Pro Soul Alliance is a unique, artist focused
independent record label for the 21st century.
We’re a team of professionals of varying skills ready to help you develop your career. We consult with the top leaders and futurists in the new music business to assist you effectively release your music the way music lovers want to get it, build a growing audience, and earn income, making sure you keep the rights to your music, and save money on expenses. And best of all, we don’t take any of your profits!
Pro Soul is music business, done better.
Here’s a short video to help explain more about what is happening and what we do:
"There are plenty of millionaires who would pay millions to hang a Van Gogh painting on the wall, but hardly one that would have ever had the crazy nut over for dinner. I feel like the big companies are like that with musicians. They’ll say, "We love music! It’s all about the music!" — but if a musician shows up at the door, they call security.
The disconnect between the music, as a final product, and the musician, as a person going through an ongoing creative process is the most broken aspect of the music business..."
- Derek Sivers, founder of CDbaby.com, largest independent retailer of CD's
I wanted to post a message that has been on my mind for some time now as we get this new artist resource center officially launched...
We talk about Twitter a lot in relation to promoting music. That's because it is now the top resource for getting awareness for your music next to Facebook and Youtube.
We've had great results for our artists who are using Twitter effectively, increased sales, followers who share the artists music with their friends and their followers, artists getting hired to perform on other albums from artists around the world, and more fans and web traffic and general awareness about the artists music.
A little while ago we posted a video on the writeboard about using Twitter for music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iDb4G4bvCI
But as we've been observing artists Tweeting habits, we've seen that like many Twitter users, many of you are just tweeting what your doing at the moment...
However this is not an effective way to really use Twitter. It's not enough to make your tweets cut through the noise of marketers, and millions of other Twitter users out there...
Instead of "get my new music here" "I ate something I shouldn't have", or "sick of work, this job sucks". or "when is it going to get hotter?"
try things like, "I just came up with a new melody for a folk pop tune", or "just tried out a new guitar I'm thinking of getting" or, "rehearsing for my next show where I'll be playing some new songs about...." or even, "what do you think a fair consequence would be to this oil spill?"
Be interesting! You all lead interesting lives and do highly intriguing things every day! Tweet about them! People want to know these things, your a creative, talented musician for God's sake! Why are you tweeting the same stuff as everyone else? Your better than that!!
AND, very importantly, if you don't know what to tweet that is interesting, you should be RETWEETING other peoples interesting tweets (look for them amongst your followers), and REPLYING to people's tweets that you have any kind of response for. This creates reciprocal communication and connection with other people that if replied to, can get you exposure to hundreds if not thousands of followers! One of our artists got a thousand visitors to their website in one day by using this technique!
This may be even more important that tweeting what you are up to! It is very important and easy to do.
Lastly, write the same way you would talk to a stranger in person.
Would you walk up to someone and say "hi stranger, go buy my CD here"? NO! So don't do it online, be a human being when you write anything online.
Please don't take any of this as any kind of personal attack, everyone does these things at first on Twitter, we just want to help you make the most of your time spent on your career.
And if you are having trouble getting time to use Twitter into your schedule, contact us about setting up tweeting via text messaging from your phone and how this is a powerful tool for your music promotion!
We look forward to seeing how your results progress with Twitter using these techniques and hope you start using them today.
We talk about Twitter a lot in relation to artists and promoting music. That's because Twitter is still the top resource for getting awareness for your music next to Facebook and Youtube.
We've had great results for our artists who are using Twitter effectively, increased sales, followers who share the artists music with their friends and their followers, artists getting hired to perform on other artists albums around the world, and more fans, web traffic and general awareness about the artists' music.
But as we've been observing artists Tweeting habits, we've seen that like many Twitter users, many of you are just literally tweeting 'what your doing' at the moment, or doing blatant self advertising...
However this is not an effective way to really use Twitter. It's not enough to make your tweets cut through the noise of the heavily updating marketers, and millions of other Twitter users out there...
Instead of "get my new music here" "I ate something I shouldn't have", or "sick of work, this job sucks". or "when is it going to get hotter?", Try things like, "I just came up with a new melody for a folk pop tune", or "just tried out a new guitar I'm thinking of getting" or, "rehearsing for my next show where I'll be playing some new songs about...." or even, "what do you think a fair consequence would be for this oil spill?"
Be interesting! You all lead interesting lives and do highly intriguing things every day! Tweet about them! People want to know these things, your a creative, talented musician for God's sake! Why are you tweeting the same stuff as everyone else? Your better than that!!
AND, very importantly, if you don't know what to tweet that is interesting, you should be RETWEETING interesting tweets (look for them amongst your followers), and REPLYING to people's tweets that you have any kind of response for. This creates reciprocal communication and connection with other people that if replied to, can get you exposure to hundreds if not thousands of followers! Our artists have had thousands of visitors to their website in one day by using this technique.
This may be even more important that tweeting what you are up to! It is very important and easy to do.
Lastly, write the same way you would talk to a stranger in person.
Would you walk up to someone and say "hi stranger, go buy my CD here"? NO! So don't do it online, be a human being when you write anything online.
Using these techniques you can make the most of the time spent on exposing yourself to new fans. And doing it with a free power Twitter tool like Hootsuite can really make life easier, and allows you to manage large follower lists more easily and effectively.
And if you are having trouble getting time to fit Twitter into your schedule, contact us about setting up tweeting via text messaging from your phone so that it updates all your social networking profiles and your website, and how this can be a very powerful tool for your music promotion!
What progress have you made with Twitter using these techniques or others?
Ali Youssefi has been surrounded by music his entire life. Growing up in Chile and traveling around South America and the Caribbean, he has been exposed to many different musical expressions, many of which find a place in his own music. Ali studied classical guitar in Chile before moving to Argentina to pursue a degree in music therapy. His musical curiosity and love for diversity combine to make him a versatile and original composer and performer, blending genres, instruments and cultures into a unique sound.
Gustaff Besungu is a multi-talented performer who hails from a lineage of drum players. Born and raised in Cameroon-West Africa, he brings to life a unique blend of traditional rhythms with music from around the world. He has performed with many groups in Africa, Israel and the United States. In his travels, he shares aspects of his culture through drum playing, story telling, music and dance.
Pam Hill has been a professional violinist since 1978, performing in twelve symphony orchestras, several commercials, a National Geographic Special and at Carnegie Hall as an orchestra member with a five hundred person chorus. She has taught strings and music in seven music schools and eleven public schools since 1984. Pam loves teaching violin, viola and cello students of all ages and playing levels.
Together they form a unique and diverse trio that has just released an album of Inspirational music that warms hearts, uplifts spirits, and inspire souls.
Pro Soul is assisting them set up a small tour in the summer, and launch a new website with integrated social networking tools that will allow them to connect with their new fans they will meet on that tour, as well as their existing ones.
Welcome to the Pro Soul family!
"My name’s Jamie one half of Biljanaires. The other half belongs to Eddie Biljan. People pass through, but the two of us are the core. A band, song writing collective, and friends, we are all of these. This started one day on my way to work, making music was the farthest thing from my mind. As I went to cross the street a car I recognized drove past and Eddie pulled over and got out. It was like dropping the needle back on the record. I say that because I hadn’t seen him in a long time and we have a history tied up in a band that was called Crush Groove. A fitting name for what it was and will remain. Good times.
So groove to the music. It was written for you, wherever you are."
The Biljanaires (pronounced billionaires) is an extension of vocalist Jamie's account of their inception. The songs are about where they live, in a city beside the Pacific Ocean. Some are about the people that have passed through their lives and how they get remembered. Stories told with words and rhythm. Good clean rock.
This is the band Biljanaires.
Welcome to the family guys.
You deserve to be heard!
This ain’t about theft, this ain’t about copyright infringement, this is about opportunity.
For a new golden era. Where the artist sits at the top of the pyramid.
Are you ready to climb up and take control?
Then make great music.
Respect your audience.
Give people the tools to spread the word, never rip them off.
Know that growth will be slow. But that the edifice you’re building is solid, that it will pay dividends like the old record company pension plan, but now the beneficiary will be YOU, not the fat cats.
We recently celebrated our first year assisting Do It Yourself artists with their music careers, representing them as record label and manager!
The occasion went by without much fan fare, we were too busy formulating up big plans for our future, and working hard to assist our artists! That is always our first priority, and we're a small company without any investors or such to answer to, so we can focus our efforts on what matters most:
Helping our artists connect with existing and future fans in the most effective way possible, and assisting them in giving fans what they want, how they want it for a long-lasting and profitable relationship!
Thank you to all our artists, who endured with our growing pains, and pioneered this transforming industry with a whole new way of doing business.
Thank you also to our staff, particularly Roshena and Clarice, without which we could never have accomplished this first year milestone.
We've got bigger and better things than ever for our artists and for the company this year, stay tuned for all the news right here.
Blind faith is the belief in yourself and your music. The belief that it is good and it has value. As strange as it sounds, many musicians and artists lose it especially when their promotional efforts don’t yield the results they want, the media doesn’t respond favorably to their music and/or they don’t sell the amount of CDs or downloads they wanted. Regardless of what people say, whether they are in the media, the industry or they are music fans, you have to believe in your music and yourself. Too many times as artists we give more value to the negative responses than the positive ones. Ten people can say how much they love your music but if you get one negative email, you let it bother you more than enjoying what the ten other people said.
To find the blind faith that was once there, stop doing some of the following (I’m sure you can think of more!):
Stop comparing yourself to other artists! If someone doesn’t like one of the artists you compared yourself to, they won’t even listen to your songs!
Stop using genres to limit your audience. I recently spoke at a conference where an artist introduced himself and told me what kind of music he played. I told him I didn’t like that kind to see how he would react. He was stuck. He didn’t know what to do next. I told him music fans can react the same way. Tell them what’s in your songs and make sure not to use any clichés about the performances in the recording.
Stop telling people that your new songs are better than the old ones. Every artist, songwriter and musician evolves and grows. Their songs are different as time goes by. What would Beatles fans think if the band said, “Our old songs sucked. The new ones are much better. I hope you didn’t buy any of the old records.”
Stop limiting what you are capable of! You can accomplish more than you think.
The point is, you have to find the blind faith you once had and use it! The faith that made you write songs, record them and then go out and sell them. The faith in yourself that made you get up and play in front of family, friends, everyone you knew and complete strangers. It’s time to get rid of the excuses and limitations and once again realize the value you and your music have right now. Believe in what you have created and push us to listen to it and become fans!
Here we are in January, the start of a new year where every artist has great hope for new fans, better shows and a lot more sales to go along with achieving their biggest dreams and goals. Sadly, most artists’ careers will go backwards this year because they won’t change the ways they promote themselves or their music. With that in mind, let me give you an interesting thought to consider.
Sometimes a step back into classic promotion or using an “old school” method can yield you greater results in the short and long term.
For example, instead of just emailing and texting your friends and fans about your next show, call them! Calling and talking to them is more likely to get them to come and hang out with you. It certainly is a better way to explain the “benefits” of coming to your next show.
The time you spend on the phone could make a big difference besides just emailing and texting.
Thank you to all the artists we work with, you have made this a great year, helping us take the music business into the future!
In return, we hope expanding your career to new heights has made this a great year for you as well.
We've got some fantastic new things planned for our artists in 2010, and were looking forward to a great year!
Happy new year to all of you, all the best for the year ahead.
Director Jarome Matthew, and the Pro Soul Alliance Team
It's the end of our first year providing record label representation, and professional management and promotion to artists worldwide, and to celebrate (and because we're feeling generous) we're having ayear end special!
Pro Soul Alliance is offering artists who have some professionally recorded material:
• professional management and promotion to take your career to the next level!
• the latest tips, techniques and tools to help you build your audience, connect, and give them reasons to compensate you
• professional phone consultation and assistance with CEO of Pro Soul Alliance on your development and career
• professional bio and press copy writing, blog development and updating
• mailing list setup and integration, with fan capture into database for website and social networking profiles
• search engine optimization for effective search ranking
• graphic design, photography and image assistance for promo materials
• social networking configuration and integration, connecting with fans
(ReverbNation, Facebook, MySpace, Blip.fm, Twitter, Youtube, Ourstage etc.)
• offline & online marketing assistance, radio & podcast airplay, follow up, and tracking
• product development, design, CD production and digital distribution through major online retailers worldwide including ringtones and mobile phone
• licensing and song placement; electronic licensing options online
• scheduling of show dates for live performances
• and much more as we explore exactly what you need right now for your music career to thrive!
Cancel / upgrade any time! No contracts required! No rights taken! No profits taken!
[make sure you choose the 'Basic Label' $100 subscription option after completing your submission form!]
Also on special:
• a professional, blog based website you can edit and update with basic word processing skills, upgradeable with hundreds of plug ins for all kinds of functionality, and different design themes you can choose from! Complete with hosting by Rackspace, one of the best in the world, with yourname.com
We now have our two winners in the recent Pro Soul Alliance next great Indie artist contest!
There was some great talent that entered so it was a tough decision to make...
Congratulations goes to Antoine C. Smith indie composer/artist and aspiring producer, that "loves to write everyday" - This gifted, now 17-year-old first rate drummer and pianist composes and plays contemporary jazz and other genres. Antoine is actively pursuing his music career receiving rave reviews as a very popular young artist on the air in rotation of many wonderful hosts on Blog Talk Radio, Black Talk Radio (e.g. Black Teen Enpowerment Radio). Along with composing his music in the tradition of the original jazz masters, his future plans include to enter an excellent music college, and continue his studies in composition and performance. His winning track "Emotional Explosion" blew the team at Pro Soul away - there is no doubt this talented young man is an up and coming music sensation for his generation. Already compared to Jazz greats like Coltrane, Miles, Blake, and Byrd, Antoine Smith is just getting started!
The Return of the Magnificent HPhenomenon also known as Hassahn Phenomenon, shares Pro Soul's belief that music speaks to the Soul. An accomplished MC that understands that MC means, "Move The Crowd", HP says "Whether I move the people to dance, sing, cry, think, make a change, stand up, or just listen, I truly understand that my music is only a catalyst for me to aid in changing the world for the better." Rapping positive messages in tracks like "That Aint Me", and a smooth R&B roll like "Down and Up" raised the bar, and HP clinched the winning spot. Writing his music with integrity in the lyrical rhyme, True Magazine stated, "HP breathes new life and energy into a somewhat asthmatic industry." We're proud to be a part of Hassahn's journey - "if you are searching for someone that is ready to make a significant mark on the world, then I am definitely the Soulful entertainer you want." Yes you are Hassahn!
Ali Youssefi has been surrounded by music his entire life. Growing up in Chile and traveling around South America and the Caribbean, he has been exposed to many different musical expressions, many of which find a place in his own music. Ali studied classical guitar in Chile before moving to Argentina to pursue a degree in music therapy. His musical curiosity and love for diversity combine to make him a versatile and original composer and performer, blending genres, instruments and cultures into a unique sound.
