Facebook - converting your profile to a page

by Nico Boesten

This whole Facebook thing has changed the way most people in this universe communicate which is why I was this article is fascinating & could be extremely useful for a ton of people.

Basically, when Facebook starting taking off, a ton of people started adding personal profile pages on behalf of businesses / bands / companies and adding as many people as possible as "friends". Or, in my case, I started a Facebook profile to let people know about the new business I was starting.

But, the big difference between a Facebook Profile and Facebook Page is that with a PROFILE you have to add people as friends and get their permission to connect with you whereas with a PAGE, people can "LIKE" your page without you even knowing. It's open to the world. The other thing is that, let's say you posted some pictures of you beating a goose on your profile page... or some random and embarrassing shots of you drinking punch from a bowl on a roof at a superbowl party that you want all your real friends to see, but not any of your Facebook friends / fans / stalkers to see. This is where you're much better off to just have a Facebook PAGE instead and only post stuff on there that relates to your art / business / craft. Get it?

So, let's say you're like some of the people in our community who are musicians but never bothered to start a PAGE and don't want to have to "FRIEND" complete strangers in order to let them know about your music. Now you can convert your PROFILE to a PAGE and transfer all of those "FRIENDS" into "FANS" on your page by migrating it over.

Click here to start the process but just keep in mind that you can't reverse this so think thrice before you do this. You will lose all of your pictures / notes / and everything else you put onto your Facebook profile so if you do decide to migrate, you might want to download all of your content first by clicking here. But think of how cool you'd look with all those "fans" now eh?

So, to dumb it down even more - here's a little list for you list-lovers:

PROFILE:
- share personal info that goes to everyone
- need to "friend" people

PAGE:
- less personal - won't show up in searches under your name (ie. your name is Mike Smith but your band name is "The Smitherines". It's just separate OK?
- Everyone & anyone can LIKE your page
- You can embed a LIKE BOX on your website to give an easy way for people to become your FAN without you needing to "accept their friendship". Click here for how to do that.

What are you going to do?

Thanks to the CDbaby DIY podcast for letting me know about this BTW.

Lille Gard Fest 2011

The second Lille Gard ever to grace the forests of Kelowna is coming again this summer.

July 2, and 3. Just go ahead and take a permanent marker to all of your calendars and write in these words: Lille Gard Fest = Canada Day Weekend frivolity.

For those who weren't there, Lille Gard Music Fest is a sweet little gathering of friends and music lovers – a weekend full of frivolity & community building experience for everyone with lots of amazing live music on stage. Last year there were about 250 people who hung out for the weekend. Some camped, some played (20+ artists), some ran sound, some organized, some cooked, some tried to empty the porta-potties.... you get the picture.




Make sure you join the Facebook Event here if you haven't seen it. You'll be able to post pictures and comments and all that stuff...

Lille Gard Fest is not your typical music fest. There is no cost and no pay for the bands. The musicians are coming to hang out, to celebrate community and to play for the pure joy of it. We are keeping our little fest very simple and grassroots, so come and enjoy good music, good food and good friends in a beautiful country setting.

SCHEDULE (subject to change)

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SATURDAY, JULY 2
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12:00- 12:45 – Kanorous
12:45 – 1:30 - Ryan Donn and Leah West
1:30 – 2:15 - Ariel Smith
2:15 – 3:00 - Dave Krysko & Martina Griffiths
3:00 – 4:00 - Songwriters-In-The-Round (Featuring Joel Strauss, Zoe Fitch, Mark Irving and Rachel MacGregor)
4:00 – 4:45 - Nico
4:45 – 5:30 - Jane Eamon and Gord Brush
5:30 – 5:45 - Storytelling (featuring Bruce and Brian Wiebe)
5:45 – 6:45 - The Creeks
6:45 – 7:30 - Michael O’Neil and Suzy Gemmell
7:30 – 8:15 - Andrew and Zachari Smith
*tweener while the next band sets up – Scott Gibson (spoken word)
8:15 – 9:15 - Daniel Huscroft and Ryan McAllister band
9:15 – 10:00 - Ari
*tweener while the next band sets up – Scott Gibson (spoken word)
10:00–11:00 - Ord/Strauss Blues Revue
11:00-12:00 - Kim McMechan


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SUNDAY, JULY 3
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9:00 - 10:30 - Pancake (Crepe) breakfast
10:00-10:45 - Loni Moger
10:45 – 11:15 - Joanne Stacey
11:15-12:15 - Ezra Kwizera
12:15-1:00 - Joshua Smith trio
1:00-2:00 - The Spirit Jump Gospel Band



IMPORTANT
* There will be food and snacks available to purchase. Sat. night and Sunday morning
* Portapotties
* No Fires, No Pets
* Donations will be accepted to help cover some of the costs of the fest
* Limited (rustic) camping is available contact Andrew and Tami to reserve a spot at aksmith@shaw.ca

BRING:
Your own tent, Food & Drink, Friends


ARTIST LINEUP TBA

For more info, please contact Andrew & Tami Smith

Join our Facebook Event page here 
And here's the compilation disc we've put together (thanks to the generous donations of the artists) in order to fund this backyard party of artists. Feel free to show your support and download this digital piece of goodness.

Cash grabs for your next CD release

by Nico Boesten
Pretty much all of my artistically minded musician buddies are piss poor.

I'm not a huge fan of generalizations but when it comes to talking about all the things the average independent artist needs to do in order to "make it" (or make something) in the sea of digital music pirates, it's a feat of gargantuan proportions.

The average artist playing the average club / basement / coffee shop has to work their little tutus off trying to get well paid gigs, keep their websites / Fbook / Twitter / RN / Bandcamp etc. up to date, send out emails, sell merch, write tunes, practice... Tons of things to do. And unless you've either landed some sweet deal, robbed your brother's piggy bank, or have a plutonium mine hidden in your backyard it's tough to make a living plucking your git-box.

So, people are getting creative in the way they raise money for projects and I've seen a few really cool tools that artists can use to get their fanbase involved in supporting their next album.

This is my buddy Tom Conlon who hails from the east coast of the US of EH and doesn't believe in selling his music. It's always by donation. He tours nonstop in a van and is one of the most generous guys you'll ever meet in your life. Maybe that's why he's penniless. Anyway, he's using a free service called Kickstarter to get people involved in supporting his next album project.

Tom Conlon's project with his brilliant little video explaining the project is here.




The real beauty in this is that you can give different packages to people who donate depending on how much they give.

For example:
Pledge $300 or more and get: digital pre-release, 2 signed copies, signed poster, your name in 'thank you' credits, plus...personalized video blog performance of the TC song of your choice.

The even cooler-er thing about this is that if you don't get enough pledges by the date you set, nobody pays and you're back to the drawing board. Ya, this would be a bit of an emotional sledgehammering to the confidence and ego of the artist, but at least all the donors will be off the hook.

Point being, it's a great tool that could really work for you if you need a slick tool to help raise some money.

Have you heard of any other great tools / websites that could help artists?