James Moore's Blog, page 64

A Reaction To Reaction Articles

So you want to know one of the biggest things ruining the industry these days? It’s going to make you laugh when you hear me say it, but it’s bloggers. It’s bloggers writing about things that are ruining music which are ruining music. It creates this sort of weird circle jerk that only is going to hurt bands in the long run. I don’t see how anyone can see otherwise. Somewhere along the line bloggers decided that not only is some art objectively bad, which is true, but also that that art was ruining music. Now, that’s to some extent true, but these types of articles seem to become the basis for writers careers. We’ve already posts about how “Lo Fi is the end of pop” or how the “Kardashians are trivializing art”. Now that sucks. But you know what sucks more? The fact that these bloggers are spending their time talking about how things are being ruined rather than creating real art of their own or at least figuring how to fix things.

I think first and foremost it’s important to realize how we got here. As we all know, the internet has a culture which can frequently be viewed as very destructive and in many ways pushing against the idealism the form was initially built upon. We found early on as a collective that a lot of the articles that got the most hits were the articles that were essentially outrage porn, and it’s easy to see why. We can express emotions on the internet we couldn’t really use in real life. Furthermore, once this art form developed beyond trolling we started to find some serious issues. We ran into the reaction piece. The piece that existed largely just to give people something to fume about. I get where the idea for reaction pieces comes from and to some extent this very article is one, but it started to lead to this weird myopic thing where we needed reaction pieces for everything we we consumed, and that’s where things got out of hand.

Seriously though – I’m not sure I understand why we need to have reaction pieces to every piece of content. I get that in some ways they are just a modern continuation on the standard review, but it feels like in recent years it has devolved into something so much worse and less valuable. The reason that they aren’t valuable is that they imply there is some larger problem with art, which there isn’t. Yes there might be certain artists who need to be corrected and yes there might be certain movements that have some inherent laws that it is healthier to talk out than to just push off to the side, but reaction pieces seem to have become the new way to get big on the internet and I’m not entirely sure how a genre takedown is meant to be productive. What’s the writers goal even? From what I can tell there is no endgame. It’s not like individual cases of bad art really impact your life, and you wouldn’t be listening to music if you thought it was universally bad right?

I think this leads into a bigger problem with the music industry and really internet culture as a whole. There is a desire to be right that is unhealthy. I see it in myself all the time, I get into arguments about music frequently because I believe people are wrong about the fundamental nature of a record. It’s something I’m passionate about (obviously) and so it sometimes gets me in trouble. But by this same token it’s what alienates me from a lot of potential friends. Why? Because at the end of the day, outside of a small cabal of dorks, reaction pieces are useless. The articles telling people whats wrong with the industry only serve to make people angry, and that makes them less likely to support the music that the people writing these pieces claim to love. I know it doesn’t feel that way a lot of the time, because after all we’re just trying to document the music, but that sort of thing blows up in peoples faces time and time again.

There are countless bands that have broken up over ‘drama from the press’ and countless fans who quit the scene because the ‘scene drama’ was too intense. Hell I’ve left certain genres of music myself because I couldn’t handle the scene drama. Yet so much of this drama just seems to come from people posting about perceived slights in the world of underground music. When it comes down to it, most people in independent music want the same thing, to be heard, to do something great and to transcend the common limitations of the scene. And yet the most predatory people in this music are often the same ones who are supposed to be helping it grow. It’s insane and frustrating and I think that we all need to come to terms with that if we want this to actually work out for us and we don’t want to just be stupid pretenders.

At the end of the day, reaction articles are hurting us all because they exacerbate some of the less savory parts of the music that we love. They drive us crazy and they remind us time and time again of the flaws that make us want to give up. So what can we do other than to sit down and try to find ways forward? We need to focus on the positive and realize that together we can and will triumph, as long as we remain intelligent and don’t just slip into the same useless lies that everyone else tells themselves in order to justify their nihilism and lack of direction in an industry that demands that you havepurpose and fight for what you want.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Don’t Be An Industry Poser!

One of the things that really frustrates me is people who are big in a local music scene and then don’t actually do anything. Be aware that this is going to be kind of a rant but it’s been a long time coming. Now realize that this isn’t targeted at people in bands, though it can encompass them – a lot of people in bands have busy real lives though and can’t dedicate countless hours in going to shows and hanging out at bars with their favorite bands, I get it. I’m talking about people who comment all the time on Facebook, go to a ton of shows, pretend to be buddy buddy with all of the musicians and then bitch about not being able to go to the cool festivals because they work a shitty job at a gas station. These people are a cancer on the scene for a wealth of reasons and watching them drain our resources and generally be frustrating to deal with has gotten me to a point where I need to let the rage out for a quick minute.

I think probably the most egregious example of this are the people who go out and create pages for their “Production company” or “Record label” when in actuality all they are doing is retweeting a few bands now and again and maybe funneling a few groups to the right merch people. These are people who want to look impressive but don’t do any of the requisite work needed in order to be a real benefit to the scene. Instead they just want scene cool points. It’s true that yes, doing something like this can get you scene cool points with the younger generation who don’t see how things are, and it also can get you points with the people you book one show a year for, but most other folks are probably just going to ignore you an think of you as, frankly, kind of a poser, which is what you are. The things you’re doing do have some value, but don’t think that you’re realistically getting anything above and beyond that.

Now you might be saying “Well isn’t it only a good thing when people are involved at all, even if only in a minor way?” And that’s certainly an argument I understand and one I have made before. I do think these people are somewhat helpful, but let’s be honest. How many people are checking out their production page where they share local bands? Of their 500 likes how many do you think are organic and how many do you think are their friends trying to be nice. This ties into what I’ve discussed here previously about being able to tell what is real and what is not. In a lot of cases shit isn’t real and because it isn’t real it doesn’t really matter. But you tell these people that what they are doing isn’t real and they will freak out at you. Now I get that too, they feel like they are supporting the scene. But eventually you get to a point when you need to decide if something is real and if it’s even worth doing at all.

Of course, this can take on many forms. For example I have a blog called Two Guys Metal Reviews. I get a few hundred views a day, nothing huge, and I certainly don’t think that people are buying records because of my site, although hopefully a few are finding new bands. But when it comes down to it, Two Guys Metal Reviews is personal project that I have been working on since I was 15. So that means when I do it it doesn’t matter if its real or not, because I like doing it. The same token applies to any project you take part in. The reason that this ends up hurting the scene is because it makes people feel like they are doing something but aren’t actually. It is diverting valuable resources and energy in order to create bullshit that no one really cares about. Imagine if all the people who ran those ‘production companies’ actually put their work into something productive, you don’t think that could be a whole hell of a lot cooler for the scene they claim to love?

All I’m asking is that you try and make an effort to do something tangible, more tangible than this article for example. This is mostly just a prolonged rant, so it has no real value especially since the people reading this post tend to be the sort of people who are aware of these sorts of things anyway. However I’m simultaneously sending texts to book tours people will actually attend and working on other tangible things, this is merely one of the many things I’m trying to do. What I focus on is trying to create events that people really connect with. You can’t just expect things to work out because people like music, you need to figure out how to make them care, and you can’t just throw up your hands and give up. But if you do throw up your hands and give up then at least have the balls to admit it and move on with your godawful life.

I know that I’m just a bitter old man who has been doing this for too long but I still genuinely believe in what this scene can be and I don’ have time to dick around with pretenders. If I find your company and discover you aren’t legitimate you will have wasted my time and in the end hurt one of the bands you like. We alre all pushing for something greater here, but merely contributing to the bloat and helping to give the industry a worse name than it already has is not helping anyone. So either nut up and be read to make the sacrifices and hard work needed in order to succeed and help out everyone or just be happy with being a casual fan.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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The Importance Of Studying The Music Industry

For an industry that seems exceptionally obsessed with being a badass who doesn’t follow the rules I think that there’s exceptional importance to making sure that things are set up in a way that makes sense and is going to enhance your brand over the long term. I started thinking about this today when I was helping a record label with some back end stuff. A lot of labels are not even aware of things like UPC codes and why they aren’t able to access distributors, to say nothing of labels that haven’t yet learned that they actually need a distributor The worst part is that this is only one small slice of one of the many problems people in the music industry face. When it comes down to it, we could all benefit from a little humility so that we could have a proper education. A lot of this doesn’t happen because we are all too busy, but sometimes taking the time to learn that is what you need to do to reach the next level.

When it comes down to it – the music industry is fundamentally screwed because there are two ways to success. On the one hand you have the people who go to college, learn how to play by the rules and then start off in a nice cushy label or distribution company job. These are the people who wen to schools with nice music industry programs and smiling shitty faces. And that’s a totally valid way to find success. The other type of people are punk kids who came up from the bottom, clawed their way up and were able to use their understanding of the underground in order to help cultivate a better future for everyone. These are the folks who I think are finding the most success in this new music industry based around niche marketing and diversification. That’s not the point though. The point is that a lot of these people haven’t learned some of the fundamental things you need to know, and don’t get why they need to take the time to do that.

Complaints about dumb industry people asides, this is to say nothing of folks in bands who are usually the last to learn and who have the most to suffer. I remember interviewing an artist a few years ago who was talking about how much he hated the music industry for screwing artists. When I asked if he was interested in trying to change it he said something like, “No, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.” This is exactly the issue though. Artists and industry people who don’t take the time to learn more about the industry are setting themselves up to fail. You don’t want to be in a position where people are able to easily take advantage of you because they know more than you. Yet, we all know countless musicians who don’t bother to do their research and who fail to understand time and time again that they are getting the short end of the stick because they refuse to study the industry they want to make a living in.

Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly than just getting screwed over, you are missing out on a lot of really good opportunities that could help you out. If you’re not educating yourself then you are missing out on money from folks like ASCAP, booking agents, tour packages and all that stuff. You miss the things that make a lot of the higher levels of the music industry actually profitable. Instead you find yourself consistently stuck because you don’t have the understanding to collaborate. I know that a lot of that is due to networking too, but guess what, those people aren’t going to want to hang out with you if you can’t talk the talk. It’s all about being able to impress people from the get go and I think that a lot of those people who want to be impressed also don’t have the time to be constantly teaching musicians about basic parts of their craft that they frankly should already know about and be capitalizing on.

So what can you do to grow and not get screwed constantly? Well, quite simply you need to take the time and energy to educate yourself. This isn’t an easy industry to be in. In fact it’s one that’s going to take a lot of struggle and note taking and of course copious googling. But if you can do it then you are going to have a leg up on many of your peers and thus be able to move forward faster. Now yes, I know that you have managers and stuff who are supposed to do a lot of this shit for you. But when it comes down to it, that’s not really relevant. What if your manager decides to screw you? You need to know, but they can probably screw you in ways that you don’t even know. So it takes a certain degree of education and wisdom to start going somewhere real with all of this. As a matter of fact, a lot of managers won’t want to take you on if you come to them totally clueless because, again, it implies a huge amount of work to educate someone in this.

At the end of the day, the music industry remains a tricky place to exist in, and it’s going to be frustrating as you miss opportunities and inadvertently hurt yourself time and time again. But there is a lot of hope out there for those who are willing to spend the time and work on growing their profile substantially rather than just being another group of pretenders pissing off people like me who are hung over, grumpy and just don’t have the will to put in any more effort into this shit than they already do. And it’s those people who are the gatekeepers. Think about that as you build forward and guide your band into brave new worlds.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Social Media, Aesthetic and You

Some bands don’t get popular off of their music but their aesthetic. I know that’s insane but that’s the case. I mean that’s sort of the culture we live in – one of aesthetic. Now while on the one hand this is obvious with folks like Danielle Bregoli. There’s no talent there but she represents something greater and that’s why she’s suddenly touring on a 50k guarantee. I know that musicians like to think that doesn’t apply to them, but look at someone like Action Bronson. Sure the music is good, but do you think that he got picked up because of the quality of his tunes or his whole weirdly unique backstory. That’s not an attack on Mr Bronson by the way, in many ways its almost a celebration. He discovered a new way to present himself that got people paying attention and spending money. So the question you are logically asking is “How does this apply to me as well as my band, and furthermore what can I do to help actualize this reality?”

I’ve written before, even recently about the importance about having a professional image, but this is slightly different from that. This is about having an aesthetic that people connect with. That means looking not at the presentation of other bands but the ideas they are trying to represent. Then look at the ideas you are trying to represent, trace them back to their roots and then work on emulating those artists. That’s how you start to have an aesthetic people care about. You want to be walking on the knifes edge of familiar and forward thinking. On the one hand you got to have call backs to earlier forms of culture so that people have some context for what they want to get from you but at the same time it needs to be pushing enough o that you get a sense of what it could be in the long run. Obviously there is a limited future in being strictly derivative, so finding that balance is going to work in your favor.

This is also part of on of those fundamental struggles that I think a lot of bands have. Their music might be perfectly good but tey don’t understand the social media side of tings and don’t get that you need to be able to craft some sort of viral content if you want to have long term success. That’s a weird thing to have to deal with as an artist. Your entire life you’ve been told that if you practice your instrument then things are going to work out, and then you master your instrument and find out that things aren’t really going to work out until you get a better handle on the viral side of social media. And again – the people who have mastered the viral side of social media know that literally nothing else matters. Then don’t need to be good songwriters. Again – Danielle Bregoli is getting 50 large to lip sync and basically insult her audience. If you can’t appreciate that level of fucked up then you need to recalibrate my friend.

Now you may think that your band is not really suited for viral content. To some extent this may be true. But then look at a band like Nails. They’re an insane powerviolence band who don’t give a fuck. Yet they inadvertently went viral with their slogan of “You will never be one of us”. I think that there are a lot of bands, especially in the hardcore scene who are able to tap into their bands youth culture in order to craft something truly substantial. In my eyes a lot of it is about sharing memes and the types of content that normally go viral. Like, if you keep putting out stupid 30 second videos then not only are your friends going to think that it’s funny but you are also going to find that there are a ton of other people who will be incentivized to share your memes. Again – you don’t need to be a pop artist to get viral attention. You just need to appreciate the fact that being in a band is inherently a kind of silly thing and people just want to live out the fantasy.

Providing the fantasy is a key part of band life these days I think. In a world where it’s increasingly difficult to get attention as a band and where you can really go viral. Now while it certainly does apeall to your more hardcore fans to have moments of true ‘tour life’ I think that at the same time you need to show people that there is a certain magic to being in a band. For folks like us who are surrounded by bands it’s easy to forget that bands aren’t just a bunch of fat pot smokers. Bands, to the normal person, are really fucking cool and most people are going to connect with that dream. 99.9% of the population dreams of playing to any sort of crowd and you are doing it. If you can figure out a way to make that relatable then you will find success. Just look at a band like KISS, they made their success into a meme and made it something people could relate to and that resulted in one of the most important rock movements ever.

Point being – understanding branding is going to be more vital than anything else that you ever do. Now that’s not always going to be super easy and I think there will be very real struggles as your band attempts to develop. Obviously finding KISS-like success is pretty much impossible for any band these days. But you can appreciate the lessons that good branding and an understanding of viral content and the ramifications that they can have. You don’t need to be totally business minded, you just need to appreciate that there are probably a million other bands doing what you are trying to do so if you can find a unique way to appeal to people then the rapid development of your band is all but guaranteed. You just need to be smart and pay attention, man.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Local Band Syndrome

So the other night I was out with a band I manage. They were on some godawful show or another with five local bands and I was sweaty and drunk. Band after band came on and we would make jokes with each other about how I should totally sign this band or that. Of course it was obvious to us that none of the bands playing were really in a position to get signed by someone trying to do serious things. Which consequently brought up the question in the back of my mind – how do I decide who is worth starting to work with and who I should just keep at arms length? There is a definite line there and it’s sometimes hard to exactly define what makes me so certain that a given local band is going to stay a local band forever as opposed to if a band is going to become a substantial part of the scene and has a very real future in this crazy old universe of ours. So I wanted to take some time to try and pick apart how I can tell if a band has an actual future. Let’s get to it.

I think first and foremost is the way that you can tell if a band sucks based on logo alone. There are countless bands that I know I can immediately discount because there logo is in a generic font and on a stupid background. The logo is frequently the first thing you take in from a band, even before the music, so if you can immediately see that a logo sucks then people aren’t going to end up being invested in your music. A good logo needs to be clear and precise. We’ve obviously talked before about how to make a good logo, but realize that above all you need to make sure that your logo isn’t generic and boring. I think this is especially the case with metal where the subgenreification is so deep that you can tell the specific type of music a band makes based on the font of their logo. Moreover though I think it needs to be clear that your logo isn’t just something your drummer drew up while he was bored one Tuesday afternoon.

This professionalism in your logo needs to extend to your general visual presence. Again – the visuals are something that you take in before the music in most cases. Even in terms of album art I think that some analysis makes it fairly obvious what the difference is between the art of a signed touring band and some unknown fucko’s. Now a lot of this is rather intangible and when I try to explain it to curious musicians in bars I often struggle with my words and quite frankly look like a bit of an ass. I think what it really comes down to is spending time to look at what every relevant band in your genre from the last 10 years has done and trying to emulate that to some degree. Even if you’re not creating a pastiche, which is in and of itself rarely a good idea, you can look at the general presentation and figure out how these bands are doing things and what’s working. In most cases people seem to miss the fundamental point of why bands get successful, and I a genuinely convinced it’s because they haven’t looked at enough other acts.

Now this is where it ties into seeing the band live. Of course me and the guys in the band I was with weren’t really checking out these dudes digital assets. We were just drinking beers and being critical because that’s what happens when you are jaded and old like me. What we were seeing those was bands that get so close and yet so far. I think that one of the hardest things to do as a band is to not come off as a try hard but also prove that you are really going for it. It’s one of those tricky realities that groups have to deal with. There is shit you might want to do that’s just going to come off as ridiculously stupid if you’re playing to 25 people, which is what the case will be early on. I would argue that the main thing here is confidence. A lot of bands when they come on stage seem giggly and nervous and that just shoots them in the foot. You need a band who are going to come at you with swagger and who realize why people connect to groups. It’s all about the fantasy, and if you can tap into that then you are going to have a great time.

Beyond that I think that there is a certain confidence the band needs to project offstage. The balance is important though. On the one hand I think there are countless arrogant musicians who don’t really do anything and don’t really make the music worth their while. Meanwhile there are a fair amount of people who think that as single share on their Facebook page is going to drive people to their band. Instead you need to have confidence in your project ut also be aware that no one cares and making them care is a nigh on impossible task. That doesn’t mean that you should give up, but rather that you need to spend some time figuring out what makes an individual project a logical choice for you and how to evolve that in the name of a greater tomorrow. If no one cares it’s up to you to make them care, and if you can’t make them care then you are going to need to reevaluate a lot of why you joined a band in the first place.

At the end of the day – it comes down to mimicking people who already have figured out something substantial and developing from there. Most people don’t really care about local music and a huge part of that is because local bands present themselves like a bunch of fucking dumbasses and that blows up in their faces. Bu if you take the time to make sure that your band looks just as good as any of the pros then people are going to be a lot more likely to connect to what you are offering and think you are a much bigger deal than you are. You need to find the keys to this presentation and unfortunately this changes between each individual artist. It’s a lot of work to be sure but if you don’t spend the time you’re going to look like an ass.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Sampling Error And Your Band

So one of the big things that I see a lot of bands I work with have to deal with is sampling error. People don’t seem to get this and they don’t understand that this confusion is a fundamental part of the human condition. See – when you hear about a band like KISS or hell even Justin Bieber you buy into this mythology of “Anyone can do it “ but this is patently not the case.. Like – sure you hear about these things but look at it this way. When Taylor Swift tells you “Follow your dreams “ that’s the equivalent of a lottery winner saying “Play the lottery it worked for me”. This is sampling error. Most people don’t want to admit it exists, because it doesn’t really work with our shitty primate brains. So we need to figure out how to move past that and help to evolve our respective brands so maybe we can become the Taylor Swifts of the next generation in some form or another. Just please, PLEASE don’t think that’s a likelihood.

So where does this sampling error emerge from? Well – like I said a lot of it comes from the weird mythology that comes from rock bands. Like – I feel like if nothing else bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath who came from the underground sort of inaderntly created tis illusion that bands now thinkthe y can come from the underground with miniml work and become legends. What they forget is that by the time he was 19 Jimmy Page was one of the worlds premiere session guitarists. If you go to something with an even more direct connection, a band like Nirvana for example, you still see layers of illusion. Like sure, Kurt was definitely homeless for a while, but he also managed to be in the right place at the right time. Again – I think Nirvana is one of the most important bands of all time, but their position in popular culture is, in many ways, due to luck. I know that’s a shitty thing to deal with, but it’s the truth.

As bizarre as it might seem that someone like Kurt Cobain could become huge you also have to remember where he came from and all of the fundamental understandings of the underground music scene that he had. He paid attention to his musical forefathers and constantly gave them the credit he thought they deserved. A lot of bands don’t do this – or at least they don’t do it in any substantial way, which really adds to the frustration that I think a lot of people have. They don’t seem to understand that like – sure Kurt was just a bum, but he was also one of the most connected dudes in the Pacific Northwest in terms of bands he knew and that led to a lot of opportunities that a quasi-homeless musician never would have had. So the sampling error trickles down again. Sure you might say “Oh well a lot of huge bands started playing basements” but all of those bands, even those trickling into the modern day also made sure to push past the common limitations.

Look at a modern day Nirvana, for example Modern Baseball. Sure they are great songwriters and they have a strong understanding of what pop punk fans want to hear, but more than anything they were able to break through by specifically targeting key people in their Philadelphia student scene. In a world where most people are just pretenders who don’t understand aesthetic or marketing Modern Baseball did little else than try and make sure that some of their key friends would pay attention. They did this by being nice guys, writing damn good songs and cultivating a DIY sensibility. These are dudes who I’ve seen play to crowds of 20-30 friends, even after playing small arenas. They didn’t forget where they came from and in fact they used that in order to build their fanbase literally one or two people at a time. Instead of getting caught up in the common limitations of this music they were able to have a grander vision that only served to help them.

The key though is that Modern Baseball, and Nirvana, and whoever the fuck else you want to mention didn’t really think this was possible. They didn’t buy into sampling error and they didn’t really think that there was a market for this. Instead they just sort of looked at the realities of their scene and managed to evolve that into something a little more grandiose. They didn’t think that they were going to match their heroes. A lto of people think that they are going to become rock stars, but I think that a lot of the most important bands of the last 25 years thought exactly the opposite. The reason that they thus became rock stars was because that they didn’t let themselves become complacent. So many of these young bands think success will just come and are boring and staid, you need to move past that and figure out what YOU are going to concretely do in order to bring your brand to the next level and find that next step.

Let’s be real – I’m drunk, but I’m also right. At least a few members of your band are probably looking at some relatively obscure example of a band who was in your situation years ago and lucked into success. But the thing is they didn’t luck into success. They worked their asses off and tried to identify what made them special and then were able to cultivate that into something greater. Yes it’s a long term process and one that I think most people don’t want to really have to deal with, but that’s the fucking point. If everyone had the patience for this bullshit then they would all work together to refine something better and become bigger. But they don’t. Which means that if you’re down then you can find some real success.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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The Catch 22 Of The Music Industry

One of the most frustrating parts of the music industry is the inherent catch 22 that being a part of this places you in. On the one hand you need to tour heavily in order to seriously increase brand awareness and try and meet the right people, on the other hand, no one wants to book you if they don’t know you and are recalcitrant to work on larger projects with you if no one has heard of you. At the same time though you might be able to figure out some advertising if you want to get real funding for your ads its going to be tricky to get the band to all want to contribute, so either you have to suck it up and pay yourself or wait for the band to start generating more ad revenue, ad revenue that is never going to come if you don’t already have a reason for people to be paying extra to want to come out and see you. Suffice to say – these harsh realities can be rather discouraging for the unwitting young musician and you need to spend time to try and figure out how to do this on the cheap.

I think one of the keys of doing this is to be a part of your scenes online community. Now I’m not saying that you need to spend your entire time working your band by sucking up to various scene people, that’s not going to work. What I’m saying is be a regular poster in groups, try to figure out who does what and just tr and make one friend in each market you want to target. For most people this happens somewhat organically, you slowly work your way through online groups until you find the right people to get into contact with and ease into it from there. You give back to your scene and then people want to talk to you. It can take a lot of time, and in fact is something I still don’t feel like I have totally achieved after 7 years of doing it pretty much all day every day, but I’ve gotten a lot closer and this has made it so that I can easily start to do things that most bands could never even access. It’s not because I’m especially smart or interesting, but because I make a ton of stupid Facebook comments and am reasonably friendly.

When trying to create this network the most important thing to do is to start regionally. Most people don’t want to book a band from across the country and you need t be careful when asking to get put on those sorts of tours. However if you can become friends with some of the main people who are immediately local to you then you are going to start to find a regional community that can really pay dividends. It’s foolish to think that time and time again you’re going to luck into people on internet groups, you’re going to have to go out and push to get shows outside of just your hometown. That’s totally fine. Because guess what? All of these people go to shows all the time. They are going to stumble through and you’re going to have a chance to interact. You can’t just expect to network at your own shows, again, that’s fucking stupid. What you can expect though is to be able to locate folks who matter by investing time and energy into becoming a notable voice in your local music scene.

I think that it’s also important to realize that there can be alternate forms of income for any band. Now I’ve discussed these at length on this blog and I’ve also discussed why pretty much all of them are so much bullshit it hurts. That being said there are exceptions. Being willing to play covers sets can always help you make a little more money. By the same token, having a wide variety of merch options, some of which are only tangentially related to your music can help you generate income. One thing I’ve found that is often wise is to have merchandise with some other form of utility. That is to say, a lighter with a beer bottle opener can be much more interesting to someone than a patch because relatively few people use patches even though they are a great low cost merch item. However a ton of people like to use lighters and beer bottle openers. It’s alternative thinking like this that can start to help you figure out new paths to generating tangible income.

Of course you’re probably going to look at this article and point out to me half a dozen examples of bands who did none of this and now are totally at the top of the world and dominating the music world. Those bands typically have one of two things and you need to come to terms with that. The first thing that they might have is some of the best songwriting. The reason you know those bands is because there songs are rad and they really know how to put together a record that people click with. This is a hard one to cope with because everyone thinks that their songs are the best and should be loved by thousands. Unfortunately most of us are not geniuses and have to claw our way to the top rather than have it granted. The other option to drive people forward is fluke, which happens more frequently than you might think. Maybe your music especially clicks with a single agent for some obscure reason and you wind up on a big tour, or you get a video to go viral. Of course, if you want this to turn into actual sustained success you still need songs to back it up and if you don’t you’re just wasting your time.

So basically as I see it, you have two real choices before you when presented with this catch 22 of the music industry. You can either go out of your way to work hard and make the connections tat you know are going to pay off for your band in the long run with meaningful relationships, regional networking and alternative income schemes, or you can quit. There’s a third option, that being praying that some fluke pushes your music to the next level. The thing is you can’t really count on your songwriting being good. Because no matter how many classes you take or hours you put in, the odds are not a ton of people will connect to your work. That’s just how humans are. So you need to evaluate these options and then push from there. It’s the only way.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

The post The Catch 22 Of The Music Industry appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

One of the most frustrating parts of the music industry i...

One of the most frustrating parts of the music industry is the inherent catch 22 that being a part of this places you in. On the one hand you need to tour heavily in order to seriously increase brand awareness and try and meet the right people, on the other hand, no one wants to book you if they don’t know you and are recalcitrant to work on larger projects with you if no one has heard of you. At the same time though you might be able to figure out some advertising if you want to get real funding for your ads its going to be tricky to get the band to all want to contribute, so either you have to suck it up and pay yourself or wait for the band to start generating more ad revenue, ad revenue that is never going to come if you don’t already have a reason for people to be paying extra to want to come out and see you. Suffice to say – these harsh realities can be rather discouraging for the unwitting young musician and you need to spend time to try and figure out how to do this on the cheap.

I think one of the keys of doing this is to be a part of your scenes online community. Now I’m not saying that you need to spend your entire time working your band by sucking up to various scene people, that’s not going to work. What I’m saying is be a regular poster in groups, try to figure out who does what and just tr and make one friend in each market you want to target. For most people this happens somewhat organically, you slowly work your way through online groups until you find the right people to get into contact with and ease into it from there. You give back to your scene and then people want to talk to you. It can take a lot of time, and in fact is something I still don’t feel like I have totally achieved after 7 years of doing it pretty much all day every day, but I’ve gotten a lot closer and this has made it so that I can easily start to do things that most bands could never even access. It’s not because I’m especially smart or interesting, but because I make a ton of stupid Facebook comments and am reasonably friendly.

When trying to create this network the most important thing to do is to start regionally. Most people don’t want to book a band from across the country and you need t be careful when asking to get put on those sorts of tours. However if you can become friends with some of the main people who are immediately local to you then you are going to start to find a regional community that can really pay dividends. It’s foolish to think that time and time again you’re going to luck into people on internet groups, you’re going to have to go out and push to get shows outside of just your hometown. That’s totally fine. Because guess what? All of these people go to shows all the time. They are going to stumble through and you’re going to have a chance to interact. You can’t just expect to network at your own shows, again, that’s fucking stupid. What you can expect though is to be able to locate folks who matter by investing time and energy into becoming a notable voice in your local music scene.

I think that it’s also important to realize that there can be alternate forms of income for any band. Now I’ve discussed these at length on this blog and I’ve also discussed why pretty much all of them are so much bullshit it hurts. That being said there are exceptions. Being willing to play covers sets can always help you make a little more money. By the same token, having a wide variety of merch options, some of which are only tangentially related to your music can help you generate income. One thing I’ve found that is often wise is to have merchandise with some other form of utility. That is to say, a lighter with a beer bottle opener can be much more interesting to someone than a patch because relatively few people use patches even though they are a great low cost merch item. However a ton of people like to use lighters and beer bottle openers. It’s alternative thinking like this that can start to help you figure out new paths to generating tangible income.

Of course you’re probably going to look at this article and point out to me half a dozen examples of bands who did none of this and now are totally at the top of the world and dominating the music world. Those bands typically have one of two things and you need to come to terms with that. The first thing that they might have is some of the best songwriting. The reason you know those bands is because there songs are rad and they really know how to put together a record that people click with. This is a hard one to cope with because everyone thinks that their songs are the best and should be loved by thousands. Unfortunately most of us are not geniuses and have to claw our way to the top rather than have it granted. The other option to drive people forward is fluke, which happens more frequently than you might think. Maybe your music especially clicks with a single agent for some obscure reason and you wind up on a big tour, or you get a video to go viral. Of course, if you want this to turn into actual sustained success you still need songs to back it up and if you don’t you’re just wasting your time.

So basically as I see it, you have two real choices before you when presented with this catch 22 of the music industry. You can either go out of your way to work hard and make the connections tat you know are going to pay off for your band in the long run with meaningful relationships, regional networking and alternative income schemes, or you can quit. There’s a third option, that being praying that some fluke pushes your music to the next level. The thing is you can’t really count on your songwriting being good. Because no matter how many classes you take or hours you put in, the odds are not a ton of people will connect to your work. That’s just how humans are. So you need to evaluate these options and then push from there. It’s the only way.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

The post appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

My Label Model

So as regular readers of this blog know, a fair amount of the content within is basically just my ruminations on various business models that I think make the most sense in the industry as it stands today. The latest iteration of this is my model for record labels. Now I think that a lot of people feel that in 2017 the record label is totally dead and useless, but I strongly disagree. I’ve written before about how labels are in many ways curators of content, but in my eyes it goes a lot further than that and leads to one of the only record label models that makes sense today and a model which I confidently believe can be used as a way to guide the independent label back to the forefront of the industry and be able to help people across the globe come to discover the minutiae of music that people like me love so goddamn much and which we all want to spend our time working together to truly and properly understand.

Long story short – I think that record labels need to have a tiered system. It is utterly useless and impossible to have a label start and be successful if you don’t have a strong core band. The independent labels that have the most success are the ones that have a core fanbase who buy everything the label puts out, or at least a core fanbase who are willing to give it all a shot. Now this can manifest itself in several different ways. You can either release records from a single genre or scene, you can try and release in a unique format, generally put a lot of effort into presentation or alternatively you could tie everything into a cause. The point being – there’s a lot of different shit that you can use in order to determine a unique entry point into the scene, and that’s fairly obvious, that’s how any business needs to work. I think it’s when you sit down and try to take that to the next level that things can start to become interesting.

See – while it certainly takes a longass time to generate a record label that has any sort of fanbase it’s going from there that you are going to be able to find something to build up your brand significantly. You use the regular income that you have established by having a brand in order to start to produce more stuff in a broader spectrum of music. Much like wit a band you need to be aware of your different significant market segments and figure out how to cater to each of them. In this case with the tiered system your market segments are essentially your core fans, who you have to hold on to as much as possible, your secondary draws, the people who started to find out about you because of your place in the scene but don’t subscribe to your type of music enough to stay deeply committed, and finally the folks peripherally aware of you who might buy a release once in a while. Of course you need to figure out how to find people who don’t know about you at all, but you also need to reflect on how your releases target those three key groups.

With market segmentation in mind you also need to determine what makes a labels model effective. In many cases its about having a regular source of income, which here is represented by that core group of fans. I think it’s important to codify that core group of fans though by trying to get them to adhere to some sort of subscription service. Then the label starts to have the sort of business model that makes a lot more sense and which will be able to guide their music and work forward in a much more sustainable way. Furthermore – once you’ve been able to establish a certain continued income then it’s going to become a lot more interesting for people to buy in to what is going on here and work for a more sustainable and effective future. It’s by working through opportunities like thee that people start to become interested in a label. Remember that there is also marketing value in unique selling points, and something like this could very much be used for that.

By the same token I think that continuing to regularly expand the sorts of deals you have can be incredibly useful. For example – one thing I like to offer with record labels that I work with is a program that helps to clear out warehouse stock where large orders are rewarded with tons of free goods. Of course the free goods come from chunks of the back catalog that aren’t worth anything anymore. This way the label wins out by clearing storage space and the customer wins by getting extra stuff and maybe even will discover a new band they like, thus giving the artist a little more money to play with in the long run. These are all systems that can be fairly tricky to actualize but they are also ones that have been proven to work, it’s just that few people have the balls to really break out and try and do them.

Be aware too that many label marketing schemes can be shifted over to bands you just need to be a little creative. Yet if you start to look at how some of these larger models work and then bring them over you are going to find that there are some very unique ways to grow what you are doing on that front. None of this is easy, but if you start to use some of these accelerated systems for your label model and realize that with a tiered approach to creating income you are going to immeasurable increase the value of your company then it rapidly can become clear that you are turned on to something beautiful and far more powerful than any old school label could ever properly create.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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A Sense Of Possession In The Industry

One of the things that I love about music is the sense of possession you get out of it. The fact that you can have a record that is your favorite record of all time and no one elses. We all have records in our collection that we are heavily invested in yet none of our friends know about. This can be the case for even big bands. Do you think, for example, Thin Lizzy’s Chinatown is held up as the greatest record of all time by a lot of people? It’s a goddamn good record for sure, but I doubt many would even call it their favorite Thin Lizzy record. That being said, I’m sure there’s one or two people out there who have a deep and personal connection with that record and who listen to it time and time again. And I’m glad for them, because music is about possession. Music is about realizing that sometimes a single record is going to be special to you and no one else and then getting as deep into that as possible, and the best part is that for most dedicated music communities this is more the norm than a weird anomaly.

I think that in truly dedicated music cultures this leads to a sort of collectors mentality similar to baseball card collectors. That’s why we find no end of coffee table books, unique pieces of merchandise and massive vinyl collections. A lot of people like to get a sense of possession about one band and then try and find ways to showcase that passion so they can share it with everyone else. This can be for anyone from an underground band like Vektor who have a surprisingly massive megafan base, to someone like Chicago. The idea being that certain groups have somehow created an iconography that can be incredibly powerful and attract people to spend thousands of dollars on a single band in order to help demonstrate their passion. It goes beyond fandom, though that certainly is a part of it, but I think it’s something else entirely.

See in many cases it’s not just because these people are superfans, or at least it’s something a little more precise than that. Superfans can manifest themselves in many ways, for example I fly literally all over the world to see SubRosa, but I don’t really have a ton of SubRosa merch on display in my home. I own all their vinyl and a few pieces of merch but by looking through my stuff you wouldn’t think the band consider me to be one of their biggest fans. The people taking possession are the folks who go out of their way to showcase their fandom around their house, be it with signed guitars, framed records, coffee table books and much more. It’s important to understand this distinction and then start to think about how that informs the way that bands should present themselves and how that informs how people like to participate in music. Thy participate in this because they want this thing to be purely theirs and theirs alone. Do you see what I’m getting at?

It’s not a question of much more beyond giving people something for them alone to latch on to. It’s the moment where providing all of that weird merch starts to pay off and you begin to understand why the music industry is so attractive. It’s attractive because it gives us a place to live out our fantasies and shows us that we can touch peoples lives to the point that they change their entire mode of living because of what an artist has to say, and not only that ,but they will change their lifestyle for years on end because they are in love with what a particular band had to say. It’s this love that drives the whole thing forward and what we need to tap in to as fans of the music and people trying to sell music. You want to give your audience the sense that this beautiful thing we have belongs exclusively to them. People want to realize that their passion, run through the lens of an artist, is truly special, and they should because it is.

Realize that this sort of possession doesn’t have to just belong to a certain band too. It can belong to a whole genre or even just a label. Look at all the people who have decked out their homes with New York hardcore merch or are total SubPop junkies, covering their walls in Melvins posters. You want to be able to tap into thise fans who feel that their passion for the music is one of a kind and then give them the outlets that they need in order to help continue to actualize that. That’s the entire reason people get into independent music. The stuff that was being forced down their throats wasn’t for them and they wanted to feel special. So what do they do? They uncover the beautiful side of their passion and thus invest a tn of money into the art. Most people aren’t willing to do this so we need to value the ones who are and then be able to cultivate it with even more goodies that honor their passion.

In an industry of broken hearts and fall aparts there is something inherently good about catering to the dedicated nerd, the person who cares about nothing more than finding their soul in the music and going from there. Far too often artists are dismissive of fans and don’t appreciate the fact that their entire being is define by what their favorite musicians have to say. It’s all about the love for the music and about the desire to do something more with lives that often feel broken and cut short. So if we can cater our work so that people realize the personal significance it has to them then why not? It’s only going to work in our favor in the years to come.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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