Death of a Record Shop (Matt Sommer, Head Audio Engineer)

The record stores all over Philadelphia are shutting down. Many of the places I used to spend hours sifting through music just can’t make it anymore; the Internet is quickly making sure of that. With the growing popularity of online music retailers and the widespread proliferation of peer-to-peer piracy, there’s little place for the cozy record store and all its plastic discs filled with data. This is of course nothing new, it’s been happening for years now and not just in Philly. What’s growing more evident recently, however, is the growing obsolescence of studio records as a product and primary income source. If Radiohead’s recent experience with In Rainbows is any indication we’ve seen that you don’t need to charge $18.99 for a CD to make money off of it. What’s more, you’re going to gain yourself a few more loyal fans that may not have paid for your album. Radiohead isn’t the only group with these ideas; Prince, Madonna, Trent Reznor and many more have followed suit, proving that artists are no longer as concerned with the album as a principle income stream. This is of course bad news for the record labels and music stores, whose sole source of income is from the sale of tangible recorded media. What does this mean for the music fan? It means more free music to come, but the budgets for recording those albums will invariably be lower. Also, expect the price of concert tickets to continue to rise as more people try to get a piece of that pie. I hope that a more localized music economy grows out of this transition, where the million dollar marketing budgets are no longer necessary to be a successful musician. Things, though, don’t look too good for that cozy little music store.
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/175/music-distribution-revolution/

Understanding SEO (Jason Brewer, CEO)

There's lots of talk about SEO (search engine optimization) these days, but most of it is skewed. SEO is a huge deal. If your company doesn't show up on the first page in Google, nobody cares. For some reason, though, most people haven't accepted SEO as a long term (budgeted) investment. The key is understanding the complexity of SEO and the persistence and patience it takes to improve search engine results and keep them there. Expect months, sometimes years of saturation, link-building, testing and testing some more. Oh, and watch out for bogus SEO companies. They use fraudulant practices to improve your SEO rankings and before you know it, your website is banned from search engines. Keep your eyes open, they're everywhere. For further reading, here's a great article by P.J. Fusco of The ClickZ Network, titled, "SEO Is Not Free".
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3629756

Four Basic Traits of Effective Marketers (Jason Brewer, CEO)

We came up with four basic traits of effective marketers. How do you size up? 1. Your website is your top sales vehicle. 2. You're cashing in on target email and search engine marketing. Dollar for dollar they're the two most effective methods to sell your business and generate new leads. 3. You're in touch with your brand and you're open to a redesign if the old logo just isn't cutting it. 4. You empower your sales team, starting with your website. If your website is embarrassing, it’s hurting productivity and wasting valuable leads.

Crooked Necktie Release Party Photos

We've finally posted the Crooked Necktie Release Party photos on our Flickr account. The event was held at World Cafe Live on March 22nd.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brolik/sets/72157604663871749/

Veer's Niche Market Brand Saturation (Andrew Thomas, CCO)

Here's a look at some not-so-traditional marketing that really caught my attention. Veer is a stock photography and font site for creative professionals. Every aspect of their brand is skillfully focused on creativity and the creative person. They even have a clothing and accessories line directed towards graphic designers and other similar professionals. (They have a great hooded sweatshirt that spans the word "KERN" across the zipper, letting the wearer kern by unzipping the hoodie... get it?) The main point is that they are very in-tune with their market. Almost too frequently (but not too frequently), they send email reminders touting special offers, sales, or featured photos/typefaces. A recent email was for "The Very Secret Order of Creatives Understanding" that directed me to a nice marketing site. The site is fun, and serves only to enhance Veer's brand. The attention to graphical detail is what pulled me in, but activities include everything from an inspirational widget to a font-related codename generator to desktop wallpapers (to get the wallpapers, you need to solve riddles found in the official downloadable "handbook"... also known as more brand presence). The site is an experience, though, and it did effectively make me stop my busy day to look at- and to write to you about it. It certainly separates Veer from its competitors. (Although I must note, I've seen similar yet less frequent advertising attempts from Getty Images). Check it out. It may not interest you if you're not in the design field, but it should interest you if you have any affiliation with marketing your brand or creating its image in your customers' eyes.
http://www.veer.com/ideas/verysecret/

Safari 3.1 (Andrew Thomas, CCO)

Read this article from Computer World. It talks about switching to Safari 3.1 for your Internet browsing. I've always loved Safari, even when it lacked certain features that other browsers didn't, but now I have no reason to recommend anything else. Safari is the fastest and the most versatile browser around. When I test websites on a PC, Safari even makes things look nicer than other browsers! (With proper font handling and png support, for starters...)
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9069838

New WeBrolik RSS

We've converted the WeBrolik section of our website into an RSS feed, so that anyone can stay up to date with Brolik information. Add us into your RSS reader, and you'll get interesting articles, marketing advice, portfolio updates, etc. Thanks!
http://www.brolik.com/webrolik.xml

Marketing and the Economy (Jason Brewer, CEO)

We’re far from terrible times, but we can all admit business operations change when the economy is shifty. Historically, advertising/marketing budgets are the first to get cut in any industry in times of decline. This leaves you with an opportunity. While your competitors curl up in a ball and call a halt to all spending, do the opposite. Spend more now than you would during high times. At least keep your marketing budget as is, and while your competition keeps cutting, fill the holes they leave open. Join the Brolik Business Mailing List (bottom of this page) for the extended article.

Talking Oscars (Jason Brewer, CEO)

I’m making it a point to see all of the best picture nominees before the Oscars on Feb. 24. Surprisingly, it will be the first time, ever. Why? I have no excuse. What I can say is that I’m delighted by the two nominees I’ve seen so far: There will be Blood and No Country For Old Men. If you like well paced, good old-fashioned intensity, then get out and see them. I’m rooting for There Will Be Blood, which may very well be P.T. Anderson’s best yet. That’s a great feat considering his resume includes Punch-Drunk Love, Boogie Nights and Magnolia. Yeah, see them too.
http://www.paramountvantage.com/blood

Pre-Production (Matt Sommer, Head Audio Engineer)

I’ve noticed a trend in 75% of the musicians and bands I’ve talked to regarding their ideas behind the recording process. I guess there’s no “proper” technique or overarching superlative that will apply across the spectrum of different bands, sounds, and styles of music, but there certainly are similarities in how we make a good record. Preproduction is probably the most important, as well as the most often overlooked step of the recording process. It is the time for a band to sit down, before being placed in front of an expensive microphone, and work out every last detail of their performance and material that they are laying down. Too many bands step into an expensive studio at the cost of hundreds or thousands of dollars a day, with no clear idea of exactly what they are there to accomplish. The studio process has no magic. Every sound that is committed to tape comes from somewhere, a product of hours of practice, hard work, or just plain fiddling. If your band doesn’t have every detail worked out when practicing in the garage, how is it all going to come together in the high-pressure situations of the recording studio? Before forking over the astronomical hourly rate to sit in the studio and learn your parts, make sure your band is as tight in a live situation as possible. The arrangements of your songs are equally as important. Make sure your drummer and bass player hit the same accents and that your guitar parts are working together instead of fighting for space. This kind of detail is what makes the difference between a mediocre song and a great one. While you may have an experienced producer by your side to help with this in the studio, the more thought out your orchestration and arrangement is, the better he can help you achieve your goal. Does your instrumentation back off to leave room for the lead vocals in the verse? Do the harmonies in the chorus work to accentuate the hook or simply make the vocals more crowded? Is your bass player locked in to the kick drums rhythm? Think about how your songs will come across on a recording before you get anywhere close to a high priced studio. You’ll save money and have a stronger final product.

Search Engine Optimization (Jason Brewer, CEO)

Search Engine Optimization. SEO. How much do you know about it? Some people know it’s important for their business, but little more. We’re often asked what we do in the way of search engine optimization, and it’s not the easiest question to answer. First, you need to know that search engines like Google, Yahoo and Ask have these things called crawlers that do random inspections of your website to judge your content. These crawlers compare this information to your tags, links and titles on your website and the keywords you choose in your internet marketing campaigns. Basically, they are judging relevance, or the extent to which the wording you use to advertise your website actually matches the content on your website. It might help to also understand what you are looking at when you search for something. Let’s say you search for “Plumbers in Philadelphia” in Google. You see 1-3 sponsored links (the ones people pay for) at the top in yellow. You also have a long list of sponsored ads down the right column. The rest of the links are organic. They are listed in the large white space underneath the top sponsored links. We make sure you perform well with the right attention to content, tags and relevance when your website is designed. Inbound links also play a big part in your organic search success. The more credible and established websites that link to yours, the better. Content overload? That's just the beginning.

Awesome Website (Andrew Thomas, CCO)

Thought I'd share this site. Great integration of video into a website.
http://www.fromlovecomespaine.com/

Brolik WhiteNoise (Matt Sommer, Head Audio Engineer)

Check out what David Byrne of the Talking Heads has to say about the effects of the digital revolution on our current Music Industry model.
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_byrne?currentPage=all