Kindle Subscription Now Available!

Did you know that Amazon offers Kindle subscriptions to some blogs? I recently bought a Kindle and just discovered the Kindle blogs store contains over 13,000 blogs! Some are free, most are 99 cents a month (FYI Amazon decides on the pricing, based – I think – on publication frequency).

After some RSS feed tweaking I applied to have What Betty Knows listed, and it is now live here!

WBK Amazon subscription page view

Note that it is only available on certain Kindle devices (because some of them do not reproduce images, NOT because I “opted out of making it available”), so check your device. In any case you will not be allowed to purchase a subscription if you don’t have a usable Kindle model registered.

There is a 14-day free trial period, so you can cancel if the Kindle experience doesn’t work for you.

However! Whether or not you have a Kindle, please do me a favor: If you enjoy WBK please go to this link and write a review. It doesn’t need to be long (there is a 20 word minimum required), but would help convince others to check out WBK. Most helpful would be for you to say what you like about it, as trying to describe the content is difficult unless you already know me :-)  Thanks!

Social Media Guide For Fans – Chapter 2 Basics 1: Hashtags

Hashtags – Not What’s For Dinner

Before getting into the specifics of Twitter, Facebook, etc. let’s look at a tool that is useful on both those services, as well as Instagram, Google+, Tumblr, YouTube and more: hashtags

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Social Media Guide For Fans – Chapter 1 Introduction

I’m currently working with electric harpist/storyteller/composer Deborah Henson-Conant on her latest project: DHC-TV provides live mini-concerts webcast from her home studio via the Concert Window site. In addition to behind-the-camera technical support I am also providing a brief What Betty Knows feature during the show to help teach her viewers, many of whom are novice social media users, how to interact with DHC and other fans using various social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, et al.

Betty & DHC

I’m writing an ebook from the information I plan to present during the show. Here’s the first chapter draft: an introduction to why fans might want to use social media to communicate with and about their favorite performers:

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Friday Faves (Free-Cheap Edition) 03-05-13

Free Music Business Book

I’ve just started reading an ebook, The Six-Figure Musician. So far it seems filled with good points about what you need to do to “make it” as a professional musician (spoiler: mostly, work really hard at what you decide you want to do). It is available as a free PDF download from the author’s site (and geek kudos to him for getting the domain name “musicianbook.com”!), or you can buy it on Amazon for Kindle for $4.99:


Free Facebook Newsfeed Optimization

I’m testing a 30-day free trial of a Facebook posting service. PostRocket analyzes the fan engagement data you see at the top of your band/business/etc. Facebook Page and uses a proprietary algorithm to decide when to make posts to the page that maximize your fans’ interaction with them.

To do this you set up several posts in advance and they post those at the times they deem best. And since recent research shows that pictures get more attention than just verbal posts they help to turn the latter into pictures from the site being linked, and let you apply some Instagram-like photo filters and add text into the image.

I didn’t have to give them a credit card to get the free trial, and even after 30 days they have an ongoing free option (which limits your account to managing 3 Pages, and does not give you as much analysis of your posts’ performance).


Pay What You Will Music Downloads

First, if you haven’t seen Amanda Palmer‘s recent TED talk The Art Of Asking  I recommend you do so.

Palmer’s message is that there is no shame in asking your fans to support you, and that while it’s impossible to force people to pay for music they generally will give you money and/or other kinds of support if you give them the opportunity to offer it.

So keep your eye out for performers who offer their music for whatever you are willing to pay. Usually there is an option to stream the music first so you can get an idea about whether you like it –  if you do please consider the time, efforts, cost of musical gear, cost of music lessons, nights spent playing in bars for little or no pay while honing their chops, etc. as you decide what amount to give them for their download.

If you are a starving artist/musician/un-or-underemployed whatever: don’t feel guilty if you can’t toss a lot into their virtual hat – but DO drop them a note about liking the music, and tell your friends about it.

Here are a few musicians with pay-what-you-will downloads:

Amanda PalmerTheatre Is Evil

Walter Sickert & The Army Of Broken ToysSoft Time Traveler (just released!)

JaggeryPrivate Violence

Ginger IbexThe Rusty Goat Sessions (disclosure: this is one of my bands!)

Ginger Ibex – Firefly (our 2009 album – following my own advice and just made download PWYW!)