James Moore's Blog, page 86

Market Saturation And Your Indie Band

Markets are an interesting thing, and I’ve only ever gotten to learn about them through direct experience in the music industry, which I think gives me a very different perspective on the whole thing. That being said – I think there’s a lot to be said about market saturation that can only be properly derived from observation. Market saturation is something that we all need to be aware of and we need to be careful when approaching touring, working with record labels, and our general dalliances in the music industry. Some people don’t take kindly to this whole market saturation thing and have a hard time accepting the freedom of it all, but we need to embrace it and realize how we can take advantage of it.

For the uninitiated, market saturation happens when too many bands start trying to do the same thing and keep hitting the same markets time and time again. We are seeing this happen right now with stoner rock – there is simply too much. Sure, the fans have kept supporting it, but the cracks are already showing. Market saturation can also happen from a single band who cover the same territory time and time again. If you’re on the level where you can tour fairly regularly then it’s probably not advisable to hit any one market more than twice a year. This might seem like common sense, but unfortunately a lot of bands apparently have no problem spending the whole year on the road, only to wonder why they aren’t pulling as many people in Tusla after playing their for the fourth time that year.

What you need to keep in mind is that your average fan only has so many dollars to spend on music. You can’t expect your fans to be willing to pay for tickets to see you more than twice a year or so – and of course, if people are used to seeing you play live all the time, well you can say goodbye to merch sales too. If you keep pushing people and expecting more from them you are never going to get anywhere. Remember that crucial 80/20 rule, that twenty percent of the fans are responsible for eighty percent of the money going into the music industry. These people though can only attend so many shows, they get tired out, and hey want to spread their dollars around because, well, after you’ve seen Flotsam & Jetsam for the 9th time, is it really worth spending the twenty bucks to go out and see them play the same songs yet again?

So how do you avoid market saturation and make sure that your band makes money time and time again? Asides from the aforementioned playing markets but twice a year (If that) one also needs to try and have music that is truly unique. Obviously that’s a hard thing to do, we can’t all be super niche like Mongolian folk metallers Tengger Cavalry. But you should still be aware that you are creating your own void. That doesn’t mean you can’t have your music clearly come from somewhere, but you need to be aware of your place in the scene. Being a part of a niche market is a key part of what moves your career forward. It makes people want to spend money on you, especially if you are the only place where they can get that hyper specific kind of music.

If you’re killing it though and starting to make money off a niche band like that, you are going to get imitators, I guarantee it. Just look at the history of the music industry and how trends have a tendency to blow up and see every band in a certain market get signed (Again, circle back to our stoner rock example) You have two options when your music starts to blow up like this – you can either rise to the top of the pack or just become another boring member of the scene. For example, Nirvana was the first grunge band and rather than falter they certainly were able to take the sound to the next level and maintain their claim to the throne.

So how do you make market saturation work for you? Well – you need to view market saturation as a chance to diversify your interests. Have you hit the US and Europe five times apiece over the last three years? Well maybe it’s time to take a break from that and try your luck in Australia and then move into a developing market like Southeastern Asia. I’m not guaranteeing that this will always be a huge success, but it actively contributes to the narrative of your band. If everyone has seen you play a dozen times because you’ve opened for every band you possibly could, people just aren’t going to care after a while. You need to be extremely careful with how often you play live because no matter how much your fans love you they can only support so much of your music before their wallets are going to need a break.

At the end of the day, market saturation is ultimately a sign of success. If you’re doing well enough that this is something that you have to worry about then clearly you had people who cared in the first place. It’s also one of those things where, when you are at the level where you need to worry about it, you kind of start to figure it out. But the thing is, after a certain point you see so many bands screwing this up that I felt like an article had to be done. Just keep in mind, you can only expect so much from the music scene, they want to give you money and support you but you can’t expect too much. Draw the line and work from there – or face a lifetime of disappointment.

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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Record Labels And Brand Affiliation – A Primer

Record labels these days probably are almost never going to offer you an advance, nor are they going to offer you an exceptional percentage on royalties to make up for it. Of course, they can help you pay for merch and getting CD’s out, but even that isn’t that exceptional these days, when more musicians than ever have real jobs protecting them and allowing them to fund their music. So, where does this leave the record label? What makes it worth working with them, rather than just putting stuff out on your own? The answer my friend, is brand affiliation. We’ve talked about how labels are curators of taste in the past, but now they have also become important for a similar, but still separate reason. There is a very real significance to being on a label with a strong reputation. It helps to establish your brand and elevate the discussion around your work to a new level.

This circles back to that idea of controlling the narrative, that we have touched on time and time again. Sure, people in the industry know that having a label doesn’t really mean all that much in this day and age, but people on the outside don’t need to know that. If you can get signed to a label with a hip name but not really getting any money for it, it’s still probably worth it. Why? Because you’re getting pulled into something greater than yourself. For example, if you have an option to sign to SubPop with no advance you should still probably go for it, even if the percentage is subpar. In the long term that contributes to who you want to be and gets people talking, a lot more than if you just put a record out with your buddies independent label.

That being said – you want to make sure that whatever label you end up going with, even if it is just for brand affiliation purposes isn’t going to gouge you. That’s a whole separate conversation but one that I feel needs to be touched on at least briefly. You ALWAYS want a lawyer looking at your contracts to make sure you’re not screwing yourself over. A lot of labels will sell you on this idea of brand affiliation and then only hurt you. You need to be extremely careful when signing a contract where one of the main incentives is associating with a label and nothing more, it could certainly elevate the narrative but it could also screw up your career for years to come. That’s an intangible and perpetual struggle you’re going to have to face with your band when the time comes.

When considering brand affiliation you also need to consider what it means for your bands brand to be associating with that label. You want to have a mutual benefit situation, you don’t want your label to be benefiting more off of your brand than you do off of theirs. This is not often the case, but you need to be careful you’re not hurting yourself. You are going to want to make sure that if your band is a hot, up and coming group that you don’t end up affiliating with a label who people view as slow and dying. Again – it’s a very hard balance to strike but it’s one that makes all of the difference in the world. You need to get into the habit of asking more established musicians and industry folks for their opinions on various labels to make sure that when the time comes you don’t end up affiliating with a crappy record label.

Like I said though – this is VERY case by case. The best thing you can do is to find someone with a lot more experience in your particular scene and ask them for advice as you try to find a way forward. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t trust your own judgment to, but in something as focused on popular opinion as independent music it pays to get as many opinions as possible. Some folks just want ‘yes men’ you don’t want that. You want people giving you well thought out and developed ideas that will help your band to grow and connect with record labels who will help expand what you are all about with their connections and brand rather than anything else.

I don’t want to make it sound like you can’t trust record labels for anything, but unfortunately you can’t. That’s just the way it is. The only thing that you can count on from your record label is their name being affiliated with you, at least for one record, if not multiple. So if you do trust them for stuff beyond that then you are setting yourself up for disappointment. There is literally one good thing left about labels that they are forced to give you, and that’s their name. It’s very hard to twist their arms for other things, so until you get to that level just go out, rage, and let brand affiliation be your guide as you navigate the weirdness of the music industry.

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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Handshake Deals And What They Mean For Your Music Industry Career

So here’s a dirty little music industry secret that pretty much no one will ever tell you – not because it’s particularly important, in fact when you find it out you probably wont be too shocked. But in a world that seems increasingly oriented around lawyers and contracts it will certainly come off as scandalous. So here it is: almost every deal made in the music industry is a mere handshake arrangement. You might find this surprising, you’ve probably seen a record label contract or two in your day and try to protect yourself contractually, and there certainly is a lot of merit to that. The thing is – a lot of very important people don’t especially care about that. It ultimately spins back to that old chestnut I’ve been hammering into y’all since day one – the music industry is more about honor than anything else, and handshake deals are a great way of maintaining that.

Now I have a few theories as to how these rose to prominence. In my estimation a lot of it stems from the fact that the music industry is oftentimes fueled by people who came up from the underground who were used to handshake deals and thn never really had a reason to stop. That’s the beauty of the music industry, most of it is scaleable. I’m not entirely sure how, but in a world that has gone as DIY as ours, most people seem to want to keep things as straightforward as possible. Contracts are, for many something of a last resort and something that needs to be kept a little bit separate from the bulk of the real dealings that take place – especially on the independent level where most of you guys lie.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a good contract. I read contracts fairly regularly, they are an important part of the business. Some deals I simply won’t go into without a contract, because I need a guarantee of certain basic things. People get screwed over all the time in music and I’m not sure that it’s totally logical to hand wave away the need for contracts at all. They certainly have their place, and it is a very important one. The thing is – a lot of the top dogs in the industry are so fed up with the crap that contracts create that oftentimes they’d rather just codify things with an email and then run from there.

Why do they want to avoid them? Because their lives are complicated enough already. They don’t need another contractual obligation holding them down. I can tell you that many of your favorite booking agents and managers don’t have any sort of codified arrangement with their clients, it simply doesn’t make sense. Not having a contract promotes a culture of trust. Sure, it leaves both of you open to future problems, but that’s kind of the point. Sure, you should probably get a contract if the money gets real, but some folks don’t even go for that. It’s important to stick to your DIY roots and remember what made you fall in love with this thing in the first place. The music industry remains real as long as it maintains those core ethics that make it survivable. When those get violated… well you’re in for a bad time.

Of course – if you are trying to cultivate a culture of trust you need to be sure that you can actually trust the people in question. If you’re getting a weird vibe from someone or hear something shitty about them then it might be valid to step back and make sure you have some sort of binding agreement if you’re going to work with them. You don’t want to put yourself liable for thousands of dollars. That being said, if you are working with someone who has had countless clients over the years, a strong reputation in the scene and makes you feel at home, they are probably someone you don’t need a super specific contract with, or any at all. This goes double if you’re working with someone who you see fairly regularly at shows and other industry events – it provides a level of accountability that has a power that goes beyond any contract.

A lot of you might have historically avoided contracts merely because reading a contract can be kind of a nightmare. I understand that and totally sympathize. If you miss just one piece of language you could find yourself thousands of dollars in debt. The thing is – you don’t need a law degree to understand contracts, you just need to read a lot of them and eventually you will start to get the hang of it. It’s a learned skill, and one that comes in endlessly valuable, not just in the music industry but in life in general. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still have a lawyer you can get in touch with for real questions, but it does mean that you can figure out, and pick apart some initial complications on your own.

Most of my income is not generated via contractually defined agreements. Instead I have deals laid out by individuals who trust each other, and the more I found out about the music industry the more I find that this is true for other professionals. Sure, this isn’t a model that works for everybody, but it does mean that I don’t have to worry about messing up with some small bit of language and having someone not feel obligated to pay me for a month’s work. It all ties back to that culture of trust. If you trust people and put your money where your mouth is then other people are going to trust you. It’s a simple question of human nature, and if you can take advantage of that, then you are set for great things.

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

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What Copyright Law Means For Your Indie Band

So, one of the things I like to write about on this blog is reflections on whatever textbook I’ve been reading (Protip: If you drop out of college to make a living in the music industry you’re going to be reading a lot of textbooks) and recently I’ve been spending a lot of time studying copyright law. Now, I’m not going to claim to understand it, like, at all. I’m going to need to go through at least a couple more textbooks and to keep taking notes if I want even a passing understanding, but it has given me some ideas, and I was able to pick out a few key notions that I think are going to be important for any indie band to understand as they start to progress in their careers. In fact – copyright law is so important that it can impact your career from day one.

The most basic concept to understand about copyright law is that if you write something original, then you automatically have the copyright on it. Of course, if you write it with a friend, or you even play it in front of someone, things can instantly get more complicated. In a similar fashion things get a little out of hand after you die, largely because Congress seems to keep changing the god damn laws every five minutes. (Seriously, it’s like copyrights extend indefinitely now.) The important thing is that if you can prove that you wrote a thing, or came up with an idea before someone else, then you should be covered. That’s why it’s important to record stuff as you progress, otherwise you could be setting yourself up to lose a whole lot of money.

This leads us to perhaps the most important aspect of this for indie bands. All things considered – the odds are you don’t need to worry about the trademarks on your songs. In the early days it’s ridiculously unlikely that those songs will make you any money, and if your career seems to be going to a point where they would make money there are other ways to make those agreements and protect your rights. What you NEED to worry about once you start really getting stuff moving is a trademark on your name. There are a frankly ridiculous number of bands out there who don’t own the trademarks on their bands name and a lot of them get burned. This can lead to a ton of complication down the road, and it only costs like seventy bucks to obtain – so why not go for it?

Many of the issues with copyright law stem from the fact that you need to be able to document as much as possible, ad when you’re starting a band when you’re young and doing drugs with your friends it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to bother to do this. In all likelihood you think you will be friends forever and this isn’t always the case. But look. If y’all are in a good place right now then there is no shame in going back and working this out with your buddies. Even if you want to register all the songs under your band name, make sure that you have some form of signed agreement with you stating as much. Obviously having a record label can help with that, but be careful even then – because once real money starts to come in you have to start worrying about what that is going to mean for your bands interpersonal relationships, things can decay surprisingly quickly.

As for how you document things, there are a lot of ways to do it. As I previously mentioned a contract is usually good enough, but due to the nebulous nature of copyright law you can often get away with just a voice recording at the beginning of a track or even a time stamped Word document with some details about your song. You should almost certainly go to a lawyer about this. That’s one of the real takeaways of this article by the by, lawyers are going to become your best friends, I know that sounds kind of lame, but unfortunately that’s the way it has to be. Your band is a business, and like every business you need to be protected and have everything lined up in a way that is good, right and salutary in the eyes of our lords, the IRS.

Before we wrap up – I would like to make a quick aside. One thing you’re probably wondering is how all of this impacts piracy. Well – turns out that not only is pretty much everything piracy, if you’re the one distributing content that isn’t yours, but being on the receiving end of pirated material is not at all illegal. After all – there you are only sinning by not knowing that the pirated material was in fact pirated. This leads to a lot of weird moral and ethical problems that I don’t especially want to get in to right now, just be aware that there’s an upcoming article here based off of a little book called Freedom and Culture.

So I guess I’m kind of a square now. I stayed up late on a weeknight to draft an article about copyright law and I’m not even drunk. But guess what – that’s what the music industry does to you. The real point that needs to be made is that you need to be protected. You need to find yourself a rock and roll lawyer and start documenting shit. As well as things might be going now – don’t count on them going down so well in the future. The music industry is a weird thing and one that is oftentimes hard to negotiate your way through – especially when so many people are faking their way (Hell, I know I am) so bone up, take these basics and run with them, you don’t want to regret years of your life somewhere on down the trail.

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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Finding A Tour Vehicle – The Hidden Struggle Of An Indie Band On The Road

I’m gearing up for my first ever big boy tour, or at least the first one that I’m fully responsible for (Outside of, y’know, the nightmare hellscape that is booking) and I’m learning A LOT. This of course has been and will continue to be the inspiration for countless articles. Today’s particular struggle is renting a touring vehicle. There are a lot of factors to take into consideration here, after all, if you’re going to be on the road for weeks, or months at a time you want a vehicle that will be comfortable. However, you also are going to want to make sure that whatever vehicle you are taking is cheap. In the pauper-esque world of touring bands there is minimal margin for pleasure and just because you can afford a bus doesn’t mean you should get one.

So what have I found thus far? Well – mostly that I wish the band I’m taking out was a two piece because then I could just toss them in a cargo van and profit. Of course – it’s rarely that simple. Instead you find yourself navigating a jenga-esque world where you need to figure out how to minimize the space needed for gear and maximize places for the band to lie down and chill out while on those seemingly endless car rides. Is a 15 passenger van the way to go? Sometimes. But those can cost a lot. Figuring out this very delicate balance is what’s going to probably drive who ever is in charge of your tour insane.

Ultimately it boils down to that critical question – do you want to have a comfortable tour that leaves you in the red, or an awful tour that leaves you in the black? For some bands this is an easy choice – maybe they are hobby band sand can afford the loss, or maybe they are grizzled punk rockers who have been doing this for decades and really couldn’t care less. Of course, there’s a whole spectrum of options in between, but ultimately this is what it looks like in black and white. It’s a frank conversation that every band needs to have. This is one of those unforeseen factors that will torment you as you try to find your way forward in the world of being a touring musician. This isn’t something you can skirt around unfortunately, you either have to go out and embrace the complexity of it all or simply end up unable to tour.

Since the touring question lies on a spectrum, everyone has their own solution to this. It’s such a case to case thing that even websites suggesting great ideas on how to handle touring can be very wrong, simply because there are so many options unique to a particular band. It can be impacted by the kind of gear you’re packing, the amount of merch you want and how much you are willing to pay for gas, and this is only scratching the surface. You also need to consider how old your band members are, younger bands can sleep sitting up in a van as you drive on to the next stop, but if you’ve got some older guys they are going to need to lie down – that’s just how this works. If you have a major stage set up, or even banners, that too needs to be taken into consideration. Trust me – you don’t want random bits of bunting poking into your back for eight hours a day, every day, for a month.

Trust me though – touring is amazing, even if you get a bunch of stuff wrong. Human ingenuity is such that any group of reasonably intelligent individuals can figure something out such that everyone manages to overcome the greatest adversity. And screwing upon your first tour is pretty par for the course – it adds to your narrative as a stupid beginner band. That doesn’t mean you should make an uninformed decision though. I would recommend setting up a spreadsheet and sitting down with your guys and figuring out how much you care about each factor that you identify, and then use that to decide on a touring vehicle. Or maybe just borrow your friends van, that works too.

One thing to keep in mind before I leave you – Uhaul trailers are surprisingly cheap to rent. That’s a little tidbit I think far too many bands ignore. If you can all fit nicely into a minivan and then also get a trailer that will be way cheaper than bothering with a 12 passenger van or the like. That being said – you need to be careful about the restrictions that places on highway driving. Furthermore – you can’t attach a trailer to a rental, and of course, it’s going to take more gas. Nevertheless, from my research it seems that if you can make it work space wise this is far and away the least expensive option. As you can tell by now, this question of trailers is just another example of how touch and go this entire thing can be.

Feel it out, check a bunch of options and ask a bunch of bands eventually I can guarantee you will find the best way forward for you and your touring team! This is something that oftentimes can only be found out via bitter experience. Sure your booking agent or manager might have an idea, bu you have to realize that ultimately choice of touring vehicle oils down to the kinds of margins you want to have and the interpersonal relationships in your bad. After all – your costs don’t impact managers or booking agents! Keep that in mind as you delve forward, but realize that though the road is long, you always come home in the end.

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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Iggy Pop Sweats & Burns on Post Pop Depression

Iggy Pop is the last old gnarled tree standing in the empty field of rock and roll. The flesh on his bones splits like aging oak. His low-lying bellow comes deep from the root. Last month Pop released Post Pop Depression, his seventeenth album. On it he teams up with Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal and Them Crooked Vultures.  Dan Fertita, also from QOFSTA and The Dead Weather, plays bass and guitar while Matt Helders, drummer for The Arctic Monkeys, takes on percussion.

The collaboration makes perfect sense. Homme preserves the scuzz of Pop’s early days with the Stooges, but adds to it a tight-lipped air of cool. The guitars are thick like hamburger meat running alongside Pop’s chiseled scowl and the rhythm section provides a steady anchor.

The album opens with “Break Into Your Heart.” The song comes through on the echoes trailing off the walls of a drainage pipe. Pop gives fair warning of his relentless love to whomever might be in its path.

“Gardenia,” the album’s first single, follows. The screws in your neck loosen. The whole song rides on a rollicking bass line that gets the body moving like an inflatable air dancer. The chorus is an act of hypnosis. “All I wanna do is tell Gardenia what to do tonight,” Pop sings in an up and down cascade with Homme’s high-pitched vocals shadowing in the background.

The next song, “American Valhalla,” almost sounds like the background music from a lost episode of The Addams Family with Lurch creeping around the back room. A mellotron adds the eerie to the spooky of Pop’s vocals. “I shot my gun / I used my knife / This hasn’t been an easy life,” he sings.

When the cavernous maw of Iggy Pop unhinges the grumble of decades past unfurls out. With every word uttered one can visualize the deep creases of his face moving in rhythm. His Adam’s apple vibrates back and forth with each syllable.

“Vulture” starts with a wooden guitar lick that sounds like a throwaway demo. But, then Pop’s voice drops into the song like sewer sludge and you’re suddenly put on alert. “Fat black vulture white head hung low / Chewing dead meat by the side of the road / His evil breath smells just like death,” he warns dryly. The chorus sounds like the call of warning from an Old Western fight scene. Pop and Homme each take three slow steps in opposite directions before drawing their weapons.

Homme’s work with Them Crooked Vultures, his other project with Dave Grohl on drums and John Paul Johns on bass, seeps a bit into “German Days.” The song sounds like it could have come from those sessions with the guitar cutting quick on the off-step with the drums.

“Chocolate Drops” is a slow dark disco lilt. “When your love of life is an empty beach / Don’t cry,” Pop advises. Post Pop Depression ends with “Paraguay” a lacerating beat down with Pop calling bullshit on our world of constant unending information and the phonies that willingly prop it up. The snarling hero of our destructive tendencies still has enough saliva to spit back into the world.

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 Music Festivals Matter For Your Indie Band

Oh festival season. To go out in some big beautiful field, do a bunch of drugs, drink a bunch of awful beer, and see a bunch of bands you probably enjoy. This is what rock and roll should be about right? Well yeah. In 2016 we are seeing more festivals than ever before and their role in the industry is expanding at a previously unprecedented pace. This year more than ever we are seeing festivals with massive lineups sprouting up like mushrooms and making a lot of money. So why is it that in an industry that is largely in decline, festivals are exploding, and seem to be bigger and better than ever?

A large part of this is due to the simple fact that festivals aren’t just selling the music. Hell, they aren’t even just selling the lifestyle (Though that is definitely a huge part of any festival) They, unlike other music venues, become the arbiters of what their attendees eat and drink for days at a time and they get to charge whatever they want. This is just one way that festivals are able to use secondary sources of income in order to grow their revenue streams. The rabbit hole goes much, much deeper and concessions only scratch the surface. Sponsorships are perhaps the biggest part of what makes festivals so profitable. More young people than ever are attending festivals which makes them an ever more attractive target for companies that want to appeal to a younger hipper demographic.

Ultimately that’s what this boils down to on a variety of levels. Billboard tells us that over 14 million American millenials went to a music festival last year, and they travelled an average of 903 miles to do it. Clearly festivals are turned onto something special. After all, they have become something of a rite of passage for youth. An endurance test of sorts combining, sex, drugs and art into one decadent weekend. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, this was really the goal all along because now it means that these festivals can market themselves to death to advertisers. After all – if you’ve got a thing going that caters explicitly to cool young people and has proven that associated companies will be able to get cool young people interested in their product… well it makes a lot of sense that a whole fleet of advertisers will want to hop on board and become a part of the brand, and perhaps more importantly, the narrative that these festivals have been able to curate.

Of course, I’m sure that some of you are going to start whining about how corporate sponsorship is against the revolution and isn’t very punk rock. Well, my response to you there is two fold. First of all – if a marijuana company wanted to give your band a couple thousand dollars, I can almost guarantee you wouldn’t say no. From there it’s only a matter of blurred lines until you’re accepting sponsorships from someone actually evil, like Nestle. If you’re creating revolutionary music and are able to use corporate music to fund your message then why not just go for it? I mean – you need to make sure your sponsors politics make sense with your message, but that shouldn’t be an issue. Furthermore – with festivals you probably aren’t collecting directly from a corporation, even if one is funding the festival. If you can get a much bigger payday and audience than ever before just because the fest you’re playing happens to be sponsored by Coke you would be shooting yourself in the foot if you didn’t immediately jump on that opportunity – it could be your big break.

There are no real downsides to true music festivals or what they mean for you as a musician. Unless your ties to your politics are that strong (And trust me, they aren’t, even the Gods themselves, Napalm Death play festivals with corporate backing) they are going to be an opportunity for you to expand your brand and narrative. You simply need to realize that by participating in one of these you are helping the narrative of whatever festival you are at. It helps to establish who you are as a musician, but as far as finances are concerned it really grows the festivals into something special. They are the ones really directing massive payouts and seeing the most money in the industry.

I hope you noticed how I mentioned ‘true’ music festivals there. That’s one of the key differences we’ve got to keep in mind. Asides from various community festivals billed as music festivals that really only cater to high school bands or dads hobby bands. That’s all well and good, but you need to be aware of what they are whilst applying to perform at them. Don’t expect ever festival to have thousands of screaming fans, or even to pay that well. The vast majority don’t but if you are smart about who you work with and how you present yourself than you can become a part of a future where we all benefit from festivals – the good ones certainly have the margins for it.

Don’t take this article as an admonishment to set up your own festival though. To get that sweet, sweet corporate cash you are going to need to do a LOT of legwork. You need insurance out the ass, a huge staff and thousands of volunteers. What I’m trying to say with this article is that in a world where corporate sponsorship in music is okay, we need to take advantage of that and expand into greater things. Festivals are going to be your ticket to funding your band. It’s not unusual for groups to get 5 times their normal guarantee at a massive festival though – so buy in, give it your best shot and realize that this might be the way forward for live music.

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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Everybody Flakes – Why The Music Industry Is Suffering

Everyone flakes. That’s what the whole music industry is about. Expect failure. This is what happens. It’s a bad day in Bacon land, but guess what – that’s par for the course. Everyone is going to mess up. That’s how it is. You can’t expect anyone to do anything correctly, and so you need to spend your life making follow up calls and making sure everything is lined up properly. You can do literally everything right and still have it not work out. So – when everything falls through, you know that you did your best. Frankly speaking – that’s the reason that so many people drop out of this industry. As hard as you try, no matter what you do it will fall apart at least a handful of times before you start to understand the crucial lessons that this screwed up industry will beat into your head time and time again.

The point being – in the end, that’s kind of okay. You learn to be the most cautious, up front individual that you can possibly be. Why? Because there is no other way. In a an industry that doesn’t have a lot of second chances you’ve got to take advantage of what you can and suffer while you have to. I meet even go so far as to say that this entire thing is about suffering. The moral you learn, at the end of the day is that you always need to double check. Yet – there is a lot to learn from this, and from picking this apart understanding can be be gained. That isn’t meant to be some Proverbs-like phraseology, but merely that punks like us, baby were born to run.

So we circle back. Everyone flakes. We can’t expect people to do more. They’re just people. People are inherently flawed. You know what the best thing you can do though is? Forgive. As such as people want to just jump on each others asses and tear each other apart, we have to remember that we are all working as hard as we can and need to watch out for each other. Frankly – we are fighting over scraps at this point, and anyone telling you otherwise is a liar. Getting prissy over it only makes you look bad. That’s why a kind word goes a lot farther in the music industry and why you need to work as hard as possible to keep everyone in check. If we don’t watch out for each other and aren’t ready to forgive each other then we are going to be stuck in the same place in perpetuity.

As I’m sure you can tell – this blog often reflect my day to day life. Bacon is going through a hard time and needs a little love. That’s fine though, if I have a week without a major crisis then I feel a little bit weird. You need to be feeling weird because if you’re on top of everything, or rather, you think you’re on top of everything then you obviously are not. There are no days off in the music industry, and even if you try to slow down for a day or two, you need to be ready to take non stop emails and worry about shit falling apart at random intervals. Why? Because everything falls apart, even when it’s glued together. Managing expectations and making sure that people expect things to fall apart is a key part to moving forward in the topsy turvy world of music.

But what can you do? This is where that always important philosophy of ‘screw it’ comes in. At the end of the day – no matter how had your day was in the long run t doesn’t really matter. That isn’t an attack at your work or any one elses work but it’s only rock and roll and the minute that we forget that it’s only rock and roll then our lives are over. We got into this thing to avoid responsibility, while we certainly have to deal with getting stuff done rock and roll is about freedom and we have to embrace that – we need to keep everything in perspective. If you lose that ever important perspective, that the music industry is a pretty small part of our world, then you are going to simply go insane. That’s the beauty of it.

In short – this is a brutal industry and you are going to have good times and bad times, it’s like life, a roller coaster and it’s going to suck, most of the time. So yeah, this is a hard time for me. But guess what I’m facing a future that I know I can overcome and fight through. The world of music is a world of extremes and one that so few of us will ever be truly comfortable in. You never have enough time for you and you want to puke from stress most of the time. But guess what – if you are going to puke from stress that means that you are turned onto something better and can help to create something better. You are moving forward – a legend in your own lifetime, so remember that and fight your way to absolution.

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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Gimmicks And What They Mean For The Music Industry

I went to see a McDonalds themed Black Sabbath cover band on Friday night called Mac Sabbath. Lady Gaga recently had Baby Metal – a J-pop meets death metal band, open for her. Ghost won a frikkin’ Grammy for Gods sake. Meanwhile – in the pop world, costumes and stage set ups are more elaborate and fanciful than ever. Even country music has the bug, Luke Bryan comes out on a flaming pick up truck for crying out loud! And of course we are all seeing a surge of gimmicks on our own underground scenes. So – has independent music jumped the shark? It almost feels like all the silliest stuff has been done – where is it going to go from here? People seem to be stoked on stuff that they know is silly, over the top, and oftentimes saccharine in its appeal, so why do we keep circling back to it?

Now I know that some of the best performers have always had over the top and silly performances. One need look no further than thirty years of GWAR, or the mere fact that Dio had a fleet of dozens of trucks following his tours in the 80s. One also needs to remember that, for a variety of reasons, some bands have toned it down. For example, Def Leppard have a surprisingly simple stage show these days. Their only prop is a background of screens. They don’t even interact with the projections, they just provide a backdrop to the performance. So clearly this problem isn’t wholly new, nor is it entirely widespread, but it’s there and it needs to be discussed.

I think that, frankly speaking, people are getting bored with traditional live performances. Someone like Neck Deep – who are a fairly major live act these days, headlining thousand person venues with ease – have no stage show beyond their backdrop, but at the same time, the people going to see their shows only attend a handful of concerts ever year, so they can get away with it. For bands who cater to an audience of frequent concert goers, like Ghoul, the stage performance is a key aspect of what keeps people coming out and checking out the music time and time again. The question really though – is does that take away from the music itself? For example, I wouldn’t imagine nearly as many people would care about Ghost if they didn’t wear masks. So should we be willing to embrace stupid, over the top performances as a necessary part of the modern industry?

As more and more bands focus exclusively on touring, more and more people are going to, consequently, go to more live shows. Now this is all well and good – but it certainly can lead to a certain ennui. After the fifth show in a week you stop caring. I would know – five shows in a week isn’t unusual for me, so if I get to see a bunch of monsters going at it on stage (Like I will tonight with Iron Maiden) then I am going to prefer seeing that then to checking out yet another band at my favorite bar. Unless you’ve got a ton of hype going for your band, you’re going to need a righteous live show if you want people to pay attention and really remember you beyond ‘that band we saw one time,’ and the easiest way to have a memorable (If not necessarily righteous) live show is to have a ridiculous and gimmicky performance.

Of course – this hurts the democracy that music, arguably, should have. If you want to have a live performance with lots of badass stage gear, demons fighting band members and all the rest of it, you are going to need a ton of money to pull it off, or at least the know how to do the whole DIY thing like Ghoul (And even they probably lose money with all that extra gear they have to lug around) For most of these bands, you’re going to still need to be a great performer to get to the point where you can get props to to help bring the people out. The issue is that nowadays we are seeing more new bands than ever making the gimmick the focal point of the band and using that to guide the whole thing forward rather than graduating into it like most bands did in previous eras of popular music.

So – I don’t mean to sound like a profit of doom – but if we continue to expand the already high startup cost of being a band (Gear is expensive yo!) then music is going to suffer and become homogeneous. This doesn’t mean we can’t really appreciate badass sets with pyro and all that fun stuff, but it also means that we collectively need to raise up our performance game in order to beat out the rich kids. It’s going to be a struggle. I don’t think that anyone would argue otherwise, but I believe that by working together we can help to transcend this and sequester it to its rightful place in the industry once 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 Podcasting Matters In The Music Industry

Maybe I listen to Kevin Smith too much, and maybe I’m just a self centered nerd – but I gotta say, podcasting is quite possibly one of the most important developments in the music industry of the past few years. It feels like everywhere you look – from your favorite indie labels, to the hippest blogs, podcasts are coming up left and right. It makes you wonder – why is this happening now all of the sudden? Furthermore – what does it mean for you as an individual in the music world? Simply put – if you want to get your name out there, it seems like nowadays there is no better way to do it than via podcast. Hell – I started my own back in December and it’s already become a small income stream for me – what’s stopping you from hopping on board?

Of course – as Kevin Smith is always glad to emphasize – making a podcast is ridiculously easy. That’s why there are so many. Literally all you need to do is sit down with some of your buddies and start talking. You can even be transparent about it. Lich King make a point of that on their podcast, joking about how people have to leave midway through the podcast for a beer run. If you can’t be bothered to sit down for an hour with a beer and talk to your friends about stuff that you love to talk about.. well your career is screwed and I really can’t do anything for you. Podcasting should be pretty easy and self evident most of the time. Yeah, there’s an editing process, but even that is fairly easy and can be handled on some basic free programs.

So why should you be doing it? Well – the same reason that everyone else seems to be so obsessed lately – because it’s content that’s easy to create and which contributes to a larger narrative. Anytime you can create content that supports your friends you are contributing something greater. It helps to cultivate a world where you are a part of a larger whole. It allows you to share your views and opinions but also grow the world of what you do. Having that type of content coming out regularly helps to establish you as someone who is always working. If you can get that kind of relationship going with your social media followers then you are rapidly going to be able to climb the industry ladder. As we’ve said dozens of times on this blog – creating content is all that really matters. Being a part of that world of content creators is what is going to allow you to have a career.

Beyond that, on a very personal note, I’ve found podcasting to be weirdly therapeutic. It’s interesting to me because it allows me a place to lay down my thoughts about the industry I hate that I love, and love to hate. I’m sure that many of those reading this who are into podcasting feel the same way. Why? Because podcasts are the best. We as humans are social creatures and we all need to work together if we want to maintain our collective sanity. Having something go out there, even if only a handful of people are listening to it is strangely reassuring because it shows us a way forward in the struggles of the modern age. No matter what pain we might be under, at least some people care, and knowing people care is always important.

So many people podcast because it helps to give them a way to grow their brands and construct their own narratives via direct intervention. That’s what the current era of music is all about, and now that we can all have our own radio shows, and no one listens to the actual radio anymore, well it just makes sense that we bond together to help make this happen. Podcasts are the next great step in human art and communication because they take the beauty of radio, add in the flexibility of the internet and, for better or for worse, give it a 21st century sense of absolute democracy. If you’re not willing to accept the simple beauty that this gives podcasts then you’re pretty much screwed before you begin. This is guaranteed to help grow your career – so why not dive in feet first?

In fact, before you do anything else today I want you to watch this video of Kevin Smith talking about podcasts. Hes given this speech countless times on podcasts of his own, and in my reckoning it just perfectly captures why this whole thing matters. In his words, “it’s a medium based on passion” which is frankly, kind of beautiful. If you don’t want to get into a passion based medium that allows you to grow your career… well I don’t know how much easier I can make it.

So why are you waiting? Getting the logistics together is literally the hardest part. If you’re reading this then you’ve literally got everything you need to record a podcast. Sure, the sound quality won’t necessarily be great but the odds are the majority of people aren’t going to care about that. Instead what they want is quality content, and I can guarantee that you can do that. If people at all like talking to you and if you have any interesting experiences to share then you’re already there. You are a part of a greater world then your specific interactions with it can be very interesting to a lot of people. At the end of the day – you’ll never know until you try.

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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