Playlist #4 is now here, huzzah! As ever, the playlist features some great new Toto bands along with other tracks that have been circulating the office and getting us talking/moving!

This week we feature new tracks from Lana Del Rey, Zola Jesus, Death Cab For Cutie and Hooray for Earth! Along with some great Toto tracks from Audiogold, 12 Inch Plastic Toys, Ronika and Melina May. Keep your feedback coming; let us know what you think of the tracks and feel free to suggest any new music for us!

Listen in Spotify by clicking this link

@totomerch

James

Toto

1.       12 Inch Plastic Toys – 32h (Original Mix)

http://12inchpt.totomerch.com/

2.       Audiogold - You and I

http://audiogold.totomerch.com/

3.       Austra – Lose It

4.       Beth Jeans Houghton - Lilyputt

5.       Bobby “Boris” Pickett - Monster Mash

6.       Bombay Bicycle Club - How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep

7.       Bronze Medallists - Binary Girl

http://bronzemedallists.totomerch.com/

8.       Duke Raoul - Young Starlings

http://dukeraoul.totomerch.com/

9.       Eat More Cake - Has To Be Done

http://eat-more-cake.totomerch.com/

10.     Fit & The Conniptions - Bless Your Heart

http://conniptions.totomerch.com/

11.   GEAR-CX – Polaris

http://gearcx.totomerch.com/

12.   Hooray For Earth - True Loves

13.   Jamie N Commons - The Preacher

14.   Lana Del Rey - Video Games

15.   Lateral Vision – Why?

http://lateralvision.totomerch.com/

16.   Lightning Strikes The Empire State – Happy Slaves

http://lstes.totomerch.com/

17.   Loners Society - Outlaws and Saints

http://loners-society.totomerch.com/

18.   Melina May - ‘Til The End of Time

http://melinamay.totomerch.com/

19.   Michael Jackson - Thriller

20.   Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - AKA…What a Life!

21.   Radiohead - Little By Little (Caribou RMX)

22.   Rival Consoles – I Left The Party

http://rival-consoles.totomerch.com

23.   Ronika – Forget Yourself

http://ronika.totomerch.com/

24.   Sun in Flight - Kick the Stone

http://sun-in-flight.totomerch.com/

25.   These Furrows – Duke

http://thesefurrows.totomerch.com/

26.   The Willows – Down River

http://the-willows.totomerch.com/

27.  Zola Jesus - Seekir

Facebook is the world’s biggest social network, and there’s a good chance that most of your fans hang out there at least some of the time. But rather than just a place to talk to your fans, Facebook can also be a great way to connect with friends of those fans. That’s what a comScore report earlier this year focused on.

On average, ‘friends of fans’ are a group 34 times larger than just your fans - so if you can reach them, it’s a big opportunity to increase your audience and convert them to being fans themselves.

How to extend your reach

Other than paid adverts, the way to reach friends of fans is to get your updates to appear in their newsfeeds. This happens when your fans ‘engage’ with your content somehow. So if Mark ‘likes’ one of your updates or comments on it, a record of that activity will appear in the newsfeed of Mark’s friends. Those friends might then read your update, and investigate further.

Getting into the news(feed)

So the key to reaching friends of fans is to post updates which make your fans take action (by liking or commenting), so that action appears in the newsfeed of their friends.

Hypebot identified 10 ways that musicians can create this engagement:

1 - Ask Questions

2 - Post Games and Trivia

3 - Interact with Fan Engagement

4 - Incorporate Wall Sapplets (such as coupons and polls)

5 - Incorporate Relevant Photos

6 - Relate to Current Events

7 - Incorporate Videos

8 - Post Content for Time-Sensitive Campaigns

9 - Include Links within Posts

10 - Be Explicit in Your Posts

For a band this could mean:

- What’s everyone listening to this morning? [question, interaction]

- Here are some photos of last night’s show…tag yourself if you were there! [photos, current event]

- Check out this awesome post on totomerch.com…what do you think of the advice there? [link, question, interaction]

Are your fans even seeing your Facebook updates?

Posting ‘engaging’ content is doubly important because it makes it more likely that your existing fans will see your updates. On average, only 16% of your fans will see any given update.

This is because Facebook uses an algorithm to determine what a user sees in their ‘top news’ feed, in an effort to show them what they’ll find most relevant. If your content has been commented on or liked by lots of people, Facebook will consider it more relevant and therefore more likely to display it to other users.

Ready for action? Here are the three most important points to bear in mind

There are three main take-home points when it comes to promoting your Toto products on Facebook:

1.     Use the links within Toto to promote your products. You’ll find the share button on each product page in your shop. You should also get into the habit of sharing a product as soon as you create it – to remind you, the share button appears on the ‘success’ page every time you make a new product.

2. Don’t be afraid to promote your product multiple times – remember, only 16% of your fans will have seen it the first time! If you’re shy and only mention a product once, you’re likely reaching under a fifth of your potential market.

3.     Find ways of creating conversations around your merch – this will increase engagement, and help reach friends of fans. It’ll also make it more interesting for anyone who sees you promoting the same product more than once. This could include:

- Check out our Toto shop – which design is your favourite?

- Here’s our new t-shirt design…which colour will you be buying?

- We’re now selling merch through Toto – if you ‘like’ this status, we’ll be picking one person at random to win a free t-shirt!

As this report shows, you’re not just selling to the converted - but if you get the message right, you can convert some new fans too!

What’s been most effective for you when using Facebook to sell your stuff? Have you tried any of our tips? Let us know in the comments, or tweet us!

This week we bring you strange tidings from Berlin…Ever heard of Jahcoozi? As I type this, word tells me I might mean ‘Jacobi’ I really don’t! Their name rings out their deep lost in bass sound, steeped in heavy electronics.  The group features a trio and sees the creative alliance of London-born Sri Lankan songwriter and fearless front woman, Sasha Perera, German born beat crafting Robot Koch and Tel-Aviv born producing Oren Gerlitz. Robert Koch may ring more bells as he produces his own solo work like this track ‘away from’ back in 2008.

robot koch_away from by Robot Koch

The hybrid trio reflect their fused electronic beats featuring dub, ragga, bass and electronica.

In Jahcoozi’s words, ‘We make what we feel and in a lot of parts of the world, and in our minds, people and music don’t have to be so segregated’.

Sasha Perera is also the voice featured on this beaut track from Modeselektor ‘Silikon’ a track named a favourite by Thom Yorke back in 2006.

The group met in that happy collective city Berlin in its pulsating electronic scene back in 2002 and have been making sweet music together ever since. Known for their freaky underground shows, they have a steady solid fan base. Recognised by the late John Peel who called it “beautiful pop music from the future” Jahcoozi has been remixed by numerous artists, including modeselektor, once you’re through with listening to their albums, the tangent of remixes to listen to is almost endless , Ramadanman and Buraka Som Sistema have all twisted Jahcoozi’s sounds.

My introduction to the group was this happy accident on YouTube

Which actually turned out to be the Modeselektor remix for a Jahcoozi track entitled ‘Black Barbie’ still one of the finest examples of cuts and pieces I’ve ever heard.

Their current label is Bpitch which also sees the likes of ‘Apparat’. In 2010 the band also collaborated in a Berlin-Nairobi music exchange project in Kenya, to produce the album ‘Welcome to the madhouse’ which was premiered at the Worldtronics festival in Berlin back in 2010. Their newer sounds moving towards the more abstract the group are now touring through India.

A truly ‘worldtronic’ group?  A glimpse into a strange and exciting future? What are your thoughts? Any other Jahcoozi tracks you would recommend? Comment below or tweet us on Twitter @TotoMerch Enjoy!

Roch @ Toto 

Playlist #3 is now bigger and better than ever! We wanted to squeeze as many great Toto bands/artists in as possible this week, because, well, there are too many to choose from! As ever, the playlist also features some other tracks that have been circulating the office and getting us talking!

This week we feature new tracks from Justice, Villagers, Baxter Dury and City & Colour as well as some great Toto tracks from Fit & The Conniptions, Ronika and Bronze Medallists. Keep your feedback coming; let us know what you think of the tracks and feel free to suggest us any new music!

Listen in Spotify by clicking this link

@totomerch

James

Toto

1.       Audiogold – You and I

http://audiogold.totomerch.com/

2.       Baxter Dury – Trellic

3.       Bronze Medallists – Binary Girl

http://bronzemedallists.totomerch.com/

4.       City and Colour – Weightless

5.       Djevara – Playing With Fire

http://djevara.totomerch.com/

6.       Duke Raoul – Young Starlings

http://www.myspace.com/dukeraoul

7.       Eat More Cake – Has To Be Done

http://eatmorecake.com/wp/

8.       Feist – The Bad In Each Other

9.       Fit & The Conniptions – Bless Your Heart

http://conniptions.totomerch.com/

10.   Florence + The Machine – What The Water Gave Me

11.   GEAR-CX – Polaris

http://gearcx.totomerch.com/

12.   The Horrors – I Can See Through You

13.   Justice – Audio, Video, Disco.

14.   The Kills – Baby Says

15.   Lateral Vision – Why?

http://lateralvision.totomerch.com/

16.   Lightning Strikes The Empire State – Happy Slaves

http://lstes.totomerch.com/

17.   Real Estate – It’s Real

18.   Rival Consoles – I Left The Party

http://www.myspace.com/rivalconsoles

19.   Robert Babicz – Come Closer

http://robert_babicz.totomerch.com/

20.   Ronika – Forget Yourself

http://ronika.totomerch.com/

21.   Ryan Adams – Lucky Now

22.   Slow Club – Where I’m Waking

23.   These Furrows – Duke

http://thesefurrows.totomerch.com/

24.   Villagers – The Pact – I’ll Be Your Fever

25.   We Were Promised Jetpacks – Medicine

26.   The Willows – Down River

http://the-willows.totomerch.com/

27.   Yuck – The Wall

This week Michael Brandovold has kindly taken the time to answer a few questions for us about his expertise and experience in the field of online marketing in the music industry. He has offered his views on how the music industry has changed and the role new technologies play when communicating with fans. Michael has also given some advise for new bands trying to make it in the industry.

1. Could you give our readers an insight into who you are, what you do, the experience you’ve had in the music industry and some of the artists you have worked with: 

I am a freelance music industry consultant based in Northern California. Having launched Michael Brandvold Marketing to leverage my years of experience to provide direction to large and small artists in the areas of online & social marketing as well as e-commerce and fan acquisition and retention.

Gene Simmons of KISS first tapped my skills as a pioneering online marketing strategist to launch and manage all aspects of Kissonline.com’s multi-million dollar enterprise, including their ground-breaking VIP ticket program.

I have has also managed the online efforts for Motley Crüe, Rod Stewart, Madonna, Ozzy Osbourne, Madonna and Britney Spears to name only a few.

2. What key advice would you give unsigned, up-and-coming bands when marketing themselves?

Look at your entire image. People do judge a book by the cover. Make sure your official website is as professional as you can afford, it is often the first impression you make.

3. Having worked with Kiss in the past, what would you say was the secret to their success regarding their long list of merchandise?

They are not afraid to put their name on just about anything, but at the same time they were personally involved in reviewing every single item to make sure it properly presented the band’s name and brand. Be involved with your career.

4. Would you say that it is vital for artists to create a strong ‘brand’ for themselves?

Extremely important. Your brand is as important as a great song, and will often live longer than the song. A great brand on a t-shirt will promote you when the show is over.

5. What are the biggest changes you have seen in the music industry since Kiss’ heyday?

The return of control to the artist. The artist today has the ability to do everything themselves. Nobody is going to give a boatload of money to make you a star. You have to make yourself a star.

6. With the recent growth in social media, how important is it that bands utilise it in the 21st century?

Social media is no different than when bands would do a instore appearance or a meet and greet with contest winners after the show. Only now you can meet greater numbers of fans, every single day. It is now easier to meet and interact with fans and there is no excuse to not do it. If you are too busy to do it, I promise the other bands are making the time.

7. Having managed the online activities of artists including Madonna, Motley Crue & Ozzy Osbourne, what advice would you give bands when trying to engage with fans online?

Make every fan feel important. They want to feel like they are important to you. For a fan it is more important to get artist recognition than it is some piece of exclusive content. Make engaging with fans part of your daily activity. 15 minutes, 30 minutes or a couple hours… make the time and just hang out with your fans online. 

Thank you Michael for taking the time to answer our questions!

For more information you can check out Michael’s website: http://www.michaelbrandvold.com/

James @ Toto