Many artists today are confused about how to use the various social networks out there and which ones people are still using. We draw up a plan for which social networks you should be on and help manage what should be said on them and keep the message straight across all of them. If you read Musformation.com you know that we teach everyone how to keep up with their social networks, which ones to use and how to use them. We are constantly coming up with the techniques that the whole industry follows our lead on when it comes to social networks. If you want to be a part of the cutting edge strategies before they are old hat and the other artists have figured it out, we should be helping you. We keep up with what works and what doesn't with extensive analytics and focus your strategy so that your promotion dollars count.

More and more artists these days want to go it their own way. While they may have the motivation and sometimes even the talent, they don't always know how to properly execute.  Whether you're an artist who is earning a living from their music already, a management team in need of backup or even an artist with an investor looking for staffing, we offer unique and forward thinking ways of getting your music in front of people as many people as possible using grassroots power and the real world know-how that the major labels wish they had.

We come up with a unique idea of what your blog should be as an artist (sometimes it is just a news feed sometimes it is much, much more). At the least your blog should be a place to put out press releases, at the most we can put Kanye to shame. I don't care who you are whether you are Jandek, Radiohead or Penny Rimbaud if you aren't feeding your fans with RSS and a blog at least to give news in this format you are missing out on getting your ideas and music to all the people who would want to hear about it. As people who write more blog entries than most, we know the power of blogging and how much it can help if done properly. We set up the tools and give you the know-how that so many people miss.

If you don't know that this is probably one of the best ways to market a band right now, you really need our help. We service every known outlet and get your music on there so that music fans who like your genre of music can discover your sound. We place a high emphasis on your presence on this emerging format and know all of the tricks to get your music to fans who are waiting to here your music in this setting. We even show you how to make money from it while it promotes your music.

Everyday we are experimenting with what we like to call fansourcing and are proud to say we are the only place in the music industry taking advantage of how the Internet makes the world more flat and local everyday. It is now possible to recruit many people who would like to help your music and get them to help you get to where you want. Whether it is interns or fans helping you out we have figured out numerous techniques to get you quality free labor to spread your music around the world. Don't believe it can be done? Let us shock you!

With the death of Myspace, email lists have once again become one of the most important things in successfully building a following for a group. The problem we have seen with a great number or the tools that trade fans emails for tracks is they tend to involve too many steps or have a poor interface for the user. We set out to design a email widget that could deliver a track to the fans in as few steps as possible, ensure you get real email addresses, look great and make a .csv file of all the emails so that they can be imported into any email provider. We did it and have what you see above to show for it! Try it out and if you want one yourself, contact us and we will make one for you for a very reasonable price. If you aren't convinced here is some further reading on how helpful this widget is. 

Getting people to come out to your show isn't just about getting on a good tour with a big band (contrary to popular belief). There are many best practices and techniques needed to develop and get people out to see a band. We provide an affordable home-base that can turn your next tour into the successful excursion you have always hoped for. We take your budget and figure out where it can be best spent to help get new fans to your shows and further grow your audience.

While record stores continue to close down everyday, it can be very important to have your record there. We work all of the methods that the majors and big indies have used for years to make sure your record is getting in all of the major retail outlets and everywhere else that it should.

As we all saw with the death of the Myspace, your mailing list has become all the more important as a way to keep in touch with your fans. We have developed many tools and languages to make your mailing list work better and turning it into an informative, fan-connecting , sales generator. Whether it is helping you collect the fans who haven't signed up for your mailing list or how to use it properly, Musformation services can handle it.  

One of the things we see go wrong with many other people in this business is they find a model that works and apply it to every artist. "The Radiohead Model", "Give It Away For Free", "Charge $1", and "Charge So It Has Value" all have their place and work at different times for different artists. Many people make the mistake of using the same model for every act. We understand every models strengths and weaknesses and come up with a unique strategy for your release that will work best with you and your ethics.

How do you sell records in this day and age is a question on everyones mind. At Musformation we feel there is too much confusion in how to sell releases today. We have found some ofthe best strategies to go about making fans want to purchase music again. We have researched all of the methods people are using and design solution on a indivdual basis to maximize how much money a band can make to acheive their goals. We take advantage of various direct to fan methods as well as the obvious solutions. Our strategies

The great video you can watch above explains some of the biggest problems you could have, we love services like TopSpin but most artists don't fit their requirements to work with them. If you aren't ready for their service yet we can help get you where you want to be using many of the same ideas.

Aside from sales we help you plan how to handle piracy of your release. While we believe that some artists greatly benefit from piracy in some form or another and other's don't. We evaluate your situation and thoughts on the issue and figure out a plan for how to deal with the inevitable piracy of your release. The question is do we want to accentuate it or diminish it?

Our favorite thing that we do and what we feel we do best is planning a release before a band even hits the studio. We can help with every step of the way from insight on how to choose the right producer, how to schedule your time for pre-production, recording, mixing, mastering, and your release date. Even where to sell your record and how to sell it.

Marketing - We find the right places for you to be and the ways to deliver them. Everyday on Musformation.com we cover the latest and greatest of the marketing ideas out there and know which routes to point you down to make your promotion sucessful.

Magazine/ Zine/ Print Servicing - Print may be dying but many people still get their new music tips from ink on paper. We will get you the coverage you are looking for in the outlets you want and many others you have never even heard of. Thankfully as print dies so do the costs of a PR campaign, if you thought you didn't have the money to do a great PR campaign your are probably wrong.

News Site/Blog Aggregation: If we are taking care of your social networks odds are we are also already feeding some of the news to these blogs since they will be tuned in to them. We find, target and promote to the blogs that favor your music and that you want to be on and make you a regular staple on them. We know them all and have relationships with them. We sport a keen awareness of which ones work for which artists and which ones you need to have a presence on.

Contest/Giveaway Plans - Contest and giveaways are one of the best ways to spread the word about many artists music and get in the news stream more often on big news sites. We design and target these campaigns for you

Ad buys: If you have an advertising budget we can help oversee it and focus it so that it is effective.

Website Development - There are tons of great tools to make your website yourself, but sometimes you need an extra touch and know-how. Especially if you are trying to create a great bond with your fans. Often time our sales strategies that we come up with need a website. Some artists already have a website that just needs some of our expertise. No matter what we want to make sure your website is as good as it gets. You may even have a great website that just needs some tweaks our in house web development and graphic designers can handle any job and we have the knowledge of how to make website work the best it can to achieve whatever your websites objective is. What sets us apart from your friend who does great website designs is that we know the small things that can make a big difference in an artist trying to reach their goals with the help of a website.

Coding Developments - We are always coming up with new inventions to make bands lives easier. We are armed with an army of nerds that can create something unique for any artist. If you are looking for a special piece of code, software or web functionality we can help make your vision come true for a reasonable price.

Analytics - The whole world is talking about how analytics can help them. If you don't wear a pocket protector, don't worry - we do.  We can easily parse the data you need and help put it into English for you. We can also do an installation of any analytics you may need wherever it is you are driving traffic.

Google Checkout Installations - Many people are starting to use Google Checkout to deliver music to their fans. The problem is this method hardly works out of the box - it takes someone with some real code know-how to get it down. Our web geeks can install this for you for a very low cost, providing you with a much better rate than iTunes.  

Website/WordPress/MovableType Installations - We are user interface dorks! We tweak and test music websites all day long ensuring that we can make and deliver a website that turns out results.

Other Webstore Installations- If you are looking to use other stores to sell your music and merch but are having trouble installing them yourself we can be of help.

This means we can make high quality audio/video content and edit it  for you at a low price. We will often develop content for an artist that will get circulated around the Internet and/or exclusive content for releases. Our studio has been home to Platinum selling artists and experienced engineers of the same caliber - our clients get access to it for pennies on the dollar. Whether it is retouching a live show, recording acoustic content, making parts for remixes, or editing together trailers, we have the means to do it. This isn't someones bedroom studio but in fact a full featured and sought after studio that we give you access to. Conveniently located 5 minutes outside of midtown Manhattan, we have a comfortable environment where artists can get to work and make something special for their fans. For a tour head to CannonFoundSoundation.com.

We treat your release like a campaign and are organizational freaks. We create a wiki where anyone involved in the project can easily find anything they would ever need to find about the project. It is yours to keep when the project is done to keep building off for years to come. Many of the pains of working on a project are one person having one item or a piece of information. Everyone involved should be connected (It's 2009 after all!) and we make sure you have an organized wiki that will keep everyone in the loop. Using emerging technologies like Social Text, Google Wave and the classic Google Docs we are able to keep everyone on the same page. If everyone is on the same page you can spend more time doing what matters and less time waiting for things to happen.