James Moore's Blog, page 74

What Makes A Good Independent Music Festival?

So with the announcement of the Hellfest lineup this year there is, as with every major festival announcement, some controversy as to the quality of the lineup. Hellfest is of course one of the biggest events in the annual metal calendar and I want to use it as an inspiration to discuss what makes a good music festival lineup. I want to be very clear that I’m talking about festivals where the tunes are the main attraction and it isn’t crossed over with anything else. Of course the lineups you are going to want for say a wine festival will be very different from, say, the lineup you want for a beachside party festival. This isn’t what that’s about – this is about festivals that try to represent a scene or movement. With the blossoming of the American festival scene recently there have been more and more festivals that ended up being busts, obviously we need to work together to counteract that. There’s a lot to pick apart here so lets get right down to it.

First of all, you need to realize why people go to festivals. Most of the time it’s not to see bands that they could realistically go watch in a club for a tenth of the price. Getting a bunch of those in a room isn’t going to make it interesting for people. This goes double for fests made up almost entirely of local bands – their draws overlap. The difference in the amount of people you’re going to get for four locals as opposed to ten is minimal. The same goes for the amount of people you’re going to get in a four band touring package as opposed to an 8 band combo package. Yeah it could be cool if the headliners for both are huge and compatible, but most of the time you’re just going to be stuck with your thumb up your ass. People go to festivals to see a couple major badass bands and then watch their favorite smaller acts play a big stage. You need to have once in a lifetime offers with bands in environments you might never otherwise get a chance to see.

In other words, you need to pitch the experience. You need to show that it’s not just seeing some mid level touring bands in a room with a bunch of other mid level touring bands but rather a chance to see a really cool unique set of bands being supported by a bunch of mid level touring bands. That’s why something like Psycho Las Vegas works so well. Sure they have a bunch of small acts, but they also augment the lineup with groups who are playing in America for the first time or bands who people never thought they’d even get a chance to see. You need to layer in bands from times forgot, or groups who have a ridiculous amount of hype if you want there to be a real interest in what you’ve got going on. If you are limited by budget then try and put in a unique environment, like Shadow Woods which takes place in the middle of a childrens camp in Maryland. It’s a once in a lifetime experience and a unique place to see a show – which is why the festival has hundreds of people who swear by it.

Obviously this can all be helped by having a wide variety of bands too. Look at something like Roskilde Fest in Denmark which has a ridiculous amount of stages so that you can check out stuff across all genres. Even festivals that were meant to initially define one genre, like Hellfest, have started to evolve to show that they can embrace a 21st century mindset. People don’t just listen to one genre anymore, they want to be able to access a little more than just, say, underground Atlanta hip hop. Instead, in this example, a broader swathe of hip hop being represented might help. As sick as your lineup might be for a specific genre, every festival needs to be colored with extra bits and pieces that showcase a lineup that has enough diversity to remain exciting. Otherwise we wind up in an echo chamber and artificially limit how big our events can be. After all – there are only so many folk metal fans in the world.

Your average festival is going to be defined by what makes it memorable. Seeing a bunch of bands who hit the major markets twice a year is not what is going to make a festival worth going back to. While this can be fought to some degree by having an extremely high concentration of these sorts of bands, you’re still going to find yourself hitting some natural limits. It’s why a lot of these festival headlined by groups with eighty thousand Facebook fans don’t work out. Beyond that – what makes it memorable can’t be a bad thing. It can’t have a good lineup but then be impossible to get too. Destination festivals definitely do have a place in the music scene today but they have become highly competitive and almost impossible to get invited too unless you have a serious in. While destination festivals may be the future, odds are most fests you go to won’t have the funding to do that – so you have to step back and try to figure out what you really want out of that experience.

Long story short – there is a lot that goes into making a festival great and not just another day of standing up in to hot weather to watch bands you’ve already seen a dozen times. Going to festivals is a hard thing to do and it’s a lot to expect people to want to spend all day at it. So instead you need to figure out how you can incentivize people to come out. There’s a lot of festivals out there these days, it’s not enough to just assume that you can get some cool bands together, people need a bit more motivation than that in a crowded market and watching people come to terms with this frustrating and often brutal reality is going to be a truly fascinating part of the festival scene as we progress in the next few years.

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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360 Deals And Indie Bands

360 deals are, whether you like it or not probably going to be the future of the music industry, or at least record labels, and honestly, I’m still unsure whether or not that’s a good thing. A 360 deal is when the record label gets a cut not just of the CD sales, but also merchandise, and sometimes even booking. As far as I can tell, this is pretty much the standard for major labels, sometimes even extending into the artists personal earnings as a way to get a cut from endorsements or public appearances that the artist might have hanks to their position as an artist on a major label. I know that to some of you punk guys this makes a lot of sense, but if you step back and really think about it and what it means then it starts to make sense. Many of these labels are putting millions of dollars into big name artists, and they need those artists to fund other projects they might want to develop. The fact is, major labels are just trying to grow the scene too.

Obviously a 360 deal has a lot of advantages for the label. It means that they get more money off of their clients and also creates a bit more dependency from the artist on the label. It means that they can get them nice and locked in and keep the artist to themselves to develop. After all, the big problem a lot of these labels face is that the artists either go out of their way to screw them over to make more money for themselves or that run off to a more enticing label offer. It means that the record label is in a position to be the complete dispenser of everything the artist could need, odds are they will even go so far as to get the artist a producer and manager of their choosing and sometimes even back charge them for that on top of the actual fees those people request. Major labels aren’t necessarily evil, but they definitely have a lot of pressure on them which can cause them to do weird things and make poor choices every now and then.

Now record label people will tell you this comes from a place of care, and many of them probably feel that way. After all – they need to replace the lost revenue from the early 2000s crash of the industry somehow. It was that lost revenue that used to allow the labels to take gambles on new acts and help scenes to grow. They aren’t sitting there with their thumbs up their asses wondering why people aren’t buying CD’s anymore – they are well past that. Rather they are trying to figure out how to find more revenue in order to invest in new artists. They want to regain that monopoly they used to have, but after all the sketchiness of the aughties it seems unlikely that anyone is willing to trust them, most new bands place more faith in the new model of the music industry rather than any old fashioned broken ideas that frankly never really worked that well in the first place. So they aren’t so much trying to rebuild an old broken system as they are trying to craft an exciting new one.

From the artists perspective the 360 deal can be both a good and a bad thing. On the one hand it’s helpful because it means you can recoup easier. It also means that a label is going to be a little more willing to invest money in you because they know that they can count on a variety of revenue streams rather than just CD sales. It makes sense, most bands don’t even focus on CD sales that much anymore, it’s gotten kind of pointless from their perspective, they don’t sell hat well and are mostly just an excuse to tour. It also makes sense for artists because odds are the labels that have set up 360 deals are going to get merch for cheaper than the artist could and are going to be able to give more advice about what a band should be featuring on its merch stand. Simply put – it puts you both in a position to have a much higher gross income. Of course, as the astute reader will have noticed, the term ‘gross’ was the key word in that last sentence.

As is with most indie labels, 360 deals are a far off almost forgotten notion. For artists on indie labels, having control of their merch sales is how they make money. Beyond that many artists buy stuff wholesale from their label and sell it while out on the road – another key moneymaking tactic. Yet in 2016 some 360 deals are so intrusive they even try to tax this all important tour income. Suddenly, if you’re an indie artist with a limited outreach and fifty grand in debt to the label then you are going to start running into some very real issues. You’re going to find yourself choking out under crippling debt. Then if you somehow make the money back you’re still going to b stuck making a fifth of wha you might otherwise, if you’re lucky. Now, this can be fine if you got a huge advance to pay out all your people and are getting massive label support throughout your career, but I think you can also see how it could get out of hand fast.

So – in the end, I guess I’m just pretty ambivalent with regards to 360 deals. While I definitely get where the label is coming form I think that artists should be hesitant when signing them and get a whole slew of things guaranteed to them in writing beforehand. I think hat they can represent a great moneymaking opportunity for all involved, but also suggest a bleak future where we return to the monopolies of major labels, a notion I’m not sure I’m very comfortable with. As with all things in this crazy old industry of ours, we’ll have to see how it plays out, it could be very very good or, more likely, very very bad.

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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Recoupment And You

I wanted to take a minute today to talk more about record contracts – this time in particular recoupment. Recoupment is a fancy way of saying “You are screwed forever” but not necessarily, only if you’re dumb and don’t properly take advantage of what your label has to offer. Recoupment is one of the most important things in the music industry and the artists who don’t understand it only come off as entitled. Instead you need to have a solid understanding of this side of things and realize that this is the crux by which the entire record label system works. Whether or not that’s a good system is a talk for a different day, though I believe it is. The point being – this is the system we have and there’s not much any individual can do to change it now. So let’s dive in together and try to better understand recoupment and the significance that it should have for you and your band – at literally any phase of your career.

So what is recoupment? Essentially when a label invests in you, they need to see that money back. The label doesn’t start paying you until they get that money back. They are basically providing an interest free loan and providing you with things like an advance to pay for the studio, PR, marketing and all that other good stuff. After that point you get a percentage of the royalties and the label keeps the vast majority, after all that’s how they make their money. Depending on the label the amount you need to recoup could be anything from a few hundred dollars to a few hundred thousand. If you’re looking to work with a mid level label that is making real and tangible progress then you’re probably going to be looking at recouping somewhere between five to ten thousand dollars. Labels need to make money and they are investing a whole hell of a lot. It’s a harsh world out there and one we all need to take some time to evaluate.

The amount you need to recoup isn’t fixed by the way. It can grow through various means. One might be if you need to get CD’s reprinted on the labels dime. Another easy way to incur costs is through needing tour support. Any time a label does a service for you, they are going to want to see some cash back, because those services are just scratching the surface of what they do. The huge percentage they take of your royalties is crucial because that’s how they pay folks like those all important A&R guys and manage to keep their accountants, PR people, radio guys and various other staff paid and care for – various staff that you would need to hire out on your own if you didn’t have a label. A huge part of what you are paying for with a record label is convenience, the convenience of not having to put together your entire team and maybe even have a label who take care of you and help you to make sure that your career is at least somewhat on the right path.

Now think about how crazy the whole concept of recoupment is, and how cool it is that the labels are doing this. In most cases it’s essentially an interest free loan that you can take out more money on if you need it. Think about how weird and silly that is. That’s not a good business model for the labels, but it’s what they do because they love the music. This is also why you need to be so leery eyed of major labels because they are going to try to screw you over because they need the money and have no qualms with bands being in debt. That means there is a whole lot of madness that you need to pick apart if you want to properly survive doing this. It means that record labels are in a weird position, and when you consider that position, sitting on interest free loans and hoping that the percentage they gets back in the end pays off then you start to realize why record labels have gotten such a bad reputation over the past few years – simply put, they are just as desperate as you.

We are at a point where most bands owe money to their label for some reason or another and labels are getting frustrated having to keep lend money out. That’s why they are stingier than ever when it comes to things like tour support because they need that income coming in. Instead they find themselves in a world where bands make less money than ever and their main product, CD’s barely sell. This is also why 360 deals, where the label gets a cut of merchandise (And sometimes even booking) in addition to album sales) are more and more popular. While the margins on shirts may be smaller than that of CD’s, (Usually a 300% markup as opposed to a 1000% one) they sell a lot more, so it makes sense to want to get a piece of that action. I think that the growing trend of labels getting exclusivity on a couple of shirt designs is very rapidly going to devolve into 360 deals across the board. I honestly don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing yet!

Suffice to say – I hope this makes coherent sense and gives you a look into what record labels are doing when it comes to recoupment and why so much of this can seem so fucked. Recoupment is the crux of this whole thing and if you’re not willing to play by that rule then can pretty confidently say that you’re not going to find the success you want or deserve. In fact, if you don’t believe in recoupment good luck finding any label that will sign you. That’s just how things are these days and expecting to get that loan without any help from the label side is a weird pipe dream. Ground yourself in reality and things just might end up working out.

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 Ridiculousness Of Record Labels

I know it’s hard to get a record deal, trust me, I’ve tried with countless deserving bands and ended up with nothing. I’ve worked countless hours pitching to guys in labels I count as friends and getting turned down. This isn’t always obvious and sometimes it can be a veritable sumbitch. There’s a reason for this though, actually a set of very good reasons. Which is why I want you to think about something for a second. I know that’s hard for a lot of you, but please bear with me. Think about how utterly difficult and ridiculous record deals are from the perspective of the label. When you think about it in this way it becomes patently obvious why on the independent level especially expecting to get a record deal is the peak of entitlement and is going to make you look like nothing more than a pompous ass. I know that’s a little crass and maybe too harsh for some of you, but it’s time to take the fucking kiddie gloves off guys.

When you are asking for a label to sign you, even a small one with no A&R or advances you’re still looking at them investing at least a couple thousand bucks into you assuming you count PR and production costs. If you’re looking at a label that does a substantial amount of PR and actively helps to grow your band then the minimum is probably more like five or six grand. Once we get to the phases of advances and music videos being paid for by the label suddenly we are looking at ten to twenty thousand dollars of expenses, minimum. That last option is what most people view as typical of a label! Now think about that. How often in the rest of your life do you ask for someone to give you that kind of money? Furthermore, how often in the rest of your life do you ask for someone to give you that kind of money on the merits of ‘The music is good’ and ‘It will probably sell hella copies’? Never! So think about that. I know you’re investing a lot of money and time into your art, but your dad invested lots of money and time into his baseball card collection and where did that get him? A box of cardboard in the basement.

Now I’m not attacking the merits of recording music or collecting baseball cards, I just want you to think about it for a minute. I want you to think about how so many artists expect so much cash for their art. I’m not saying they don’t deserve it but I m saying that you need to think about what you’re asking for before you go for it. You need to realize that regardless of anything if you’re getting on a label worth shit then people are relying on you selling at least a few hundred copies of whatever you’ve recorded. Now, if you’ve only sold maybe a hundred of any record ever you are going to see why this can be a problem, even at a low level. If you get to a higher level then you understand why you’re going to need to sell thousands of copies. Of course, that’s pften unrealistic in todays music industry which is why we end up with 360 deals. Now 360 deals are a topic for a different day, but I hope you have started to understand the logic now.

You need to think about how much the labels are putting up and that they are counting on you. So now think what happens when these selfsame bands fail to do key things like, I don’t fucking know tour around the record? Give the record appropriate lead time? Do interviews for the record? The label is expecting you to have all your ducks in a row on a variety of different levels. As we all know people in bands are not necessarily the most professional people all the time and can be suffering from any combination of mental illnesses, delusions, incompetence or sheer laziness. For example, if you sign a band who make great music but are assholes in person and in interviews that going to catch up with them. They might sell a bunch of units on the strength of the music, at least initially but that sort of success rarely lasts beyond the most superficial stages. As a label you need to be certain that any band you are investing in isn’t going to fuck you over, and sometimes that’s a big gamble to have to make on relative strangers.

Finally you need to realize that most labels view individual bands as a long term investment. I know that artists want to get one album deals as much as possible these days, but unfortunately that just can’t be the case for a lot of these labels. If you’re looking at the bigger independent ones especially you’ve got something like a twenty five thousand dollar upfront investment for a small band – an investment they know they probably won’t make back. But they know that if they do the legwork for the first record then they can usually push something greater for the next record and start to make money then. People don’t seem to realize that labels are in it for the long haul. They are often putting a lot of money on the line and doing so with the prayer that it doesn’t blow up in their faces. Think about that – you would probably never do that! Record labels are insane, you gotta embrace that if you want to move forward.

So I hope this sort of makes sense. Getting a record label is no longer just a question of having good tunes. In a hyper exposed age where anything you do or say can and will be held against you it’s hard to want to put your money on the line. Record labels take big risks with the hope for a similarly sized payoff and a lot of the time it ends up working out, but sometimes you are left choking on a bitter pill to swallow. They need to be careful with who they sign because if they aren’t making money they are pretty much screwed. If we can’t go out and embrace this simple suffering then I think we might have a whole new problem on our hands.

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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On The Importance Of Pushing Extremes

So here’s a weird thought experiment for you to play with, one that might force you to re-evaluate some of your thinking if you’re so inclined to take it with me. I think we can largely agree that social media is fundamentally a bad thing for politics since it leads to echo chambers and makes it really hard for people on different sides of the political spectrum to see each other as anything other than crude caricatures. I mean – that was a driving factor in this last election and has forced us all to come to terms with something a little grim and twisted. So – whose to say that this selfsame echo chamber isn’t negatively impacting our music consumption? Who isn’t to say that we are at a point where everyone invested in music is so lost in their little subgenre that to be truly popular is really just a pipe dream. Obviously the days of platinum selling bands are all but over, but I’m talking about something more than that. I’m talking about a world where only the most extreme ridiculous versions of subgenres make it out of their bubble.

I feel this way, for example, about my clients in Tengger Cavalry. They were able to break out of the relatively small folk metal sphere by being something so weird and unexpected that they managed to garner the interest of folks across the globe. People who never would have listened to a folk metal band tuned in and started coming to shows for no other reason than that it as an extreme example of the genre. Its the same with pop music, the videos that seem to trickle down and be the most relevant to the most amount of people are the ones that are utterly ridiculous. Just look at Psy’s Gangam Style. No one cares about the song or the rest of Psy’s career – but by god did that ridiculous fucking video get seen by pretty much everyone on the face of the earth. After about a month everyone went back to not giving a shit about K-Pop. Sure he probably won enough lifelong fans to ensure a life of luxury, but that’s how it works now.

In the twenty first century it is. for all intents and purposes. impossible to stay relevant in the public eye on a high level and not fall apart. There are too many scandals and inquiries brought on by social media for all but a select group of pop stars to be able to survive. Countless stars blow up and then fall to pieces for no other reason than that they made the wrong type of social media post. More and more people are blowing up to the top of the charts, charming ten thousand people into being life long fans and then fading away, with their handful of fans funding their art for the rest of their career. I’m not saying that’s wrong per say but merely reflective of the times. And why do these bands become popular? Because they pushed through the echo chamber, and it’s that echo chamber which makes the music industry so hard to succeed in at a high level these days.

The echo chamber is the single most frustrating thing you have to deal with in music because it’s so limiting. It’s relatively easy to appeal to the hundred thousand odd people who are really invested into your niche subgenre. Getting out of that and addressing fans who go beyond is the struggle. That’s why people like Katy Perry have these lavish videos with all sorts of ridiculous props – it’s the only way to keep people clicking. Hell, that’s the same reason why Metallica put out a video ever two hours for 16 hours straight earlier this week – they wanted to push the extremes and try to get people outside of their core group of fans talking about it. That’s why creativity from a management perspective is the single most important thing, because it allows you to push those boundaries and find where you fit in as an artist. For most bands you need to kick down the door and then make off with what you can before it all blows up in your face.

I’m not saying its impossible to have a long career in music, or more specifically a long career as a primary force in your genre of choice – both of these things are in fact very possible and relatively easy to do without much pressure. That is just established through longevity and not being an asshole. It’s the rapid rise to fame though that can be a struggle sometimes. Going viral is both a blessing and a curse but it’s not impossible to go viral multiple times in your career. Just look at how an artist like Prince mastered it before it was even a term. On a similar note (And fellow 2016 death) David Bowie did it for even longer, constantly reinventing himself and showing us that you can maintain your core sound and still grow as an artist. There was a lot that both of those great men did that kept their music and image fresh, but they made certain to keep renewing themselves in order to ensure that their success wasn’t just the flash in the pan thing that so many of their peers suffered from.

In many ways we’ve always had the echo chamber, it’s just that in the era of social media we have so much more of a vocabulary to describe it. We see it happening because suddenly the amount of likes our Facebook page gets starts to stagnate. Suddenly it doesn’t seem so easy to dominate the charts because we’ve hit our upper limit of fans. It’s something every artist must deal with and they must reinvent themselves if they want any hope of managing to find a place that makes sense and remains authentic. Otherwise they are just another brick in the wall. It’s easy to get lost in it and caught up in the lies that’s why we need to look to our heroes, folks who remained fresh and realized that just because you’re big you don’t need to stop working.

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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Cultural Sadness And The Music Industry

America is in decline and so pop music is going to have to implode, or at least change forever. Now I know that’s a pretty weird and crazy way to start an article so I want to justify it. I know that as a general rule the quality of life in the US is higher than it ever was before and that we have the most civil liberties we have ever had, and these are good things. However these number are skewed by cities, cities who, as our recent election showed us, really have no clue what life is like outside of cities. I’m writing this article while riding a bus through New Jersey to visit my mother on her birthday and I see heroin country. I see storefronts falling apart and buildings growing old and looking grody. Families shopping at the dollar store because they can’t afford anything else and a nation of innocents falling victim to a pharmaceutical industry that is frankly evil. So why would we ever want to have a fucking positive pop record? As luck would have it – we don’t.

This isn’t an article about how pop is in decline because of the growing prominence of streaming and the subgenrefication of the music industry. That’s certainly a part of it but here I’m really talking more about the frankly terrifying state of the world and what it’s going to mean for how popular music feels. It was not so long ago that Pharrel Williams dominated the charts with his track “Happy” now as we look at formerly party hearty bands like Foridia Georgia Line putting out a record of retrospective ballads it seems increasingly clear that we need something very different in modern America if we want there to even be a prevailing zeitgeist in the popular music that defines our culture (Whether or not that’s a good thing is a conversation for a different day) then we need to be very careful and watch out for some jarring changes coming up very soon . The question remains, are the days of lighthearted happy pop music done for?

If you just look at some of the biggest pop stars of our generation they seem to be going towards darker music. Not only does this explain the prolonged success of artists like Lorde and Lana Del Rey, but also the bitter shifts in the music of party girls like Katy Perry and Kesha. The lead singles from both young womens new records suggest a much darker and more world weary twist in their music, to say nothing of the sorrowful vibes brought on by the new material from artists like Lady Gaga. Despite what we might wish, these artists have come to reflect the popular opinion, and though we may have these big beautiful cities, the heart of America is very sick and isn’t ready for these sorts of changes. It’s a heart that can’t help but to suffer and which has been drowning under the suicides, drug addictions and economic downturns that have torn it apart. It can feel like there is no hope in modern America and this shift in pop music proves it.

Of course we also see this on the underground. In recent years it has regularly been the doom metal bands who dominate the ‘Best Of’ lists in metal, and in indie scenes its the sorrowful emo pop punk brooding of acts like Modern Baseball that has dominated the scene. People aren’t happy and they want something more visceral to latch on to There’s a reason that pop artists seem to represent their happiness as a sort of deluded fantasy. It’s not the sort of thing we are supposed to easily latch on to. Rather, happiness is like a pipe dream – which is exactly why Khemmis is on top of Decibels top 40 for 2016 and not say… Valient Thorr. It feels like as a culture we have reached the end of the good times and now we need to buckle in for what appears to be at least four years of fucking human suffering under trickle down racism and fucked up neo liberal financial structures.

I’m not trying to be a Debbie downer here, I’m just a journalist trying to be a sort of conduit of the American experience from reality to paper. Like you I worry about money and stress about where things could end up in a few years. I just think that pop music has irrevocably changed because of our nationwide depression. While this is certainly a good thing for my beloved heavy metal I’m not sure if it’s good for the rest of the world. For pop music though it could lead to changes, and as I see there are two paths. Either we plunge down deeper into the world of fantasy and pop music becomes this weird unreal portrait, a sort of decadent progression on Norman Rockwell – we’ve seen this already in the Reagan dominated glam era of the 80s. Alternatively we could just see a rise in dark music – but again, we saw this in the Reagan era with the rise of extreme music. This suggests to me that music is going to split off ,there will be no middle ground because we have seen the death of normal and we have no choice but to carry on.

In the end this means that we need to continue propping each other up. There never was any love for the DIY scene anyway and we just have to fight as we always have in order to find a space in which we might not be perpetually suffering. But now art is going to have to be more extreme than ever before. In the words of Rage Against The Machine it is time to take the power back and despite what you might think there still is a way forward. As the 80s showed us DIY music is very much that path. Now we have to be creative, think outside the box and figure out if independent music will fight or fall. It’s not up to any one of us but the collective attitude, and I’m no doctor, but in a scene increasingly worried about personal politics the prognosis looks grim.

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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Getting Industry People To Attend Your Shows

Don’t be disappointed when big label people come to your show, ever. Don’t be disappointed when big label people don’t show up to your gigs, even if they say they are going to. No one cares and everyone is overwhelmed, so you need to chill out and realize that no matter how much suffering you might face there is still going to be a hint of salvation. There are things you can do though to deal with this struggle, the challenge of getting the music industry to take an interest in all you have to do. Most people are going to dip out at the last minute no matter what but sometimes you can find someone who actually bothers to show up, someone who gets that there is a way forward and we can all win. Yet for now, when no one cares, or at least no one important cares, take these lessons to heart for the next time you try to get an industry executive coming out to your show to pass judgment upon your band and they fail to show up.

Remember, a lot of these folks don’t show up, not because they don’t care, but because they are ridiculously fucking busy, because they are overwhelmed with work and drowning under an industry that every few years goes crazy. When I’m on the phone for 5 or 6 hours in a day I’m not exactly thrilled to be going to a show later that night, I need some time for me. I try not to stand people up but sometimes shit just happens – that’s how it is. These people are doing that every day for years and they need you to be patient with them. You can’t just be an entitled fuck who gets upset. That’s going to make them less likely to want to work with you. Time and time gain shit like this falls through and that’s painful to watch. Unfortunately we have to deal with it as we try and navigate our way forward in this industry. You just need to be cool about it and realize that there are worse things that could happen, don’t be a dick, just try and embrace it.

More important though is trying to convince them to show up in the first place. Asides from obvious things, like offering to buy drinks and putting them on the guest list you need to incite your industry friend to come with genuine friendship. Try to avoid putting pressure on them, instead tell them it will be a good time, not just another boring show that they get dragged out to for work. I go to a fuck ton of shows for work and sometimes I kind of hate it. But if I have a friend ask me to make my way out and rather than ask for a write up or to have me manage them is just friendly and positive then I am way ore likely to want to help them. People in positions of power in the industry get asked for favors all of the time, and their mere presence is a huge favor. Don’t be so pretentious as to think that you deserve that all the time.

You can’t take anything for granted, and as much as I know it should be obvious for a guy who says he’s going to show up to show up it’s not always that easy. Being patient is key, you need to embrace what other people are about, they don’t want to be pressured and anything you do to that effect is only going to disappoint them and further alienate you from them. You need to try and look at it from their perspective after all. For example – if you want a record deal you are basically asking for what is at least a several thousand dollar investment with no proof that it’s going to work out. If someone asked you to give them five grand after watching their band, wouldn’t you feel a little weird? Would you even bother to go see their band? That’s why you need to do these things in a delicate and friendly manner, you can’t just assume that everyone wants a piece of the action that your band represents all of the time.

I recommend you do what I do and just ask for advice in a friendly positive way. People want to feel important and they want to feel like you care about them and want to be a part of what they are creating. You need to consult with people constantly to show that you are passionate about the work and want to follow them. You need to admire these people, grow with them and show that you are part of a greater collective. If you make people feel like their time is valuable and that you honor them then you are going to start to find a path into their hearts. It’s the same way with making friends with anyone you admire – you can’t fawn but you need to show that you respect them. You can’t try and suck their dick but you can show that you see what they have done and you want to actively engage in what they have up to offer The music industry is a place where a lot of people are mean or talk shit, don’t be one of those people but instead show you want to help.

The music industry is not a place where you can be entitled and you can’t assume that people owe you their presence. People don’t owe you shit and if they so much as express an interest in your band you should be incredibly grateful. Getting industry people to show up to your events is not easy, these people are in high demand and they know it. Don’t feel offended, just embrace what they have to deal with and do your best to make their lives easier. We are all in this together and in a world where many industry folks are jaded and miserable we need to watch out for them and realize what they have to offer us.

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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What Laws Your Independent Bands Needs To Watch Out For

So in the wake of the election, and at the time of writing it seeming obvious that a certain orange rapist is going to win it all, I wanted to talk about laws and the music industry. Now I already talked about how getting a prenup for your band and taking care of the legality on that end is generally a waste of time for pretentious dipshits, but I also want to talk about laws that have a greater effect on your band. Obviously we are all thinking about politics right now and I want to pick apart how these things can affect your band in a tangible way – even if it feels like we are so often operating outside of the common rule of man in the independent music scene, there are a few things that it helps to be aware of, even as we try and fight the man and create a sense of freedom for those of us who feel oppressed by the day to day madness of a Western world that seems to be getting ever more painful and restrictive with every passing hour.

First up – cops. Fucking respect them. I hate the police as much as anyone else, but trust me, if you are nice to cops then your odds of your punk house/art space lasting more than a few weeks will radically improve. If you give them free coffee, treats or other goodies then cops are going to be a little bit more sympathetic towards you. Similarly, you need to treat them kindly and compassionately in your day to day – they are people too and people are shitty to them in 2016. If you’re nice to cops (And y’know, white and not too smelly) then things are probably going to go better for you and your shows. I know this sounds like a white person apologizing for police brutality, but in terms of independent music I’ve seen it work time and time again. Keep an eye out after shows too when they come to check out why there’s a mass of people outside a supposedly abandoned warehouse. Most of the time cops don’t want to make more arrests than they have to or start trouble, have faith in that. I know that cops are fundamentally bad, I agree with that – but this is the world we live in and we need to just live with it and let our own projects grow.

Second – zoning laws. I know they suck. I know that sometimes you can’t do otherwise for your punk house. I’ve lived in those houses, I’m with you brother. It sucks, and the government just doesn’t understand – Trumps America especially won’t understand. We need autonomy in independent music for this to make sense – but as it happens we don’t have this. Again – we can make strides in this, just look at how independent voices were able to encourage Bernie Sanders to open up an all ages art space in Burlington. There is a way to find punk rock sovereignty in the 21st century, even through traditional means. Just because I’m an anarchist doesn’t mean that I don’t think that we shouldn’t work within the system to dismantle it. You need to respect your communities, if you want to be taken seriously then you can’t be the shithead who thinks that the rules don’t apply to you and you can make loud noises whenever you want.

Furthermore, realize that your standard laws probably are going to end up applying to you once you get to a high enough point. I was weirded out too when I reached a sufficiently high point in my career that I had to fill out W-2’s, but that’s just part of how it goes. After a certain point you are going to need to realize this is just a weird reality. Out of underground music you will be forced to come to terms with legitimacy. In fact – it’s harder to hide your income from the scumbags in charge when you are in bands and stuff because by default you are announcing that you will be out making money when you tour etc. Sure you can fudge the numbers but the people in the IRA aren’t fucking stupid. They will be able to come after you, far quicker than I think you or I might expect. The music industry is one that is often plagued by laws that don’t understand how small the margins are, you are going to need to respect that – which leads to our most important point.

Respect. Fucking. Visas. Obviously the visa system in the US is totally fucked up and makes it borderline impossible to get in the country as a touring musician, but you need to respect it. You can’t count on it and you can’t expect it to work in your favor. In terms of Murphy’s Law visas are something that will always go wrong. I know it’s a bitch but you have to deal with it. Bands get sent home at the border all the time, it’s an unfortunate bleak reality that is only getting worse – and not just because of Trump. New legislation is passed all the time that fucks us over and shows us that time and time again we are going to suffer for our art. It costs thousands of dollars to get bands into this country and it’s a frustrating clusterfuck. Yeah there are ways around it but I’m not telling you about them, I don’t want to go to prison! It’s such a nightmare I can’t even tell you which are legitimate.

The point I think you see that I am trying to make is that you need to be respectful. I know that you are trying to be a rock and roll rebel – there is a legitimacy to that, but there is also a legitimacy to not having your shit shut down all the time. There is a legitimacy to following the ideals of that classic film Punk SLC, and realizing you can work within a system to take it down. I know that laws suck and cops ruin your shows but in the end there is only so much that you can do. You have to realize that this world is not sympathetic to the needs of the independent scene, we all need to embrace that, figure out our lives and then move forward. I know it sucks, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

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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So You Have $650 To Spend On Your Band…

So my roommate Jonny came up to me today and asked me, “My band has $650 to throw around, what do we spend it on?” This is a common situation bands are in – a situation that a lot of us have to deal with with our own bands and embrace piece by bloody piece. Of course, my response was immediate and final – “PR dude” There is no greater investment that you need to make for your band other than PR. You can pay for a consultant or a manager or whatever, but all they are going to tell you is to invest in PR. It’s the one thing that will get your name out there and make people more likely to come to your shows and make it easy for people to access your music and want to attend your shows. People forget that PR is where they need to be investing, not gear or merch, because if no one knows about you then why would they bother to do anything around your band.

Now don’t get me wrong – part of why I told Jonny to invest in PR is that I know his band has their shit on lock overall. They have a decent amount of merch, their van is in good repair and they have solid gear (Although at low labels gear should probably be a personal investment) What Jonny’s band doesn’t have is any sort of serious media presence – and that’s why he needs to invest into PR. His band has started to make a name for themselves in the New York scene and has toured the South pretty thoroughly but for a lot of people there isn’t anything tangible about his band because it’s not really on any major media outlets. People have a hard time convincing promoters and stuff to get them on major shows or big labels because the PR game isn’t quite there. I know that sounds a little weird but that’s where we are at in the industry in 2016.

You definitely need to have the basic logistics for your band in place as close to 100% of the time as possible. You need to be aware of what your band is going to need and make sure that that is inline with your objectives. For example if you are only really playing shows within a 100 mile radius of your home odd are you don’t need a van, you can probably make do with your own cars, or maybe someone in the van owns a station wagon. You also need to make sure you have a practice space worked out too, but again odds are you aren’t using band money for that. And of course you need to be able to afford recording. Jonny, I should have mentioned, is sitting on a totally finished full length, so the time is now for him to do PR around a new record. Like I said, his band has everything else pretty much figured out. So once you have those logistics figured out you know that you can go forth and invest in PR without worrying about it being a waste of time.

Of course it could still be a waste of money. Even if your band is ready for PR there are countless companies out there who are going to rip you off. If you don’t pay enough for PR either then you are just going to end up wasting your money on someone who gets you like 3 reviews in shitty publications. That’s a stupid thing to get caught up on and I don’t like seeing perfectly good bands wasting their money on shit that ultimately hurts them. This is why you always need to be talking to the bands in your scene who have done well with PR. Ask who did good for them and go from there. See why they chose who they did and realize that if it worked for them odds are you too can figure it out. Investing in PR is a big step for a lot of band because it’s going to take you to a place where thousands of people start listening to your music if it’s done right but it could also be a pointless investment that just makes you look amateurish and dumb.

It’s the same as with some other key factors in the music industry like labels and managers. If you get a good one – you are going to look cool, professional and together. If you get a bad one… well shit. A lot of the time you don’t totally know what you’re getting until you’re in too deep. The issue is that every band has a different situation and so what might work wonders for one act is going to have a possibility of totally screwing another act over. You need to be aware of that and try to be careful when you dive into anything because you don’t want to accidentally fuck yourself over. The entire industry is so fickle and case by case that any single piece of advice you get as per any company or situation is going to possibly screw you over. That being said, the general lines, IE, getting a manager, a PR company and all that other good stuff is generally true and important. It’s a key way to move forward and figure out a logical path.

So go out and invest in PR. It’s one of the most important things your band will ever do and it’s going to get people far more interested in your band then you might ever expect. It’s the logical next step and the best way to attract the attention of labels, managers and booking agents as well as all those other important industry people we love to talk about on this blog. PR is a vital step in any bands career and if you want people to to take your seriously then you are going to have to do it -even before you start touring. Seriously – who wants to go see a band they have never heard of? And how do you get heard of if you don’t get people to talk about you? Seems like paying for PR is the way to go!

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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Patreon, Allegaeon and Crowdfunding

Soooo Patreon. It’s come up in ugly headlines again and people seem to be hating on it. The issue this time seems to be that Allegaeon think that they deserve some sort of universal basic income for being musicians. This is fucking dumb and shows the same sort of fucking entitled opinions that have ruined so many other bands. Not only do Allegaeon, as far as I can tell, lack the rabid fanbase of a band like Ne Obliviscaris (Although 252 patrons seem to think otherwise) but also the way in which they asked for money seemed totally inappropriate to me and countless other commentators. I’m aware I’m in some ways only adding fuel to the fire but I want to take the time to really pick this apart and give everyone a chance to kind of analyze what Patreon means and if it is truly the future of crowdfunding as we know it or if it’s a weird blip on the radar that’s going to make us all hate music and the music industry more than usual.

The fundamental issue with what Allegaeon is trying to do is that they seem to think that they are entitled to a sort of universal basic income. This is what seems to have provoked the majority of the vitriol. Furthermore – unlike Ne Obliviscaris the band isn’t offering regular content, but rather perks that essentially are saying “I’ll be your best friend” which, in the words of Strongbad, they stopped taking those at Wal Mart forever ago. Essentially – if you want to ask for money regularly from fans, and a lot of it (Allegaeon are hoping for around 300 thousand dollars a year) you can’t make it sound like you are trying to fund your lifestyle but rather your band. This is the issue that led to them failing where Ne Obliviscaris escaped largely unscathed. Sure a lot of people were pissed – but again they were just capitalizing on superfans. I don’t think there are too many people who want Allegaeon touring year round, except maybe their management.

I think there is a way to make Patreon work though and avoid a lot of the associated vitriol. Being in a band costs a hell of a lot of money. We all know this. That sucks. If you ask to help just cover those costs than I think you are going to have a lot more luck than your average beaver. It’s not about making money – it’s about creating regular content. This is an important thing to realize, Patreon isn’t really there to fund your life, if it does that’s just a fun bonus. However, it makes sense why people would want to help their band be able to buy more merchandise, fund more recordings and go on more tours. This is awesome and crucially important to stepping up and beyond in the world. You need funding – we’ve talked about this in depth, so I get why bands want to do it. You just need to be incredibly careful with phrasing so as not to come off as painfully entitled.

Patreon is more there to go out and ask for regular funding so you can put out consistent content. That’s why the model seems to work so well for podcasts and webcasts, those are things that people regularly want to check out and are willing to give a certain amount of money a week for. The fundamental issue is that with the music industry you aren’t expected to put out a record more than once every two years or so – not the weekly releases that define so many of the things that do well on the site. If you want to launch a Patreon be ready for it to require a lot of work on your part, not just fucking skypes with the band. Skyping bands is dumb – nobody is realistically going to care about that beyond a few superfans. It’s cool to service them, but that shouldn’t be the cornerstone of your fucking campaign – you should instead be trying to service them with unique merchandise and truly exciting, one of a kind ideas. I know that sounds hard, but I’m not the one asking people for $200 a month.

Also – please, please, PLEASE make sure you actually have a fanbase before launching your Patreon. People aren’t going to give a shit just because it’s on Patreon. There is nothing sadder than a tragically failed crowdfunding project, seriously. Mish Barber called out Allegaeon for their bullshit and that doesn’t mean that she’s a bitch. I’m sure if the band was working to provide regular content and not sounding so entitled (And showed a better business sense) the might have gotten a little bit more sympathy. You need to be realistic with Patreon, because it’s something that’s really easy to look douchey while doing. If you are pushing for a better tomorrow you need to make sure that today you aren’t making yourself look like a fuckup. You can’t just come off as an entitled kid asking for money, you need to give a piece by piece breakdown if you want any hope of moving forward with this nightmare.

Patreon is a tricky fucking business and no one seems to have quiet nailed it down yet. Eventually someone will land they won’t get think pieces tearing them apart all the time but rather pieces praising them. There is a future in Patreon for musicians, I legitimately believe that – just look at the Bandcamp subscription model, that process that we are, as a culture, not against regular payments to musicians, but we need to make sure that we frame it appropriately and offer enough content that it remains worth it – not just jerking yourself off in the name of making some more money so your girlfriend doesn’t try to break up with you.

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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