James Moore's Blog, page 79

Why Release On Vinyl?

Why Release On Vinyl?

The below feature is a guest article penned by Jessica Kane. Jessica Kane is a music connoisseur and an avid record collector. She currently writes for SoundStage Direct, her go-to place for all turntables and vinyl equipment, including VPI Turntables .

So, you and your band have recorded an album that you’re really proud of. In addition to the CD and digital releases already in full swing, you’ve decided it’s time to consider a vinyl release. But anyone who’s gone down that road knows that the whole process of mastering and pressing an album on vinyl takes a greater amount of time, effort, and money than any other medium. Let this not discourage you however, for there are many reasons that make the option well-worth considering.

 

The Feel of a Record

This is perhaps what drew you to this decision in the first place. The picture frame quality of the album art, the pride of holding an actual physical record in your hands, and the fantastically warm, rich sound coming from your speakers or headphones once the needle drops. Vinyl has a certain authenticity that CD’s, MP3’s or streaming services simply can’t deliver. This legitimacy is amplified when you have the opportunity to release your own. The feeling of releasing an actual record is certainly exciting.

Your Audience

Another important factor to consider is whether or not your audience is the kind that buys vinyl. It’s no question that CD’s and digital purchases will make up the majority of sales of course, but you could very well turn a profit with vinyl as well. If your audience is willing to go the extra mile with their passion for music, by all means, go for it. Like the rest of their collection, dedicated fans will tout your album as physical proof of their love for your music. Furthermore, if you happen to be releasing electronic music, or dance music of any other genre, you’ve got a built-in audience with DJ’s who predominantly use vinyl in their set. Whatever your demographic, cater to them accordingly.

The Growing Popularity of the Format

Perhaps one of the most interesting and baffling trends of the music industry is the recent rise in vinyl sales. With the number growing every year, and pressing plants occasionally even struggling to keep up with demand, musicians of obscurity and popularity alike are given assurance that today, releasing an album on vinyl is a worthy investment. Even though CD’s and downloads still outsell vinyl by a landslide, due to being cheaper and much more convenient, vinyl sales soar well into the millions each year.

 

Risk vs. Reward

Another sign that you and your band are ready is an awareness of the amount of effort and the risk that comes with releasing on vinyl. A significant level of dedication and patience is required when dealing with the process of pressing an album. It must first be mastered specifically for the format, and once that’s done, each copy must be cut, pressed, and assembled from scratch at a cost and time frame greater than any other medium. Even then, unless your company or label is working with the best and most expensive equipment, this from-scratch method comes with the potential for loads of errors which can hinder progress. Understanding the process can help a lot with easing frustration if something does go wrong.

 

For Yourself

With all that said, the very act of releasing an album on vinyl shows that your willing to overcome the risk and effort in order to make something “real.” Your own passion and commitment to your music will show, in addition to that of your audience. A musician’s first vinyl release is something to be proud of, and a significant milestone to have under your belt.

 

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 Power Of Referrals

Referrals might have just revolutionized my income stream and they can do the same for you. In an industry of connections, it’s perhaps the greatest way to make money with little to no effort – and figuring out how to do this at its finest is what is going to help you figure out your income over the long term. Beyond that – having a strong referral network is the sort of thing that makes you look bigger than you are and cultivates a relationship with the bands you work with and your friends that proves that you are ‘the man’. If people can consistently go to you with anything they need and you can turn around and make a little money off of that transaction without upcharging (Although that can work too) then you are going to be able to provide a solid little boost to your income that many of your peers might never even dream of having access to. I mean yes – this comes from having a strong network built up over years – but the opportunities are still there.

So how do referrals work? For the uninitiated – a referral is when you hook someone up with a client and that person pays you a percentage of what the client pays them. This is different from upcharging which is where you essentially subcontract out the service and take the difference. The problem with upcharging a lot of the time is that unless you do it very carefully you can end up making an ass of yourself in front of a friend who thought they could trust you. I didn’t think referrals were worth that much until I realized earlier this month that I’ve been making a few hundred dollars the past few months through hooking people up with the appropriate PR campaigns for them. Then I found myself in the process of setting up a five figure annual contract for a similar type of deal and realized that I should probably go out and write something about it in order to show all of you beautiful people what it could mean for your bands.

You need to be careful in how you go through with this though. You don’t want to be a douchebag and you don’t want to try to hurt people or get them to go through the wrong channels just because you will make more money that way. In the long run this will hurt. As I have written many times before, this is an industry of honor. This is not an industry where you can get away with messing around and screwing people over. If you get a referral, it’s fine to keep that quiet. However you also need to be grateful for these opportunities and turn around and try to use this power for good. You have an obligation to the community as a whole – or just yourself. So many of your peers who find themselves working referral deals are going to come off as dunderheads. For this to work at all you need to have access to people with money and people who get that these sorts of things are necessary. I’ve been involved in referral deals for years now but it’s only recently that my network has become serious enough to understand why dumping several thousand dollars on certain things is a necessity for your band to grow.

A good referral deal is one where you are helping to vend a product that is good and at a reasonable price and which you can circle back to time and time again. That’s why I like hooking up some of my creative friends with cheap advertising options for example, or getting my graphic designer friends paid work. If you want to be really tricky about it you can even craft these deals where you upcharge and then turn around and take a referral off the artist. This sort of thing is only really feasible though if you are getting the person you are taking a referral from a ridiculous amount of work in the first place. I try to be pretty clear with deals like that since pulling off those sorts of deals can be a little complicated. They really require you to be watching out for everybody’s best interests and making sure that you aren’t accidentally hurting someone you should be trying to help out.

Obviously the morals behind this sort of thing can be a little tricky. For a while I just quietly refunded bands my referral fee because I felt weird about taking it. Then I got poor and desperately needed the money. Now I use the money to feed back into the system. My entire life is basically centered around music and my cat. Obviously I’m very lucky to have that sort of position. I don’t take it lightly, so I realize that the money I make off of this sort of thing needs to be directed to helping out bands that need it. This is just a fact of life and represents the inherent struggle of this industry. Then if you can show that your passion is overwhelming and you’re still hooking up bands with some good opportunities then you are in the right. You’re acting as a broker and using this position in order to help people live their dreams. There is no moral ambiguity about that – you’re being a kind and helpful individual. People should appreciate that you are hooking them up with your own personal network.

Referrals are an interesting side of the industry – especially since they are essentially the most direct way in which you can make money off of networking. If you figure out how to use them well simply by taking advantage of the network that being in a band should give you, then you will find yourself in a much more profitable position. You will be able to look at the depraved madness that made you suffer for so long and find a path that protects us all, even if the inherent darkness of the industry is going to tear us down time and time again, at least we can hook up our friends and make a little it of money off of it.

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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We Are Connected

We are connected. It’s not just the name of a Voivod song. It’s the very essence of the industry we are all a part of. I know I touched on this earlier this week when I talked about how this is an industry of passion – but it goes beyond that. What I’ve come to find out over the last few years is not that the music industry is sectional and broken up, like so many genre proud musicians would tell you. In fact there is almost no difference between the lifestyle of your low level pop punk band and your low level black metal band. Anyone trying to tell you otherwise is part of the problem and is creating so many of the crushing realities that define this industry. There is so much here that can be fixed by brotherhood and realizing that at the end of the day we have to deal with so many of the same economic realities and can help each other so much. We need to appreciate the inner bleakness that defines our entire generation of musicians.

I used to be almost exclusively a metalhead. Maybe a little classic rock would sneak in here and there. Maybe I would listen to a little bit of punk. That was about it though. There wasn’t much variety. Later though I realized that ultimately everyone is dealing with the same struggle and the same problems that plague all artists – not even just musicians. This isn’t even from an artistic front. I mean, obviously depression is a big theme in music across genres. That’s not the thing that brings us together as artists though. Neither are any of the other big artistic themes. The fact of the matter is we all feel love, hate, depression and hope. That’s why art is such a unifying force across cultures. It doesn’t matter how it happens to manifest itself in your life or musical taste. That’s not what I’m trying to get at at all. What I’m trying to talk about how calling anyone going out there and doing it a poser is probably just you talking out of your ass.

It’s a question of simple economics. I mean yeah, it’s harder to be a technical death metal band than a pop punk band – but not a lot harder. Sure the pop punk scene is pretty huge and has a demographic that spends a lot of money on shows, but I still know pop punk bands who tour around the country in awful vans and have a hard time finding their way forward across the nefarious landscape of the music industry. One of the problems bands in more popular genres face is that there are more of them. So even if a similar percentage get big as in more obscure ones, more people suffer for the grinder to work. Just because you make a type of music that happens to be more popular doesn’t mean that you are choosing an easier path – it’s just the path that feels right. If you want to make your music more accessible that’s your own choice. That doesn’t change the fact that you’re probably going to spend a bunch of your prime years in a van paying your dues with the desperate hope of one day breaking out and maybe getting some small measure of popularity and finding your own way forward in the music industry.

I don’t want to make it sound like I don’t understand that there are fundamental economic differences between different aspects of the industry by the way. There definitely are. For example – I fully appreciate that the way a big band musician makes his money will be different from a dude in a rock band. Still, it’s part of the same industry and there needs to be respect there. It’s how you get new opportunities or cool crossovers that change your career forever. By cutting off any one group of fans or musicians you are arbitrarily limiting the sorts of people you have access too and doing that in an industry as awfully limited as that of music is never a good idea and will leave you in a deeper hole than when you started. It’s all the same stuff – we just sometimes approach it from different angles.

Don’t get me wrong. Posers exist. These are the people who whine and complain and take everything for granted. The people who for whatever reason got a good manager early on and haven’t had to worry about anything. These are often the same people who have shitty rock star attitudes who think that the world revolves around them. Fuck those people. Yes some genres have more of those people than others – but I’ll tell you that I’ve seen similar ratios of ‘rock stars’ at underground punk shows as I have at major pop gigs, it’s just one of the perils of the arts. The people who last the longest are the ones who are the nicest and who are the best at contributing and growing a team rather than just trying to benefit their own personal brand. If your brand isn’t part of a community, or worse, you are trying to stay separate from the community then you are screwing up.

So we all beat on together. Boats against a current of a society that claims to love us but really would rather have us not be there. I’m not necessarily saying that the government is anti-music, but they certainly don’t make it any easier. That’s not the point of this article though. The point of this article is that we are connected. We are all one. Sooner or later you start to realize that this goes far beyond the world of music too. Artists and musicians are really the same sorts of people, as are actors and any other type of creative. It boils down to that same passion – and it’s that passion that keeps this world going round.

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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It’s The Small Stuff: Making Money On Tour

The places you are really going to make money on tour are sometimes surprising. They aren’t always what you think is going to save you a ton of money. It’s the little things – and the reason that you need to have an all encompassing and holistic approach to your tour planning that really matter. It’s why being able to take a step back and find the optimal deals on every aspect of tour planning will save you hundreds of dollars. It’s why you need to pick apart your contracts and look at everywhere you are spending money and how you can reduce costs. By being holistic and careful I’ve been able to save bands I tour manage hundreds if not thousands of dollars with every tour. This is different from cutting corners – keep that in mind, but also be aware that you can protect yourself from a lot of lost money by putting in an extra few hours of planning.

It’s interesting to me to watch where these things crop up. For example today I have been spending a lot of time looking into the optimal money saving configurations for vans. It requires a bit of careful planning, but in the end it’s going to save us several hundred dollars, which means several hundred more dollars in the bands pockets. Then there’s other even less obvious, scarier things things that bands hemorrhage money on. For example – if you are taking a trailer then you need to factor in the fact that you are going to be spending extra money not just on the trailer (Duh!) but also gas. Or food – you can save so much money and time just by buying a ton of sandwich material at the start of a tour and just making sandwiches for lunch instead of slowing down your entire process by stopping to eat. Keep these things in mind as you struggle forward and you will watch the entire world start to make progressively more sense.

None of these things are exactly obvious, nor are they things that a lot of bands do, but it’s the same sort of things that are going to help your band not end the tour totally broke and starving. One thing that I’ve found helps is to figure out your average daily base expenses (Obviously this varies based on how far you drive) and then use that to generate a ‘magic number’ of what you would like your income to be day to day. By having these two core numbers in mind you can figure out how much your band should be willing to spend on food and everything else. The key to having a financially profitable tour is to crunch numbers nonstop and be fully aware of what your band is pulling and how much money should be spent day to day. The bonus of having these numbers is that when it comes time to talk to labels, bookers and management companies you will have all sorts of delicious figures for them to crunch which makes you look better.

I want to circle back though and focus on the importance of not cutting corners on these types of things though. Even though yes, it is cheaper to tour in a minivan, I can guarantee you will hate yourself. That’s just how it is. Its the same if you want to not have per diems. I mean some bands can make that work – but most of the time you end up just destroying group morale. That’s an important factor to consider and one that cutting corners will hurt. Beyond that – cutting corners can screw with your safety – and obviously that should be of paramount importance. Just look at all the bands who have been basically permanently ruined because of car crashes or screw ups on tour that happened because someone wanted to save money. These people weren’t taking the proper holistic approach and decided that cutting corners would be a better choice. The way I view it is the money you save by holistically approaching touring can be reappropriated to make sure that you DON’T cut corners – and odds are that will allow you to make even more money in the long run.

Touring non stop is a hard thing to do and after you do it enough it’s easy to get stuck in a pattern, but a pattern that causes you to lose money. You need to be willing to think outside the box if you want to keep moving forward in a way that is productive and helpful. You need to realize that not only is touring how you are going to make the most money but also how you are going to lose the most money so every detail needs to be accounted for. I know I’m making it sound intimidating – and to some degree I should be, since touring is, by its very nature intimidating. Still – checking out what business savvy bands like KEN Mode and Night Demon are doing, you should be able to find that there is a lot more money to be made out there on the road than many of your peers might think. It’s just a question of making smart choices every single day of the tour.

Again – this really isn’t as hard as I’m making it sound it’s just that people in bands traditionally make poor decisions. People in bands are dumb as hell sometimes because they only want to focus on the music when they should be taking the time to approach things more holistically. Spending those extra few hours of research can actually end up being the most profitable hours you spend in setting up your tour since they will save you so much money. Don’t lock into anything without properly doing your research and always, always, ALWAYS ask more experienced bands who you KNOW MAKE MONEY for tips in order to figure out the best way to go forward.

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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An Industry Of Passion

The kindness of the music industry is something that I don’t think people appreciate enough. People in music are kind. They believe in this weird thing. For some reason the power of music is such that people will do stupid crazy things. You can’t forget this magic. You can’t forget that there are people at every level of the industry who are deeply in love with what the industry represents. The music industry is magical and triumphant, bizarre and overwhelming – the sort of thing that will encourage you to pick apart the darkness that defines so much of this industry and instead find a way forward that is encouraging, empowering and strangely beautiful. You need to remember that everyone in this industry is (Or was at one time) truly passionate, otherwise they would have gotten into something that would actually make them money. You need to circle back to this time and time again if you want to find a measure of success in this crazy old messed up universe of ours.

You might be doubting me – I know that I’m kind of a bitter individual in general and have been quoted as saying that you shouldn’t expect shit from anyone. To a large extent this is true. However you need to also remember that the foundation of this scene is young passionate people who have no real goal other than to facilitate live music and all sorts of exciting adventures. Finding these passionate people, and the passion deep within you is going to make you money. The point is not to become a giant mogul but rather to just find a path forward and show that they are art of something greater. That’s what so much of this boils down too. Not being a weird and demented god but just wanting to be a part of a world that is going to change everything. There is salvation and it comes in the form of dudes in their 20s who just have so much love for this stupid thing that they throw away most of their income and free time in the name of their art. It’s funny how it happens, but time and time again (Hell, even last night) I will meet people with a similar passion and they remind me why I keep coming back to this eternal suffering.

You need to take advantage of this, but in due measure. You can’t expect to exploit people non stop and think that people aren’t going to get pissed off at you. You need to reciprocate. This much should be obvious, but you also need to realize that by contributing you are becoming a part of a greater scene, one that transcends national boundaries and reminds us of the power that’s inside. I know that sounds cheesy but ultimately that’s what this entire thing is founded upon. The music industry is not something to be taken lightly, but so many people engage in it as a hobby that it ends up being both the industries greatest boon and greatest bane. While on the one hand it can be super helpful, as I have discussed in the past the cross section between amateurs and professionals can be a frustrating one to navigate, especially when you are dealing with as many amateurs as your average day in this industry will shoot up at you.

Not only is this an industry of passion though. It is an industry that thrives on people helping other people. Even at high levels this entire thing is a terrifying circle jerk. That’s cool and all, but you need to realize that no matter where you are in the industry it’s the people who do stuff for free and are willing to just go the extra mile who are the most respected. I know that sounds overtly poetic and even a little silly but I think that it makes sense. After all – the people who are the most respected at high levels tend to also have the strongest DIY ethics. Yes it’s a circle jerk, but a large part of that is because as these same people were rising up in the industry they found themselves climbing because they got to be included in a variety of circle jerks. If you think that you can be free of any baggage you are wrong – and you’re not appreciating the beauty of the music industry and all that it can truly entail for you and your friends.

Note that this whole thing isn’t without it’s consequences. It expects a lot of you as an individual and means that you need to cultivate these relationships. It means that you can’t just expect to feed off the scene and regularly scam people by lying about your draw because, “The live show is just that good bro” without expecting some consequences down the line. Since this is a circle jerk everyone knows everyone else, well, perhaps a bit too well. It leads to some interesting consequences that you might not have normally expected from this line of work and wrestling with these consequences is going to be a nightmare if you fucked people over early in your career. That’s why you need to always be careful to end things on good terms, people are awful and trusting them is a challenge. Yet you still need to do it because otherwise you realistically have no way of kicking things off as a DIY band, and if you can’t do that then you are staring down the barrel of a very dangerous gun.

At the end of the day – the fact that this entire thing is driven by passion is both beautiful and terrifying. It’s beautiful because it shows that even in terrifying and awful financial situations people will stand up and contribute to something greater than themselves. You have to admire that. That will help you a lot over the years. It’s terrifying because well… if the entire thing is driven by passion then after a certain point we are kind of all driven by the need for rich patrons, and if you have trouble finding fans with deep pockets well… that’s not a good thing. It’s going to be a regular struggle for you to keep coming and finding your way forward through all of the shit that this industry is going to keep throwing at 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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Should Your Indie Band Put Out An EP?

So an increasingly popular strategy in the music industry these days has been to release a bevy of EP’s rather than focusing on a full length. The strategy behind this is that full lengths are hard to write and it’s better to put out an EP every year then an album every two or three. Now I certainly understand and sympathize with that notion. It makes a lot of sense for one thing. After all, if we’re supposed to be generating constant content, then why not just put out a series of EP’s rather than focusing on longer formats that put you a lot more at risk? The variation on this is putting out singles once a month, or every quarter or whatever. The point being which is better, annual EP’s or waiting to put out a record? It’s one of those questions that divides opinions in the scene and forces us to pick apart the root of the problem. Of course – this whole thing is rather multifaceted, and there is a lot to dig in to and uncover within.

One thing I will say is that the people who are putting out EP’s regularly rather than albums tend to be lower level individuals in the music industry. I’m not trying to attack any bands who are a fan of the EP method – I just find that most bands with major management and labels tend to stick to LP’s. Now this is for a lot of reasons, obviously albums are a better return on investment since they sell far better. Furthermore – as an artistic statement, an EP is kind of a hard thing to make feel complete and when you are trying to create the most honest artistic statement that you can it feels to me that very often a band is selling themselves short. Don’t get me wrong, there are some EP’s that I love – but as a rule, they simply don’t perform as well commercially or artistically as albums. You need to balance this against the value of regularly having material come out every few months.

With these sorts of things I like to look at what major labels do when they are trying to break an artist. I can tell you that a lot of labels aren’t even interested in putting out EP’s because they know that they aren’t going to satisfy the bands artistic goals and won’t make as much money as on a full length album. However, I have also noticed that a lot of major labels counteract this by seriously drawing out the single release process. For example, one of my favorite bands, Florida Georgia Line who put out their first single on this album cycle a full four months before their album comes out. Something else that labels and major managers tend to do is to use EP’s to release extra material, be it covers, a few songs that didn’t make it on the album or a few live cuts. It’s usually better to have an extra release in your catalogue than a bonus edition after all. Furthermore, those sorts of EP’s can be put together for a fairly low cost and which enhance the discography without being a major effort that messes up the all important album release cycle.

I think that the role of the EP is, in the modern context, best used as an introduction to the world at large. Countless artists in recent years have gotten their start with an EP that turned into major label deals for full length records. Just look at pop stars like Kesha and Lorde, or even indie darlings like Modern Baseball. Sometimes putting out an EP with a good PR campaign behind it is a great way to test the waters and introduce yourself to the world. A good EP gives a glimpse at who the band is and what they are capable of. It shows that you are capable of a professional sound and gives you something much more solid to wrap your initial launch around than just a demo. If you want to come off as totally professional and ready for this whole screwed up industry, then using an EP as a sort of business card is going to be a great jumping off point for you to start talking to anyone from managers and booking agents to record labels.

Odds are that your band, after your first couple releases, isn’t going to have the resources to put out regular EP’s and would be much better served with focusing on full lengths. Full lengths feel more concrete. Established bands put out full lengths – baby bands put out EP’s. I know that’s not always true, but it’s one of those weird psychological things that’s going to put people off. Sure you have material a lot more often than many of your peers, but assuming you have your album release cycle on lock anyway then EP’s are going to be a lot less tempting. The only time where regular EP’s can really help is splits – but that’s a conversation for a different day, and one that has a whole different set of criterion when it comes to figuring out if that’s a good idea. The point being – be wary of regular EP releases. Even though it definitely does work for some bands, I feel like the fact that labels and management companies are increasingly leery eyed of using EP’s as anything more than a fun bonus is an important sign.

So yeah – I hope you take this advice, and realize that if you have been putting out EP’s regularly there’s nothing wrong with that either. Some bands DO use the EP model to great success. Good for them. All I’m saying is that in my experience EP’s are rarely be the better choice unless you have a ton of resources at your disposal or are trying to hype an upcoming major release. I mean – maybe I’m totally wrong, but I’ve always learned through observation and this has been the recurring theme that I have noticed in m own experience – take that as you will. The music industry is a weird place, so maybe it will all change tomorrow, but as for now, this is how things seem to work out best for the most people.

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 Joy Of Controversy And Indie Bands

Controversy is a powerful tool. It’s something that can launch your band to a shocking amount of success with minimal effort. I’m not saying that you should go out seeking controversy by posting offensive statuses or being an asshole – but there certainly is a way to leverage controversy in order to get the whole world talking about your band and getting things moving forward in a surprisingly productive way. As silly as it might sound if you can figure out how to leverage controversy to your advantage then you can pretty much guarantee that your band will careen to stardom, and assuming that your product going along with it is strong enough then you are going to get some real fans out of this whole screwed up rock and roll fantasy that so many of us have to struggle with on a day to day basis. Remember, it’s all a sham, so you need to take advantage of the small things.

I think I’ve talked before about the example of the band Black Pussy – a group who are really only okay at best who managed to get the sort of massive media attention that bands who have toured the world dozens of times dream about having. There were thousands of people who liked the band on Facebook or followed them on Twitter – not because of their music, which like I said, the reviews found to be only average, but because of what they stood for. I’m not taking a side here, but I think that the guys in Black Pussy knew what they were doing when the named their band. They were hoping to stir up some shit. I don’t especially think offensive band names are a good idea, they rarely turn into major press unless they are racially charged and that’s kind of a hard thing to approach delicately. The point stands though, it really helps to get people kicking up shit over your band.

There are a lot more no no’s then yes yes’s when it comes to channeling controversy too. For example – it’s really bad to try to hop on someone elses controversy as Machine Head’s Robb Flynn did when he wrote a song about Phil Anselmo’s White Power incident (Another example of bad controversy) It just makes him look like a hanger on Coming out with a public opinion too is rarely a good idea, unless you actually know the people involved. You don’t want to make yourself look amateurish or uneducated. If you are going to take on a controversial stance then you are going to need to defend yourself and if you can’t do that then people will just end up making fun of you. Look at what Nails did recently, essentially taking on internet trolls and then triggering a backlash so large that they were forced to go on hiatus. Sure they got some more followers and probably a few album sales, but it also screwed up their entire release cycle and probably career.

So what are examples of positive use of controversy? Well Babymetal are a great example. They are a band who came totally out of left field, made some extremely weird music and then found themselves opening for Lady Gaga. They are one of the bands who upset metalheads the most and they take advantage of that with increasingly bizarre and well put together songs. The same goes for Ghost, a band who they have played many a festival with. It’s a band who add a healthy dose of pop to occult rock and leave many metalheads in literal tears. It’s a funny thing to watch a giant bearded dude whine over art made by teenage girls, but it happens. It’s the same reason that a band like Black Veil Brides are so successful – they are upsetting parents and people who claim to know what ‘true metal’ is. Sure I’m not a fan of the band, but when I was younger I liked bands that pissed off everyone too. There is a visceral appeal to that sort of thing that I think we can all relate too.

There is a distinct lack of ballsiness in music today. That’s why I loved it when Jason Aldean came out with a tweet saying “Nobody gives a shit what u think” when Zac Brown claimed that Luke Bryan’s “That’s My Kind Of Night” was the worst song ever. And you know what? That won him a ton of fans. People dig into folks who are problematic simply because so few people actually willing to step up and be the crazy badass. That’s what the entire world of heavy metal was built on in the old days – scratch that – that’s what pretty much every genre has been based off, even going back to the baroque period. When Monteverdi brought instruments into the concert hall in the early 17th century, there were very nearly riots! It’s always been people who were able to harness controversy and make people hate them but force the acknowledgement that what they were doing was damn good. If you think that Beethoven or Mozart were universally beloved then you have been reading the wrong histories. It’s the people who scare not just parents, but also other young people who have been able to find long term success over not just the years or decades, but centuries.

So go out – act controversial. Be willing to stir up some shit. I’m one of the most controversial writers on Metal Injection and I’m their only writer on salary. I don’t know what that says about me or Metal Injection, but it does show that this sort of thing works. You can’t just be racist or supporting radical opinions in order to get attention drawn to you. You need to have out there and crass opinions that you can defend. You need to scare people, make them question the norm and freak them out a little. Controversy is a very hard thing to handle and you see bands screwing up their lives with it. Yet for those of you who figure out this super complicated 11 letter word you will be able to reap benefits and leave people both scarred and in love.

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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Drugs, Alcohol and your Band

Drugs, alcohol and music have been tied into each other since the dawn of time. I’m sure that neolithic composers were outcast from their families for drinking too much beer and ended up discovering music while out on a bender one night. Everyone can point to their favorite classical composers who also had substance abuse issues, and obviously the rock star lifestyle is one strongly associated with drugs and alcohol. The question then becomes – how should drugs and alcohol be impacting your independent band? Obviously most people like to get a drink at a show, but how much is too much, and how do you balance the hard drinking lifestyle of the road with daily life? It’s the sort of thing that no one really wants to talk about but which will leave you much better off if you are willing to have an open and honest conversation about it. Figuring out your bands relationship with these vices will almost certainly be a boon for your careers.

On a local level the only advice I really have for you is don’t get drunk before you play. Getting high beforehand might be okay – it depends on what kind of stoner you are, but I would recommend against that too. I think that the best way to show your music and your fans respect is to go on stage with only a beer or two in your belly. After all, you spent hundreds I not thousands of hours honing your craft, writing good songs and jamming with your band. Do you really want to throw it all away in the name of chugging a few beers? I didn’t think so. Those things can wait until after the show, and ideally after someone has been paid. You don’t want to go down as the band who party too hard to get through their set. Breaking through in the local scene is always very difficult and you want to make sure that people respect you and see what you are doing before you go out and get completely hammered in front of them.

Now I’m not saying that you can’t get, as Parker from Starkill calls it, “poo-wasted” while on tour, or even at a local show. Still, you need to know how to handle your liquor. I’ve negotiated quite a few thousand dollar deals while not entirely able to stand up straight and with some drunk and horny girl holding me a bit too closely. However you always need to be able to maintain some degree of professionalism. If it gets to the point where you’re slurring, and you didn’t get drunk with the promoter, then it might make sense to take some time, step back and have someone else handle the settlement for that particular evening. Independent music is a hard thing to do and when you get stressed out on tour, you are going to want to drink. Some people are natural born negotiators and can handle checks and large amounts of money while drunk, good for the. If you aren’t one of those people then you are going to want to be a little more careful.

One of the issues that I have had come up time and time again over my life in the industry is getting off the sauce while off tour. When you’re on the road it’s pretty normal to have anywhere between five to ten drinks a day. I mean – that’s how I cope with stress and I don’t judge anyone else who does the same. However when you get home – it’s really easy to stay on that same five to ten drink routine. After all, you’ve been on tour! You’re a rockstar! You can handle your liquor! Right? Not actually. In the words of my friend Devin Holt of Pallbearer, “Try to leave that shit on the road” It’s as good as advice as any that I can give and a reminder of what really matters. It’s easy to get caught up in the fantasy – but the road is a totally different animal, and one that needs to be respected. Sure you can do it for a month or two, but personally, when I get off I go sober for a week – and your liver might thank you for doing the same.

As for within your band – everyone has their own level of comfort with drugs and alcohol. I’ve worked with heroin addicts and had a perfectly fine time of it, other times I’ve dealt with people who became useless after smoking a joint every a day for a week. For me it’s always question of how much shit the other person can get done in whatever state they prefer to be in and how easy they are to get along with when they are on their favorite products. Then of course – if you’re traveling from state to state you probably want to be careful with how much stuff you’re carrying. I try to travel with as little weed as possible and literally nothing else. You don’t want to mess with rural cops who are freaked out by dudes with long hair and beards who are five hundred miles from home. That’s not a fun experience and will probably screw up your entire band (And personal life) for years to come. So yeah – before going on tour, have a frank discussion about everyone’s vices – it will save you a lot of stress at the expense of a little embarrassment.

Drugs and alcohol are a tricky thing – something that everyone needs to deal with these days, not just dudes in bands. But just as you probably should get your life together if your drinking stops you from working and is killing your health, you need to do the same for drinking when on the rude. And furthermore, just as you would probably discuss drug habits with potential roommates, you should probably do the same with people you are going to cross the country with. Remember – music is a job, and just as with any job, you need to keep your own personal predilections in check and make sure that your work environment is going to be cohesive with whatever habits you choose to form.

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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Being Backstage and Just Being There

Picture the scene: backstage at BB Kings, a legendary club on Times Square. I’m standing there with members of Def Leppard, Stone Temple Pilots and many more legendary bands. I’m also there with my friend Dan. He’s not a music industry guy. I mean – he helps me with some tech and social media stuff now and then, but he was just there as my friend. We got into a nice chat with my buddy Forrest Robinson who’s played on a bunch of records you’ve heard. The night was fun, we had some drinks and chatted a bit. As anyone who has been to these types of events can tell you, trade secret were being dropped left and right, it was kind of funny actually. Then the time came to leave and Dan as shocked by how many people stopped to shake his hand. People he had only briefly met and many of whom were high profile movers and shakers in the New York City arts scene. As we left he remarked to me, “It seems like just by being there people trust you and are willing to give you opportunities to work with them.” This really struck me – and so I want to write about the importance of just being there.

See – being there is what makes people trust you. Most people aren’t going to bother checking your credentials, they just want to talk to people who seem cool and have something nice to say about them. They aren’t trying to be exclusive – they are just going to talk to anyone who is there -it’s like any other party. Getting backstage and into a lot of these places can be a little bit tricky, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make right now. What I’m trying to emphasize is that all that matters is knowing how to be there and how to use that to your advantage. Most people aren’t going to try and judge your credentials, they just are going to be curious about what you have to say. This industry is filled with some surprisingly friendly people – they have to be friendly, this is a both a very cool and very brutal industry. There needs to be some light at the end of the tunnel!

I remember being sixteen or so and having all these TV executives at a French metal TV show being a little surprised at my age. I didn’t see what the big deal was. I just so happened to know the band they were filming (Dead Cowboy Sluts if you’re curious) and was in the backstage area. That led to a relationship that I still profit from today. I didn’t really DO anything special. I mean sure I had a blog and stuff, but I wasn’t Dead Cowboy Sluts manager, or label or anything. I was just some kid who happened to like the band and wrote some things about them and it paid off after a fashion. This is just the first of countless examples. Hell – most of my income just comes from going to Hellfest every year and hanging out in the VIP area, being a smartass, charming people (I hope!) and then eventually (Somehow) getting hired for gigs. I’m not even trying to network, I just make sure that I end up in the right place at approximately the right time and am at least moderately sober.

Of course – getting to those ‘right places’ can be hard, but not quite as hard as you think. In an industry where everyone is a fan but very few people actually contribute anything becoming one of the folks who does even a little can get you pulled backstage at shows. Hell – even just going to a lot of shows can you backstage, simply because by having paid for countless tickets over the years you have won yourself favors. (Be From there it’s just a question of being kind and friendly. It’s not a question of impressing people (Trust me – you probably can’t, not for years at least) but rather of just listening to what they have to say and seeing what things you have in common. It’s not about proving who has the biggest dick or showing how great you are at your job, at least not directly. You have to subtly bring these things up in conversation and then go from there. It’s no longer a question of just networking – simply because to network means to figure out how to be in the right place at the right time. It’s an art to be sure, but one that can guide you into the career of your dreams.

The backstage can always be tricky to navigate. It’s one of those places where being natural is all that matters. You can’t try to impress people in these spaces, you need to realize that these things are supposed to be fun. Every backstage is meant to be a party and if it isn’t then you’re at the wrong kind of show. All good people want in backstage areas is a chance to chill out and to enjoy the party. The madness of rock and roll can be stressful and people who keep trying to impress people and do stupid things in order to sound good aren’t going to actually gain any respect in the long run. You just need to be able to hang out, be cool and let them enjoy what they have built up to. Being backstage is a question of chilling out and letting the vibes come,rather than trying to define anyones demented rock and roll fantasy with your own hijinks.

So try and join the party. I know it won’t be super easy at first, but it’s something that is hard not to fall in love with. Rock and roll is something where everyone can have a chance, especially if that person can show off their chops and have the swagger to make their way backstage. Being there is more than just a question of knowing who to impress and how, it involves literally actually showing up, and showing that you care. This whole industry is about being able to keep up appearances, and nothing does that like finding your way backstage and shaking some hands. Don’t be a sleazebag and in the end it might even pay off! After all – everyone wants to share their passion and fall in love with the music all over again.

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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Why Mass Emails (Sort of) Work

One of the things that has most defined my music industry experience has been mass emailing. Sometimes when you are trying to break a band in a new market, or simply don’t have the necessary contacts in a certain place, all you can do is go to a directory and reach out to hundreds of people in a single sitting and hope for the best. I mean obviously it’s better to use personal contacts and go from there, but unfortunately that’s not always a super feasible option. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and email three hundred dudes with the hope that maybe four or five of them get back to you and want to work with you and grow a future relationship. I know that that can sound nihilistic, but in this world of broken hearts and fall aparts sometimes we just have to be grateful with the connections we get from that and appreciate that even just those few responses can lead to connections that last a lifetime.

What is important to realize is that these message storms are not futile, especially if you do them correctly. As bitter as it might seem while doing it, you really can generate a few very solid contacts from this strategy. I’ve booked dozens of shows just by storming forward with hundreds of emails. I know that it still takes staying up all night – but the morning after is like Christmas – full of the knowledge that your hours of hard work will pay off in the form of gigs, licensing deals and more. It’s a matter of persistence and realizing that since everything is interconnected being able to impress the few people willing to answer your emails will lead to opportunities to impress dozens more people and grow your brand far beyond what anyone initially thought possible or likely given whatever humble beginnings you may have had. It’s important to cooperate with everyone who has the grace to respond to you and at least show that you are kind and helpful – even if circumstances prevent you from working together just then.

The key I have found in these emails is to make them easily personalizable, but doing it in a way such that even if you forget to personalize one (And you will – you will be sending out hundreds after all) it won’t look like a mistake on your part. This sounds complicated but it’s actually surprisingly easy. For example, my email draft for booking a show will have as a subject line: “Booking Pop Rockers Arden and the Wolves in September and October” which I will then update to “Booking Pop Rockers Arden and the Wolves in September and October at McMullan’s” when I am email McMullan’s. The first line of the email will, in the draft, read: “Hello, It looks like you guys have some really exciting events coming up this fall at your venue.” However when I am emailing McMullan’s I will make a small change, so it reads: ““Hello, It looks like you guys have some really exciting events coming up this fall at McMullan’s.” See the change? That’s all I do – and it radically increases how many people respond. It’s literally the teensiest change but it makes a world of difference, it makes you look like the real deal and shows that you care enough to personalize things – something overworked and undervalued promoters love.

It’s the little things that are going to capture peoples attentions. A little bit of personalization for example, or simply replying quickly and kindly. A willingness to be flexible is also going to make these mass emails work for you. You basically are cold calling and asking for a favor worth (Ideally) a few hundred dollars. You don’t want to be the one making demands. You have to be the one willing to bend and work with the people who responded to your cold call. Try to do some research as you get more deeply involved and try to show that you really care – because you should. These are the people who are going to be helping you get the good shows after all. They are under no obligation to keep responding to your emails or to have even responded in the first place. Remember that this shouldn’t just be a two way street, but also the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

As I’ve said before on this blog – one of the best ways to get success with promoters and people in power is to ask what you can do for them. Even if it means doing menial tasks you are prolonging the relationship and making things better and more desirable for both parties. This is why the people in power are all friends, because they started off doing each other favors in order to figure each other out. They showed that they had the dedication to go beyond just BCCing a million people and instead wrote personalized emails to hundreds of places in order to get results from just a few -but they knew it and took the fact that they knew it to the next level by taking the few replies they got and taking full advantage of them. The people who book at the hip venues need to be proven that you care and are willing to make sacrifices for this. That way when they go up to bat for you they know that they are doing the write thing and your countless emails will pay off.

So go out. Make a professional template. Show that you are dedicated to what you are doing. Show that you can personalize even the most mundane email and use that to your advantage in order to grow relationships that will continue to feed both you, and your partner on the other end of the email chain for years to come. Driving forward in this way and finding dudes and dudettes who have that kindness in them will radically improve your future and show you that even while we all seem overinundated we can find good places to play shows from good people who remember that old hardcore spirit that got them involved in this horrible industry in the first place.

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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