Hey kid, want to act? When you can emote like this Call Hollywood Building the Band Brand: Becoming famous in the 21st Century

Building the Band Brand Becoming famous in the 21st Century Even Selena Gomez takes Voice lessons

One of the chapters in the forthcoming book Building The Band Brand: Becoming famous in the 21st Century discusses voice lessons. Lucy Walsh takes them. Here's Selena Gomez taking her's the day her first CD, Kiss and Tell, came out.

Building Band Brand Add this song to your set

It’s going to be the biggest hit of summer. Haven’t been near a guitar to learn since unveiling it to the world – 3 chord key of G progression – G, D, A. Be the first one on your block to offer it in your set. Song not yet available on Amazon, iTunes or usual outlets – you’ll be first!

Why you need voice lessons Building the Band Brand: Becoming famous in the 21st Century

If your goal is to become a famous musicians, pay attention. If you’re content to play a gig or two a month, you’re at the wrong blog. Building the Band Brand: Becoming famous in the 21st Century is for those who want to reach the stratosphere in their career.

While writing the upcoming book - Building the Band Brand: Becoming famous in the 21st Century – there is a chapter on why you need to continue to take voice lessons, guitar lessons, piano lessons – whatever your musical prowess.

Spoke to Rich Labbadia this past week. He manages his daughters, the Labbadia Sisters. He openly admits the girls are still taking vocal lessons, even after their careers are taking off; opening shows for Ryan Cabrera and other high points most acts just dream of.

The forthcoming book will feature voice training, marketing, strategic planning and more. Pre-order today through MediaRelationsExpert@yahoo.com.

The vocal training chapter of the book features Linda Ronstadt. This woman grew out of the same Sonoran desert as this Bedouin. We knew the same people. We both listened to Frank Kalil play the Smokey Robinson version of this song on KTKT – AM. We never met. My neighbor was her voice coach – chronicled in Building the Band Brand: Becoming famous in the 21st Century. She had hit after hit and was the most successful female vocalist EVER throughout the ‘70s. Ask yourself, do I want to be that famous? Read the book if the answer is yes. Also consulting – ask some Hannah Montana stars!

Building the Band Brand You never saw The Rolling Stones do an Internet video for Billboard

Jonas Brothers using Marketing Sociologist Building the Band Brand: Becoming famous in 21st Century techniques

At 12:57 p.m. June 17, 2009, the Jonas Brothers blasted this Twitter: “First 500 fans to come to Lot 10 at New Texas Stadium in the next hour get to come to our interview with Larry King AND see our new stage!!!”

Rather than hiring booking agencies to build a crowd for a national news show, the group relied upon Twitter. Since I’m not in Dallas, I would assume they also did a phone in with local radio stations. Yet, it is revolutionary they used Twitter in this manner. Way to go, JB.

Why major record labels are dead Why you should not sign with them Building the Band Brand: Becoming famous in the 21st Century series

One turn of the twist of fate and you probably wouldn’t have heard of Taylor Swift, one of the world’s top 3 performers at the current time.

Taylor Swift nearly signed with RCA Records, but at the last moment signed with start-up Big Machine Records. Her career took flight at a fledgling label where at RCA she’d probably be unheard of now.

Major record labels are killing themselves. This morning I tried calling Warner Brothers Records publicity department. I spent 35 minutes getting the run-a-round. Blog TweenMusic.blogspot.com is in the top 8 percent of blogs worldwide. It was the first to announce Miley Cyrus fall concert tour – April 11 while mainstream media waited until June 3.

It was the first to announce Ashley Tisdale performing at the Grove in L.A. on June 27.

It was the first to announce the forthcoming Hannah Montana Volume 3 soundtrack to be released July 7, two months before Miley Cyrus kicks off her fall tour.

At Warner, I went through so many voicemail messages it was ridiculous. I finally got through to a live human after 20 minutes, and they put me into Rhino Records where the person at the other end of the phone was upset I actually called looking for Warner.

Same story at Disney. All you get is recorded announcements.

Warner’s has no mechanism to email them on their Web site. Disney public relations department does not return emails. CBS Radio refuses to answer questions or call back.

Wish I could report a happy experience with Big Machine Records, but when I called there, all I got was the answering machine run-a-round again.

What happened to companies that actually had people answering the phone? For a long time I’ve known public relations was as dead as the newspaper industry, that’s why I became a Marketing Sociologist.

If you think you’ve made it if you sign to a major label, think again. You’re going to be more lost than you are right now.

Following Building the Band Brand: Becoming famous in the 21st Century advice, and pre-ordering the forthcoming book through mediarelationsexpert@yahoo.com (we respond to email, unlike Disney, CBS and Warner) will help you launch your career to great heights.

Ashley Tisdale – again – is an example of Building the Band Brand: Becoming famous in the 21st Century. She doesn’t rely upon her record label to do the publicity work. She announced her Salt Lake City and Los Angeles performances on Twitter, her Web site, MySpace and probably sites I’ve never heard of – yet they are valid in Building the Band Brand.

If you’re concerned with your music career and becoming famous, you’ll take your fate in your own hands - as Taylor Swift did. Listen to Shanica Knowles at MySpace. She produces her own music. Tie it in with the marketing experts found at places like MediaRelationsExperts.com and other outstanding marketing firms like Bob Merlis in Los Angeles, Dennis Erokan in the San Francisco Bay area and creator of the Bammie awards. Think about this – here’s three of music’s foremost marketers and they are located on the West Coast or Sonoran desert. Granted, there are outstanding marketers throughout the world, but it seems the best, like Ashley Tisdale, are on the west side of the nation.

Building the Band Brand: When is it time to call a press conference? How much money have you lost since April 11 not using Marketing Sociologist

Miley Cyrus used Twitter to announce her upcoming tour – something first announced on sister blog tweenmusic.blogspot.com on April 11 – long before anyone else had details. That is what Marketing Sociologists practice is about – predicting the future for profits.

Here’s how Cyrus announced it the evening of June 2, “wanted to let yall know i am making a hugggeee announcement at 7 am tomorrow. cant wait for yall to hear the news. love always, MILEY.”

Ironic, none of the news media picked up on it until around noon Pacific time June 3 – five hours after the scheduled announcement, two months after announced by Marketing Sociologist – including that it would be a “fall” tour.

Guess lame-o news media is so indoctrinated (spoon fed) on press releases, they missed this. In my day of reporting, I would have been fired for a) using a press release; b) missing the Twitter announcement.

Rarely is it a good idea to call a press conference, but this would have been the time to do this. I can’t believe Cyrus’ publicity machine handled this so poorly. It appears it was a press release distributed via Business Wire of PR Newswire.

At the press conference, the dates could have been announced, that Ticketmaster was handling it (believe Live Nation handled last year’s), that Wal-Mart was the sponsor, reportedly featuring a new Cyrus clothing line (guess the winter 2007/2008 Wal-Mart promotion that netted Cyrus more than $30-million was under the Hannah Montana label), and her brother’s band, Metro Station, was the scheduled opening act.

Imagine her showing up to Good Morning America, The Morning Show, Regis, Ellen and others immediately after the press conference – which should have been scheduled in New York for the eastern time zone. She’d be on the evening news, Conan and Letterman and everywhere. Wal-Mart could have displayed the new clothing line all over national television. A great opportunity totally missed. That's what happens when you utilize public relations practitioners instead of Marketing Sociologists.

Instead, reporters missed her Twitter. They also missed her announcing the tour on Radio Disney earlier this year! Wal-Mart, Cyrus, and Ticketmaster missed revenue they could have realized.

Marketing Sociologists keep their networks open for all news. Think of the people who knew in April when I announced this tour and how much money they are making.

Since I have not heard from your organization or company, I am concerned. You want to make money, right? Why haven’t you contacted Marketing Sociologist? mediarelationsexpert@yahoo.com

Building the Band Brand: Gigging in the 21st Century

20th Century

You were the only band; you played between three to five sets, 50 minutes each. During those sets you opened with two of your own songs (or strictly stuck to cover material) and then went into cover songs, intertwining one of your own tunes occasionally. You take a half-hour break and prepare to come back for your next set.

21st Century

You’re on a bill with five to eight bands. You have 35 minutes and then you’re off. You must play all your own songs, mention your Web site and that CDs are available at your gig. You may do a cover, or be creative like one band I saw – they did a cover of something like “Best of Both Worlds” by Hannah Montana while the singer sang Rod Stewart’s “Do You Think I’m Sexy.” May not have been the best band in the world, but they got 100 percent in creativity.

20th Century

During your break you stay with your friends and family and ignore the fans, or say hello if they come up to you.

21st Century

After your set, mom and dad remove your equipment. You go to a table near the stage and sign promotional material you’ve had prepared, offer CDs, and if you’re really sophisticated, downloads onto USB memory sticks (probably your cost $10), take pictures and videos with fans. Post them immediately to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter pics, YouTube, your own home page and on and on.

20th Century

You advertised your gig in an underground/alternative newspaper, or got the promoter to do that. You went on radio and talked about the upcoming gig. You went to Tower Records and signed autographs.

21st Century

You have street teams create buzz on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all over the net. When you’re in their town they recruit students from high schools and colleges. You’re posting videos to all these places. You’re a welcome guest and you don’t hype, hype, hype. You send out a weekly newsletter, let your fans know all the places mentioned here that you are coming. You keep ALL you net sites updated with upcoming gigs and events. Check Malese Jow, Ashley Tisdale or Tiffany Giardina. They’re all over Twitter while Jessica Simpson may post once a week. Who’s careers are ascending? You build a relationship with your local Radio Disney – ask Jonnine and Brookie how well this works – rising stars nationally on Radio Disney thanks to these connections. If you’re really adventurous and have time, you create a talk radio blog and discuss music. Have friends and family call in.

You go to all the red carpet events that you can, like Kids Choice, Teen Choice, anywhere Brad and Angie are. You have your picture taken with the big star of the moment, Miley, Demi, Tayor, Joe, Nick and Kevin, or you score BIG time and have it with Malia and Sasha Obama and their mom. Make sure that is plastered ALL over the Internet, like TMZ and Wireimage.