Bloor News Announces a New Feature: livemusicguide.ca

Check it out for all things music in Toronto, including Open Mic listings, maps to live music venues, featured local singers/musicians and music news and reviews.

The entertainment and writing communities were saddened to learn of the passing of Gary Webb-Procter aka ‘Gary17’, widely respected musician, critic and Editor of East York Chronicle late last year. Gary’s death didn’t just leave a hole in the hearts of his friends, family, readers and fans, it left a hole in the music scene. Gary took the spotlight off the bands we had already heard of and gave the lesser-known acts a chance to shine. Without his reviews, the Linsmore Tavern wouldn’t be a mecca for up-and-coming musicians, and we would never have heard of or from some incredible talent. The talent of the future deserves the same recognition that their predecessors gained from Gary’s pieces. Reviewing live music isn’t easy nowadays, but as vaccination rollouts continue, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We are proud to offer our services. These are big shoes to fill, but we hope we can honour Gary’s memory by doing it justice.

Click on the links below for some samples, and be sure to follow us on twitter at #Musicevents for future announcements, or you can find us on Facebook at Bloor News and our Instagram is VinylRecordsPressing. We look forward to discovering hidden gems and introducing our readers to the creative talent of the future.

Twitter is MusiceventsGTA

Instagram = vinylrecordspressing

Facebook = bloornewstoronto

Go to livemusicguide.ca to post your music event

Are you a local singer or musician?

Would you like a chance to be featured in Live Music Guide? We welcome everyone to send us a link.

Understanding the new media

The smartphone has won the battle of most customer’s attention. Recent studies show that the public is holding on to their phones for tasks that we formerly did on our desktops. Our e-mail, our google search, and far too many apps to keep us off of a TV show and/or a good read of the paper.

If the “smartphone has won the battle” in order to promote an event we need to be all over the phone.

Smartphone users dial up Google to find anything from an event to a cheese sandwich. Google represents 93% of the searches. So getting your event on the top of Google would do the trick. Bloor News is run by a site that features getting found on top of Google. So if you know SEO (search engine optimization) then you can out race or out place the local papers. So with a good picture, knowledge of SEO, one guy with a camera can place an event on the first page of Google. Same picture can be found with hashtags on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Because, the second most popular place to find that event is Facebook. So using the same knowledge of SEO we can place an event on all social media.

The next factor that controls success is the number of times an event or website is listed on Google. Google lists the mentions on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and web sites. So would you rather be list on 40 websites or 4 million. The more hits, the better chance of your info getting into the customers phone.

THE NUMBER OF FANS I HAVE IS UNIMPORTANT– hashtags correctly with a “HOT PIC” then it is
retweeted and or re-posted by a user with more fans. Because what they want is “media”. Give me a pic of Brad Pitt with correct hashtags and i will reach millions. And if i have 10,000 followers and your media is an old dead dog — your response rate will be lower

Let’s look at some samples of poor use of social media
THESE RESULTS ONLY WORK ON A DESKTOP

torontojazz.com – About 55,500 results (0.46 seconds)

cmw.net (Music Week) About 448,000 results (0.45 seconds)

Would you hire the promo rep who got only “55,000” or would you rather have “448,000” Both events have been around for the same time period.

Number of time on Twitter #CMW is listed = About 7,390 results (0.56 seconds)
Number of time on Twitter #TorontoJazzFest is listed =About 3,030 results (0.56 seconds)

TorontoJazzFest is 50% LESS than CMW
7,3 to 3,0

TorontoJazzFest site:facebook.com About 1,010 results (0.58 seconds)

CMW site:facebook.com About 48,000 results (0.81 seconds)

TorontoJazzFest is 500% LESS than CMW
48,000 to 1,010

TorontoJazzFest site:instagram.com About 344 results (0.70 seconds)

CMW Music site:instagram.com About 1,190 results (0.47 seconds)

TorontoJazzFest is 400% LESS than CMW
1,190 to 344

This new media is not a secret . NY Times published a report ( Everybody’s a Critic. And That’s How It Should Be.) by their critic A. O. SCOTT on JAN. 30, 2016 claiming that any person with an iphone can be a powerful as the NY TIMES.

Back in the 1980’s all you needed was the local paper to review and/or promote your event. The promo person job was to get the press out to your event because the paper had the power to pack your event. Guess what the power is with GOOGLE and it can be done with a good picture and knowledge of SEO