James Moore's Blog, page 75

Laws, Lawyers And Stupid Indie Bands

Okay look – your unsigned band isn’t going to make any money. I am aware that this sucks and that it isn’t fair. I’m aware that ‘You can totally make 6 figures writing for TV’. I get that. That’s great. I wish we could all have access to those things. Thing is, pretty much everyone else is googling “How to make money as a musician” too – which is why I don’t write those types of articles, they are overproduced, nigh on worthless bullshit. The ideas are valid but they aren’t really suited for an oversaturated market. I also know that yes, if you want to be a professional in this industry it can often pay to emulate the professionals and try to use advanced marketing techniques to your advantage. The thing is – if you’re not making the money to justify certain expenditures or time investments then guess what? FUCKING DON’T. I see so many bands wasting their time on little things that don’t matter and hurting their ability to work with what does matter and it drives me nuts.

A classic example that fucks with countless bands is thinking that they need all of their legal shit on lock before they can start playing out. Honestly dude, odds are you aren’t going to get fucked over for not having the trademark on your name – and that certainly shouldn’t impact you from starting to play live. If you change your name after a few shows it doesn’t matter, after all it was probably only your friends really watching anyway. To start going out and doing stuff doesn’t require you to have all of your ducks in a row. Sure it would be nice, but you need to appreciate that there is a lot you can do without diving into that world. Another legal roadblock a lot of bands trip over is copyrights – again – if your EP is selling 100 copies you don’t need to worry about fucking ASCAP. Sure the song “might get big” but the odds of a song on your first record when you have a few hundred Facebook fans blowing up and fucking people for money are so astronomically small that you’re more likely to be hit by lightning than to have one of those songs blow up. And beyond that by wasting time on that stuff you are lowering your odds of making your songs successful.

The bands who spend all of their time trying to work out legal bullshit rather than actually going out and try to make a name for themselves so that the legal bullshit can be merited are often the ones who subconsciously know that they don’t have enough good content to properly make it. They are the ones who think that just by having a manager and advertising they are going to get huge. While those things can all help they aren’t a substitute for good music, regular content and solid business sense. Yet so many bands seem to get off on the dick waving magic of paying a bunch of money for help moving units that they are never going to move unless they had saved that money and used it on more cost effective things. Sure it pays to cover your bases – but not at the larger expense of your band and career.

Now I’m not saying it’s not important to have ducks in a row or a lawyer or an accountant it’s also important to realize that this is more a question of realizing where you are in the industry and what is realistic for you given your situation. Odds are you can handle most stuff on your own early on and you don’t need a lawyer or a marketing analyst or whatever, you just need to be smart and with it. Don’t get tied up in too much to early, that’s stuff you would want a manager for, but odds are you aren’t at the point you need a manager. Instead you need to sit back, chill out and try to embrace what you have coming to you with the hope that it can develop into something greater. It’s great that you want to have your shit in order, but I know actual lawyers in bands who don’t care about that kind of stuff because they realize ultimately they are just an unsigned metal band and nothing they do will really impact their collective futures all that much.

You can’t get caught up in our ego. You need to realize that a band isn’t like a lot of other small business – it is based entirely on a weird underground of people doing shit for free. It’s based around passion and yeah there are assholes but so often the odds of having to deal with that are astronomically low. Only start to worry about those things when you start to get real PR, tours booked and the future of your band seems promising. Otherwise you will find yourself getting tied up in bullshit that only slows down your progress and prevents you from creating the rt you were destined to make. I know that sounds a tad reckless, and it is, but that’s punk rock. We need to embrace the nihilistic beauty of it all and realize that we are working together to create a better tomorrow. Just ask a hardcore band who have toured the country countless times if they worry about copyrights, odds are you’ll just get a simple “Fuck you.”

Long story short, I think it’s best to play these things by ear and if you find someone on a low level freaking out about their copyright protection odds are they are an asshole. Sometimes people are dicks and shit comes up such that you need to protect yourself, but in most cases you’re going to be fine doing it after you get a letter or whatever. Most people aren’t out trying to screw unsigned bands -there’s so little money that it just doesn’t make sense. Instead grin and bear it. It’s the music industry and it doesn’t really matter in the long run whether or not one individual band makes it. So instead take life as it comes and embrace the simple beauty of this weird existence.

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 Laws, Lawyers And Stupid Indie Bands appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

Even More On Spotify

 

@page { margin: 0.79in }
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }

So, this is an interesting video and one that provokes a lot of discussion. I really like it, but it also makes me want to once again pick apart the status of Spotify in the industry. I’m sure I’ve written a piece like this before, but Spotify has become so prominent recently I think that it’s important to really examine what it has to offer and what it means for the development of the music industry over both the short and long term. After all, they are supposed to be the saviors of the industry, right? There’s been some bad press about Spotify lately and people are seeing the defection of Adele and Taylor Swift as a sign that maybe the streaming giant isn’t quite as impervious as well all thought it was. As far as I can tell though it isn’t the case – Spotify remains dominant and quite frankly, kind of scary. I’d like to look at how this impacts the music industry, for better and for worse.

In both the short and long term there are a lot of arguments as to why Spotify is a fundamentally good thing for the music industry. Right now we see the company losing money, investing tons of cash in new start ups in order to refine their product and generally pushing to create a better tomorrow. Spotify has been making big strides with the goal of proving to us that they legitimately care about the music industry. I feel like they really do to – there isn’t an obviously evil scheme behind Spotify – they give a ridiculous amount of their profits to the labels and have a staff of music experts who apparently really care about the playlists they curate. I mean – that is objectively a cool thing. Right now Spotify seems to be doing their best to make sure that while yes, artists aren’t making as much as they were, at least now they are making something which has to be a good thing right? From the womb of pirates, (Their CEO was formerly the CEO of uTorrent) comes hope for the future.

On the long term Spotify also seems to have some cool ideas. As they transform into the full stack juggernaut they are so clearly on pace to be (With the recent incorporation of videos and podcasts among other things) soon we will be at a point where we can enjoy all of our music and related art in one easy to access place without downloading anything. That’s strangely reassuring and shows us the simplicity that modern life was supposed to bring. It’s nice when things are stripped down and we need fewer apps. Beyond that – it’s been pretty clear all along that Spotify has been building towards being able to pay artists more – something that is going to happen as they incorporate more services and consequently get more paid subscribers, the folks who really make money for the artists. So, it should seem like Spotify is the hopeful future of the industry right?

It’s not that simple unfortunately. In the short term – Spotify is still not paying their artists enough, incorporating what feels like more ads than ever and watching most of their competitors die fast, ignoble deaths. Spotify is unstoppable and it’s leading to a stunning lack of choice in the streaming market. More immediate than that though is the simple fact that Spotify has consistently showed that they refuse to engage in alternative models for album releases, like making new records only accessible to paying users, or making it accessible to users only a certain amount of time after release The music streaming service has its rules and it refuses to bend them, it knows that most people frankly don’t have a choice anymore. Beyond that, the GUI hasn’t been updated in a while and users are starting to get frustrated with more and more of Spotify’s additional features .Sure they do cool playlists, but why is it so hard to sort playlists and find your most played tracks? This leads to the real problem Spotify has been pushing towards: monopoly.

Spotify is in many ways one of the scariest things to happen to the music industry. While I understand and agree with the argument that the music industry has always gone through technological changes, they were never totally dominated by one company as they are right now. Even the vinyl records first being printed by Thomas Edison’s company ended up being fairly easy to produce and led to the rise of record companies. As is though the product is a stream, it’s not tangible, it’s now a service and Spotify have no real competition. I mean really, they have about 140 million users. Their next biggest competitor, Apple Music has around 11 million. If that’s not a scary level of control then I don’t know what is. We are at a point in music’s history where all access to recorded music is pretty much going to be through one company. Sure there will probably always be some form of physical media but that’s not going to ever be a major part of the market. We are beholden to Spotify.

Admittedly – as I write this I’m listening to the Baha Men on, you guessed it, Spotify. I think right now the best case scenario we are looking at is a Google like situation with a policy of, “Don’t be evil.” Of course the music industry is known for being kind of evil and I think this could be a serious issue going forward. As is though, Spotify kind of saved the music industry and we need to honor that, but also try to figure out how to give them some real competition. No one can fight them directly as we have seen with countless bands trying to pull out of Spotify and rival streaming services all fail. I’m not sure what to do other than to embrace it as is and buckle in for a hell of a ride!

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 Even More On Spotify appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

Patience, Phone Calls and Nihilism

People delay phone calls – that’s just how it goes. It’s part of the world of independent projects. I’ve been having some frustrations with this recently so I wanted to pick it apart a little bit. It’s one of the most frustrating things in the world to have happen to you – to be building up for something and even structure your day around it, only for the call to fall through. Suddenly you can be left up shit creek without a paddle and nothing to do with your day because you were expecting to work on this project. It’s part of why I strive to be always busy, always tackling the next thing. So that’s why I ended up writing this article, because rather than being on a call I have to kill time until the thing has been rescheduled. It’s a simple part of the brutality of the industry and is going to leave you frustrated and tired, but you just need to embrace it and figure out alternate paths forward.

I think one of the most important skills to have in this industry is patience. Life happens. I know that we all have these supercharged existences where everything moves at a million miles an hour and the circus never stops, but sometimes shit just happens. People don’t seem to totally understand this. In a culture of ‘now’ people seem to think that they need to have everything right away. This isn’t the case. Sometimes we just need to sit back and relax and embrace what’s coming at us. People get busy and emergencies happen. Life isn’t easy all the time. I know it can be easy to forget that but we need to have patience with people. For many of the folks, especially on the independent level this isn’t their full time gig, and you shouldn’t expect them to spend all their lives at your beck and call. Instead just be grateful you are being considered for a a phone call at all and then figure it out from there. It’s the impatient people who end up being fucked in the long run.

It is true that some people delay phone calls simply because they don’t want to tell you no. As we discussed previously, no one wants to say ‘no’ in this industry and everybody says yes all the time. Because of this long time ‘nice guy’ thing that the industry has cultivated its possible that you are being ignored simply because people don’t want to have to deny you. I know that’s shitty because it’s the easy way out, but for a lot of people they are under so much pressure already that they don’t want to add another thing – especially if that thing is something that could lead to a stranger yelling at them. People are crazy, so even if you aren’t you need to be aware tat if people have had bad phone experiences they might be less likely to want to work via phone calls – even if they are objectively on of the most important parts of the industry. The industry is a weird tumultuous place and we need to embrace that madness.

This is part of why it’s important to live in a city that has an influential scene if you want your band to get anywhere. If you are going to a lot of shows and start to meet people your influence is rapidly going to grow. People have a much harder time avoiding you in real life and they have to have a physical interaction then which can always lead to better results. Just be careful to be diplomatic. People don’t want to be bullied and odds are they are fairly busy, they don’t want to have to put up with your bullshit, but they do want to help you out. Keep this in mind and try to remain diplomatic and helpful as possible. People care more about physical relationships than phone ones, and more about phone interactions than text ones. That’s just the order of things in this crazy old world of ours and we need to embrace that if we want to find an effective way forward in the twisted hell of the underground music world.

People usually aren’t actively ignoring your calls. If you are in a band and trying to get to a higher level people will admire your tenacity as long as you make an effort to not be annoying, this of course can be tricky. It’s so easy to drive people crazy with constant phone barrages, instead you need to back off and be respectful and helpful. You need to show people that you are part of building a tomorrow that helps the collective not just yourself, and if people aren’t picking up our calls that means they might not want to be a part of that, or at least that they feel that your image of a better tomorrow is different from theirs. That’s totally fine. Some partnerships were never meant to happen, but other times you just need to put your foot down and tell people they need to pick up the phone or realize you won’t work with them again. I know it’s a treacherous path to cross given this weird world of cyber connections and miscommunications but sometimes that’s how it’s got to be.

I know that I come across as nihilistic in a lot of these articles, but let me assure you – there is a lot of hope, it’s just that sometimes things get you down and end up being extremely frustrating. Like many of you, me and my bands have hopes an dreams and we just want to get moving on shit, but a lot of the time we find ourselves stuck in the muck and frustrated with what has become of our lives. We can move forward though – lead by example and make yourself as available as possible. Remember that kids are looking up to you and you are blazing a path that one day we all must tread if we want a reliable and sustainable future.

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 Patience, Phone Calls and Nihilism appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

The Power Of The Underground

@page { margin: 0.79in }
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }

Underground music in all of its forms is important. I know that I’m obviously a metalhead and that dictates a lot of the music I put on this blog, but I want to come to you today preaching a more egalitarian message. I want you to realize that no matter what kind of music it is, at least people are contributing and it’s this sense of equality that is going to save us all in the music industry. This is something that your band needs to realize as you navigate this screwed up world. You need to realize that it doesn’t matter if its a rap show or a death metal concert, it all comes back to the same core principles, and everything that you do on the underground is important – no matter how you feel about the music. If your band isn’t actively trying to support the underground then you are going to find yourself on a long road to ignominy and be unable to find the opportunities that so many of your peers will be able to grab by the horns.

This music matters because it is egalitarian. It allows everyone to access these super cool and vitally important resources. It shows us that there is a path forward through all of the pain and that we can have triumphant experiences with just the several hundred people who care about this kind of music in your area. From there, of those several hundred people at least a few have connections to more major events and that means suddenly your empowering experiences will be able to reach out and impact so many more people beyond that. The underground is the basis of this entire industry. Pretty much everyone in a position of power in music came from an underground scene or has rich parents – you probably are going to want to belong to the former category. In an industry that has a lot of gatekeepers the underground is beautiful because it says that anyone can join, and anyone can be a part of this greater thing we have woven together.

One of my favorite booking agencies in Europe is called “Sound Of Liberation” and at the risk of sounding like a hopeless romantic this is what I love about underground music – it is the very sound of liberation we have longed for for so long. It’s the sound of a group of young people who for years now haven’t wanted to play by the traditional rules of the industry. Sure those rules make sense when you crack through, but you need something to get you there -and the only way to really do it that isn’t totally shitty is to take advantage of the underground and work together to create a potent future for your band, but also helping the entire scene to rise up around you. There is a reason you have that famous image of a hardcore band playing a packed show at their local VFW for the last time before going on to tour the world. We all contribute to the underground and every victory by the underground is a victory for all of us.

Be wary though – the underground certainly has its downsides. One of the main ones is that it has an unfortunate tendency to destroy ambition. There are a lot of people who take part in the underground who simply believe that it doesn’t get any better than this. They get caught up in the nihilistic misery of playing in a band for four years and still only being able to draw three people on a Friday night. There are a lot of reasons that could be the case, but at the same time realize that a lot of bands do manage to draw massive amounts of people in their local scene. There is always a future regardless of what your peers might say. It’s hard though a lot of the time. People genuinely view the underground as just something you can grow out of and a silly bullshit pastime for college kids. In many ways it is, but you also need to embrace the brutal realities of it all and realize that this is how you are going to get ahead in the industry.

You may doubt me, but let me assure you, I have high ranking friends across the music industry who genuinely love going to basement shows. Be it the editor in chief of Noisey, the guy at the head of a major rock label or even the heads of significant PR companies. There are a lot of people out there in important positions who realize how much this matters. If you think you are too good for the underground then fuck you. You need to embrace what it has to offer, the demented realities and brutal nights, it is the only way forward. The music industry revolves around the underground more than ever these days – after all – why do you think everyone from Baroness to Green Day has been playing shows in significantly smaller venues than usual in recent years? People are connecting back to the underground and trying to help make this entire thing run a bit more smoothly and invest in a better tomorrow.

So yeah, it’s an industry of cool, but the only place where we are able to see through the bullshit is in dingy basements and dive bars where no one really cares in the first place. We need to embrace the darkness of the music industry and see that it’s all about tomorrow, not today Sure many of us are just chasing a dream, but when it works out, it’s empowering for the community because we got their by working with the community. We’re all in this together, so embrace the weird and oftentimes seedy underbelly. It teaches you everything you will need to know about this world and gives you friends and experiences to last a lifetime.

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 Power Of The Underground appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

Everybody Says Yes Always

Everybody says yes to everything in the music industry. Or at least ‘maybe’. After all, it’s the music industry, we’re all supposed to be rebels and punk rockers, why wouldn’t we be up for whatever, right? Everyone is down to do everything, but when it really comes down to it the number of people who are willing to do anything of substance and actually move forward is frighteningly slim. Still, you need to be ready for everyone to initially tell you yes and then never follow up. This is something I’ve been struggling with lately and wanted to start to pick apart for you guys. There is a whole psychology behind it and you need to start getting ready to plan for it and figure out how you are going to go forward with this whole fucked up thing. These people aren’t lying, they are just, quite simply, misguided – and we need to all work together to move past that.

The reason that everyone says yes is just one of those weird deepset psychological things about the industry – no one likes to say no, ever. At worst you get no reply – which in many ways is more frustrating than a no because you don’t know for sure. I’ve spent many a long hour sending out emails to receive absolutely no replies, sending out followups, getting a few no’s and then a few months later getting a tentative ‘yes’. It’s weird how people operate – not all of them are especially high functioning or super interested in getting back to you promptly. Odds are if you are asking for something then it’s simply because you want to advance both of your careers (Asking for stuff just for you almost never works) and they obviously want to do that. It then becomes a question of optimal time investment, and if the person in question thinks that you can really bring them up to the right level or if they are just too busy to take you on – or simply don’t believe you are worth it right now.

Beyond that – you will find that a lot of people are excited to work with you but just lack initiative. This can be for a variety of reasons, the two biggest ones being they are lazy fucks and the other being that they simply lack the ability to kickstart a project. You need to approach both of these types of people as you grow in the industry and realize you will always need to work with both of them. As an aside – you will be amazed at how many of these people exist even at high levels. I’m not sure how they get there, since pretty much everything I’ve gotten in this industry has been through my own initiative, but it’s pretty frustrating to see. That being said – a lot of these people are just super busy and that can be a struggle, no matter what level you are at. I want to pick apart both of these reasons that folks might not have the initiative that you need.

There are a lot of lazy fucks in the industry. In many cases though this is simply because they are not educated. They haven’t been shown what it means to truly try and make it work in music. They think that just because they put out a CD all will come to them. It’s easy to get caught up in this mentality, a lot of artists brush over all of the hard PR work in interviews – or they have really good managers who protect them from a lot of that work. I mean yes, some people are genuinely lazy, but I try to give most folks the benefit of the doubt. In other cases they just don’t know what they need to do, which makes them appear lazy, but often they just haven’t figured out what the next steps they need to be taking are. The music industry is kind of a bitch that way and you need to accept it for what it is – a great way to lose a lot of money and time in the name of something that might one day turn out to be cool.

The lack of initiative is a more pervasive problem and one that frustrates me financially. A lot of people who I know have the money and the motivation for some reason or another can not seem to get their shit together enough to actually start something up. A lot of the time I will be sitting on project all good to go but I will be waiting for other people to give me the green light. This goes for managing, booking and even being in a band. People sometimes don’t have the same sense of urgency as you do and you need to be patient about that but you also need to know how to gracefully apply the sort of pressure they might need. You need to show that any pressure you apply is coming from a place of love, respect and the desire, not to be a domineering asshole, but rather to help your friend reach the most of their potential. A lot of the music industry, in my experience, comes from gentle nudges that show us a more delicate and graceful way forward.

At the end of the day – the same lessons apply here that you find everywhere else in this industry. You need to realize that no one really cares about you despite what they say – until they prove it with their actions. This is an industry where people are inundated with random bullshit all day and you need to realize that all that matters is concrete steps forward. If you want to get anywhere it’s going to be via you own hard work and if you can’t be bothered to put that in yourself then I highly doubt that anyone is going to do it for you. You need to be your own kickstarter and motivate others to do the same – there’s money enough for all of us.

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 Everybody Says Yes Always appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

Breaking Genre Boxes

So the question you need to ask yourself as you navigate through the industry is do you try and stick with one genre, or do you touch on many? Do you become hyper knowledgeable of one specific part of the music world, or do you try and engage with as many people as possible? While on the one hand niche marketing certainly is the future, there is definitely something to be said for bands who are able to reach beyond that niche and work their way into other ones. If nothing else, you learn a lot. I think it’s definitely worth spending a little bit of time on both, you look at what works for people across the music industry and then try and take advantage of various sides of it. Realize that maybe your niche doesn’t have the most money involved but don’t sell out, instead realize how other niches could be turned towards you – let me explain.

Many of the most successful bands I work with or observe, don’t really fit into any one specific niche because they are able to create their own void and thus attract the interest of multiple. For example, Mothership, a hard hitting rock and roll band have been able to use their reputation as a great live act to attract straight death metal fans in addition to more mainstream rock fans who might never have been interested in what they had to offer. The band gleefully has a ‘the more the merrier’ type of mentality and uses that to cater to all different sorts of fans. Obviously they are a bit more mainstream than your typical heavy act, but the point stands. If you want a heavier band who were able to cross over without making compromises just look at someone like Nomadic Folk Metallers Tengger Cavalry – they have managed to attract a more mainstream audience because they are just so fucking weird. Who wouldn’t want to listen to heavy metal influenced by Central Asian music? The bands narrative generates intrigue.

Of course – being weird or mainstream isn’t the only way to get fans from other genres to come over into what you are doing. If the music and message is powerful enough then you are always going to be able to find new fans who want to buy into your narrative. That’s how pop punkers Neck Deep have been able to figure out how to appeal to countless hardcore kids and pop fans with a sound that probably wouldn’t normally appeal to either category. Obviously their music is very very good but their ability to show off punk roots with a pop facade that has brought folks into the band. Trash Talk are perhaps an even better example of this, a hardcore band who blew up on the strength of support from rappers. On top of crossing over they were able to bring hardcore marketing techniques into the rap world and learned rap marketing techniques for the hardcore world. That might seem like an unlikely crossover but the artists involved all seem to realize that they hold the same values, and while they might express themselves differently the are angry for the same reasons.

That’s what’s really going to give you staying power by the way – making it clear that everyone is welcome. Sure you could say, “Oh well I only want to work with the most evil black metal fans who only listen to Darkthrone in their basements” and that’s fine I guess, but that puts a glass ceiling on what you are going to do. Even Darkthrone don’t do that! Instead, they say, “Hey, we play crust punk but with a touch of Motorhead” then suddenly you find crusties and metalheads falling in love with your sound. (For those taking notes at home, that seems to be the entire ethos behind Panzerbastard) Obviously I come from the metal world which tends to be very insular, but a lot of bands I see really love it when people from outside of the metal realm express interest in what pop and country people have to say about their music, and oftentimes metal dudes are more interested in that music then you might initially think.

Keep in mind, going too far outside your niche or changing your sound can be disastrous. Sure it might work for a band like Metallica, whose Black Album still outsells pretty much all of their peers on the weekly charts, but can you really argue that even that went that well in the long run? The Black Album led to Load and Reload and eventually made Metallica a laughingstock. People see through bullshit, as much as you might try to confusticate it. I know that’s not always the easiest thing to accept or something that you want to be a part of all the time, but that’s just how it goes. Historically bands who try to move away from their old sound to sell more copies end up doing worse or losing their credibility. Sure you and I maybe involved in this for different reasons, but I think we all just want to be real motherfuckers and get some long term appreciation for our work. The options are in front of you and it’s up to you to decide what to do.

As for now though don’t be afraid to reach out. Play a cross genre show, suggest a band outside of your genre to your fans. Hell – even Fallout Boy is doing it, with their drummer reviving his long dormant hardcore band this year. If a marketing strategy is good enough for Fallout Boy then you should probably take a long hard look at it. Odds are you are into music outside of just your genre, and not just obvious acts like The Beatles. Instead take a look at what you might be interested in working with over the long term and try to piece together a way to showcase your taste far outside the conventional limitations of your genre.

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 Breaking Genre Boxes appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

GATECREEPER Bring Harsh Conditions on Debut Album

The Arizona sun can be an oppressive force, an unforgivable presence. “I do think people from Arizona, I think maybe our brains are a little fried,” Chase H. Mason of GATECREEPER said during his sit-down interview with IMP. As a member of the new Arizona metal group that can be good for at least one thing. “It’s an excuse to be inside and writing riffs in the air conditioning.”

On their debut full-length album GATECREEPER vomit up riffs as if they swallowed ipecac. The result is the torching Sonoran Depravation released by Relapse Records on October 7. And the result of listening to it with headphones on at full volume is a bell-like ringing that echoes through your eardrums. The album is pure metal with the goal of achieving maximum headrush. It doesn’t mince words or waste your time. It’s tight and controlled, but bludgeoning its own structure, constantly forming a new path

Sonoran Depravation opens like a baseball bat to the front door with “Craving Flesh.” The guitars are quick and threatening. It’s the tortuous soundtrack that would play through your head while stumbling through the woods chased by ax-wielding militiamen. “Sterilized” blasts away with monstrous double bass pounding from drummer Metal Matt.

The fastest and shortest song is “Desperation.” It’s a perfect blend of anarchic punk and fist-to-the-face metal without diving too far in either direction. “Rotting As One” and “Stronghold” are two of the more complex songs sloshing through different nether regions of heavy metal history. “Patriarchal Grip” opens with numbing feedback until Mason grunts and it’s on. Mason’s vocals are scorched and hit the death metal depth, but he also throws in some manic yelps and spittled barking.

The strength of Sonoran Depravation is that each song refuses to be built off a single riff, instead creating a vast landscape of brutal blow after brutal blow. Every shift is seamless moving from blood addled carnage to double speed punk atrocity. Every now and then you’ll find yourself caught in the vortex of a slow hypnotic grind. Then the blows continue. It’s a formula that keeps the record from ever getting mundane. There’s a new part discovered with each playback.

“Lost Forever” gashes through the speakers next. A full on assault and battery. The guitar cuts like a horror murderer’s knife. The drums build up the riffs and shove them forward. On “Flamethrower” Metal Matt stomps on the bass pedal like he’s chasing a cop. For every song he plays like he’s running. Matt brings a power to these songs that makes Sonoran Depravation whole.

Your Halloween soundtrack has arrived.

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 GATECREEPER Bring Harsh Conditions on Debut Album appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

Merch Strategies For Your Indie Band

There’s a lot to pick apart at your average merch booth. Every band has their own way of doing things, but some bands clearly do way better than their peers – even if they aren’t that much bigger. Obviously some of this relies on your ability to draw superfans and how good your show was, but there are also things you can do that will both maximize your profits and pretty much guarantee solid sales at your merch booth no matter what. I want to talk about these things, the things that can save you after a shitty night in Cleveland, or which can put you over the top after a killer show in Texas. It’s by maximizing your merchandise strategy that you are going to find the most money and which will guide you forward to exciting new pastures of financial gain.

First of all is the question of getting t-shirts printed. There are a couple things with regards to T-shirts that you can do that will help to maximize your profits. First of all be aware that the fewer colors you have the cheaper your shirt is going to be. This is important to keep in mind when choosing designs. Beyond that – XXL shirts sell a lot better than you might expect and are worth it, even if they do cost a little more. By the same token – XXXL rarely is worth it. There simply aren’t enough people in that size bracket to make it cost effective. Furthermore, as sexist as it might sound, female cut shirts probably aren’t worth it unless you’re approaching a 50/50 gender ratio or better in favor of women buying merch. In most cases though in the male dominated world of independent music, going for intersex shirts is the best choice and most women will just purchase them. Tour shirts too aren’t really that much of a selling point. Sure if you have a tour shirt it will sell more, but the odds are there aren’t a lot of people who wanted a shirt who are walking away just because the dates aren’t on the back. The issue too, asides from the fact that these are more expensive, is that if you get tour shirts you’re kind of obliged to sell out of them that tour, otherwise you’re stuck with a bunch of useless shirts to give your friends. Just keep things as simple as possible, and remember that Large is usually the best selling size, regardless of genre.

What is important to note though is that having more designs is better than having more colors. With every color added to a design on a run of fifty shirts it’s going to cost another twenty or more dollars to the final cost. That money is better invested in multiple designs of one or two color shirts. For many of the bands I manage, their best selling shirt is a one or two color design – so why bother investing in the more colored shirts? It’s not like you’re pricing the more colorful ones higher anyway! Speaking of best selling shirts – be aware that you probably will end up with one design that outsells all the other designs by two or three times. That’s just one of those weird tour life things that no on can properly explain but which is a nice little bonus to your revenue streams and often a pleasant surprise. Be aware though that if you are selling a lot of a certain design, keep as many as possible in stock. Some people might like that one design and be unwilling to bend and try out other models.

When you are managing merch for an independent band what truly matters is the upsell. Be sure to have a ton of cool packages, and items that you can sell for another five bucks. A CD+shirt package is always a good idea, because if you sell someone a shirt you can easily turn around and say, “Would you like a CD for 10 more?” a question that almost always has a positive answer. Having the smaller ticket items is great too. While selling stickers is rarely a good idea, forcing them as a ‘with purchase’ type thing usually works. Be sure to stock up on coozies and patches though – even if you are an opening band a lot of people are interested in spending a mere $5 if they can help a band who they thought put on an admirable show. Hell – people might even pick one up if the merch guy was sufficiently flirty. They also are a great way to help convince people to buy more merch, ie “If you get a CD on top of the shirt I’ll throw in a patch” If you’re an indie band it’s all about the art of the deal and getting people to buy as much stuff as possible.

The final major tip I have with regards to getting people to buy as much shit as possible is to have a ton of variety on your merch table. Have five shirt designs, coozies, patches, hats, stickers, picks, and whatever the fuck else you can come up with. If you have a huge variety of items, not only does it increase the odds that someone will be interested in what you have to buy, but if you have enough unique stuff it will attract people towards your merch stand, just to look. From there it’s an easy matter to start talking to the fans and convincing them to spend a little more money on your band. Don’t be afraid to have a weird one off piece of merch. For example, ACxDC were known for selling onesies – sure they didn’t sell a ton, but a huge amount of people would come up to check it out and then be converted into buying a patch.

Selling merch isn’t a hard thing – it’s just something that requires a little foresight, upfront investment and a charming merch guy. If you can find this magical combination then you are going to be set. Merch is how every band lives and dies, and you need to give yourself every advantage that you possibly can. If you don’t then you’re setting yourself up to fail. The music industry has lost faith in CD’s (To the point that even in shows where we run out of CD’s our merch sales aren’t much lower) and T Shirts have become the core of so many bands very existence. Before you get sent into an existential crisis, realize that this is the new way to advertise bands and we can’t change that, so instead embrace it, go forward and see what happens.

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 Merch Strategies For Your Indie Band appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

Markets & Regions: The South

Oooh boy, this one is a doozie. I have had some of the best touring experiences of my life in the south as well as some of the worst ones. For the record when I refer to the South I am referring to Virginia on down and all the way over to Texas and Oklahoma. The traditional South if you will. Obviously that’s a huge tract of land and some of these places barely even count as truly Southern but they remain valuable to think about and you should try to study them in order to help build up a better future for your band. The South has both ridiculous benefits and terrifying fucking downsides. As a general rule though, it’s a cool place to tour – as long as you are fully aware of what you are doing and are comfortable with a few more… colorful elements showing up at your shows.

What is important to be aware of when touring the South is that the cities you will probably be playing are the least stereotypically ‘Southern’ places you can go in the South – which is why so many young people flock to them. You are probably going to see some shit if you find yourself playing outside o a common hub, or even taking a stop. Remember, especially if you are from the North, that folks in the South can often have a very different set of ideals from you and you need to respect that. Otherwise you will find yourself in Hattiesburg, Mississippi wondering where your booking agent went wrong and genuinely afraid for your safety. Remember that the people out here might not have similar political views to you and probably own guns. That’s not a stereotype – that’s just a general factoid taken from public records. It’s stuff like this you need to keep your eyes open for in the long run.

In terms of sheer economics the South is generally very poor and you can expect limited merch sales. That being said – there are a ton of people out here who work in he trades who might be willing to spend more than the usual customer at your merch stand. These folks are like you and me, they appreciate kindness and people who are just down to chat and hang out. A lot of these people are aware that they have lucked into making good money in a traditionally economically depressed area and are willing to spend a little more money because of that. Of course, the benefit of the region being poor is $25 hotel rooms, $2 sandwiches and gas so cheap you could cry for joy. Sure you might not be making as much and might have some truly shitty evenings financially, but there is also a lot of stuff to enjoy about the affordability of everything.

Another thing I always look forward to when going to the South is the notion of Southern hospitality, which is both as excellent as it is legendary. I’ve had strangers get me a hotel room because I was nice. I’ve had waitresses bring me free food they had leftover in the kitchen because I flirted and told them that I was on tour. Even fast food workers, generally some of the most downtrodden folks you can meet, have a certain kindness to them. You should be extremely grateful for this, especially since a lot of it circles into the fact that not nearly enough bands go through their cities. They have a lot of love to give and not nearly enough attention paid to them, even if the drives through the South can be rather short. You have to love their dedication to the madness of this whole thing and ability to shrug off the pains of a day to day that is extremely hot, muggy and in many ways devoid of hope.

This is the key thing to remember about the South – the suicide rate is high, there is often little possibility for advancement, healthcare is scarce… it’s hard. It’s really really hard. These are people who have been ground down upon for their entire lives. It’s why you need to realize that Trump supporters aren’t unreasonable, they just have a totally different life experience from you, one that has a lot more poverty and pain in it. The South is always the butt of the joke, and if they protest they are just ‘racists’. Don’t get me wrong – there certainly is some racism in the South, but there’s racism all over America. You need to be patient with these people and show the love. Sure not a lot of them can always come out to shows and the market for a lot of music outside of country is minimal, but the ones who are there care and we need to be sure to honor that.

The South can be a lot of fun. As a general rule even the drives are reasonable, especially if you are willing to hit some secondary markets in Texas. There are bands who kill it out there and who are recognized as truly ‘Southern bands’ and the ones that are able to do that find the region to be a comforting one to visit. But if you treat it poorly and are a dick and act superior to these good Southern people then they will remember, and when the time comes for the South to rise again they will remember that and fuck you up.

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 Markets & Regions: The South appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.

Independent Touring: The East Coast

This is the easy one, the one people love doing, although some might continue to argue that West Coast is the best coast. It feels weird to write about this since I’ve spent so much time touring up and down it. The thing is, with a national tour on the East Coast there is no reason you should have more than a four hour drive on any given day. This isn’t all – the East Coast is fairly affluent so you can expect solid merch sales all around, and because markets are so close together if you have a superfan or two then you can be pretty well assured that they will try to make it out to multiple shows. In other words – the East Coast represents all you should want from the touring experience – even if Virginia seems to go on forever. It’s the hallowed ground for many touring bands and the brief bit of respite that you will get before diving deep into the existential and hellish crisis that touring the center of the country can represent.

I think one of the big frustrations of touring the East Coast is that things are significantly more ‘urban’ in the traditional sense of the term. This can be fine if you manage to avoid traffic and generally rude people, but if you have to face both of those brutal realities then you are going to need to rejigger a good chunk of your touring ethos. Beyond that, the East Coast, especially in the north sees higher costs for gas and food. All of these things can make touring the East Coast a grueling endeavor, even if the drives aren’t quite as hellish as the ones that you would have to make when you cross the country. I want to pick these things apart to help you guys out – it may be the easiest coast to navigate but it doesn’t mean that it is going to be a breeze.

The real thing to be afraid of is also a concern on the West Coast – traffic. Traffic is what’s going to kill your band again and again. You need to regularly budget at least an extra half hour or hour, especially for big hubs. One of the major issues is that if you are showing up anywhere after 3:30 or 4PM then you are going to end up absolutely screwed. You might not think that the traffic around Asheville, North Carolina could possibly be that bad, but then you get there with only fifteen minutes to spare and there’s fucking construction going on and now you won’t get a chance to soundcheck and have to load right onto stage.

Beyond this – while you might have had your heart warmed by the kindness of the Midwest or the beauty of Southern hospitality, on the East Coast more urban attitudes prevail and that isn’t always a good thing. I’m not saying people on the East Coast are all dicks, in fact I quite like a lot of them, I’m just saying that New Yorkers have a reputation for a reason. This doesn’t mean it’s necessarily harder to find places to stay, but it means that people are not going to go out of their way to help you the way that they might elsewhere. Furthermore, since it’s so densely populated the houses tend to be smaller, leading to a greater likelihood that you will just end up snuggling up next to your bandmates on some dingy hardwood floor.

I want it to be clear I don’t think the East Coast is just a nightmarish hell hole. There is quite a bit to enjoy about it, beyond what I outlined in the first paragraph. For example, as with the West Coast there tends to be better overall fast food options – this might seem like a small point to you, but when you’ve only eaten McDonalds for a month, easy access to a Chipotle is going to be a high priority. Beyond that – people tend to have a lot more money on the East Coast. A lot of kids come out for college and then stay, using their fancy college based incomes to fund the arts for a good part of their twenties before settling down and having kids… or whatever the fuck it is that rich white people do. There is a reason we have the stereotype of the rich New Englander, and some of those people are really into independent music and will dump cash into it, take advantage of that!

The East Coast is an interesting place to navigate. It’s a place that’s going to bless you richly, but also a place that will be a little weird. It brings its own set of problems, many of which you might not totally think are problems until you’re stuck in the middle of them. Sure it might be easier overall, but I would strongly recommend you don’t let your guard down. Things can happen that might surprise you and leave you more fucked over than you could possibly imagine. You’ll find crazed rednecks, rich white people and dumb college students all within a several mile radius, so if you’re not ready to embrace that twisted reality and accept it for the inherent shit within then you will have a bad time. So sit back and enjoy those short drives – you deserve them, just don’t let it get to your head!

 

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 Independent Touring: The East Coast appeared first on Independent Music Promotions.