Private Phone is NO More

Well, my favorite free product is officially dead. In the book, and in real life, I use Private Phone by NetZero as a great example of protecting your identity and staving off weirdoes and stalkers. The concept was fantastic... you sign up for a free remote voicemail box, get a number in your desired area code, and you can give that number to anyone and everyone without worrying they'll figure out where you live. The number never rang anywhere, and wouldn't appear in directories. Your voicemails were emailed to you in .wav. Did I mention it was free? Well, apparently giving away a great service for nothing didn't work out for NetZero (hmmm... I wonder why).

So kids, no more Private Phone. It's going away as of Dec. 31, 2007. I haven't located another service that is totally free and offered the same level of features. There ARE disposable numbers out there, but they mostly last for a short period of time, then expire, making them ideal for classified ads, but not for inclusion in a MySpace page.

I tried Jangl, which lets you place a little widget on your profile. People enter their email address, then are given a special phone number and passcode to call you. They never see your real number. I found it too cumbersome and when I tested it out by entering one of my email addresses, it signed up that email address for service as well. Not cool.

OneBox.com is a business option that also offers faxes. It's not free, but at $12.95 a month, it won't break the bank either. The nice thing is you get a toll free number that people can call and when they leave a voicemail, you get a notification on any phone you specify (such as your cell). Or you can get the voicemails emailed to you. And you can send and receive faxes.

For all you VOIPers out there, check if your provider offers virtual numbers. Vonage allows subscribers to add a virtual phone number for an additional $4.99 a month. I love this idea because you can create that "giveaway" number, post it everywhere, give it to drunk guys at the bar. Your virtual number rings your main Vonage number and no one will be the wiser. If you want to get rid of it, just tell Vonage to cancel the virtual line and that's that. To keep your number concealed, be sure to employ *67 when you call back said drunk guys and stalker fans.

Post any other recommendations for a "concealable" phone number that you can use on your profile or Web page in comments. =)

New Orleans Loves MySpace for Musicians

LA and NY readers have emailed me to tell me they've seen the book prominently in Barnes and Noble stores. But it was great to receive a pic from a reader in Marrero, Louisiana, just outside New Orleans. Thanks to Greg Hart for sending it in!

How many Bulletin Posts are too many?

MySpace musicians, in all their gleeful enthusiasm, are sometimes so eager to get the word out that they'll post bulletin after bulletin, hoping someone will take notice. Sometimes they use their bulletin posts not for promoting themselves, but for other causes they believe in.

This does indeed get them noticed, but for all the wrong reasons. Every MySpacer has a short bulletin window that appears in their home control panel. When any one "friend" sucks up all or most of that real estate with incessant posting, it becomes irritating. More than 3 posts a day and you are officially obnoxious. Even if you're posting about world peace.

Being a pushy poster is one of the fastest ways to get yourself kicked off your friends' lists. Too many posts coupled with posts-about-nothing and/or misleading headlines, and you become irrelvant. People just start ignoring you. They figure you've tricked them too many times into clicking on your bulletin headlines, only to find you posted something lame.

So, make your bulletin posts count. Use them for news and interesting tidbits, as a way to communicate with fans and find out what's happening with them. Otherwise, you may find you are turning "off" your fans instead of turning them on to your music.

"Cooler Online" Best New MySpace-Related Music Video!

The award for Best Music Video Depicting Spot-On Online Behavior goes to Brad Paisley's "Cooler Online." How many people have you met in person from MySpace, online dating, Craigslist, the list goes on and on, that are NOTHING like they described on their profile?! Luckily, bands are pretty accurate cuz it's mostly about the music (and maybe some hot imaging/styling too).

How many celebrities can you pick out?

MySpace for Musicians Featured in Advisor/Source Newspapers

The newest issue of The Advisor and Source Newspapers, which covers Macomb County, just outside of Detroit, has featured MySpace for Musicians and local author Fran Vincent (me ) on the front page! You can check out the story here.

I'm really happy with the story and placement. I do want to correct a few things though.... Although the article incorrectly says I didn't have to do much research on MySpace, I can tell you I spent months uncovering aspect of MS and putting together this comprehensive guide to all things MySpace and music marketing! Also want to make sure locals know I don't teach music courses at Macomb Community College (which means music performance/instruction on the academic side). I teach music industry classes in MCC's Center for Continuing Education (CCE). Music industry courses are unique to CCE in the Macomb College community and are non-credit, non-academic courses. You can sign up for the next one, "Promoting Your Music Online," which starts July 17 by visiting www.macomb.edu/cce.

Thanks again for all your support!

Barnes and Noble In-Store Promotion

MySpace for Musicians will be included in a nationwide Barnes and Noble promotion starting June 30th! Wooohooo! I'm really thrilled about this. They are doing a promo of books about social networking and MFM is going to be one of the books featured on an end-cap or on one of those special tables you see in the front of the stores. This is going to be in major markets only, which means definitely in the big coastal cities. For those of you not in a major market, I encourage you to call your local BN and ask if they are carrying the book, and if not to special order it for you. Otherwise, you can pick it up at Amazon.com.

New Site Coming Soon!

It's in the works, complete with sample chapters and other goodies =).

Call MySpace and Facebook Peeps with One Click

So I heard that click-to-call ccube.com users can embed their ccube.com icons on their MySpace and Facebook profiles. If you have a ccube.com account and I have a ccube.com account then I can call you and you can call me by just clicking our ccube.com icons. It's free for up to 60 minutes of talk time. In terms of music marketing, you could use this as a promotional tool whereby you, the artist, are available for click-and-chats with fans on a certain day and time and only to peeps on your friends list. You can easily restrict this to "friends only" by posting a bulletin to friends with your ccube.com ID, or if you want to be really exclusive, make your profile private during your promotional call time, with your headline noting "We're having a private chat. Only Friends Allowed. Add us!" First 10 callers win t-shirts. Use Total Recorder to record some of the conversations and post them on your profile. Promote before-hand through blogs/bulletins, and a notice on your page etc.

Of course the question is, if you've got a computer mic and a set of speakers, why not just use Skype or AIM's voice call function? They're both free and you can talk as long as you like (for Skype-in country at least). You might not need ccube.com after all. Heh.

MySpace Chief Marketing Officer to Keynote Miami Ad:Tech

Miami Ad:Tech, an Interactive Marketing Conference targeted toward the burgeoning Hispanic and international Latin markets announced that MySpace Senior VP of Marketing and Content Shawn Gold will interviewed by CNN anchor Alberto Padilla as part of the conference's keynote presentation. Gold will discuss the marvel of social networking, the launch of MySpace Espanol, and what the service has in store for the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets.

MySpace Satire - What Happens When Millions Are Friendless?

The Onion, arguably the BEST satirical virtual newspaper in the universe (and definitely my favorite) recounts the fictional horror when MySpace shuts down and millions are left isolated in their apartments. Could this be close to what might happen if MySpace closed down for a few days?

Music Industry Classes in Detroit

I'm teaching music industry classes in the Detroit, MI area this summer. The first one, Intro the Music Industry, has already started, BUT there will be two more starting in June and July. Check out the flier....

Find out all you need to know to be successful in the music industry!

Three continuing education (non-academic credit) classes are available this summer and start May 15. Taught by published author and music business consultant Fran Vincent at Macomb Community College. Each class is $119 and meets for four weeks, 6-9 p.m. (See link to flier below for dates and locations).

• Intro to Music Industry (starts in May)
• Intro to Copyright and Music Licensing (starts in June)
• Promoting Your Music Online (starts in July)

Ideal for current and would-be recording artists and musicians, DJs, producers, singer/songwriters, parents, as well as agents, managers, promoters and music business hopefuls. Read more about each class by downloading the pdf flier. Or visit macomb.edu/cce.

Get a head start on your music career today! Contact Macomb Community College Center for Continuing Education, South Campus at 586.498.4000 or visit www.macomb.edu/cce

(Message posted by instructor, not the college)

MySpace for Musicians book out in June!

MySpace is one of the most popular websites on the Internet today, with millions of pages of user-generated content. This makes MySpace an ideal tool for musicians interested in promoting their music to the widest possible audience. Many acts have gone from the garage to a recording contract by using MySpace as their launching pad.

MySpace for Musicians: The Comprehensive Guide to Marketing Your Music Online is for every band, soloist, side musician, record label, publisher, music manager, and entertainment-affiliated company who wants to use MySpace to its fullest potential. It teaches musicians how to design a MySpace page optimized for music promotion and distribution and how to best use MySpace to effectively market music. It includes expert advice on how to market oneself to the MySpace community and how to best position and advertise MySpace pages in the real world.

MySpace for Musicians caters to musicians who are unfamiliar with the network, as well as musicians who already have a MySpace page but who want to learn how to make better use of it. This is the most comprehensive book on how musicians can maximize the most popular and successful band promotion site!