Making an Artist Profile
Sept 27, 2012 21:20:54 GMT
Post by nicola on Sept 27, 2012 21:20:54 GMT
I thought I'd write this up to give some insight and understanding about how a profile is made, how long it takes, and advice for artists and fans trying to get a profile on the site:
Artist Selection
It wasn't always like this - once upon a time I actually did the fishing for the artists, but times change!
The queue... is not really a queue. It's not first come first serve. Most of it is luck and persistance. As many of you know, I'm the only person that works on the content of this site. For one person, I get a lot of artist submissions to review. I spend a lot of time from home and get most of these e-mails on my phone and can't check the artist out properly. What usually happens is that I read a submission and that's it. If there are no links to a video or a photo in this submission I will probably never open this e-mail again. A dozen more have come through by the time I get to my e-mails again.
On a rare occassion when a photo/video is provided I will be impressed enough to want to get them on and I'll make a note. Most of the time, this doesn't happen, because I don't have time to check it out.
What truly gets an artist in the "queue" is not the submission itself, but the persistance of either the artist or the fans. If I only hear about this artist once, you might as well have not submitted at all. I hate to say it, but you need to harrass/bully me until I pay you some attention! Be shameless - I don't judge persistant entries, in fact, I admire it, as it shows an artist who is more driven and is more likely to be successful. If you get a reply of a promise or a time frame, you're in! You just have to wait. And there will be a lot of waiting.
Why does it take so long?
I won't go into this in detail, but to cut a long story short my day job goes something like this:
5am: get up, go to work.
7-8pm: get home from work
x 5
I also have a social life and family obligations just like everybody else and I need my relaxing time. Very little time to work on this site. It's a miracle I'm still doing it!
Preparing A Profile
Although the write up of a profile is short, I have to get to know the artist very well before starting. I need to listen through an album several times to get a feel for their vocal/instrumental talent and style. I need to determine their sound and direction and put that in context with the rest of the crossover market. I need this to rate the artist and which artists I should include in the 'If you like... you may like...' list.
I also have to research the artist by reading their biographies, history and recent press. Hardly any of the material makes the profiles, but I have to decipher the most relevant points from all of this material to put into the profile, to put their career in context, to figure out where they are in their career and what is most likely to catch the reader's attention.
I'm often sent press kits, but this website is not part of a PRs marketing scheme. My profiles are like mini reviews - they are not a repeat of what the record/management company wants expressed or highlighted - especially when most of said press kits are exaggerated and misleading. I don't repeat fudged figures and exaggerations to my readers. I could give you some examples but it's besides the point, so...
Media
If I'm very, very lucky, I've already been sent beautiful videos and appropriate images to use for the profile. Sadly, that's rarely the case either because the artist doesn't really have a press kit organised or they do, but what they've provided doesn't do them any favours. So I hunt down pictures and videos. Videos can be hard to find and I'll have to go through a lot of them to find the one that I think will fit best with our audience and put the artist in their best light.
Photos can be very tricky. a) they have to be profile shaped b) they have to be big enough and good quality c) they have to be professional photos. That one photo you see on the profile can take me up to an hour. Like the video, I have to select the one most likely to catch a readers attention whilst complying with the above. This is easy with someone like Katherine Jenkins where there are thousands of professional photos all designed to draw people in. Not so easy with indie artists. Most of the time I resort to going through their facebook photo albums! After I have found the perfect picture (or best of what's available), I have to edit it in my photoshop and make different versions for the front page and the category page. This is mostly resizing but can also be editing of the image itself.
I also look up all the available official links for an artist. These days, most websites will have all the social network links on there already, but sometimes I have the unhappy task of searching through social networks to find their profiles. Not always easy with indie artists. Thankfully, it's rare!
Designing the profile
The profiles are not templated - I make them from scratch. I can get the main skeleton by using another profile as a base and I can work from that.
However, links, videos and images need coding so they stick to their place. Sometimes, things can get terribly messy when code has gone wrong and I need to call Adam in. My knowledge of HTML is basic and passable, but I can't spot problems in it. Adam can read it fluently.
Writing the profile
This is the hardest part. Sometimes, I can do all of the above, save it, and decide to do the write up another time. The write up is very short and looks like it takes no time at all but I have to include certain things in it and it takes great concentration.
First of all, I have to put my personal feelings and tastes aside when I write a profile. I must simply tell it like it is, but I also must describe their sound and music. Because different artists cater to different audiences, I write as if I am talking to their target audience. So if it's an artist who records only standards, I pretend I am writing to an audience that loves to listen to standards because those are the people that artist should appeal to, even though it's something I absolutely can't stand myself.
The aim is to get that artist to appeal to the audience that I believe will like that artist. At the same time, the write up should be a brief idea of where the artist is coming from and where they're going, and a little critical review. It's all subtle and difficult to balance, and I don't always succeed.
After the profile is completed
I have to add them to the front page, which isn't too bad. I need to make an image for it too, though I tend to have done that earlier in preparation. I have to add them to their category (female vocalist, etc) - I have to do that using HTML. That's a pain. Those pages are not templated or pre-designed. I can sometimes mess up the whole page when I do this. Adam is again called in if this occurs. Poor guy. I very quickly change the "last update" text in the website title. This helps for google search and lets people know the site is being updated.
Sometimes, I wait for the profile to be proof read. I work on the profiles for so long that I am blind to my typos and grammatical errors and I can make many. John is my rock with this. He doesn't take any credit or glory but he is invaluable to all the content of this website. If I'm feeling confident, and I've read the profile through syllable by syllable with great concentration, I'll publish it straight away (only to have John e-mail about 12 hours later pointing out all the mistakes I missed despite my efforts! I shouldn't trust myself, but what can I say, sometimes I do!)
Last but not least, I publish it, and then I promote the new page on various social network pages.
The amount of time this all takes varies greatly, but in any case, it takes at least a few hours of uninterrupted time to get something together, and I need to have this time available in advance.
Hope you enjoyed reading this and found it at least a little bit interesting... if not, I apologise for wasting your time - I know how valuable it is! <3 <3 <3
Artist Selection
It wasn't always like this - once upon a time I actually did the fishing for the artists, but times change!
The queue... is not really a queue. It's not first come first serve. Most of it is luck and persistance. As many of you know, I'm the only person that works on the content of this site. For one person, I get a lot of artist submissions to review. I spend a lot of time from home and get most of these e-mails on my phone and can't check the artist out properly. What usually happens is that I read a submission and that's it. If there are no links to a video or a photo in this submission I will probably never open this e-mail again. A dozen more have come through by the time I get to my e-mails again.
On a rare occassion when a photo/video is provided I will be impressed enough to want to get them on and I'll make a note. Most of the time, this doesn't happen, because I don't have time to check it out.
What truly gets an artist in the "queue" is not the submission itself, but the persistance of either the artist or the fans. If I only hear about this artist once, you might as well have not submitted at all. I hate to say it, but you need to harrass/bully me until I pay you some attention! Be shameless - I don't judge persistant entries, in fact, I admire it, as it shows an artist who is more driven and is more likely to be successful. If you get a reply of a promise or a time frame, you're in! You just have to wait. And there will be a lot of waiting.
Why does it take so long?
I won't go into this in detail, but to cut a long story short my day job goes something like this:
5am: get up, go to work.
7-8pm: get home from work
x 5
I also have a social life and family obligations just like everybody else and I need my relaxing time. Very little time to work on this site. It's a miracle I'm still doing it!
Preparing A Profile
Although the write up of a profile is short, I have to get to know the artist very well before starting. I need to listen through an album several times to get a feel for their vocal/instrumental talent and style. I need to determine their sound and direction and put that in context with the rest of the crossover market. I need this to rate the artist and which artists I should include in the 'If you like... you may like...' list.
I also have to research the artist by reading their biographies, history and recent press. Hardly any of the material makes the profiles, but I have to decipher the most relevant points from all of this material to put into the profile, to put their career in context, to figure out where they are in their career and what is most likely to catch the reader's attention.
I'm often sent press kits, but this website is not part of a PRs marketing scheme. My profiles are like mini reviews - they are not a repeat of what the record/management company wants expressed or highlighted - especially when most of said press kits are exaggerated and misleading. I don't repeat fudged figures and exaggerations to my readers. I could give you some examples but it's besides the point, so...
Media
If I'm very, very lucky, I've already been sent beautiful videos and appropriate images to use for the profile. Sadly, that's rarely the case either because the artist doesn't really have a press kit organised or they do, but what they've provided doesn't do them any favours. So I hunt down pictures and videos. Videos can be hard to find and I'll have to go through a lot of them to find the one that I think will fit best with our audience and put the artist in their best light.
Photos can be very tricky. a) they have to be profile shaped b) they have to be big enough and good quality c) they have to be professional photos. That one photo you see on the profile can take me up to an hour. Like the video, I have to select the one most likely to catch a readers attention whilst complying with the above. This is easy with someone like Katherine Jenkins where there are thousands of professional photos all designed to draw people in. Not so easy with indie artists. Most of the time I resort to going through their facebook photo albums! After I have found the perfect picture (or best of what's available), I have to edit it in my photoshop and make different versions for the front page and the category page. This is mostly resizing but can also be editing of the image itself.
I also look up all the available official links for an artist. These days, most websites will have all the social network links on there already, but sometimes I have the unhappy task of searching through social networks to find their profiles. Not always easy with indie artists. Thankfully, it's rare!
Designing the profile
The profiles are not templated - I make them from scratch. I can get the main skeleton by using another profile as a base and I can work from that.
However, links, videos and images need coding so they stick to their place. Sometimes, things can get terribly messy when code has gone wrong and I need to call Adam in. My knowledge of HTML is basic and passable, but I can't spot problems in it. Adam can read it fluently.Writing the profile
This is the hardest part. Sometimes, I can do all of the above, save it, and decide to do the write up another time. The write up is very short and looks like it takes no time at all but I have to include certain things in it and it takes great concentration.
First of all, I have to put my personal feelings and tastes aside when I write a profile. I must simply tell it like it is, but I also must describe their sound and music. Because different artists cater to different audiences, I write as if I am talking to their target audience. So if it's an artist who records only standards, I pretend I am writing to an audience that loves to listen to standards because those are the people that artist should appeal to, even though it's something I absolutely can't stand myself.
The aim is to get that artist to appeal to the audience that I believe will like that artist. At the same time, the write up should be a brief idea of where the artist is coming from and where they're going, and a little critical review. It's all subtle and difficult to balance, and I don't always succeed.
After the profile is completed
I have to add them to the front page, which isn't too bad. I need to make an image for it too, though I tend to have done that earlier in preparation. I have to add them to their category (female vocalist, etc) - I have to do that using HTML. That's a pain. Those pages are not templated or pre-designed. I can sometimes mess up the whole page when I do this. Adam is again called in if this occurs. Poor guy. I very quickly change the "last update" text in the website title. This helps for google search and lets people know the site is being updated.
Sometimes, I wait for the profile to be proof read. I work on the profiles for so long that I am blind to my typos and grammatical errors and I can make many. John is my rock with this. He doesn't take any credit or glory but he is invaluable to all the content of this website. If I'm feeling confident, and I've read the profile through syllable by syllable with great concentration, I'll publish it straight away (only to have John e-mail about 12 hours later pointing out all the mistakes I missed despite my efforts! I shouldn't trust myself, but what can I say, sometimes I do!)
Last but not least, I publish it, and then I promote the new page on various social network pages.
The amount of time this all takes varies greatly, but in any case, it takes at least a few hours of uninterrupted time to get something together, and I need to have this time available in advance.
Hope you enjoyed reading this and found it at least a little bit interesting... if not, I apologise for wasting your time - I know how valuable it is! <3 <3 <3
