Tag Archives: being a value grinder

BACON BLOODY BACON: Matt Bacon on Content Marketing and COVID-19

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Now that we are a few weeks into the madness of this Coronavirus thing I wanted to document a few thoughts I have had about the whole content creation situation in the face of the coronavirus. There are a lot of interesting layers here and I think it’s too early for anyone to claim to have authoritative answers. That being said I think I have a pretty clear idea of what’s starting to shape up as content that makes sense vs stuff that doesn’t seem to be as effective. Obviously this will shift as we become more aware of the scope of this whole thing but it’s an interesting time in human history right now, so let’s take a moment to look at some of the content strategies that are coming into play, including stuff like content vs reach, the relative inefficacy of doing live sets, content ideas that do seem to be working and of course what you can be doing to help grow your band while we go through this.

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BACON BLOODY BACON: Matt Bacon on The Coronavirus and DIY

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We are living through a very scary time right now with Coronavirus. There are things happening now that none of us have seen in our lifetimes. Things that we never expected to have happened. It’s a strange world and I get the impression that it might get a lot stranger in the next few weeks. All this to say – there are things your ban should be doing now even if you are self quarantined. And believe me, I know how weird it is, but fear isn’t going to help us – we need to keep ourselves busy and moving forward. If you are looking for an easy list of free services you can use to help propel your band forward go here: https://dropoutmedia.net/free-offers-to-musicians-during-the-coranavirus-crisis/ Otherwise – I wanted to dig into why now is a great time to be a band because of greater access to journalists, cheaper ads, greater attention focused on social now and of course – monumental opportunity to help the community. Continue reading →


BACON BLOODY BACON: Matt Bacon on Why Your Socials Suck!

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I get asked all the time, “Why does my social media suck?” Why don’t people engage with what I have to say?’ It seems to me that a lot of people run into similar issues so I wanted to break down some of the core mistakes bands are making when it comes to optimizing their socials. I’m not going to be talking about high-level music marketing concepts nor in-depth engagement strategies but rather just the basic stuff that people seem to be dropping the ball on regularly. So let’s dig into this and talk about the importance of posting regularly, formatting stuff properly, creating interesting content worth engaging in and then the importance of engaging. Continue reading →


BACON BLOODY BACON: Matt Bacon on How To Get More Involved with Your Scene

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So something that is key for anyone trying to make it in the underground and get to be more active is to just go out and do stuff. This is a really crucial point that people seem to routinely miss out on – is the simple fact that if you want to grow in the scene you just have to do stuff. However, if you start making a point of doing stuff within the underground then it is eventually going to start to pay off and as it increasingly pays off – guess what? You are going to wind up with better and better opportunities – it’s the flywheel effect. So in this article, I wanted to talk about ways to get the ball rolling for anyone seeking to become a tour manager, merch person or touring sound guy. All of these will take time to work out for you but I’ve seen them work countless times over the years. Continue reading →


BACON BLOODY BACON: Matt Bacon on Whether You Should Tour with Another Band

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I haven’t done an in-depth article about touring here in a while and it seems to be something that a lot of you are interested in so I wanted to make a point of going deep on it with you cats. Particularly, I wanted to talk about the eternal question of, ‘Should we go on tour with another band?’ This is a tricky one with acts on the DIY level. The question of course, is built around how this impacts the overall experience, the booking of the tour, how the promoters will want to deal with it and of course what the financial side of things will look like. Definitely a tricky question – so let’s go deep and investigate what it can mean for a DIY band.Continue reading →


BACON BLOODY BACON: Matt Bacon on Why Video is King

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There’s a lot of you out there in bands who are not creating nearly enough video content. In fact, many of you band folks aren’t creating video content at all – and that’s a huge problem. I wanted to use this article as a quick look into why video content matters, the types of video content you can create, how to create it and of course what you can do to monetize it. If you have these core elements in mind then I think it will rapidly all fall together for you to be able to push your brand to the next level, get more fans and open more doors for your band. I mean just look at my #baconsbits video series on Instagram – video opens all manner of doors.

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BACON BLOODY BACON: Matt Bacon on Why CDs Matter

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I wanted to write an article quickly addressing one of the biggest misconceptions in underground music. This is the idea that CD’s are no longer relevant. I’m here to tell you that not only are CD’s still relevant they should be the basis of what you are trying to do with your band. I know that sounds crazy, but trust me on this one, if you are trying to get anywhere with your music, you NEED to have CD’s. I am going to break this down for you by talking about how CD’s are the bulk of record sales, the fact that they make the most economic sense, talk about why they are such an important medium and of course what you can do to sell more CD’s. By digging into this I hope you’ll see the real value the CD can provide. Continue reading →


BACON BLOODY BACON: Matt Bacon on What Is PR?

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This is perhaps the most basic and most important piece of band advice I can give a group looking to drop their next release – get PR. It’s really that simple. It can seem expensive I know but it is almost worth it. If you don’t hire PR, no matter how big you are, it’s going to be very hard to find someone who is willing to covering your band. So in this article, I wanted to breakdown what music PR is, why it matters, what to expect and of course how to not get ripped off. These are the keys to any band trying to take advantage of their brand, grow in the scene and get the press coverage that it will take to elevate their band to a whole new level. Continue reading →


BACON BLOODY BACON: Matt Bacon on How Many Local Shows to Play

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A question I get asked all the time by local level bands is ‘How much should we be playing locally?’ and this is a tricky one. There are so many good tours coming through all the time that need opening bands. This isn’t even touching on your friends coming through who you want to play with just so they don’t have a bad show in your hometown. I know how tricky it is to find this balance, it’s not an obvious one to figure out and it’s one that is going to routinely give you headaches. So in this article, I wanted to break down precisely how many times you should be playing in your hometown in a year, why I think that and how you can implement a strategy around that and then how you can decide which hometown shows you want to be playing. Continue reading →


BACON BLOODY BACON: Matt Bacon on Hashtags and You

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It came to my attention via a dear friend who gives top tier hugs that I haven’t written an article about the implementation of hashtags in a while. This is funny because I recently grew my mailing list pretty dramatically by offering out free, customized lists of 100 hashtags. (If you want yours, click HERE) so it should have been top of mind. But that’s how life goes sometimes – you engage deeply with a project and then forget to create some content around why it’s so cool. So let’s dig in. In this article, I want to talk about why hashtags are crucial, how hashtags function specifically on Instagram where they are without a doubt the most important. I also want to talk about how to choose the hashtags and some common mistakes that people make with hashtags that they need to be avoiding. Let’s do this thing. Continue reading →