMJ Music Festival.

I wanted to speak about the power of open source solutions to organize information and the value they can provide to create communities online around individual brands (artists); the robust platform for organizing fan bases, providing products online, and pulling information in and sending information out for labels and artists; and finally on the future of the digital landscape and the power of open source platforms to shift the standards of the music industry.

-----

Now that you know a bit about me, what I'm looking for are comments and suggestions from the Drupal community on things you feel I should or should not talke about. I'm also looking for any previous presnetation of Drupal solutions to take notes from. I've been a huge support of Drupal for some time now and I want to make sure I represent this community in the best way possible and in a way that offers the best value for the community. I get asked on a weekly basis by labels and bands on how they can create a better online environment on the web, and time and time again I point people towards Drupal. But I've never speaken publicy and in such a documented forum and I'm looking for a litte advise and support.

Thanks,

Will

will@soulatomic.com
aim: bkdark75
ph: 1-646-267-5886

Comments

Dublin Drupaller’s picture

Dublin Drupaller commented

Hi Will,

Interesting post. I too work in music, albeit the other side of the pond.

As a few pointers, it might be worth talking to the guys at Bryght and their Recording Artist and Record Label Platform in development. They use drupal.

Or perhaps the Music For America guys who also use drupal quite well for a large artist community.

Not forgetting the new Drupal Art Site - a place for band/artist site developers to meet and share ideas on how to run art related sites in general using drupal, including music.

As a tip, pre-CMJ, for your presentation...I've done the rounds of speaking at various music events each year across the globe and while CMJ is a great new music event, the audience at the panels will tend to be grass roots artists or DIY managers rather than industry insiders. So in terms of shifting the standards of the music industry you're barking up the wrong tree. On the other hand it might be a good place to talk about the value of using open source tools, like Drupal to help develop the profile of a band or artist.

As another tip..from experience I recommend you try and get out of doing a presentation if possible. If CMJ was a software conference, it makes sense..but, the idea of sitting through a powerpoint presentation about drupal isn't high on the list of "things I'd like to do" at CMJ for an artist/delegate. If it was, they would probably have gone to work in a bank or insurance company rather than pick up a guitar and start writing music.

Why not setup your own BKwill weblog at drupalART and invite delegates to CMJ to submit questions prior to the event, push it out into a forum so it's more interactive...or even setup a drupal driven site to illustrate and promote it?

I've been working in music for about 10 years now and it's a given that the most sucessful artist/band websites are the ones that don't look good, but are updated regularly..usually by a pal or a pal of a pal of the band. So it's highly likely that your audience at CMJ will be aware of drupal/mambo/phpnuke and the usual suspects. If I were in your shoes, I would steer the presentation away from the technology and focus on how to use it.

You can always point the audience back to your weblog for a comparison chart, for example..between Drupal and another CMS for music related add-ons or for more techy info. Instead, focussing your talk/presentation more on concepts on ideas. the fundamental principles of an artist fanbase community, the do's and don'ts, different marketing techniques for different genres..which essentially means different demographics. A chat room will work for urban and hop hop...but there' s no point for jazz...etc.

The point being that Drupal and others like it are very powerful tools...but it's how they are used and the concepts that make them effective tools.

I hope that makes sense and gives you some pointers. Best of luck with CMJ by the way. It's a great event and place to hear new bands.

Dub

Currently in Switzerland working as an Application Developer with UBS Investment Bank...using Drupal 7 and lots of swiss chocolate

BKWill’s picture

BKWill commented

Great suggestions my friend. I too feel the same way but was unsure on how to approach the whole thing. I've never been asked to speak at anything before and wanted to focus more on the "how" aspect of using strong tools like Drupal. In that past when I begin to explain why tools like Drupal work to my co-workers, I've received heckles of "Sounds like your speaking geek to me." A big chalange in my office is explaining what Drupal is, let alone how to use it. The points you raise are exactly inline with where I want to go with this.

Although I think it's a great idea you have about setting up a weblog and inviting people to ask questions before hand. Given the time line of this and some missing information from CMJ, I don't think this will happen before hand, but I think this could a usefull tool afterwards inviting people to who want to know more to ask questions and to contact me there.

I'm very familar with the what the Bryght team is up to and Music For America. I think they are very good examples of the what's to come in the future. The biggest challange I feel is educating more people on the tools available and how easy they are to implement and use. The majority of smalls lables out there don't have the time and energy to invest in researching or setting up a tool like Drupal, which is unfortunate. However sooner than later I do believe all of that will change. Thanks so much for your comments, I really appreciate it.

Cheers,

Will