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Reach fans directly inside iTunes via iLike! Keep your band and fans in tune with a steady stream of media News Nibbles

Upcoming Gigs Near You Sat 2/16 Flat Mountain Dew Daddies at Blue Belle Saloon Guthrie Blues Rock Wed 2/20 Maggie McClure at Mickey Mantles Steakhouse Oklahoma City Pop [more gigs near me] Attention musicians: promote your next gig to fans near you!

Reach fans directly inside iTunes via iLike! In case you haven't noticed, we recently added a killer new feature to the iLike Sidebar for iTunes, and it's especially valuable to artists. We've added an "Artist" tab containing a music feed so fans have yet another channel to hear from you. As an artist, this means all your activity on the iLike Artist Dashboard will be summarized in a feed inside the iLike Sidebar. Everyone who is a fan of your music will see your latest activity (iCast posts, uploaded songs, videos, and new concerts). What's more, your most recent posts are displayed prominently when fans play your music. This is a huge step forward in artist-fan communication. Artists can now connect with fans in a personalized way during the music listening experience. You no longer need to wait for fans to visit one of the web presences you maintain. Using iLike increases the relevance of your messages since they are delivered while fans listen to your music. Further, since the iLike Sidebar works with Windows Media Player too it enables you to reach even more fans. Even better, the iLike Sidebar is free and doesn't require people to sign-up. Tell your fans to download the iLike Sidebar today so you can stay connected.

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Keep your band and fans in tune with a steady stream of media Too often you'll see people videotaping and taking pictures from the audience, but after the show the footage and photos never see the light of day. Was the person was too busy or lazy to edit the video or download the images? Are they holding them in their private collection? Did they just plain forget they were at the show? If you ask yourself these questions, you're probably not doing enough to rake in all the media that your audience is producing. Even when you're playing for only a few dozen people, chances are someone there is taking pictures, and possibly even recording the video and/or audio. Grabbing this content and sending it out to your fans is an essential element of any independent music career strategy. In this media-rich Digital Age, it is more important than ever to keep your audience interested. There are a few simple things you can do to harness the power of user-generated content to keep all ears and eyes glued to your band: · Do it yourself. Obviously you can't film yourself while you're on stage. But why wait for a random audience member to start recording? Get a friend with a camera to do it. If they don't have a camera, give them yours. If they think it's a drag to film, get them into the show for free and ask them to film only part of the set. Often times you'll pick only the best song to distribute to your fan base at large. · Make contact. If you do see someone you don't know recording your show, introduce yourself as soon as possible. Hand over a business card or some contact information and ask for theirs. Thank them for recording and ask if you can get a copy of the content. If they are a fan, they will probably do anything to help you out. If they're not a fan, you might have to be a bit more professional and talk about what you would use their video or photos for, and what kind of credit or exposure they would get. · Follow up. For photos, if you don't hear back within a week, you should get in touch with the photographer and make another request. For video, give a little more time, since it will likely take longer to edit and compress the footage. Whatever the time frame, you may have to ask several times before you get your media, so be persistent. · Upload immediately. Video and images of live performances have a shelf life. It's better to get this content to your fan base while there is still some residual excitement from the show itself. Once the media is in your possession, it behooves you to get it online, pronto. Luckily, there are many ways to do this easily -- chief among them is our iCast service, which even allows you to upload content from your mobile phone. Ultimately, you should post your media at every site that you think your fans will visit. · Watch and learn. At first it's awkward to watch yourself on video, but if you love to listen to your own music, you can learn to love watching yourself on the screen. Watch the tapes of past shows like a football team does -- analyze and criticize all aspects of the performance with the rest of the band to figure out how to make your performance better. If you receive content that you're too embarrassed to post, figure out why and fix it for the next show. Tell the singer he's out of tune, tell the bass player to turn down, tell the drummer to buy some new clothes -- be honest with yourselves and your audience will reward you.

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News Nibbles Previewing the MySpace platform: iLike - That's right! iLike is coming to MySpace and Webware was there to get a behind-the-scenes look. iLike at the top of Facebook - John Cook from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer breaks down the numbers on our iLike's massive popularity on Facebook. Southern exposure - This article from Northern News Services describes a Canadian musician's love for GarageBand.com and iLike.com.

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