Thanks to the Music Hackday event held in London in September, TrackDropper/Piracy is one of many new and interesting apps available for the curious artist.

Although I’m sure the major labels (side note: Universal was a sponsor for this past hack weekend) may kick and scream about it, I think an app like this has great potential for artists to create excitement about their music.

Imagine employing a street team to drop all the tracks from your new album across major cities a week or two before it is released. Your website could then be the central location for your fans to find clues to the whereabouts of those tracks. Basically, you create a musical scavenger hunt.

Obviously, you would have to include something more tangible for the fan at each site they visit. Something to encourage them to get outside and hunt around for the music you crafted. After all, if they can get it all for free from the comfort of their own home, why leave the computer screen? Depending on your fanbase the chance of simply meeting other fans out on the hunt, or maybe even members of the band, might be enough. Stickers, notes about the track, and ticket presale info are other things that come to mind.

Another possibility would be to simply include a few tracks outside the venue you are playing in each town on a tour. Find a local fan and have them drop a few new tracks in the hopes of enticing people in to hear the real thing. Your tour posters could also mark places where tracks are dropped. A simple note on each poster could explain how people could listen to a track at that very moment.

You could also drop tracks yourself around a city detailing places you love, song inspirations, childhood memories, past romances, etc… Hinting to your fans about the locations of these tracks later on your website could build a great bit of buzz each time you hit their hometown.

Just like so much else on the Internet, I think this new app has a lot of promise. You just need to be creative with it all, and as a musician I hope that is the easy part.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAV0XrbEwNc

Sometimes you know the usual media will just not touch your song with a ten foot pole, but you also know it’s worth getting out to people. So, what do you do? In the case of Ceelo, you create a fun little video on YouTube and wait for it to go viral. The best part is the full video is not even due out until the album drops in October, and yet this pre-release is already making its way across the social networks.

Point being: Get your music out to people however you can, and if it’s good enough, they will do the rest.

For this of you who are on the train, you probably already know I’m standing right next to you. I’ve raved before about the benefits of the Internet and social media when embraced, and this article is just another step in how to make all those 1s and 0s your best friend.

The Musicians Guide To Fan-Funding – MTT – Music Think Tank.

I know numerous musicians who have undertaken a project that involved fan-funding (Crissi Cochrane and Kev Corbett for example), and as far as I know the results have been great. So, stop bothering your folks for one more loan to keep you from getting a desk job. Stop pleading with your other half to pay the power bill one more time before you make it big, and start thinking of ways to involve your fans in the process. Just be sure to make it worthwhile! Chances are you’re not the only act they love that is asking for their money, and that other act might have someone who can easily knit a lovely tea cozy with a “Thanks [insert fan's name here]” quicker than you can sign an album.

So, be creative. Have fun with it. At the very least you may end up playing your grandmother’s tea party for her seventeen cats, and the tea will stay warm while your record is being pressed in some factory.

RP