This weekend, thousands will journey to Las Vegas with their favorite tech swag, ready to “get their praise on” as they discover the winners of the 2017 Stellar Awards.
Recently, I was able to catch up with one of this year’s Contemporary Female Vocalist of the Year Stellar Award nominees, Latice Crawford.
Who is Latice Crawford?
(photo credit: James Anthony)
Latice Crawford made her debut on the second season of reality television gospel music series Sunday Best on BET. During the show, she sang so beautifully, as if anointed by God, and her talent led her to become the second runner-up of the season.
Now, with two successful albums in her discography, which have charted within the Top 25 Gospel Albums on Billboard. In 2014, Crawford’s debut self-titled album ranked on four Billboard charts, peaking at No. 12 on the Gospel Albums chart. Likewise, the 2016 project that has earned Crawford her 2017 Stellar Award nomination, Diary of a Church Girl, debuted at No. 15 on Billboard‘s Top Gospel Albums chart.
Diary of a Church Girl–an autobiographical, five-track EP–provides a glimpse into Crawford’s personal life, as it navigates through human experiences of joy, struggle, and victory, from the believer’s perspective.
One of the songs listeners connect with most is from the Diary of a Church Girl is “Choose Me.” Here is a glimpse of the soul stirring lyrics:
Choose me
Use me
I know on the outside I don’t look like much
But with your touch, I’ll be better if you
Choose me Lord
Send me
Crawford and I chatted about her first award nomination and, of course, tech. Below, she shares a few of her favorite #techieTips that have been essential to helping to cultivate her rich music career:
On File Sharing Platforms, Such as Dropbox, WeTransfer, Hightail:
“Sharing information on-the-go has become the norm across members of my team. This isn’t just basic information that can be shared in a text, email, or post, but gigabytes of data in the form of music tracks, multimedia files, and so on, which we can now share almost instantly, [even while working] remotely.”
“Quite frankly, the production my latest project wouldn’t have been completed without these platforms. The recording and engineering of my project occurred across five states [with multiple] people, who never met one another. How? With file sharing!”
On AtVenue:
“As a touring artist, one of my must important revenue streams come from the on-site sales of CDs and other promotional merchandise. In order for those sales to actually ‘count’ toward the numbers that the industry pays attention to for metrics, such as Billboard charts, the information has to make it to Soundscan. Until recently, logging and sending this info was a manual, paper-driven process. Thanks to the AtVenue platform and its trusty mobile app, we can report venue sales in real-time to Soundscan–WINNING!!”
On Social Media:
“Connect, connect, connect! Social media is where my team and I often make our first connection with fans, promoters, and potential business ventures. The vast majority of my marketing and gig opportunities are driven by platforms like Instagram and Facebook. We even utilize social media as a research and development [source for] new ideas, music content, imagery–you name it.  I’m on all major platforms, but Instagram is by far my favorite and where I get the most traffic, interaction, and so on.”
On the Importance of Websites With Online Booking and Content Sharing Capabilities:
“Believe it or not, websites are still very important. Social media is great for informal or initial exchanges, but potential business partners will look for artists to have a professional website–it adds to your legitimacy. Your website is a one-stop shop for all info about you, and it’s the one platform where you can control all aspects of your content.”
Check out more about Latice Crawford at her website:Â www.laticecrawfordonline.com. Also, be sure to watch your social media feeds for announcements from this year’s Stellar Awards.