MANDALA ARTIST PARTNER PROGRAM About the Program We ve developed the Mandala Artist Partner Program to better connect with our growing community of musicians, and help support you just as you help support us. If you know anything about the company, you know that we ve always answered to our fans first, and more and more of our fans have been asking for a way to promote the Mandala in partnership with us. A discount, not a freebie We ll lay it out for you this is not a program for getting a free Mandala. Becoming an artist partner does not mean you get free gear. We re looking to develop a fruitful partnership with you as an artist, and although there are multiple reasons for why we don t give out free gear (see FAQ section on page 11), we find that above all, people who really want to collaborate are not interested in the free stuff. Artist Price Artist Partners brought onto our program can receive a $50 discount. Just let us know you re interested in the application, and if you re a good fit, we ll send you a discount code. Throughout the course of this document, we re going to tell you everything there is to know about partnering with us, and do our best to learn everything we can about you. We ask that you return the favor and learn more about us if you re not already very familiar with Mandala. Do your homework - it will help you get through the application process a lot faster. How to apply Read this packet from beginning to end and then fill out the questions on pages 5 through 8 and send them back to us. We ll review your questionnaire/ application and dig into your background a little more to learn about who you are. If we feel it s a good fit, we ll contact you with instructions on how to move forward.
HOW IT WORKS 1. We get to know you Reading this packet and filling out the application/ questionnaire is the beginning. When we review your responses, we ll be looking for many things, but most importantly: Do you have a presence (online or otherwise) and do people care about what you have to say? If not, are you working towards one? What steps are you taking? 2. We find our groove After an initial discussion, some brainstorming and outlining, we ll begin to follow a loose framework for you to promote us and us to promote you. Basically, when you take a step forward in promotion, we ll do the same. Over time we ll naturally find our momentum and working style. There may be months with lots of activity, and months with none... Do you have a genuine interest in music and do you demonstrate musicianship (not necessarily talent or skill)? Do you have goals and ambitions in line with the Mandala community of musicians? Does your style, story, background, voice, personality, etc. speak to a specific segment of our audience? (FYI - we have many diverse segments) Does your vision of a partnership inspire us, get us excited to work with you, or reveal an opportunity we hadn t thought of? Based on these and other criteria, we ll decide if you re a good fit and contact you on how to move forward. 3. You re in the driver s seat...because the activity is all up to you. Really. We want to help you gain momentum and accelerate it, and if we see you re making a big effort on your end, we ll follow suit. And if we find you re slowing down, we ll do the same. We totally understand that life gets busy, priorities change, ideas come and go. Think of it as a very open-ended arrangement that ramps up whenever you choose.
POSSIBILITIES So what kind of ideas for promotion are we talking about? There are countless ways for us to get the word out about you, your band, your work, and vice versa. Here are some very basic ones. We know you ll have your own, better ideas and we ll give you a chance to share them later in this application form. How we can promote you The Mandala Blog Our Tumblr blog is where we talk about the people and things that relate to our community as well as those that inspire our work. If you create quality videos with good content, decent production value, and engaging subject matter - we ll want to post them here. If you start an interesting discussion in your own music blog, we may want to contribute to the discussion in our blog as well... or if you find some creative way to use the Mandala other than as a typical drum, we ll talk about it here too. You get the picture. If you do something that promotes musicianship in the Mandala context, in a way we find interesting, we ll likely talk about it in our blog. Our Facebook Page Our followers are drummers and non-drummers from all walks of life, in every age group, throughout the world. What they all have in common is a love of music, and if we promote you or your band on our Facebook page, you ll be reaching like-minded people who are also paying attention to what you have to offer. Newsletters We send out semi-monthly newsletters to fans who ve opted into hearing from us. The newsletter is one of our favorite places to promote partners because it reaches core Mandala fans with writing and content that our readers have come to value. Being a part of that newsletter means you ll be reaching new audiences and drum enthusiasts. Mandala s Youtube Channel We love videos, and our Youtube channel is the sacred space for all of our films, shorts, and interviews, as well as videos we ve curated from fans and users online. We get a steady stream of views from throughout the world, and being part of our Youtube channel would put you among people like Danny Carey, Amy Knoles, Ryeland Allison, and other great artists. Press and Media We have PR team that works to get Mandala into the public eye, and from time to time we may tap our artist partners for quotes, ideas, and images to be used in our media efforts - which means exposure for you.
POSSIBILITIES How you can promote us Video Blogging You can talk about the Mandala in whatever context you like - discussing how you learn it, showing new sounds and settings, sharing the way you use the Mandala in your drum kit/ studio setup/ production - and if you videotape it and post it online, that s even better. Lots of other people can learn from what you have to say, they get to see who you are as a musician and relate to you, and we/ Mandala will be able to post it on our own social pages as well. We find that lots of our fans are looking for videos to help them get a better feel and understanding for the drum. We re always trying to expand our video library, but we love videos from actual users - they re authentic and usually better than the videos we make ourselves (seriously). Reviews and Forums People talk about us online, and if you like the Mandala, you should talk about us too. Comment in forums, on music websites, on instrument reviews, others videos and posts. Discuss your own experience with other Mandala users and share your thoughts on our product and the Mandala community of artists in general. From time to time we ll also have articles or interviews in publications and blogs, which we ll post to our Facebook page. If you read our articles and have something to add or say, leave a comment on the original post (and support our press partners too!) Your Website If you have a website for yourself or your band, any content you create using or referencing the Mandala can also be placed there. Videos of you using your Mandala, new tracks produced with a Mandala credit, blog posts talking about the drum, reposting or referencing of any videos or posts we/ Mandala have on our own blog or Facebook page... you get the picture. Live Performances and Tours If you tour or give performances, no matter how big or how small, there may be an opportunity for us to co-promote. We usually work out arrangements like these on a one-off basis, so be sure to give us plenty of notice in advance so we can come up with some ideas...like a special Mandala Drum face for you to use on stage, stills of you using the drum on stage, and so on. Your or your band s social media pages: Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Instagram, etc. Just as with your website, if you have social pages for yourself or your band, any content you create using or referencing the Mandala can also be placed there. Feel free to borrow content from official Mandala pages and sites to repost on your social pages too. Also try to get active on the official Mandala Facebook page by posting, commenting, or sharing content you think other Mandala users would be interested in.
HYPOTHETICAL So now that you know some of the basic ways Mandala can help promote you, and you can help promote Mandala, here s an example of how a partnership might play out over 6 months. Keep in mind this is only a example. Every partnership will look different, and have different types of activities over different timelines. Month #1 Month #2 Month #3 The Mandala team has a couple of phone calls with the artist and everyone gets to know each other better. Mandala learns that the artist may be doing a show in a couple of months, but nothing has been confirmed. Meanwhile, the artist has been tweeting and Facebooking his new partnership with Mandala and has started to film some videos. The artist posts two videos - one of him playing the Mandala in his current kit, and the other of him teaching how to setup and use a Mandala to drummer friend who s never used on before. Mandala sees the awesome vids and posts them on their Youtube channel, promotes to video to their blogger network, and gives a shout out on the Mandala Facebook page. The artist s show has been confirmed for next month, and Mandala ships out a special glow-in-the dark drum surface to the artist for him to use on stage. Meanwhile, Mandala sends out their semi-monthly newsletter, featuring one of the artist s earlier videos. Month #4 The artist takes some great pictures of the glow in the dark surface during his live performance and includes them as part of a blog post, that Mandala then comments on and reposts on their own blog. Friends and fans start asking about it, and the artist responds to questions online about how he got it as being part of the Mandala Artist Partner Program. Month #5 Mandala has just gotten a great review on a prominent drum blog, and the artist chimes in by leaving a comment on the blog talking about his own experiences with the drum. The artist also tweets the review with his own video review, out to his followers and fans. Mandala sends a shout out and ads the video review to the Mandala Youtube channel. Month #6 The artist reaches out to the Mandala team once more to talk about possibly creating a series of instructional videos. Mandala thinks its a great idea and helps the artist develop a schedule, list of topics, and ideas to cover in the series. Mandala announces the upcoming instructional series on their Facebook page.
QUESTIONNAIRE Give us a snapshot 1. Name: 2. Age: 7. Have any videos of you playing or performing? Please provide links: 3. Location: 4. Are you in a band or are you a solo performer? If in a band, please provide your band s name(s) 8. Have any other videos you feel demonstrate who you are/ your personality? Please provide links: 5. How often do you play/ perform? 6. What kind of music do you play and/ or perform? 9. Please list the dates and locations of your last 3 performances.
QUESTIONNAIRE Give us a snapshot 10. Do you currently own any Mandala gear? Please list. 13. Are you a session drummer? If so, please list any notable sessions you ve had, what bands you ve had sessions with, etc. 11. If you don t currently own any Mandala gear (or do but are looking to buy more), would you be interested in an Artist Discount? 14. How active are you in social media? 12. If you currently play the Mandala, how long have you been playing? 15. How often do you create and upload videos online?
QUESTIONNAIRE Give us a snapshot (continued) 16. Please provide links to all of the following (if applicable) for you/ your band, and also list number of fans/ followers (if applicable): Website: Facebook: Twitter: Tumblr: Wordpress: Pinterest: YouTube: Flickr: Other:
QUESTIONNAIRE Tell us more about yourself 17. What are your musical/ artistic goals? 21. If you re not a full time musician, what s your day job? 18. Who/ what are your musical influences? 22. Why do you want to be a Mandala Artist Partner? 19. If you ve already got a musical following, how would you describe your fans? 23. What do you hope to gain in a partnership with us? What do you hope to provide? 20. Do you have any current music gear endorsements? Any previous? Please list: 24. Do you have any questions for us?
QUESTIONNAIRE Tell us more about yourself (continued) Give us a hypothetical of your ideal partnership as it would roll out over any given time period (see page 4). Your ideal partnership can be as accelerated or spread out, concrete or open-ended, traditional or untraditional as you like - we re open. Feel free to use ideas we haven t included in this packet and be honest about what you re expecting.
F.A.Q. Why don t you give out free drums? There are many reasons why we don t provide free product, but for the sake of brevity we will stress two reasons. First, we are a small company and it is neither feasible nor practical for us to give product away. Secondly, and most importantly, the reason for providing product would be for the express purpose of the artist using the product. We believe that when you purchase the product you really use it and you are not forced to use something because you got it for free. We do offer a select Artist Discount of %. Do I need to already know how to play a Mandala? No. If you already own a drum great. We can jumpstart the partnership. But if you re about to get one, then we ll be most interested in how you re able to document your learning process and share that online. Why do you guys want to know about my social network? We can t work with everyone, although we try our best. We need to make sure there s a good fit, and just as we promote you, we'd like to know that you can promote us. Keep in mind, you DO NOT need to have a major online presence to be a good fit for us. We look at applicants on a case-by-case basis and what we re most concerned about is your willingness to collaborate, so if you re a small guy now, we re willing to invest time in your growth. How long does a partnership last? Every partnership will be unique some will be short and sweet, others will be long and involved. It s really up to you. What if I have ideas that aren t described in the hypothetical? We want to hear them. Whatever you come up with might be perfect for us. What if I get the Mandala and find I don t like it? What we care about is that you re honest. We want to show that people from all walks of life can do this. So we re being honest and taking a risk on you. All that we ask is that if you DO have an issue, you try to resolve it with us first. Is this program only for drummers? NO! DJs, performance artists, producers, 9 to 5 guys starting a new hobby, high school girls wanting to start a band - literally anyone who has a musical aspiration can be an Artist Partner. How will you know I m in the driver s seat? We ll keep an eye on all of the social channels and websites you mention in your questionnaire to see how you re taking the partnership forward, but we also need you to inform us about your efforts. We don t want an email saying every time you tweet something, but ping us once in a while when you write a really great blog post or upload a great video you d like us to note. Also keep us ahead of the loop. For example, if we know what your touring plans are in advance, we can work with you to come up with some bigger scale co-promotion plans.
NEXT STEPS Fill out the questionnaire and save your answers in this doc. Email it to press@synesthesiacorp.com We ll read through all of your answers, check you out, and if we think there s a fit, we ll contact you.