music marketing & business – The Great Molini

Next Sundaysong Singalong: March 1, Little Stacy Park

We’ll be back at Little Stacy Park, Austin, TX, on March 1, 11am-12pm. Come sing with us!

You can RSVP and follow any updates at the Facebook event. Here’s a little medley :

We’ll be adding a few new tunes to the songbook, like these two:

December News

A few nice things happened this month. First, we ran out of songbooks for the first time at our 12/7 Sundaysong Singalong. Time to make more!

Then I got to play UT Night at the Trail of Lights and walk it for the first time (with my wife and 5 yr old girl). What a wonderfulÂ evening.

But the big news for me was all the help y’all gave me by taking my survey and helping me get unstuck on some strategy questions that were hanging me up.

Read the Survey Says! post to see howÂ everyone responded.Â Here are the conclusions I gathered:

Play outdoor shows and house concerts. Post them to YouTube.
Focus on original material with a mix of covers thrown in, folk/rock, singalong, reggae, kids, and ambient.
Keep shows simple most of the time â€“ solo acoustic or with guitar player â€“ butÂ make sure and put on bigger band shows occasionally.
Iâ€™m Jason Molin and I go by J. I should emphasize J and be findable both ways.
I should useÂ jmolin.com as a musician.
I should useÂ a mix of old and new funding models.
Keep the music coming.

Thanks for keeping me focussed!
;- j

Survey Says! (Fans Help Me Decide)

Earlier this month I put together a survey of seven music strategy questions that I keep getting hung up on (seen, linked on the right).

Here are the questions and results. I’ve bolded and ordered the top answers adding my basic conclusions below, saving further thoughts till the end.

1. What kind of material should I focus on playing?

94% – My original songs
36% – Folk/rock covers
33% – Sunday morning singalong songs
17% – Reggae and dub numbers
19% – Kid’s songs
14% – Meditative, ambient music
6% – Love songs, wedding band covers

Conclusions: People like the other covers sprinkled in but the clear majority want me to sing my stuff.

2. Which venues suit me best?

68% – Outdoor shows, parks
62% – House concerts, backyard parties
46% – Coffee shops
32% – YouTube videos
14% – Churches
8% – Bars, clubs
5% – Live streaming online

Conclusions: Keep doing outdoor shows! Do house concerts and parties more regularly. More YouTube videos. (I dont want to do coffee shops. I’ve done them and will depart from the crowd on this one.) Consider a church collaboration.

3. What configurations suit me best?

51% – Solo acoustic (no microphones, no amps)
46% With one other player (like guitar, keys, or drums)
37% – Solo electric (with mic, amp, loops and effects)
37% – With a big band (add horn section)
34% – With a band (guitar, bass, drums, etc.)

Conclusions: No standout configuration winners or losers. Solo acoustic and with another player seem to win, but people would like to see all of these. Reminds me that I can play with a stripped down setup most of the time but to make sure and put on a bigger show a few times a year.

4. As a musician, what should I go as?

49% – Jason Molin
31% – J Molin
20% – Everyday J

Conclusions: Jason Molin is the winner but 1/3 of my audience thinks of me as J. Keep using Jason Molin as the official listing, but J as the usual nickname.

5. I’m redesigning and planning a relaunch of my site. What web address should I use? I own these.

35% – jasonmolin.com
35% – jmolin.com
24% – jasonmolin.net (current)
5% – channelj.me
0% – channelj.org

Conclusions: Hmmm… jasonmolin.com and jmolin.com are virtually tied. jmolin is shorter, so that could break the tie. But jasonmolin.net and .com got 60% to jmolin 34% (more in keeping with the question above). I’m really on the fence here.

I think there is a way to choose all the above here, since I can advertise jmolin.com and redirect it and jasonmolin.net to the jasonmolin.com.

6. Which model for recouping costs would you be most likely to support?

69% – All the above, a blended balance of all
11% – Kickstarter-like Crowd Funding: get pledges for albums or projects annually in exchange for stuff and access
9% -Traditional Commercial: sell CDs, merch, charge for shows
6% – Fan Club Patrons: fans/patrons get stuff (letters, CDs, posters, invites, swag) and special access for ongoing support
6% – Public Radio: occasionally ask for member support in exchange for swag; find partners/sponsors

Conclusion: Use all the above. Work to give people all these options so that people can support in their various ways.

7. Any other comments?

No more shitty gigs! Hey!
Love the survey! (Several people said this.)
Your park get-togethers are awesome but should also function as a platform to publicize your other gigs. A dot com domain is always preferable.
Your music makes me happy!
Use your drawings as album covers and use it in merch as well.
Keep the music coming!
I think any band configuration would be great. I personally would like to see a big band! Maybe also a different guest vocalist to duet with you from time to time.
I really feel you should play whatever you like wherever you like.
Dont let your music die, continue and follow your dreams dude.
So I think if you’re gonna be famous (and you should definitely be famous) it would be clearest to go with J. Plus it’s kinda bold to be one letter.
I really appreciated your music in outdoor intimate settings.
It is so wonderful to see you continuing to grow through your musical love.

Conclusions: I love all of you for taking the time to encourage me and help me out. Some great advice and inspiration here. Message received: I’m not stoppin!!!

So there are the results, and here are my thoughts, beyond the simple conclusions I listed above.

First of all, I learned a lot about myself before the first response because defining my struggles and coming to terms with viable options did much of the mental and emotional work to answer these questions for myself. It took a while to figure out what decisions were hanging me up, and also which options I wanted people to help me choose between. Once I did I’d reckoned with much of what was getting me stuck.

Second, as I got the first responses I realized I had to take the survey myself, answer the questions for myself, and reckon with how much power I was going to share with my fans on these decisions, especially if they chose differently than me. The act of asking and perhaps delegating my decisions to the group got me to realize which ways I didn’t want to go (even if people told me to).

Thirdly, the responses were both helpful and inspiring. A high percentage of people I emailed responded, many with thoughtful and encouraging comments. As with my Kickstarter campaign a few years ago, it was a thrill to see how many people will help me when asked, and a pleasant surprise to see who I heard from. Note to self: people want to help, BUT YOU HAVE TO ASK!

In the end the result is to move on, jump the hurdles, make more music, and don’t get hung up on these things anymore. This means:

Play outdoor shows and house concerts. Post them to YouTube.
Focus on original material with a mix of covers thrown in, folk/rock, singalong, reggae, kids, and ambient.
Keep shows simple most of the time – solo acoustic or with guitar player – but put on a band show biannually and big band show annually.
I’m Jason Molin and I go by J. I should emphasize J and be findable both ways.
I should migrate everything to jmolin.com and redirect everything else there.
I should use a mix of old and new funding models.
Keep the music coming!

This was a tremendously helpful and encouraging exercise. Now I need to move past these questions. There’s a lot of work do to putting on shows in more spaces and varied setups, and migrating and relaunching my site. Thank you all for the help and support!!!

Waller Creek Peace Concert

Ralph and I work together at UT. I’m a web guy, he’s an IT guy.Â We both love music and play guitar. So we teamed up last week to put on a little peace concert in a sweetÂ corner of campusÂ as part of the Hearts of Texas Charitable Campaign. This was a fun gig for me because I had Ralph backing me up, and because it was the first time I used my new portable, battery powered pedalboard and vocal amp.

Now I can sing my softer, sweeter songs and still be heard outside. Now I can layerÂ loops and delays. And I can do it in the most scenic, remote locations, because it can all be battery powered.

Here are three tunes from the beautiful concert on Waller Creek last Friday. Thanks to everyone who came out and for the perfect weather.

This first videoÂ is of Ralph playing over a loop I laid down before the concert while Earl tookÂ pictures and I finished setting up. This is one of the things I’ve been wanting to do, be able create this rich soupy ambient background music outside, for sweet spaces like this one. I love how the loop and Ralph’s improv get mixed with talk, trucks, beeps, birds and other background noises.

The first song we played was an old one of mine that I love but rarely play, The Train Into The City. Again, this fingerpicked song is too quiet to beÂ easily heard outside without the amp.

Here is one of the covers we played, Van Dieman’s Land, the only U2 song I know of by The Edge.

Sundaysong Singalong Goes To The Park

This morning’s singalong was a greatÂ official public debut – at Little Stacy Park, 11am-12pm – and the weather was ideal. So was the crowd of 20 or so friends and a strangers who sat on the stage or laid and played on the grass.

My old-school transparency projector did the job and we almost made it through all 20 of the songs I had printed on film before the hour was up. Kids played and made chalk-art while we sang.

Here is the end of the last song we sang together, the trippy Beatles ending on Revolver, Tomorrow Never Knows, followed by our closing bell.

I began and ended the set with a ring of my new singing bowlÂ and a moment of silence. A few people mentioned they liked the ring of the bowl.Â I think it added a nice cue for entering and exiting the musical meditation.

OurÂ singalong set (with a few we didn’t to crossed out):