MARTIN SMIT, DJ – NBT PODCAST

Date: 28 September 2009

The following is an email interview∗ I conducted with DJ Martin Smit of the NBT
podcast. You can find out more about Martin at:

NBT blog & website - http://nbtmusic.wordpress.com/

NBT podcast - http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/

Yang-May Ooi
Writer & Blogger
http://www.FusionView.co.uk

Context

YM: The audience for our lecture will be undergraduates and postgraduates
studying at London Metropolitan University Business School on the Music and
Media Management course. They will be interested in entering the music
business, either as musicians/performers and creative artists or on the
management and marketing side. My brief is to talk to them about how social
media and blogging etc is being used for PR, marketing and communications
in a global/international context.

Interview

YM: To set the scene, can you tell me something about yourself and the NBT
podcast e.g. how you came to set it up, what kind of music/bands you feature
on it and who is your audience.

Martin: The NBT project was set up to give independent music artists a platform to
showcase their music. I was already doing this in the ‘real’ world by organizing
concerts for unsigned acts, running venues where these bands could play, build up
audiences and basically keep going. Realizing that we were reaching really only a
tiny percentage of the population, I came up with the idea of doing this all on the
internet.

Starting off just using South African bands, the project was very much a work in
progress, experiments were conducted and mistakes were made. For the 1st few
years we clung to the old fashioned ways of going into partnership; with radio and
magazines and bringing out compilations, spending a small fortune of our backer’s
money (himself a musician in a band). This was mostly frustrating and a decision was
made to go ‘international’ as I felt that the world of the web had no borders.

Moving to Germany where the equipment required was easily available, and the
internet was fast and affordable, I soon started building up a data base of bands and
singers from almost every part of the world.
When we started the podcast there were very few running and most were still clinging
to old fashioned formats (mimicking the over the top talk radio or only playing the
same mainstream music that traditional media was pushing out.) Again the podcasts
were (and I guess STILL ARE) works in progress, and we learn as we go. The
biggest couple of things we learned is to keep the shows simple and honest, and to
believe in the listeners huge curiosity and desire for new sounds and artists.

The bands we play transcend all genres, they all take a great deal of care in their
creations, and more often than not are tens times more interesting and original than
those few still being punted by the mainstream. The audience, again, is from all over
the world, and is intelligent and inquisitive.

As an industry, how do you think the music business has changed over the
last 5-10 years? In particular, I am thinking about whether it has become more
competitive/difficult -- or not -- before new musicians/artists to break into the
music business. Are there more opportunities or fewer ones for independent
bands/performers?

The business has changed radically, it has been forced to, it was corrupt, self
satisfied and incredibly conservative. The ’suits’ still cling to the old ways, and bring
in the same crappy practices that let them down in the not so old days, but in spite of
that, the whole way of getting music out to the kids, the housewives, the business
men in their cars on the way to work has changed.

To break into the market, it depends on the goals set. If a band wants to be the next
Radiohead or Lady GaGa or U2 or Green Day, then its as difficult as it ever was
(though I am going to be optimistic here and say there are MORE chances of it
happening than say 10 years ago.) If a band wants to be fairly famous, get their
music heard by a worldwide audience and play to decent sized crowds, and IF they
are prepared to work their BUTTS off, then there are far more opportunities. Tho it’s a
full time job that starts only AFTER the sweat and angst of creating the actual music.

How are independent bands/performers getting their music out there? How do
they get noticed? How do they distribute their music to as wide an audience as
possible? What role does blogging, podcasting, video sharing, twitter, social
networks like MySpace etc play in all this?

• Getting noticed is a full time profession. The secret is to simply give your
music away (FOR FREE) to as many people as possible.
o If a thousand people in your town are talking about your music to each
other, sharing your mp3s, playing the sounds at their parties, then that’s
a thousand potential bodies at your next concert.
o Example: when Christian singer/songwriter Derek Webb released his
album ‘Mockingbird’ in 2006 he persuaded INO Records/Columbia to
give away more than 80 thousand free downloads. This highly
publicized promotion more than doubled his concert audiences and
paved the way for Webb to launch a new online music distribution
system, NoiseTrade.
• Get the tunes onto as many podcasts as possible, offer to make sound clips of
yourself talking about the music, or set up interviews on the phone and Skype
mail the hard copy real versions to shows and DJs you think are serious, give
 them all the music you have not just the plug tracks, and keep talking to these
guys AFTER they have played your music.
• Interact with other bands played on the same shows as you. Another Example:
On NBT Austrian singer songwriter Richard Kapp has collaborated on songs
with classical composer Barbara Gilles from Argentina and invited gothic
alternative cabaret UK Band to come and perform in Vienna, this increasing
his and their presence on the net and with their individual fanbases.
• Get the music out to as many blogs as you can and offer a free download to
go with whatever review and story is written there.
• Get a pal with fairly decent equipment to make a SIMPLE vid of your best
song, making sure the sound quality is decent.. (it doesn’t have to be brilliant
but it does have to sound clear and undistorted)
• The social networks like Facebook and MySpace, there you have to work
hard, it isn’t going to help you in the slightest if u just accumulate a million
friends.
o You need to get JUST the right people and keep talking to them, u need
to add podcasters, bloggers, other musicians, people like ME in other
words.
o And you need to talk to the people like me PERSONALLY in messages,
not by sticking up notes on your ‘wall` or sending out ‘bulletins’ to all
your friends. The notes get lost a second after they have been sent,
taken over by other people doing the same thing and the bulletins, well
there are too many of them and they are just not read. With MySpace
for example don’t just put up a page promoting your band/music and
expect that to be enough.
o The search engine for music on MySpace is highly flawed and is really
geared to steer their customers towards mainstream bands that they
themselves are promoting or are being paid by the major music
companies to promote. So unless you as a band are getting the right
people to the website, you will remain pretty much invisible.
o On facebook, promote the hell out of bands you have shared a stage
with or appeared on a podcast with, and you will find they will do the
same back to you. When I inform bands they are on the show I send
this in my emails :’’as usual, get all your friends/family and fans to
download or stream the show so that the other indie artists performing
can be heard and the cultural virus spreads ever outwards’’
• On twitter promote the blogs, the podcasts that have written about you,
showcased you, promote the other bands, the podcasts get more listeners,
and are encouraged to keep going, and as their audience grows, and you stay
connected to them, so does your audience.

Has there been any social media-based/viral marketing done by any band
(with independent with a label) that has struck you as innovative or having a
"wow" factor?

I am going to disappoint you and say no not really, you must remember for
example when Radiohead pulled that pay as much as u think its worth stunt, or
other big bands offered up their music for free, it had already been done by indie
bands across the net for years, it was just the 1st time a really big band was doing
it and the 1st time the sadly lazy music press was paying attention and reporting it.
 There have been interesting marketing projects that have come my way, example
one band recorded a live show and offered it to about 30 or so podcasts across
the world to be played simultaneously as a ‘virtual concert’ at the same time no
matter what the time difference. But in the end, the wow factor is in the product, if
the music is bloody brilliant I am going to promote the f*** out of it. (pardon my
French)

What tips/advice which you have for someone wanting to go into the music
business either as a performer/artist or on the management side in terms of
making a name for themselves through the use of social media or putting
together a marketing strategy incorporating social media?

Management side..Get personal with the people that are going to play or write
about your client. No podcaster minds getting a form letter or press release when
they are 1st approached, I certainly don’t expect a manager or press agent to write
an individual letter to the thousands of podcasters and bloggers, but I DO expect
once I have said yes I want to play this band of theirs, for the interaction to
become a one on one thing, I the PR doesn’t have the time it should get one of
the band members to take over the interaction with the blogger/podcaster.

The other stuff is pretty elementary, keep all deadlines, keep all promises made
as much as you can.

A few good examples of a businesses from the management promotion side are

http://www.arielpublicity.com/

http://www.lotosnile.com

http://www.hemifran.com/about.html

PS…

The other research/other possible case studies and examples I have been
collecting are as follows:

Susan Boyle -- the clip on YouTube meant that the whole world could see
her perform, not just a UK audience. Most TV networks try to ban the
uploading of video clips of shows that I was not aware that this particular
network tried to stop it -- because ultimately it was great publicity for the
show as much as for Susan Boyle herself.

Bob Dylan and interactive viral video -- you can send a message to a
friend using a Bob Dylan video: http://dylan.sonybmgmusic.co.uk/home.
Some people consider this sacrilege but it's a clever way to get
consumers to take action and engage the great Bob himself to pass on a
personal message to your friends.

Do you have any comments on either of the above examples?

 • You tube is a strange creature indeed, and so are the networks and music
companies who banned their material being on it. ALL of it was GREAT
publicity for any act on the site..

o I personally think that the major music companies didn’t like it because
it made the practice of sticking a Video on an already overpriced single
and then charging double for it, totally redundant.
o Also what was happening was that once the viewer had logged on to
see the latest Kate Perry, they STAYED on the site but moved on to
bands and videos that the big companies had NO control over what so
ever. They were losing control over what people watched and listened
to. (its why they don’t like podcasters much either).
o To add insult to injury for the big companies, any one could pretty much
say what they liked ABOUT the music, and suddenly independent
bands with good music and clever vids or cool live shows were being
watched far more than the same boring SAFE 5 artists that were
previously available.
• The Dylan is clever marketing, tho it wouldn’t work if it wasn’t hyper famous
Bob Dylan and Hyper well known Bob Dylan music vid which everyone and
their nephew had already seen even in the days before the net.

∗
The opinions expressed in the interview are solely those of the interviewee and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the writer or FusionView.co.uk.

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